Spam on the Cheap, the FOTD edition

Yep, it's time to clean out the To Post folders again--I always procrastinate on sorting through my FOTD pics because I tend to take about 340850438504 shots of each look and it takes forever just to upload them and click through them all.

It's kinda funny--I can tell the chronology of these pics based on my hair color's metamorphosis. Gotta love my Manic Panic A.D.D.!


**Unless otherwise noted, I used the following in all these pictures: Almay Clear Complexion Foundation, Powder and Concealor in Light/Ivory; ELF Eyebrow kit in 'medium;' Jordana Fabuliner; Maybelline The Falsies Flared Mascara; NYX HD eyeshadow base**

Look, I still have pink hair in this one! 

Eyes: Sugarpill Chromalust in Tiara and Stella

Cheeks: Physicians Formula Happy Booster blush

Lips: Baby Lips balm--the minty one with no pigment in the lime green tube (I can't remember the name)...

Enter the Turquoise/purple hair! 

Eyes: Wet N Wild 8 Pan eyeshadow in "Blue Had Me at Hello." Sugarpill Chromalust in Stella

Cheeks: ELF blush in Pink Passion

Lips: Revlon Lip Butter in Dollypop over NYC Lipstain in Forever Fuchsia

Oh look, yet another blue shadow look...what a shock.

Eyes: Glamour Doll Eyes shadows in Fabulous  and Aqua Foil, some ELF loose shadow that I can't remember and Sugarpill Chromalust in Stella (oh yea I'm crushin HARD on Stella!)

Lips: ELF lipstick in Gypsy

Cheeks: Physicians Formula Happy Booster blush

This is my eye look from yesterday. I was being lazy and didn't do my whole face, hence the eyeballz only shots. For this look, I used Pearl Ex Pigments in Green/Yellow Duo, Blue/Green Duo and Interference Gold. 

What are Pearl Ex Pigments you ask? Well, if you are a crafty bitch like me, you might find the name familiar: they are powdered pearlescent pigments used to add color and luster to arts and crafts projects. You can find them in places like Hobby Lobby, AC Moore and Michael's. Here's the thing about them: they are non-toxic, inert, acid-free, amazingly finely milled, richly pigmented and they apply, blend, and last (all frickin day) like a DREAM...but they're not TECHNICALLY cosmetics. I figure if it looks like makeup, applies like makeup, and is made of perfectly safe ingredients, then HECK, to ME, it's makeup! But, to cover both my ass and Pearl-Ex's I'm gonna say if you wanna try them out, do so 'at your own risk.' I've worn them quite a few times with absolutely no ill effects whatsoever and I am always blown away at how vibrant they are and how easy they are to work with.  ...

Anyway, so there's some of the mugshots I've collected over the past few months. Clearly, I gotta lay off the blue eyeshadow for a while. It's funny. I used to avoid blue shadow like the plague cuz I always read it didn't do anything for green eyes. But, after I started dying my hair all crazy-like again, I decided to HELL with what's "appropriate." I just wanna play with COLOR, dangit! 

Here's to self-liberation...

So what's your color of the moment?

lookin a hot mess for Sub Ball...

Hello, blogosphere! I'm actually feeling well enough to post. As I mentioned in my last post, I've had Strep throat AND a double ear infection on top of that (oh yea, even when I get sick, I gotta go ALL OUT). They gave me antibiotics and I guess they're actually working because I can actually sit up without feeling dizzy AND I actually ate something solid today! I'm actually even well enough to abuse the word "actually!" Yay medical intervention!

Anyway,  I got a chance to dress up all fancy a few weeks back.. It was for The 112th annual Submarine Birthday Ball, which is what it sounds like it is--a birthday ball the Navy throws in honor of submarines & all who work on them. It's a  big shin-dig and a killer excuse for us wives to get all doozied up in decadent, floor-length, sparkly things like we're going to the Oscars, which rules because, honestly, how many times does a poor schmuck nobody like me get a chance to rock an evening gown & feel like a princess? )...

(click to enlarge)

Since I was going with an all-black ensemble (of course), I got black glitter heels and I wanted my nails to match my heels, so I got the idea to paint my nails black (with my trusty Wet n Wild Black Creme) & dip the still-wet nails in a big ol vat of black glitter. They look more like asphalt than glitter nails in the pictures, but they looked pretty dang nifty in person. For a girl who loves all things black, sparkly and nail-related, it was like the convergence of all awesomeness on my fingertips.

These nails were fun to wear but they DID have their draw backs. They're definitely a "one night special occasion" type thing only. I learned the hard way that if you try to put a top coat ON TOP of the glitter layer to smooth it out, it just ends up looking like a wet, bubbly mess--like tar or something. So basically you gotta wear the glitter top-coat free, which means your nails are all gritty and rough & catch on stuff. Amazingly, the glitter itself did not shed at all, though and it wasn't all that hard to remove afterward. I didn't even have to foil the nails--I just held a remover-soaked ball on top of each nail for a minute and I was able to easily & gently scrape the glitter off in one or 2 pieces with an orange stick.

Of course, after I did my nails, I remembered I had purchased satin gloves to wear for the night (duh)--but I ended up having to take the gloves off later anyway cuz, dude, satin is slippery & trying to, like, hold stuff is a pain with them on. 

Anway, because I can't think of a clever segway (hell I can't even spell the WORD) I'm going to start abruptly talking about  my outfit and makeup. Usually, wives get bridesmaids dresses and whatnot to wear to the ball but I wanted to keep it a tad more goth/victorian than that, so I came up with this:

beaded Corset + tight lacy shirt + layered skirts = my outfit. And Yep, that's Mr. Cheap there by my side all decked out & showing off his naval awesomeness.

I didn't get too many good shots of my makeup that night, but here's a crappy, awkward pic to give you an idea. You really can't tell what's going on with my eyes but I attempted a subtle double-winged liner...

Face:

Almay Clear Complexion Foundation, powder & concealer

ELF Studio Blush in Pink Passion

Wet N Wild Bronnzer in Acapulco Glow

Eyes:

NYX HD Eye base

Sugarpill chromalust in Tiara

Sugarpill chromalust in Stella

Wet N Wild Color-Icon shadow single in Panther

Jordana Fabuliner in black

Milani Liquif'eye liner in black

rhinestone falsies I got at Sally's (I think they are by Ardell)

Maybelline the Falsies Flared mascara

brows:

ELF brow kit in medium

ELF clear brow gel

lips:

Wet N Wild Megalast lipstick

Revlon Colorburst Lip gloss in Decadent

So anyway, yay for special occasions and yay for Amoxicillan for helping me feel well enough to write a big rambly post about getting dressed up). Do you like getting dressed up? Are you a fan of anti-biotics? ;)

FOTD from last week--featuring even MORE Glamour Doll Eye & Sugarpill!

Hello, hello! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. The weather has been way too gorgeous lately so we've been spending redonk amounts of time outside. I HAVE been taking pics, though--my "to post" folder is overflowing, so time to stop being a bad blogger and sit down long enough write something and hit "publish." 

Here's a look I wore last week. Basically my objective here was to match my NEW new hair (yes, I changed it AGAIN--took my trusty Manic Panic Atomic Turquoise and put it all over my head--including over the existing Hot Hot Pink streaks--which created these awesome royal purple chunks and, of course, deepened the other Atomic Turquoise parts even more)...oh yea, and I also wanted to play some more with my gorgeous Glamour Doll Eye and Sugarpill loose shadows, of course

Products used:

*Face*

The usual Almay Clear Complexion Foundation, powder and concealor

ELF Studio Blush in Pink Passion

Wet N Wild Bronzzer Acapulco Glow

*Eyes*

Glamour Doll Eyes Fabulous

Glamour Doll Eyes Aqua Foil

Glamour Doll Eyes Bruised

Sugarpill Hysteric

Jordana Fabuliner in black

Wet N Wild ColorIcon single shadow in Panther

Maybelline Falsies Flared mascara

Wet N Wild Acapulco Glow under brows as highlight

*Brows*

ELF brow kit in Medium

ELF clear brow setting gel

*Lips*

One of the new Wet N Wild Megalast lippies (I LOVE the lipstick but HATE that Wet N Wild only prints the name on the outer seal that gets removed)

Revlon Colorburst lip gloss in Decadent (from the LE holiday 2011 collection)

yesterday's FOTD featuring Sugarpill and Glamour Doll Eyes

I was in a pink mood yesterday. Plus I really wanted to play with my Sugarpill and Glamour Doll Eye loose shadows. So this is what happened:

PRODUCTS:

*face*

Almay Clear Complexion foundation, powder and concealor

Garnier Anti-dark circle eye roller

Physicians Formula Happy Booster blush

Wet N Wild Bronzzer in Acapulco Glow

*eyes*

NYX HD eyeshadow base

Glamour Doll Eyes Pinky Swear 

Sugarpill Decora

Sugarpill Stella

Overall Beauty Champagne (under brow)

Jordana Fabuliner in black

Maybelline the Falsies Flared Mascara in black

Brows:

New York Color Brow kit

Lips:

New York Color Lipstain in Forever Fuchsia

Milani Haute Flash LE gloss in Flashy

Revlon Colorburst lip gloss (LE Holiday 2011) in Decadent 

I am in so much love with indie-made makeup lately. I have a whole wish list of different companies I want to try out--and so much of it is so really reasonably priced, too! 

Oh yea, dig the new hair? You can't really tell in these pics but it is in streaks--Manic Panic Hot Hot Pink and Atomic Turquoise over bleached-to-death blond. Yay for color!

2 EOTDs and other randomness

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)...

Ok, that's enough rambling for one day...

Sugarpill Chromalust Swatchfest-sweetest eyecandy ever!!

Ok before I get to the pretties (and oh how pretty they are!!), let me say I'm sorry for the slow with posting these past few days. As I mention in my little "about me" blurb, my husband is in the military and, as of a few days ago, he had to go answer the call of duty elsewhere. Thankfully, he will only be gone for about a month this time but, during that time, I won't be able to post as often. As you might imagine, chasing after 3 little ones and running a house single-handedly is driving me absolutely insane a little time-consuming. :)

Ok now that we got that out of the way, onto the SUGARPILL!! Let the drooling commence:

How cute is that packaging? Hard to believe we're talking about an indie makeup company!

no flash

Top row left to right: Stella, Lumi, Hysteric, Royal Sugar, Tiara

Bottom row left to right: Absinthe, Asylum, Goldilux, Tipsy, Decora

flash

Swatched dry on bare skin:

outdoor no flash

indoor with flash

First column top to bottom: Lumi, Stella, Asylum, Tipsy, Hysteric

Second column top to bottom: Tiara, Goldilux, Decora, Absinthe, Royal Sugar

Even without primer, these shadows are frickin uh-MAZE-ing!! Unfortunately, my camera hates all things awesome, so the pics are terrible....

Swatches over NYX HD eyeshadow base:

indoor with flash

 Outdoor no flash

OH-EM-GEEE!! These are so vivid and silky and shimmering. Stella has this amazing rainbow glitter in it. You can't see it in the swatch cuz, as I mentioned, my camera is anti-awesome, but you can see it somewhat in these close-ups of the shadow in the jar:

(click to enlarge)

SO gorgeous! These are all amazingly pigmented--just a few dabs with my Ecotools eyeshadow brush made each swatch all POPPIN and opaque. Goldilux, Tiara, Royal Sugar and Asylum are my favorites so far. Goldilux is especially mind-blowing. Its swatch almost looks like I have a frickin solid gold coin sitting on my arm! Lumi is gorgeous too--it has this incredible green flash that my camera is absolutely blind to. I tried to get the flash to come out here:

 but still no dice. In person, however, it is SO striking and gorgeous. 

All in all, just from swatching, I am in absolute love with these and can't wait to get the time to play with them more. Of course, I will keep you all updated on the outcome of my experiments. Just be warned: I'm pretty new to the world of  beautiful, technicolor loose shadows (I've mainly just used pressed shadows for most of my makeup-wearing life), so I can't promise anything spectacular!

Look what just came in the mail!!

'scuse the crappy cell phone pic but I couldn't wait to announce the arrival of my Chromalust haul from Sugarpill's recent 2 year birthday sale!!

They're so cute in their little cubes, I kinda don't even wanna open them lol!

I got:

Lumi

Stella

Tipsy

Tiara

Goldilux

Asylum

Royal Sugar

Hysteric

Decora

Absinthe...

Stay tuned for further ogling--swatch post coming soon! :)

Sugar Pill birthday sale! TODAY'S THE LAST DAY!

In case you didn't know, Sugar Pill cosmetics (purveyor of GORGEOUS technicolor eyeshadows) is having a birthday sale to celebrate the company's second birthday. 20% off all palettes and loose eyeshadows!! Today is the last day of the sale and the discount code is "cake." I just hauled a ton of Chromalust eyeshadows! I couldn't help myself. Everytime I go on www.makeupbee.com, I drool over all the beautiful Sugar Pill-created looks...

http://www.sugarpillshop.com/

Can't wait to get my pretties!! Stay tuned for swatches as soon as they arrive!