Armani Discussion

Ingenue said:

I put Fusion on first (not under my eyes), and then pat the Eraser under my eyes, around my nose and around the corners of my mouth. The overall effect is 'brightening'.

You put the fusion on with quick light strokes using your fingers (a brush will eat a lot of the product... and you literally need a few drops to cover your face), then pat the Eraser wherever you need it. You may be comfortable with the 'thickness' of a heavier concealer, but the coverage ends up being the same with Maestro eraser. The proof is in pictures. The flash is automatically attracted to the lightest part of your face. I find that Eraser does wonders on clients with dark circles.

Now, if it's just not doing the trick, you might want to go for a color corrector (that's what I recommend to clients who have to 'pack' on concealer to hide really dark circles. Color correctors 'cancel' out the darkness, instead of concealing it.

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Thanks. I will try these tips.

I don't like to have foundation on my fingers too, so I usually use a brush to spread. It is not that I feel my fingers are dirty, I sanitise them before apply makeup, but that I don't want my fingers to get sticky and brown. lol. Lately though, I have tried using my two fingers on my right hand to spread them more before using a brush to blend or buff it in. Hope to see the concealer and foundation this weekend!

OK, reading all the comments and knowing that my skin tends to dry out a bit in the winter, I'm definitely going to see if I can get a sample before committing to this. I like something that makes my face fairly (although not totally) matte, but this sounds like it might be difficult for me to pull off.

Any fair ladies have thoughts on whether the lightest shade is light enough? I've still got the end of my summer colour, so I'm not quite as pale as I get (I fade slowly, so that likely won't happen until late in the month), but if I'm spending a lot of money on a foundation, it's going to have to match my normal skin tone, since it'll likely be used more for special occasions.

I'm finally going to get a eyes to kill shadow. I checked them out long time ago but wasn't ready to start using that kind of texture eyeshadow, they're a little bold for my taste however I'm now ready to step outside the box. I was going to get a Chanel ombre but I think Armani eyes to kill are better especially since Chanel has changed their formula. I will either get #8 or #3 About two weeks ago I was playing around with Armani lipsticks and I LOVED the formula but didn't want to make a snap decision. So I didn't get one but when I go to get the eyeshadow, I'll probably get a lippie too.

Not interested in the foundation, Guerlain is my one & only.

Purple Popcorn said:

I'm finally going to get a eyes to kill shadow. I checked them out long time ago but wasn't ready to start using that kind of texture eyeshadow, they're a little bold for my taste however I'm now ready to step outside the box. I was going to get a Chanel ombre but I think Armani eyes to kill are better especially since Chanel has changed their formula. I will either get #8 or #3 About two weeks ago I was playing around with Armani lipsticks and I LOVED the formula but didn't want to make a snap decision. So I didn't get one but when I go to get the eyeshadow, I'll probably get a lippie too.

Not interested in the foundation, Guerlain is my one & only.

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Enjoy your first one! I totally fell in love with the formula at first touch and just kept adding more. Tragically, my original EtK, Lust Red, has gone missing. It certainly never left my house, but I can't find it anywhere. I love it so much...

katred said:

Enjoy your first one! I totally fell in love with the formula at first touch and just kept adding more. Tragically, my original EtK, Lust Red, has gone missing. It certainly never left my house, but I can't find it anywhere. I love it so much...

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Thanks! I looked at some swatches again and decided on #7 Sweet Fire, I love the name and #400 lippie since I'm still in need of a red lipstick.

Best Things in Beauty has been posting reviews of the quads- thought I'd put all the links here at once:

http://bestthingsinbeauty.blogspot.ca/2012/10/giorgio-armani-cosmetics-eyes-to-kill_5.html
http://bestthingsinbeauty.blogspot.ca/2012/10/giorgio-armani-cosmetics-eyes-to-kill_3.html
http://bestthingsinbeauty.blogspot.ca/2012/10/giorgio-armani-cosmetics-eyes-to-kill.html
http://bestthingsinbeauty.blogspot.ca/2012/09/giorgio-armani-cosmetics-eyes-to-kill.html

She seems really in love with the formula. The colours look very soft, so I imagine they would all give a more subtle kind of a look, but some of them do have some pretty amazingly special shades. The green-themed palette looks especially pretty.

And here's pics of the different shades of liquid lipstick (holy bold colours batman!):

http://bestthingsinbeauty.blogspot.ca/2012/09/coming-attraction-giorgio-armani_4904.html

Kate, what are some nice plums that lean more purple than red in either the regular or the sheer RdAs?

The green quad looks gorgeous! I told myself not to buy another green eyeshadow palette because I don't wear them a lot, but this one looks like it has grey and black, so it isn't straight up green.

Has anyone tried the loose powder? Is it ok for oily skin?

I have extremely oily skin, and I'm not very fond of the Armani Loose Powder at all. I don't think it's milled finely enough.. and it tends to 'sit' on my skin, no matter how little I use.

I prefer Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder in 02.

I got my eyes to kill shadow in #7 Sweet Fire and it looks great on my skin tone and nicely bring out my brown eyes. I didn't like how the red lipstick looked on me so I didn't get a lippy.

Winthrop44 said:

Kate, what are some nice plums that lean more purple than red in either the regular or the sheer RdAs?

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Hm... Regular lipstick #604 leans more purple, definitely, but it's quite dark, so it's not the kind of thing that you could wear all the time. #602 in the sheer formula is definitely purple, but I don't know that I'd even characterise it as plum:




The sheer shade #601 is purply too, but it's redder overall.

Oh that's really beautiful! Thanks!!

Oh my, thanks for the reply, and for saving me quite a lot of bucks!

I hate to admit this, but I'm starting to wonder about the "Zero" gloss. I guess it's something I'll have to test for myself, but I'm curious to see if it makes much of a difference in terms of how my lips look. And I am sort of curious about the "white" palette in spite of myself.

Miss QQ said:

The green quad looks gorgeous! I told myself not to buy another green eyeshadow palette because I don't wear them a lot, but this one looks like it has grey and black, so it isn't straight up green.

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I'm in the same boat. I have a gazillion greens but when I clicked on that first link showing the palettes my eyes zoomed right in on the green one. Now after seeing swatches I will justify buying more green e/s to myself somehow.

And here I thought I was all set to go purchase the Lasting Silk foundation as the sample seemed to not argue with my oily skin and the lightest shade I think will work well. But now all the talk about the new foundation has me very curious about it. I'm going to try to get by Nordies in a few days and check and see if there are uber pale shades that might work.

I'm still mad at Chanel for putting the 2 lightest shades of Matte Lum out to pasture. I had a great match in porcelain after a very long search. This one SA still wants to sell me the Clair which is two shades darker but it looks like I've played in the mud and rubbed my face.

Ingenue said:

I have extremely oily skin, and I'm not very fond of the Armani Loose Powder at all. I don't think it's milled finely enough.. and it tends to 'sit' on my skin, no matter how little I use.

I prefer Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder in 02.

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Ingenue--I too like LM Secret Brightening Powder. Being quite pale I use #1. I used to use it to use it just under my eyes like the SA told me several yrs ago but now I dust a bit all over. There's no heavy feeling and yet it still sets my foundation. It also doesn't tick off my oilies. I know many people don't use powder to "set" their foundation anymore. But I was taught to always do that.



For you younger ladies a bit of history:

Way back in 1974 when I was junior high the school actually had a makeup lady come in to teach the girls about makeup. We were told to start right away brushing our eyebrows up and outward every morning and every night. And it was a must to set your makeup with powder and so on. They split up groups consisting of all the JH grades 7th--9th. I was soooo not interested in this as a 7th grader. And at 12 I was only allowed to wear lip balm.

When I was in 8th or 9th grade all the girls were required to take Home Ec to prepare us to be proper wives. We were taught about skin tones. Apparently it was of the upmost importance to know what "season" we were. Also we had to "study" each other ad give advise on what colors you should wear and what your best feature was about your face. I suppose that was so that we would be well dressed arm candy for our future husbands to take to business dinners. We bagan a bit of cooking, ironing, simple sewing, and such. In high school as 10th graders we had to take home ec 2 that started where the other left off. I loathed those classes and I still loathe cooking, which I don't know how to anyway. Same thing with cleaning and I can barely sew on a botton. Everything else gets sent to the tailor.

The most useful and fun thing I learned was from my older sister and that was the art of flirting. She was a master and apparently that runs in our family and we all excel in this area. I used to watch her do her makeup and get all gorgeous for a date. I guess I just never saw myself doing that, but when the time came of course I did the same thing. From there I gradually became more of a girly girl, although I always have and always will be competitive as hell. But I was not the type tomboy that wouldn't wear fun trendy clothes and such. I just didn't like skirts and dresses. My awesome sister being 8 yrs older would take me shopping and buy me or I should say picked out all the cool fashion fads of that time as I'm sure our mom just gave my sister her credit card My mother hated shopping, My brain cannot comprehend this concept. My sister had a part-time job and she would often out of her small paycheck buy pretty things when she went shopping with her friends to bring home to me. I didn't fully reach my full on girly girl until about 10 yrs ago, around 40 and I'm still loving it at 50.

Oh and thank goodness I got the flirting thing down to a science since I married an engineer. He comes from a family of the same, engineers and accountants. Apparently they not even aware of the notion of flirting or anything of that nature. I suppose my now hubby of 25 yrs needed that couple drinks to loosen his sense of humor prior to my cousin introducing us when we ran into him and some friends at a local college hangout.

Again sorry to babble. My ADD gets the best of me, especially at 5:00am during an insomnia spell. Yay menopause for all this and the hot cold off and on. I won't say night sweats as we ladies do not sweat, we glisten.

Shaddow Addict reading your post it reminded me off a" Charm and Poise" class I had in middle school. I am 35 soon and equal rights was well in to place so I have no idea why this was an option for our "mini"classes they had us doing for our homeroom period for a short time. Anyway because it was my third choice and the other classes were full I had this class. We were taught things like crossing our legs properly (at our ankles) and how to get in out of a car gracefully with an umbrella. I vaguley rember something about lipstick, but I didnt wear make up to school on a regular basis at that time so I didn't retain any of the imformation.