Top 5 Blushes

Howdy! I've been away so long! Sorry! Busy semester. I got a job, got into law school and will now be moving home soon. I'll write all about packing on my other blog, but I'll check in here on my makeup packing and moving. But first...blush!

I have a lot of blush, I really don't know how it happened. Last year I only had 14 blushes...that number has almost doubled now... in fact all of these have been acquired since then except one. So here's what they are and why I love them. Counterclockwise from the Hourglass palette.

1. Hourglass Mood Exposure the most expensive blush I own and it's not even a full size, but in a palette. This bottom left corner color doesn't look like anything special in the pan, but when you put it on it is the most perfect plum-y mauve. The color is so gorgeous with a hint of glow, not shimmer and I'm in love. I wore this color for over a month straight after I got this palette because it is so gorgeous. It's a sophisticated natural color that looks great. I think it's a great winter color and love it when wearing all black or grey. It lasts forever and is so silky smooth to the touch. I will buy the full size of this if I ever work through this one- all $38 of it. This palette was $80 and is a great sampler of Hourglass stuff.
2. Milani Tea Rose I had the hardest time picking which of Milani's rose blushes I wanted last year when these came out, but decided to go with this one because it seemed the most universal. It's a bright rose color and a great pink when the season's are transitioning Winter to Spring or Summer to Fall. I just love it. I feel like it's a comforting color like jeans, it's a good casual color but looks super nice when dressed up. It has a great texture and great lasting power, it looks so natural on and if I needed more blush I would buy more of this formula.
3. Tarte Fearless One of the 12 Hour Amazonian Clay Blushes, it's photographing much brighter and online it looks much mellower, but it's a beautiful bright pink flush but not too bright. It's a great everyday Spring and Summer Pink. I first fell in love with this blush as a sample. Tarte blushes are super pigmented and this will probably last me forever, but I love it and until it gets hard pan I will use and abuse it. Tarte blushes are $28 and well worth it. In the summer it's a no-brainer blush, I highly recommend.
4. Tarte Savored another 12 Hour Amazonian Clay Blush, but unfortunately it was a part of a limited edition holiday collection from  QVC. I wrote about it here. Tarte blushes never photograph correctly, but this is my go to Fall/Winter blush. It's a burgundy deep color with some gold shimmer, but not too much. It was my first experience with Tarte blushes and you can see my Amazonian woman is mostly used up in the center. It's sadly getting a little hard pan on it after a year and a few months, but that's okay it was a great deal in a set.
5. theBalm Cabana Boy a beautiful deep dusty rose color. Another one I break out in the fall months. Such a gorgeous color with very very slight shimmer. I got this for $10 on HauteLook and while I love it I probably wouldn't have bought it full price at $21. It's a favorite because I don't have anything else like it. 

So these are my perfect go to blushes when I need to look polished and perfect, I love them. I am a very seasonal person I only use certain items during certain times of the year. True with clothing, music and makeup. Eye shadows I mix pretty much year round, but blushes not at all. I love my pinks and in the Spring and Summer, but in the Fall and Winter I want something deeper and cozier. Milani is my only favorite drugstore blush because it performs so well. If you didn't tell me it was drugstore I'd never know. These are my favorite blushes I hope you try some of them out!

Fall Party Makeup!

Ooops. I guess it's been a little bit since I blogged. I've had a very busy September. I've been busy with work stuff and after work stuff, so there hasn't been a lot of time for makeup creativity.  Until this weekend. I'd gotten in a rut of easy fall makeup and decided that I needed to spice it up. Luckily I had a Theatre Karaoke Party to go to and decided I'd go all out.  What do I mean?

I mean I wore I all the makeup.  This bag is filled with all the stuff I applied to my face. There was quite a bit. I hadn't worn this much makeup in a while and it kinda showed. It was indoors and kinda darkish party so luckily unless I was in full sunlight it didn't look like as much makeup as it actually was...at least that's what I'm telling myself.

So starting with my base. Primer. I primed. I had put my usual day cream on earlier in the day. But about 10 minutes before applying my makeup I used my IT Cosmetics Feel the Moment Primer Serum. This needs to soak in a moment. I also applied my CeraVe Eye Repair Cream- I'd recently heard it played well under concealer so gave it a whirl. It's my usual nighttime eye cream. After the those had sunk in a bit I added my Maybelline Master Prime in Blur + Smooth where my pores are the worst- around my nose and tops of my cheeks and my Milani Eyeshadow Primer to my eyelids and a little below where my concealer goes.


Once all that set in I moved on to my next face products. Bring in the IT Cosmetics team. I love IT Cosmetics. I combine both the CC Cream regular and Illumination in Medium to make a delightfully glowy full coverage effect. I also use two Bye Bye Under Eyes in Neutral Medium and Tan. I apply the CC Cream with my fingers one pump of the regular and half a pump of the Illumination. I use about a pinpoint size of each Bye Bye Under Eye and mix them together on the back of my hand. Then I apply a thin layer to each under eye and blend out with a fluffy concealer brush. I love the look of this combo. It's incredibly full coverage and very long wearing. The CC Cream doesn't need any setting powder by the time I get to my face products it's set fine, but the Bye Bye Under Eye definitely needs to be set. It will remain very tacky and I'd worry it would move around if I didn't set it. My favorite way to set it is with my NARS Translucent Crystal Powder.

Normally I would move onto my eyes next, but this Saturday I did it reverse and did my face powders next.

I used my usual and ALMOST gone NYC Sunny Bronzer to contour and bronze up my face. Then I used the gorgeous highlighter from the IT Cosmetics Live, Laugh, Love Vitality Face Disc. This highlighter is not joking around. It is in your face and shiny and gorgeous. Then I finished it off with my Tarte Blush in Savored from last year's Tarte Holiday set from QVC. Combined these face products are gorgeous. I chose the IT Cosmetics highlighter because it's more champagne based and less gold than my usual. This is not a highlighter you'd choose for a natural day or if you were wanting to be subtle. I will also use up my Sunny bronzer this year if it kills me. I'm so tired of that thing and have so many other bronzers I want to use. Now that it's fall I've started to pull out my deeper blushes and this is one of my faves.

For my eyes I knew I wanted to do something special. Something fun and sparkly. I also wanted to use my Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette that I've been neglecting. I started with White Chocolate all over my lids for a smooth base. This helps the shadows blend together too. I then took Salted Caramel in my crease to just warm things up and give a transition. On my lids I used Strawberry Bon Bon. Then I took the star of this look Black Forest Truffle in my outer V and kept adding and blending and adding and blending. I got rid of some of the lightness of the Strawberry Bon Bon so I added on top some Champagne Truffle in the inner part of the lid to brighten things back up. Not satisfied with the depth of the outer V I added a smidgen of Dark Chocolate and then more Black Forest Truffle. It ended up being a super pretty eye look but not as party worthy as I'd been hoping so I reached for my ELF Long Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow in Gala to add some sparkle, just to the outer edge.

To finish off the eyes I used my NYX Dark Brown Gel Eyeliner along the top lash line and Dark Chocolate on the lower lash line. I then let the gel liner set and filled in my brows with my NYX Micro Brow Pencil in Taupe. For mascara I doubled up with my Covergirl Super Sizer and Benefit's They're Real both in black. Not pictured is my NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Walkyrie.  To finish off the whole fancy pants think I was going for I used my Armani Si from Scentbird as Perfume.

Here is how the look came out in various stages in the evening. It was fun, but at the end of the night a pain to get off. I broke out the cold cream because it was just a lot of makeup.

      

*None of the links above are affiliate links, just where you can buy this fabulous stuff!

Favorite Eye Shadow Combos!

It's the last day of summer for me. My students started trickling back to town last ween but their first day of class is tomorrow. So that means summer dress is over, no more jeans in the middle of the week, no more flip flops, and for me- no more lazy makeup.  So I have a couple of Go-To eye looks I do throughout the academic year. I've been spoiled over the summer with my 10 minute makeup look, my usual routine takes about 1/2 an hour with the majority of time spent on my eyes.

So the palettes I use for my eye looks and will reference throughout this post are as follows:

1. Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette
2. Tarte Tartelette Amazonian Clay Matte Palette
3. Tarte Rainforest After Dark Palette

All of these links are for ULTA- so no affiliate links.

Neutral Matte
I would say the look I do the most and will continue to do the most this semester will be close to my Tartelette Redux look. An all Matte neutral bown-ish natural look. I can accomplish this look with both my Chocolate Bar and Tartelette palettes.

Chocolate Bar Palette (Left - Right)
White Chocolate, Strawberry Bon Bon, Salted Caramel, Milk Chocolate, Semi-Sweet, & Dark Chocolate

1. I'll start every look with eye primer- I'm working through Milani Eyeshadow Primer right now.
2. Then I cover the entire lid with a base powder either White Chocolate or Free Spirit. This makes blending out all the colors easier and doesn't seem to effect lasting time.
3. Next comes a pale pink all over my lid below the crease- I use either Strawberry Bon Bon or Caregiver. If these shadows get muddied during the blending process I'll come back to them at the end.
4. Then I start deepening the crease starting with a light medium brown or camel color like Salted Caramel or Force of Nature.
5. Then another crease color a little darker still- Milk Chocolate or Wanderer.
6. Blend Blend Blend!
7. Then the next shade darker brown goes just in the outer V and blended with a very light hand into #4&5. I used Semi-Sweet or Dreamer here and make the outer corner the darkest of all and blend it just so slightly into the V.
8. Blend Blend Blend! you don't ever want to see where the color changes so I blend till it's a perfect gradient.
9. If my pale pink has gotten a little lost then I'll brighten it up with it again, I don't always have to do that though.
10. Finally I use either the darkest brown color to line my lower lashes lightly and the outer corner of my top lashes- Dark Chocolate or Multi-Tasker.
11. If I want real liner I use my dark brown gel liner, but I've been liking the no-liner look lately.

Tartelette (Left - Right)
Free Spirit, Caregiver, Force of Nature, Wanderer, Dreamer, & Multi-Tasker

I feel like this is the most universal eye look I do. It goes with everything and always looks classic. If I want to make it more dramatic I can add Dark Chocolate or Multi-Tasker as a second outer V color. If I want my eyes to really pop I can use gel liner around the whole eye. I can even skip the outer V colors all together and just have a very no-make-up-make-up eye look. So I love this one, it still takes me 20 minutes to complete because blending takes time, but I feel like I've gotten as fast as I can with this.

Burgundy and Gold
I don't know when I fell in love with gold shadow on my eyes but I know it was sometime after purchasing the Rainforest palette and seeing Kristin Gehm rave about it. But I started playing with the golds in this palette and my chocolate bar palette and somehow stumbled upon burgundy being a good pair with those. So this is another look that I loved all last fall and have already broken out a couple times this past week. Gold is fun! So these looks can be done with the Chocolate Bar or Rainforest palette.

Rainforest After Dark (Left - Right)
Bare to Explore, Tangled Up In You, Up To No Gold, Plum Away With Me, Don't Turn A-Brown

1. Primer
2. All over lid base color- the Rainforest palette is missing a good nude base color so I either pull it from my Chocolate bar or just use my setting powder here as a base. White Chocolate still works here and whatever color I use goes all over the lid because the base is all the same color for this look.
3. Next I move to the crease with Milk Chocolate and Semi Sweet or Bare to Explore and Tangled Up In You. The chocolate bar look gets darker quicker and the Rainforest stays a little lighter.
4. Then I take GOLD all over the lid below the crease. I do it after the crease base colors in this look because gold gets everywhere if you blend over it too much. I use Creme Brule or Up to no Gold. They're both gorgeous- I feel like the Chocolate Bar Gold is smoother but the Tarte's sticks a little better to the eye. I usually do two layers of each to get that really metallic look.
5. Next up a burgundy or maroon color. In the Chocolate Bar you have two options depending on how dark you want to go Amaretto or Cherry Cordial. For Rainforest I go with Plum Away With Me. These colors start at the outer corner and come in for the outer 3rd and then blend lightly in the crease above the gold.
6. Then if I need more depth I'll add Dark Chocolate or Don't Turn A-Brown and add to just the very outside of the eye.
7. I use my dark brown gel liner with this look and usually take some gold and medium brown on the lower lash line.

Chocolate Bar Palette (Left-Right)
Milk Chocolate, Semi-Sweet, Creme Brule, Amaretto, Cherry Cordial, Dark Chocolate

This is a great look for fall! I just love the gold, if you were this look with Green and have blue or green eyes it's amazing! I also love to wear this when I'm wearing brown or orangey- you know fall colors. It's a great look that works for all the eye colors. Brown eyes look gorgeous with gold. This look takes me a little longer even though there are fewer steps because Gold can smell fear. You have to go slowly with gold or it'll end up all over your face.

So I think these shadows make great fall looks. Even within just the shadows I shared you can do a variation of things and each can be very appropriate work day or school day looks as well as evening looks. I frequently will just darken things up after work and have a perfectly good evening look.  Here in Texas fall is still a few months off, but hopefully we're at least done with the 100+ degree days so fall eye makeup here I come!

In case you want to know what blushes I would use with these looks- definitely plummier, deeper rose colors and with hints of gold. So I'll break out my NARS Orgasm again, my Cabana Boy from the Balm and my deepest Tarte blush in Savored. Less pinks more plums!

Beauty Trash #2!

I feel like I just did one of these! But I guess it has been 3 months... my last Beauty Trash was my first. But I've got more. I store my beauty trash in a medium size Sephora bag and when it gets full it's time to talk trash! Here's what I've got this time-

Some repeats from last time, my tried and true and some stuff I wont be trying again. I went through 5 makeup wipes bags! What? How? And only one cotton rounds? I wont spend too much time on stuff I've already talked about. 

Now I have a whole post on moisturizers so I don't need to go into too much detail except that I'm super impressed I got through an entire thing of my Vaseline Intensive Care, I only use this stuff in the summer because it's not strong enough any other time, so I'm about half way through another one too.  I've talked about the Simple Miscellar water a lot, still love it. I still just use it after my makeup wipes to get anything else off my face and eyes. It feels like you're putting nothing extra on your skin.  Next up we have something I hate and will not be purchasing...L'Oreal Miracle Blur? Ewww. It was a pretty big sample and I didn't finish it. It balled up on my face and reacted horribly with my day cream. This stuff was gross. I went through a Sephora sample of my favorite perfume of the summer Armani Si, I hope to one day own a full size but it's so expensive. Next to that I have an Ulta sample of Lancome Effacernes concealer in Light Bisque. This stuff is lovely and very hard to describe. It's very thing but has great coverage, doesn't dry out my under eyes but dries down to a powder finish. I didn't think it was anything special so I wont be purchasing it but it was nice to play with.  Then I went through a full NYX Dewy Finish Setting Spray this stuff is just fine. I got a second one during one of Ulta's buy one get one NYX deal, but it's not the end all be all. If I get it on sale I'd buy again but I've yet to find my setting spray holy grail.

Lypsyl! Y'all Lypsyl. This stuff is fabulous. I talked about it a little bit in my last post and I just love this stuff. I dug the remaining goods out of this tube I loved it so much. I have a tube about half way done at work in the mint flavor and another honey one at home I'm working on. I love these things and will continue to purchase, use and abuse.  I also went through my car chapstick! I always keep one or two chapsticks near me at all times. In my car I probably have like 3 of these rolling around and the original Cherry flavor is my favorite. I have a few in the cake batter flavor left and one in the blue tube...is that mint? I'll finish those up but they're always a good standby, you're in the checkout line with dry lips and you just pick them up. This next up I was so sad to finish. My NYX Micro Brow WAH! I loved this thing! I have mine in Taupe and it's just beautiful, so much more natural than any other brow product I use. I already have a back up but I'm working through an inferior brow pencil that I've had for longer than I had this one- I don't use it a lot because it's not as good! I love this NYX pencil and will go back to it as soon as I'm done with my other one. Then finally I had a blush sample from Tarte in Fearless. Gorgeous color! These Tarte blush samples last a while because they're so pigmented you need so little of them. Has anyone ever in the history of the world gone through a full Tarte blush? I don't know how you ever could! I bought this, it took me forever to track it down they never had it at my Ulta, but I found it, I love it and it's just the perfect light pink that goes great with everything.

On to the other half of my trash! Up top we have my Olay Day Cream that I talked about in my moisturizer post as well and it was such a chose to get through this. I just didn't like it. I feel like it really didn't do much. Once I started wearing more foundations and less BB creams there just wasn't enough moisture in this bad boy. So nope, I went back to my Olay Beauty Fluid and life is lovely.  This tube of Cetaphil was my last one I went through before summer and it's fabulous I love it and I have more. I went through 3 Neutrogena make-up remover wipes (talked about those in the last empties) and 1 bag of HEB cotton rounds.  Then I have two makeup wipes I was just trying out.  The ELF I had used before and hated, they weren't wet enough and the product was kinda stingy.  So I tried them again the new packaging helps keep them moist  but they're still stingy, so I use them for daily brush cleaning and wiping off swatches.  The other makeup wipes I had I heard great things about they're the Trader Joe's Miscellar wipes and they were fine, but suffered ELF's earlier fate that they just weren't wet enough. I will probably get the ELF again to use for clean up and swatches but I wont get the Trader Joe's ones. 

So that's my trash! It's fun to see what I actually use and go through. I feel so much more justified knowing I'm not wasting my money and am actually finding ways to use things up even when they're not my favorite. None of the links above are affiliate links- I'm not fancy enough for that- they're just links either to other blog posts or somewhere you can buy this stuff like Drugstore.com, Ulta or Sephora.  Let's see if I can make it till October to do my next empties! 

Makeup Madness Part 5! Mascara Monday!

It's been a minute since I did a makeup madness right? Ooops. Summer has been kinda busy.  But I figured I need to get rid of a lot of Mascara so a makeup madness would be really productive right about now.  I have 15 mascaras and only use about 3...also some are old...like a year old it's time for them to go! Now I will be the first to admit I keep mascaras past their recommended expiration date. Most people recommend getting rid of your mascara after 3 months to avoid eye infections, but a lot of mascaras have a 6 month expiration date printed on their tubes. (I just learned the cool makeup code that looks like a jar with the number of months it's good on it. My benefit products have it and they say 6 months.) So I'm going with 6 of when they dry out.

Here's what we're working with...

Wow this is a terrible picture...sorry.

Now I've never finished a mascara tube, I've never used one so long that it ran out- how much mascara are you people putting on?!?! I'm a two coat girl. So usually my mascara has to go bad before I pick up a new tube, but I'm going to be very forceful with myself and get rid of mascaras that are old...hopefully.

Let's start with my faves. Benefit makes some good mascara. My first Benefit mascara was the They're Real This little sample came in my Sephora Favorites kit that I got a lot of fave products from- good job Sephora. And it changed my eyelash life. I already have pretty curled lashes and they're relatively thick, but I lack length. I talked about it a little bit here. When it started to get dry-ish was right about the time the Benefit Roller Lash came out and I thought you know what I'm going to get that instead.  AND OMG it was even better than They're Real! This is a $24 mascara and it is worth every penny. Length, volume and curl! Like I said my eyelashes don't need a lot in the curl department but this stuff is amazing. My lashes look real and flawless with this on. I don't know how it does it. You can also use it in tandem with They're Real for more amazingness. I have a backup sample of my They're Real so I wont be repurchasing either right now, but both of these are over 6 months old now and need to be retired. I'm keeping both wands to try to help some of the weaker mascaras we'll talk about soon.  Both of these wands have rubberized bristles and they're kinda hard stiff bristles that hurt like a mother if you ever poke yourself in the eye.

My first foray into high end mascara came at the hands of my first Ipsy bag. Urban Decay Perversion Mascara. This stuff gives you false eyelash looking eyelashes with just two coats. I even used this stuff during a show and got away with not having to wear eyelashes! It was amazing. When the sample started to dry out I bought the Pervserion/Subversion Duo from Ulta. The Subversion is a lash primer that's supposed to give added umph. I used it but I don't think it didn't anything too magical.  The full sized version of Perversion however is incredible. It's like the never ending tube of mascara. I have had it since September and it is still rich and creamy and applies as well as the day I got it.  Now considering it's been 10 months I am going to let this mascara go but it pains me because there isn't anything wrong with it! It's just old.  The bristles on these mascaras are fibery traditional bristles very tightly packed. Your lashes do clump a little bit it makes them so thick is doesn't really matter. Right now I don't need to repurchase but if I ever do a theatre show again I'll totally shell out the $22 for this mascara instead of buying flash lashes.

Maybe she's born with amazing lashes...or maybe it's Maybelline. Maybelline is the gold standard of mascara for me. I've used Maybelline my entire makeup wearing life. My first tube was one of those pink and green Great Lashes in Blackest Black and also Royal Blue. The Great Lash classic mascara tube isn't going to do anything spectacular for your lashes, it'll color them and add a little bit of length and separation, but beyond that you're on your own. This is a perfect mascara for no makeup makeup days. Pictured here I have Royal Blue that I purchased for the 4th of July. It's good for the lower lashes but not much else.  Maybelline's the Rocket is another great standard now with rubber bristles that are super short and get great separation in the lashes. This was my go-to before I found the high end ones. Then I've tried a few others the Colossal Pumped Up was a hand me down from my sister and like her I didn't find it too impressive and the Lash Sensational I got because it's supposed to be a dupe for the Roller Lash. I love the formula of it but the brush sucks, I'm keeping my Benefit brushes to see if they'll work with this formula. I'd probably purchase all of these again given the right circumstances or money limitations. Maybelline makes great mascaras. I'm only keeping the Sensational.


My last little group of high end mascaras leave something to be desired. I wish I had my Tarte Lights Camera Lashes because I love that stuff, it's right up there with my Benefit Mascaras. Another $20 mascara I got in an Ipsy bag and that stuff is the shit, so I had high hopes for another Tarte mascara Gifted. This stuff sucks! It's not the worst mascara I've ever used we'll get to that, but it's awful and should not be $20. Then I have a Clinique sample from my sister and a Lancome sample. All three of these are bristle brushes and all three have the same problem. THEY FLAKE! The Clinique one was really good for about a month but then started flaking terribly and the other two flaked from day one. I hadn't had a mascara flake on me in so many years I almost didn't no know what all the black specs on my face were from! I don't have very oily eyelids so I didn't know why my undereyes suddenly looked grey- these mascaras were smearing too! So they just didn't work for me so I will not be purchasing any of them and they're all being retired.

Last but not least my total failures. So two of these are cult favorites! The L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes in Carbon Black is what so many people go back to time and time again because they love the length and volume it gives. This did nothing for me. Spikey rubbery brushes that I usually like but the formula is so wet it wont dry and my lashes stuck together! It was the saddest thing ever! Then the CoverGirl Super Thick Lash was supposed to be a dupe for my Tarte Lights Camera Lashes and whoever said that should shut their dirty mouth because it's not.  Then the last one Volume Eyes from Model Co I got in an Ipsy bag and it just flaked and transferred so I didn't give it much of a try at all.  All three of these bad boys are going in the trash because one they're old now and two they suck.

So at the end of this Makeup Madness I know what I like and what I don't like in mascaras. I prefer a thicker dryer mascara formula with either short rubberized bristles or long fibery ones that are packed super tight together. I have ones I like in both the High End price and the Drugstore range. I hate spending $20 on mascara especially when a $10 sample will usually last me just as long. I'm currently working through my Lash Sensational and another tube of They're Real (sample size) and so I'm set for right now. I'll probably buy another Roller Lash next...it was just so good!

Previous Makeup Maddnesses include Blush, Bronzers & Highlighters, Eye Liners and Lippies!

I don't need anymore bronze shadow...

It started the other day when I misplaced my Bronze Max Factor single eyeshadow I've been using this summer- talked more about here. So I went searching for other options and found this...

It turned out I had quite a few options... I have bronzes in warm tones, cool tones, with some gold shift and silver shift...bronzes all over the place! I've probably been wearing bronze eye shadow the longest of any other shade. Back in the day when I got my first makeover from Clinique they gave me an eyeshadow duo with a bronze color in it AND a bronze lipstick (mistakes were made, I've learned and moved on from this). So apparently bronze is just one of those great universally flattering colors of eyeshadows. Pretty much any eye color can wear them and they look great on most skin tones. For today's purposes we're just talking about eyes- I have some bronze bronzers (go figure) but it's the eyes where I use bronze the most.

Let's start with creams. So as I mentioned in my previous post I like to use two of these products as eye bases to place a powder shadow over. It's easy and makes the products last a long time.  I'm a little more than half way through the Maybelline Bad to the Bronze. This one is my favorite and I'll be sad when it's gone, I'll probably repurchase it because it's a really excellent base, lasts all day and doesn't crease.  The other pot is my ELF Cruisin' Chic Smudge Pot half the price of the Maybelline and works just as well honestly. But it has a stronger smell and you have to use a lot of it to build up the opacity.  Then I have a jumbo eye pencil from ELF that I totally forgot about! This is in Turkish Coffee and smells so strongly of crayons that I don't use it...I may give it a try but it's not my favorite.  

I have several Bronze eyeliners (not pictured in the swatches) that are just okay. I'm not really a huge fan of anyone. I talked about Tarte's Sunstone Bronze in the last post as well and while I hate that it's so soft it gets the job done. I have another Tarte Bronze liner that's just their regular line that is a little more firm but doesn't have the lasting power.  I also have a Rimmel Scandaleyez in Brown but it's a shimmery bronzey brown.  This one is also too soft for me so I haven't used it in months, if I can remember to sharpen it and let it sit overnight without a cap it's usually fine, but it's way too soft for practical everyday use.

Now I have a few single bronze shadows as well. As mentioned before the Max Factor doesn't have an actual name but it's a very decent shadow. I've tried to use it without one of my cream bases and it just does not pack enough punch on it's own. But layered it's gorgeous. Then I have the L'Oreal Infallible in Bronzed Taupe now this is n interesting one. If I layer it over my Bad to the Bronze it looks very grey and cool toned. It's got almost a silver cast to it, but on it's own it's much more of a typical bronze color. I have a love hate with this thing. It's a pressed pigment so it's got the pay off you want in a shadow but it's very delicate and fragile and can have lots of fallout if you're not careful. I know a lot of people will apply this with their fingers but I'm really more a brush kinda girl and so I don't reach for this one a lot.  Then my last single shadow but certainly not leave is my Victoria's Secret Very Sexy Single in Between the Sheets. If you can't tell by the fact that I've hit serious pan on this bad boy, I loved this color. I used to wear this all the time! It's been discontinued and it makes me want to cry. It's the second to last swatch on the right above and it's just the most gorgeous bronze ever. I'm going to leave this bad boy out and finish it up because I forgot how much I loved it.  It's a bit of a warmer tone than the other two so we'll have to see how it does, it's also fairly old so it may need a base. We'll see but I'm glad I found it again because I love this one.

Lastly I have a bunch of palettes that have a bronze shade here and there in them. To be honest I haven't been reaching for any of these over the summer because I've been using my creams and singles but it's good to know that there are lots of bronze shadows out there in palettes if I every use up my singles. I doubt I'll ever use up that Max Factor single because there is just a ton of product in that thing. 

I'll start with the trios first. I have the Wet 'n Wild trio in Walking on Eggshells and the middle crease color is a really pretty neutral bronze. It's pretty light and comes off warmer on me that some of the others. It's got great color pay of for a $2.99 eyeshadow trio and it's always on sale for less. I got mine for $1.99 so talk about bang for your buck. The other two colors are just as nice.  The Clinique trio I can't find online, I got it from my sister and the packaging looks like it might have been in a free gift set, but the middle color Buttered Bronze is another delightful warm bronze. The Tarte 8 Shadow palette was in a Holiday Gift set from QVC called Sweet Indulgences it was a limited release but you can see what all came with it online. The bronze in this kit does not have a name but it's the darkest bronze I have and is much more of a cool tone than some of the others. Then I have two Too Faced Palettes. I love Too Faced and the Too Face palette that I've panned two shadows from was actually my first high end makeup purchase post-college. The Too Faced Natural Eyes is a gorgeous neutral palette and has a couple of bronzey shades in it.  Push Up and Erotica are my favorites and they're pretty pretty shimmery too.  These are a little too shimmery for me now but for specially occasions I could probably still pull them off.  This palette has been repackaged and some of the colors have changed but those two are still in the new one.  Then last but not least my Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette I love this thing. Hazelnut and Haute Chocolate are two very different bronze colors but bronzey none the less. Hazelnut is lighter and warmer and Haute Chocolate is very dark. I usually use these two together and it's gorgeous.  They're not as shimmery as the Natural Eyes shadows but they're still reflective in a subtle way. 

So yah I have a lot of bronze shadow options. I just find it such an easy color to work with. It's very neutral but can go warm or cool depending and it's easy to find. I have a good array of high end and drugstore options in every form and that's fun. I think for the summer bronze is perfect and works for both day and night. You can get a dusty smokey eye with bronze or keep it light and natural. Bronze is the perfect multitasking shadow. 

Prom Makeup 2015!

So my good friend HR Liz asked me to do her daughter's makeup for prom.  I am not a makeup artist and I haven't done another person's makeup since like...ever. I've never done another person's makeup. In high school I used to ask my mom or sister to do my makeup for special occasions, this whole makeup obsession is literally barely a toddler. So I was super flatter and terrified to be asked.

Her daughter is 15, a freshman, and was asked to PROM! I was never asked to prom. My junior year I went with a girlfriend and my senior year I wasn't asked so I didn't go...sad day. Her daughter and I do not share any similar coloring. She's fair with freckles, dark brown close to black hair and has greenish hazel ambery eyes (very pretty). Besides the dark hair we have nothing physically in common. She's wearing a beautiful black and white gown that is very sophisticated and classically beautiful. So I went to youtube for the answer.

My favorite YouTube Beauty Guru is EmilyNoel83 and a few years ago or two she did a deep and sultry look that I'm going to try to replicate.  Here are the tools I'll be using...

I'm doing Prom Makeup for a friend's daughter tonight, tested it on myself and these are the tools it requires. #prom #spring2015 #ohtobeyoungagain

A photo posted by Tyler Archer (@tyleralyse) on May 9, 2015 at 6:11am PDT

Because we don't have the same coloring I decided to utilize the BB Cream/Foundation she already uses.  This girl is advanced y'all she's using BB Cream from theBalm! I didn't even know about theBalm till like a year ago, it's good stuff. So not wanting to cover her gorgeous freckles too much I put on a very light layer of this.  Since she said she has kinda dry skin we also didn't use a primer.  Her skin is beautiful baby high schooler skin so she didn't need too much base at all.

For her eyes I took just a little bit of peach Pixi concealer to hide some of the blue under her eyes, not much we're talking about 15 year old dark circles which I wouldn't even bother to cover if I had them, but alas I have 30 year old dark circles, they're here to party.  Anyways back to the pretty girl- next I used an ELF eye primer on her and spread all over from lash to brow.  I tried to explain things as I went along about why I was doing certain things and Celeste tried not to seem too bored with my explanations ;)

I usually like to do something else while eye primer sets so we moved onto her face for a minute. I took the beautiful Park Ave Princess Palette from Tarte to warm up her face.  Because she has such pretty freckles in the center of her face we really only needed to bronze up her hairline and a little around her ears and neck.  I explained it all along the way and even tried to explain contouring before I realized it really didn't matter- this girl needed no contouring.  Then I went in with the pale pink blush in the palette showing Celeste how pretty it looked with her skin.  Then just a little champagne highlight from the palette on the tops of her cheeks and down her nose.

Next I broke into the eye shadow. I used my giant ELF palette with a million and one colors and my small Wet N Wild trio in Walking on Eggshells. I used the trio first with the pearly cream color under her brow and the shimmery pink all over the moving part of her lid.  Then I moved on to the ELF Palette monster. I found a medium shimmery taupe that wasn't too brown or too grey (definition of taupe anyone?) and added that on top of the pink over 1/3 of her lid starting from the outer corner. I was really trying to leave the inner and center corner bright. I put a pretty even layer of this color then decided we needed a dark shimmery brown for the outer v. I put just a touch of that shimmery brown in the outer corner and smudged some on the lower lash line as well.  At this point I stressed to Celeste the importance of blending out the eye shadow, blend, blend blend, I probably said a hundred times. Lots of back and forth from eye to eye to get it right.  When I was satisfied with the outer corner I took a little more shimmery pink to the inner lid and center to make sure it was sparklie enough!

At this point I commented on how still she was being and that she was being so good with keeping her eyes still and everything and she said she'd had a lot of practice being the guinea pig for her little sister.  Her little sister loves makeup too!

Then it came time to do the eye liner. Since I knew she was going to be dancing the night away we decided liquid eyeliner was probably going to be the best choice. I am not normally a liquid eye liner person and felt incredibly nervous doing her eye liner but she put her trust in me and I just went really slow and made it work.  After the first layer my beautiful subject did share that she usually wore a pretty thick eye liner which is a drastic contrast to what I normally do, which is an eyeliner you can barely tell is there.  So I went back in and thickened it back up.  For mascara I was definitely not going to try that on my own so I just had her apply her own mascara and come back to me for the rest.

She asked me to fill in her brows a little, and they didn't need much. She had recently had them waxed so the shape was perfect, but I added a little wax to hold them in place and then filled in a few sparse places. The final step was lips. I brought two shades for her to chose from and she went with the deep red NARS sample I got for my birthday.  It looked gorgeous on her, perfect choice.  Once her lips were applied I sprayed her down with some NYX Setting Spray and she was ready for the ball!

Before starting I asked Celeste a little about what she usually wears and she said maybe eye liner and mascara but that's about it, sometimes a BB Cream, but she seemed to have a pretty low maintenance makeup thing going on.  So while working on her I tried to keep that in mind so as not to go too overboard.

This was such a fun and scary and exciting project for me. It was fun to research prom looks and to help a little girl transform into a woman.  I should have taken a before picture, but one of my friends said I made her look 25...so I'm going to call it a success.  She looked gorgeous and was happy with the look which is the most important thing. I don't think I'll run out and start my own makeup artist business anytime soon, but if any of my friends want me to do their makeup now, I am way less likely to say no.

Beauty Trash! Or what other people call Empties!

So I have been wanting to do this blog post FOREVER! Like when I started my blog I thought ooh I can't wait to do an Empties post. But...I didn't have any empties...so I started collecting them. And kept collecting them. And then the Sephora bag overflowed and I noticed one of my cats playing with an empty cotton rounds bag on the floor and decided ENOUGH! So In the future I promise not to wait 6 months but honestly I don't go through anything other than makeup wipes monthly- so maybe we'll try every 3 months...

Makeup Wipes! I've gone through more than just what is seen here but some actually made it into my real trash over the last several months. I probably go through 2 packets of makeup wipes a month.  Prior to Marchish maybe Februaryish my go to makeup wipes were the Target Brand Up and Up Exfoliating Cucumber $3, scrubby, not too wet and perfect. Love them! I used 1 to 2 daily and they were great. Then a Target Cartwheel Coupon came through for the Neutrogena Makeup Remover Wipes and they were even better! Not scrubby, a little more expensive $4.99 but they worked so much better a little wetter but I feel like they actually cleaned better.

Then in January I met the Simple Miscellar Water that I wrote about here .  And I started using it with whatever cotton rounds I had at the time and discovered there was still makeup on my face after the face wipes! Gasp! I believe we've talked about my dislike of getting my face wet and actually cleaning it outside of the shower so I know my face is probably gross when I just use my makeup wipes.  but I started using this Miscellar water and life changed. I love this stuff. I basically soak a cotton round (or two) in this and rub it all over my face and neck and remove all the stuff the makeup wipe leaves behind. This miscellar water also lightly hydrates and I don't feel like I have to immediately put on moisturized right afterwards which is awesome. Since starting to use the Miscellar water I've gone through probably three cotton rounds packets, but like I mentioned one fell victim to my cats. But I'm really liking this system and will continue to purchase all of these things. When the Neutrogena is on sale I'll buy it but the Up & Up still work fine and with the Simple water I feel like everything works better. I just finished that first bottle of Miscellar water on Wednesday so I feel like lasting 4 months at $6.99 (I always find coupons for this too) is a perfectly reasonable price.

I was so excited to have actually finished some makeup things! I feel like I have so much makeup that I'll never get through it all, but I'm really working now on getting through my products.  So here we have my first BB cream that I ever loved Oil of Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream in Light Medium. I have to order this stuff online now and it's really cheap $7-8 depending. This was the first BB cream I started using at the end of last Spring when I was still blonde and getting into all this makeup stuff. It offers virtually no coverage, but is very moisturizing, smells great and works to somewhat even out my skin tone. As an added bonus of all the things it doesn't do it has SPF 30.  I am on my second tube and use it combined with other BB creams or tinted moisturizers. I still like it for light days. I may repurchase it because I do like mixing it with other things.

Eyeliners! I went through two eyeliners in dark brown. One was the Milani Liquid Eye and this is a mechanical pencil that was great. It's super dark, looked like a liquid or a gel, was super easy to use and stayed all day.  Well when I finished this I bought another- but Milani changed the format and put it in a wooden pencil that you have to sharpen.  I hate it! It's too creamy and just becomes a smudgy mess. I will not be repurchasing again. Luckily I mostly use gel now, but I liked a pencil for easy low-maintenance days.  The other pencil was the Milani Define a Line in Dark Brown. But this one wasn't as dark brown as the Milani. I liked this one fine and enjoyed that it had a smudger on the end, but probably wont repurchase either because it wasn't dark enough.  So two products that I wont rebuy- yay!

I went through a Mascara! Well I didn't actually go through it, but after 3 months it started to get chunky and became sad...it was my Tarte Lights Camera Lashes a beautiful $21 mascara from a brand I love. I got this in my Holiday Tarte set and fell in love. High End Mascara is where it is at my friends. This mascara has a real bristle brush instead of all those plastic brushes I normally use and it's fantastic. Your lashes but better. I will totally buy this again...when it's on sale.

I also went through an eye shadow primer.  Wet n Wild Fergie Take on the Day Eyeshadow Primer This was the first eyeshadow primer I ever bought! I got it at the beginning of last summer and it lasted me till mid February. It's cheap at $4.99 from and drugstore and it works great. I feel like there was still some product left in it but it started to separate and not work as well towards the end. I've already bought a replacement because I've tried some other primers like Milani's and ELFs and they just don't work as well.

One ELF Primer that does work well though is the ELF Studio Hydrating Undereye Primer. I think I've mentioned in previous posts that I didn't realize this stuff worked so well till I stopped using it. I love this stuff. It's super hydrating and I feel like it helps my concealer not look cakey under my eyes. I always notice when I don't use it. And the only reason I don't use it is when I forget. I've already started working on my second tube and love it. 

Next up moisturizer! I love moisturizer. I think I've mentioned all these things before but here we go again.  Cetaphil moisturizing cream this stuff is amazing and since January I've gone through these two tubs and am half way through a third. The bottom tub is larger size and actually got me through January and February. The top tub is the regular size and got me just through March. My April tub is also the larger tub so I expect it to take me into mid-May and by then it'll be time to start using regular lotion again.  I love this stuff, in the winter my skin literally drinks it up and at $11 a tub I'll keep buying it.

The Neutrogena Deep Moisture Night Cream  is something I miss. I'm using a new night cream that doesn't work half as well so I will be repurchasing it when this it's finished. This stuff was awesome, lasted about 8 months and at $12 that's not too bad.  It's so thick and creamy that you don't need much at all, it spreads evenly and soaks into your skin overnight. I would wake up and my skin felt hydrated and not tight at all. The only downside to this stuff is it isn't really made for age defying just hydration.

The Olay Beauty Fluid is something I've used for years off and on. It's really light but hydrating and really good for under makeup.  This also doesn't have any age defying ingredients so I have switched to something else, but if I wasn't started to get older I'd still probably use the pink beauty fluid again.

And last I have these sad little samples of products.  Two I liked and 4 I could do without. I really liked The Body Shop's Vitamin E mask. I just used this as a lotion at night and it was fabulous. I may one day buy more of this, but this little paper packet lasted about a week because you didn't need much for the way I used it.  I also loved the Ganier Night Time Moisturizer- this actually does have anti-aging stuff in it so I may debate getting this instead of my other Neutrogena night cream, because I remember really loving this stuff. Hydrating and if it helps with aging fabulous.

Now the stuff I didn't care for...The Body Show's Tea Tree Clay Mask, way too drying for my face, just not for me.  The Philosophy brand Renewed Hope   which is supposed to be a moisturizer but did anything but that on me. I know some people love this stuff but it's cool that I don't because it's pricey.  Another item I had super high hopes for was the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream one the smell was awful and two it made my hands itch. I don't know what's in it but my body said no.  This stuff too is super expensive and so I'm happy my skin likes the cheaper lotions and creams from the drugstore.

So there you have it. My beauty trash from the last little while.  I'll probably do this again at the end of summer. Hopefully by then I'll have finished more makeup.  We'll see!

Makeup Madness Part 3! Eye Liners and Jumbo Pencils.

Sorry for the long hiatus! I was bloggin' up a storm over on my other blog about movies and movies oh and about movies. I did a ridiculous thing...go read about it!  Or stay tuned to hear about my Pencil Hoarding and unsuccessful purging.

This post could be long.  We're going to talk about a lot of items that I've had for a long time and need to just get rid of.  Liners. I used to use pencil eyeliner all the time, like every day, but then I discovered Gel liner and my life was forever changed. I still use pencil liners here and there but only when I'm lazy, it's the weekend or I'm trying to tight line.  So whateves. So here's what I have.

Makeup Madness Part 3. All liners eye... #eyeliners #jumbopencils #nyx #tarte #elf #milani #maybelline

A photo posted by Tyler Archer (@tyleralyse) on Apr 7, 2015 at 5:44pm PDT

After going through this stash I've decided two things...one I'm only getting rid of three things, I know I suck, and two I need to break this up into more categories. I was originally going to include lip liners and crayons but decided to keep all my lip stuff together in the next one.  I'll also do a separate brow one even though I really don't have a lot of brow products... So let's go through what I've got! Since I'm not really getting rid of stuff.

Let's start with my inner rim brighteners.  When I first started doing theatre a million years ago we put red eyeliner in our inner corners of our eyes, it looked freakish up close but apparently from the audience it was fabulous...eventually I learned that white was what you wanted for stage makeup. So I started putting white on my inner rim, much less freakish.  Now when I'm not on stage I like to use nude because it's more natural looking and makes you look way more awake.

1. Beautique Eyeliner in White- I'm amazed at how pigmented and creamy this still it because I don't remember when I bought it. I should probably get rid of it but have a feeling if sharpened and alcohol dipped it'll be fine, it doesn't smell so it stays!
2. Tarte Inner Rim Liner- I just got this is one of my tipsy late night online birthday purchases and it's beautiful. I'm worried it may be making my eyes water but I'll experiment a little more before getting rid of it. It's a beautiful pinky nude.
3. NYX Wonder Pencil in Light- uuuuhgg not sure about this one yet either. It's the perfect nude shade because it can be used for inner rim brightening, brow bone highlighting and concealing, but it's a little hard. If you warm it up between your fingers it goes on smooth, but I'm just not sure yet. It's new too so keeping it!
4. Rimmel Scandaleyes in 005 Nude. This was my first inner rim brightener of my post blonde days! I love this stuff. It's so creamy and smooth and wears for a really long time. I do have to put this on before my mascara though because otherwise I get it on my lashes and it looks kinda funny. really like it.

Weird Jumbo pencil type things. I don't know why I'm keeping these, maybe because I haven't really used them. But the three ELF ones I've never used on my eyes and they're so pretty! I feel like I need to. There's a gold, a bronze and a navy blue. I don't know what I'm going to use them for but darn it I'm going to.  My Pout Silver pencil is beautiful and I love it. I don't know when and where I got it but it's gorgeous and one of those makeup items you think will be perfect for Halloween so I'm going to keep it around. Then there's this Maybelline Kajal Liner in Brown that was my sister's and then she gave it to me to try to see if I could figure it out.  Well I couldn't But it's really pretty and smudged out in the outer corner makes a great smokey eye, but as a liner it kinda sucks, so I'm lumping it together with my other jumbo pencils.

Now I don't really use black eyeliner. I pretty much stick to my neutral browns and I just feel like black is too harsh.  BUT...these are really pretty black liners and I feel, like the jumbo pencils, you never know when you're going to need these for Halloween or for dress up days at work.  Two of these are pretty glittery blacks- a Black Liquid Liner with glitter in that's soooooo pretty! And a black glitter from ELF.  The liquid liner I got in an Ipsy bag and I've only used it once but loved it when I did. The Elf I got in a glitter set with a pencil I am getting of, but it's also a really pretty black so I'm keeping it!  Then I have an ELF liquid liner that is pretty new and also gorgeous so I'm holding on to it. And lastly a Tarte black that I got in my Christmas Tarte kit. It's a gorgeous pencil.  I may try to start incorporating some black liner into some looks this spring.

Browns and bronzes oh my! I used to wear brown eye liner every day before I started using gel, so these have been neglected. So my old favorite for dark brown eyeliner was the Milani Gel Eye Pencil and it was a mechanical roll up but now they've changed the formula and it sucks. It's too soft! You can not get a precise point because it is not too much like a gel. It made me so sad! Same goes for the Rimmel Scandaleyes.  The two shorter Tarte pencils from my Christmas kit are great just firm enough to hold shape but soft enough to glide on smoothly. The bottom Tarte pencil with the smudger is a little too soft too but I need to play with it a little more because it's new. Overall I'm not terribly impressed with eye pencils anymore but keep the around for weekends and lazy days.

Here's my favorite gel liner by NYX! And an ELF Liner I never use... I just am not a fan of liquid liner. I remember in high school my sister was awesome at liquid liner and I wanted to be so badly, but I was never precise enough and it always smeared or smudged and it was not good. But I love this Gel Liner. It's perfect. It is so dark brown it's almost black but just almost. There's just enough contrast between the dark brown and the black of my lashes that I know it's like actually brown. I pretty much use the Gel every day and I feel like I'm finally starting to make a dent in it. I think I got it late last Spring, so at the year mark there is still well over half left. This stuff may last forever. The reason I'm keeping the liquid around is because I have hopes that one day I'll learn how to do winged eyeliner and will use this to try.

And here are the three I'm getting rid of. A black Lord & Berry pencil that's awful. Like I said I don't use black eyeliner a lot but when I do I do not want it to smudge and melt down my face. This stuff would not stay in my waterline to save my life. It's awful! It never sets but when it does it's almost a flakey powder it's weird and bad and no thank you. Then I have an ELF sparkly plum. Unlike the sparkly black this one is not pretty, you can barely see the sparkle and it's so try.  I have barely used it and don't plan to use it anymore.  Then I have a label-less ELF liquid liner in brown that I've had too long. It's dry. The new one is still unopened so it'll last a while but this one I don't need.



Bonus Pic! Here's how I decided what to keep!

See they're all still so pigmented and pretty! And oh my gosh some of them have ridiculous power and took forever to get off. Some came off a little too easily with a Target Up & UP makeup wipe but some required scrubbing. All the liquid ones were really really good. This has made me want to figure out how to use those ELF jumbo pencils too because they're so pretty and pigmented!

Previous Makeup Madness-es include Part One was on Blush and Part Two on Bronzers and Highlighters.  Next up I'm going to do Lip Products...I've amassed quite a few recently and like very few of them. It'll be hard to get rid of them! I'm such a hoarder!