7 Basic makeup products worth of investing in.

Day before I moved out of Croatia I had my friend, beauty blogger Ana from Maybe's New Start over for a short creative session which then extended to a whole day hang out and send off for me.

Not only we worked together on a guest post, we were also taking photos, I taught Ana different ways to tie turban and head scarf while she gave me some quick tips and tricks on how to apply make up perfectly for different occasions. I was actually surprised on how much I didn't know and I had so much fun learning from Ana. She really knows her business.

After our fashion-beauty session I asked Ana for 5 basic tips on applying makeup, so here they are:

GOOD FOUNDATION.

In order for make up to look good on you first you need to take proper care of your face. Clean it and moisturize it daily.  If your skin is oily or mixed never travel without sheer finish press powder or other powder foundation which will keep the extra sebum (shininess we see on our T-zone mostly) under control. I use Bobbi Brown – Sheer Finish Pressed Powder (Warm Natural 6) and for foundation also Bobbi Brown's liquid foundation, Natural 4.

CONCEALER.

After carefully picked foundation which fits your skin tone, it is important to choose a good quality concealer. Pick concealer which is one shade lighter from your skin tone and apply it at the highest spot of your cheekbones and under your eyes, this will give you fresh and „awake“ look.

With this kind of application concealer replaces highlighter and gives you more natural look.

BRONZER.

Mat bronzer one shade darker than your foundation will be perfect for contouring. Contouring gives your face a whole other dimension which is why investing in good bronzer is very important. I use Max Factor Sun Frolic (shade: 34) which won Cosmopolitan Beauty Award here in Croatia last year.

EYE SHADOW.
It is best to start with having good neutral shades of eye shadow as these will go with any skin tones and eye colors. If your eyelids are a bit greasy and your eye shadow sometimes breaks off in little chunks it would be good if you invest in eye shadow primer which is really a foundation for your eye shadow which makes it stay put and it actually makes the eye shadow color more intensive. My favorite palette which Ana recommended and I got is Sefora's best selling pallet – Urban Decay Naked 1.

BLUSH & LIPSTICK.
Blush gives the final touch to your make up routine, best way to apply blush is to smile and apply it lightly and blend well to your cheeks. My favorite blush which I am using all year around is Clinique's fresh bloom allover (colour) in 06 Camilla shade.

Many girls don't wear lipstick daily but apply various colored lip glosses, whatever you choose to use make sure it hydrates your lips and that the color is suitable for your skin tone and the rest of the makeup.

MASCARA.

Ok, this is rather basic. Everyone uses mascara, but not everyone uses lash curler. Trust me, there is a huge difference! – said Ana. Definitely invest in good last curler. I am currently using Cover Girl Last Blast mascara and Mac lash curler. 

I was especially looking forward to learning how to use various make up brushes from Ana. When she rolled out her brushes on my table I said: Gosh do I need all that! – But Ana calmed me down with pointing out couple of basic brushes which I can use for more than one task.

1. FOUNDATION BRUSH.

Do not save on a foundation brush; invest in a good one because much of the way your foundation looks like depends on it. The most important is that this brush doesn't soak in to much of your foundation, that is applies it well.

2. POWDER FOUNDATION BRUSH.

The same as above applies. This brush you can also use for applying the blush and if you press it with your fingers it can also be used for contouring.

3. CONCELEAR BRUSH.

If you applied your concelear with your fingers before, try it with a thin fluffy brush it will make a noticeable difference, you will be using less of the product and it will look more natural.

4. COUNTURING BRUSH.

If you do not have a smaller foundation brush which is often used for contouring, press powder foundation brush with your fingers to me more precise or you can use a blending brush for eye shadow as well (4 on picture bellow).

5. EYE SHADOW BRUSHES.

From left to right these are: pencil brush – brush for precise application of eye shadow, eye shadow brush – brush for applying of eye shadow on the eyelid, smudge brush – brush for blending of pencil and eye shadow and blending brush – this brush makes your make up routine more professional as you will use it to soften up the edges in between different eye shadows you are using and you can use it for counturing. 

With this I really want to thank Ana for her time and patience with me, I had a lovely time and learned a lot!

Do share some of your makeup tips and more about your makeup routine with me, I would love to hear different ways you all do it! I hope you found this guest post useful and will be able to apply some of these tips and create yourself good, strong make up kit just like I did with Ana's help!

Make up artist quickie: Tom Pecheux.

This is a very special interview with Mr. Tom Pecheux for Estée Lauder done backstage at Derek Lam show at New York Fashion Week SS 2013. You can see the rest of the backstage photos and show review in my previous post.

If you are not familiar with Tom's work, you can read a bit more about Tom here.
Style.com saids: "After a career that's spanned two decades, Pecheux joined Estée Lauder as its creative makeup director last November, with the intention of injecting "fashion, fantasy, naughtiness, and above all youth" into the 64-year-old brand. "

“I love using gold gloss to neutralize the pinkness of lips.”

Tom Pecheux

How would you describe the make-up look for this show?

Very feminine, very elegant, but very discreet. It's very pastel, I will call it, “aqua color”. You discover the subtle color, the subtle shimmer, little by little. It's a make-up for a woman who is very self confident, who likes to be made up, who likes to be sophisticated, who is playful, but also who likes to be discreet.

How did the clothing influence the look?

When you are a makeup artist and you work for a fashion show, of course you work with a designer, the most important things are the clothes, but at the end it’s women who are wearing the clothes, so the overall look is important. Clothes, hair, make-up, accessories and since for this season the collection is very luxurious and colorful, it was important to keep the makeup in the same mood but in a very subtle and gentle way. I didn’t want the woman to become too colorful, too playful, too much. We like elegance, we don't like to "show off."

Would you say it’s an understated look?

The look is pretty minimal. What you see looks minimal, but the work is not and that’s because we work on every part of the face. The only thing we didn't use, which most women do, is mascara. Everything else is there. Skin care, foundation, concealer, lipstick, shimmer, contour, eyebrow, eye-shadow - so the result looks minimal, but the work is not. 

How long have you been working with Derek?

For about 10 years.

What is it like to work with him?

It is getting better and better because we have become good friends outside of work. We know each other and we understand each other, and he makes it very easy. You know when you are close to people, you can speak truly: "I like, I don't like, I think it's not quite there yet". When you like people, you want to please the people you work with and we are both very happy to work together. And of course, if I can help Derek in any way to make his woman more beautiful and to complete his collection I am thrilled to be there.

So there is a lot of trust?

Yes.

How does it work with Derek? How much direction does he tend to give you?

Derek always appears very serene. He is very quiet. So he delivers alot without talking a lot. The words he chooses are always very sharp and very neat. Also his collection is very sharp and very neat. When clothes say a lot, the designer does not have to say a lot. He generally doesn’t tell me anything specific, more like a mood, the type of woman he would like to see on the runway. We communicate very well because we know each other very well. That is the beauty of working with somebody that you trust and that you know, but who still every time surprises you. Every collection with Derek is a surprise - the fabrics he uses, the way he shapes them and the woman he creates. He reinvents himself every season, but at the end it's a Derek Lam woman. Even if the collections are different each season.

"I always try to respect the woman and make the makeup work for her." 

Tom Pecheux

Can you talk about the different products you were using?

I'm using a few products that I really like. I am using three products on the eyes, and I am using those two products on the lips. They are new products called shadow paints. They are creamy, and they dry on your eyelid, so they are very stable afterwards. And why do I use eyeshadow on the lips? Because basically it’s a creamy eyeshadow, and lipstick is a creamy product, so, the texture is very similar. Except that lipstick doesn't dry. This dries on the lips so it is very stable. And I used to cook, and I love to cook, so I like to cook make-up. I know people who like to make some rules. I don't know if I necessarily like to break the rules, but I like to play with the rules.

Backstage beauty report - Derek Lam SS 2013.

Known by his sporty luxury brand Derek Lam covered all of the season's trends in his show, from madras plaids to leather skirts and dresses with my favorite being the metallic gold leather skirt worn with silk cord top totally cool, modern and effortless!

In terms of make up, at Derek Lam, Tom Pecheux, creative makeup director for Estée Lauder, cooperating with Lam now for sixth consecutive season, was aiming for a “delicate, slightly romantic, aqua 3-D look." in which you just want to jump into! - as he put it.

Joan Smalls for Estée Lauder at Derek Lam

Liu Wen for Estée Lauder at Derek Lam

Inspired by vacation in France and colors of silver and transparent reflection of the river he vacationed by, Tom decided to do transparent, colored and feminine look for the eyes.

Tom Pecheus for Estée Lauder at Derek Lam / Model: Joan Smalls

Jin Soon Choi for Estée Lauder painted fingers and toes with Pure Color Nail Lacquer in So Vain, a nude shade with a hint of shimmer. “It goes with everything — any skin tone, any outfit,” she said. “It’s the perfect neutral.”

Derek Lam said that every Spring and Summer women tell him that they want the ease with dressing and make up, they just want to put it on and go, so this is what he had in mind while putting together this collection.

I really liked how comfortable and chic these booties looked!

Lam used leather and skins because they have structure but their still sensual and have amazing body. He wanted to break the expectations of white and pastels for Spring collections and he introduced new, warm but energetic color pallet. Derek said that he didn't want to use just sequence and do traditional evening wear but he wanted something very current, very "of this moment" so he used technology to create a new evening look.

Here are some of my other favorite pieces (notice the sweater and leather dress trends transferring from this Fall in lighter version to the Spring 2013.).

Bellow you can see the full show - the end result of this exhausting but exciting backstage prep.

How do you like this romantic, aqua and natural beauty trend ladies?

Wake up call

Did you ever find yourself angry at the person you care about and not quit knowing how you got to that position at the first place? Did you ever said things and moment later wish you hadn't? Did you ever over dramatized the situation and gave up? Do you often look back and regret?


If you said "NO" to any of the above, you are in denial.


Its ok, take a deep breath once in a while, self assess, smile and be grateful. Be grateful for the people who tought you stuff - good and bad. Understand your mistakes but don't be to hard on yourself, we learn something every day, life is a journey, do not rush it. Embrace every second of it, embrace people who love you, embrace those who broke your heart - you never know, you might meet them again. Nothing is final, everything can be fixed, its all up to you.


Today we have higher buildings and wider highways, but shorter temperments and narrower points of view. We spend more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses, but smaller families. We have more compromises, but less time. We have more knowledge, but less judgement. We have more medicines, but less health.We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.


We talk much, we love only a little, and we hate too much.We reached the moon and came back, but we find it troublesome to cross our own street and meet our neighbors. We have conquered the outer space, but not our inner space.We have higher income, but less morals…


These are times with more freedom, but less joy… With much more food, but less nutrition…These are days in which two salaries come home, but divorces increase. These are times of finer houses, but more broken homes.


That’s why I propose that as of today -- You do not keep anything for a special occasion, because every day that you live is a special occasion.

Search for knowledge, read more, sit and admire the view in front of your house without paying attention to the needs. Pass more time with your family, eat your favorite food, visit the place you love. Life is a chain of moments of enjoyment; it isn’t only survival. Wear your best clothes. Do not save your best perfume… use it every time you feel you want it. Take out from your vocabulary phrases like, “one of these days” and “someday” and "sacrifize for the future".


Let’s write that letter we thought of writing “one of these days…” , tell people "I love you" , "I am sorry" and "Thank you".


Dream, lough, love, live....