Sleeping in your makeup is never a good idea no matter how tired you are. The quickest way to get a fresh face is with a makeup wipe, not to be confused with a baby wipe. The best wipes are alcohol free, and are made of soft yet durable fabric that can gently remove any trace of eye and face makeup. There are lots available and we especially like the ones by MAC and Boots NO.7 brand. For those of you who prefer a cleanser/make up remover, Shu Uemura High Performance Balancing Cleansing Oil Advanced Formula is fantastic. The benefits of using an oil based cleanser is that it will very quickly break down even the most tenacious water proof or long wearing make up — leaving behind makeup free, incredibly soft skin. A common misconception is that an oil based cleanser is not good for oily skin, but oil removes oil leaving a shine free complexion.

Leave it to Natalie Portman to look stunning as always with her perfectly pouted stand-out lips. I especially love how she paired the lips with just the right amount of flush on her cheeks and a more understated smokey grey eye. The whole look is well coordinated with her Lanvin dress at the screening of her new movie Love and Other Possible Pursuits at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. To get the perfect shade of berry lips try the YSL Rouge Volupte in #22 Exquisite Plum with the MAC lip pencil in Vino.

Images from justjared.com

Chris Nicholls is a fantastic fashion photographer that works out of Toronto and New York. No doubt you have seen his photos in Elle, Flare, and Fashion. He was also a featured photographer on an episode of this past season’s Canada’s Next Top Model. His lighting is amazing and always makes the model’s skin look so luminescent. How beautiful!

This is the question that plagues so many women. If your skin is dry this is definitely less of a problem but if you have oily skin then your make up has a tendency to slide. Make sure you start with a good base for your makeup to stick to. My favorite primer is the Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer. Creme products can also help your makeup go a lot further. Try the YSL water proof cream shadow, the Stila convertible colour for your cheeks and of course some oil absorbing papers to get rid of any extra oiliness and shine.

As NY fashion week comes to a close we couldn’t help but notice a few trends emerging. Super natural lips, healthy tan skin, full brows, and burnished browns all over the eyes. I’m ready to throw out all my bright colours, that is until the end of this week when London starts.

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The 2009 VMA’s turned out to be more about the drama than the music. But Alicia Keys performance with Jay-Z was fantastic, my favourite of the night, how can you go wrong singing Empire State of Mind I love it! She killed her verse and as if we didn’t know why her last name is Keys-that piano playing was amazing. All that and she looked great too. Get Alicia’s lash look with these Shu Uemura Smoky Layers Lash. To add shimmer and brighten up the inner corner of the eye MAC Mineralize Eyeshadow in Family Silver. To achieve the rosy lip use  Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Supreme Shine in RD185.

Image from justjared.com

The fashion, the make-up and Chuck Bass are the main reasons why we all tuned into watch the season premier of gossip girl. Leighton’s dark eyes were rock star appropriate last night at the 2009 VMA’s. While Blake’s soft make up compliments her fair skin and blonde hair to perfection. Stay tuned for more style and scandal…

This is so delicious I absolutely love it! I fully admit to being addicted to body products: hand creams, shower gels, moisturizers I have to have a selection on hand at all times. I usually go for sweet smelling things so when I tried this Laura Mercier Soufflé Body Creme in French Vanilla, I realized I’d just found la crème de la crème. Besides the rich Tahitian and Bourbon vanilla scent, it feels fantastic on the skin. Shea butter, vitamins A, C, and E, as well as sweet almond oil and honey really drench your skin in moisture without a greasy feel.

It is really important to keep make up brushes as clean as possible since they are touching your face on a daily basis. I recommend doing a deep clean once a week by diluting a small amount of brush shampoo (enough to cover the brush hair but not too much that the handle is submerged) in water. Try Bare Escentuals Brush Conditioning Shampoo or Sephora Purifying Brush Shampoo. Let the brushes sit in the cleaning solution for about a minute, then rinse under the tap until the water runs clean. Reshape the hairs and lay flat to dry hanging off a table top so the air can circulate. It’s best to do this process in the evening so your brushes are ready to go for the next morning. If it’s a quick clean your are looking for, alcohol based cleaners like Smash Box Brush Cleaner or Cover FX Brush Cleanser can be poured onto a tissue, and then you can wipe the brush back and forth until the hairs are clean.

Personally I am really addicted to lip gloss. I never put on lipstick without putting gloss on top, and most of the time I just wear gloss alone and lots of it. As I perused the collections for AW ’09 I noticed most lips were missing that high shine look. The look was not super matte either more like a soft satin sheen. This is quite simple to achieve-use a little concealer on your ring finger dab your lips to mute your natural colour. Then simply apply your favourite lip balm on top to give subtle sheen. Or apply your lip balm on top of any lipstick or lip pencil instead of gloss, and you just updated your look to Fall 2009.

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September means Summer is officially over and Fall is fast approaching.  That means new make up, new wardrobe, the return of our favourite TV shows, and the launch of some new ones!  As we all know everything old is new again. So your pillow smudged smoky eye from the Summer just needs to be tweaked to look stronger and more intense to bring it up to date for Fall 2009, as seen above on both Ashlee and Taylor.  The nude lip is standard procedure with a smoky eye but a bright red mouth gives off way more attitude.

Try Make Up Forever Aqua Black waterproof cream eyeshadow for a long lasting pitch black eyes.  Brighten up the inner corners of the eye with MAC Phloof! eyeshadow.  Use Nars Fantasia lipliner pencil and fill in the entire lip then finish with Nars Sabrina lip balm for the perfect nude pout.  Or for full on red lips use Ruby Woo lipstick precisely outlined with Cherry lip pencil both by MAC.

Image fom instyle.com

Now that we are well into Summer most of us are looking for a little refreshment.  MAC Fix+  is an amazing hydrating mist that is the perfect antidote for sweltering Summer days.  Packed with spring water to refresh, cucumber and chamomile to soothe, Fix+ can be spritzed onto the face before or after make up.  This is one of those products that you try once and it’s instant love!

Expert Tip: Spray directly onto the face before moisturizer for extra hydration.

Italian luxury, absolutely gorgeous packaging, who wouldn’t want to carry this in their make up bag?  It is Dolce & Gabbana‘s signature glamour translated into cosmetics. Developed under the watchful eye of make up artist Pat McGrath, this line promises to be more than just beautiful packaging. Available exclusively at Saks.

One member of our Smudge team is obsessed with custom mixing her own nail polish shades. Armed with her special mixing plate and brush, she concocts all shades tints and tones imaginable. For those of you who don’t have the time or patient for colour theory 101, we love the range of colours available from Butter London.

The full brow is by far the most flattering shape for the face. For many seasons now the girls hit the runways with well groomed, beautifully arched eyebrows. Even Richard Nicoll SS09 was all about bountiful brows. So it’s pretty safe to say that this is standard procedure and not just a fleeting trend.

When it comes to perfecting your own brows think Brooke Shields not Pam Anderson! There are many ways to create a fuller brow — the most common is to use an eyebrow pencil. A natural look can also be achieved using an angled brush and an eyebrow powder or eyeshadow in a colour that is a couple of shades lighter than your hair colour. Once you have brushed the colour on your brows, try smoothing your brows with an eyelash brush like MAC 204. Not only does this groom the brows but it can also help lighten up the colour if you applied the shadow a bit heavy. Also try Make Up For Ever’s Waterproof Eyebrow Corrector. It’s perfect for anyone who’s had half a brow missing by the end of the day! For those of you fortunate enough to have naturally full eyebrows all you need is a clear brow gel to keep them in place all day long.

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With so many mascaras on the market it’s hard to know which ones are worth the hype. The variety available at the drug store alone is enough to make you crazy with indecision. So I chose three with different wand styles to do a quick comparison. As with most mascaras, all three will give you a fairly natural look with the initial coat.

Cover Girl Lash Blast with it’s dome shaped, silicone wand definitely gives lashes the most volume. It builds up quite easily after 2-3 coats to deliver much thicker lashes. If you have small eyes the brush can be a bit cumbersome especially around the inner corner. The end result is similar to Dior Show mascara.

Rimmel Lash Maxxx also has a silicone applicator that’s a comb instead of the usual brush. At first I was skeptical of this but it creates very pretty separated lashes. Perfect for soft eye make-up that calls for natural looking lashes. For the lower lashes, holding the brush perpendicular and just using the top of the comb worked out very well too. Since this comb is small it is easy to reach the inner lashes so every lash is coated.

Lash Stiletto I bought because of the name! I love how stilettos elongate my legs so I figured this mascara would do the same for my lashes—which it did although not immediately. Lash Stiletto gets better when it’s older. After about 3 weeks it performed better. It gave my lashes a lot of length and added some volume.

Expert Tip: Open your mascara for a few minutes before using it. This lets the air get into the tube and thickens up the formula so you need to apply less coats.

Skin that looks healthy, radiant, and gorgeous is not just reserved for models, and celebs, but rather it is an absolute must have for every woman. Almost every woman I meet over thirty, covets glowy skin because glowy skin is youthful and who doesn’t want to look young?

Expert Tips:

1.   Prep the skin with a hydrating mist like MAC Fix+ before applying moisturizer. This boosts the skins moisture level and creates an instant glow.

2.  For an all over glow mix a few drops of  an illuminating  product into your liquid foundation. Try Giorgio Armani Fluid Sheer.

3.  Highlight the high planes (tops of cheek bones, apples of the cheek, and brow bone) by gently tapping on a cream shadow. Or use a powder that has iridescence and apply with a soft brush.

It comes around every season. Can be seen on runways in all four of the fashion capitals. It’s the smoky eye. This seasons adaptation is imprecise, melted, and pillow smudged. Always dark, sooty with a lived in look. At Cavalli the melted look was achieved by applying Nars Cream Eyeshadow in Zardoz over the top of a pencil. Waxy kohl liners are perfect for recreating a slightly imperfect look. Backstage at Temperley London we used MAC Smolder Eye Kohl, and cream based shadows to give the girls an edgy yet glam look. Finish the look with flawless skin and a beige nude lip as seen on Mary Kate Olsen. This is your recipe for a hot summer look!

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This season the brighter the better whether it be make up or fashion. We’re seeing a big trend towards stand out shades. When it comes to make up the bright lip is quite frankly the quickest way to get you from zero to wow. A few favourite products to precisely accomplish this look are Nars Lipliner Pencil in Funny Face, Chanel Rouge Allure Lipstick in Provocative, and MAC Vegas Volt Lipstick. To incorporate this trend when getting dressed, keep it looking 2009 as opposed to 1989 with a single neon item. The McQueen shoes are a definite must!

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This Spring Summer you cannot go wrong when wearing pastel inspired make up.  All shades are relevant: pink, peach, mint, lemon, and lavender.   Try washed out and milky, or an icy metallic version as seen above on Lara Stone at Zac Posen. Depending on the feature you choose to wear your favourite pastel colours-eyes or lips,  be sure to complete the rest of your look with earth tones.

Images from style.com