Unless you are one of those fortunate enough to be born with beautiful blemish-free skin (which most of us aren’t), we all share the dream of having flawless looking skin.

In our quest for complexion perfection, we tend to focus our efforts on finding the “right” foundation. But what many of us don’t realize or choose to forego is the most important step before applying foundation preparing your skin with a foundation primer.

Prime your skin to…

Reason #1: Balance skin hydration for optimal foundation application and wear.

Normal to dry skin may not have enough natural oils to help blend out foundation makeup. Foundations use coloured mineral pigments that when in high concentration (moderate to total coverage foundations) may drag upon spreading out on the skin. A primer turns the skin into smooth surface to help the foundation blend out q uickly, easily and evenly.

Those of us with oily skin should also consider a primer. Excess oil can separate foundation or change its colour throughout the day. A foundation primer for oily skin will form a breathable, oil absorbing layer between skin and foundation to help the foundation coverage and colour stay put all day long!

TIP: try ClearPrep FX, Mattifying Matte Foundation Primer and Anti-Acne Treatment.

Reason #2: Create a youthful, smooth skin texture by reducing the appearance of fine lines and pores.

All skin, young and old, has fine lines and pores. These crevices are ideal for makeup to settle into throughout the day. A primer will fill in the crevices before makeup application and prevent makeup from settling into them and accentuating these imperfections, causing your s kin to look more mature. The settling of makeup in these crevices also tell the world you are wearing foundation – which most of us want to keep a secret – our makeup should look like second skin all day long!

Reason #3: Offers healthy skin benefits.

We all love products that offer multi-tasking benefits. A foundation primer can replace your daytime moisturizer if it offers therapeutic and hydration benefits. A cosmeceutical primer and provide skin nourishing emollients and multivitamins, skin protecting antioxidants and sunscreen, skin rrejuvenating peptides and botanicals. These skin actives will penetrate the skin while a breathable priming veil caresses the skin for perfect foundation application and wear.

TIP: try SkinPrep FX, Nourishing Foundation Primer and Anti-Aging Serum

With Thanksgiving behind us, the Holiday season officially begins! 

For those of us that live in colder climates the Holiday season also means colder weather, snow storms and winter sports.  While those living in warmer climates may not have to deal with the harsh weather temperatures, they are likely going to more social events, indulging in a little more alcohol than usual and burning the candle at both ends to celebrate the Festive season….

It’s all fun and games until we wake up and realize the Holiday season can wreak havoc on our skin!  In this very busy season it’s imperative to take good care of our skin…

Here are some quick tips to ensure that you look and feel your best this party season.

1. Use a humidifier at home and drink plenty of water throughout the day to stay hydrated.

2. Moisturize your face and body daily.

3. Remember to wear sunscreen every day!  Whether you are having fun in the snow or on the surf, ultra violet rays will damage your skin and lead to premature ageing. – I love BritePrep FX SPF 50 under my makeup.  This brightening primer is an ideal makeup base with high SPF and it instantly brightens your winter pallor.

4. Wear a hydrating foundation for a soft dewy complexion.  Try Natural FX - Water Based Foundation. Use half a pearl size for a flawless complexion.

5.  Put on the glitz!  The festive season calls for anything with sparkle… try lip, cheek and nail colours with a hint of iridescence then highlight cheek bones, brow bones, bridge of the nose, and center of lips.  My favourites?  Radiant FX - Platinum for face and Mint Tint FX - Opal over Cabernet Red!

It’s party season after all… have a FANTASTIC time!

We had an early Saturday morning start as we had to set up our exquisite Cover FX booth. I must say that Beautylish really outdid themselves with décor that was so chic and beautiful. We were so impressed with all the little details…including having our logo on the coffee cup sleeves.  The room was gorgeously beautified with white couches, pink backdrops and touches of silver embellishments. We had a great space to work with which included 4 makeup stations for attendees to get their perfect colour match with our Cover FX Total Coverage Cream Foundation. Shout outs to Lindsey, Michelle T, Aaron and Anna (aka EZO) for working so hard and quickly to colour match as many people as possible.

Cover FX Team at The Beauty Social!

The entrance and step and repeat featuring the Cover FX logo!

The beautiful room!

Day 1 of the event started with a panel about “How Your Favorite Beauty Brands Got Big,” and featured four panelists including Cover FX’s Co-creator. “Expert Trendspotting Secrets Revealed,” and “So You Want to be a Guru,” were also on the agenda and featured some of the biggest names in the industry including editors Ying Chu from Marie Claire, Annie Tomlin from Bella Sugar and You Tube gurus Julie Gutierrez from julig713 and Marissa C. from rissrose2.

Ouer beautiful Cover FX booth before and after!

Following the event on Saturday, a VIP cocktail reception was held at the Ocean and Vine restaurant at the hotel. During the reception, we met the super friendly and totally awesome celeb hair and makeup artist, Jeffrey Paul. Melissa (our social media maven) had the chance to meet some fabulous bloggers including: Patrice from Afrobella, Karen from makeupandbeautyblog.com and Erika from makeupbag.net. After the cocktail reception, we had a Cover FX team dinner where we got to spend time with our west coast team whom we don’t get to see very often. After a long, eventful day, we were all in bed by midnight so that we could get enough rest to get up early the next day!

Day 2 of the event was SOOO inspirational with panels about “Brown Girl Beauty Uncensored,” Billy B’s journey from Mississippi to celeb makeup artist and memorable Claire Wineland’s speech about inner beauty. The day ended with a room so quiet you could hear a pin drop as You Tube guru Kandee Johnson answered audience questions and shared her “I’ll never forget you Kandee Johnson,” story which was a lovely ending to a truly wonderful and unforgettable weekend. We met the most amazing makeup enthusiasts, founders, writers, makeup artists, bloggers and You Tube gurus! The weekend was inspirational, fun and an experience we were so privileged to be a part of.

To see more pics from The Beauty Social click here.

Hi all! It’s Katherine blogging for Wanda to give you a re-cap of the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G weekend we had in Santa Monica at The Beauty Social presented by Beautylish. Here’s part 1 of 2 blog posts!

The event was held at the beautiful Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel from October 22-23, 2011. The two day event was filled with lovely beauty enthusiasts from the east, west and everywhere in between….even as far as Australia!

Our journey though began weeks in advance. Here’s a recap of the hectic days we experienced just prior to the event.

As the premier sponsor for the event, we had to ship A LOT of collateral to decorate the tables with samples, brushes and testers of our core beauty products.   We shipped the product from our head office in Toronto, Canada the week before the event (like many times done before) to the hotel. Tuesday, October 18^th came around and I was horrified when we were notified that our entire shipment had been stopped at customs and would not be delivered until October 24^th….one day after the weekend event! Needless to say, a number of sleepless nights ensued and the continuous use of one word….UGHHHHHHH!

Plan B was to re-ship everything by next day air so that the shipment would arrive by Friday, October 21^st. Murphy’s Law was out to get us that week because this shipment was also stopped by customs – UGHHHHHH! Plan C kicked into high gear and we had our team in California source items for us just in case the shipment didn’t make it to Los Angeles.  We also had to pack a whole lotta stuff in our suitcases as well. At 6:45a.m. Friday morning, I turned on my computer to check the shipment status. I was overjoyed to see that at around 4:00a.m. the shipment was in Los Angeles!!!  *woot* We hurriedly removed all of the extra collateral in our suitcases and were ready to leave behind the extra weight and stress behind!

A big sigh of relief was short lived when our plane landed 9 hours later and I received a text from our shipping department notifying us that our boxes were rejected from the hotel because a fee had to be paid in order for them to be received. They were re-directed to a UPS depot in downtown Los Angeles where they could be picked up. You know what I’m about to say – UGHHHHHHH! After getting our rental car, we went on a wild goose chase (literally) and went to the depot to pick up the boxes. I’ll spare you all the details but it involved having to go to a 7-Eleven to pick up a money order and waiting 4 hours to pick up our boxes. I think the ridiculousness of the situation and utter disbelief that this could only happen to US had everyone in laughing fits throughout the entire debacle.  These photos in the UPS depot also made us laugh!

After hours of travelling and chasing, it’s safe to say we were so glad to check into the hotel and go to sleep to prepare for the event the next morning.

Stay tuned for blog post #2!

October was an exciting month for us here at Cover FX. Lots of firsts!

We headed over to Santa Monica in Cali and attended the first ever, The Beauty Social, as the premier sponsor presented by our friends over at Beautylish. It’s A MUST GO-TO next year if you missed it this year! Check out a recap of our experience here!

While in town, we also hosted our FIRST ever “online” celebrity personal appearance at a local SEPHORA store (1244 3rd. St. Promenande Santa Monica, CA)…

A meet and greet with Celebrity Makeup Artist and Youtube Beauty Guru, Kandee Johnson. Disclaimer: We discovered Kandee last year when she posted a blog post, “My secret to amazing skin” – which was when she discovered Cover FX. Since then she’d fallen in love with Cover FX total coverage cream foundation and concealer in one and has been recommending it as her favourite concealer.

We wanted to give the fans she’d introduced to Cover FX a chance to meet her! On October 22nd between 3-4pm fans could get a framed photo taken with Kandee Johnson courtesy of Cover FX with any Cover FX purchase made at Sephora Santa Monica store on that day before 4pm.

People started lining up an hour before Kandee was scheduled to arrive and over 100 excited Cover FX and Kandee fans came out to meet and get a photo taken with her.

The event was a HUGE success, there were screams of excitement, tears, hugs.. many hugs, tons of smiles and memories made. Thank you SEPHORA Santa Monica, Kandee Johnson the Cover FX team and wonderful fans for coming together for an AH-MAZING day!

To see the rest of the pictures for the event check out the album on our Facebook page

Yes, it’s really true!  COVER FX officially opened it’s third Harvey Nichols location in Edinburgh, Scotland this week and we are so excited!!  COVER FX President and Co-Creator, Lee Graff was on hand to unveil our gorgeous, new counter, celebrate the big launch and meet with the Scottish press while UK National Trainer and Makeup Artist Viktor Charles created flawless faces on each editor with their personal COVER FX makeup application.

Cover FX President, Lee Graff with Scottish Beauty Blogger Cait from Wayward Daughter

Edinburgh, pronounced ED-in-burr-uh is the capital of Scotland and the second largest city.  It is renowned for the Edinburgh festival during the month of August flooding the city with art lovers from around the world.

This beautiful city with it’s majestic monuments, Medieval and Georgian architecture and  magnificent castle in the centre of the city transports you to another time.  It’s no wonder that Edinburgh receives over one million overeas visitors a year making it the most visited tourist destination in the UK after London.

The addition of our first COVER FX counter in Scotland is another reason why you must visit this incredible city.  So pack your best kilt and head to Harvey Nicks in St. Andrew’s Square.  See you there!

It’s been a very exciting week in Toronto with TIFF fever in the air and Toronto streets flooded with Hollywood celebrities from George Clooney (sigh) to Brad and Angie and Madonna to Ryan Gosling (looking oh so hot)….  this film festival never disappoints! 

This year we were delighted to collaborate with award winning Toronto makeup artist, Cheryl Gushue who worked together with her beauty team doing makeup and touch ups on talent surrounding 18 films showing at the festival.

On September 15th we were treated to a special dinner with the cast, crew and friends of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s new film Hysteria;  A romantic-comedy about the invention of the vibrator in Victorian England.  Naturally the cast made so many puns about the subject matter…  Amongst my favourite one from Maggie – We really enjoyed making this film.  We hope you come and come again…  Bursts of laughter all around!

Celebrity cook David Rocco was on hand as special guest and food consultant where we were treated to lovely quinoa salad, tagliatelle with mushroom and a platter of delectable deserts.

We even got a few moments with Maggie to chat about the film and take a photo. I’ll have these photos up soon as they were taken by a TIFF photographer and not my blackberry

At the end of the night we left happy, full and a little sad that TIFF has come to an end….  we can’t wait for next year!

With summer in full swing I thought this would be the perfect time to talk about love.  There’s something about summertime that gives us a sense of freedom.  The weather is great so we’re out and about on patios and beaches.  We’re in a great mood and looking forward to our summer vacation that we’ve been waiting for all year and let’s face it, meeting new people sometimes leads to more than friendship…

It’s also true that heat and humidity creates havoc on our skin.  Warm weather somehow encourages skin to produce more oil and before we know it, our flawless complexion is suddenly a shiny oil slick and when we’re particularily lucky a blemish will appear on  the chin or right in the center of our forehead!

Fear not fair readers, help is on its way…  Matte FX - Oil Absorbing & Blotting Powder is all you need.  Matte FX is a mineral-based blotting powder that instantly absorbs excess oil.  It contains silica and cornstarch micro-sponges that capture oil as your skin produces it so that your skin feels fresh and clean. It also contains COVER FX exclusive technology Dermafix so that you can apply Matte FX as often as you need to and your makeup will never looking cakey.  Best of all, minerals conatined in Matte FX are inert to bacterial growth hence keeping those pesky pimples at bay.  If you haven’t tried it, I would suggest you do.  I promise in a very short  time,  Matte will be your boyfriend too!

Isn’t love grand?

Leaving Toronto on the hottest day of the year with temperatures soaring… +47 with the humidex… Thankfully I was wearing my Cover FX melt-proof makeup but needless to say, I was happy to be headed for the mild and overcast city of Vancouver.

IMATS Vancouver is happening this weekend and we’re excited to see all our makeup artist friends on the beautiful Canadian west coast!  Come see us at the Naimies booth and don’t miss out on our amazing Pro Starter Kit at an unbelievable price!

Stop by to say hi to our Cover FX team and pick up some makeup tips.  Our expert foundation artists will show you how to create flawless skin, whether you need it for print, film, runway or for naturally fabulous street wear!  Come one, come all!  See you there <3

Choosing the right shade of lipstick or gloss for your lips can be overwhelming. With the variety of colours available, how can you be sure you are picking the best one to go with your look and or skintone?

To help you narrow down your selection, we’ve come up with a few suggestions for your perfect day and night lip colour for MintTint FX, Tinted Anti-Aging Lip Glaze depending on your skintone:

If you have a fair skintone…Try MintTint FX in Opal for your day lip and Coral Chablis for your night lip.

Other shades you may consider can include Pearl Lily and Cabernet Red.

If you have a light skintone… Try MintTint FX in Pearl Lily for the day lip and Cabernet Red for the night lip.

Other shades you may consider can include Opal, Coral Chablis, Pink Copper, Merlot and Mocha Blush.

If you have a medium skintone… Try MintTint FX in Opal for your day lip and Merlot for your night lip.

Other shades you may consider can include Pink Copper, Mocha Blush and Cabernet Red.

If you have a dark skintone… Try MintTint FX in Opal for your day lip and Cabernet Red for your night lip.

Other shades you may consider can include Merlot and Mocha Blush.