Makeup of the Day

   

  

Eyes: MAC eyeshadows in Nylon and Creme de Violet, Urban Decay eyeshadow in Chopper, Wet n Wild MegaLiner liquid eyeliner in Black, Urban Decay Perversion mascara

Lips: Urban Decay lipliner in Ozone, MAC lipstick in Pink Fusion

Face: MAC MatchMaster Foundation 1.0, NYX HD Finishing Powder, BeneFit Dandelion blush

Fragrance: Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab “Nemesis”

I’m wearing my contact lenses today… 

  
…because I can wear my stylin Marc Jacobs aviators and it’s the perfect weather for rocking some sunglasses! And also…

  

  
That way my mom and I match — we own the same sunglasses! I spent the afternoon doing some hometown sightseeing on the Seattle waterfront with my mom, brother, sister in law, niece and nephew.

Makeup of the Day 

Well, I’m breaking out and I forgot to put my nose ring back in, but gosh darn it, I look cute anyway!  (Heehee)  I am wearing the Naked2 Basics eyeshadow palette, Hikari blush in Tango, and MAC lipstick in Diva-Ish.  I also tried out ELF Gotta Glow blush as a highlighter and it’s gorgeous, but you can’t see it in my pictures – it has a beautiful golden sheen in the sun!

  

Makeup of the Day

   

Eyes: MAC eyeshadows in Aquadisiac and Nylon, BellaPierre gel eyeliner in black, Urban Decay Perversion mascara

Face: MAC MatchMaster 1.0 foundation, NYX HD Finishing Powder, BeneFit LoliTtint cheek stain

Lips: Rimmel Provocalips lip paint in Dare to Pink

Porcelain Means Porcelain, Dammit — Finding Makeup & Techniques for Pale Skin

Something that drives me nuts is trying to find good tutorials or reviews of makeup for pale skin. And I mean ACTUALLY pale, not “I wear MAC NC25” or your foundation shade contains the word “caramel” or “sand” or “tan”. You might have light-toned skin (in the “light” end of the spectrum, or “lighter than most”), but not pale. Finding a good, true “porcelain” shade is very difficult, and finding good ideas for things like highlighting, bronzing and contouring is even more elusive.

Here’s a great example: When I go to the MAC counter (or, well, many counters, actually!), they always want to match me to NW15, because it’s one of the lightest shades they offer What I’m wearing currently is MatchMaster 1.0, which is much better on me (I wear it daily and it looks very natural on me) – and they still tried to tell me it’s too light! Nope. I am porcelain, with pinky undertones, and the amount of “light” foundations that are far too dark is, well, most of them.

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Check out the difference here — on the right is StudioFix Fluid NW15 and MatchMaster 1.0 on the left. Blended all the way out you can barely see it on my arm, but the SFF is much too dark and yellow! The only time SFF NW15 is even close to matching my skin is when I get home from Burning Man after two weeks in the desert sun, and EVEN THEN it’s BARELY light enough! I do wear SFF in NW15 from time to time, but generally go very, very light with it (sometimes I blend it with moisturizer, it works quite well that way) and always powder over with StudioFix Powder in NW10 to lighten it up.

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It’s harder still to find a good shade at the drugstore, but I think I’ve struck gold with Rimmel Stay Matte in Light Porcelain 010. I don’t think I’d go quite as far as to call it a dupe unless you account for it being much more full coverage and slightly less yellow, but both look very natural on me and I’m happy with each! The MatchMaster blends down so naturally that it’s very easy to wear, the Rimmel Stay Matte takes a bit more paying attention so to not look unnatural.

But the search always continues for tutorials and new products, of course!

Have you found any great tutorials for bronzing, contouring, and highlighting truly pale/porcelain skin? What products do you like to use?

Makeup of the Day

  

Eyes: MAC eyeshadows in Satisfy, Platonic and Deep Feelings (Infatuating Rose: 6 Cool Eyes palette), MAC eyeliner pencil in Raven, Urban Decay Perversion mascara

Lips: MAC lipstick in Up The Amp

Face: MAC MatchMaster Foundation 01

Today I’m Wearing – A Little Urban Decay, A Whole Lotta MAC

So, today was a whole lotta lazy!  It’s a Sunday and I basically hung around, house sat/fed my sister’s cat, and I didn’t even put on any makeup until 5:00 pm, and that was only because I wanted to play with the gifts I just got and some samples.  Most Sundays are spent barefaced and laying on the couch watching Game of Thrones!

Well, I was having a great time experimenting with the MAC shadows my good friend sent me when I remembered that a couple years ago, she had sent me the Crush Metal Pigments Stacked 1 set!  I decided I would layer the icy violet one on the lower lid over the Mega Metal shadow in Mating Call (LOL, that name).  Even used wet, the glittery pigment still managed to get everywhere including on my face and in my eyes, causing me to have a major tear-fest and red-eyed reaction of Not Good.  Well, here is an example of how glittery it is:

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Top middle frosty glittery concoction is the pigment from Stacked 1

So beautiful, so not fun if you get it in your eye.  Reminds me of Kitchmas in lavender.  Be careful with glittery products, you guys.  I don’t even have sensitive eyes.  I can wear almost anything.

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Me with bloodshot eyes and a face full of fun purple makeup; see below for breakdown.

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Featuring Urban Decay Revolution Lipgloss in Bittersweet

FULL BREAKDOWN:

FACE:  NYX Photo Loving Primer Lavender (I don’t see color correction here, so the clear version would probably be a fine alternative, but I love this primer!), Maybelline Fit Me Matte + Poreless Foundation in Porcelain with damp Beauty Blender, MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NC15 with Sigma E10 brush for pinpoint concealing (thanks for the tips to Lisa Eldridge), MAC Mineralize Concealer in NW15 under eyes blended with tip of damp Beauty Blender, MAC Casual Color in Evening Stroll (lovely violet!) sheered out with Sigma F82 round top kabuki brush, foundation lightly set with Maybelline Fit Me Matte + Poreless Powder in Translucent and MAC 150 Powder Brush.

EYES:  Too Faced Shadow Insurance, MAC Vanilla eyeshadow as highlight, MAC Mega Metals shadow in Mating Call (lid) and Noir Plum (crease/outer V/lower liner), MAC Chromaline in Deep Purple, L’oreal Infallible gel liner in Black, Covergirl Clump Crusher Mascara, Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo Ebony with No 7 double ended brow brush set with ELF Clear Brow Gel.

LIPS:  NYX Slim Lip Pencil in Deep Purple with Urban Decay Revolution Lip Gloss in Bittersweet (thanks for the sample, Ipsy!)

Most of these products are all available to be purchased currently except the two Mega Metals eyeshadows and the Casual Color by MAC, since they love to do those limited edition runs.

Everything here was purchased by me or given to me by a friend.  All opinions are my own!  🙂

A care package from a friend – with a little Sleek, a little NYX, and a whole lotta MAC!

I’m blessed to have a rich online life and a lot of online friends.  A lot of them are merely acquaintances; however, I have a few friends that I’ve had for over 10 years that I consider to be real, close, lifetime friends.  One of them was talking to me this week about a shadow palette I had bought from Sleek makeUP and wanted to try some for herself.  She bought the Sleek i-Divine Eyeshadow Palette in Bad Girl from Amazon, but unfortunately she ended up allergic to it, so she said, “Hey, I’ll send this to you and you can use it and blog about it.  I’ll send you some other things too, like this green NYX Wicked lippie.”  She mentioned some metallic MAC shadows, but I didn’t expect a gigantic box to arrive at my doorstep a few days later.  Imagine my surprise…

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Unboxing…

Wait.  What?

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Hold on a second…I’m confused.

SWEET MOTHER OF GOD!

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Ok, let’s clean this up and take it in the bathroom with natural light.

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Sleek i-Divine Palette in Bad Girl and NYX Wicked Lippie in Risque

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MAC Mineralized shadows in Cinderfella, Gilt by Association, and Blue Flame

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MAC Mineralize shadow trio in Danger Zone

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MAC Mega Metal Shadows in Noir Plum, Mating Call, Odalisque, Dandizette, and Chromaline cream liner in Rich Purple

The only casualty of the cross-country trip was this shadow from the Maleficent collection, My Dark Magic – not a problem, because I’m going to put it in a container and use it as a loose pigment and recycle the container at Back 2 MAC for a lipstick, as you do! 🙂

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MAC Mineralize Shadow My Dark Magic from Maleficent Collection

Words cannot express my gratitude at receiving such a kind package from this friend and what’s even sweeter is that it’s not the first time she’s done this.  I hope we’ll always be in touch and I am hoping to go visit her at some point!

And of course, I believe you should always pay your good fortune forward.  Kristin:  INCOMING!  😀  (I had to make room for all this somehow.)

Makeup of the Day

  
Eyes:  MAC eyeshadows in Nylon, Ricepaper and Aquadisiac, Wet ‘n’ Wild MegaLiner liquid eyeliner in Black, Urban Decay Perversion mascara

Lips: NYX Butter lipstick in Hunk

Face: Rimmel Stay Matte foundation in Porcelain, NYX HD Finishing Powder, ELF blush in Twinkle Pink

It’s dark, cold and windy here in Seattle today, so I’m making up for it with bright, summery shades and vintage 1960s inspired cat-eye liner!