Somehow I seem to have caught a cold in the middle of summer. It's either a cold or allergies, I can't tell... I'm sniffly and my eyes won't stop watering. Haven't really felt super awesome for the past few days.
And when I'm sick I rarely feel like putting much energy into my makeup, so here's a few of my lazy sick looks from this week!
This one needed a ton of pictures to show all of the amazing sparkles in these shadows. This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Aromaleigh Concrete Jungle, applied wet on lid
Stila Jewel Palette- brown shade, or purple shade? I thought it was brown but it really looks purple this time... whatever color it is, it's in the crease and lower lashline.
Fyrinnae Finnegan's Wake highlight
Black matte shade from the Cargo Wet/Dry liner palette
Urban Decay Zero 24/7
Cover Girl Lash Blast
Aromaleigh Concrete Jungle is an amazing shade. It was the first shade I tried from them and I instantly fell in love. It's a light taupe sort of shade with tons and tons and tons of sparkle. Tiny sparkles. Gold sparkles, silver sparkles. And, most importantly, BLUE sparkles. Little mini blue sparkles. This is the only picture I could get to show them, I apologize for the disturbing angle:
See the blue sparkles? Sadly, Aromaleigh is closing in less than a week so you might want to order it now if it interests you at all!
And the Stila Jewel palette shade is perfect for minimal makeup days for me. It has all the sparkle I crave but none of the effort of applying multiple shades and separate glitter. I freaking love that palette. Did I tell you I bought two backups of that palette? Eep. I know. But it's SO AWESOME.
Brown and teal. No-brainer!
This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Fyrinnae Greenman's Forest, applied wet on lid
MAC Go in crease and lower lashline
MAC Teal pigment applied wet as liner
Fyrinnae Finnegan's Wake highlight
Urban Decay Zero 24/7
Cover Girl Lash Blast
Greenman's Forest is a really sweet duochrome. It's light brown and a little goldish brown and a little green. I don't think I did a very good job of capturing the color shift, but hey, I'm sick, give me a break! :P MAC Go is one of those amazing Starflash finish shadows so it's totally buttery and effortless to blend. Starflash was amazing, I really hope they do more of them. I don't think I have them all, I have most I think, butI wish I had gotten the whole set! And of course MAC Teal is the perfect eyeliner for brown eyed girls like myself.
This one I didn't get any daylight pictures of so flash will have to do. You can see the sparkles better with flash anyway.
This was actually a cover-up job! I did one look, realized I didn't like it and immediately covered it up with different colors!
It consists of:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Aromaleigh Oberon (over MAC Vex) on lid
Aromaleigh Ambre (over MAC Club) in crease
MAC Club on lower lashline
Fyrinnae Finnegan's Wake highlight
Kat Von D liquid liner in Black Metal Love
Urban Decay Zero 24/7
Cover Girl Lash Blast
Oberon is another duochrome shade... Can you tell I love duochromes? I do. A lot. I took a blurry picture to show the sparkles of green against the taupey brown base:
Blurry pictures show glitter really well. Though this isn't really glitter... it's just smooth shimmer in different colors, no flaky particles that are a different texture like real glitter is.
Ambre is also pretty cool... I used it again yesterday. It's a little tricky to work with but if I layer it I have good luck. It's a really rich smoky looking metallic gold... a little dark... gold shimmer on a smoky base. I'll post that look soon.
I've had a couple people ask me what brushes I use, so I'm going to attempt to remember to take a picture of them. My staples are MAC 219, 209SE (I like the SE way better than the normal one), Studio Gear #37 liner (I don't think they make this anymore, It's over 10 years old!), Smashbox 30, something-20 dual ended (the numbers have worn off but I can not live without this brush) and Sephora brand smudge.
Now I'm going to go make some of that awesome Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat tea... that stuff rocks. Way better than Yogi's throat tea. Random. But yay tea!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Sick EOTDs
Konad Fail :(
I've really been in the mood to Konad lately... problem is, I'm horrible at coming up with good color combinations and design selections. I usually end up using one of the same plates I always use (m57 ftw!) and silver or gold chrome or holo for the stamp. I wanted to try something a little different this time, and, well... you'll see how it turned out.
This is the right hand... note the difference between the right and the left:
Despite the inconsistent star placement, somehow this hand turned out a lot better. But, still. Ugh.
My first mistake was picking the Wine Red Konad special polish. In the bottle it looked so pretty and I expected to look more purple-ish when it was on the nail, but no... it didn't. It combined with the drab olive to form this sickly brown-red-blood disgustingness. I showed my friend and he said it looked like rotting camouflage. That actually sounded pretty cool to me, but I felt the need to cover up the mess a little, so hey, why not add some gold chrome stars!
China Glaze 2030 is one of my go-to never fail Konad colors. That wine red Konad special polish must be pretty potent because it leeched into the gold after it had dried! You see that? Weird globby red spots in my gold stars!
That, combined with the smudging of the lines from me pressing too hard combined to create a design that I imagine would be what it might look like if David Bowie were to take a crap on my nails.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Oh yeah, Nubar Sale!
Burgundy VelvetI almost forgot! I got enough emails from them about it... hahaha! Anyone else get multiples?
But here it is:
"nubar offers our retail customers 20% off retail orders of $30 or more with code AUG2030 August 6 through August 7, with free shipping on orders of $75 or more after the discount is applied. Visit us at www.bynubar.com to take advantage of this offer!"
Shortest email ever. But that's okay! It's concise! You can always use the Nubar tag to the right or search bar above to look for Nubar swatches on my blog if you need help deciding.
Eye look with L'Oreal HIP duo in Charged
Charged is my favorite of the HIP duos I've tried. It's so perfectly perfect I can't believe it's a drugstore product.
I tried to capture the sparkle of the glitter and the sparkle of the eyeliner I used but I don't think I quite succeeded.
I don't know what's up with that dull looking area in the crease... I didn't notice it in real life, I have no idea what it is!
This was:
MAC Painterly Paint Pot
L'Oreal HIP duo in Charged, copper on lid and darker shade in crease and on lower lashline
Milani Crystal Eyez in Glamorously Glittering on lid (over the copper)
Fyrinnae Monarch Butterfly wet as liner
Lancome Ornate as highlight
The very last of my Milani Liquif'eye in Black
Cover Girl Lash Blast
I love this duo so much. The copper is so smooth and shiny and it's super pigmented. It's like a toned-down MAC Copper Sparkle, with that shiny liquid metal finish. The darker shade has so much depth, it looks smoky and dark but then glints of super bright shiny copper show through, a little like Fyrinnae Fire Opal, the smoky with gleaming shimmer type of look.
The Milani Crystal Eyez is one of those "holographic" shadows I talked about before... which are sadly not holographic but more like plain glitter gel. Which isn't a bad thing, but I totally wanted some holo glitter eyeshadow. I've been meaning to review all the shades I have, I even took pictures! I just keep forgetting to post it every time a cool new polish or eyeshadow comes along, heh.
Oh, and I did try to use the HIP duo in Darling... it was a dud. I gave up on it. It's not the metallic formula like these, it's called 'crystal' I think? It was hard and flaky and had no pigment. It's the only one I haven't loved so far. I picked up the Sassy duo on clearance at Target last week but I haven't tried it yet.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Two fail EOTDs from last week.
Not all of my eyes of the day turn out nice... I usually don't take pictures of the ugly ones!
But here are a couple that didn't quite turn out the way I hoped...
I took a million pictures of this one. I wanted to capture the complexity and sparkles in each color. All the shades are duochrome and change depending on the lighting and angle. I tried a few different kinds of lighting... you can sorta see the color shift in the last picture of my eyes closed. Pretty cool looking if you ask me... I love duochromes. I took this picture in the dark and I think it shows the sparkle really well:
And as always, you can click the pictures to see more detail. This was:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Avian Shapeshifter on lid (applied wet with MAC mixing medium)
Fyrinnae Velvet Vampire in crease and lower lashline (applied wet with mixing medium)
Fyrinnae Pyromantic Erotica in the inner corners (Can't get enough of this color!)
Fyrinnae Dark Magik as liner (applied wet with mixing medium)
Fyrinnae Finnegan's Wake as highlight
Urban Decay Zero 24/7
Cover Girl Lash Blast
This look was the result of me wanting to try as many of my new Fyrinnae shades as possible. I love the colors! Just... maybe not together. I felt like there was no contrast in this look, it all just blended together into one awesome sparkly duochrome mess. Next time I'll pick a lid color that contrasts more with the liner and crease color. Too bad my pictures don't show how pretty Dark Magik is.... I'll have to use that one again soon.
And then there's this one:
This was:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Pyromantic Erotica on lid applied wet as usual (I told you, I can't get enough!)
Fyrinnae Feline Familiars applied wet in crease and lower lashline
Fyrinnae Sleepy Hollow applied wet as liner
Fyrinnae Finnegan's Wake to highlight
Urban Decay Zero 24/7
Cover Girl Lash Blast
The colors themselves are awesome but I don't think I picked a particularly good way to combine them. They're all fighting for attention and don't seem like they flow together. It's almost kind of jarring looking, it just gave me the urge to fix it all day! I did end up covering up Pyromantic Erotica with a layer of Greenman's Forest later in the evening... Nothing against Pyromantic Erotica of course, but I needed to stop the riot going on on my eyelids.
I freakin' love these Fyrinnae Arcane Magic shadows, though... But I need to learn to not try to use them all at once!
China Glaze Fight Like A Woman Collection for Breast Cancer Awareness Fall 2010
I found the formula on the two pale pinks to be quite thick and a little difficult to apply, but the glass fleck was perfect. Something about pale pinks... they're always so thick! I'm sure a little bit of thinner would help. Other than that, average China Glaze dry time and application. Shiny even without topcoat, but topcoat makes them look even better.
Overall, while they're not really my colors... you know how I feel about pink... At least they're not bad pinks! There's a hot glass fleck one and a pretty speckled shimmer. I would totally wear that glass fleck one. Though I can't really complain because it's for a good cause. It's their annual Breast Cancer Awareness set- this year's colors do seem nicer than previous years. And, a portion of the proceeds go to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. I don't know how much, exactly, but at least it's something. But what I don't understand is why everything having to do with women or breast cancer has to be pink... Why is that?
And as a sidenote... I'm having a lot of trouble with Blogger's new editor thing so if my post looks freaky, let me know. Nothing looks right to me... I can't quite figure it out!
(These were sent to me for review)
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Sunset Eye Of The Day using MAC Louder, Please
I got the two items I ordered from the MAC Dare to Wear collection yesterday and I had to use them right away. I got Louder, Please eyeshadow and Bold & Brash Dare To Wear Lipglass. The Lipglass is gorgeous but very strange... I'll review that later. I might even have to pick up a couple more shades cause they're so pretty... Anyway, here was the quick look I threw together:
This is:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
MAC Chrome Yellow on inner lid
MAC Louder, Please on outer lid, lower lashline and crease
Make Up For Ever #92 in crease
Fyrinnae Finnegan's Wake to highlight
MAC Blacktrack Fluidline
Cover Girl Lash Blast
The texture of Louder, Please was soft and smooth and not quite as chalky as some of MAC's other mattes. The pigmentation was great. I love the color and the texture didn't give me any trouble so I'm going to play around with this color a lot more. It's like... fruit punch for your eyelids. Isn't it gorgeous? Now I need to think of other colors to pair this with.... hmmm...
Monday, August 2, 2010
Eye of the Day with purple and orange
This one is from a few weeks ago. One of my favorite combinations, purple and orange!
This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy (on lid only)
Fyrinnae Meerkat on lid, applied wet with MAC Water Based Mixing Medium
Make Up For Ever #92 in crease
Fyrinnae Pyromantic Erotica on inner corner and lower lashline
Urban Decay 24/7 Zero
Fyrinnae Pumpkinfire with MAC mixing medium as liner
Urban Decay Lash Primer
Cover Girl Lash Blast
I still haven't quite learned how to use Pixie Epoxy. If I get any amount of it in my crease at all it causes the shadows to stick and sort of stain and clump and not blend... Makes a harsh line where the shadow is stuck on the Pixie Epoxy of that makes sense. Or sometimes it will do really weird things to the shimmer in shadows when I try to blend. What am I doing wrong? I only use a tiny amount, just barely tap my finger with the wand and then blend over the lid. I know a lot of you use it and love it, any tips?
Oh... and I've finished my sample of Pyromantic Erotica. I don't think I've ever finished a shadow or pigment sample before! Good thing I picked up a full sized jar. Man, I love that stuff. So awesome.
Nubar Venetian Glass Collection Fall 2010
EDIT: Sorry... have no idea how I managed to type "2008" up there... O_o
Finally.... Nubar's fall collection! I know, I'm probably the last person to post this... Sorry :( Not intentional! Just kept getting sidetracked by other things!
This collection is inspired by beautiful Venetian glass.
Arencia. Deep red-orange glass fleck shimmer. The flecks and particles seem very golden and have a little hint of a pink duochrome in this shade.
Bronzo. Soft rusty bronze glass fleck. Maybe another way to describe it would be dirty red-coral? I usually think of bronze being browner and not quite as red, this might be more copper-bronze.
Caramello. Oooh pretty. I think this is my favorite of the collection. Really rich sparkling caramel golden-brown. Orange tones. Reminds me of fall!
Oro. Very orangey-yellowy gold glass fleck shimmer.
Rosso. Medium red glass fleck shimmer.
Vaso. Light lilac purple glass fleck shimmer. This one has a soft silvery look to it. Purple-silver fusion.
Verde. Smoky blackened blue-green and gold shimmer fusion. Not as sparkly as the other shades. Similar to Zoya Edyta, but Verde appears to have stronger green tones to me.
Vino. My second favorite! Rich burgundy wine with a slight hint of brown. The glass fleck pearls in this have a pink duochrome like the ones in Arencia!
The formula on these was good! A little on the thick side but very opaque. I didn't have any application issues. Nubar's formula is pretty consistent and I think it's usually consistently good. The only issue I had with these wasn't related to application- some of them dry quite dull- which really is a non-issue because I never skip topcoat, but I did need to use topcoat in my pictures and thought it was worth mentioning.
I'm torn on this collection. On one hand, I love the super pretty glass fleck finish. On the other hand, I feel like there's no variety. It seems like nearly all the colors are orange, gold, red or a variation on those colors. When I think of Venetian glass (or Murano glass) I think of bold bright colors in patterns. I think of swirling veins of gold, orange, yellow and brown glitter encased in glass... but I also think of really rich blue and yellow and orange! I think this collection is missing that typical Venetian glass blue. And I'd just really like a glass fleck Nubar blue. :)
Despite the lack of variety in shades, these do make me think of Venetian glass and the colors are pretty nice though some of them do appear kinda dull and not as sparkly, like Vaso and Verde. I think they're just too opaque and dense and it drowns the shimmer because it's so packed together. You don't hear me say this often but I wish they were more sheer! I think they would sparkle more that way. Think of the Milani Molten Metal collection- sheer but super sparkly.
Lots of glass-fleck style polishes coming out this year! Interesting!
(These were sent to me for review)
