Pajammy Jam Jam
A week ago, the BF and I kicked off the holiday house party season with a Pajammy Jam with friends we've known since high school. As you can imagine - So. Much. Fun! I was a little torn about wearing makeup in my PJ's, but in the end, decided to wear bedtime-themed makeup: Too Faced cream eyeshadow in Bedroom Eyes, NARS blush in Super Orgasm (hahaha). I topped off the look with my MAC Blinking Cool lashes, because once I start putting on makeup, I can't stop!
We had a girls-only White Elephant gift exchange, which meant there was a crazy array of makeup up for grabs. And I totally scored - got the
Urban Decay Eyshadow Ammo palette. Looking forward to strutting my showdowed self at all our upcoming parties!
Nice & cozy.
We played 'Face the Cookie' from A Minute to Win It. This game is even harder (damn near impossible!) with fake lashes on.
Can't remember why we started doing this, but I know this was the first of many attempts at "being cheerleaders" that night!
Expect multiple posts featuring this bad boy in the coming new year ...
Labels: MAC, Nars, Too Faced, Urban Decay
Ballerina Bombshell Bridesmaids
...Holding Butterfly Bouquets! I had the honor of being in a 10-year wedding anniversary this past weekend (like I said...every other weekend) and I have to say, except for my yucky tanlines, I felt pretty freaken cool walking down the aisle looking like a ballerina bombshell. My personal style is very California casual, so when the bride asked for puffy skirts and vintage updo's, I was doubtful I'd be able to pull it off. But with help from a few friends with miracle hair powers, a skirt color that could do no wrong, and with my gloss addiction, everything came together very nicely. Seriously, everyone looked super cool -- I may have to do a part 2 post when the reception pictures are available.
On my eyes: TONS - Too Faced Lockdown base, MAC Eyeshadow quad (borrowed and don't know the colors...but they were all purple-centric), Korres Plum Eyeshadow and MAC Lashes #7
Face: Tarte Park Avenue Princess Bronzer, Stila All Over Shimmer #2, and NARS Super Orgasm Blush
Lips: MAC gloss in Ban This (we ALL used this :)
Labels: MAC, Nars, Stila, Tarte, Too Faced
Hot Conture City
Today it reached 106 degrees in my neck of the woods -- straight up SWELTERING. And there's nothing more that inspires me to wear less makeup than the Summer sun.
To avoid sweating my face off, I experimented with that no-makeup makeup look. To me, that's all about contouring and bronzing your face til kingdom come: defining cheekbones, highlighting brow bones and the nose line and adding a touch of shadow to perk up the eyes. Looking back at these, I could have used more bronzer, like everywhere.
I always sit shotgun.
Used a few products for today's look (clockwise from the top): Too Faced shadow in Shamrock Chic, Korres bronzer with a nifty angle blusher from LiLique, Benefit Highbeam, Smashbox Artificial Light liquid bronzer.
Labels: Benefit, Korres, LiLique, Smashbox, Too Faced
Smokey Step-by-Step
A few posts back, I featured some pictures on the way I do a
smokey eye and got a request from a reader for a step-by-step on how I achieve the look. I took a few shots over the weekend, and now have the utmost respect for bloggers who do the demo thing on every post. It requires some work, but I think it's actually helped me perfect my technique! So without further ado, to get to this:
You must do this:
Start out by spreading a rich brown colored cream eyeshadow as your base. I use
Too Faced Lockdown in Dramarama.
Spread it evenly over the lid, but don't get too close to the brow bone.
Next, line your upper lash line with a rich black liner. As always, my go-to is
Make Up Forever's Aqua Eyes.
Next, take a brown grey powder shadow and pat it over your lid, blend it slightly into your crease. I use Korres eyeshadows, which I think are being discontinued because
they're on super sale on Sephora.com and KorresUSA.com.
Too add some depth and dimension to your lids, layer the brown grey shadow with a purple shadow. (again, I use Korres for this). The result should look something like this (color on my right eye is better blended):
Next, apply a Kohl liner to your lower lash & water line. Dip a flat liner brush into the grey brown shadow, and blend it with the liner to create a smudged line under your lashes. Here are the tools I use (hat snuck in there...it's not necessary to create this look :)
You can also use an actual smudging brush. I've had some recent success with
Sonia Kashuk's.
Don't be afraid to create a thicker lower lashline than you normally would -- smudge, smudge, smudge! It's a key part of the smokey look!
Finish off with mascara & curl and you're good to go!
Labels: Korres, Make Up For Ever, Sonia Kashuk, Too Faced
30, part 1
A mini photo diary of me receiving my bday gift from the bfriend. Was a gooooooooooooood gift!
lashes: MAC
eyeshadow: Too Faced
Labels: MAC, Too Faced
Smokey for Sephora!
I do a smokey eye with greys and plums that's heavier on the lids/lighter on the lower lashline than a traditional smokey eye. Instead of heavy shadows for the lower lashline, I use a kohl liner. The result is polished enough for a big meeeting, but edgy enough to stand out. I use Korres and Too Faced shadows, plus Make Up For Ever liners for this look.
tools of the smokey trade:
Labels: Korres, Make Up For Ever, Sephora, Too Faced
Sephora's Bronzer Buffet
I love it when it feels like a product was designed specifically with me in mind.
Sephora's Best in Bronze Deluxe Sampler is the embodiment of the EXACT way I like to consume makeup: in small, affordable batches. Unless I'm madly in love with a product (like I am with Too Faced Lock Down), I never go through an entire thing. I'd rather sample a whole bunch of products, it's just more fun that way. And while we're on this subject, this is basically how I like to go about consuming life in general: I like to get a sampling taste of everything, keeps things fresh. This will all make sense in September :)
But more on that later. Take a look at all the goodies housed in this Bronzer Buffet:
On Saturday, I tested out two of the items and they lasted all day long on a tourista-inspired excursion through San Francisco with my sis. Will post more on that as soon as I get her pictures. Here's the Tarte EmphasEYES Waterproof Clay Shadow Liner in Bronze. I put it all over my lid for a heavy liner look:
Like I said, it lasted all day running around in SF, with alternate windy/misty/muggy/down-right HOT weather, depending on what part of the city we were in (gotta love our microclimates)
Here's the Too Faced Pink Leopard Bronzing Powder, with little Domino peeking out from behind it. He is a curious little soul:
I thought this was pretty on first application (it has a gorgeous luminous effect), but it settled into my fine lines by the end of the day. Also, warning to all the sensitive gals out there, this has a rose fragrance, so if you're allergic, steer clear! The Pink tones in this product were pretty pronounced on my face, so I would peg this as more of a deep blush than a bronzer:
I'm excited to try out the rest of the kit -- and you'll see it all documented here in case you were wondering about getting it.
Labels: Sephora, Tarte, Too Faced
Love You Back
I know I've talked the whole 'OMG I'm turning 30' thing to the ground on this blog, but as each of my friends turns 30 one by one, I get a little emotional and puffed up with pride. Last weekend, my friends and I got together to celebrate another 30th and I remember looking around the table at all these smart & vibrant individuals thinking -
we have seriously got it going on! None of us are severely rich, so I don't mean this in a monetary sense, I mean that we've all managed to grow up into responsible, respectful, hard-working adults and every one's positive transformation was contagious. We've had a positive influence on one another for sure.
One of my dearest friends (the nail savvy one I mentioned two posts ago, actually) shared a link to her latest photo album of pictures taken this weekend at the latest dirty30. Lots of fun. Lots of good makeup, too. Excuse the shine, as most of these were taken post-party!
Check those nails!
PLEASE NOTE: I took the picture below like this on purpose so you could see my eyeshadow. I LOOOOOOVE this shade. and I was NOOOOOOOOOOOOOT this faded!
Eyes: Too Faced eyeshadow, Label Whore // MAC#7 lashes
Face: NARS blush, Sin
Friend's Eyes:
Stila Smudge Pot
Friend's Nails: OPI X Sephora, Le Beau
Labels: MAC, Nars, Opi, Stila, Too Faced
Bold As Love
My baby sister is super sassy and has no doubts about the things she likes, and the things she doesn't like. She's also a billion times more bold than I was as a highschooler, so it came as no surprise to me when she asked me to do her makeup for prom (it's this Saturday) and sent me this image for inspiration:
That's pretty much as bold and as colorful as it gets, and since I'm so monochromatic, I'm a little intimidated.
As soon as I got home yesterday, I pulled out a few colors in my collection that I thought I could use to emulate the look. I don't have a lot of vibrant colors, and I was playing on top of the taupes/browns that I already had on, so that skewed the outcome, but I kind of like the more subdued version that I came up with:
Still, I think I'll need to go a lot brighter, given my sister's original request. I'm thinking of getting her a little Urban Decay palette as a "have fun at prom"/ happy early birthday present (she turns 18 mid-May and I can hardly believe it). And just so she keeps her wits about her, I was gonna send her off with one of the CLEAN mini rollerballs that I mentioned in
this post. You know, to remind her to have good CLEAN fun on prom night.
This eye was crafted by MAC and Too Faced.
Labels: CLEAN, MAC, Too Faced
So Not Schooled in Shadows
Eye Makeup isn't my greatest strength, and I'm always sort of shy to post anything shadow-related on this blog. I'm not a master blender, and am happy to have 1 color on my lid, if it gets the job done. But I have to say that since starting up this blog, I've flipped through countless others for inspiration, and it's encouraged me to play with all the disregarded shadows hiding in the ... shadows of my stash. (COULD NOT resist that, and am pretty sure I could have come up with something better were in not for my current stabbing hunger pains). One such shadow is Bobbi Brown's Long Wear cream in Galaxy. I bought this a while back and first flaunted it in
this post. I've finally figured out that the formula goes on WAAAAAY better when you use a brush like this one from Stila. The pic below shows how pigmented this can get. I applied about 2 strokes of it on my lids using the brush. Here, I've layered it over Too Faced Lockdown in Dramarama. And at the encouragement of
Diane, I'm also sporting the Rimmel East End Snob gloss -- which is growing on me.
Labels: Bobbi Brown, Rimmel, Stila, Too Faced
The Green Stuff
I'm not really a superstitious person, but if you hail from a Filipino family you can't help it if a little of the rituals and 'omens' rub off on you. So when my palms were super itchy last week, it came as no surpise to me when the president of my company announced that our paycuts were being reversed.
You see, Itchy palms = Influx of mula in Filipino Superstition Land. Now, just because I'm getting my money back doesn't mean that I'm on a one-way track to Splurge City. In the 6 months the paycut has been in effect, I learned a thing or two about saving, and those are lessons I won't soon forget. So in honor of the green stuff, I did a few looks (one on me, one on my lil sis) with green shadows and liners.
I used Make Up Forever Aqua Eyes in Bronze Green 5L, the green color in the Too Faced Glamour to Go 2 palette and a SUPER old limited edition turquoise shadow from MAC....can't tell what the name is anymore, but even the little case it comes in is turquoise.
Labels: MAC, Make Up For Ever, Too Faced
