Five Favorites: Valentine’s Day

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This Valentine’s Day wear an outfit that creates confidence and makes you feel good. Whether you are going for a casual look, sweet or sexy, the best accessory to any outfit is confidence.

Build this confidence with color, shape or style. Wear a bright/bold color or flaunt your favorite body part – let your personal style shine through.

Here are a few favorite “confidence builders”:

Tibi ~ Silk Faille Full Skirt: $525.00

Splendid ~ Stretch Cotton & Modal-Blend Jersey Maxi Dress: $118.00

Faith Connextion ~ Mixed Sequin Dress: $870.00

Mango ~ Suede Dress: $119.99

Diane von Furstenberg ~ Mateo Silk-Blend Wrap-Effect Dress: $365.00

Tropical Inspiration: Aqua Eyes

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Bold, turquoise green eye makeup is a perfect summer look. Tropical inspiration from ocean blues and palm frawn greens will make any eye color pop. This color family come in all sorts of textures and consistencies, choose from metallic, shimmering or pastel shades.

Aqua eyes is great look for both day or night. Start with a vibrant turquoise or shimmering green powder or cream eyeshadow and apply all over the lid. Build for more color or leave for a sheer wash. If you don’t want color on the entire lid, try a simple liner. Draw a thin or thick line on the upper or lower eyelid. For true vibrancy, first line the eye with a white pencil and go over with your favorite kohl, liquid or gel liner. This will bring the color to life.

Brighter colors tend to have more pigment and last longer on the skin – so less is more. It’s easier to build color if more is needed,  but harder to remove color if you put too much on.

Here are a few of my favorite tropical-inspired products.

Dior ~ Croisette Edition: $60.00

NARS ~ Shimmer Eyeshadow in Tropic: $24.00

Make Up For Ever ~ Aqua Eyes in 7L – Turquoise: $18.00

Urban Decay ~ 24/7 Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Siren: $19.00

YSL ~ Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils Waterproof in Majorelle Blue: $30.00

MAC ~ Fluidline in Waveline: $15.00

Maybelline ~ Eye Studio Color Tattoo 24HR Cream Gel Shadow in Tenacious Teal & Edgy Emerald: $6.99 (each)

Smashbox ~ Limitless 15 Hour Wear Cream Shadow: $19.00

Colorblocking: Eyes/Lips

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Layering bright eye shadows, liners and lipsticks can result in a fun makeup look that’s right on trend for the season. Just like colorblocking clothes, there are a myriad of possibilities one can create with makeup as well.

There’s a much-heralded rule in beauty that if you do a bold eye, the rest of your makeup should be neutral. With colorblocking, this rule does not necessarily apply. The bright colors will play off each other and make your features pop.

Throw all traditional “rules” out the window and be creative. A lot of these looks are used in editorial or runway features, to make it wearable stick to only two areas of the face, i.e. eyes/lips, cheeks/lips. Tone down the colors and heavy-handed application for a sheer wash of color. This will create a more modern and everyday look.