Stand the Heat Beautifully (Part 3): Less-Than-No-Makeup Makeup

Less-Than-No-Makeup Makeup

This is the the last part of my little Stand the Heat Beautifully series. I know it was short, and I would love to post more on this subject (I had ideas for at least a couple more posts) but summer just decided to end too soon :).

If you want to catch up on the previous parts you can do it here: part 1 and part 2.

Ok. I almost feel bad posting it now, since the weather changed drastically since I started this series and now it's raining, it's windy and cold and looks exactly like fall, so this post will seem absolutely irrelevant. But since it is still officially summer for another 4 days, I'm still officially good to go (or I can just use it as an excuse). Plus, maybe for some of the readers from hot countries it will be relevant. Hopefully... :).

So, imagine it's +45°C ... +50°C under the sun. You are literally melting and dreaming of only one thing: to immerse yourself in the cooling water and not get out of it. Obviously, the last thing you'll be thinking about is putting on some fancy makeup or, in fact, ANY makeup at all. But... for several reasons you still have to wear makeup, whether it's because

• your skin isn't perfect and you just feel more confident wearing at least a little bit of makeup that perfects the way you look,
• or you have to go to work and look groomed and professional there,
• or maybe you just PREFER wearing at least a little bit of makeup even if it's only out of politeness and respect for others looking at you.

What do you do? You don't want to feel any foundation or makeup on your skin, you just want it to breathe, but you have to wear some makeup.

Well, ladies, you can do that if you use just these 4 products that I suggest, or similar ones. The goal here is to use as little as you can possibly get away with and keep the skin on the face and on the eyes as makeup-free as possible, but still get the effect you're after. As to the lips, I'm sure that having something hydrating and protective on them won't bother you too much if at all.

Step 1. For your face, just skip foundation and spot conceal only where you need. This step alone will keep your face almost makeup-free and breathing yet nicely perfected. To set it and add a little bit of color I used my Hourglass powder. For my skin tone this particular shade turns out to be a fantastic multitasker. Because it is so finely milled and has such subtle refined shimmer that translates to the skin more like a barely-there sheen and has the right tone for me, I can use it in 4 different ways without feeling it on my skin:

1. when used very lightly all over my face it acts as a setting powder without changing the color of my face really
2. when used more strategically and built up I can subtly contour with it
3. when used a bit more on the high points of my face where the sun would naturally hit me, I can bronze with it
4. and when used on the apples of my cheeks, it turns out to be a nice neutral blush/bronzer (oh, and you can also sweep it lightly on your eyes or in the crease)

If you don't have this particular product, you can find something that will work in a similar way for you or just use a lightweight translucent powder only in the oily areas of you face and for the cheek color just use a touch of the lipstick you'll be using in the next step.

Step 2. For the eyes just put loads of waterproof mascara on and nothing else. Forget the brows, embrace your natural brows. Chances are, under such heat most brow products might melt or break down.

Step 3. For the lips you can choose whatever you like, either a tinted lipbalm with SPF or a sheer lipstick or anything really. However, I would steer away from lip glosses, because when you're sweaty yourself, having something sticky or liquidy on your lips, where your hair may stick accidentally, is the last thing you'll enjoy. So a lipstick or a lipbalm is a more fuss-free option. Also, try not to go too nude. Choose a midtone color that will brighten your face, since you don't have much else there.

So take your hair out of the way and enjoy your pretty fresh face being nicely and subtly made up in a way that you will not really feel.

Here is the full list of products I used:

1. Too Faced Absolutely Flawless Flexible Coverage Concealer in Vanilla

2. Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Dim Light

3. CoverGirl Lash Blast Volume Waterproof mascara
4. Lumene Raspberry Miracle Lip Sorbet in 16 Wild Raspberries

On the final note, I want to point out that there is a ton of great completely waterproof makeup, and if you wanted to you could do a full on face of makeup. It's up to you. My suggestion is only applicable for times when you don't want to wear makeup at all or at least you don't want to feel it at all. So it's a survival type of makeup :).

I hope this was helpful to some of you. Leave me your comments on how you survive the heat and what beauty tricks you use. Thank you for reading.

Happy Independence Day, Ukraine!

Huge Makeup Haul

Ok. This doesn't look like too many products, but given the price it turns out to be a huge haul for me and wallet. All of these products, except for Makeup Geek's ones are high-end and are expensive, so I can still hear my wallet squeaking "ouch" :). Anyway, these products were purchased over the past few months in 4 different purchases, so it's a collective haul over a period of time. I just wanted to share that with you as a teaser for upcoming reviews.

I will list the products below with the links to where I bought them (if available), where you can check the prices. Not all the things were easy to get (I'm talking to you here, Lorac palettes!), so my colleagues from the U.S. and from the Lviv office, where I work, helped me to get my little hands on them (thank you so much, Niki, Andriy and Andriy).

As you can see a few of my cravings mentioned here found their new home in my makeup collection :). I'm so excited about that. Can you tell, from what I bought, what I have a thing for? Yep, I cannot resist a good palette. (Sigh...) What can I do? They're beautiful. I love them. Even though the reviews are yet to come, I can tell you straight away, that ALL of these products are very lovely. I am happy with each and every single one of them. There's no dud in this list. They're all amazing. Woohoo to good buying choices!

Ok. Here's the list:

1. Makeup Geek eyeshadows in Moondust, Taupe Notch, Unexpected and Corrupt.

2. Makeup Geek blush in Honeymoon

3. Makeup Geek pigments in Sweet Dreams and Insomnia.

4. Z Palette Large - Black

5. Urban Decay Smoked Eyeshadow Palette

6. TheBalm Cindy-Lou Manizer AKA "The Con-tour Artist"

7. TheBalm timeBalm Concealer in Lighter ThanLight (I bought 2 of these for backup)

8. Lorac PRO Palette

9. Lorac PRO Palette 2

10. Mally Beauty Evercolor Shadow Sticks in Taupe and Plum.

11. Mally Beauty Volumizing Mascara (this was a gift with purchase, awesome, isn't it?)

12. Mally Beauty High Shine Liquid Lipstick in Blossom (this was a gift with purchase, yay!)

13. Estee Lauder Double Wear Light Stay-in-Place Makeup in 0.5 (I bought it in my city, not sure where to buy it online for UK and Europe, but it is easily available in the U.S.)

That's it. Please, let me know in the comments, which products would you like me to review first. Thank you for reading.

Recent Looks 3

I've been playing with a lot of new products recently and having a lot of fun with them (a blog post about my latest purchases is coming soon :) ). Here are a few of my recent looks. Many of them can be good transitional summer-to-fall or even just straight-up fall looks. Hope you enjoy.

1. Neutral daytime super light taupey-plum smokey eyes.

Look 1.

2. Edgy smokey eyes with undone brows.

Look 2.

3. Glamorous berry lips with simple eyes. I'm in looove with this color from Lumene collection I reviewed earlier here. It is just PERFECTION.

Look 3.

4. Natural.

Look 4.

5. Copper-bronze-gold smokey eyes and clashing light pink lips.

Look 5.

I hope you liked the looks. Let me know in the comments if there is anything that inspired you. Thank you for stopping by my blog :).

Stand the Heat Beautifully (Part 2): Going to the Beach

Beach look

This is a continuation of my little Stand the Heat Beautifully series. You can read the 1st part of it here.

There are still a few summer days left to enjoy the sun and water at the swimming pool or beach. This post is just my idea of a perfect beach outfit.

When it's hot and I dream about the only thing, that is to immerse myself in the water, I always try to wear as little clothes as possible not to turn into a hot mess, so a light beach dress is what I'm going for. It's a one-piece thing, it's super light and airy, and it's easy to put on and take off. You can also put it over your swimsuit, which is a great bonus for a beach. Since it's not very short (knee length) and is loose-fitting, it looks appropriate in the city in hot days too. I'm also in love with the colors and the print on this particular dress.

When I'm off to the beach or swimming pool I don't really care about wearing sandals and carrying my flip-flops for the beach additionally, so I always just wear flip-flops. And I can always wash the sand off of them at home.

A cute hat and sunglasses are a must to protect yourself from overheating.

I also like to take something to cover my shoulders on my way home or whenever I feel like I got too much sun, so I take my light white scarf.

To fully enjoy yourself you definitely need to have a cute swimsuit, in which you are not only comfortable, but also look great and love. This one with geometric black and white print and pops of colorful neon beads is hard not to like. I love it and it won't go out of fashion too fast since it's quite simple but not boring.

Now just grab your beach bag with your towel and whatever else you might need and enjoy the sun. Don't forget your SPF! It is crucial!

Just to summarize, I'd like to point out that the key pieces here, that I think, make the whole outfit are the swimsuit and the dress. If you find the ones you love, consider yourself having won the jackpot, because I find that finding your perfect swimsuit and beach dress can be quite challenging (or maybe I'm just very picky :) ), whereas beach accessories, like hat, sunglasses, beach bag etc., are everywhere and are much easier to find and complete the look.

I hope you have been enjoying your summer, because if not, you better start to since there's not much left of it :). Hope you found this post helpful. Please, share what your go-to beach outfits are in the comments.

Stand the Heat Beautifully (Part 1): Heat Friendly Accessories

Hi guys! Before I move on to the post, I want to give a quick update. I'm sorry for not posting for soooo long: it has been a tough month in terms of work and other things I had to do with my kids in this past few weeks. Right now I'm on vacation though and hope to get back on track with my posting. Just for the note, I do try to post at least once a week, but usually I'd post more (2 or 3 posts if I'm feeling super energized with a lot of extra time), however I committed to posting minimum 1 post per week, so now you know what to expect from me :).

Ok. Today I'm starting a series of posts on how to remain beautiful during unbearable heat - Stand the Heat Beautifully. There are a few reasons for it:

1. It's summertime (really? doh... lol)

2. I'm on vacation and enjoying it (yay!)

3. The heat in here is unbearable now, almost to the point that it is making people sick.

So, how do you survive in that kind of heat and do it in a graceful way? Let's talk about accessories today. Well, when it's hot and you feel sweaty and sticky, the last thing you want to think about is putting anything on your neck or wrists to make yourself even more sweaty and hot. But... if you're like me, you can't live without accessories at all. And I have a trick for you.

What's the one type of accessory that isn't really touching your body much and causing you to be even more hot but yet creates a statement enough to make you feel pulled together and like a girl?

Earrings!

Yes, my darlings, earrings are the way out for us. They don't touch your neck or wrists or anywhere else, so they can't make you more hot. Yet you can totally wear them instead of a necklace when you want to add some interest around your face, especially during those super hot days when you put your hair up or dream to get rid of it altogether. In fact, they can make even more statement than a necklace sometimes. It can be a loud or a very soft statement, whatever your heart desires. It can also help you elongate your face if the shape of the earrings is right.

Below are a few earrings from my collection that I love for that purpose and wear a lot right now.

Summer friendly statement earrings

These are the larger statement earrings. However, if you prefer smaller more delicate earrings, don't think that they cannot make a statement. They absolutely can. Check those out below.

Small statement earrings

Summer is a fun time and it's time to wear fun edgy earrings even if you don't tend to do it during the rest of the year. Have fun with your earrings and make your beautiful statement even in the heat :).

Thank you for reading. I hope this post was inspiring to some of you. Please, share your thoughts in the comments below.