Shakeup Your Makeup

First - I cut my hair! I haven't been able to handle the length I was getting from the hair style I was sporting the past few months, so I decided to revert back to my shorter and style-friendly due! I am wearing it a little differently than I have in the past, so we'll see. I am still trying to figure out how to style and wear it, so this is definitely a work in progress, but I absolutely LOVE having it short when it's 90+ degrees out!

Unfortunately this year we had rain for the Fourth of July, so no fireworks for us....but I still got to wear a festive red, white and blue inspirited makeup look for the holiday! The Fourth and Christmas are the two days a year I actually leave the house wearing red lipstick, so I was excited to try a couple of the colors that I got during my NYX haul a while back.

I also got to play with some of the bright NYX eyeshadows I ordered, too, so that was a lot of fun. For this look, I decided to use NYX Navy, NYX Aqua, and NYX Snowcone to create a smokey blue eyeshadow look, along with a pop of silver with some glitter eyeliner.

I was very anxious to get home and try my new MAC items from yesterday, so this is what I decided to do as a simple look.

I started working on pictures of all the goodies I got for Christmas the other night - I'm so excited to share it all with you!

I am going to start with the two items below: Napolean Perdis' Eyeshadow Set "Chicago" (from Target) and the Smashbox Cream Eyeliner Palette (from Sephora).

Up first is the NP Set "Chicago" which is a trio of beautiful, frosty, taupes. This retails for approximately $20 at Target. You can see it here, along with the other colors that are available. I will admit, I've read mixed reviews on NP's products, especially due to the price of his products, but I was pleasantly surprised at the quality, texture and pigmentation of this set. I can honestly say these colors were just as creamy, frosty and smooth as the Stila Kitten eyeshadow that is a holy grail for lots of you out there - and for approximately $6.70 an eyeshadow, this is a pretty good deal! I haven't tried any of his other products, but I might have to splurge on a few more after trying this set.

Below I swatched the set, which matches with the orientation of the shadows above. Unfortunately, the lighting is pretty minimal, but you can see the colors and frostiness of the shadows pretty well. I will work on a look using these colors soon!

Last, but not least, is the Smashbox Cream Eyeliner Palette found at Sephora. I have been looking at these little gems for over a year, and my mom so graciously gave this one to me for Christmas! I was so excited! I love their liners, and what a slim and convenient little package to try several colors at once! I haven't swatched these yet, because I wanted to make sure I had some good natural light to take the picture in, as these liners are absolutely gorgeous! They also have the same great quality that the full size Smashbox liners do, so for $32 this is a steal!

Do you ever go through your makeup drawer only to find something you have forgotten about for months? Well, I did the other day, and came across this Smashbox pallet that I received last year for Christmas! Whoops! I think that when I reorganized my stash, I managed to put this in a drawer and it fell to the back, only to be lost until now!


This pallet is perfect for a neutral but smokey eye, which I tried to accomplish in the look below. I used the turquoise, dark brown and ivory to create this work, blending all together.

To create this look I used the turquoise on the inner corner and blended the dark brown into the outer corner. These colors were pulled up towards the crease and blended into the ivory, which was also the high light. I then used the dark brown wet and lined the lower lash line. Finish off with some mascara and ta-da!

One of the sets of makeup I received for my birthday on Monday was this great Smashbox kit, which can be found at Costco for around $20.00. This is definitely a bargain, especially for all the different goodies that you find in this kit!

In the picture below, you will see mascara, mascara primer, Smashbox Picture Perfect Eyeshadow Quad, three mini Smashbox lipglosses and case, and Smashbox Skintint in Radiance.





This set of eyeshadows may be the best neutral set I have used so far. Although I do like to play around in color and glitz, there are days when a basic look is best, and this set achieves it effortlessly. Not only are the eyeshadows extremely smooth and pigmented, but they last and blend so well together, that it is easy to get a simple look with little effort.





The swatches below are of the eyeshadows, starting with the ivory color, and working around clockwise through the four eyeshadows.

The white is a beautiful warm ivory with gold and a hint of peach shimmer.

The brown is a great coffee color with some warm shimmer.

The peach has great pigmentation - a warm peach with gold shimmer.

The taupe is a beautiful warm taupe color with some cooler shimmer.

The Smashbox Skintints remind me of the Nars Multiple sticks, which give you the option to use this on your face, eyes, lips...where ever you wish! This color is a beautiful light golden-peach which adds just the right amount of high light and shimmer!

As I am lacking in the suntan department, you can see how light this color is. It's absolutely beautiful!

Finally, the three gorgeous lipglosses: Pout, Fame and Glitz.

Pout: A light, pale, lavender/pink.

Fame: A sheer raspberry with gold shimmer.

Glitz: A light mauve with shimmer.

Good morning everyone! It's been one hectic week, and I'm so happy to be able to sit down and blog again - I have tons of things to catch up on and lots of pictures to post.

First, I have been loving corals and turquoise together, so I decided to play around with my mineral makeup and find some bright turqouise colors. One that I always lean towards because it is bright, but neutral, is Bare Escentuals Glimmer in Chameleon.

This color is a nice, light turquoise color with golds and pinks flecked through it.



I decided to pair the Taylor Made Minerals in Brown Sugar with it, as this is a metallic and sparkly cool bronze color, perfectly matched with the cool tones of a turquoise color.

I finished off the look with a bright coral lipstick, Avon Ultra Rich "Chic", covered with a sparkly lipgloss Smashbox "Enhance".

The full picture is below:

Face:
Bare Escentuals Mineral Foundation "Medium"
Bare Escentuals "Warmth" - blush

Eyes:
Loreal DeCrease Eyeshadow Primer
Bare Escentuals "Chameleon" - inner corners
Taylor Made Minerals "Brown Sugar" - outer corner, crease
MAC Pigment "Vanilla" - highlight

Lips:
Avon Ultra Rich Lipstick "Chic"
Smashbox Lipgloss "Enhance"