Look of the Day: Wet n Wild Spoiled Brat

 

My makeup for 3/21/11:

Products used:

Face:

Revlon Colorstay Foundation
NYX Concealer in a Jar
L’Oreal True Match Pressed Powder
Physician’s Formula Happy Booster Powder (Highlight/Blush)

Eyes:

ELF Mineral Eye Primer
Milani Liquif’eye eyeliner – Silver (as color base)
Wet n Wild eyeshadow trio – Spoiled Brat
ELF Cream liner – Gunmetal (used as liner underneath the black eyeshadow)
Maybelline One by One mascara
Physician’s Formula Happy Booster Powder (as brow highlight)
NYX Automatic brow pencil
Maybelline Great Lash clear mascara (for brows)

Lips:

Revlon Super Lustrous lipgloss – Pink Pop

Nails of the Day–Green Stripe Manicure

Without flash

With flash

 

For this manicure, I used China Glaze Entourage as the base (the bright green), waited for it to dry, then applied strips of regular clear tape diagonally across all my nails. On top of that, I applied a generous layer of Zoya Ivanka (the darker, sparkly green) then immediately peeled the tape off. After it had dried a little, I put on a top coat. Currently I’m trying out China Glaze Fast Forward. I like it so far, although I don’t like the smell much; it’s different from regular nail polish and Seche Vite.

This manicure was really easy and only took awhile because I let the first green dry for quite awhile before putting the tape on. I definitely recommend trying it! Regular clear tape (I have the cheapest version I could find, some generic brand from Target) worked much better than the electrical tape I tried last time I did a tape manicure since it’s easier to get it pressed flat onto the nail, resulting in less of the top color seeping through.

ELF Studio Products–Review and Swatches

Cream Eyeliner – Gunmetal

Lip Stain – Birthday Suit

Swatched on my hand

Lip stain on my lips (before I applied gloss)

 

The cream liner is very creamy and lasts well on my lids (I always set cream liner with powder; I haven’t tried it alone), however I do feel that it applies pretty sheer and takes a layer or two before it looks how I want it to. For $3, I’m not really complaining, though.

The lip stain is easy to apply, but takes a really long time to dry on the lips. Barely any gloss comes out each time I remove the wand, I need to re-dip the wand several times to get anything on my lips! As a result of too little product, I have noticed that it can sometimes pull the stain color back off with it. I’ve had much better luck when I just use the stain and then a different gloss. I definitely do not recommend using this product if you have dry lips as it can settle into flakey areas and highlight them, which no one wants! I do love the color. Pale pink is pretty much my nude, after all.

Covergirl Lipstick–Temptress Swatches

I had some Covergirl coupons and some CVS extrabucks so I picked up this lipstick today. I love pink lips and this one was in between the very pale and very bright pinks I have. Although it feels a bit drying on its own, it wears pretty well and I love the color, so overall I am not disappointed.

Milani Nail Polishes

My collection of Milani Nail Polishes! I’ve gotten all of mine from CVS. I think these are really nice polishes with great payoff. The one-coat glitters are definitely gritty and require a topcoat so it doesn’t feel like you have sandpaper nails! The holographic ones are really awesome as well. Of the three I have, I think Hi-Tech (the green one) has the best holographic effect. The nail art polish is very easy to use; I have used it to do my tips multiple times.

L-R: One Coat Glitter – Silver Dazzle, Ruby Jewels, Neon – Fresh Teal

3D Holographic Polishes: L-R: Hi-tech, HD, Digital

Nail Art – Draw in Pink

Sonia Kashuk Small Duo Fibre Multipurpose Brush

When I noticed Sonia Kashuk had duo fiber brushes, I had to get one! I’ve been curious about this type of brush for awhile but I never wanted to pay a lot and didn’t see any affordable options. I decided to go for the smaller size because it seemed more versatile, and it was $10.99 instead of $12.99.

Side by side size comparison with the ELF Studio Flat Top Powder Brush

Sonia Kashuk Foundation Brushes

Since I love my regular Sonia Kashuk foundation brush so much, I was excited to try this new foundation brush! I think it will make blending around the nose and under the eyes easier. It’s really densely packed, just like the regular foundation brush.

Pointed Foundation Brush

Side by side comparison of the pointed foundation brush I just got with the regular foundation brush I’ve had for several years. Apparently they’ve changed the shape and size of the brush handles. I’m not sure if it’s for the better yet. They seem kind of thick, but it might not be too bad.

The pointed foundation brush is AMAZING. I have never gotten my foundation to blend so well - I have tried my fingers, the foundation brush pictured above, a duo fiber brush, and a blending sponge. It fits around my nose and under my eyes perfectly and is really dense, but yet soft so it doesn't hurt or irritate the skin at all. I highly, highly recommend it!

Look of the Day: ELF Silver Lining Palette

Products used:

Face:

L’Oreal True Match Foundation
NYX Concealer in a Jar
Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder
ELF Studio Blush – Candid Coral
Physician’s Formula – Happy Booster Powder (as highlight)

Eyes:

ELF Mineral Eye Primer
ELF eyeshadow palette – Silver Lining
ELF Studio cream liner – Gunmetal
Maybelline One by One Mascara

Lips:

ELF Studio Lip Stain – Birthday Suit

I used the pinkish shade (top right in the palette) as the main lid color, the purplish shade (bottom left) in the crease, the palest shade (top left) as brow highlight and in the inner corner. I used the cream liner along top and bottom lashes, then set with the grey shade in the palette (bottom right).

ELF Eyeshadow Quad–Silver Lining

Upon my return from spring break I noticed my Target finally got an ELF section! I picked up a few things, including this $1 eyeshadow quad called Silver Lining.

It has very good color payoff. I just got it so I haven’t used it on my eyes yet, so I don’t know how well it lasts, but so far I’m impressed! Gorgeous and fairly unique colors. And for only $1!?

Nails of the Day: Blue and Silver

The blue polish is Revlon Top Speed : Royal
and the silver is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear : Celeb City

The blue looks gradient, but that wasn’t on purpose. I find the Top Speed polishes a bit thick and hard to deal with. I think I’ll try thinning it out next time because the color is really gorgeous. Celeb city is almost opaque with one coat and very easy to work with, so the tips were easy to do.

Zoya–Green Nail Polishes

When I saw that Zoya was having a St. Patrick’s Day special where you could buy a trio of green polishes for $5 total, I decided to go for it! I love nail polish and hadn’t tried Zoya yet.

L-R: Suvi, Shawn, Ivanka

I’m dumb and didn’t do both photos in the same order…whoops. This one is L-R: Ivanka, Shawn, Suvi.

Shawn looks really unique and gorgeous in the bottle but it swatches so much darker! I haven’t tried it on my nails yet, but it seems like it’ll still look very dark. It’s still pretty but looks nothing like the bottle suggests. The other two are gorgeous. I don’t think my photos do Ivanka justice. It’s much brighter and more green in person but I could not get that to come off in photos! They’re all gorgeous shades.

My only real complaint about the polishes is that I think the brush is really small. I feel like I have to re-dip the brush and go over my nail so many times with these!

Nails of the Day: Tape Manicure

Base(blue): China Glaze – Shower Together
Top layer(yellow): Revlon Top Speed – Electric

This manicure was inspired by a video from sayanythingbr00ke (http://youtu.be/TUmln2Fv_UA)

I cut up a bunch of strips of electrical tape (just because I had a lot of it) and placed them randomly over the completely dry base coat, topped it off with a thick coat of the top layer, then immediately peeled the tape off. Once it was dry I put on a topcoat. This was my first try doing this type of manicure. It’s really easy! Next time it’ll probably look neater, though. Sometimes I forgot to press the tape down so some of the yellow got underneath it.

Almay Wake up Makeup - Review

I was curious about this new makeup from Almay so I picked one up from CVS. Unfortunately, it was very disappointing and I ended up returning it a few days later. Not only is there hardly any coverage, but this powder is glittery! It’s very unflattering and strange looking to have glitter all over the face! I did think it was interesting how the product felt moist even though it was a powder, but I really don’t think it did anything good for the appearance or feeling of my skin. The one thing I did really like was the brush. I wish this was sold separately because I think it would work really well as a foundation brush. The hairs are very densely packed and it’s a good length of hairs. It would be perfect for travel since it gets so compact and protects its hairs. However, I did not feel that the awesome brush was worth keeping a $12 powder I would never use!

St. Patrick’s Day Look

Here is the look I did for St. Patrick’s day this year.



Products used for eyes:
ELF Mineral Eye Primer
NYX Eyeshadow – Lime Green
L’Oreal HIP Eyeshadow – Flamboyant (Gold)
Wet ‘n Wild Eyeshadow – Cool as a Cucumber (Dark Green)
L’Oreal Eyeshadow Single – Morning Light
Physician’s Formula Eye Enhancing Mascara – Green Eyes (Green Only)
Physician's Formula Gel Cream Liner - Grenn Eyes (Green Only)
Lips:
NYX Lip Pencil – Hot Red
MAC Lipglass – Russian Red
Face:
Revlon Colorstay foundation
NYX Concealer in a jar
L’Oreal True Match Pressed Powder
Physician’s Formula Happy Booster Powder