Know what sucks?

Acne. In you mid twenties. 

Le sigh. 

Another Sunday Alone, Another Play Day

The husband is working today so I was left to my own devices. Naturally, I busted out some eyeshadow. 

This look is super simple. I just used Urban Decay's Frigid on a closed cut-crease and patted on some UD Fishnet on the lid. I smudged the Frigid onto my lower lash line and swept NYX Leather and Lace (a nude, matte pink) onto my brow bone and also to soften my crease. UD Dime in my inner corners, some tarte lights camera lashes! and I was done. 

Using Navy Blue

So a few weeks ago, Urban Decay had a crazy sale on their Deluxe shadows. I can't remember details, but they were under $10. Which, as their regular shadows are usually $18, this was absurdly awesome to me. The packaging is different than their regular shadows but in terms of quality, I can't tell a difference. So I grabbed the colors that spoke the most to me: Fishnet, Frigid, Ransom and Graffiti.

Frigid is one of those colors that I bought on a whim with no clue how I would end up using it. Well today, I was bored and decided to play around. I ended up with my standard two-tone shadow look (I'll have to start trying other application methods) but I'm VERY happy with the results. I'd go out in public like this.
So to start, here are the things I used:

UD Primer Potion (not shown)
Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk (not shown)

UD Naked 2 palette (namely Foxy)

UD Deluxe Shadow in Frigid

NYX ultra pearl mania loose pigment in Mink

e.l.f Shimmer Eyeliner in black

And some brushes, all from e.l.f.

First, I applied the Primer Potion (love this stuff...how did I ever live without it?!) and then a small bit of the eye pencil as my base. Then I took the e.l.f. Studio "C" brush and packed on the loose pigment on the inner half of my lids. Then I took the small eye blending brush and tapped it into Frigid. I kind of patted it into my crease and outer V before bringing it inward, blending it as I went. After, I picked up the C brush and tapped the pigment over the darker shadow. It had a nice foiled effect so I ran with it. Then I went back in with the blending brush to make the blue a little bolder, as well as bringing blue down to my lower lashline. I went in with the Minx pigment on the other side. I swiped Foxy from my Naked 2 palette on my brow bones and inner corners to clean up a little. I finished up by applying my only black eyeliner (WHERE IS ZERO?? IT WAS MY FAVORITE.) in my lower waterline and mascara on both upper and lower lashes.
Voila.
Have some artsy pictures I took with my NEW PHONE!! (Nokia Lumia 925...such an awesome camera and holy crap the editor that comes with it is amazing!)

Life Changing Skincare

About a week ago, I watched a video that CHANGED MY LIIIIIFE. Or at least my outlook on skincare.
I've been battling extremely dry, scaly skin for a while now, along with some minor redness on my cheeks and chin. On top of that, I tend to break out rather badly every now and then.
With my renewed interest in makeup and skincare, I subscribed to a few channels on youtube, one of which was DailyMix which featured this video:

 

Behold the life changing!!

Here's a link in case you can't view the video.

So anyways, I realized that I've been doing basically everything wrong. For more clarification, I headed to her blog and read up on balms and toners and the like. So today, I headed on over to Ulta and I grabbed a few things (still need an exfoliating toner). Behold my tiny mini haul:

                                       

When I first watched the video, I immediately stopped using any kind of a foaming cleanser. I pulled out this Elizabeth Arden cream cleanser my aunt gave me a few months ago when my dry skin was particularly bad and began using that instead. I just wiped it off with a washcloth dampened with "hand warm water" (hot water bad!) and I noticed a difference immediately. I just followed it up with a moisturizing cream.My skin has been noticeably softer and much smoother, which is making foundation application much better.

Originally, I was after Clinique's Take The Day Off cleansing balm but Ulta didn't have any and while the salesgirl was quite sure that they didn't have any cleansing balms, I looked around and found a much more inexpensive cleansing balm from Boots no.7. A googled it quickly on my phone and it had great reviews, so at $7 something a tube, I grabbed it. If I hate it, I only spent seven bucks. If I like it, I saved about $22. 

Again, I couldn't find an exfoliating toner to SAVE MY LIFE but I did find a hydrating one with the right ingredients for $12.50 from the Body Shop. Since I ended up buying lower end products, I did splurge on my moisturizer and got Clinique's Moisture Surge. I keep reading wonderful things about it and I can't wait to put it on my face.

Tonight will be my first night with my almost-complete-brand-new skincare routine. I'm hoping to head into Sephora (which is one of those JCP ones...closest full sotre is in Portland) and get a nice exfoliating toner. Or I might just order online and get it delivered. Haven't decided. 

For now, I think I'll stick with that and maybe some eye cream as I am beginning to look my age (eek), but it's a great start for someone who has been unknowingly abusing their skin.

And no more wipes!

So at some point...

This happened. 

Had a girls' day with my cousin and stepdaughter

We had lots of fun.
I have also come to the conclusion that I need a better freaking camera. It's VERY difficult to take a picture of myself that looks halfway decent. Like, I look at my makeup and I think, "Wow! That looks amazing!" So I take out my phone and/or iPad and snap a few pictures (both with the rear facing camera and front facing...rear is of course always better quality) and then I think, "Wow! I look like complete poo!"

So. Take these images with a hearty grain of salt. I promise it looks quite good in person. I got compliments.

First I just played with some bright blues. I was kind of shocked at how much of my old e.l.f. pigments I used, considering my $100 haul from Ulta the other day (more on that later). I started this with their essentials shimmer eyeliner in Twinkle Teal. I lined my upper lashline then used a small smudge brush to blend it upwards. I was surprised at how creamy the liner still was, considering I haven't touched it in a few months. Then I took a shadow brush and patted on some of Ulta's eyeshadow in Deep Sea. Then I swiped a nice domed brush in my Naked 2 palette's Suspect and blended into my creases and slightly upward and then used Foxy along the brow bone. 

I'm not sure why I look so pissed off. Possibly because the sun was in my face but that was the only way to make sure I got a good shot of the color or possibly because my phone is shit. Who knows.

My friend Yasmin suggested using a nice eyeliner to bold it up a bit...Next time I'll play with it a little more so it's not so blah.

This next one I really liked. After using a NYX eye shadow pencil in Milk, I used the Charming eyeshadow from my Sephora Cinderella palette. Never knew how to use that yellow but this was perfect. Then, to tone down the yellow just slightly, I patted on a teeny bit of bareMinerals high shine eyeshadow in Bronzed...I think? It's more gold than bronze but I can't find it at the mo to double check. Then I opened up a pot of e.l.f. mineral pigments in Earthy, which has a nice gold tone to it in addition to being a really lovely green. I blended it into my crease and took it slightly above as well as over the outer V and to the middle of my eyelid. I also dipped an eyeliner brush into it and lined my lower lashline with it and topped that off by lining my waterline in black (just to the middle though). Some mascara and voila. 

I quite liked this look and am pretty bummed about my phone being gaaarrrrbage. Then my iPad died, not that it'd be much better, but. You know.

Oh hai...just muh face.

 So also, here is a picture of my cousin with a look I did for her that she liked (but I made her line her eyes herself since I get squicked out by lining other people's eyes). I just used NYX's pigment in Penny, Ulta's eyeshadow on the outer V in Majesty. Topped it off with Foxy once again (UD Naked 2). It looks SO NICE. I did it for work Wednesday and even my husband complimented me. I only have one picture of it that also rather crap, so yes, a new camera is in order.

In the meantime, here's Leslie and me, modeling the same basic look.

My face again...long day at work but it help up. Primer Potion!!

Could never get this to look right on camera!!

Le things.

Another one of my face but today...still not a great picture but dang. I love this look so much!

So I went to Ulta and wound up buying a bunch of things...$100 worth of things. I only got one UD shadow but there's a wicked sale and I'm going to get some of the deluxe eyeshadows. From what I can tell, they're slightly different in packaging and the formula is a little silkier. But at $4 a pop it's worth it to find out. Anyways. I also got that NYX jumbo eyeshadow pencil in Milk since all the beauty blogs seem to love it as a base (and now I do too). Four pigments, 4 Ulta shadows, UD's primer potion (in travel size since I wanted to see how I liked it), and my Too Faced Primed and Poreless primer that I needed. Also a mask that I'm loving so much...I think that's it...

I think once my paychecks start rolling in (I got a new job!), I'll be there once a week or so lol. I'm curious about their salon as well. I'll have to check into that.

That's about it for today! Thanks for bearing along with my rambling and awful pictures and general noobish-ness. :)

MWAH

So I am a makeup noob.

I am. I wear brown and light brown. That has been my life up until now.

I have looked and even owned gorgeous palettes with vibrant, beautiful colors with no flippin' idea how to wear blue or purple or green. 

But with my discovery of a whole world of tutorials, reviews, and sites dedicated to helping noobs like me, I'm branching out. I'm busting out the blues and the purples. No idea what to do with yellow still so I suppose we'll save that. 

I've been slowly accumulating a nice collection of makeup that includes lots of color and finishes. 

Today, I'm heading to Ulta and I have a whole wish list! Might not be able to get everything, but I'm hoping to make a dent. 

Here are some things I want:

I looooove Urban Decay eyeshadows. Except the glitter bomb that is Uzi lol. Since these are so pricey, I'll probably only pick out one or two and try some other less expensive items instead. 

I'm eager to test out the Ulta brand of eyeshadows. The reviews are decent so I'm hoping with some Ud primer potion, this stuff will hold up well. 

A smattering of other items I want. I need more matte shadows for blending and I'm in love with the NYX pigments. 

I also need some brushes I'm thinking...I don't have many on my WL, I actually have a good amount of brushes but I'll probably end up with several! 

I'll be crossing things off as I go. And probably adding on!!