Product Review: Wet 'n Wild Intuitive Blend Foundation + Primer

I was perusing the aisles of my local Rite Aid a few days ago and I stumbled upon the Wet 'n Wild Intuitive Blend Shade Adjusting Foundation + Primer. Now, I realize this isn't a new product to their line but I hadn't seen it in previous displays, so it took this extended display for me to realize it was even there! It is a foundation AND primer priced only at $5.99 so I figured I would give it a go and review it.

The applicator is a simple squeeze-tube and I find these perfectly hygienic and simple to use. I like the ombre yet simple packaging of this foundation - and what really intrigued me was that this product claims to be a primer as well as a foundation, which would cut one step out of my morning beauty routine (and I'm all about simplifying).

I took a series of photographs to show you how the microbead shade-adjusting technology works:

This foundation provides light to medium coverage and performs like a BB cream or tinted moisturizer, but it really does do everything that it claims! I haven't experienced any pilling or greasiness, the foundation wore all day on my skin and my skin still felt smooth 8 hours in. I applied it with a brush and my fingers, I typically prefer a brush but it works well both ways. I did find that I had to use concealer for my under-eye circles as the coverage wasn't enough to give me the brightness I like (but this can be true for many medium coverage foundations).

All in all, I think this is a fantastic, well-priced product. It really is a no-muss no-fuss sort of morning product that is a ton of fun to use. The product range only consists of 4 shades Fair, Light, Medium and Tan, so choose the one that you normally fall into with other foundations you may use.

If you're interested in this product, I've linked all 4 shades (fair, light, medium and tan) below:

Snow Bunny Beauty Tips

Are you going skiing or snowboarding this holiday season? Do you just want to be able to look and feel great while wearing layers of clothing, without having to worry about your beauty products rubbing off on the collars of your jackets, insides of your hats, and scarves? This article will tell you how to get the snow bunny look without all the mess (and without all that skiing, I'm more of a hot chocolate by the fire kind of girl myself).

If you're going to be out in the cold, you will definitely want to consider getting a good strong moisturizer for your face and any other skin that is exposed as the cold weather can be very harsh and detrimental for your skin. Use a sweat-proof sunscreen on the body parts you will have exposed to the sun (even in the winter months it will burn you). Make sure you blot away any excess greasiness from the cream and sunscreen with a tissue before you do anything else, this will help the staying power of your makeup.

Then, primer is a girl's best friend during the winter months, so use a colorless gel-like primer or my personal favorite aloe vera gel, and cover your entire face with it. Stay away from cream-based eyeshadows and powders because they will definitely smear onto your clothing, as will anything with an oil base. You can choose whether you want to wear liquid blush or powder blush, but anything you put on must be covered by a translucent powder to set it (this includes your foundation) and reduce the amount of staining it will do to your clothes.

For a frost-inspired eyeshadow look, use colors that have a sheen and are pearly pales, such as white, silver and lilac. These colors look pretty and feminine but still retail that iced-edginess when put on correctly. Apply your lightest color (white) under the base of the eyebrow as your highlight, your mid-tone (lilac) on the eyelid itself and your darkest shade (silver) as the contour surrounding your eyelid.  Line your eyes with a waterproof kohl pencil for the most staying power (or a truly waterproof eye liner if you can find one) and use a brush to smoke out your eyeliner a little for a sultry gaze. To smoke out your kohl liner, use a black shimmer and extend it into a winged line to elongate your eye.

Make sure you blend everything together beautifully. As a final touch add the lightest color to the inner corner of your eyes generously and apply shimmer powder to your cheekbones, above your blush. For an extra-feminine snow bunny look, you can apply some fake lashes to the outer corners of your eyes, they will stay in place if you use Duo Lash Adhesive glue. Use waterproof mascara so that your sweat from snow sports will not make your mascara run. I would opt for a pinkish blush in a doll-like color, but don't go overboard because if your eye makeup is overpowering, we don't want your whole face to be brighter than the sun. For your lips, you will want to exfoliate to smoothen them out and then just apply a simple moisturizing lipgloss with SPF.

Have fun on the slopes or in the chateau drinking what makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside!

Easy Eye Transformation

Do you ever wonder how to do a simple and foolproof winged liner that's appropriate for every day and work? Well look no further, in this post we'll discuss the proper order to put on your eyeshadows and how to easily apply your eyeliner! Firstly, you want to prime your eyelid all the way up to your eyebrows and under your eyes. This is because the eyeshadow won't stick properly all day long if you don't have a base for it. I used Benefit's Stay Don't Stray primer because I like the thick consistency of it, but a good substitute is a Mac concealer that fits your skin-tone, or Hard Candy's Nobody's Perfect concealer (available at Walmart for a whopping $6, including 6 shades!).
Rub the concealer in with your brush or fingertip, using your ring finger to apply the least amount of pressure to your eye (this avoids excessive wrinkles, ladies and gents).

This is a neutral look so I used the Urban Decay 'Naked palette' and MAC's 'Nylon' eyeshadow. For the base eyeshadow color, 'Naked' is a great option because it is just slightly darker than my skin-tone and shows barely a hint of color. This was applied with a regular eye-shadow brush and the color was packed on. Then, I used the color 'Buck' for the contour, going in a crescent shape around the ball of my eye, and you don't have to be too clean when you apply these colors because they will be blended together at the end. For the highlight, I used 'Nylon' from MAC because it's got a frosty sheen and is visibly lighter than my skin, attracting light underneath the eyebrow and away from any dark-circle. This makes eyes appear bright and refreshed.

Base (Naked), Contour (Buck), and Highlight (Nylon) eyeshadow application

For the winged-eyeliner application, I'm going to advise that if you are not experienced in this, you should use either an angular eyeliner brush or a brush-tipped applicator. I'm going to use the latter because I'm obsessed with Stila's 'Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner' (wow, that name is quite a mouthful). The tip is very fine, but the pen rests very stably   in my hand because, especially if I balance my arm on the table during my application. You should always rest your elbow on a flat, immovable surface when you do your eyeliner because otherwise the line will turn out shaky.

If you don't know where to start and you want to achieve an even winged look that is the same on both of your eyes, use these simple guidelines. The first line I draw is from the outer corner of my eye and points upwards to the end of my eyebrow, you can go as far with this line as you want to, it really depends how dramatic of a look you're going for (the farther, the more wingy it will be). Then, I go back to the inner corner of my eye and begin the contour of the line. Do not attempt to fill in as you're drawing the contour because you will not get as smooth of a finish, you want to get the contour done in one smooth stroke. Connect your contour to wherever you like on the winged edge (I go to halfway of the line that I first drew). Then go back underneath your line and fill in from your eyelashes to the outline of your liner. 

Wing, contour, and fill-in eyeliner application

Now apply your mascara of choice and voila, you have a pretty look that is appropriate for anytime of day or night!

Let me know if there's anything any of my readers would like to see in the future! Hope you had fun reading this post :)