Spring Delight FOTD

Recently, Jerry from Silhouette Screams showed me a new video from Michelle Phan called Spring Delight.We both liked the colors she used, but agreed that she blended it all into a muddy mess. Neither of us are fans of hers, no offense intended to those who do enjoy her videos! I wanted to do a look similar to what she did, but without blending all of the vibrant colors into oblivion. I also wanted a very pink & shimmery effect for my cheeks, to look fresh and springy.

What I used:

Hard Candy face primer

Covergirl Natureluxe foundation

Benefit Erase Paste

Maybelline Dream Mousse concealer

theBalm Sexy Mama face powder

MAC blush Dollymix

Maybelline blush/highlighter Champagne Bloom

MAC lipstick Gem of Roses

MAC lipglass Cultureclash

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Fusion of Color shadow Blaze (lid)

Fusion of Color shadow Hottie (crease)

Darling Girl shadow Rainbow Brite (inner lid)

Urban Decay shadow Peace (lower lid)

Urban Decay liner Underground (lid)

MAC liner I Get No Kick (waterline)

Maybelline The Falsies mascara

I'm really proud of this look, it's one of my favorites of anything I've ever done :)

MAC Gem of Roses Dupe

Gem of Roses, from the Semi-Precious collection released by MAC this last summer, is probably my favorite lipstick of all time. It's the perfect My Lips But Better color for me. The other day at Ulta I spotted what I thought could be a possible dupe, and lucky I had Gem of Roses in my purse to compare! On the left is Gem of Roses, and on the right is Smashbox's Be Legendary lipstick in Primrose.

Houston, we have a dupe! :D I no longer have to fear the suffering I would surely endure once I ran out of Gem of Roses!

I hope this helps anyone else hunting for a Gem of Roses dupe. Smashbox Be Legendary lipsticks cost $19 at Sephora and Ulta.

Red Lipstick & Black Liner

is the name of one of my favorite blogs. It's also the look I did the other night. I NEVER wear red lips. I've literally worn red lips in public only one other time that I can recall, so this was a big deal as far as makeup goes :P I didn't want to bombard the world with a bunch of colorful eyeshadow as well, so I just did a super neutral eye with shadows from the amazing LE Maybelline Salsa Sun palette, and for the liner I used some Physician's Formula cream liners. I winged it out a teeny bit, not much because I am TERRIBLE at winging out liner, and I didn't want to mess it up. My lips were MAC's 'Swelter' Slimshine over 'A Classic' lipstain (which has sadly almost dried out from me not putting the cap on tight enough). Doing really red lips with the thick liner actually made me feel confident instead of self-conscious, I felt so adult and classy!

EOTD with Hi-Fi Cosmetics

The other day I really wanted to use Hi-Fi's "Mug Shot", but I couldn't decide what to pair it with. So I copied the style that Silhouette Screams has been doing lately, and just put it in the crease with a white shadow on the lid (Hi-Fi's "Disco"). I also used Milani's Infinite Liner in the shade "Infinite". I was just at home so I didn't put on any face makeup, so no full-face pictures. You can see in that last picture how bad the liner looks close up. I am terrible with most liquid liners, and these Milani ones have gorgeous colors, but I find them particularly difficult for me to apply. And here's MAC's "Athena's Kiss" lipgloss that I wore with it. I know everyone has seen it, but I wanted to show you how shiny and sparkly it is ^_^ How purple it looks really depends on the lighting, it looks very pink here. Oops, a few little clumpies! I am moving back to IL this weekend, so from the end of this week until sometime next week I probably won't be posting at all, just a head's up.

EOTD with Aromaleigh Hi-Fi Retro Mattes

Whenever I use AL samples I just get bummed out knowing that when I run out, that is IT sir! The other day Mindy did an awesome look using her Aromaleigh matte shadows, and it inspired me to play around with some of mine today. I just got my MAC Wonder Woman stuff delivered today, and it inspired my look a little bit. The black liner against the yellow shadow reminded me a little bit of comic books, and I used a sheer red gloss to go with it, although it shows up looking pink in the pictures. I'm going to do a full list of products I used, for once! What I used: Eyes- Concrete Minerals Electric Eye Primer Aromaleigh's "Real Gone" on lid Aromaleigh's "Smokin'" in crease High Voltage's "Feel The Heat" to highlight Maybelline "The Falsies" mascara InColor (aka Jordana) FabuLiner in black Urban Decay's 24/7 liner in "Zero" Face- Hard Candy's Sheer Envy Primer Jane Be Pure Mineral Skin Perfecting Sheer Foundation Maybelline Dream Mousse Concealer Benefit's Erase Paste (under eyes) Revlon PhotoReady Powder (don't really like this much) Physician's Formula Mineral Glow Pearls (not a fan of this either) Cheeks and Lips- MAC blush in "Mighty Aphrodite" elf blush in "Gotta Glow" Urban Decay Ultraglide lipgloss in "Heat" You can ignore the fact that I got gloss on my teeth... It's been about 10 hours and my eyeshadow still looks awesome. I credit this partially to Concrete Mineral's awesome eye primer, and partly to the staying power of these shadows. I really love how the Mighty Aphrodite blush looks on me- I think it looks really natural, which is funny because I naturally flush a really bright pink. To wrap it up I want to say hi to my new followers! Thanks for stopping by ^_^ I would LOVE to do a giveaway to celebrate +350, but until I find a job I really can't afford to do so. Hopefully I can get one soon so I can do a fun giveaway (and go off my own no-buy, bleh).

Swatches of my MAC collection

Ok, I finally got around to doing swatches of my new MAC stuff! I just begrudgingly decided to let MAC into my life a few weeks ago, so it's not a lot. Since I don't have a ton of their products, it means I can do a teeny review of each item along with the swatches. :) If you want to see product photos, they are a few posts back. First, we have a Mineralize Blush in the shade Love Rock. This is after a few swipes with a blush brush, so as you can see it is very sheer. It has tons of really fine glitter in it, which I personally LOVE. I feel like this blush looks really natural on me, but with anyone who has skin darker than 'fair', the color payoff probably wouldn't be very good. It's been my go-to blush lately, and I love it enough that I'd buy another Mineralize Blush when I run out of this one. Next is Liquidlast Liner in the shade Greenplay, and an Eye Kohl in the shade I Get No Kick. I don't have UD's Acid Rain liner to compare, but I think it's probably pretty close to Greenplay. I think the product is pretty small to pay full price ($16.50), but I do like the brush, and the fact that this stuff is pretty much bulletproof. I Get No Kick has already become a Holy Grail item for me. I've been using it every day under my waterline to brighten up my eyes. I have 4 different types of MAC glosses. From left to right is a Lipglass in shade Culture Clash, a Lustreglass in shade Wonderstruck, a Superglass in shade Cherry Electric, and a Lipgelee in shade Bubble Lounge. Once again, I think the full price ($14.50) for the Lipglass and Lustreglass is a bit much, because they aren't very big, but they are gorgeous and I like the smell. The Lipgelee is also $14.50 but has a lot more product in it, so I think the price is fair. But the best, most amazing thing of all is the Superglass. I would gladly pay the full $18 for this any day. In fact, I wish I had bought an extra when I was at the CCO, because this is the most awesome lip gloss in the entire world, and right now it's not available. Look at the amazing flecks of gorgeous it has! I even took this huge lip picture for you so you could see the flecks in action (Cherry Electric over Slimshine Lipstick in Swelter). The bad thing is that the flakies stay on your lips long after the gloss wears off. But I don't even care. That is how much I love this. Last but not least, some random lip products. I swatched each twice- first layered a few times, and then just one swipe. From left to right is a Slimshine Lipstick in shade Swelter, a Pro Longwear Lipstain Marker in shade A Classic, and a lipstick with a Lustre finish in shade London Life. The Slimshines are currently unavailable, and I haven't tried the lipstain, but I do love the lipstick! I can definitely see why MAC is known for their lip products. It's gorgeous, sheer but buildable, and very moisturizing. I can see myself with a huge stash of these in the future. I hope that was helpful to someone! In case you're wondering why I haven't been doing much with indie makeup lately, it's because I'm not ordering anything online right now since I'm about to move. In a few weeks hopefully I'll be ordering like a fiend ;)

My trip to a CCO

If you read as many beauty blogs as I do, you may have heard of the famed "CCO" shops- it stands for Cosmetics Company Outlet. CCO's are owned by Estee Lauder, and they carry discounted makeup from all the brands Estee Lauder owns. At the CCO I went to, they carried (besides Estee Lauder, obviously) Flirt! (the Kohl's makeup line), Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Prescriptives, and MAC, the reason anyone really wants to go in the first place. They also had a good amount of Clinique skincare products, and skincare products from another brand I haven't heard of, American something. I didn't look closely at the perfume brands but I do remember seeing Tommy Hilfiger. The store was at an outlet mall in Aurora, IL. I was visiting one of my grandmas who lives pretty close to that area so my mom and I decided to go to the outlet mall and check it out. :) Sadly I forgot my camera at home that day so I didn't get any pictures of the store for you guys. If you go on Youtube though, some people have uploaded videos of what the stores look like. They had some stuff in boxes you could just grab off the shelf and buy, but things like eyeliners and lippies they only had out as testers, and you would have to bring them up to the counter to get them new in the box. Some of the gloss testers were gross, but it's nice that you know no one has touched the stuff you end up buying. The discount prices aren't huge, I would say most things were 20%-35% off the original price. The items they carry aren't brand new things. For example, the most recent MAC items they had were from the To The Beach collection, but they also had stuff from as far back as the Heatherette, Fafi, etc. collections. They had lots of discontinued items too! I decided to go ahead and buy my very first MAC products :) Right now I am out of town AGAIN for another family thing, but I will do swatches when I get home. I got a mineralized blush, a Superglass, a Lipglass, a liquid liner, a Slimshine lipstick, and a lipstain. The total of these items was a little less than $70 after tax. If you have a CCO near you and you like MAC or any of the other brands they carry, it is DEFINITELY worth your time to go, even if you have to drive a while. Here is a link to which outlet malls have a CCO store. The same outlet mall also had a Lancome Company Store. They had Juicy Tubes and this amazingly cool discontinued product I'll show you later for 55% off, so I got three items for about $20. I also went to CVS yesterday and grabbed a couple clearance lippies from Revlon that were 75% off. They were less than $3 each. If you haven't heard by now, CVS is having their beauty clearance sale. You can find out some great information about it over at Noveau Cheap. At the one I stopped at, I don't think they had finished marking prices, but I did see a LOT of Revlon stuff on sale. So here was my total haul for the week, and everything was purchased at a discount price! If there is anything else I can think to add about the CCO I will, and if there is something you'd like to know that I didn't mention, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to try and remember :P