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.
I’ll admit, I love to buy stuff from small companies when I can. So I’ve been discouraged lately hearing about LimeCrime and how they’re basically just repackaging; it gives me second thoughts about ordering from other small companies, you know? Luckily, today I found Mineral Makeup Mutiny via Grey’s blog (which I also love, and which you should go read; we seem to have similar tastes, at least on some things). It looks like a great site to sort out who’s selling what, who’s honest, and who’s just out to make a buck.
Both links should also be in the sidebar for easy future reference, unless I managed to bork that up somehow.
China Glaze Metallic Muse
I picked this up at Sally a bit ago, when they had a B2G1 sale on China Glaze chromes and glitters. I wasn’t sure I’d like the chrome polishes at allllllll, but this one looked sort of like For Audrey (probably my favorite polish of all) if you made it into foil. So I got it. And I love it. The colors in the picture are too yellow, but I couldn’t seem to adjust them very well in Picasa, alas. It’s more blue than it looks, although it’s definitely a blue-green; like I said, it reminds me of For Audrey with a lotta silver mixed in.
It goes on really easily; it was almost opaque in one coat but I went for two, just to be sure. I was a little worried at first because the texture is really thick (which, supposedly, makes it good for Konad — which one day I shall have), but even clumsy me had no issues applying. I did have to get a bit more on the brush than I normally would, but that’s about it. So this is two coats, plus my usual base and a Seche Vite topcoat.
Sadly, it lasted all of one day before it started to chip and peel like keeee-razy, so this is not a durable manicure color. I wore it for our anniversary vacation, and luckily I brought the bottle with me for touchups, because 17 hours after I applied it, it started to chip. After 24 hours, it was peeling up entirely in spots. I’m not sure if I should try a different basecoat, or if this is just how the chromes (or “Khromes,” as ChG would have it) roll.
Still, it’s so pretty and so shiny — like if you took the blue foil wrapper from an Easter candy and smoothed it out with your nail, and don’t make like you’ve never done that, right? — that I love it. I’ll just have to save it for special occasions or days when I don’t mind redoing my manicure a lot.
Rating: 3.5 of 5. But the color is a 5 of 5.
I got a couple of items from Sephora’s Friends & Family sale (I know, I know), including the Smashbox Eye Wish Palette and a Benefit Boi-ing/Eyebright combo palette. Actually, not including — that’s it. I’ll do proper reviews on them later, although I think I’ve already discussed how I feel about Smashbox shadows (which is: They’re pretty good). I think I like the Boi-ing and I know I like the Eyebright.
So of course after the UPS guy brought my new treats, I had to try them. I did the now-usual routine for foundation/blush/lips, and then used as much new stuff as I could fit on two eyelids. Actually, that’s not true. I could have fit a lot more.
This is the overall look, but I don’t know why I look like a vampire here. The sun wasn’t out yesterday, so the lighting was weird, and… yeah. Vampire. Plus, the shadows are weird; in real life, at least, the Boi-ing did a much better job of concealing those dark circles. Wait, maybe I actually am a vampire. (My Halloween costume idea, at present, is to lotion up, dump glitter all over myself, and go as a Twilight vamp. Ha!)
Overall I like the way the eye looks. I’m trying to find something to do for when Z and I go out for our anniversary dinner. I used both Benefit items (with Eyebright on the brow ridge, inner eye corner, outer eye corner, and top of the cheekbone), and the Eye Wish palette #13 — a creamy purply-dark liner/shadow — #9, which looked like it might be kind of MAC Trax-y but kind of isn’t — and #7, a gold glitter. I promise swatches and pics soon. Also, as usual, Too Faced Lash Injection mascara, my very favorite.
I think in this picture you can sort of tell that the dark circles are really not as bad as usual. I think I like the Boi-ing! The eyeshadow is more… brown and less purple-red than I had hoped, alas.
So, since lots of my former readers are back, what do you want to see? I know that me fapping about my makeup of the day isn’t that entertaining; mostly I’ve been doing it to get back in the habit of near-daily blogging. I’ll definitely post some reviews and more swatches of cosmetics and nail polish. Fashion itself is kind of eluding me, but I might try to put together Theoretical Outfits, and talk more about accessories and stuff. What would be interesting for you?
Well, I ordered them. I haven’t GOT them, yet. As it turns out I went with none of the posted choices, because I’m fickle like that! I spent most of yesterday obsessing over online glasses retailers, trying to find that just-perfect pair. I think I was overwhelmed by choice. Anyway, in the end, these are what I ordered. I’ll be sure to post pics when they arrive, unless they make me look like a giant douchewad or something.
Zenni 2225
Zenni 4903
I’m not wholly sure about either pair, but the 4903 looked most similar to the Tommy Hilfigers I couldn’t justify paying for, except for that weirdass lens thing they have going on. And I’m still not sure about the half-rim designs, but I’m thinking maybe they’ll be easier for me to deal with for actual purposes of Seeing Shit without Lenses In The Way.
I did screw up my order; the 4903 also comes in a different size, which is what I initially ordered. I called their 800 number today, had someone on the line within three minutes, and she happily made the change for me. So far so good on the customer service front.
