Hair in France... I wanna bring all of their Style HOME!

As promised I am back! (It’s Lauren again is what I mean) I have more French beauty styles to share with you from my honeymoon! I have already told you about the very glam French makeup trends I followed in Paris now let’s move on to hair!

Between strolling along the streets in Paris and boat rides along the Seine I noticed those Parisian Ladies have some gorgeous hair. It just looks effortless and truly chic. 

My goal was to NOT LOOK LIKE A TOURIST, blend in as much as possible obviously I had to try and copy their looks.

There were two looks that stood out to me to be true Parisian trends. The first is so simple, yet so effective. Easy to create but very beautiful and touchable! The ladies with their hair down had it soft and smooth (not frizzy) but very windblown and it didn’t look as though it had been curled or straightened. To get this look I let my hair dry naturally with tons of Moroccan Oil in it to keep it smooth (my hair is naturally quite large and frizzy) and a spraying of Glamour Queen to give volume. Once it was dry (the next morning) I took my Amika Iron with the 3 different sized curling wands (LOVE THIS IRON) and set it up with the largest size Iron. Let’s just say I am so glad I brought a power adapter to make this iron work in Paris cause I would have been a fuzzy mess without it! I touched up the funny looking pieces by wrapping them around the iron to smooth them out and immediately shook my hair out not leaving time for any curl to set. Sprinkled in some Dust it and gave my hair another shake and voila! I had soft windblown hair after just a few minutes!

The other trend I saw with hair over in Paris was a very high, very messy bun. I loved this look. It took two minutes in the morning and it reminded me of a messy, day version of my glamorous wedding hair!

I knew how to create this look from tips I had gotten from Emily over our time working together. Got to love having a Best Friend who can teach you amazing hair tricks! What I would do was spray my hair with Glamour Queen and sprinkle Dust It on the roots for volume! Then I would pull my hair up into I high ponytail on the top of my head. I would tease the hair in the ponytail and then just throw bobby pins in it randomly to secure it. It was fool proof, I couldn’t mess it up and I felt like I fit right in with those chic Parisian girls!

We were off to the French Rivera next! So make sure to read our blog next time to hear about the easy summer looks I created abroad!

The Perect Honeymoon & Style in France...

Well the honeymoon is over! I am back to work and back in Canada. Since Emily has shared with you the amazing looks she created for the wedding I figured why not share some of the great beauty tricks I learned on my honeymoon! Over the next couple of Blogs I will share with you some of the exciting places I visited in France and how to copy their chic Parisian style!

Ah Paris! The first and definitely my favourite beauty spot of my travels!  We checked out all the amazing sites like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Versailles, and the Louvre but also, and to me most importantly, the AMAZING Paris Shopping! With the French high end beauty lines such as Lancôme, Dior, Chanel, and countless more chic little boutique I made it my mission to find out what makes those Parisian girls so glam.

After checking out the stores and scoping out all of those beautiful Parisian girls I noticed some very common elements between the way they all did their makeup. Dark lined eyes, even soft skin, and blotted subtle lips. The look was so sexy and carefree I felt the need to create the look on myself. I pulled out my Lift Cosmetics and came up with a real classic French Makeup look that I made it my mission to follow! Here is your ‘How to’ on looking très très chic!

1.    I added a little Camouflage Concealer into my moisturizer to even out my skin - light beige.

2.    I finished off my skin using our Dual Powder. It gives that little extra coverage and controls shine without looking too matte or dry. I used shade C2 and a large powder brush to buff it over my skin.

3.    Then I contoured my face using 491 Capri Blush to create sculpted cheek bones and defined my features. Swept it under my cheek bones, around the edges of my face and over my eyelids.

4.    Highlighting time! I used 111 Vanilla Ice Shadow over my cheek bones, brow bones, and in the inner corner of my eye.

5.    Time for those French coal rimmed eyes! I used Onyx eyeliner to line my upper and lower lash line starting at the outer edge of my eye working my way inward with little sweeps.

6.    Grabbed 109 Black Magic Shadow and being on vacation, I just used a q-tip to smudge the shadow over my liner from outer edge in, to create a soft smoky eye line.

7.    Applied Super Lash Black Mascara, and Lots of it!

8.    Finished off with a Vanilla Bean Mineral Lipstick in Flirt and lightly blotted with a tissue! This formula is perfect to copy their look because it is soft and sheer.

Parfait! My French Makeup Look is complete! Wanna try it out? Call Lift at 416-960-5438 for a complimentary mini makeup, just mention this blog!

Keep reading, next time I will go over some Chic Hairstyles, and my French Rivera Look!

The Bride Herself!

The Bride!

 

Here is how to get the Disney Princess bridal look.

Emily has gone over all over the amazing looks she created for all my favourite girls (herself included ) but who better to describe the bridal look than the bride herself!?!

I told Emily she could do whatever she wanted and I knew I would love it, and that most certainly came true. No matter what she did with my hair if she likes it I KNOW I will; I have complete trust. So I wasn’t worried at all about showing her pictures of what I wanted or trying to explain my look because she just knows me! I am a lover of all things Disney (especially Cinderella) and had the castle venue and the ball gown -- what next but the PERFECT princess bun.

Here is what Emily did... She asked me to smooth out my hair with a blow dryer the night before so it wasn’t frizzy. No prob! I loaded up my strands with Moroccan Oil and Osis Buff to condition my hair and help hold the smooth style. I used a round brush to get my locks frizz free. On the day of... the first thing Em did was spray my hair with some Glamour Queen and sprinkled in some Dust-it to get volume! Then she pulled my hair up into a high pony tail and use her hands to soften it at the scalp so there was some shape (I don't like a SLEEK pony). She knew I wanted the bun to look FLAWLESS, and it needed to have height and DRAMA! Thought my hair is long and THICK, Emily thought she would garuntee perfection by using the aid of STUFFING! Using some magical doughnuts (as I call them) she placed them around the pony tail stacked to create lots of volume. Yay! Then she took my hair and smoothed it over and around the doughnuts to create this flawless magic bun with tons of height! It was time to seal with lots of Sessions Hairspray. Did I love it? OF COURSE! I knew I would, it was the perfect ‘do for me! Then I felt just like a real princess as she placed my Tiara on the top of my head around the bun.

To complete my look I had to have those big Disney princess eyes and Joy was up to the task! Using Lift Cosmetics she evened out my skin with Flawless Finish Lite-n-Sweet and then brightened my cheeks with Temptress blush. Adding lots of glow with Stardust shimmer powder to highlight my skin and eyes she then smoked them out with Taupe and Black Magic eye shadows and some Onyx Eyeliner.  We went big with a full set of lashes and finished my princess look off with Flirt Mineral Vanilla Bean Lipstick and a touch of Mint Sugar Plum Gloss.

My look was perfect for me, and of course Emily knows me so well she would have no problem at all creating a look that made me feel my best on such a big day. A BIG THANKS to Joy and Emily for making us all look and feel so beautiful that day!

Wanna try my look? We carry all the products used in our store! Mention this post and you can get 15% any of the products we used for my big day! Call Lift Beauty Boutique to book us for your special day at 416-960-5438.

My "Look" for the wedding!

I don't think I mentioned to all of you, the disaster that I had with my dress for Lauren's Wedding... but oh was it a disaster!

I had purchased this amazing dress (that I felt great in) at BCBG in Florida, while I was there in December.

It was a simple, but romantic, black gown. Being the 5 foot little person that I am, I knew I would have to have it hemmed. As the date started to creep closer and closer, I realized how nervous I was about having the dress hemmed because I don't know a reliable place here in Toronto. 

So I figured I would called the closest BCBG to me (Young and Bloor) and ask where they refer their clients to, for alterations. 

The manager of BCBG gave me the name and address to a place that she highly recommends and sends ALL of her clients to. So I felt like I couldn't go wrong...

You see where this is going, don't you?

Long story short, I had the dress pinned, and it looked amazing, but when I went to pick it up a week later...

I was shocked to find a butchered dress! 

With 2 weeks until the wedding, and me being the pickiest shopper EVER, I started to panic and it took EVERYTHING in my power not to cry, scream, and yell!

The guy at the alterations place told me there was nothing he could do to fix it and then stared at me blankly!

Luckily Lauren was there and spoke up! She asked "So, are you going to pay to replace the dress?"

He chuckled and said, "No!"

It was then that I ponied up and asked to speak with his manager. I got her on the phone and was told by her to go back to BCBG and buy a new dress, once I had the new dress I was supposed to bring the receipt back to them and they would send it off to head office, and she says "MAYBE, you MIGHT, be reimbursed for the new dress." 

MAYBE and MIGHT weren't good enough for me, these dresses are PRICEY!

So Lauren and I went over to BCBG to look at the dresses and see if there was even anything I liked! Lauren suggested that the first thing we do, is speak to the BCBG manager and tell her what the situation was!

She was SOOOOOOOO sweet and apologetic! In the end she decided to let me scavenge the store with 2 sales associates at my disposal to find a NEW dress with LITTLE time to spare - she told me "Not to worry about a thing" and that she would deal with ALL of it!

At the time I didn't know what this meant, but I let the sales people walk me around the store, and help me with sizes. Unfortunately there wasn't much left! It was prom season, as well as bridal season. There were only 4 floor length dresses for me to choose from and sizing was definitely and issue! 

The one I liked MOST was only available in a size 0 or a size 14, Eeeeks!

I got the size 0 on, *with the help of Lauren and 2 sales ladies, but it was on, and decided I would take it and just loose a little bit of weight (in 2 weeks!)

I went to the check out to see what the manager really meant by "NOT TO WORRY ABOUT A THING," and was pleasantly surprised to find that she REALLY meant that!

I walked out of BCBG with a new dress, and didn't even spend a penny!!!

AMAZING CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!

I have to say, I wasn't in love with the new dress the way I was with my origonal, but it would do and I was thankful for the amazing staff of BCBG!

I was careful with what I ate from that point until the wedding and was sure to work out as much as I could, because I didn't want to look like a sausage in my dress!

Of course the night before the wedding, I lost all of my will-power because of stress and ate a tub of ice-cream! Oh silly me!

Okay, so the focus of the day was obviously the BRIDE and her family, I was at their home in Newmarket, early in the morning to make them pretty and knew that there would probably be NO time for me to Doll up!

The night before I curled my hair, and the morning of, before heading to Newmarket I did my make-up!

Here's how it turned out!

Oh Amika and Osis, How I love you - I can do my hair the night before - sleep - and still look half decent! What would I do without you?

And the 3rd Look.... Amanda!

Amanda

The Last of The Brides Maids...

Not a blood relative, but she may as well be! 

Their Mom's are BFF's (they even look alike), grew up in each others homes and they share all of the same childhood memories!! 

She's known as the honourary sister!

She's a beautiful girl with a flawless smile, who general goes simple - less is more kind of girl!

... but her make-up for the day screamed GLAMOUR and her jewelry did too! 

So I figured, WHY NOT - let's to a Hollywood inspired Oscar-esque style!

I was warned that Amanda's hair doesn't hold a curl so well, so I figured lets play it safe and pin it ALL back, while still keeping it romantic and feminine.

My inspiration:

I put a DEEP side part in Amanda's hair and curled with my 1" barrel (Medium in the Amika Set). Used my infamous concoction of Osis products to produce volume, texture and HOLD. 

Glamour Queen . Dust It . Elastic . Freeze . Sessions

Here's how it turned out!

The Trick:

Make a LOOSE pony tail with all of the curled hair from the ears back - leaving the front sections of your hair loose! 

With bobby pins, secure the pony tail into a loose and messy bun! 

Starting on one side pull small sections of the loose hair from the front - towards the bun and secure into place with bobby pins!

Continue pinning on both sides... there's no RIGHT or WRONG here, just pin in a visually pleasing way!

Check in Next week to see how we achieved the Bride's Princess inspired "Look!"

Lauren's Little Sister - Her "LOOK" for the big day!

Kathleen

A.K.A. 

Beanie

This Natural Beauty brightens every room she enters with her vibrant smile and kind heart!

She very well, might be the sweetest person I've ever met!

Her only 2 requests on this big day were:

1. "Make me Look Pretty!"

2. Incorporate a gorgeous hair comb which she had purchased for the wedding!

I wanted to make sure that Kathleen looked young and fresh, to be true to her age! 

After all she is the baby sister! 

Kathleen was the first to get her make-up done by the TALENTED Joy, 

One of our Fav' Lift Beauty Girls!

She had chosen a FULL false lash that made her already BIG beautiful eyes POP! 

I figured, she had DRAMA on the eyes, so let's keep her hair down and sweet!

That's just what we did! 

Again using a smaller iron than I would normally (Smallest barrel in the Amika set), I curled 1 inch sections of her hair.

Using the same formula of Dust it, Glamour Queen, Elastic, Freeze and Sessions.

(We should ALL have these 5 products in our hair styling cavalry!!!)

I wanted Kathleen's hair to be fun and flirty, so instead of setting the curls into a PERFECT "set", I let each curl fall as I pulled the iron away from the head! 

I added texture to the curls by back combing the roots and separating the curls by running my fingers threw each one.

This lovely lady LOVES volume!

So after her whole head was curled I applied more Dust it and had her toss her head upside down and SHAKE HER HAIR ALL ABOUT!

WOAH Volume and texture, looked super hot and sexy, but we were looking for something a little sweeter!

I tamed it down a little by pulling one side back but still leaving some volume! 

I used her beautiful embellished hair comb so secure it!

I don't seem to have a picture that shows off the amazing hair piece! Sorry

Remember to get the look you have to wrap the curls AWAY from your face on the iron!

The Lift Beauty Girls can be a part of you special day too...

Wedding, Prom, Birthday, Sweet 16, Bat Mitzvah, you name it!

E-mails us for pricing: Liftcosmetics@gmail.com

Lauren's Maid of Honour - How to get her Look!

Alicia

Amazingly styled, confident, funny and naturally beautiful!

Alicia, Lauren's sister and Maid of Honour is a Fashion Stylist with one of the Top agencies in Toronto. She is constantly surrounded by fashion, glamour and the top make-up and hair artists in the city, at magazine shoots, runways shows and more...

I have had the pleasure of being Alicia's hair stylist for the past 3 years... but the pressure was on for this event! I had the challenge of working with 2 different hair textures on ONE head - Alicia's natural hair is collar bone length, but for the wedding, she wanted a little more length and fullness so we brought in some extensions! I was able to match the colour PERFECTLY, but it is next to impossible to mimic hair textures!

Alicia's natural hair holds a curl beautifully - but the extensions definitely didn't!

I have to say, it was pretty nerve wracking - knowing that Casa Loma didn't have air conditioning and the weather was calling for CRAZY humidity! My fear was the Alicia's natural hair would hold the style we chose but that the extensions would fall straight! Imagine how silly that would look! My anxiety got the best of me, through nightmares the week before! I wasn't just the stylist at this wedding, but also the BFF, reader, and guest -  the entire family/all attendees KNEW it was ME who did the hair! *I had to find a way to make this work while still giving Alicia the "Look" she desired!

Here's how I did it:

I set Alicia's hair in a VERY neat and tidy, traditional "curling iron set." 

I worked from the nape up,clipping the extensions in as I reached the desired locations. 

I was sure to use Glamour Queen and Dust It at the roots, Elastic at the mid-shafts and ends, and Freeze after the hair was curled.

Because I knew the extensions were less likely to hold a curl, I used a smaller curling barrel than I would normally to achieve the *LOOK we were going for!

On the extensions I used my 3/4" Iron and on Alicia's natural hair, I used my 1" Iron.

(Small and Medium Sized Barrels in the Amika Set)

When her entire head was in the SET, I sprayed all over with Freeze and the Sessions (Sessions = Osis' Hardest hold hair spray - AMAZING stuff) 

I kicked Alicia out of my chair and moved on to the other ladies. 

A couple of hours later and I had Alicia sitting in my chair again - it was time to take the set down and see how the curls looked!

Once all of the pins where out I brushed her hair heavily with a cushion brush.

The curls were still VERY strong, but we knew they would drop as soon as we stepped outside!

I sprayed her again with Sessions and her hair looked FABULOUS all night long! Here's the final look!

Classic, Timeless, and Elegant - Just Like Alicia herself!