Hope you're all doing well!
ALSO! HAPPY NEW YEAR OF 2015!
I know it's
So I'm back in the new year with a new blogpost- What I carry in my makeup bag.
Majority of people are probably wondering "Why does a guy need a makeup bag?"
Simply because I am quite conscious with how I present myself and this bag contains the essentials I need to prep myself for the whole day.
So I can actually prepare my face for a night out after work or if I'm at a friends house and need to go somewhere after etc. Also my position at work kind of requires us to present ourselves well so this bag has it :D
Does this mean I wear makeup on a daily basis? I wouldn't say daily but pretty much everytime I leave the house for a bit of time. Now when I say I wear makeup, this doesn't mean my face is completely makeup- the main things I do are my eyebrows, abit of eyeliner on the outer corners to define my eyes, lipbalm/tint. Voila
Anyway! Let's get started on the post!
This is the makeup bag I carry around almost everywhere when I'm out. Despite it being quite bulky, it is still in my bag regardless.
It's the Shu Uemura 6 Heart Princess limited holiday collection in 2013 and they gave this bag if you bought a certain amount of products from that line from what I remember.
It's a super cute bag with 3 compartments/sections which is super convenient for organising certain things in different sections with a zipper to close up the whole bag.
Lets start off with my number 1 essentials - eyebrow pencils, eyeliners, mascaras and sharpener.
To me eyebrows are SUPER important as it frames the face and also can change up your look. Because my resting face makes me look as if I'm bored or angry all the time - I tend to sport for a straight brow shape and sometimes slightly slanted down like Makoto from FREE! what I like to call the "yasashii" brows.
What I'm currently using to draw my brows is the Gorgeous Cosmetic brow pencil; I usually use this to draw the tails of my brows and fill in the outer third of my brows where it's sparse.
To complete the brow- I use the ETUDE house Color my brows in the color natural to tint my brows (which are currently blonde) and also tint the skin in the middle blending in with the darker color of the drawn tail. This is also used to groom and tame the hairs on my brows so they're not pointing in all directions.
Sometimes I also like to use the "Maybelline Sky Curves" mascara to tint my brows for days where I want dark brows (before I bleached my hair). I rarely wear mascara so they're mainly for my brows haha.
Lastly to soften up the brows - I use the spooly from the Kevyn Aucoin's brow precision crayon which is really nice and soft so when you soften the edges- it is not completely brushing off what you have drawn. I use to use this crayon to draw my brows as the color I bought was in ash blonde which was a really nice color that blended with my bleached blonde brows however since it ran out - I've just kept it for the spooly.
I've decided not to repurchase the crayon only because it costed $70 AUD which killed me everytime it broke off because I was drawing too hard QAQ.
The nude eyeliner on the far left is for highlighting the under brows and also to highlight my nose bridge and cupids bow especially at night when I'm going out and I need a more kick in highlighting. Also use it to line my waterliner when my eyes are abit red especially when I wear contact lenses. By doing so - I look more awake and not tired or strained. This one here is the "Rimmel Exaggerate" in the color "In the Nude".
A brown eyeliner pencil is one of the most versatile thing where you can use it to do your eyeliner and contour for your nose and for the side of your cheeks. Here I use a cheap 2 dollar one I bought from the chinese dollar store which they don't have any more. It's super pigmented and creamy and very blendable which makes it even easier for other use.
And lastly a sharpener is a must especially when you do your brows- it's good to have a somewhat sharp tip for great precision especially on that arch.
Because I wear contact lenses on almost a daily basis- Contact lens compact consisting of contact lens case and tweezers along with eyedrops is a big must!
The lens case is filled up with saline solution just incase a friend or myself forget or lose our lens case and we need to store out lenses when our eyes are getting irritating (especially a whole day of wearing lenses).
Eyedrops is a must for someone else or myself when our eyes are feeling dry. Usually I carry a 4-pack but as you can see, there's only 2 left soo they've been really useful haha.
Moving to the face- sunscreen/moisturiser and face primer.
Rather than carrying a bottle of sunscreen or moisturiser, I put them in these contact lens cases (which have been used before and cleaned out) which I cut up to make individual pots. You'll be surprised how much content one pot can hold and will last up to 3 applications on the face.
There are days where you just got to reapply your sunscreen especially when you're in the sun. For me - I use to walk back to the station and home from work when my car broken down and because the sun was blazing even in the afternoon - sunscreen was a must!
Why the primer? When I'm about to go out at night after work - I like to remove everything I had on my face beforehand and wash my face. Because I've removed everything - I still want my face to have a layer that separates the makeup and the skin/skincare at the same time keeping my makeup put and not make my face shiny.
Some makeup tools and a compact are very useful as well :D
I carry a compact that has a mirror to set my face so that it controls the oils and shine on my face while keeping the other layers on my face put. This compact has a tinge of color which gives me a very light coverage.
Even though the compact comes with a sponge- I prefer to use a brush and hence I carry some of the travel size brushes. This is Shu Uemura 6 Heart Princess travel size brushes which comes with a powder brush, mini foundation/concealer brush, lip/eyeliner brush and a flat eyeshadow brush. All are versatile and great on the go.
I tend to keep the compact together in the brush case just because what I need to use the compact is there. Also because my makeup bag is quite bulky- I also keep other small things in the brush bag slot as well.
Going from left to right:
The first thing is a trio highlighting compact/palette by Elizabeth Arden. Usually I highlight my features when I go out at night where photos will be taken. The trio is great as I can use different colors for different areas of my face to highlight for example the pink on my cupids bow and inner eye corner while the yellow on my nose bridge and cheek bones. It also comes with a small retractable brush next to it which isn't the best but It does the job.
Next is foundation and here is the Maybelline FIT me stick foundation. As I've mentioned this before in one of my previous blogpost - I have a love and hate relationship with this foundation. Overall it's a super convenient foundation in a stick form to take along where I can just draw on my face and blend with my clean hands or brush without making a mess and also it sets to a powder finish. However you still need to set it with a light dust of setting powder just so it doesn't move as this foundation transfers.
Lastly is concealer and this is one where I've tried recently and can see why so many bloggers and beauty experts/gurus recommend- Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser. Super compact packaging and also easy application for days where I look extremely tired. It is slightly on the lighter side of my skin color in summer (more suitable for winter) so I also use this as a highlighter.
To finish off the entire face - some lip products!
Lip balms are a big must for me as I like to keep my lips moisturised and hydrated. I'm too use to the feeling of lipbalm on my lips and just can't go without it. I'd keep touching my lips and pursing my lips if they were dry. So here I have the EOS lipbalm in Honeydew.
Because my natural lip color is on the purple side which makes me look kind of dead- I like to add a little bit of color to my lips. Here I have the VDL Triple Shot Tint bar which gives my lips a nice gradient tint like what the koreans have.
There are times where I need to remove makeup or made a mistake and need to clean up before reapplying and a small sample size makeup removing cleansing oil is perfect for on the go :)
Oils are more efficient at removing makeup and also last long as a little goes a very long way. This is the CLIO Makeup Away Cleansing Oil that I used in my night skincare regime video.
A small spray bottle filled with water, green tea or orange blossom water is super handy especially on hot weather where your face just needs to be hydrated or freshened up just with a few sprays onto the face. This not only freshens or hydrates the face, but also can set your makeup.
Speaking of tools earlier, here are some that are very useful to have along: Tissues, Cotton buds, cotton pads, blotting paper, eyelid tape.
Tissues - self explanitory. You just need a pack of tissues no matter where you go (almost) haha!
Cotton buds/Q-tips are super great disposable tools for cleaning up makeup, for blending eyeshadow/eyeliner, for popping pimples without using your hands, etc.
I carry some cotton pads for when removing makeup or when I just need to swipe my face to tone the skin after spraying my face or just to simply dry my face.
Blotting paper is a big must must! Especially for my combination skin where I get pretty oily and shiny in summer. Also super great to blot the skin before doing touchup on makeup especially if you're going to fix your base makeup.
I like to carry some extra eyelid tape just for days where my eyes are uneven (pretty much everyday).
I am super duper conscious with me smelling bad. Maybe because whenever I am near someone who has a bad body odour and when the smell just hits me, I just can't overlook it.
SO! I always must carry a small deodorant with me (here I have a roll-on one) and a small spray bottle filled with cologne to freshen up.
I guess this is why my friends says things like "it smells like Danny" LOLOL!
Lastly in my bag is this umm ... thing LOL! One side has a narrow mirror which is super handy and the other side is a lint brush which is surprisingly really good to have especially because my work pants attract dust so easily so yeah. It's portable and flat so no hassle carrying it in my makeup bag :D
So that's it for this post. Thank you so much for reading, sorry it was really long. Actually wanted to keep it simple but ... guess that failed LOL! Hope you do find it somewhat enjoying to read :)
Until then,
Stay well & Take care!
Ciao~
;_; I'm so envious of your Shu Uemura makeup bag! It's so cute. I've seen them often on internet but never got the chance to find them in a nearby store.
ReplyDeleteAnd I feel you for the purple lips, mine are also a bit purple. lol