My friend's giveaway!

Hiiii all you lovely readers!!

My wonderful friend, Tiffany, is having a SUPER DUPER 100 followers giveaway on her blog right now! It ends on Wednesday, so you better go enter it right now!!

Here's the link.

You're welcome. :)

Madd Style Cosmetics: Outer Space

Hi Everyone!!

For today's tutorial, I decided to take a different colour-spin on the EOTD I did that was inspired by Vintage or Tacky's "Poison Cupcake" tutorial. I like to recreate looks that I see on youtube to show how Madd Style Cosmetics piggies can help you achieve awesome results! Mixing up the colours a bit is also a fun exercise! Don't be afraid to be adventurous. :)

My wonderful friend Jackie said that this version of the look reminded her of "Space"--hence the name I chose for the tutorial! (Thanks, Jackie!)

If you'd like to find out how to get this look:


Please keep on reading!

Start off with some supplies.

(Top to bottom, left to right: Milani Power Lash mascara in "Black"; Inglot Gel Liner in "77" (black); Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on pencils in "Zero" and "Yeyo"; NYX Eyeshadow Base in "White"; Too Faced Shadow Insurance; Madd Style Cosmetics Pigments (clockwise from top left): Sub Zero, OHM, Grape Fizz, Birfday Suit, Sparkle Motion, and Space Oddity; Smoky Liner brush; Domed Crease brush; Small Shader brush; Slanted Contour brush; second Smoky Liner brush; small artist brush.)

As always, begin with clean eyes!

Next, apply your primer and bases. I put a small amount of Too Face Shadow Insurance on a ring finger, rub my two ring fingers together, and apply the product in an even (and very thin!) layer to my whole lid (up to the brow), down along the lower lash line and in the duct area. Similarly, I dab the NXY base all over the lid (using my ring finger) and gently blend it up toward the crease. Apply the white liner along the lower lash line and to the tear duct area.


You should have something like this!


Now--on to the colours! Taking a smoky liner brush (or pencil brush), dip it into MSC's "Space Oddity" (a lovely deep navy colour with silver and holographic glitter). Swirl your brush around in the lid of Space Oddity to evenly distribute the pigment through the bristles--this will help reduce fall out! Place the brush at the outside corner of your eye and place it into your crease. Concentrate the most colour toward the outer portion of the eye! To to this, don't apply more colour to the brush as you go from the outer to the inner crease--just use the colour that is on the brush in the first place. I also like to keep my eye open (as you see on the right) when doing this step--that keeps the colour from going too far up toward the brow!


When this step is complete, you should have something like this:

(Don't worry too much if the Space Oddity travels down to the lid area--I have a tricky solution for that coming up!)

Switch to a domed crease brush and dip it into Space Oddity. Swirl the brush in the inside of your lid--as you did before. With this brush, you're basically bringing the colour out further toward your brow in that outer half of your crease (as you see in the middle picture). Then, switch back to the smoky liner brush and blend the Space Oddity out a bit in the inner crease to meet up with where you left off in the middle of the crease. You want the colour to be more blended out in the outer half of the eye--and then it should taper thinner as you get toward the inner crease.

Now--if the Space Oddity traveled a bit to your lid area--don't worry! Using the tip of your ring finger--apply a bit more of the NXY base just to the lid area. Hooray, all fixed!


Now for the lid! Take a small shader brush (here I'm using my new bdellium tools brushes, again! <3) and dip it into the wonderousness that is MSC's "OHM" (a magical light purple with a super amount of gold shimmer). Press the colour into your bristles using the inside of the piggie's lid. Apply this colour (by "pressing" it on) to the center of your lid.

(Isn't it just GOREGOUS?!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Using the same brush--dip it into MSC's "Grape Fizz" (a dark grape purple with multi-coloured shimmer). Apply this colour to the parts of your lid that you left empty. Blend it into OHM slightly just by "patting" toward the colour and then back and forth at the line where it meets with OHM.


Switching back to that domed crease brush you used to apply Space Oddity--dip it into MSC's "Sub Zero" (a pale blue with a violet duochrome). Apply this colour along the edge of Space Oddity to help it "fade" out toward the brow.


Using your smoky liner brush (again!), dip it back into Space Oddity and apply it along your entire lower lash line. Then, take a black liner (I use my trusty UD liner in "Zero") and line your waterline.


For the brow highlight, grab a slanted contour brush and dip it into MSC's "Birfday Suit" (or any matte shadow that matches your skintone). Apply this under the brow--paying close attention that it blends seemlessly into the Sub Zero you had previously applied.


Lastly, using a clean smoky liner brush, dip it into MSC's VERY sparkly "Sparkle Motion". Apply this to the duct area--being careful to blend it into the Space Oddity at the lower lash line and up into the inner lid/inner crease area.


Apply some black liner at the upper lash line, apply mascara to the top and bottom lashes--and ta-da! You are finished!!


I promise--I even did this to *both* of my eyes! :)


I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!!

Which MSC colours you would like to see me use next?!!! :)

EOTD: Company Mash-Up X 2 (Sugarpill, Madd Style Cosmetics & MTCoffinz)

Hi!!

Tonight I couldn't decide what I wanted to do...so I ended up doing two different looks!! Both looks heavily feature Sugarpill Cosmetics as I wanted to see how their loose "chromalusts" would perform over my Madd Style Cosmetics "Awesome Sauce". They fared pretty darn well, if I have to say so myself!!

First eye:

(Click on picture to enlarge!)

Products used:

• MTCoffinz "Under the Rainbow" primer
• Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-on pencil in "Yeyo" to line the bottom lashes
• Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-on pencil in "Zero" to line the waterline and to tightline
• Madd Style Cosmetics "Awesome Sauce" applied to lid--to act as a glitter adhesive/foiling medium
• MTCoffinz "Charisma" applied with a fluffy brush into the crease
  
• Sugarpill "Magentric" applied to lid and blended in with the crease colour
• Madd Style Cosmetics "Birfday Suit" for brow highlight
  
• Sugarpill "Midori" applied to lower lash line
• Sugarpill "Tipsy" applied to outer 2/3rds of lower lash line
• Madd Style Cosmetics "Kiss with a Fist" for a duct highlight
• Upper lash line lined with both Barry M's "Wink" marker and NYX Super Marker
• Milani Power Lash in "Black" for mascara

Eye #2 looked like this:

(Click on picture to enlarge!)

Products used:

• MTCoffinz "Under the Rainbow" primer
• Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-on pencil in "Zero" to line lower lash line, to tightline, and applied to waterline
• Sugarpill "Afterparty" applied to crease
• Sugarpill "Darling" applied to lid
• Madd Style Cosmetics "Subzero" to blend out the "Afterparty"
• Madd Style Cosmetics "Birfday Suit" for a brow highlight
• Madd Style Cosmetics "Time Warp" on lower lash line
• Madd Style Cosmetics "Groovie Ghoulie" for a duct highlight
• NYX Super Marker to line upper lash line
  
• Milani Power Lash in "Black" for mascara

That's the end! I hope you all enjoyed these two looks! :)

Follow me through email alerts, if you dare!

Hi Readers!

I just added a new "gadget" to my blog! It's over there, on the left! It will allow you to receive alerts through your email when I publish a new post! Neat, right?!

If you're so inclined--sign on up!

:)

I have a Fyrinnae package that I've been meaning to review--so look for that in the near future!

EOTD: Madd Style Cosmetics Metallic Liner/Cut-Crease

Good Evening, Readers!

During my 100 Followers Give Away--the lovely Beth Br00tality requested (and I quote!): "i'd love to see you nail the fall trend of the metallic crease liner. i can't find a picture of it, but it's LIKE winged liner, except it comes back around to the crease and is hollow in between the two." Tonight I decided to attempt this feat!

Granted--it would have been more "fall" appropriate had I went with a copper liner/crease colour and maybe like a gold/orangey lid. Do I have a metallic copper colour? I don't think I do. I'm *pretty* sure that all of the Madd Style Cosmetics metallics I have are gold and silver. And you all know I'm a sucker for purple. So silver it was!

Here's the look I came up with:

Products used:

• Too Faced Shadow Insurance for a primer.
• NYX Eyeshadow Base in "White" as a base--all over the lid and blended out up toward the crease.
• Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on pencil in "Yeyo" in the outer 1/3rd of the lower lash line and in the duct (as a base for the duct highlight and lower lash line liner).
• Madd Style Cosmetics "Petal Parade" applied to the first 2/3rds of the lid.
• Madd Style Cosmetics "Purple People Eater" applied to the outer 1/3rd of the lid.
• Madd Style Cosmetics "Silver" (from the Up in Smoke collection) applied to the crease.
• Make Up Forever "Eye Seal" used to foil MSC's "Silver" and applied with an artist paint brush to the upper lid as a liner.
• Madd Style Cosmetics "Opal" (from the Dark Crystal collection) applied to duct area and used to blend out the "Silver". I also just took this colour up to under the brow as my brow highlight.
• Madd Style Cosmetics "Silver" applied to outer 1/3rd of the lower lash line.
• Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on pencil in "Zero" to tightline the outer 1/2 of the upper lash line and used to line the waterline.
• Milani Power Lash in "Black" as upper lashes mascara.
• Gabriel Color mascara in "Black" for lower lashes.

And that's it! :)

Madd Style Cosmetics: Three Colours, Two Ways

Hi there, readers!

The other day, on the Madd Style Cosmetics Facebook Fan Page, one of the girls was talking about Witch's Brew (the green that is part of the "House of Horrors" and I mentioned that I bet the colour would look great with Soylent Green. Both of these greens have gold sparkle to them and thus they're a natural pair! Then I got to thinking that it would be fun to do a tutorial where I use the same colours in the same way (using the same brushes and techniques), but switch up the placement to create two totally different looks.

These two looks were then born!


The following tutorial will be how to achieve the look on the right, but as I'll explain at the end--the look on the left was achieved using almost exactly the same techniques, but switching up the placement of the lid colours. Hopefully by the end of this tutorial you'll understand that the same colours and same techniques can get you daytime or nighttime looks, it's all just a matter of placement!

To begin, collect all of your supplies!

(Top to bottom, left to right: Gabriel Color Mascara in "Black"; Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on pencils in "Yeyo" (white) and "Zero" (black); NYX Eyeshadow Base in "White"; Too Faced Shadow Insrance; Madd Style Cosmetics Pigments: Witch's Brew, Soylent Green, Silver Haze and Birfday Suit; Bdellium tools brushes: #777 (Shadow), #781 (Crease) , #769 (Angled Contour) and # 716 (Smoky Eyeliner).)

As always, start with a clean eye!

Then you're going to prime your lid and apply a base for your Madd Style Cosmetics pigments. I put a small amount of Too Faced Shadow Insurance on a ring finger, rub it together with my other ring finger, and apply this all over my lid (up to the brow), down in the duct area and along my lower lash line. Wait a few seconds for this to set, then apply the NYX Eyeshadow Base in an even (thin) layer to your eyelid--blend it out slightly into the crease area. Put a bit of the product into the duct area, as well. Lastly, apply the Urban Decay pencil on the outer half of the lower lash line.


This is what you'll have:

(Try to keep the white pencil off of your lashes, if you can!! I never can seem to!)

To begin, grab a shadow brush. Dip it into Witch's Brew (a very neat dark green with gold shimmer/glitter) and pat this colour on to the whole lid area. You'll definitely want to be careful to pat pat pat this colour on as any kind of "swiping" motion will lead to sever gold glitter loss! Using some Awesome Sauce on the lid would also help to get the glitter to stick, so if you have some Awesome Sauce, I'd suggest using it as well (after your base is applied, smooth a VERY thin layer of Awesome Sauce over your lid and wait a minute or two for it to dry)!


Switching to a pointed crease brush, dip it into Soylent Green (a gorgeous minty green with gold shimmer) and apply this to the crease. Starting at the outside corner of your lid, apply it all the way around the edge of Witch's Brew.


What you'll have at this point is something like this:


To blend these two colours together, you're going to use the same brushes you just used to apply them, but layer them over the "seam" of where the two colours meet. Start with Witch's Brew--dab it higher up into the crease to start blending it into Soylent Green.

(Be careful not to end up with a "bald" spot--like I have in the center of my lid! Awesome Sauce would have helped with this, I promise!)

Using that same pointed crease brush, go back into Soylent Green. Apply this over the Witch's Brew you just applied into the crease area.


If you do end up with a bald spot--don't worry! Just go back into Witch's Brew and dab it over that bald spot! :)


For the lower lash line, apply some Witch's Brew to a pencil brush or smoky eyeliner brush. Pat this colour over the Urban Decay pencil. Taper it toward the middle of your lower lash line so it's a bit thicker on the outside of the lash line and gets thinner toward the middle. Make sure to "connect" it to the Witch's Brew at the outside corner of your eyelid.


Flick any remaining Witch's Brew off your brush and then dip it into Silver Haze (a light silvery jade colour with yellow undertones). Apply this colour to your duct area and slightly "blend" it upward to meet up with the Soylent Green in the inner crease.


At this point, you'll have something like this:


For the brow highlight, take an angled contour brush and dip it into Birfday Suit (or any matte shadow that matches your skintone). Apple this under your brow and blend it down toward the Soylent Green. I also like to take the colour out to the outer corner to help shape and blend out the colours at that outer edge.


Since Witch's Brew is such a strong and darker colour, I decided to line my waterline with a black pencil. You don't have to do this, if you don't want to! I think it helps pull the look together. I also applied the pencil to the outer half of my upper waterline. By only applying it to the other half, I find that helps to widen my eyes and also to darken those outer lashes--which helps to wide the eyes. To get the pencil to "stick" to your waterline, you can set it by using an angled brush and patting a matte black shadow over top of it.


Curl your lashes and apply a black mascara.

(Yep! I have the new Urban Decay lash curler, I love it!)

Here's the final look!


And *then* this is what it looks like with the lid colours (Witch's Brew and Soylent Green) reversed!

(The only thing I did differently for this look is that when I applied Witch's Brew into the crease--I angled it out a bit to create a soft "triangle" at the outer part of my lid (I kept the crease colour more "rounded" in the darker version of this look). I also applied "Yeyo" (a shimmery white) to my waterline. Otherwise everything else is exactly the same!!)

I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial! I think I might do something similar to this in future tutorials, if you all find it helpful. :)

Bdellium Tools "Green Bambu" Review

As you all know, I am *always* on the lookout for vegan (synthetic bristled) makeup brushes. I, somewhat recently, became aware of a company called Bdellium Tools and their seemingly awesome looking "Green Bambu" line. The Green Bambu line is described as a series of brushes that are "professional eco-friendly makeup brushes with all sustainable bamboo handles and all vegan soft synthetic bristles with an anodized aluminum ferrule." Bdellium uses bamboo as it is a fairly sustainable resource (did you know that bamboo apparently grows a foot a day?! That's nuts!). The brushes from the Green Bambu series are also not treated with any kind of antibacterial agent and Bdellium boasts that their "synthetic bristles are hypoallergenic and 100% cruelty-free." Sounds like something I should be trying out, right?

There are three different Green Bambu sets available on the market today and I was lucky enough to scoop up ALL three in a pretty fantastic sale on Amazon.com. Hooray for me!

Now on to the photos/review!

The shipping containers for the sets is awesome. The brushes are packed safely inside of these cylindrical (and pretty darn sturdy) plastic containers. These are worth saving (as far as I am concerned) as they'll come in handy for traveling with your brushes. Inside the cylinders, each brush is inside of a plastic sleeve--this products the bristles from getting smooshed during the shipping process.


This is the "5 pc. Smoky Eye Set". It contains (photographed left to right): the #706 Liner/Brow, #716 Smoky Liner, #777 Shadow, #769 Angled Contour and #781 Crease brush.


Next up, the "5 pc. Mineral Set". Again, photographed left to right: #942 Precision Concealer, #778 Large Shadow, #787 Tapered Blending, #942 Slanted Contour and # 959 Powder Blending brush.


And lastly, the "4 pc. Foundation Set". It contains (left to right): #953 Duet Fiber Foundation, #948 Foundation, #957 Precision Kabuki and #955 Finishing brush.


In the following pictures, I took them using a tripod--and each photograph has been re-sized at 40%. So this will give you an idea of how the size of each brush compares!

5 pc. Smoky Eyes Brush Set

First up, the #760 Liner/Brow. This is a TEENSY little brush. The point the bristles come to is very fine so I think this would work out awesomely with gel liner!

Next is the #716 Smoky Liner brush. This one is similar to my Sephora brand "Pro Smoky Eye Brush". It's nice and stiff, but also flexible. I should also mention that these brushes are about 2 centimeters shorter than any of my other brushes. The ferrules are the same length as any standard brush, but the handle itself is shorter. I've used 4 of the 5 "Smoky Eyes" brushes and I didn't notice the short handles--so them being shorter doesn't make them "weird" to use or anything!


Then we have the #777 Shadow brush. This one is almost exactly the same as my Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics #008 brush. And let me tell you--I LOVE my OCC #008 brush. I was pleased as punch to get a dupe for it in this set. Especially since the OCC brush costs $20--and I didn't even pay $20 for this WHOLE Smoky Eyes set! I win! The #777 brush is soft and the bristles are nice and uniform.


The #781 Crease brush is a great one. It is very similar to my Alima Pure #36 Pointed Crease brush. I also really love my Alima Pure brush, so I can see myself using the #781 A LOT. It's a good brush when you want a lot of control in the crease. If it were any fluffier, things could get out of hand (and easily!), but this is a nice way to get a colour right into the crease and nowhere else!


The last brush in the "Smoky Eyes" set is the #769 Angled Contour. This one is similar to another OCC brush that I have (#005)--but it's a bit smaller. If you follow my tutorials, you will recognize this style of brush as one that I love to use for doing my brow highlight colour. In an upcoming Madd Style Cosmetics tutorial, I will be using the #769 for that exact purpose--and it works like a charm. The #769 is nice and soft (as are ALL of the Bdellium tools brushes).


This is what the #769 looks like up close.


5 pc. Mineral Brush Set

I have not actually used any of these brushes yet--I'm slowly planning to dip my feet into the land of "face" (besides the eye) makeup!

To begin, the #934 Precision Concealer. It's soft and small! I like that the bristles are fairly long as I think it would help with getting the concealer into those tricky spots like around the eye and nose.


Then, similar to the #777 (but bigger) is the #778 Shadow. These types of brushes are great for really "packing" on the loose eyeshadow pigments on to your lid. This one is soft and the bristles are packed quite densely. It's super!


The #787 Lg. Tapered Blending brush is one of the reasons I got excited about Bdellium tools in the first place! I don't own a brush like it!! It's duo-fiber and NEATO. I haven't actually used it yet, but I'm excited to! It's very soft and I think it'd work out great for blending out the crease colour. Or I've heard it being used as an "eraser" brush--I'm curious to find out more about that!


Then comes the #942 Slanted Contour brush. It's slanted, that's for sure! And it's DENSE and SO SOFT. Gah! These face brushes have really inspired me to get into wearing blush!


Here's a close up of the #942.


Last in this set is the #959 Powder Blending brush. When I first took this one out of its plastic sleeve, I just wanted to constantly play with it. The tip is so nice and rounded. Like the #942--it is VERY dense and very very soft.


Here's what the #959 looks like up close.


4 pc. Foundation Brush Set

The #953 Duet Fiber Foundation is up first. Because I'm new to face makeup--I'm not exactly sure how to use this one. I think it might be good for cream products. It's another duo fiber brush and is so very soft.


The #953 looks like this, close up:

(Doesn't that just look SO SOFT?!)

Then we have the #948 Foundation brush. It's your pretty standard foundation brush! (Except that it's a shorter handle (like all of their other brushes), don't forget!)


The #957 Precision Kabuki brush. It's a flat top brush and soft soft soft.


Closet up, the #957 looks like this:


Lastly, you've got the #955 Finishing brush. It's kind of a "goofy" brush--or at least I find it kind of goofy! I think it's meant to...finish...obviously. So for a setting powder, perhaps? It's not very dense, but it's nice and fluffy. (Which I think is how finishing brushes probably should be, but for some reason I still just think this brush is goofy!)


The #955 looks like this, closer up:


Here they all are--lined up in a pretty row:


All in all, I am very impressed with these brushes. I'm especially impressed that I got them all for under $40!!!! I'd suggest keeping an eye out for them to go on sale through Amazon.com. Because, really, you just cannot beat that price. The fact that the brushes are so nice just sweetens the whole deal!

Look out for future tutorials where I will get these babies good and dirty. :)

Have you tried Bdellium brushes? What did you think? Do you have any tips for how I can use the face brushes? I'd *love* to hear your feedback on that one!

P.S.: The other (and last!) great thing is there are lots more individually sold "Green Bambu" brushes. I certainly have 1 (or 5?!) on my wishlist!