makeup feature: You & Me: Let's Be Younique!

I'm happy to be back on the blog train after some big life changes and a whirlwind of miracles.  There's no better way to do that than a makeup feature of my absolute favorite makeup products.  And it doesn't hurt that the company name is the best marketing play on words ever.  I'm so happy to introduce you to Younique, a fantastic makeup company based in Utah (yay local to my former home!) My darling friend and client, Natalee Fox, asked that I share with all of you my thoughts and some trade secrets with some of Younique's newest products.  All I can say is this....you will LOVE their stuff, new or old, so read on for more details.  And there's a chance for you to purchase your own!  Winning! 

My starter face plus brow pencil.

Before we get too far in this sharing of "top secret" make-up musings, I have to confess a few of things.  1. I wear about 1/4 of the make-up that I did in my 20's.  Make-up was a cover-up for my insecurity and I have slowly let that go over time.  However, I still LOVE getting dolled up and I especially love classic red lips, which is what I feature today.  Feeling pretty brings power and if we use it the right way it can change the world in so many ways.  2. I am a simple woman who doesn't spend hours putting on makeup in the morning because I value sleep way too much.  Thus, my methods are really simple and streamline.  I'm no expert, but I do what works for me and that's what you should do as well.  If the mall makeup counter expert tells you to wear it this way and it looks stupid to you, figure out what you like and do it.  Life is too short to have us knocked around by everyone else's opinion.  3. I have extremely finicky eyeballs.  They water at the most inopportune times and they also sweat.  It's a genetic gift that I would gladly send back, but that's not how it works.  I also managed to leave my 3D fibers Younique mascara at my other home in Idaho so the mascara I'm wearing today is NOT Younique, but it's the base that I have to wear, otherwise I sweat it all off.  It's super sexy when that happens, trust me.....and don't ask for photos.  It's a wet-dog-in-the-rain kind of chic that no one needs to witness.    

So, without further adieu, let's talk Younique make-up.  

Concealer & Foundation

I'm a top-to-bottom girl when I apply makeup.  Or bottom layer to top layer, however you look at it.  So, first up is concealer and liquid mineral foundation.  

Younique's concealer goes a LONG with a small amount.  I dab it under my eyes and then let it set for a minute and then rub it in.  I also do the same thing with the foundation.  I'm a comical war painted princess for a few split seconds and then the transformation happens.  I also put foundation on my lips as a bit of a primer (but mostly because I'm stream-lining...ahem....lazy.)

Younique's Skin Perfection concealer and Mineral Touch foundation are liquid gold.  They are worth every single penny you will spend on them.  The application is so so smooth and you don't feel like you're wearing putty on your face.  This is the only make-up that I haven't had a single issue with break-outs on my skin.  Love just doesn't seem to cover how much I heart these two products.  

The other truly magical perk of Younique's liquid foundation is they sell a special application brush that has a groove in the middle to hold the liquid.  MIND. BLOWN. LIFE. CHANGED.  Not only do you have a better idea of how much liquid is actually being applied to your skin, but it's so much smoother and not as messy.  I won this brush with my first purchase of foundation and I am a lifetime lover of this fantastic tool.  

Cream Eye Shadow

Cream eye shadow has been around for a lot of years, but Younique just released their line this fall.  It is spectacular.  I decided to go with a neutral pallet for this feature so I could really make sure I loved the product itself before I went crazy with bold colors.  These are the colors I chose: a nice matte nude color, a deep copper (yummy) and a metallic taupe.  They rock.  I have worn them often since I received the make-up.  

I layered my shadows with the matte color (top left) as the base color, metallic taupe (bottom) as the lid and then the deep copper (top right) as the crease.  It's a really light, neutral look and I love it.  

An insider trick that I learned years ago for best use of cream eye shadows is to use the lid as your mix pallet. Depending on the brand, it can get a little messy if you try to get a good application amount just by dipping your brush in the cream itself.  I usually like to mix while layering so the lid becomes my mixer plate.  Here's what it looks like with the metallic taupe color.

Lips

I can't tell you how many times I've put on a face of make-up and thought, "what the hell?" and then I put on the lip color I chose and it finished the look perfectly.  I've also taken more risks with lip colors over the years which is how I even decided that I could sport red lips, even as a redhead.  That's a long story that involves a guy I once knew who loved red lips.  Bless his heart for kicking me out of my comfort zone because it's my go-to for fancy events now.....and the grocery store on occasion.  

Younique just released Splash Liquid Lipstick.  They are a matte finish and are deep, richly-colored lipsticks.  They say you can wear them without a lip liner, but I'm a lover of liner so that's what I went for today.  I have a red lip liner from Younique that worked great with the red lipstick.  Below is a picture of the three colors I have right now.  A deep red (smokin hot), a deep purple (still deciding if I'm brave enough for that one, even though it's fantastic) and a dark brown (my go-to color in the fall and winter).  Click on the photo for a better look.  My lighting was a little wonky today so it's hard to see the colors against my red background.  

Lip care goes well beyond good lipstick and I love the lip exfoliator product that Younique sells.

I apply it after foundation and rub my lips together so the exfoliation can occur and then wipe it off with a damp cloth, as shown below.  Really easy and really important.  

Like I said above, I am a lover of lip liner and would definitely recommend it as much as possible.  It just helps give cleaner lines.  Plus, I have that weird genetic sweat gig and on hot days, my lipstick has been known to run and then I look like a crazy cat lady who escaped and didn't bother to look in a mirror to apply lipstick.  You think I'm kidding........so wish I was........

The final look is simple, but elegant.  Like I said before, I didn't include the 3D fiber lashes mascara because it's in another state, but I can't say enough about how great it is!  My lashes look a-mazing when I have the mascara on over my mascara tubes.  Look up the 3D fiber lashes here and give them a try.  You will not be disappointed.  

I hope my make-up musings have given you some new ideas for the dolling up that is such a great part of being a woman!  Younique is high-quality and definitely worth the cost.  Plus, you're supporting small business and there isn't a better make-up company to support.  Be you, be Younique and look smashingly gorgeous while you're at it.  

To purchase your own wonderful products, please visit my virtual party HERE.  

The moral of the story: Resting bitch face might give us less wrinkles, but good make-up helps us feel pretty and that is better.....much better.  

Until next time, my lovelies!

-R

Geekery is BeYOUtiful: "Geek Girl" by Cindy C. Bennett

A wise friend once told me, "we're all a little weird, Raylynn, and it's ok."  He was totally right and I find myself saying that out loud a lot.  My most recent read was a delightful and adorably geeky book called "Geek Girl" by Utah author Cindy C. Bennett.  My discovery of this completely adorable geeky book (did I say that already?) was in the mecca of all geekdom, Salt Lake Comic Con 2015.  Cindy is one of Sarah Boucher's fellow author comrades and she had told me about this book briefly so I had to check it out.  I could not put it down.  It was well-written, hilarious, raw and just plain sweet.

The main character of the book is a girl named Jen.  She has been bounced through the foster care system and as a result has become jaded.  She is angry at her reality and hides behind goth clothing, dark make-up and hangs out with the school's finest hooligans.  One day she meets a cute geeky boy named Trevor and has a brilliant idea that she is going to lure him to the "dark side" and rough him up a bit and win a bet with her catty goth gal pals.  It's not too long after spending time with Trevor that she falls under his spell of geekdom which is also known as being genuine, kind and passionately interested in Sci-Fi films.  The story that unfolds is so beautiful because Jen realizes that in spite of his geeky ways, Trevor is a good soul and she falls in love with his genuine heart.  As a result of spending countless hours trying to "change him" she soon notices that her own heart softens and she becomes braver and unravels some emotional messes of her own and begins a long overdue healing process.

This story line is not uncommon in real life with Ray.  I have a number of women in my close circle of friends who are geeks to the core.  I mean the whole enchilada geek 101.  I also have some friends who are married to geeks to the core.  Men who make Luke Skywalker look like a pansy.  I adore all of them and their goof ball husbands so I wanted to showcase some of their delightfully beautiful ways so that we can celebrate the ridiculous awesomeness that is geekery.  I think that you will find that geeks really do have more fun.

Before we can dive deep in to the land of my friends, I have to embarrass my sisters first.  It goes without being said that the three of us (and our ruffian brother) were raised in a thoroughly geeky home.  We HEART Star Wars and Star Trek and Super Man (Reeve and Cain) and have WAY too many Rocky movies in our stewardship.  Thus, I blow their cover first.  I won't reveal which sister it is, but if you know us, you'll probably figure it out.

Sister #2 is married and when I asked her to share some of her quirky geekdoms, she sent me a scripted story that she and her husband had drafted.  I laughed and laughed.  I will share a small excerpt for your reading pleasure.  They crack me up.  A LOT.  She is also a geek about drinks that are blue, Rocky movies and talking in dog voice (like if her dog could talk, what would he say).  Anyway.....

MOVIE DATE NIGHT AT HOME

Husband: What kind of movie are you in the mood for?
Sister: I don't know, either a comedy or action film.
[Husband flips through Netflix, makes about 30 suggestions...]
Sister: Let's watch a documentary.

We watch a documentary.
Every. Single. Time.

Sister #3 is a beautiful Whovian.  She puts us all to SHAME with her knowledge of Doctor Who.  In spite of raising her children with Star Trek and Star Wars, our mother just can't quite grasp the doctor and daleks and flying police boxes.  Odd?  Probably?  Relevant?  Doubtful.  Sister #3 is also a fan of the hipster lifestyle and digs the dudes with beards.  She may have contracted that by osmosis from her older sister, but I'll never tell.....and neither will she.  And no we don't have a board on Pinterest dedicated to it.  No, we don't.....

In fairness to roasting my sisters, I will share my ultimate geeky move.  One of my absolute favorite movies is Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  We watched it a LOT when I was growing up and it made me so happy that they saved the humpback whales named George and Gracie.  When I graduated from college I was dirt poor and needed a car.  My parents were kind enough to buy my first car and it was a 1990 gray Buick Century.  It was butt ugly and barely ran, but it was mine.  It was also rusted something fierce and from day one I thought it looked like a beached whale.  So......I named her Gracie.  After the whale.  In Star Trek IV.  Gracie didn't make the move with me to Utah and I made my parents promise that they would take good care of her until she died and would give her a proper send-off.  She was a car.  The whale named Gracie was fictional.  I am a geek.  Deal with it.

When I posed the question "what makes you feel beautiful and geeky all at the same time?" to my social media friends and fans, I received some awesome answers.  Check these out:

J: "Even though my eyes glaze over after 30 seconds of computer speak from my hubby....It's hot to hear a man talk about something more than football and hunting."

J: "Secretly wearing Wonder Woman socks on the day I have my department meeting at work (all men except me) and knowing I could totally take them in a fight"

K: "I read text books (science) when I have/had down time. I teach my girls science jokes and tell them science answers to little kid questions... I have to make my self not answer people when they are talking about why things work the way they do... I finally understand why people didn't like me when I was in hs I was such a know it all... I didn't mean it... I just didn't know how to not answer... yep I'm geek fits me."

A: "I've been known to have a very random memory which pops up with strange facts/tidbits that are completely off topic. Does that qualify as geeky?"

A: "The other day husband's old roommate came over and was taken back by how much I knew Star Wars. He was super freaked out that I got super excited too and husband just sat back smiled and said, "And yes, that's the woman I married. She's just that cool."

S: "Two words: Benedict Cumberbatch."

K: "Having my living room completely surrounded by comic books, posters and pop figures instead of grown up decor."

I received a lot more, but I had to cut them short in the interest of length of this post.  Thank you thank you to everyone who chimed in.  You are all delightfully weird and I LOVE YOU!

A couple of final points to share from the book before I wrap up.  One of the things that I found to be so incredible was the amount of love and support Trevor's friends had for each other and how they instantly LOVED Jen because Trevor loved her.  They didn't care that she looked scary on the outside because they saw her worth from the inside.  It shocked her that they would love her in spite of her scary exterior and it shocked them that she would love them even though they were the school geeks.  That's how life is, my lovelies.  If we will love people for what's on the INSIDE, we will quickly find that their outsides do NOT matter.  I read an article just this evening about a local trans-gender woman who took her own life because she felt no value in her own skin due to bullying and public shaming for her choice in sexual preference.  That is absolutely tragic.  We ALL have worth no matter our circumstances and preferences, whatever they may be.  We are all a little weird and we all struggle, but God intended it to be that way.  That makes life interesting.  I hope that you will take time to appreciate people for their quirks, imperfections and geekery because that's where the beauty lies because that's what makes us different.

The moral of the story:  Flying your geek flag will never go out of style so wave it with pride.

Until next time, my lovelies!
-R

Sunrise, sunset

Gift from God sunset from a few months ago here in the UT. Do you ever wonder if certain things in nature happen to remind you of those in heaven? This sunset made me think of my sunshine angel friend in heaven who was so instrumental in helping me become a strong, free thinking woman. Oh how I miss my Sherrie. Oh. So. Much. We mourn because we love.

The moral of the story; it's ok to cry. 

-R

P.S.-- now I'm caught up.