T&T Beauty Travels - Chicago!

WARNING!!!  THIS POST IS TEXT AND PIC HEAVY!!!

For my Twitter friends you already know I was in Chicago a week and some change ago for my bread and butter job.  In no way did I expect to be doing a post about it but we are die hard beauty lovers right?  So someway, somehow we end up finding something worth writing about. 

One day a co-worker of mine and I ventured to the drug store around the corner from our hotel and on the way out I notice this colorful vehicle of some sort...well lo and behold it has beautiful pictures of women of different shades and skintones rocking gorgeous lip color by Maybelline!  We were on our way to the office so I had no time to investigate further but yall know I hit up Google as soon as I sat in my chair right?  Come to find out it was the Maybelline New York Color Sensational Tour!  I made sure to jot down the info and to my surprise the next day O! Oprah Magazine was partnering with Maybelline to bring Oprah's lead makeup artist Ross Burton for a demo.  I made plans to be front and what?  Center.

The next morning I was one of the first few people to venture into the "tour bus".  Now yall know I could NOT leave out with zero makeup on so I had to end up taking my lipgloss off so I could get my lipscription (isnt that cute).  I wanted the lip that we see on Jessica White in the ads but I went with a slightly different color (sorry no pics, I thought I took some but the camera mustve ate them).  I made my co-worker come out of her slumber to get her lipscription as well and she loved her color.  This of course convinced her to come back with me to meet Mr. Burton. 

After lunch we came back to see it was PACKED!  Now yall know what Chicago's nickname is as well as I do so to see all of us out there braving that wind over some makeup was a sight indeed!  In a surprising turn of events my co-worker Vicki ended up getting picked for the demo because her birthday was coming up!  So she and the other birthday girl made their way up on stage.  Enough of my chatter, see Ross Burton in action...

Vicki's makeup vice was she kept it simple (nothing wrong with that) she stickes to powder and lipstick only, so she wanted something a bit more dramatic but not too much

He actually did her dark lip first, then did the nude lip.  Her beauty vice is blush, the more of it the better.  Ross wanted to show her that if she does her blush FIRST then play up her eyes she wont over apply the color to her cheeks.  She loved her dramatic lip and her nude lip (she leans more toward the nude look on a regular basis)

Vicki's finished look!

Thanks Ross!

Now of course I kept raising my hand to ask questions for yall but so did everyone else!  LOL  Ross did disclose that he did NOT go to a formal makeup school, he said he didnt have the money anyway.  He got his training the same way a lot of our favorite artists did, behind a counter at Macys!  He said if you box yourself into only being able to do one skin tone or ethnicity then you probably wont go too far.  I also asked him how he avoids becoming stagnant in the work he does on a regular basis with Ms. Winfrey, he joked that he wants to keep his job so he cant reveal any secrets, but that dont be fooled by what we see.  Oprah loves books, and charity, etc. but she also LOVES makeup!  She may come to him and say ok today lets do the eyes this way or use this lip color but that she will speak up if she doesnt like something.  When he makes an attempt to sway her in a new direction he kinda picks up the new product, say its lipstick, and he opens it and twirls it around in front of her slowly LOL Sometimes she's with it and sometimes she gives him the :sideeye and asks him if he's crazy.  HA!

I really enjoyed meeting him, VERY down to earth guy.  It was like sharing beauty tips with an old friend and I have no doubt that everyone took away something valuable.  I think that Oprah is lucky to have him on her team.  I also, got a chance to get a full view of Maybelline's beauty arsenal and will definitely be trying out the full range of products soon so stay tuned.  In our goodie bags we got the issue of Oprah magazine with the Jay Z interview and a coupon for Maybelline products.  Also, for getting the lipscription we got a full-sized Color Sensational Lipstick in Are You Red-dy.  I WILL be doing a look with that color, its gorgeous.  See you all soon!

90's Girl Group Challenge!

Thanks to Amina for hosting this great challenge! Even though I grew up in the 80's I tend to relate more to the 70's and 90's. They share some similarities image wise so I guess its understandable.

The 90's were filled with many great talented girl groups: Allure, Jade, En Vogue (DUH!), 702, Zhane, Blaque, to name a few as well as a personal fave of mine: For Real!

These ladies burst on the scene in a major way! Their look was naturally beautiful and a break from the norm of the era...
STUNNING! And to top it off they could SANG! With a debut album titled "Its A Natural Thang" of course you know what their makeup consisted of...if it consisted of anything at all besides maybe a bit of powder, gloss and/or a neutral lip color. Dont you miss REALLY good music?


The ladies of For Real were beautiful but for the 90's Girl Group Challenge I chose to focus on another one of my faves: Total!



Back then Total could do no wrong in my eyes and I just KNEW I was Keisha, ok?! LOL I wore my hair in the same style, the dark almost black lipcolor and the extra dark glasses with my faux diamond earrings from the beauty supply store, HA! I chose to recreate the look from one of my favorite videos/songs from these lovely ladies:







Here is the look:
The pic doesnt show the eye color much but you can see it in the video. Beautiful right? Here's my interpretation:

I figured since I loved the look so much back then that I could revisit it, hence the haircut! Here's what I used:

FACE:
MAC Studio Tech NC50 (all over)
MAC Studio Tech NC42 (as highlight)
CoverGirl Queen Collection Bronzer Ebony Bronze
MAC Pressed Powder Dark
MAC Petticoat

EYES:
MAC Tilt
Urban Decay Club
MAC Carbon
Maybelline Lash Stylist mascara
MAC Penultimate liner Rapidblack
Milani Minerals Eye Pencil Black

LIPS:
MAC Lipstick - Coral Carbonate
Hard Candy Sweet Spot lipgloss-Love Child

T&T Beauty FOTD - the Monday blues...er greens

So I was all motivated to do a video tutorial this morning and of course, just my luck, I am having technical difficulties with my camera, you see I can upload the second half with no problem, the first half is still on my camera and refuses to budge. I am tempted to get one of those cameras that is made for YouTube now, but we shall see. Anywho, here are the other pics of the look.

Its a smokey green eye with a nude lip (obviously Shana, duh!)


Products used are listed below - have a great day everyone!

FACE:

MUFE HD Foundation #177

MAC Studio Fix NC50

MAC MSF Natural Deep Dark

MAC Mineralize Blush So Ceylon

Eyes:

UDPP

MAC Carbon

MAC Humid

Maybelline Lash Stylist Black

MAC Engraved liner

MAC Cork liner (eyebrows)

Lips:

MAC Spice Liner

NYX Lipgloss Natural

NYX Liner Dark Brown