Summer In 5 Things

Makeup is such a personal thing! I see so many beautiful women out there wearing impeccably applied makeup and looking like they walked right out of a glossy magazine, (some skills!) while here I am, basic and boring when it comes to doing things on my own face. With a good chunk of my “getting ready” time spent on skincare, I hardly have much time left for colors. This summer the jam got even more concise and streamlined. Much like a well oiled machine these fives things and my hands have been wielding magic on my face, all in hues of peach, bronze and pinks and I feel like I have never left my comfort zone even for a day!

Imagine this post titled “My Top 5 Makeup Favorites This Summer” and you’d have hit the nail on the head! A few of these I have worn for the entire time Spring and Summer persisted, while the others made a late entry but immediately shot up to favorite levels.

Lets talk about the new things first. So, not very long ago during an extended lunch break and a very freshly replenished bank account (thanks to pay day), I discovered, much to my excitement, that FeelUnique carried By Terry! I am not going into details but let me just put it out there that this brand has been elusive for the longest time and I have drooled my mouth dry for years seeing people rave and swatch these beautiful products! That afternoon, I swamped my browser with swatches of every possible By Terry product, and in the end settled for the Ombre Blackstar eyeshadow crayon in Brown Perfection and the Hyaluronic Sheer Rouge Lipstick in Mango Tango and Dare To Bare. While Dare to Bare is a deeper more autumn appropriate nude, Mango Tango is the perfect peachy-pink lipstick for my complexion which, if someone ever asked me to make my dream lipstick would be the one I’d make!

Brown Perfection is not a straight up dark brown, it has plenty of purple tones in it which make it stand out. Even though I’d have preferred a really deep brown color with a sheen, I was pleasantly surprised with how good Brown Perfection looks when smudged into my lashline and creates a simple yet alluring smokey effect! The smudged smokey eye that I do with this equals what I had been earlier doing with two products, an eyeliner and a matching eyeshadow. While I still love my former approach, this is way more effortless (and luxurious) and just a treat to use! Aah, yes I have fallen for the By Terry hype, hook line and sinker and theres no saving me!

The Mango Tango lipstick from my loot is the reason for this post! Just looking at it (and given my hazy picture quality) you might be deceived in thinking “an orange lipstick? really?”, but don’t be fooled. This ain’t no orange lipstick, its the prettiest sheer peachy-pink with slight shimmer, and The One that I have perpetually been on hunt for! This looks AMAZING on my complexion and works with that giant box of peachy-pink blushes that I own. It goes with every warm toned blush out there and just makes me look so effortlessly summery and perky! I think this is the one I am probably going to wear for the rest of this summer and many summers to come!

The Hourglass Radiant Light Ambient Lighting Powder and TheBalm’s Frat Boy blush have been my most worn cheek products this year so far. The two together spell magic, literally! Frat Boy on me is a warm pink (inspite of looking very powdery in the swatches below, it translates much much differently on the skin) and combined with a swirl of Radiant Light this matte warm pink blush transforms into something other-worldly! Yes I sound way to passionate about makeup but its my favorites we are talking about, sit tight for superlatives!

Radiant Light may not be the most obvious bronzer for my complexion, in fact its not, its sheer and barely shows up on me but you know what? thats what I love about it! Thanks to my skintone I don’t need much help in the bronzing department anyway, so something that just enhances my natural tan color and glorifies it enough, is a winner in my head! Radiant Light adds oomph and slight contour to my cheeks and they almost pop out! I also like mixing matte blushes with this just to warm up the color a bit and add the faintest golden highlight which the blush may originally lack. It a great way to add glow and color without any obvious streaks and frantic blending required.

Frat Boy is by far been the most overlooked blush in my stash! Imagine owning it for nearly two years and only now getting to know it better! I love matte blushes for their versatility and better pigmentation which means I can mix and match and also build up the color when I want. Although Frat Boy isn’t the most peach toned blush I have, it does work as a gorgeous natural warm pink which looks like a believable flush of color when applied carefully and stays put through a LOT!

A final word of appreciation for a life-saver of a product, Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel. I read raves after raves, watched hundreds of youtube videos for application, and thousands of reviews after, its only now that I finally bit the bullet! This is such a good product that an attempt to describe just how good it is falls flat everytime! This is exactly what my brows need to stay in place ALL DAY! Summer, sweating, gymming none of it budges this thing once its on and only a good makeup remover can erase it. I have been one of those girls who didn’t deem spending those extra bucks on a high end brow gel very wise, but trust me nothing compares to this!

I’d love to know what your five favorite makeup products this Summer are!