NYE Glitter look!

I remember now why it's rare/non-existent I do videos. It's such a pain to edit!  With that being said I present an easy natural New Years look with glitter!  I've actually been wearing this throughout the Holidays, had a lot of compliments on it. So, yeah, enjoy!

Holiday Nails

I'm not the most holiday happy person, but a lot of sales I found made me slightly happier.  Of those, Zoya had a nice one right before Christmas. I received the 18K 'Gilty' Topcoat (retail $35) free with my purchase of a dream box.  I hadn't purchased any of the ornate polishes, so I used it to my advantage and grabbed the Holo-Day Cheer box (retail $24).  I can confess my love for those polishes another time.  To my surprise I kind of love the topcoat!  My holiday manicure slightly backfired and reminded me more of Fireball, the cinnamon whiskey I love so much.  I decided this would be my Krampus polish. 

I did a sponge gradient of OPI Sephora "Curvacious", MAC "Vintage Vamp", and OPI Sephora "I'm with Brad", topped with these awesome gold nuggets. The color palette was inspired by nails I saw for the Gareth Pugh 2013 runway done by MAC.  For reference, Krampus comes from old folk tales the same as St. Nick. They were partners even, with St. Nick rewarding the good girls & boys, while Krampus carried away the bad ones in a bag. Post holiday, I've seen so many facebook photos of kids who complain about their Christmas gifts. I think Krampus should be brought back to scare some grateful behavior in to bratty kids. Whew. This manicure has lasted me a full week with just a little wearing at the ends.

I have a lot of other things I'm testing and looking to review, with a video of the mystery boxes I received from sneakpeeq.

New MAC Pro Palettes

I stopped by the MAC Pro store in Nashville a few days ago with a target in mind. MAC recently revamped their palette packaging.  It is now a sturdier, clear palette that you chose if you want a 15 pan shadow or 6 pan blush insert. I was limited to a purchase of 4 so here's how I housed them. Bonus  the 5 lipstick palettes recently released. I'm really happy for the space saving these will provide when I freelance!

Divider bottom

 These palettes have pros and cons.  There is apparently a duo palette coming out that stores more shadows, so I'm going to hold off on additionals. More shadows are in need of a home.  Googling the duo lead me to Spectra where I posted about the new palettes.  I've used these for about 4 days, and my pro/con list is as follows:

Pros:

- clear top
- sturdy thick plastic
- they close securely
- inserts are easy enough to work with (one con on inserts below).

Cons:
-clear top shows smudges, powder kicks up, and little fuzzbunnies/critter fur seem to be attracted to it
- BIGGIE: These palettes are not magnatized (unless I'm doing something wrong).  Not even the bottom under the insert. No magnets, so even if you've stuck magnets on your pans they just sit in the insert.  To pop the insert out I've placed my hand over all shadows but one and flipped it.  This "dumps" the one shadow out then I can lift the insert. I don't know if I'm over complicating this but I've looked at it a few times for an easier way.

 Overall, I really do like this palette design minus lack of magnetized security.  I've enjoyed z palettes for their clear top but have been less than enthused about them essentially being made of card board.  This is like an improved z palette.  I've placed a jump where I compare size to 2 z palette models as well as a unii palette.  More reviews coming! I did a lot of overhauling this holiday season with beauty items I'm trying out from Sneakpeeq.com. I may even go crazy and throw in some clothes because I like them!  Happy Festivus!

*UPDATE 12/28: These ARE magnetized.  Magnets I have on my shadows from depotting either aren't strong enough or thick enough so I need to replace them. Ones on pan shadows I've bought are A-OK.  Also instead of dumping it out, if you gently twist the palette like an ice trey the insert pops up.  I always over complicate things.  Thanks to the people that know what they're doing over at Specktra.net.

Halloweenie!

Just a few quick blarbs while I'm actively posting things on the internet!  I am THOROUGHLY enjoying reading my Dick Smith materials. I told myself I wanted to read through it and highlight notes, then go to the DVD, then probably the book again. It's been many a year since I 'studied' anything so I need my brain to be an active little sponge.  The course has made me beyond thrilled.  I am taking advantage of my surplus of products purchased. I've cracked out my airbrush machine, and made a promise to figure this damn thing out. I think I'm too impatient right now, and the coverage when compared to liquid foundations is polar opposite.. it's so light. I'm a person that tries to cover my freckles and I feel I have uneven skin. Maybe it's a perspective thing that I have to change. Originally the OCC airbrush products came with my airbrush purchase. These are water based, which I chose to go with over silicone just based off reading that silicone remains movable, and there's a prevalence in silicone allergies over.. water or alcohol.  I have been testing out alcohol based lately. If anyone has or knows someone with airbrushing experience that wouldn't mind me bugging them, pass a name along? When I applied the Skin Illustrator airbrush product- which is alcohol based- I did keep having to layer it up for coverage.. it's "ghastly" so it's an incredibly pale color which I'm pale but again covering freckles. Alcohol is very drying and to me that kind of showed. I'm trying to figure out the best way to prep skin. Tonight I used the Temptu Dura Inks and had MUCH better results. They are also alcohol based, but this time I remembered to put a moisturizer on a bit before, and used Illamasquas matte primer which is water based over silicone as far as I can tell.  These Dura Inks are the deal, I really enjoyed working with them. I still have to perfect airbrush use in general but I had much better results.  All of these things are ultimately for my work through the course- the Skin Illustrator brand has fantastic reviews when working on appliances and detail work. They have varying palettes which quite a few were made for movies Ve Neil has worked on. I will say their glazing gels are.. magic. I'll have to get in to that more when I do more with them. Anyway, I'm a pretty firm believer on "self experimenting". It's easiest for me to use my face to do things vs. wait on another person to have availability and using a product is the best way to gauge a performance. So the more things I do.. hopefully the more inspiration I'll have to update.

I have been on the ball with Halloween looks having such fantastic products in reach.  I've done a different look for the past 4 days, and knocked out about all my top listed want to attempt looks. There is a zombie walk Saturday so I think next up is trying to figure that out. I think I want to use an Audrey Hepburn inspired dress I purchased from Lady V London and a dark wig and go as "Breakfast IS Tiffany" zombie. It's between that and a red wig and go as "Lucielle Maul" (but Ricky...).  That will involve maybe some airbrush but definitely body paints (been taking advantage of some Wolfe FX paints as of late.. it's been a good experience!).  Anyway, enough blabbing. I'm very hopeful to have some good results with it- say prayers to the makeup Gods.  Here are a few Halloween looks I've done, with extra photos after the jump. Anyone that I don't personally know that subscribes to this blog feel free to facebook me here, and I really love feedback. I'm on Beautylish & Makeup Bee where I'm trying to get in on a contest, and just network more. Any awesome bloggers want to send some makeup folks my way, I love that too. I just really thrive off feedback and suggestions. These pictures have a general a filter just for artistic effect as a personal preference, and some were taken on a cell phone but no other editing was done. I like doing pictures on both my cell phone & my camera because the light translates different and sometimes it works.  I don't even know how to work photoshop, but it's a pet peeve when looking at makeup and someone has edited it so far the makeup or skin texture is gone.

 

MAC Call Me Bubbles Makeup tutorial

Guess who did makeup? AND recorded it!? GOSH I'm on it.  This is one of my favorite day to day looks when I'm in a go using the Call Me Bubbles quad from MAC Shop, Cook. Product/brush detail listed in the description. Side note, I didn't record my foundation application but you'll see after the 3:38 mark my skin even out and coverage on my freckles.  All I have on is the new L'oreal BB cream under powder. It is fabulous, I'll do a separate review but it's pretty much everything I ever wanted a tinted moisturizer.

Xtreme Lash eyelash extensions

I also should add I redeemed a groupon today I got last year for a full set of individual eyelash extensions. I got the "diva lash" which is the fullest set at up to 120 lashes per eye. It retails for $325.  I do believe my groupon was only $100 and included this initial set and one free fill (retailing at $65-$75). I've had these lashes done before and LOVED them but they are costly to up keep. They are worth it especially for me. My eyelashes are white like my eyebrows, so if I run out of the house at the least I have to fill my brows in and put mascara on.  Here are my results that I could pee over a little.

This picture is without mascara to blend my naturally white lashes in with the black extensions so when I do fix them all up it'll just make me thrilled.  The gal was really nice about it. My next fill is part of my groupon but I mentioned to her I'd be out of town until the 18th. She's booked until April 2nd and said she'd fill them in however much I needed due to scheduling. The process took about 2-3 hours and I slept through almost all of it. I'm pretty sure I snored, though at one point it started storming and I believe some thunder made me jump.

I can't say enough about how great this is if you can budget it as a little self treat. The initial fill is a hefty price but if you keep up with it, it manages out to be the same over time as doing a pedi or nail fill considering most folks go twice a month.  I remember the first time I had them done they try to sell you this up keep stuff like gentle eye cleanser spray or a special mascara so it doesn't loosen the adhesive. Luckily I still have some cleaner and the gal didn't try to sell me on anything additional. I'm pretty sure there's a cheaper alternative. As far as mascara I don't recall any impacting time they lasted.  My prior ones hung on for almost two months before they started becoming terribly sparse.