"Baking" Makeup

Hi!

I recently in the last few months have heard people on Youtube talk about "baking" their makeup. I had no idea what the heck they were talking about. I watched a few videos to figure out what it meant and how to do it. I think I stumbled upon this by watching a Christen Dominique's video about doing this first, then I saw it done on Casey Holmes and then I watched a few others that I can't remember. I can't believe I never thought about doing this. After I found out what it was, I was like duh, that makes total sense. I don't think many beauty guru's on Youtube really used that word or used it very rarely, but now I won't go without it. I wore concealer under my eyes recently without baking it and it has been fairly hot and humid here so I was sweating a lot and the concealer and foundation dripped into my eyes causing irritation. It was a huge mess! My eyes are super sensitive to even the slightest irritation. Now I won't go without "baking" my makeup! I find that it really works for me.

Baking your makeup at the most basic level just means that whenever you put on concealer, primer or foundation, you bake it by applying a powder or eye shadow on top of the concealer/primer/foundation because the powder/eye shadow helps the product to stay in place and it fills in holes and creates a smooth surface that makes other makeup apply smoother. Baking your makeup helps in two ways: 1. it helps the concealer/foundation/primer stay in place and 2. it creates a smooth surface for better makeup application of other products!

I don't think this concept is necessarily knew or not well known because it used to be called setting your makeup and I know I've heard of people applying powder on top of their makeup before, but baking your makeup sounds cute. So I thought I would share it in my blog with all of you =-) Just an FYI to throw out there is that a lot of my makeup is made for long wear times so I'm not sure if that effects the baking or not. I am not entirely sure how baking on non-long wearing makeup works, but I'm sure it does the job for non-long wearing products to make them last a bit longer. But all of my primers, foundations and concealers are all long-wearing formulas. Long wearing formulas plus "baking" makes for really good results that I have seen. Just a fair warning that non-long wearing makeup should last slightly longer than if you don't bake, but not as long as long-wearing products. I just wanted to make sure that information is known.

Baking with Primer:

On clean eye lids apply your eye primer of your choice.
For example: I use the MAC Paint Pot in Soft Ochre because it works really well for me, but you can use actual eye primer or something similar. Whatever you like to use for your eye primer works. I would apply that all over my eye lids and give it about a minute or so to dry down.
Then you find an eye shadow color that matches closest to your eye lid color.
For example: I use the Coastal Scents Revealed 20 Eye Shadow Palette that I got from my husband's mom for Christmas a few years back. It has a lot neutral colors in it. It is used for more neutral looks which I like. I found that in the top row the fourth color in, they don't have names sorry but it's a tan color. Then you would just apply that on top of the eye primer. This is called baking and it helps to set the primer so it lasts longer and really does create a smooth surface to apply eye shadows on top of! That is basically all you do.

Baking with Under Eye Concealer:

To bake with under eye concealer all you do is apply your favorite concealer like you normally would under your eyes. I have to be careful because I have super sensitive eyes and to make sure no product leaks in my eyes I don't get too close like some people do with their concealers, but if you can and do that works too. I usually leave maybe a quarter of an inch space between my eye and the under eye concealer.
For example: I have used the IT Cosmetics Bye-bye under eye concealer and I have used the MAC Pro Longwear concealer in NW20 that is in the round black container. They are supposed to be waterproof, but I think I got too close to my eye and it leaked in or maybe it was the foundation. Let the concealer dry for about a minute or so. What you would do is find a powder or eye shadow that matches close to the concealer. I apply the concealer under my eyes without getting too close and then to bake it I either apply the Coastal Scents eye shadow the top first one matches my concealer color very well so I use that or I have a L'Oreal Mineral Makeup Finish powder that matches close to my skin color to apply on top of the concealer. It really does help it to stay in place.

Baking Foundation:

This is the most simplest one yet. Take a foundation of your choosing and apply all over the face. Give it a minute or so to dry and do it's think. Take a big fluffy brush and use a white powder or flesh colored power or a powder that matches your foundation and gently apply on top of the foundation on your face. This bakes the foundation to help it keep on your face longer and it may also help with keeping the foundation from breaking down, especially quicker. I will throw a warning out there that I have not tried to do this with non-lasting foundations so I don't know how well it works with those, but I do know that I have used this method with long-wearing/long last foundation and it works really well.
For example: I have used the L'Oreal Infallible 18 hour foundation and the MAC  with the L'Oreal Mineral Finish powder and it helped to keep my foundation from breaking down and it helped to make it last longer. Without baking I don't think it could go a full 18 hours on my face, but with baking it definitely gets closer. As long as it lasts up to 8 hours on my face without breaking down is pretty good in my book.

I hope this helps and let me know in the comments if you tried this with regular non-long wearing as well as long-wearing products to let everyone know how it worked and how how much longer it lasted when you baked and didn't bake. I'm sure it will help others and I know I am curious to know. Thanks =-)

Sincerely,
Marina

Dollar Tree L.A. Colors Nail Polish Haul 06/25/2017

Hi!

On Sunday I had to run to the Dollar Tree to pick up a few things. I have always wanted to try the nail polishes and I found some super cute Summer colors that I just had to try! I bought the L.A. Colors Color Craze nail polish. All of the nail polishes are a $1.00 each! Can't beat that price. I'm sure they aren't good for your nails, but as someone who rarely wears nail polish I figured it would be okay.

I bought the L.A. Colors Color Craze nail polish in #612 Purple Passion, #505 Pink Bubbles, and #534 Hottie. Purple Passion in the bottle looks like a light to medium purple. Pink Bubbles in the bottle looks like a barbie pink, maybe slightly darker. And Hottie looks like a pale orange. If these colors work out I might be going back to buy some of the darker shades for Winter because they had beautiful purple and blue colors that looked really cute. I usually don't go for red, but the red in the bottle looked like a really pretty color too!

I am going to be trying out the purple color this weekend. I will try them out and do a review on them!

Sincerely,
Marina

Bath and Body Works Fine Fragrance Mist Haul 06/24/2017

Hi!

This past weekend I finally made a trip to Bath and Body works. I ran out of the Christmas special body spray a while back, they now call it a fine fragrance mist, but I am just going to call it body spray, they are pretty much the same thing. It was the Vanilla Noel scent or something like that. I love it! I've been wanting to go to Bath and Body works, but it didn't work out until this past weekend! I was super excited. The Bath and Body Works that I went to had a deal going on where if you buy 3 you get 3 free. I think it applied to the sprays, the scrubs, and the lotions, but I'm not big on lotions and I have a Clean and Clear scrub that I use that I like so I decided to buy all 6 body sprays.

I bought 3 of my favorite which is the Warm Vanilla Sugar and then I decided to try 3 new scents I haven't tried before so I got A Thousand Wishes, Beautiful Day, and Magic in the Air. These are going to last me at least 6 months to a year. They are $14.00 each and each bottle has 8 fluid ounces so if you go in and buy 6 fine fragrance mists the total comes out to $88.00 before tax. With the deal they had of buy 3 get 3 free came out to $45.15 with tax included. Instead of being $14.00 at regular price it was like they were $7.00 for each bottle which makes it sound more reasonable. That is still a bit more than I would like to spend on body spray, but it should last me 6 months or so if I use them everyday that's about a bottle a month. I don't have a need to use them everyday so they should last me a while, especially since I probably will use different scents depending on my mood and the occasion.

A few small spritz goes a long way. I think I spritzed about 2-3 times and the smell was very strong and lasted a good while.

They changed the bottles and the scent formulas. I remember the bottles looked like cheap plastic that you would find at like Walmart/Dollar General/Dollar Tree, but they re-did the packaging and the label and now they are super cute! I wasn't able to justify spending $10.00-$12.00 on those and the scents I don't think were as strong either. I mean they smelled good, don't get me wrong, but I think they re-did their scents to make them stronger and the bottles are stronger and look super cute! They are plastic, but they aren't that cheap plastic, but a nice solid plastic with silver spray tops instead of the cheap plastic white tops. Bath and Body Works seems like they really stepped up their game with the body sprays from the last time I bought their products which admittedly was probably 5-7 years ago.

So far I am very happy with my experience, the sale that I got and the products that I purchased! I will do a review on them after I test them out some more.

Overall opinion: the bottles are made out of better plastic, the spray tops are silver instead of white which looks more classy, I think the silver classy look goes even better with the new bottles and labels so it all works very well together, they updated their labels that look super cute, the scent formula seems to be stronger so it lasts longer because they have always had really good scents, and when you find a good deal that made them $7.00 each instead of $14.00 each that makes it even more exciting!

Sincerely,
Marina

MAC Pro Longwear Concealer in NC 25

Hi!

Oh my... I had a few saved drafts of products that I wrote reviews about, but was waiting to post because I don't like posting multiple in one day unless the products go together or I have to and I seriously thought I got to all of them, but I was just looking through my posted and drafts, guess what? I found this that I completely forgot to post! I feel so horrible. I still love and use this product. I am beyond sorry for not posting it sooner, but I really thought I did.

For my birthday last year I stopped by the MAC counter at my local mall and picked up something I wanted to try for a long time. That is the MAC Pro Longwear Concealer that I have heard a lot of great things about. Every time I go there are new people, but it seems like I get the same attitude. They force themselves on me and I'm just like, "I'm just looking, thanks." I'm nice, I smile, and they just are always seeming to have a bad day or something. I don't know. I went there with a specific purpose in mind and she kept trying to get me to buy other stuff. She asked if I wanted her to match me and I said sure. She asked if I had dry skin and I said yes so she tried to persuade me to buy some slick hydrating foundation. I told her that I could not wear that because even though I do have dry skin, I need waterproof makeup. Then she tried to push another product on me that I did not want. I finally got matched for the concealer that I wanted. She was awfully pushy about what she wanted me to buy. I didn't even ask how much the foundation was, but I was expecting to spend between $18.00 and $20.00 but apparently this concealer in the last few years flew up to the price of $22.00 for a tiny bottle. Yikes! That is some expensive concealer, but I did try it and it was definitely worth it. I really liked it and it held up on my face which is always a plus!

Rating:

Price: 7/10
Packaging: 10/10
Amount of product: 8/10
Longevity: 10/10
Application: 10/10
Covers redness: 10/10
Covers large pores: 10/10
Different skin types: 9/10
Overall rating: 9/10
Would I repurchase: 10/10
Total rating: 93/100=93%= A

My personal rating: 10/10=100%= A

Comments:
I recently purchased this product at my local MAC counter. I paid $22.00 for this product. I thought $18 for this product was a bit much, but now they charge $22 for it which I think is way too much. The packaging isn't super cute, but it holds the product, it doesn't leak, and it comes with a pump to pump the product out which I like. I'm pretty sure they give the same amount of product as they did when they charged the $18 so I think that if they are going to charge more they should give more product. The longevity of this concealer is awesome. It definitely lasts and it doesn't have to false advertise that it lasts 18 hours or 24 hours. It pretty much lasts until you take it or wash it off. The application is smooth and I haven't had any problems with it, but you do want to work a bit quick with this product because it does dry. I bought this product because I wanted to see how much it covers and it is definitely full coverage! I love it! I think that this product covers my large pores and makes it easier to put foundation on over it. This product is probably meant for oily or normal skin, but I think even dry can use it. I think it covers and goes on pretty much anything and stays there. It might be a bit drying on dry skin though. Overall, this is a great must have product! I can't believe I waited so long to try it. I can wear it alone or under foundation. A match made in heaven, lol. Yes, I would most definitely repurchase this product unless it goes above $25, that is my cut off for a concealer.

Sincerely,
Marina