Rosa Ardiente

Lace Up Your Nails

2011-12-09T23:13:00.000-08:00

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

2011-10-31T11:08:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-01T16:20:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-10T04:23:00.001-07:00

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

2011-06-28T18:47:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-06-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

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.

Before the shoot: me up early in the morning getting ready to head out the door.

I've been a little MIA

2011-06-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-16T11:36:00.001-07:00

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

2011-05-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-18T12:35:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-15T22:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-21T12:38:00.000-08:00

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.

Janell Monae and Kellindo Parker Acoustic Cover

2011-02-16T16:12:00.001-08:00

I love Janelle Monae and I like her cover of this song. Fashion wise she always looks sharp, but so does her guitarist. I'm totally digging Kellindo Parker's manicure and might copy it.

Note: the guitarist is Kellindo Parker, not Andre 3000

Collection Remix: Style Black

2011-02-10T14:32:00.000-08:00

So this was actually a bit of a surprise for me. I thought I was going to redo a different collection until I stumbled upon something that I have been dying to get for quite some time: a nice black lipgloss. *drool* MUFE, I love you so much right now.

Play it up
I definitely think that the one thing that this collection really hit on was harmonizing textures. There were many black products (duh) with different textures: Glitter (Cinderfella), Gloss (Blackware), Matte (Midnight Media), Cream (Black CCB, Black Knight). I played up texture variation on the face with mainly matte and satin shadows and then glossy lips.

Play it down
I played down the punk color variation that was in the collection. I absolutely loved it, don't get me wrong. I just felt it would be too much in one look.

Stay the Same
I opted for the lip theme of the collection; dark lips, neutral face.

Make a Change
One thing I did not like about Style Black is the sheerness of the colors. I want high impact and I feel that color intensity was sacrificed just to make the products more marketable. I want in your face black.

Look inspired by:

and this:

Face:
Smashbox Photo Finish primer, Conealers, Foundations, Magically Cool Liquid Powder in Cajun, Ripe Peach Blush Ombre

Eyes:
UDPP, NYX Jumbo Pencil Milk, Concealer, UD Cream Shadow Suburbia, Bamboo, Bisque, Show Stopper, Saddle, Flip, Manila Paper, Sephora Liquid Eyeliner in Black, Falsies

Lips:
Estee Lauder Black Pencil Liner, Black Radience Onyx lipstick, MUFE Metal Lab Gloss M00

Black Gloss Swatches

2011-02-07T19:20:00.001-08:00

I just had to post this today! I went down to my local Sephora and picked up MUFE Metal Lab 00. Talk about a gorgeous black gloss! This is exactly the kind of black gloss that I've been looking for. I like it more when worn over black lipstick, but it's one of my favorite combos now.

Gloss alone:

Gloss over black lipstick:

For a comparison with Wrong Spell over Black:

Purple Look

2011-02-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

This photo is a little late (I've been meaning to post this for some time now). I did it on a whim following Youtuber xxsgtigressxx's Arabic inspired makeup. I went with purples instead of greens and threw some glitter in there too! The eyeliner is one of MAC's cromographic pencils in a concealer shade because white is just too stark for me.
Unfortunately because everything was at night, I couldn't show the kind of depth that I would have wanted to.

Collection Remix: Naughty Nauticals

2011-01-27T16:27:00.000-08:00

This collection from May 2008 was inspired by colors traditionally worn by sailors with a resort twist. Most of the eyeshadows and quads focused on cool eyes with a glint of gold. While most people were fawning over Bell Bottom Blue and Mutiny pigments all of my attention was on Port Red.

Play it up
In this remix I wanted to play up the power lip with the perfect complement gloss: Hourglass Siren. Both of them are warm reds and they look like a dream when paired together. I also wanted to play up the eyes as the whole theme of the collection was dramatic. Lips: Redd Lip Liner, Port Red, Siren (Hourglass)
Play it down
I decided to play down all of the frost that was in this collection. Something I learned since this collection came out: mattes work wonders for me when used with a kick of shimmer. Eyes: Blacktrack+Silverstroke Fluidlines, Pandemonium, Carbon, Saddle, Bamboo, Bisque, Vanilla pm, Pink (Trucco: Angel Face)
Stay the Same
I went in line with collection as far as the neutrality of the cheeks go (there were no cheek products with this collection). Cheeks: Definative Sculpting Powder, Cajun Magically Cool Powder, Albatross (NARS).
Make A Change
I completely changed the nails. I went for something that reminded me more of the sea than just the traditional sailor garb, but it still went along with the basic color theme and texture theme of the collection. The pearling effect was super easy, but I don't remember the names of the colors.

Take a look at Siren! It's gorgeous!

Thank you to both Temptalia and Specktra for references on the entire collection.

Collection Remix

2011-01-23T00:35:00.000-08:00

If you could do a MAC collection over again, which one would it be and what would you change? With all of the collections that are coming out one after another it can be hard to say, but I think that there are certain collections that just jump out at you.

Personally I can think of several collections that I would want to do over again and for different reasons. Some of them I just think would have been more exciting if I knew what I know now at the time of the release. Others, I was just really excited for but they turned out to be completely disappointing. Then there are others that are parts of anniversary collections and I would take elements from the different releases.

I think that once a month I will do a post featuring a "collection remix" which is not only a chance to shop my stash, but also to take a new twist on the different collections.

Ring the Alarm: It's Hourglass Siren

2011-01-15T17:54:00.000-08:00

I just got my hands on the famous Hourglass Siren. I have never seen a lip gloss like this. I knew I had to have it when I saw it on Temptalia and even though I was first a little iffy because of the price, when I put it on I knew it was worth every penny.

This gloss is really opaque (I'm not wearing a lip liner or anything)! This is a very yellow based red, which I love. As you can tell this red has much more of a metallic sheen to it whereas Cult of Cherry gloss is more of a pearly red (in my last FOTD). I can't wait to try this over Port Red!

Got the Blues Again

2011-01-06T22:35:00.000-08:00

So today I was going out to dinner with my friends so I decided to do something fun. I think this also saves me from the Peacocky collection! :)

New Year's Eve FOTN

2010-12-31T18:00:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-27T22:29:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-15T00:15:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-10T23:00:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-04T22:33:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-04T13:58:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-28T13:44:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-21T15:46:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Ingredients:
1 medium box of vegetable broth
1 medium can of tomatoes
1/4 of a medium onion (or more if you like)
4 cloves of garlic
1 can of beans (I used white kidney this time, black last time, and my friend used kidney and navy)
1 bunch of kale or spinach (I prefer the texture of kale)
1 or 2 medium yams (or potatoes if you prefer)
1 lemon wedge to garnish
1/4 teaspoon of pimienton (It's a paprika blend that comes in either sweet or spicy)

I also decided to add in sausage and smoked pepper jack, but they're not needed. I generally don't cook with salt because so much food at the store comes with too much salt as it is. If I feel something needs salt, I only add it right before eating, but not while cooking.

Fixing Loose Ends

2010-11-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-11-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-22T18:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-20T07:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-07T14:11:00.001-07:00

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.

Wrong Spell

2010-10-06T19:30:00.001-07:00

Wrong Spell and Black lipstick:

Wrong Spell alone:

I only bought one thing from Venomous Villains "Wrong Spell" because (in addition to being underwhelmed) I am holding off for a Tartan Tale. I was invited to the TT launch party near me and I am really excited to all of the different products. I will be sure to upload pictures after I go and give a small review.

Venemous Villains Maleficent

2010-09-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Mac to check out Venomous Villains and make my preorder. Maleficent was the only sub collection that had me smitten as a whole in so far as the concept behind the products and the reference to other characters. I thought the whole idea of the nail polish was really unique in that it represented the fairies other than Maleficent: Flora (Bad Fairy), Fauna (Mean and Green), and Merryweather (Formidible!). I was going to limit myself to two nail polishes, but as it turns out I didn't buy a single one. Why? Because they all seem so dupeable. This is my guess as to what went into each product.

from right to left

Bad Fairy:
Magenta base with Copper Reflects and Very Pink Reflects

Mean and Green:
Green base with Gold Reflects and Pink Reflects

Formidable!:
Burgundy base with Teal reflects

I ended up only buying "Wrong Spell" to go with my black lipsticks and MUFE 49. I was hoping it would be super vampy... kind of like YSL Pur Black lipgloss at a much cheaper price.

Last Bit of Summer

2010-09-24T15:50:00.001-07:00

These colors aren't like me, but today I really wanted to work with bright colors and blending bright matte colors. In a way it's continuing with the theme of the last post, but instead of primary and neighboring secondary colors, it goes from one primary to another trying to create a smooth blend into the secondary color that was skipped (I'll admit, I used Goldenrod to help with the transition).

Teal Obsession

2010-09-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

Finally, a chance to wear my beloved blue-greens.

Purple Pinup

2010-09-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

The end of a busy week. A lot of thinking about homework, independent projects, aaaand... Battlestar Galactica. My roommate got me into it and now I'm hooked. That's why I need to get out of the house tonight; so that I can do something more productive like socialize.

Flash

Baden-Württemberg

2010-09-12T06:44:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons why I really like going to Germany, aside from the people and language is for the food. When I was in Tübingen there were all sorts of wonderful desserts to be had. Of course when I came back here and tried to cook it, it didn't quite pan out as well as what you can get there. And let's not talk about the real black forest ham... it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Rain or shine, the farmer's market will be there.

Stain glass inside of an old church. I love going into the churches when there's good sunlight and taking pictures of the stain glass windows.

This is an old observatory. :)

One of the great things about Tübingen is that a lot of stuff is situated on hills. You can get great shots of the street that wind down the hills.

Student boats.

A shot of the Neckar.

I didn't know that Lady Gaga's stylist was here!

Playing in the abundant foliage of the Neckar (too bad I didn't get a picture in that giant bird house).

More hanging basket fun.

The Neckar at night.

Dessert, coffee, and drawing. A wonderful way to start a morning in my book.

Can't get enough of these flowers.

Nordrhein-Westfallen

2010-09-11T18:52:00.001-07:00

Well I promised some people that I'd put up pictures from my trip to Germany this summer on the blog. If you follow this blog for makeup, sorry about all of the vacation pics. For those who want to see pics of Germany, this is not the most scenic part of the vacation, but there were still some good shots. Hope you enjoy!

There were a lot of black swans in the city center of Detmold. I had never seen black swans before and thought they looked really interesting.

An old church.

I found this house to have quite a cute facade. It reminds me of something you'd expect Hansel and Gretel to stumble upon in the middle of a dark forest.

Why doesn't my post office look like this?

Another old church.

This is one of the best looking allies that I've ever seen.

Brauhaus: home of bacon and potato goodness.

More interesting facades.

There were plenty of these little modern mosaic installations. They were really beautiful when the sun set and light hit the mirror pieces, but unfortunately it was overcast almost every evening after I found this out.

More mosaic installations.

Wild poppies and wheat field near the train stop.

Berries near the train tracks.

A bee on thistle. I found this little park while wandering around waiting for the next train to roll by.

A fountain in the park's pond.

An Irish Pub is part of the old city hall. Where's the new city hall? Right across the courtyard.

My Fabulous Feline

2010-09-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd just post a look inspired by Temptalia's most recent user submission theme. Of course MAC has the new Fabulous Felines collection and seemed interesting when the preliminary information came out, but when you get down to it, this collection doesn't seem like it even holds a match up to things like Dare to Wear. But still working on looks that reminiscent of your favorite feline are always fun.

You've all seen Zorro, the wonderful tuxedo'd cat:

She's quite a princess so I thought that I'd do something that looks as high maintenance as she is. I decided to go for black with bright highlights in white, gold, and white-gold. I tried to do pink lips, but I should have used a lip liner for a fuller color. I didn't want to do a cat eye because I'm sure that's what everyone thinks of when they do feline inspired makeup. Not the best, but it was still fun to do.

Gearing up for fall

2010-09-05T11:44:00.000-07:00

Well I am back from my trip which was a very nice one indeed. I just thought I'd put up a picture from yesterday. I liked the look a lot, but I didn't like any of the lighting for taking pictures. Finally I found a way to use Jardin Aires in a way that I like.

Summer Greens

2010-08-08T17:44:00.000-07:00

It has been a very busy summer and it's about to get busier. This time I'm going to be out of the country for a bit so I won't be updating at all. I just wanted to try out Sassy Grass with some old favorites like Eyepopping and Big T (among others).

Gratuitous cat photo:

Dare to Wear

2010-07-29T18:13:00.000-07:00

Today I went to MAC to look at the brand new "Dare to Wear" collection. I must say that C-shock can eat its heart out. I love the fact that most of the eyeshadows which are featured in this collection are bright matte colors. There have just been too many times when I'm creating a look with greens or blues and only wished that I could have more matte colors to blend into the crease. While the Color-Pop collection satisfied my desire for matte blue shadows, there was still a gap in my collection with green.

The lip glosses which came out with this collection are also kickin'. They are hands down better than Dazzleglass as the payoff is so much better and can be sheered down if needed. Unfortunately I've had way too much glitter overload. Thanks MAC for releasing so many glittery lip products at once. The best colors from this collection are: Ban This! (deep violet), Bold and Brash (raspberry red), and Gimmie That (fuchsia).

All in all, I only got Sassy Grass (emerald green) from this collection. :)

Tropical Smoke

2010-07-02T14:25:00.001-07:00

Last night I went to a friend's birthday party/house warming. It was a nice affair complete with a wide array of people to talk to about a wide range of subjects and her nice home made food :D I decided to use some of the things from TKB that she gave me.

I didn't get more shots because my battery was low and I couldn't find the charger.

June Happenings

2010-06-27T22:17:00.001-07:00

Long time no update. The end of last month, and all of this month have been crazy busy for me. I had rainbow nails for quite some time and people seemed to enjoy the Skittles effect, so here goes nothing.

After that I had a blast at my brother's graduation, but unfortunately no pictures makeupwise from that. I do happen to have pictures of last night.

Seeing as I was in the process of moving, I'm surprised that this came out kind of nice. I have pics of the outfit (all be it kind of blurry) which I was quite proud of. I fell in love with the scarf when I first saw it in an African gift shop in the area and I feel that it was really the pivot of this outfit.

Temperature Rising

2010-06-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

Today the UPS man came by with a box for me :D It had my Orange Lip Mix and Temperature Rising (orange lip pencil). Needless to say I was excited and wanted to try it out right away.

I know that orange is quite bold for a lot of people, but to tell you the truth, I was first captivated by lip colors in a Vogue that I bought in fall of 2006 that had a neon orange lip with what I later identified to be a golden yellow sheen in the middle of it.

One thing I really do have to say about orange is that if you're not careful you might look like you lost control of yourself in a bag of Cheetos. Like this:

Temperature Rising alone

Temperature Rising with red gloss

Temperature Rising with luster finish coral lipstick and orange coral gloss

Temperature Rising with coral pink lipstick and coral gloss

Temperature Rising with fuchsia pink lipstick and fuchsia pink gloss

Temperature Rising and Orange Lip Mix

Temperature Rising and Orange Lip Mix with pink and gold contouring (next time I will skip the pink and opt for red).

To the Beach Blues

2010-05-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

So I'm only adding these swatches because Wangie asked me to (I was only planning on sharing them in a locked space before). This is a teal look I made using some of the new products from Mac's To the Beach collection, namely Float on By and Flurry of Fun (Uh-Maize-Ing color). I also used a solid blue (Royal Wink) and Black with this look. This reminds me a lot of my expectations from Blast 'O' Blue (C-shock).

Here I was earlier in the day w/o Royal Wink.

I really had a lot of fun with this, but I don't plan on me posting things like this too often.

Fresh Cut Flowers

2010-05-15T07:46:00.000-07:00

Just a purple look from yesterday. For some reason, photographing purples never works well for me. This was really bright, but came washed out in all of the photos that I took. There was MUFE 92 in this look which is really really bright.

And just because I liked the stripes:

Red and Black

2010-05-08T07:56:00.000-07:00

Well last night was a very good night. I went to a bar that I know didn't make mojitos, but I stopped by the nearby Safeway just to pick up some mint (just in case). Luckily the bartender was open to making us mojitos. She didn't know how, but she made a really nice crack at it for a beginner. :)

The look of the night featured red and black with lots of glittery sparkly things.
These are red leggings with black lace leggings on top.

Quick Update

2010-05-06T23:30:00.000-07:00

Like I said last time, it's just that time of year when everything is crazy with wrapping everything up.
Never the less, I had a chance to go to MAC and get Opulash. It's AMAZING. I have tiny little stumps of lashes and this really colors them and lengthens them. I also like how quickly this dries unlike other MAC mascaras. I hear that people compare it to DiorShow, but since I don't use products by Dior I don't know.

I also picked up Cherry Electric SuperGlass. *LOVE*
Here is a swatch of a custom color (Magenta lip liner, Impassioned Lipstick, Frozen White Pigment).

With Glimmer Glass:

The one drawback to this is the staying power of the glitter. Staying power is a good thing, but something about this seemed to be a little stronger than other glittery products (Dazzleglass) that I've used.

I also love the thought of shiny glassy looking black lips so I worked on making a lip gloss. Then I started using that with my black lipstick and picked up the white Luster Glass. I'm planning on wearing this out tomorrow night.
Matte:

Shiny:

In other news: Cat attacks griffin.

Crystal Chrome Yellow

2010-04-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a while and I have to keep this brief because I have 4 papers due within a 3 day stretch. I probably won't update again until finals are over.

Oh and I found a turkey on my street on the way to the grocery store.

Go figure

Spring Color

2010-03-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that spring break is almost over! Well it's a good thing that a friend has a b-day at the end of it or else I would have felt cheated. These colors are mostly from the Spring Color Forecast collections (Coral and Bronze) with some extras thrown in. I just got the perfect base for pinup and Classic Hollywood glam looks for darker skin tones from Urban Decay and wanted to give it a spin.

I got the inspiration for this look from Specktra's x0besoz.

And just to be obnoxious... sunglasses indoors.

Also here is a plug for my friend's new art fashion blog. She will post a new entry every Sunday. Her regular website is listed under the ABOUT section. I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do!

Luck 'o' the Irish

2010-03-13T01:35:00.000-08:00

Oy, St.Patty's Day is quickly approaching, but as I guessed correctly, I will be working that day. I went out to the bar tonight with some friends and we ran into the Guinness girls and got free hats, beads, and discounts on drinks. :D
Do trust me, the green was really pretty and bright IRL (I used Old Gold and we all know this is not a color for the faint of heart). It's just one of those colors that is incredibly difficult to photograph. I think that I should just stick to red eyeshadow and nude lips.

Outfit of the night:

Going to use my coupon.

Here's to wishing everyone A safe and happy St. Patrick's Day.
I'll just finish up by sharing this even though it's about a German legend...

Fast update

2010-03-08T22:21:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been almost a month. Things have been very busy which is good. I'm very excited about all of the projects/assignments that I've been working on. Unfortunately that means that things have been piling up makeup wise, and I have to do a photo dump after I've already forgotten all of the things that were used. So this one is from about a week and a half ago (sushi night).

I aslo have some swatches of colors that reminded me of spring so... have at it :)

This one was done with Lollipop Loving. I remember that much.

Other than that, I'm planning on getting my hair dyed again soon. I can't wait. I'll either go full on purple or stick to the red violet.

Quarter Party

2010-02-07T20:59:00.001-08:00

I went out to a friend's quarter century birthday party over the weekend. It was a lot of fun. I got these shots before I went out the door.

Other than that I thought I'd just share some pictures I took of jasmine after a nice rain. The weather here has been exceptionally good lately.

Black History Month: The Music Edition

2010-02-05T22:11:00.001-08:00

I thought I would continue the little Black History Month segment with information about musical artists of this generation who I really like.
I really do enjoy artists like Jennifer Hudson as style icons, but I'm not really a fan of her music. But there are some artists who have the whole package: style and the ability to perform. Sure we all know about artists like Seal and Will.I.Am from the black eyed peas, but here are some that are a little off the beaten path.

The Noisettes is an indie band from the UK. I want to say thank you to Aziza of Specktra for turning me onto this band. The lead singer, Shingai, is amazing. Her mother is from Zimbabwe and left the country (at the time Rhodesia) and I wonder if she was old enough to remember that. According to her wikipedia page, she said the experience of her mother's move comes through in her music but I wonder if she was speaking of adjusting to the UK herself or her mother's adjusting to the UK and some sort of cultural gap between the two of them. She has a very classic voice but she also has the ability to integrate it very well into modern songs. I also love her fro. It is gorgeous.
"Every Now and Then"

Corneille. Yet another German born musical success. His family is actually from Rwanda and when his family moved back there, his father encouraged him to follow his dream of being a musician despite that not being a socially befitting career choice. He fled the country during the Rwandan genocide and began to use his music to express himself, in both English and French.
"Too Much of Evertyhing"

Erykah Badu. She's fairly mainstream now, but still, I really like that she is a chameleon of style.
"On and On".

Well, back to optimality theory.

A little bit of color theory

2010-02-03T00:02:00.001-08:00

Well Adriana asked for information about undertones so here it is to the best of my understanding. I know her question was about specific products, but I think that before you understand the undertones of lipsticks, it's important to know something about undertones of the skin. If anyone here is a professional and would like to add or correct something, feel free to tell me.

This, my friends, is an exploding color wheel. It's quite an old one and needs to be retired, but it gets the job done.

The way this is organized, all of the primary and secondary colors have white closest to the center of the wheel. The tertiary colors have black near the center of the wheel.
Most of the colors you need to know undertones are going to be in the red-yellow category. All of these are warm colors, but makeup artists will use a finer distinction:
Yellow undertones are cool
Red undertones are warm

If you've ever seen MAC's system which lists NC and NW, the N means "Neutral", C "Cool", and W "Warm". The most popular shades are the neutral cool (yellow/golden undertones) and neutral warm (red/pink undertones). There are some things which fall in the neutral category (one of my favorite foundations happens to fall here). Other brands will have different ways of calculating this, but they all have the same result. If you have a cool foundation, but your skin is much warmer, your foundation will look sort of ashy (the same happens with foundation that is too light). If you have cool skin and your foundation is too warm, you could look kind of burnt. Not tan, burnt. If you are having trouble finding your shade:
1) Get color matched at a makeup counter and if that doesn't work
2) Talk to someone at Perscriptives. They have a very nice system for breaking down different undertones and if premixed colors don't work they can make a custom foundation for you (it's not going to be cheap though).

Another thing to look at on the color wheel: Find the orange and go to the lighter colors. You will find peachy colors there. Now staying within orange, go to the darker colors. You will find two browns before you hit the black stripe. The point of saying this, is that these generalizations of coloring in respect to warmth and coolness are applicable to different levels of pigmentation.

It is very possible that you have several undertones in different parts of your face. The inside of my face is generally NC where as my forehead and around my hairline warms up to N. The gradation is smooth enough that I like it and I keep it when I apply makeup by using two powders and blending them together. In the summer I usually use a warmer foundation (mostly all N), and in the winter if I don't get much sun exposure, I use more of the NC. But sometimes there are smaller coloration variations that some people might want to minimize before putting on foundation for a more even color. Now here is where we look at the other colors on the wheel.

Just like a color wheel without tertiary colors, this is arranged in such a way that you get complementary colors directly across from color you want. So find the red (at 9:00) and then find its complement at 3:00. I haven't worked on the tertiary ratios, but as far as primary and secondary, here are the groupings:
1 yellow: 3 purple
1 orange: 2 blue
1 red: 1 green

Now there are fun things that you can do with this in painting, like split complement work, but there is an advantage to knowing this for makeup. You want to go with the complementary color of the problem area to minimize it's visibility before applying your foundation. MakeUpForEver (MUFE) has a concealer section of the website where they show different concealer palates for different skin tones and warmths. That should give you an idea of the conventional colors used for different ranges.

Black History Month: The Fashion Edition

2010-02-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

Since it's February, I deiced to do a couple of short features for Black History Month. As far as I know, this is something that is primarily in the US, but I wanted to go ahead and do a global spread in short articles. This week I wanted to highlight models who have helped shape the fashion world.

My absolute favorite model today has to be Liya Kebede. From the first time I saw her, I absolutely fell in love with her effortless grace. And what's more to love? She has her own foundation that focuses on improving the health of women and children (especially pregnant women) not just in her native Ethiopia, but around the world. She is able to balance her fashion career with being a role model for her daughter. Go... check out her foundation:
http://www.theliyakebedefoundation.org/

Alek Wek is another model that I really like. She is a Sudanese refugee from the Dinka ethnic group. For me, that right there says a lot about the personal character that she brings to the table in addition to jaw dropping photos. Not to mention that she was the cover girl for MAC's luxury winter collection Stylistics.

I know not everyone likes her and many people think that she's really self centered, but I still love Tyra Banks. I like that she is so focused on giving back to her community and even has a foundation which focuses on building the self-esteem of young girls.

Last, but not least, I also like the work of Chanel Iman. She is still very young in the industry but she can definitely hold her own and is able to talk about the history of the industry and how certain models have been driving forces in the industry.

V-Day Lips

2010-01-29T19:39:00.000-08:00

Keeping in theme with Valentine's Day aka SAD (Single's Awareness Day), here are some pink lip swatches.

Yellow-Pink Lip Liner
Midtone Blue-Red (read pink) Lipstick

With Coral-Pink Gloss

Yellow-Pink Lip Liner
Coral-Pink Lipstick

With Coral Gloss

Yellow-Pink Lip Liner
Pink-Fuchsia Lipstick

With Hot Pink Gloss

Red Lip Liner
Pink-Fuchsia Lipstick

With Blue-Pink Gloss

Soft and Sweet Nothings

2010-01-28T16:34:00.000-08:00

I'm going to be honest. When it comes to pink eyeshadow, I'm not really a fan of it. Because of that I've always tried looks with pink to try and convince myself that there is a pink out there for me. Here is a quick one that I came up with today that has a base called CedarRose. It's an old shade stick from MAC that looks a lot like the Warm and Cozy shade stick from the Warm and Cozy Collection. I also used Red Brick from the Pop Color collection. :) I like it, but I'm not convinced.

Look at who wanted to get in on the action:

Dead Red

2010-01-26T19:50:00.000-08:00

There are two things to remember when buying lipstick.
1) Lip Liners
2) Lip Gloss

The reason why I say this is because maybe you don't think that a lipstick is so great until you try it with the matching gloss. Or maybe, you think the color in the tube is beautiful, but it doesn't come out right with your skin tone because you're not using the correct liner. Now this won't always be the case. It could be that some lipsticks just aren't for you which is perfectly fine. But maybe you can find new and exciting things by altering any one of these two variables. Take this for instance:

Remember, this was the bright red look I made over the weekend.

Now what if we try the same lip liner and lipstick combination with a slightly darker gloss?

These two are a nice pilot because neither of these two glosses were too opaque, but you can still tell there is a noticeable difference.

Now let's try using a different lip liner with the same lipsticks and glosses as are in #1.

Immediately by using this new lip liner, you have been able to get a different look and when you diffuse the color of the liner into the lipstick, you can see a range of potential shades, like burgundy, that can come from this new shade.

Now let's try shaking things up. I love wearing black lips. I hardly do it anymore because I want to play with other things, but I do love them. Here is an example of the same dark lip liner above as in #3 with black lipstick on top.

If this is too intense, remember, you can always take a gloss and alter things. So let's take the dark red gloss from #2 and put it over this black.

You still keep the vamp, but you have more dimension and something that might be over all much friendlier to your skin tone.

Quick and Easy Glam

2010-01-24T20:50:00.000-08:00

So I thought that I would just make this one to show how to get insta-glam starting with a very basic look. This will probably not be all that exciting for the people who follow me on Specktra and is more for people who requested that I do tutorials, so here goes nothing.
Now I love bright eyeshadow, but if you're not really that invested in making some of the more complex layered looks that I like, that's perfectly fine. You can still get a lot of glam out of a little effort. Let's begin shall we?

So take this look. This is what I would assume that some people do: Apply foundation, eyeshadow and mascara. You're good to go right? Well sure, but why not take it up a notch?

Start by working with eye liners. There are many types of eyeliners: gel (L'Oreal Hip/MAC Fluidline), pencil, liquid, and eye khol. I like all of them, but for different reasons. In fact most times I use a mix of liquid (upper lid) and pencil (waterline, tightline, lower lid).

Step 1: Put black pencil eyeliner on your waterline and tightline. This will give a fairly completed tied in look to the eye from my point of view. Rarely if ever do I skip this step. Make sure whichever eyeliner you are using for this is approved for that area. Waterproof eyeliners are *not* safe to put here.

Step 2: Liner your upper lid. You can use anything you want for this, I love liquid liner for my upper lid. I decided to wing this one out.

Very nice. That looks a little better than what we started out with. Now let's do something about the fact that even with mascara I have short and stumpy lashes.

Step 3: I'll add false eyelashes. If it's your first time doing this, you can use clear eyelash glue. This way, if you have to correct anything, the glue will dry clear. Much better than black glue. I would only suggest getting the Duo Adhesive kits if you want a kit. A little pricey, but it's a good glue. It has nice hold and it's easy to take off when you want to. I haven't lost any lashes to it yet ;)
Here I'm using my black glue. Get it along the edges of the lash band and let it dry for 15-20 seconds. After that, line up the lash band with your natural lash line and lightly place the band on the skin, not the lash. The best way to do this is to use a hand-held mirror and look down. Afterward, I adjust the lashes with my fingers, pushing it slightly closer to the lash line as needed and holding it down in some places to get it to stick. If it moves a bit, the black eyeliner that you put down earlier should help hide that.

Step 4: The eyes look nice, but the skin and lips are kind of drab. I added a blush/bronzer combo to my cheeks.

Step 5: Now that things are looking better, the quickest way to quick glam is to draw attention to the lips. I'll go for red lips. I take out a red lip liner and draw a "V" in my cupid's bow. I also drew a line at the bottom of my lip. I finish the outline by connecting these lines and not forgetting my corners (it's so obvious if people skip this step).

Step 6: Finish filling in the lips.

Step 7: I applied my favorite red lipstick over it.

Step 8: I love lipgloss and think it can take your look to the next level. I applied the gloss to the entire lip.

And voila! There you go.
With flash:

There are many different kinds of red, so you can feel free to play around. This is the same lipstick and liner with a different gloss formula and is a darker shade than the first one I used.

I also like taking red lip glosses and putting them over black lipstick, but we can save that for another day ;)

L1lmamaj's Face Chart

2010-01-21T20:36:00.000-08:00

Well I did this look from Lil' Mama J's face chart found here: http://l1lmamaj.blogspot.com/
I didn't use all of the products she listed on her face chart, but I did use the same color families. I also added a wee bit of black. Looking at it now I think I went a bit far with the highlight color. I also think my pictures would have looked better if I had been able to take them in natural light (we've been having thunder storms and it's great).

I have my hair up in this picture because I've been trying an experiment. ;)

Color Pop Warm Swatches

2010-01-19T18:04:00.000-08:00

I have been pleased with the new MAC collection "Color Pop". It's an official collection, but it's one that brings professional and limited edition colors to the permanent line. So it's not a limited edition collection. There were eight colors released in all (you can check either Temptalia.com or Specktra.net for more information about which ones were released).

I ended up getting:
Lucy Green- frosted midtone lime (veluxe pearl)
Brick Red- orange red (matte)
Golden Rod- bright marigold yellow (satin)
Atlantic Blue- bright violet blue (matte)

At the same time I also bought Chrome Yellow.

Here are the swatches of the warm colors over Urban Decay Primer Potion:
Left to right: Chrome Yellow, Goldenrod, Brick Red, Orange

Here are some other warm colors that have been added. Left to Right
Chrome Yellow, Marigold, Brick Red, Orange, Bright Future, Firespot, Off the Page, MUFE 99 (red)

I can't wait to do a Valentine's Day look using Red Brick. ;)

Other than that here is something from the Korean boy band "Super Junior". This song is called "Super Girl" and it's really cute. It's about a nerd who goes to a party and finds the girl of his dreams. I really want to buy their CD when I get a chance.

Atlantic Blue Glitter

2010-01-18T11:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I decided to use some of the new goodies that I got from the Color Pop collection. I love Atlantic Blue and have been lemming after it for quite some time now. As I was working on it, I thought it looked a lot like Style Black and was glad that I didn't buy Blue Flame from that one.
I went to a bar later on that night and when I walked in the door the bartender said she like the look. :)