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.

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.

I just received an e-newsletter from NARS Cosmetics, introducing the new cleansing oil.  I think cleansing oil starting to become a new trend in the skincare industry even though the Japanese has the same technology years ago.  Through out my 5 years of make-up career, I’ve witnessed how it’s becoming more popular in the North American market.  Cleansing oil used to be found only in Asian countries, brands including Shu Uemura, DHC and FANCL are offering cleansing oil in their skincare line for decades.

Dior Fall 2009 Campaigne

I’m talking about violet eyeshadow, not UV.

This fall is all about violet and purple eyeshadow, and it has to be vibrant!  Personally, I think violet works very well with studs, which is going to be huge this fall, because violet has a cool tone in it and it has a sexy wild effect.  Open up any magazine of your choice and it’s all about being rough this season, so as the make-up.  I don’t mean the application, just the use of colours.

Twiggy

I’m addicted to nude lips.  I think I have nude shades from almost every single brand that I’ve come across, and in different forms, lipstick, lip gloss, lip tint, lip wax…you name it.  So when my friend asked me about how to pick up a flattering nude lip colour, I was excited because this is my area of expertise.  However, it is also very tricky because lip colour is very personal,  if it doesn’t appear the way you wanted it to be on your lip, don’t buy it.

The weather in Toronto hasn’t been feeling like summer until about a week ago, it was constantly raining outside (even today) so I wasn’t in the mood of tanning myself until my friend from Oklahoma asked me how she could get a real natural tan.  I honestly don’t go out and tan a lot, and I’m not a fan of tanning bed.  In fact, I’ve never try tanning bed in my life after reading all the articles about how harmful tanning bed is, and how it could damage and age your skin, so I always use self-tanner.  (please also see my other post about self-tanning solution.)

 It never feels like summer without a little sun kissed look, and tanning is always been a big part of it.  Rather than expose yourself under the sun or heating up yourself on a harmful tanning bed, self-tanner becomes a safe approach.  I opened up the June 2009 Allure magazine and there is a half page beauty report on self-tan products, it listed some pros and cons about each product, which I’m probably going to try.  However, it’s very tricky when it comes to my yellow skin undertone, finding a self-tan product that doesn’t make me look orange is hard, so I’m always on a mission trying to hunt down the best self-tan product in spring/summer.