Stylish Diva Studio

Summer is always exciting because we are so sick of the snow here in Toronto. We always wanted a little tan and something new for the season, doesn’t matter if it’s clothing, sandals, makeup of fragrance, we just want them all.

In cosmetics, this summer is all about the blues for eye shadows. But wait…not everyone can pull off the blues, I normally couldn’t, so what’s so different about the blues this year? They all have a gold undertone, so it’s not really a cool blue, they are more like goldish turquoise blue, which looked quite amazing. I worked on the event with Laura Mercier at the beginning of May and I just loved the new blue. I also had the Summer Look event with YSL and the new blue cream shadow is equally amazing, so let’s take a look at the Summer Blues of the season.

Most of my friends knew that I’m a bit crazy about Chantecaille.  If you are not exactly sure what is that, you should really get to know it.  I’m one of my all time favourite cosmetic brands.  Haven’t heard I mentioned this before?  Well…it’s because it wasn’t in Canada last year.

Temptu AIRbrush Makeup System, USD$225

Temptu launched its AIRbrush Makeup System and AIR pod Foundation at Sephora, I was actually interested until I saw the price.  I wanted to see how it really looked so I tried it when I was at the Sephore store in NYC, not that I have no experience of airbrush make-up, but just out of curiosity as a make-up artist.  In fact, I used airbrush make-up since I was in make-up school, it was fairly new to us back then and we were all exciting about using airbrush make-up.  However, I must admit that it wasn’t my favourite for a couple of reasons.

There are pink ribbons everywhere around this time of the year and we know that this is the Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  It almost becomes a tradition for cosmetic and skincare companies to launch a product or two during this month as a form of supporting the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  I’ve always love to shop; it is definitely guilty free when I’m shopping for a good reason.  Thanks to the companies that donated to the cause, I know my money goes to the people who needed it while having all the beautiful products in return.  I’d say this is one of the best way to make contribution to the society.  Don’t you think?  Now, let’s take a look at what’s available for Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2009.

Too Faced World Domination Tour All Access Backstage Beauty Collection ($150 Value), USD$34

I’m sure anyone of you owns a make-up palette or 2, or buying the gift sets during holiday seasons.  However, do you actually use all the colours?  I was browsing through Sephora.com today saw the Too Faced Beauty Collection, so all of the a sudden this question pops.  Are you saving money buying them?  Or are you wasting money?  I guess most of you have your answer already.  As a make-up artist, it saves me time and trouble to pack up a palette instead of 50 individual eyeshadow.  For lip colours though, I never buy them in a palette.  Mainly because I usually give the colours to the bride to touch up for the rest of the day.  I wouldn’t be able to do that if I have a palette.  Scraping colours from the palette and put them into little jars doesn’t look very appealing to me.

Designers brands are great, but they are extremely expensive.  Of course, if you think about how much time the designers put into their designs, the money they spent to market their products or to hired famous models for their showdown every season, and of course, the luxurious materials, I guess I understand why they are expensive.  these designers creative trends, they don’t follow, so if you want to wear what’s in and don’t have the budget, go for H&M, ZARA, or Mango, these brands follow the trends.  It’s good in a way because fashion is not just for uptown girls, and I’ve just discover a brand, Joe Fresh, for women who want to be trendy and with a budget.  Actually, most of us fall into this category.

I was never a fan of Chanel.  Yes…I know it’s quite unbelievable.  It wasn’t my style though, the quilted handbags, the pencil skirts, the suits, the cardigans…they were too lady.  But I guess as I slowly approaching 30, I started to appreciate the elegance of Chanel more, and really…Chanel is not for young rich kids.

Remember I wrote a post about Dolce & Gabbana Beauty in the early June?  I just threw a trip to NYC over the weekend and I found the Dolce & Gabbana Beauty counter.  It’s one of the most glamorous cosmetic counter that I’ve seen inside Saks Fifth Avenue, though I wasn’t thrill with the lighting at the store.  The make-up artists there were very helpful and it seems like they really enjoy their work, I guess this is what we are lacking here in Canada.  At least I didn’t feel the artists here are as enthusiastic as the 2 people that I’ve met there at the counter.  If you have a spare moment at NYC, try visit the counter at Saks on the 5th Ave, NYC.

Kiss Me Heavy Rotation Pencil Liner

2 days ago, I walked by a local store called Smart Maple, (this is so Canadian ^o^!!) a store that sells cheesy Japanese Sanrio stuff like Hello Kitty.  I’m not a fan because I passed that stage long ago, but something just caught my eyes and I couldn’t help but to walked over and check out the new station with all the Japanese cosmetic products.  I mean the real local Japanese brands, stuff that are all written in Japanese, don’t even have English on it.  I picked up this eyeliner “Heavy Rotation – Smooth Line” from a brand called Kiss Me for $15.99 CDN, tried to read the Kenji with all the knowledge that I have in Chinese, hopefully I could find something about whether if it’s waterproof, but nothing…as expected. (cuz I can’t read Japanese)  I don’t think the girls there read it either, so I didn’t bother to ask.  I thought, it doesn’t hurt to try because I think the Japanese are smart enough to figure out that we need waterproof.

Yes, you are not reading it wrong, it’s V.I.B., not V.I.P.  It means Very Important Beauty Insider.

Beauty Insider Gift Palette

Sephora has her Beauty Insider point system for a while, it’s a good system, but somehow I didn’t found it very useful.  It is true that you can always redeem points for deluxe samples, but as a make-up artist, I always got samples from the counters that I worked for when I travel for different brands.  And I’m not a sample person, so I didn’t really thought the point system benefit me until today.