June Favorites!

Everyone always says that the month flew by for them. I swear, every time I see a favorites post, someone will be saying "the month just rushed by for me!" For me, most of of the month rushed by. I had final exams and such up until June 6th. After that, although I know I'm being cliché, the summer days seemed to start sprinting by. I'm so happy to be out on summer break! Having free time again is awesome, I've been working on a whole bunch of posts for you guys, I'm so excited! Anyway, this month I've been really loving a couple products. So I thought I'd do a favorites post. I have pictures of the products and swatches of all of them. Here goes!

Clockwise from top: Make Up Forever Full Cover Concealer in 7, Inglot Gel Liner in 74, MAC Fleet Fast,  Revlon ColorBurst Lipstick in Carnation, Inglot Cream Concealer in G

Make Up Forever Full Cover Concealer in 7: This concealer is absolutely fantastic. I can only use it in the summer, since otherwise I'm too pale for it. However, it matches me really well at the moment! The coverage is fantastic - I use it to cover blemishes. It can be used for undereye circles, although it can turn out looking a bit cakey if you apply too much. It's super pigmented, so the one tube will last forever!

Inglot Gel Liner in 74: Inglot liners are my HG gel liners - they go on smoothly, they're pigmented, they're waterproof, and they last all day! 74 is a plum color that I feel makes my brown eyes pop a bit more (which isn't easy to do).

MAC Fleet Fast: This blush is a gorgeous color that lasts a long time, and is super pigmented! A review on this is coming up shortly.

Revlon ColorBurst Lipstick in Carnation: A gorgeous blue based pink. Lovely creamy formula, and doesn't highlight imperfections. It has a slightly shiny finish, but not glossy. A perfect summer lipstick!

Inglot Cream Concealer in G: A basic green concealer to hide redness. Doesn't appear cakey, and applies smoothly and creamily. It blends out really well.

Here's swatches!

From left to right: MAC Fleet Fast, Inglot Gel Liner in 74, MUFE Full Cover Concealer in 7, Revlon ColorBurst Lipstick in Carnation, Inglot Cream Concealer in G

And that's this month's favorites! What have you guys been reaching for a lot lately? Let me know in the comments! Also, don't forget to enter my Apothica/SkinCareRX giveaway!

June MyGlam Bag Review!

I'm still a MyGlam subscriber, and I got my Glam bag. I opened it and took pictures for you guys, and here's my review! Sorry it's late, I seemingly got my bag a couple days later than usual this month. Apologies for the lack of posts recently (finals, bleh), but it's summer now so I promise I'll be more active!

First off, MyGlam is still using these plastic packages (the gray splotches are the product of me editing out my address, just by the way). I really wish they would switch to recyclable cardboard boxes, like Birchbox.  It'd be much more eco friendly. Anyway, on to the contents of the bag!

There's some coupon type things from the Living Proof hair product line and philosophy, and there's a glitterbomb of a bag. The coupons aren't really worth much, just an offer of a discount set from the Living Proof line, and free shipping from philosophy. The bag is nice, it seems bigger than previous bags and I like the snap buckle as compared to the zip bags we got in the past.

The contents of the bag include:
-Marbella Permanent Eyeliner Pen in Black
-NYX Round Lipstick in Power
-Philosophy Take a Deep Breath Oil-Free Energizing Oxygen Cream Gel Moisturizer
-Living Proof frizz Nourishing Styling Cream

I'll go over the contents individually now, with a mini review for each!

Marbella Permanent Eyeliner Pen in Black:
This was actually awesome, since I actually don't own a liquid eyeliner. I've always been happy with my gel eyeliner, but it definitely doesn't hurt to have the option of liquid eyeliner as well. It's medium pigmented, not perfect but decent. I have to layer it to get a nice dark black line. Still, definitely a solid item in this month's bag!

(from top to bottom: one layer, two layers, three layers)

NYX Round Lipstick in Power:
These have gotten so many fantastic reviews! I was so excited to see this as part of this month's bag. I really like the color I got as well, it's a milky mauve pink, if that makes sense. This particular lipstick has a satin finish. It looks like a nude pink on me, since I'm a bit tanner than usual at the moment. It's super creamy and moisturizing, and I previously didn't own a nude lipstick. I was just so excited about this, definitely my favorite item from this month's bag! I at first thought it might be similar to Lancome's Love It! but when swatched, Power was much lighter, pinker, and milkier than Love It! which was much more mauve.

NYX Round Lipstick in Power

Power swatched

Love it on top, Power on bottom

Philosophy Take a Deep Breath Oil-Free Energizing Oxygen Cream Gel Moisturizer:

I personally don't really want skincare in my bag. I guess I'll use this when I travel. But I don't like Philosophy that much, their products have broken me out previously. I didn't really like receiving this in my Glam bag.

Living Proof frizz Nourishing Styling Cream:

I've always wanted to try a product from this line! I'm actually quite excited to give this a go, and the size of this is actually quite generous. I'm very happy with this particular product.

Overall, I pretty much loved this month's bag! A great combination of skincare, hair products (which I don't generally like, but this one I liked), and makeup! MyGlam really seems to be steadily improving their service, and I'm definitely going to stay a subscriber until next month!

Making Your Eyes Look Bigger

I'm half Asian, and half white. I almost have white eyes though, I don't have a monolid. Yet my eyelid is still smaller than that of many of my white friends. So I can't follow regular makeup tutorials, since my eyelid is too smal. However, I can't use monolid application techniques exactly because my eyelid is too big. All of this amounts to: half Asian problems.
Half Asian problems mean that there are pretty much zero makeup tutorials out there tailored for your eye shape. It means that if I wanted to learn how to do makeup, I had to watch tutorials and experiment. A lot. Which I did. And I am now decently proficient at applying makeup (hooray)!

So I made a list of things you can do to make your eyes look bigger, because I personally really like having the look of big eyes. I will add each step to my look until we have the completed look of larger eyes. You're really supposed to curl your eyelashes and apply mascara last, to prevent eyeshadow from getting on your lashes and ruining the jet-blackness of the mascara, but I was just grabbing stuff from my drawer and it just didn't happen in that order.

1. Curl your eyelashes and add mascara or apply falsies (I chose curling/mascara)

Take an eyelash curler, and curl your lashes. There are plenty of Youtube tutorials on this if you don't know how, like this one by MakeUpGeek, which is a great resource.

My eye after curling my lashes/applying mascara:

2. Put white or skin-colored eyeliner on your waterline
I used NYX Jumbo pencil in Milk for this. It makes the whites of your eyes appear larger, making your eyes therefore appear bigger. Other pencils to use would be Tarte EmphasEYES and Rimmel Exaggerate Eyeliner in White.

My eye after curling my lashes/applying mascara and putting white eyeliner on my waterline:

3. Put a light shimmery shadow all over your lid, then a lighter shimmery color in the middle. This emphasizes the high point of your eyelid, making your eyes appear bigger. I used Inglot Pearl #397 all over, and Urban Decay Bootycall in the very center. Also put a light shimmery shadow in your inner corner. This brightens your eyes and makes you appear more awake, because it brings more light into your eyes. I used Inglot Pearl #397. Other eyeshadows you could use would be MAC Naked Lunch, MAC Shroom, or the bottom shade in the Wet N Wild Walking on Eggshells palette.

My eye after curling my lashes/applying mascara, putting white eyeliner on my waterline, and applying light shimmery shadow all over my lid/inner corner and lighter shimmery shadow in the center:

4. Draw a thin line of eyeliner on the outer 1/3 of your lid and blend out. I could make up some fancy sounding reason why this makes your eyes look better, but to tell the truth, I have no idea. It just works, and that's good enough for me. My guess is it contrasts the high and low points of your eye, making it seem larger?

My eye after curling my lashes, putting white eyeliner on my waterline, applying light shimmery shadow all over my lid/inner corner and lighter shimmery shadow in the center, and putting a thin line of eyeliner on the outer 1/3 of my lid:

If you do those 4 things, your eyes will look bigger. Here's a before anything and then after everything picture:

Here's a picture I took where Eye X has all the steps done to it, whereas Eye Y does not. I think that Eye X looks at least a tiny bit bigger than Eye Y:

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Having bigger eyes will help you look more awake, and I generally just like the look that bigger eyes give me. Let me know what you think in the comments!

What methods do you use to achieve bigger looking eyes?