Thursday, January 27, 2011

Dupe this Look: Alice Cullen

I've been dying (literally) to play around with my makeup and have some fun lately so I was inspired when Twilight's New Moon was on television! Alice has to be my favorite of all the Cullen vamps and her look manages to be both soft and pretty as well as undead! To create that particularly pale and stone-like complexion, I went several shades lighter on my foundation using Revlon Photoready in Nude. Using an Ecotools Bronzer brush, I swept MAC's Her Own Devices MSF and a light sprinkling of MAC beauty powder in Silver Dusk to duplicate that famous Cullen sparkle. Contouring was an important part of the process since Alice and the rest of the vampires have a very sunken-in look. I angled my MAC 209 brush into the hollows of my cheek and very sharply created the countour with the dark side of MAC's contouring powder Lightsweep Shadester. Avoid any colored blush that will make you looking fresh and pretty! I kept my eyes simple with MUFE's white shadow on the lid and a medium brown/red color from my Stila palette which I also used underneath my eyes to build a shadowy "haven't slept in centuries" look. Finish with a berry lipgloss (NARS in All Night Long) and those glowing amber eyes. Below are a few pictures of me channeling my inner undead.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Green with Envy

I love the way green eyeshadows look, especially on green, hazel and brown eyes. This seasonally versatile color looks great in both spring/summer (think lime greens) and fall/winter (olives, mosses). I like to stick to subtle olives to compliment the warmness in my brown eyes. Some of my favorite green eyeshadows include MAC's Greensmoke, Velvet Moss, Fiction (all pictured left), Sweet & Punchy, Humid (released with MAC's To the Beach collection, pictured below) and Nars duo in Wicked. For my medium toned girls out there, picking a green shadow with a base that leans towards gold will really bring out the warm tones in your skin. Darker toned ladies will want to lean towards more blue-based greens and also look exceptional in neon and bright greens. Fair skinned ladies will look fabulous in jewel toned greens. If worn subtly, green looks would be perfect for a first date look paired with neutral cheeks (I picked a light dusting of NARS Taj Mahal for my FOTD) and neutral lips. What are your favorite green cosmetic products? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Weekend Haul: MUFE Rock Forever Palette and Lipstick 37

After trying to get my hands on this for a few weeks already, I managed to find what seems like the last Makeup Forever Rock Forever makeup palette. I've been needing this palette ever since Pixiwoo used it in one of their videos and last week, I tried purchasing this at a few of the Sephora stores with no luck. Then I tired again online with the same results! By chance, last week I stopped in my local Sephora and there it was! The last and only one! Originally retailing at $45, the Rock Forever palette was marked down and a steal $39! The palette includes shades #07 (White), #82 (Silver), #306 (Beige) and #307 (Black)- all Rock and Roll colors to make the perfect smokey, sexy eye! I had never worked with MUFE shadows until now and the quality is definitely worth the price. Superior to MAC's blendability but equal to its pigmentation, MUFE's shadow's are definitely worth it's heavier sticker price. The colors that come with this palette are not anything out of the ordinary, but they do go on beautifully, and I gotta say- I LOVE this packaging. It's sleek, it's stylish and it's small enough to throw in your makeup case if you're a ROCK STAR on tour and on the GO! Bottom line? Hard to get a hold of, but completely worth it! I LOVE this palette!

Since i was already at Sephora, I picked up another MUFE lipstick in shade #37. Vibrant melon pink with amazing and expected  quality of any MUFE lipstick, this satin finish is gorgeous in the tube AND on the lips. How gorgeous would this be on darker skinned ladies!? I highly recommend this color! Below is my Rock Chick look using my Rock Forever palette and my LOTD in #37.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Buzzworthy: Chanel Rouge Allure Extrait de Gloss in Genie

I'm in love with this formula of Chanel glosses! The Rouge Allure Extrait de Gloss is Chanel Glossimer's more pigmented, less glittery sibling. While I've raved about Insolence, I have been drooling over peachy punk Genie for months and finally caved into temptation. The color looks quite orange in the tester but once smoothed over your lips, the creamy formula is sheer peach perfection. Never sticky or heavy, this milky gloss feels as good on the lips as it looks. I love this color, which I think would look great on all skin tones because of how sheer it goes on. It gives your lips just the right amount of a melon-pink tint that would pair nicely with blushes like Nars Orgasm, Mac Springsheen and Rock and Republic's Call Me. Bottom line? Wearable, chic, and flattering Genie is everything you expect from a Chanel lipgloss and more. Why can't I own this in every color?!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Weekend Haul: MAC's Tweet Me, Exxxhibitionist, and Sex-pectations

This last week, MAC's newest collection, Peacocky, hit the shelves and I just had to pick up some of the much raved about Mega Metal Eyeshadows! At 3.4 g (.11 oz), these shadow pots are larger than your regular shadow pans- and at that size, the price is bigger too. Retailing at $19, the mega metal eyeshadows seem to be worth the bucks! I picked up Tweet Me, a metallic golden pink Temptalia called a Melon pigment dupe, and Sex-pectaions, a warm burgandy wine color. The shadows are extremely blendable, extremely pigmented, and an excellent answer to the poorly pigmented Mineral Eyeshadows released in A Tartan Tale collection. Bottom line? An A+ from this Honey B all around, I'll have to be back for MORE of these awesome eyeshadows. Also released with this collection is the MAC Kissable Lip colors, which I grabbed in Exxxhibition. These kissable lip colors are supposed to pack the intense color of a lipstick with the lightweight feel of a gloss. When I tried on Exxxhibition in the store, the deep coral immediately warmed up my face. Bottom line? Exxxhibition is quite darker than my other favorite coral, Vegas Volt, yet not as red as fan-favorite Viva Glam Cyndi, this coral is perfect for medium warm skin tones like mine and is a MUST for coral lovers out there. Pictured below is my LipOfTheDay, Exxxhibition, and my Peacocky haul swatched lightly on my arm. What did you pick up from Peacocky? Leavve your thoughts in the comments.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Buzzworthy News: Justin Bieber for Nicole for OPI


It's a Bieber world. We're just living in it. 16 year old pop sensation Justin Bieber's stunt collaboration with nail polish juggernaut OPI was released today in stores all across America as apart of OPI's Nicole line. To the surprise of this Honey B, the collection SOLD OUT in 3000 Walmarts and is still smashing records! OPI has been known to team up with awesomely inspired entertainment big-wigs, including a colorful line of Shrek themed nail polish as well as a recent Katy Perry collaboration. Katy Perry is known for her candy coated makeup and nails, but this OPI/Justin Bieber coupling doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The set of 15 nail polishes, named after his hits like "One Less Lonely Girl" are what you expect of any typical tween product out there- glittery and colorful. Don't get me wrong- while the Biebs isn't my personal taste of heart throb, I love a cute boy hawking products to me... but Ryan Reynolds has no place trying to sell me lipstick, does he? What does Justin Bieber have anything to do with nail polish? Is this a smart stunt-collaboration on OPI's part? Or is there some integrity left in cosmetic marketing that says attaching a name to a line is more than just about selling a product? What do you think of the Bieber/ O.P.I. connection? Will you be sporting Bieber nails or are you One Less OPI customerLeave your thoughts in the comments.

Shrek's O.P.I. Collection
Katy Perry's O.P.I. Collection
*images courtesy of google images*

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Weekend Haul: MAC Macroviolet Fluidline and Feline Eye Kohl

I wasn't too impressed by either of MAC's newly released collections, Champale and Stylishly Yours since a lot of the colors seemed dupable but I did manage to pick up a Feline eye kohl from the Champale collection. Check your makeup stash for this, honey bees, as Feline has been repromoted several times. I'm thinking MAC should just give in and make this apart of their permanent collection since it gets so much love. Feline is pretty close to MAC's permament black eye kohl, Smolder, but in my opinion, Feline goes on darker and smudges less. It's a must have for my collection, as I love my black eyeliner. I was also very intrigued with the new fluidline, Dark Diversion, which came out with Stylishly Yours. Unfortuntately, my MAC had sold out of this one. As an alternative I decided to pick up Macroviolet Fluidline. I love purple eyeliner on brown eyes and was excited to try this out. However, unlike most fluidlines, Macroviolet wore quite streaky and sheer. The pigmentation was nothing like I know fluidlines to be. While still a beautiful color in the pot, it did nothing for me on the lid. I think I'll just stick to Blacktrack fluidline as my go-to eyeliner. What did you pick up from MAC's Stylishly Yours and Champale? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Buzzworthy: Hello Kitty Sweet Gloss in Pinkie and Pink Bow

Hello Honey Bees, I'm back! I have returned from my vacation in Mexico only to come home to a stack of mail and a highly anticipated Sephora box! The products I had ordered from the Hello Kitty for Sephora private event sale have finally arrived! Two Sweet Gloss sticks arrived in Pinkie and Pink Bow and boy was I ever excited to try these babies on! What was described as a lipgloss in a lipstick tube, I was excited to put these to the test. The packaging is of course the cutest thing I've laid my eyes on. The stick is slim, almost reminiscent of MAC's slimshine sticks, and decorated in with the shiny Hello Kitty insignia. The colors I ordered were Pinkie, a fuschia pink and Pink Bow, a softer and cooler bubble gum pink. Both looked pigmented and rich with color in the tube. On the lips however, this Kitty failed to deliver. Not only were both products completely devoid of any shine, but the gloss/lipstick felt thick and heavy on the lips with very little pigmentation. I am holding back on calling these "glosses" since there is nothing remotely glossy about these. This was not at all what I had expected from Hello Kitty or the Sephora brand. To my disappointment, these sweet glosses are a giant FAIL and would be better off as gifts to my 2 year old niece. The saving grace of these products is the two-cute-for-words packaging and at $16 a piece is not worth it in the least. The pictures I took of the swatches didn't even translate well into pictures! Shell out a grade A product without the gimmicks and save us makeup fiends a lot of time and money. Bottom line? Skip this kitty and save your cash. Meow.