Day 30: A Generous Gift from Generous People!

So I had a post I was going to do for today but I decided to scrap it because of something amazing I got in the mail. I'm rather glad to be ending my month's worth of blogging on this note.

A lot of you guys may have come from Syl and Sam's blog post from when I sent them a care package of Konad nail art plates. They replied back saying they were sending me something and after that I promptly forgot about it.

Until today.

I got the envelope from them and when I opened it I squealed "HOW DID THEY KNOW"

and then I read the card, haha. They are extremely generous and so so nice it's kind of amazing.

So this is what I got :') This is a necklace from their clothing company Lipgloss and Black and it was recycled from their clothing scraps. I'm not very eco-friendly so it's rather nice to get a small start by having this.

I also received some skincare samples and a sticker from a poutine restaurant in Toronto! I rather wish we had poutine in California so this is as close as I can get!

If you're interested in buying this, here's the link to it! If necklaces aren't your style, they even make a headband version!

Here is a much better photo of it! The ribbon is fairly long and so you can wear it really high like I did (almost like a collar) or you can wear it fairly low.
I honestly wish I got this before because they were having a sale but just wait, I'm sure they'll be having one sooner or later!

Disclaimer: Yeah yeah this was a gift but no they're not paying me to say anything. Hell if I had the money I'd be buying all of their inventory!

Day 29: You Go Glen Coco

*Don't forget to enter my giveaway! It ends this Saturday so get your entries in quick!*

Just a simple look using my favorite Coco Pigment :)

I love Golden Olive pigment :)

Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
MAC Coco Pigment
NYX dark brown eyeshadow from Champagne and Caviar palette
MAC Golden Olive pigment
NYX Sahara
NYX Eyebrow Cake in Brunette

NYX Eyeliner in Black

Wet n Wild Mega Liner in black
Maybelline Falsies Mascara WP

Day 28: Poisoned Violets

Wooo it's been a bit amazing and astonishing that I've been able to scrounge up enough creativity to post every day this month. Only two more days of the month and three more weeks of school until I'm free!

I think Violet pigment is so so pretty but sometimes I do have trouble working with it.


Urban Decay Primer Potion
TKB Trading Grape Pop wet on the lid, Violet pigment over that
^on the lower lashline also

Sugarpill Poison Plum in the crease

NYX Sahara as a highlight

Super thin line of Wet n Wild Mega Liner in Black on the lash line

NYX eyeliner in Black

Maybelline Falsies WP Mascara

Day 27 2/2: Links to giveaways

If you guys wanted to enter to win for a Snow Sprite or Night Elf palette, definitely enter here! There are only 6 entries so far and if you've already entered for one of the other palettes on my blog you can boost your chances of getting another one there!

It is US and Canada only but that's still good for a lot of you guys!

Makeup my Mind is having two different giveaways. This is the link to her Temptu giveaway!

And this is the link to her Urban Decay Book of Shadows giveaway!
Expensive Pink is having a Sephora or MAC giftcard giveaway!

Lipgloss and Me is having a giveaway of some Natural Collection lipsticks and eyelashes!

Go at it and enter all of these giveaways :)!

Day 27 1/2: False eyelashes, you have been conquered!

This was probably my 1238943th attempt at false eyelashes and so I guess the 1238943th time's the charm!

Oh yeah look at that lash line! That's just perfection

Urban Decay Primer Potion
NYX Champagne and Caviar eyeshadow palette using the top far left, top far right and the brown shade

NYX Sahara
Wet n Wild Mega Liner in black
NYX Eyeliner in Black

Maybelline Falsies WP Mascara

Sunku Eyelash with Ardell lash glue

Day 26: Thanksgiving recap :)

This is a pictureless post but I just wanted to ask everyone how their Thanksgiving was :)

Mine was really realllly good. I had Thanksgiving lunch with my boyfriend and his family first with all the traditional Thanksgiving fixin's. Turkey, gravy, smashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, the works. Yummy Pumpkin Creme Pie was the dessert mmmm

I then had Thanksgiving dinner with my family and since we're so very non-American and are more influenced by our French culture roots we did not have traditional food :P

My family had bouillabaisse, potatoes au gratin, lamb and then a pumpkin souffle from Trader Joes.

We also had Korean Red Bean Ice bars which were given to us by my sister's best friend.

What did you guys do?

Day 25:All the Things I'm Thankful For+Charity Post

I'm thankful for a lot of things in my life; my family, friends, significant other are all so very important to me and I am so glad to have them in my life. I'm thankful for doing so well in school and I'm thankful for the opportunity to be able to do something I love every day.

Sometimes it's easy to kind of forget how good you have it until you realize how badly others have it. This got me thinking about Funny Face Beauty and her latest Dare to Wear Challenge which is a fundraiser for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, a charity that seeks to use grassroots programs to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The challenge involved recreating or taking inspiration from several pictures she posted and so I took my inspiration from this Shu Uemura advertisement.

I'm pretty incapable of taking full face pictures of myself without the aid of a mirror; it took me about 20 tries to get this photo. As you can see, I'm no model :P

Here are some close ups of the eye makeup

I looooove Darling eyeshadow, it looks absolutely fab on its own. I will say though that I find it sticks best over an eyeliner versus by itself or over Pixie Epoxy.

Face:

Meow Cosmetics Foundation in Fierce Abyssinian

Rock and Republic Blush in Bedroom

Eyes:

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Sugarpill Buttercupcake in the inner corner and lower lash line

NYX Teal eyeliner as a base for Darling

Sugarpill Darling on the lid

MAC Bronze in the crease

NYX Sahara as a highlight

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Brunette

NYX Eyeliner in Black

Maybelline Falsies Mascara WP

Lips:

NYX Round Lipgloss in Natural (which is so so pretty but damn it smells like lemon dish soap!

Day 24: Neutrally Taupe

Urban Decay has this huge fondness for Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, a super gorgeous light champagne color but it's normally a pain because of the glitteriness but it works extremely well with Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy. I've been singing the praises of this for ages because I really do this it's a must have!
I'm on a neutrals kick if you haven't noticed :)
Urban Decay Primer Potion

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

Urban Decay Midnight Cowboy Rides Again on the lid

Urban Decay YDK in the crease

Urban Decay Twice Baked in the outer corner

Wet n Wild Color Icon in Copper

Wet n Wild Mega Liner in Black

Maybelline Falsies Mascara WP

Day 23: A Half Baked Idea

Psssst keep entering my giveaway! You've got until December 4th!

I'm on a real neutrals kick and I wanted to use my Urban Decay shadows which woefully stand unloved most of the time! I was also inspired to use Half Baked because Phyrra did two really pretty looks with it and I hardly ever use mine.

Also, YDK is a relatively close dupe for Coco Pigment (the eyeshadow I used in my last look) so if you're aching for that try YDK.

Urban Decay Primer Potion
NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Pure Gold
Urban Decay Half Baked on the lid
Urban Decay YDK in the crease and lower lash line
Urban Decay Twice Baked in the outer corner
Wet n Wild eyeliner in Copper
Maybelline Falsies WP Mascara
NYX Eyebrow Cake in Brunette mixed with NYX Black

Day 22: Taupe and Bronze

I did this super quick before school look using Coco Pigment, which is probably my most favorite eyeshadow ever!!
La la loves it
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
MAC Coco Pigment
MAC Bronze eyeshadow
NYX Sahara as a highlight
Wet n Wild eyeliner in Copper from the Golden Goddess Kit
L'oreal Voluminous WP Mascara

Day 21: Gorgeous Golden Green

I'm rather fond of alliteration if you couldn't tell :)

One of my favorite green looks, I rather love Sugarpill's Midori in the crease!
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
MAC Golden Olive on the inner half
BFTE Emerald City
Sugarpill Midori in the crease
NYX Sahara as the highlight
Wet n Wild Megaliner in Black
NYX Black eyeliner
Maybelline Falsies WP
NYX Eyebrow Cake in Brunette and NYX Carbon mixed for the eyebrows

Day 20: Slytherin Colors :)

I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yesterday and to get myself in the spirit I decided to emulate XSparkage's Slytherin Video :)

*Just a note I used MAC's Silver metal pigment in the look but as far as I know it is NOT eyesafe. I don't have sensitive eyes so I'm okay with using it but if you do have sensitive eyes, a similar color is Sugarpill's Tiara eyeshadow.

Oooooh shiny!
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
MAC Silver metal Pigment *Not recommended for sensitive eyes*
88 matte palette in the crease
Wet n Wild Brulee as a highlight
NYX Eyebrow Cake in Brunette mixed with a bit of NYX Black
Wet n Wild Mega liner in Black
Maybelline Falsies mascara
NYX Black eyeliner on the lower lash line

By the way Harry Potter was awesome :D! I'm a little annoyed that we have to wait until July for the 2nd part but it'll be well worth it. My friends and I spent the time after wards discussing what was NOT in the movie and what was done differently. Later on a friend of mine pointed out that that's what everyone seems to do after a HP movie; do you guys do the same?

Day 19: Elf inspired look

Blah so annoyed with Blogger, Picasa whatever it is because my pictures were uploading sideways so I had to fiddle around with trying to rotate them and finally resorted to using Photobucket.

Anyway, by Elf I mean the movie :) I'm in a Christmas-y mood and elves are Christmas-y :)

I used bright green from the costume, yellow for the tights, gold for the buckle and black for the belt.

I'm attempting to experiment as to whether this kind of crease looks better for my eye shape or whether not going all the way across is better.

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

BFTE Yellow Brick Road on the lid

88 matte palette greens in the crease

NYX Sahara as a highlight

blah blah blah I always use the same eyeliner and mascara

Day 18: Electric Blue and Olives

I'm rather fond of Golden Olive pigment by MAC but I hardly ever use it so I thought it might be the time to whip it out!

This is me trying to learn how to blend blue eyeshadow, it's not working out quite so well, haha. I will say thought my eyelashes are looking hella long :D

UDPP

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

MAC Golden Olive on the lid

MAC Shimmermoss in the crease under Electric Eel

MAC Electric Eel in the crease and outer lower lash line

NYX Sahara as the highlight

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Brunette

Maybelline Falsies Mascara in WP

Blaugh had a bad day at school while trying to declare my major. I went to Enrollment Services to get a form which they were out of so I went to the computer lab only to discover that you could not print it online so I went back to Enrollment Services where they proceeded to tell me to go to Academic Advising to get an advisor sign off electronically because "they don't do forms anymore".

Since the major I wanted to add was not impacted then I had to go to the Major Advisor of the Major in order to have them sign it off and I finally got that done and had to go back to Enrollment Services with a form that I was told before they did electronically but then I was able to turn it in.

I was pretty tired after walking around like that.

Day 17: Brush Guard Dupe?

I will preface this by saying that I haven't actually tried the Brush Guard before but I am testing the effectiveness of a cheaper dupe.

So I've been trying out different methods and tips in my search for a way to keep the shape of my brushes. I like DustyOHunter's method of drying brushes, I've been wanting to find a more reusable method of keeping the shape of my brushes.

I google searched for expandable cable organizers based off of several comments left on a video GossMakeupArtist did on Brush Guards and I ordered off of Cableorganizer.com a couple feet of cable organizer in 1/4 and 3/8th inches PET mesh.

*Not really recommending them mostly because I didn't like how much I paid for shipping, for 3 feet of cable organizer (totaling about 75 cents) First class shipping was 4 dollars :(*

I ran into two problems with the organizers.

Firstly, I had problems keeping the wider pieces of mesh from fraying. I tried to kind of melt the ends with a lighter (a trick I picked up from my pointe shoe days) but eh that didn't really work. This trick worked really well with the 1/4 inch pieces.

Secondly, Now the smaller width cable organizers are circular versus the 3/8ths inch cable organizers being relatively oval shaped. This was an issue because the 3/8ths inch size frayed when I tried to shape it into a circle and being oval shaped didn't fit all of my brushes.

Here's how it looks in the sleeve. It did a good job at compressing my 1/4 inch Loew Cornell Maxine Mop brush. It also worked wonders with my MAC 266 SE brush!

Here's a comparison I did of drying my 1/4 inch Loew Cornell brushes, one was in the mesh and the other air dried.

The left was in the mesh sleeve, the right air dried.
The best part? Even after it was used the one that dried in the sleeve kept its shape better than the air dried brush.

The second best part? 1 foot of cable organizer was about 25-30 cents. Use scissors to cut it into the length that you want and I recommend lightly taking a lighter to the ends just to keep it from fraying. If you don't have the brush guards, this is something you should try out!

Day 16: Giveaway Update+Tip

So I've been compiling the entries for my giveaway *Psssst here* and I noticed that a lot of you guys really like Purple because there are currently 12 entries for the Sugar Plum Fairy palette. Well I figured it wasn't fair that only one of you guys would win it when there's a lot of interest in it.

So I went and picked up another Sugar Plum Fairy palette for another winner :)

To recap: there will be 1 winner of the Golden Goddess palette, 1 winner of the Snow Sprite Palette, 1 winner of the Night Elf palette, and 2 winners winning 1 Sugar Plum Fairy palette each for a total of 5 winners!!

Here are the pretties....

These are color accurate photos of all of the palettes :)

Now if you guys have been searching your Walgreens and haven't found it yet, it may just be because the planogram (the instructions for where to put certain items) didn't have space for the cardboard display of the holiday products.

Now below is a picture of where I actually found the second Sugar Plum Palette, shoved in between the ELF Beauty Encyclopedia and the Beauty Wallet thing on the second row.

If your Walgreens has this holiday set-up, they may have just shoved the Wet n Wild palettes in between them!

Also, look on top of the shelves, a lot of collections are on there and just out of eye sight because of the fact that they lack space!

Day 15: Turquoise and Sugar

Psssst don't forget to enter my giveaway of the Wet n Wild Holiday palettes! Ends December 4th!

Not quite my best but I really really wanted to use Darling and Royal Sugar together!
But the colors look so prettyyy

NYX Eyeshadow base in White

NYX Teal eyeliner on the lid

NYX Black eyeliner in the crease and lower lash line

Sugarpill Darling on the lid

Sugarpill Royal Sugar in the crease

NYX Sahara as a highlight

Maybelline Falsies WP Mascara

Bleugh I've got to study for swallowing disorders. I never realized how complicated swallowing could be until I saw videos of tongues not working correctly or velums not lifting right. Complicateddd

Day 14: Birthday Party Outfit+Anniversary :)

Short post is short, I just wanted to sort of but not really show what I had on at the birthday party for my significant others' family members.

*I just noticed I hit 4000 views on my blog, that's so awesome and I'm so very thankful for you guys for reading :)*

I didn't have that much makeup on but I had Maybelline WP Falsies Mascara on and Rock and Republic blush in Bedroom on

It also was also our anniversary today 20+ months together :)

I'll have a more substantial post for tomorrow!

Day 13: Queen of Blending inspired EOTD

This is basically my interpretation of a look that Queen of Blending did in a recent tutorial of hers (you can watch it here)

I do own a lot of what she used and it looked so so pretty so I had to do it! I didn't line my eyes with Aqualine Liquidlast Liner even though I do own it due to the fact that its removal is such a pain and annoyance that I'd be walking around with turquoise eyeliner all week!

Oooh ooh so pretty

NYX Eyeshadow Base in White
NYX Teal Eye Pencil on the lid as a base
MAC Electric Eel in the inner corner
Sugarpill Darling on the rest of the lid
NYX Black Eye Pencil in the crease and lower lash line
NYX Black over the line/crease
NYX Sahara as a highlight
Maybelline Falsies Mascara WP
NYX Eyebrow Cake in Brunette

Bleugh had a mediocre dinner yesterday with the boyfriend as part of our new tradition of having a date night every month. Went to BJ's and spent way too much on eh pasta but oh my god had an excellent pizookie.

After that we went to Deaf Coffee Night which is an event at a Starbucks at a nearby outdoor mall where we live. We went there intending to meet up with our friend Orange (that's his sign name) but didn't see him there :( It was super nice to meet up with some of our classmates and signed with a learning (errr a more newish learning sign student than me) student and her husband.

Day 12: Is it Christmas Yet?

Ruby Pumps one of the first China Glaze polishes I ever bought and I wore it all the time last year because of the holidays. I'm going to pretend Christmas is coming soon because it'll mean school will be over and I'll have a month to relax!

You must click to enlarge because it's utterly gorgeous and will get you in the Christmas mood

I had a rather nice day yesterday practicing my sign language with my boyfriend. He wanted me to sign without voicing (meaning I sign without saying out loud what he's signing or what I'm signing) and during the midst of this a couple of kids behind me were watching us.

My boyfriend then went to get out of our table and had to maneuver around a baby carrier that was on the seat and said out loud "Sorry" and "Excuse Me". He told me later that the kids behind us were so surprised to hear us speaking but that's what kidlings get :P

Are you getting into the Holiday spirit yet?

Day 11: Murky Bright Green

Woot woot I've been using my Wet n Wild palette a lot so I thought I'd switch it up and use another brand.

I are really like BFTE eyeshadows, I feel like 1 gram is a small amount but the ones that I do have are great quality. I highly highly recommend you check out this post that Phyrra made, compiling the prices of her favorite shops! I rather love Emerald City (the bright green) it's just so nice and springy :D! My Pretty (the other color) is rather blackish here but it does have a tinge of green
Urban Decay Primer Potion

BFTE Emerald City on the lid

BFTE My Pretty in the crease

NYX Sahara as a highlight

Wet n Wild Mega Liner

Maybelline Falsies WP Mascara

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Brunette

Day 10: Champagne and Brown

I'll warn you right now that I am in need of practice with false eyelashes. These were way too low on my lashes :( I did figure out that waiting more than a minute for the glue to get tacky is key though! Must practice!!

Yeah yeah bad eyelashes :(

At least it looks pretty though?

Urban Decay Primer Potion

NYX Champagne and Caviar Palette (Top left on the lid and the dark brown in the crease and lower lash line)

NYX Sahara as the highlight

Wet n Wild Mega Liner in black

Some Korean brand of eyelashes I don't know

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Brunette

Day 9: Golden Brownie look and Wet n Wild Golden Goddess Eye Kit Swatches

I never did do swatches of the Wet n Wild Golden Goddess Eye Kit so here are some! I did these over Coastal Scents Shadow Worx Matte Primer and taken under an Ottlite.

This is the left column

This is the right column.

Anyway, here's another look I did with the palette. I may have to invest in another one considering how often I've been using this.

Urban Decay Primer Potion

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Pure Gold all over the lid

From the Golden Goddess Eye Kit-

Top Left color as the highlight

Middle Right color on the lid

Top Right as a wash in the crease

Bottom Right in the crease

Wet n Wild Mega Liner in Black

Wet n Wild Copper eyeliner from the kit on the lower lash line

Maybelline Falsies WP Mascara

Wet n Wild Idol Eyes Cream Eyeshadow Pencil

I'm kind of meh on this. I'm a little resentful about this product because of the fact that after the revamp of WnW, this replaced the MegaEyes Cream eyeshadow. That was honestly the only cream eyeshadow that NEVER creased on me; I never even used it with a base.

I'm going to need to find some of the MegaEyes in a tube after this.

Here's how it looked alone without eyeshadow on top. On the left is with NYX eyeshadow base and on the right with Urban Decay primer potion. This is after 20 minutes.
Here's how it looked with NYX Sahara on top, on the left is with NYX while on the right is with Urban Decay Primer Potion. This was after about 4 1/2 hours
Over the NYX eyeshadow base it creased more than it did over UDPP.

Meh not worth it to me, I would like my eyeshadow so stay on longer but if you've got drier lids then maybe it'd work better for you!