Let It Shine! New work in Luca Magazine

All images via Luca Magazine

photographed by Kelly Cappelli

styled by Jennifer O'Bannon

hair by Lisa Marie

makeup by Corinna Cooke

As you already know, I'm the Beauty Director for Luca Magazine.
The new issue of Luca just hit newsstands, and I am really excited to tell you that it is available in every Barnes and Noble, nationwide!

Luca is a super positive magazine for teens and early 20 somethings. It's full of great information, fantastic fashion, and a delicious dose of beauty.

Here is a winter party story from the new issue, all about the rules of shiny makeup...

There's no time quite like the holiday season to throw on a party dress and let your gorgeous self shine! 

When your outfit shimmers, set the night on fire with an artfully placed super sheen, drawing attention to the feature you want to bring out the most.

There are rules to the game of shine - make sure you only gloss up one place on your beautiful face.

When your skin is shiny, your eyes are sparkly and your lip is glossy all at the same time you can look sweaty or super oily, which detracts from your gorgeousness.

The trick is to pick one feature to shine and balance it with another feature that is almost matte

Here are three fabulous ways to let it shine

1. Get your skin gleaming with a creamy shine. Instead of a glittery highlighter work a glow product into your complexion and balance it with a demi matte lip,a firm brow and a nearly bare eye. 

2. Keep your eyes and your skin soft and demure but go all out on an ultra glossy lip that shimmers in the firelight and balances the sparkle in your dress.

3. Own the night with a metallic or glittering eye. Tone down your complexion, add some depth to you lip, then steal all the attention with a wildly festive, high impact eye!

As a bonus for my blog readers here are 4 of my favorite shine products. I use them both at home and in my pro makeup kit to create a gorgeous glow to the skin.

Charlotte Tilbury               Laura Mercier                           Stila                     Pony Effect
Wonderglow                      Infusion de Rose                  Aqua Glow               Radiance Glow
                                           Nourishing Oil            Perfecting Bronzer          Hydrating Starter
                                                                                                                                   

How To Do Glitter Eyeshadow

The holiday season is here, which means party season is here too!

Glitter eye shadows are so fun to wear to winter festivities.
They look so vibrant and alive against the bleak, dreary backdrop of the colder months, and they also play well against crisp white snow.

Candle light and open fires pick up the sheen you've added to your shadow and make your eyes sparkle and look so pretty.

But if they're not executed correctly, glittery eye shadows are just a sparkly mess all over your face.

So here are my tips for 

How To Work With Glittery Eyeshadow.

1. Neutralize your complexion
To pull off a good glittery shadow you really need to have a good, smooth foundation, evening out your complexion. 

2. Keep The Shine Only To Your Eyes.
Its easy to make the whole face look too shiny when you have a high shine eye. Tone the cheek down a little, and don't add sparkle anywhere else. Sparkly or shimmery highlight paired with a glittery shadow will detract from the effect of the eye shadow and can end up making the face look oily.

3. Soften The Lip
If you are making a shimmery eye the focus of your look, help it out by toning down the lip. 
Most people can't carry off a big eye and a big lip at the same time. Go for something a little more neutral, and keep it either matte or just a low sheen. A big glossy lip with a glittery eye makes the face look too shiny and too busy.

4. Use Your Glitter Shadow As An Accent
Dont try to build your entire eye with a glitter shadow. 
Build the shape and drama of the eye in neutral creamy finished eye shadows (glitter adheres better to a cream base), and then bring in your shimmery/glittery product as the final event.
Bare lids won't hold sparkles.

5. It's all In The Application
To make this deal work, and not have glitter all over your face, you need to apply it correctly.
I like to dampen my brush by dabbing it into a tiny amount of Makeup Forever HD Primer (it binds and holds the product without being too heavy) and then pick up my glitter /shimmer product and gently press it onto the area I want to accent.
Don't try to paint the eye or sweep a glitter product over it, as the particles will flick all over the face and can be tricky to get off. You want to isolate the glitter/shimmer just to the eye, and the area of the eye that you are accenting.

Shimmer vs Glitter

6. Shimmer or Glitter?
I prefer a product that shimmers to a product that is super glittery. My favorites are Makeup Forever Star Powder and 
Face Atelier's Shimmer. The particles are smaller, give more of a shimmery effect, and stay on the eye rather than all over the face. You can carry off more sheen to other areas of the face with a shimmer shadow instead of a glitter.
If you want to use a glitter look for one with smaller instead of bigger particles.

7. Repair Job
If you wind up with particles of glitter on your face use a piece of sotch tape to gently lift it off

How To Go From The Office To a Party In 6 Easy Steps

Its the time of the year when there are endless parties to go to, often directly from work.
But after a long day at the office, typically your makeup is looking anything but fabulous,
so here are 6 high speed tips to get you from office makeup to super glam in no time at all.

1. Complexion.

Instead of piling on powder and leaving your skin looking chalky, use either a duo fiber foundation brush or a clean makeup sponge
(or in a pinch clean fingers), and apply a little BB cream to the areas that need it. This will help to even out your skin tone and give your skin a little glow.

2. Under Eyes
Mix a color correcting concealer with a little luminizer and a dot of eye cream and refresh your under eye area. The eye cream will rehydrate tired under eyes, the luminizer will add a little glimmer, bouncing off light, and the concealer will even out the color.







3. Shimmer
Add a little life to your upper cheek bones with a shimmer product.
Avoid anything with large particles, as this can leave you looking glittery. I like Nars The Multiple or Smashbox Halo Highlighting Wand for a creamy sheen.



4. Sharpen Your Brows

Make a statement with a well defined brow. This helps lift tired eyes, at the same time as looking elegant and refined.
Trace a sharper line on the lower edge of the brow, then blend upward and out to soften.




5. Big Lashes
Open your eyes with tons of mascara. Curl your lashes beforehand if needed, and make sure your mascara is clump free.

6. Apply A Bold Lip

There's no time quite like the holiday season to wear a strong red lip.
Find your perfect red, line your lips to give them the perfect shape, and go for it!

Avoid
* too much powder ~ skin looks dead
* too much sparkle ~ it can look ridiculous when paired with a          couple of drinks
*going wild with bronzer ~ bronzer is designed to make you look sunkissed, not to make your skin look like brown glitter. Bad bronzing may just be the ultimate makeup faux pas.