EOTD: Madd Style Cosmetics "Sunshiney Bright"

Yesterday, on the Madd Style Cosmetics facebook fanpage, the lovely Tarra asked if anyone had swatched or used the newer Penny Arcade. As she posted that, I was making a crazy spreadsheet database of all of my MSC colors and had just thought to myself: "Self! You should do something with Penny Arcade today!". Clearly I was meant to play with some yellow.

Penny Arcade is described as "a shimmery canary yellow with purple glitter". It is the brightest MSC yellow that I own so far--the only one that I don't have yet is Pop Tarte (which I've been hesitant to buy because I already have a matte yellow from another brand) and by the looks of the website pictures, Pop Tarte is brighter--but Penny Arcade is flipping gorgeous!!

Here is a close up just of Penny Arcade:

Isn't that purple glitter NEAT?!

The look I put together looked like this:


Products used:

• Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics (OCC) Skin: Primer mixed with MSC Awesome Sauce as a primer.
• NYX Eyeshadow Base in "White" applied over the primer as a base.
• Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide on Pencil in "Yeyo" applied to the lower lash line and on the waterline.
  
• MSC Penny Arcade on the lid.
• MSC Thunder Snow as a brow highlight and to blend out Penny Arcade.
• MSC Phantasm applied to lower lash line (over the UD pencil).
• MSC Karma (which was a limited edition colour--but I bet the new Kozmosis would look killer in its place) applied to the water line (over the UD pencil).
• Urban Decay's Ink for Eyes in "Zero" as upper lid liner.
• Barry M "Intense Black" Mascara 3 in 1 as mascara applied to upper and lower lashes.

Hope you like it! :)

Damn you, Blogger!

Over the past three days I've gotten THREE new subscribers!

*waves to the new subscribers!*

Sadly, I don't know who you are because Blogger isn't loading anyone's "follower" list.

*sigh*

So you three will remain a mystery to me until Blogger decides to work properly. But I welcome you just the same. :)

Madd Style Cosmetics: Lucky Emerald and Amethyst

I posed the question to the Madd Style Cosmetics facebook fanpage the other day about which colours the fans would like to see used in a tutorial. The wonderful Angela H. suggested that I do something using the Dark Crystal collection and I willfully complied!!

The Dark Crystal collection was inspired by different precious jewels (Sapphire, Citrine, Opal, Emerald, Ruby and Amethyst). There are 10 collections listed on MSC's Etsy page still! It is currently on sale for just $18!! Those of us who already snagged one are surely very pleased with the purchase, and you will be too!! For those of you who are link phobic, it looked something like this:


For this look/tutorial I decided to play with the Emerald and Amethyst piggies! If you want to find out how to achieve this look:

(Photo taken without flash.)

Please keep on keeping on (with the reading).

First, gather all of the relevant supplies!

(Left to Right: Barry M "Intense Black 3 in 1" Mascara; MtCoffinz "Under the Rainbow" primer; NYX Eyeshadow Base in "White"; Madd Style Cosmetics piggies in (starting clockwise from the palest green): Lotus Bloom, Emerald, Amethyst, Birfday Suit and Lucky (this colour was sold with the Sham ROCK collection, but if you don't have it, you can substitute it for a medium/light green colour); small eyeshadow brush; pointed crease brush; slanted/angled brush; angled eyeliner brush; concealer brush/small synthetic eyeshadow brush; Urban Decay's Glide-On 24/7 pencil in "Yeyo". *whew!* *takes a breath*)

To begin, prime the lids. For this tutorial, I used my newest primer: MtCoffinz's "Under the Rainbow". So far I am very happy with this primer--it's stickier than my one from the All Natural Face. I took a fun picture of it just because I love it so much:


ANYWAYS. To apply it. Rub your ringer finger on the top of the product. Then, dab it into the center of your eyelid. Next, blend it out over the entire eyelid, up to the crease, down into the inner eye/duct area and the lower lash line. You want to make sure to have nice and even coverage of your primer as it will help your piggies stay in their place and not crease! All good things to have happen!


Then, to help brighten your piggies and really help them "pop" against your eyelid, apply a base. As usual, I used my go-to white base, NYX Eyeshadow Base in "White". Applying this is identical to the method I use for my primer. Ring finger on product, dabbed into the center of the lid, and then blended out across the whole lid (up to the brow, down into the duct area).


Now your lid is ready! Yay!

For the first piggie--grab Lotus Bloom (it's described as a "buttery sea foam green with a shimmery aqua duo-chrome") on your brush. Swirl your brush around on the inside of the pot's lid (to evenly distribute the pigment throughout the bristles of your brush) and then pat the colour on to the inner 1/3rd of your lid. Also, pat this colour down to your duct area. Patting or pressing the colour on, rather than sweeping it, will help to minimize fallout and will help you keep all of the pretty glitter on your lid.


Using the same brush, get some Lucky on your brush. Pat this color on to the middle...3/5ths of your lid! (Ha...math...it doesn't need to be exact...just leave some of your outer most lid empty!) I forgot, somehow, to take a picture of the exact "end" placement of this pigment, but you'll get the idea in the next picture! Gently blend Lucky into Lotus Bloom by patting the line between the two colours with a bit more Lotus Bloom (or Lucky, whichever you prefer).


Changing brushes to a pointed crease brush, dip your brush into Emerald. Swirl it around on the inside of the lid (as usual) and place it on the outside corner of your lid (see where Lucky ended up?!). Then, keeping your eye open, sweep/pull the colour from your outside crease into the middle/inner crease. By keeping your eye open, you concentrate the colour into the deepest part of your crease and you won't end up with dark green going up to your brow bone (unless you want dark green up to your brow bone--then by all means, do what you gotta do! :) ).


At this point, you'll be looking something like this:


Next, for the lower lash line, you're going to switch brushes again. This time, grab a small concealer brush (or small synthetic eyeshadow brush) and dip it into the NYX Eyeshadow base. CAREFULLY (you'll notice on the left picture that I wasn't so careful) place this along your lower lash line. You can use a white eyeliner for this step, but my white eyeliner ALWAYS get stuck in my eyelashes, so I tried this out to be different. Then, grabbing an angled eyeliner brush (pictured in the middle, obviously), dip it into Amethyst. Then apply this (by patting the colour on) over the white line you just applied to your lower lash line.


For a highlight, change your brush again. I have been on a roll with using this goofily shaped slanted brush from OCC lately. Dip the brush into Birfday Suit (my mostest favorite highlight as of late)--a light matte nude--and apply it to your brow bone. Use the colour on the brush to fade on the line between the Emerald and the crease to help soften the overall look.




To finish off the look, if you so choose, you can line your waterline with a white eyeliner pencil to help open up your eyes a bit. The waterline is the part of your eyelid between your lower lashes and your eyeball! Don't poke yourself. And try not to pull on your lid! Once you get used to doing this, you can just gently pull the pencil along your waterline without even touching your lid with your other hand--just let the pencil do the work and don't be afraid! I like to use my UD pencil in "Yeyo" for this because it's not an opaque white--it ends up being more of a shimmery white that you only see some of the time. It's subtle, but great.

(I do not know why this picture turned out so fuzzy!)

Apply some mascara--and then, you're finished!!

(See on the picture on the right how the lower lash line has that gleen? Yeah, that's the Yeyo magic I was referring to!)

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! If you need any extra clarification on any of the steps, let me know! And I hope you'll head on over to check out this neato spreadsheet I put together to help keep all of the Madd Models' tutorials in one place and organized by tutorial type, colours used, etc.

And last but not least--if there is a colour you are dying to see used--let me know! I probably own it. ;)

MtCoffinz Review

I was so excited yesterday to see my very first MtCoffinz cosmetics package waiting for me in the mailbox when I got home! Jinx, of MtCoffinz, is mainly involved with making clothing and accessories, but just recently she has launched her own cosmetics line. Here is a wonderful note that Jinx posted on the MtCoffinz Facebook fanpage that explains the philosophy behind her cosmetics brand. In the note it is explained that she does not hand craft the cosmetics products herself, they are produced in a sterile lab. The colours, textures, shimmers and product size are all up to Jinx and from what I can tell from my first order, she definitely has all of her proverbial ducks in a row. A bonus about the MtCoffinz makeup is that it is hypoallergenic, paraben and fragrance free. And of course--they do not test on animals and so far--ALL of their eyeshadows AND their primer are 100% vegan! Yay!

The official launch of the cosmetics line was on May 11th. Jinx explained that due to an error in the sizing of the boxes for the pressed eyeshadows (the boxes were cut too small) that the store would be opening with 20% all prices on shadows and primers! Of course, I put in my order that morning. (Remember that I said I received it yesterday (Friday)?! FAST SHIPPING HOLY SMOKES. I am very very pleased about that!) There was also a little bonus that if you bought a certain amount of shadows, you'd get a little surprise. I ordered four pressed shadows and the Under the Rainbow primer.

My package arrived in a standard bubble mailer:


And inside were these things (little hand touches like the "Thank You" on the tissue paper is a lovely surprise):


I am going to apologize right now for the blurry photos. When I was taking them, the screen on my camera misleadingly convinced me that these pictures were more clear than they turned out to be! I promise that the product itself is NOT fuzzy. :P

The MtCoffinz business cards are adorable. Rainbow wonderfulness on the left hand side and a star cut-out on the top right. CUTE.


The bonus that I received (because I ordered four shadows) is a nifty little MtCoffinz pouch. Rainbow stars! The cuteness continues!! This pouch is a great size--it will fit a lot of stuff in it! (It's roughly 7 inches X 9 inches!)


And the inside is a super bright (awesome) green:


I'm going to begin with the primer. If you've been following me for a while...then you know my dilemma when it comes to primers! (Don't know what I'm talking about? Read here and here and here AND here--seriously. Primers cause me A LOT OF STRESS!) The MtCoffinz primer, called "Under the Rainbow" came to me packaged like this:


It regularly runs for $14. You get 7.5gms of product for this price. I would say it's DEFINITELY worth it.

The bottom of the pot has all of the ingredients listed:


And the product looks like this:


It is kind of similar to the All Natural Face primer that I use as far as how it's packaged and how I apply it--but THIS primer is definitely more tacky and so far I have experienced pretty great results with it helping my shadows NOT to crease. YAY FOR THAT. (At the end of this review I'll attach some pictures as evidence.) It does have a "concealer" type scent to it that seems kind of strong in the pot, but once it's on your lids...you don't notice it? Heh. If you want to know more information about this product, there is a super clear note posted on the MtCoffinz FB fanpage.

On to the shadows! They come packaged in these cute little boxes (blurry picture, I know, I know!). The backs say: "Lavishly pigmented Pressed Eyeshadow in brilliant colors to take you from day through night. The silken texture allows you to achieve the bold looks you desire." Like the primer, the shadows, too, have a note on the FB page. You can read it here. The shadows are regularly $10 a pop--and for that you get 4.5gms of product.


Here is the packaging of the shadows themselves. The tops have the MtCoffinz logo printed on the tops, the tops themselves are hinged, and the bottoms list the ingredients. The cool thing about these is that there is a sponge brush hidden in a compartment so you can do emergency touch ups! I didn't take a picture of that, so you'll have to find the brush for yourself. :)


I bought Gossip. It is described as a opaque white with soft pearl tones. The texture of this one is SUPERB. So silky smooth. When I run out of this one, I will be ordering it again FOR SURE.


I also picked up Nocturne--a matte black. I find the texture of this one quite "hard" to the touch...which isn't unusual for matte pressed shadows, I have come to realize.


I ALSO grabbed Fallen--a dark blue with black undertones and teal shimmer.


And last: Veruca (I am SUCH a sucker for purples!!). Veruca is described as a deep purple with black undertones and pink shimmer.


I actually managed to get decent swatch pictures of them! Swatching is hard for me, for some reason!! These were all swatched over the Under the Rainbow primer. As you can see--Gossip KICKS ASS. Nocturne is a bit on the pale side--which isn't necessarily bad for a black--sometimes you want a softer black! Veruca and Fallen show up great here and the purple/blue tones definitely show nicely.


And just for one more look at them:


The other nice little touch--inside each eyeshadow box and included with my primer are little star stickers with cute little sayings on them. Such a nice thing to find!


I immediately cracked my shadows opened and played with Gossip, Veruca and Fallen. These are both with the Under the Rainbow primer and NYX Eyeshadow base in "White" under the shadows.

Gossip + Veruca

Gossip + Fallen

Gossip applied like a freakin' dream. While Veruca and Fallen are both pretty colours in the swatch pictures, I find they photographed and applied a bit more similarly than I was hoping. I do use the flash for my photos, but you can't really distinguish these two colors from each other, unfortunately. I'm going to try applying them with different brushes next time to see if I can make the purple and blue tones come out more on my eyelid. BUT. What impressed me SO MUCH is this damn primer! The above two photos were taken at 8:26pm.

And these were taken at 12:17am (so only about 4 hours later, but STILL). This is the Fallen eye on the left and Veruca on the right. You can see a tiny bit of wear--but let me tell you all--these are the best results (HANDS DOWN) that I've gotten from a primer since ceasing use of Urban Decay's (un-vegan) Primer Potion!

(This one can be enlarged quite a bit by clicking on it--so you can see up close the primer's results.)

I wasn't completely sure if these results were due to the primer alone or if the shadows themselves just had great staying power--so today I used the primer below my Madd Style Cosmetics pigments. I applied my makeup around 1:52pm and at 5:49pm it's looking just as good. So again, just around 4 hours. But I'll try to snap some pictures of around 8 hours a bit later in the evening.

So far I am very happy with my purchase from MtCoffinz cosmetics. I think I will need to pick up a few of their brighter colours--probably Nemesis and Rumor--cause they look awesome, RIGHT? :)

Madd Style Cosmetics: Mango Italian Cream Soda Inspired!

The Madd Style Cosmetics Models got together again this week to decide on a theme for a look we could all do. This week's topic: soda! I haven't had soda in quite some time (5 years almost exactly, actually), BUT when I was a teenager/young adult there was a little cafe in my hometown that I absolutely loved to go to and my favorite thing to get there was the mango Italian cream soda! The drink kind of looked like this:

(I stole this lovely picture from this site: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Italian-Cream-Soda)

I'm not sure what flavor the above drink is in--the mango one I would get was orange-ish similar to this, but it also had a cherry in it! For my look, I came up with this:


To find out the steps I took, keep on reading. :)

The supplies I used:

(Left to Right: NYX Eyeshadow Base in "White"; The All Natural Face Shadow Primer in "Buff"; Barry M Intense Black Mascara; Madd Style Cosmetics piggies (from the white and then clockwise): "White" from the Up in Smoke collection, Strange Potion, Birfday Suit, "Ruby" from the Dark Crystal collection, and Boognish (now discontinued, but the new Rambozo would work out splendidly!!); eyeshadow brush; angled liner brush; slanted brush; Make Up Forever's "Eye Seal".)

Start with clean lids and then prime and apply a base. To read more detail on how I do this very important first step, take a look here. As in my blog explaining this step, I used The All Natural Face primer in "Buff" and then applied NYX Eyeshadow Base in "White" over top of that.


Then, grab an eyeshadow brush. Dip it into your favorite white (since the white I used here was part of a collection that is no longer offered--a good substitute would be Sparkle Motion) and swirl the brush around on the inside of the pot's lid to pack the pigment into the bristles. With a "pat" type motion, apply the colour...pat pat pat...to about the first 2/3rds of the lid. Also, bring the colour down into your duct area. The reason I used this white was because of it's high sparkle factor--I thought that could stand in for the "sparkling" water ingredient of my Italian soda!


Using the same brush and the same swirling into the lid technique, dip into Boognish. Apply this colour on the outside 1/3rd of your lid (as displayed in the middle photograph) and then blend it out and up into the crease. Blend it towards the white as well. To blend, don't use "swiping" motions because this will cause mass glittler loss (OH NO!). No, instead--just like how you pat the colour on to the lid, pat to blend. Gently pat towards the white without putting any new product on to the brush. This will create the nice fade that is displayed in the last photograph.


Because I remembered my Italian sodas having a bit of a pink quality to them--probably because the cherry colouring bled out into the liquid!--I used the same brush and dipped it into Strange Potion. Strange Potion is such a lovely colour--it's an orange with a pink duochrome and depending on what kind of brush you use to apply it, you can bring that pink out more--as you will soon see!! Back to application--I put a bit of Strange Potion on to that same brush and just patted it on to the spot where the white and Boognish blended together.


For the lower lash line, grab an angled liner brush. Dip it into Strange Potion and apply it to the outer half of your lower lash line. (I neglected to take a picture of this step after I finished, but you'll see it in later pictures!) The neat thing about using the angled brush is that with that different amount of pressure, the pink tones in Strange Potion really come out. (The first look picture in this blog really shows how that pink duochrome comes out. Go and take another look at it!)


For a highlight, I chose my new go-to-highlighter, Birfday Suit. It's a matte nude colour and I love applying it with this funny slanted brush that I got from OCC. I dipped the brush into the pigment and dusted it below my brow bone--gently blending it down into the white and Boognish to soften that line at the crease.


For liner I wanted to do something red to represent the cherry that always accompanied my mango Italian cream soda. Using a slanted/bent brush (the one I have is actually a paint brush, but there are makeup varieties of this type of brush as well. I squeezed out a drop of the Make Up Forever "Eye Seal" on to my mixing surface and mixed it with the "Ruby" colour until I got a consistency that I liked. Then I applied it to my upper lid and winged it out a bit at the outside. (I plan to do a more descriptive blog about how I do liner some other time, stay tuned for that!).

Apply some mascara, and then it's complete!!

(Without Flash)

(With Flash)

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you're a little thirstier now than you were when you started reading it. :)

As always, if you have a Madd Style Cosmetics pigment that you want to see me use or you have a particular look in mind that you want to see me do a tutorial on, let me know in the comments section!

Madd Style Cosmetics: Yellow to Red!

I was very excited recently to get my first "can you please recreate this look and make a tutorial of it" request from the Madd Style Cosmetics FB Fan Page! So a big thank you to Angela for seeing this picture...

(All pictures can be clicked on for larger versions.)

and wanting me to recreate it using a yellow that is still available through the MSC shop. In the above look I used "Blister in the Sun" for the yellow, but it is now (sadly) discontinued. Angela requested this look because she has "Kick Ass" (the red you see above) and she wasn't sure what to do with it. This is the first time I've ever actually tried to recreate a look that I had done in the past, so it was a fun exercise!!

To begin--gather the supplies!

(Left to right: Gabriel Color Mascara in "Black"; Urban Decay Ink for Eyes in "Zero"; The All Natural Face Eyeshadow Primer in "Buff"; NYX Eyeshadow Base; Madd Style Cosmetic piggies in: Neverending Summer, Kick Ass, & your favorite white (I used "Columbia" from the Rocky Horror Picture Show collection, but MSC's newest white--Thunder Snow--would work out great too!); small eyeshadow brush; large angle brush; pointed crease brush; fluffy fluffy blending brush; pencil-style brush.)

Start with an eye that has been primed and prepped. For a detailed view on how I do this, check out my most recent blog.


Grab a small shadow brush, dip it into Neverending Summer (a lovely yellow/gold), swirl the brush around on the inside of the lid to pack the colour into the bristles, and then pat pat pat it on to about 2/3rds of the lid.


To soften the line at the crease, take the brush again and gently blend the colour up! You don't have to worry too much about this step, because you're going to be doing more crease work later. But I like to keep things pretty neat as I go along. :)


Then, taking a large slanted/angled brush--dip it into Kick Ass (a deep red with red glitter) and pat the brush inside of the lid to pack the colour into the bristles. I tend to experience quite a bit of fallout with Kick Ass--so don't put too much of this one on your brush at once! You can always add more later. Then, place the brush at the outside corner of your eye at an angle that suits you. In my original look, I used a quite sharp angle for the red--in this version, the angle was a bit less sharp. You can play around with it though! If you've never tried this kind of placement before, it's a good rule of thumb to follow the angle of your lower lashline--imagine that it continued going up towards the end of your eyebrow. That is the angle that you want.


To finish with the general shape you're going after, take more Kick Ass on to the same brush and fill in that gap between the Kick Ass angled line and Neverending Summer. Then take even MORE Kick Ass on to the brush and run it along the outer 1/3rd of the lower lash line.


Now we're gonna get blendy with it!! Grab a pointed crease brush and dip it into Kick Ass--swirl it into the lid, and carefully blend Kick Ass toward Neverending Summer on the lid and then up into the crease.


And to create more of a yellow-to-orange-to-red gradient, using the same brush, dip it into Neverending Summer and blend the other way back into Kick Ass. Do the same thing in the crease--with more Neverending Summer on the brush, go from your inner eye, up into the inner crease, and blend with the Kick Ass that is up there in the crease.


Depending on your tastes and if you like the rather harsh line at the end of Kick Ass--you can leave it as is (in my original look I left it a sharp line). I decided, this time, to blend it out a bit to soften that line. Using that same magical pointed crease brush, run it along that line to blur it just a tad.




For the highlight, I switch to an extra fluffy blending brush and dipped it into Columbia (which isn't available any longer--but grab your favorite highlight!) and brushed it along my brow bone. The reason I like Columbia for this purpose is that it's quite sheer so you don't end up with a sparkley sparkly brow bone, but it still adds a nice finish to the look since it's a rather bold look to begin with. Using the same brush, I also applied a smidge of Columbia to my ducts and blended up from the inner eye to the crease/inner brow area.


To finish up the lower lash line, switch to a pencil-style brush and dip it into Neverending Summer. Apply that colour from the inside of the lower lash line over to where Kick Ass begins. Blend those two colours together slightly.




Liner + Mascara! For the liner I used Urban Decay's Ink for Eyes which is a cream eyeliner. I used the little brush that it comes with and kept the line quite thin on the inner part of my eye, but made it thicker at the outside of the eye. And as usual, I applied my favorite mascara: Gabriel Color.


Annnnnnnnnnnd your look is complete!

(Without flash.)

(With flash.)

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you're inspired to dig out those red and yellow pigments and throw them together on your eyelid! If you have any looks you'd like to see recreated that I've posted on Facebook--let me know! I'm always happy to tell you how I made it happen.

This is also a very exciting day for Madd Style Cosmetics--they are celebrating their 1st birthday! YAY! There are several new colours, a brand-spankin' new collection, a new fancy logo, a 20% Sale code (MADDBDAY) and three new Madd Style models have been inducted into the Madd Cats club!! Head on over to the Facebook fan page or the Etsy page to take a gander at all of the pretties. :)