New Year's Eve FOTN

Well I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve. I'm getting ready to head out, but I wanted to get these photos up before I went. I decided to go with a classic pinup style eye and red lips. I went with my go to red lip combo:
Cherry lip liner
Port Red lipstick
Cult of Cherry lipgloss





You can tell that Zorro is just thrilled to be ringing in 2011.

After Christmas Collections and Dupes

I am back from my mini vacation. Today I went down to check out the after Christmas collections and something really struck me. This really seems like the Riveting Collection cut in two. The mix of the metals, frosts, and pop of bright colors is what did it for me (although Riveting did have more matte colors). But onto the collections.

Cham-Pale

Very Important Plaitnum (left) and Soiree (right)

Revlon Steel-Her Heart (left) and Revlon Silver Screen (right)

I expected to like nothing from this collection and I was almost dead on except for falling in love with the nail polishes. I found that Soiree reminded me of a shiny gold version of Studded (silver from Riveting). I also liked Very Important Platinum, but it reminds me too much of Revlon's Steel-Her Heart and Silver Screen which also have very poor drying times. I guess it's just something about metallic polishes.
I also decided to pick up Feline eye kohl as I need a new black pencil and everyone raves about this one.

The Highlight Powders were way too glittery with too little pay off. The paint pots are nothing new under the sun as there are some shadesticks in those colors.

Stylishly Yours


I was also looking to avoid a lot from this collection. I only was interested in the paint pots and that's all I got. I tried the Beauty Powders, but they were very boring. I find that if I need subtle shimmer, I will stick to other products like the magically cool powder. I got Dark Diversion (bottom) and swatched it next to Macroviolet (top).

I'm 'bout to run away

As the semester is almost over, I will be on a bit of hiatus soon. I will have one more post before checking out for a bit. In the meantime, if you like electric music, then enjoy this music video. It quite accurately summarizes how I feel with finals looming: energetic and ready to run away.

Polychromatic Eyeful

Well it's been a busy week. I finally did a rainbow eye, but this one is a bit like the other ones that I've done. I can't believe how many times I poked myself in the eye with one thing or another. But in the end, I finally pounded out a rainbow eye. I first made a matte rainbow eye and then went back over it with shimmery colors over the matte bases.

Nostalgia Swatches

L to R
Reflects Very Pink, MUFE 75, Bold and Brash, MUFE 72, 2faced Skinny Dip, Reflects Transparent Teal, Atlantic Blue, Big T, Sassy Grass, Eye Popping, Chrome Yellow, Off The Page, Orange, Reflects Rust, MUFE 99, Mi'Lady (red).
I first got interested in makeup back in 2005 because of LiveJournal. I remember that is when I first stumbled across many of the different makeup communities that were highly active back then. I loved the bold colors that people used that made their eyes quite literally look like a work of art.
Eventually I came across mac_cosmetics and became familiar with the work of Temptalia, xsparkage, and Petrilude to name a few. Sure they had some things that were a bit softer in nature, but for the most part their makeup wasn't for the faint of heart.
Most of those communities are ghost towns now, but I feel like before the month is out I should make an attempt to do something in the style of makeup that first inspired me.

Love Lace Smoked Blues

The Love Lace Collection last year was one of my favorites last year and I recently got a pair of shoes that are beige covered in black lace. Add a bit of Reflects Transparent Teal and you're good to go.







I notice that I had furrowed brow lines in my foundation. I hate it when that happens.

Suggestions Sugerencias Empfehlungen

Hey guys, I'm just writing because it's been almost a year since I've had my blog and I wanted to know if you guys have any suggestions for things that you feel are working and things that aren't. Feel free to leave me a post in English or in another language.

Hola a todos. Les escribo porque hace casi un ano desde que empecé mi blog y querría saber si ustedes tenían algunas sugerencias para la direción del blog. Dejame un comento en Español u otro idoma.

Halo allen. Ich schreibe euch weil es fast eine Jahr ist seit ich meinen Blog gegründen habe. Ich wollte wissen ob ihr irgendwelche Empfelunghen für mich habe. Was würdet ihr lieber lesen/sehen? Ihr könnt mir einen Komentar auf Deutsch oder anderen Sprache lassen.

Smoked Brown

It's been raining all week, so I decided to take advantage of the situation and put my hair in pincurls to dry. I went to an early Thanksgiving dinner so I decided to have simple toned down makeup. My nails were cream with different types of gold glitter. I had originally wanted to have red lips, but since it was going to be a meal filled evening, I just went with nude.



I ended up wearing Fresh Salmon and Kumquat on the lips but earlier I had tried Touch and Nymphette.

You say potato I say yam... let's call the whole thing off

It's not quite the same as potato /pʰoteɪto/ vs potato /pʰotato/, but the question of sweet potato /swit pʰəteɪto/ vs yam /jæm/ has been one that I've finally admitted I will never resolve. For instance, you have sweet potato pie, sweet potato fries, and candied yams which all come from the same vegetable.



Regardless of the naming issue, I have to admit that this little starchy treat is one of my favorite fall indulgences. It's good in the skin, fried, or in syrup. Just today I decided to use it in a recipe that I had picked up from a friend and modified. The great thing about this dish is that there are many layers of flavor which will only get better with time.

Fixing Loose Ends

So I don't know how many of you have gotten a hair cut that you admit you wish you didn't have to get. I moved about a year and a half ago and the climate where I am currently is incredibly dry, where as I had come from a place with a lot of humidity. This coupled with a lack of change in seasons means that my hair is constantly exposed to direct sunlight in dry heat.
To make matters worse, I got a Chi around the time that I left which is the first dry styling heating product that I ever owned. I didn't have any heat sealant for my hair when I first got it, so I just used regular hair oil.

I hadn't been getting regular trims because many salons in this area charge the same amount for a full hair cut as they charge for a trim, but back home it is included in the price of the service.

Today I looked at a picture of myself back in 2005 and realized how much of my hair was gone.

2005 This is my hair at its full length. Poor posture might have added "length".

2008 My hair is slightly shorter, but not by much. Posture is better.

2009 My hair is about the same length, but I have poor posture.

2010 The necklace is in roughly the same place. Posture is slightly better, hair is noticeably shorter.

The solution: I went into a Great Clips for a trim and came out with hair that barely comes over my shoulders because there was that much damage. D: I have to admit that when I came out my hair around the ends felt much softer. I went to a beauty store and picked up a stronger strength conditioning shampoo than the one I had been using before. I've also decided to retire my Chi for about half a year which should be noticeable in my posts. I've been told that I have fast growing hair so hopefully it will take me less than a year to get my 5'' back even with regular trims.

Guess My Costume

Well I'm just going to quickly post my Halloween outfit and the makeup that I wore with it. When I wore the outfit for the day before Halloween, I didn't do my makeup as it was already too late in the day. On Halloween day I had guests come over so I had not time to take a full body shot and I didn't get a picture while the makeup was still fresh.

Run Ke$ha Run

I will admit it, I am an occasional listener of K-pop. One of my favorite girl groups, Girl's Generation (소녀시대 aka SNSD), was featured in a mashup which I found kind of eerie. Normally when we find a mashup, it seems like a strange coincidence that two different songs overlap so well. Take for instance, the Lady Gaga "Just Dance"/Kat deLuna "Whine it Up" mashup.



But there are other mashups which over lap well because we're really dealing with the same song. I'm not talking about one artist covering another artist's song, I'm talking about a new song being released by two artists around the same time. This is exactly what happened with "Run Devil Run".


Ke$ha actually had made a recording of "Run Devil Run" which sounded quite official. SNSD later released a very similar sounding song. I mean sure, the SNSD lyrics are in Korean and Ke$ha's are in some form of auto-tuned American Engli$h but if we listen to the musical score, there was obviously no one artists covering another. In this case, the song actually belongs to SNSD because SNSD purchased the copyright before Ke$ha did, but Ke$ha had recorded her demo before SNSD bought the copyright as it was originally intended for her album Animal.

So much for Ke$ha's originality I guess.

Evergreen Eyes on Her Blushing Cheek

I wanted to make a post that shows the color of Her Blushing Cheek and of Moonlight Water.


As we all know, glitter show up best IRL, and it tends to show up as purple and pink flecks on the camera which doesn't look good when paired with green. The hightlight color is a mix of Vanilla pigment and Quick Frost from Rushmetal. It's a greenish white with what appears to be little transparent teal flecks in it (possibly reflects gold, but I'm not sure). Next time I will try a more exciting shape as I've gotten in the habit of doing a very basic eye.



Natural Light:




Soft Flash:

A Tartan Tale Teals

Today I went to swap out The Family Crest for Moonlight Night.

Here are some comparison swatches to show that the pigments available in this collection tend to be teal and not straight up green. The Beauties Play It Cool eyeshadow kit has a kelly green in it that reminded me a lot of Urban Decay's Grass. Remember that if you don't have Teal pigment yet, you can get it in one of the lash kits that comes out with this collection. All swatches are over Urban Decay Primer Potion.

Left to Right:
Teal pigment
Moonlight Night wet (LE A Tartan Tale)
Moonlight Night dry (LE A Tartan Tale)
Humid
Sassy Grass (LE Dare to Wear)
UD Grass cream shadow

A Tartan Tale Violets

Purple swatches from Tartan Tale. Remember that if you don't have Violet pigment, you can get it in an eyeliner kit from A Tartan Tale.

From left to right:
Entremauve pigment (LE Nocturnelle/Formal Black)
Semi-Precious (LE Tartan Tale)
Violet pigment
Mi'Lady: purple side (LE Antiquitease)
Lovely Lily pigment (LE Naughty Nauticals)

Comparison Swatches

Comparison Swatches of Impassioned and Full Fuchsia. I find that these swatches aren't the most telling, but generally, Impassioned is much more coral. Full Fuchsia is a blueish pink. They're very different IRL.

Impassioned


Full Fuchsia


Full Fuchsia and Radiant Jewel


On Style Minx vs. Radiant Jewel:
Style Minx is similar to Radiant Jewel, but it's more of a hot pink and it's more opaque. Radiant Jewel is a bit more transparent, but it's more opaque than your run of the mill Dazzleglass (because it's a Dazzleglass cream). It has a bit more of a reddish/blue-pink tone and the glitter particles in the Dazzleglass are more prominent than in Style Minx.

A Tartan Tale

So I had the chance to go to the unveiling yesterday and it was amazing. There were nice snacks and a fiddler who was accompanying the soundtrack that was playing in the store. The waiters were also in costume which is always fun. :) The place was packed and I'm glad that I knew what I was interested in that means that I could get in and get out very quickly. We got a little story book with the concept of A Tartan Tale and we got tartan cloth pins. :)


Me waiting in line with my friends.

I saw the quads and prepackaged brushes and I wasn't that impressed. I think that some of the eyeshadow quads were nice, but I am just against buying them in the first place because of all of the repeats. I ended up buying only things from the color collection.

The texture of the eyeshadows are amazing. They're very soft and buttery and I imagine that they can be used like pigments when mixed with a bit of mixing medium. I bought Semi-Precious and plan on pairing this with Violet pigment. I passed on the other ones because many of them seemed to light for me (I like midtones) or just didn't stand out.

I got Moonlight Night pigment which is a gorgeous dark green. It's very hard to find good greens and I think that this is great deep green. I plan on using this to deepen up humid and will use it with eyeshadows like Humid and Eyepopping. Even some teals and yellows. I wanted to like The Family Crest, but I actually have Guerlaine's loose eye kohl in brown which I find to be a better color. I passed on Later from Alice and Oliva and I decided to pass on it again. It reminds me too much of Entremauve/Push the Edge mixed with Dark Soul.

I tried both My Highland Honey and Her Blooming Cheek. I found that My Highland Honey was a cute color, but very run of the mill and probably not the most flattering for my skintone. I can imagine that very many people will be afraid of a bright color like Her Blooming Cheek, but when applied with a light hand, it is so incredibly beautiful and gives a nice pop of color. Moderation is key.

Of the Dazzleglass cream, only one stood out to me which was Radiant Jewel. I didn't even try the others, but that was mainly in part due to lack of lip brushes to try the products.

The lipsticks were very nice. I compared Impassioned and Full Fuchsia and they were different (which made me glad). Impassioned is much more of a coral and Full Fuchsia is just that, bright fuchsia. Deepest wish was nice, but I think that there are other colors that are similar to it in the permanent line. The other colors didn't really catch my fancy because I'm an amplified cream person, not a glaze or luster person.

I didn't try the pearglides because I don't like the texture and I didn't try the nail polishes because none of the colors caught my fancy.

The FOTDs include Her Blooming Cheek and My Highland Honey blended together and Radiant Jewel over Full Fuchsia.









And just for kicks, here is what my toenails looked like. Robert Burns style plaid.

Wrong Spell FOTD

I decided to make this into two posts. I have been meaning to wear Wrong Spell for quite some time now, but I just haven't gotten around to it. This is a fairly neutral look using dark spell. There is no lip liner (which would have made the look dead on) because I was on my way to the unveiling of Tartan Tale.

Fall Joys: Food Version

Another gratuitous cat photo (she got a new hat over the weekend and I had to share). Zorro and I have something in common: we love a good meal. Over the weekend I made a colorful rendition of a dish that's based off of the Afghan dish Kadu Bouranee (with lamb sans yogurt). The tomato sauce and pumpkin gives a very beautiful fall color pallet and the black rice made it fun enough for Halloween. Not to mention that the flavor of the black rice and basmati played together in a savory medley with the rest of the dish. Try paring this dish with a rich red wine and you're good to go, but it's also great without wine too.



Oh and just because it fits the color scheme, there is a beautiful rose bush that is in bloom which has colors that are apt for fall.

Basic Tartan Nails

I remember that when I started this blog, I was interested in making tutorials. I haven't really kept up on that, but hopefully this one comes in time for A Tartan Tale for those of you who want to go with plaid nails. I never thought the day would come when I would attempt a look based on Blackwatch Plaid. Sorry, no argyle tutorials.



For this look you will need:
Base Color
Contrast Color
Accent Color (some plaids have 2, but however many you have, you will need a thin brush)

Try to get colors that are creamy and opaque. Shimmery colors and sheer colors are very difficult to work with. If you have nail art supplies at home, you can really use any color you have by putting it onto a palate and then getting the appropriate brush size for the task.

1) Start out with a fully dried Base Color. Balackwatch plaid is a forest green so you can use either a deep teal or a dark green.


2) Take your Contrast Color and make 2 stripes across your nails so that you have 4 evenly spaced stripes. For Blackwatch this will generally be a blue.




3)Take your Accent Color and make a thin stripe in the center of either your Accent Color or your Base Color, but not both. Most plaids and tartans have a bright color like white, blue, or red. Blackwatch generally has a black Accent Color which is why it's so hard to photograph (but it does show up IRL).




4) We've been working with horizontal stripes up until now, but here's where the vertical stripes come in. Taking your accent color go down the outer edge of the nail in 2 thin stripes. Rotate your nail to the other side and do the same. You should have 4 vertical stripes that are very close to each other, but allow the other colors to peek through between them.


Finished.