EOTD: Sugarpill Watermelon-y

Okay, okay.  I know!  I've been posting too much today!!  I promise this is the very last post!  ;)

After playing with Hysteric last night, I decided it was high time that I played with another of my newest Sugarpill chromalusts: Absinthe!

I came up with this look:

The strong white brow is not something I play with that often, but I think it has its place in this look.  :)

Products used:

• MTCoffinz "Under the Rainbow" primer
• Sugarpill's Bulletproof applied to the outer 1/3rd of the lid and blended up into the crease
• Sugarpill's Midori applied over Bulletproof and blended higher up toward the brow and further in toward the nose in the crease
• Sugarpill's Tipsy applied over the Bulletrproof/Midori mixture
• Sugarpill's Absinthe applied to the rest of the lid
• Sugarpill's Tako as a brow highlight, duct highlight, to set the waterline, and applied to that little "v" between the outer green and outer pink
• Sugarpill's Bulletproof as a top liner
• Urban Decay 24/7 pencil in Yeyo applied to the waterline and to line the lower lash line
• Sugarpill's Birthday Girl applied to the inner half of the lower lash line
• Sugarpill's Magentric applied to the outer half of the lower lash line
• Milani Power Lash mascara

And I think.....that's it!!

Absinthe is every bit as awesome as I knew it would be!

Google Friend Connect.

I see a lot of posts warning blog followers that GFC is going to be phased out at the end of the month. I hope that those of you who follow my blog (and like it!) will consider following through email subscription. I have set up the little widget (right on the left hand side!) that will allow you to do that.

I remember back in the day when you could just follow things *through* Blogger. Is that gone? I have no idea. Obviously I am the worst blogger ever!!!!!!!!!!!!

What do *you* plan to offer your followers as an option so they know when you have new posts?

I am all ears (or eyes...)!

Get Happy: March Happiness Project!

My lovely friend Lizzy just asked me if I would participate in a blog daily project. It's a fun theme--so why not?! (I feel like I just got "tagged" in something and that is exciting...I've never been tagged before!!)

Be prepared to read a post for every day in March about what makes *me* happy! I'll be sharing links to Lizzy's posts t00 and hopefully our posts will inspire you all to smile and be happy with us. :)

(I am also convinced that this post is somewhere in internet-twilight-zone. I posted it, I see it, other people can see it, I can google search for it--but it is not the first entry at the top of my blog, even though it's the newest one. Riddle me that!)

EOTD: Sugarpill Purples!

Hiiiii!

It's 11:53pm and I decided to do a late-nite EOTD! (Sometimes you just gotta do what's in your head, no matter what time of day/night it is!!) I had a lot of fun with this look because it was the first time using one of my newest Sugarpill chromalusts: Hysteric!


Mmmmmmmmmmmmm purples!

Product used:

• MTCoffinz "Under the Rainbow" primer
• Sugarpill's Bulletproof applied to the outer 1/3rd of the lid
• Sugarpill's Poison Plum blended over Bulletproof and into the crease
• Sugarpill's Hysteric applied to the center lid over a bit of Bulletproof/Poison Plum
• Sugarpill's Weekender applied to the outer 1/3rd of the lid
• Sugarpill's Tako applied to the inner portion of the lid and blended into Hysteric
• Sugarpill's Bulletproof applied as a winged liner
• Sugarpill's Tako for a brow highlight (and to set the waterline)
• Korres's Soft Eyeliner Pencil in "White" on the lower waterline
• UD's 24/7 Pencil in "Perversion" to line the upper waterline
• Milani's Power Lash for mascara

The end! Now to go wash it off and get to bed! :)

EOTD: Naked Cosmetics Smoky Eyes (two ways)

Hi Everyone!

This evening I decided to play with my new Debonaire Naked Cosmetics collection! The trouble was, I didn't know what type of smoky eye I wanted to do--so I just ended up doing both! :)

Both looks were applied over MTCoffinz "Under the Rainbow" primer. Both also have a black/white base of Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-on pencil in Zero and NYX Eyeshadow base in "White". Both looks also have UD's pencil in "Yeyo" as a base for the duct. Both looks have the waterline lined with UD's Zero. And last but not least, both looks have Madd Style Cosmetics "Birfday Suit" as a brow highlight.

Enough pre-amble!

The left eye. For this I used 06 in the outer-most part of the lid and lower lash line. Then I used 05 to blend into that, then 04 to blend into 05. Lastly I used 02 in the duct.


The right eye. For this I used 06 all over the lid. 04 blended lightly in the crease. 05 in the deepest part of the crease. 03 in the duct.


I can't even decide which one I prefer!! :)

EOTD: Naked Cosmetics Twilight Collection (+some others)

So tonight I finally had time to play with some of my Naked Cosmetics colours! Yay!!

I decided to begin by dipping into the Twilight collection and this is the look I came up with:

And here is a more up close/sparkly version to really showcase how glitter packed these colours are!

For this look I used all 6 of the Twilight colours plus the "Ivory" White in the duct and the "Ivory" Blue as the brow highlight. (Normally I wouldn't do such a sparkly brow highlight, but I figured I might as well go all out! :))

(Non-Naked Cosmetics products used: Sugarpill's Bulletproof as a soft winged liner. I also used it to fill in my brows. Then I used Sugarpill's Tako to set the white waterline.)

I had fun, that's for certain. These pigments have a tendency to really "grab" on to the brush, which was neat!

Madd Style Cosmetics: The Joker (inspired!)

Helllllllllllllllllooooooo readers! I recently posted this look on the Madd Style Cosmetics FB Fanpage and one of my lovely friends, Brandy, asked that I do a tutorial for it! I couldn't say no, obviously. :)

Since the look is highly dependent on the double liner--I wanted to be able to offer you all a filmed version, but I was worried that filming the whole look would take waaaaaaaaaaaay too long (doing liner, as you'll hear me say in the filmed version, seriously takes me forever. FOREVER), so what you'll have coming up is a blend! Part photos, part film. Please let me know if the blend works for you.

To begin, gather your supplies!

(Too Faced Shadow Insurance; Barry M "Intense Black Mascara"; Urban Decay 24-7 Glide-on Pencils in Zero and Yeyo; Madd Style Cosmetics Piggies (clockwise from the top left): Ecto Cooler, Mondo, Toxic Love Spell, Birfday Suit, Tweaker, and Misfits and Moonbeams; Madd Style Cosmetics Pop N Lock Shadow Base; Brushes: small shader, pointed crease brush, slanted shadow brush, pencil brush and an angled liner brush.)

As always, start with a squeaky clean lid!


Do some priming. A priming is a very important step! It will help your shadows stay in their place and "creaseless" all day! I put a small amount on my ring finger, rub the two ring fingers together, and spread the product on the lid, up to the brow, down around the duct area and on the lower lash line.


I *finally* got some MSC Pop N Lock! This is MSC's Shadow Base and let me tell you--it's pretty special. It comes in a little 5g jar. The product itself is almost like a solid creamy powder (it's a really interesting texture!!). You can apply this with a brush (I've seen Madd Model Ana do that! And while I have Ana on the mind--she is currently hosting a contest!! The deadline is Feb 15th--so you still have a few days to enter! See here for more details.) orrrr you can use a clean finger (as I have done)!


Just like with your primer--apply this all over your lid, up to the crease/brow bone area.


Lastly, for the prepping steps, grab an eyeliner pencil and line your lower lash line. I use white (because I really only have a white, a black, and a brown pencil!) and line the duct area and all the way down the lower lash line. If you had a purple liner, you could line the duct with white and the lash line itself with purple. It's up to you! :)


Now for some colour! Grab your shader brush, dip it into Ecto Cooler (a super duper lime green) and press the bristles of your brush into the lid of the jar--this will help disperse the colour evenly and will help to eliminate fallout. Apply this colour all over the lid by "patting" the colour on (this will also help to eliminate fallout!).


You want to be sure this colour goes all the way up to your crease. Here I needed to apply just a bit more!


Next, take a clean fluffy blending brush. Gently blend the Ecto Cooler out so it fades nicely instead of being a stark line at the crease. Do "wind shield wiper" (as Cora from Vintage or Tacky says!) motions in the crease until you are happy with your blending.


Now, switch to a pointed crease brush and dip it into Misfits and Moonbeams (a neat blackened green). Swirl the brush around on the inside of the jar's lid to make sure the colour is evenly dispersed through the bristles of your brush. Place this colour on the very outer edge of your crease--angling it up toward the end of your eyebrow.


Using the same brush, blend this colour into the Ecto Cooler (on the lid) and bring the colour up and into the outer part of your crease.


For final touches on the lid--switch back to that fluffy blending brush and blend blend blend the edges of the Misfits and Moonbeams. You want the darker colour to be concentrated on the outer part of the eye--so don't bring it in past about the halfway point of your crease. Then, if in all of this crazy blending you've lost some of the Ecto Cooler--don't worry! Just apply some more! :) I also layered it over top of the Misfits and Moonbeams to ensure a nice gradient.


For the duct, take a small pencil brush. Dip it into Tweaker (a white with green sparkle--it is now, sadly, discontinued--so use your favorite white!) and dab this colour on to the duct. Blend it in slightly with the Ecto Cooler and bring it down below the duct and a bit toward the inner part of the lower lash line.

(At this point I also cleaned up the edge of Misfits and Moonbeams (as you can tell on the rightmost picture) with my finger! Remember--you want your colour to angle "upward"--this will help to uplift your eyes.)

And now for the liner!!!!!!!!

(My goal on my next filmed tutorial is to add some "fading" between the cuts! I finally *just* figured out how to do it while I'm waiting for the above video to finish uploading!!)

This is the final look!


For some reason my "non-tutorial" eye photographed better--so I'll share that with you, too! I also prefer how the Toxic Love Spell liner turned out on this eye! Its angle is more "upward"! :)

Naked Cosmetics Haul + Review

As!! As I mentioned in this post, I recently got a crazy awesome Naked Cosmetics haul!! Yaaaahooo!! My lovely friend Mo (of Madd Style Cosmetics) let me know about a super awesome kit she was ordering from Naked Cosmetics--and once I knew about, I could not resist getting one for myself!

My first Naked Cosmetics purchase was at the 2011 Vancouver IMATS. I purchased the very lovely Ivory Stack (which will be photographed and swatched with this haul, even though I didn't buy them at the same time!) after seeing Xsparkage rave about it for quite a while on her youtube channel. When I purchased the Ivory Stack it was discounted (I feel like I paid $30 for it). Regularly, Naked Cosmetics pigment stacks (of 6 colours) are quite pricey (they're usually $59.99 each!!), but when I found out about the $165 pro starter kit deal I essentially went mad with desire. Yep, makeup sales are madness inducing!! The only issue is that Naked Cosmetics does not list their ingredients on their website!! My desire was put on hold until I heard back from the customer service people about which of their stacks are vegan-friendly. Peter Estey, the cusomer service rep I emailed back and forth with, was so extremely helpful. At first everyone with the ingredients listing was out of the office, but Peter kindly offered to save a promo for me (in case it sold out while I was waiting) until he could track down the info I was requesting! Wonderful customer service! Eventually Peter and I sorted out the details of my order--it was even arranged that I could substitute the (non-vegan friendly) brushes for a double up on the shadow base and gloss base! As you can tell, before I even received my product, I was a happy customer. Last but not least, once my order was shipped--it was received by me *very* quickly! I'm used to waiting quite a while for U.S. products to cross the border into Canada. I'm convinced Naked Cosmetics has some kind of awesome deal with the border because I've seriously never received anything so fast!

Enough with all of the words! Let's get on to the goods!!!

As you saw in my original (teaser) posted, this was my order! It included 2 Clear Bases, 2 Gloss Bases, an angled liner brush and collection stacks in: Sierra Nevada, Mother Nature, Harvest Moon, Heavy Metal, Twilight, Debonaire and Ebony. I will say it right now that these are SUCH beautiful products. They're all finely milled, mixed to perfection and apply like a dream!


First up, Sierra Nevada! A wonderful "neutral" collection from a light highlight all the way to a matte deep black!


The "white" in this collection is actually quite beautiful. It has a pink duo-chrome property that didn't photograph all that well. The next colour is a light goldish tan--it's gorgeous!! Then we have a coppery colour, a silvery one, a bronzey one and a matte black. The shimmer/sheen to these is just spectacular!

(At the end of the individual collection pots and swatch pictures, I will post a two pictures of the swatches without the flash. The flash really helps to show how awesome these are though, so I will be posting the "with flash" pictures in the bulk of this post! All of the swatches in this post were done over MTCoffinz "Under the Rainbow" primer! Lastly, click all pictures for a closer look!)

Next, Mother Nature! This collection ranges from white to gold to red to green to tan to a reeeeeally neat duo-chrome reddish brownish colour with an intense green sheen.


The white in this collection is mostly just a pearly white. The gold here is more "yellow" toned than the gold from the Sierra Nevada collection. The red is a lovely rusted red. The last three are really what makes this group special. The green has a super goldish sheen. The tan! Oh, the tan. Something about this colour speaks to me!! Then the last colour likely speaks all for itself. Isn't it neat?!


Harvest Moon was pretty much the reason I needed to make this order. Never mind that it shares a name with a neato video game--this is a truely remarkable collection! In the pots you might think this is a rather unassuming collection--but the swatches are something else! This one ranges from a white (with a pink duochrome), to an orange (with a pink duochrome), a yellow "truer" gold, a green (with an intense gold shimmer), an antique-ish gold and a brown with a green duochrome.


See?!!!! What did I tell you?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BAH! I believe that these swatches need no explanation.


Now, for some Heavy Metal! These ones all have a beautiful metallic spin. You get a silver, gold, bronze (at least I think you'd call it a "bronze"...), copper, a SUPER eggplant purple and a smashing blue!


These ones are loveeeely! The gold is a bit "sheer", but ultra sparkly. The purple and blue in this group are just to die for, wouldn't you agree? :)


The Twilight collection surprised me the most. I *love* this one. Similar to the Harvest Moon group, this collection might not look like so much in the pot--but swatched, oh my gosh! Just you wait....


BAH! Are you amazed?! Every single colour in this collection of 6 is just freakin' spectacular! The first colour is a very neat light taupish colour with a pink sheen. The second colour is a pale sparkly blue. That third colour...well geez...it's great, that's what it is! It's a light grey with a pink sheen. The fourth colour looks blue in the pot, but bursts out with some green/teal shimmer!! The fifth colour is a nice sparkly dark blue. And the last colour is a sparkly navy blue with a soft black base.


Debonaire is next! This is the solid "smokey" eye set! You go from whites to greys/silvers to matte black.


Yep, it's great! The white is a pearly high sheen white (it's definitely more opaque than the white from Mother Nature). The second white is an ultra sparkly white. The third colour is actually a pale pale super glittery silver-white. Then you get a lovely pearly grey/silver. Next is a darker more "glittery" grey. Lastly is a matte black (the glitter you see must have gotten there by mistake!).


Ebony! All of these colours have a blackened base--it makes them pretty darn special. If you applied these over a black I bet they would sing even louder than they do over the "nude" base that I have used in my swatches. This collection gets you a silver, blue, green, burgundy, dark gold and a sparkly black!


Here are the pots again, with a flash--since they're so dark without a flash--I took this just so you could see how awesome they are!

These swatches are also quite straight forward. I really like these ones (am I getting too repetitive yet?!)! I especially love the burgundy colour!


Last collection, Ivory! Even in the pots--you can tell they're going to be neat!


BAM! In this collection youget a silverish sheer white, a peachy colour, a lavender, a gold, a green and a blue! These work wonderfully in the duct and would perform super awesomely over a black base, I would imagine!


And here are all of the swatches sans flash!



I am thoroughly impressed with my purchase from Naked Cosmetics. As you can see, I will have endless endless combinations to play with!! Have you tried Naked Cosmetics? What is your favorite collection? :)

Victorian Disco Cosmetics Review

I have been anxiously awaiting my very first package from Victorian Disco Cosmetics and today the waiting finally came to an end! VDC is a relatively new mineral eyeshadow company that I came to know through my ever lovely friend, Courtney (of Glamourpuss). VDC produces vegan eyeshadow and when I saw their Final Fantasy inspired duos, I knew that I *had* to have them!!

I placed my order on January 19th. As you'll see from my photos, my package was mailed on January 25th. I received it (in Canada) today! The wait was a bit long, but the mail must just be moving slowly right now! So without further ado--let's get on to the pictures!!

My package was shipped in a standard bubble mailer. It got to me safe and sound!

VDC puts special care in packaging, as you can see. My whole order was bundled together in this little cute black bag.

The invoice was included--with a special little note. (Enlarge if you want to read all of the geeky-ness. :))

I quite like their business cards! The faint lace background is a lovely touch!

My order came with two samples. Sailor Saturn and Sailor Moon! I forgot to swatch these while I was taking pictures, but as you can see, one is a nice deep purple while the other is a pretty gold colour.

All of my duos came in mini-little black bags. A bit overkill on the packaging, maybe. But it's still nice to see a new(ish) company putting in so much effort on presentation!

The lids of each pot have a lovely "Crystalline Affections" sticker on the top.

And now...on to the colours!!

Lulu/Wakka. I really like that the bottoms of the jars list the ingredients and whether the product is lip safe! That is handy! Lulu is a lovely blackened purple with a lot of purple glitter. When I swatched it, this colour felt the "grittiest"--but I think that is because of all of the glitter. Wakka, on the other hand, was smooth as vegan-butter. Wakka was described as a "golden orangey rust color with orange flecks and copper glitter".

(One thing to note: these jars did NOT come with sifters--which I like!
I'm anti-sifter, if you will!)

Riona/Squall. These two colours are gorgeous!! Riona is a very pretty light blue. Squall surprised me--I liked it (him!) way more than I thought I would!! It's a lovely deep brown with gold glitter.

Aeris/Cloud. This pair is easily the reason I purchased in the first place--because they're characters in my *favorite* FF game, FFVII! Aeris is a stunning light pink with rose coloured glitter. Cloud is a deep blue with gold glitter. Both are just sooooooo pretty.

Yuna/Tidus. The second pair that I knew I had to have! Yuna is a light lavender toned pink with pink glitter. Tidus is a really really neat gold with gold glitter--I don't have another gold colour quite like this! (And here I thought I had every gold IN THE WORLD!)

And now for some swatches!! The top half of the picture is in natural light, the bottom has a flash. These were applied over MTCoffinz "Under the Rainbow" primer. The flash really helps to show off the lovely sheen that these colours have. These are also some of the only mineral eyeshadows that I have that contain "caranuba wax" as an ingredient...and I was very curious to see how that would "feel" different on my skin. So far, I haven't noticed much of a difference!

My experience, thus far, with VDC has been great! I would definitely recommend them based on the pigmentation and texture of their product. I also really appreciate the little touches like the signed invoice and great care they take in packaging their orders. VDC also does their own glitter blends and I've seen some pretty spectacular pictures of those--so I'll have to try them out in my next order!

Very soon I hope to put these colours to work in some looks!! Thanks so much for stopping by and reading my review!

Edit (7:45pm!): I decided to play with Tidus and Squall. They were calling to me!

Tidus on the lid, waterline and first half of the lower lash line. Squall in the crease, outer lash line, and outer-most lid.

(I used a non-VCD colour in my duct and to blend out Squall/as a brow highlight. I also used another company's matte black as a dry/smudgy winged liner.)