Hi everyone,

Well, this makeup by Amanda Rijff was done quite a while ago. I’ve been waiting for the pictures to make the post complete for a while, but I finally decided to do it with the pictures I already have and when I get the other ones from Nic I’ll add them then.

The makeup is all by Laura Mercier and is applied by Amanda Rijff at the Skins store (www.skins.nl/visagie.htm). Amanda is the account manager for NL/BE. This woman is sooo nice and sooo filled with knowledge, it was very fun to watch her work and pick her brain.

The Flawless Face Map I got looks like this:

And my face looked like this:

The day I got this flawless face I went there with a clean face, using only a tinted moisturizer (by Dermalogica). Before starting the makeup we had a good talk about what I wanted and my expectations. I told her no limits as long as there wasn’t an orange lipstick involved. I wanted to look at how she handled the products but not look in the mirror because I wanted to be surprised and I know I can do the application with her face map.

After she cleaned my face she started with the Laura Mercier Oil Free Foundation Primer I was amazed that she used so much more then I use normally, but then with this primer I do use more then with my Smashbox primer. It’s been made for oily, sensitive and acne-prone skin types Amanda told me and after using it for about a month I can honestly tell you that I’ve had less blemishes and my skin looks less oily even in this humid weather. Acoording to the Laura Mercier website it contains high water content and addresses surface dehydration around active blemishes (my skin does react very well to this primer, I do miss the extra smooth feeling I get with the Smashbox primer, but this Laura Mercier primer is my preferred choice at the moment). It contains oil controlling ingredients ensure long-wear and flawless application (you’ll see in the last pictures, that my face does look practically the same at night as it did after application, and that after a warm day with Nicole and riding a bike in the sun). The primer also contains vitamins A, C, & E which act as antioxidants & protect the skin from harmful, aging effects of the environment (I use Dr. Brandt’s Anti-Oxidant Water Booster every day to keep my skin as healthy as possible so adding a protective layer at skinlevel is great as well). A tip given by Laura Mercier is cool the Foundation Primer in the refrigerator to refresh the skin & reduces puffiness.

The foundation that was used on my skin was Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer in the shade Fawn, I thought I’d be a Sand but with the summersun, I have tanned a little bit, so she used Fawn. In the Flawless Face Kit (Oil Free) I bought Laura Mercier Oil Free Flawless Face Kit (in the colour Sand) are almost all the products she used for my face. I’d already ordered this before this day came because I was curious about the products and I was happy that when I left the store that day I could take the face kit with me. The Oil Free Tinted Moisturizer is pigmented enough to not need a foundation. If you layer two layers of this (building the colour) you can make this a normal foundation coverage. Again this Oil Free version is made for acne prone, sensitive or oily skin. There are many skins these days that are oily but still dry, there is an oily film over the skin, but the skin its self is dehydrated and this tinted moisturizer does work amazingly to rehydrate. This product really helps with that horrible oily film you can get halfway through the day and it also has an SPF of 20 which is ideal for summer.

The concealer she used was sooo much darker then I’m used to using, she used the no. 4 Undercover Pot which is the darkest one there is. I was actually thinking she was making a huge mistake when she was applying it, but it looked perfect. The undercover pot that’s in the kit I bought is a no. 3 one which works perfect for the fall and for winter I’ll probably need the no. 2 pot. This Pot is sooo easy to bring with you, I didn’t take off the sticky thing over the sifter because I hate having the powder all over the pot when you open the screw top. I do really hope the Illamasqua “stoppers” in these kinds of pots catch on, those are amazingly handy. Under the top lid there are a Secret Camouflage and Secret Concealer. The Secret Camouflage formula is oil-free and stays in place all day long to cover blemishes, scars and imperfections. I tend to use this with the Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage Brush which is a flat tapered synthetic brush on blemishes and I use it with my fingers around my nose to take away the redness. The under eye circles are hidden with the Secret Concealer which is softer and that means you tug less on the delicate skin around your eyes.

She set the makeup with the Laura Mercier Mineral Finishing Powder in no. 2. I normally hate mineral powders, I’ve worn the Bare Essentials powders and on me it’s chalky and for some reason I break out almost immediately. The sifter on the packaging is only halfway, so you don’t have the problem with too much product coming out. This setting powder really did keep my makeup perfect the entire day, the only place that started to shine during the evening was my nose. This is not a product you buff in like the MUFE HD powder, you just smooth it over and then it’s perfect. She tapped the Powder brush to make sure the powder really got into the brush and gave a perfect finish to my skin.

The colour on my cheeks is Laura Mercier Second Skin Cheek Colour in Tender Mauve. I don’t wear a lot of blush, but when I came to Nic’s place that’s the first thing she noticed. The cheek colour was applied with the Cheek Colour Brush.

The pr
imer she used on my eyes is Eye Basics in the shade Peach. This primer kept the eyeshadow perfectly for the entire day and when it was the end of the day and I wanted to take it off it wasn’t hard to remove the makeup either.

On my eyes she used three colours, namely Sateen Eye Colour in Sandstone as a base, applying it with the Eye Colour Brush and blending with the Pony Tail Brush. This is a creamy powder that is crease resistant and is an amazing highlighting colour.
The next colour she used was Matte Eye Colour in Twilight Grey on my outer 3/4th of my eyelid and blending it up in and above the crease using the Angled Eye Colour Brush to apply and blend the colour on my crease. The main crease colour was another Matte Eye Colour but now in the colour Plum Smoke, applied with the Angled Eye Colour Brush and Pony Tail Brush.

The tighlining was done with an Eye pencil I had to buy immediately, namely the one in the colour Purple Sapphire. She also pressed the colour on my lower lash line, keeping the line very very thin (smudging it a little with the Smudge Brush, but the pop of colour was amazing.

She used a brow pencil for blonds to make my eyebrows a little neater without making it look like she filled in my eyebrows. Next she used a Thickening and Building Waterproof mascara in black on my lashes. The thing I did really miss was the curling of the lashes. I also wondered why she didn’t contour my face, but when I asked her she told me that contouring is something people do wrong very easily and she never does this because you need to know what your doing and when doing makeup like this you don’t know the person’s makeup skills.

On my lips she used a Lip Pencil in Chestnut using only her finger to pull the skin taught. The lip colour on my lips is Lip Colour Sheer in Bare lips. This is a hydrating, anti-aging, plumping and conditioning lip colour with a semi-matte finish. I don’t think this colour should be called sheer, it’s pretty intense, but it is long lasting, it only faded after dinner (we ate taco’s so not something that’s easy on the lips).

After the entire day and night I took these pictures:

As you can see the shine is back, but the makeup colour is still there, the pop of purple is slightly less apparent and all the colours have softened a little, but what do you expect after more then 12 hours of no touch ups and riding a bike and eating in the sun.

So all in all, I’m impressed, of course there are things I would have done differently (contouring, curling the lashes for a more open eye and added an extra highlighter on the inner eye corner) but she really did teach me a lot and told me about the products with all honesty and with a love for the brand that’s contagious. I have more information on the products on the post about my makeup bag where I tell more about the products in the flawless face kit and my Neutral Eye Tutorial also talks about the products and application.

I’ll add the pictures that were taken at Nic’s place when I get them.