614 – Revitalizing Beauty Columbus

Moda Prismatic Face Perfecting Kit 4pc.

I took me a while to hunt these babies down. I went to a couple different Wal-Mart’s around town based on what the inventory said was in stock for each store online. Each time I went to a different store same story yesterday. Said they did have them in stock but they were more than likely stolen. it was a common theme at each store because these brushes are so popular. I finally broke down and just decided to order them online. It only took two days to arrive so I should’ve done this in the first place. So my suggestion would be to just order them online don’t bother running around town trying to pick them up in person just order them.

These are the first set of oval make up brushes that I have used so far. I actually found that I really like them. For this set of course I like the cute handles. They come with their purple and blue metallic color and they’ve got cute indentations on them. The hairs on the brushes are actually really soft and there seems to be quite a few of them so they’re really nice and compact. You get quite a few uses out of them they don’t soak up too much product right away.

This is where I think the cheap brushes are set apart from the more expensive oval brushes. I recently received a Crown Brushes oval brush in my #Boxycharm box this month and I could immediately tell the difference between the two brushes. I think it’s because of the difference in the number of hairs honestly with the more expensive brushes here going to get more hair so the brush is going to be more dense and it’s going soak up less product overtime. I found with the Moda brush it only took a few applications to need a good cleaning and really start soaking up make up. They do perform awesome. They blend beautifully just like you see in all the videos on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook and anywhere else you’re watching. You just can’t expect as much with a set of $15 make up brushes.

The handles are a little flimsier, but again with that $15 price tag you can afford a couple back up sets until you decide you want to invest in that pricier set of oval make up brushes. These have quickly become some of my go to brushes on a daily basis. They’re so quick and easy I can’t help you pick them up. I will definitely be ordering a couple back up sets.

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The Creme Shop Blending Swirl Precision Blending Sponge

A Product Review

I am super excited which at this point I think it’s obvious its easy to get me excited. I randomly found these little beauties when I was picking up prescriptions at Walgreens. I always make my way through the seasonal aisle to see what cute things I can pick up and the packaging caught my eye. With tons of multicolored sprinkles on clear packaging, the blending sponges all range in bright colors made to look like ice cream scoops sitting on top of a printed ice cream cone. So at $2.99 a piece I picked one up.

There are a lot of hit or miss blending sponges on the market these days and now we are seeing the sili-sponges flying out as well. I still have yet to try those. It took me a good two weeks before I tried the new Blending Swirl sponge. Every time I went to do my makeup I got too nervous that the sponge would ruin my face. I mean for $2.99 you don’t expect much, am I right?

I decided to finally give this a little run through last Friday when I was getting ready. I started my base with airbrush and wanted to use my Tarte Shape Tape concealer for extra perfection and coverage. Now if you don’t work the makeup the correct way your traditional cosmetic can pull the airbrush makeup right off of your skin. So you can see this could go horribly wrong. I laid my concealer down where I wanted in the way and amount I normally would and started to blend.

I found the Creme Shop blending sponge to be incredibly easy to use. With very light bounces of the sponge it blended everything out quick and easily. I was really surprised. My immediate thought was I need to go buy all of the sponges that are left at Walgreens! I actually really like these sponges. It has a texture that I imagine is similar to the sili-sponge. It definitely has a more dense texture than any blending sponge that you are used to. I find that to be a good thing. The sponge itself has very little absorbency. One tip I can give after using this a few times now, is to use a very small amount of product. With very little absorbency the sponge just blends the product out with little be soaked up. There was just enough absorbency to soak up water to expand the sponge and for cleaning. This is in comparison to the Beauty Blender and the Real Techniques sponge. Having a teardrop shape I was also easily able to get all the areas of my face.

Listen I’m not going to sit here and tell you this is the best blending sponge out there or it will work miracles on your face. I liked it. I am definitely going to go back to Walgreens and see how many more I can score, for $2.99 yes please! I’m just saying, I didn’t really have any cons for this sponge myself and I suggest giving it a try!

the Balm Cosmetics

Product Review

It’s about time to get back down to business. So with that being said I have a few items below I have been using for the past few weeks. This way I can form the best possible opinion of all items being reviewed. Giving the products a few weeks of use will let me determine if my skin will do any little freak out sessions and day-to-day wear time, among other key bits of information.

the Balm cosmetics

Bahama Mama bronzer

The Bahama Mama bronzer reminded me of a warmer Benefit Hoola bronzer. Cool enough to use this color for a contour shade, it was actually a great color for me to blend over my cheek contour to add some warmth to my much too pale complexion. Easy to build it was not an overly powdery bronzer. In a pinch the color is neutral enough it can even be used for a quick brow powder. With super cute and bright packaging it even came equipped with a mirror.

This is one that was an immediate favorite. With the packaging, quality of product, color shade, and for $20 this bronzer is well worth the purchase!

Nude ‘tude palette

This palette features twelve individual eyeshadow colors. All ranging from white to a deep charcoal shade. Each shade is individually beautiful on their own. Twelve shades gives you many options and they are extremely soft and blendable shadows that would be easy for anyone to work with. I enjoy the graphics on the palette, they are very 1950’s pin-up. There is a nice large mirror on the inside, and with eyeshadow names like “Selfish”, “Sultry”, and “Sassy” I feel like it accurately describes me.

The killer here is that all the lighter shadows are shimmery. It’s not typical that I want a whole eye look that is all shimmer shadows. Shimmer shadows just aren’t the greatest at hiding any imperfections or mistakes. The older you get the more it’s going to highlight any of those fun little creases you tend to get. Hell even if you’re young and you just have a dehydrated eye area it will catch in the dehydration lines. So the one down side for me, I find myself reaching for other palettes just to get a few lighter matte colors to add into whatever look I’m going for. Not a death sentence by any means to the palette but definitely an inconvenience to me. It definitely says I wouldn’t take this with me for any appointments and that it wouldn’t be my first or even second or third choice to take when I travel.

At $36 for the palette that consists of 12 eyeshadow shadows and a nice heavy-duty package with a mirror you really can’t go wrong adding this into your collection for more gorgeous variety.

Broken Roads Lead to Positive Futures

Sometimes in life we may not like the things and situations that occur. Sometimes they are so traumatic that we choose to not speak about them for years trying to forget they even happened.

As hard as we try though it did happen and it won’t go away. It’s always going to be there shaping who you now are. Deal with it. There is something to be learned in every moment in life big or small. This moment of my career was definitely no exception.

What I’ve learned though is things happen for a reason, every moment in life IS connected in some way, and all shatters windows and closed doors lead to positive new horizons in the future. That’s where I finally am at. The beginning of my future and I’m excited. How I got her though was not always so amazing.

So I worked at a spa inside an athletic club. I managed it. When I started it was just skin, nails, and massage. I added hair services brought in L’Oréal professional and an awesome stylist.

I later left to help open a spa with my friend I worked with prior at Sephora. She had been working downtown at the most popular skin spa in town and would do fun things like shoots for Abercrombie, Express, and even Victoria’s Secret.

We brought in Kerstin Florian and we were the first boutique spa they allowed to carry the line. It’s typically only in 4 and 5 star resort spas and high-end places like that. It’s phenomenal I still use it. We also carried Becca Cosmetics and specialized in airbrush makeup and skin services no one else in town did.

We were kind of the dream team. The elite of Columbus came to us. My friends fiancée was the one that funded the spa. He was part owner in an investment company on Long Island so his company invested.

Long story short she started she doing whatever she wanted and was running the spa like a sorority. It was completely unprofessional all the time. The employees followed her example and did whatever they wanted. She was even so bad at managing money that if we were out of a product for a service but had a client we needed it for, she would say to use something else and pretend and just charge the same. Ummmm no? Wtf like really. That’s not the first time either that I’ve been told that by a salon/spa owner. How foul am I right? So stuff started getting really tense when we got the makeup job for the couture runway show for Highball Halloween.

We had to do preview look once a month. Well I’m a planner, organized, I create looks on face-charts ahead of time. She did not, so when the first time came my model got so many compliments and hers looked well, amateur. She got really jealous, so from then on she made me do all the models while she took clients and made commission. Which was fine because Highball is like my dream since I couldn’t move to New York City and work Fashion Week.

So next thing I know she puts me in charge of creative direction and the team for highball. I think she thought I was going to fall on my ass and she was going to swoop in. So I get a bunch of face-charts done, I start putting together a call sheet for artists that can do airbrush, and plan some practice time as this is a big deal. Next thing I know I find this letter out on the table in the break room from the investment company and being the manager I picked it up. It said “Confidential, do not leave laying out” some shit like that.

It stated that the company not only was going to be giving her the 50 % commission on clients but that they are now giving her a $60k a year salary! Bitch for what. For going to her home that’s paid for by her fiancée, furnished bye her fiancée, in her Mercedes SUV that’s paid for by her fiancée, everyday to take a nap for 3-4 hours while I sit there from 8:30am-9pm making commission only, doing all office work, managing employees, and taking clients. Is this shit for real? All this while I’m struggling at home to take care of my daughter. I mean I know you must be think the same thing as me. Her va j must be made of gold and flawless diamonds because wtf. We got into it a few days after that. It was really ugly. I left.

This was a month before highball. At one point I was looking on TheKnot.com and saw that she had used the pic above advertising her busines. It was taken when I managed a previous salon with a model who I actually worked with at that time the photo was taken. She stole my photo. Of course I was cropped out. The worst park the model had tragically passed away not long before I found my phote being used by someone that didn’t own the work to advertise. When I found the face-charts I started missing people. My friend was supposed to be in my wedding that year. Never spoke to her again. Our receptionist I brought from the salon. She was 20 and in nursing school. No industry background. She used to babysit my oldest child. My husband is still friends with her on social media so when I thought about her I looked her up. That’s when I found out they were so desperate for Highball they had the receptionist doing makeup for couture runway show. That is the only year you can only find like 4 photos from the runway show. The makeup was so bad it was embarrassing.

That literally crushed me though. How unprofessional. How embarrassing and unprofessional that you use a 20-year-old nursing student with no professional background in our industry in a major industry production like that. Even if it is Columbus Ohio. You should be appreciative to even have that job being in your first year of business.

To me, having a receptionist with no license or background work as a makeup artist for a show like that is a slap in the face to not only that show, the designers, the people who gave you that job, and your whole industry, but you just completely discounted your own career that puts an income in your pocket. That’s probably why that spa is no longer open. Karma can suck. I learned a lot from that. I learned how strong I am. I learned my talent. I learned business. I learned morals. Most of all I learned my reputation and integrity in my industry is everything to me.

I’m finally at the end of my broken road and the beginning of my future. We are working on some really exciting fun projects behind the scenes I can’t wait to shake with everyone! For now though you just have to follow my blog and my Instagram. I am going to attach my old face-charts I had started for Highball Halloween below along with some other old photos!

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*pieces of some photos may have been taken out or change to remove any names or to take out spa recognition*

This is just the beginning

When I started out on my Instagram journey, it was never my intention to write. This past week I had an experience that inspired me to do a few reviews. There are so many different brands, artists, bloggers, and “gurus” out there these days. With that comes tons and tons of information that can be completely confusing. Hopefully I can untangle some of the miscommunications, misconceptions, and over abundance of information out there and make beauty simple!