Birthday Favorites Giveaway CLOSED

I know I know, I just had a giveaway but I wanted to do something so you guys could celebrate my birthday with me. I turn 21 on August 5th but I didn't want to wait until then to start the giveaway so I'm doing it now and having it end midnight August 22th PST.

I shall be collecting a bunch of my favorites for this.

There will be two prize sets and two giveaway winners. You'll enter for either the Nail themed prize OR the Makeup prize.

One person will win a set of my makeup favorites.

Full Sized Morgana Cryptoria Gilded Cerise Lipstick

Sample of Morgana Cryptoria Conspiring Copper Eye Shadow

Wet n Wild Dream Weavers Limited Edition Trios Set

- Earth Looks Small From Down Here

- Fly Me To The Moon

- Bright Idea

- Enter A New Realm

- Dancing in the Clouds

- We're Blasting Off

It's not pictured but you will also get your choice of two Inglot Pan Eye Shadows. I love Beauty Addict for Inglot swatches so you can check her blog out here!

Another person will win a mix and match set of six Konad Design Discs and Polishes (winner's choice) and a Double Sided Stamper/Scraper. My discs and polishes are pictured just so you can get an idea of what everything looks like. You'll get to choose your discs and polishes.

If you already own a Double Sided Stamper, then you can win another disc or polish. If you haven't heard of Konad before, it's a nail art stamping system which is basically like silk screening for your nails. I haven't done a post on Konad recently but here are several Nails of the Days that I did using Konad. Here, here, and here.

This will be Followers only. Don't bother entering if you're just planning on unfollowing afterwards. This is meant to be a thank you prize for being a reader and following me along in my blogging pursuits and for you guys to celebrate my birthday with me.

This is open internationally.

Please leave separate comments for each entry. Also, don't worry if you don't see your comment appearing after you leave your twitter link, Disqus has me manually approving comments with a link so you won't need to leave me another one!

Mandatory Entry: Tell me what you last did for your last birthday and leave your email address in this form: your email at so and so dot com to help combat spamming and tell me which prize you're entering for, whether it is the make up prize or the nail art prize! Also tell me your GFC follower name.

Optional entry: Tweet this link "Win Konad Plates & Polishes or a Makeup prize of Eye Shadows and More! @maimaimaiii http://bit.ly/rqD2Yb" and leave a link to it in the same comment. Please leave a separate comment if you do this.

I'm Walking on Eggshells EOTD

I've been liking the "Eyelid" shade in the Walking on Eggshells trio, it sort of reminds me of a less frosty Stila Kitten. EmilyNoel83 on Youtube also said it was a good dupe for MAC Naked Lunch so the frugal factor makes me happy.





Eyes:
ELF Mineral Eye Primer
Wet n Wild Walking on Eggshells trio

- I followed the suggestion of eye shadow placement the way it's imprinted on each shadow, and the crease shadow in the outer lower lash line

Wet n Wild ColorIcon Eye Liner in Mink Brown in the brows and outer lower lashline

Wet n Wild Megaplump Waterproof Mascara

Outfit of Yesterday and New Haircut

I just wanted to show off Countess Bathory (is that not the best name ever?) is not this orange-y looking, it's actually a cool toned red that is enhanced by the slight violet sheen. The lip balms are very much just a softer version of her lipsticks.

They're packaged in a traditional lip balm tube which was surprisingly easy to use to apply. I'm still testing them out so I can't comment on wear time and moisturizing properties yet!

Anyway, two days ago I got a haircut and a straight fringe which I haven't done in a while but I decided to put it up in a slight pouf for work. I also wanted to take a picture of my outfit from yesterday because I thought it looked a bit stylish and it's cuter than anything else I wear normally.

Ignore the fact that my knees don't touch, I've got strange legs after lots of years of ballet.

We're Blasting Off Back to the 60s

I watched Lisa Eldridge's 60's eye make up video and was inspired to use the We're Blasting Off trio. I know most people have been drooling over the Dancing in the Clouds trio but I just love We're Blasting Off. I think it's the best out of all of them because it's perfectly pink themed. There's a pink tinged taupe, dark brown with pink sparkles, and a cool matte pink.

It's not a perfect 60s style look but I liked the look of the defined crease.

Eyes:
ELF Mineral Eye Primer
Wet n Wild We're Blasting Trio
-I followed the suggestions on the trio, so the eyelid shade on the eyelid, crease in the crease, and the browbone shade as a highlight
Wet n Wild Megaplump Waterproof Mascara

Wet n Wild ColorIcon Eye Liner in Mink Brown for the brows

NYX White Eye Liner on the waterline

An Epic Wet n Wild Haul to End All Wet n Wild Hauls

I've been on the lookout for the Wet n Wild Limited Edition Dream Weavers trios for the last several days now and just found an untouched display at the 5th Rite Aid I looked at.

I had $3 in Up+ Rewards so I planned out the most profitable haul for me. Rite Aid is having a Buy One Get One 50% off sale on Wet n Wild in addition to giving $3 in Up+ Rewards for every $10 you spend (before any coupons including Up+ Rewards).

I assure you, not every trio is for me. Some are for a CP, some are for me, and some are for an upcoming giveaway (stole Peacelovesparkles's idea about that!)

Everything I purchased.

The nontrio goodies

Here's how I bought them all

Transaction one:

Dream Weavers Trios x 5- $11.95, retail price is 14.95
Megalast Lipstick- $1.49, retail price is 2.99
$3 in Up+ Rewards

Total is 11.48 after tax and I got $3 in Up+ Rewards

Transaction two:

Megaplump Waterproof Mascara- $3.99, retail price is $3.99

Dream Weavers Trios x 4- $8.96, retail price is 11.96

ColorIcon Single- .99, retail price is $1.99

ColorIcon Eye Liners x 2 - $1.48, retail is 1.98

$3 in Up+ Rewards

Total is $13.62 after tax and I got another $3 in Up+ Rewards

Retail price of everything is $37.86 and I paid $25.10 along with $3 in Up + Rewards

Have you guys found the Dream Weaver trios yet?

Dancing in the Clouds EOTD

I wanted to play with my new Wet n Wild goodies and use my new Morgana Cryptoria Lip balm. It wasn't intentional but I think this FOTD works well with Nymphette's FOTD Calendar, specifically yesterday's Modern Pinup theme.

*After much reconsideration, I have decided to no longer buy from Morgana Cryptoria. This is a personal decision and not a reflection of the products. Please read this to understand my decision.*

The copper color in the trio is slightly washed out in the pictures, I think it's a little brighter in real life.

Eyes:
ELF Mineral Eye Primer

Wet n Wild Dancing in the Clouds Trio

-Eyelid shade all over the lid

-Browbone shade in the middle of the lid

-Crease shade over Wet n Wild Purple eyeliner on the lower lashline

Wet n Wild Walking on Eggshells

-Browbone shade as a highlight

Wet n Wild Taupe eye liner in the brows

Physicians Formula Eye Booster eye liner

L'oreal Voluminous Carbon Black Waterproof Mascara

Lips:

Morgana Cryptoria Lip Balm in Sheer Cherry

ELF Eyeliner & Shadow Stick Swatches and Review

First off, I want to thank ChrissyDee since I won these Eyeliner & Shadow Sticks in her giveaway! These are duos with a shadow stick on one end and an eyeliner on the other end.

Here are product pictures and swatches of everything!

Eyeliner Half:

From left to right; Green/Moss, Brown/Basic, Black/Smoke, Plum/Purple, Pearl/Glow

Shadow Sticks:

From bottom to top; Green/Moss, Brown/Basic, Black/Smoke, Plum/Purple, Pearl/Glow

Swatches of them

From left to right: (Note, they're actually named eyeliner first and then shadow stick but I swatched them in shadow/eyeliner order)

Green/Moss, Brown/Basic, Black/Smoke, Plum/Purple, Pearl/Glow

Green/Moss has a really nice olive-green liner that has a gorgeous metallic sheen and the green shadow stick is a nice moss color.

Brown/Basic's brown liner is a little bit darker and the basic shadow stick is a little bit more copper.

Black/Smoke fits its name perfectly. There's some shimmer in the black liner that didn't show up well in the pictures and the smoke shadow stick is a nice blue grey color.

Black/Smoke, Plum/Purple, Pearl/Glow

Plum/Purple is named a bit strangely, I don't think the purple shadow stick is purple at all. It's more of a brown-plum with gold shimmer.

Pearl/Glow has a shadow stick that's a bit more warmer in tone but on my skin it actually just swatches the same.

Longevity on both halves leave much to be desired. Wear time on the shadow sticks is bad. As in I had creasing in 10 minutes, no primer. The shadow sticks are also a bit greasy on the lid so it makes getting a even line difficult with the eyeliner because it slips around easily.

The liners don't last that great on my lower lashline before sinking into lines and I get transfer onto my eyelid when it's on my upper lashline even with a primer underneath. I tested four out of the six and I got transferring on all four. I love the colors but don't like how it transfers.

I actually won the entire set of colors but there was a bit of a mishap with Midnight/Blue that I only noticed once I opened it up. The shadow stick is completely missing from the shadow stick half. I emailed ELF and they sent me a $3 online giftcard to make up for the broken one.


Have you guys tried these before?

More Storage Changes

I'm a pretty messy person when it comes to my room but damned organized when it comes to my make up. I'm always looking for cheap ways to make everything organized and I love room tour and make up organization videos on youtube.

Right now I store most of my make up in a "Melmer" which is the Michaels version of the Ikea Helmer. It is a three drawer organizer cube with the bottom drawer storing all of my nail polish.

I got a set of plastic baskets from Walmart to fit my Melmer. It actually worked out perfectly that they fit exactly. I can't remember which brand they are but the square baskets and the skinny rectangular baskets came three in a pack for $1.34. The large rectangular basket came two in a pack for $1.34.

The top drawer has my lip products, loose shadows/pigments, gel liners and miscellaneous face products that I don't use anymore.

The middle drawer has my Konad supplies/nail tools, cream and pressed shadows, and face products including foundations, blushes, and highlighters.

How do you guys store your make up?

Linnaeus Cosmetics Eyeshadow Swatches

I've only heard about of Linnaeus Cosmetics recently but I think the animal themed collections are so cute and fits in so well with Marin's goal of becoming a veterinarian. Right now she's got a goal in mind to donate a portion of her sales to wildlife organizations after she breaks even with the business.

So you know you have to support them. She has a sale now where if you buy six full size eyeshadows, you'll get one eyeshadow free. This sale will ends at the end of July. She's also got a separate deal where for every $10 you spend, you get an entry to win an indie bath and beauty gift basket.

She makes such an effort to personalize everything and to get feedback on her products. She also takes your eyeshadow choices in consideration when she picks free samples for you. This is the note that came with my package. On the mailer there was also an image of a moose stamped on it.

Anyway, now onto swatches. These were done over Coastal Scents Shadow Worx Matte Primer and taken under an Ottlite.

From left to right; Aberrant, Anomaly, Cliff Line, and Kalahari

Myth, Sprightly and Zippy

They have excellent adhesion, I didn't get any fallout at all when I used it on my lids. Full size jars retail for $6 containing 2.8 grams of product and they also have sample packs to try out! Shipping was cheap at $1.50 for my 5 samples.

Have you tried Linnaeus Cosmetics?

Stila Endless Summer Set-Warm from Costco

Costco always has pretty awesome brand name sets for sale. I had seen this a couple of weeks ago but it was $19.99. I went there today and score it was $12.97! The eye liner was worth $20 (before it went on sale on the Stila site) so I think it's worth the cost.

It contains a Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Koi, a Shimmer Eye Pen in Gold, and an Eye Shadow Palette in Warm. I've never seen the latter two products for sale before this so I don't know much about them.






As much as I like the sets, the packaging is such a pain in the ass. This is the aftermath of my efforts to free everything.


Have you purchased anything like this from Costco?

Giveaway Winner!

Short post but after tabulating and everything, the winner is....

Kimberly from Kimmiekarmalove! I'll be emailing you soon to mail out your package to you :)

N.Y.C. New York Color Blushable Creme Stick Swatches

I've been eyeing these blushable creme sticks for quite some time but I never bit the bullet and bought any. When Rite Aid had a coupon for two dollars off of a five dollar N.Y.C. purchase, I knew I had to use it on these.

I got two, South St. Seashell and Berry New Yorker. South St. Seashell is a light pinky coral whereas Berry New Yorker is a darker pinky natural. These two colors are matte, the rest of the permanent line seemed to be shimmery. I have normal-oily skin and they lasted around 4-5 hours over bare skin. It'll last longer if you wear it over primer and set it.

South St. Seashell is on the left, Berry New Yorker on the right. They are swatched in that order too.

In my opinion, South St. Seashell is darker in the packaging whereas Berry New Yorker seems spot on. This was taken in direct sunlight and swatched heavily.

Red Bronze EOTD

I've been on a neutral kick so I used my Sleek Storm palette again. Sigh I wish I could import this palette for cheaper because I love most of the shades in the palette.

I've been trying to experiment with eye shadow placements and the effects it can create. With this I did a darker red bronze over the lid, and then a medium gold bronze in the middle of the lid and finally a light shimmery highlight color right in the middle to add more depth.

I'm not sure if you can see it in the pictures but I think it looked pretty awesome in real life.

Eyes:
ELF Mineral Eye Primer
Sleek Storm Palette
-Bottom row, the farthest left eye shadow all over the lid
-Top row, the farthest left eye shadow in the middle of the lid
-Top row, the 2nd from left eye shadow right in the middle of the lid to highlight
-Top row, the 3rd from left eye shadow as a brow highlight

Maybelline Clear Mascara through the brows

I'm so excited for Harry Potter tonight. The end of an era and it'll be fabulous to go with a bunch of my friends to see the midnight showing!

Argh Inglot Price Increase

I just want to thank Vanessa at NessasaryMakeup for posting about this on twitter, I wouldn't have known about it otherwise.

Turns out Inglot has changed it so you can purchase the Freedom system products separately. My local Inglot posted on their Facebook on the 11th that you can purchase the pans and palettes and said to call the store to inquire about the price increase. As far as I can tell, the Inglot Cosmetics USA Facebook did not make an official statement about it until today.

You can see the prices on the Inglot USA website.

Most prominently, the Freedom System 10 Pan Square Palettes are $10 individually and the Square eye shadow pans are $5. If you wanted to fill a 10 pan palette it'd be $60 as opposed to $50 before. I know in the grand scheme of things they're still extremely cheap but I am a little miffed that they described the price different as "slight". 20% in my opinion is not slight.

I've also noticed that the round eye shadow pans are gone from the site. I'm a little annoyed because I would have liked to see an official statement about that, as opposed to hearing it from other bloggers.

I understand that a lot of us did want to be able to purchase the pans separately, but it's still annoying that they raised the prices for the palette. This isn't going to necessarily prevent me from buying from them (in fact I may be checking out their rainbow pans today before I go to work) but it certainly is annoying.

Do you have any thoughts?

The London Look EOTD

*Today is the last day to enter my giveaway! Get your entries in before it closes*

When I was in London this was my go to make up look. I didn't bring any brushes with me and so I used my fingers to do my make up but it looked pretty awesome. I need to find some way to import the MeMeMe Cosmetics in because there is no way I'm paying 9.50 quid to ship it to the US.

Sometimes I'd wear it with my Physicians Formula Eye Booster eyeliner but most of the time I wouldn't.



Eyes:
MeMeMe Colourama(love the use of U's in the UK!) in Liquid Bronze
Barry M Dazzle Dust in 100 on the lid over the cream eye shadow
Barry M Dazzle Dust in 38 as the highlight

My New Favorite Red Lip Combo

There's not much to say, I'll wear it out more once the summer heat dies down a little.

Revlon Fire & Ice

+

MAC Nitro:licious 2046

equals

Hogwarts Mini Series: Gryffindor Nails

I know I know, I'm skipping out on doing Slytherin but I didn't want to do anything since I've already done a look with Slytherin colors here; instead I'm showing off a manicure I did from SayAnythingBr00ke's awesome tutorial here.

I'm so excited for Harry Potter, this feels like the end of an era for me having grown up with the books and movies. It's going to be sad and amazing at the same time.

For you fellow Frenchies, Happy Bastille Day! It's also the three year anniversary with the boy :)

I used Revlon All Fired Up as the red base and Revlon's Goin Coin for the lightning bolt. This is my seldom seen right hand because my left hand had weird looking lightning bolts.

Hogwarts Mini Series: Hufflepuff

This one was a little bit tricky to execute since I tried to model it after a badger's face. Badgers usually have two black stripes over their eyes and three white stripes representing the rest of their face. I chose to have two stripes on yellow on my lid and lower lashline with three lines of eyeliner.

Also, it looks like I used two different yellows on my lid but it's actually just Buttercupcake. It seems to darken a little bit when it out but stays nice and bright yellow when you just pack it on.






Eyes:
ELF Mineral Eye Primer
Sugarpill Buttercupcake all over the lid and lower lashline.
NYX Black to draw out the lines
ELF Creme Eyeliner in Black over the lines to darken it

Wet n Wild Mink Brown for my brows

Hogwarts Mini Series: Gryffindor

This was heavily inspired by this tutorial by the amazing MakeupbyRisa. This took some time and there are some mistakes because I wasn't as steady with it as I wanted to be but I'm pretty happy with it. I originally envisioned trying to do a lion's mane but then I went more towards Fawkes' phoenix feathers. Gryffindor colors are gold and scarlet.

Eyes:
ELF Mineral Eye Primer
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Sugarpill Goldilux on the lid and for some of the streaks
Sugarpill Love+ mainly for the streaks
BFTE Ruby Slippers for some of the highlighting streaks and on the lower lashline
Wet n Wild eye liner in Mink Brown for the eye brows
Maybelline Great Lash Clear mascara

Hogwarts Mini Series: Ravenclaw

I imagine this has been done to death but there are four days before the premiere and I'm going to do EOTDs off of each of the houses. There's no particular order but I had to do Ravenclaw first because of how bronze addicted I've been lately. Ravenclaw colors are blue and bronze.

Sorry about my eye being all red, I got some eye shadow in it while I was doing my lower lash line.

Eyes:

ELF Mineral Eye Primer

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

MAC Bronze on the inner and outer 1/3s of the eye

Barry M Dazzle Dust in 100 in the middle of the lid

Sleek Storm Palette

-Top row, 3rd from the left eye shadow as a highlight

MAC Blue pigment on the lower lashline

MAC Deep Truth over the Blue pigment

Darling Girl Cozy Nights and Falling Leaves FOTD

I thought I'd post a FOTD in between all of my reviews and such. You're going to get very sick of me talking and posting about Darling Girl Cosmetics I think.

I haven't gone out in a couple of days because I've been letting the sister borrow my car and I can't be bothered to actually walk outside. I'm a little sad because I just got internet on my G2 and I want to find some use for it!




Face:

Milani Baked Blush in Terra Sole

Eyes:

ELF Mineral Eye Primer

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

Darling Girl Cozy Nights in the inner and outer corner

Darling Girl Falling Leaves in the middle of the lid

Wet n Wild Mink Brown eyeliner for brows

Lips:

Wet n Wild Mega Last Lip Color in 902C Bare It All