Trend Alert: Fall 2015

Hello Beauties,

Fashion week has come to an end, and with it new beauty trends for this coming fall season.
As a whole not a tonne has changed, but with the beauty scene looking this good, why should they. 

1. "Flushed" skin 

Move over contour, there's a new queen bee in town! Models were seen sporting fresh, dewy skin with a pop of pink blush on the apples of their cheeks.

2. Graphic liner 

Bold liner makes a come back this fall season, models were sporting bold designs in even bolder colours. 

3. Metallic eye shadows 

Bronze toned and metallic shadows are taking the fall season by storm, 

4. Vampy lips 

Red, oxblood, maroon and plum lipsticks were star hitters on the cat walk this season. The darker tones just sing fall. 

5. Simple smokey eyes 

Monotone smokey eyes are all the rage this fall season, the smokier, the better ;)

As always lovlies, 

Thanks for reading 

Danielle

Get The Look: Strobing

Hello Beauties,

Contour seems to have officially gone by the way of the dodo bird in the eyes of the beauty community. The up and coming trend that everyone is talking about now *drum roll please* STROBING!

What is strobing you ask ?
Well strobing is essentially highlighting your face, but with a new and improved name ;)

To strobe your face like a pro, you will need:

1. Your foundation/ BB Cream / Tinted moisturizer of your choice

2. A concealer 1 - 2 shades lighter than your foundation

3. A blending brush or sponge

4. Setting powder

5. Highlight powder


Start as always by prepping your skin as you normally would (wash, moisturize, and prime)

Once your skin has been prepped, apply the foundation of your choice. For this look something with a dewy finish would be better over something matte.  The whole idea behind this look is glowing dewy skin. Set your foundation with your setting powder of choice.

Next you're going to apply the lighter concealer in your highlight areas: The forehead, the brow bone, below the eyes, on the cheek bones above the apples of the cheek, cupid's bow, chin, and lastly below the cheekbone, under where you would normally contour your skin

Now you're going to blend, blend, and then blend some more.  Using your sponge or brush, you're going to disperse the colour of the concealer onto your face. You should be left with a slightly lighter complexion on the places you've put the concealer.

Finally you're going to have to set the concealer on your face. For this step I like to use the mineralize skin finishes from MAC, but any highlight powder will do. Pick up a small amount of the highlighter on your powder brush and sweep it across the areas you just placed the concealer.

With fall right around the corner I like to finish this look by adding a pop of pink blush onto the apples of my cheeks and a dark vampy lip.

Et Voila, a beautiful fall look to keep your makeup game on point.

Go get 'em you trendsetter you.

Stay tuned for my next tutorial post: Ombré lips for fall.

Danielle ;)

Dragon Lady: Body Image and the Beauty Industry

Hello Beauties,


So today I wanted to touch on a topic of body shaming and the stereotypes that still linger within the beauty industry. This post is near and dear to my heart because I am a plus size girl, my dress size on average is about a 12 / 14 and people can be very cruel when you're working in a industry where you're "supposed to be looked at"


I'm going to talk about a personal experience that I had while working for Estee Lauder.

Basically, we were getting ready to have our Christmas gala. The gala is an event where all of the makeup counters invite their regular clients to come in and stock up on their product, the counters will usually offer a special gift with purchase, as well as coupons, snacks, entertainment, etc. The attire for employees working the gala is supposed to be semi- formal, so a few days before gala night I went and bought a really adorable David Dixon little black dress.

The dress was strapless with a fitted bodice and an A line pleated skirt.

I loved the way the dress fit, it was super cute and gave me the perfect hour glass figure. I thought I looked pretty good, and felt super confident in my LBD, like if every girl should have one, this was totally mine.


I arrived for my shift on the day of the gala wearing my LBD and feeling pretty excited with myself, naturally the counters were swamped, so I was SUPER busy for almost the entire shift.

As I was getting ready to leave for the evening, a woman approached the counter looking for help. I was supposed to be leaving but thought I would stay to give the woman a hand (after I had already punched out).

As it turns out, the lady had a tonne of questions and was looking for an ENTIRE skin care routine, on a budget none the less. I walked her through the products we offered, how to use them, which ones would work best for her and even which ones she could come back for so she didn't break her budget.

Finally she was satisfied, She had her skin care regime, knew how it all worked and how to apply it to herself, so we proceeded to the cash so we could both leave the store.

I was ringing her up, and I could feel her eyes on me when she says, "You've got a really pretty face"

I was about to thank her, when she continued with "you know if you lost a few pounds you'd be beating them off with a stick"

At first I thought that I had heard her wrong, there was no way that this woman just said that to me...

Then it dawned on me, that she definitely said it, and whats worse, she clearly didn't see anything wrong with saying it.

I had no idea how to respond to her, so I just sort of smiled and laughed it off, but she wasn't done yet.

She then told me that she was surprised that the makeup counters would hire me because "You're representing the brand" and "People would be looking at you all day" but "good for me for getting the job"

By this point, I am totally mortified and have no idea how to handle the situation. I've never been so passive aggressively called fat in my entire life, and how rude is this woman.

Then I get angry.
I'm angry at the woman for being so insensitive, but I am also mad at myself.

I realized that I just gave this woman, this complete stranger, total control over me. By allowing her to take away my confidence, I had allowed her to make me feel not only fat, but untalented as well. Like I didn't deserve my job, because I weighed a few extra pounds.

She just got to flounce out of the store with her new purchases, while I stewed the entire way home over how I looked (I swore I would never wear the LBD again), my abilities as a makeup artist and if I could ever make it in the beauty industry.

Whether we like it or not the stereotype seems to exist that if you don't look like a model yourself, then you don't deserve to work in the beauty industry in any capacity - and it's just not right and yet there it is.

I guess the moral of the story is - don't let anyone take away your power, know that you matter and that your talents aren't diminished for all someone can't see beyond the package they're contained within
.
It doesn't matter if you're tall, short, fat, thin, gay, straight, man or woman - Own your body, and don't let anyone take away your confidence ;)

Danielle

PS - I wore my LBD again - to a modeling agency none the less ;D