To Cuff or Not to Cuff

Booties are the hipster girls best friend. BUT, booties are often a gateway shoe into many fashion crimes. The number one offense associated with booties; CUFFing. May not sound that bad, but have you ever seen a woman walking around with saggy ankles and adorable booties? Not a good combo. To pull off a bootie, you must pair the shoe with an appropriate bottom. (ie: not bootleg pants & no saggy ankles, and definitely no 3/4 length pants) You must cuff cuff cuff. You can change up the cuff depending on the style of your jeans. In this case I am wearing high waisted skinny jeans. Since I have ankles the size of a 5 year old, I MUST cuff. I can't even wear those adorable tapered jeans that are already cropped for your convenience. (Insert pouty face) Moving on... I suggest you put on your shoes before you cuff your jeans. This will give you a good visual when you are measuring how high your cuff will go. Just experiment with different lengths. I typically won't fold over my jeans more than twice, does that make sense? If you fold them up more than 3 times your ankle starts to look like you are "just big boned", or like you quickly preparing for a flash flood.
 
I digress. Anywho,  it's not that hard. Just make sure your cuff is wrinkle free and your seams are straight. THAT'S IT! Viola! You are done! You are free to go out and look fab. <3 And to answer the question...... CUFF, always cuff.        

Love,
A

Favorite Flawless Face Brushes

Everyone always asks what brushes I use for my foundation routine. Well...here are my, not so secret, secrets. All these brushes work together in perfect makeup harmony to give you a flawless face. Even when you aren't feeling so flawless. 

Foundation: 

Sigma F80 flat kabuki brush or Sigma F82 round kabuki brush ($24-28)

Setting/powder: 

Dior powder brush ($55-60)

Highlight: 

Sigma F35 Tapered highlight brush ($24) 

Contour: 

Sigma F40 Large angle contour brush ($22)

Blush/bronzer: 

MAC duo fiber #187 ($42) 

I love these brushes for many reasons. First; quality over quantity. That is not to say that I don't own some very cheap and effective brushes, BUT you can definitely feel the difference. Quality brushes tend to be made better, therefore lasting a long long long time. Quality brushes are much softer in my experience, and more gentle on the skin. Yes, quality brushes are an investment. But if you are deciding on high end eye brushes v. face brushes, I say go for the face. Anyway... I am getting of on a tangent now.

Reason number two; I love kabuki brushes for buffing in foundation. This is a must for a flawless face. How many times have we seen women who's foundation looks like it is just sitting on top of their face? OR, even worse, you see exactly where their foundation ends on their jaw or hairline. Gross right?  With sigma kabuki brushes (or dupes for sigma) you can stipple on your foundation then buff it into your skin. That way your skin still looks like skin.

Three; Powder brushes can be found anywhere BUT I fell in love with this Dior powder brush when I was freelancing for Dior. I think it has something to do with the weight of the brush. It has a beautiful weight to it. That sounds so lame, but wait until you feel this brush. Not only is it pretty, but its functionality is amazing. It is hard to over do the powder with this brush and it blends and buffs so easily. Moving on to highlighting, this Sigma tapered brush is the perfect shape to set your under eye concealer or highlight your cheekbones. The shape and the softness is perfect. I am sure there are plenty of dupes for this brush, but my husband spoiled me last Christmas. And for that I am thankful.

Four; Having a light hand is useful when applying your contour/blush/bronzer. If you are anything like me... you need all the help you can get. Too much blush can make you look old or like you have had one too many drinks while getting ready. And no one wants that. The MAC duo fiber brush is perfect for ANY powder. You can use it for highlighting, blush, bronzer, the list goes on and on. But I love this brush for bronzer or blush. It blends like a dream and you can build color rather than have to worry about dabbing off what you didn't mean to put on. And the Sigma contour brush speaks for itself. It was made for contouring and it is the perfect shape to hollow out those cheeks and make your cheekbones jet out like Kim K.

Anywho... I will stop blabbing. Let me know if you have any questions. I will be happy to answer.

All sigma brushes: www.sigmabeauty.com

MAC/Dior: Nordstrom.com 

Love,

A

Anastasia Tamanna Review

   ANASTASIA Tamanna Palette  

On Black Friday, I decided to visit my girlfriend at Nordstrom & of course I couldn't leave without some goodies. I love my Lavish Palette by Anastasia, so I thought I would give the Tamanna palette a go. AND... So far I love it. I don't think the eyeshadows are as pigmented as they could be. Overall, for 10 shadows and only $29, I would consider this a steal. I am in love with sangria, Bengal, blush, china rose & gilded. So, pretty much I love them all. Obviously you can tell from the swatches, the color "fresh" is the color of my skin. Which is actually pretty awesome, because sometimes I skip my eye primer and just use my foundation AND "fresh" would be the perfect setting powder so my lids don't get creasy.  No one likes creasy lids, yuck. 

These colors will look good on anyone and compliment any eye color. Bengal is the perfect transition color for your crease. And all the other colors wear beautifully. The staying power is outstanding, I got about 10 hours of solid "wear-ablilty" before it started to wear off. 

Obviously I am pro Anastasia Tamanna Palette... it is inexpensive, 10 gorgeous shades, and good pigmentation. Go swoop one up ASAP, because it won't be long until the Queen of brows pops out another palette.