PUR Cosmetics Contour Diaries Review

 You can call attention to your best features and diminish bad ones with this one palette!

Most people aren’t born with perfect features.  Since I happen to be one of them, I always found contouring and highlighting helpful to improve my facial structure more to my liking.  Lately, I have been experimenting with PUR Cosmetics Contour Diaries palette to see what is possible with their highlighting and contouring powders.

This palette comes with six shades of three highlights: Charm (light pink/peach), Dream (golden tone) and Flirt (warm peach-beige).  The three contour shades are Secret (pale brown), Passion (warmer medium brown), and Mystery (dark brown).  Just like all PUR’s products, this is 100% cruelty-free, vegan and free of any health risking parabens.

To really appreciate what this palette can do is using it with a contour blending brush over a plusher blush or powder brush.  The reason is that you don’t want to pick up more pigment than necessary, only enough to meet the highlighting or contouring task.  Otherwise, you will overload your face with heavy, unflattering streaks.

The powders are soft, smooth and nicely-pigmented.  They do stir up a little dust, but not excessively so as some powders can.  Being light-skinned, the contour shade that appeared the most natural on me was Secret.  Passion appears almost like a warm bronzer on me.  Mystery can make a great deep brown matte eye shadow.  However, I am using it with an eye shadow brush to subtly contour my nose over the larger contour brush.  I also loved how easily these powders are to custom mix your own shade such as the Secret/Mystery blend for my nose.

Have you tried PUR Cosmetics Contour Diaries Palette ($32.00) yet?  If not and you’re hoping to find a great set, this one won’t disappoint you.  Check it out.

How to Give Your Evening Look an Extra Sexy Radiance

Everyone needs a palette of metal shades with how these multi-task.

One of my best friends happens to be a makeup artist.  Thanks to her, I have really learned quite a few amazing tricks that improved the way I do my face.  Recently, she volunteered her expertise to help me get ready for an event that was important to me because she wanted me to be perfect.  

She kept rattling on about how a new client liked what she did for channeling her inner rock star when doing her makeup recently.  When I pressed her to give me more details, she refused and continued fluttering around me with her brushes in between dives into her makeup case for one product after another.

Instead of letting me see the progress, my friend positioned my chair out of view of a mirror. All I could see was the foundation, blush, bronzer, mascara, concealer, eyeliner, and palettes of eye shadows sprawled in front of me.  

When she finally stopped fussing, she smiled at me with pride before handing me a mirror.  I couldn’t believe how she managed to illuminate my cheekbones with such pearly radiance that together with the jewels she made out of my eyes was remarkable.

Instead of relying on highlighters, she got more star power from combining gold and silver pearly eye shadows over the top of the cheekbones and toward the temple.  The secret I learned was how the warm and cool tones of those metallic eye colors were more ideal for complimenting the face in a softer, dim light.

I suggest that you pull out your own eye shadows and give this technique a try because it is a dazzling effect for when you have something special to attend.

How to Get More Time Out of Your Salon Hair Coloring!

Hair color does wonders for a woman’s spirit and self-esteem.  However, you may also be concerned what too frequent exposure to those hair coloring chemicals may be doing to endanger your overall health. So what are you to do when you want your hair to look good?  The answer is you want hair color that will be low maintenance, which means more time between colorings to lessen the risk.

What I am about to share with you can also be done at home, but it a more complicated process than merely using a box of hair coloring.  Therefore, it is best to seek the help of a salon professional because what you want to ask for are adding highlights that you can see partially from underneath and inside the hair.  

Adding a few different shades in the hair makes for lower maintenance once it starts to grow and look less noticeable.  This will extend your hair coloring longer. 

Do not confuse this with a technique like balayage that also uses highlights, only in that process they are painted on top instead of underneath and inside the hair.  Read my earlier post for more on balayage.

Try it for yourself and you will extend that hair coloring a bit longer than you think!

Josie Maran Cosmetics Argan Illuminizer Review

**Disclaimer:  This post has been compensated through a free product (s) or monetary payment.  Opinions are solely mine. All links are "no-follow" links.**

Josie Maran Cosmetics Argan Illuminizer

A sure way to give your face an instant lift is with an illuminizer.  A great one to try is Josie Argan Cosmetics Argan Illuminizer because it adds a soft, natural glow besides caring for your complexion with argan and natural grape seed oils.

This is a lovely, champagne-colored illuminizer that is dispensed from a pump.   I experimented with several different ways to use it.

You can apply it after your makeup is on directly to your cheekbones, brow bones, center of your nose, or any other part of your face that could benefit from gentle highlighting.  I liked this method because I had the best control of where I wanted the radiance.  

The next time I tried it, I mixed a pea-size amount with a bit of my liquid foundation. However, having a soft sheen over my entire face was a look that I didn’t care for.  The combination just made me look too shiny. 

I also added a small amount of this illuminizer another time and mixed it with a bit of my day moisturizer.  This method was wonderful because it did a nice job to subtly light up my skin. 

To brighten and glow, do look into Josie Maran Cosmetics Argan Illuminizer ($28)!