Glowing Embers Tutorial/FOTD

I know, I know, the title is interesting, to say the least. But it's the best my friend and I could come up with. All name credit goes to my friend Mia, thank you! This morning, I decided to do a look with my Inglot eyeshadows. Inglot is probably my favorite makeup brand of all time - they have such consistent products at a fantastic price! Anyway, their eyeshadows are just fantastic in terms of texture, color, wear, and everything else you could think of. You guys have probably heard me rave about Inglot eyeshadows countess times on this blog, so I'll stop now. Anyway, I felt that my Inglot eyeshadows hadn't gotten enough love recently, so I used all Inglot eyeshadows this time around. Here's the look, and then I'll do a tutorial on it! My pictures didn't come out as well as I liked, sorry about that. =/

This look has pale golds, burgundy brown, and copper, although it doesn't show super well in the pictures. It's a really gorgeous look in real life! Here's pictures and swatches of the eyeshadows I used, so that you guys can find dupes in your collection.

Clockwise from bottom: Inglot Pearl 423, Inglot Pearl 405, Inglot AMC Shine 27

From top to bottom: Inglot AMC Shine 27, Inglot Pearl 405, Inglot Pearl 423

Hopefully you guys will have similar colors in your makeup collections! Anyway, here goes the tutorial:

1. Place Inglot AMC Shine 27 (a cool toned shimmery gold, I can't think of any dupes right now) over the inner 2/3 of your lid

2. Using a small shader brush, place Inglot Pearl 405 (a true copper, dupes could be MAC Amber Lights, credit to Temptalia, or Stila Copper) in the very center of your lid, making sure the color is visible.

3. Using that same small shader brush, place Inglot Pearl 423 (a brown with hints of burgundy, dupe could be Urban Decay Hustle) on the outer 1/3 of your lid.

4. Blend out all the colors

5. Add eyeliner if you wish, and mascara.

Here's a complete FOTD product list.

Eyes

-Urban Decay Primer Potion

-Inglot AMC Shine 27

-Inglot Pearl 405

-Inglot Pearl 423

-Fairydrops Scandal Queen Mascara

-YBF Automatic Universal Taupe Eyebrow Pencil

Face

-Pur Minerals 4 in 1 Powder Foundation

-Make Up Forever Full Cover Concealer in 7

-theBalm Hot Mama Blush

-theBalm Sexy Mama Powder

Lips

-YSL Rouge Pur Couture Vernis a Levres Glossy Stain in 15 Rose Vinyl

Hope you guys enjoyed the tutorial, I want to start doing more FOTD/tutorial type things in the future. I think they're a lot of fun! Next time I'll take step by step pictures so it's easier to follow and hopefully come up with a name that's not quite as cheesy (not that I'm bashing the name)! Hope you guys are all having a good day!

Giveaway From Apothica/SkinCareRX!

I have some really exciting news for you guys! I have a new blog sponsor, SkincareRX/Apothica/SkinBotanica. They sell mainly makeup, skincare and hair products. They sell some of the best pore minimizing products out there! Here are just a couple of the huge selection of brands they have to offer:

-Boscia
-Cetaphil
-Stila Cosmetics
-Clinique
-Too Faced
-Smashbox
-Bobbi Brown
-Yves Saint Laurent
And tons more!


They've given me an opportunity to give away a $20 giftcard to you guys, my lovely followers!  This giftcard can be used at Apothica, SkincareRX, or SkinBotanica. I was so excited when they told me about this opportunity, because I want to thank you guys whenever possible and if I could buy you guys stuff and give it away to you every day, I would!
Unfortunately, if you're international, shipping and customs fees cost almost as much as the giftcard, so this giveaway is mainly for United States readers. Sorry to everyone who isn't located in the US. :(
Here's all the rules (otherwise known as the legal stuff):

-You must be 18+ years of age or have a parent/guardian's permission to enter.
-Your name and email will be kept private.
-Winner will be contacted by email 48 hours after the giveaway ends.
-Winner needs to respond within 48 hours or else a new winner will be selected.


Okay, so to win the giftcard, just enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below! It ends on July 8, good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cloudy Skies: Makeup on my friend

If you can ignore the crappy title, this post is going to be a lot of fun, I promise. I haven't done a tutorial or FOTD in a while, and the other day my friend Anna (who would prefer not to have her real name disclosed) was over at my house and we decided to do makeup. Here's her before vs. after picture, with her  eye on the left undone and her eye on the right done:

I'm now going to tell you the steps to achieve this look.
1. Take Stila Cloud (a frosty silver taupe, but any taupe will do; try MAC Satin Taupe or Maybelline Silken Taupe) and place it all over the lid.
2. Take Inglot Pearl 423 (a dark brown with hints of burgundy, dupe could be Urban Decay Hustle) and place it in the crease.
3. Blend out
4. Take Inglot Pearl 397 (any shimmery light shadow will do, you could use the lightest shade in Wet N Wild Walking on Eggshells, or Urban Decay Sin if you like) and place it in the inner corner to brighten up the eye.
5. If you want, add eyeliner for more definition (I didn't, though)
6. Curl your lashes and put on mascara

And you're finished! Here's Anna's finished look.

The look came off looking more silvery in this light, and the brown tones in the crease don't show that well. However, nevertheless it's still an easy look that you can do with only 3 colors. Hope you all enjoyed the tutorial. Here's a full face picture of the finished look! Thanks a bunch to my gorgeous friend Anna for being my willing subject to put makeup on!

50 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY!

Whoo, I promised you all a giveaway and here it is! I'm still working with Rafflecopter, so just ignore this post for now. But within about 5 minutes, all details will be posted! Here's pictures of the prizes. I've been going on about how great theBalm is for ages, so I thought I'd give you a chance to try their products. And I decided to throw some nail polish in their as well, just for kicks. :) These are all brand new products. This giveaway goes from now until April 30, and it is international!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pinterest!

I joined the ranks of people signing up for Pinterest! Here is my Pinterest account. Pinterest is extremely entertaining. It's a site where you basically create collections of images that you like. If you see a cool makeup look, for example, you can "pin" it under a "board" you create, which is like an album. Other people can "repin" things. It's really cool, and you can follow either individual "boards" or everything people post. I have a board for products that I love, makeup looks I love, color combinations I love, and a board for pictures of the band One Direction, who I am totally obsessed with. If you want a Pintrest invite (there's currently a waiting list and they routinely admit people) then comment below with you email and I'll hit you up! They currently require you to link it to either Facebook or Twitter, but you can link it to a Twitter then delete the Twitter later once you finish linking it to your email, if you want to. Any questions, just ask! Happy Sunday everyone!

February MyGlam Bag

Yes, I'm totally late with this post. But I got my bag very late since I was out of town when it was delivered. So by the time I got home and opened it, I didn't really feel the need to blog about it since it had already been reviewed hundreds of times. However, I thought I would do an individual mini review on some of the products included. Here's the entire bag:

Contents:

-$100 NuMe gift certificate - I might use this, the NuMe products have been getting good reviews. However, I would still have to pay a minimum of $15 if I got the cheapest product they have in terms of straighteners (which is what I'm interested in), the cheapest is the mini flatiron. I might or might not use it, it expires on August 31st so I have plenty of time to choose.

-Dead Sea Premier Cinderella mask - I'll use this eventually. I don't really care for skincare, because I'm very happy with my current skincare routine and am not interested in switching it up. I would much prefer makeup.

-Freeman Facial Hydration Mask Goji Berry - Again, more skincare. This will get used eventually, but I'm not thrilled to get skincare items. Nice size though.

-X Out Shine Control Moisturizer - This was even more skincare! However, I tried this instead of my regular moisturizer in the morning, as a sort of primer. I don't use primer on a regular basis, and I do like a matte face throughout the day. I had high hopes for this product. However, it did absolutely nothing to keep my face more matte throughout the day, which is frustrating - it didn't do what it promised to do. And the only way to get this if I had loved it was to get it as a free gift with purchase when I bought another X out product, the face wash. It was a nice size though.

-NYX Roll On Shimmer - I personally don't like roll on eyeshadow, and this was a bit too glittery for every day use. I did like the color though, a light nudey gold-brown. This will probably sit unused in my eyeshadow drawer, unfortunately. It was full size though, which I liked. Here's a swatch:

Altogether, it was a pretty decent bag. I really wish there wasn't as much skincare in the bag though, I would much prefer more makeup items. I have heard about customer service issues with MyGlam, although I have not experienced any of these myself. It does seem a bit annoying that they do not allow you to change your payment information, though. Hopefully they will get the issues with their customer service worked out soon! I will stay subscribed, hopefully next month's bag will have more actual makeup in it! Sorry for the very late post!

Versatile Blogger Award!

A couple days ago, I was really excited to receive my first blogger award! I was awarded the Versatile Blogger Award by Emer, from Beauty Moments! I'm really happy and excited about this.

The rules of the award are that you say 7 things about yourself, and pass on the award to 15 other bloggers.

1. I do debate on my high school debate team, and I had a tournament this weekend from the 18th to the 19th where my partner and I went 4-2 (won 4 rounds, lost 2). We made it to elimination rounds, then lost. It was still cool that we made it to elims tho. The form of debate I do is policy debate, which is super fun and I really like!

2. I really hate cinnamon toothpaste. Cinnamon is good, but for some reason I just really hate cinnamon toothpaste.

3. I apply makeup for fun. If I'm really bored, I'll just go sit in my room and do really complicated eye makeup. Makeup has never really been a chore for me, it's always been something I do for fun.

4. I have two rabbits and a dog. My rabbits are Holland Lops, and my dog is a Cockapoo (Cocker Spaniel-Poodle mix).

5. My favorite TV shows are Pretty Little Liars, Hart of Dixie, Make It Or Break It, Gossip Girl, and Switched at Birth.

6. My favorite subject in school is history - it's like a really long, complicated story. I find it super interesting, and I have a really great history teacher!

7. I'm not a very good cook. I can cook mac 'n cheese, spaghetti, and Tom Yum soup (a type of Thai soup).

Here's the 15 bloggers I will also award the blog award to. I looked at how many blogs I follow recently, and found that I follow over 90. So it was pretty hard for me to choose just 15 blogs, but here they are:
http://beautybyarielle.blogspot.com/
http://beautyandababy.com/
http://gorgeousskin.blogspot.com/
http://meetmeonthebrightside.blogspot.com/
http://www.mandyssecrets.com/
http://www.makeupjunkienikki.com/
http://foxxyb80.blogspot.com/
http://eyelineraddict.blogspot.com/
http://blushtree.blogspot.com/
http://cheriebeautyblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.everydaybeautifulxx.com/
http://inclairenessnowfair.blogspot.com/
http://www.mookieonthebench.com/
http://shops2much.blogspot.com/
http://shameless-fripperies.blogspot.com/

I hit pan on my powder!

I very rarely use a product consistently, I vary my makeup routine quite a bit. So when I hit pan on something or use it up, I get pretty excited. I hit pan on my Sexy Mama powder from theBalm today, I was super excited and just thought I'd post it.

I hate feeling like some of my makeup items don't get enough use (such as some of my eyeshadows). I have way too many eyeshadows, I'll admit. But I want to use every single one. However, the truth is that some eyeshadows do get more use than others, for some reason. It does feel really wasteful for me to have makeup that gets little to no use. I was considering trying a kind of wimpy version of Project 10 Pan where instead of using up my 10 items, I just have to hit pan on them. I just alternate my makeup routine so much , it's hard for my to consistently use something. Anyway, this concludes my thoughts on using too little of my makeup.

Small Wet n Wild Haul from CVS

I went to CVS and found that they were having a 40% off the already cheap Wet n Wild! So I picked up a blush, an 8 pan eyeshadow palette, a lipstick, and some make up remover. I've decided to try Neutrogena's - I might do a review on it once I've had a couple chances to use it. I've heard really good things about it.

My mini-haul:

Review of theBalm Mary Lou-Manizer

NOTE: Imaginary sequence will follow.

Once upon a time, there was a girl who wanted so desperately a simple, gorgeous highlighter. All over the land she searched, trying and returning countless highlighters. Urban Decay, MAC, Benefit...none of those much revered brands gave her the glowy cheeks that she pursued so determinedly. Then the girl met theBalm.
"So I hear you're looking for a highlighter?" theBalm kindly inquired.
"Why, yes I am! How did you know?" the girl cried out in surprise.
"Well, I have my ways. You see, I think that I may have precisely why you're looking for." theBalm replied cheerily.
"Why, how lovely that would be! Why is it called?" the girl inquired.
"We call it the Mary Lou-Manizer." theBalm replied (upbeat dramatic music plays at this point).

And so the girl immediately rushed out and ordered the highlighter off Hautelook as soon as it went on sale. When it arrived and was promptly swatched, it was as if a gentle sheen of glowiness had descended over my arm. The highlighter was full of a sort of candle lit glow type shimmer. Its' gold tones whispered of elegance and sophistication free of bothersome glitter chunks. The girl went to sleep that night dreaming of perfectly highlighted cheeks (no, not really, but still).

(apologies again for my dry hands, this is the same swatch pic I used for my top 11 of 2011 post. this picture doesn't really do it justice, but I assure you it is many times more stunning in real life)

Okay, so I think you get the idea. This highlighter is absolutely gorgeous! It has this golden sheen to it, and when placed on the cheeks, it lends its' candelit glow properties to you. It has pretty decent staying power (I apply it over my powder), and it does lean gold. I think this would work on pretty much any skintone, and it has zero chunky glitter. The pan has so much product in it (.3 oz, which is a ton when compared to something like NARS Albatross, which is $3 more and has only .16 oz of product in it). It costs $24, and you can purchase it online at Sephora's website, since the brand is no longer sold in-store, or at theBalm's website. My only issue is that if I have any blemishes on the area where I apply this, it tends to accentuate them a bit. However, it's not majorly noticeable, and all in all, it's my HG highlighter. Thanks for reading!

Review of theBalm Sexy Mama Powder

I'm going to be honest here - one of the main judges of my makeup is my mom. And for a while, I used Maybelline Dream Matte powder in Sand Medium over my Pur Minerals foundation. And every morning, my mom would tell me my face looked kind of fake. So I knew that I needed a new mattifying powder. I have normal/combination skin, but my face is usually a little shiny by the end of the day. I tried the Urban Decay De-slick Powder - for some reason I didn't really like it. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it just didn't look quite right to me. So my next powder that I tried was theBalm's Sexy Mama powder. This and their Mary Lou-manizer (which I will do a post on later) were the first products from them that I had tried. I heard pretty much all good things about both of them, and when I saw them on Hautelook I put them in my basket and immediately checked out.

A couple weeks later, my package came in the mail. Naturally, I was excited. Packages are one of my favorite things - they're like a present that you buy for yourself that you already know the contents of. But still, it's a present. So I took my box to my room, opened it, and took out my two items, hyped up to try them the next day.

The next day, I did my makeup. I did my eyeshadow and mascara, I put on my foundation, then swept on the Sexy Mama powder. I got dressed, then went downstairs to breakfast. When my mom came down, I asked her - "Does my face look fake?" She replied, "No, it looks pretty natural today." Bells and lights silently began blaring in my head. I had finally found a natural powder! I bounced out the door that day, overjoyed at my new, more natural face. The magnet that holds the book-like halves together (one with a mirror, one with the powder) is very nice, and it seems fairly sturdy, although mine took a bad spill one day and I cracked the mirror, klutz that I am. Now, I am not completely opposed to the scarily perfect skin that some women strive for, and sometimes value over a natural looking complexion. But at least for an everyday look, I greatly value a natural looking face, which is what theBalm's Sexy Mama powder has allowed me to achieve. When I get around to being less lazy, I'll try to post some pictures of myself wearing it. I also hope to do a couple tutorials in the future, once I have more time.

No Makeup Week

Right now, I'm in highschool. And a while ago, a girl made an announcement about a project she was doing. She was having girls who didn't usually wear makeup wear makeup, and girls who usually wore makeup not wear makeup. Since I am a regular makeup-wearer, I volunteered to not wear it for a week. And I managed to make it through the week (yay!). However, during the entire week, I would wake up in the morning and sit down at my makeup vanity/desk. I would start planning out a look, then I would remember that I wasn't allowed to wear makeup. And I would sadly get up from my chair and change into that day's clothes. Consistently not wearing makeup was an experience for me. I personally do not wear makeup for other people - I wear it because I just have a ridiculous amount of fun playing with all the colors and creating new looks. I also like looking good, and makeup helps me do that. I do wear foundation daily, but I honestly have pretty good skin and probably don't need to - I just like the perfected look it gives to my skin.

During the week, I admit that my confidence took a bit of a dip. And I do think that's a bad thing. I should be able to go out without an ounce of makeup on, feeling just as confident as if I had a full face. I think foundation is a bit of an addiction (yes, it sounds weird) - now I know how good my skin can look with it, I never want to go back to not wearing it. I'd like to be just as confident not wearing foundation as when I'm wearing it. It bothers me that I'm not, and I'd like to get to a place where I can do that.

I know women who don't wear makeup for fun - they wear it because they feel they have to in order to look good. And in our society, makeup is generally associated with femininity. However, I believe women can be completely feminine both with and without makeup. And I think that more people should try to look at it that way, and not always associate makeup with femininity. It frustrates me that it does affect my confidence when I don't wear makeup, and I hope to change that in the future.