Red lips

NARS Wicked

neutral eye make up tutorial

I haven't done one of these for awhile, so sorry for the lighting! The key to this look is the eyeliner. You have apply with a heavy hand and reapply several times to get that precise line.

I did my right eye for the tutorial and it took foreverrrrr. I did my left eye in maybe 2 minutes or less and it came out looking way better! Maybe it was b/c I was so scared about messing up. So this is the full shadow look on the left eye/ what it should look like before you line the eyes:



In my experience, the key to getting a gentle gradient is:
1) Use a heavy hand on the dark shadow. Don't be afraid!
2) Use a light hand on the very light shadow/ highlight.
3) Don't overblend. Let your skin melt the colors together.

As always, I started with an eyeshadow primer. There are so many on the market now, but I stuck to my basic Urban Decay Primer Potion.

Step 1: Use a dark brown (I used a Makeup Forever in Espresso) with a slanted shadow brush. You want to really pack the color onto this brush and draw a V on the outer edge of your eye. Start on the outer corner and fill in your eyelid up to the crease, easing off around 3/4 of the way into the eye.







Step 2: Using a dark brown, blend starting from the middle of your eyelid inward almost to the inner corners. Sorry, I don't have an exact product for this palette. I got it from my sis-in-law.

Step 3: Using a bright copper or some shimmery gold, apply color to the area right above your crease and smooth out the dark brown edges. I used that wide fluffy brush you see in the pictures.

Step 4: Get a light, shimmery beige (I used Stila's cream eyeshadow in Kitten) and apply it lightly to the inner corner of your lids. I used my fingers and tapped the color on gently.

Step 5: This is the most important part!! Use a slanted eyeliner brush and gel eyeliner to line your upper lashline. Use the pencil liner to line your upper waterline. (Here are some great references from Frantastic. This is the lashline and this is the waterline.)

I used MAC gel liner in Blacktrack and drew a line starting at the outer corner of my eye about 3/4 of the way in. Then I used the pencil liner to draw a black line all along my upper waterline.

Step 6: Then I used the slanted eye shadow brush from before and drew a line using the eye shadow on my lower lashline starting from the outer corner and stopping 1/2 way in. This is how it should look so far:

To line the upper lashline with the gel liner, I followed the natural shape of my eye and slightly flicked the line upward at the outer corner. I made sure that the line I created with the eyeshadow connected with the color on the upper lashline.

Step 7: Finally, I used the pencil liner to fill in the inner corner of my eye. As you can see, I had to draw a little bit outside of my lashline into the actual fleshy corner. If you only follow the lashline, you can't really see the eyeliner on the inner corner. I also filled in the bottom lashline with the pencil liner.

Step 8: Finally, I curled my lashes and added mascara.

post preview/ wavy hair how-to

New color. (Will detail how I did this at home in the next post.)

Wavy hair how-to

1. Start with damp hair, about 80% dry.

2. Grab your hair close to the nape of your neck as if you were about to tie it into a ponytail.

3. Loop your hair around your thumbs over and over until you get to the end. You should have a bun by the end.

4. Using a hair tie, secure your hair into a ponytail and then wrap the rest of the hair tie around the bun.

5. Take out the bun after your hair has dried and apply hairspray.

environmental beauty tip: say no to microbeads

I'm not a big fan of exfoliants, but from time to time, I like the way the scrubs feel. I've buying cheap body soap with "microbeads," not paying attention to what this substance is. Microbeads are finely ground of pieces of petroleum-based polyethylene. They are actual plastic beads that I've been sending down the drain.

(pictures are from Awakened Aesthetic)

The plastic beads go out into the ocean, where cute little critters may mistake them for food, or end up in this big pile of floating plastic in the Pacific. Like all plastics, they take a long time to degrade and we should be careful to keep them out of the ocean. So next time, read the label on your exfoliants carefully and steer clear of soaps that contain microbeads. Salt, oats, and other natural particles do just a good and possibly better job exfoliating and are worth the price premium.

simple fotd/ pearl headband

IMATS

My friend and I went to IMATS again this year to stock up on MUFE (40% off) and Stila (50% off) products. It wasn't as magical this year, because I've already seen all the cool special effect exhibitions. My friend printed out a map and highlighted the booths we wanted to hit. Then we took turns standing in line while the other one shopped. Allll business, no fun. Not really. I did snap a couple of pictures of some of the models.







I did a little shopping after and I finally found some rompers! I've been wanting these for a year and couldn't find any ones that I liked.



I like the way this one fit. It's loose but not too loose. I took this picture with the flash off. It's a bright blue, silky material. It was about $25 at Reference. I am still wearing it. So comfortable.

drug store foundation

I've been trying out drug store foundations, but not really documenting. I still like Cover Girl the best, but this Maybelline Pure Makeup isn't so bad either. It was on sale for $3 at Walgreens, so I decided to give it a try.



It had a thicker consistency, not very creamy, but very buildable. It reminds me of Cargo's consistency, not too thick, but not as light as my Stila foundation


Bare face


Decent coverage, I added a little extra in that area where I had blemishes. Not too bad.

It's been awhile since I bought make up. I still had a Bare Escentuals gift card from my birthday (a whole 7 months ago!) and bought a shimmery moss green shadow (Purrfect).




Purrfect all over
Patio party in the crease
MAC Blacktrack on the top and bottom waterline
Diorshow mascara

Whole face:

feelin' blue