Rouge Bunny Rouge Sea of Showers Liquid Highlighter

Rouge Bunny Rouge is a brand I can never sing enough praises of - their products are just high quality and for the most part, more than warrant their high price tag. Their liquid highlighter, this shade in particular, was one of the first products I tried from the brand almost two years ago and it remains a favorite to this day. I am a highlighter junkie which means I have quite a few, whether they be powder, liquid, or cream, in my collection. It's rare that I love one so much that I've used up three-quarters of the product but such is the case with Sea of Showers. It's simply wonderful, read on to discover why.

Per the Rouge Bunny Rouge website:

This multipurpose water-based fluid blends easily with moisturiser, or with foundation, to customise the look - to yours alone. Create an inside-out illumination effect and blend it to a thin, refined wash of pearls. Light fragrance of Cucumber with a touch of Peach Flower will add to your application pleasure. A quartet of shades with Melissa extract to soothe, and Vitamin E to guard against ageing. The highlighting liquid can be used alone or over moisturiser and as a highlighter, over foundation, too.

First of all, this product comes in four shades. There is Sea of Clouds (a pearly white), Sea of Tranquility (an opalescent pink), Sea of Showers (a honeyed beige), and Sea of Nectar (a golden bronze). I own Clouds and Showers and love them both equally, although Showers is just slightly more of a favorite since its warmth compliments my skintone. 

What I love most about this product is the way it illuminates the skin. That is literally the word I would use to describe this product- illumination. It has such a soft, refined glow that can be sheered down to virtually nothing or built up to a gleaming metallic. It's incredibly versatile. I've used Sea of Showers mixed in with my foundation to give a summery glow, used lightly on the cheekbones as a soft, ethereal highlight, or even on my eyelids built up to a beautiful metallic bronze-gold. There is shimmer in the product but the way it's blended into the fluid makes it completely impalpable on the skin. It truly becomes one with the texture of the skin yet gives you a lightly reflective highlight right where you want it. Somehow it manages never to appear greasy, even when I build up the intensity of the shine. The texture is lightweight- a watery gel that blends effortlessly into the skin without disrupting the foundation underneath. 

Sea of Showers also lasts all day on the skin. It doesn't fade nor does the shine migrate. It stays immaculately where you placed it from dusk till dawn. It also smells wonderful, as the description notes- definitely a cucumber-floral fragrance that is only noticeable upon application.

At $55.00, this is an expensive highlight. To be honest though I will repurchase this product as long as it is available. I've had my bottle for years and still have a good amount left- truly less than a pea is enough for a whole face of highlighting. The effect is nothing I've ever worked with in any other highlighting product- hopefully you'll be able to understand it's magnificence from my swatches. Buy it, love it, and realize the search is over for your perfect highlight- RBR has it!

Rouge Bunny Rouge can be purchased from rougebunnyrouge.com, beautyhabit.com, or zuneta.com

Sea of Showers on the cheekbones

T-B: Blended swatch, heavy swatch- direct sunlight

Indirect sunlight

Showers can bestow a soft glow or a metallic gleam

*All products were purchased with my own money for purposes of review. 

Smokey Eye ft. Burberry shadows

Hello darlings!

I, after many months of doing very simple makeup, was inspired yesterday to do a bit of a smokey eye. Every now and then you just need to switch it up, ya know? This is a fairly easy eye to accomplish and I'll walk you through it step by step. All you'll need is:

A black eye pencil (I use YSL's waterproof liner)
A black eyeshadow (I used Illamasqua's Zeitgeist pigment)
A deep brown shadow with shimmer (I used Burberry's Midnight Brown)
A warm taupe shadow with shimmer (I used Burberry's Pale Barley)

Firstly, I laid down a rough base with the pencil, smudging it all over my lid just up to the crease. It did not have to be precise- I immediately smudged the entirety with a shadow brush (RBR's shader brush) in order to soften the edges and blend it slightly into my crease.

Next, I packed a black eyeshadow all over the lid to intensify the inky black color and aid in blending with the next couple of shadows.

As a means to soften the harshness of the black, as well as to continue blending the eye into the crease, I used Burberry's Midnight Brown on a MAC 224 brush right into my socket line. This started to create a nice fade of color that allowed the black to transition nicely into the brown. I also smudged a bit of Midnight Brown under my lower lashline using the side of a MAC 239 brush to give a haze of sexy, dirty, smokiness around the eye.

The last shadow I used was Burberry's Pale Barley. Using my MAC 224, I used Pale Barley on top of Midnight Brown to fade the color towards my brow bone. The key to a smokey eye is just layering colors- light and dark. This creates a watercolor effect sans any harsh lines which should be avoided at all costs. Pale Barley was also used under the lower lash line as well as in the tear duct to highlight.

Lastly, line the eyes with your black pencil of choice and finish off with a few coats of black mascara (I used Tom Ford's Extreme mascara)

I like this smokey eye because it's both easy, effective, and looks more difficult than it actually is to create. All in all this took me about ten minutes for both eyes, making it the perfect night out look for when you're in a rush!

Hope you enjoyed!

The finished look

L-R: Illamasqua Zeitgeist, Burberry Pale Barley, Burberry Midnight Brown 

xo Seth

Happy December!

It's the holidays! My favorite time of year! No other month has as much inherent magic and wonder in the air as December- whether it's the lights that adorn the trees, the chill in the wind as autumn fades to winter, or the crisp, cold skies that ebb earlier and earlier into sunset. It's surprising how much closer we feel to family and friends as the days go shorter and the temperatures drop - it must be our inherent need for warmth and companionship in the midst of the cold and darkness. 

As I've grown I've come to appreciate these aspects of the Christmas season more than the commercialism and buying frenzy that filled my younger years. In the end, most of us have all that we really need. Anything else is just icing on the cake- or whipped cream on the hot cocoa, if you will :)

I wish you all a happy and healthy start to this holiday season, no matter what holiday you celebrate- and hope you treasure all that you already have.

With love,

Seth

Tom Ford Brow Sculptor

This was a product I took a complete leap of faith on. Whether it be the price point, the lack of availability in stores, or the ignorance of the general public to the brand, there have been very few reviews on a number of Tom Ford's products. I'd say the blushes, eyeshadows, and foundation have received most of the exposure with the rest of his range remaining quite mysterious and unexplored. I had recently embraced a more natural brow look (if you watch my videos you may have noticed this), and needed a more organic looking brow product than my previous go-to, MAC's Dipdown fluidline. I loved the aesthetic of Tom Ford's makeup and was impressed with quite a few of his products already so decided to dive in and discover if his brow "sculptor" was worth its hefty price tag. I'm pleased to say it has been!

This pencil is very different than any other I've ever used. It's a hard, waxy type of pencil- one that does not yield its pigment easily. At first, this frustrated me. I came though to appreciate this aspect- it's basically a foolproof product! It seems to deposit the color right where it needs to without drawing outside the lines. What I mean is it will fill in sparse patches of brow but don't expect it to completely reshape, lengthen, or modify the shape of your brows. To use Brow Sculptor, I tend to press harder towards the tail of my brow to give a slightly more intense pigmentation and use a lighter hand towards the front to avoid the "penciled-in" look. 

What I also love about this product is its aesthetic- it truly is a mechanical piece of art! Not one part of it feels rickety or shoddy- it's all very well made. On one end is the twist up mechanism from which sticks the brow pencil, on the other end under a cap is a brow spoolie to comb and groom. Twist off the spoolie mechanism (oh yes folks, this is a gadget) and there lies a sharpener to keep the tip of your brow pencil precise! Genius, simply genius!

Brow Sculptor comes in 4 shades- I have dark brown hair and chose number 3, Chestnut. It's a nice mid-tone warm brown without a lot of red in it. 

Before Brow Sculptor

After Brow Sculptor

After Brow Sculptor

Light swatch, heavy swatch

Spoolie action

This is where the magic happens

I highly recommend this piece of makeup. Not only does it perform exceedingly well but the craftsmanship that went into its design is really admirable. Brow Sculptor retails for $40.00 and can be purchased from neimanmarcus.com 

-Seth

*All products were purchased with my own money for purposes of review.