Style Me Pretty

One of our beautiful brides, Heather, was recently featured in Style Me Pretty's blog

To see the full gallery of her beautiful wedding follow the link above

The Wedding Party Bridal Show

Come see us at The Wedding Party Bridal Show

Sunday February 26, 2012 at the Omni Hotel in San Diego

We can't wait to meet all the brides-to-be

Be sure to stop by our booth for some great giveaways

and fantastic deals

 

Sparkle and Hay with Krys Melo

Joyce Kuklis is was one of our beautiful brides we met at the Bridal Bazaar in April.

Krys Melo Photography is the amazing photogrpaher for Joyce's engagement pictures and her upcoming wedding in Novemeber.

Bellezza by Betsy along with Krys Melo Photography are featured in Sparkle and Hay's blog today!

Check out their blog to see more pictures of Joyce's engagment session.

You smoky bandit, you!!!

Guess what?  Smokey eyes will never go out of style.   No matter what your look is, you can rock a smoky eye.  There are a million different kinds of smoky eyes, whether it’s a silver that’s smoked out around the edges, a classic black charcoal solid lid, or a warm brown smoky look, they’re all pretty and all appropriate for different occasions.

I always think of smoky eyes in two ways when doing someone who asks for a smoky eye.  I ask, do you want a Keira Knightly smoky?  Or Pam Anderson smoky?  Because the difference is huge, but every woman has a specific idea of what she thinks is a classic smoky eye, and it’s important that everyone is on the same page.  J

I have a few hints that make a smoky eye easier, and not raccoon-ish or prostitute-y.   First, do your eye makeup before your face makeup, that way you can easily wipe away any fallout with a makeup wipe or makeup remover before you do your foundation and concealor.  That grey-ish concealor that sometimes forms when you put cover-up over some black pigments that have landed on your cheeks is not a good look.  I see you out there… you know who you are.  ;-)   Practice safe smoke. Do your eyes first. 

Second, keep your lips and cheeks neutral.  Don’t go bold on a whole bunch of things, keep the focus on your eyes.  They’ll pop, and get the attention you’re working for them to get.

I’m going to do a walkthrough on a mid-tone classic charcoal smoky.  First prime your eye with a good base.  Make sure that if your primer dries quickly, you do one eye first and then the other, so your primer doesn’t dry out and lose its tackiness and grab while you do the first eye. 

I like to cover the whole eye with a neutral-color eye primer, but if you want to do a dark one, that’s fine.  Just don’t use a dark primer above the crease, or it will be really hard to work backwards. 

Now for shadows. I always say work down. Start with hightlight, then crease, then the lid, then lashline, then lashes.  I start with a light color nude to highlight the brow bone.  Take it from directly under the eyebrow, and work it down to the crease.  You can choose how shimmery you want your highlight, some like it almost metallic, and some like it matte.  I prefer a little shimmer to reflect light off the bone, but the more dramatic the look, the more shimmer is appropriate for the highlight. You wouldn’t want a really cool metallic highlight with a warm natural smoky look. 

Highlighting and the next step can be pretty much used in whatever eye shadow you do every day.  Work a warm brown shadow into your crease, starting from the corner and feathering into inner-corner of the eye.  I like a shadow that doesn’t have any sheen or shimmer, choose something a few shades darker than your natural crease color.  A warm terracotta or fawn brown is perfect. When you look at a shadow like that on its own, you probably wouldn’t think it would be one of the most used colors to a makeup artist, but believe me, it is.  I use the same warm brown on my own skin color no matter if I’m doing a naked beauty culture look, or a deep smoky eye. 

This step is mandatory to look good.  It is SOOOOO  important to build a smoky eye from the top down, and have another color to blend into, and it will also give you a guideline as to how high to take your dark color up. Work a soft bristled brush back and forth like a windshield wiper, and make little circles to really blend it out.  Blending is the most important step of the smoky eye.  J

Next, add your lid color.   In this instance, we’re doing a cool charcoal mid-tone color. 

Start at the base of the lashes, and work the color up to the warm brown crease.  I first use a semi-stiff bristled brush to apply the color.  Dip your brush into the color and shake off excess.  After you apply it to the base of your eye, brush it upwards towards your crease, but don’t go above the crease.

  After your smoky color is on the lid, go back over your brown crease color.  If you are doing a soft smoky, this is when you can add some darker shading into the outer corner.  If you’re doing a really dense black smoky color, this is when you would do a deeper brown to smooth out the gradation of the black to the light brown crease color and up to the light highlight.  Adding a third color will help achieve a really nice continuation, that just blending alone won’t. Now blend, blend, blend!!!

After you blend, you may have to add more of your lid color to re-saturate where blending removed too much.  I like to keep the lash line especially pigmented. 

Now do your eyeliner.  The whole point of a smoky eye is no harsh edges, just a really worked in color washing.  Doing a cat-eye, or winged eyeliner kind of goes against the whole aesthetic of the smoky eye.  Use liquid liner at the base of the lashes if you’re going to be using fake lashes, it will help hide the seam better.  Use a black pencil if you want to work it out, and blend that into the shadow.  I prefer a gel liner, that I’m able to line under the top lashes, and on top of the top lid.  A gel can give more control than a pencil, but can be smudged better than a liquid.  I like to use a smudge proof pencil, or shadow on a liner brush to line under the bottom lashes. After your lid color is blended, use a light metallic color to highlight the inner corners of the eyes, and blend into the grey.  

Mascara and lashes are next.  Once those are done, clean up under the eye for any fall, and finish up your face makeup.  Don’t forget to keep lips light so that the eyes really pop.  And have fun!  Relax, smoky eyes aren’t brain surgery!!!

Red Lips are Haute!

Red lips are haute.  

Some people think that wearing them is too much work, or too difficult to make perfect, but they’re a really easy way to look classic.  And in a pinch, red lips and huge sunglasses can hide a multitude of sins from the night before.  

 When you do wear red, make sure you keep everything else pretty neutral. I really love a light gold eye with classic black liner and a bronzed cheek.  A soft peach is also really pretty for your blush, and compliments a orange-based red really well.   

Don't wear pink blush, silver eye shadow and red lips all together. It's not pretty or elegant, they all add up to clownish.  

Make sure that your skin is also looking good.  Cover any redness in your skin with a full-coverage foundation, and make sure to conceal any imperfections and under eye areas well.  Great skin will make your lips pop, and blotchiness will make you look unkempt and sloppy. 

To create the perfect red lip you need a few basic things; a red lipstick, a red lipliner, and a silicone-based primer. 

To start, choose your red.  As a general rule, darker skin tones look good with a blue base and lighter skin tones look better in brighter, orange based reds.  Olive skin tones tend to look better in blue or brown undertones.  Blue undertones also make teeth look whiter. I'm wearing an orange red on the left, and a blue red is on the right.  These were taken on the same day with the same face makeup.  J 

If you are unsure as to the undertones in a lipstick try this:  swipe it on your hand, and wipe it off/smudge it.  You should be able to see the undertones better when it is on your skin, and it is spread out a little thinner.  Here, the top is the blue base red, and the bottom is the orange.  

I like using a matte lipstick, because my lips tend to bleed, and a matte will further prevent that beyond a primer and liner.  I also tend to do red lips on only occasions where I, or the person I am doing makeup on, agree to “behave.” L  Smudged red lips are an easy way to spot a hot mess.  Don’t be “that girl.”  J

Put on your lip primer first, then do all your makeup as the primer sinks in. I like Cover FX's MintGlaze Lip Primer because it really moisturizes lips underneath your lipstick.  But please, please, please let it soak in, or let any other primer set before you put on your red lips.  You need that tackiness to grab the color.

I like to start from the middle in… a lot of people like to outline and fill in. Practice what’s comfortable for you.  The reason that I start in the middle, is I like to see the shape of the lip come out a bit before I decide the way I want to line them.  So I start with the red lipstick in the center of the lips, and work out a bit, but not to the edge. I like using a longwearing lipstick that doesn’t have a topcoat.  I like MAC's Pro Long Lipcreme in Prolong, a bright true red.  I then step back and look at the lines of the lips.  If I want to line outside the lips, this is the time to see the shape I want it to take. 

I like to use a liner that either exactly matches the lipstick, or is slightly darker.  Not too dark, you want them to match, and to also have the same undertones.

  After you line the lips, then you can take the lipstick and fill in the lips again, this time up to and blending with, the lipliner. 

You can choose to blot and reapply the color, or if you are using a long-wearing red, you’re good to go.  Braver people and artists can do a glossy red, or a gloss on top.  I like the aesthetic of a bold, red matte lip, but a shiny red is also really pretty.  Note that beginners should try a matte lipstick first because it is easier to wear and keep on.  Or you could end up like Haley from American Idol and have lipstick all over your face, with only Ryan Seacrest to tell you.  That’s sad.  And no one likes being laughed at.  J

Bridal Bazaar-April 2011

Bellezza by Betsy was lucky enough to be apart of the Spring Bridal Bazaar in Del Mar. We met so many wonderful brides and are excited to be apart of making their day extra special.

Here are a few photo's that Kelly Faust took for us at the Bridal Bazaar.

Bellezza by Betsy's booth. Waiting for the doors to open to meet all the brides.

For all the brides at the Bridal Bazaar we made little goodie bags with a special offer and candy of course!! If you haven't been to the Bridal Bazaar before, you need to go! It is amazing how many discounts and offers brides will get by coming to this event.

 Betsy was able to do a few trial runs at the bridal bazaar. Here is Amanda who was having her engagement pictures done later that night. We will post her engagment pictures soon, she looked absolutely beautiful!

The Bridal Bazaar was a complete success and are excited for the next one! Hope to see you all there.

Bridal Bazaar

Come see our booth

at the

Bridal Bazaar

Sunday, April 10th

at the

Del Mar Fairgrounds.

We will have a special offer for all brides that book a trial run at the Bridal Bazaar.

Can't wait to see your beautiful faces there!