The Life of A Ladybug

Basic Makeup For Performance and Photography by Azhia

This gorgeous creature is my dance friend, Azhia.  As Azhia, she is a bellydancer extraordinaire, having been named Belly Dancer of the Universe 2003.  Being a wonderful make-up artist, as well as a dancer, Azhia decided to meld her love for the two arts together and created "Raq (Rock) the Camera", a unique event that offers bellydancers the chance to come in and be styled by a professional hair and make-up artist (Azhia) herself and then take some of the most flattering and glamorous pictures you'll find anywhere.  Azhia has a special ability to find that which is most alluring about her subject and using just a few make-up techniques make that dancer recognize her own sexiness.  You leave a Raq the Camera shoot brimming with confidence.

However, Azhia is not all she is.  Like most bellydancers, Azhia has her "regular" life, as Christine Millan.  Christine is not the bellydancer or bellydancer's make-up artist.  She is the industry professional, who, in 2007, graduated first in her class from the Jean Madeline Aveda Institute in Philadelphia, PA.  She has done make-up for brides, has worked with photographers and film directors, and styled dancers, actors and models.  And in addition to all that, she has decided to share all the tips, tricks and techniques she has learned over the years in her DVD, Basic Makeup for Performance and Photography.

Essence and CoverGirl join forces!

Essence + CoverGirl are excited to announce the official launch of Makeover Magic, a digital makeover tool created specifically to cater to the beauty needs of African-American women online. The fun tool takes the guess work out of the over-the-counter makeup experience—the entire CoverGirl Queen collection is at their disposal, as well as great products from P&G Prestige. Users can also ‘try on’ a wide variety of trendy/celebrity hairstyles to achieve fresh, new looks. This fashion and beauty feature details hot new looks fresh off the this seasons runways.

http://photos.essence.com/galleries/backstage_runway_beauty_summer_2009_trends?xid=042909-beautyblogs

The Body Shop Hot Brights Lip Shine/Cheek Stain

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: lip and cheek stains are my favorite things.  They are so awesome for multi-tasking when you don't have more than five minutes to spare, but still want to do some prettifying!  Here's another one I've added to my arsenal: The Body Shop Hot Brights Lip Shine/Cheek Stain, specifically in Shade 01 Pink.

Bronzers for Brown Girls: LORAC TANtalizer Baked Matte Satin Bronzer SPF 15

 As you all know from my "Bronzers for Brown Girls" series, I constantly am on the lookout for a bronzer which actually meets my needs and the needs of bajillions of other brown-skinned beauties.  We want to be able to achieve bronzed bombshell look, too!  Sadly, many bronzers aren't deep enough in color to work for us.  I get it - the beauty industry assumed that, as brown folks, we wouldn't need a bronzer.  Well, WRONG!

So, allow me to extend a hearty "Good on ya!" to LORAC for creating the LORAC TANTalizer Baked Matte Satin Bronzer SPF 15.  This product is great for many reasons.

Jahzaal's Bellydance Beauty Bag!

I'm starting a new series here on The Life of A Ladybug.  If you've been a reader for a while, you know that I am a bellydancer, both as a soloist and as a member of the uber-awesome The NDC.  It occurred to me that we bellydancers are beauty mavens by nature, as we go through serious machinations to divafy ourselves before gigs.  I thought it'd be fun for you all to see the process.  Let me know in the comments what you think of the series and feel free to give suggestions for things you'd like to see or questions you'd like to have asked of the dancers.

We begin the series with my friend and fellow NDCer, Jahzaal!  Jahzaal has been dancing for over seven years and has been mentored exclusively by our director, Lotus Niraja.

Here's a pic of the lovely Jahzaal, sans makeup, no moisturizer or anything.  Isn't she ridiculously cute, even with nothing on her face?  If I didn't love her, I'd hate her.

 

Prescriptives All Skins

 

News from Prescriptives!

Prescriptives has over 170 shades and nine formulas of foundation from which to choose!  They also have the Colorprint SM service where they can determine your skin's undertones and find your exact-match foundation or Custom Blend a foundation for you!  (I have had Custom Blending in powder and foundation forms and was extremely pleased with the result.  Which reminds me that I need to go back to Prescriptives for another Custom Blended foundation.)

With Custom Blend Makeup, a blender indentifies your skin's undertone and creates shdeas and formulas that are perfect for you by allowing you to personalize everything from the shade to the amount of coverage.  You can even add anti-aging or brightening ingredients!

I highly recommend Prescriptives foundations, particularly their Color Matched foundations, for women of all colors!  And for us Women of Color, who have such a hard time finding our match in the department store beauty lines, this is a Godsend!

For the sultry goddess ... (Holiday Gift Ideas '08)

If you're looking for a suitable gift for a sultry goddess in your life (or if you are a sultry goddess yourself), look no further than Global Goddess.  This line of cosmetics was created by Shalini Vadhera to suit the beauty of women of darker hues, particularly Asian and Middle Eastern.  I am intrigued by this line, both for its global beauty aesthetic, but also because of the lush packaging and fabulous names for the products.

For sultry lids, try the I Divine Eyeshadow.  Infused with white tea (an antioxidant), these shadows supposedly give a firming effect to the ey area and can be used for daytime or layered for night.  I found the shadows to feel silky upon application, but I did notice a bit of a powdery effect on the lid - however, if you are careful to tap off any excess powder before applying it, that can be mitigated.  I did love the polished effect it gave to my eyelids and I found, with pleasure, that the I Divine Eyeshadow in Darjeeling also serves as a wonderful wine-colored blush when applied to the cheeks.  In fact, I sported Darjeeling as blush all last weekend.

To finish off your eye look, add a swipe of Cairo Eyes Liquid Kohl Liner in your favorite shade.  Of course, you can never go wrong wtih a basic black (Cleopatra), but I got to try Nefertiti (soft burgundy plum) and I was in love!  In fact, I got a wonderful compliment while wearing it: I was told that my (in my opinion, basic brown) eyes looked like they had been sprinkled with paprika - apparently, the plum shade of the liner brought out the tiny reddish flecks in my eyes!  How awesome is that!

To finish off the global seductive look, add a pop of glossy color to your lips with a Moroccan Mystique Lip Veil.  This lip gloss comes in six rich colors, but my very favorite is Marrakech, a sheer seductive wine.  I think I spent the whole weekend puckering my lips at folks.  My lips looked so darn smooth and kissable and they felt great, too!  No tacky stickiness to the formula and when the shininess of the gloss wears off, the color doesn't wear off with it, which truly impressed me.  The color stains your lips so you're not left with naked lips and an otherwise made-up face.

I am hoping that Shalini has much success with this line, as I am loving these products and want them to stay around for a good long time, not to mention that I'd love to see the color ranges expanded.

You can get Global Goddess products on www.globalgoddessbeauty.com.

Cover Girl Natural Hue Minerals Pressed Powder and Bronzer

"Every woman is a queen!"  The slogan alone is enough to make me love the Cover Girl Queen collection.  Thankfully, the products are good, too!

Cover Girl Queen has introduced their new Natural Hue Minerals collection.  It's great that bargain brands are also getting into the mineral craze, as many beauty lovers want to be able to buy mineral products, but might not be able to afford the products put out by pricier brands.  I got a chance to try both the Natural Hue Minerals Pressed Powder and the Natural Hue Minerals Bronzer.

In the Natural Hue Minerals Pressed Powder, I received Light Bronze 1, which I was skeptical about.  After looking at the website, I thought the shade would be too light for my skin.  I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that the shade worked very well.  Like the Cover Girl TruBlend makeup, I think the Natural Hue Pressed Powder is formulated to work well with a large range of skintones.  I tried applying the powder two ways: with the included sponge and with a kabuki brush designed for mineral powder application.  When using the included sponge, I found that the Pressed Powder went on quite powdery, however, it soon melded with my skin and looked more natural.  When using a kabuki brush, the powder looked much more natural immediately and seemed to sink into my skin.  I think I will continue using the kabuki brush for application.  I found that the powder worked pretty well at oil absorption - I didn't notice much breakthrough shine until the end of the day and, even then, it wasn't so bad that I felt the need to blot or re-powder.

The Natural Hue Minerals Bronzer is nice, but not fabulous.  I think the shade that I received, Brown Bronze, is comparable to the CARGO bronzer in Medium, and the shine is about the same, as well.  If you've been interested in trying the CARGO bronzer, but it was too expensive, the Natural Hue Minerals Bronzer will be a good purchase for you.  I was a bit disappointed because I thought Brown Bronze would be the right shade for me, but it didn't give me the bronzy effect I was looking for.  Next time, I will try the Ebony Bronze.  Still, it's a good product, if you can find the shade you need.

You can buy the Cover Girl Queen Natural Hue Minerals Pressed Powder and Bronzer wherever Cover Girl products are sold.

Toya's Tips: A new image of American beauty

This is our new first family, America.  Just let that sink in ...

I am so proud of you, do you know that?  I am so proud of all of you who stood in long lines and made the effort to do your civic duty.  Was it good for you?  Because it was fabulous for me.

It was an historic moment for America, one for the ages.  But, I'm not really going to delve too much into my personal feelings about the nature of this win ... at least, not on this blog.  If you want to read that, feel free to skip over to Makeda.  Instead, I want to talk about our new image of American beauty ... Michelle Obama.

Take a look at this chick.  She is all kinds of awesome, no?  I am so flabbergasted and grateful and awed that the new female face of America is this flawless Black woman.  Not since Jackie Kennedy has this country had a First Lady with such taste and style.  I'm wondering if as many people will want to rock her style as wanted to rock Jackie's.  They better recognize!

If you're one of the smart women out there who want to emulate Mrs. Obama's style, just slightly, here are my tips.

• Pick clothing with clean, simple lines.  Michelle Obama isn't known for the frou-frou.  She has impeccable taste and poise, but her outfits look very streamlined, playing up her long, lean figure.  But you don't have to be either long or lean to find simple pieces that flatter your figure, so make sure you're doing what looks best on you!
• Jewel tones.  Mrs. Obama picks robust jewel tones, which look wonderful against her brown skin.  But women of all shades can find a sparkling shade that make them look their radiant best.  Try yummy shades of red, purple, green, and blue.
• Sleek hair.  Instead of going for big hair, try to tame it down, just a bit.  That's easy for me to say, of course, as my hair is hella big - LOL!  But, even I can put my mane into a lovely pinned up style and so can you.  If you have shorter hair, try a slicked down look.  Longer haired ladies, pull it back into a sleek ponytail, an elegant chignon or just wear it down, but polished.
• Neutral makeup.  Michelle wears the sort of makeup that looks good with every outfit.  She always looks fresh-faced, but uber professional.  Neutral eye makeup - try Bobbi Brown's Shimmering Nudes Palette or Stila's Day to Night Palette.  Plum blush - try MAC's Beauty Powder Blush in Secret Blush or MAC's Blush in Plum Foolery.  Neutral brown lipstick with a bit of shine - any of MAC's Lustre lipsticks in a neutral shade will work.

This is a new time in American beauty.  I am so happy to see it and I can't wait to see how y'all rock it!

MAC Ungaro review

Well, I'm sorry to say that, upon going into my local MAC store and seeing the collection, I wasn't all that impressed with the Ungaro.  I get the idea behind the collection - that it is distinctly pretty and feminine, with no harsh colors, offering a sheer wash of color, but I was a bit bored.  For me, the redeeming pieces of the collection are the Cream Colour Base in Crushed Bougainvilla and the eye shadow in Mineral.

I haven't used a Cream Colour Base in quite a while, but, as my skin has gotten a bit drier lately, I thought I'd give it a chance, once I saw the incredibly vibrant shade.  I am so glad I did.  The shade of Crushed Bougainvilla is so decadent - the color is exactly as I imagine the results of petals crushed in a mortar.  The creamy texture and the stained effect on the skin feel so retro to me.  I love to dab it onto my cheeks and my lips to give myself a just bitten, sexily flushed look.

The Mineral eyeshadow, in the pan, looks like a rather ordinary cool brown.  However, when on the skin, one can see hints of shimmer that aren't readily apparent in the package.  It is a delightfully sooty look when applied to the lid, but also works as a wonderful crease color.

If you're looking to indulge in the collection, but don't have too much to spend, I say you go for these two and bypass the rest.