Hey guys, it's been a little while since my last post...life happens unfortunately. Nevertheless, I'm BACK!!!

The post speaks for itself...Here's a great hair tip for you all that care for your hair at home or just a word of advice to pass along to your hairstylist.

I'm always trying to keep my beauties informed and educated...stay beautiful my friends!

Being a makeup artist is not just knowing how to apply eyeshadow, knowing how to highlight and contour or having your eyebrows on "fleek." I still have no clue what "fleek" means...Anywho, being a makeup artist has a lot to do with recognizing skin undertones, being familiar with what works for certain skin types, blending and not only that, taking it back to pre-school-knowing your color wheel. I say this because, it's important to know what colors will cancel out or neutralize certain tones you don't want to be noticed. Yes, there's foundations and concealers that cover up a lot of flaws, but if you notice as the day goes by, the red in your cheeks you may have tried to camaflouge has creeped its way through the foundation.

I've been asked a lot why are we all of a sudden seeing green, orange, yellow, blue or even purple concealers. Let's take this step-by-step and day-by-day. Today we will discuss, green concealers.

Green is used to cancel out red (color wheel displayed below). How do we know this? Any color located adjacent to the color you wish to cancel out is the color you will utilize to neutralize it. As I mentioned earlier, there are foundations that will cover up certain discolorations, but as the day goes by it often seeps through. This is when a green concealer for those red blemishes or acne scars, for instance comes in handy. You can also use a green primer as well if you have a lot of redness. I highly recommend, Smashbox Photo Finish Primer, Makeup Forever, MAC and if you want to save a few bucks, NYX. All have great green concealers and or primers.

You can cover the redness by taking a concealer brush or your finger and dab it on the red areas. Yes, it will look a little ashy, but it will neutralize the redness. To hold the concealer in place, you may want to lightly dust a powder (your skin tone or translucent) on to hold it in place before applying your foundation. You do NOT want to overdue it when placing the powder over the concealer. This is cause the foundation to look flaky. So, I repeat...lightly dust it on! This will assure as the day goes by the redness does not seep through your foundation.

We will discuss overtime the other concealer colors and their uses.

Stop the red and go green!!!! Stay beautiful my friends!!! 😘

Here's where I give you the skinny on some of my favorite products. I'm often asked what do I use to make my face look flawless or what makeup do I use for my only skin or even what products I just recommend in general.

Let me first start by stating, these are products that I prefer strictly for my use and skin type. Nevertheless, when on set or doing a shoot I do use majority of these products.

So, what type of skin do I have? Let's just say you can easily see your reflection in my face...my skin is extremely oily and sensitive! I do use a skin regime from day to day to help eliminate some of the oil and give me a more matte look. Some of these products were discussed in a previous post I called, Face It.

Let's get into the makeup products I LOVE to use on a daily basis. The products I'm going to mention, are oil-free and tends to minimize my pores while giving me a look that last me the whole day-well over eight hours without any touch-ups. The image posted above are quite a lot of my favorites. To start, Tarte's Colored Clay CC Primer is amazing! It's a skin color correcting primer that consist of your skin tone, green to correct redness and purple to brighten the skin. This gives me full coverage without putting anything else on. It gives me a flawless look and is great for oily skin because it does go on pretty matte. Second, Cover FX's CC Cream is just as phenomenal. It contains an SPF 30 and as I stated previously, I can wear this all day without any touch-ups. The coverage is awesome and looks like your own skin (when matched correctly). Next on my list is Laura Mercier's Tinted Moisturizer with SPF 20. This is a very light coverage moisturizer and is perfect if your looking for very minimal coverage. Normally when I use this product I tend to follow up with one of my favorite concealers by Kat Von D. This concealer gives full coverage and believe me, a little goes a long way. On to the IT Cosmetics CC Cream with SPF 50+. Another amazing product! If you're looking for full coverage, this is IT! A little goes a long way with this product as well and again, gives the look of a flawless face. My ultimate Holy Grail is the Ben Nye, Luxury Banana Powder. I often use this as a highlight (when I apply slightly heavier) or just as a finishing powder. This stuff is RAVISHING and perfect for oily skin. Not to mention, you wont see a pore in sight. Another good thing is, this can be used with just about any skin tone believe it or not...it's totally a must have. I will admit, I might be hard to come by if you're not a professional makeup artist. You might be able to find it on places like EBay or Amazon, but purchase with caution because it may NOT be the real thing or it could be dated. I know I'm covering a lot, but I'm so excited to share these amazing products with you. Moving on, Makeup Forever, who always in my book tend to get it right. They have several concealer skin correcting palettes that are great. Any blemish you want to cover or skin discoloration you need to camouflage, this is perfect. The other Makeup Forever palette you see is my all around go to. It gets ever major job done whether you want to use it for skin correcting colors, concealer, eyeliner, lipstick, eyeshadow or even foundation it can be used for all. However, this is something that's usually sold to makeup-pros. And then there was Too Faced, Naked Flushed palette. This palette contains a bronzer, blush and a highlighter. These all can be combined for a perfect glow as well. For the final drum roll, my all time highly favorite is Becca Cosmetics, Shimmering Skin Perfecting Pressed Powder. This stuff gives you the craziest highlight affect. If you are looking for what I think almost everyone wants, the J-Lo glow, you definitely want to add this to your collection.  

As I stated, these are products that I love and work awesome for me. Sometimes you have to play around, shop around and try new things to see what works best for you. If you've ever been curious about these products mentioned, I highly recommend giving them a go!

Have a great weekend my beauties and don't hesitate to hit the contact button with any of your beauty questions or find me on the referenced social media links.

ACTION!!!!

Eyebrows tend to be the focal point of our face. If you are lacking eyebrows there are ways to fill your brows without making it look like you put a sharpie marker to it.

I have included a few examples of how eyebrows SHOULD look (taken from Pinterest) and that is, natural. It's important to know where your brow ends and begins (photo included below). If you take a pen or any straight object and line it with the end of your nose going vertically (up and down), this is where the brow begins; take that same straight object and take it to a 45 degree angel, this is where the brow ends. If you move it approximately to a 35 degree angle, this would be the arch.

If you take a eyebrow pencil and draw a line to outline the shape of your brow followed by building off that line using feathered strokes (to create the affect of hair) you will start to see the creation of a natural brow effect. At your discretion you can fill in as much as you like, but keep in mind you want to make sure they look natural. If you happen to get a few flaws or go outside the lines you can clean it up as well and give the brow more definition by highlighting right below the line of the brow and above the brow. This will give the brows a more crisp-just arched looked. Please please please keep in mind blending is everything...makeup sure your highlight affect is blended in well...remember let's keep the look natural.

Products I highly recommend and use myself are the Anastasia DIPBROW Pomade or the Anastasia Perfect Brow Pencil. They do also offer stencils to help get the perfect brow shape as well. A good dupe is NYX's Brow Gel or Eyebrow Pencil. There are many other great products out there. It's a matter of finding what works best for you and or your budget.



With all that said, let's make the world a better place and rid our face of the sharpie eyebrows or the oh so surprised eyebrow shapes...clean and natural looks are key.



Take care my beauties! 😘

Hey guys, it's narrowing down to the last few days of the heroine chic look contest. I extended the dead line actually because...well, let's say life happens. You have until Saturday to submit your entries, which should be submitted on IG using #cafealamodebylj.

Again, the winner will win two OCC Cosmetics Lip Tars, Cover FX Countour Palette and Anastasia's Dip Brow with the brush.

I've attached the mood board again for the look.

Good luck beauties!

So, you're not sure when and how to cleanse your makeup sponges/beauty blenders? Here's several tips for you: First, I recommend cleaning them every one to two days. Why you may ask? Bacteria tends to build up and stays trapped in, which can possibly cause breakouts on the skin or irritation. We all value our face. So, let's take care of it. Another thing to ponder on-if you use these items on clients you want to make sure they are clean and if need be replaced with a new one. No client wants to sit in your makeup chair and spot dirty items...you will lose them immediately! Secondly, take a small bowl and fill it with warm water, a mild-non scented dishwashing liquid and finally a small amount of extra virgin olive oil. Neither should be harsh on the skin and tend to get the sponges very clean. Third, soak the sponges for about five minutes to break up the dirt and facial oils. after you've done that, swirl the sponge in the palm of your hand (as if your cleaning your makeup brushes)to start the actual cleansing process. While doing this you will see the makeup coming off. If need be, repeat the steps as needed. Lastly and most importantly, be sure to rinse the sponges in plain warm water very thoroughly.

This is what works for me and I do utilize this same procedure to cleanse my makeup brushes as well and it works wonders.

Give it a try my beauties and let me know what you think.

Here it is guys...first makeup giveaway from Cafe A La Mode!

The contest starts today, July 16, 2015 to July 20, 2015. Here are the rules: the contest is for the best heroin chic look (mood board in post pic). Submission must be submitted through Instagram with the hashtag #cafealamodebylj (please make sure it's spelled correctly to assure your submission is received). You must have pics on your Instagram page of yourself so I will know that it is in fact YOU!

Winner will be announced on my blog as well as Instagram(make sure you are following @cafealamode) on July 23, 2015.

I look forward to seeing the looks...be creative and have fun with it. Should you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask through the contact section.

Good luck my beautiful beasts!

Lets discuss box color. Getting straight to the point, box color will NOT give you the true realistic results you are looking for. The commercials are tempting and the pictures on the box look amazing. However, be cautious of your hairs natural color (at the root) and your canvas level (If your hair has previous color that has slightly grown out). If you have virgin hair your results could possibly be better, but this depends on the desired level you are attempting to reach. For instance if your hair is a natural level two (darkest brown) and your trying to reach a level seven (darker blonde), chances are with box color you will live around a level five (reddish orange). Lets consider another scenario, if you have previous color, which lives at a level 11 (lightest blonde) and your desired level is a four (lightest brown), you will not be brown with box color. In real life, you will still have bits of blondish-green pieces. Why? When hair has been previously lightened at a level 11 and your want to achieve a much darker color, the hair has to be re-pigmented (color put back in) before transitioning to a darker level.

This is why there are professional hairstylist around; to properly apply color and correct color if need be. We stay in business because many people come in thinking their box color is going to look like what is exactly on the box, not keeping in mind results do vary. When this happens, a color correction process occurs to help the client achieve their goal or get close to it. Certain colors are a transition (as discussed in a previous post).

All in all, to save yourself from reeking havoc on your hair with box color and spending hundreds if dollars later for color correction, get your color done by a professional from the very start who will provide a consultation and inform you of realistic goals to the color you’re trying to achieve.