mmmm lemon pepper. Doesn't really taste that good as nail polish but I love the way it looks!
This is 2 coats of China Glaze Sunshine Pop from the Electropop collection and it's frickin gorgeous on its own--a perfect true yellow with a slight shimmer that doesn't lean green or orange or goldenrod or go all pastel on you--FINALLY!! And it goes on in 2 easy coats. Thank you China Glaze! Although I loved the yellow on its own (and yea I know I'm lame for not snapping a pic of it pre-glitter), I wanted to spice it up a bit (hellz yea for cheesy puns) so I added a coat of LA Girl Glitter Addict in Uninhibited (oh black glitter, how I love thee!!) and this is what I got.
Please pretend not to see any cuticle nastiness. Also, any rogue black glitter pieces are to be ignored as well.
Omnomnomnom....ok I need to make lemon pepper something for dinner cuz I can't stop thinking about it now...
Yep, I managed to snag both LE Wet N Wild spring makeup sets (for ONCE, my Walgreens had somthing LE!!). If you haven't heard about these yet, they are 2 sets of Wet N Wild cosmetics that come with a tube lipgloss, an eyeshadow trio, a blush and a bottle of Fast Dry nail polish. Here's a pic of the sets for reference:
Flora--a collecton of warm shades
Fauna--a cool shade collection (no pun intended)
I swatched and photographed everything but all the photos came out completely washed out cuz I was dumb enough to snap pics in full mid-day unfiltered sun. Oh well--lesson learned. I will reswatch and rephotograph soon, I promise! Just a few words til then:
Both the eyeshadow trios are exclusive to this collection--and I confess I got these sets for the shadows alone cuz I'm a total WnW shadow freak. These shades live up to the hype and are the typical buttery, gorgeously pigmented awesomeness I have come to expect from Wet N Wild. , Also, the nail color in the Fauna color is the core Teal or no Teal, but the polish in the Flora collection is NOT a repackaged core collection polish. It's called Twining Vines and it's a gorgeous shimmering gold/green that looks JUST like the LE Summer 2011 Ocean Grotto shade from the Mermaid's Cove collection (which I never managed to track down because--like I mentioned--my local Walgreens usually blows when it comes to LE Wet N Wild releases)...
so consider this post a default teaser post...promise to get swatches up ASAP!
Heck, green is awesome all the time--not just St Patty's day, so here we go:
This is the redonk look I was rockin on St Patty's day:
Green glitter gaudiness--gotta love it.
The green glitter I used in this was the fantastically awesome Glamour Doll Eyes Eyelights in Cashed Out...I am LOVING these Eye Light glitters! They are so fine and sparkly and they are incredibly affordable too at only $4.00 for a full size pot (samples are available, too: 1.00 for .5 gram baggie and 1.75 for 1 gram of product in a 5 gram jar)! Once The Hubz gets back and I can get back to my regular blogging schedule, I'll be doing a massive swatch and review of Glamour Doll eye cosmetics...I'm SO frickin smitten!
Products:
eyes:
NYX HD shadow base
several greens from BH Cosmetics 120 palette 1st edition
Sally Girl glitter adhesive patted on top of shadows
Glamour Doll Eyes Cashed Out affixed onto Sally Girl adhesive
Jordana Fabuliner in black
Maybelline The Falsies Flared
Wet N Wild Acapulco Glow Bronzzer under brow as highlight
face:
Almay Clear Complexion foundation, powder and concealer
Garnier anti-dark circle eye roller
Physician's Formula Happy Booster blush
Wet N Wild Acapulco Glow Bronzzer
lips:
random clear lip gloss (think it was NYC Liquid Lipshine)
Of course the green glitter didn't stop on my eyes. It spread to the nails too courtesy of Orly Here Comes Trouble. If I had more time, I would have busted out some nail art shamrocks or something but, as I've mentioned before, I am severely short on time right now.
I've been MIA on account of 2 things: germs and the military.
Germs because both my oldest son and I have been sick & military because my sailor husband is still (temporarily) stationed in another state. So the equation goes something like: Sick mom + sick kid + 2 other healthy kids - husband = no blogging....terrible, horrible, no good very bad combination, I know.
But the germs will soon be banished and The Hubz will soon return and then I will have time to blog again--and shower, and brush my teeth, and breathe...can't wait!
The amazingly awesome, super-inspiring Bethezba of Bethezba's Preoccupations nominated me for this blog award and I HAD to respond. I do have OTHER blog awards that I've been tagged in since I started this whole 'rambling for the world to see on the interwebz thing' that I need to respond to and rest-assured I am getting to 'em. Oh how I wish I had more time!!
Anyfrickinway, before I get into it, I just gotta say how awesome Bethezba is! I have only been following her blog for about a month now but already, I have found so much inspiration in it. Her Ode to Vampira post is a killer encyclopedic exploration of the iconic 1950s tv horror figure; her makeup skills are da freakin BOMB; her goth style is to die for (no pun intended lol) and in general she is such a huge inspiration to me as fellow makeup/darker-things-in-life-loving blogger mom. So seriously, if you don't already, follow her blog. I promise you will be inspired and educated!!
So here goes my forray into the whole blog award things--I hope it's not too boring or annoying!
The rules for this award are simple enough: List seven things about yourself and then tag 15 other bloggers for the award. K, let's turn this mutha out.
1. As I've mentioned in passing a few times, I make jewelry (I hoard beads even more greedily than I do cosmetics--no really, I do). I love making wire-wrap pendants especially. Here's a few examples of my 'work' (if you could call it that--more like 'bestest most awesomest joy-bringing hobby ever'):
The first 2 pendants are long sold on Etsy from my now-defunct jewelry shop (I'm SO working on getting a new shop up and running which I promise to pimp out on this blog regularly) and the third was made for a dear dear friend of mine as a celebration of both pentecost and her ordination (since she's only the most phenomenally inspiring preacher EVER)...
2. I love to draw and paint on surfaces OTHER than faces. A few years back, I discovered zentangles--which I renamed cracktangles cuz they're just as addicting as the world's most notorious broke-ass street drug. Wanna see some of my cracktangles, do ya do ya? Too bad if you said no cuz here they are:
Sorry for the craptastic pics. These are way-old cell phone pics. I don't have any of these pieces anymore as I hate keeping my own artwork...which leads me to "thing about me" number 3:
3. I once was and hope to be again an avid maker and swapper of Artist Trading Cards (ATCs). If you don't know, ATCs are 2 & 1/2 by 3 & 1/2 inch works of mini art that you create and swap with others. You can either do in-person swaps or you can join up with ATC groups on the web (I've done both--yahoo is a great source for online groups). Usually, swaps run along a theme. You are asked to create a certain number of cards related to the theme and then you send them out and you receive a certain number back from all the other members who are participating in that particular swap. I have hundreds of ATCs made of all kinds of incredible material from so many amazing artists all over the world which I will most definitely pull out and photograph one fine day (once again, WHY aren't there more hours in the day?)...I have made tons of sets myself but have only managed to photograph a few sets before sending them off into the world. Here's an example of a set I did for a swap with an Art Nouveau theme:
Wish I had pics of the backs of the cards, too. I used Art Nouveau decorative elements, also some text describing the Chrysler building (an icon of Art Nouveau architecture) and quotes from The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald (one of the defining novels of the era).
4. I am freaking OBSESSED with and fascinated by drag queens. They are my off-the-chain glittering glam icons. NO ONE knows the true transformative power of makeup better than a drag queen and NO ONE can rock makeup's full potential harder. I watch Rupaul's Drag Race religiously and have even been known to throw viewing parties for the show that involve getting doozied up as your favorite contestant. If you watch the show, you know season 4 is currently well on its way right now. My favorite this time around? None other than Ms Sharon Needles--DUH. Spooky goth awesomeness AND the kind of shape-shifting glitz that only a true QUEEN can pull off?! Am I dreaming? Nope and here's proof:
The runway footage that made me fall for Sharon. Fucking FIERCE--and SICK'NING of course!
5. If I really had to, I could live on nothing but breakfast cereal and be perfectly happy. Cinnamon Toast Crunch is my all-time fave.
6. I'm a HUGE coke addict--of the canned, fizzing variety. Vanilla coke is only the most fantabulous softdrink ever invented. I know it's ridiculous, but I drink a can of coke with my breakfast every frickin morning. Since I don't like the taste of coffee (never have--though, oddly enough, I love the smell of it), I use my need for an alternative caffeine source as an excuse for why this is ok. Question my reasoning and it I'll cut you.. ;)
7. Last but not least, I am a proud native of the Little Italy that is South Philadelphia (I read once that 80% of South Philly's population is of Italian descent--and that's the highest percentage of any large US city). Although I am a mixture of nationalities, I was raised most closely by the Italian side of my family (my great grandparents came from Cetara--a tiny town near Napoli) and it shows. Consequently, I have a nostalgic love for all things Italian-American and I'm known for making killer meatballs, talking at an inappropriate volume and launching into an Italian slang cursing schpeal every time I am frustrated...So yay for South Philly guidos and yay for the end of this post!
So now you know more about me. Aren't you just so freakin glad? I guess now I should tag 15 bloggers. Honestly, I don't know that I KNOW 15 other bloggers that I could tag...only one springs to mind because she tagged me in 2 awards (like I said, m SO getting to those) and that is: Going to the Showing who is an awesome newer beauty blogger like me. As for the other 14 spots, I guess I'll just have to leave those open to any of my followers who also have beauty blogs--so if that describes you, consider yourself nominated & leave the link to your post in the comments section of this post cuz you know what? We all deserve a lil love! :)
Hmmm, housework or blog post? Damn right blog post won out...don't have much in my "to post" photo folder, so here's some half-assed eye looks & whatnot...
I hate that I can never manage to capture the vibrancy of my makeup's colors in pictures...btw, excuse all the frickin spots. No it's not chicken pox. I didn't do any face makeup in these pics so this be my nekkid (and redonkulously acne-prone) skin (frightful sight, I know)...
(look at that craptastic blending job--or lack thereof)
The above is an EOTD from a few days ago...Of course, you can't really tell what is going on in the pics--sucky camera, sucky photographer yadda yadda yadda--but it's basically Sugarpill Hysteric, Royal Sugar and Goldilux with a ton of glitter caked on top. If I remember correctly, one of the glitters on there is Rave by Glamour Doll Eyes and the liner is actually Glamour Doll Eyes Ahoy Sailor mixed with Iline--a mixing medium I got from TKB Trading.
Oh, that reminds me, stay tuned for a massive Glamour Doll Eyes swatch post as I recently hauled a TON of their eyeshadows & glitters and just got the package the other day)...
I'm including these pics cuz they are good shots of my latest greatest ridiculous DIY beauty obsession: faux feather extensions. I don't really know why they even bother calling them faux feathers cuz they look nothing like those actual rooster feather extensions that everyone is crazy about (google feather extensions and get a ton of pics of Steven Tyler--who is apparently a major fan). These ones are just crazy colored skinny lil strips of fake hair that are bonded at the top. You put them in the same way you do feather extensions: using a looping tool (you can get them on Amazon), pull a tiny bit of your real hair thru a little silicone bead, then insert the bonded tip of the extension, and then you clamp the bead shut at the root of your hair with some flat-nosed pliers. I frickin love these things. Anything that allows me to crazy up my 'do with no dye mess left over to clean up works for me! You can treat these extensions like your real hair. I've flat-ironed & washed mine a zillion times and they are just fine.
You can get extension kits on Amazon.com that include a bunch of extensions, the beads and the looping tool (Bundle Monster has a nice cheap one). I supplied my own flat-nosed pliers (in addition to painting faces and nails, I make jewelry so I have basically every shape and size of pliers known to mankind)...
Gotta show off my adorable little skelly earrings. LOVE me some bones!
Here are some shots of today's eyeshadow madness...
(Look you can ALMOST see my labret winking at you. I'm actually wearing jewelry in it for the first time in forever...)
I've been on a huge blue kick lately. Although these pics make this look like one big swipe of baby blue across my lids, there's really 3 colors working here: a lavendar inner corner highlight, a light minty green/blue lid and a darker teal in the outer v and blended just slightly into the crease (I try not to do too much heavy shading in my crease cuz of my cave-man brow-bone and deep set eyes)...I'm wearing Milani Haute Flash lip gloss in Star Flash (the LE version, not the new core version)...I'm so obsessed with those glosses! Oh yea, and all the shadows are from the 4th edition BH 120 palette.
Showin a little purple leopard print leg...these tights are SHINY too (can't tell that in the pic, though)...
Yep, I'm still alive & as long as I got breath in me, I'll be paintin my nails. Today, I decided to continue on with March's "Yay for green" theme with China Glaze Agro from the Hunger Games Collection.
When swatches of this collection started surfacing, Agro was the polish that caught my eye first. I was like "perfect metallic olive green?? must acquire NAO!!" And it truly is frickin amaze-balls on a stick.
(pardon my gnarly neglected cuticles & the general sloppiness of my craptastic application)
Formula-wise, Agro was a lot thicker than I anticipated and it's a lil prone to cuticle-dragging and bald spots if you don't let it dry a bit between coats. Although the thickness made the application slightly fussy, I'm thinking it might also mean Agro will stamp up nicely (will have to bust iyt the Konad & experiment). I did my usual basecoat (Beauty Secrets Nail Hardener from Sally's), 2 coats Agro & Seche Vite on top (waiting a little longer than usual in between coats to minimize dragging)...
So anyway, that's the Gorgeocity that is Agro. I got mine for a whopping 2.50 at Victoria Nail Supply...
Have you picked up any of the Hunger Games polishes? Are you a reader of the actual book series, or just a general polish ho like myself who has no inkling about what the HG books are about?
After I did my Sleek Acid Palette swatch post yesterday, I created a simple look using a few of the shadows but I haven't had a chance to post it til now.
I decided on a simple look only using 3 of the shadows because the shadows were pretty difficult to work with. They applied very patchy--even with primer and NYX JEP in Milk, I had a hard time just getting even coverage. I had to pack on the shadows really heavily and every time I tried to blend, they would just disappear. I ended up having to do a ton of spot touch ups with additional primer and shadow applied with my ELF small precision brush. I gotta say, though, when I was out I had tons of people oohing and aahhing over this look and asking me where on earth I got such bright shadows...the compliments were nice but were they worth the pain in the ass application? Still trying to decide...
(btw yes I am wearing my fuzzy pink bathrobe with froggies all over it. I didn't mean for it to coordinate with my hair/makeup lol but I kinda like the effect...
FACE
Garnier anti-dark circle eye-roller
Almay Clear Complexion foundation, powder and concealor
ELF Studio blush in Pink Passion
Wet N Wild Bronzzer in Acapulco Glow
EYES
NYX HD Eyeshadow base
NYX JEP in Milk
Sleek Acid Palette (the neon green, yellow and white shades)
Jordana Fabuliner
Wet N Wild ColorIcon in white (water line)
The Falsies Flared mascara
BROWS:
ELF brow kit in medium
ELF clear mascara/brow-setting gel
Lips: Maybelline Baby Lips (the peppermint one in the bright green tube whose name I am totally blanking on right now)
Milani Haute Flash lipgloss (The LE version) in In a Flash
Do you think the application hassle is worth it if the color of the product in question is freaking off the hook?
This gorgeous lime green glittery gem is Color Club UNDER (not beyond) The Mistletoe. It's a green jelly base packed with lime green and silver micro-glitter. It is every green glitter lover's dream:
(scuse the awkward thumb--I'm hiding a cuticle booboo)
Formula is very comparable to the Beyond the Mistletoe glitters--kinda thick but not completely unworkable. I did 3 coats plus 2 coats of SV as this is a typically thirsty glitter...
I found this curious little polish while I was on Victoria's Nail Supply hauling China Glaze Electropops & Hunger Games polishes. As you'll see if you click on the link, this polish is apparently part of a rather large limited edition Japanese glitter set. I really can't find much more info about the collection. I got this one and 3 others: Too Violet, Blue Hawaii and I Love You. So far as I can see, VNS is the only place that has these glitters...I'll post swatches of the other 3 shades later on.
Oh btw, this polish is NOT pictured in the recent Color Club stash porn post I did the other day because I just received it in the mail yesterday along with the rest of my VNS haul.
Does anybody else know about these mysterious polishes?
A while ago, I tweeted that The Hubz scored me a Sleek Acid palette on Ebay. Well, it finally got here and, despite being up to my eye-balls in dirty diapers and dishes and laundry (gross, I know), I HAD to make time to do some swatches!
Of course, my camera had a melt-down in the face of all the fluorescence, so the pics show the shadows only about half as neon as they are in person...
palette outdoors natural light no flash
palette indoors natural light no flash
See how the camera, coupled with my lack of photography skills just sucks all the awesome right out of these? The indoor shot shows how these shadows glow a little better but seriously, in person, these shadows GLOW, like you half expect them to be frickin radioactive & hot to the touch or something.
Swatch of the top row outdoors in the shade. Column 1 is no primer, column 2 is over NYX HD eyeshadow base.
Outdoors in the sun.
indoors.
The indoor shot gives you a better idea of how bright these are in real life--it's 1980s neon all over my arm. Now I'm not gonna lie. These shadows were a pain in the butt to work with. With the exception of the 2 blue shades, which are both shimmers, the other 4 (orange, yellow and white matte and pearly magenta) shades are pretty stiff and it took some work to build them up to the opacity you see on my arm. But, if neon shadows are anything like neon polishes (which are notoriously hard to work with), then I guess it could have been much worse. I do have to say I WAS able to get all shades in this row to look pretty much the same as they do in the pan. Well, except for that white shade, which was pretty much useless but, honestly, I didn't want this palette for the white, so I don't really care if it is good or not.
Swatches of 2nd row of shadows--can you guess which ones are over primer and which ones are not?
The second row of shadows had a lot of the same issues that the first row has: the stiffness and the heavy application required to get the color to look like it does in the pan. The hot pink shade in particular is insanely hard. I basically had to scrape and rake the brush over it to get any color out of it and although it is a vibrant neon pink in the pan, it looks deeper and less neon on the skin--which was a major disappointment for me. The purple, pink, and bright green are all matte while the army green has a slight pearlyness to it and the silver is a shimmer. All the shimmers in this palette are much easier to work with--but that is usually the case with most shadows as far as I've experienced, so I'm not going to take points off for that...
Over all, I'm glad to have this palette in my collection. I simply have never seen shadows this bright. The neon orange, yellow and green alone are worth owning this palette for--also the pearly magenta shade is really gorgeous and the shimmery blues are nice too. Really, the only true duds are the white and the hot pink shades but I have other whites and hot pinks in other palettes so I can deal with the ones in this palette sucking. Also, I haven't tried using these shadows for a look, so I can't form a full opinion on them just yet...
If you want this palette in the US, you'll have to get a friend overseas to hook you up or you can do like my husband did and snatch one off Ebay. So far as I know, though the Sleek cosmetics company DOES have a website and does have international shipping, they cannot ship this particular palette to the US because it contains some fluorescent pigments that are not approved by the FDA here (please feel free to correct me if I am wrong)...I don't know about you, but I kinda like the idea of having a little bit of contraband in my makeup stash. Now lets see if the FDA police come a'knockin on my door to snatch my Sleek away...
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