Lime Crime and Makeupbee Collaboration (Part One!)!

So one of the awesome things about being a "Queenbee" on Makeupbee is that you get to take part in some really cool collaborations.  It's awesome getting access to brands and products I might otherwise not be able to afford or I just might not know about them.

One of these brands is Lime Crime.  Queenbees, if they wanted to take part, were able to select two eyeshadows, a lipgloss, a lipstick, and an "eyeshadow helper" (which is their primer).  With eyeshadows, I can always find colors I like, not a problem, I chose what looked like a deep green ("Medusa") and a nice purple color ("Empress").  Lipsticks I had a hard time picking just one that I wanted to try but I went with a nude color, "Coquette".

But when I got to the lipgloss section, I had a hard time deciding.  I'm not a dark lip kinda girl.  I wear nude or light pink lips like all the time.  When you look at Lime Crime's lipgloss selection, you will see neither of those colors haha.  They have a red, a reddish pink, a purple, a blue, and a gold.  So I had to think about which one I'd be most likely to wear so I decided on the purple, which is called "Kaleidoscope."

I was so excited to try this stuff that as soon as it got here, I went off to do a look with one.  So here's what I came up with:

Please excuse the beyotch look on my face in this picture haha 

What I used:

Lime Crime's Eyeshadow Helper

Lime Crime "Medusa"

Inglot 414 P (a pearly, dark green)

Inglot 351 M (a light off white color for a highlight)

some false lashes that I don't know who they're by or what style they are

MAC Blacktrack Fluidline

Lips:

A purple eyeliner

Lime Crime "Kaleidoscope" lipgloss

For me not being a dark lip girl, I actually think this came out pretty.  Of course, I didn't stay wearing the purple lips but I liked it while it was on.

A few things about the lipgloss: it's a dark color.  I applied it the first time without lining my lips first (I don't have a purple lipliner).  BIG MISTAKE!!  You can't just throw this on your lips, rub them together, and go.  That's not happening with this color.  You need to line your lips and then apply this almost as if you're applying red lipstick. 

I did swatches of the shadows over 4 different bases/primers to see how their Eyeshadow Helper compared to the others.  I also did a swatch of Sugarpill's "Poison Plum" to see how it effected that as well.

And after doing this little experiment, it made me wonder why in the WORLD does anyone waste their money on Urban Decay Primer potion????  Look what it does for those shadow colors!  A big fat nothing!!  The only reason I have it is because a sample came with the Naked palette!

The eyeshadow helper feels almost waxy and it definitely brings out the metallic-ness of the shadows more than the other bases.  But I mean, if the eyeshadow helper does the same thing for the shadows that NYX's JEP "milk" does, then that will let me skip a step I do in my eye makeup routine almost every day, which is always cool.

I don't obviously have any solid feelings about these products yet as I literally just got my hands on them today.  But so far so good!  

Thanks so much for checking this out!!  I hope you all have a great New Year's!!!!

I've got the blues!

Well, not the sad kind of blues.  I've had this Eye Kandy Cosmetics' Sprinkles "Berry Blast" eye glitter for a while and I really haven't used it very much.  It's kind of a dark color (but it's sooo pretty!) so it really would only, in my opinion, look good over a bit darker of a color.  

So I went with that today.  I wanted to use "True Blue" from Calypso Minerals because, for one, I thought it'd look great with the glitter on top, and for two, it's like the most beautiful color in the world.

So here's my look!

haha sorry this picture is a little weird, the wind was blowing

Have I told you how much I LOVE "true blue"???  It's so pretty!  It's like an electric royal blue.  Love it.

What I used:

TFSI

NYX JEP "milk"

Calypso Minerals "True Blue" matte pigment

Calypso Minerals "Drama" matte pigment 

(you can get Calypso Minerals from their etsy shop)

MAC "vanilla" pigment as a highlight

MAC Blacktrack fluidline

L'oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara

And then, of course the glitter!

I don't know what my deal is lately but I put glitter on everything haha.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE matte shadows with glitter on top.  I can't get enough of looks like that right now.  I don't know if it's because New Year's Eve is coming and I think glitter is the best thing you can wear on New Year's Eve or what it is but I am glitter-ing it up haha.

I hope you all have a fun and SAFE New Year's!  And if you do some rockin' makeup, make sure you take some pictures and leave me a link to them!!

Purple and Orange Cut Crease Look using Sugarpill

I did this look yesterday because I've been trying to come up with some more ways to use the Burning Heart quad from Sugarpill.  I really love the way orange and purple look together so I figured I'd give this look a go.  It's just a cut crease using the orange on the lid and the purple on the crease, but then I blended the purple back up into the orange.  So here are the pictures!

Again, with this type of look, I feel like I should be at a sporting event haha.

The white is Inglot DS 496 and I used some of NYX black eyeshadow as well.  The orange is Sugarpill's "Flamepoint" and the purple is their "Poison Plum."

I get so bummed when it's cloudy outside because I feel like my pictures just don't come out as well when I have to use my flash.  I don't know.  Oh well, I guess this is how they're going to look until it's spring!

And please please please, if you haven't voted for Meredith Jessica's look on makeupbee, please head over there and do that!  She's only about 25 votes from first and she's doing a MASSIVE GIVEAWAY! if she wins, but you'll have to have voted for her to be able to participate (the rules are on the giveaway link)! 

I mean, why wouldn't you want this gorgeous look to win?  Let alone get yourself a chance to win a $250 shopping spree at Sephora!?!

So please vote!!!  The contest ends on January 2nd!

Thank you all so much for checking this out!!!  I hope you all have a great week!  And a safe New Year's Eve!  I don't know if you've heard or not but AAA is providing free transportation and towing on New Year's Eve between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. New Year's Day for anyone who's had a little alcohol so nobody has to drive or get in the car with someone who's been drinking!  It's totally free (the first 10 miles) so if you've had a drink on New Year's Eve call 1-800-400-4AAA and they will get you home safely!  There is no excuse to drink and drive!

Win a $250 Sephora Gift Card!!

As you know, I entered the Makeupbee contest.  I've completely given up hope that I have any chances of winning!  My friend Meredith Jessica, however, is VERY close to being in first!  She just needs a few more votes.  She has said that if she wins, with the grand prize being a $500 gift certificate to Sephora, she's going to give away $250 of it!  That's beyond generous!

So all you have to do is vote on her look on Makeupbee.com by clicking the "like" button and then head over to her giveaway blog post and follow her directions to be entered in this giveaway.  Do you know all of the incredible stuff you can get for $250 at Sephora??

What are you waiting for??  Head over to makeupbee and get yourself a chance at winning $250 for a Sephora shopping spree!!

A belated Merry Christmas and two looks!

I didn't post right before Christmas like I had planned so I never wished you guys a Merry Christmas (for any who celebrate)!  I hope you all had a great day!  This was by far the best Christmas with my daughter.  She's 6 now and was SOOO excited for Santa to come.  My husband and I went to bed around 1:30 in the morning and we could hear her up in her room running around in circles.  She's insane haha.

And even though this is late, I'm still going to add a few clips from some of my favorite Christmas movies.

It doesn't get better than Home Alone 2

I like watching "The Polar Express" with my daughter

And of course, Elf

Enough of that haha, onto the looks!

This look I did the other day and while I thought it was pretty, it wasn't a favorite.  But then when it was almost bedtime, my husband goes, "I really liked your makeup today."  Which is not really something he ever says to me.  If I ask him how he likes my makeup, 98% of the time he'll say, "it's cool."  So that really surprised me.

I have silver glitter on my lid but guess what?  You can't see it in my pictures!

What I used:

TFSI

NYX "milk" JEP

Kat Von D "Razor Grey" from the Metal Orchestra palette

Calypso Minerals silver glitter (applied with hairspray!)

Calypso Minerals "Grape Pop" matte pigment

Calypso Minerals "Matte Violet" pigment

*Edit* I know their colors are beautiful but I just found out that Calypso Minerals has been taking people's money and not sending them the products they've ordered.  So please don't order from them!  I don't know about dupes for all of the colors but Glamour Doll Eyes has a color called "Mingles" which is a good dupe for "True Blue".  I'm so sorry!*

and I can't remember what I used for my highlight... whoops!

L'oreal Carbon Black Lineur Intense

Maybelline The falsies Volum' Express Mascara

And the look I have on today:

I did this look so fast!  I had to take my puppy (I don't think I told you guys I got a puppy, I'll post some pictures at the bottom) to the vet this morning so I wanted to get ready fast.  I grabbed my Naked palette and did this look.  I have to say that I really love being able to do a complete look using just one palette.  There's enough of a range in color shades in there to be able to do a whole look, which I'm a HUGE fan of.  It makes life so much easier if you can just grab one palette and do a look rather than having to grab a bunch.

I used NYX "Black Bean" JEP as a base

Naked's "Hustle" on lid

"Toasted" above crease and under eye

"Sin" above that

"Virgin" right under brow as a highlight color

I lined my eyes with MAC blacktrack fluidline and then placed some "Creep" over that to soften it

L'oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara

And while I'm not a huge fan of neutral looks on myself, I really like this one.  The black bean didn't make "hustle" too dark, it just gave it a bit of depth that I'm really diggin.

So yeah, I got a puppy.  She was a Christmas present kinda for me and kinda for my other puppy (no worries though, he's fixed so there shall be no baby Sullivan's running around).  Her name is Delilah but I have nicknamed her Meatball because she is a little meatball haha.  She's an American Bully (which basically a selectively bred Pit Bull to be shorter, stockier, and calmer), she' about 22 weeks old, and she's WAY more calm than my Sullivan.

see that North Carolina red dirt on her paw?

I love this picture of the three of them!

However, Sullivan and Delilah are quite the little duo.  They made a HUGE mess one day when they decided to play in the mud together.

he doesn't think he was naughty haha

but she sure does!

They were the biggest mess EVER!  They had mud all over the side of my house.  My husband had to carry them inside so we could bathe them.  My bathtub looked like a murder scene from a movie.  It was stinkin hilarious though.

But that's about it for today!  Again, I hope you all had a great Christmas!  Are you planning anything for New Year's??  Going to any parties?  Let me know your plans, I'd love to hear them!  Thanks so much for checking this out guys!!  You're the best!!!

Reptile Series: Malaysian Coral Snake Inspired

So today my look is based on this really beautiful, unique snake called a Malaysian Coral Snake.  We have coral snakes here in the United States but they don't look anything like this.  And while I think my look turned out ok, I think it definitely looks more like a fish than a snake haha.  Oh well.  So here's the snake:

I really wanted to do something with orange on the inner corner and outer corner of my eye since its head and tail are orange.  So here's what I did:

And I know you can't see the colors in this picture, but I like it in black and white haha

I really wish it read more snake than fish but what can ya do?  It's not my favorite look but it's not the worst look I've ever done either.  I think looks don't turn out as well when I take them so literally, I do better when I just take the colors and go with it.

What I used:
TFSI

NYX "milk" JEP

Sugarpill's "Flamepot" (orange)

NYX "Black" shadow

88 palette:

navy blue

periwinkle color

Ben Nye's "Cosmic Blue" pigment

MAC "Sea & Sky" mineralize duo (the sky side)

TIGI Bed Head "white" shadow 

MAC Blacktrack fluidline

L'oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara

Whenever I do looks that are dramatic and a little different like this one, I feel like I should be going to a sporting event.  I would most definitely wear this to a New York Knick's basketball game (not that I'll be going to one any time soon haha).  

Shoutout to my home state!  Holla!

I feel like you can wear really bold colors to sporting games and people won't think you're a lunatic like when you wear a look like this to the grocery store.  Oh well.

On a side note, the second place winner from my giveaway never got back to me and it's been 48 hours so I'm moving on to the next person, which is KristaDior.  I will be sending you an e-mail and you have 48 hours to respond or I will move on to the next person and so on.

Also, if you haven't voted on Makeupbee's contest yet, please do.  It only takes a minute, you can link your facebook page to Makeupbee and click the little "like" button and the prize is HUGE!  So please vote for my looks on there!

Look With Rhinestones

Candy Cane Cut Crease

Of course I want to win but I think it's a longshot (technically, I'm in 4th place since a person can't win more than once, but I'm like 230 votes from 1st).  However, Ronnie and Meredith Jessica are right there so their looks really need your votes too so hopefully they can place 1st and 2nd.  So PLEASE vote for them!

Ronnie's Smokey Eye look

Meredith Jessica's Green and Gold Look

If I'm gonna lose, please let me lose to looks I really like!!!  Thank you guys so much!!!

Giveaway winners! And a look inspired by the first place winner's celebrity makeup crush!

Something I had wanted to do when announcing the winner of my giveaway was to do a look inspired by the first place winner's celebrity makeup crush.  Now, I get why the winner chose this person as their celebrity crush, however, she is not mine.... I don't think I told you guys mine.  Mine has to be Jennifer Lopez.  I just think she always looks gorgeous and she's not afraid to throw a bit of color in the mix.  And Kim Kardashian was OVERWHELMINGLY the celebrity makeup crush winner.

Anyway, back to what I was saying haha, so here is the look I did inspired by the winner's celebrity crush.

I had a wicked time getting a decent picture of this makeup.  It's raining out and it just wasn't working with me.  Can you tell who my inspiration was???

My inspiration was... Lady Gaga.

I found a few different pictures of her where her makeup is similar and kinda meshed them all up and did my own thing haha.

Was Lady Gaga your makeup crush???  If so, maybe you won!

Ok, maybe I'll stop teasing you now and tell you who the winners were:

Congratulations to Kassie on winning the 10 color stacker and to Silke (who chose Hilary Duff) for winning the 3 colors and the loose glitter!!

I'll be sending you an e-mail in a couple of  minutes and you have 48 hours to get back to me with your address so I can get your stuff out to you before I move on to the next person!!

Thank you all so much for entering!  I think doing giveaways is so much fun and I really wish I could do them more often!  

It's another Naked day!

Well first of all, I'd like to say hello to all of my new followers!  What a pleasant surprise to get on here to see I got 30 new followers overnight!  I hope you guys enjoy my blog (I'm always open to suggestions!!)!  I'm sorry to have kind of a lame post this time.  I just got myself a Naked palette and have been trying to use it and see what I can come up with.  So here's the look I did today!

 

And sometimes I make weird faces haha

Here's the Naked palette, of course 

The colors I used:

"Virgin" on inner corner of lid and as highlight

"Half Baked" on middle of lid and just under highlight color

"Smog" on outer corner of lid

"Darkhorse" in outer v area

"Naked" to blend up

I also took "Half Baked" and "Smog" under my eye

I lined my eye with MAC "Blacktrack" fluidline and went over that with "Darkhorse" to soften it a bit!

I do like the way this looks.  It's not anything super special and I'm really not too big into neutrals but I think it's a soft, pretty look.  Very wearable!

On my lips I have:

NYX "Natural" lipliner

Revlon "Pink Pout" matte lipstick

NYX "Nude Pink" lipgloss

And also I just wanted to ask again for any votes for the looks I entered in the Makeupbee competition.  I entered a look with rhinestones:

Which you can vote for by clicking HERE and then clicking the "like" button

I also entered my Candy Cane Cut Crease look

Which you can vote for by clicking HERE!!

The grand prize is a $500 gift certificate to Sephora, which would be amazing to win!

But it wouldn't hurt my feelings if I lost to:

either of Ronnie's looks Green smokey eye and Sugar & Spice glitter look

Meredith Jessica's look Green and Gold

Kassie's looks Gothic Christmas and Candy Cane Smoke

and a few other looks I think are amazing:

Dazzler's Holiday Party

Glittery Smokey Eye

Colorful Holiday

Your support is so appreciated!  Thank you guys so much!!!