30 posts tagged “makeup”
I started going through my makeup stash the other day, and realized that I really want to put some of my quads (and the like) to work. Quads aren’t something that I collect, but the ones I do have, I really like, but I don’t reach for them very often because I tend to reach for my pro palettes most times.
So.. I thought that it would be fun to do some sort of summer project with them. I haven’t decided for sure what I want to do exactly, but I’m toying with the idea of doing one or two looks per week from June through September. That’s 18 weeks, and while I haven’t done an official count.. I think that across various brands I’ve got enough.
Nevermind.. I just did an official count, because I’m funny like that.
- 2 ~ Annabelle
- 4 ~ Lancome
- 5 ~ MAC
- 1 ~ Physician’s Formula
- 4 ~ QUO
For the rest I may pair up some of the HIP duos.. but I’ll have more details when I’ve finalized everything.
I’m excited!
Within every community there are bound to be disagreements and different perspectives, but recently the spotlight has been focused on something that isn’t new: expectations.
Gurus have expectations. Subscribers have expectations.
Someone speaks on it, and bam pow wham.. it’s chaos.
To those in the role of guru..
If you think it’s a good idea to put yourself out there on the interwebz, then please realize that it would also be a good idea to invest in some thick skin and sharpen your ability to distinguish hate from constructive criticism. You may be super cute, you may have mad crazy super skills, you may explain things thoroughly.. you may in fact be the best, but the truth is; not everyone is going to love you, like you or even be civil to you. You are literally putting yourself out on the world stage, which not only makes you a target for appreciation and thanks, but for criticism and malice. The audience is always a mix of love and hate and for the well being of yourself, focus on the love.. and dismiss the hate.
To those in the role of subscriber..
Interaction is fun, it’s great.. but for the guru with even 100 subscribers it’s time consuming. It takes you a few minutes to write a question or five.. it might take them the same to get back to you, maybe longer. So for your 5 minute question.. that’s over 8 hours of responses.. now put that subscriber number up in the thousands and there literally just isn’t enough time in the day.
These words may be useful to remember; you can’t always get what you waaaaaant. Whether that’s wanting people to read the sidebar or do their own research, or whether that’s wanting an immediate response to your question about foundation or repeating questions for the 38th time. Everyone has a life, what it revolves around isn't really any of your business. Just be assured that it doesn't revolve around you.
Adjust your expectations and all will be well. I promise.
So these are the newest additions to my selection of dazzleglasses.
From top to bottom: Funtabulous, Love Alert, Utterly Posh, Smile and Baby Sparks.
I love them. There isn't much to say beyond that, they really speak for themselves.
As for the eyeshadow comparison, I found Bitter to be very pale and difficult to build. It’s hypnotizing in the pan, but swatched on my skin the pigmentation was very poor. I remember hearing stories about this, but I’ve usually had pretty good luck making MAC’s eyeshadows work, but not so in this case.
It was returned shortly afterwards, so sad.
Updates coming soon!
At the end of the swatching frenzy, I walked away with five new glosses: Baby Sparks (baby pink), Smile (peach), Utterly Posh (coral), Love Alert (red) and Funtabulous (fushia).
Moth to Flame was very similar to Stila's Silk Shimmer Gloss in Kitten, which I already have. Money Honey was pretty, but it wasn't enough to warrant a purchase when compared with the others. Goldyrocks caught my attention too, but it was too much like Spring Bean (lustreglass). There were a few others that caught my eye, but I figured that five was more than enough.
And on a whim.. I also picked up Bitter e/s, which I will be comparing to Sharp e/s from the Tempting quad.
Photos to follow soon.
Shortly I’ll be off to my local counter to browse the newly released Double Dazzle collection. A lot of hype surrounds these reflective goodies, but I must say that as an owner of four (Pleasure Principle, Miss. Dynamite, Get Rich Quick & Date Night), I do enjoy them in moderation. Moderation seems to be a contradiction to the ultimate in glitter for your lips, but that’s how they work best for me. All I can manage is a thin layer, or I get the dreaded white ring of death.. which is never, ever cute.
So while the collector in me, would love nothing more than a full collection to use as a decorative flair.. I won’t be going crazy, with these new colours. In fact, I’ll be taking my four with me.. to swatch in comparison to the new colours. Lately, I’ve been focused on finding colours that are different to what I already have.. and since these glosses are mostly glitter, I think that quite a few are too similar to justify buying more than one in a particular colour family.
When I was in the other day, I was lucky enough to get to look at them before they went on sale.. and came up with a list of colours I’m interested in, which should help bring down the excitement and in turn the dreaded impulse buy. I’ll be looking at: Love Alert, Smile, Utterly Posh, Moth to Flame, Funtabulous, Money Honey and the legendary Baby Sparks. There are also a few others, but I think that these will be my main focus, which hopefully I can pare down with my currents in tow.
I’ll be back later with photos, when I can find my camera charger..
- photos courtesy of temptalia.com
This past Thursday I stopped by the drugstore during a break at work. It's actually been a while since I've been in, so it was fun to browse.
- Revlon ColorStay Mineral Lipgloss - Infinite Rose
- GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliner (Waterproof) - Black Ink
- QUO Professional Eyelash Curler
- QUO Mini Tweezer Slant Tip
- Maybelline Colossal Volum'Express - Glam Black
With as much makeup as I have, I've never been able to find a really good black liner. I've heard some great things about GOSH eyeliners, so I finally decided to grab one in black. I wore it yesterday, and I'm very happy to say that it wore extremely well on the lash lines. Usually pencil liners end up sliding off me.
I'm going out tonight for a friend's birthday and have decided that I'm going to wear some false lashes, and so I needed to pick up a lash curler. I figured that I'd give QUO a try since I like their brushes, and grabbed their mini slanted tweezers as well. I was surprised with just how reasonable the prices were, and I'm elated about the tweezers (they're amazing) and the curler doesn't pinch - though I still need to practice with it.. LOL.
Finally, I also picked up one of Revlon's mineral glosses. I'd heard some good reviews, and while I like the colour I don't know if I like it enough to keep it. Jury's still out on that one.
It would be a massive understatement to say that the past month has been crazy. I don't think I've ever had such insanity in my life before, but here I am. There are no explanations or excuses, the situation is what it is, and I have to accept it.
I'm determined to get back to something that I enjoy, something that brings me joy and something that keeps my ability to learn and improve sharp.
The creativity, the sense of community have been greatly missed and I'm glad to be getting back to it.
Like most people who use Urban Decay’s primer potion, I finally got to the point where it seemed empty.
Since the bottle shares a similar anatomy to a lip gloss tube, I took out the wiper that sits on the lip of the opening. I couldn’t believe how much a difference that made, there was definitely a ton of product left in there.
This was short lived however, and since I’d heard people talk about how the contour of the bottle kept a lot of product out of reach. With that in mind, I broke out a sharp knife and cut into it.
It does require a bit of strength, but it’s not difficult. First I sliced through the thickest part of the bottle, which reveals a jaw dropping amount of product. I then cut off the bottom (which is deceptively much thicker) and scooped out the entirety. I was able to completely fill up a MAC sample jar, which I believe is a 5g? This jar is full as it can be because I had to drop it (only about an inch above my desk) to pack in the product and get it to settle properly.
It took about 15 minutes to hack up the bottle and then fill the jar, and while it was a little messy, I feel it was worth it. The full sized bottle is 10ml and a 5g jar translates to roughly 5ml – so you’re looking at about 50% of the product. Yes, I agree that it is silly that to cut open a bottle, but for the amount of product that comes from the effort, I think it’s foolish not to.
Something I’ve always admired is flawless looking false lashes. It’s pretty easy to find some lashes, either at the drugstore, costume shop, makeup store or the plethora of beauty/lash websites. What I've found to be pretty hard is, flawless application. I’ve done a bit of experimentation with false lashes in the past, and generally it wasn’t a good scene. The one pair of lashes I’d bought just didn’t want to work with my unskilled hands. Once I actually managed to get them on, they weren’t balanced, they weren't even, and they just looked completely busted.
Since then, quite a bit has changed with my view and application of makeup, so I wanted to try again. Recently I picked up a few pairs of Ardell lashes in the the following styles: 114, 115, and 116.
Two separate occasions and two separate styles of lashes.
The first look I tried was with the 116 lashes. Originally I was wondering if they would be dramatic enough to be worth the effort, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were. In fact, they’re my favourite of the three pair. They are the shortest pair, but I think they’re probably moderate as far as false lash length goes in general. They’re not full density either, but I was surprised to find that this low-mid range density actually offers a pretty natural appearance. The one thing I would change would be my placement, since I think they could be placed a little further out, to make sure that the ends blend better with the outer edge of my own lashes.
The second look was using the 115 lashes. This experiment did not go anywhere near as well, but I wanted to make a note of it for future reference of what not to do. These lashes are long and full, and very much look like false lashes. I think it’s pretty safe to say that with lashes this dramatic, you really need a strong brow to balance them out. I didn’t think to do this at the time, but I’ll definitely remember the next time I want to break them out. Placement with these wasn’t too bad, but I found that the outer edge anchored to my lashes, instead of the lash line.. which resulted in some major tearing, but no burning. These lashes were a lot more difficult to place though, I think just because it was difficult to see through the fullness of the lashes.
All in all, I’m glad that I played around with the lashes. By far the 116 were my favourite because of the more natural look and ease of application. The other two I think will be fun for those more dramatic looks I come up with, or a wild night out. I definitely have a lot of respect for the skill required to apply very dramatic lashes, so for those who can – kudos. I feel like this is something that can be mastered, but like so many other things requires a lot of patience, practice, adhesive and makeup remover.
