Step-by Step: At Home Facials!

I just gave myself the best at home facial. I’ve been working like crazy lately and although a big part of my job is to teach people to take care of their skin, the past couple weeks I’ve been so exhausted that I fell behind. Buying a ridiculously overpriced mirror that flips to a 10x magnification, I’ve kind of been dying to see my skin up close and personal! There are so many different types of facials you can do in the comfort of your home, but tonight I wanted to focus on 2 things- blackheads and detoxing. Here’s exactly what I used tonight:

1) First I removed makeup with a cleansing oil (MAC Cleanse Off).

2) I used my Clarisonic with Dior’s Purifying Cleansing Milk to retain my skin’s moisture while battling dirt and oil.

3) To exfoliate inside my pores I used a classic- Clinique Clarifying Lotion #4 on Shishedo cotton.

4) Another classic! Biore Strips (although they really didn’t do anything impressive)

5) I spent a good 25 minutes with my extractor and cotton soaked in the Clinique Toner from before leaving my face pretty red but blackhead-free! Because I was already feeling pampered, I used this opportunity to clean up my brows!

6) I applied Dior One Essential Serum to my face, neck and decollete. One Essential is an amazing product that boosts all your other skincare while detoxifying your skin from the environmental damage we encounter on a daily basis.

7) Since I did this facial at night, I chose one of my very favorite skincare products I own- Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair. It’s a great detox that has given a noticeable improvement in my skin within the first week of using it.

8) Some nights I wash my face and use only Advanced Night Repair as it is very moisturizing, but tonight I opted for maximum moisture and followed with Creme de La Mer ‘The Moisturizing Lotion’

9) Since I have been sick all week my nose was chapped and horrible looking. I have tried everything I could think of and nothing was making a big difference until a coworker recommended pure Shea Butter from L’Occitane. I rubbed it on my nose, lips and under my eyebrows where they were red from tweezing.

10) After everything I did, I decided to take care of my hair while I was at it and used an incredible product from Phyto called ‘The Elixer’. The elixer is a once-a-week treatment that purifies your scalp (imagine a clarisonic for your scalp pores) which is often neglected by us all. I’m sleeping with the treatment on and I’ll shampoo it out in the morning.

All in all it’s pretty late in bed right now but I feel marvelous and can’t wait to see my skin in the morning!

Time for Beauty Sleep- Goodnight!

How to create a “Cut Crease”

I dare you to try this look! It’s a classic makeup effect called a cut crease and is very simple to create at home as long as you have the right brush. For this look I used MAC Paint Pot in Nubile (painterly works just as well) topped with MAC Shadow in Brule. I popped a bit of NARS Pandora (white) in the center.

The shape will be different on everyone but there’s a simple rule of thumb to follow.

1. Look straight ahead in the mirror and see where your eyelid crease is naturally.

2. With an angled brush (I used a MAC 266), take a dark shadow (NARS Pandora Black) and tap the shadow into place like a cat eye until it jets out just a few millimeters from where the crease falls. Trace just a few mm above the crease in a natural line and drag over without worrying about putting more shadow on the brush.

3. Use a small shadow brush (MAC 239) and in a light/medium brown or grey (MAC Saddle) blend the crease you made up leaving the line semi-sharp on the bottom until you get the desired gradient effect.

4. You can make the cut crease more dramatic by adding a sharpened kohl liner to it just on the corners and barely blending it.

Here is a great video tutorial by Gossmakeupartist that can show you in more detail exactly how to create this great look. Good luck!

**This look is super interesting on asian eyes because it transforms the entire face. Rather than going just above the natural crease, you can put the crease where you think it would look the best and it gives you a very westernized, dramatic look. Harder to do but worth the drama when you get it right!

Beauty Stylist Promotion!

Ever since my start at Nordstrom at the beginning of the year I have been ridiculously happy with my job. I have always ran my freelance makeup artistry on the side no matter what career I have had but I was never truly fulfilled until I started doing makeup every day and getting paid to do so. There are several reasons why I love what I do. The fun atmosphere, the competitive nature, the feeling of being valued somewhere, the recognition, I could go on and on. The most important thing though, has always been the clients I meet on a daily basis. The ones that are travelling and stopping through and the ones that come back again and again to work with me. I have been working for what I believe to be one of the very best makeup lines in the world since the first week of February. Even though I’m in love with all of their products I still love other lines as well and always gave my clients a totally unbiased opinion of what they needed. When people ask me what my favorite makeup product is I know they are trusting me to tell them the truth and not push something at them that isn’t right or easy enough to use. This has been my philosophy since day one. My kit is full of different product lines because the simple truth is that there is no one line that is best for everyone. This philosophy has unexpectedly taken me to the next level with my career and I have now been placed in a position that I’m a bit intimidated by but that I know I will be great at. I am so happy to say that I am now a Nordstrom Beauty Stylist!

So what is a Beauty Stylist and how is it different than what I have been doing? At every Nordstrom store there are now individuals like myself that are not paid to push certain lines. Rather we are paid to be the expert across all lines and act as a personal stylist to evaluate the clients’ needs and send the proper products home with them. I pride myself on constantly maintaining a student mentality with every line we carry and  do my best to learn the pro’s and con’s of each product. If you’ve worked with me before you know how much of a skincare freak I am. Great makeup has to start with great skin. I wish I could help every woman I know to look better and feel more confident with her skin and makeup.

I officially start later this week and will be doing my best to make my business appointment based. If you or anyone you know in the St. Louis, MO area want some help in the makeup/skincare department or you’re a makeup junkie and you want to do an appointment for me to show you my current favorites and new collections feel free to contact me via text at (312-285-5907) or email me at makeupishaute@gmail.com.

This is just the next stop for me down a hopefully long and awesome road. Bring on the adventure!

xx Megan

Me and my clients turned friends Mandi and Julie.

Clarisonic Opal and Kate Somerville Dermal Quench Review!

Here’s my honest opinion of the Clarisonic Opal (for the eyes) and Kate Somerville’s Dermal Quench Liquid Lift.

Clarisonic Opal: Firms and tightens around the eye using same sonic technology as in the Clarisonic face brush. The sonic vibrations on the rubber tip pushes serums into your skin 6x deeper than manually applying them for faster even instant results. The Opal also breaks up fluid sitting under the eyes (aka bags) and promotes blood (dark circles) drainage. The Opal sells for $185 and comes with eye serum.

Kate Somerville Dermal Quench Liquid Lift: I call this “Spanx for your face”. This product has truly changed my skin by giving it a much more supple texture, and has made it appear more lifted. I have seen results of the actual spa facial this product is modeled after and the results look exactly the same with the at-home version. The spa service is around $300 for one facial whereas this product is $95 and you get dozens of uses.

Bright Lips and Glowing Skin! (Makeup Tutorial)

This video is the first with a new style so I hope you like it. I teamed up with @KristenLinares at Thirteenth and Washington here in St. Louis to show how to wear a bold lip. Everyone needs that one bright color in their makeup bag to wear every once in a while 🙂 Maybe bright is a soft baby pink for you and that’s okay. If the focus is going to be on the lips I show you how you should do everything else!

Products used:
Maybelline Baby Lips
MAC Pro Longwear Concealer on Airbrush Concealer Brush (Sephora)
NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer
NARS Orgasm Illuminator
MAC Blush in Margin
NARS Schiap Lipstick on MAC Lip Brush
Sisley Silver Touch Creme Shadow
MAC Omega Shadow on Smashbox Brow Brush
YSL Faux Cils Mascara in #5 Burgundy

Product Review: NARS Larger Than Life Eyeliner

I have been obsessed over this eyeliner since this past February so I figured I would spread the love by letting my subscribers know what the deal is. The liner is perfect for waterlines and stays put ALL day. ALL night. Basically it comes off when you want it off. I have heard some people have trouble getting it off but those are the ‘take my makeup off with soap and water’ people. With any basic eye makeup remover or makeup removing wipes you will be just fine.

For Makeup Junkies on a Budget…

Good morning! I love unexpected pleasantries like waking up and having a email about a HUGE FREAKING SALE at BH Cosmetics!!! If you haven’t heard of BH Cosmetics they are used by tons of pro’s who travel a lot and need a (very) wide range of colors to work with. I dont know how they do it but their eyeshadows are  really great and pretty well pigmented and they are CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. They do huge palettes of not only eyeshadows but concealers, blushes, lipsticks/glosses and are usually under $20. I have 5 palettes from them that I use fairly often. Well they are having a massive sale and you must check it out if you’re in the market for some new shades. The quality isn’t as great as MAC, NARS, YSL, etc., but for 88 or 120 eyeshadows in one palette for the under the price of one NARS Shadow it’s worth the purchase! 

Great Day St. Louis Post

I had such an amazing experience today! Great Day St. Louis asked me for my expertise on how to get a summer glow and I put together a short segment that would work for all women no matter their style.

I’m having issues posting the embedded segment but a click HERE to watch if you haven’t seen it yet!

Here are the products I used on the show:

1) Clarisonic 

2) Clarisonic Opal

3) Stila One-Step Corrector

4) NARS Tinted Moisturizer

5) YSL Touche Eclat Highlighting Pen

6) NARS Orgasm Illuminator

7) YSL Faux Cils Mascara #5

8) YSL Glossy Stain #16

The way to wear a bright lip is with Glowing Skin and of course, confidence. Everyone should have their one go-to bright color that makes a statement and makes them feel like a rockstar for a day.

Tips to get GREAT Self Tanning Results!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpy0didgBj4]

A few things I fail to mention in my video (ahem.. it was 7:30am) are the following tips:

-Always exfoliate before self tanning. I exfoliate every day with my Clarisonic but sometimes you need more than that. I would recommend something (for the face) like a St. Ives Apricot Scrub (low end) or Kate Somerville Exfolikate (high end) once or twice a week, or specifically before self tanning.

If you are in the market for a Clarisonic and also are a fan of fake baking you need to get the Clarisonic Plus. It comes with a body attachment which works great with the Clarisonic Body Exfoliator (low end since it comes with it) or my absolute favorite Jo Malone Vitamin E Body Scrub (high end).

-Another great tip that I am being a total hypocrite about is that it is best to self tan in the evenings after a shower. Since you dont want streaking it’s best to avoid self tanning then putting something wet on your face (such as skincare & makeup). The other perk of self tanning in the evening is that you can sleep with it on the skin allowing it to soak in more and that way you can shower it off in the morning and not smell like self tanner all day.

Tip: Some self tanners can come off on your sheets if you sleep in it. The products I used in the video will not (at least they haven’t for me!).

Rockstar Inspired Smokey Eye in less than Ten Minutes!

Update: I noticed a bit of creasing after a few hours since I didn’t put on an eyeshadow primer. I should have used the NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base as it is clear and won’t change the look at all it will just keep from creasing.

Products used:

MAC Mineralize Eye Cream

Smashbox HD Concealer

Dior Airflash Foundation

Dior Powder Foundation Brush

NARS Gilda Blush

NARS Mambo Eyeliner

NARS Surabaya Shadow Duo

YSL Faux Cils Burgundy #5 Mascara

MUFE Waterproof Eyebrow Corrector in #2