we have an amazing story to share with you today from popmakeup!

in my final semester of my social work degree, i had the opportunity to travel to india to complete my final social work placement. as well as living and working in mumbai for three months, i had also planned a backpacking trip around the sub-continent. the first challenge i faced was packing everything i needed for the next four months into a backpack that would almost never leave my side. that meant i needed to make clever decisions about the makeup products i was going to take with me and finding multi-tasking products was key.

india is beautiful and devastating. there were times i felt utterly overwhelmed. as i travelled through india to mumbai, i was struck by the juxtaposition of beauty and joy and filth and desperation, which came to represent india for me. to be honest, there were weeks when i was lucky to have a shower, let alone think about makeup. but even still, one of the most enduring images from my time in india was the grace of a group of Indian women walking alongside the train tracks in the middle of the rajasthan desert. in their block-colour saris, they were jewels in the sand, and they held themselves accordingly.

as well as the lessons i learned about myself and the world, there were many small but important lessons i learned in India about beauty. one such lesson is what indian women taught me about makeup: that makeup doesn’t have to be so much about covering up your perceived flaws, but can instead be about emphasizing your unique beauty and expressing yourself in a world that does not always make it easy to have your voice heard. in my small makeup bag, i had everything i needed: 


-a wash of stila sheer color tinted moisturizer, a sheer tint to even out my skin tone
-a swish of concealer under my eyes 
-black mascara on my lashes
-stila convertible color in gerbera, a warm pink coloured cream on my cheeks and lips, topped with a generous dollop of stila lip glaze in grapefruit.

was i ever as glamorous as the indian women i saw every day? um... no.  did I feel confident enough to dance all night at a traditional indian wedding, spinning and laughing, open to everything that country had to offer? definitely.

meet product girl, our very first guest blogger...

her makeup stash..

carla's stila survival guide...

if you had to pare down your makeup to only the essential items, what would you be left with? with the multitasking geniuses at stila, that question is very easy to answer... at least for me! some of my favorite all-time multitasking beauty aids come from stila and i want to introduce you to some of my favorites.

stila one step makeup - it all starts with your base, evening out your skin tone and covering any imperfections as the “foundation” for everything else to follow. with this product, i can skip primer, concealer and powder because this is my primer, foundation, concealer and powder all in one convenient package. for someone one like me who is always running late, this product is a huge time saver. what I like even more is how this product wears. it doesn’t feel heavy on my skin at all, it gives great medium coverage and carries me through the work day like a champ.

stila convertible color - on those days when you don't really feel like wearing makeup, this is a lifesaver! in the right shade, stila's convertible color can do it all. the cream blush and lip color in poppy gives my lips a gorgeous flush of red color, like sucking on a red popsicle. i love this shade for that just bitten look. in lillium or rose, i have the perfect shade of blush to make me look like i've just been out for a run. and in gladiola, i have a fantastic orange hue that livens up my eyes and ties everything together when i wear it. what i love most about this, besides how easy to use it is, is that it makes me skin look dewy and healthy. just of touch of this on the apples of my cheeks and i instantly look refreshed… you will too!

stila smudge pots – and here we have yet another multi-tasker. smudge pots are great gel based liners and eyeshadow in one pot. one of my favorite looks for eyes is a smudged smoky eye, it just looks so mysterious and alluring. i like to use my ring finger and pack the color onto my lids and then blend upward just below my crease. then i take a pencil brush and smoke out my lower lash line. the result is gorgeous and it LASTS all day long. i have what i like to call kryptonite eyes - everything creases when its on my lids - but I don’t need to worry with these. plus a smoky smudged eye in bronze or jade is just the best thing ever!

stila lip & cheek stains – where would i be without these in my life? as a self professed stain addict, i get excited every time stila releases a new lip and cheek stain. all the shades are beautiful but right now i’m all about the new coconut crush stain, mainly for 1 reason… it’s brown based! i love a brown lip stain because it’s so neutral. how many brown based stains do you know of? there are very few out there and stila set this one apart from the others by adding a touch of shimmer and pink to it so the result is a gorgeous bronzed rose that blends easily on cheeks and you can be built in layers on the lips. i am obsessed!

kitten – this is eyeshadow shade is like stila’s helena of troy, the face that launched a thousand ships. this shade is champagne golden goodness in a pan. this shade has been turned into almost everything stila makes; a smudge pot, lip gloss, eye liner and highlighters, and it is the perfect go to shade any time you want to give your skin a golden glow. my absolute favorite incarnation of kitten is in a smudge pot - nothing better than long lasting kitten on the eyes… plus the black cat shade also has some kitten mixed in, which goes to show that everything is better when kitten is in the picture.

stila #30 double ended shadow brush – last but not least is my trusty brush. i have a habit of collecting crease eyeshadow brushes. i can't help myself... when i come across a brush that i don't have, i immediately feel compelled to buy it. as a result of this disorder of mine, i now have more crease brushes than i care to admit to. one of my favorites is this #30 brush from stila. one end of the brush is great to pack on the color with and the other end is perfect to apply and blend in color in the crease. i like to draw 2 dots on my crease in the corner of my eye then use the tapered side to bring the color upwards a little bit. with this brush, using the side of it I get just the right amount of color extending upwards. this brush is like a good friend, we go everywhere together.


***what are your stila essentials? if you were stuck on a dessert island, what would you bring with you?

who wants to win our new tinted moisturizers?  we are in LOVE with them...so much.  enter now.  one lucky winner will receive the new formulas of sheer color tinted moisturizer, illuminating tinted moisturizer, and bronzing tinted moisturizer.

comment and tell us why you must try these new products.  please include your email address.


***winner must live in the continental united states.