Dramatic Cool Tones

Happy Halloween!!!

It was just one of those nights. I always love to play with makeup, and some nights before my shower I'll do crazy dramatic looks. This one is using shadows from the e.l.f. 100 Eyeshadow Palette. I also used the e.l.f. Studio Cream Eyeliner in Punk Purple, Urban Decay Heavy Metal Glitter Liner in Mullet.

FOTD 9-6-11

I don't enjoy wearing little or no makeup for everyday activities. I'm back at school now, and my days are consumed by going to classes, so what better way to brighten my day than with a pop of makeup? Today I used:

Face:
Rimmel Fix & Perfect Foundation Primer
Covergirl Clean Pressed Powder in 240 Natural Beige
NYC Sunny Bronzer for contour
e.l.f. Candid Coral Blush

Eyes:
e.l.f. Eye Primer
Matte neutral shades from a Pixi Palette
e.l.f. Cream Eyeliner in Punk Purple
Purple shadow from the 88 Shimmer Palette to set the eyeliner
Covergirl Lashblast Length on top lashes
LA Splash Spotlight Mascara in Royal Blue on bottom lashes

Lips:
Lip Balm

Review: e.l.f. Studio Cream Eyeliner

Out of the hundred or so e.l.f. items I own, these are by far my favorite product! One day I was browsing the site during a sale and decided to buy two or so, never having tried a cream eyeliner. You can buy them on eyeslipsface.com or here for $3.00 each. When I got them I struggled for a bit trying to apply them with the provided brush, until I finally bought a Sonia Kashuk Bent Eyeliner Brush. Applying these eyeliners with this brush is such an ease. They are all super creamy and pigmented, and you don't even need to set them with a powder!

Coffe, Black, Midnight

Coffee- A matte brown. This is my holy grail eyeliner. Black can be very harsh, so for everyday looks I use coffee. If you want it slightly darker apply a dark brown shadow over it.
Black- A matte black. This eyeliner is a very true black. It is just as easy to apply as all the others. It does not stain your eyelid, nor will it run down your face during the day.
Midnight- A matte navy. This color is also great when black is too harsh. It's a great color to use when doing a purple eye look because brown would sometimes clash. I also use this when I get tired of using brown every day.

Ivory- A shimmery white. This color is a perfect base for eyeshadows to make them pop. Using white as an eyeliner may be good for Halloween, but to use this eyeliner more than once a year you can put it over a primer as a shimmery base. I find it to be a little streaky, but with a little extra time it will blend out. These eyeliners are great to use as bases because they don't crease that readily!
Plum Purple- A shimmery dark purple. I wish that this color was matte, becuase it would be a perfect alternative to black like Coffee and Midnight pictured above. The shimmer is not vert noticable when applied, especially is you put a matte purple shadow over it.
Punk Purple- A shimmery purple. This is one of their newest colors so I haven't had very much play time with it. Swatched, it is a gorgeous purple, slightly lighter an Plum Purple. This color would also be great as a base!
Teal Tease- A shimmery teal with a hint of glitter. The glitter in this is super fine, and barely noticeable. I use this over the black and it is beautiful! Its a very unusual color, and perfect for summer.

Metallic Olive- A shimmery deep green. This color is also a great alternative to black. I love using this when I do a matte neutral eye. Its unexpected but at the same time very beautiful.
Golden- A true gold. This is also one of their newest shades so I haven't had time to experiment, but swatches it is a beautiful gold. This is going to be great as a base under a gold eyeshadow- gold is one of my favorite looks right now. I would also love this on the lower lashline for an extra pop.
Copper- A metallic copper. This is a very unusual color. It would bring out blue eyes, but still look great on anyone's neutral eye. One day I didn't put the cap back on tight, and a few weeks later I realized it had dried out a bit. But thankfully it is still usable even after a few weeks of being open!
Gunmetal- A shimmery dark silver. This one almost looks like steel on your eye. It's super pretty with a shimmery black shadow over it, a perfect night-time look.

These are all the colors e.l.f. currently offers. I really hope they come out with more because the quality of these products is so great and for $3, how can you not love them? Have you tried these? What is your favorite color?

Another Eyes Lips Face Haul and First Impressions!

How can anyone pass up a 60% off sale? Well I gave in and purchased plenty of items from e.l.f. that I have wanted for a long time! The shipping said it wasn't supposed to come until tomorrow, so when I saw it in the mail today I was more than excited! Here is what I got and some first impressions:

Studio blushes in "Pink Passion" and "Peachy Keen". Pink Passion is the brightest hot pink I have ever seen. It is completely matte (my only matte studio blush and I own 5). I have yet to wear this yet, but when swatched it seemed a bit chalky. It blended out to light pink though, so hopefully it's blendable and buildable. As for Peachy Keen, a gorgeous golden bronze peach with shimmer. This color appears to compliment any skin tone, and on top of that you can use it as a bronzer or a subtle highlight. I cannot wait to try this color!

I got the "Eyebrow Lifter and Filler" in "Ivory/Medium". I got this because it looked very similar to the NYX Eyebrow Push-Up Bra and Benefit High Brow but much cheaper. I don't own any eyebrow filling toold simply because I have very bushy eyebrows naturally and enhancing them even more makes me feel like I'm doing very avant garde makeup. The highlight pencil is very promising though. It has a creamy texture and easily blends out. The eyebrow pencil also has a creamy texture which may be too creamy for filling in brows. When I was swatching these I thought "these are going to be a pain to sharpen" until I reckoned that one of the caps has a built in sharpener! Great job e.l.f.!

If you saw my last Eyes Lips Face Haul and First Impressions you know that I tried a Matte Lip Color for the first time. That was in Coral and it was truly matte. This one is in Tea Rose and it's not quite as matte. Perhaps I still had a little lip balm on my lips, but regardless I love this color! My swatch is a little lighter than what it actually is, it's more of the color on the end of the product's packaging. A gorgeous berry mauve. The color is a little too dark for me in summer, but come fall and winter I can see myself wearing this a lot more.

Sine last summer when the trend was really hot I have wanted to wear a fully nude lip. I've had my eye on this Mineral Lipstick in Natural Nymph for an even longer time but never chose to get it. This time I just had to go for it, and unfortunately I am not that impressed. I know that a fully nude lip is hard to pull off without looking like "jizz lips", but this one made my whole face look pale and my lips look super chapped. I even put a gloss over it, but it just looked like a streaky mess. I'll keep trying different things and see if I can make it work!

The only brush I got was the Mineral Blending Eye Brush. I have needed a blending brush like this one. All others I've seen are a little too short, fluffy, dense, or any combination thereof which did not suit what I've needed. This one seems to be just perfect to blend out my crease and apply crease color! Plus I love that these brushes are eco-friendly!



The e.l.f. professional Nail Buffer and Cuticle Pushers are both repurchases. I use the nail buffer to smooth out my nails before I polish them and also to file them down. The cuticle pushers are great not only to push down and clean up your cuticles, but I use them to clean up extra polish as I paint my nails. The rubber side will swipe up any polish that drips to the skin.

I've read numerous great reviews for the Mineral Face Primer but when shopping on the e.l.f. website and you see a $6 product it registers in your mind as way expensive. You can get 6 eyeshadows for that! But when the 60% off sale came around I decided it was time to try this primer out. It is a clear primer that blends into your skin to create the smoothest feel. I can't stop feeling how smooth my hand is! I can't wait to try this on my face. The product claims to combat oily skin all day. We will see if it stands up to my skin!

I don't even know where to begin with these. The cream eyeliners are by far my favorite product from e.l.f. so when I saw that they added three new shades I just HAD to get them. The three new colors are "Teal Tease", "Punk Purple" and "Golden". When I opened Punk Purple I was so upset because it appeared to be dried out, but luckily it was only a little melted from shipping and still super creamy. All shades are super pigmented and all have slight shimmer, Teal Tease has a tad bit of glitter. I love how creamy and easy to apply all the cream eyeliners are and these appear to be no different. Soon I will be doing a full review of all the cream eyeliners so stay tuned!

Hope you guys liked my haul! What did you get during the 60% off sale?

Gilded Little Blue Nails

Who doesn't love to receive a little blue box with lots and lots of gold inside?! Well this nail-tutorial shows you how to use eyeshadow (..yes eyeshadow!) in your manicure to create an antique gold look.

You will need:
-Dry nails in your choice of color. I used "For Audrey" by China Glaze, a perfect Tiffany's box blue!
-A loose eyeshadow. I used e.l.f.'s mineral eyeshadow in "Golden"
-Any topcoat
-Tape

Start by pressing the tape to the back of your hand to reduce the sticky-ness and to avoid tearing off nail polish when you remove the tape. Place the tape over the area you don't want gold. I decided on a vertical half and half design.

Coat the half thats exposed with clear nail polish. Wait a few seconds for the polish to get tacky.

Press your finger down in the shadow. Sometimes I would need to pick up a little more with my finger and pat it on.

Remove the tape to reveal perfect half-gold nails!

After all your nails are done and dry you can wash them or take a shower to remove all excess shadow and polish. I chose to not put on a topcoat to preserve the satin finish, but it's all personal preference. If you want to use a topcoat make sure that all the excess eyeshadow has been removed, otherwise you will transfer the eyeshadow into the polish and have a forever sparkly topcoat! After two days a lot of the shadow came off because I didn't have a topcoat but I loved it even more that way. It had an antique gold finish that everyone questioned me on how I created!

Let me know if you try this!

FOTD 7-7-11

Hey everyone! Today I had some time to play with my makeup and create this look before I ran a few errands. This is what I came up with:

To create this look I used the following products and brushes:

A- e.l.f.'s Studio Powder Brush, B- e.l.f.'s Studio Complexion Brush, C- e.l.f.'s Total Face Brush, D- Loew-Cornell Maxine Mop Brush, E- Loew-Cornell Spotter Sable, F- Coastal Scents Eyelash Definer

 1. I applied Cetaphil's face moisturizer all over my face (as you can see I use the bottle to test nail polish swatches on! haha)
2. I then used brush A to apply Maybelline's Pure Stay Powder Foundation in 10 Ivory
3. The concealer I used under my eyes is e.l.f.'s Tone Correcting Concealer in Light Beige
4. Over the concealer I brushed on a little Bare Escentuals Mineral Foundation in Light
5. For bronzer and contour I used Physicians Formula Solar Power Bronzer in 3857 applied with brush C
6. The blush I am wearing is e.l.f.'s Studio Blush in Fuchsia Fusion with Brush B (note that this blush is very pigmented, a little goes a long way)
7. I primed my lids with e.l.f.'s Essential Eyelid Primer. I then used e.l.f.'s Radiance Enhancer in Golden as a base (not pictured)
8. The shadows I used were from the Coastal Scents Metal Mania Palette. The two I used are circled above. I applied the golden one with one side of brush D and picked up some of the green with the other side and blended the two together.
9. My lipstick is Revlon's Wink for Pink
Not pictured:
Eyeliner- e.l.f.'s Studio Cream Eyeliner in Metallic Olive, applied with Brush E
Mascara- L'Oreal Telescopic in Black. I then combed out the clumps with Brush F

I very rarely think to use my 88 Metal Mania palette, but the two random compliments from strangers about how beautiful my eyeshadow looked will remind me reach for it a lot more often!

FOTD 7-6-11

Today I'm wearing a neutral smokey eye. I used purple on my lower and upper lash lines to bring out my brown eyes. The first day of my summer class is tonight so I wanted something simple.

To create this look I used the following products and brushes:

A- e.l.f Stippling Brush, B- e.l.f Total Face Brush, C- Estée Lauder 2F Blush Brush,  D- Loew-Cornell's Maxine Mop Brush, E- e.l.f's Smudge Brush

1. I applied Rimmel's Fix & Perfect primer all over my face with my fingers
2. I applied Revlon's ColorStay foundation in 240 Medium Beige all over my face with my fingers
3. Under my eyes I applied Garnier's Skin Renew Anti-Dark Circle Roller and blended it out with my fingers
4. Over my whole face I applied e.l.f's High Definition Powder with brush A
5. On my lips and cheeks I used Benefit's Benetint
6. For bronzer and contour I used e.l.f's Cool Bronzer and brush B
7. I blended out e.l.f's Eyeshadow Primer on my lid
8. I used the first color (light pink) in the Clinique pallet as a highlight with brush D. Then all over my lid I applied the second color (pink) with the same brush. I then flipped the brush and used the third color (brown). I think blended the two colors and brought some of the brown into my crease. Then using brush E I smudged the fifth color (purple) to my upper and lower lash lines.
9. For mascara I used one coat of Covergirl's LashBlast Length

For my hair I curled it using Conair's Infiniti Curling Wand, TRESemme's Tres Two hairspray, and Matrix's Gold Heat heat protectant.