Speak To Us Of Brushes
Caroline Divine wants to look divine, so she asks about make-up brushes.
PeaceBang is SO glad someone asked.
Brushes actually are important, and it's worth your time and money to have a few good ones on hand.
Sonya Kashuk makes fine brushes you can find at Target, and you can find a wide variety at Sephora if you have one nearby. PeaceBang has so many brushes its ridiculous, although some of them are remnants from stage make-up kits she purchased long ago.
Natural hair brushes don't usually wear out if you take good care of them, and I think they're worth the investment. Shu Uemura makes wonderful squirrel brushes.
PeaceBang thinks that everyone should have the following brushes:
1. A really big, fluffy brush for whisking transclucent powder all over the face (to either set make-up so it lasts, or to get rid of shine on a bare, moisturized face).
Men, don't be afraid of a little bit of powder. If you do it right, no one will know. If you have oily skin and a bald pate, use a big powder brush lightly dusted with translucent powder to cut the shine. That is, unless you enjoy having people reflect more on your reflective noggin than on your sermon.
(Have you checked the lighting in your church to see where it hits?)
2. A good blush brush -- not too soft and fluffy that you can't work with it --that you wash in mild shampoo or special brush cleaner at least once a month. 'Nuff said. You don't need special contouring brushes or anything like that. Dab your brush into the blush, whirl it around, blow on the brush or dab it on your arm to get rid of excess, smile, and blend the blush into the apples of your cheeks. Don't get too far up near the eye, and don't bring too much color out toward your ears. For a youthful touch, LIGHTLY brush A TINY BIT OF color on your the top of your forehead, the end of your nose, and your chin.
3. A "finger" brush, shaped like the end of your pinky, for application of eye shadow on the lid. Especially as we age and our lids get creased, the finger brush is a little miracle and will keep you from applying your eyeshadow unevenly.
PeaceBang cannot stress this enough: even if you wear NO make-up at all, you should consider buying a foundation that matches your skin tone and using it, well-blended, on your eyelid and under your eyes. PeaceBang sees WAY too many beautiful women in the pulpit who have sunken, shadowed eyes that could really benefit from the most natural kind of brightening: a bit of blended base (over moisturizer that's had enough time to sink in) and a brightening powder (Revlon Skinlights!). The finger brush will be your best friend in applying the brightening shadow, which a finger or Q-tip simply cannot adequately cover.
It is SO worth spending a minute or two on this every morning, or in the evening before appointments. Women with darker olive skins most especially tend to become shadowy as they get tired, and can wind up looking positively bruised around the eye area. If you don't want to look quite that dramatically exhausted, use a very blendable base and a soft fawn color on your lids. Have the lady at the make-up counter show you if you're intimidated.
Those are the basics. Of course, if you're PeaceBang you also have brushes for lining the eye, lining the lips, dotting concealer on blemishes, and so on, but you don't need all that nonsense.
PeaceBang is SO glad someone asked.
Brushes actually are important, and it's worth your time and money to have a few good ones on hand.
Sonya Kashuk makes fine brushes you can find at Target, and you can find a wide variety at Sephora if you have one nearby. PeaceBang has so many brushes its ridiculous, although some of them are remnants from stage make-up kits she purchased long ago.
Natural hair brushes don't usually wear out if you take good care of them, and I think they're worth the investment. Shu Uemura makes wonderful squirrel brushes.
PeaceBang thinks that everyone should have the following brushes:
1. A really big, fluffy brush for whisking transclucent powder all over the face (to either set make-up so it lasts, or to get rid of shine on a bare, moisturized face).
Men, don't be afraid of a little bit of powder. If you do it right, no one will know. If you have oily skin and a bald pate, use a big powder brush lightly dusted with translucent powder to cut the shine. That is, unless you enjoy having people reflect more on your reflective noggin than on your sermon.
(Have you checked the lighting in your church to see where it hits?)
2. A good blush brush -- not too soft and fluffy that you can't work with it --that you wash in mild shampoo or special brush cleaner at least once a month. 'Nuff said. You don't need special contouring brushes or anything like that. Dab your brush into the blush, whirl it around, blow on the brush or dab it on your arm to get rid of excess, smile, and blend the blush into the apples of your cheeks. Don't get too far up near the eye, and don't bring too much color out toward your ears. For a youthful touch, LIGHTLY brush A TINY BIT OF color on your the top of your forehead, the end of your nose, and your chin.
3. A "finger" brush, shaped like the end of your pinky, for application of eye shadow on the lid. Especially as we age and our lids get creased, the finger brush is a little miracle and will keep you from applying your eyeshadow unevenly.
PeaceBang cannot stress this enough: even if you wear NO make-up at all, you should consider buying a foundation that matches your skin tone and using it, well-blended, on your eyelid and under your eyes. PeaceBang sees WAY too many beautiful women in the pulpit who have sunken, shadowed eyes that could really benefit from the most natural kind of brightening: a bit of blended base (over moisturizer that's had enough time to sink in) and a brightening powder (Revlon Skinlights!). The finger brush will be your best friend in applying the brightening shadow, which a finger or Q-tip simply cannot adequately cover.
It is SO worth spending a minute or two on this every morning, or in the evening before appointments. Women with darker olive skins most especially tend to become shadowy as they get tired, and can wind up looking positively bruised around the eye area. If you don't want to look quite that dramatically exhausted, use a very blendable base and a soft fawn color on your lids. Have the lady at the make-up counter show you if you're intimidated.
Those are the basics. Of course, if you're PeaceBang you also have brushes for lining the eye, lining the lips, dotting concealer on blemishes, and so on, but you don't need all that nonsense.
posted by PeaceBang at 12:50 PM
4 Comments:
Thank you!
Target (pronounced "Tar-zhAY" of course) is wonderful (I try not to go there too much, such temptation, love their housewares section, got my towels there)and my hairdresser refers to it as "The Taj Mahal." I hadn't thought of looking there. Just went online and found that you can get a Sonya Kashuk brush *set* that includes the three brushes you mentioned (and more) for a much better price than getting the three separately:
http://tinyurl.com/js6ss
She also has a purse brush kit than is nice, though it only has one thick brush, but it looks helpful for those night meetings:
http://tinyurl.com/jmgqq
Thanks too for the tips for us brown/olive-skinned types with the rings under our eyes.
Note: Speaking of under and around the eyes -- Eating chips at night will give you puffy eyes in the morning and make you look like hell at the gym under the bright lights; trust me; it happened yesterday. So watch the chips and salsa snacks in the late hours because if you're like me the salt will make your eyes retain water; sushi in the late evenings does the same. Not a pretty sight if you are the bags under the eyes type AND you retain water and get puffy, and no, this didn't start happening to me in middle age and I don't otherwise have a tendency to retain water. Just a word to the wise. Nah, I don't use makeup at the gym, Godde made gyms so we could sweat in our natural state and not clog our pores even more, and I figure everyone looks bad there, but let me tell you, I looked REALLY bad yesterday morning. If I'd been going out into the world afterwards instead of right back home to read and write, I'd have had to do some kind of makeup job and it still wouldn't have helped till later in the day. Beware the yummy Bearitos in the late hours.
Now you can give us your puffy-eyes remedies... (What do we do when we don't have time to lie around for an hour with cucumber slices on our eyes?)
Anyway, thanks again, I will head for Target within days. They also ship that stuff, so if any of you are in isolated areas, you can still get the Sonya Kashuk brushes.
Gratefully,
Soon to look divine Caroline
Good tip, Caroline. Thanks.
I have another: to avoid morning bags under the eyes, sleep on your back.
I rarely wake up with bags or puffiness under my eyes, but when I do it's after having slept on my stomach or on my face.
Something about fluids draining.
Hmmm. I sleep on my back almost all the time. But then, I only get those puffy eyes when I've had sushi or chips. No such goodies for me today; I have early meetings tomorrow... Speaking of which, I'd better go, because if I don't get to bed now I'll have bags under my eyes from lack of sleep! Thanks for the tip.
CD
Darlings all, a brush update for you. I hadn't planned on a Target expedition for another ten days or so, but the cosmos took me there, as I had to go on a pet-related drive which took me to an emporium right *next* to a Target, and someone was late for their appointment at the pet place and I had some time, so what could I do? I went in. I am pleased to report that although I could not find any Sonya Kashuk things in the Cosmetics department (weird since they are there on the web -- I went down the aisles twice, too) there is an even cheaper alternative. It is called StudioTools and this brand sells brushes one by one. So, with gratitude in my heart to PeaceBang AND savings in my pocketbook, I purchased three brushes, a powder brush ($4.99), a blush brush ($3.99), and a shadow brush ($1.99). The bristles seems fine, there is the usual "wash in warm soapy water" caution about good brush care on the label, and the handles are nice and long, to make you feel like a diva.
And just in case we forget which brush is which, the powder brush says "powder," and so on. In discreet silver letters on the black handle.
Oh, and they come in reusable soft plastic cases, in case you're the traveling sort.
I'm gonna look divine in church tomorrow. (Unfortunately, preaching was LAST Sunday -- I'm just a part-timer in the pulpit right now and a member of the congregation the rest of the time -- but I made do with the old blush brush.)
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