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Laura’s Favorite Makeup Picks

Makeup, Style
By Laura Gummerman

Laura's makeup favorites! (click through for links)Each morning I wake uuuuuup, before I put on my makeuuuuuup…anyone else picturing the dinner karaoke scene from My Best Friend’s Wedding? Love that part. Anyway, today I’m going to share with you a few of my favorite makeup products! There are a few that I have been using for years and others that are relatively new, but I think that’s a good sign that hopefully means I’m not stuck in the same routine and my face is so “2000 and late” if you get my drift. Ready for all the deets?

Laura's makeup favorites! (click through for links) First things first—foundation! I have a two pronged approach that I do with foundation depending on how much time I have. If I’m in a rush, I’ll dab this liquid concealer under my eyes and on my chin and blend in with my fingers. Once it’s dry, I use a large bronzer brush and do a few quick strokes of this bronzer (in Laguna) to contour and fight off looking ill in the winter. I’m not one of those lovely alabaster pale-skinned people… I just look like I have the flu.

If I’m doing photos or going out for the night, I’ll spend a little more time and use my bareMinerals foundation kit on top of the liquid concealer. It has a foundation shade and a bronzer, and it provides a lot more coverage to even out my skin tone without looking heavy or cakey.

Laura's makeup favorites! (click through for links) Mmmm kay. Let’s talk eyebrows. If you look at a photo of me that is taken before 2012, you’ll notice something very obvious about my face—I have no eyebrows. It’s not the tale of high school over plucking mistakes like some of my friends have, they are just so light in color (and rather patchy) that they just don’t make much of a statement. Once I realized that eyebrow pencils and fillers are not just for old ladies, I’ve been hooked ever since. In fact, If I could only do one thing to my face in the morning, it would be my brows because it really does make that big of a difference. I use the brown side of this double-sided brow pencil to outline the general brow shape, and then use an angled brush to fill in the shape with the lighter shade of this brow kit. The brow kit also has a brow wax you can put down first before the color to help it stay better, but the shadow seems to stay well enough on its own, so I skip that part.

Once I have the shape and color filled in, I take a clean mascara wand and comb through the brows in short strokes. I find that doing this helps the brows to look a little more natural and soft and less perfectly outlined. Once all that is done, I use the light beige side of the double-sided pencil and outline the bottom edge of the eyebrow. This really defines your eyebrow and highlights your brow bone. It’s amazing!!

Laura's makeup favorites! (click through for links) Eye know what we should talk about next! So, I have a few time-tested favorites here like my go-to pencil liner and liquid liner that I’ve used for years, but I’ve also started using this volumizing mascara recently, and I like it a lot. Since I have small hooded eyes, I’ve been doing a darker color just in the crease to make my eyes look more open, but I wanted to find a way to keep that dark shade in the crease and not have it spread out as the day progresses. I found out that what I needed was an eyeshadow primer before I used this darker loose pigment shade in the crease, and it works like a charm!

Laura's makeup favorites! (click through for links) Last but not least, it’s lipstick! I used to be a lip gloss only girl into my mid-twenties, but eventually I got tired of the goopy feeling (and my hair always blowing into my sticky lip gloss) and switched to lipstick. Not a gloss in sight these days! My favorite lipstick for any occasion, day or night, is this lipstick (in Pout). I saw the color in the store and thought that it looked exactly like the color that Audrey Hepburn applies in the back of the taxi at the end of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. You know, the part where she says, “A girl can’t read that sort of thing without her lipstick.” Thankfully I actually loved the shade and it’s always in my purse. I also have been getting into more mauve shades lately, and this lipstick (in Fly High) is a great everyday one too. If you are a girl that has to have a matching liner, then I would suggest trying a few colors at ColourPop. I like to use those when I do a brighter shade so I can line the lips as well to reduce color bleed.

Laura's makeup favorites! (click through for links) (From top to bottom: Smashbox Pout, ColourPop Heart On, ColourPop Pony, ColourPop Bossy, Colour Pop Scandy, bareMinerals Fly High). I guess all my lipsticks are in the “cool” family, huh? That explains why all those orangey shades look so terrible on me…

You may have noticed that there are a few more natural makeup choices in the mix (like the Mineral Fusion liquid concealer and mascara). I have been trying to get more and more products that I like that are free of a lot of the toxins added to most makeup, but it’s a slow process to find replacements that you really like for everything you use (and expensive to do it all at once!). So far I’ve switched out my skin cleaning routine and nail polish with better choices, but I’m still working on my makeup options. Let me know if you have a recommendation for any clean makeup items you like!

I actually don’t wear much makeup (if any) a lot of days, especially if I’m just working around the house, but I really do enjoy putting on some tunes and taking my time getting beautified when I have the option. Just don’t put on “Hotline Bling” when trying to apply liquid liner. You will dance. It will not be a straight line. Hope my list gave you some new favorites to try! xo. Laura

Credits // Author and Photography: Laura Gummerman. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess actions.

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