FOTD 12/20/11 Everyday Wintertime Rusty-Gold Look with Urban Decay's Naked Palette

This season I've really been feeling the rusty golds and bronze tones (as you can see from my NOTD too). I've been wearing a rusty gold look almost everyday and I think it's still a wintertime look, especially when you play around with different lip colors (a pale pink, berry red, fuschia colors, etc). Here's what my go-to wintertime makeup look has looked like. Today I used a pale pink lip to complete the look:

For this look, I used my Urban Decay original Naked palette. Click to see a picture of which colors I used and a step by step of how I did it!

NOTD 12/19/11 Rusty Copper

I've been feeling the goldish brown, rusty copper colors right now.. Not so much the typical festive reds or greens, but I love the browns this holiday season! I'll probably change my nails in a day or two and put on a red or make a snowflake design. Until thennnnn, this is the NOTD that I came up with:

I used Art Club - You're Golden

Essie - Mink Muffs

It's sort of a modern twist to the french tips and I think the gold glittery tips bring out the brown alot! This was my first time using the Art Club's You're Golden and I have to say I loved it. The application wasn't streaky at all and I was able to come up with a solid golden tip with one swipe! Here's another picture of my nails but with flash:

I love the color Mink Muffs, I think it's a perfect wintery color. It's not too dark and it's not too bright. It's a perfect cocoa brown!

<3

NEW L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow Swatches and Review!

THESE ARE GOING TO BE THE NEXT TREND, I swear. I found out about these new L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows ($6-$8) yesterday and today, I ran out to the nearest Bed Bath & Beyond to grab them! The word around the street is that these eyeshadows have been available to the UK and Canada but we, in the US, are the last to get them! And apparently, they're not being sold in many drugstores just yet, but they're being released little by little. I heard that Bed Bath & Beyond carried some of them so that's where I picked mine up from. Here's a picture of the packaging:

The packaging looks like the containers for cream eyeshadows, which these eyeshadows kind of are. They're a hybrid of a cream shadow and a regular powder eyeshadow. And the color payoff is amazing! The shadows are vibrant and velvety smooth. They feel like a "mousse" type shadow. Here's another picture of what it looks like uncapped:

Right when you unscrew them, there are little grey stoppers that say "DO NOT DISCARD". I'm assuming that these grey stoppers are to pack down the shadow and possibly make it less susceptible to air seeping through the lids? If it works, it'll hopefully keep these shadows from drying out quickly! It's a little bit of a hassle to take these grey stoppers in and out, but if it'll help maintain my shadows, then I guess it's a good thing. Here's a picture of the shadows without the stoppers:

From Right to Left/Top to Bottom: Eternal Sunshine, Amber Rush, Perpetual Purple (looks much darker in this picture than it does in real life), Golden Sage

Click to see each shadow individually pictured and for my swatch!

NOTD 12/13/11 Color Club - Masquerading

Last night I decided to try a nail polish that I hadn't touched ever since getting it over a year ago! I think the color in the bottle kinda scared me and I felt like it wasn't really my type of polish color.. But when I tried it on, I was pleasantly surprised! Here's a picture of the color I ended up painting onto my nails:

This polish is called Masquerading and is by Color Club. It's a beautiful dark blue/teal chrome color. This was just with ONE coat! It went on so opaquely and without streaks or visible thinned out spots, I was really surprised for such a cheap bottle of polish. And the color kind of reminded me of the eyeshadow Hijack from my new Urban Decay Book of Shadows IV ;)

Click to see more pictures to see the texture of the polish! :)

Urban Decay Book of Shadows IV Swatches and Review!

This past weekend I went to Las Vegas for a trip with my girls to celebrate the end of finals! We had alot of fun! And of course we had to shop.. I stopped by Sephora and FINALLY bought what I've been having my eye on foreeeeeeeever. The Urban Decay Book of Shadows IV!! :) With the Nevada tax just a little cheaper than California's and with my VIB $20 gift card on a purchase of $50 or more, I convinced myself to get it.

It comes with 16 beautiful shadows (10 of which are new!) and a mini eyeshadow primer, mini mascara and mini 24/7 liquid liner in black. It also comes with a mini speaker and 2 different kinds of cords to attach your phone/computer to the mini speaker. The card on the top left contains barcodes that you can scan into your phone and a video tutorial for how to create 4 different looks will pop up. Honestly the packaging is big and bulky and hard to travel with, but so are all the other Book of Shadows, so I can't complain. I'm just glad that the butterflies aren't attached to the top lid and doesn't have to pop up every single time hahaha. But otherwise, the packaging is smooth and nice, very compact for the amount of product inside the box.

Aren't the colors just beautiful? They all have a shimmery glittery sheen to them and I really like the shades of teal/grey/blue since that's my favorite color to experiment with on my eyes (when I'm not doing a neutral eye). Since I already have so much makeup I was trying to convince myself NOT to get it, but now that I have it, I'm glad I do! Click to see CLOSER UP pictures and swatches on my skin!

NOTD China Glaze's Sea Spray

Just wanted to share a quick NOTD that I did a little while ago :). I used China Glaze's Sea Spray as the base and then used Milani's Art Lacquer with Precision Brush in Black and then White to create the dandelions. I dabbled a little bit of the white polish on the index and ring finger to give an effect that the dandelion seeds are blowing away haha :) Living in LA, I'll never be able to look out my window to see snow during the Christmas Season. So who needs snow when you've got dandelions to wish on?? ;)

<3

My Winter Season 2011 Nail Polish Picks!

I've been really busy with finals coming up but I just wanted to do a quick post on my nail polish picks for this season :)! If you've seen my mauvey-grey nail polish post, you all know that I'm really into muted grey or pale colors for this season. So when I compiled 5 polishes together for this post, they all turned out to be very pale earthy tones. Here's a picture of my picks:

Can you tell which brand of nail polish is my favorite?? ;) Click to see swatches of the nail polish on my nails! And a mini review on each polish.

NAKED PALETTE 2!

Have you guys heard?? There's a NAKED 2 Palette from Urban Decay! If you haven't heard of the craziness of the original Naked Palette, the original palette has been a bestseller by Urban Decay since Summer of 2010, when it first came out. I was lucky enough to nab one of the first palettes that came out in store and I've been enjoying it ever since. The original consists of 10 shimmery shades with a two matte shades, but the palette is perfect for a natural eye or even for a smokey eye. The new palette consists of 9 shimmery shades and 3 matte shades (one of which is a matte black)!

Click for more pictures and my thoughts!

FOTD 11/23/11 Night of Dance Show!

Ah this post is so late! I meant to put it up earlier but as it's almost time for finals (quarter system..) I haven't had the chance to. Anyhow! A week ago, I posted up a picture of one of the dancers whose makeup I did for her dance show :) Remember the sparkly NYX Glittermania I used?

Well, here's a picture of the makeup I came up with for myself on that same night. I just went for a soft smokey eye that still looked natural without going too overboard. Sorry it's a little blurry! :(

Here's the list of the makeup I used and a small explanation of how I used each product:

Mauvey Grey NOTD 11/26/11 and Polish Comparisons!

Today I decided to finally take off my grey and black striped nail polish and put on a new coat of polish! This fall, I've really been into mauvey greys. I took a picture of some of the choices I had in nail colors:

They all are in the similar family of purpley greys, but are all different in their own way. Click to read more on each color and to see what I came up with for my NOTD (Nail of the Day)!

Dance Show Makeup 11/23/11

Yesterday was a huge dance competition event that I went to.. And I did the makeup for some of the girls who were dancing up on stage! Just wanted to quickly share what I came up with :) Used alot of sparkle and glitter, she loved it! Here's a picture of her finished look:

CLICK to read about how I did the look! :)

FOTD 11/20/11

This is a look that I actually tried to follow from a tutorial I watched last night while I was sick in bed :( hahaha I woke up this morning and tried to remember all the steps, but ended up improvising a bit with the colors! Here's what I came up with:

It turned out to be a smokey taupey-brown eye look with a smudged darker grey outer corner! The video I used that inspired me to try out this different eyeliner technique was from MakeupByAlli, one of my favorite makeup gurus on YouTube! I embedded her video at the end of this post! :) <3

Here's a picture of the products I used and list of how I used all the products:

FOTD 11/19/11 UCLA Football Game Night!

Today was the last and final football game at UCLA's home stadium, The Rose Bowl! My friends and I decided to go and tailgate so I came up with a gold and blue eye makeup look to go with the spirit of Bruin colors :) Here's what my makeup looked like:

And here's a picture and a list of all the products I used and how I used them!

NOTD 11/17/11

Last night I was in the mood to do some nail design. This is what I ended up with!

Here's a clearer picture, a list of the products I used, and an explanation of HOW I did it! :)

FOTD 11/17/11

Last night, I decided that I wanted to switch up my everyday products. I was almost hitting pan on some of my shadows and I just wanted a new everyday eye look! And plus, there were so many shadows in my storage that I wasn't taking advantage of! Here's a list of my swap:

Put away:
1. Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink
2. my MAC quad with Wedge, Typographic, Sable, Woodwinked
3. MAC shadow in Dreammaker
4. Bobbi Brown Cream Shadow in Sandy Gold
5. NARS duo in Charade

Swapped with:
1. Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner in Chocolate Shimmer
2. Maybelline Quads in Chai Latte & Natural Smokes
3. MAC shadow in All That Glitters
4. Bobbi Brown Cream Shadow in Stone
5. CoverGirl's Quad in Pure Romance

Here's the look that I came up with today :) ... Please excuse the wet hair :P

Here's a list of the products I used:

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter Swatches Pictures and Mini-Review

There's been a crazy rave over these new Revlon Lip Butters so I had to go out and see what it was all about! I saw a couple videos on them already so I just picked out the colors I thought I'd wear the most. But I'm already loving the formulation and the pigmentation - maybe I'll go out and get some more..

I found a really big counter at my local CVS displaying all the currently available colors (12 or so?) and on the other side of the counter was another mini-display containing a couple more of each color. Right now there's a Buy 1 Get 1 50% off so go take advantage of the deal! Unfortunately I couldn't find Strawberry Shortcake, but here are the ones I did find:

1. Creme Brulee

2. Cupcake

3. Peach Parfait

4. Cotton Candy


Here are more pictures, swatches, and my reviews:

Sephora 11/12/11 Haul

After receiving my Sephora VIB Holiday Shopping Event - 20% coupon for the entire weekend of November 10-14, I knew that I had to stock up on a couple things. So much for saving until Black Friday! Hahaha :) But I've been in serious need of a new Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink so I went to Sephora only thinking I'd walk out with just that.... And then I came out with 3 new Bobbi Brown products! Here's a picture of what I got!

1. Bobbi Brown's Rich Lip Color SPF 12 in Mod Pink 13

2. Bobbi Brown's Long-Wear Cream Shadow in Stone 24

3. Bobbi Brown's Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink

Loreal Lineur Intense in Carbon Black = Disaster

As I said in yesterday's CVS Haul post, I was super excited to try out Loreal Lineur Intense Liner in Carbon Black! But when I opened it, I was so shocked to find that the felt-tip applicator was BENT and the felt was deteriorating and flaky. Here's a picture:

Here's a review on this disaster and what I chose as an alternative!

FOTD: 11/11/11

Just wanted to do a quick FOTD (Face of the Day)! Really quick and simple eye look:

Here's a list of the products I used:

CVS Haul 11/11/11

Happy 11.11.11 :)

So this morning I received a coupon through my e-mail for CVS: $4 off of a purchase of $20 or more! I decided to take advantage of it since I had a couple things I needed to buy and stock up on anyway. Here's what I got:

Here's a list of everything I got and mini-reviews!

CoverGirl LipPerfection in Delight Review & Swatches!

Ever since I started working, I found that I could experiment more with my lip color, rather than limiting myself to the muted or natural lip color when I'm at school. This meant... time to buy a new lipstick!!


So I went to Walgreens looking for a new lip color that won't be too bright but a color that will still add color to my lips. Since I already have CoverGirl's LipPerfection in Delish (beautiful peachy nude color), I knew that this formula was something I could count on and I was right! I've already gotten a bunch of compliments on it! 


This color really adds a nice sheen of pink infused with fuschia to your lips and it's really buildable. The first swipe on the lips actually more like wash of tinted gloss and then after swiping another time, the color really starts to pop. It's not too dark or too light and it really adds color to my face (I'm about a NC-35 or 40 in MAC foundation). It's pretty moisturizing but I always add a layer of either my EOS lipbalm or Nivea Milk&Honey on underneath to add even more moisture because I find that lipstick in general dries out my lips by the end of the day. Even when I wipe off the lipstick, it still leaves a hint of color, which shows it really does last all day! Yay for not having to reapply this every 5 seconds :)


Overall, I really have enjoyed this lipstick so far and I love how it doesn't settle into the cracks of my lips, but actually makes my lips look smooth and glossy.


Grade: B+

Baking/Nail Polish Party!

Sleepovers mean baking and nail polish parties :) These are pictures from last night:

 1. Freshly simmered raspberry jam teaspooned in the center of the muffin batter (which contains more freshly crushed raspberries!)

 2. Topped with freshly grated lemon and sugar!

 3. Straight out of the oven! Looks like an explosion of delicious raspberry muffin to me!

And nail design that I did for my friend! Hahahah she wanted a 1-up mushroom from Mario. Purple polish with gold and white dots!

My Eyeshadow Collection

So rather than writing my midterm paper for one of my English UD courses... Of course, I decide to waste time and lay out all of my eyeshadows for no apparent reason and just snap a picture of it. I don't even think this is all my eyeshadows hahaha but here it is! I don't know some of the names for them because I'm at work ooopss.

Here's a list of my eyeshadow collection!

NOTD for my roommate :)

While I'm at it, just decided to post a picture of my roommate's nails. I used China Glaze Recycle for her right hand and Milani white+Recycle for her left. The stripes were made using Milani's thin brush polishes.

In the picture, recycle looks way more grey then it does in person. In certain lighting, it looks grey with a tinttttt of green. So pretty.

I love stripes designs on nails. My fav :)

NOTD 5/21/11

Nails of the week :)

I used China Glaze IV and Milani's white to make the stripes and Color Club's silver nail art thin brush polish.
This is the first time I used IV and I reallyyy loved the application. Wasn't streaky at all and it's such a nice pinky coraly color. Seriously. Love.

CoverGirl Eye Enhancers Eyeshadow Quad in Pure Romance Review & Swatches!

Hi everyone :)

So after missglamorazzi on YouTube recently raved about CoverGirl's eyshadow quad in Pure Romance, I had to go out and buy it myself to see what it was all about. Have you guys seen her Valentine's Day tutorial and her February favorites? She's wearing this quad in those two videos and I love her eye makeup look. It's a pretty, shimmery, neutral purple/pink $5 quad with a small sponge applicator.

At first, I was so excited when I looked at the colors.. I could imagine a really pretty neutral smokey eye with it. But when I swatched it on my hand I was a little disappointed. I'm around an NC-25 and the darker muavey/purple shade would NOT show up on my hand! (You can see that in the swatches below). When I actually applied it onto my eye, however, all of the colors showed up subtly and softly. I really like how the small glitters/shimmers in each eyeshadow. It gives the eyeshadows a bit more dimension than what they really have.

The pigmentation isn't really all that great and the colors are a bit chalky if you pick up too much product. But for it being a drugstore quad, I would say it does the job for what it's worth. I would say that my favorite color is the muavey plum medium purple (yes, even though it barely showed up on my hand) because when applied, it has a pretty grey/purple shimmery color that really makes brown eyes stand out. Also, the dark chocolate brown color looks a little daunting at first but don't be afraid to apply it with a slightly heavier hand. It blends super easily!

I actually really like this quad for an everyday look :). I've already gotten a couple compliments on how the purple eyeshadow brings out the brown in my eyes! I definitely recommend using a primer though! I don't know if I would rebuy, but it's a quad that's compact and easy to carry around if you're traveling or something.


The top row is without a primer. Bottom row is swatched over UDPP (Urban Decay Primer Potion).


Overall: B

NOTD

For this design, I used China Glaze's Re-fresh Mint and Milani's white thin brush polish. I guess it's just in time for St. Patrick's Day! :)

I really loved the concept of the inverted colors on the ring finger nail. But I don't think I'd be able to handle it on all nails hahaha :l