Thursday, March 31, 2011

NOTD March 31/11

I walked into the teeny little nail polish section of the teeny little drugstore by my house the other day to see what was new there (spoiler: usually, it's nothing...). But this day, a gorgeous shade sat on the shelf, calling it's siren song out to me!



Nicole by OPI in Nicole's Nickel!

I couldn't stop thinking about it for the next couple days, so today I went in and bought it - boy am I glad I did! Such a gorgeous and unique colour... it's a semi-sheer black base with lots of silver glitter of varying sizes. One coat looked great, but I'm a little OCD about at least two coats of nail polish... it doesn't feel right otherwise. I dried quick and looks sooo awesome... well here, take a look:





(click to enlarge and get the full effect!)

Awesome, right? I haven't really seen any shades quite like this, so it totally caught my eye. No comment yet on longevity since it's only been on my nails for a few hours, but I have high hopes... I didn't have to do a lot of coats so it won't be thick and just chunk off, and glitters in general seem to last on my nails.

I also saw several shades of that new Revlon scented nail polish that looked great swatched - the scented part, I could take or leave, but I'll buy it for the colours! Although the blueberry one did look great AND smell good...



Update: I've now been wearing this shade for a few days, and it's wearing decently. There is some chipping at the tips, but a bonus is that this is one of those kinds of shades that is easy to fill it at the tips seamlessly, since it's a glitter. And I do spend a lot of time at work and at home typing, which is hard on the tips!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

FOTD March 23/11

Here's the eye I was rocking today!







The colours used:

From the Sephora 5-in-1 Color Play Limited Fashion Edition palette:

-Shade 34 on the inner half on the lid (light silver shimmer)

-Shade 12 on the outer half of the lid and under the lashline (medium cool taupe shimmer)

-Shade 2 in the crease (dark cool taupe shimmer)

-Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner in Zero

-Covergirl LashBlast Waterproof Mascara in Very Black

Lots of fun! I love combining silver and greys with taupes!

And bonus! I took these pictures of my makeup a few days ago, and totally can't remember what I was wearing! But here they are anyways!! :p





What's On The Wishlist? Vol. 1

I'm going to be starting a series, that really reflects the true nature of a beauty addict... which is basically a magpie!! Acquire, acquire! And like any true beauty addict, I always have my eye on a few somethings! So here's my current watch/wishlist for items I want to get!



MAKE UP FOR EVER HD Microfinish Powder

I've tried many powders, and while I've never been displeased with any of them, I've never found that holy grail of powders, one that doesn't just set your makeup, but makes your skin look better and smoother and just more beautiful! I've heard lots of good things about this, so it's one I want to try!



MAC Eyeshadow in Print

I need a good, mid-tone to dark grey with a very small amount of shimmer... as far as I've heard, Print fits that bill exactly! Now to get my butt to a MAC counter...



Bare Escentuals BareMinerals Purely Nourishing Moisturizer for Combination Skin

I received a deluxe sized sample of this with my most recent Sephora.com order, and MAN did it ever come at the right time! I was getting some very uncharacteristic extreme dryness on my cheeks, and nothing I was doing would make it go away! I used this stuff twice and the dryness was completely gone, and it made my whole face feel so soft and smooth and truly hydrated! Plus the smell is beautiful... I've heard a lot of people describe it as lavender, which I don't usually like - but to me this smells a lot like bergamot, like a nice cup of Earl Grey tea. Sooo lovely to put on your face! Once I get the full size, I may do a total seperate review of this.



Sephora by OPI Nail Colour in Already Famous (top) and Break-A-Leg-Warmer (bottom)

Both colours I've seen in store and loved! Already Famous is a sheer pewter with champage and silver glitter (according to the website). To me, in the store, it looked like a cool toned gold/champage shimmer shade.. so pretty! Break-A-Leg-Warmer is an opaque charcoal grey - so chic!

So what's on your wishlist?

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Urban Decay 24/7 Concealer Pencil and Show Pony Palette

Got my Sephora order today!! *happy dance* I snagged a good deal on the Show Pony Shadow box, which is currently $19CAD at Sephora! That's six eyeshadows, a travel sized Primer Potion and the Zero 24/7 eyeliner. I also picked up a 24/7 Concealer Pencil in the shade DEA. I'm loving ALL of it!! The palette contains two shades I already have via the Naked Palette (Smog and Toasted) but they're both great colours, so backups don't hurt! The palette was such a deal I couldn't say no.

The concealer pencil is AWESOME. OMG. Luckily for me even though I only went by the colour description on the website, DEA is a great colour match for me. The texture is very creamy and smooth, it's pigmented and blends beautifully. I am liking it so far for both under the eyes and on areas of redness. Not so sure yet about its effectiveness on covering blemishes though.

Here's some pictures and swatches!












 


 









Go Canucks Go!!

So it's almost hockey playoffs time, and I've gotta show some love for my home team, the Vancouver Canucks, who are doing awesome this season!! Sadly we finished a seven game winning streak last night (I won't even get into the terrible refereeing that may or may not have contributed to it...) but STILL!! Gotta love me some 'Nucks!

The team colours are blue, green and white... and I just have to point out here that they seriously have the best looking uniforms in the whole league. I might be biased, but seriously... look at them:



Luuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!! (if you're a Vancouver fan or have ever watched a Vancouver game, you'll get that...)

Seriously beautiful jerseys!! So I decided since playoff time is coming up, I needed to practice a makeup look that payed homage to my team! (obviously).







I love how it turned out! The green was spot on! It's a liiittle washed out here, you know how that goes with photographing brights... it always looks more vivid IRL. The only thing I'm gonna tweak next time is the blue. I felt like this was a little too light compared to the real Canucks blue... but I swatched and mixed some shades on the back of my hand afterwards and found the perfect bright but dark blue that I'll use next time!

Bonus - I made a new icon to use at MUT with this makeup:



GO CANUCKS GO!!!!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

experimenting with colour

I am a neutral girl. Any colours I wear on my eyes are usually muted...

Tonight though, I decided to play around a bit with colour on my eyes, and to my shock, I ended up creating a look that I would actually happily wear out, even for day!! Created using shades 43, 48, 49 and 44 from the Sephora 5-in-1 palette.





Sunday, March 13, 2011

FOTD and NOTD March 13/11

Here's the look I did today, using my new Sephora palette (review in the previous post)! The eyes were done using several colours from the Classics never die section of the palette, as well as the blush.













And here are my nails! This is Rimmel 60 Seconds nail enamel in the shade 615 Night Before.





Happy Sunday everyone!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Sephora Color Play 5-in-1 Limited Fashion Edition palette

Strange start for the article, but I have to say as a Canadian English speaker and spelling/grammar/syntax freak, the urge to spell color "colour" (as Canadians do) is at extreme war with my urge to properly spell the names and titles of things as intended by the creators of said things. Ugggh!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaanyhoo... I wanted to post a review and some swatches of my newest, biggest purchase! My roomie and I made a trip to Sephora because she wanted to find herself a nice, big, good value eyeshadow palette since so far her makeup collection is fairly small, and she wanted to add some variety!

We found this guy fairly quickly into our browsing, and both of us fell in love, and we both ended up buying it!

Here's a pic of the whole palette. The cool thing about it is that each sub-palette is removable, and it comes with a mini-case you can pop one into and take with you to go! Very cool! As you can see, it has a great range of colours from neutrals to brights, dark smokey colours to more subtle and shimmery colours.



Here is each palette individually, with swatches. (all pictures enlarge when you click) I have numbered them as they are numbered on the back of the packaging the palette came in for easy reference. I may do tutorials in the future and this way you can refer back to them. :)



1. Boho Bombshell



2. Classics never die



3. Angelic Boudoir



4. Black is the New Black (no! it's taupe!! :p)



5. A nod to Mod (sorry, the shot of the palette has a little bit of a yellowish cast to it here! but the swatches were taken in daylight and are true to colour)

Sooo the review!..... I LOVE THIS PALETTE. Like I said before, there is such an awesome variety of colours here, you can create pretty much any look you like. The quality is great. I would say there are only a couple shadows where the pigmentaion or texture wasn't that great, but that's such a tiny percentage it's barely worth mentioning. One standout shade to me is the one in the A nod to Mod palette, the lowest left eyeshadow. As you can see, in the pan it just looks like a plain and possibly shimmery white. But on, it's a shimmery duochrome pink/purple/periwinkle type of colour. Sooo pretty!

The blushes have a great, buttery texture and the perfect amount of pigment. Same goes for the glosses, which in the past I have NOT loved from Sephora palettes... I have the '07 Blockbuster palette and it's lippies are meh at best. But these are lovely!

All in all, this was a GREAT buy and I really recommend it to either someone just starting to build their collection, or someone who has it all but just wants MORE!

All about primers!

Primers might be one of those products that you've heard about, but you're not really sure what they do, or how they work, let alone which ones to buy! So I wrote this article to tell you a little about how primers work, how to apply them, and to recommend some products to try, both from my personal experience and also from good reviews I've heard.

Face Primers:

Face primers are, obviously, for all over your face. These are applied after moisturizer (letting the moisturizer sink in to your skin for a minute is a good idea) and before foundation. One main purpose of a face primer is to smooth your skin - they will make your skin feel so silky smooth and this really helps your foundation apply a lot more smoothly on top of it. This can also really help minimize the appearance of pores. If you look for a mattifying primer, it can help reduce shininess if that's a problem you encounter with your skin! Face primers will also help your makeup last longer, both in the sense of keeping it on your skin longer, and I also find I need to use less foundation when I'm wearing primer, so you keep more in your bottle for later and less on your skin!

You don't need a lot of primer, just a teeny amount will do. Some people prefer to put it only on oilier areas or spots with more visible pores, some put it all over - do whatever you prefer! You can apply it with your fingers if you like (I do!) but you can also use a synthetic foundation brush.

Face primers I've used and like:

MAC Prep+Prime Skin - I like this for a day look, it's not very mattifying and it's pretty light. The texture is almost like a mousse but a little more liquid - it has a teeny-tiny amount of shimmer to it but you hardly notice it on the face, it's more like a glow.



Lise Watier Base Miracle - Thicker, kind of a thick gel texture but more dry. I like this one for evening looks because it's a bit thicker and it's mattifying. Makes my skin feel like silk! Pricy (about $30+ for 25 ml) but it's worth it - a little goes a long way and since I usually only use it for big nights out, I've had the same bottle for a looong time!



L'Oreal Studio Secrets Magic Perfecting Base - this stuff is really well priced at around $10CAD. It has a slightly stickier feeling than most primers when you first touch it and apply it to your face, but it quickly sets and leaves a very smooth, soft feeling on your skin. You can definitely see the effect of it on the texture and tone of the skin, even on the back of your hand. A great buy for those on a budget!!



Face primers I've heard good things about (but haven't used):

Smashbox Photofinish Primer

Make Up For Ever HD Microperfecting Primer

Eye Primers

Similarly to face primers, eye primers help your eyeshadow last longer. They also really grab the pigment and lock it into place, so not only will it not budge, the colour payoff will be a bit better. The only con I've found with eye primer (and this may not be the case with all primers, maybe just the one I use) is that because it really grabs and holds the colour, it can be hard to blend out darker shades. BUT - I've found a pretty easy way around this.

Once I apply the primer from lashline to browbone (you need only a pretty thin layer) with my ring finger, I take a medium fluffy shadow brush. Everyone's eyelid size is different, but basically you want to aim for a brush that when turned sideways (flat side against your skin), takes up ONLY the space from just above your crease to just below the brow bone. In that area, swipe a shade of eyeshadow that is either exactly your skintone, or slightly darker for a little more depth. I've been liking using the lighter shade in L'Oreal HIP's Shady eyeshadow duo to do this. This will be a great invisible eye shadow to blend both your brow highlight shade into, and your contour shade as well, while still laying your lid and crease colours directly onto the primer to get the best "grab".

Eye primers I've used and liked:



Urban Decay Primer Potion - I got a sample of this from Sephora in the "Eden" shade originally, which is a matte yellow-ish shade. I also have the original, which is my favourite, it's just completely sheer. I don't go a day without this stuff!



Eye primers I've heard good things about (but haven't used):



Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Benefit Stay Don't Stray - this is also billed as an undereye concealer primer

MAC Painterly Paint Pot - not actually a primer but lots of people use it as one!

So overall, primers are a fantastic addition to your makeup collection if you want to give your makeup that extra oomph and lasting touch - they're one of those things that will make you and your makeup look better without anyone else really being able to put a finger on why - basically, they're effortless with a lot of payoff!

Hope this article was helpful to you! :)