Hello fellow interweb friends!
So summer and spring is here and we all know we love to look good for all occasions, but it is still important to protect your skin while looking good! I thought I'd share with you the items that I use regularly to make sure my skin looks good, stays sun protected, and not get all gross and greasy since I have pretty oily skin during these seasons.
First off, for spring and summer, it is vital to keep your face protected from the sun and that is why I love this Laura Mercier oil free tinted moisturizer with SPF 20 ($43); my shade is bisque and it's quite versatile and matches well with my skin on its own or with a little bit of bronzer. I have to use oil free formulas just because my skin gets so oily that I feel like my face is melting off of me. So to prevent my face falling off, I use the Becca primer ($32) before I put on the tinted moisturizer. This is the most mattifying primer that I've used yet and it keeps my face oil-free for like about 6-8 hours, which is a lot more than most primers that claim to be mattifying out there. So I always start with these two after I wash my face. On days when I'm not doing much and just laying around, I'll just use the tinted moisturizer without the primer just because the primer is pretty expensive.
Once I have the primer and tinted moisturizer on, I will lightly go over it with a light layer of the BareMinerals matte powder foundation in "golden medium" just to give my face a little more coverage. I usually do this just to make my face look even more matte since the tinted moisturizer is liquid based, and any liquid on oily/combination skin will still give you a little bit of a shin. Once I have the powder foundation on, I will use either the "glee" All-Over-Face or the "soft matte bronzer 01" from my Estee Lauder Deluxe All-Over-Face Compact. The bronzer will give my face a little more shape, making it less round, since I do have a pretty round face. After I apply bronzer and attempt to contour, I will go over with the BareMineral Original Mineral Veil with SPF 15. The "glee" gives me a litle bit of a rosy glow, whereas the "soft matte bronzer 01" gives me more of a tanned look. I mainly go for the tanner look later in the summer when my skin gets darker and my tinted moisturizer looks a little lighter than my skin; the bronzer will help make my skin match better to my foundation once I get a little bit darker. This little trick has definitely saved me quite a bit of money since I don't have to go out and buy another foundation color just because I got tanner. Like I mentioned early, it is super important to keep your skin protected from the sun this season, so you prevent any skin discoloration from sun damage and of course, protect yourself from skin cancer. To me, the mineral veil not only keeps me matte, but when I brush it on, it softens all the bronzing and powdering, giving a natural, light, airbrushed look and not just a cakey face since I did put on a few layer of things. As for blush, I love the Bobbi Brown "Pale Pink" one and Estee Lauder's "Pink Kiss" from the same compact/palette as the bronzer. The Bobbi Brown blush looks like it would be obnoxiously pink, but it's not that bad. It gives you a very healthy, pinky/rosy look and brightens up your whole face. The Estee Lauder blush will for sure give you a more natural rosy look and this is what I used a lot at first when I started to use make up; as you can see, I've hit pan but still trying to get as much use out of it as I can because I can't seem to find this color anymore!
That was the "facial" foundation/powdering routine that I go through pretty much for all seasons and I tend to use the same products since I'm pretty simple when it comes to make up. The main point I want to share with you is that, especially for spring and summer, you need to have everything and anything with SPF because it is not fun dealing with discolored and damaged skin just because we were all too busy having fun to apply on some sun screen while trying to look pretty!
Of course, the face is not done until you get your eyes popping and a little color on your lips! So for my eyes, I love mascara! Mascara is definitely my holy grail product because it makes your eyes look alert, less tired, and gives you a little bit more spunk! Before I put on any mascara, I like to prime my lashes, just like I do with my face. My favorite lash primer is the Lancome Cils Booster XL. I haven't tried any other lash primers, so I can't compare it to much, but I definitely do not experience any of the lash primer problems like grey lashes or clumping or anything! This is definitely one of the products that I will always keep going back to. Anyways, so if you have read my blog before, you know how much I love my Laura Mercier mascara, but I may have found a new favorite! So for my birthday, I got a sample sized "They're Real" mascara from Benefit. The applicator is a little painful, but once you get the hang of it and not apply it so close to your eyes, it shouldn't be too bad. "They're Real" definitely lives up to all the hype! It for sure separates, elongates, and makes your eyes pop! And something interesting that I've noticed is that, even though Benefit does not claim that it's waterproof, this mascara is definitely water resistant. After I wash my face, I still see that my lashes are nicely curled and elongated, even though I've rubbed off all other make-up on my face.
Usually, before I put on my mascara, only on a day when I'm feeling real fancy and going out to something special or to see someone special, I will put on a little bit of eye shadow. Of course, no one should apply eye shadow without primer, and my favorite primer for that is the Urban Decay "Eyeshadow Potion Primer." This does keep my eyeshadow on nicely without creasing or any of that bad stuff. Since my face is oily, so are my lids, so I definitely need this primer to just make sure I don't look like a crazy panda clown at the end of the day! Sometimes, when I'm lazy, I will only go over my eyes with the "High Brow" from Benefit. Its main use is to highlight the brow bone, but when I'm lazy and just want to add a little color to my eyelids, I will also use it as a shadow. It is like a light powdery pink color, great for highlighting and as a base for other eyeshadow colors to go on. However, when I'm not feeling too lazy, I will actually use eyeshadow. I'm not really good at applying eyeshadow, but I will try anything. I only have one palette and it is the Stila "In the Know" palette. This is my first every eyeshadow palette, and you can definitely tell I don't use much of it since it still looks so fricken new! And as you can tell, I love looking matte and not greasy or shiny, so even my shadows are mainly matte colors. To me, these colors are super versatile. I can have day looks or night looks without being way too out of my comfort zone. My favorite thing about this palette, besides the fact that it's mainly matte, it comes with a cute little quote at the top of the mirror to go with the name/theme of it. At the top, it says "when a woman knows, she knows" from Sarah Lucero. I don't really know who she is, but I think it's so cute to add a little quote to tie together the theme of the palette. Stila has, I believe, two other palettes, and the other two have Sarah Lucero quotes on them too.
So anyways, this is how I usually do my make-up all year long, my routine, you can say. I thought I'd share it with you and share with you products that I use to help protect my skin while still attempting to look pretty. If you're like me and you want a clean, fresh, and natural look without feeling greasy and oily, you should definitely try out these products. I think the two main reasons why I keep my make-up so simple are: (1) I don't know how to apply/wear make up and (2) I already dress in such bright colors that I want to keep my face looking natural. Usually, I will pull a little bit of a color pop in my lips, but that's about it. If you want to see my most favorite lip colors to wear, then here's the post! I like making sure I look airbrush clean, so I love to find products to keep me as matte as possibly because eventually, my skin oils will give my face a more natural dewy look.
Until next time,
With love,
Uyen
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