Icy Cool with Orgueil

This past week has been totally crazy!!  I am still tired from it.  Here is a face I did last Tuesday.

I intended to merely tightline my eyes, but ended up lining them more fully.  I was trying to paint the tops of the base of my lashes with my Stila Stay All Day pen and ended up hitting the edge of the lid as well.  I hate that my mascara doesn't always get the tops of base of my lashes perfectly black and since my lashes are naturally quite blonde, it's not exactly attractive that way.  In any case, it kind of ended up looking like fake fake lashes, don't you think?  The line mimics a band!

My face is really flushed here, thus I look super pink.  Additionally, the pressed Guerlain Meteorites compact I used is a rosy tint, which only added to the pink problem at this juncture.  Also, I did not fill in my brows at all that day, and was pleasantly surprised that no one seemed to notice them (or notice that they were missing).  I believe I was also able to pull this off due to the eye makeup being not very dramatic overall.

Face:
Miracle Skin Transformer Light
Guerlain Meteorites Compact Powder Teint Rose 01
I'm not sure what under eye concealer I used here - I think MUFE Lift 1
Korres Wild Rose Mineral Setting Powder (over concealer)

Cheeks:
Tarte AC Fantastic
Tarte AC Angelic

Eyes:
Lorac Behind the Scenes Eye Primer
GA ETKI #22 Ecailles (lid and blended into crease)
GA ETKI #23 Madre Perla (inner corner)
Chanel Illusion d'Ombre Fantasme (patted on over center of lid)
Laura Mercier Caviar Stick Sterling (smudged into lower lash line)
Lorac Baked Matte Satin e/s Chic (brow bone)
Stila Smudge Stick e/l Silver Dollar (waterline)
Stila Stay All Day black e/l pen (tightline and upper lash line)
I'm not sure what mascara I wore here!  I think Benefit They're Real
Clinique Bottom Lash

Lips:
Guerlain Rouge G Extrait Orgueil

I have mixed feelings about the icy eyes.  I like that they are different for me but I also feel like they are lacking somehow.  The uber-sparkliness also did not translate in my pictures, unfortunately.  I do enjoy the contrast with the eyes and the lips.  The formula on the Rouge G Extraits is very nice - smooth, light, and comfortable on.  The packaging, of course, is silly and annoying, if you ask me.

The compact Meteorites powder was also a deviation in my routine.  I normally only use it when on vacation or while traveling (neither of which I do often).  It looked slightly too pink overall when I was not flushed, but nothing too noticeable.  Perhaps it would be better over a more yellow base to balance things out more.  Also, perhaps it would work better with a less blatantly pinky pink blush!

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to ask questions about anything.  I'm going to try and play catch up from last week's looks over the next couple of days.  Wish me luck!

First Vice Look

This is a the face I did on Monday, using the Urban Decay Vice palette for my eyes.  Please pardon my messy, frizzy hair!  I often pull it up quickly in the mornings and don't always take it down for pictures.

I really like how the liquid liner turned out and I didn't even spend hardly any time or effort on it!  Maybe all the practice is finally paying off!  Or maybe I should use more types with fine actual brush tips.

I tried Bare Minerals Ready foundation for the third time here.  I thought I would wear "Fair," like I do in their original and matte formulas, but it turns out that "Fairly Medium is a much better match!  I don't think I've ever worn anything with "medium" in the name before in my life!  Obviously the Ready foundations are running very light compared to their loose counterparts.

The picture above and below are using the "Orton-ish" effect on Picasa.  I love how it makes everything look soft, perfect, and the colors so bright and beautiful!  It's just for fun.  :)

Face:
Miracle Skin Transformer (MST) Vanish Instant Imperfection Corrector
MUFE Lift concealer 1
Korres Wild Rose Mineral Setting Powder
Illamasqua Concealer 115
BE Ready Fairly Medium
MUFE Super Matte Loose 12

Cheeks:
Guerlain Terracotta Light Blondes 01
Becca Gypsy
Tarte AC Angelic

Eyes:
Lorac eye primer
UD Penny Lane
UD Occupy (only a little used under Chaos)
UD Chaos
UD Echo Beach
UD Anonymous
UD e/l pencil Electric (under Chaos on lowers)
UD e/l liquid Sabbath
Stila Stay All Day black liner (tightline)
MUFE Aqua pencil 10L (waterline)
Korres Volcanic mascara
YSL Shocking mascara
Clinique Bottom Lash

Lips:
Belmacz Glow Ruby (looking washed out in my pics - except for the altered one!)

I love Penny Lane!  Chaos was somewhat difficult for me to work with, as mattes can be, but it is definitely doable and the color stayed true all day.

I really want to like the Bare Minerals Ready foundation because it has beautiful, full, quick and easy coverage.  However, it has proven to not wear well on me in the three times I've tried it.  First of all, it can feel really dry on, especially for the first few hours of wearing it.  I did alleviate that discomfort this time around by prepping my skin with adequate hydrating serum and moisturizer (more so than I would normally use).  It also feels just slightly itchy on me at first, likely due to the Bismuth that is in it.  The break down of wear occurs around 3-4 hours for me and it shows as patchiness in various places all over my face.  It ends up looking almost dry and caky, for lack of a better description.  I found that I could kind of smooth things out again using just my fingertips, but it is not worth having to do that to look good again.  I'm pretty sad because, as I said, I would have loved to have such nice, smooth, excellent coverage so easily!  I may try it one or two more times with different primers, just hoping to get a different result.  I may not.  It's no fun looking icky-faced part way through my work day.

This is my first time using a Becca blush.  I love Gypsy!  It's very soft, smooth, and glowy.  I've become quite the blush fanatic, thanks in large part to Makeup Alley.

Let me know if you have any questions about anything.  Thanks for stopping by!

Black Tango

Welcome!  This is my little makeup blog.  I'll be mainly posting "face of the day" makeup here, but I expect there may be some swatching and other fun things taking place from time to time.  :)  I hope you enjoy it!  This is a Make Up For Ever Black Tango inspired look I wore yesterday.

The original look featured mauve cheeks and burgundy lips, but I modified that part for mine.

This eye needed to be blended more above the crease, which I promptly did after I got to work!

I'm not used to having my brows this long and large.  That was fun and weird!

This eye turned out pretty good.  If I had it to do over again, I would layer Arabian Ruby over a more opaque base or maybe even try it wet.

I slept with my hair just washed and damp the previous night, hence the super wavy lovely look!

Here is what I wore.


Face:
Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer
Smashbox under eye primer
MUFE Lift 11
MUFE Lift concealer 1
Illamasqua concealer 115
Korres Wild Rose Mineral Setting Powder
MUFE Super Matte Loose 12

Cheeks:
Guerlain Terracotta Light Blondes 01
Tarte AC Dazzled (not mauve enough, but closest in my stash to a dusty mauve, I think)
Tarte AC Shimmering Powder Champagne

Eyes:
Lorac primer
Chanel Mirifique (base)
Addiction Arabian Ruby
GA ETKI Lust Red (used wet as liner - nearly pointless as you can't really see it except maybe a bit on the lowers)
Face Atelier White Gold pigment
YSL Faux Cils black cream liner (tightline and waterline)
YSL Shocking mascara
Givenchy Phenomeneyes WP
Clinique Bottom Lash
Tarte taupe brow pencil

Lips:
Buxom Clair

I'm not too talented taking self-portraits with my little camera, so I apologize if the pictures, lighting, and angles are less than grand.  I do the best I can!

Hopefully this will be fun for you and fun for me.  :)  Let me know if you have any questions about the look or techniques used.  Thanks for stopping by!