BB cream...it's all the rage!

I've noticed that BB cream is all the range. Everyone from the big expensive cosmetics company to the drugstore brands are coming out with different BB creams.

What is BB cream? It's a moisturizer, primer, sunblock and foundation in one.

Since I've started to use BB cream, I've stopped using foundation and my skin is significantly healthier and softer. I love BB cream.

Just as a note, a lot of the drugstore BB creams or BB creams from American cosmetics company such as Clinique are too pink for me. If you are Asian like me, I would strongly recommend a Korean brand BB cream as the yellow will match your skintone the best. After all, Korean people are very into beauty and tend to make the best beauty products. The one that I like that is mid-range in terms of price and is from Dr. Jart+.

I use the Dr. Jart+ Water Fuse Beauty Balm with SPF 25 from Sephora that is $34.00 for 1.7 oz.

A tube will last me about 6 months with daily application and two applications every weekend. My advise when using this is to apply this heavily. This is not a product that you want to apply a thin layer on your face. Once you let it "set" or dry for about 30 second to 1 minute, I set it with either pressed powder or loose powder. After that your skin will look natural and completely flawless.

If however, you have a blemish or spot you want to cover you can put that on after your BB cream, but before your powder. My recommendation for concealers will be in another post :) Stay tuned.

Overall, my advise is that BB cream is not a fad. I think it's here to stay. It's better than a tinted moisturizer since it provides more coverage without feeling heavy. It's lighter than your traditional foundation which is great for those of us who want to wean ourselves off the heavy foundation look. It's a primer for your nights out you can still put foundation on top of the BB cream and it makes it stay the entire day and/or night. The best thing? It's got sunblock, SPF 25 which is great for daily use! Given that we need to protect our skin, what easier way is it to have a product that is all-in-one?

Two thumbs way up esp. for the SPF built in!

Eye makeup...two of my staples!

A little background...I had my upper and lower eyeliner tattoo'd out of sheer laziness. I won't lie, the lower eyeliner hurt so bad that I was in the fetal position for 30 minutes after the first time I had it done. For you cosmetic tattoo virgins, you have two appointments about 30-60 days apart depending on how you heal. You have the initial appointment and a touch up appointment to fix it and make it perfect. Anyways, the upper eyeliner wasn't too bad. It was a slight pinching feeling except for the inner and outer corners which felt like hot pokers in going in and out of my eye. Post tattooing, ice packs and some Perocet solved the problem. 48 hours later, the swelling was gone and I had some redness and a full week later...it was perfect!  I think it was the BEST decision I have ever made. I wake up feeling "made" up and ready to go out the door with very little products.

However, when I go out on the weekends or just feeling like getting girly I do the full smoky eye look. To create my look my two must have products are:

MAC Paint Pot in Groundwork for $18.50. It's a great neutral eyeshadow primer that is highly pigmented. You can wear it alone or you can layer it. I typically use this all over my eye and then put my eyeshadow and eyeliner on top of it. I've never had to touch up my makeup even with high humidity, swimming, crying, whatever. It makes whatever you put on stay put. This is the best product because it works and you can make even cheap eyeshadow stay though it won't be dark since it lacks pigment. My favorite eyeshadow brand to layer on top of it is Lancome's Color Design for $18.00 per color.  If you are going to only buy one high end eye product this is it!

My second must have product is a drugstore staple. Revlon ColorStay Eyeliner in Black for $7. It's totally waterproof, smear proof, cry proof, everything proof. It does not move once you put it in, yet it's soft and glides easily without tugging. I literally buy these in bulk, 15 min. at a time because I never want to run out of this. I keep them everywhere, in my travel bag, makeup bag in my purse, in my bathroom, in the car, at work. etc. It's cheap and it works. It is a heavily pigmented black so it's great for people who can't use liquid eyeliner or simply don't know how. It's not liquid, doesn't have a metal sharpener (plastic one built in on the backside) and will not melt. Stock on when it goes on sale. I've gotten it as cheap as $3.50 with shipping and tax.


Also both were featured in Allure Magazine as Reader's Choice:

http://www.allure.com/beauty-products/makeup/2012/mac-paint-pot-groundwork
http://www.allure.com/beauty-products/makeup/2010/revlon-colorstay-eyeliner-black-brown

My thoughts? Two thumbs way up!