Happy Mom-iversary!


1422386_10152042513791726_358509765_n - EditedI wanted to dedicate this post to my mom! Here she is, isn’t she beautiful?? —->

I’m dedicating this post to her for a few different reasons:

1- Not only was it mother’s day this past weekend, but it was also my mom’s 27th mom-iversary!  It’s been 27 years since she became a mom after having her first child, (yours truly).

2- She is the reason I have a makeup obsession.  I still remember when I was 5 years old and I chose a plastic pretend makeup kit from the toy store to give fake makeovers. My mom beamed with pride and told my dad “anak siya talaga ni mommy” which is loosely translated as “she really is her mother’s daughter”. 

3-She’s been a HUGE part of this blog- from my being my inspiration, listening to all my ideas, and simply just being a source of motivation and encouragement whenever I needed it. There’s not an aspect to this blog that I didn’t get run by her first!

For these reasons, and many more, it only seems fitting to have one of my first blog posts be about her!

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While I’m a self proclaimed make up enthusiast… my mom is the the makeup CONNOISSEUR. She’s my absolute go to person whenever I need advice on makeup. Her collection is extensive and her knowledge is endless.

Here are some pictures of my mom’s make up collection!—–>

Complete with a planned out make up schedule, lined up according to what makeup she’s going to wear to match her planned outfits for the week, and a list of her inventory to keep track of what she buys and a notebook filled with lists of makeup she wants to try.

Someday when I’ve matured past storing all my make up in my Olaf backpack and in colored buckets I bought from the dollar section at Target, I hope to have my collection organized like she does.0508161855

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My mom very generously hands down a lot of her makeup to me and because of our different skin tones, the makeup shades look a little different on me than on her.  My mom is shade NC35 in Mac foundations and I am NC42.

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I’ve received a lot, I mean, A LOT of make up from my mom. One of the biggest reasons she ends up donating her make up to me is because the shade she chose wasn’t what she expected or she didn’t like how it looked on her skin tone.

Here is a perfect example!  My mom bought these gorgeous lipstick queen lipsticks in shades Trance and Saint Nude because she saw one of her favorite celebrities wearing them.  When she finally tried on the shades, she found that the colors didn’t look like the same on her skin tone. She said that these shades blended in with her natural lip color and therefore looked like she wasn’t wearing any lipstick at all.

 

 

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Here is how these lipsticks looked swatched on me and my mom!

Saint Nude (top) looked orangey brown in the package and light rosy pink on swatched on our arms. It took a few swatches to get the color to show up.

In the package, Trance (bottom) looked like a glittery mauvey red and when swatched on our arms, it looked orangey brownish.

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Surprisingly, our arms looked like pretty close in shade when we put them next to each other, even though I have a noticeably darker complexion.  This made the lipsticks look like pretty similar shades when swatched on our arms but looked different when applied on our lips.

Saint Nude

Once applied on our lips, Saint Nude had a slightly pink tint on my lips and looked very natural on my mom. But overall, this lipstick shade looked pretty similar on both of our skin tones.

Saint Nude

Trance

Trance had a much more drastic difference when applied on both of us.

This lipstick still looked pretty natural on my mom just like Saint Nude did but it looked like a brighter sparkly pink when applied on my lips.

Trance

 

This is the first of many blog posts where I’ll be featuring a friend, family member, and swatching makeup on the both of us to compare how different they look on our skintones! Stayed tuned for more!

Love,

Aly Mae!

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Aly Mae, swatching makeup since 2000

Hello everyone!!

Wow my first blog post! Gimme a second to take that in… ahhhh… first blog post butterflies!

It feels amazing to finally get all my ideas out there and slowly see my dream and vision come to life (cheesy but true!)

I’ve loved make up for as long as I remember and according to my journal that I kept in 5th grade, I’ve been swatching makeup since August 19th 2000! 🙂20160306_125023 (1)

One day a few months ago, I was feeling discouraged about starting this blog and started doubting myself and wondering why anyone in their right mind would be interested in anything I have to say about makeup.

And then right in the middle of throwing myself a pity party, I randomly came across my old red notebook that I used as a journal in 5th grade and found this entry I wrote talking about how I wanted to wear makeup to my mom’s reunion that my family and I were attending that night. And in the margins of my notebook, I smeared or “swatched” my mom’s make up that I wanted to wear!

This was exactly what I needed to keep me going and developing my blog. All I needed was the image of my 11 year old self “swatching” my mom’s lipstick and “eye-stuff” in my little red notebook to remind me that writing and makeup have always been a huge passion of mine.  If there was ever a sign in my life showing me to just go and do something, regardless of my fears and doubts, this was it! (Thank you 11 year old Alyssa for the encouragement 😉 !)

This blog combines a lot of things that I love into one little package:

Makeup+writing+colors+family+friends+creativity+connecting with people who love the same things I do!

These last few months I’ve been researching universal makeup shades and how cosmetic companies are embracing diversity in their customers. I’ve been non-stop swatching makeup on myself and people around me and comparing how they look. Overall, this blog and my dream of coming up with a solution to provide the most accurate and genuine depiction of a makeup shade and perfecting the effectiveness of a swatch has seriously all I’ve been thinking about. For more info about Beyond the Swatch and what I plan to write in this blog, check out my about me page!

In the early stages of developing Beyond the Swatch, I sent out a survey to friends and family members asking them about their make up preferences. Here is a breakdown of my answers to give you all a little insight on my makeup preferences!

How often do you wear makeup? I wear makeup almost every day. I try to have at least one day in the week where I wear zero makeup to let my face breathe a little.

Here’s an aerial view of the makeup I currently use on the daily:

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How would you describe your skin tone? Medium/tan during fall/winter/spring and medium/dark during the summer

What is your current foundation?  Loreal Lumi True Match Foundation in W6: Sand Beige

What struggles have you had finding a shade that looks good with your skin tone? Most bronzers that come in limited number of shades usually don’t work well with my skin tone because it just blends in. It took a while to find a bronzer in the right shade to contour with.

Cool toned eye shadows and blushes are hard to make work with my skin as well.

Name a few celebrities who are beauty inspirations for you: Jennifer Lopez, Ayesha Curry, Kardashians, Shay Mitchell (and realistically all of the pretty little liars), just to name a few! There’s too many to list.

Name your favorite beauty bloggers: Kathleen Lights, Jaclyn Hill, Temptalia, Jackie Riley, Patrick Starr, Jeffree Star….Ok this is impossible to list all my favorites because they’re all amazing and this list grows every single day. I love all of you!!

Favorite go to colors/shades that I believe work well with my skin-tone:

Eye shadow: Golds, neutrals, peach/coral tones, any shade of brown, anything with a hint of burgundy/auburn. I’m also a sucker for anything with glitter

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Lips: Nudes, subtle rose pinks, deep burgundy or reds with a purple undertone.

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Blush:  Medium dark pinks with a coral undertone. Like Nars Orgasm and NYX

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Thank you for being here and taking the time to get to know me and my makeup preferences a little better! Now that you’ve learned a little about me, I’d like to hear from you!! 

What shades of makeup do you think work best with your skin tone?  What struggles have you had finding a shade to work with your skin tone?  Comment below! I’d love to hear your answers 🙂

If you have a beauty blog, please leave your URL in the comments below so that I can follow you!

Love,

Aly Mae

 

 

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