MAXFACTOR MASTERPIECE MAX MASCARA & HIGH PRECISION LIQUID EYELINER - REVIEW

I have always been known amongst friend and foes for my love for eye make up. Even in a normal day, you will not find me out without my thickly lined eyes and layers and layers of mascara. I could be in my Yoga pants but I would need my eye liner and mascara. for me, they are my Beauty Must Haves, even if I am stranded on a desert island.

Influenster sent me MaxFactor MasterPiece High Precision Liquid Eye Liner and MaxFactor Masterpiece Max Mascara to try out. It was a part of their Endless Summer VoxBox . If you want to read about the other contents of the box , then click Here . I got to work in no time. The best way to try out any new make up is to do a full face and see how they fare through out a day. Sweat, humidity, long hours, oils are all factors which make or break a make up .

REVIEW :
MAXFACTOR MASTERPIECE MAX MASCARA: 
The color that was sent to me was Velvet Black. Its a great shade of Black and I have a thing of pigmented black mascaras. The wand is pretty easy to use. I know some brands have mascara wands which take me quite some time to get a decent application. The black and gold packaging was pretty luxe for a drug store brand. Its priced at   $9.99 . Its available in both the normal and waterproof version. It claims to be a Volume Mascara. I have fairly large eye lashes, so for me it gave me an' Everyday Look,' with a couple of coats. Not Mega Volume.  It did not clump my lashes, and there was so smearing or transferring . Overall a fairly decent drug store mascara.

MAXFACTOR MASTERPIECE HIGH PRECISION LIQUID EYE LINER :
To be honest,  I am not a fan of liquid eye liners. I dont regularly use one. The last time I bought one , was probably a decade or so back. I am gel eye liner or a pencil eye liner person on a day to day basis. So I was a bit iffy about trying out this new product , I must say.

The Paddle shaped brush head was unique. I haven't seen a brush similar to it. It was like the tip of a felt pen for the uninitited . I know many brands have ey liners with such felt tips. This particular eye liner claims to make the Cat Eye simpler. You can draw a broader line along your lashline, by laying the tip of the pen flat, and then pulling along. You can do a thinner line or a flick of the Cat Eye, by using the narrower end of the pen. Some practice and you should be good. The color that was sent tome was again Velvet Black. Like the Mascara, the eyeliner was also pigmented. Nothing looks worse than a chalky black eyeliner.

WEEKEND EYES :
I used the new products along with a  few favorite oldies of mine, to create an easy Weekend Makeup. As the theme of the VoxBox was 'Endless Summer(#ESVoxBox)' so I played with Golds and Browns for the Eyes. For the cheeks I opted for a peachy orange blush to complement.This can be an easy Transition Makeup from Summer to Fall. 

Eyes :
Maxfactor Masterpiece Max Regular Mascara - Velvet Black
Maxfactor Masterpiece High Precision Liquid Eyeliner- Velvet Black
Urban Decay Naked Eyeshadow Palette (Original )
L'Oreal Paris Magic De-Crease Eyelid Primer
Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz- Granite
Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel

Face :
MAKE UP FOR EVER Ultra HD Invisible Cover Foundation 123
Maybelline New York Fit Me Concealer - Sand
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural - Medium
Milani Baked Powder Blush - Luminoso
Rimmel London Lasting Finish Lipstick - Kate Moss Collection 102
Rimmel Exaggerate Automatic Lip Liner Eastend Snob

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L'OREAL MAGIC DE CREASE EYELID PRIMER : REVIEW

Do you find your eye shadow has vanished after you spent a long time applying it? Or has your smokey eye has started to crease? Did you miss out on your eye shadow primer(base) in your make up routine. An Eye Shadow Primer or Base is like a glue for any eye make up that you would do. It also acts like a color corrector to bring your lids to a uniform color, for you to do your eye make up .

While the market is flooded with eye shadow primers, there are two that I personally like. Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original and L'oreal Magic De-crease Eyelid Primer. One is High End product while the second is a drug store one. Lets concentrate on the drug store product on this post, as I think I have raved about the first product in too many posts. If you want to see L'oreal Magic De-Crease Eyelid Primer in action, then make sure you check out my latest Make Up Tutorial.

L'oreal Magic De-crease Eye Lid Primer is readily available at most retailers. Its priced at $8.99, so its not quite a cheap drug store primer. I know brands like Elf or Wet'n Wild have eye shdow primers for much cheaper rates. I have been using thsi product for around 7 years or more. I have seen teh packaging change but the product formula remains the same.

It comes with a doe foot applicator, which makes application easier. Its a thick product but is super blendable. I have very dry skin, but this product does not cling to my dry patches. I use the product with the doe foot applicator then use my fingers to blend it in. I give it a minute to dry out before  I start doing my eye shadows.

This extends the staying power of eye shadows. I have worn it for long hours and this product does not crease on me.

This is often compared to Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original,which is the holy grail of eye shadow primers. Price wise, it is much less for sure. But if you compare the relative prices and the amount of product available , its almost similar in proportion. The formulas are very similar and the color tone are almost exact. So its a great dupe for the original, if you are still testing waters for eye shadow primers. Its a great product for travel. This product delivers what it claims, which is not something we see in products quite often. The only problem I have with this product, is that it dries up in the tbe very fast.

Go ahead and give it a try. Let me know which of the two you liked better.

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BROWS ON FLEEK - BEAUTY MASTER CLASS WITH THE BLOG GUILD

You mention the word 'Beauty', and my ears will be all alert. When you add the words, Master Class to it, I am already signing up. Yes, that's how excited I was when I headed to the Beauty Master Class organised by The Blog Guild in collaboration with Nordstrom and Anastasia Beverly Hills. And the excitement only multiplied by the time the evening was over. Not to mention, it was yet another opportunity to spend some more quality time with my favorite Blogger babes.

I headed to the Nordstom located in the Oak Park Mall, in Overland Park . Our make up classroom was beautifully set up with a small vanity station for each of us. The evening could be divided into two parts: BROWS and CONTOURING . I have decided to break up the class into two separate Blog Posts, so that my readers dont get bored by an extra long one. 

The evening started off with a round of introductions to the brand Anastasia Beverly Hills. The first hour was devoted to Brows. How to properly dress up your brows? How to make them red carpet ready. If you want to get your hair done then shampoo and conditioner are the basic steps. You blow dry it, use the right products , iron or curl it. So why should you stop with your brows with just getting them threaded or waxed. Now that's a valid point. Personally speaking, my current brow routine was something pretty simple. I get my brows threaded professionally once a month. I ask the esthetician to leave them as thick and full as possible and to try and accentuate my natural arch. For products, I use the Anastasia Brow Wiz in Granite and I set it with Anastasia Clear Brow Gel. Pretty basic I should say.  

Angela Muir of the Handmade in the Heartland was selected to be the main model for the Brow Tutorial. The idea was the step by step brow routine would be first done on Angela's brows, so that we almost had a ring side view of it. We were introduced to the various products that the line specailises in, and how to go about selecting the right product. After that two bloggers were paired with one stylist, to help us through our personal brow transformations. I was paired with Blogger Annica Russo of Life Modifier with our stylist Alexis. A huge thank you to Alexis for not only teaching me a great Brow routine, but also taking my pictures. 

STEP BY STEP BROW TUTORIAL: 

Posing with my Beauty Master Class Teacher Alexis

Remove all existing eye brow make up . 

Next comes choice of product. We could choose from Powder Fillers from the Eyebrow Pro Palette or go for the Dip Brow Pomade. The Dip Brow Pomade , I feel is much less forgiving for those of us just starting off with our brow tutorials. So I decided to go for the Anastasia Beverly Hills Duo Brow Powder  from the Palette. I was matched to Medium Brown which is a far cry from the Granite I was matched to at Sephora. Then we are matched to a Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Stencil  depending on our existing brows and our bone structure. I was matched to a HIGH ARCH. 

Next we followed the Anastasia Beverly Hills Golden Ratio Technique to make three precise marks on our brows. Dip an angled eye brow brush in the powder . First lay the brush where the nostril begins. The place where the end of the brush touches the eybrows is your first point. Then lay the brush diagonally on the middle of the nostril, and have it pass over the middle of your iris, The place where it touches over your eyebrow , is the highest point of your arch. Lastly, lay the brush a at the edge of the nostril,and have it touch the end of your eyes. The place where it touches your forehead, is where the tail of your eye brow should end. 

Once you have the three marks on your eye brows, then pick up the stencil of choice. In my case it was the Anastasia Beverly Hills High Arch Stencil of the Five trademarked stencils. The stencil has a roman numeral one on one end. Match that to the first point made on your eyebrow. Make sure that the stencil is parallel to the ground below. Use a lobster claw as I have demonstrated in the picture below, to hold the stencil in place.

Pick up the darker color of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Duo Brow Powder with Anastasia Beverly Hills # 7 Mini Duo Brush and start filling in with hair like strokes. Use the spoolie end to brush through the color. 

Once you have filled in with the product , then its time to pick out your second product. If you are warm undertone, then your brow product should be warm. However for the second product, we pick out something cooler to bring in more dimension. I had a choice between Brow Wiz and Brow definer. I use the Brow Wiz at home so I went for the Brow Definer. In the picture below, you can see the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz on the left and the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Definer on the right. I was matched to Dark Brown  in the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Definer.

Use the flat end of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Definer to outline below and above the eye brows and the heads of it. Fill in with hair like strokes. 

Then use the Anastasia Beverly Hills Base Pro Pencil #2 to outline the eyebrows. Its almost like a concealer pencil to clean up your mistakes and to create a contrast. Use the point of the pencil to draw the line. Then lay the pencil flat to blend it in.

Now is the time , to seal it all in. You have a choice of Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel or Tinted Brow Gel. I use the Clear Brow Gel everyday at home, so decided to go for the tinted brow gel. Our stylist had an interesting take on the choice of Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel. She said that since I have blonde dip died ends and highlights, I could use Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel In Caramel to tie in the eye brows with my hair. It made such a difference.

Here is a picture of Before and After. The Brow on the Left is the After and the Brow on the brow on the right is my natural Brow. 

After- Before : Left to Right 

I have learnt so much at this class. A huge thank you to The Blog Guild , Nordstrom and Anastasia Beverly Hills for such a great class, Stay tuned to the blog for the second part of the Tutorial where we learnt about Contouring. 

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MAC BLACKTRACK FLUIDLINE : BEAUTY REVIEW

I have been a MAC Blacktrack loyalist for years now. I cant even imagine the  years before I knew what gel eyeliner was . It has become a part of my signature look and a Beauty item which is always in stock in my make up storage, if ever I run out of it . I had earlier done a detailed Post on 'How to apply Gel Eye Liner(Read about it Here),' I realized that I had not done a detailed Beauty Review of the product in question. Since I always get requested as to how my eye liner is always smudge proof and such long lasting, I thought, why not do the long delayed post. Recently a famous celebrity make up artist, who also has her own Youtube channel, misspelt this iconic product in her video. For those of you confused, its called BLACKTRACK and not Blacktrax !

To begin with, Blacktrack is the Black gel eye liner from the Fluidline range of MAC. I have owned and used Fluidline, in a few shades, but for me, Blacktrack is the biggest winner. If you have never used gel liners, then its a waxy eye liner,which needs to be used with a fine liner brush, or an angled brush. It comes in a glass pot with a plastic lid. Make sure that the lid is tightly closed when you are not using it, as it prevents the product from drying out. Blacktrack retails at $17 without taxes. Its worth every penny that you will spend on it.

MAC describes it as,"Solid Flat Black." Its a Matte black eye liner . Every stroke of a fine liner brush with this product, always yields an intense black line every time. Black liquid eyeliners can sometimes dry to a shiny finish, which looks pretty tacky. While every make up brand has its version of gel eyeliners, MAC Blacktrack is one of the smoothest and silkiest in the market. Its won numerous Beauty Awards over the years, and has been on the list of favorites of far too many people Its not patchy and does not flake off. There's a reason why its called Best of the Best Eye Liner .

Its Smudgeproof. I have used this eye liner and worked out in a gym. Been to a sea beach and spent the day frolicking in the waves. But this eye liner does not smudge. Its Long Wearing.When you are putting this eye liner on, its not runny like a liquid eye liner and dries fast. I remember hating putting on liquid eye liner only having it transfer to my eye lids, as it used to take so long to dry.

When you want to remove Blacktrack from your eyelids, I suggest you use a gentle eye make up remover on a cotton pad. Use gentle circular motions to remove the product. Then wash your face with your face wash of choice.

The Cons about this product, is that it has a tendency to dry out. Be very careful when you are using it , to prevent it from drying out.

If you feel you have some leftover Blacktack which is on the drier side, let me share a Beauty Hack. Remove the lid, and microwave it for 10 secs. Use a toothpick to mix in the product and close the lid again. Adjust the timings according to the capacity of your microwave.

If you want to learn How to Use MAC Blacktrack Fluidline , then read about it Here. The post includes details on which Brushes to use, how to apply and master the application process.

SHOP IT :

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MAKEUP FOREVER ULTRA HD FOUNDATION & ANASTASIA BROW WIZ: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I was running super low on my current foundation in rotation and needed to stock up. So I thought, why not try something new. Its the Holidays and loads of events are coming up. Not to mention the zillion pictures of myself I shall be guilty of oversharing. And I also had a coupon from Sephora which was expiring soon.

I had two foundations on my mind: NARS SHEER GLOW and MAKE UP FOREVER ULTRA HD FOUNDATION . I always have a long list when it comes to my Foundation. To begin with I have super dry skin withe even drier patches all round. So i don't need a foundation which dries me out further and clings to those dry patches. Secondly, being a blogger I do have a lot of my pictures taken at all times, for many posts. And some of it do include flash photography, coz lets face it, all restaurants don't have the most flattering of lighting. My foundation needs to be one which does not have a flashback in photographs. So no SPFs and Titanium Dioxide in the product list.

I was helped in store by the lovely Make Up Artist Rachel. She was such a sweetheart. She listened through my long list of what I want in a foundation. She suggested that we skip NARS Sheer Glow and opt for MAKE UP FOREVER ULTRA HD FOUNDATION  as that would fit my bill more perfectly. Seemed fair enough.

Now was the time for a Color Match. I always tell everyone, how crucial this step is in make up. I have seen so many people, going around with an absolute wrong shade of foundation. I am used to Artists color matching along the jaw line. Rachel told me that an even more effective way is to match it on the neck . I have a very warm undertone, and sometimes brands suck in catering to our undertone. Rachel picked out three shades and applied the product in stripes along my neck. When she asked me to look in the mirror, I could only see two shades, as the third shade was the perfect match, so it was not even showing . Bingo. Did I mention, that I had chosen to wear turtle neck that day and my daughter wanted to apply some blue eye shadow on my cheeks, as Rachel tried to color match me. Thanks Rachel for being so patient with us. That's how Moms go for Make Up shopping with their daughters. She matched me to Shade Number 153(Y405 ) in Golden Honey. Make Up Forever had recently reformulated their foundation formula and created it for being photographed in 4K which is the next generation of HD. Hence the HD foundation is now called Ultra HD. They have also changed their shade numbers so its 153 according to the older shade guide and Y405 according to teh new shade guide, where Y stands for YELLOW or Warm undertone.  I checked later on that this foundation is one of the winners of the Allure Beauty Awards of 2015.

The foundation has a medium coverage and can be built up. It dries to a satin matte finish which I am not kidding looks like your skin. I  used a flat foundation brush to apply the product. It comes with a pump which makes it a lot easier to dispense. I would say it looks much darker in the bottle than it actually looks on skin. I  am used to using a damp Beauty Blender over the foundation on my face to give it a nice airbrushed finish. But for this foundation, I did not even need that. It just blends beautifully even with a flat foundation brush.

I picked up my new brand new foundation but needed to pick up something more to be able to redeem my coupon. Rather than opting for skin care like a sheet mask or something,  I decided to venture into a territory i have never ever walked. It might sound strange to all of you, as you'll know me as a Make up Junkie. But I have never used Brow Products in general.

I went looking for Rachel again to help me out. We started off with URBAN DECAY BROW BEATER MICROFINE BROW PENCIL AND BRUSH. We tried a couple of shades, but one was too warm and one was too cool. My daughter reached out for the KEVYN AUCOIN PRECISION BROW PENCIL Which Rachel added was another choice.

But I wanted to try out the ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS BROW WIZ. We tried a few colors and finally settled on the color Granite. I know everyone on the Internet raves about this cult product. For a bro newbie, this seemed to be the perfect choice. I liked that it did not make my brows look too made up like the gels have a tendency to do. And the spoolie at the end of the pen, helped in distributing the color. As it was my first time using a brow product, I had my inhibitions for sure. But Rachel showed how to use the product properly. She used short feathery strokes mimicking the direction of growth of the brow hair. Then she used the spoolie and combed the brow upwards and then sideways, to distribute the color properly.

As far as First Impressions go, I am quite satisfied with these new products. But I need to use them for some time more and see how they turn out to be.

POST UPDATED: 
I had used this foundation for the first time during an evening event and the pictures came out great. When I first used this product during the day, thats when I realised that the color was a mismatch, despite my initial thoughts. Its always necessary to test out a foundation in sunlight, to see if its an accurate match. The color was a lot darker than my skin tone, and my neck was standing out much lighter. I was almost looking orange like an Oompa Loompa. SO i went back to Sephora and told them the problem. There was a different lady helping me this time, and she matched me again. This time to Y365 (123)- Desert . From the initial so called match of Y450, jumping up high to Y365. As much as you should respect the opinion of the In STore Beauty Expert, never forget to cross check it yourself in sunshine or do the flash test with a camera.  I took some selfies with the next round of color matching with the same foundation. This is a better match as I have used it quite frequently and am happy with the results.

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