Makeup Madness Part 7! Makeup brushes!

So here's my thing with brushes- I started using makeup brushes for eye shadow in high school, but then for blush I always just used what came in my blush compact, didn't wear foundation for the longest time so didn't need a brush for that and then I didn't need one for contour and highlight because I didn't do that till recently either. So once I started buying more makeup and needing more brushes it was a very slippery slope and all of the sudden I had 40 brushes.

The only thing I don't use a brush for is my foundation, pretty much no mater what foundation I'm using I prefer to apply it with my finger tips. Always clean hands but primer and foundation do not get a brush, I've tried and every once in a while I'll try again but its just not my favorite application method.


This will not be a purging at all. I'm not getting rid of any of my brushes...sorry to disappoint. But here they are and I'll link to where you can buy them- no affiliate links.




Face brushes!

1. IT Cosmetics Heavenly Luxe Radiance Wand #14 This is the most amazing brush ever. I got this with an IT Cosmetics kit from QVC and it's the softest brush you've ever felt. It's big enough to be a great powder brush or bronzing brush I use it most for a bronzing brush and love it. OMG the softness.
2. Real Techniques Blush Brush This is my next biggest brush and I love it too! This is my blush brush and it's great for diffusing really pigmented blushes and blending them out. Because the cut on the brush is so tapered it really picks up product and so just a tap is needed to get great blush color.
3. Real Techniques Expert Face Brush I bought this brush to use with my bronzer before I had #1 but didn't like it for that. So then I tried to use it for what it was meant for foundation- didn't like it for that too. None of my foundations need that much buffing. So now I just kinda use it when other brushes are dirty or I need to really blend something out- like too much blush or too hard contour. It's a great brush it's just not what I need right now.
4. Real Techniques Setting Brush Love this brush! I had been using a different brush to set my under eyes and it was just too big, but this is the perfect size. It's actually also the perfect size for highlight. I keep wanting to get another for highlight but have restrained myself...but I may get another.
5. Bare Escentuals Flawless Face This is a brush I've had the longest and will probably be first to go when I find a replacement. This is a natural hair brush one of my few and it's almost 8 years old so it should probably be retired. It's kinda bristly and not as soft as it once was. I use this just for all over face powder which I don't use everyday...so eh I would not repurchase now.
6. Bare Escentuals Max Coverage Concealer I use this brush for concealing! I actually use this one for what it's for. I like to use this when I'm concealing around my nose or need to correct redness on my cheeks. It's a fine brush I don't use it daily either. 
7. Ecotools Skin Perfecting Brush I bought this brush when I first started using CC and BB creams. I feel like this is a great sized brush and it applies product just fine, but I also feel like it absorbs too much. As a white brush you can see all the product that gets stuck and trapped in it. Also because of this I feel like I need to clean it much more frequently. So I only use this brush when using really really creamy BB creams or ones I don't mind wasting a little bit.
8. Ecotools Concealer Brush LOVE! This is a relatively new purchase maybe just at the end of summer and I love it. I got this brush after seeing EmilyNoel or Kristin Ghem talking about it and using it with pot concealers. I use this with my Erase Paste and Pixi Correction Concentrate. It's great, perfect size. I have no complaints.
9. ELF Kabuki Face Brush (not pictured) This is a good all over buffing brush when you're blending. I don't use this brush to apply anything to my face but just to blend all my cheek products together and hopefully make myself look less powdery. It's a find brush no essential but good for what I need it for.
10. ELF Angled Blush Brush I originally bought this brush for contour and I love it for that. This is great at getting really deep contour around my ears and hair line. I don't use this everyday because it lays down a lot of product but when I really want to carve out my features I love this.
11. ELF Small Tapered Brush I bought this brush highlight before I got my stipple brush and it works great for that. I still use this periodically when different highlights depending on how much glow I'm going for, for the price it's great.
12. ELF Blush Brush Very similar to the tapered brush I really only use this when my big blush brush is dirty. Great brush I just don't reach for it too much.
13. ELF Small Stipple Brush I loved this brush for about 6 months. Then the brush head fell off! It's still attached to the ferrol of the brush but I couldn't believe it. It's a fairly cheap brush so it doesn't really bother me and I can still use it but just kinda disappointing. I use this brush for my super strong highlights that I need to diffuse more. I use this brush daily. 
14. ELF Contouring Brush This is another great brush for when you want really sharp contour. I don't use this all the time but when I want a great straight line on my face it's perfect. Also great for contouring your nose. 
15. ELF Flawless Concealer Brush I bought this brush the same day I got my other concealer brush and I probably don't need both. I only use this brush when I have really liquid-y concealer that I need to buff into my skin. I may re-purpose this brush for something else because I don't think my face needs it.

Eye Brushes!

1. Real Techniques Deluxe Crease Brush Love this brush. Perfect for the crease and does exactly what you hope it will. Essential eye shadow brush for sure.
2. Real Techniques Base Shadow Brush This is a great brush and a part of an eye kit with the next few brushes and it's fine. I use it how it's intended to, as my base shadow brush- use it daily.
3. Real Techniques Shading Brush I used to use this brush a lot more as a crease brush and it's great for that. But right now it's serving me as an awesome brush to use with cream shadows. I use it with my ELF smudge pots and Color Tattoos.
4. Real Techniques Brow Brush I use this brush incorrectly. I find this one too big for my brows and so honestly don't use it much. Every once in a while I'll pull it in for a thicker eye liner, but it's not my favorite.
5. Real Techniques Accent Brush This brush I use for my eye brows and love it. It's the perfect size! I use an angle brush too sometimes but this is great for getting precise brows.
6. Sephora Professional Pointed Liner #17 Great for gel liner. I use this when my other liner brushes are dirty. It's great but not essential.
7. Sephora Professional Angled Shadow #20 This is a super fluffy and soft eye shadow brush. I use this with really pigmented shadows I need to diffuse. It's so soft. I've used this brush for years and recently rediscovered it at the back of a drawer. It's awesome.
8. Sephora Pencil Brush- all the info has rubbed off Essential brush that I have no idea what it is! I can't find this brush anywhere now but I know it's Sephora and it's amazing. I got this ages ago and it's the perfect pencil brush! Why aren't more this size. It's stiff but gentle and great for getting the lower lash line or highlighting the brow bone or my usual use for it is my inner corner. Great great brush.
9. Victoria's Secret Very Sexy Flat Shadow Brush (discontinued because VS hates me). This is a super dense brush that's soft and great for packing on metallic shades. Use this all the time with my favorite gold shadows. Awesome brush what's wrong with Victoria's Secret bring back your makeup and brushes!
10. Ecotools Flat Eyeliner Brush Great eye liner brush, perfect size and I use it all the time for shadow eye liner. I don't like it with gel eye liner. But it's a great brush.
11. Crown Brush Dual Ended (Ipsy bag brush) It was free, well not really! It's great for travel or using with shadow colors I don't use frequently like black smokey shades or glitter. 
12. Tarte Dual Ended Shadow Brush (QVC) This is a great brush that came with a Tarte palette. Love it. One side is super flat which is great and one is fluffy. perfect for travel.
13. IT Cosmetics Heavenly Luxe Dual Eyeshadow #5 OMG back to my IT brushes! I love this thing and need more. If I had a few of these brushes I wouldn't need other eye brushes. I love the small stubby side, it's great for lining the lower lash line. The fluffy side is super soft. Love it.
14. Sad no name shader brush I've had literally forever- ESSENTIAL brush. What are you? I love you.
15. Up & Up Target Duo Eye Brush Set These are awesome brushes. One's a bigger flat shader and one is a little smaller. I use these for shimmery shades and really nothing else. They're great little brushes and I have my eyes on some more from this brand.
16. ELF Eyebrow Duo Brush I Love this brush and my eyebrows would not be anything with out. I am super picky about my eyebrow brushes because I want the spoolie side to be eyebrow size not a full length spoolie size and this one is perfect! And the angle brush side it great too. I have no complaints about this brush and love it. 
17. ELF Small Angled Brush I got this brush originally for my eye brows before I got the Duo brush but now I use it for eye liner or smudging if need be. Great little brush.
18. ELF Angled Eyeliner Brush I like this brush fine for gel eye liner but don't quite understand the need for it to be angled. I don't have a trouble getting to my lash line like other do so the angle is kinda wasted on me, but love the brush and use it when my other liner brushes are dirty...which is frequently. 
19. ELF Crease Brush This is smaller than my blending brush but mostly the same shape. I find it too small for my crease but love it for smudging out lower lash-line liner. 
20. ELF Blending Brush (w) I use this brush daily. I love it and should really get around to buying some back ups. I can tell it's starting to loosen from it's base. But I love it and it's so soft and perfect.
21. ELF Eyeshadow Brush (w) Mine looks a little sad with some of the brush hairs a little longer than others but it's a great base or all over eye brush.
22. ELF Smudge Brush (w) I love this brush because it's a smaller flat shader brush, I'm sure it could be a smudge brush but I use it to apply really shimmery colors that I don't want to deal with a lot of fall out from. Love it. 
23. ELF Eye Crease Brush (w) Another crease brush and I don't use this one as much as the others, but it's a great backup when all my other brushes are dirty. 

So basically I have way too many brushes but I use them and it's good to rotate so you aren't always using dirty brushes. I clean my brushes regularly and they're all holding up pretty well. To me the ELF ones only have about a year and half shelf life and the nicer brushes obviously last much longer. I try to wash with Dr. Bronner's Soap once a month, but weekly I wipe them down with makeup wipes (sometimes more than weekly) and then daily I wipe off the excess color onto a washcloth I keep on my sink for just this purpose. I feel like this helps my brushes and my skin because I'm wiping off some of the excess oil and product so it doesn't go on my face. But I love my brushes and I do want to eventually get some more IT Cosmetics brushes just because they're better quality but I don't NEED them. Yay!

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Previous Makeup Madness-es!

Blush, Bronzers & Highlighters, Eye Liners, Lippies, Mascara, and Concealer!

Fall Party Makeup!

Ooops. I guess it's been a little bit since I blogged. I've had a very busy September. I've been busy with work stuff and after work stuff, so there hasn't been a lot of time for makeup creativity.  Until this weekend. I'd gotten in a rut of easy fall makeup and decided that I needed to spice it up. Luckily I had a Theatre Karaoke Party to go to and decided I'd go all out.  What do I mean?

I mean I wore I all the makeup.  This bag is filled with all the stuff I applied to my face. There was quite a bit. I hadn't worn this much makeup in a while and it kinda showed. It was indoors and kinda darkish party so luckily unless I was in full sunlight it didn't look like as much makeup as it actually was...at least that's what I'm telling myself.

So starting with my base. Primer. I primed. I had put my usual day cream on earlier in the day. But about 10 minutes before applying my makeup I used my IT Cosmetics Feel the Moment Primer Serum. This needs to soak in a moment. I also applied my CeraVe Eye Repair Cream- I'd recently heard it played well under concealer so gave it a whirl. It's my usual nighttime eye cream. After the those had sunk in a bit I added my Maybelline Master Prime in Blur + Smooth where my pores are the worst- around my nose and tops of my cheeks and my Milani Eyeshadow Primer to my eyelids and a little below where my concealer goes.


Once all that set in I moved on to my next face products. Bring in the IT Cosmetics team. I love IT Cosmetics. I combine both the CC Cream regular and Illumination in Medium to make a delightfully glowy full coverage effect. I also use two Bye Bye Under Eyes in Neutral Medium and Tan. I apply the CC Cream with my fingers one pump of the regular and half a pump of the Illumination. I use about a pinpoint size of each Bye Bye Under Eye and mix them together on the back of my hand. Then I apply a thin layer to each under eye and blend out with a fluffy concealer brush. I love the look of this combo. It's incredibly full coverage and very long wearing. The CC Cream doesn't need any setting powder by the time I get to my face products it's set fine, but the Bye Bye Under Eye definitely needs to be set. It will remain very tacky and I'd worry it would move around if I didn't set it. My favorite way to set it is with my NARS Translucent Crystal Powder.

Normally I would move onto my eyes next, but this Saturday I did it reverse and did my face powders next.

I used my usual and ALMOST gone NYC Sunny Bronzer to contour and bronze up my face. Then I used the gorgeous highlighter from the IT Cosmetics Live, Laugh, Love Vitality Face Disc. This highlighter is not joking around. It is in your face and shiny and gorgeous. Then I finished it off with my Tarte Blush in Savored from last year's Tarte Holiday set from QVC. Combined these face products are gorgeous. I chose the IT Cosmetics highlighter because it's more champagne based and less gold than my usual. This is not a highlighter you'd choose for a natural day or if you were wanting to be subtle. I will also use up my Sunny bronzer this year if it kills me. I'm so tired of that thing and have so many other bronzers I want to use. Now that it's fall I've started to pull out my deeper blushes and this is one of my faves.

For my eyes I knew I wanted to do something special. Something fun and sparkly. I also wanted to use my Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette that I've been neglecting. I started with White Chocolate all over my lids for a smooth base. This helps the shadows blend together too. I then took Salted Caramel in my crease to just warm things up and give a transition. On my lids I used Strawberry Bon Bon. Then I took the star of this look Black Forest Truffle in my outer V and kept adding and blending and adding and blending. I got rid of some of the lightness of the Strawberry Bon Bon so I added on top some Champagne Truffle in the inner part of the lid to brighten things back up. Not satisfied with the depth of the outer V I added a smidgen of Dark Chocolate and then more Black Forest Truffle. It ended up being a super pretty eye look but not as party worthy as I'd been hoping so I reached for my ELF Long Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow in Gala to add some sparkle, just to the outer edge.

To finish off the eyes I used my NYX Dark Brown Gel Eyeliner along the top lash line and Dark Chocolate on the lower lash line. I then let the gel liner set and filled in my brows with my NYX Micro Brow Pencil in Taupe. For mascara I doubled up with my Covergirl Super Sizer and Benefit's They're Real both in black. Not pictured is my NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Walkyrie.  To finish off the whole fancy pants think I was going for I used my Armani Si from Scentbird as Perfume.

Here is how the look came out in various stages in the evening. It was fun, but at the end of the night a pain to get off. I broke out the cold cream because it was just a lot of makeup.

      

*None of the links above are affiliate links, just where you can buy this fabulous stuff!

Makeup Madness! Part 6! Concealers

It's Makeup Madness Time again! This time it's all about concealers! I only have a few to get rid of but have some I really love. Now I'll be the first person to admit like all my makeup adventures, concealer is still something I'm working on. I have not perfected my concealer game but it's getting better.  I wrote briefly about concealers once upon a time here.

So what do I use concealer for? Well I have terrible sleep problems and so I constantly have big blue bags under my eyes that need to be covered up.  And while acne isn't something I struggle with I do suffer from the occasional face planet that needs to be covered up. One of the biggest concealer tips I ever learned, a little late I might add just two years ago, was that you do not use the same concealer all over your face. There's a reason they make concealer specifically for under your eyes and specifically for covering blemishes.

Up first we have stick concealers or concealers with wands. I feel like stick concealers are the style of concealer handed to ever pubescent teenage girl when they get their first breakout. These concealers are usually a little dry or waxy, but provide fuller coverage.  I cannot use these, they're too drying for my face so I pretty much steer clear, however they do make excellent tattoo cover ups.  I use the ELF and Wet 'N Wild for one of the many layers of concealer I use when I have to cover up my tattoos for shows. Then the creamier concealers with either a wand or the ball thing the Maybelline has are much more hydrating and easy to use.  These concealers are hit or miss some are too shear (ELF HD) and some don't blend in well with the rest of your foundation (Age Rewind).  But I feel like these styles of concealers are definitely the easiest to learn how to use when first starting out with concealer.  So here's what I have (not int he order pictured)

• ELF Studio Concealer stick in beige. This $3 concealer is great. Excellent coverage, perfect shade match to me and a non-waxy stick formula. I can use this on my face and before I knew any better use to slather this under my eyes- but I don't recommend that because it'll dry your under eyes out like no ones business. If I was recommending a drugstore concealer for someone just starting out I'd recommend this easily- love it. This was also the first ELF product I ever tried after a theatre friend's recommendation.
• ELF HD Lifting Concealer  in light. Another $3 ELF product that is not great. This stuff sucks. It is so sheer. It applies with a doe foot applicator and is just awful. It also smells too face make-up-y which I hate. I have no use for this concealer and have no idea why I've kept it. In the trash it goes. 
• Wet n Wild Coverall in 804. A $2 concealer! Ummm this is not good either. The shade match is fine and the texture I'm sure would work for really oily people, but my Sahara desert skin cannot handle this, it's so waxy and you can just feel it sucking all the moisture out of your skin. This is another excellent tattoo cover up and literally the only reason I bought this thing too. I'm going to hold onto it just for that reason, also it's only about a year old so if I do another show I'll pull it out. 
• NYX Wonder Pencil in light. I didn't really know where to stick this $4 pencil, I think I might have also included him in my eyeliner madness, but that's because that's how I usually use this guy.  NYX advertises it as a "wonder" because it's supposed to do lots of things- conceal, line your lips and be an eye brightener.  It doesn't really do any of these things too terribly well.  It's too light for it to be a concealer for me, but the formula is too hard. I hate using it in my inner rim of my eyes because it's stabby. I have to warm it up first, and I don't use it to reverse line my lips but if I had the right color I may. I don't think it's anything special but I'll hold onto it and see if I can figure out a use for it.
• Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser in medium. I have a love hate relationship with this product. It's $9 and after 3 tries I finally got my color right, but...I don't know. I've almost used up this tube and while I like it and use it I wont be repurchasing it right away.  It's a creamy concealer, non-drying and made specifically for your under eyes, but I don't find it plays well with the rest of my makeup.  On days I'm just using concealer it's fine, but if I try to blend it in with different foundations for a seamless appearance it just doesn't work. So I'm just torn. I think it's a good concealer it does conceal but after using a full tube of it I'm not in love with it enough to spend $10 on it again.
• Benefit Fake Up in 02 medium. Oh my $24 concealer I love you. I sometimes forget about you in the back of my drawer and whenever I pull you our I remember how much I love you! This is a stick concealer unlike any other I had tried when I got it- it's a super creamy stick concealer surrounded by vitamin E and moisturizer gel. So it's hydrating! OMG I love it. I use this bad boy under my eyes and they feel so hydrated and are lightly concealed. This is not a full coverage concealer it's very light coverage but feels heavy (in a good way) but can build up to medium coverage. To me it just feels so good under my eyes and is perfect for weekends when I don't feel like wearing a full face of makeup. This was my first high end concealer purchase and after it I realized what my problem had been. Don't buy cheap concealer- they're just not worth it. Because I use this so infrequently I've had it over a year and will probably finish it up before Thanksgiving. I love it. I may not purchase it again right away but I definitely will again before next Summer because it's delightful. 

Up next I have potted concealers. Or panned concealers. These come in two types- at least that I've found- waxy and creamy.  There are some other variations in there but I think both really have their place and I've found a use for them that I didn't expect. So lets just jump into what I have.

• Benefit Boi-ing in 02 medium.  This $12 duo is 1/2 Boing concealer and 1/2 eye bright brightener.  Since I already knew I loved my first Benefit concealer I thought this duo was a great way to try others and it is. While I don't have much use for the eye brightener I may just not know how to use it, but the Boing concealer is a very interesting full coverage concealer. This stuff is thick, not hydrating but not waxy. I sometimes would use this on top of my Fake Up for a little more coverage and it works fine for that. I don't reach for this much anymore. I've hit pan on the concealer and will probably use it up but I've found other stuff I like better. This stuff isn't bad I just don't really need it in my stash. I think the Boing concealer texture and consistency would work on oilier skins better than dry.
• Benefit Erase Paste in 02 medium.  There's a theme here with Benefit. Their products are good. This $26 pot of salmon colored gold is amazing. I bought this after seeing several videos by EmilyNoel83 using it in tutorials or highlighting it in concealer videos. 2nd important concealer lesson I learned- if you have dark blue/purple circles under your eyes, you should use a salmon or orangey colored concealer to hide them. Something about being on different sides of the color spectrum makes them hide each other. This concealer has a creamy almost gel like texture it's very slippery and smooth. I don't think it's adding hydration to my face but it feels very moisturizing.  This stuff is made for the under eyes and since it's in that salmon color does a great job. During the school year when I'm super pale I use this under another concealer, but in the summer when I get a little pigment in my skin I can wear this by itself. I think it does a great job, if you set it it doesn't crease.  The only thing that is weird about this concealer for me is every review and the instructions online all say to use a little bit of this and that it'll go a long way...not the case for me I have to put a layer of this on my skin. I use the back of the spatula they give you to get it out of the pot and I cover the back of the spatula once for each eye. So I don't know. But I love it, I only use it under my eyes and I imagine this pot will last 2 years unless it goes bad first. I love it and as of right now I'd repurchase it- we'll see how I feel in another year.
• Pixi Correction Concentrate in brightening peach. This is a semi-drugstore option for Benefit's erase paste. This is $12 at target and YouTube told me it's a dupe for my Erase Paste.  I actually bought this first before I tried Erase Paste and loved it. It's creamy it's a salmony-peach color and it doesn't dry out my under eyes.  For me after a while I found the color wasn't as pigmented as I'd like and while my dark circles normally pop back out a few hours after concealer I feel like this almost made them look grey half way through the day. I like it though and find it a great option if you don't want to spend $26 on a concealer which I agree hurts. I'm holding onto it because it's another one of those concealers I'll break out on the weekend when I don't want to use my really expensive stuff. I imagine this stuff will last a little less than 2 years because it's slightly smaller than my erase paste.
• theBalm timeBalm Concealer in light/medium. This is an $18 concealer that I got for $10 on Hautelook (referral link). I heard about this from JenLuvsReviews and Tati on YouTube. Jen uses this as her under eye concealer and Tati uses it as an eye base/primer. I'd been wanting to try it so when I saw it come up on Hautlook I decided to try it. Well it's not good for my undereyes and then it creased on my eye lids.  This is a fairly dry and very lightly waxy concealer. Sigh. It's a perfect color match which was awesome and it lasts forever but I just found I couldn't use it under my eyes or on them.  Then one day- I decided to be adventurous and use it as a redness corrector around my nose- the one area on my face that is dry as hell but not as dry as say my cheeks and eyes.  So I took a concealer brush and lightly spread it over the area- instantly my redness vanished! It's a miracle! So that's how I'll use this guy up. I probably wont repurchase him because I know there are better redness correctors out there but it'll do for now.

And lastly we have tubed concealers! So now that I have more experience with tubed concealers I expect them to be full coverage and really hydrating. However that is not always what you find.

• Flirt! Glamouflage Healer/Concealer in who knows. I've had this concealer well past the recommended 36 months. I'm pretty sure I've had this for about 7 years. I'll be getting rid of it. This was a gift from a friend back when I was having acne issues, this concealer was really thick and has salicylic acid in it. I used a lot of it because the tube feels pretty hollow. I don't know if you can get it anymore- a quick Googling shows it on Ebay, but it was good then I wouldn't purchase it now because I don't need that type of coverage.
• Maybelline FaceStudio Master Conceal om 20 light. This $9 is also going in the trash. I do not like this. I got this because it was on sale when I got a Face Studio primer that I love. However this concealer does nothing. It is so wet and watery and would be great if I wasn't to go full on highlight the under eye area but that's not my style. I couldn't get this to work and I didn't like the formula enough to try a different color. It's sad because I hate to waste money on crappy products I can't find some way to use, but life is too short to use bad concealer. 
• It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Anti-Aging Concealer in neutral medium and tan. This is a $24 concealer. And I have two of them. I'm actually surprised it's a little cheaper than my Benefit because I definitely thought it was more expensive. I have however never purchased these concealers at full price. I've bought both of them with $9 of Ulta rewards so $15 is much easier to deal with considering I need two of these.  This is a great concealer, a VERY thick, creamy concealer. This stuff will cover up anything and it's moisturizing. I always do but people will less dry skin would not need an eye cream before using this. Also this stuff stays moist throughout the day! If you don't set this stuff well it'll stay tacky all day long. I love this stuff. I bought the neutral medium last fall and fell in love with it, it covers amazingly and really disguises those dark circles and blends in with other foundations beautifully.  But a few months ago I noticed it was a little too light, it was starting to highlight more than conceal so I saved up my rewards and bought the next shade up tan.  Right now I can use tan by itself and it's great but I imagine if I blend it with neutral in the fall I can probably get a little better shade match. Even though I love these concealers and out of all of mine if you told me I could only keep one I'd pick one of these, I do still find in the afternoon my bags start to peak back out. I don't know if I just have really resistant dark circles or what, but I do sometimes double layer this with my Pixi or my Erase Paste for extra concealing power. But I love that this formula like all of ITs stuff has good for your skin properties. I do feel like it helps tighten my under eye area and keep my fine lines a little less line-y. I hope I don't have to purchase either of these again anytime soon, but I will unless I find something better, but right now this is the best.

I wanted to throw in at the end quickly my concealer brushes. I use an old flat Bare Escentuals brush when I used my Time Balm as redness corrector.  Then I go back and forth between my ELF concealer brush and an Eco Tools one. The ELF is fluffier and is good for blending and the Eco Tools is a little more structured and good for placement and tapping in concealer. I am definitely a conceal with your fingers kinda gal and use my ring finger most of all, but sometimes I'll use a brush and when I do these guys are what I use.

 So that's my concealer stash! I got rid of three and I'm happy with that. I use all of the ones I have so I think it's fine to have options. If there's something better out there let me know! I would love to be able to conceal my under eye circles better, but based on the research I've done I'm doing what I should be it's just not perfect.

Previous Makeup Maddnesses include Blush, Bronzers & Highlighters, Eye Liners, Lippies and Mascara!

*The HauteLook link is a referral link and the only one in this post. All other links link to Ulta, Drugstore or the brands site. I also link to a couple of my favorite YouTubers if they're who I saw the product with first! 

My favorite lip products!

Let's revisit lip stuff! So I wrote a few months back about all my lipsticks...here. For someone who doesn't wear a lot of lipstick I had a whole heck of a lot of lipstick, but the post was already so long going through them all that I had a friend ask me to go into more detail about my fave lip products- Okay! (she's also the friend who requested my Matte eye look walk through). So here I'll walk us through my lip prep, my favorite drugstore lipsticks and my favorite/only high end lipsticks.

Lip prep is really important. I am a chapstick/lip balm junkie. I hate when my lips get dry but one of the millions of things I've learned in the last year and a half watching beauty gurus is that your lips have to be prepped and primed just like your face to get the results you want.  So here we have two lip balms, a primer and an exfoliator. The ELF Lip Exfoliator is $1 and you could make it at home, but its cheap and comes in a lipstick format so it's just easy. It's little sugar grains surrounded by a waxy balm. Rub this on your lips whenever you start to get chapped and top immediately with your most hydrating lip balm. Whenever you exfoliate anything on your body always follow it up with a good moisturizer you just lost a layer of skin and a layer of moisturizer so tim to replenish.  After I exfoliate I need something kinda thick and that will really get the moisture back in my lips quickly- the Smith's Rosebud Salve is perfect for this. It's like $6 or $8 at Sephora and lasts forever...I've never known someone to go through one of the tubes or the tub...I'm gonna try. It's basically a lip mask it's so thick, but it's amazing and it comes in a tube now so you don't have to dig into the little tub or worry about it getting stuck.  I still have two tubs that I also use, but I love my tube! Leave this one overnight preferably or at least 1/2 an hour before applying anything on over it. My favorite chapstick right now is the Lypsyl I've already gone through a full one and am half way through the ones I have at home and work. I keep one at the office too- I told you I don't like my lips to feel dry.  I put Lypsyl on the moment I wake up and usually by the time I'm done with my makeup it's set enough on my lips that I can apply my lipstick right on over it without wiping any off.  This stuff has beeswax in it and it's amazing maybe $4 at Wallgreens and lasts me probably about 3 months.  Then the little pencil I have is Milani's Anti-Feathering primer maybe $4 too and I only use this when wearing red lipstick.  I'm not a big lip liner girl but with red lipstick it's really important and this acts as a primer/anti-feathering/liner so when I need it I use it.

Next up I have my favorite drugstore lipsticks! I'm a huge fan of chubby pencil lipsticks, they're easy to use and precise and Revelon's Colorburst Matte Balms are amazing they're $9ish each but you can always get them on sale at Ulta. I have shades 250 Standout which is a great brick red that works really well with my undertones and 225 Sultry thats a great everyday nude color.  These last super well and fade somewhat gracefully, when they start to fade I usually rub some lip balm over them and extend the life a little longer but these last through water drinking but not through eating. This is not a moisturizing lip product so chapstick before is definitely needed. Then I have a NYX High Voltage $6 in 05 Flutter Kiss. I really love this formula, very long wearing and very moisturizing. I think I'll love this more nudey brown in the fall, but I love the formula and while it does transfer a little bit to wears beautifully. Another nudey brown I love is Wet 'n Wild's Bebot Love $2 and amazing. Creamy, creamy formula very moisturizing but it doesn't stay on well. I maybe get 3 hours wear time if I put it on after I drink my coffee.  Another color that will be great in the fall.  Then the last drugstore lipsticks I just love everything about are the Kate Moss Rimmel lipsticks in Matte and Satin. I have numbers 08 a beautiful natural everyday color and 104 a gorgeous everyday light pink.  These are $5 and again you can get them on sale all the time at Ulta. But these have everything going for them.  They last forever, they don't transfer and they don't dry my lips out.  The Black tubed Satin in 08 is definitely the more hydrating one than the Matte but they are both very comfortable and smell delightful. I lost of my first 08 at work and had to buy another I enjoy it so much.

For high end lipstick I only have a two brands I think, but I only like my NARS Velvet Matte and Satin Lip Pencils.  These puppies are $26 each...I got my first two in my Sephora Birthday Gift in a bright red and a shimmery nude, I love the shimmery nude but the red was too blue for me.  So I bought these two guys (on different trips) The colors are not this similar in real life, but the first one I bought is a very dark nude- Sephora calls it a Warm Coral Red it's name is Walkyrie and it's going to be gorgeous in the fall. I love it and anytime I wear it I automatically feel fancier. I got this at the end of spring and always thought it was too dark but when I tried it on in the store I just fell in love with it so a few months later I went back and got a better everyday color Bettina, a pink mauve, is literally the color of my lips. My lips have a lot of pigment in them already and this just evens out the skin tone a little better and I can wear it and not worry about it wearing off unevenly because it's my lip color. Now the formula on these is kinda dry, it's not drying but I always need a lip balm under them usually my Lypsyl and I usually reapply balm a few hours after wear.  These have a great wearing time I usually get to lunch very easily and after lunch just a quick touch up is all I need.  I can drink water and coffee easily without them wearing off.  It does hurt my heart that they're so expensive but they're worth it- as I've found with most NARS products...

So the other day I was going through my back up stash and found my favorite lipsticks every in the history of life that I thought I had lost when I wrote my makeup madness lipstick post...

Very Sexy. Yes you are. My beautiful Victoria's Secret lipsticks from 100 years ago before they were discontinued.  I have two reds. One a brick red that closely resembles my Revlon red called Don't Stop and a sparkly fire engine red called On Fire- there is glitter involved. I love these lipsticks so much, I know they're expired but I can't throw them away they still smell good! And they're sooooo pretty. So they're bonus lipsticks just for fun since you can't buy them anymore.

So that in a nutshell is my lipstick post. I am not a big lipstick person but I try, I enjoy the look but I always end up with lipstick just on the edges of my lip so I feel like I have to check up on them a lot when I wear them.  But these are the lipsticks I reach for the most out of my vast collection and if I were to repurchase any of them again it's probably be the NARS and the Revlon, I do want to get a few more shades of the NYX, but I'm on a makeup No Buy for a while because I DO NOT NEED MORE MAKEUP. I have plenty for now and I want to save up some $$$ for the holiday palettes that will come out in the fall- I love those. So for right now I'm good. 

If you have any suggestions or questions you want answered about my life with makeup let me know! I love getting asked questions it's easier than me coming up with ideas all on my own! 

I don't need anymore bronze shadow...

It started the other day when I misplaced my Bronze Max Factor single eyeshadow I've been using this summer- talked more about here. So I went searching for other options and found this...

It turned out I had quite a few options... I have bronzes in warm tones, cool tones, with some gold shift and silver shift...bronzes all over the place! I've probably been wearing bronze eye shadow the longest of any other shade. Back in the day when I got my first makeover from Clinique they gave me an eyeshadow duo with a bronze color in it AND a bronze lipstick (mistakes were made, I've learned and moved on from this). So apparently bronze is just one of those great universally flattering colors of eyeshadows. Pretty much any eye color can wear them and they look great on most skin tones. For today's purposes we're just talking about eyes- I have some bronze bronzers (go figure) but it's the eyes where I use bronze the most.

Let's start with creams. So as I mentioned in my previous post I like to use two of these products as eye bases to place a powder shadow over. It's easy and makes the products last a long time.  I'm a little more than half way through the Maybelline Bad to the Bronze. This one is my favorite and I'll be sad when it's gone, I'll probably repurchase it because it's a really excellent base, lasts all day and doesn't crease.  The other pot is my ELF Cruisin' Chic Smudge Pot half the price of the Maybelline and works just as well honestly. But it has a stronger smell and you have to use a lot of it to build up the opacity.  Then I have a jumbo eye pencil from ELF that I totally forgot about! This is in Turkish Coffee and smells so strongly of crayons that I don't use it...I may give it a try but it's not my favorite.  

I have several Bronze eyeliners (not pictured in the swatches) that are just okay. I'm not really a huge fan of anyone. I talked about Tarte's Sunstone Bronze in the last post as well and while I hate that it's so soft it gets the job done. I have another Tarte Bronze liner that's just their regular line that is a little more firm but doesn't have the lasting power.  I also have a Rimmel Scandaleyez in Brown but it's a shimmery bronzey brown.  This one is also too soft for me so I haven't used it in months, if I can remember to sharpen it and let it sit overnight without a cap it's usually fine, but it's way too soft for practical everyday use.

Now I have a few single bronze shadows as well. As mentioned before the Max Factor doesn't have an actual name but it's a very decent shadow. I've tried to use it without one of my cream bases and it just does not pack enough punch on it's own. But layered it's gorgeous. Then I have the L'Oreal Infallible in Bronzed Taupe now this is n interesting one. If I layer it over my Bad to the Bronze it looks very grey and cool toned. It's got almost a silver cast to it, but on it's own it's much more of a typical bronze color. I have a love hate with this thing. It's a pressed pigment so it's got the pay off you want in a shadow but it's very delicate and fragile and can have lots of fallout if you're not careful. I know a lot of people will apply this with their fingers but I'm really more a brush kinda girl and so I don't reach for this one a lot.  Then my last single shadow but certainly not leave is my Victoria's Secret Very Sexy Single in Between the Sheets. If you can't tell by the fact that I've hit serious pan on this bad boy, I loved this color. I used to wear this all the time! It's been discontinued and it makes me want to cry. It's the second to last swatch on the right above and it's just the most gorgeous bronze ever. I'm going to leave this bad boy out and finish it up because I forgot how much I loved it.  It's a bit of a warmer tone than the other two so we'll have to see how it does, it's also fairly old so it may need a base. We'll see but I'm glad I found it again because I love this one.

Lastly I have a bunch of palettes that have a bronze shade here and there in them. To be honest I haven't been reaching for any of these over the summer because I've been using my creams and singles but it's good to know that there are lots of bronze shadows out there in palettes if I every use up my singles. I doubt I'll ever use up that Max Factor single because there is just a ton of product in that thing. 

I'll start with the trios first. I have the Wet 'n Wild trio in Walking on Eggshells and the middle crease color is a really pretty neutral bronze. It's pretty light and comes off warmer on me that some of the others. It's got great color pay of for a $2.99 eyeshadow trio and it's always on sale for less. I got mine for $1.99 so talk about bang for your buck. The other two colors are just as nice.  The Clinique trio I can't find online, I got it from my sister and the packaging looks like it might have been in a free gift set, but the middle color Buttered Bronze is another delightful warm bronze. The Tarte 8 Shadow palette was in a Holiday Gift set from QVC called Sweet Indulgences it was a limited release but you can see what all came with it online. The bronze in this kit does not have a name but it's the darkest bronze I have and is much more of a cool tone than some of the others. Then I have two Too Faced Palettes. I love Too Faced and the Too Face palette that I've panned two shadows from was actually my first high end makeup purchase post-college. The Too Faced Natural Eyes is a gorgeous neutral palette and has a couple of bronzey shades in it.  Push Up and Erotica are my favorites and they're pretty pretty shimmery too.  These are a little too shimmery for me now but for specially occasions I could probably still pull them off.  This palette has been repackaged and some of the colors have changed but those two are still in the new one.  Then last but not least my Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette I love this thing. Hazelnut and Haute Chocolate are two very different bronze colors but bronzey none the less. Hazelnut is lighter and warmer and Haute Chocolate is very dark. I usually use these two together and it's gorgeous.  They're not as shimmery as the Natural Eyes shadows but they're still reflective in a subtle way. 

So yah I have a lot of bronze shadow options. I just find it such an easy color to work with. It's very neutral but can go warm or cool depending and it's easy to find. I have a good array of high end and drugstore options in every form and that's fun. I think for the summer bronze is perfect and works for both day and night. You can get a dusty smokey eye with bronze or keep it light and natural. Bronze is the perfect multitasking shadow. 

Prom Makeup 2015!

So my good friend HR Liz asked me to do her daughter's makeup for prom.  I am not a makeup artist and I haven't done another person's makeup since like...ever. I've never done another person's makeup. In high school I used to ask my mom or sister to do my makeup for special occasions, this whole makeup obsession is literally barely a toddler. So I was super flatter and terrified to be asked.

Her daughter is 15, a freshman, and was asked to PROM! I was never asked to prom. My junior year I went with a girlfriend and my senior year I wasn't asked so I didn't go...sad day. Her daughter and I do not share any similar coloring. She's fair with freckles, dark brown close to black hair and has greenish hazel ambery eyes (very pretty). Besides the dark hair we have nothing physically in common. She's wearing a beautiful black and white gown that is very sophisticated and classically beautiful. So I went to youtube for the answer.

My favorite YouTube Beauty Guru is EmilyNoel83 and a few years ago or two she did a deep and sultry look that I'm going to try to replicate.  Here are the tools I'll be using...

I'm doing Prom Makeup for a friend's daughter tonight, tested it on myself and these are the tools it requires. #prom #spring2015 #ohtobeyoungagain

A photo posted by Tyler Archer (@tyleralyse) on May 9, 2015 at 6:11am PDT

Because we don't have the same coloring I decided to utilize the BB Cream/Foundation she already uses.  This girl is advanced y'all she's using BB Cream from theBalm! I didn't even know about theBalm till like a year ago, it's good stuff. So not wanting to cover her gorgeous freckles too much I put on a very light layer of this.  Since she said she has kinda dry skin we also didn't use a primer.  Her skin is beautiful baby high schooler skin so she didn't need too much base at all.

For her eyes I took just a little bit of peach Pixi concealer to hide some of the blue under her eyes, not much we're talking about 15 year old dark circles which I wouldn't even bother to cover if I had them, but alas I have 30 year old dark circles, they're here to party.  Anyways back to the pretty girl- next I used an ELF eye primer on her and spread all over from lash to brow.  I tried to explain things as I went along about why I was doing certain things and Celeste tried not to seem too bored with my explanations ;)

I usually like to do something else while eye primer sets so we moved onto her face for a minute. I took the beautiful Park Ave Princess Palette from Tarte to warm up her face.  Because she has such pretty freckles in the center of her face we really only needed to bronze up her hairline and a little around her ears and neck.  I explained it all along the way and even tried to explain contouring before I realized it really didn't matter- this girl needed no contouring.  Then I went in with the pale pink blush in the palette showing Celeste how pretty it looked with her skin.  Then just a little champagne highlight from the palette on the tops of her cheeks and down her nose.

Next I broke into the eye shadow. I used my giant ELF palette with a million and one colors and my small Wet N Wild trio in Walking on Eggshells. I used the trio first with the pearly cream color under her brow and the shimmery pink all over the moving part of her lid.  Then I moved on to the ELF Palette monster. I found a medium shimmery taupe that wasn't too brown or too grey (definition of taupe anyone?) and added that on top of the pink over 1/3 of her lid starting from the outer corner. I was really trying to leave the inner and center corner bright. I put a pretty even layer of this color then decided we needed a dark shimmery brown for the outer v. I put just a touch of that shimmery brown in the outer corner and smudged some on the lower lash line as well.  At this point I stressed to Celeste the importance of blending out the eye shadow, blend, blend blend, I probably said a hundred times. Lots of back and forth from eye to eye to get it right.  When I was satisfied with the outer corner I took a little more shimmery pink to the inner lid and center to make sure it was sparklie enough!

At this point I commented on how still she was being and that she was being so good with keeping her eyes still and everything and she said she'd had a lot of practice being the guinea pig for her little sister.  Her little sister loves makeup too!

Then it came time to do the eye liner. Since I knew she was going to be dancing the night away we decided liquid eyeliner was probably going to be the best choice. I am not normally a liquid eye liner person and felt incredibly nervous doing her eye liner but she put her trust in me and I just went really slow and made it work.  After the first layer my beautiful subject did share that she usually wore a pretty thick eye liner which is a drastic contrast to what I normally do, which is an eyeliner you can barely tell is there.  So I went back in and thickened it back up.  For mascara I was definitely not going to try that on my own so I just had her apply her own mascara and come back to me for the rest.

She asked me to fill in her brows a little, and they didn't need much. She had recently had them waxed so the shape was perfect, but I added a little wax to hold them in place and then filled in a few sparse places. The final step was lips. I brought two shades for her to chose from and she went with the deep red NARS sample I got for my birthday.  It looked gorgeous on her, perfect choice.  Once her lips were applied I sprayed her down with some NYX Setting Spray and she was ready for the ball!

Before starting I asked Celeste a little about what she usually wears and she said maybe eye liner and mascara but that's about it, sometimes a BB Cream, but she seemed to have a pretty low maintenance makeup thing going on.  So while working on her I tried to keep that in mind so as not to go too overboard.

This was such a fun and scary and exciting project for me. It was fun to research prom looks and to help a little girl transform into a woman.  I should have taken a before picture, but one of my friends said I made her look 25...so I'm going to call it a success.  She looked gorgeous and was happy with the look which is the most important thing. I don't think I'll run out and start my own makeup artist business anytime soon, but if any of my friends want me to do their makeup now, I am way less likely to say no.

Beauty Trash! Or what other people call Empties!

So I have been wanting to do this blog post FOREVER! Like when I started my blog I thought ooh I can't wait to do an Empties post. But...I didn't have any empties...so I started collecting them. And kept collecting them. And then the Sephora bag overflowed and I noticed one of my cats playing with an empty cotton rounds bag on the floor and decided ENOUGH! So In the future I promise not to wait 6 months but honestly I don't go through anything other than makeup wipes monthly- so maybe we'll try every 3 months...

Makeup Wipes! I've gone through more than just what is seen here but some actually made it into my real trash over the last several months. I probably go through 2 packets of makeup wipes a month.  Prior to Marchish maybe Februaryish my go to makeup wipes were the Target Brand Up and Up Exfoliating Cucumber $3, scrubby, not too wet and perfect. Love them! I used 1 to 2 daily and they were great. Then a Target Cartwheel Coupon came through for the Neutrogena Makeup Remover Wipes and they were even better! Not scrubby, a little more expensive $4.99 but they worked so much better a little wetter but I feel like they actually cleaned better.

Then in January I met the Simple Miscellar Water that I wrote about here .  And I started using it with whatever cotton rounds I had at the time and discovered there was still makeup on my face after the face wipes! Gasp! I believe we've talked about my dislike of getting my face wet and actually cleaning it outside of the shower so I know my face is probably gross when I just use my makeup wipes.  but I started using this Miscellar water and life changed. I love this stuff. I basically soak a cotton round (or two) in this and rub it all over my face and neck and remove all the stuff the makeup wipe leaves behind. This miscellar water also lightly hydrates and I don't feel like I have to immediately put on moisturized right afterwards which is awesome. Since starting to use the Miscellar water I've gone through probably three cotton rounds packets, but like I mentioned one fell victim to my cats. But I'm really liking this system and will continue to purchase all of these things. When the Neutrogena is on sale I'll buy it but the Up & Up still work fine and with the Simple water I feel like everything works better. I just finished that first bottle of Miscellar water on Wednesday so I feel like lasting 4 months at $6.99 (I always find coupons for this too) is a perfectly reasonable price.

I was so excited to have actually finished some makeup things! I feel like I have so much makeup that I'll never get through it all, but I'm really working now on getting through my products.  So here we have my first BB cream that I ever loved Oil of Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream in Light Medium. I have to order this stuff online now and it's really cheap $7-8 depending. This was the first BB cream I started using at the end of last Spring when I was still blonde and getting into all this makeup stuff. It offers virtually no coverage, but is very moisturizing, smells great and works to somewhat even out my skin tone. As an added bonus of all the things it doesn't do it has SPF 30.  I am on my second tube and use it combined with other BB creams or tinted moisturizers. I still like it for light days. I may repurchase it because I do like mixing it with other things.

Eyeliners! I went through two eyeliners in dark brown. One was the Milani Liquid Eye and this is a mechanical pencil that was great. It's super dark, looked like a liquid or a gel, was super easy to use and stayed all day.  Well when I finished this I bought another- but Milani changed the format and put it in a wooden pencil that you have to sharpen.  I hate it! It's too creamy and just becomes a smudgy mess. I will not be repurchasing again. Luckily I mostly use gel now, but I liked a pencil for easy low-maintenance days.  The other pencil was the Milani Define a Line in Dark Brown. But this one wasn't as dark brown as the Milani. I liked this one fine and enjoyed that it had a smudger on the end, but probably wont repurchase either because it wasn't dark enough.  So two products that I wont rebuy- yay!

I went through a Mascara! Well I didn't actually go through it, but after 3 months it started to get chunky and became sad...it was my Tarte Lights Camera Lashes a beautiful $21 mascara from a brand I love. I got this in my Holiday Tarte set and fell in love. High End Mascara is where it is at my friends. This mascara has a real bristle brush instead of all those plastic brushes I normally use and it's fantastic. Your lashes but better. I will totally buy this again...when it's on sale.

I also went through an eye shadow primer.  Wet n Wild Fergie Take on the Day Eyeshadow Primer This was the first eyeshadow primer I ever bought! I got it at the beginning of last summer and it lasted me till mid February. It's cheap at $4.99 from and drugstore and it works great. I feel like there was still some product left in it but it started to separate and not work as well towards the end. I've already bought a replacement because I've tried some other primers like Milani's and ELFs and they just don't work as well.

One ELF Primer that does work well though is the ELF Studio Hydrating Undereye Primer. I think I've mentioned in previous posts that I didn't realize this stuff worked so well till I stopped using it. I love this stuff. It's super hydrating and I feel like it helps my concealer not look cakey under my eyes. I always notice when I don't use it. And the only reason I don't use it is when I forget. I've already started working on my second tube and love it. 

Next up moisturizer! I love moisturizer. I think I've mentioned all these things before but here we go again.  Cetaphil moisturizing cream this stuff is amazing and since January I've gone through these two tubs and am half way through a third. The bottom tub is larger size and actually got me through January and February. The top tub is the regular size and got me just through March. My April tub is also the larger tub so I expect it to take me into mid-May and by then it'll be time to start using regular lotion again.  I love this stuff, in the winter my skin literally drinks it up and at $11 a tub I'll keep buying it.

The Neutrogena Deep Moisture Night Cream  is something I miss. I'm using a new night cream that doesn't work half as well so I will be repurchasing it when this it's finished. This stuff was awesome, lasted about 8 months and at $12 that's not too bad.  It's so thick and creamy that you don't need much at all, it spreads evenly and soaks into your skin overnight. I would wake up and my skin felt hydrated and not tight at all. The only downside to this stuff is it isn't really made for age defying just hydration.

The Olay Beauty Fluid is something I've used for years off and on. It's really light but hydrating and really good for under makeup.  This also doesn't have any age defying ingredients so I have switched to something else, but if I wasn't started to get older I'd still probably use the pink beauty fluid again.

And last I have these sad little samples of products.  Two I liked and 4 I could do without. I really liked The Body Shop's Vitamin E mask. I just used this as a lotion at night and it was fabulous. I may one day buy more of this, but this little paper packet lasted about a week because you didn't need much for the way I used it.  I also loved the Ganier Night Time Moisturizer- this actually does have anti-aging stuff in it so I may debate getting this instead of my other Neutrogena night cream, because I remember really loving this stuff. Hydrating and if it helps with aging fabulous.

Now the stuff I didn't care for...The Body Show's Tea Tree Clay Mask, way too drying for my face, just not for me.  The Philosophy brand Renewed Hope   which is supposed to be a moisturizer but did anything but that on me. I know some people love this stuff but it's cool that I don't because it's pricey.  Another item I had super high hopes for was the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream one the smell was awful and two it made my hands itch. I don't know what's in it but my body said no.  This stuff too is super expensive and so I'm happy my skin likes the cheaper lotions and creams from the drugstore.

So there you have it. My beauty trash from the last little while.  I'll probably do this again at the end of summer. Hopefully by then I'll have finished more makeup.  We'll see!