FOTD: More Than Just a Pop of Color

Oh my goodness I feel like I haven't done a face of the day post in FOREVER.  I get up do my makeup quick and then usually have to go do other things so I never seem to have the time to do a fun makeup look and take pictures of it.  I made it a point to do this week because this started as a makeup blog and I feel like all my latest posts have been....well not about makeup. Hopefully that will change soon. 

So I was wearing a teal tanktop with a purple sweater and felt like doing a nice colorful eye look to match. I started out with some NYX Milk on my lid to help bring out the Comet eyeshadow from BH Cosmetic's Galaxy Chic palette. Next I took Urban from Urban Decay's Electric palette and blended it into my crease and very lightly under my eye.  I deepened my outer corner with Urban Decay's Blackout and also smudged it on my lower lashline.  I then took my Jesse's Girl liquid liner and draw a regular wing, then went back in a drew another really thin one right under that, blending it in with the Blackout applied earlier.  To emphasize the space between the wings and my inner corner I dabbed on some NYX shadow in Whipped Cream.  On my lips is my favorite nude ever, NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Zurich. 

Here is an angled shot just so you can better see all my accessories.  When I match, I MATCH.

TeeFury Too Haute To Handle Pokemon Skirt

Ever since TeeFury first released their Pokemon skirt collection I wanted on sooooo badly.  However the $35 price tag seriously made me contemplate it for a long time.  I'm one of those girls that will spend a ton on makeup but when it comes to clothes anything more than $10 makes me frown. 

Well after a long hard internal debate I finally decided to make the purchase.  I was between the Too Haute To Handle and Lavender Town skirt but ultimately decided on the fire type one because I own so much purple already I thought I should be a little different by getting this maroon and orange skirt. Plus the fire type is one of my favorites! 

Well I went to purchase my skirt and....it was out of stock.  I was pretty bummed but a while later I get an ad on Facebook telling me they are back in stock, so I wasted no time and purchased it (with the 10% off code).

So here it is.  It has an adorable print featuring flames, leaves, Charmander, Growlithe, Cyndaquil, Ponyta, Torchic, Flareon, and Vulpix. I am a bit bummed that Flareon and Vulpix only exist as cut off bottoms to my skirt as they are two of my favorite fire types. Other than that minor personal graphic complaint this print is super cute! From far away it just looks like a nicely patterned skirt but up close everyone will be able to see just how ridiculous I really am. The material also seems to be high quality, which I was expecting considering the price tag.  My only other complaint about this skirt is that the Medium I bought is a bit tighter than I was expecting.  My waist ranges from 26-28 inches and a medium is 26" while a large is 29.5".  I like my skirts to fit tight around my wast so I knew I didn't want a large but the medium is really on the edge for me.  It definitely fits but I can't wear it anywhere else besides on the smallest part of my waist. Something right in the middle of Medium and Large would have been absolutely perfect.

Here is a close up of the pattern,

And another.

And here is me awkwardly posing for you. As you can see I have to wear it pretty high up on my waist, which is generally where I wear most of my skirts anyway, but I'm not sure I could wear it without spanks or leggings as it gets kind of short wearing it up that high.

I can see this looking very cute this Fall with a 3/4 length sleeve black top, black tights, and black boots.

Sorry for the quality....I have crappy light where my mirror is.

Overall I am pleased with this purchase.  The design is adorable, the quality is good, and it is definitely wearable.

I'm not 100% sure if it was really worth $35.  I think $25 would have been a bit more reasonable but alas. I don't think I'd buy another skirt but I will definitely continue to purchase their daily t shirts....I already own a few and I currently have a Kiki's Delivery Service one on the way!

Pegasus22 Jewelry Haul

While browsing the internet for jewelry for my fairy costume I stumbled upon this amazing Etsy shop, Pegasus22.  This shop carries the most absolutely stunning jewelry at incredibly cheap prices!! They are meant to be added to and customized to create your own pieces so many of them have little circles for attaching chains and other bits. 

These are the 3 pieces I picked up.  Unfortunately my before shots of these were erased when my memory card got corrupted so I don't have the original pictures and I don't want to deal with undoing my metal bending to revert them to their previous state.  You will be able to find nice pictures of all of these on Pegasus22's shop by searching the names of the pieces, so no worries!

Green Dragon Scale Regal Woodland Elven Pendant

This is the piece that introduced me to the shop. I was searching for elven like jewelry and was captivated by this piece.  I instantly knew I wanted to turn it into a choker.  Because the prices were so cheap I decided to get more than just this to make shipping a bit more worth it.

This came without the chain, I attached that later.  I love the green jewel, the yellow flecks give it such interesting dimension.

It also has a gorgeous antiqued silver look which is my favorite kind of finish for silver jewelry! I get so many compliments whenever I wear this.

Price: $4

Starry Sky Purple Opal Glass Cabochon Silver Leaf Shape Pendant

These gorgeous things came in a set of two so I knew I needed to make them into earrings! You get only the main pendant, I added the earring hooks and the little leaves.

I needed these mostly because the gem looked like a galaxy and I was just instantly enamored.

These babies area  bit bulky so when I wear them I generally do not wear a necklace as they really do take center stage, especially with my short hair.

Price: $3

Fantasy and Galaxy Oval Silver frame Cabochon Pendant

I was going to stop there but after stumbling on this pendant while on the way to check out I couldn't turn it down for the price! This gem has no texture and instead has a solid shiny finish. I chose to get it in the light grey, there are quite a few other  color options available.

I love the dimension of the gemstone.  The circle decorations are not hollow so it isn't as easy to attach anything to this, so I've left it alone.  I think it looks great how it is.  It is nice, simple, and pretty.

My favorite thing about this pendant is that it matches almost everything I own so I keep it with me in my makeup bag so I can throw it on if I ever need to look fancy on the go!

Price: $2

Overall I am extremely pleased with my Pegasus22 purchase.  If you are looking for some cheap jewelry pieces definitely give them a look. I've had these for a month or so now and have had no fading or breaking. I know I'll definitely be ordering again.  Even while I was browsing to find the names of these pieces for this post I saw even more things that I wanted!

Where to buy: www.etsy.com/shop/pegasus22

Haven Inspired Digital Art

I'm really sorry about the lack of updates.  I got some bad news recently and have been a bit under the weather.  I do have some things planned though I promise!! Hopefully I'll be posting new makeup swatches before the week is out.

In the meantime here is a picture I just painted in Photoshop!

This is inspired by Kamelot's album Haven.  I tried to incorporate elements from both the album cover and the single.  Overall I am super pleased with this picture.  I think if I try and draw more of often I can keep improving both with my sketching and my Photoshop painting skills.  

I'm Fabulous and Totally Not Sick FOTD

A few days ago my throat started to hurt and before I knew it I had a full fledged cold.  Bleh.  Life for a graduate student goes on so I slapped on some makeup to make myself feel and look less crappy. 

I wanted to really stress the bright colors idea to help mask my tired sick self.  Therefore I chose a bright mint green top and paired it with some equally bright makeup!

On my lid and lightly blended under my eye I have Shiro Cosmetic's Maiden Queen.  In my crease I blended Darkside from the Naked 3 into my crease.  I then darkened my outer corner with NYX Cosmetic's Punk Heart eye shadow to add a bit of purple.  After winging it out I added a touch of sparkle under my eye with Urban Decay's Heavy Metal glitter liner in an unfortunately discontinued shade. 

On my lips is NYX's soft matte lip cream in San Paulo.

I seriously feel so adorable today.  I think I need to invest in more mint colored clothing.  

Also Kamelot's new video was scheduled to release today so I was taking ridiculous pictures while waiting for it to finally go up.  Much to my surprise after uploading these to my laptop I check facebook and BAM, ITS UP! 

So happy!

For your listening and viewing pleasure, Insomnia by Kamelot <3

Nightwish Concert Practice Makeup

So tonight I will be going to see Nightwish, Delain, and Sabaton and I am sooo excited! Nightwish has been my favorite band since I was in middle school.  Once Tarja left I couldn't stand Annette's voice and got out of symphonic metal until just last year when my boyfriend brought me back.  I am so overjoyed that Floor Jansen is the new singer.  I loved her in After Forever and Revamp and she works with Nightwish perfectly.  I do miss Tarja's operatics but I love Floor just as much.   And then there's Marco who I've always loved.

Anyway I did a concert makeup trial run and decided to wait to post it today since there's no way I'm updating on the day of the concert.

This is my custom Nightwish shirt that I ordered from Artscow.com.  I want to do my makeup to match this as it is what I'm wearing to the show. Century Child will always be my favorite Nightwish Album. 

I don't really feel like going super dark for this show so I decided to do something a lot more colorful! I started by tracing a wing with Jesse's Girl liquid liner.  then I dabbed Fringe from the Electric Palette towards the outer half of my lid.  Then I took Cosmic from BH Cosmetic's Galaxy palette and blended that from the corner of my eye and into Fringe.  I then took Urban Decay's Blackout and filled my wing in while also blending into Fringe.  I then blended the three  colors again under my eye.  I lined my lid lightly with my liquid liner and finished with mascara! For the concert I may decide to go a bit darker with the black and line my eyes a bit thicker with the liquid liner.

I'm still not 100% sure of what lipstick to wear.  I may go pretty dark since my eyes aren't too powerful. Regardless I have to make sure to pick something that will stay all night.

I'll be sure to make a concert post again like I did after Sonata Arctica!

Sparitual Nail Polish in Off The Grid

Every time I go home I like to sneak over to my mom's room and pick out one of her nail polishes to use.  She has a ton so its always fun to try something new!  This time a certain color really caught my eye because of its intense shimmer and awesome color shifts.

That nail polish is Off The Grid by Sparitual.  I had never heard of this brand but I'm pleased with it so far.  The polish went on opaque and easily.  It also lasted a few days before chipping badly.  My favorite thing about it is the really neat color shift from blue to green to yellow.  It was hard to capture via camera but believe me when I say this color is breathtaking in person! 

Where to buy: sparitual.com, certain spas

Price: $8

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Auburn/Red

I recently started caring about my eyebrows and began filling them in using a brow pencil I got in an Ipsy bag by Chella. It worked great until it was almost gone and I also went and dyed my hair red. Therefore I set out to find a reddish brown eyebrow kit of some sort. Since NYX is one of my favorite brands it shouldn't be too surprising that I picked up.....

Yay! It comes with wax, a light brown, a reddish brown, and a mini brush and spoolie.  So cute! Now I am by no means a pro at doing eye brows.  My method might even be totally weird and wrong but its how I do it so I figured I'd share my process!

First I dip my finger in the wax and spread it over my brow to make all the hairs go in the correct direction.

Next I dip the mini brush in the light brown and kind of slowly create a defined squarish edge on my inner brow.  Luckily the mini brush is the same height as my preferred brow thickness so I just hold it vertical and fill in.

Next I dip it in the reddish brown and fill in my brows holding the mini brush horizontally  I try not to fill in too thick and I don't really do much defining here.  I just darken in the middle and let me natural brows create the edge.

Finally I take the mini spoolie and comb through my brows to blend out the powder!

And yay this is the finished product! This stuff holds up pretty well.  sometimes I will do my eye brows before bed and then wake up and go to work the next morning with perfect brows.

Overall I love this product and am really glad I picked it up!

Where to buy: Ulta, drugstore, nyxcosmetics.com

Price: $6.00

<3__)~

A Break from Makeup: Strawberry White Zinfandel Cupcakes

I found a recipe for strawberry champagne cupcakes online through a friend and decided that it was necessary to make them using White Zinfandel instead.  My friend and I recently took on the challenge! The following baking pictorial follows this recipe (mostly). 

So before we begin here is what the final product looked like! Yummy! :D

So we began by mixing the dry ingredients together.  We didn't have cake flour so we made our own by mixing normal unbleached flour and corn starch.  In a separate container we combined the wet ingredients including the Sutter Home White Zin and (almost) pureed strawberries.  We didn't have quite enough strawberries to meet the recipes requirements but the cupcakes still tasted of strawberry.

Then we were supposed to add red food coloring but of course we had none. Instead we thought it would be awesome to add blue instead in the hope that it would make purple.......it didn't. It looked like grey nastiness but luckily this didn't show through in the baked cupcakes, haha.

Putting the batter into the cupcake tins.  It was much thicker than we were used to working with.

While the cupcakes baked we simmered a cup of white zin down to two tablespoons in preparation to make the icing.

Once the butter cream icing was properly mixed we added the wine to the icing and it made a pretty light pink and AMAZINGLY delicious mixture.

Cupcakes are out of the oven and aren't grey! YAY!

Here is a final shot of our cupcakes after everything cooled and the icing was applied.  Would I do this again? Sort of.  The cake itself was decent but the icing is really where its at.  I want to put white zinfandel icing on every cupcake I ever make for the rest of forever. So. Good. I definitely recommend grabbing your favorite semi sweet wine and using it to make some awesome cupcakes!!

June 2014 Ipsy Bag Review

I'm not doing a review for May's bag simply because I wasn't thrilled with anything in it except for the sunscreen, but that doesn't really make for an exciting blog post.  Therefore I am skipping to the June bag which was wonderful and amazing.

1.Be a Bombshell Lash Out Mascara

This mascara didn't clump but it didn't offer much as far as length or volume.  The brush also isn't anything special.   This is the same price as the Mary Kay Ultimate Mascara I use almost every day, and performs severely worse. Overall its pretty lack luster and while I will use it for days I want more natural lashes but I definitely would not buy this. 

Where to buy: beabombshellcosmetics.com

Price: $15

2. Marc Anthony Dream Waves Beach Spray

I unfortunately do not have much to say about this simply because my hair isn't long enough to get any use out of it.  It does smell nice, like coconut. Once my mom gets back from Turkey I'm sure she will use it but until then it will sit around the house unused.

Where to buy: Ulta, Drugstore, marcanthony.com

Price:  $8.99 ($3.25)

3. NYX Butter Gloss in Creme Brulee

I was super impressed with this product.  I was already looking into buying one but held off when I found out I was getting one in my next Ipsy bag.  First of all I can rarely find a nude that looks decent on me but this one definitely does.  I Love the color and will definitely be pairing it with some crazy Elecctric Palette looks.  It also goes on very easily, isn't sticky at all, and feels extremely moisturizing.  I would definitely buy this because I already have gone out and bought another color! Haha!

Where to buy: Target, Drugstore, Ulta

Price: $5

4. Jesse's Girl Waterproof Liquid Liner

So I keep hearing that this eye liner explodes for some people upon opening.  Well I've opened it about 5 times and I've still witnessed no explosions.  It is a huge shame if that is seriously an issue because I absolutely adore this liner.  It is so easy to use, I can make crazy thin lines, and can do a perfect wing very quickly.  It also seems to last for quite some time.  I'll wait to see how many more people have issues with this but I'm seriously considering buying this to replace my Stila liner I used to use.

Where to buy: Jessesgirlcosmetics.com

Price: $6.99

Here is an eye look I did using the Be a Bombshell Mascara and the Jesse's Girl liquid liner.  As you can see teh liner is awesome and the mascara is...well...not. The eye shadow is Revolt, Urban, and Jilted from the Electric Palette.

5. Skinn Olive & Enzyme Cleanser

I have nothing bad to say about this cleanser.  It smells nice and seems to remove all my makeup.  It also has a more creamy consistency which I prefer over an oily runny one.  I did wake up with a pimple this morning but I am unsure if they are related.  Further testing is required.  I don't think I'd buy it but I will enjoy using it while I have it.

Where to buy: skinn.com

Price: $24 ($12)

Total price of bag: $42.25

So I got over $40 worth of product for $10.  Seriously Ipsy how are you so amazing. Haha!

If you would like to sign up for an Ipsy bag click my rat! Thanks for reading!

What was your favorite thing in this months bag?

<3__)~

I'll Be Back Soon!

Sorry for the lack of updates but my phone camera is so horrible. I decided that I would rather wait until I can submit high quality content rather than posting things that I can't be proud of.  I do have a little update for you though! Turkey has been so much fun but I am definitely ready to head home, see my friends, and start a summer job. I want to share some of my makeup looks that I have been posting to my Instagram since being here.

Look I did for an Arch Enemy concert.  I used Jilted from the Electric Palette and NYX gel liner to get this look.  On my lips is Revlon matte stain in Sultry.

Here I am wearing my new European lipstick. Its a light purple by Flormar.  I will have a more indepth swatch and review of this when I get home.

My very first manicure!! I chose OPI's Do You Lilac It? I plan on buying this color as soon as I can, I love it!

Here I wore MAC Russian Red with my Colorsmash hair chalk in Rags to Riches. I would love to get it permanently died like this....

Here i am wearing a NYX Macaron Lippie in Violet.

This is an Electric Palette look using Fringe, Thrash, and Urban.  Definitely a fan.

And this is me today! I used Shiro Cosmetics in Mother of Dragons and Not Very Effective on my eyes and then used NYX gel liner to make a double wing! This was my first time trying a double wing and I love how it looks!  I'm also wearing that Flormar light purple lipstick which happens to match my OPI nail polish.

I hope you enjoyed!

<3__)~