Becca Crème Eye Colour

My goal when applying eye shadow is to get a smooth, well-blended look that accentuates the eyes, makes them pop and is all about me eyes and not about the makeup. There's a balance between fashion colors, textures, the fun of experimenting and the idea of what really looks pretty. Sometimes common sense wins. Other times it's all about teal and fuchsia.

The quest for flawless gets a big boost from Becca's Crème eye shadows, despite a serious drawback. Let's start with the good, though. The colors are extremely easy to apply and blend. They glide over the skin, making the lids smooth and attractive. I apply the light color as an all-over wash with my fingers and the darker color with a medium width angled brush to the crease, blend them together with my pinky and that's it. The result looks way beyond my average skills and is so beautiful I tried taking pictures, but my photography talents are not in self portraits. I should stick to cat pictures.

Now to the drawbacks: the texture is beyond creamy and borders on greasy. It doesn't look so when on my eyelids, but it feels oily when applying and you absolutely must use a primer or it'll melt within a couple of hours. The primer helps set the colors and make them last, but not as long as you might hope. It holds nicely for about four to five hours before starting to fade, and is nearly gone soon after. I guess the results would be even worse in warmer weather or when moving several times from indoors to the outside. It's a shame, because the look is very pretty but I wouldn't trust it for an important event when you must look your best for hours and have no time for touch-ups. I'm not sure it can survive a grueling day at the office, either.

All the colors in this collection are nice and wearable. The ones I tried are Rose Gold (sold out on the Becca web site, still available from makeup.com) and Antique Gold. When on my skin, Rose Gold is very sheer with minimal gold pigment that's barely visible. It's not very highlighting, more of an almost nude golden wash that looks very natural and not painted. Antique Gold is a dark brown with very little bronze in it, if any. Probably more brass than gold and very pretty. I really like both, but I think that at $25 a piece I'd expect a much better performance.

The two eye shadows I got were PR freebies. Becca products are available online from the company's web site and from makeup.com.

An Uneven Road to Perfection: BECCA Complexion Products

You know all those regurgitated magazine articles about the most common makeup mistakes and no-nos: The obvious foundation on the jawline, the dark lip liner with pink lipstick, the unblended eyeshadow... It's all true, but no longer as common as it once used to be. People do learn, eventually. What's far more common is the half-done makeup: You see a woman who obviously took the time to carefully do her eye makeup, maybe even curled her lashes, chose the right lip color and dabbed on some gloss, but the problem is that she did all that on an uneven surface or skipped a step in the complexion perfection routine. And it shows.

(Another complexion pet peeve is the over-buffing of mineral makeup that results in an unnatural shiny mask. One day when we look back at makeup blunders of this decade, this is going to be at the top of every list, together with excessive smoky eyes that reach the apple of one's cheek, but that's a discussion for another day.)

Once upon a time, before primers appeared on the market, it used to be hard to keep a natural, even face without having to redo the whole thing mid-day. Thankfully, we now have eye primers that do not let eyeshadow crease or fade, and face primers that help us keep up appearances from day to night. They come in two formulas: Clear silicon, like the excellent Smashbox Photo Finish, that glides over the skin and smoothing it, and thin creamy ones that melt into the skin, refining its texture (like the Sephora brand, Shiseido Smoothing Veil and many others).

BECCA Silky Hydrating Primer belongs to the latter group. It's supposed to be a moisturizer as well as a primer, but I wouldn't recommend giving up your usual product. It worked well on top of my regular cream and did a good job at keeping the skin supple and my makeup in place for long hours. The texture is very thin, and since it comes in a regular tube, it dispenses more than needed and is quite wastefull.

The primer worked better with my regular Chanel foundation than with BECCA's own Luminous Skin Color, but that's not really surprising since the LSC is more of a tinted moisturizer than a full-blown foundation. As such, it's lighter in coverage and quite sheer. It feels pleasant on the skin and gives it a nice, healthy finish. I really liked the way it looked: Fresh but without that silly dewey look many light products give. I liked less the way the pump bottle works: It's so squirty, I'm constantly having to wipe the lotion of various surfaces in my bathroom.
Since the coverage is so light, this product requires a touch of concealer on problem areas underneath.

BECCA's compact concealer is a two-in-one deal. You get two intensity levels of coverage: medium and extra. Both are quite thick, which makes blending tricky, especially in the eye area. Also, all the concealer brushes I own are quite useless with this texture. It only works with fingers, which isn't the most hygienic thing ever. The coverage is better than many other concealer I've tried, but the blending issue is a big one in a product that needs to not be seen. The biggest flaw is in the packaging: You need to keep the little plastic insert that tells you which side is which, because you really don't want the pasty extra coverage under your eyes. Believe me: I tried. Quite annoying.

The finishing touch for every well-made face is powder. The one BECCA is offering is loose, very fine milled and gives a truly fabulous, natural look (lovely finish that blends perfectly with the skin and never looks powdered), but only if one manages to work the correct amount, because the packaging, again, doesn't make it easy. What I do, is get some powder on the puff, and then swipe a brush over it. It's a bit of a hassle, even if the results are good.

Colors

Last week I spent some time playing At the Sephora store on Union Square. I needed a new bottle of Smashbox primer and wanted to try a few other things, like Becca's skin perfector that I've been very curious about. It comes in several colors, all pretty and shimmery. I tried both the opal and the gold. The latter is definitely too yellow for my skin and brings out the worst in it. The opal was almost okay, maybe a bit too pink. But I realized that even if the color had been perfect, I still wouldn't have much use for it. I love a little shimmer on my eyes or lips, but an all over the face thing would be way too much (and, haven't all the experts been talking about going back to a matte finish?).

The store didn't have any of the new spring collections, though they were already available at most department stores and online. I was left to play with the regular stuff and with what was left of the holiday collections.

I was looking for an everyday highlighting eye shadow that isn't over-the-top shimmery. I love Lorac's shadows and they didn't disappoint me. Their collection of neutrals and understated pretty colors is quite impressive and I was able to find a color that is light but still pigmented enough to show on my lids. Moonstone is labeled as "shimmery champagne", but it's not a party color and is very appropriate for daytime. It's not as pink as the color swatch from the website and is quite neutral- not a warm or a cool color. I've been using it mixed with a lot of other colors and it blends well into any look I try. It's very versatile, easy to apply and with the use of my Urban Decay eye potion doesn't fade until I remove it.

I also got a Lancome Artliner in the limited edition color, Socialite. I'll ignore the stupid name (who wants to think of the Hilton sisters or their posse while applying makeup?). I'm not including the color swatch, because it appears grey or taupish while in reality it's a very pretty metallic light brown. I usually don't go that light with my eyeliner, but this is very pigmented, defines the eye very well and adds some soft light. I wear it both evening and day, and it works beautifully. For a dressy look I add a little black liner just at the outer corner of the eye. Socialite is very light reflecting and gives a nice glow (I'm thinking of it as the anti smoky eye look. It's about defining the eye and drawing attention to it, not about looking scary).

My last purchase was another Lancome: Color Fever Gloss in a plum color called On Fire. Color Fever is the latest gloss Lancome has launched to replace their Star Gloss that seems to be getting discontinued (still available on their web site as a Last Call item). It's terrific. The texture is very pleasant, not sticky at all ( a great departure from their Juicy Tubes). It's packs quite a bit of shimmer but not metallic like Star Gloss and not gritty at all. The gloss doesn't have a distinct smell, which is just as well. The best part is the new applicator. It has a slanted handle and a very wide sponge that covers the lips quickly and efficiently. I wish every gloss maker would copy it, as it's the most comfortable applicator I came across. It's not as pampering or as long lasting as my beloved Besmae lip glaze, but they offer more colors.

On Fire is a lovely plum color (no idea why they chose this name, which is quite misleading). It looks like a darker and less sheer version of Chanel's Summer Plum glossimer. On fair skin and lips it would probably be very bold (though it's not as dark as this swatch from their site), but on me it looks natural, the whole "your lips, only better" cliche.

Evening eyes for non-blondes

There's an interesting and useful piece on eye-centric evening makeup in the December issue of InStyle. They are featuring actress Thandie Newton, who is an olive-skinned brunette, in three distinct looks: navy (very heavy on the liner), bronze (lots of sparkle, but still light and natural) and plum (with lots of black liner). All three looks use pencil liners to define the inner and outer rims and two colors of eye shadow. I like all three, but would be a bit careful when it comes to the lower lashes area. I was happy to see that I already own all the right colors I need for playing with this, except maybe a really good shimmer base. Their recommendation (Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Opal) looks very interesting. I'll need to check it out soon.
If you have a big holiday party coming, I highly recommend having a look at InStyle (pages 430--435).