March 27, 2013

Naturally Smoky with Revlon PhotoReady Primer, Shadow + Sparkle

I was compensated by a brand or company but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Revlon Spring Essentials

As the snow starts to melt and Spring grows nearer I find myself getting more and more excited to shed my heavy makeup and embrace something more lightweight and natural.

Spring is the season of renewal and rebirth and an ideal time to start getting you’re skin back in shape again after a rather long hibernation period. If you live in a cold environment chances are you’re exposed to frigid temperatures one minute and warm, dry heat the next as you race from outside to inside do no favors for your skin.

Mine tends to get patchy and dry around my cheeks and feels two sizes too small. Since we’re just seeing the earlier start of Spring here I’m immediately thinking of ways to spruce up my Spring makeup wardrobe and thinking of the best ways to get a natural look while shedding my dry Winter skin.

Here a few tips to get your skin in order for the Spring season and a few suggestions for a naturally smoky makeup look to compliment your complexion using the new Revlon Photo Ready Primer + Shadow Palette in Metropolitan.

Spoil Your Skin
One of the first things you’ll want to do to get your skin to glow is exfoliate it. Take time out to really scrub away patchy areas. A finely grained exfoliator that lathers is an excellent way to gently de-flake as you cleanse. A hydrating sheet mask is also a great way to spoil your skin. Sheet Masks can do such great things for your skin and provide instant relief to dry, patchy areas. Choose one that contains Hyaluronic Acid to not only add moisture to skin but to help seal it in. Follow up with a a rich moisturizer. Do all of these things the night before as it’ll give your skin some time to rejuvenate and you’ll wake up to softer, smoother more refined skin.

Keep Things Light and Simple
For daily skincare remember SPF is a good start to your day. Apply liberally even on a cloudy day you still want to protect your skin. Go with a lightweight moisturizer, nothing to heavy for day use as you don’t want it to build up on your face and get oily or greasy as the day progresses. If you have drier eyes I’d highly suggest prepping well with eye cream so your concealer has a soft, smooth surface to adhere. They drier your eyes are the more likely your concealer is to crease and creep into finer lines so prep well with a hydrating eye cream.

Go Natural for Spring
After wearing heavier makeup all Winter long and going bold with my eye makeup I like to head in a different direction for Spring. The light, makeup-free look is always a perfect look for Spring! Go light with your foundation to keep things fresh and natural look.

Prep skin with a good primer prior to makeup application of any kind to insure you have a good working canvas for your makeup to adhere to and to extend the wear of it. I personally love and have recommended Revlon’s Photoready Primer to you dozens of time so this is a good start to getting your natural look on! Revlon’s new Photoready BB Cream is sheer, lightweight, and perfect for evening out skin tone while brightening it up. Give cheeks a gentle flush of color with a cream blush. Creams are best particularly coming out of a long, hard Winter when your skin might be a little drier. The cream finish is a little more forgivable and won’t cling to flake areas the way powder would. Revlon’s Photoready Coral Reef Blush is the perfect shade glowing coral for Spring cheeks!

Follow up with some clear gloss but if you’re using Revlon’s Lip Butter chances are you won’t need it as the give a nice shiny finish without the need for gloss.

Revlon Photready BB Cream and Primer

Revlon Lip Butter Collection has a slew of flattering shades to compliment lips for Spring in a lightweight, weightless formula that’s perfect for warmer weather. My favorite is Peach Parfait, a golden peach shade with refined shimmer!

For a great smoky brown eye look Revlon’s new PhotoReady Primer, Shadow + Sparkle are an ideal pick for creating a quick, foolproof eye look in seconds. Each palette features a priming shade a shimmering overcoat and three shades for highlighting, contrasting, and defining eyes. I used the palette below for a night and evening look. For my evening look I used a bit more shimmer and my day look I lessened the shimmer for a more work friendly eye look. The palettes are super easy to use and contain detailed instructions for application on the back. The palette features a diagram of sorts that make up the shadows so you know where each shade goes.

Revlon Photo Ready Primer + Shadow Palettes

Revlon Photo Ready Primer + Shadow

Revlon Spring Look 1

Revlon Spring Look 2

Day Look

Revlon Spring Look 3

Revlon Spring Look 4

Evening Look

Keeping things simple like this isn’t necessarily a Spring exclusive! It’s sometimes nice not having to deal with too much on our faces but just the essentials.

Good Luck creating your perfect Spring look!

I’d love to hear how you achieve it and which products you use to do it.

Have you tried the new Revlon Photo Ready Primer + Shadow Palettes?

I was compensated by a brand or company but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

About the Muse

Isabella MuseIsabella is just an average everyday geeky girl who doesn’t blend her eyeshadow correctly, wears too much blush, and hopes she never finds her holy grail products because she likes the thrill of the chase so much. Her mission is to bring you super honest reviews on makeup, skincare, fragrance and all things beauty. She’s in no way an expert on the topic and she sure as hell isn’t a super model. But she’s passionate about makeup and is seeking like-minded individuals that like pina coladas, getting caught in the rain, and ones that enjoy spending hundreds of dollars at Sephora without feeling buyer’s remorse. If you’re that person feel free to reach out and leave a comment or follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Bloglovin‘.

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Comments

  • JoElla

    Very pretty love! I bought that primer (thank you target and regular coupons!) and love it! It actually shocked me that I love it so much.

    I haven’t tried these shadows yet, lord knows I have more than my fair share of the other quads LOL. Maybe I will pick one up and give it a whirl. And I am thinking about trying the Revlon BB cream. I haven’t jumped into that pool yet, but I am thinking this one might be a good one to start with.

    • the Muse

      YAY! it’s my hg Jo! 🙂 glad you like! It’s nice sheer coverage for the warm weather, not a typical Asian BB Cream sadly but nice consistency, sheerer coverage, weightless 🙂

  • Vi

    I love the looks you did, especially the daytime one! I really like your top in the night-look photo, though. 😀

    Word from a couple of fashion blogs is that bold bright pink lips are big this Spring, so that’d probably be my ideal springtime look right now! A really nice skin-tone shadow all over the lid just to brighten things up (I just got Wet ‘n’ Wild’s single in Brulee, and I LOVE it!), maybe a tiny bit of darker eyeshadow for definition, blended really well into just my outer “v”, subtle contouring/bronzing with maaaaybe a touch of blush, and as always well-defined arched brows to frame the look and balance out the punchy color on my lips! 🙂

    • the Muse

      aw thanks vi! PERFECT look for Spring especially the bright pink lips that I WISH I could rock ;-D

      • Vi

        Thank you! And you can totally rock it–just make sure you go light on all your other makeup, and it’ll be perfect! I beliieeeve in you!! 😀

  • Rachel

    Omg, your eyes look stunning!! This seems accessible even for someone like myself (no matter what, I screw up my eyes, Im heavy handed)

    • the Muse

      aw thanks Rachel!!!!!! 🙂 I am SO heavy handed don’t feel bad!

  • Dani

    This is just a personal opinion: I’m not a fan of sponsored posts. I do appreciate that you were honest about it, however, I feel like my decision to follow a blog daily is definitely made on whether or not the creator is someone who writes up a special post just to display products that are honestly not top in the market ( like those revlon photo ready eyeshadow quads) or even the more affordable alternatives for extra money. And i do make the distinction between acceptng free products for review with no payment and posts more like this. I cut watching MacBarbie07 on youtube without even writing anything because I did not see an honest disclaimer on a revlon video with similar products that screamed paid product placement. Sorry for feeling the need to write something that is a bit if a downer, but I do not want to try to speak for myself and others who might feel the same way

    • the Muse

      dani, not sure what you mean about these not top in the market (these just recently launched so they are a new product). In regards to sponsored posts they do happen from time to time on Musings of a Muse. I have a monthly server bill that needs to paid on this website as well as many other expenses to keep the site running so doing sponsored posts and running ads definitely helps me to pay off the bills that a site this large accumulates. I’d love to tell you that the site doesn’t have any expenses at all but unfortunately between maintenance, technical issues, a server bill that costs well over $300 a month and other things I def need to do something to generate money to pay those bills (outside of digging into my own savings from my regular job to do so). I don’t litter Musings of a Muse with sponsored posts daily so the rare occasion I do one I hope reader’s won’t feel too put off by it 🙂 But if you hate them, that’s quite ok and I totally understand, just skip over them and don’t read them 🙂 head on over to the next post or a post that interests you! I also paid for every single product featured in this post, none of these items were provided by Revlon and Revlon did not write the post for me or tell me what I should write. They did ask me to do a Spring focus post featuring some of my fav products. I’m not sure how MacBarbie did her video but I place a disclaimer on all my posts and I’m up front and honest about samples I get or items I purchase myself. Hope this helps and so sorry you feel put out.

  • Dani

    Dear Muse,
    Thank you for your reply. I’d like to think I’m not a troll, so I’m not going to hash over things. Blogs make money in a lot of different ways and I sympathize with you on trying to make a living doing something you love that also happens to be a bit off the beaten path. This was the first beauty blog I ever followed regularly (how long ago was that??) and it’s one of the few I still read daily. I have always appreciated your sense of humor, interesting perspective on ingredients, and love for foreign products. You introduced me to Asian BB creams, so I’m pretty sure that means I owe you my first-born or something like : )
    however, on the rare occasion I feel like I would rather there be something different about a place I ‘go’ to’ in a regular basis, I usually end up writing a comment or mentioning something to that coffee shop or to friend since it does occur on a daily basis. I decided to write you just in case there is some financial wiggle room when it comes to deciding what to put up as an ad in the side bar or when not to do a requested post for a brand ( I appreciate you telling me you bought the products)

    I just wanted to leave my comment as a sort of feed back if there’s ever any wiggle room there and you were wondering what your readers would prefer.

    Also, I wanted to methions that I respect that this comment strand is for comments in these particular products. I would totally understand if this was something you’d rather not approve for the public since it isn’t about these products. I should have sent an email or something.

    And thanks for running a site that makes a lot of our daily lives more fun and interesting!

    • the Muse

      hi dani, sorry if I make any mistakes, had my eyes dilated so a little blurry still as I reply 🙂 I actually don’t blog for a living! But that would be a cool career choice if I could do it for a living! It’s more of a hobby for me and a way to share my love of beauty with other folks that love it too. Thanks for being such a long time follower, I appreciate it more than you’ll ever know or realize. I always feel like I’m talking to myself here no matter how comments a day I get 🙂 It’s a weird feeling when someone sits down and comments to me and we start having an awesome conversation about an eyeliner we both life. LOL your children all belongz to me! 😀

      Hmmm I didn’t really get you when you said you feel like you’d rather go to a different place…? You always have freedom to post in my comment feel anything you’re feeling so long as you aren’t insulting another reader or me personally. I appreciate your feedback on just about anything I post here even if you agree or disagree with me. There’s always wriggle room for everything 🙂 It just gets mighty costly to run this blog sometimes. I don’t think reader’s realize how much it costs to run a site like this. I used to be on blogger and that was free but since moving to wordpress on a dedicated server it surely got costly fast 🙁 so I def need to run ads and such otherwise I would be digging into my own money to run the site (I kinda do already somehow anyway to be honest). I feel like I couldn’t bring you the best of everything without sinking some cash into the site believe me anything I make here typically gets sunk right back into the site to make it better, run faster, more products to review and show you, etc….:) I literally run to the drugstore and purchase new products when they come out so I can get swatches up, etc and that’s typically from my own pocket. I wish I could choose the ads I run (not sponsored posts related that is) but unfortunately those are completely random and served via an ad network. I did think the Revlon post was relevant to beauty and such so it wasn’t completely off topic 🙂 I see beauty blogs doing sponsored posts sometimes that aren’t beauty related at all and that’s kinda sad 🙂

      You’re welcome to email me anytime but you can comment off topic. I’m the queen of off topic conversations so please by all means say whatever you want wherever you want 😀

      Plus it gives reader’s to express their own opinions on sponsored posts as well!

      Hope I didn’t lose you as a reader as I do appreciate you following for so long and would hate to lose you just because of a sponsored posts!

      xoxo!
      I’ll def keep your feedback in mind Dani and do my best to bring you the BEST possible content I can bring to you!

  • carrie

    I got the primer a while back based on your awesome review and I love it!

  • Dani

    Oh, no! Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I meant that it’s my personality to give feedback to places that I go to daily (even on the Internet) and that i wanted to give feedback on your blog since it has become a part of my life at this point. I was just trying to explain why I wanted to mention my feelings about sponsored posts in the first place. I’m also typing in ipad and the instant spell-check is sometimes working against me, so I’m sorry the grammatical errors made that confusing.

    I will happily remain a daily reader and must say that I’m impressed with your willingness to respond to comments and to respond so generously.

    And I totally understand the need to run ads or find some way to pay for your server. I initially thought that this particular post was one way you were doing that and hoping that they wouldn’t come to be the only posts or the significant amount of posts on your blog since I enjoy what you have been doing.

    Thanks for all your work on this. your hobby has turned into something quite impressive! If your blog wasn’t around my rabbits wouldn’t all these empty boxes that get shipped from makeup stores to my house to hop arund in and my husband wouldn’t be able to explain to his friends what a BB cream is or the difference between a matte and satin finish eyeshadow. So, thanks from all of us here at home!

    • the Muse

      oh no worries, I was a little out of it when replying yesterday due to my eyes 😀 That’s a GOOD thing! Always express yourself and never hinder what you want to say 😀 Freedom of speech is a damn beautiful thing def not great to visit a place you love on the internet and have that taken away 😀 Like I said, as long as you aren’t insulting anyway, anything you say here is free game so I appreciate your feedback greatly 😀 ugh damn spell check 😀

      Dani, no worries, I do a rare sponsored post (perhaps six a year? or less) they def won’t be solely what a concentrate on here on Musings as I realize that isn’t what ANYONE wants myself included 😀 and there have been ones I passed up on. People contact me to do sponsored posts on fashion, on those lash growing mascara, etc…and I typically SKIP all of them as I I don’t personally use those lash serums (you probably read how paranoid I am about them) and this isn’t a fashion blog so why do a sponsored post on fashion? So am I def picky about what sort of sponsored posts I do 🙂 Since I enjoyed many of the products in this post anyway it was a perfect fit for Musings. and thank you! I think so too, not to be vain, but I can’t believe its come this far sometimes. Boggles the mind. LOL….! I love that 😀 was smiling especially at your husband explaining to his friends what a BB Cream is hehe! how many bunnies do you have?!?! ;-D

      xoxo!

  • Simone

    As another committed reader, I just wanted to jump in and say something as well.
    Sponsored posts can be annoying, especially when the blogger dodges the issue, and is clearly lying about said products. It irks me, but it’s not my blog, and so I just click the back button, and read another post. Easy peasy.
    Also, I feel it’s important to applaud the way you clearly state whether or not a post is sponsored at the beginning of the post. Even if it weren’t clearly typed at the top of the post, its blatantly obvious. I’ve never seen you take a bunch of products (some of which are fairly new), all from one brand, and write an article like that on them. Obviously, you’re not trying to be sketchy. No beating around the bush.�
    The thing I admire most about the way you approach sponsored posts, is that (from what I can remember) the products were purchased by you, AND you’ve given honest reviews on them in the past. All I have to do is type in the name of said product, and see exactly how you feel about it. The only product you raved about in this entire post, is Peach Parfait lip butter, which you’ve been a long time fan of, and the primer, which you’ve been raving about since you first used it! I actually went out and bought it based on that review, and it’s now HG! �I don’t see where you went on saying the palettes were the greatest, you simply suggested them for a quick, foolproof, eye look. Which they provide.
    You’re not trying to fool anybody. And I consider myself lucky to have someone who has an everyday job, that still somehow makes the time (and the $$) to keep much anticipated posts coming!�
    Do your thang, girl, & keep up the amazing work, Muse! I, for one, applaud you… And I’m sure I’m not only speaking for myself. <3

    • the Muse

      hi simone! really appreciate your comment. thank for noticing that! I actually love many of the products I mentioned and def purchased all of them! You know how I feel about that primer hehe ;-D and def love the lip butters (except now the new shades EEP!). I am SO glad you also discovered the primer! It’s freaking amazing! Aw thanks Simone! You’re a piece of sunshine here on Musings truly appreciate your daily comments/feedback!

  • Christine

    Haven’t thought about trying the Revlon BB Cream. My first BB cream was the Physician’s Formula one and I didn’t think it was that great, probably so-so. I’ve been on Smashbox’s Camera Ready BB Cream for the past couple months “� how does Revlon BB Cream compare? Is it the better drugstore BB cream out there? May have to give it a shot if it is, since the high-end ones are a bit pricey, would be nice to have a cheaper alternative.

    • the Muse

      christine the revlon one is nice I reviewed it a bit ago but very sheer more tinted moisturizer than BB and I agree the PF one was heavy for me, felt unnatural on my skin. Smashbox Camera Ready is a little thinner in consistency, revlon has a more creamy almost whipped texture. So far haven’t really run across a ton of US BB Creams I like, Lumene has a rather nice one that’s worth checking out available at CVS which I reviewed recently. 🙂 also Clinique’s BB Cream is fairly nice and Bobbi Brown (although not drugstore).

      • Christine

        Thanks for the answer Muse! I will look into the Revlon one though, I don’t really like heavy feeling makeup on my skin. I like just evening out my skin tone and light coverage. I’ll def pick up the Revlon one next time I need some BB cream and there’s a sale! 😀 Thanks!

        • the Muse

          my pleasure Christine! sounds like you’re cool with tm coverage, you’ll def like 🙂

  • Christi

    I don’t mind the occassional sponsored posts, I understand you have a lot of expenses with the blog! Plus u recommended products that I’ve read in your other posts that u really do love. ( like the photo ready primer and lip butters). By the way, I think my, Asian bb collection is officially out of control! And I’m a makeup artist!! It’s all our fault!

    • the Muse

      christi, it sometimes boggles my mind how much it costs to maintain musings 😀 so anything $$ coming my way is a good thing to keep this place running smooth hehe! I LOVE photoready primer love love love love it ;-D LOL No one is paying me to say that! Just adore this stuff ;-D ha…you’ve no idea I have like 40 of them in rotation at the moment!

  • Cj

    Ok time for my 2 cents! I wasn’t actually going to say anything cause its pretty obvious what I think lol. I’ve been a reader for about 4 years, 3 of which I have been commenting back and forth with t
    muse almost daily. I’d like to think I know her a little lol. I know she would never do a post or review on a bad product and label it amazing because its sponsored. That’s just not the kind of person she is. I totally understand that a website this big has huge server and matinence costs. So doing a sponsored post every few months is perfectly fine with me lol. The primer in this one, is a HG for me, and that’s saying something cause I usually don’t go for drugstore stuff (call me shallow all you want lol) I remember she did a sponsored post about the proactive green tea moisturizer a long time ago, and I’m not gonna lie I did roll my eyes a little, but guess what moisturizer I have been using for the last 4 months religiously? That’s right the proactive one lol. All in all I trust you wifey <3 and if you get any flack gimme a ring and ill come n taze someone for you 😀

    • the Muse

      hubby you know me best 😀 <3! I really wouldn't endorse something I didn't use myself and hey, I get samples all the time, clearly state that and rant about them if I hate them, no sense raving it if it doesn't work. I've seen so many NARS Creamy Concealer raves lately on blogs it's scary, I didn't feel they were that great at all...the formula was incredible but coverage was zero and said as much in my review warning folks so I def want to bring you the best possible info I can about products! Needless to say products are going to work different for everyone however, sometimes I even roll my eyes are reviews I read because I know the product isn't great yet raving is involved to the max. I'm glad you and other readers realize that *hugs* LOL I heart you babe! <3!

  • kristanna

    Im sure if Dani doesnt like your sponsored ads, which are very few and far between I certainly invite her to donate to the Muse so you dont have to do this. Otherwise, this was a tastefully done post and I liked it.

    • the Muse

      aw thanks kristanna I appreciate your kind feedback. We discussed it, Dani and I, and I think she def understands a little more why I do these posts and how they won’t be a regular thing 😀 thanks for your support Kristianna! I’m really glad you enjoyed the post, I def try to injected some personality into sponsored posts so they are at least fun to read!