These days my life is very busy and my makeup routine often includes painting a rose on my chest, which adds 5 minutes. So I go for quick. Since I don’t use any powder on my face, I prefer crèmes because they go on smoothly over moisturizer.

Concealer/Foundation- MAC Full Coverage Studio Foundation. This has the consistency of concealer. I use it under my eyes and some areas on my face. MAC is still one of the few companies that has figured out how to duplicate real skin color.

Eyeshadow- Wet n’Wild lipstick 549 (medium reddish-brown) on my lids and crease. Very fast to apply, and it actually creases less than some cream eye shadows I have tried and lasts well. Lipstick can have a nice stain to it.  I would still like to find something a little more matte that will have less moisture and more stain to it. I have also been experimenting with a variety of brown, matte, powder eyeshadows. La Femme, NYX, and some I got for $1 at a local Japanese market. I just recently discovered the NYX line, and hopefully they will have an alternative to the Wet n’ Wild 549 because they aren’t selling it anymore.

The strangest thing has happened to me since I last spoke with you. I have developed an allergic reaction to purple eye shadow. Nothing else, just purple. I can’t even wear a brownish plum! This was a real bummer because I was wearing frosty purple eye shadow with my princess dresses. Little girls love that kind of stuff! So instead, I’m wearing frosty pinks, blues, & gold. I found that I can layer pink over blue and it gives it a purple tint. But then that started bothering my lids as well. I like brown for everyday wear, but for our weekly date night, it just got too boring. So I bought some La Femme Ultra-Peal Frosted eye shadow (about $3.50 each) in Charcoal and in Black to go with my black and silver evening gowns. I picked it because it is really frosty, and of course, low-priced. And because it is sold in beauty supply stores and you can test it first. The Charcoal has a little bit of a blue tint that I don’t like, but it’s pretty.

Eye Liner- I had resigned myself to using liquid liner (Prestige) since my eyelids have some wrinkles now and pencils don’t work so well for me anymore. Then one day I was goofing off at the mall and wandered into the Stila store. I fell in love with the Smudge Pots and I have been using this product ever since. They were out of black, so I bought a dark brown and ended up buying a similar Smashbox product in black at Sephora. I still haven’t figured out which product I prefer. The Stila is like a cream to powder. Once it is dry it doesn’t smudge, but it dries really fast not giving you much time to do your smudging. The Smashbox product doesn’t ever dry which gives you lots of time to blend, but it has the potential to smear. I set both of them with powder eyeshadow on top in the same color.

I hope I haven’t disappointed you by spending $40 on eyeliner! I had never seen this type of product before and I haven’t seen a drugstore version of it yet so it was well worth it to me. This stuff is the eyeliner solution for women over 40! I can have soft, smudgy eyeliner again without pulling at my eyelids and making more wrinkles!

I am also using La Femme’s cake eyeliner. It is a softer look than regular liquid eyeliner. And I discovered a trick for those of you who have trouble making the little end curve with your eyeliner. Instead of doing the lid first and then the curve last, start from where you want the eyeliner to end and work your way back onto your eyelid.

Mascara—L’Oreal Voluminous Mascara

Blush- Any lipstick that is too pale, sheer or pink for my lips. NYC 329A is my favorite.

Lipstick- My beloved Wet n’Wild 522 (Burgundy) with 533B (Dark Brown) on top of it. Or 509 (Red) with 533B over it. On the weekends all I wear with my costumes are bright pinks and bright reds, so I like to wear more adult colors during the week. I found this wonderful brand of lipstick at Long’s called Nicka. I have Urban, which is a purple/plum color, and Bordeaux a hot pink, and Wild Orchid, a hot pink with a touch of purple tint in it. These lipsticks are matte and densely pigmented. The color is much richer than Wet n’Wild. For my bright red, I use this Red Maybelline Great Wear lipstick that was a hand-me-down from my Mom underneath Wet n’Wild 552, a bright, cool, frosty red. The combination really helps the color to last. They don’t sell the Great Wear lipstick anymore, but Revlon ColorStay has a deep cherry red that’s pretty much the same. I bought burgundy and hot pink Color Stay hoping that I could get the long-wearing effect by layering it like I do with the red, but they don’t last, and the pigments are really sheer. Vixen is the darkest color they have and it is pitifully sheer for what is supposed to be a plum. Red lipstick just has a lot more staining ability than other colors in any kind or brand.

Since I last updated my website, NYC came out and these lipsticks are cheap and great. It is very similar in consistency and amount of pigment/sheerness to Wet n’ Wild. But what I use the most is the NYC glitter gel. It is terrific over painted designs. But none of you care about that! My current favorite lipstick brand is NYX, which I recently discovered in a couple of accessories and clothing stores for $1 or $2 each. This is a thicker, creamier and more opaque lipstick than Wet n’ Wild or NYC and I like the texture better.