Haul - part 2

Haul - part 1

Sorry for the choppyness AGAIN. Still trying to figure out why this is happening now, when it didn't before. I THINK it only started happening once I updated my editing software.

Brown Down

For this look I wanted to use a new eyeshadow that I got - Golden Amber by NYX. It's super pretty! A nice brown with gold shimmer. I used the 28 neutral palette along with it.

First I used a very light beige color with gold glitter from the palette, and on top of that a bit of the pale champagne/gold color from the palette. Those went on my inner 1/3, and then on the middle 1/3 I used a medium brown with gold glitter that's also in the palette. And last, I used the Golden Amber on the outer 1/3 and in the crease. I also used it wet on my lower lash line.

I got my hat at Claire's, and I got my sweater and tank top at Old Navy.

Face:
Some Oil of Olay moisturizer
Smashbox Photo Finish Light primer
MAC Select Cover Up Concealer
MAC Studio Sculpt concealer
MAC Pro Longwear foundation
MAC Studio Fix Powder
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural
MAC Sculpt & Shape Powder in Bone Beige/Emphasize
MAC Pinch Me blush
MAC By Candlelight MSF

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion 
28 Neutral palette
NYX Golden Amber e/s
Sally Girl Champagne e/s
Wet n Wild brown liquid eyeliner
Maybelline Falsies mascara (top)
Maybelline Great Lash mascara (bottom)
Ardell Demi Wispies
Ardell Mink Brown eyebrow powder

Lips:
MAC Angel lipstick

New hair!

Today I had my hair done by the lovely Amanda at Regis in the Santa Rosa Plaza. She's been a good friend of mine for years and has been doing hair professionally for over a year now. She's excellent!

Here is the before... Not black, but close. I was just using Revlon Color Silk in dark brown (30, I think) on top of my previously uber bleached hair. It'd had been this dark since July. Don't look at my makeup or the condition of my hair LOL. I spent the night at my mom's last night, unexpectedly, and had to hurry home to throw some makeup on so I wouldn't scare anyone at the mall when I went to get my hair did LOL

Now here is the after... I love it! I knew I wanted to lighten it a bit and had mentioned possibly some red, but I didn't know exactly what I wanted. Amanda did this for me and I think she did an awesome job both at deciding what to do and then executing it. Have to be careful with my hair with all that bleach under it.

Ho ho ho

So after doing 4 holiday themed tutorials, how did I actually end up doing my makeup for Christmas?

You can't say I'm not festive!

Merry Christmas, lovelies! I hope you all have a fabulous holiday full of love and laughter.

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RIP star lip ring

Remember how I recently got a new lip ring? Yeah.So much for that! A couple of nights ago I managed to lose the star in my sleep. It's tiny. I couldn't find it in the morning. It probably fell between my bed and the wall, but I'm not pulling my heavy ass bed out to look. Instead, I headed to Hot Topic at 8 AM (when the mall opened) to buy some new jewelry. It was buy one get one half off, so I took advantage and got two packs of three studs. You know, for next time I lose one unexpectedly LOL. My mistake for not keeping the last one, and having it thrown away when I replaced it.

These are the two sets I bought. The first one is a set of three with purple stones. A small round gem, a large round gem, and then a heart gem. I'm wearing the heart, though it's hard to tell that's what it is because of the prongs. This is the second set I got, I think. I'm not sure and I left the bag in my car and I'm not about to get it (it's 11:30 PM and it's cold and scary outside LOL). It's just a set of three with round gems. I'm pretty sure this was the one I picked because it has pink and white ones, and I'd wear both of those. If that wasn't the one I got, then it was this one. I don't think I got this one because it's pink, green, and blue and I would only wear pink out of that set.

Anywho, I like what I've got now but I do miss my dainty little star. I think that even if I find it, it's probably not going to be useful. It has a fine thread and I imagine it's just worn already, because I can't help but tighten it daily.

PS that's me wearing my new Honeylove lipstick, which I do love.

EDIT! Just __ more....

I've got 125 139 followers right now, and I've decided that once I get to 150 I'm going to do a giveaway! So that's just 25 11 more followers that I need to have before I it's time... Feel free to suggest to your friends that they follow, if you want to speed up the process. It's free!
(Originally posted 12/09/10)

New nails

Got a fill today. I could have waited longer with the regrowth but the edges were lifting and chipping. I obviously tossed the boring white and got lots of glitter.

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Editing to add more pictures

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Sunset/sunrise inspired tutorial + FOTD

This is the makeup I wore to my daughter's 4th birthday party on Sunday. Please excuse my hair. I didn't spend any time on it because I knew I was going to wear a hat, I just hadn't put it on yet.

Face:
MAC Moisturelush Cream
Smashbox Photo Finish Light
MAC Select Cover Up Concealer
MAC Studio Sculpt concealer
MAC Mineralize Satinfinish
MAC Studio Fix Powder
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural
MAC Sculpt & Shape Powder in Bone Beige/Emphasize
MAC Pinch Me blush
MAC By Candlelight MSF

Eyes:
Smashbox Photo Finish Light 
MAC Cream Color Base in Luna
MAC Sculpt & Shape Powder in Bone Beige/Emphasize (light side)
Hot pink e/s and two orange e/s' from 88 palette
MUFE #92 e/s
Sally Girl gel glitter adhesive
MAC Fuchsia glitter
MAC Carbon e/s
Wet n Wild black liquid eyeliner
MAC Opulash mascara (top)
Maybelline Great Lash mascara (bottom)
Ardell Wispies
Ardell Mink Brown eyebrow powder

Lips:
Lime Crime Countessa Fluorescent lipstick

Review: Lime Crime's Countessa Fluorescent

As some of you may remember, I had been searching for a neon pink lipstick. Well, I've found it!

I ordered Countessa Fluorescent from Lime Crime on December 10th using a code on their FB for 20% off. I think the code was fb20. I paid the $5 flat rate shipping, which told me it would arrive in 3 to 7 days. It arrived on the 7th day, so within the time promised.

I immediately swatched it and compared it to a few lipsticks I had on hand, but I didn't want to actually review it until I had worn it for a day to see how it held up. I'm happy to report that after a full day (my daughter's birthday party day, even) it was totally still on. It did separate a little bit, but I'm not sure if it did that before or after I ate 2 slices of pizza. The consistency of the lipstick is great, and it definitely is opaque. I wouldn't hesitate to buy any of their other awesome shades of lipstick.

At $16.00 a tube, I think the price is a bit steep when you compare it to the fact that MAC is $14.50 a tube and definitely a bigger, more well known brand. Lime Crime is relatively unknown outside of the online beauty community. But I do think for some of the shades (My Beautiful Rocket, No She Didn't, etc) it may be worth it. I certainly was okay paying for it because it seemed to match the color I was looking for and couldn't find elsewhere. But for the price, had it not been exactly what I wanted upon arrival, I would have returned it.

Here is how the lipstick was sent to me...

It was in a flat rate box, but that's just way too much for one tube of lipstick. It could have very easily been sent to me in a small shipping envelope. I'm not trying to be nitpicky, because it did arrive safely, but it was just a super wasteful way of sending one small item. Not very green, despite the tissue paper.

The packaging is cute, and I personally love it, but it does look juvenile. I wasn't surprised at all because I was familiar with the brand, having read a lot about it online, but I am aware that the bright, childlike packaging turns some people off. When my mom saw my daughter holding it, she actually thought it was some random, cheap kid's lipstick that I had given her (my kid has oodles of makeup LOL).

I did swatches in several forms of lighting, with and without flash, to give you the most accurate idea of how it will look in varied conditions. Yup, I typo'd on the name. I'm hanging my head in shame.

Here it is swatched with several MAC lipsticks for a simple comparison. I wish I could locate my Show Orchid right now, because I'm curious to see how they compare. Show Orchid, IMO, is very similar to Girl About Town, and is essentially the same color but in neon form. Of the lipsticks I swatched with Countessa Fluorescent (and yes, I see I made TWO typos when labeling these images), Pink Nouveau was the most similar. 

Here I've compared Pink Nouveau and Countessa Flourescent (with yet another typo, tsk tsk). They are similar, but PN is definitely more safe where CF has that real bright, neon-ness to it that I was searching for.

I'm going to rate this one 4 out of 5 stilettos. While it's exactly what I was hoping it would be, and it arrived on time, it's losing a stiletto due to the issue I had with the packaging.

Smokey cranberry holiday tutorial + FOTD

Number four in my holiday tutorial series :)

Face:
MAC Moisturelush Cream
Smashbox Photo Finish Light
MAC Select Cover Up Concealer
MAC Studio Sculpt concealer
MAC Mineralize Satinfinish
MAC Studio Fix Powder
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural
MAC Sculpt & Shape Powder in Bone Beige/Emphasize
MAC Pinch Me blush
MAC By Candlelight MSF

Eyes:
Smashbox Photo Finish Light 
MAC Cream Color Base in Luna
MAC Sculpt & Shape Powder in Bone Beige/Emphasize
MAC Cranberry e/s
MAC Humid e/s
MAC Carbon e/s
Wet n Wild black liquid eyeliner
Sally Girl Champagne e/s
MAC Opulash mascara (top)
Maybelline Great Lash mascara (bottom)
Ardell Demi Wispies
Ardell Mink Brown eyebrow powder

Lips:
Beautique Mocha lipliner
MAC Honeylove lipstick
MAC Cushy White plushglass

MAC Honeylove lipstick

Last Wednesday my daughter and I had plans to meet some friends at the mall for lunch, so I decided to bring some stuff in to MAC and do a B2M. I recycled 2 eyelash cases, a finished eyebrow pencil, a concealer pot, and a bottle from their oil control lotion. I made the mistake of not knowing what I was looking for going into it, but quickly decided that I wanted a nude lipstick that had a little more color to it than the ones I have.

The MAC nude lipsticks I have are Myth and Fleshpot, and then I have several from NYX. The MAC ones are pretty much like slapping concealer on your lips, and the NYX are kind of all over the place, but I don't love them. Some have some gray tint to them which I don't like.

The MAC artist that helped me was suggesting some colors that made me go "um, that's totally not nude" like a shade that very closely resembled Angel. But in the end, I found one that I liked; Honeylove. It's nice and matte, which I like in a nude lipstick. I like the option of it being totally matte, but also easy to add gloss to for some shine, and even some shimmer depending on the gloss you choose. But it's not easy, and sometimes it's impossible, to matte down a lipstick that doesn't come that way.

Honeylove is described as "Light beige toned with rose (Matte)" on the MAC website. It gives some color so your lips don't blend in with your face, but is still very nude and neutral, making it perfect for looks where your eyes (of even cheeks) are the one and only focus. Because it's matte it's both long wearing and a slight bit drying. I definitely recommend making sure you've got exfoliated, moisturized lips prior when wearing this lipstick.

Below you'll find a picture of the actual lipstick, and then swatches on my arm/hand. I've swatched it both alone, and with Myth for comparison being that Myth is a popular nude shade from MAC. Swatch photos are taken with flash and without.