FOTD: 3-Product Face Featuring Ellana Cosmetics

I've been sharing a lot of event-themed posts lately and I thought I'd take a break by posting an FOTD. I've been meaning to do this post for such a long time that finally sitting down and writing it is making me all sorts of rabid. I'll try to tame it down, but please forgive the extra energy!

FOTD: 3-Product Face ft. Ellana Cosmetics

I'm not completely happy with the look I did; I think my eyeshadow inexpertise shows greatly. Still, it was sooo fun just taking the time to sit down and play with my makeup. God, I just live for these days! I will never tire of polishing my technique or exploring new looks. I always want to go bigger and better, and that's all the reward I need. Can anybody else relate? I don't think I'm making too big a deal out of it: playing with makeup is FUN!

With this look, I'm loving the poreless perfection from my foundation and the creamy flush from the blush. Funny, it didn't even start out that way...

The Anchor: Ellana Eyebrow / Eyeshadow Quad

What really excites me about this FOTD is the 'Anchor', or inspiration for the look. Whenever I create a look that's not my boring, no makeup makeup look, I like to draw inspiration from one piece of makeup and anchor the rest of my makeup decisions around that.

Ellana Eyebrow / Eyeshadow Quad in Beloved, Intense, Wish, Hush

I was randomly staring at my Ellana Eyebrow / Eyeshadow Quad and wondering about the quantum physics of our existence why they would push this as an eyeshadow quad. Personally, I'd cornered this product on the brow department and used it purely as a brow shade and highlighter. Intense looked like a greige suited for dark hair, while Wish looked like a copper to pair for those with dyed heads. Beloved and Hush looked like highlighters for deep and light skin tones, respectively.

I tried it again as an eyeshadow, and found the second swatching much more impressive. Then a light bulb went off, lightning struck and an apple fell on my head. I thought about coming up with a "three product Ellana face." Ellana's products are notorious multi-taskers, why not showcase it by stretching out the use of a handful of products?

The Final Cut:

3 Product Face featuring Ellana Minerals: Intensive Blend Loose Mineral Foundation in French Vanilla Latte Eyebrow / Eyeshadow Quad in Beloved, Intense, Wish, Hush Lip and Cheek Palette in Goddess

My unimaginative 3-product face would have to be lipstick, brows and mascara. It's fine, but I think you're sort of cheating the challenge when you choose a minimal look for a challenge that limits your resources. Where's the effort? Where's the creativity?

In shows like Project Runway, the boring dresses are usually those that let themselves get limited by the challenge restrictions (i.e. creating a shapeless Little Black Dress out of garbage bag when asked to use trash.) The most exciting pieces are those that still look like couture gowns despite using pieces of garbage.

Doing a full eye (as full as mascara-less gets you) doesn't make it that obvious that I was stuck on three products, don't you think?

FOTD: 3-Product Face Featuring Ellana Cosmetics

Ellana Minerals Loose Mineral Foundation in French Vanilla Latte

For the base, I used my loose mineral foundation (review-ish here.) It looks a little velvety when worn alone on dry skin, so I used a bit of moisturizer (Clinique DDML+) beforehand.

Makeshift Concealer: A dot of moisturizer + 2 parts powder foundation

I didn't want to go concealer-less, but I had to make the most out of my 3 products. This is where I McGyver it up: I pumped some of my Clinique DDML+ on a palette and drowned it in loose foundation. I blended and added until I got this interesting whipped texture. I used that to conceal under the eyes and around the nose and lips.

Spread thinly before application to make sure there are no pockets of unblended powder.

Sadly, it caked up a bit and went from bad to worse as the night wore on. I suspect it's because I added too much powder and mineral makeup is known to be very drying. I used three parts foundation but I think two would've been perfect for heavy coverage; one, for medium. It looked a little stale on my eyes and dabbing moisturizer over it didn't help a lot.

Tellie's McGyvered Concealer vs. Eye Bags of Doom

Staying power is pretty weak at about 2-3 hours. Coverage is pretty impressive, especially when you consider how this wasn't even meant to be concealer. I think that's expected. Mineral makeup is supposed to have fantastic coverage.

Ellana Minerals Eyebrow / Eyeshadow Quad in Beloved, Intense, Wish, Hush

The star! I was able to use this quad for brows, highlighting, eyeshadow and eye liner *snaps*. Ultimately, any dimension and depth to my 3-product face is all thanks to this tiny little quad.

Ellana Minerals Eyebrow / Eyeshadow Quad, Php 350

I used Beloved as lid wash and dabbed Hush (lovely color!) on the middle of the lid to create a 3D effect. I put Intense on the brow and Hush on the brow bone. I made a big liner-show with Wish and used a bit of water with it to make it more striking even though it's already the most pigmented and outstanding shade of the bunch. I wish I had the restraint not to add the wing. It looks so off :(

Stare into my horrible eye work.

Despite being the inspiration for this look, I quite hated the result on my eye. My wings were okay from a conversational distance, but looked terrible up close. Blending (what blending?) was also terrible. Maybe if I finger-blended instead of maximizing the use of my brush this would've ended up with more finesse.

Also, my brows look so wonky in harsh lighting.

Ellana Minerals Lip & Cheek Palette in Goddess

Ellana Minerals Lip and Cheek Palette in Goddess, Php 250

I think Goddess is the perfect shade to pair with neutral eyes! It's a perfect peachy pink and looks like an adorable flush on my skin tone. Be warned though, it borders on terribly roasted when I pick up too much product. Two to three small dots to blend is fine.

Ellana Minerals Lip and Cheek Palette in Goddess as a Lip Color

On the lips, it looks dismally pale when applied with the fingers so I used one side of the small brush to really pack the color in. It still streaks and dries me up a bit, but it looks so pretty, I'm praying that my Sally Hansen invisible lip liner and some balm can make this perfect. I love the whisper of color it brought to my look :)

Non-makeup Necessities:

To be absolutely true to the challenge, I also tried to limit the tools I used. I ended up with only:

Pared Down Makeup Tools

1. Clinique DDML+ - Moisturizer to prime the face pre-mineral makeup. I also used it as a cream base for undereye concealer
2. Ellana Angled Kabuki Brush - To apply the foundation. I love that it can do sheer to heavy application, depending on the technique: sweeping for sheer, dabbing for heavy.
3. Ellana Dual Ended Brush - I used one side of the little brush to dab concealer under my eyes. The other side, I used for the lip color. I used each side of the big brush for two shades of eye shadow, and used the tip to line. The brush setting was pretty stiff so I was able to use the edge of it as a makeshift eyeliner, but I think the stiffness is also to blame for the dense and unblended eye shadow. I think this was meant as a concealer / lip brush.
4. Mixing Palette - FINE. I CHEATED. I WENT OVER THREE. But it shouldn't even be counted and I could totally mix the concealer at the back of my hand if anybody forced me to absolutely three non-makeup items! But please let's not go there. Just ignore that I used the palette, haha.

FOTD: 3-Product Face Featuring Ellana Cosmetics

... And that's my Three-Product Face! I'm pretty amazed at how multi-functional Ellana products are. This were never really highlighted in any of our previous events and I feel like such a genius for discovering it (haha.)


Notes for Improvement:

• I now understand why brow mascara is so important. Hate my two-toned brows here. To be fair, it isn't obvious in person.
• Don't OD on the powder foundation when mixing makeshift concealer. Mineral foundation has high coverage anyway.
• I need to figure out a better color combination in using the Eyeshadow / Eyebrow Quad on my lids.

Before and After: Poreless Perfection with a 3-Product Ellana Face

Anyway, what's the least number of makeup products you can do with? Can you do a 2-product face?

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I have no quota and was not required to write this post.

Ellana is available online through ellana.com.ph and some retail outlets.