A Break From Makeup: I'm Loving This New Wine and Paint Party Trend!

Lately I have been seeing on Facebook that so many people are attending these classes where you basically drink wine while being taught step by step how to paint a picture.  Right from the start I was enamored by this concept as wine and paint are two things I love! Therefore when my mom asked me to go with her to a fundraiser wine and paint event I jumped at the opportunity!  I live in a very small town and the fire hall that hosted this part was PACKED.  They had to book a second class after the initial, because it filled up so fast.  Because I had such a great time I thought I'd share with you all my experience.

So here is the original image that the lesson was based on.  I think my experience was a little different than the classes at the studio because it was a fundraiser.  Usually wine is BYOB but for this event it was supplied by the hosts I'm assuming.  We bought our tickets early so we got a 2 hour paint lesson, a decorated wine glass, and two glasses of wine for $40.  Lessons at the studio are $40 and BYOB, and I'm not sure on the wine glass situation.  Anyway we all sat down at an canvas that had 3 paint brushes, an apron, a paper towel, and a cup of water.  

This is a step by step progression compilation of our paintings.  The instructor stood at the front and walked us through each step. Another employee was going around the room providing extra paint to anyone who needed it.  We all got a squirt of red, blue, yellow, brown, black, and white on a paper plate.  This meant we had to mix all colors on our own.  As you can see my mom and I deviated from the original color scheme, as did a lot of other people.  The instructor said this was fairly unusual and was pretty excited that we were all being so unique.  The instructor herself was very patient and clear in her instructions.  I didn't think her picture was that great but it is very possible that she did not do her best as to prevent making the participants feel bad about their work.

Here is a close up of my finished image.  I chose to make the vases resemble Erlenmeyer flasks because I'm nerdy and ridiculous.  I opted to not write the words as my handwriting is horrendous.  I want to go in with a sharpie and add measure lines to the vases to really drive home that science theme. Some of the details I added on my own based on the original.  For example the instructor did not explain how to do colored shading.  Instead she just had the class ad the black line down the middle of each petal and a white highlight.  She also did not have us do the black and white details on the brown background. Additionally she did not say to slant the middle of the outside flowers to create a perspective of them facing another direction.

And here is a picture of my mom and I with our paintings!  To put this in perspective, I paint from time to time but I only do portraits, this was my first time every painting a flower.  My mom has never picked up a paintbrush IN HER LIFE.  She has zero artistic ability or experience and she was still able to keep up and produce a nice painting.  Therefore do not let your lack of artistic ability deter you from giving this a try.  You might be surprised with what you create!

I hope you enjoyed my wine and paint experience.  The specific studio that taught this class was aMuse Uncorked.  I live in a pretty small town but there are at least three of these studios within a 45 minute drive of my house, therefore you should hopefully not have a problem finding one near you!

Have fun, drink wine, and get painting!

MAC Rocky Horror 3D Black Glitter and Its Various Uses

Because the MAC Rocky Horror 3D Black glitter was so insanely pretty I had to snag it!  However I didn't really think about the fact that I have never used loose glitter before. Luckily my mom had a lash glue she wasn't a fan of so I've been using that to apply it, but I've since ordered Urban Decay's Bondage which works much better. Anyway, I've been experimenting with some different things and wanted to share my crazy antics! These techniques can easily be used with any loose glitter out there, doesn't have to be this one. Enjoy!

Here is the glitter in all its awesomeness...so pretty.  It has black, silver, green, red, blue....you name it, it will shine that color depending on how the light hits it.  I love it!

First up is simply using it as an eyeliner!

If you do this BE VERY CAREFUL. You do not want glitter in your eye it will suck very badly.  Just please be careful when using glitter around your eye....

This glitter can really glam up an eye look in an instant. So fun! However I think it prefer it under my eye rather than above. To do this I put glitter adhesive on my winged liner and patted the glitter over top with a small brush.

I find it much safer to use the glitter as an eye liner under the eye to minimize the chances of a spec damaging the cornea.

Next I'm going to use it as an eyeshadow enhancer.

I picked up Urban Decay's Bondage in order to use this glitter more effectively and discovered that it also works fairly well to create an all over sparkly eye shadow effect. I'm sorry I didn't do any close ups for this but up close it just looks...strange.  From a normal distance covering your eye lid in this glitter creates a super enchanting look.  However getting up as close as my camera does it looks very strange. 

To do this I lightly coated my entire eyelid with Bondage using the brush in the lid.  I was able to put it right on top of the eyeshadow I was already wearing and it didn't mess it up at all. Next I took a eye shadow brush and lightly dipped it in the glitter then carefully patted it onto my eyelid.  It suck really well and didn't budge until I took it off with makeup remover!

This glitter can seriously glam up an eye look in an instant. So fun!

Moving away from the eyes, next up is glitter lips!

A little less practical...but super fun nonetheless. Just be careful not to eat too much of it.  I did not put a lip gloss on top but if I ever wore it out I probably would in order to keep the glitter from going in my mouth or on my chin.

Mmm look at those sparkles.  To do this I put the 3D Black over NYX's Simply Vamp Lipstick in Temptress. To apply I simply patted the glitter onto my lips with my finger. This may be more practical if you use less glitter with some lip gloss.

And finally the last use I have for my glitter is as a nail polish.

This is super easy to do and the results are amazing.  I love my nails right now. To keep with the theme I put the Rocky Horror glitter on top of my Rocky Horror nail polish in Bad Fairy. 

To do this simply mix the glitter and a top coat or clear nail polish on a piece of plastic, then paint away!  I would recomend doing this with a cheap clear polish as you tend to have to use a lot, it also wastes some glitter, but there is so much of it in that jar I'm not really worried.

I hope you now have some fun new techniques to try with your loose glitter.  Have fun and don't get it in your eye!

Happy Halloween From This Happy Ghoul!

Happy Halloween everyone!! Yay! On this super awesome day I will be sharing with you my trial run ghoul makeup for a Halloween themed swing dance party I'm going to next week.  I will also be doing my boyfriend's face to match mine and we will be swanky swing dancing ghouls together.  We are going to be so cute I can hardly stand it!

So let's start out with my happy face! Haha! It's always so weird to smile in this kind of makeup.  I do want to mention that I darkened the background of all these images to stop them from being too bright.  A ghoul walking around in broad daylight isn't scary at all!  No editing was done to my actual face however :P

Please excuse my greasy hair, I did this before getting a shower.

Assume creepy living dead pose!

To achieve this ghoulish look I covered my entire face and neck with NYX's eye shadow single in Whipped Cream.  I bought this eye shadow just for this occasion because it's a pure white matte, pigmented, and not too expensive shadow.  I then took Bruise by Detrivore Cosmetics and put it all around my eyes, being careful to slightly contour along my upper nose. I also used Bruise to contour my cheeks. Its the perfect dead person blackened purple. Next I took NYX's gel liner and smudger and did my best to put on my lid and lower lashline.  I do not own a matte black (how!?)...but don't worry I'll be going to Sephora and getting one soon! Then I took Gonzo from the Urban Decay Electric palette and messily and lightly blended it around my mouth and under my eyes. The final shadow I used was Aphrodite from the BH Cosmetics Galaxy Chic palette and blended it in above Gonzo on my eyes and did some extra nose contouring. The cracks were drawn using the NYX gel liner and smudger with a small liner brush. The final touch was putting a tiny dab of MAC Russian Red on the inside of my lips and blending it out into the blue. 

I love this one because my face looks so gaunt.  This was so fun to do and I can't wait to see it on my boyfriend and in our fancy clothes. I plan on trying to make my chest and arms slightly white with some cracks to really get a full effect.

This final pictures I had a bit of fun with in Photoshop.  I severely darkened the background, toned down the yellowness of the indoor lighting, and messed with the levels and contrast a bit to make myself look extra creepy :)

I hope all your costumes are awesome and your makeup is perfect. Have a great Halloween! :)

Urban Decay Pressed Pigment in Gonzo from the Electric Palette on my Lips

I feel like I haven't done one of these in forever!  Here is yet another shade from the Electric Pallete on my lips! This time I patted Gonzo on my face....and its probably one of the worst so far.  It just refuses to cover evenly and instead goes on very very patchy.  Oh well, I probably wouldn't wear such a bright blue outside anyway.

This shadow in general tends to not want to apply evenly so Its not that big of a shock that it doesn't want to work on the lips either. However there is a silver lining to this post......

On a whim I picked up a pink lip gloss and.....BAM

Awesome, shiny, even dark blue lips.  This color is lovely and I'm so glad I did this. After applying Gonzo I applied my Pop Beauty lip gloss in Peony Petal over top until all was evenly blended.  Win!

Pokemon Symphonic Evolutions Makeup

This past Friday I attended Pokemon Symphonic Evolutions in Philadelphia!  I had a great time even though I wish they would have played more songs from Gen I and II. Anyway I decided to wear my Pikachu Link Pokemon shirt to the event and used the Electric Palette to do a look to match!

To create this look I patted Thrash all over my lid, then I put Urban in my crease.  Next I lined my lower lashline with Freak and then patted a bit of Revolt on top of Thrash for extra sparkle.  I finished with a wing and mascara.  I really liked this look and absolutely love doing super colorful looks with this palette. <3

Here is the shirt in all its epic glory.  On my lips is an Ulta lip liner in Punch with Be a Bombshell lipstick crayon in Hot Damn over top.  

Sparkly Purple Smokey Eye Tutorial

I've never done a tutorial before so since I knew I'd be doing this look twice, once for a trial run, and again for the concert, that it would be a good opportunity to attempt something like this.

1. I covered my entire lid with Urban from the Electric Palette

2. I put Blackheart from Naked 3 on my lid

3. I lined outer part of lower lashline with Starlooks gem eye pencil in Topaz

4. I drew a double wing with Jesse's Girl liquid liner in black

5. I made a small line under the bottom wing with a discontinued purple Urban Decay Heavy Metal liner

6. I highlighted under my brow and on the inner corner with Strange from Naked 3

7. I finished the look with Urban Decay's Perversion mascara

Hope this was decently easy to follow!

White and Black Double Wing FOTD

I was bored one evening and decided to take some time and just mess around. I started with a pretty standard neutral eye and added a wing.  Then I reached for my Ulta liner in Halo (after some quick browsing it seems this doesn't exist anymore.  Any sparkly white liner will do however) that I haven't touched in an extremely long time and this just kind of happened. In addition to adding the wing I also brought the liner across my entire upper lash line right above the black liner and then around my inner corner.

I kind of really love it. It looks so interesting and at least in the mirror makes my eyes look huge! On my lips is NYX round lipstick in Castle again because my boyfriend told me he likes it on me so I've been wearing it quite often :P

This was so fun and easy to do, I definitely recommend giving it a try.  Its a neutral look that adds a bit more flair to your every day makeup.

<3__)~