theNotice: a beauty blog

There’s something missing here…

And it’s a crazy Parisian artist-moustache, with Annabelle Licoriche!

Get involved with your very own #AnnabelleMovember ‘stache 

This month for Movember, Annabelle will be donating $1 for every #AnnabelleMovember Pinterest pin. To have your mo’ added to the board:

1. Take a photo of yourself with a moustache drawn on with Annabelle product(s),
2. Pin it to Pinterest,
3. Tag it with #AnnabelleMovember,
4. And be sure to name the Annabelle product you used to create your ‘stache!

Check out the #AnnabelleMovember Mo Sistas 2012 board here.

You’re going to be seeing a lot of this look this week, and I feel a bit bad about that, but. But.

One of my favourite things about photography is the way that you can take the same subject; the same person, or place, or feeling, and just by photographing the scene differently, the resulting product is changed right down to its core. The casual disregard, the too-easy twisting and tweaking of reality is almost a transcendent action in my eyes; the ability to fully manipulate the viewer’s perception of the scene through techniques and technologies made entirely of human ingenuity without having to make headway on even the smallest of paradigm shifts.

For me, it speaks volumes about the subjectivity of the world, not just in perspective, but in the overwhelmingly transient nature of the individual experience. You can feel it in everything from a magician’s death-defying illusion; to a trick of the light; to the optical aberration, translated metaphorically into every interpersonal interaction, and it shakes us to our bones.

What we see is almost entirely controlled by what is intended for prying eyes, and what we see through a lens even moreso: what we see of each other, then, is obfuscated so efficiently by what we are wanted and want to see. When you can be sixteen or twenty-six; when warm pink bends toward a dusty cyan; when lighting and technique have more sway on the observer than the subject’s own facets, when –

When the human experience is embodied with such fantastic intensity, what then could be more sublime?

It’s not all that often that I do a runway-inspired makeup look that I really love, but this one’s a bit of an exception to the rule. Based on the makeup created by the NARS camp for the Joy Cioci AW12 presentation, here’s a look with camel brown lids, soft black liner, and super-sculpted cheeks. 

Paired with semi-sheer nude lips and really well-defined (but not overfilled or overdrawn) brows, the NARS + Joy Cioci look is incredibly easy to wear – polished, but not too done-up.

It goes with any hairstyle, really, but I liked the casual, slightly messy hair at Joy Cioci. (Try letting your hair air-dry for this, and add soft curls or a thick partial French braid on one side of your hair to keep it out of the way.)

Read the full tutorial here on She Said Beauty.

Keep reading! »

One of the Autumn/Winter promos that I love (loved, loved) this year was the one for Burberry’s Autumn/Winter colour collection. I still have yet to give the brand a try, but the aesthetic is just stunning — clean lines and gorgeous, classic shades.

Here’s a quick, easy look based off their fall face. With a focus on warm, diffuse eyeshadow and soft black liner, the tutorial (see the link below) is a snap, and I’ve swatched a few colour substitutes for below (seeing as I didn’t pick up Burberry Mulberry and Dark Sable Sheer Eyeshadows to do the look with.)

Hope you enjoy the look, and here’s to a great autumn!

Read the full tutorial here on She Said Beauty.

Products used & eyeshadow swatches »

The product: MAC Casual Colour Lip & Cheek Colour in Have a Lovely Day! 

This month’s Lipstick Bandit collaboration focuses on the perfect nude lip, and despite its limited edition nature, I had to go with MAC’s Have a Lovely Day! Lip & Cheek Colour.

Though I’ve been really unimpressed with a lot of MAC’s recent launches, the Casual Colour collection is one that I really wouldn’t mind seeing again. I just have the one, but it’s a lovely formula (and a really, really lovely shade.)

The formula: The Lip & Cheek Colour formula was thicker than I had expected, but (thankfully), in a good way! It reminds me of a long-lasting lip balm; creamy and heavy with a satin-matte finish — which is exactly how I like my products, thank you very much.

(Okay, possibly a bit less heavy, but I’ll deal with a bit of weight if it means we can finally, finally have something pretty that isn’t vinyl-shiny or overly-matte.)

With sheer-to-medium buildable coverage, MAC’s classic vanilla scent, and a formula that actually works with dry lips, I’m quite impressed with my Casual Colour pot. It does slide around a bit if you really pile it on (though what doesn’t slide around if you pile a ton of it on?), but unlike a lot of nudes–and even quite a few darker shades, on my lips,–it doesn’t settle into lip creases or catch on dry bits.

The shade: I honestly cannot say enough good things about this shade. It’s so hard to find the right nude for your skintone, especially when your skintone is a weird mix of super pale, strangely pink, and surprisingly green — but this one works beautifully.

Pink with a bit of red, yellow, and grey worked into the shade, Have a Lovely Day! is just as lovely as one could hope. It tones down my lip colour without washing it out; muting it and taking it ever so slightly more pale while still creating a very wearable, natural lip.

I like to think of it as an “invisible pink” for fair skintones — light and desaturated enough that the eye doesn’t catch on it, but just pink enough that it doesn’t attract even more attention, as many milky pinks and chalky nudes may do.

On the cheeks: I wanted to focus on this as a lip product (because, erm, Lipstick Bandits,) but it’s a lovely shade for the cheeks, too. I like to use it as a subtle, mauvey nude blush — think Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Exposed, but for paler, cooler skintones. It’s a bit on the heavy side, but creates an absolutely seamless contoured cheek once blended in, with a cream finish and just enough colour to serve both as blush and contour in a pinch.

Apply with fingers and give it a minute to set, and you should be good to go. I don’t love this on my cheeks, but I do like it. It doesn’t pack quite as much of a punch as my favourite cheek shades, but then, none of them would be even half-passable as nude lipsticks, so I find it hard to count that as any sort of failing on the Casual Colour’s part.

The verdict?

I know it’s a bit cruel to give a shining commendation to a limited edition product, but hark! Not all hope is lost, right? The US MAC site still has Relaxation and Out for Fun, and the Canadian one has Evening Stroll and Keep It Casual.

Seriously, though. $20 USD / $24 CAD, the size of a Tinted Lip Conditioner (12ml/0.43oz), and perfect both in texture and in colour? Count me in. 

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