Liz Earl - Cleanse & Polish

Everybody knows Liz Earl Cleanse & Polish is a very good cleanser/make up remover, in fact I bought it after reading many reviews talking about how good it is.
It's a very thick cream (the thickest I've ever tried) and it smells very nice and fresh. One pump is enough for my whole face.

When I first used it, I didn't read the instructions on the back of the packaging and the result was not good. So, I think one of the most important tips about this product is to READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. It says you have to apply it on your DRY face massaging gently,  then using a damp muslin cloth (that is sold separately) rinse it off and then splash your face with cool water. Instead of the muslin cloth I use big cotton pads and it works quite well. I might buy the muslin cloth one of these days, just to see if it will work better.  It says you should use hand-hot water and it's what I do.

Following all the instructions it works pretty well to remove all kinds of make up, even the waterproof ones, it's very gentle to the skin and as I said before smells nice.
I don't like to use it to remove make up from my eyes because I think it's too thick for that and it feels uncomfortable and messy, but it does remove waterproof mascara and doesn't sting.

It's not my favourite make up remover, but I like to use it when I'm not in a hurry or when my skin is more sensitive than usual and I want something very nice and gentle on it. It has rosemary and chamomile extracts, cocoa butter, beeswax and eucalyptus essential oil.

Organising my make up - Lipsticks

If you, like me, have a lot of lipsticks, you know that most of the time just looking at the packaging you cannot say which colour they are. Unless you keep your lipsticks upside down or always in the same place and memorise where they are it's impossible to know which is which.
So after watching one of Lisa Eldridge's videos about lipstick palettes (this one) I decided to try and make my own lipstick palette.

Unfortunately I couldn't find the Japonesque palette she shows in the video (the foundation one, with 28 wells), that looks perfect for lipsticks. I found this one instead:

It is Japonesque but it has 14 big wells on the left side and 21 smaller ones on the right. I used the left side for my favourite lipsticks and the left for the ones I don't wear very often.  I wrote the names of the lipsticks on labels and stuck them on both sides of the divider:

Then with a knife I cut half of my lipsticks and just pressed them in the wells with a spatula.

And that's all you have to do. It's a bit messy and requires some patience but it's totally worth the trouble. Now I have all my lipsticks in one place, I can choose the shades easily and I still have half the tube to carry in my bag when I go out.

Organising my make up - Eyeshadows

A good way to organise your make up is to put them in groups, and palettes make everything easier.
A few days ago I decided to depot my individual MAC eyeshadows and put them together in my big palettes.

If you google 'how to depot MAC eyeshadows', there'll be lots and lots of websites and blogs showing different ways of doing it. You just have to choose the method that is easier for you.
I chose this one:

http://www.wikihow.com/Depot-MAC-Eyeshadow

Here are some pictures showing the process and explaining very briefly what I did.

You will need:
A knife
A pair of scissors
Magnetic tape (that you can find in hardware stores)
Labels
A flat iron
Parchment paper or aluminium foil

This is what the magnetic tape looks like:

The first thing you have to do is to take out the plastic insert from the pot like this:

The plastic inserts look like this underneath:

The next step is to get a piece of parchment paper or aluminium foil (it's probably better to use parchment paper, but as I didn't have it, I had to use the aluminium foil - that works anyway) and cover the bottom part of your flat iron like this:

Turn on the flat iron and place the plastic insert on top of the aluminium foil. To know when it's time to take out the metal pan from the plastic insert you'll have to keep checking the bottom of it. When the plastic is slightly melted it's a sign that the glue inside the insert is melted too. It should look like this:

You have to be very careful because the pan will be hot. Hold the plastic insert and turn it upside down. Use the tip of a knife to pull out the pan from the insert. I suggest you place another piece of parchment paper on top of a kitchen counter and do it there.

There will be melting glue on the back of the pan. Wait until you can touch the pan without burning your fingers and stick the magnetic tape (that you have cut and prepared beforehand) on the back of it.

Stick the label on the magnetic tape. The end result is this:

It's not perfect but it doesn't matter because no one will see it, only you, and only if you need to look at the name of the eyeshadow. 

Foundations

There's something special about foundations. I've learned a few things about them in the last two years, especially during the make-up courses I took, but there's always more to learn.

I did a lot of research before I bought my first foundation, read lots and lots of reviews, until I finally went to a MAC counter to buy it. Even then I wasn't sure what I wanted, but I knew what I didn't want. I didn't want something heavy, that would make me look like I was wearing a mask.

So my first foundation was Face and Body from MAC.  It was exactly what I wanted, very light and sheer, easy to apply and looked very natural on my skin.
Little did I know but that was just the beginning of a long and exciting journey in search for the perfect foundation.

You would think that once you buy a foundation that makes your skin look great it would be the end of it. Wrong. It's such a thrill every time I try a new one. If you are not interested in make up you will never understand it.

I have a few foundations:

MAC - Face and Body
MAC - Studio Fix Fluid

MAC - Studio Fix Powder
Chanel - Vitalumiere Aqua
Bourjois - Healthy Mix Serum
Bourjois - Healthy Mix
Bourjois - 123 Perfect
Giorgio Armani - Maestro
Maybelline - Fit Me

My favourite at the moment is Maestro from Giorgio Armani. It's the best foundation I've ever tried, and as long as you moisturise your skin very well before applying the product, it will give you a really beautiful finish, so light it doesn't seem you are wearing foundation.

I'm thinking about taking some pictures wearing each one of the foundations I've got with pros and cons of each one. I think it would be useful for someone who's looking for a foundation and doesn't know yet which one to buy and useful for myself to take my time analysing each one of them.
Also, I've got many samples from different brands and I'll start testing them soon. Who knows, maybe there's something even better than my beloved Maestro...

Museum of fashion - Lisbon

Nothing better for a first post than some pictures of my trip to the 'Museu Nacional do Traje e da Moda' (fashion museum) in Lisbon.
I liked everything about the museum especially the accessories and make up they had there.
Take a look at these treasures:

And some vintage magazines: