Cleaning and Sanitizing your Make up Brushes

Hello Lovies!

It has been a week past since my last blog. Now, let me share with you I clean and sanitize my make up brushes without breaking my wallet. There are so many brush cleaners in the market from high end to affordable ones. But of course, if you are on a tight budget or let us say if you are practical like me; I would still prefer to clean my brushes in a traditional way.

Basically all you need are the following:

- Shampoo, soap (bar or liquid) or what I normally use is my body wash
- alcohol for sanitizing your make up brush after cleaning
- water
- clean towel

1. Dampen your used brush in a running water.

2. Pump a pea sized amount of your preferred cleaning agent. Swirl your brush until it produces a lather. If you will notice in this step, you will see the dirt (make up residue) slowly coming out as the lather changes its color. 

3. Rinse your brush thoroughly until the water is clean.

4. Now your brush is clean, place it in clean towel and spray some alcohol to sanitize it.

See, it is very simple. I hope you will find these steps helpful. Remember, being beautiful does not have to be very costly. Just be practical.

Here's a glimpse of my babies. Yeah, I need to bathe them now. ;D

My Face brushes:

My Eyeshadow brushes:

My Eyebrow and Eyeliner brushes (yeah, my spoolie is there)

Have a great week ahead my Lovies!!!

xoxo, Beautylash01

Neutral Smokey Eyes.. Perfect for First date or Clubbing

I'm back my loves been missing in action lately! :P

I have been loving my go-to smokey eyes lately and been receiving requests on a step by step tutorial how I do it.  I used affordable make up for this look. I am just not sure if Forever21 still has this eyeshadow quad available here in the Philippines. But you can definitely substitute this look using same shades of eyeshadows.

Let us get this going:

Product I used:

ELF Quad, NUYTX Jumbo pencil in Milk (available from Digital Traincase, Forever21 Quad Shadow (dupe for Naked1), Black eyeliner, liquid eyeliner, Saizen Quad, Saizen Falsies, Charm fluffy tapered brush, Suesh eyeshadow flat brush, Artist Studio pencil brush

Note: You have the option to do your eyes make up first before doing your foundation. This method will avoid eyeshadow fall-outs. Fall outs ruin make up!! But on my case, since I have been doing this almost everyday I did my foundation routine already beforehand.

1. Using NYX jumbo pencil in milk, prime your eyelids. This will make your eyeshadow pop and lasts longer. I use my ring finger in blending the product. The natural heat of the finger will melt and blend the product.

2. Using your flat eyeshadow brush, pat in Warm Brown eyeshadow all across your eyelid. Blend the harsh edges using your fluffy shadow brush.

3. To create dimension on your eyes, blend in Dark brown eyeshadow in the outer "V" of your eyes. Remember blend the harsh edges to create a gradient effect.

4. For a deeper smokey look, blend in your dark grey eyeshadow (closely black) to the outer "V" again of your eyes to make a deep set look.

5. Using a small flat eyeshadow brush, highlight your browbone and inner tearduct with a white shimmering eyeshadow.

6. Using the same small flat eyeshadow brush, line 3/4 of your lowerlashine using dark brown eyeshadow connect it with upper eyeshadow. This will balance the smokiness of your eye make up.

7. Apply liquid eyeliner (depending on your choice). Apply as close to your lashes. Line 3/4 of your waterline with black eyeliner. Blend it with the dark brown eyeshadow.

8. Curl your lashes and apply generous amount of mascara. (everyday look), OR you may go ahead and apply false lashes for a more dramatic look (perfect for clubbing).

9. Generally, you want your eyes to be the centre of your look, use any nude lipstick or baby pink. In my case, I am loving my Sophie Martin Lipstick in shade baby pale pink. The shade is so close to my natural lip color.

And here is my before and after photo for this make up tutorial

I hope you will find this tutorial very helpful. Please recreate this look and tag me in my instagram account or FB Fan page. I would love to see your beautiful creation.

Instagram: @aprilvida

FB: Beautylash01 by April Vida

xoxo, Beautylash01

Tutorial: All about Eyebrows

Hello Friends! I am back again for another tutorial and we will focus on our EYEBROWS. Sometimes, we take for granted this routine in our makeup; either we are in a hurry or perhaps we are clueless how to do it.

Let us keep in mind that eyebrows are only sisters and they are not identical twins. It is most likely that 1 of your brow is much more tamed than the other. Eyebrows create our face frame. If your brows are well groomed it will make a very big difference.

There are different tools where we can transform your brows from owww to wow!  In shaping your brows you have to consider your face shape. Below are the suggested shape of brows as determined by your face shape:

1. Oval shape: slightly arched brows or soft angled shape
2. Heart shape: slightly curved brows. Curves will create a beautiful heart shape using the point of your chin as the heart bottom and the brows as the top of the heart. 
3. Long shape: slightly flat with arched at end of the brows, this will create an illusion of a shorter face.
4. Round shape: high arched brows, this will create an illusion of a longer face.
5. Square shape: Balance this strong feature by a strong brow softwith curves.
6. Diamond shape: strong curves and arched brows will make the widest part of the face less wide. curves will soften the look.

Eyebrow color: 

We should keep in mind the color of our brows should compliment and match our hair. This is a MUST!  If your hair color is:

Blond: use ash blond of light gray pencil or shadow
Light brown: medium to light brown pencil or shadow
Red: ash blond or caramel pencil or shadow
Brunette: mahogany or warm brown pencil or shadow
Black : dark brown or dark gray pencil or shadow

Now let me share with you how I groom and do my brows.
Tools needed:

1. Spoolie or an improvised clean mascara wand
2. Angled eyebrow brush, I got mine from Suesh
3. Flat shadow brush
4. Tweezers
5. Small scissors
6. Brow blade

Make up products needed:
(May depend on your preference)

1. Benefit eyebrow wax
2. NYx jumbo pencil in dark brown (I just deported mine since I do not have a sharpener to fit this size ;) )
3. Faceshop eyebrow pencils in brown
4. Nichido pencil concealer in Beige to clean the edges and highlights too.

Here it goes:
1. Using your spoolie, gently brush your brows to define its natural shape.

2. Noticing I have some long brows, I usually groom it at times. (this step is optional).

3. Using your angled brush, create an illusion or your desired shape. (Consider your face shape on this). I either use an eyebrow wax or my depot-ted NYX Jumbo pencil in Dark Brown. The consistency of both product (wax or cream-based) makes the shaping easier.

4. Outline your brows top portion first then followed by lower portion. Outlined brows should look like this:

5. Fill in your brows. You may use eyebrow pencil or a matte brown eyeshadow.

** This is optional, after filling in your brows, you may go ahead and tint it with Eyebrow tint. A good choice if you are on a budget, try Etude House Color my brows, OR if you have the budget, MAC's girlboy is a good choice too.

6. Blend the shadow or pencil to soften the look.

7. Once blended, outline and clean the harsh edges by applying a pencil concealer or any concealer. This step will highlight the brows and will elaborate the shape.

8. Final step, is to check your brows. Checking your brows need some Geometry.. :) This picture will be very helpful. Using your nose as your focal point.

Sharing some photos of the finished look. :)

I hope you would find these information relevant. :) Thank you Lovelies and have a gorgeous day ahead!

xoxo, Beautylash01