How to Hide Tired Eyes in 4 Steps

We're happy to present this story from our friends at Allure:

Sure, it's the summer — the time of year when most of us get a chance to escape on vacation or at least spend our weekends relaxing on the beach. But it's also the time of year for back-to-back weddings, long car trips, and one too many happy hour margaritas.

I might be speaking from personal experience here, but all those factors combined equal dark circles and serious bags. Here are the tricks, tips, and products I use to keep my eyes bright (and open) after a long night out. 

Chill out. My favorite cooling eye gel is from Skyn Iceland. I lay the mini masks under my eyes the minute I get out of the shower and leave them on while I make my bed and get dressed. After about five minutes, all the puffiness is gone.

Get caffeinated. An eye cream that contains caffeine or vitamin K strengthens the blood vessels and reduces puffiness. I love Clinique All About Eyes.

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I am obsessed with Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Eye (and not just because the name sounds so soothing). The lightweight cream works to moisturize and depuff tired eyes while you sleep. I keep the tube right by my nightstand so I never forget to put it on.

Make friends with beige eye liner. Before applying your makeup, line the inside of your eyes with a beige pencil. It brightens the whites in a very natural-looking way. Try the Jouer Cosmetics Eye Clarifier.

 source: bellasugar.com

2 Ways a Highlighter Will Change the Way You Blush.

The benefits of using a highlighter are seemingly endless. While you can apply highlighters all over your face to strategically brighten, it turns out that highlighters paired with blushes make for quite the dynamic combination. The key is to blend, blend, and then blend some more.

Transform powder blush: To create a cream blush in an instant, shave a bit of pressed powder blush with a highlighter, like Benefit's High Beam. Mix together and apply on the cheeks for a subtly shimmery complexion. This combination is available in three new cheek and lip kits ($28 each).

Make a cheek tint glow: For a lit-from-within effect, apply highlighter in a large dot on the apple of your cheek. Add a cheek tint in the middle and blend, adding more color as desired.

source: bellasugar.com 

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7 Places to Put Highlighter For a Faux Glow.

It's that time of the year when everyone wants their skin to glow, whether the sun was involved or not. Cheat a little bit by using a product with shimmering particles, which will bring light to your favorite features. 

Bronzers, highlighters, and illuminators are made to emphasize the areas the sun naturally spotlights. Yes, you can apply these products in the T zone to make sure the focus stays on the center of your face, but that's not all. Find out the top places to apply highlighting products when you keep reading.

1. Forehead: Mimic a sun-touched look by applying highlighter in the center of your forehead. Then lightly brush outward in a star pattern to diffuse the product. To avoid a shiny look, use a foundation that is one shade lighter than your skin tone instead of a shimmering product.
2. Eyebrows: Running behind on your wax or threading appointments? Disguise grown-out brows with a touch of highlighter underneath your arches. This emphasizes the shape and detracts from any stray hairs.
3. Inner Eyes: Erase tired eyes by dabbing a champagne-colored eye shadow in the inner corners of your eyes. You'll look wide awake, even if you're partying until dawn.
4. Cheekbone: Banish under-eye circles by applying a bit of bronzer on the cheekbones, where light naturally hits the face. You can also layer a glimmering product with your blush to create a rosy glow on the apples of your cheeks.
5. Nose: Swipe an illuminating product down the bridge of the nose to bring all the attention to the middle of your face.
6. Cupid's bow: Dab highlighter just above your lips in the cupid's bow area to give your lips a fuller appearance.
7. Chin: Finally, finish off your faux glow with a touch of bronzer in the middle of your chin, and apply in a soft circular motion.

source: bellasugar.com

                                                               xoxo

5 Simple Ways to Dry Nail Polish Faster.

Hello everyone,

There's nothing more annoying than spending half an hour getting your nails just right only to have them ruined the minute you put your hand into your purse or need to itch that place behind your ear. Luckily, there are lots of ways to speed up what can otherwise seem infernally long drying times. To check out our easy fixes, keep reading.

Blow it up 

Salons use fans to help speed up drying, but your hair dryer works just as well. The secret is to put it on the "cool" setting. Heat actually keeps polish from firming, so giving your digits a shot of cold air is much more helpful.

Freeze it out 

Since cold hardens polish, ice water baths are also a great setting trick. Before you start painting your nails, fill a mixing bowl with ice cubes and run cold water over the top. Then, when you're finished painting, dip your nails in for about a minute. This is a great way to help protect against divots, since it helps solidify polish all the way through, not just on top. The opposite also holds: if you're having trouble removing polish, soaking your hands in warm water will make it easier.

Spray it down 

You can get nail-drying spray at the drugstore, and it really does help your polish set in a couple of minutes. But Pam (and other cooking oil aerosols) legendarily does the job as well. Just wait a few minutes after you spray it on and rinse your hands so you don't smell like canola oil.

Thin it out

 Instead of putting on one or two coats of thick polish, apply three extremely thin coats, and let each dry for a couple of minutes before you layer on the next. It might seem like it slows down your manicure, but it actually makes overall drying time much faster.

Top it off 

Using a quick-dry topcoat is always smart, because it helps keep everything in place and protects your polish. The only caveat is that the still-liquid polish underneath can move around, resulting in lumps or ripples, so don't treat it as a cure-all.


source: bellasugar.com   

                                                                xoxo