"Color Inspiration" Make-Up Box Product Review

Hello, beautiful people!

Today I will be reviewing the “Color Inspiration” MakeUp Box by The Color Workshop. It’s available at either Target or Wal-Mart for $15.

The make-up box came with eight different eye shadow palettes with six eye shadows in each, as well as a blush. In total, there are 48 eye shadows and eight blushes. The box also came with four lipsticks and two eye liners; one in black and one in brown, as well as four nail polishes and a set of synthetic brushes and sponge applicators.

The make-up box can be found here -- http://www.walmart.com/ip/COLOR-INSPIRATION/15126803, or bought at your local Wal-Mart or Target.

The box has both The Color Workshop and Markwins make-up in it.

I found the eye shadows to be really impressive, especially when applied over moisturizer, eye primer, or a crème color base. Having a wet base for the dry eye shadow to adhere to helps make the shadow and pigment in the shadow more vibrant and helps it stay much longer without wearing off or creasing through out the day.

The eye shadows come in a variety of colors, ranging from a really pale pink to a dark purple to a dark black. They come in both shimmer and matte finishes that help complete any look you’re trying to achieve.

The lipsticks are also really good! They come in a sheer pink color, a more matte, vibrant pink color, a beautiful rosey red color, and a bronze plum color. They stay on for a while, glide on effortlessly, and have a gorgeous natural finish.

The eyeliners aren’t bad, but they’re nothing to write home about. They’re made in a plastic pencil but the top feels like wood… and I’m not exactly sure how you would sharpen them when you needed to.

The brushes are about the same as the eyeliners – they’re nothing special, but they’re nice when you don’t have anything else to use. The only brush I really liked out of the brush set was the synthetic angled brush, which was really soft and helped apply my make-up beautifully.

The nail polish, on the other hand, is a piece of crap. The colors are gorgeous, but when you try to put the nail polish on, it takes up to three coats for the color not to be completely transparent. It takes a while to dry and when it does dry, it chips outrageously easy. I was really disappointed with the nail polishes in the make-up box in general.

However, the bad nail polishes aside, this make-up box is an amazing find, even if you do only use it for the eye shadows! $15 is reasonable enough alone just for the 48 eye shadows and eight blushes, not to mention the smooth and really pigmented lipsticks that come with it.

I highly suggest this make-up box to anyone looking for some really good eye shadows and other make-up products at unbelievably cheap prices!

Ciao, bella!

Autavia Dior

Make-Up Essentials -- Color Theory

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the color wheel and the law of color, but I think memorizing the affects of color and how different colors react with each other is extremely important in the application of make-up and hair color.

The law of color basically states that there are only three primary colors in the universe – red, blue, and yellow. These colors can’t be created by mixing together other colors, because they’re pure. When these primary colors are mixed together in equal proportion, we get the three secondary colors, which are orange, green, and violet. Just like before, if these colors are mixed with their neighboring secondary color, you get the six tertiary colors, which are yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet, and red-orange.

Here’s a breakdown –

Red, Blue, and Yellow – Primary colors (nothing can be mixed to create these.)

Orange – Equal parts of red and yellow.

Green – Equal parts of blue and yellow.

Violet – Equal parts of red and blue.

Yellow-Orange – Equal parts of yellow and orange.

Yellow-Green – Equal parts of yellow and green.

Blue-Green – Equal parts of blue and green.

Blue-Violet – Equal parts of blue and violet.

Red-Violet – Equal parts of red and violet.

Red-Orange – Equal parts of red and orange.

Another really important thing about the colors and the color wheel is that it’s broken into two sides, which reflect warm colors and cool colors. Warm colors are generally colors with an orange or red base to them, while cool colors have more of a green or blue base to them.

Why is it pertinent for you to know this?

It’s important because colors will complement your skin tone differently depending on whether you have a cool or warm skin tone. If you have a warm skin tone, reds, oranges, and golds look better on you; if you have a cool skin tone, greens, blues, and silvers look better on you.

The importance of matching and wearing colors that complement your skin tone goes beyond makeup application to your hair color, because if you’re warm toned and have a hair color that is more cool toned, it will make your skin look sickly and washed out, and vice versa.

There are a few things you can do to see if you’re warm or cool skin toned if you don’t know, such as looking at the veins on the inside of your arm; if they’re green, you’re more warm toned; if they’re blue, you’re more cool toned. You can also put something, such as a gold piece of clothing, next to your face and then put something silver next to it a minute later. Whatever color makes your skin color glow is the one that matches your skin tone better and reflects which skin tone you have. The other will make you look washed out or tired. If both colors work well with your skin, you’re most likely a neutral skin type.

Matching colors with your skin tone is especially important when choosing lipsticks! A lot of women wear the wrong color of red and end up hating red lipsticks as a result. If you’re more warm toned, try sticking with colors like brick red or rose red. If you’re more cool toned, wear brighter reds or reds with pink in them. A beautiful red that looks good on both skin tones are red-violets, which can be either warm or cool depending on what color is more prominent (red or violet). This kind of color is more like a mahogany red.

Knowing color theory can also help with the application of eye shadow and concealer. If you don’t have a green eye shadow but have a blue and yellow, you can mix the two colors to get the color green you want.

As color theory applies to concealer, you want to neutralize whatever color is bothering you. If you have more purple or blue bags under your eyes, you would want to use a concealer that has more of an orange or yellow base. If you’re trying to cover any redness on your face, you would neutralize it with green.

You neutralize a color by combining it or covering it with its complementary color.

Complementary colors are opposite each other on the color wheel. They are --

Red -- Green

Blue – Orange.

Purple – Yellow.

Green – Red.

Orange – Blue.

Yellow – Purple.

Using complementary colors is essential in using eye shadows, because you want to use colors that will make your eyes pop. The aforementioned colors above when either trying to neutralize something (like under eye circles or redness) or bring out the color of your eyes (like if you have blue eyes, orange colors help them stand out).

When trying to conceal something properly, you have to neutralize the color. If your under eye circles are purple or blue, use a concealer that has more of an orange or yellow tone to it. If you’re trying to conceal redness or blemishes, use a concealer that has a more green tone to it.

I know it may seem a little frivolous to go through a color lesson now since we were taught about the theory of color in elementary school, but I can’t tell you how many times knowing what colors neutralize and complement others and how they affect the overall makeup look has helped me in tight situations.

I hope this helps!

Ciao, bella!

Autavia Dior

A Simple Introduction

Hello fellow make-up lovers! My name is Autavia, and I run both the “MakeUp Alchemy” YouTube and Blog! I have loved makeup my entire life and my appreciation and understanding of color theory and the importance of feeling beautiful on the inside and having the ability to match it on the outside has only grown as I’ve gotten older. I can’t remember a time I didn’t use makeup, or at least play with it. I come from a family of high-end hairdressers and fashion aficionado’s, so I was able to learn a lot of beauty secrets from them growing up. Besides learning from friends and family and through trial and error, I trained at the Toni & Guy Hairdressing Academy near South Coast Plaza in Orange County, California, where makeup and color theory were my strongest assets.

At the behest of a few friends, I decided to start my YouTube channel and blog in order to help other women (and men, should they want to) learn some helpful tips and tricks about makeup application and to turn it from a boring, daily routine into an entire beauty ritual that’s both fun and educational. I believe everyone is beautiful and that makeup is an essential tool that helps us match our outer beauty with our inner beauty!

On top of doing makeup tutorials, I will also be doing reviews of all kinds of makeup, from drugstores like Wal-Mart, CVS, and Target, to more high-end cosmetics, such as MAC, Laura Mercier, Makeup Forever, and many more. I think it’s really important to try makeup from a lot of different places, regardless of name or price; some of the best eye shadows I own were $5 or less!

I’ll try to update this as much as I can, and any YouTube tutorials that I do will have a detailed description of the makeup used and how to accurately apply it here, along with any pictures I have that may help!

If you have any questions, suggestions, or would like me to do a certain type of look or tutorial, you can always feel free to leave a comment here, on my YouTube channel, or email me at makeupalchemy@hotmail.com.

Ciao, bella!

Autavia Dior