How To Get Every Foundation Shade Imaginable Ft. The NEW NYX Pro Foundation Mixers (Review, Swatches & Demo)

If you read my last blog post on some $3 liquid lipsticks that I picked up, then you probably already know how excited I am that such a mainstream brand like NYX has taken a professional product like foundation mixers and brought it to the masses. In my opinion, this is a product that can be very useful for people who don't necessarily want to buy three or four shades of the same foundation to transition them through the seasons. Likewise, this is perfect for makeup artists on a budget that can only afford to stock a few foundation shades in their kit. Regardless of your situation, I knew how beneficial a product like this could be and decided to put it to the test, not only on myself, but also on my clients as well, just so I could bring you the most thorough review possible.

Swatches of NYX Pro Foundation Mixers in White, Olive, Warmth, and Deep

Results of Mixing the EX1 Foundation in F200 in a 1:1 Rstio With Each of the NYX Pro Foundation Mixers

How To Create A Realistic Skintone Using the NYX Pro Foundation Mixers

Q&A's

♥What are the NYX Pro Foundation Mixers?♥

The NYX Pro Foundation Mixers are liquids tinted with pigment in a squeeze tube packaging. They are meant to adjust the shade, undertone, or finish of the foundation to meet your needs. This product currently is available in six different "tones"--opalescent, luminous, white, olive, warmth, and deep. These mixers are already available for purchase on NYX's website and Ulta for $10 each.

♥What are the claims on this product?♥

Unfortunately, NYX does not provide much more detail than what I have already written above: "Your custom shade is just a Pro Foundation Mixer away! NYX Cosmetics' shade mixers are designed to adjust the tone, shade and finish of any liquid foundation, resulting in a truly perfect match."

♥What colors are offered and what do they do?♥

As mentioned before, there are currently six different versions of this product--four that change the shade of the foundation and two that change the finish. I only own the four that alter the shade of the foundation as those are more useful to myself and my kit. Because of that I will be relying on the information from the website to tell you what the other two do, so let's start of with those, shall we?

♥Opalescent - It is described as a "sheer white with opalescent shimmer". This one may lighten your foundation ever so slightly (nothing ridiculous), but it is meant to give your skin a nice sheen.
♥Luminous - It is described as a "champagne cream with gold undertone". If you are pale this may darken your foundation and turn the undertone a bit peachy. It will be better for medium to deep skintones and is meant to give you that glow from within look.
♥White - A pure white meant to lighten your foundation.
♥Olive - A dark beige with an olive undertone. Best used to give foundations a more yellow undertone. It will deepen up foundations slightly.
♥Warmth - A dark orange that can be used a couple of different ways: You can mix it with your concealer to create a corrector that counteracts dark spots OR you can use it to warm up the undertone of your foundation if you naturally have a more red undertone to your skin.
♥Deep - A deep blackened brown with a grey undertone. It can also be used in a variety of ways, such as deepening your foundation or creating a liquid/cream contour shade. May need to be combined with Warmth/Olive to bring foundation back to a natural skin tone.

♥How do you use them?♥

Using this product can be quite fun as it involves you being hands on in the experimental process and figuring out how much of each you need to get the best matching foundation possible. In my experience, the amount of mixer you will need to adjust the shade of your foundation directly depends on how thick & pigmented the base product already is. For instance, if I were using a thick, full coverage foundation like the Urban Decay All Nighter Foundation, using a 1:1 ratio of foundation to mixer will alter your foundation by only one shade. However, if I were altering the shade of a thin tinted moisturizer, a 1:1 ratio would have a much more drastic difference. The good thing is that as you're mixing your base "ingredients" together on the back of your hand or on a palette, you will be able to tell how off you are -- if you need to add a little more depth or warmth for example.

♥What are the benefits and what are the drawbacks?♥

Benefits:

♥Affordable alternative compared to having to purchase many foundation shades
♥Also great for creating corrector and contour colors
♥Squeeze tube allows you to control how much product you disperse
♥A little goes a long way
♥Doesn't change the consistency of the base product

Drawbacks:
♥If you are not already familiar with color theory or mixing foundations, there may be a learning curve
♥The shades "Deep" and "Warmth" may require you to purchase another shade to create an actual skin tone

♥What are my overall thoughts on this product?♥

The NYX Pro Foundation Mixers are a revolutionary product for the drugstore. I honestly never would have thought that such a mainstream brand would be considerate enough do this as it might mean consumers will buy less foundation, so kudos to them for doing so. That being said, this product is not necessarily beginner friendly. You may need to brush up a bit on color theory to figure out the best way to mix the shades, however, anyone can definitely use it with a little bit of patience and practice. Just for reference, I have shown an example above on how I mixed two of the pro foundation mixers with my foundation in order to get my perfect tanned shade. If I were to offer one bit of criticism, I do wish the Warmth shade were a tad more red and that the Deep shade were more neutral instead of grey, just because I find that when mixed with a foundation, they don't offer a natural skin tone on their own. Overall, though, I highly recommend this product. I don't think everyone needs it, but if you do need access to a variety of foundation shades at any given time, this will make for an excellent addition to your collection.

XO♥

Winter Wonderland: Candy Cane Eyeliner Tutorial

When I was a kid, candy canes were the emblematic sign that the holidays had arrived. You received them taped to your Christmas cards, hung them on trees as ornaments, even stuck them in your gingerbread houses. They were the quintessential symbol of "Winter Wonderland". And now that it's starting to get a bit colder here in NYC, it's only appropriate that I honor the tradition in some way or another. This is by no means a look that everybody would rock, but I think it would be a cool thing to wear when you're letting your hair down for the office holiday party.


Tutorial

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1♥ Even with such a dramatic eyeliner look as this, I like to create at least some definition to the rest of the eye with eyeshadow, so I've still prepped my lid with my trusty eye primer, the Lorac Behind the Scenes Eye Primer.

2♥ As I plan on using some darker shadows to define my eyes in a bit, I wanted to lay down a transition shade first. Side note: All of the eyeshadows that I'm using in this look (with the exception of one), are coming from the Lorac Pro Palette. With a medium size blending brush, I swept Taupe (medium brown) between my brow bone and crease, taking it from the outer corner all the way to where my eye meets my nose.

3♥ To give my eye that more rounded appearance, I'm going to start creating that faux cut crease look that I've been wearing lately. To do so, I took Sable (dark warm brown) on a smaller blending brush and focused that on the outer half of my crease, rounding it at my outer corner.

4♥ In order to deepen the crease and emphasize the round shape even more, I took Espresso (deep dark brown) on a pencil brush and  really carved out the desired shape. This does create somewhat of a harsh line, so I went back in with the smaller blending brush (with no additional product) and blurred out just the very edges of where Espresso meets Sable.

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5♥ You probably have already figured that I couldn't stop there...and you were definitely right. Using that same pencil brush, I added just the tiniest bit of Black to the outer crease. It may seem like a bit much, but I think that added definition in the outer corner really brings the look together in the end.

6♥ To clean up the faux cut crease, I used an old favorite of mine, Mac Pro Longwear Paint Pot in Soft Ochre. I switched between using a flat synthetic brush and an angled eyeliner brush when doing this because I found that the angled eyeliner really allowed me to make the shape more precise.

7♥ Soft Ochre is a very yellow-based paint pot, so to neutralize that I little bit, I patted Lt. Pink over it with the same synthetic flat brush from the last step.

8♥ Create your winged eyeliner--this will serve as your guideline for the candy cane stripes. While this step is completely based on preference, I would recommend making the wing relatively thick as I did, so that you have enough room to play with once we get to the candy cane detailing. To create my wing, I used the Milani Eye Tech Extreme Liquid Eye Liner in Blackest Black.

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9♥ Now on to the detailing. I started off by doing white stripes first because I felt that it would give me a bit more control in case the colors mixed. Using the NYX White Liquid Liner I created the stripes, slightly curving the ends so that it's not a harsh straight line and also leaving space for the red stripes. If you're worried about the white getting onto the rest of your eye makeup, you don't have to have it cover all of the black eyeliner underneath as the look gets outlined in black later anyway.

10♥ Add in the red. I've heard that using liquid lipsticks is great for this sort of thing, but, of course, do this at your own risk as they weren't created to be used on the eyes. Also, just remember to sanitize your product; you don't want nasty germs getting into such a sensitive area. For the red stripes I used the Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick in Hoe Hoe Hoe. I dispensed a small amount of the product onto the back of my hand and worked from there with a tiny detail brush to fill in the remaining black spots.

11♥ The red just wasn't intense enough for me, so I decided to add some glitter on top of it. With the same small detail brush, I applied a thin layer of the LA Splash Splash Proof Sealer Base over the red only. I then patted Mac Red Glitter over the top of it for a brighter, more metallic shine.

12♥ Once the stripes have completely dried, outline them with the black liquid liner. This defines them and makes it pop more.

13♥ Lastly, just add your finishing touches. I smoked out my lower lash line using the Inglot Gel Liner in # 77 and Black and Sable eyeshadows from the Lorac Pro Palette. I also highlighted my brow bone with Mac Nylon Eyeshadow and added House of Lashes "Smokey Muse" lashes to top off the look.

Face Deets

♥ Foundation - Cover FX Illuminating Primer mixed with the Custom Cover Drops

♥ Concealer - LA Girl Pro Conceal

♥ Brows - NYX Micro Brow Pencil in Taupe

♥ Bronzer - Urban Decay Naked Skin Ultra Definition Pressed Finishing Powder in Naked Dark

♥ Blush - Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Exposed

♥ Highlight - Nars Illuminator in Copacabana and Kat Von D Metal Crush Eyeshadow in Thunderstruck

♥ Lips - Sephora Cream Lip Stain in Always Red

XO♥