Reach for Olympic Gold with 5 Favorites

I thought it would be fun to celebrate the London Olympics with a few posts inspired by the colors of the medals handed out (gold, silver, and bronze). This post features five of my favorite gold-colored products!

• Bobbi Brown Canary — gold shimmer overload
• OCC Triptych — true yellow gold with a metallic finish
• theBalm Mary Lou Manizer — shimmering pale gold
• SpaRitual Solstice — glittering gold with molten orange tones
• Inglot #404 — rich honey gold with a frosted metallic sheen

What’s your favorite gold-colored beauty product?

5 Holiday Highlighters

1. Benefit Watt’s Up — creamy, glowy highlighter
2. Guerlain Parure de Nuit — soft, subtle highlighter (still available at Neiman Marcus + Dillard’s)
3. theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer — shimmering gold
4. Benefit Sugarbomb — soft, glowy warmth
5. NARS Miss Liberty — wet-looking sparkle

What’s your favorite highlighter for the holidays?

5 Great Highlighters

As requested by Noah, here are five of the best highlighters I’ve come across! Dior Skin Shimmer, Guerlain Meteorites, and Bobbi Brown Shimmerbricks are all excellent highlighting products–and they come in more colors than the ones I’ve shown above (e.g. if you are cooler toned, you might like Rose Diamond more than Amber Diamond!).

• Dior Amber Diamond Skin Shimmer
• Shiseido PK #107 Face Powder
• Guerlain Rose Tint Meteorites
• theBalm Mary Lou-manizer
• Bobbi Brown Beach Shimmerbrick

What’s your favorite highlighter?

If you were using theBalm Mary Lou-Manizer?, what look would you create with it?

What shadows would you use? What would you use on cheeks? Anything added to the lips? Create a look using whatever you want, as long as you include today’s look book product!

Did you come up with a look you’d like to share featuring today’s product? You can link to your images, embed your images using HTML, or you can submit your images via e-mail to share them with readers to help give them inspiration on how to use the product!

A Highlighter for Generations

theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer ($24.00 for 0.30 oz.) is a mega highlighter–no, seriously! This compact contains a ton of product–it’s double the amount of your average blush. I can’t fathom ever finishing this, because you need so little to get that shimmering glow.

It’s a soft, shimmering champagne with subtle gold tones. It’s not the subtlest highlighter, but it’s not glittery, heavy, or overly shimmery either. It seems to have a combination of noticeable shimmer and subtle, glowy sheen. I think it’s a very pretty shade–ultra flattering on most skin tones–but it is absolutely gorgeous on warmer skin tones.  (Again, this should work beautifully on cooler skin tones, too!)

On my cheeks, I just tap the tiniest amount on the tops of my cheeks using a tapered face brush, and then I blend it out. I will say that this is a product where blending is necessary–if you just tap it on, it will look obvious and accentate pores, but a few quick swishes of a brush will turn you into a glowy goddess.  You can also use this as a highlighter anywhere–cheeks, eyes, lips, you name it!

If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!

• Product: 28/30
• Value: 10/10
• Ease of Use: 4/5
• Packaging: 4/5

RECOMMENDATION: If you love highlighters and don’t own this one, I really think you may want to put it on your list.

AVAILABILITY: Sephora

See more photos & swatches!

theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer

theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer

theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer

theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer

theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer

Dare to Wear Look: Yellow, Coral, Red

If there is one beauty lesson I cannot seem to learn is to remove mascara before doing a look!  Argh!  I always do this — have mascara on for some other purpose, decide to do a look, but don’t want to waste time (aka being lazy) removing mascara and then waiting for the area to dry (don’t want to apply eyeshadow base on top of remover… counterproductive!)… and then the mascara looks all clumpy and yuck at the end.  No more being lazy!

I did upper lash liner because I know some will be disappointed otherwise if they saw this look sans the liner.  I was just playing around with the combo last night anyway, so removing it after ten minutes wasn’t going to break my heart so it worked out   Well, except for the minor swelling this AM, lol!

You can easily pair this look with a toned down coral, pink, or even nude lip.  I went for the gusto and used Gimme That! but it’s not necessary.

You will need the following…

• Eyes: NARS Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base (neutral eyeshadow base), MAC Going Bananas Eyeshadow (light yellow), MAC Free to Be Eyeshadow (pinky coral), MAC Louder, Please Eyeshadow (pinky red),  Burberry Trench Eyeshadow (highlighter), Urban Decay Zero 24/7 Liner (black), MAC Blacktrack Fluidline (black), MAC Plushlash Mascara (black)
• Face: Make Up For Ever HD Foundation (140), Laura Mercier Loose Setting Powder (translucent)
• Cheeks: Korres #15 Natural Blush (neutral brown), theBalm Mary Lou-manizer (highlighter)
• Lips: MAC Gimme That! Dare to Wear Lipglass (bright pink)
• Brushes: 249 (flat, firm brush), 239 (fluffy shadow brush), 226 (fluffy crease brush), 219 (pointed crease brush), 116 (dense blush brush)
• Substitutes: Going Bananas = Goldmine + Nylon; Louder, Please = Passionate; Gimme That! = Funtabulous
  

For eyes, start by applying Smudgeproof as your eyeshadow base all over the eye area with the 249. Using the 239, apply Going Bananas eyeshadow on the lower half of the lid. Lightly blend Free to Be eyeshadow on the middle of the lid, horizontally, with the 239. Apply Louder, Please eyeshadow on the outer half of the crease with the 239 and lightly blend upwards.  Blend Trench eyeshadow with the crease shade and highlight the brow bone. Bring everything together by applying Zero liner on the lower lash line and Blacktrack fluidline on the upper lash line with the 208. Finish by sweeping lashes with Plushlash mascara. Add false lashes if desired.

For cheeks, apply #15 Natural blush on the apples of the cheeks and sweep upwards towards the temple with the 116, then lightly pat Mary Lou-manizer on the cheekbones.

For lips, apply Gimme That! lipglass for a complementing lip.

Check out more photos!

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