Stay Put Eyeliner

One of the most common questions I get is from readers who want an eyeliner that doesn't smudge and can last them the whole entire day.

I know that they can be hard to find, so when I try one that can keep up with my own busy days, I get excited and have to pass on the good news!



This time, it's about Marcelle's Waterproof Eyeliner. It is amazing! Not only does it last through running around on a weekend, but it can get you through a workout too. The liner sets quickly but not too quickly that you can't smudge it if you need to. The great thing is that this is a drugstore eyeliner that comes in a nice range of natural looking colours too - I've been using Indigo and it really makes my brown eyes pop but you can't necessarily tell that I'm wearing a blue mascara.

Drugstore vs. Department Store Eyeliner

Back in July, I told you about CoverGirl's new liquid liner, LineExact, that was super easy to use. The design was thought up by Pat McGrath, the celebrity makeup artist and creative design director for P&G. I loved (and still love!) the design. It makes putting liner on very easy, and I frequently recommend this to beginners who insist on using real liquid liners (as opposed to gels or creams).

Stila has liked the design so much that they've released something identical. I've seen and tried their version, and as far as I can tell, it's the same as CoverGirl's. Everything from the size, to the screw-on cap, to the nib is identical.

So if you want to try a new liquid liner, although I heart Stila as a brand, in this case I am obviously going to recommend the drugstore one. I think the fact that a high-end brand would want to copy it is a testament for how great the design really is.

MAC Technakohl Liner

I am currently loving MAC's Technakohl Liner. I have it in Graphblack and Brownborder, but I find myself using the brown one since it's so dark that it's almost black.

Technakohl is superior to some of the other liners because it doesn't smudge or fade during the day, but it's still creamy enough to go on easily and to smudge before it sets. The mechanical pencil means that it's great to take on the go because you'll never have to sharpen it.

Use this if you regularly line your lower lash line.

Eyeliner How To

I always always get asked by my friends whether they should wear eyeliner - and I always say yes - and then I get asked how to put eyeliner on.

If you have the time and the patience, you can experiment all you want. Play around with different brands of pencils, different kinds of liquids, and different nibs. After all, practice really does make perfect.

But, if you're a true beginning and you want a short cut to emphasizing your eyes, here's the real deal - eyeliner made easy!

The first thing you need is a cream eyeliner. Smashbox makes a great one in a waterproof version, but honestly many department store brands offer them so get whichever one suits your fancy. They last a long time and are fully worth it. The next thing you need is this arced eyeliner brush from Smashbox. Yes, Smashbox is the only company that makes this and it makes putting eyeliner on much easier!
Now, once armed with those two products, you simply dip the brush into the eyeliner and walk it across your eyelid. I'm not being simplistic, it's really that easy, and those two products really are the ones that will do most of you work for you. Trust me - I have put on a lot of eyeliner and done a lot of experimenting and I know how to get the best results.

If you're a beginning, don't worry if you have to go back and fix mistakes. Even makeup artists have to do that, and it'll give you a flawless look. To make any corrections, I like to use a sponge shadow applicator dipped in some makeup remover. I find that the Q-Tips sometimes get caught in my eyelashes.

Good luck!

L'Oreal Fall Colour Collection - Timeless Seduction

I have to say it: L'Oreal's fall makeup collection is one to rival any department store makeup brand's. The colours are beautiful, the products are of high-quality, and it's all at a price that makes it worth your while to refresh your fall makeup bag.

Lets start with a staple item: lipgloss. L'Oreal Colour Juice glosses are slightly sticky but they stay on for a long time. Blushing Berry is my favourite shade and it's great if you're looking for a dark pink lip colour. Touch of Nude is a light coloured gloss that has the perfect amount of pigment - it won't wash your lips out, but it'll match your smoky eye beautifully.
Speaking of Smoky Eye, L'Oreal is introducing these new lovelies.
Scared? Don't be! These crayons are so fun to work with and with them you can do a smoky eye so easily. These are like compacted shadows. I like using them wet. You get great pigmentation, and they stay in place without the help of a primer! My favourite colour is the first one, Bronze Foil. The colour is a dark pewter shade that's shimmery. Since I've gotten it, I've been using it every single day to line my eyes. You can even sharpen the crayons in order to get more precise lines. If I didn't have brown eyes, I'd get the black crayon. It will really help light eye colours pop and can even be used to help darken shadows that are too light.

You could, of course, just use the L'Oreal eyeshadows if you wanted.

I would say that these are pretty much the best quality shadows that one can get at the drugstore. They barely crease and the colours are absolutely beautiful. The palette on the very right isn't one that I'd normally go for, but the colours are so wearable! The yellow shade is actually a golden colour and it works nicely when the darkest green is used as a liner.

Lastly, don't forget about nail colour! The silver and gold are nice departures from the dark colours of the season. Gold is going to be huge during the holiday season, and this gold is sparkly and anything but boring. I love the blacks. There's a Gold Patent and a Silver Patent - both are black nail polishes with gold and silver shimmer respectively. I am loving the gold one - it warms up the black and makes it pretty! The Pro Manicure line also has a high level of shine and stays on for a reasonably long time. I think that gold is going to be the colour of the season, so if you're over the black, that is the one that I would get. You know that these products are going to be in limited numbers so pick up the line before it's gone!

As a little extra, here are my pictures of the line. I sharpened the black crayon and you can see that the loss of product is so minimal that it's worth it to sharpen the crayon if that makes it easier to use. You can also use a damp slanted brush to pick up the colour and use it to line your eyes or a regular brush to apply colour on the whole eyelid.

Fall Trends

Fall makeup collections are already on counters for the most part, and before you head out to the store, it may be helpful to know what some of the trends are. Because metallics are still in when it comes to eyeshadow, you might already have what you need in your makeup bag! I know that the gold eyeshadow palette I picked up last fall is still working well for me and if you're not a gold person, then silver will do just as well.

The transition from silver to smoky makes it easy to transport a look from day to night, and add an extra touch of liquid eyeliner if you're going light on the eyeshadow.

Lips are either neutral to match a darker smokier eye, or they're vamped up and matched with barely there eyeshadow.

Pick one feature that you'd like to accentuate and you're good to go!

For the spatially inclined amongst you, here's a short video with all the trends together. The pictures are mostly of dark makeup but you'll see a couple of looks that are very wearable. Enjoy!

All pictures are either mine or from Style.com.

More videos to come!

The Smoky Eye Tutorial Video

I've been sitting on this video for a while - I took it during Fashion Week and finally had time to edit it properly. All the steps are there and I only taped her doing one eye so that the video was more concise. Note that all makeup is L'Oreal and easily found at the drugstore. Also note that the makeup artist used both pencil and liquid eyeliner and that she still used a light coloured eyeshadow as a base.

Enjoy!

The Smoky Eye

Sometimes on YouTube, I like to watch videos of people doing makeup. Some of these are done by women just doing what they do on themselves every day, while others are actually tutorials teaching viewers different makeup techniques or looks.

The greatest thing about YouTube is that you can see what people think of the videos if you read the comments. One commenter, posting on a video tutorial of the smoky eye, said (and I'm paraphrasing): This is impossible, who has that many brushes just for the eye area?

Point taken, YouTube commenter. It can be difficult to do the same look when you're limited by your tools and those tools can make all the difference.

Armani Prive Fall 2007 Couture Collection (style.com)

That said, once upon a time, I went to an makeup counter and had a wee bit of makeup done since I was planning on buying some products anyways. I asked for the natural look. The SA gave me a lovely smoky eye. It looked so good that I couldn't be mad that she did it without asking me. I think that was just her "thing". She herself had beautiful eyes that were enhanced with a lot of black eyeliner, and I guess that's what she wanted to do for her customers too.

In any case, the best part was that she did the whole look using two eye shadows, a pencil liner, and her fingers. Not once did she pick up a makeup brush, and there was no way you would have been able to tell.

Now, you wouldn't know it from watching any tutorial, but the smoky eye actually lends itself very well to using your fingers - it's a look where your eyeliner doesn't have to be perfect and the crease doesn't have to be super-defined.

So this makeup lady, literally pushed some pencil liner into my lash line, and then smoothed a sheer shimmery purple on to my eyelids with her fingertips. She then took the eye liner and drew in a crease, and then smudged it into the shadow with her fingers. I was so surprised with the resulting look - it was perfect. But then she went a step further and dipped her finger into a gold shadow and placed it right in the centre of my eyelid. Instantly the dark makeup was brightened a little and your eye was drawn to the centre of my eyes. The look was complete and she had done it without any brushes. She topped it off with mascara, and I was ready to go.

The look was so simple but dramatic, and instead of purple eyeshadow, she could have used a grey or a blue - whatever I wanted, really. If you want to try a makeup look, don't let the specifics get in your way. Sometimes the best tools are your fingers and the best shadow colours are already in your makeup bag.

In any case, the new MAC collection (Smoke Signals and Bluestorm) come out today and they're both meant to help you do a smoky eye look. Just don't get too caught up in the tools you use and what you have and don't have. Enjoy makeup and practice doing the looks using whatever you have on hand!

Revlon Eyeliner

You might think that I'm a consummate consumer, but many times my motto is if it ain't broken, don't fix it. What this means is that I had hung on to my last black eyeliner pencil for over 10 years. All I used it for was lining under my eyes, so I only needed to sharpen it a few times a year and managed to hold on to it for quite a while!

And then I went on a trip and left said pencil in the hotel room when I used it in the morning. Silly me.

But this meant that I was now free to purchase a new eyeliner guilt-free!I went for Revlon ColorStay eyeliner. I thought that it would last long and I also wanted something that wouldn't need sharpening all the time.

There are good things about the pencil and there are things I don't like so much.

The good is that it does seem to last a long time. Like any pencil it smudges a little when you use it under your eyes, but that's to be expected. When you use it anywhere else, you have a couple of seconds to smudge it and make the line softer and then it stays put. No running no matter what the weather or situation.

What I don't like about this pencil is the colour. It's too black and is almost a bluish black on my skin. I also don't like the automatic liner feature. It's convenient if you don't have a sharpener handy, but it lacks the heft of a regular pencil. It feels a little flimsy, and I realize that this is after I've been using a regular pencil for so many years but that's how it is. I think I just prefer that medium better when it comes to eyeliners.

If you still decide to purchase this eyeliner, and it is a good one when it comes to staying power, maybe consider getting the black-brown even if you have dark hair, because it will likely be more natural-looking.

As Seen on TV

Television makeup is always fun for me to look at. I've told you before about the makeup on The Hills and if you haven't seen the season 3 trailer yet for that show, you can watch it here. The show resumes on August 13th.


Every time I watch that show, I feel like I need to put more eyeliner on. I mean just look at Lauren Conrad here!

I also have watch the "Posh Show" as I like to call it. I'm talking about "Victoria Beckham: Coming to America" which features the wife of David Beckham moving to this side of the pond. I hate to say this, but I actually really liked the show. It was so funny, and I get now that Posh has made herself out to be this big unsmiling serious fashionista of a personality and that in real life she does laugh and seems to be a real enough person.

I just wish she would wear pink lip gloss once in a while.

Smashbox Eyeliner Brush

This one's for the rookies. I tried Smashbox Arched Eyeliner Brush and was thoroughly impressed with it. I usually don't use liquid eyeliner to line my eyes, and don't line on top, so I really don't have experience with the whole lining process, but when I used this brush nobody can tell. The problem that I have had when lining is that my brush is too long and bumps into the mirror as I go in close to see my eyes better. When I used this brush, I didn't have that problem and the line went on thin and smooth. If you know someone who is new to makeup, give this to her - I can't think of a better present to give to someone who's still learning to put liner on. Pair it with the Smashbox eyeliner (which is smooth and doesn't budge) and you're good to go!

Canadian Beauty News: June 1, 2007

New Lipglosses!

Lip glosses are everybody's favourite, whether you're beauty-obsessed or not. They're all different, easy to use, and if you buy the right colours you know that you can wear them with almost everything.

The newest addition is one I reported on last week - MAC Tendertones. They're smooth, sheer, and smell yummy. My favorite colours are the pinks - they're so perfect for summer.

I also really love the new offerings from Bourjois. They've introduced 4 new formulations: Eau de Gloss, Fresh Kiss Minty Lipgloss, Baume de Nuit Night Lip Balm, and Duo Lip Scrub and Baume. I found the minty gloss not sweet enough and it didn't taste like anything so I'm thinking that it would disguise bad breath more than anything else. The scrub was good but the accompanying gloss was too pale for my highly pigmented lips so it didn't suit me, the night balm is excellent, and the Eau de Gloss is definitely the most intriguing of the lot.

Eau de Gloss is mostly water but the formulation itself isn't watery at all. It goes on more like a gel and is very sheer. I was very surprised and impressed by the staying power of the gloss - it's not sticky at all but manages to really stick to the lips. The gloss feels slightly cooling when you put it on due to the amount of water in the gloss and it's a very pleasant feeling.

Smashbox has also introduced a new lip gloss that's in a pot - available in four colours, these balms are soothing and have a hint of tint - almost like Smashbox's own cheek tints. These little pots are easy to carry around and expand Smashbox's already thorough line of products.

I think that the reason that these balms are being introduced in the summer is because consumers may not feel like wearing a heavy lipstick in the heat of the summer. You want to look carefree and have light easy makeup and putting on a thick layer of matte lipstick doesn't really help accomplish that. It's lip gloss all the way!

Prescriptives: The Nudists

I also had a look at the new Prescriptives collection this week - The Nudists is the exact opposite of The Vibrants of course, but the same rules apply when it comes to looking at colour. The collection is everything you could hope for in a nude collection - natural looking lipsticks and blushes, which a bit of colour coming from the eye colour. They've also helpfully divided the collection into warm and cool toned colours so if you're at a loss at how to match colours, I would just pick the side you like best and go with that.

I myself liked the cool collection because it features a new colour of my favourite Moonbeam Reflective eyeliner - a pretty shade of purple called Beaming Twilight. They already had a violet eyeliner but it went on very light and silvery and this shade is darker. It's a nice balance with the nude look that the rest of the products provide. If a very natural sheer look is your style then this collection might have everything that you're looking for!

Readers' Questions

Last week, I received the following email from A:

I would like to use a bronzer, preferably matt so I can wear it to work on days where I have to do presentations to executives.

Do you have one you can recommend?

Well, A, I think that you're definitely on the right track when you want to find something that's matte. As much as I like products with shimmer, I find that they draw attention to your makeup and are least obvious when used at night. For daytime, I would recommend using Cargo bronzer - it comes in a skin-true colour and the tins are huge, ensuring that your brush gets a nice even dose of bronzer.

Note as well that there are two ways to wear bronzer: the first is to dust it where the sun would naturally fall - on the bridge of the nose, on the forehead, and at the tops of your cheeks. The second way is to dust a layer only at the perimeter of the face. This make the center of the face look brighter and it looks as if it is glowing. You might want to experiment with both methods and see which one works best for you.

I would like to answer readers' questions every week so if you want a product recommendation or are just wondering about a product, email me at: henna@canadianbeauty.com or leave a question in the comments section of any post!

New Look Coming Soon!

Canadian Beauty is revamping its look! Now is the time to let me know what you think about the site - leave me a comment with your feedback!

Canadian Beauty news: January 25, 2007

One of the things that I love about the beauty industry is that it's constantly changing, and in my opinion, it's changing for the better. These days it really seems like companies are listening to what their customers want and need, which is excellent. Makeup counter associates are friendly and helpful, and they understand when you don't like something. Gone are the times when you couldn't even approach the Chanel counter unless you reeked of No. 5.

Of course, to get a high end product, you no longer have to go into a high end department store. Shoppers Drug Mart is clearly following the lead of British drugstore chains and keeps adding cosmetics brands to their lineup. Their newest addition? Benefit. Yes, you heard right. Benefit products are now available in those Shoppers Drug Mart stores that carry luxury beauty lines. The smaller stores will only have a limited number of Benefit products (such as their best sellers) while some of the larger stores will have the entire line. If you're a collector (or hoarder) of Shoppers Optimum Points, I know that this information will be like music to your ears.

In other news, MAC now organizes its lipstick collection by finish! When I saw this I was truly thrilled. How many times have you stood at the MAC lipstick bar staring at all the colours and picking them up to look at the base to check whether the lipstick was matte or satin? Well now that is unnecessary. Figure out which finish you like best and then choose a colour from that section - it's really that easy. I really like the Lustre finishes which go on moist and shiny and now I can finally see which colours belong to that group.

Speaking of MAC, everyone seems to be raving about the Raquel Welch collection. Everyone, that is, but me. I suppose the colours are great - if your skin tone is like Raquel's, of course. To be honest, I really don't see what the fuss is about these celebrity collections other than the fact that they're endorsed by a celebrity. I mean, of course, the colours had better look good on the celebrity in question, but really, with a little photoshopping, anything will look good on them. So really, is a celebrity inspired (or endorsed) collection that much different than any other MAC collection? I don't think so. MAC's colour collections are usually really nice anyway so the name hired to promote a specific collection doesn't really make that much of a difference.

Another new collection that just came out is one by Clinique collection, although you wouldn't be able to tell if you checked out their websites. The collection is nice and well.. springy, for lack of a better word. It features 4 new blushes, that are made up of a variety of colours. The design is difficult to explain so I'll just say that the colours are arranged in a flower pattern reminiscent of the one in this Yves Saint Laurent compact (pictured left). It's a pretty collection for the spring. My favourite product that they're offering is a new eyeliner called Violet Amethyst. The colour is similar to Laura Mercier's Black Violet Kohl Eye Pencil - both are very dark purples. (Picture from Blogdorf Goodman.)

Interestingly, and perhaps in order to promote their new collections, nearly every beauty counter is holding some sort of event where they invite in a professional makeup artist who can do your makeup for you and teach you some new tricks. If you like sitting in a chair, closing your eyes, and opening them to see how an expert would do your face, then this is the time to call your favorite boutique and make an appointment. Make sure you ask them whether there's a fee for the makeover (usually that fee goes towards the purchase of new products) so that you're not in for a surprise when you get there.

Moonbeam Reflective Eyeliner

Though I love makeup, it's rare for me to find something that has the "wow effect". The "wow effect" is when I try something on and I say (or think) "Wow! That looks really good on me!" Benefit's Dallas Blush had that effect, and so does this: Prescriptives Moonbeam Reflective Eyeliner in Beaming Brown. I know, I know, a girl with brown eyes wearing brown eyeliner is wrong!

Well, I was at Holt Renfrew's and the Sales Assistant had this eyeliner on, but on her pale skin it looked bronze. It looked pretty and I wanted to try it on myself. So she sharpened it for me and put it on. "Wow!" I had to exclaim, "That looks great!" She was smiling and I immediately felt foolish. "I've hardly ever had that reaction to something before," I felt compelled to tell her.

The colour really is amazing. It's sparkly brown, but the undertone is very very dark, so it goes on like more of a dark brown eyeliner with brown sparkles in it. You just have to try it to see how amazing it is. And it's creamy enough to go on without tugging on your eyelid. Next time, I want to try the purple.

(Picture from gloss.com.)