XSPARKAGE INSPIRED NEW YEARS MAKEUP!

Hello!
So I recently watched xsparkage's video o a look she did using the Urban Decay's Naked 2 palette! I fell in love with the look but I do not own this palette! Being the clever and stubborn person I am I decided to recreate this look using my Smashbox wish palette from Nordstrom! This is a great look for New Years eve because it adds a little extra drama while still looking super classy! Watch the xsparkage video to see the steps to applying the makeup!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeUFBP-FrHg

My version shows up lighter on camera than in person, it's way darker around the edges! Here are a few pics and then i'll do the breakdown of what shades to use.

Yay New Years attire!

The breakdown:
Start out by applying a primer to the lids and then thin layer of NYX jumbo pencil in Milk. Using a crease brush apply a matte plummy brown in a medium shade to the crease, only blending upwards! For this look we don't want the shimmery and matte shades mixing! All of the shades below stay only on the lid.

Once this is blended take a flat brush and apply a shimmery champagne shade to the lid, stopping about 3/4 of the way in.

Using the same brush apply an antique gold shade the outer 1/4 of the lid.

Using the same brush apply a shimmery med-dark brown to the very corner of the lid. Blend the colors gently.

Using an angled brush apply a matte black shade to the outer 1/3 of the lid, thicker towards the outside and thinner as you go toward the pupil. I stopped a little farther than my pupil. Line the bottom of the lids in the same fashion.

Now you want to extend the black and bring it into the crease; You just need a tiny bit! blend with the plummy brown shade.

Apply highlight shades, I used TheBalm's overshadow in "work is overrated".

Clean up the edges with a qtip and apply your favorite mascara!

Sorry the black didn't show up as great on camera! It's much more dramatic in person.

Have a safe and happy New Years ya'll! I'm so grateful to have you in my life, thank you for reading and I hope you like this look!

As always I so not work or any makeup company, I am not getting paid for my reviews, and I bought this with my own moolah.

Christmas Eve Brown and Taupe Makeup

Happy Christmas Eve!!!!!!!!!!

So I have been a terrible blogger as of late! My little cousin has been in the hospital so I haven't been at my computer lately. I had a beautiul look that I wanted to share with ya'll for a great shimmery holiday look but I forgot to photograph it! This is my make-up post!

Okay, so one thing I hate about holiday looks is that they are usually combined with a red lip...I love a red lip but I also like being able to kiss my honey! He won't kiss me if I have any kind of colored lipstick on. I wanted to do a good taupe/brown eye for those people whose skin does not jive with traditional gold and warm brown Holiday makeup and I paired it up with a nude gloss!

Shadows, highlighter, blush, and gloss are all Smashbox from a palette my dad bought me for Christmas!
Foundation is TheBalm

This next picture is the best one I could get of the eyes! The weather has been so grey that everything is getting washed out on camera. The colors I used don't have names but here's the breakdown: on the lid: shimmery taupe mixed with a medium matte brown, In the Crease: Shimmery cool toned dark brown, Outer V: Matte Cool toned dark brown.
I used a black cream liner on the top lashes. For the bottom lashes I used MAC fix + on a clean liner brush and dipped it into the darkest color.

I really love this look! It's much bolder in person and I hope the blush shows up a little bit because its a wonderful cool toned pink, I've noticed that my camera is really whiting me out! I can not get good lighting for the life of me.
I'll do my post of the Smashbox palette sometime today because I've played around with it enough to give it a thorough review.

Merry Christmas! Thank you for reading and I hope you liked this cooler version of a cocoa look!

As always I do not work for any makeup company, I do not get paid for my reviews, and my dad bought this for me!

My favorite Christmas Video

so, this video is my favorite video to watch during the Holidays. These are two guys who graduated my year from Trinity University in San Antonio Texas. Hysterical play on the song "baby it's cold outside".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDLmbBVWdYA

Wearable modern blue eyes featuring TheBalm cosmetics Meet Matt(e) Palette

Hello!
So I decided that before I do some of the comparison posts i've got lined up I wanted to do a post on TheBalm's Meet Matt(e) palette because its amazing. I'm going to take this even further by bragging about the blue shadow featured here!
First things first...what does TheBalm feature??? TheBalm is an under-appreciated company, their products are sold online at their website and also at Sephora online. The theme is retro, think Benefit but more pinup and much more adorable! Their packaging for most products is sturdy cardboard which I love because it's biodegradable. Their products are very very high quality and I have not used a product of theirs that I do not like! If i'm not mistaken all of their products are paraben free and are made with more wholesome ingredients. Full price their products are not cheap, they're about 18-35ish bucks depending on the product but TheBalm is a generous company that has incredible offers throughout the year. You can also find these products at TJMaxx and Marshalls.

The Meet Matt(e) palette has 9 very smooth matte shadows that are named after a different Matt, I must admit I got this palette mainly because there was a shadow named Matt Ramirez (my boyfriend's name is Matt...my last name is Ramirez...i'm a dork like that) but I couldn't be happier with it!

This picture really captures how creamy the shadows are!

Another swatch photo

I love the colors, I wear Matt Batali and Matt Patel together a lot and I also was thrilled to find out that I could wear blue eyeshadow and not look like an 80s throwback!

It's exceptionally hard to find good blues, usually they have shimmer (too 80s for me) or they are too bright and loud for me...baby blues also look gross on me. TheBalm NAILED the blue here (Matt Horowitz)! It reminds me of the color of Lapis a little bit, it just looks very regal and unique. I paired it with Matt McDonald in the crease and blended the colors with Matt Smith.

The colors offered in this palette are wonderul because they are very unique and they are not loud and bright but they also are not muddy. I used these over Stila's prime pot in Taffy. I highly recommend this palette because it's travel friendly, work appropriate, adorable, and it's hard to find good "Matt(e)s"

As always I do not work for any makeup company, I do not get paid for my reviews, and I bought this with my own money!

Sneak Peak: Battle of the "good for you" mascaras! Featuring Tarte and TheBalm

take a peek....

A fierce battle of the brands...who will win??? find out very soon!

Holiday eye look using Tarte the Starlet, The trueblood palette, and Smoldereyes liners

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
I am so thankful for my friends, family, and you guys! Thank you very much for visiting, commenting, and putting up with my lengthy explanations of products! I cannot express how much you mean to me :)
Todays post is my Thanksgiving eye look! I used Tarte's The Starlet, The True Blood Palette, and the Holiday Smoldereyes set!

Lets get to it!

Shadows: Pat Stake (Matte cool Grey) from the True Blood Palette onto the lid. To add luminosity and brighten up the inner portion of the eye take the color Celebrity (shimmering cool grey) from the Starlet palette and pat onto the inner half of the lid. Add the color Stardom, a blackened plum (starlet) to the crease to add depth.

Liners: I love these darn liners! I used three for this look! With the color Silver Black I lined and tightlined my upper lids. I used the color Smoke on my lower lashes and blended out half way (you don't want to close up the eye!). To add more brightness I added the color Golden Beige to the inner corner of my eye and blended it up to join the shimmering grey color.

This is a pretty easy eye look if you want to do something glamorous for the holidays!

Have a great Thanksgiving, hope you like this look!
<3

As always I do not work for any makeup company, I am not getting paid for my reviews, and I got these products with my own money!

Tarte SmolderEYES Amazonian Clay Waterproof liner collection holiday 2011- Espresso

hello!
So here is my review for the Espresso shade from the smoldereyes holiday set! If you want to know more about the product go to my previous posts! (feeling lazy)

I couldn't get the best swatches on my hand...my camera could not focus on the swatch for some reason! It was really annoying so I just didn't include hand swatches, sorry. One thing to note about all of these colors is their complexity, they are not just one color which is really amazing. Espresso is a nice warm brown that reminds me of Anne Hathaway! It's seriously my favorite brown ever because it's light enough to not be mistaken for black but it's not dull.

This color goes on the smoothest out of all of the colors and blends the easiest!

I really love this liner, I need to try it as a shadow soon!

Love ya'll! Thanks for reading!

As always I do not work for any makeup company, I am not getting paid for my reviews, and I bought this with my own money.

Tarte SmolderEYES Amazonian Clay Waterproof liner collection holiday 2011- Moss

I am officially obsessed! These pictures are from last weekend, I have not been able to post until now! But you have me for a week lovely peeps! (you can hardly contain the joy?)Lets get into this review shall we!

Small re-cap: reviewing each color separately for the Tarte Smoldereyes set. These are creamy, dry fast and stay on until you remove them. They are also oil proof and I take a nap in these everyday. Really easy to apply.

MOSS:

The Color: abso-freakin-lutely- gorgeous! okay, I can't get enough of how flattering this color is! I really have a dislike for blue-based greens and prefer more golden ones!This one is perect for me in like....every way!

Formula: The formula has a sheen to it but no glitter at all, it's just slightly metallic. This pencil in my kit was drier than the others and did not go on as smooth until I sharpened it.

Tips for wearing this liner as a shadow: Okay, so unless you want your lids to feel heavy you have got to blend this out (an up toward that crease) as you go! so dab a little on your lid starting at the inner section o you eye, smudge it immediately with smudger or finger (I prefer finger), move to the next section of the eye, smudge, move to the outer section of the eye and smudge. if you try and put it all on your entire lid at once it's a pain to try and get even. I do not suggest applying this product directly your crease from the pencil, I blend pretty well in that section or put either a crease shade in powder or blend this out with a gold.

Eye: smoldereyes in moss across entire lid, Moss shadow from the true blood palette: outer v and blended out into the crease slightly. Lined eyes in Silver Black liner from this smoldereyes set! In the inner corner is the golden beige color.

I'm in love with these, I just wanted to upload my eye look today using violet as both a shadow and a Liner! My students LOVED this look today. This was a applied at 6 this morning and I just took a two hour nap in this (i sleep like face down on my pillow...)I have not re-applied at all because it still looks the same as when I put it on! *victory dance*

Alright, hopefully you liked Moss! these are still available at Tarte.com!

Thanks for reading!

As always I do not work for any makeup company, I am not getting paid for my reviews, and i bought this with my own money.

Tarte SmolderEYES Amazonian Clay Waterproof liner collection holiday 2011- VIOLET

Sooooo.....
there was a little thing called "save 20% VIB" at Sephora this week so I finally decided to bite the bullet and purchase these liners! I know, I know...I told you I was glad I didn't get them after i tried out the Rimmel liners but these are different!
You get 6 full sized liners for 39 bucks in the colors: Golden Beige, Moss, Espresso, Violet, Smoke, and Silver Black!
These liners are totally waterproof and also oil proof too! I decided to swatch these on my hand and sleep on them when I got them and yeah....they looked exactly the same when i woke up! Talk about awesome! These are thick so you can use them as shadow or liner, I'll discuss in my Moss post how to best use them as a shadow!

Here's how this is going to go down, I'm going to do a review and look of each color separately. Today's color is Violet and I used this as a liner.

The color: Violet confuses me! It looks more blue-based in pictures but it shows up more red-based in real life. I'm really confused about the color, but it's GORGEOUS! It's a true purple that has no brown base to it like a plum color. I'm looking at the difference between the color on camera and in real life and it's really different! It's not that blue...This color has micro glitter in it that is only truly apparent when you smudge it..,somehow that makes the glitter come out to play.

The packaging is great! There seems to be a lot of product in these pencils and it really helps that these come with a smudger! You have a 30 second window of playtime before these lockdown and won't budge, so if you want to blend do so fast! These look splotchy i they dry too much and you try and blend them out.

These glide on so creamy and if you tilt them the right way you can go from a thinner line to a thicker one.

These are so creamy!!! I'm in love with this shade!! According to Maureen these have more than 20 pure optic pigments to enhance your eyecolor, I see that more in the moss shade for my eyes personally. Maureen also says these are okay to use on your waterline, however, I would only use the non-glitter shades: Moss, Espresso, and Smoke for inner rim!

Moss is up next for these babies and look out for my review on my November Birchbox AND the Revlon Lipbutters in shades: Creme Brulee, Strawberry Shortcake, and Berry Smoothie!

Apologies for not posting on the reg!

As always I do not work for any makeup company, am not getting paid to review, and I bought this with my own money.

Revlon Colorburst Lipbutter (Sweet Tart, Candy Apple, and Pink Truffle)

OOOHHHH MY GOSH!
I've been looking or these lipbutters and I finally found them! They were at my Ulta and my HEB, HEB was a better deal since it was $3 off of Revlon ace or lip products! These are a little over 7 dollars which is a steal for such an amazing product.
The reasons why this is amazing:

THE FORMULA: This lip butter reminds me of a combination between a Tarte Lipsurgence and Beneit silky finish lipstick! Two if my favorites! This has a silky feel and glossy look like the lipsurgence but is not waxy and is not a stain. This is similar to the silky finish lipstick because it's highly pigmented and more of a lipstick than a gloss or a balm, this is not grotty in texture like the benefit lipstick. The color glides of effortlessly, evenly, and it fades naturally. You do not need to be as precise when applying this as opposed to lipstick, for the lighter colors I can do it without a mirror.

THE INGREDIENTS: yummmmm this has jojoba oil, mango butter, shea butter, and coconut oil to help moisturize lips!

THE COLORS!: There are 20 different colors to this permanent collection! Revlon is the company that formulates the best lipstick colors in my opinion!

Pictures (sorry if some are blurry!):

My lips without any product on

Sweet Tart:
These have really great cases that are the color of the product on the inside! and they look sleek when you open them up.

this is more wearable than it looks, you can make these more sheer if you'd like.

Pink Truffle:

Beautiful "my lips but better" color

Candy Apple:
HEllo red! this is such a gorgeous color for the holidays!!!!!!!!!!

Swatches:

I am SOOOO glad I didn't get any holiday lip sets! These have made me so happy!


I do not work for any makeup comapany, I am not getting paid or my reviews, and I bought all of these products with my own money.