September Cancer Awareness!

Ok, so I had this brilliant idea to try to, each month, raise awareness for the cancers whose awareness month it is by doing makeup inspired by their ribbon colors.  I picked a difficult month to start this idea haha.  September has eight cancers whose awareness month it is.  That's crazy.  So I decided to do this on my blog facebook page (click here to check it out!) and ask you guys to also contribute.  I mean, I can't spread awareness all alone!!

So September is ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, gynecological cancer, and childhood cancer awareness month.  So here are the looks:

Childhood cancer (gold):  This is so important to me because I wouldn't wish cancer on my worst enemy, let alone and innocent child.  If anyone in this world deserves cancer the least, it is a child.  We lose so many children each year to this horrible, horrible disease.  

Multiple Myeloma (burgundy): This cancer is important to me because it's what my grandmother died from.  It's a crazy cancer that attacks the plasma cells of blood and shows itself in really weird ways.  It affects kidneys and bones and other ways I'll never understand.

Leukemia (orange):  Leukemia is a cancer of the blood.  I have known quite a few people who have had leukemia.  This affects people of all ages.  My Uncle Brian had leukemia, he got an infection from having his immune system so suppressed from chemotherapy and that took his life.

Lymphoma (lime):  Lymphoma is a cancer that starts in the cells of your immune system, called lymphocytes.  My husband's coworker had a swollen lymphnode on his neck.  After some convincing, he went to the doctor about it, the doctor said it was an infection and gave him an antibiotic.  When the lump hadn't gone away, my husband convinced him he needed to get it looked at again (this was shortly after I was diagnosed).  So he did.  It was Hodgkin's lymphoma.  Luckily it was caught early and he's ok after chemotherapy and radiation.

Prostate Cancer (light blue):  Researching a little bit, I found out that prostate cancer is diagnosed in 80% of men who reach age 80.  That's insane!  It is the second leading cancer-related death in men in the United States.

Ovarian Cancer (teal):  There is no good screening for ovarian cancer, no preventative screening.  Women need to pay attention to their bodies and listen to any symptoms they may be showing.  Some possible symptoms include pelvic discomfort or pain, loss of appetite or feeling full quickly, changes in bowel or bladder habits, low back pain, etc.

Gynecological Cancer (peach):  This includes ovarian, uterine, cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancers.  Women really need to be as proactive in screening for these as they are in screening for breast cancer.  These cancers are serious and they affect so many women each year!  Go for your pap-smear (I know, they suck!) every year because you owe it to yourself to make sure everything is good!

Thyroid cancer (teal, blue, and pink):  I have read that thyroid cancer doesn't always have symptoms so it can be really hard to find and diagnose.  Thyroid cancer starts with a thyroid nodule, most aren't cancerous, but they could be.  If you feel a lump in your neck, a swollen lymphnode, if you have a hoarse voice, difficulty swallowing or breathing, you should get it checked out.  There's no need to play around with something like that!

There is a lot of information out there about all of these cancers.  I have said it about a million times, but I will say it again.  If something is wrong in your body and you know it, go get it checked out.  Too often we put things off because "it'll get better" (I'm completely guilty of this).  Your life isn't worth risking!!

I did these looks to celebrate everyone who has been touched by any of these diseases and their loved ones.  I think all cancers are important and people need to learn about them!

Dark lips and natural eyes

I've seen looks around where people do these amazing dark lips with natural eyes.  Well, I've done dark lips and dark eyes and liked the way it turned out so I wanted to try the dark lips with more natural eyes and see what I thought.  I took inspiration from Meredith Jessica's Gothic Pin Up look and also a user on Makeupbee, Viola H., who wears amazing lip colors.  So here's my look!

This picture was taken with the flash on

I used L'oreal Le Kohl eyeliner in "Le Plum" to line my lips and then topped that with Lime Crime's "Kaleidoscope" lipgloss.  And on my eyes, I just applied MAC "Blanc Type" shadow all over my lid up to my brow and then added a bit of Urban Decay "Naked" shadow from the Naked palette to my crease for the slightest bit of definition.  The liner is MAC Blacktrack fluidline.  My mascara is L'oreal Voluminous Carbon Black.

On me, this look is far from a favorite.  I can dig the eyes but the lips are a bit much haha.  My daughter told me I looked scary and people wouldn't like it.  I feel like my bone structure isn't strong enough for this look.  I don't know, something isn't right.

Here's a look I did the other day that I never posted (I've been doing that lately... whoops!).  I was kind of inspired by a 60's smokey eye, where they're a more elongated shape as opposed to being rounded like I usually do.  

On my eyes:

Lime Crime eyeshadow helper

Lime Crime's Magic Dust "Medusa" (applied wet on lid, this color is GENIUS when applied wet, and blended up dry from there)

Naked Palette's "Buck"

Naked Palette "Virgin" as highlight

On cheeks:

ELF studio blush/bronzer duo

Anastasia Beverly Hills Highlighting Creme Duo in "Aspen" (this thing is GORGEOUS!!!)

Ulta powder blush "girlie"

Lips:

Calypso Minerals Lipthix (a super light pink color)

MAC Viva Glam Gaga lipstick

MAC "Right Image" Cremesheen Glass

So that's what I have for today!  I hope you all have an incredible week!  And as always, thank you so so much for checking this out!  I apprecaite you so much!

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!!!!