Lace Up Your Nails

Here is a quick update. I did this yesterday while doing data entry. I didn't get my makeup look because I was dealing with a crashed computer.



Here is the youtube link that I used for this look. I changed a few things.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydgbh9Q29hs

Base Coat:
Milani Angel
Some old Gap polish (use vanilla plus a nude to get this color)
Diagonal:
Milani Sandman
OPI Warm and Fozzie
Sephora by OPI Gold and Copper Glitter
Black Lace
Miliani Black Nail Art
O RLY Top Coats.

Dropping back in for Halloween

Well I know that I haven't been on much (work has been keeping me busy), but since today is Halloween and I did dress up, I thought I would post.




Oh yeah, and here are some things that remind me of fall:

Humid Moonlight Jealousy

This is really nothing more than just updating to be active. I realized at the end of the night that I had already missed the opportunity to take good pictures (i.e, when the sun was out and when my hair was still nicely done). This look features: UD Grass, Humid, Jealousy Wakes, and Moonlight Path.

Sparkle Peridot

This combo is a coat of Chanel Peridot and OPI Simply Smashing. I don't own simply smashing, but I am definitely hunting for it now! If anyone knows where I can get this, or of a great dupe, let me know.

Murmur

This look incorporates my two favorite colors for my b-day. :)
Unfortunately I was running late so I didn't get many pictures of the look until AFTER the flowers started to wilt. :( Other than that, I forgot my black lipgloss at home, so I had to improvise with Lancome juicy tubes. The pictures with the black gloss were taken after I got back and everything had kind of melted.










Here is a picture of one of the turf dancers:

Yellow Plus Mellow

Sorry for being kind of MIA. Here is a recent look that I did.







The bright yellow nail polish was a custom mix of OPI's Megawhatt? and Need Sunglasses with top coats of ORLY fifty-four and the OPI-Sephora Gold glitter at the tips.

Duochrome Golds

Tonight I went ahead and used some oldies but goodies.
The eyes looked so much better irl, but I only got pictures after the good lighting was gone hence the flash.
I found that Moonlight Night (from Tartan Tale) + Old Gold make an amazing combo. I need to play around with these two colors.
The nails are also one of those things that looks better in real life. I used duochromes that have the same back color (green). One is pink and green (from Sally Hansen), another is silver-purple and green (OPI Katy Perry), and the other is gold and green (Chanel Peridot). There is black laced throughout the marble.

Rosa Ardiente on MM

Hey guys: Just in case you're interested, I'm on MM as Mayhem #2157672. Let me know what you think, any suggestions that you might have for shoots, or if you want to work with me.

What's Black, White, and Red All Over?

As promised, here are some of the pictures from the shoot that I did today. It was a lot of fun. I'm surprised that the photographer got back to me so quickly with some of the photos! All makeup and wardrobe by me.

I've been a little MIA

I know I've been gone for quite a while, but things got crazy busy for me.
I am going to be doing a photoshoot tomorrow so hopefully I can get those pictures up as soon as possible. Right now I've got one hand of nail polish finished.
Essie Sand Tropez (2 layers)
Essie Kisses and Bisses (1 layer)
Sephora by OPI's gold multi-sized glitter.

I will be doing another photoshoot on Monday, so unless the photographer cancels, you can expect pictures of that to come too.

More Summer Blues

This is a look that I wore on Sunday to a BBQ. It's very similar to the last look that I did except it incorporates more colors into the face. I have some pinks on the cheeks (instead of bronze) and teals and blues on the lower lash line. The scarf was actually really useful because it started to rain. Since it's a long scarf, I just made a makeshift hood and was able to keep dry that way. :)

Delft Blue

So I know it's been forever since I last posted, but life got very busy very quickly. Now that things have calmed down, I had the chance to get my brows done and do my makeup again. :D

The most exciting thing about this look is really the nails. I picked up a dark teal from Essie and one of the mini OPI polishes in teal. Put in a sprinkle of reflects teal and you've got a nice combo going. I decided to keep most of the other things toned down, but I will be looking at Essie again!

This look was inspired by Delft Blue. I picked up the scarf in Berlin last summer because I really like the blue over white. I mean, sure Delft is in the Netherlands, but oh well. We can mix and match right?

St. Patrick's Day Getup

Well yesterday was St. Patrick's Day of course. This is the look I wore and I was able to incorporate the Tartan Tale bow. I just used a hair clip to secure it in my hair and voila!









I also discovered the deliciousness of "Mudslide". I got it by ordering a White Russian with Baily's instead of cream and by the second order the bartender told me it was just called a Mudslide.

St. Paddy's Day Nails

I thought that I would go ahead and give my rendition of the gradient nail tutorial. I usually clean up my nails the morning after doing them.




Theory:
The tutorial that I first used had a transparency/opacity gradient and a slight light gradient (glitter). This tutorial has 3 dimensions: shade/hue, analogous hues, and transparency/opacity.
These three things need to be taken into consideration if you're going to alter the colors because you need to have the right type of formula. For instance, you might not want to lay down your transparent color first and then put your fully opaque colors on top because it might be harder to get a fade. If your doing the analogous hue shift and shade/hue shift, you also might want to consider which is the cooler of the colors is cooler and which one is warmer. Some warm colors have very murky shades (think yellow+black) whereas almost all cool colors have vibrant shades.

Ok, so onto the tutorial:
Step One: Get a base coat on.


Step Two: Add a full on black base. The best black polish for this IMHO is Sinful Color's black polish.


Step Three: Mix a bit of transparent teal and a cheap clear polish or if you have transparent micro glitter polish use that. Take the darkest green and bring it up 3/4 of the nail. Use the transparent teal polish to cover the rest of the exposed black and go slightly over the dark green.





Step Four: Take a green that is closer to the hue and a little more yellow and bring it 1/2 way up the nail. At this point you can slightly go over the line with the dark green to help the colors blend.






Step Five: Once this has dried a bit, I take the yellow green and put a bit of it down like a tip. I let it get a little tacky before blending it out with a glitter polish that has both peridot colored glitter and emerald colored glitter.






Step Six (Optional): Add a black french tip. I will do this one today:D

Step Seven: Top Coat

Gradient Nails

I did my nails several days ago following a modified version of Celly's nail tutorial: http://www.makeupbycelly.com/2011/02/tutorial-gradient-nails.html
Queen of Blending has a similar nail tutorial with glitter polish and rhinestones which is the one that I used to this point:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTVR1tDoHsc

It is a gradient nail that starts neutral and gets more intense as you get closer to the tip of the nail. I used black as my neutral color and made a fade from purple to red-violet. I used a nail polish by ORLY that has a pinkish micro glitter to tie the colors in with each other and finished off with a black french tip.





Also, dinner was nice tonight. I made chicken with herbs and added it to pasta with feta and a dash of meyer lemon. Once I was finished cooking everything I added some arugula. I had made a winter fruit blend for salad, but I put some of it into the pasta. That's why there's grapefruit and blood oranges in the pasta.
Aaah yeah.

More Black Lips

I cannot get enough of MUFE's new black lipgloss. I just love how it changes the texture of black lipstick without taking away from the color. The only problem that I have with looks like these is feathering. They eyes and the blush are different from the last post. Also the lipstick that I used is Mac's Black lip mix this time.







Note to self: I really shouldn't wear this color out for drinks unless I have a straw.