Cover It: The ultimate guide to concealer

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beauty, beauty tips, complexion, concealer, cosmetics, makeup

Turns out the secret to having flawless skin is knowing how to apply concealer. Read on to find out how to brush up on your camouflaging skills.

How to conceal puffiness

You need: highlighter + liquid concealer

Mix a liquid concealer with a tiny bit of highlighter, and dab it on the puffy areas of your face. This will help reflect light and give the effect of smooth skin. I recommend recommend Peter Thomas Roth Un Wrinkle Concealer & Brightener, $55.

How to conceal redness around the nose

You need: cream concealer + latex sponge+ loose powder

It’s a known fact that the area around your nose gets oily quickly, so it’s best to use an oil-free cream concealer for heavier coverage. Use your ring finger to pat and blend the concealer into the crease around the nose. Then take a damp makeup sponge, dip in loose powder, and blend. Try Youngblood Ultimate Concealer, $43 coupled with Lavera Fine Loose Mineral Powder, $38.

How to conceal a pimple

You need: green concealer + concealer pencil + latex sponge + translucent powder

Pencils are best at coating blemishes because the pointy shape allows you to go on the pimple and around it easily. Reach for RMK Concealer Pencil, $51. Then take a damp sponge and powder over the area. If your pimple is red, try neutralising the color by using a green concealer first.

How to conceal scars or dark spots

You need: cream pot + lifting concealer + concealer brush + latex sponge+ loose powder

To completely erase dark pigment or scars, the heavy coverage of a cream concealer works best thanks to the thicker texture which contains less oil than liquid and therefore lasts longer. Apply the concealer with a brush over the problem area and then apply a dab of lifting concealer, which will provide a highlight. Finish with a damp sponge and loose powder to blend it all together. Try Laura Mercier Secret Concealer, $40.

How to conceal under-eye bags

You need: liquid concealer with lifting ingredients + latex sponge + loose powder

To counteract the yellow, bluish hues under the eyes the key is to use a peach-based concealer as it brings warmth to the area. A lifting ingredient like vitamin A prevents the concealer from settling into creases and fine lines. Another key trick is to dip a damp makeup sponge into loose powder and then dab over the under eye area to set the concealer.  Try Diorskin Sculpt Lifting Smoothing Concealer, $56.

❤ Kristina xo

PS. In a beauty fix and need some advice? Or maybe you just want to chat about all things pretty? Drop me a line: kristina@fragrancesandcosmetics.com.au. Or, if you’re in the mood for some eye candy, come and see what I’ve been Pinning over at www.pinterest.com/freshdiscover. Better yet – join me on Facebook for more beauty fun www.facebook.com/freshfragrances. And for a plain old good time, come and follow Fresh on Instagram – @freshdiscoverbeauty – & Twitter@fresh_fragrances.

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Cannes Film Festival 2013 Makeup How-To: Cara Delevingne

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beauty tips, cannes film festival, cara delevingne, eyebrows, foundation, Lipstick, makeup, makeup tutorial, mascara

I’m simply besotted by British model Cara Delevingne at last week’s Cannes Film Festival 2013 red carpet. The runway starlet embraced the evening’s vintage theme with a daring black lace Burberry number teamed with dazzling jewels and flawless make-up.

Not many people can pull of lips, tips, brows and a smoky eye, but this beauty pulled it off with ultimate style. Hats off to you, Cara!

Learn how to get her awe-inspiring look below:

GET THE LOOK

STEP ONE: Get a radiant canvas by prepping your skin with Glamglow’s Tingling & Exfoliating Mud Mask (celebrities go crazy for this stuff, especially before red carpet appearances!).

STEP TWO: Mix equal parts of Yves St Laurent Le Teint Touche Eclat Illuminating Foundation with NARS Illuminator in Copacabana and then apply to your face using a makeup sponge or Kevyn Aucoin Super Soft Buff Powder Brush. Blend outwards towards the hairline. Dab some concealer under your eye area to disguise dark circles if needed.

STEP THREE: Add a touch of soft, just-pinched colour to your cheeks with Jane Iredale PurePressed Blush. Apply lightly onto the upper part of your cheekbones and dab outwards and upwards until fully blended.

STEP FOUR: Achieve the model’s smouldering smokey eye make-up with a hint of iridescent silver sparkle at the inner corners of the eyes thanks to RMK’s Ingenious Powder Eye. This will help bring out the brightness in your peepers. Complement this by lining the eyes with a gel liner and then add a few dustings of Pixi Smoky Eye Wand on the outer corners of the eye. 

STEP FIVE: Apply mascara to the upper and lower lashes with a lengthening formula like Sisley Phyto Mascara Ultra Stretch.

STEP SIX: Get Cara’s famous eyebrows by brushing them upwards with a tinted brow gel such as GloMinerals GloBrow Gel.

STEP SEVEN: Finish with a dark, sensuous red lip with Lancome La Laque Fever Lipshine in #104 Simply Red and pucker up.

Don’t forget to leave your tresses loosely teased and tumbled for a take on the more sophisticated blow-wave.

Now you’re ready to shut the whole red carpet down!

❤ Kristina xo

PS. In a beauty fix and need some advice? Or maybe you just want to chat about all things pretty? Drop me a line: kristina@fragrancesandcosmetics.com.au. Or, if you’re in the mood for some eye candy, come and see what I’ve been Pinning over at www.pinterest.com/freshdiscover. Better yet – join me on Facebook for more beauty fun www.facebook.com/freshfragrances. And for a plain old good time, come and follow Fresh on Instagram – @freshdiscoverbeauty – & Twitter@fresh_fragrances.

Guest Post: How to shape and groom your eyebrows

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beauty, beauty tips, brows, eyebrows, makeup, makeup tips

GUESS POST BY HAZAL OZTURK

We always seem to forget about them but eyebrows are one of the most fundamental parts of your look. A face without eyebrows is like Batman without Robin, Kim Kardashian without false eyelashes and a painting without a frame. Actually, that’s probably the best analogy to use in reference to eyebrows — they frame your face and seeing as every face is different (compare Kiera Knightley’s eyebrows to say Lily Collins), they all need to be treated with consideration to your face and natural brow shape. While that stuff is best left to the professionals, there are also some super easy tricks we can use at home to groom our little brow pals (left is Fred, right is Wilma, since you were wondering).

HOW TO GROOM YOUR BROWS

When working out the shape of your eyebrow, there are four main steps.

STEP ONE: This may not be a necessary step for those with sparse or fine brows, but very necessary for those with coarse and/or unruly, bushy brows. Use your spoolie and brush your eyebrows upward. Now take a small set of scissors, and line them across the topmost, thickest part of the brow. Trim any hairs that are too long.

STEP TWO: See where your eyebrows start. Grab a pen (brush/crayon/wand) and hold it vertically on the side of your nose. Where the pen meets your eyebrow is where your brow should start. Where your pen overlaps with your pupil is where your arch should be. finally, slide the pen so it’s next to the outermost corner of your eye. When the outer tip rests is where your brow should end. Easy peasy (with corn and rice, please!).

STEP THREE: If you don’t want to fiddle with the shape of your eyebrows, there are plenty of ways to alter what they look like without pulling out the tweezers. The easiest and most foolproof way to do this is by filling in your eyebrows using a subtly darker shade of brow powder with an angled brush in the direction of your hair growth. Think of the top and bottom of your brows as borders, and you need to colour in between the lines of your brow with whatever residue is on your brush.

STEP FOUR: You can also shade your brows in with an eyebrow pencil. It’s best to start from the outer brow and arch and then work your way towards the inner part, that way you can avoid having too much product where you want it to look the most natural, and not ‘done’. Next, brush upwards lightly through your brows and set it with some brow gel or clear mascara (no one will ever know).

Damn, Fred and Wilma, you guys are looking mighty fine!

Here’s a more detailed guide about how to shape and fill in your arches:

Hope you enjoyed and let us know if you have any questions in the comments below!

Hazal Ozturk is a beauty journalist and resident product aficionado at Drop Dead Gorgeous Daily. When Hazal isn’t ranting and raving about the latest and greatest in the beauty world or making sure her arches are in tip top shape, she’s decking out her digits in fancy nail art and sussing out new and awesome ways to perfect the art of winged liner.

Hey There, Bright Eyes! How to make your peepers appears wide awake

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beauty tips, concealer, cosmetics, eye makeup, eyeliner, eyes, eyeshadow, mascara, wide awake eyes

Late nights, icky winter weather — there’s lots of reasons why your peepers may be looking a little lacklustre. Luckily for you, there exists a few simple makeup tricks that can take your peepers from half asleep to wide awake in moments. Read ahead to learn how to how to troubleshoot tired eyes (something I’ve been seriously trying to exercise lately to banish my dark shadows… and it’s been working!).

ELONGATE THE LASHES

A few lashings of mascara will instantly make your blinkers appear larger than life. To get your longest-looking lashes, start by taking the tip of the mascara wand and apply the formula directly to the ends of your lashes in an upwards direction. Then, continue to apply mascara to the base of the lashes using quick right-to-left strokes to coat the lashes as much as possible.

I love Bare Escentuals i.d. Weather Everything Waterproof Mascara, especially perfect for all this rainy weather.

ADD SHIMMER TO YOUR LIDS

To appear more doe-eyed, concentrate on applying an opalescent or shimmery shadow to the middle of the lash line to emphasise the widest section of your eye shape.

Reach for Kevyn Aucoin The Loose Shimmer Shadow in Citrine. 

ENHANCE THE EYE SHAPE

Experiment with blue-hued eyeliner as the cooler tones will make the whites of your eyes appear brighter. You can also brighten the inner corner of the eye and the water line with flesh-toned eyeliner. Remember – light colours open up the eye! To fully enhance the eye shape, softy smudge eye shadow along the bottom lash line. This will make your blinkers appear larger, especially with the contrast of the nude liner.

CURL YOUR LASHES

Curling your lashes will work wonders on your eyes. Start at the root of your lash and gently pulse the curler shut three times.

PRO TIP: If you have stick-straight eyelashes one of the best ways to curl them is to heat your eyelash curler with a hair dryer for 5-8 seconds. Heating it will act like a curling iron and that paired with waterproof mascara (which dries faster) will give you perfect eyelashes.

My choice is Tweezerman Professional ProCurl Curler.

CONCEAL IT

Use peachy, pink concealers, instead of yellow-based ones, to erase under-eye circles as the orange undertones are better at camouflaging blue tones.

PRO TIP: After you apply concealer to your under-eye area, use a makeup sponge to lightly buff out any globs. To prevent distracting streaks, you should blend all the way out to your temples to catch any lingering foundation traces.

ILLUMINATE AND HIGHLIGHT

Use a light, illuminating highlighter to open up the eye area. Brimming soft, light reflective pigments along the inner corner of the eyes and the contour of your brow bones will make your peepers pop.

Now go and bat those lashes to the world!

❤ Kristina xo

Ps. In a beauty fix and need some advice? Or maybe you just want to chat about all things pretty? Drop me a line: kristina@fragrancesandcosmetics.com.au. Or, if you’re in the mood for some eye candy, come and see what I’ve been Pinning over at www.pinterest.com/freshdiscover. Better yet – join me on Facebook for more beauty fun www.facebook.com/freshfragrances. And for a plain old good time, come and follow us on Instagram – @freshdiscoverbeauty – & Twitter@fresh_fragrances.

Congratulations to Kerry Santillo for winning our Mother’s Day competition!

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beauty advice, beauty tips, beauty tricks, mothers day

It was soooooo hard to choose through the vast array of amazing entries from all of you lovely ladies in our Mother’s Day giveaway, but after hemming and hawwing over some standout favourites, I’m happy to announce that the wonderful winner of the Lancome Visionnaire Advanced Skin Corrector is Kerry Santillo for her clever (and oh-so-true) entry about mum’s best beauty advice:

Never leave the house without a lipstick. Not only is it key to making any outfit look instantly polished and put-together, but it also moonlights as the perfect blush (or rouge as Mum likes to call it).

Congrats Kerry! Please email kristina@fragrancesandcosmetics.com.au to claim your prize.

And a huge thanks to everyone else for taking the time to submit your entries. They were a pleasure to read.

Here are some other awesome mum-inspired answers full of incredible tips, tricks and beauty mantras:

MUM’S BEST BEAUTY ADVICE

“My grandmother was my best friend, and the one who gave me beauty advice: she said oatmeal sewn into a muslin bag was perfect for a bath soak, but she also said to use it as a scrubbing pad to keep hands and face soft and white. Everyone knows how good an oatmeal bath is for sensitive and painful skin, but the new trend is muslin face cloths for exfoliation and cleansing! My grandmother was way ahead of her time, I miss her every day.” — Kristine

“Mum always said Beauty comes from within
Not just on your outer skin
Always said Walk and Stand Proud with a smile
And your Inner Beauty will take style.” — Nichole Mckee

“Mum always told me to put a cold compress on my face to soothe acne and inflammation  I’d dampen it, put it over sliced cucumbers so the antioxidants were infused in the material and then leave it in the freezer for an hour before gently applying it to my face. Strangely worked wonders!” — Chiara Lee

“My Mum taught me that when you have a great life full of fun, you’ll probably have to spend a lot on skincare to take care of the laughter lines…but it’s worth every cent!” — Glenda McDonnell

“Winter, with socks & stockings, always dries out my heels but Mum told me to moisturise (heavily), straight after my shower then put on my bed socks  … the heat, moisturiser & fluffy socks means no cracked heels come summer sandals.” — Sue Bou

“My mother always said that Tea Tree Oil would clear up any skin problem, acne, pimples, blemishes and dry skin. It really did work.” — Michelle Green

“Stay out of the sun, it’s really simple but it’s the best anti-ageing tool there is out there.” — Anna

“Always smile, it is the best make-up a girl can have. Have you ever seen a smiling face that was not beautiful?” — Johanna Rees

“The best beauty advice that my mother gave me is to clean my skin with Rose Water. It’s cheap, you can buy it in any supermarket, cleans, tones and refresh your skin like no other! Use it everyday.” — Marta

“My mum tells me that I don’t need lots of makeup to look beautiful. What makes me beautiful is from the inside.” — Ina J

“An eyebrow pencil is your best friend. A nice shaped brow frames your best feature – your eyes.” — Leila

“Mum told me to always try to be positive, kind and happy on the inside – as being a happy and caring person always makes you look beautiful, no matter what your age.” — Margaret Chafer

“The best thing you can put on your face is a smile and sunscreen – every day of the year.” — Tracey Pinny

“BEAUTY is power; but the best MAKEUP any woman can wear is a SMILE. And, the best ACCESSORY a woman can own is CONFIDENCE; it brings out the GODDESS, and makes any woman SHINE from within!” — Renata

“My mother always told me that ‘Beauty is when you radiate happiness’ and so you should always wear makeup that makes you feel happy, confident and beautiful because you will radiate it outwards as well, and it will change your perceptive on everything.” — Una Chen

“My Mum taught me to use lemons for their bleaching effect – for the dark skin on your elbows, on freckles and sunspots on your face, – add lemon in your hair and the sun will give you that bleached sunkissed look.” — Pernilla S

“My mum always told me if I want to keep wrinkles at bay invest in a great toner, eye cream and moisturiser with SPF.” — Nicole Latham

“Green toned concealer for red blemishes and salmon toned concealer for dark under-eye circles!” — Sophie

“My mum is nuts. Some of her advice: smearing honey on cold-sores, rubbing acne with a fresh cut potato, mashed banana face-mask, exfoliating with sugar… if she was coming at me with food I wasn’t sure if I’d be eating or wearing it!” — Bibi

“Always use moisturiser and sunscreen on the back of your hands.” — Sarah

“My mother taught me not to squeeze pimples instead steam face and put a hot face cloth on it to bring it to a head and then apply toothpaste to dry it out.” — Melanie Scott

❤ Kristina xo

Ps. In a beauty fix and need some advice? Or maybe you just want to chat about all things pretty? Drop me a line: kristina@fragrancesandcosmetics.com.au. Or, if you’re in the mood for some eye candy, come and see what I’ve been Pinning over at www.pinterest.com/freshdiscover. Better yet – join me on Facebook for more beauty fun www.facebook.com/freshfragrances. And for a plain old good time, come and follow us on Instagram – @freshdiscoverbeauty – & Twitter@fresh_fragrances.