is this thing on?

Just testing whether I can post from my BB

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

is this thing on?

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

-----Original Message-----
From: maxgreene@rogers.blackberry.net

Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2008 04:29:25
To: Blogger<go@blogger.com.>
Subject: is this thing on?

Just testing whether I can post from my BB

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

WOW

That's all I can say today.

It's been way too long since I posted and I can only apologize. I have no excuse except that I've been super-busy at work, I have a cold, and I'm caught up in excitement for my birthday. I'm going to be honest and tell you postings are going to be a bit slim around here until the end of the month. Bear with me please.

Hope you're all well!

max

xoxo

Cop This: Kardinal Offishall Not 4 Sale

Hey y'all,
I know this is a beauty blog, but sometimes - not often - there are some things more important than makeup. Or so I hear anyway. Either way, it's my blog and I'll stray off topic if I want to, right?

That being said, consider this a PSA: Kardinal Offishall's latest album hit stores on Tuesday.

Buy. this. album. Now.

If you don't know who Kardinal is, you're either living under a rock or you're not Canadian. Either way, you need this in your life:



Kardinal is an extremely gifted artist and producer who is blazing a trail for Canadian artists and has been for years. The man was on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno this week, for goodness sake. That is absolutely unprecedented for a Canadian hip hop artist and no one deserves it more. Check the video and tell me you weren't doing the Dangerous dance in your chair:

Dangerous Jay Leno Live

And in case you're wondering, this is not a case of me shamelessly plugging something just because I know and/or like the artist - I have no connection to Kardi save a youthful crush and you ought to know by now I get crushes like other people get subway transfers. So this is my completely non-partisan opinion: Buy this album and do your part to support Canadian music. You won't be sorry. The album is hot.

Oh yeah - the wiwfm verdict on this one is hells yes!

Product Review: Bio Oil

Hi ladies,

Today we're talking Bio-Oil.

There was a lot of hype around this product when it first came out, which really made me want to try it: my face and body are scar-mania. When it first came out it was crazy expensive, but I got a bottle of it at Shoppers for like $11 so I thought I'd give it a try.

This is really just a teaser post because the jury's still out on this one: it's recommended that you use it for 3 months in order to see results and I've only been using it for two weeks, but I thought I'd share my thoughts on this so far.

This is a fairly thick oil that smells really pleasant - pretty much exactly the same as Skin-So-Soft if you ask me. The idea is that you massage this into skin twice a day and rub in until absorbed. I've been using it on my cheeks (I have a lot of acne scars) and my dark knees. During the week I only use it once a day on my face; I apply it for bed but there's no way I could put this on my face before my makeup. So far I see not a lick of difference; in fact I think it may be making the clogged pores on my face even worse! But I'm reserving judgement since it has only been a few weeks...

The wiwfm verdict on this one is we'll see. Have any of you tried it? I'd love to hear your feedback. Drop me a comment!

Product Review: Redken Smooth Down

I have a confession to make: I've been unfaithful.
Back in April when I wrote my first post, I told you about my Long Term Relationship with Herbal Essences. And it was good, don't get me wrong. LTR was good to me and for me. But it's hard to be monogamous when there is so much out there and I admit that I was led astray.

First there was a dalliance with Herbal Essences Pin Straight. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it didn't really work out. At first I was dazzled by how much it loosened my curl, but over time I realized that I just needed more moisture. I thought longingly of LTR and vowed to go back and beg forgiveness for cheating, but then my head was turned once more. I think this one is for keeps.

My new love's name is Redken Smooth Down and it is the truth, let me tell you.

After that one night stand I had with Redken Extreme, I was more than willing to try it again. But I knew this time I needed something that would give me the moisture of LTR and the straightening of Pin Straight. Mom, I think I've found the one.

Redken's website promises that the Smooth Down family of products is "specially formulated to enrich and tame extremely dry, coarse, unruly hair". Fortified with macadamia oil (which is supposed to be great for hair) and a whole bunch of other stuff, it provides great conditioning and makes your hair visibly straighter, even before you blowdry.

I couldn't afford the whole line, so I went for the Shampoo, Conditioner, and Heat Glide. Let me break them down one by one for you...

The Smooth Down Shampoo was great: it had good lather and rinsed clean, but left my hair feeling a little stripped afterward. Nothing new; pretty much all shampoo does that. One thing that puzzled me though was the smell. Not that it's bad, it just smells clean. But with the colour of the packaging and the fact that it's got macadamia oil in it had me expecting a warm cocoa buttery-type smell so I was a little thrown off when I sniffed it and just smelled...shampoo. No biggie though.

The Smooth Down Conditioner was nice too. Not as thick as I like, but it did the job. I had a hell of a time rinsing it out though, as usual. But that may have been as much because of my method of rinising my hair in cold water whilst trying not to let said cold water touch my skin as because of the conditioner itself. I know I didn't get it all out, but what was left was just on the ends and they need moisture anyway so...

Now the Smooth Down Heat Glide is serious business. It's a thick serum that just glides through your hair. And it really works! I was already ecstatic with the results after putting it in wet hair before blowdrying, but last night I decided to try an experiment: I put it on my dry hair at night just before wrapping (on just one side of my head so I could compare the results) and when I took it out in the morning the difference was remarkable. This.stuff.really.works.

I'm going back next paycheque for the Smooth Down Butter Treat which I'll use as a pre-poo and maybe even the Sleek Obedience anti-frizz solid serum after I run out of my other serums. I'll skip the detangling conditioner as I don't really have a problem with tangles.

Obviously, the wiwfm verdict on this one is hell's yes!

Me, Myself, and My Beauty Regime

Hi Pretties!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Mine has been extremely exciting and fantastically boring all at the same time. It started out Friday night with an invite to the "exclusive" ETalk party...at which I spotted my future husband Idris Elba, flirted shamelessly with former crushboy, and searched frantically for current crushboy. It was tonnes of fun but no pics because my purse was too tiny to fit my camera in. My new friend Killa took some pics of me, so if I get my hands on them I'll definitely post them here.

After that my weekend has been pretty quiet. I've pretty much spent it on "bed island" as I like to call it. I just stay in bed all day and do everything here. I got all caught up on Gossip Girls - Serena is gorgeous isn't she? - and did a little work as well. That's it. The one productive thing I did was to go for a "walkjog" - I'm trying to get more exercise so I walk the Kay Gardner Beltline Trail whenever I can but I'm always so jealous of the people who are jogging instead of walking that I've decided to become a jogger. So I'm alternating walking and jogging until I'm in good enough shape to be able to jog the whole thing. Wish me luck. Hopefully the whole thing will go a lot more smoothly once I quit smoking - whenever that may be lol.

Anyway, as I write this I'm on bed island again after showering and washing my hair. This is my favourite part of the week - I feel completely clean and reborn. It's definitely my "most beautiful" moment - mentally that is. Esthetically it's not a good look at all, let me tell you. I look a fright right now with bantu knots in my hair, Bio Oil schmeered over my face, and my feet slathered in Aquaphor and wrapped in plastic. It's all part of my weekend beauty regime, which is supposed to be the topic of today's post...

So like everyone else (I assume), I do what I can during the week to keep up my appearance, but with so little time and so much else going on, it's on the weekends that I do all the real heavy lifting. So here's a rundown of my weekend Beautification process. Some of it I've blogged about before:

-If I have no plans on Friday night I prepoo my hair using either coconut oil, olive oil, eggs, deep conditioner, regular conditioner, or some combination of all of them. I coat my hair (concentrating on the ends), stick a plastic cap on it and wrap in a heated towel. If I don't have time Fridays I do this Saturday mornings instead.

-Usually at some point during the prepoo process, I tackle my skin. As I may have mentioned a time or two, I have extremely oily skin and a lot of clogged pores so I start out with the OCM including the pore vaccuum, and then I hit my skin with the aspirin mask which refines and brighens my skin. After that I spread Bio Oil over it (check my Bio Oil post here) and go about my business.

-I wash the prepoo out of my hair in the shower, then put conditioner in, slap on a showercap, and go about my business in the shower while the steam helps my hair to absorb the conditioner. "Going about my business" in the shower means shaving pretty much everything, exfoliating my whole body (I do this everytime I shower though), and scrubbing my feet with the pumice stone. Then I rinse the conditioner out with cold water (yowtch!) and if I'm blowing my hair out straight I wrap it in a t-shirt (it's more gentle on your hair than a regular towel) for ten minutes. If I'm wearing my hair curly as I am this week, I put it back in the shower cap so it says extra wet until I'm ready to style.

-Slather my feet with Dr. Scholl's For Her Ultra Overnight Foot Cream and then with Aquaphor or Coconut Oil and then wrap with plastic and cover with socks. Lotion myself from head to toe with Nivea Smooth Replenishing Lotion in the summertime or Extra Nourishing Milk in the wintertime. These are the two best lotions ever in my opinion. At this point I usually need a rest, so I chill out for a little while.

-After tackling my hair - a drama so intense it needs its own post - I move on to my nails. I polish my fingernails every weekend and my toenails every other weekend. Once I've done that, I have no choice but to sit down and rest myself so that my nails don't get wrecked. They usually do though.

So that's it. I like to have one "grooming" day on the weekend and one relaxation day. When my weekends are too busy for me to do all that stuff I get really cranky.

What about you guys? Do any of you have special weekend beauty routines? Drop me a comment and let me know I'm not a freak :)

p.s. I have to send a shout out to my newest reader (and work neighbour) Daniela. She's hilarious, loves my blog, and is a whiz with the liquid eyeliner. What's not to love?

I Love your Blog!

Hi girls!
Big huge shout-outs to Kim at A Life of Style for once again showing me bloglove...she's so sweet and her blog is fab. If you haven't checked it out please do.

She tagged lil ole me as a blog one of her favourite blogs and I'm sharing the love by posting some of my faves. I currently subscribe to over 100 blogs so I can't share them all but these are some great ones:

• Scandalous Beauty
• Clumps of Mascara
• A Life of Style
• Not in My Colour
• Lipstick Powder n Paint
• Life of a Ladybug
• Beauty and Personal Grooming
  

And in the spirit of sharing the bloglove....

Here are the rules:
1. The nominated is allowed to put this picture on their blogs.
2. Link to the person who hearted you.
3. Nominate at least 7 other people and link to them.
4. Leave a message on those people's blog to make them aware that they're nominated

Product Review: OPI Moon over Mumbai

Hi there,

Today we're talking nails and I'm going to try to skip all the preamble and just get right into it. I know I tend to ramble on and on before I get to the point. Sorry about that.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I got my nails done at Novo Spa in Yorkville with some girls from work. (Sidebar: Novo is a great spa, if you're in the Toronto area you should check it out). It took me all of two seconds to choose Moon Over Mumbai as my nail colour; I've been wanting to try this shade ever since I bought Elephantastic Pink way back in April.




O.P.I. describes this colour as “[a] romantic shade of soft, moonlit grey”. That's certainly true of the colour in the bottle, but on my nails it's not necessarily the case. Even after three coats, the colour just doesn't look grey. My roommate described the colour as "oyster", which I thought was pretty fit. Either way I'm not complaining. It's a beautiful sheer shade that's neither pink nor beige, making it a great escape from the classic nude colours we're so used to seeing.

The thing about it is though that it's a bitch to apply. Holy crap. Now I'm not a novice at polishing my nails by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm really struggling to get this stuff on streak-free. I can do it in three coats, but I want to try to do it in two. The only thing that I've found that helps is to let each coat dry fully before you apply the next one. Which basically means it takes about three hours to polish my nails. Who has time for that?

I think I've found my fall HG colour. I've been wearing it non-stop for three weeks now and haven't stopped staring at it. The only thing is though that the tips of the nails on my left hand are starting to turn yellow because of smoking; but none of my faithful readers are idiotic enough to actually smoke, are you pretties?

'Til the next time!

Oh yeah right, the wiwfm verdict on this is yes!

Product Review: Sebastian Laminates Concentrate Gel

Hi Everyone!
So once again I've been MIA for a while - sorry about that. It's been a tough couple of weeks at work plus a gorgeous long weekend...not a good combination to motivate me to blog. But I'm back now and I've got a slew of things to talk to you about.

So let's get to it. I haven't blogged about it, but I've been having major hair drama pretty much all summer long. Partly because of the weird and incessantly rainy weather, and partly because of the nature of my hair. See I have really curly type 4A hair that just does not want to be straight. But I'm not really the big curly hair type so I try to force it. And for a long while there I was winning the battle, but lately my curls have been kicking my ass and my hair has been a big puffy, frizzy, mass that I constantly have to wear up in a ponytail or a twist, but even that doesn't help because my hair has so many layers that something somewhere is always falling out.

Anyway. So my hair routine in a nutshell goes pretty much something like this: I wash my hair only once a week, usually on a Friday or Saturday. I pre-poo first with coconut oil, olive oil, beaten eggs, deep conditioner, or some combination of those. Then I wash, blowdry (which is my own personal version of hell), and flatiron it. Somewhere throughout that process I put some serum in (usually before blowdrying and after flatironing) and that should be all the product I put in my hair for the whole week.

Problem is, my hair is still a frizzy mess all the time, especially my ends. So I keep putting more and more serum in and it keeps not helping and my hair just gets more and more limp as each day goes by. So finally I said, enough is enough. I'm going to shell out the extra money and buy a professional brand of serum and hopefully that will help with the frizz.

Enter Sebastian Laminates Concentrate Gel.

I marched into Trade Secrets a few weeks ago and spoke to one of the sales associates.
I told her that I had very curly, very thirsty hair that I don't chemically straighten (did I forget to mention that I stopped relaxing my hair about three years ago?) and basically gave her the rundown of my routine. I told her I needed a good serum that I could put in my hair once a week that would actually make my hair shiny and not frizzy. She marched so purposefully over to this product that I thought she knew something I didn't. I was a little skeptical because it looks like a gel and has the word "gel" written clearly on the package, but when I questioned her about it, she assured me that it was indeed a serum. Okay then.

After I finished choking to death over the $24.95CAD price tag, I went to the cash to pay for it. The girl working the register was black (she's the one who gave me the sample of Redken Extreme the last time I was there. I asked her if she'd ever used this stuff or agreed with the recommendation and she was like "oh this gel?" I cut her off. "Is it a gel or a serum?" I demanded. "Let me see it please?". At this point her manager stepped in. This guy literally would not let me hold the tube of gel/serum that I was about to shell out $24.95 for. He was like, "what is it you want to know?" and I told him that I just wanted to read the ingredients. After a whole long rigamarole (during which I never did get to actually hold the tube), he explained to me that it was a serum "in gel form" and that while it did contain alcohol in it, it was basically a serum that just had a little hold. Okay fine. I paid for it and left.

I washed my hair the next day and went through the whole process. I couldn't wait to see the finished product. Sadly, my hair was no less frizzy and no more straight than it ever was. And it was sticky to boot. Not excessively, crazily sticky, but should your hair ever be sticky? I would prefer not, thanks. Luckily my sister showed up the next day bearing a gift: Avon Advance Techniques Dry Ends Serum. Now this shit is a serum! Way better than the Sebastians stuff and about 1/5 of the price. It smells great and actually moisturizes my hair and gives it some shine.

Sebastians Gel has been relegated to pomade status. And even for that purpose it's not the greatest. But I have to find some use for it after all that money I spent on it.

Anyway, needless to say, the wiwfm verdict on this one is no.

I'm on Alltop!

Hi everyone!
I'm so excited to announce to you ladies that my little blog has been included in the Beauty Channel of Alltop.com!

If you don't know about alltop, it's a very cool site that aggregates tonnes of blog by content. So if you go to the Fashion Channel, you see stories from a bunch of different fashion blogs/sites, if you go to the Beauty Channel, you'll see stories from a bunch of sites including mine!

And the best part is, I get to put badges like these on my site:

Could this site be any cooler?

These are a few of my favourite looks

Hi ladies,

Hope my Toronto ladies are enjoying the gorgeous weather while it lasts....cuz you know it's not going to last long.

So I have good news! Will it Work for Me has been accepted into the Essence Network! This is exciting as I'm now in the company of many great bloggers. Check it out and find some interesting blogs to add to your list of reads.

Which reminds me: thanks so much to all of you who read my blog regularly. I look at my site traffic daily and I'm astounded that my little blog that two months ago had only my sister and McKinley as readers is now building up its own following. I feel a little like Sally Field "you like me! you really like me!"

Please keep coming back and let me know if there's anything you'd like to see.

Also a shout-out to Kim over at A Life of Style who dropped by recently. Love your blog too girl!

Anyway, on to today's post....a few of my favourite looks. I thought I'd post a few of what I consider to be my best looks ever and see what you guys think. Seems a little egotistical of me though, doesn't it? Well looking at pictures is always fun - tha'ts why Facebook is so popular, right?

So without further ado, I give you the best of max fabulous!

The first picture is at my friend Mansa's birthday party...that's her in the pink. I did a Rihanna-inspired look - black eyeliner all around and hot pink lips. Pretty hot for a Wednesday night lol.

The next one is from my pre-32nd birthday party. I had a goldish-burgundy theme with both my nails and my eyeshadow. The polish is Revlon but I can't remember the name of the colour, and the shadow is Color du Jour by Lancome and that gold Shiseido Hydropowder.

As you may have guessed, the first picture is my favourite picture of me ever. I use it as my profile picture for everything! This look was copied from Christina Milian - hair and makeup. The shadow is actually this crappy silver Rimmel colour mixed with black Smashbox cream liner to look grey and the lipcolour is MAC Sweetie topped with a L'Oreal lip gloss called Pink Panther - it was LE when the movie came out and I loved it so much I bought like 3 of them.

The next one is my second favourite picture of myself. I got my makeup done by this fabulous lady named Ninia Nation - obviously she's very talented and also super nice. But I never saw her again. I heard she has/had a shop in College Park here in Toronto but I'm not sure...I have to find her because honestly this is the best I've ever looked in my life!

First one was my actual 32nd birthday. Makeup is nothing special but I love my hair here. As you can see, I used to be a weaveaholic - and boy do I miss those days. Don't get me wrong having a weave is a PITA but I think I looked so much prettier in those days...these days my hair stays in a ponytail all the time - see the next picture.

Oh I love these two pictures...the first one is with my friend Jemeni - and boy do I wish I could remember what the HELL I did to my hair that day because it looks amazing (if I do say so myself)! The eyeshadow is again that crappy Rimmel silver and Lancome The New Black.

On the right is my first Mansa-pic - we were at this hip hop party called The B-Boy Document (it was great). Shadow colour is again the gold Shiseido Hydropowder and Lancome The New Black.

So what do you ladies think? Any recos for me??

Product Review: Maybelline Colossal Volum'Express Mascara in Glam Black

Hi girls!
Thanks to the lovely ladies over at Chick Advisor's Product Review Club, I received this bad boy in the mail yesterday. I was anxiously awaiting this and couldn't wait to review it. Although I doubt anything can compare to the wonderfulness that is Lancôme Hypnôse, I wanted a mascara that was a little more low-key for my Monday to Friday look. This one definitely fits the bill.


Here's the rundown, Clumps of Mascara-style:

Price: 5 out of 5 (because it was free. I think it retails for around $7 which is very reasonable)

Packaging/Brush Wand: 4 out of 5




the package it came in - isn't it cute?










the wand






Overall: 3.5 out of 5 (It would have been 4 out of 5 but I took half a point off for not delivering on the 9x volume claim)

What it claims: "Creates 9X the volume, instantly."

The truth: It’s a good overall mascara - delivers solid lengthening and adds an acceptable amount of volume, but isn't outstanding in either.

What I loved about it: The definition and length are definitely there. It is rich and black and even after several coasts it doesn't weigh down the lashes. Volume-wise it was acceptable - but I don't think it lives up to the 9x claim. Although the brush was huge, it was surprisingly un-messy and did a good job on the little tiny lashes at the inside corners of my eyes.

What I didn't like: The wand is pretty dry coming out of the tube. I felt like I couldn't get enough product. I really wanted to pump it but we all know that's a big no-no.

Overall: I’m impressed but I’m not overwhelmed. It's a good mascara but there isn't anything so spectacular about it. the best thing about it is the price I think. It gives big results for the price point.

Would I recommend it: Definitley. One of the better drugstore mascaras I've tried. The wiwfm verdict is yes on this.

Here's some pics of the transition....please don't mind how disastrous I look in some of them lol

my naked, un-primed lashes curled with my crap-tastic lash curler.

with one coat of primer









One coat of mascara









two coats






The finished look:




don't mind my grandma hair. I was trying something that clearly did not work.

coming soon....

hi ladies!
just wanted to drop you a quick post so you don't think i've returned to my old non-blogging ways.
although the weather is perfect for blogging (i.e. monsoons and chilly temperatures lol) work is CRAZY this week.
but i do have some cool posts coming up on...

Bio-Oil (finally broke down and bought it)
more Cheap but Goodies
a new mascara
some lip balms - which is something I've never blogged about before!
also I'll review a cute spa I found here in Toronto
and an OPI nail polish I recently bought and fell in love with.

I'm also still hoping for more "Ask Max" submissions - send me some questions or my feelings will be hurt.

you'll here from me soon (and thanks for reading!)
max

my first "ask max" post - koffee dyme

Hi everyone!

I was so excited to see a reply to my "ask max" post - thanks Koffee Dyme for reading and participating. Hope you see you back soon.

She asked me "lets see... if you were to paint the face (make-up wise of course lol) what colors would you go for?"
I didn't want to post her picture on here without her permission, so check out her site for her pics (and great info!).

Koffee Dyme I have a few different ideas for you:

My first thought when I saw your picture was that you should do great big bold colour. You have beautiful strong features and great hair so you definitely have the stature to pull of bold looks. I'm seeing beautiful bright teals like these great colours from Urban Decay (they have the best colours in my opinion)

Goddess - midnight blue with electric blue sparkle

Mildew - shimmery metallic green

Shattered - bright iridescent aquamarine

Or Cargo's Aegan

I also can see you in regal purples like these (also all UD)

Flash - bright iridescent purple

Last call - iridescent plummy purple

And pretty pinks like

Kiss - reddish mauve with silver glitter

and Hotpants - medium pink shimmer

So that was my first idea. But then I let it marinate for a while and I started imagining your face (but not in a stalkery way) and what I saw was gorgeous earthy tones like these:

Roach - reddish brown with golden sheen

Toasted - a muted copper shimmer

Smog - deep coppery bronze

and Cargo's Nepal - one of my all-time favourite colours.

But actually now that I think about it, you know what would be hot? If you did a surf-and-turf type look with the greens and the earth tones - like Smog & Shattered or Aegan & Nepal! That would be FIRE.

The last vision I had for you is pretty simple: just black eyeliner smudged on your upper and lower lids with a pretty pinkish lipstick like MAC's Sweetie. If you wanted to get really fancy you could go over the liner with one of those "fancy" black shadows like Lancôme's The New Black:


or UD's Oil Slick

And of course don't forget that with all this colour you NEED a primer like Urban Decay's Primer Potion!

Hope you enjoyed your reco Koffee Dyme. If you try any of these let me know how it went.

my daily look

hi lovelies!

check me out with all the posts, eh? told ya'll i would try my hardest to do better.

so the other day as i was rushing off to work it dawned on me to take a picture of myself so you could see my daily work look (and then take one when i got home to see how beat up i look after a day of work lol) so i snapped a quick one.

it's kinda dark but i wanted to give you a rundown of my daily routine for summer work days. it's simple and relatively quick but still fun.

prep:
-wash my face with Aveeno Clear Complexion Daily Cleanser

-tone with witch hazel or apple cider vinegar - this particular day was acv, undiluted cuz i'm gangsta like that

-curl lashes with a Tweezerman lash curler (it sucks, don't buy this, spend the extra money for a good one) heated with hot water

-MAC Matte applied to whole face

face:
-on the back of my hand i mix a pea-sized amount of olay age defying daily renewal lotion with a tiny drop of revlon skinlights instant skin brightener in gold light (this might be discontinued, but any highlighter would do) and a pea-sized amount of maybelline pure makeup foundation in caramel (equal to or slightly larger than the drop of moisturizer)

-wet a foundation brush (i use a crappy Quo one and you have to wet it for it to work decently at all) and then use it to blend together the mixture. i apply it to my face starting at my cheeks (because that's where i want/need the most coverage), blending outward, then apply to the rest of my face from the centre outward.

-MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NC50 on my upper lip and underneath my eyes and also anywhere else i may need coverage.


eyes:

-Urban Decay Primer Potion on my lids

-fill in my brows with an Annabelle eye pencil in dark brown, which i blend out with a MAC angle brush

-line my inner upper eyelids with a black eye pencil by Rimmel. try really hard to keep my eyes open so it doesn't smudge onto my lower waterline - this almost never works so i clean it up with a Q-tip.

-i rotate between two eye shadows - a gold Milani eye shadow (I think it's Antique Gold) or MAC Expensive Pink. choosing the colour is completely random...i wear whichever i feel like that particular day.

-one coat of Ardell Lash Growth Accelerator as a primer - the only thing it's good for

-two thin coats of Lancôme Hypnôse


cheeks:
-sweep the bronzer from Lorac's Hot Flash blush/bronzer duo on cheeks, temples, across forehead, and the bridge of my nose with a fan brush

-MAC Sheertone Shimmer blush in Breezy or Ambering Rose - usually it's Breezy but this particular day it was Ambering Rose


then i curl my lashes again with the curler heated with hot water. seems like the extra step is unnecessary but it really makes my lashes stay curled all day.


set the whole thing with MAC Blot Powder in Dark.


and that's it! it seems like a lot but the whole thing takes less than 10 minutes and it's a really pretty natural summer look. you could skip the eyeliner - i just do it to make my lashes more pronounced when i wear my frigging horrible glasses. it's now my go-to summer look when i just want to look polished and not like i loaded my face down with stuff.


what do ya'll think? critique me ladies but please be gentle ;)

a new feature - ask max

hi ladies,
so i was telling my friend pam the other day that what i really wanted to do is to set up a booth on queen street with a big sign that said "ask me about your look". then i could gently make suggestions to people about one thing they could do to improve their look. not in a mean janice dickinson kind of way, just people who wanted help from a (semi-)normal person about what they could do to improve the way they look. and pam goes - how about you do that with your blog?

i told you i was slow sometimes, right?

so the new feature is called ask max. send me a picture at willitworkforme@gmail.com and ask me something about your look. i wll give you ideas, advice, and always compliments - either privately or here on the blog.

if you don't have a question, make one up okay, otherwise my feelings will be hurt

happy birthday poo!

i have to wish my little sister marshie-poo a very happy birthday!

ladies if you haven't already you should check out her blogs: Superblackgirl Speaks and Big Brother 10 recap - Real Talk on Reality TV. she's a great writer - better than i - but she sucks even more than i do at keeping her blogs updated lol.

in her defense though, she's really busy. anyway, in tribute to my marshie-poo, here's some pics of us over the years...well the years since digital cameras were invented anyway.

have a great day marsh! loves you.