Shine Cosmetics Blog / Beauty

You take extra care with your makeup every day. You watch makeup tutorials, meticulously apply every part of your makeup, and take pride in looking incredible. But no matter how particular you are with your makeup routine, you can’t achieve a truly perfect look with shabby tools. The brushes and other tools in your makeup kit require very specific care, and failing to provide that care can lead to a number of problems: makeup clumping in the bristles, dingy color for your eyeshadow, spotty application, difficulty blending, brushes wearing out too soon, etc.

So how do you properly care for every tool in your makeup kit? Here is a detailed guide for every brush you use.

Bristle Brushes

From foundation brushes and blush brushes to every size and shape of shadow brush, here’s how you care for every bristle brush in your makeup kit:

• How Often? Any brushes you use around your eyes should be cleaned twice a month. All others can be cleaned once a month. However, dermatologists recommend that you soak your brushes at least once a week to prevent product buildup.
• What to Use? If you have a brush cleaner, that’s the best option. However, you can also use any gentle soap. Make sure it’s the gentle variety, as regular soap can dry out the bristles.
• How to Clean? Wet the bristles in lukewarm water, and place a small amount of soap or brush cleaner in the palm of your hand. Gently massage the bristles of the brush in your palm, then rinse. Use a clean towel to squeeze out any excess moisture, then reshape the head and lay the brush with the bristles hanging over the edge of the counter. This allows the brush to dry in the proper shape, and prevents mildew.
• When to Toss It? If your bristles are fraying, shedding, or losing their shape, it is likely time to replace your brush.
• Extra Tips? While cleaning, keep the base of the brush head out of the soap and water, and never let your brushes dry vertically. This can allow soap and moisture into the ferrule (the piece connecting the bristles to the wand), which can cause the glue to degrade and the bristles to shed.

Sponges

Here’s how to care for all the sponges in your kit, including foundation sponges and eyeshadow sponge brushes:

• How Often? Sponges should be washed after every few uses, or once there is no longer a clean section to use. You may also want to rinse after every use to prevent buildup of bacteria.
• What to Use? You can use any mild soap or gentle shampoo.
• How to Clean? Fully soak your sponge under running water. Apply a few drops of soap or shampoo to your fingers, then use your fingers to work any product out of the sponge. This may take a while if you haven’t washed your sponges for a long time. When you’ve gotten the product out, rinse the sponge until the water runs clear and all the suds are out. Wring the sponge out (or squeeze it out, for sponge brushes) then pat with a towel and allow to air dry.
• When to Toss It? If your sponge is beginning to degrade or is permanently discolored from product, it’s time to toss it.
• Extra Tips? If you’re worried about the sponge growing mold, cut it in half and check for mildew growth. If it’s clean, you can continue to use the sponge pieces. If you find mold, toss it out.

Metal Tools

For your metal makeup tools, including tweezers, eyebrow trimmers, and eyelash curlers, use the following care tips:

• How Often? Because many of these tools are used around your eyes, you should wash them with soap and water with very use, and thoroughly sanitize every two weeks.
• What to Use? For washing, you can use an antibacterial soap and warm water. If sanitizing, use a cotton ball soaked in an alcohol solution like isopropyl alcohol or hydrogen peroxide.
• How to Clean? When washing, apply a small amount of soap to your fingers and rub down the tool thoroughly. Rinse and pat dry with a towel. If sanitizing, after you’ve washed the item, wipe it down with your alcohol-soaked cotton ball and let it dry a few moments. Then give it another rinse to remove any lingering alcohol solution.

When it comes to achieving the look you desire, the tools you use are just as important as the makeup itself. So give your brushes the care they deserve, and store them properly using one of our brush boxes, or the storage box included with our brush set. And if you find yourself in need of a new makeup brush—or are simply looking for a higher-quality tool—Shine carries every brush you need, as well as a full brush set so that you can truly shine.

Why do women buy makeup? Is it really all about making ourselves more appealing to others? Is it only because we’ve been fed false images of beauty, and been baited into holding ourselves up to unrealistic expectations? Or is there something more behind our love of makeup?

Women have had a love affair with makeup for centuries. So let’s explore that relationship and learn a little more about the love story between women and their cosmetics.

Ancient Cosmetics

Ancient Egyptians (both male and female) are credited with creating the first cosmetics. They used a combination of copper and lead ore, among other ingredients, to paint their eyes. In fact, you can see the evidence of cosmetics in many pieces of Ancient Egyptian art. The bust of Nefertiti, for example, is over 3,300 years old, and any woman will recognize that this powerful queen is wearing eyeliner.

But the Egyptians weren’t the only ones wearing makeup thousands of years ago. Ancient Greeks and Romans used cosmetics like kohl to line the eyes, and skin creams made of rosewater, olive oil, and beeswax to keep their faces smooth.

Makeup Over the Years

Over the centuries, makeup continued to develop in many ways, becoming symbolic in some cultures, and a sign of beauty and affluence in others. Many different materials were used, including natural ingredients like berries, safflower petals, and even bird droppings. Many women even risked their health for the sake of beauty by using dangerous products like white lead paint, which contained arsenic, in order to try to lighten their skin for a more aristocratic look.

For a while, makeup actually fell out of style, and during the early 1900s, women hardly work makeup at all; it was mostly reserved for stage and movie performers, and was typically only available for purchase in theatrical costume stores. But the influence of those movie stars began to take its toll, and women soon wanted to mimic the starlets on the silver screen. By 1910, makeup was quickly becoming the fashion in America and Europe, and women were falling in love with it all over again.

Our Modern Love of Makeup

According to a recent article from People, women spend an average of $15,000 on makeup in their lifetimes. This includes:

• $3,770 on mascara
• $2,750 on eyeshadows
• $1,780 on lipstick

The rest goes to foundation, bronzer, rouges, eyeliners, and more—the exact division varying greatly depending on the woman. So who can we blame for this giant hit to our bank accounts over our lifetimes? While our modern love affair with makeup does have roots in Hollywood, it’s hard to blame the media for our makeup obsession when Cleopatra herself took the time to put on eyeliner in the morning.

In reality, women’s love affair with makeup comes down to one simple thing: It’s less about looking good, and more about feeling good. However much time you may take applying your makeup in the morning, that time is all about you. It’s almost a therapeutic experience, helping you to mentally prepare for the day as you take those few precious moments to pay attention to nobody but yourself. And when you give of yourself all day, those few minutes mean a lot.

Plus, when you’re finished with that morning routine, you feel confident, empowered, and beautiful. Regardless of where our love affair with makeup truly began, what matters most is how this love story ends—with a deeper love for ourselves. Now that’s what we call a happy ending.

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. But we don’t think the Day of Love should be all about finding the perfect guy. It should be about falling in love with your own beauty, and treating yourself the way you deserve on this special day. So this Valentine’s Day, make your look about defining your own beauty, and not about pleasing someone else. With that in mind, here are a few makeup trends that you may want to consider trying to give yourself a new, stunning look that is entirely your own.

Go for Gold

We believe that a woman’s beauty is worth more than gold. But that doesn’t mean gold can’t be a part of your makeup routine! This Valentine’s Day, try adding a bit of shimmer to your look. We recommend trying our Strive lip gloss over your favorite nude lip color. Or, layer it over a soft pink lip color for a rose gold effect that will have you falling head over heels in love with your new look.

Roses Are Red

Rosy colors don’t have to be limited to your lips and cheeks. This year, rosy eyeshadows have become extremely popular. Why not give it a try yourself and see if this new look helps to capture your true beauty? We carry several rose-toned eyeshadows, including Harmony, Grace, and Hope.

A Lasting Kiss

If you happen to be sharing Valentine’s Day with a special someone, the last thing you want is to end up sharing your lip color. More and more women are switching from lipsticks to long-lasting lipstains that don’t smudge or fade. Our LipLast line provides a smooth application and long-lasting finish that’s perfect for a romantic night filled with stolen kisses.

Berry Beautiful

Red is a traditional color for Valentine’s Day, but the bold red lip is not for everyone. If your unique beauty calls for something else, consider trying a berry-toned lip color. With a variety of hues—from the bold to the bashful—berry lip colors work beautifully with many skin tones. Our favorites include Genuine and Intent, from our LipLast collection, and our Beloved lip liner.

Make this Valentine’s Day less about looking for love, and more about falling in love with your own, unique beauty. We hope these makeup trends can help you to explore your look and find a definition of beauty that can truly let you shine.

Eyebrows. We come by them naturally, but we never seem content to just leave them be. Through the years, we have waxed, dyed, tinted, tweezed, penciled, painted, and gelled them in countless ways, all to achieve that perfect arch. But this is hardly a modern phenomenon. In fact, women have been styling their brows for centuries. Here’s a look at brow trends throughout history.

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptian women preferred dark, arched eyebrows. They would darken their brows with powdered minerals to achieve the dark, strong look they desired. You can see evidence of this style on the bust of Queen Nefertiti, with her heavy, black eyebrows above her thickly penciled eyes.

Ancient Greece and Rome

You might be surprised to learn that ancient Greeks and Romans had an obsession with unibrows. Both cultures saw unibrows as an attractive feature in a woman, as well as a sign of intelligence. So women never tried to thin their brows, but would darken them slightly with black powder for a thicker look. And if they weren’t blessed with a natural unibrow, some women would try to create one with black paint.

Middle Ages of England

In the medieval period of England, the forehead was seen as the most important feature of a woman’s face. Women styled their hair to emphasize their foreheads, and they would often remove their eyelashes and eyebrows entirely to make their foreheads appear larger.

Victorian Era

In this period, it was heavily frowned upon for women to wear makeup of any kind. Styling your brows or applying rouge was something that only “ladies of the night” would do. And so, most women left their eyebrows completely untamed, for a natural look that would show them as women of good breeding and high morals.

1920s

Silent film stars became the trend setters of the 1920s. Starlets wore their eyebrows in extremely thin, extremely straight lines, giving them a dramatic and thoughtful look. They would also apply Vaseline to style and add shine to their brows.

1930s

Though women of the 1930s still favored heavily tweezed eyebrows, the straight-brow trend gave way to high, rounded arches. The thin, curved brows of pinups like Jean Harlow led the way.

1940s

The ‘40s favored a more natural look than the previous two decades. Though women still tweezed their eyebrows to achieve a prominent arch, the era was dominated by heavier, well-groomed brows.

1950s and 1960s

Eyebrows of the ‘50s and ‘60s mirrored those of the ‘40s as far as shape is concerned, with thicker, more natural brows and defined arches. However, darker brows became the preferred look, and women began to pencil in their brows for a bolder look that made eyebrows the defining feature of the face.

1970s

In the ‘70s, brow trends divided slightly. While disco enthusiasts sported thinner brows with pronounced arches, hippies of the era favored thicker, more natural brows. Actresses like Lauren Hutton popularized the more natural look, however, so the majority of women in the ‘70s put their tweezers down altogether.

1980s

The natural looks popularized in the ‘70s continued into the ‘80s, with thick “caterpillar” brows dominating the scene. Women who didn’t naturally have thick brows would try to emulate the look with the aid of brow pencils and powders.

1990s

While we’d probably rather forget the eyebrows of the ‘90s, our school photos won’t allow it. Extremely thing, overly tweezed eyebrows were common, resulting in a great deal of women sporting a permanently shocked expression. Some women would even remove their eyebrows completely, replacing them with a tiny penciled arch instead. It was not a good time for eyebrows.

2000s

Thankfully, the eyebrow trends of the ‘90s didn’t last long, and since then, styles have favored a more natural look, with thicker brows and gentle arches. Of course, some styling is still in order to achieve that perfect brow. Our Brow Kit includes brushes and powders to help groom and tint your brows as needed. And if you desire a thicker brow, our incredibly innovative Fiber Brow product allows to add fullness and definition to your brows while keeping a totally natural look.

Whether you love your eyebrows as they are, love the look you achieve with careful brow grooming, or are still striving to groom your eyebrows to your liking, they are a prominent part of your look. So give them the attention they deserve, and make them a part of your beauty routine this year.

Where does your definition of beauty come from? Whether you realize it or not, there are many influences on your personal definition of beauty. Your mother, sisters, friends, significant others, and, of course, society at large all play a role in manipulating or perspective of what it means to be beautiful. With so many influences pushing and pulling on our views, it’s normal for things to sometimes become skewed.

But now is the time to put things back into perspective. Who will you allow to continue defining your beauty for you? At Shine Cosmetics we live by a motto: Nobody can create or define your beauty but you.

Identifying Your “Beauty Influences”

If you’re like most women, you’re already bogged down by others’ definitions of beauty. Your own definition is simply a combination of different “beauty influences”—others who have pressed their definitions of beauty on you. So how do you separate those opinions to find what you truly believe to be beautiful?

First, write down what you think makes a woman beautiful. Is it being a size 2? Is it perfect lips and a flawless complexion? Glossy hair and a swan-like neck? Once you’ve written down everything that you think makes a person beautiful, try to define where each of those ideas comes from.

Was your mother always obsessing over her skin and applying endless creams and layers of foundation? Perhaps her perspective caused you to believe you needed perfect skin to be beautiful. Did your best friend fawn over long and luxurious eyelashes, and constantly experiment with mascaras and eyelash extensions to get those beautiful lashes just right? Maybe she influenced your definition of beauty as well.

Defining Your Own Beauty

Once you’ve identified as many beauty influences as you can, make a new list—this one of the things you see in yourself that make you beautiful. Maybe you love your eyes. Perhaps you adore your freckles or your full lips. Let these things become your new definition of beauty.

Because Shine is not about hiding your imperfections. It’s about showing each and every woman that your beauty is not defined by society or anyone around you. It’s about highlighting those things you love about yourself and becoming your own kind of beautiful. Always remember that beauty products don’t create beauty; they simply let your natural beauty shine through.