Tag Archives: make-up tutorial

Winter time also means less sunlight, shorter days, grey skies, cold and humid temperatures, lack of sunshine exposure (which in turns means a decrease in vit. D intake ladies! Don't forget to take your supplements!) and richer hues in our make-up palettes. No wonder our complexion looks a little dull this time of year.

Are you ready to embrace colour? Take a bite out of winter with a vibrant purple lip!

Image source: pinterest.com

1. BBrighten up your complexion

Mix a little bit of Golden Glow BB Cream into your moisturizer and apply on your face to make your skin glow; or use it as a face illuminator to highlight certain areas of your face (top of cheekbones, brigde of your nose, temples and cupid's bow), after applying your BB Cream Anti-Aging SPF 20 or daily moisturizer. Note: the BB Cream not only evens out your skin tone, it also minimizes the appearance of pores and fine lines and adds radiance to your skin. Three more reasons to jump on the BB Cream beauty train!

2. Open up those eyes

Even out your lids with the help of a tinted primer, such as the Marcelle Velvety Eye Shadow + Primer, before applying your eye make-up.  Then, using a cool toned neutral shade (such as a taupe), apply to the entire eyelid and blend the colour upward toward your crease.  Don't forget to tend to your brows. The eyebrows, if properly shaped, can take years off your face!  Using an eyebrow pencil held vertically, define and correct the shape of your eyebrows. As an added bonus, filling in your brows can also hide an overplucking incident! Rule of thumb: use the right shade!  And don't forget mascara! Using your Marcelle Twist Push-Up Mascara, apply a first coat using the wand at the regular/straight bristle position for amazing lash definition. Then, for added volume, turn the top of the cap to twist the bristles closer together and then apply a second coat.

3. Pamper those lips

To make your lips baby soft and give them a youthful look, exfoliate them with a homemade lip exfoliant. To complete your lip pampering treatment, follow the exfoliation with a lip balm. Psst! Don't have a lip balm on hand.  When you're in a pinch, plain old moisturizer works wonders!

4. Add a splash of colour...lip colour that is

Add a splash of colour to your lips using an hydrating purple lipstick, such as the Rouge Xpression in the shade Cleopatra (and I can vouch for it, you DO feel like a queen when wearing it!). A punchy shade, a velvety texture and hydrating properties; can you say happy lips?! Don't forget to pat off any excess product with a tissue, and reapply a second coat to ensure a long lasting lip colour. Another neat beauty trick:  to increase the wear of your lip colour even more, apply a thin layer of BB Cream to your lips before the lipstick. The BB (Beauty Balm) will act as a primer. It's magic! If you don't own a tube of BB Cream, no worries. Filling in your lips with a lipliner first, then applying your lipstick on top, will have the same effect (but, trust me, you should really consider treating your skin to a tube of BB Cream. Just a little friendly advice!).

To finish off the look, outline your lips using concealer and a thin brush. This will help seal in the color and define the shape of your lips.

In a nutshell, opting for vibrant shades during the cold months = instant winter pick-me-up! I can't speak for you ladies, but here this is a beauty prescription I am more than happy to comply with!  The big question is: will you dare?

Have you ever stopped to consider the pure magic that makeup is? It can make you look healthy when you are sick as a dog, it can give you cheekbones where none existed before, it can make you look vampy, trampy, angelic or just plain hot! It can even get rid of things that nature "blessed" you with that you would rather see gone! One of the easiest fixes involves a brush, some bronzer and a quick goodbye to your unwanted double chin!

My talented friend Ariel will now take you through the steps to saying sayonara to that unwanted hitchhiker!

It's summertime and like the song says, the living is easy! That’s not to say that there aren’t a million vitally important beauty decisions to be made – for example, to bronze or not to bronze?  For those of us who lack a decent amount of natural pigmentation, that’s an easy one, bronzer is a big YES please! Beyond that it becomes a little less clear as there is a multitude of choices out there.  Then you need to decide on colour, matte or shimmer – what’s a girl to do?!

Fret not my pretties, as one of the palest people on earth (it’s true, there is even a tour bus that drives by my house and announces that at 6pm every day), I have the dubious distinction of having tried every bronzer on the face of the earth in my search for the holy grail of bronzers and in the process have made every mistake and picked up every trick in the book and of course I am happy to share my knowledge with you!

Colour AKA: how to avoid pumpkinitis! When it comes right down to it you can buy the most expensive bronzer on earth but if the colour is wrong, it’s just going to look bad, bad, bad! Natural looking bronzer should be no more than two shades darker than your natural skin colour, should be in the same shade family as you would naturally tan and should never, never be orange! If you are testing them, don’t test on your inside wrist as you might with other products – the skin there is much lighter so you could end up buying a bronzer that just won’t show up when applied to the darker skin on your face.

Shimmer Baby (or not)! Things to keep in mind if you are going to go with a shimmery bronzer, and don’t get me wrong, I LOVE shimmer with a fiery passion, but it is an illuminator.  Is there anything on your face you don’t want to be drawing attention to? Just remember that lines, wrinkles, blemishes or scars will all be put in a spotlight with the addition of anything shiny on top of them!  For most people who lack perfect skin, a matte bronzer is a much more flattering alternative and actually has the opposite effect of shimmer by helping to conceal flaws on your face!

I actually recommend using both a matte and shimmer bronzer together, here’s how I do it:  I apply my matte bronzer with a large fluffy blush (If you want to amp up the colour, use a bronzer brush with a flat top instead) on any part of my face the sun would naturally hit: cheeks, nose chin and forehead and then I use the shimmer bronzer at the tops of my cheekbones to add highlight and if I’m wearing something strappy I’ll add a bit to my shoulders and clavicle bones – I don’t know anyone with ugly shoulders so go crazy with this one!

If you want to look healthier in seconds, bronzer is a great and necessary addition to your summer makeup routine!

Bronzing Pressed Powder - Tropical Bronze

Multi-Colour Bronzing Pressed Powder - Bronze Celebration

Marcelle’s new Feline look is perfect for the summer! The Wild Pattern Multi-Use Pressed Powder can be used on your eyes, cheeks, and face. You can swirl the shades together and apply on your cheeks as a blush or over the entire face for a glowing complexion. The shades in the palette can also be used separately or in combination as an eyeshadow! Our Wild Pattern Lip Gloss is offered in two multi-colored combinations. The non-sticky formula provides a perfect shine and completes any look!

Take a look at this behind-the-scenes video tutorial to create the look for yourself!

The make-up industry is one which certainly isn't lacking talented workers. Passion flares in the eyes of the artists who get a chance to be paid to put colours to their brushes and enhance beauty or create art on a facial canvas. Although artists usually appreciate the recognition of their art and the exposure it brings to their creations, they are not necessarily at ease in front of a camera. We needed to find a professional make-up artist who could do both. Over and above, our artist had to be able to communicate in Canada's two official languages. And then we met Ariel.

Born and raised in Montreal, Ariel first got into makeup when she first started learning to draw. "I used to give my Barbies makeovers' in marker: red lips, green eyeshadow", she tells us. " It went on to elementary school were I use to be one of the only girls sporting pink lip gloss and sparkles; and then in high school I used to give my friends makeovers, or help them with their make-up if they were going on a date. I really love making people feel beautiful and confident." It wasn't long before we saw a special sparkle in her eyes when we started discussing make-up and playing with products. Then we turned on the camera, and she glowed.

Ariel seriously got involved in make-up and decided to make a career out of it after high school when she enrolled at Edith Serei Academy, studying fashion, photography and special effects makeup.

With no further ado, we are proud to introduce Ariel, our professional make-up artist who will be providing tips for women of all ages.