Celeb MUA, AJ Crimson, and My Beauty Booty Talk Affordable Makeup for Fall

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with AJ Crimson, makeup artist for beauties like Estelle, Amerie, LeToya Luckett, and Hilary Duff. Check out a snippet of our conversation below, during which he shared a surprising pick for one of his new fave makeup brands.

There's so many things that women can do already to enhance their natural look and to stand out in a crowd. What are some of your ideas for fresh looks that women should try to reinvent themselves for the fall?

Well, you know, I think that fall is a time of reinvention in many ways - not only in beauty, but in your fashion and your entire wardbrobe. But when you're revamping your makeup wardrobe, I think it's really important to take chances. You know, look at the magazines and look at your resources. You know, you have great resources, like HoneyMag.com, you have Essence, and Allure and Style.com. So, you have up to the minute knowledge of what the trends are. So take chances.

Also, go to your local drugstore. All of these products are there, and they're quality products. Revlon makes quality products. I've been loving some stuff from a brand called Jordana. I was on the way to a Luca Luca show with Estelle this season and she said she wanted to do this really dark berry lip, and all I had was a color called Solstice from Kissable Couture. But I wanted to make it stronger. So, I was like "pull over, let's go to Duane Reade". We picked up like $20 worth of products, a whole bag full, but ended up using this $2 lip liner from Jordana. We filled her lip in with it and put the Solstice over the top. It was a perfect look, it was amazing. You can try a bunch of stuff and never make a real financial commitment, especially now when money is tight and you don't want to spend it on a $40 lip gloss or eyeshadow. So definitely utilize your resources and try all the trends. It's makeup, it always washes off.


AJ Crimson is co-founder of Kissable Couture, a lip gloss line that has both celebs and us everyday girls raving. In addition to being both luscious and long-lasting, each lip gloss evokes a certain emotion or inspiration - from the the shiny, nude shade called First Lady to the deep red shade, Solstice. Kissable Couture is available online and in stores. Retail $22 each.


Top photo; courtesy of UptownLife.net