Monday, May 31, 2010

Etsy Review: One Hand Washes The Other

It seemed like people were interested in me doing an Etsy review, so here is my review of One Hand Washes The Other! Ever since Haus of Gloi popped up, I've been interested in buying handmade bath and body products on Etsy. There are 2 main requirements a shop has to fit before I consider shopping from it. One is a reasonable selection of scents. I can't stand going to a place with literally hundreds of choices; I can't decide and feel like I'm going to miss out if I just pick one without looking at all the rest, it's just too overwhelming. I also don't want simple scents I could get from any generic store brand (Sweet Pea, Apple, Lavender, etc). Add that to good pricing and it's hard for me to sometimes find a good contender! I wouldn't have known about OHWTO if Becca hadn't commented on my blog- making your name known via beauty bloggers is a very good idea. Her shop fit my requirments, and I decided to place an order. The shop is nice and organized, like most Etsy stores. In the shop announcement section, there's a link to the company blog, which has a nice, big but not overwhelming variety of scents, from essential oils to premade scents to custom blends. They all have descriptions. There were quite a few things I was interested, but I chose a Ginger Ale soap ($5), and a whipped bathing creme sample size in scent Sweet Grass ($2.50). Shipping was $3.75, which seems very reasonable as bath products aren't as light as makeup and have to come in a box instead of an envelope. I ordered on a Saturday, it got shipped by that Monday, and I got it on Friday. Why yes, I am quite impressed, thank you. Here's what came in my package! Isn't that little baggy cool with a freaking WAX SEAL on it? Lol I was so impressed at that. I got a free sample of the solid scent Lost at Sea, and a free sample of Lip Butter in Spearmint. I adore everything. The scent of the bathing creme reminds me of my favorite shampoo when I was little, and the jar was packed full. The solid scent smelled delicious, and it actually was noticeable and lasting. The lip butter I only tried once, and formula wise it was ok, but I really love the smell. The soap is gorgeous, and does smell just like Ginger Ale! I love it. I highly reccomend OHWTO- my products were reasonably priced, great smelling, and good quality. The samples I got were fabulous. She has quite a few other scents and products I'd like to try out, so I'll probably be placing another order soon- you should too. :) Edit: if you know of any Etsy companies like this that meet my requirements, please let me know!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Summer/Ocean LOTD

I've been seeing so many gorgeous summery, oceany looks lately that I decided to do one as well. This is probably my favorite look so far! I feel like everything I've tried in the last couple weeks has turned out fabulous; I think I'm really improving with my makeup application. What I used: UDPP Italian Ice, by Aromaleigh (inner lid) Graffiti, by Urban Decay (center lid) Bang-Up, by Concrete Minerals (outer lid) Abyss, by Detrivore (teeny bit in outer corners) some silver L'Oreal color in crease Marigold, by Aromaleigh (highlight) Covergirl Liquiline blast eyeliners on lower lid Rimmel liner on waterline Rimmel Sexy Curves mascara Hard Candy Sheer Envy face primer Revlon PhotoReady translucent finishing powder Physician's Formula Rx Undereye concealer Rimmel moisture renew lipstick in Coral Shimmer Glamour Doll glamour gloss in Posh Life Tart blush by Sassy Minerals The pictures don't do it justice, it was so gorgeous in person. Can I say that I am in LOVE with the Covergirl liquiline blast eyeliners? They glide on so perfectly, and these two colors are awesome. I hope they come out with a ton of cool new colors. Would you guys be interested in Etsy bath/body reviews? Ever since Haus of Gloi frenzy started, I've been really interested in purchasing my body products on Etsy. I just got my order yesterday from One Hand Washes the Other, and I'll do a review if anyone is interested. There are other bath and body companies I plan on ordering from as well, so please let me know if this is something you would like to see on my blog! Happy Saturday ladies!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Panda LOTD

Don't ask me about the name... I have NO IDEA why this makes me think of pandas and bamboo and Asia. It just does. What I used: UDPP Sugar, by Hi Fi (inner lid) Putrefaction, by Detrivore (outer lid) Taboo, by Sassy (outer crease) Wanted, by Hi Fi (inner crease) Silent Night, by NARS (highlight) Rimmel liner in black Rimmel Sexy Curves mascara Hard Candy Sheer Envy face primer Revlon PhotoReady translucent finishing powder Physician's Formula Rx undereye concealer mark blush in Good Glowing Revlon matte lipstick in Pink About It And here is the shirt I was wearing, because it is awesome. Brand is Obey. I'm going to do an amazing giveaway this summer, but I'm going to do a small one soon- I found 2 bottles of Hidden Treasure at Meijer, so I'm going to throw in a couple other small goodies and start entries for that soon.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Random beauty chatter

Hello ladies! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I haven't worn any makeup since Friday, except a little face powder so I don't seem oily. I've been working during the day, so it just seems like waaay too much effort to get dolled up to wear my Arby's uniform. I had some things I wanted to talk about though! First up, I wanted to list some blogs I've recently started following. Sorry if I've already listed a couple of these before! Liloo and co Just Peachy Sassy Beauty My Tiger Lily Tales from a small town Kiss Prints Also Known As... Make up by redhead nasty girl Unlaced Beauty Wintry Beauty Serafia's Makeup The girl with many eyes lextard- nails, makeup & more In Her Makeup Bag Has anyone been going on ridiculous drugstore hunts lately? I went to three different Walgreens one night so I could find all of the new Sally Hansen HD polishes I wanted. They're gorgeous :D I also just found out about these new Wet N Wild baked shadows and blushes, so I might drive over to Meijer tomorrow- oddly enough, it has the best makeup selection in town. At first I was bummed that I won't have one when I move, but then I remembered I will be in a town with an Ulta, which is so much better :D Also, I saw the Maybelline Falsies mascara at CVS yesterday! I was so excited until I saw the price- $15?! I refuse to pay that much for a drugstore mascara. Has anyone tried this yet? I need to know your opinions! My graduation ceremony is this Tuesday, and my mom's whole side of the family will be here to celebrate on Sunday- that's my grandma, my mom's 7 brothers and sisters, and their spouses and kids. It's gonna be insane, but I'll get cake! Anyway, I'm telling you this because my mom said I absolutely have to clean my room before then. Once I get it clean, I m going to show you pictures of my makeup collection! I know it's surely not as big as some people's, and almost all my shadows are samples, but it's nothing to scoff at. My eyeliners alone are ridiculous, I realized, I have over 20. I'm sure some of you have heard by now, but Stardust has closed, maybe permanently. I am very sad and pissed off by this, because I think Jenna is a nice person who had a lapse in judgment and everyone jumped down her fucking throat about it. I don't want to start another big discussion about everything, I just wanted to let you know about the store closing and my feelings. Lastly, we have a new kitty! A stray had been wandering around our house, and we eventually coaxed him in with some food. We took him to the vet, but he doesn't have a chip. We looked on Craigslist and posted an ad to see if he was anyone's kitty, but nothing so far- and seeing how hungry and tired he was, as well as the fact that he had no collar, we think somebody just dumped him. He's a real sweetie and he's been living in our sunroom the past few days. He has a crush on my kitty, it's so cute. :D Here's a picture of them together, boyfriend kitty is on the left, my kitty is on the right.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Berry FOTD

Hey everyone! I apologize that I am currently behind on answering comments and catching up on everyone's blogs. I worked from 4-close last night at work, and today I had to get my cap and gown, go to lunch, and now I'm heading to work and then seeing my boyfriend! Tomorrow I have a meeting, I have to go to garage sales with my mom, work, my friend's graduation party, and I'm having people over for a movie. So my weekend is already really busy! Hopefully I'll catch up on Sunday. How is your weekend going? What I used: UDPP Wet N Wild purple cream shadow type thingy (from the Art and Abstract set) Parental Advisory, by Hi Fi (inner lid) Lemming, by Fyrinnae (center lid) BFF, by Meow (outer lid and crease) Sugar, by Hi Fi (highlight, blended in) Prestige My Biggest Lashes mascara Rimmel eyeliner in black (waterline) HiP eyeliner in Violet Volt (under waterline) Physician's Formula RX under eye concealer Hard Candy Sheer Envy face primer Revlon PhotoReady translucent finishing powder Wet N Wild blush in Heather silk (heehee) Revlon moisture renew lipstick in Coral Shimmer Too Faced sparkler glamour gloss in Violet Vapor That last image is a close up on my lip so you can see the crazy iridescence of the gloss! I also have it in a color called Diamond Dust. These are $9 on Beauty Ticket, I highly recommend you snag one! I don't know why I haven't been using them lately, they're amazing over lipstick. I also finally bought the Hard Candy primer, and I love it. You need such a teeny amount, and it works so well for only $8- my powder stays all day. I also love the blush- it is the most pigmented I have ever gotten, and it cost $3. Isn't that necklace lovely? It was part of my birthday present from Blix :D I am also wearing Urban Decay marshmallow scented body powder I got from Lillian's blog sale. I love the smell soooo much! I'm off to work, I hope everyone has a terrific Friday night.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Hi-Fi swatches galore!

You guys, I'm done with high school! Yay! But on to more important matters... Hi Fi swatches! I can't praise this company highly enough. Comparing colors Veronica had right when she started her company, to some of her newer ones, you can see that they have gotten more complex. She has the new Rockstar loose pigments that I can't wait to try! I get paid tomorrow, and Hi-Fi will be my first order :D All these swatches are done without primer. Some of these shadows should definitely be used with it though; certain ones have a lot of shimmer. Pussycat for example has TONS of silver glitter in it that you really need a primer or Pixie Epoxy to bring out fully (or maybe Hi-Fi's new High Impact Shadow Fix? I'll be comparing it to Pixie Epoxy eventually). From left to right: Prophecies & Curses, Angel's Scream, Crazy Little Thing, Beautiful Tragedy, Teen Spirit, Don't Forget the Violence, Morbid Faith Morbid Faith reminds me of the gorgeous color Spell from Meow's Friday the 13th collection. If you missed out last time, you can grab this color. From left to right: Big Shot, Vicarious, Vanity Ruins, Terror In The Depths, Pussycat, Dismembered Constellation, Jenny I didn't like Jenny until I swatched it- it's a unique color, almost like a soafoam grey? I can't wait to put together some looks with it. I hope everyone's week is going well!

Sleek Acid palette EOTD

I used NYX jumbo eye pencil in Cottage Cheese as a base. I love this look, even though apparently I got makeup in my contacts, on top of my mascara, and my eye looks like it has bubbles in the one picture... I think it was the eye pencil *_* My last day of high school is in 7 hours! YAAAAAY! Now I will actually have time to do FOTDs every day to show you guys :) I have so many swatches I have been meaning to do too, but it has been cloudy and rainy here every day. Once it's nice again I will have lovely pictures for you!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Free OPI for me!

I heard about this cool thing called Freecycle from Brooke at Getcha Nails Did. If you have a Freecycle group in your town, join it! It's just people giving away their junk for free. I posted a listing asking if anyone had any old nail polish they didn't want (I'd love if I could get free makeup too, but that's too gross). I picked up my goodies from someone yesterday and I ws shocked at what I got! I googled the names of these and apparently they are from the fall 2003 British collection. On the left is Edin-Burgundy, and on the right is London Bridge is Falling Brown. Edin-Burgundy is not at all glittery, those are bottle scratches in the pictures. It's either a creme or a jelly, and is much more vampy looking irl. The left one has no name, but isn't it gorgeous? The next two are my favorite. Changing of the Garnet, and Jungle Jade. These three are all nameless, but still totally gorgeous! The Mix It polish has a golden shimmer in it, it's lovely. Just to reiterate... FREEEEEE! Sign up for Freecycle in your area!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Morgana Minerals Get Medieval swatches!

After seeing swatches on other people's blogs, I realized I should have gone with my first instinct and sample ordered the whole collection. T_T Next time I'll be getting all the rest of the colors! From left to right: Agincourt, Guinevere, Chartreuse, Joan de Arc, Lady of the Lake, Lapis Lazuli, Axe to Grind, Mordred Sorry the second picture is kind of blurry, but at least you can see which ones are glittery. I especially love Mordred, I don't have anything like it. Here is my cat deciding that my Meow order and my AMAZING birthday gifts from the lovely Blix are all for her. She really likes to touch stuff, what a weirdy :3

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

L.A. Colors palettes

I've recently found that the Dollar General as well as this cheapy store in the mall carry L.A. Colors palettes. For only $1.50-$2 each, and great pigmentation, I think these are fantastic! I may not have Sleek but at least these make me feel somewhat better ;] Tease Palette Chromatic Palette Fiesta Palette The first two are more pigmented than they look, the sun was setting as I swatched so the colors aren't as bright. I took these pictures with the camera I got for my birthday! I had my own camera already, but it was a total POS and pretty old, probably 5 or 6 years at least. I always used my mom's instead because I liked it so much, so for my birthday my parents got me a newer version of my mom's camera. :D The other beauty products I got were the new Sally Hansens I wanted- Lagoon, Sea and Be Seen, and HIDDEN FUCKING TREASURE! I think my dad managed to find the last one in the whole damn town, they're gone everywhere. I spent some time with my family, friends, and boyfriend and had a really lovely day. Thanks you all so much for the birthday wishes, it meant a lot to me. I have many Hi Fi and Morgana swatches to do, as well as my Archetype review which I have somehow managed to put off for months... expect those soon! I also got a Twitter, you can follow me @ eyeconicmakeup. I really like Twitter, I enjoy talking to you ladies about makeup and other things as well. :)

Sunday, May 9, 2010

LOTD using Urban Decay

Oh that rhymes ;] Happy mothers day everyone! I am myself a mother of two darling chinchilla boys. I was going to do a family picture but I forgot and now I'm in my Hello Kitty bathrobe with wet hair so you can wait until tomorrow! Which is coincidentally my 18th birthday... also my mom said none of my presents got here in time. See you soon makeup? I do however have my Urban Decay stuff I got from the Haute Look sale recently that my boyfriend let me get as my present. I decided to use a bunch of my Urban Decay stuff to do a look. Thank goodness for Haute Look, almost all of my Urban Decay is from there! What I used: UDPP Shag (lid) Baked (crease) Shattered (outer lid) Starlet glimmer gel by Hi Fi (highlight) UD Liquid Liner in Lucky UD Lingerie lash primer Prestige My Biggest Lashes mascara Jemma Kid liner in Style Icon (waterline) Rimmel mousse blush in Frozen Cherry UD ultraglide gloss in Lust Physician's Formula Rx under eye concealer Revlon PhotoReady translucent finisher As you can see from the giant eye of death, the loose pigments are really damn glittery and they have a lot of fallout. But they're so sparkly and gorgeous, I love them! I think this look is really interesting without using all the in your face colors. I imagine it's something I'll recreate frequently, especially since it's summer, and everyone loves the brown and blue combos, right! I hope everyone had a great weekend. 8 days of high school to go.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Vibrant green EOTD

I had to disable comments on my last post because I was getting so many irrelevant, off-topic spam posts. Please don't use my blog for that. I did delete the comments, and I will continue to do so in the future. This look is from earlier in the week. I haven't been doing anything interesting the last couple days because I haven't felt the best, especially because I was concentrating on my huge final paper for English and my AP English lit test (hopefully I got a 4). I left work early because I felt sick, I have never done that in my life. I ALWAYS go to work, so I feel like I let them down tonight, which is a bummer. On the bright side, my boyfriend should get back in town sometime in the next 2 hours. I haven't seen him since March! I can't wait. <3 What I used: UDPP Cheap Tricks, by Hi Fi (inner lid) Raw Shock, by Hi Fi (center lid) googoomuck, by Aromaleigh (outer lid) Tell Me Lies, by Hi Fi (highlight) Rimmel Sexy Curves Mascara HiP color chrome liner in Violet Volt Rimmel eyeliner in black (waterline) I love how well you can see the golden shimmer in Tell Me Lies. :D I hope everyone's week has gone well!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

My thoughts on the Stardust/AL drama

First of all I'd like to thank everyone for responding to my last post and advising me to open a Paypal dispute. If someone could email me and tell me how to do this, or if I even CAN do it since I used an e-check, I would really appreciate it. Now to the real issue here... I do have opinions on the drama that has gone on, and I wanted to share my own feelings on it. I am NOT here to point fingers, tell you where to shop, where your loyalties should lie, etc. I would just like to share how I see the situation. I will also say this right now, some of the comments I have read on other people's posts about this are hateful and nasty, to people who don't even have anything to do with this situation. Discuss THIS issue, not any past issues that are completely irrelevant and unrelated. I am NOT going to tolerate people leaving such horrible comments on my blog- if I see them I will do the responsible thing and DELETE them, or I will set all the comments to be approved first. I refuse to allow people to leave derogatory comments about anyone and use my blog as a place to pick fights. I hope I don't have to do this, it's really pathetic that some people can't act like an adult over something like makeup. I welcome your opinions, different as they may be, as long as they are respectful. :) For anyone who doesn't understand what's been going on, I invite you to read this post by Phyrra. I think it seems like a pretty accurate timeline of events. I also think you should read this. I simply do not believe that Jenna had any kind of malicious intent here. I believe her when she says she just wanted some straight answers, and being the owner of another company, any way she tried to find out would be seen as her trying to "sabotage" Aromaleigh. Do I think that creating a fake identity was a good solution to the problem? No, but I can at least see WHY she did it. Do I think she took it a little too far? Yes, at some points, but as I said, I think her intent was just to get answers, not to harm Aromaleigh as a company. People seem to be looking only at the "facts" that demonize Jenna, and not even attempting to look at her side of the story. I looked at her email to MMM, and her blog entry, and they don't seem to be saying two totally different things to me, which is what is being implied (saying this makes her two faced and hypocritical). It DOES seem to me that people are twisting around a lot of what she said to try and make her out as supervillian #1 here. I also don't like how people are doing the whole "I'm being cyberstalked" thing. She didn't say that. She told people to stop harassing her. It is not the same. I also respect the fact that once she was found out, she gave an apology that I personally find to be sincere, and tried to show her side of the story while still not trashing Aromaleigh. I looked at Kristen's twitter and she's not exactly being professional here either. I think calling people psychos and nutjobs and using her kid to make Jenna feel even more guilty is a little ridiculous. I think if this had happened between Stardust and any other company besides Aromaleigh, people would be looking at things a little more objectively. It seems to me that many people ignore any wrongdoings of Miss K, while eagerly scrutinizing other companies. This doesn't fly with me. I don't feel comfortable ordering from Aromaleigh anymore because of some of her actions. I think people are manipulating what Jenna said and putting words in her mouth because they support Miss K. If this is way tl;dr for you- here's my short summary- I don't think Jenna went about handling this in the best possible manner, but she has also apologized for it, and I don't believe she had any intent in harming Aromaleigh. I think there are a lot of people who would follow Miss K and slam anyone else, regardless of the situation, and Jenna's words are being twisted to make her look bad. I will still continue to shop at Stardust because I think Jenna is a nice person who had good intentions, but didn't necessarily cary them out the way she should have. Thoughts and opinions? Keep it civil.

Monday, May 3, 2010

My dealings with Metamorphosis Cosmetics

I haven't seen any actual reviews of this new brand anywhere yet, so I thought some of you might find this interesting. Here is a timeline of all my experiences with Metamorphosis Cosmetics. 03/12- I placed an order for 10 samples. I accidentally clicked a button I shouldn't have because the ordering page confused me, and ended up not sending the money through. I emailed Julia, the owner, and she said she would send me an invoice. I also asked about shipping, since I would be paying $5 s&h for $10 of product. 03/13- Julia said she would discount the shipping to only $2. I then decided to cancel my order because I was getting frustrated at the whole thing. Julia said she would send me a few samples just for free to make up for everything, even though it wasn't really her fault. 03/14- I decided to go ahead and place my order anyway. Julia sent me an invoice via PayPal, and that just caused a shit ton more problems, because as I've just finally figured out, if someone sends me an invoice, Paypal will reject any credit cards I use. It works fine any other way, just not with an invoice (I fucking hate Paypal). The total was $11.50, so only $1.50 for shipping. 03/15- stupid Paypal won't let me pay, so we were emailing back and forth for freakin' forever trying to figure out what the problem was (Paypal sucks is the problem). 03/16- sent an e-check to get the money through. SPRING BREAK IN TEXAS WOOOO! I come home at the end of March excitedly awaiting my package... it never came. 03/27- I emailed Julia to make sure she got the money. She answered later that evening (Saturday) to let me know there were some personal issues and she would mail it Monday. 04/14- I emailed Julia to ask when she sent my order out, since I hadn't gotten it. I thought it may have gotten lost in the mail. 04/18- I sent another email, because I never got a response to the last one. I said I hadn't gotten my package or a response to my last email, and asked when the samples were sent out. 04/19- Julia said she had sent the samples out 2 weeks ago, and also thought they had gotten lost in the mail. She said she would resend them, with a full size product, as well as send me a tracking number. She apologized for the delay, saying she had been ill. I said thank you and waited for my stuff. 05/03- I never got a tracking number, and as of yet I still haven't gotten my package, and I highly doubt I ever will. Lucky for me I only spent $11.50, but there may be people looking to order who will spend a lot more. You can decide for yourself if it's worth it.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Fire themed EOTD

Silhouette Screams has been doing some fire themed looks, so I decided to do one the other day. All colors are from the L.A. Colors Fiesta palette, except the crease color which is Twinkling Cherrine by Morgana Minerals. Rimmel Sexy Curves mascara and Rimmel black eyeliner in the waterline.

March/April movies

As April has just ended, I thought I'd do another post sharing with you the best movies I've seen in the last couple months. Let me know your opinions of any of these that you've seen! I really need to statisfy my movie-discussing urges.