It’s been quite hot here in Belgium the last few days! Finally the perfect weather to use my summer-beauty-kit!

I’ve been using Babor’s Summer Blush for a few weeks now, and I love it! The colors are perfect for summer (a warm hot pink, a soft coral and a deep, slightly shimmery bronze) and it’s so versatile, I use it as as a blush, as a bronzer ànd even as an eyeshadow too!
Summer Blush Collection - €26 - Babor
http://www.babor.be/

My favourite summer-mascara this one from Maybelline. It’s waterproof, looks quite natural (despite its name) and it is easy to apply, essential for hot days at the pool!
Waterproof mascara Falsies Volum’Epress - Maybelline

Do you want to make a fashion-statement by using a hint of color on your eyelids at the beach or at the pool? This (véry) waterproof eyeshadow-stick takes you straight from a dive in the water to the beachparty. Or the other way around, if you fancy a midnight-swim.
Waterproof eyeshadow stick Ombre Blackstar - €30 - By Terry
http://www.cosmeticary.be/

Bumble & bumble is launching a fantastic new line of UV-protective products. The sulfate-free shampoo, the conditioner, the styling balm and the protective polish keep your coloured hair in perfect condition. I recently updated my hair colour, but now my hair feels a bit dry when I wash it with a ‘normal’ shampoo. So I’ve used this Bumble & bumble shampoo the last few weeks, and my hair feels soft en looks shiny again!
Sulfate-free Shampoo Color Minded - Bumble & Bumble
UV protective Styling Balm - Bumble & Bumble
http://www.cosmeticary.be/

My new favourite day cream: the Total Effects sensitive skin- moisturizer! This Total Effects-range of products is fantastic, combining anti-aging, moisturizing and sun-protection.
Total Effects Sensitive skin - €21,99 - Olaz

If you go on holiday, but want to avoid taking a big make-up bag with you, I suggest taking a ‘Flipstick’: Max Factor’s fun and beautiful duo-lipsticks! Soooo many possibilities!!
- Use the lightest colour only, for a subtle effect.
- Use the brightest or darkest colour as a classy evening-look.
- Apply the brightest colour on your lips, leave it on for a few minutes, and then take it off with a tissue. The colour has stained your lips, and it will last a few hours without fading, without you having the sticky lipstick-feeling! You can now add some transparant lipbalm to condition your lips.
- Use the two colours together to design your own lip-look! Use the red lipstick on the outer edges of your lips for example, and add a dot of coral in the middle part of your lips!
My favourite look is this one on the picture below: I used the lightest colour (coral) on the outer edges of my lips, and the bright pink/red on the inside! That way, you get the cherry-lips-effect (as if you just ate a bunch of cherries! :-P)
Flipstick (duo-lipstick) - €12,49 - Max Factor

Last but not least, a summer-kit item for easy beach-hair: the Ocean Spritz spray by Wella!
So easy: just spray it in your hair, massage it a little bit, and you have a beachy waves!
I also like to spray it in my hair before I make a braid or before I put my hair up in a messy bun (ideal for the beach).
If I take the braid / bun out after a few hours, my hair has beautiful waves! Ideal for summer-evenings!
Ocean Spritz spray - Wella

Have you also noticed how Blake Lively always wears the cutest eye-make-up?
It’s light and fresh, but still girly and romantic with the coral crease-colour!

How to?
Well, start with a good eye primer. I love the “Urban Decay Primer Potion”, buy it here on my favourite beauty-webshop: www.beautybay.com

Then take a light and slightly shiny eyeshadow colour (something like M.A.C.’s Ricepaper) and apply it to the eyelid. Don’t forget to also apply a little bit of this colour in the inner eye-corner and under the eyebrow.

After that, use a coral or peachy pink matte (!) eyeshadow and use it to accentuate the crease. Blend everything together.

Blake uses a black eyeliner on the top and bottom lashline, and she -or her make-up artists - also applies it to the bottom waterline (this is the wet rim in between your lashes and your eyes).

Add some mascara, a peachy blush colour and a neutral colour lip gloss… and… tadaa! Fresh & fruity!

I wear this look quite often, and I find it to be the perfect solution for a daily not-to-heavy make-up if you feel like doing something extra.

Do you like Blake Lively’s look?
And on that topic… what do you guys think of Blake’s character ‘Serena’ in Gossip Girl?

I liked her in the beginning of the series! But… is it me, or has she really become quite boring lately?

The holiday season is coming up, the puurrrfect time to go a little bit over-the-top with your make-up! So that’s why I’m going to write a few blog-articles about party-make-up!
First of all: Max Factor! They recently launched a few new products, and my favorites are:

The Smoky-Eye-Effect-eyeshadow-stick!
This stick has two sides, mostly a lighter/shinier side, and a darker one.

The texture is a bit creamy, so it is véry easy to blend the colour on your eyelids to create a soft look. To make it last longer, I fixate it by sweeping over a bit of translucent powder, and then adding some more colour on top of it! Oh, and these smokey-eye-sticks come in beautiful colours!!

My second favourite product: the Miracle Touch Creamy Blush. I always prefer creamy blushes over the powdery ones, because the result is much more natural (and it gives you a healty shine too!).

Max Factor’s make-up artist Alex Valverde shows you in this movie how to do a smokey-eyes-look yourself, using these products! Enjoy!

Max Factor Smoky Eye stick - €13,99

Max Factor Miracle Touch Creamy Blush - €10,99

I’ve been receiving sooo many eyeshadow-related questions lately, and according to my website-statistics, a lot of you, readers, are referred to my website with the keywords ‘eyeshadow colours’ and ‘eye colours’.

That’s why I made this eyeshadow-colour wheel!

There are two easy ways to choose an eyeshadow colour:

- Match the colour with your eye colour

When I need a natural eyeshadow-look, I choose a colour that is close to my own eye colour in the colour wheel. I have brown eyes with a bit of green in it (as you can see in the website-header above), so I use a lot of chocolate browns, beiges, bronze and a soft olive green from time to time.
Here are some matchy suggestions for different eye colours:

Blue eyes / grey eyes -> blue, lavender, grey, mint green, turquoise, silver,…
Green eyes -> olive green, mint green, moss green, teal, chartreuse,…
Brown eyes -> bronze, chocolate brown, coral, warm beige, gold, eggplant,…

And some (runway make-up) examples:

- Choose a contrasting colour

An other option, is to pick a colour that is opposite of your eye colour in the colour wheel. That way, your own eye colour stands out more! Ideal for fashion-daredevils!
Some examples:

Blue eyes / grey eyes -> bronze, orange, salmon, honey-yellow,…
Green eyes -> pink, red, coral, burgundy, purple,…
Brown eyes -> blue, lavender, turquoise, silver, sage green,…

I hope these tricks & pics can be inspirational sweeties! Are you a fan of the matching colours, or do you prefer the contrasting eyeshadow colours? Let me know what you think / wear yourself! And of course: if you have more questions or requests: fire away!!

I am always a bit reluctant to buy stuff in online shops. When buying clothes, you never know if they will fit, and with beauty products, I like to feel the texture and see the colours in real life before I buy something.

I make a few exceptions, especially when the beauty products are extremely cheap or extremely fantastic.

The webshop ‘e.l.f.’ (eyes lips face) is in the ‘extremely cheap’ category, and most of the products are even quite good! I like the nail polishes, lip glosses, some of the eye shadows and some of the brushes!

lipgloss - € 1
eye shadow palette - € 4
kabuki brush - € 5,80
http://nl.eyeslipsface.be/

Another webshop I adore is the Cosmeticary online shop. I LOVE the stores in Antwerp and Brussels, but when I don’t have the time to drop by, I order these fantastic goodies online!
You can shop hard-to-find brands here, such as By terry, diptyque, Laura Mercier, bumble&bumble, Duwop, dermalogica, Essie, … and more.
 

Rosebud salve (for chapped lips and dry skin) - € 10
Nail polish ‘mint candy apple’ - € 13,75 - Essie
Satin oil for hair en body - € 45 for 200ml - diptyque
http://www.cosmeticary.com/

In addition to the previous post: some ideas and examples of the latest make-up trends, as seen on the runway! Of course, they are completely compatible to the main fashion trends.

I tried to find realistic examples, which are easy to wear in daily life.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a M.A.C-masterclass, here in Antwerp. A few of the 2011 make-up trends were discussed, explained and demonstrated on some very lovely models.
Most of my examples here, are from the M.A.C. Cosmetics archives (from the spring-summer 2011 runway shows).

1. Glossy, shiny, healthy, nude skin.
For this look, the skincare is really important. You can mix a little drop of M.A.C. strobe cream in your daily moisturizer to make your skin look radiant and glowing. Then, comb your eyebrows and apply a little bit of cream blush in a natural colour on the apples of your cheeks. After that, you only use concealer or a bit of foundation on the little spots or dark undereye circles. This is an ideal make-up for a day on the beach! Remember: no mascara is needed (or maybe a very tiny bit of brown waterproof mascara) to finish the look!

2. Electric colour accents.
Just choose a colour and a part of your face, and paint it. Bright yellow eyelids, oranje lips or fuchsia cheeks, … go for it! The colours must be véry intense and saturated, and preferably completely matte. How to do that? Just buy an opaque, matte lipstick, or use a colourful lippencil and colour your lips. Or use an eyepencil in a particular colour, and fixate it by patting on a matte eyeshadow on top of it in the same colour.

3. Pretty pastels.
These fairy-tale-pastels (soft lavender, icy blue or transparant pistachio,…) create a beautiful, romantic and feminine look, but be careful not to use them in an old-fashioned way! In stead of the traditional eyelid-colour, use them all over and around the eyes, or use them only in the eyecorners.

4. Brown & bronze eyes
Shimmery brown eyeliners, glossy copper eyelids,… Brown is the new black! Keep the lips very natural.
This trend is perfect for blue-eyed girls with a tan this summer!

The make up in this blog article:
M.A.C. strobe cream
M.A.C. eye shadow ‘Chrome Yellow’
M.A.C. lipstick ‘Russian Red’ from the Wonderwoman Collection
M.A.C. pigment ‘Violet’
M.A.C. eye kohl ‘Teddy’

http://www.maccosmetics.be/