Best Oscars in Years

The 2009 Academy Awards was in my opinion the best since Billy Crystal and his memorable montages. Hugh Jackman did such a fantastic job as host and the special way the nominess for Best Supporting Actor/Actress and Best Actor/Actress were presented was so powerful that even my dad enjoyed it (he never watches the Oscars).










As I promised, ive posted a few of my favorite hair/makeup looks. Hands down I think these four ladies rocked hair and makeup in such different ways. I would have to say though that Natalie Portman was my favorite overall but all the ladies were stunning.

Its better than all the rest

L'Oreal's Voluminous Mascara is my FAVORITE drug store purchase. Its THE best mascara you could buy in my opinion. It does EVERYTHING you want a mascara to do. A nice dark, full lash line that looks as if you've got false eyelashes. The wand reaches every lash and give that fluffy doe-eyed or deliciously sexy sex-pot lash look. I recommend it to every single one of my clients to the point where everyone I know buys it now. The only downfall is that because its so fantastic and the formula is a bit thicker, you have to buy a new one more often that you would other mascaras. Which I think is just fine because its a super cheap mascara!! Try it, you'll love it..thats literally a gurantee.

Palmer's Cocoa Butter

Sadly, the groundhog said that we have 6 more weeks of winter. I dont know about you, but my skin gets crazy dry come winter time. Its also one of the seasons, believe it or not, that I find that Im more likely to neglect my skin. Especially my hands. Due to the frustrating, yet sad economic recession, I've been trying to find ways to buy cosmetics more affordably. Yes, you heard me correctly, I will buy cheaper makeup. I stumbled upon Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula in my bathroom. Turns out my brother uses it because his best friend uses it because they like the way it smells and girls comment on the cocoa butter smell. And it does smell like cocoa butter, which reminds me of the tropics, which reminds me of summer, which makes me hopeful that summer will be here soon. Anyways..its a fantastic formula full of vitamin E which will calm redness caused by dry skin. Cocoa butter is also super moisturizing and you'll find that it willmake your hands, feet, elbows, lips a lot smoother to touch sooner than you think. You can it at your local Shoppers or London drugs.

maybelline great lash...or not so great lash??

<-----This is Maybelline's Great Lash Mascara. Its one of the most popular mascara's in the world. At least every single makeup artist has tried it..some have liked it, others have not. Personally, im not a big fan of it. The wand is too small for my liking and I find that it doesn't cooperate as well as other mascara's ive used. HOWEVER, being a makeup artist, I use a lot of disposable mascara wands on my clients ( I get mine from MAC COSMETICS you get 25 disposable wands for $7.00) . Ive found that using the mascara with a different wand works a lot better. The formula is fantastic and doesn't clump and with using the disposable wands, you get a nice natural lash. Its a super cheap mascara (only $5.49) but my opinion, unless you want to keep buying disposable wands, find a mascara that'll work better, wand, formula and all.

BARBIE'S 50!!!!

On Valentine's Day, Barbie had a 50th Anniversary Show in Bryant Park at New York Fashion Week. To commemorate 50 years, 50 of the HOTTEST designers contributed clothes to mark the iconic doll's fashionable history. After 50 years, Barbie has only gotten hotter and more fashionable. Even with all the controversy surrounding her measurements or the unrealistic expectations of womanhood, no one outshines Barbie. Lets be honest, wouldn't you love to play in her closet? Roam thru her makeup bag? Drive her corvettes and cruise down Malibu with Ken?
Happy 50th Birthday Barbie....can't wait to see what 60'll be like.

NY Fashion Week

The excitement that surrounds the Mercedes Benz New York Fashion Week in Bryant Park is insane. Its all hustle all the time. No rest for the weary. So much work goes into a 15 -30 minute show that the average person would probably have a nervous break down within 5 minutes of experiencing a show. Due to the recent economic recession a lot of high end designers chose to not show at Bryant Park but rather smaller scale shows. However, a few of my favorites and more did end up showing their Fall 2009 ready to wear collections and i LOVED LOVED LOVED them. Marc Jacobs, William Rast, Donna Karan, Caroliona Herrera, Tracy Reese, Elie Tahari, the list goes on. My hands down favorite was Marc Jacobs. Check out: http://www.elle.com/Runway/Ready-to-Wear/Fall-2009-RTW/MARC-JACOBS/MARC-JACOBS/(view)/0/(imageIndex)/1 for photos of his fan-tabulous collection.

OSCAR, OSCAR

The Academy Awards are this Sunday, February 22nd. I LOVE watching the Oscars..Ive even been known to book a day off JUST to be able to watch the Oscars. Everything from the gorgeous gowns, to the hair, the makeup, the jewellery, the arm candy..the EVERYTHING. I was watching The Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo today and she was prepping 4 of the celeb clients for the Oscars last week..i nearly died...just watching the preparation made me all giddy inside. Ive attached a few of my favorite makeup looks from the Oscars of the past few years and Ill be posting my favorite looks from this years on monday.

To prime or not to prime

I get asked often whether primer is a necessary step when doing one's makeup. I think that it is. The reason being, a primer protects your skin....it basically creates another layer on top of moisturized skin to a) allow your makeup to stay on longer, b) to keep your makeup looking fresher and c) to not allow the foundation, concealer, etc.. to penetrate into your pores. Lets me honest, do you diligently wash your face twice a day, tone and moisturize daily and exfoliate 2-3 times a week? Probably not, if you do, reach around and give yourself a pat on the back *pat pat*, however, most of people (my friends especially) fall asleep with their makeup on more often than they will admit to me...im not perfect, ive done it before as well. Primers are another step to further protect your skin from wearing makeup everyday. Most of them have added benefits such as illumination, anti-ageing, pore minimizers, skin smoothers and so on. Find one that works best for you and that you feel comfortable with on. Dont overuse the primers, a nickle size amount would be enough for your whole face.

There are also primers for the eyes. If you're like me, you probably have issues with your eyeshadow creasing after a few hours of wear. Eyeshadow primers help keep your makeup on all day. They dont have the same benefits of a face primer so dont confuse the two. Eyeshadow primers come colorless (nude) or in muliple shades of colors for you to use to also amplify the intensity of your eye makeup. Some formulas however, you have to work with quickly as they dry fast. Make sure that you use only a little bit and blend well, being aware of how high you brush on the primer and make sure you apply your product on evenly. I would advise that you work one eye at a time....primer, apply shadows, blend well and then move onto the next eye. If you let the primer dry, it won't work as well for you as you'd like.

Ive added a few primers for both face and eyes that ive worked with before and also that are popular ones in the industry.

I heart Jen

I love Jennifer Aniston. Ive always been a Team Jen fan, mainly because she's got this down to earth look and just exudes warmth. You just want to be "FRIENDS". Jen's new movie "He's Just Not That Into You" based on the popular novel of the same name, had their screening last night. Jen looked GORGEOUS in a Burberry Pantsuit, her hair tied back and as usual, her gorgeous californian sunkissed makeup look. Jen's makeup artist, Angela Levin uses all Chanel makeup on her. Here's a little trick that Angela uses on Jen: Brush a coat of black mascara on your lashes and to make blue eyes pop, for your second coat, brush a blue mascara on the tips of your lashes.

ITS FINALLY COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SEPHORA is finally opening its vancouver flagship store!! Its been at least 2 year in the making and will be opening in September of 2009. If you've never been to a Sephora store before you dont know what you're missing. Its a makeup wonderland with everything you can hope for and more!! I would be happy to live in a sephora store forever and ever.

I really love my........

These are a few of my favorite makeup and skin care lines to use and to work with. Ill be compiling a list of my favorite products as well in the near future

Obsessed much?

Im obsessed with makeup. I love everything about it. EVERYTHING. I get excited when I buy even just a simple black eyeliner. I get even more juiced up when I get larger quatities. My parents are convinced I knew I wanted to be a makeup artist from when I was really young. I used to play with the makeup that you can buy in a toy store. Id paint all over my friends faces much to the horror of their parents upon picking them up. But i loved it.

Throughout this blog, ill be checking out different makeup lines, new product launches and keeping you all as informed as I possibly can about whats going on in the makeup world. I hope you enjoy makeup as much as I do and if you do, you'll enjoy this blog.