As some of you may know, I won! (OMG!) a rainbow stacker in Grey’s Halloween contest. It arrived the other day and I decided to play around a little today, although not much — I’m still sort of in a funk and I couldn’t decide on a crazy rainbow look, alas. So I just lined all the way around my eyes with the blue and the green colors. The green shows up better in real life. I actually kind of really like the blue, as a costume-y color. Where oh where can I wear all the over-the-top makeup I want to put on all the time?
So yeah, that’s pretty much what I look like with nothing on but crazy eyeliner. I didn’t wash my hair yet today, either, but let’s pretend like I’m RPattz and that’s hot or something, ok?
I LOVE the brightness of these colors and I look forward to playing with them a lot more sometime soon. For tonight, I’ll just continue to get curious looks from my mother-in-law.
In other news, I’ve started WeightWatchers again, and it’s been a few days and it’s actually going really well. I like how I picked a week before Thanksgiving to dive in, but one day isn’t going to ruin anything, really. I’ve successfully lost weight on WW before, but gained it back after breaking my foot and being laid up for months, then losing my mom and eating fast food for months after that. It’s time to say goodbye to it, and then I can buy cute clothes without having to spend 29 hours hunting them down.
And in other other news, I’ve got a NYX order coming on Wednesday, supposedly. I needed more time than that to play with it pre-Thanksgiving dinner! Aieee! I don’t know what nail color to rock, either. Jenna, you should pick for me.
I’ve had a few unsuccessful attempts at “foiling” eyeshadow before. That is, applying powder eyeshadow with a damp brush. Or at least that’s my understanding of what it is. Anyway, I think I was doing too much brushing before, and not enough patting, because it always ended up looking like eyeshadow mud.
So I’ve been really down today and wanted some obnoxiously vivid eyeshadow (yes, at midnight; there are meteors to see at 4am, so a girl has to look good, right?). I grabbed my MAC Photo Realism palette, which I kind of love, and had at. This is the result:
I like it. Basically, I foiled Grey Range all over the lid, just patting it on there. I did a little pass with the blending brush at the end, but mostly just patting it on. I used a little Image Maker above the lid, and Wet N Wild Acapulco Glow highlighter near the brow bone. I swiped the Grey Range under the lower lashes, and then tried to do thick black liner (Smashbox cream, as usual), but really didn’t get what I was going for. I did manage to get some on the waterline, though, and of that I was proud. I lined the lower lashes as well and smudged with my smudgy smudge brush smudge friend. The mascara is Rimmel GlamEyes LashFlirt in Kohl Black, which I don’t love, but it’s OK.
Overall I really like the look, and it was quite simple; I’d probably use it for going out, maybe work on tweaking it a bit more. I didn’t use any concealer or primer here, so pardon my dark circles and shiny skin, etc.
In other news, I really, really am dying to do a NYX haul, especially for lipsticks and the big eyeshadow pencils. Any must-haves? For some reason I find myself drawn to the Strawberry Milk Round lipstick. It could be great, or it could be truly terrifying.
So I got my glasses last week… I can’t remember which day, but basically it took two weeks from the time I ordered from Zenni.com, which is their stated timeframe and actually no longer than it takes at the optometrist’s office. They did send a tracking number when the package shipped, and the glasses arrived in plastic cases, the lenses wrapped in a lens cloth, all stuck in a bubble mailer. Everything was in good shape, so as far as customer service/shipping goes, I had a great experience. They got the prescription right, too. I can seeeeee! Things aren’t blurry! Take that, astigmatism!
Anyway, here they are. I actually like both pairs. Please ignore the total lack of makeup, messy hair, and pajamas; I really just couldn’t be arsed, and I’ve put off making this post long enough. I figure you’ll see them again later in other pictures. Probably.
This is the pair I wear all the time now. They’re comfy, the lenses are big enough that I don’t feel like I have weird tunnel vision, and I think they look good. Sometimes I catch a reflection and think they might be a little mannish, though. I wouldn’t wear them with my more girly outfits, I don’t think.
And there’s these, which I like, but unfortunately they really hurt to wear. The arms seem a bit short and they push on my head in a most uncomfortable fashion. When I first put them on, I thought they were kind of fug, too, but they’ve grown on me. I have to see if I can adjust them somehow so that the tension on the arms isn’t as much, or something. Also, they sit slightly crooked.
So yeah, two pairs of glasses, shipped, for under sixty bucks? I would definitely order from Zenni again.
So the new video for Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance came out today. I have to admit that I kind of love Gaga, if only because I secretly wish I could run around wearing fierce makeup and crazyass masks all the time. And no pants. Because nobody likes pants. But anyway, here’s the video:
I thought I’d like to try to duplicate her eye look from around 4:47 in the video, but my coloring just isn’t right for it, alas. The easiest duplicate look would probably involve gluing cut up pieces of a window screen to my nails. I will definitely not be duplicating the bathtub BIG EYES OMG RUN thing. There aren’t circle lenses powerful enough, and I don’t want to look like I got hit with Kai’s Photo Goo anyway.
Ra-ra-ahh-ahh-ah-ah
Roma-roma-ma-ma
This is one of my top five favorite polishes. I found out yesterday my mother-in-law dislikes it because it’s blue and therefore not a good nail polish color; personally, I think it’s snazzy. Also, Tiffany blue is one of my favorite colors in general, and Audrey is one of my favorite cats. The color’s not quite as green as it looks in this picture; I tried to fix the color balance but apparently didn’t do such a great job. And I swear, these macro photos just pull out every imperfection in my manicure. Sigh. I’m pleased overall with my nail shape; with polish on almost every day, they’re growing out much straighter. Thanks to the MUA nailboard, I figured out that I have a “flared” shape and the squoval (eew) is a good way to file. Trying to get it into an oval was probably weakening my nails because I was taking way too much off the sides. Ignore the middle finger nubbin; I tore it after far too much soaking in a Jacuzzi last week, so it needs to catch back up.
China Glaze For Audrey
And a bonus photo of Audrey, my cat. I often threaten to paint her claws when I break out this color. Somehow I think I’d end up without much of a face left if I tried.
Audrey
While it’s hardly new, I just found StyleIt’s On the Plus Side blog. Lots of plus-size outfit pictures with FUN photos, and she lists where she got each item. I am enjoying reading through the archives and thought you might, too. I love this outfit particularly; it seems fun, laid back, and cool all at the same time. I think it’s the scarf that does it. I need a scarf collection, don’t you think?
This looks sloppier in the pic than it does in real life, but it’s not my favorite manicure ever, anyway. At least my nail shape is getting better, on which more soon. This started as 3 coats of Orly Naughty, and probably should’ve stayed that way, but I got bored waiting for trick-or-treaters and decided to add a coat of China Glaze Dreamsicle. Kind of sparkly, but decidedly meh, if you ask me. I was planning to take it off today and do something else (ChG Atlantis, probably) but depression won and I spent most of the day in bed reading a pretty bad novel about orcs instead.
Vampy Sparkles: Like a Cullen?
In this case, my own stupidity. I did go for the vampire look tonight, even though I couldn’t find any fangs to go with it… and I picked up a palette of cheap Halloween makeup for $2.29 at Meijer, so I could have some white pigment to use. I had it on for all of 2 hours, maaaaaybe three, and now I have hives and/or a rash. I really should know better; I’m allergic to damn near everything, but I figured with a layer of moisturizer and one of primer to protect me, I’d be fine. Lesson: Wrong. So, anyone want a lightly used pigment palette? Ugh.
I had to rush putting everything on because I was making this completely bizarre chicken for dinner, involving Russian dressing and onion soup mix (again: I should have known better, but that’s a subject for the Little Birdhouse), and running late. So I didn’t get things as nice as I had wanted to, and the “blood” near my mouth left much to be desired, but here it is, my Vampire Look 2009. I’ll take a picture of my Halloween manicure tomorrow.
So I was going to do a peacock look for Halloween, with cool false eyelashes made from peacock feathers and all this other stuff. Sadly, I ordered said lashes from sasa.com and didn’t realize there was a Chinese national holiday, so they won’t be here in time. Perhaps someone will throw a fantastic New Year’s Eve party and I can go… dressed up as… um, an exotic bird. My inner drag queen loves the idea, anyway. This was the first tentative try at the look, in case you wanted to see it.
Obviously it needed brighter colors and a lot of work, which it sadly never received. Trick or Treat is tomorrow, and I needed a substitute fast, so of course my brain went “VAMPIRES!” I can make my dark circles work FOR me for a change, right? Plus maybe Alexander Skarsgard will show up as Vampire Eric and I’ll be all set. Ha, ha. Really, though, this is cool because I just need to buy some faux-fangs and I’m ready to go; much cheaper than trying to get feathers and other stuff for the peacock look, right?
Ignore the godawful hair and pajama shirt, would you? I’m pretty pleased with how this came out and will practice again tonight to see if any small changes help. I do plan to fill in my eyebrows with a darker powder, and I’m going to try to pick up some Ben Nye white stage makeup for the empalening. Like impaling. Get it? Anyway, I tried using translucent mineral veil and white eyeshadow and there’s still way too much color involved.
I’ll post a picture of the final look, but for now I thought I’d try to give a basic idea of how I did the makeup in case anyone is looking for pointers. Like fangs. Oh, the puns, only not really.
First and foremost, I skipped my Benefit Boi-ing and Eyebright (both of which I officially love, by the way). I did use Smashbox eyelid primer, which probably has another, fancier name. And then:
- I applied Wet n Wild’s creme eyeliner in Eggplant all over my eyelid and up to the brow bone on the outside, plus in the wing shape you can sort of see.
- Then I used #8 (I think) from the Smashbox Eye Wish palate — sort of a sparkly granite-black color — all over the creme. I tried to blend it in really well but I may have lost patience.
- I applied MAC Trax, which is a sparkly burgundy-purple-brown-gold, alllll over, and blended.
- More #8, this time also to the inner corners and out onto my nose, as well as up to my eyebrow on the inside. More smudging. Repeat with more Trax.
- I did a really thick line of the WnW liner on top of all, and smudged some more.
- On the lower eye, I did basically the same thing. I took the Trax all the way down to the top of my cheekbones. Rarely do I get to try to make my eyes look MORE like they have dark circles. Oh, vampires, how I love you for being trendy.
- Mascara as usual. Surprise!
The main point to take home, I think, is that there was A LOT of eyeshadow on my eyes, with quite a bit of smudging, and in places where you wouldn’t really put eyeshadow if you were, say, headed out to the grocery store. I also applied some below my cheekbones in a triangle near the jaw to try to contour and look more… dead, but I didn’t go far enough with it. I will next time. Here’s the eye:
Oh, and the lipstick? Is Revlon Black Cherry; I forget the formula. I really like the color, though. And it works fairly well as “blood,” although I’ll probably try to do something more tomorrow night. Then again, my turned-in-the-1920s vampire probably feeds like a lady, wouldn’t you think?
Many of you probably know that I run decant circles for perfumes, mostly BPAL. I love doing them; it’s a great way to get to sniff the scents, and I especially love filling the little vials. It feels like a science experiment. The part I haaaaate is the book-keeping, especially since a public record has to be kept, and linking to the spreadsheet on my desktop doesn’t work. I end up typing and retyping scents and names and I’m always afraid I’ll make an error in the public report that isn’t actually in the spreadsheet, and then I’ll have to track down what the heck I actually did. Which I did, yesterday. I missed a whole scent and put a bunch of people under one they didn’t have. I hope I’ve got it fixed now.
I can’t wait to just order the scents and commence the wait for their arrival. Then again, I sort of hate the packaging up bit, too. But not as much as I hate sorting initial orders. I have no idea how the Lab handles the volume they must do, and I can only applaud them from my tiny corner of trying to deal with perfume samples.
