Fall colors look

I saw the newest challenge on MUG is to do a look based on fall colors (it says red, orange, and yellow) and to be honest, I hadn't completely read the rules and luckily I used the colors that it says to use!  So here's the look I did.

this isn't a great picture of me but I like the way you can see the "melon" pigment on the middle of my lids

I really like the effect of having a lighter color in the middle of the lid so I used NYX "rust" shadow on the outer thirds and MAC "Melon" pigment on the middle third.  The other colors I used were Urban Decay "Twice Baked", MAC "Vanilla" pigment, and a little bit of Inglot pigment 68 under my eye.  I also used a little bit of Bobbi Brown gel liner in "black ink" and L'oreal Extreme Volume collagen in "blackest black."

And for fall, I think of a bit darker, more matte lip color so I used NYX soft matte lip creams in "Antwerp" which ended up being too bright so I added "Istanbul" to dull it down a little.

I think this is a nice look.  I don't wear warm colors on my eyes enough.  I don't know why but I feel more comfortable with blues, greens, and purples even though I really like the way these colors look against my eyes.  Oh well.

I hope you all are having a great week!  Thanks for checking this out!

Guest review: Sonia Kashuk blender vs. Beautyblender

Here's another great review by Amalia!

"Beautyblender compared to Sonia Kashuk blender:

I have used the Beautyblender basically since it came out, but I also purchased the Sonia Kashuk (Target) one to try it and since it was easily available to me-  I always order the Beautyblenders online. 

 

The Sonia Kashuk one is horrible, this is my take on it, and there are several reasons why I think so.  First, the sponge itself feels no different than any ordinary flat sponge.  The shape is awkward, it is not really as contoured as the Beautyblender- it's too large overall also.  It does not expand like the Beautyblender when wet- rather, it just gets heavier, and its fairly heavy to begin with.  I have to go over my face several times to get a streak-free result, and it absorbs so much product that it's wasteful.  Why would I pay $50 for a foundation to have half of it be absorbed by the sponge?  Doesn't make a lot of sense.  It's hard to clean, with any cleaning product, even the sponge shampoo that is designed to be used with it doesn't clean it well, and I clean my sponges within 30 minutes of use!! Last, the sponge simply is not durable.  First time I washed it- gently, parts of the rubber wore off.  Within three months of use, the thing is worthless.  It isn't even an economical alternative- if you buy a two pack of Beautyblender, the most expensive I've seen them for is $26 with free shipping, so that's $13 each.  I always use online coupons or rebates, so I usually get them for even a few dollars less. 

Sonia Kashuk blender on the left, Beautyblender on the right

 

Now, if I can briefly explain the differences of the 'original' Beautyblender.  It is light and springy to the touch.  I always use it damp, and it glides on my face without any roughness- in fact, it feels silky smooth.  When damp it does swell up but it still feels light- not dense at all.  It seems to be better desgined for the face- the tip on the end is not sharply pointed and the broader parts make for an easy, smooth application.  When I wash the Beautyblender, it retains it shape and dries quickly.  It is easy to wash because it doesn't absorb too much foundation.  I have one that I've used fairly regularly for about 8 months and it isn't very stained at all. 

 

Overall, if you would like to try a sponge for foundation appication, I would definitely recommend the Beautyblender.  The Target one is simply a waste of time and money, and I don't believe you would be satisfied with the results, either." 

Lady Gaga "Telephone" makeup

Recently Siobhan commented on my blog and said that she'd like to see me do the look that Lady Gaga is wearing in the kitchen scene in the video for her song "Telephone."  I'm going to be honest here, I'm not a die hard Lady Gaga fan.  She's cool but she's not my favorite.  So I had to google what the look was and here's what it looks like:

It's a crazy dark brow with a purpley-blue lid and magenta lips.  This is how my look turned out

Umm... yeah I look like a crazy clown haha.  I could dig this if the brows weren't ridiculously dark (or high) and the lips weren't quite as bright. 

Gaga and I have completely different eye shapes which made this interesting to do.  She has great lid space and not so much space above her crease.  Me, my eyes are hooded but I have much more room above my crease than Gaga does.  The heavy black shadow that they used on Gaga next to the white is in her eye socket, I had to use it was above mine or this wouldn't have looked similar at all.  

Haha and not to mention the brows.  To do them, I used a black eyeliner pencil that I've had for like a hundred years and drew a basic outline of where I wanted them, then I drew in little slashes to resemble hairs where I didn't have any.  I went back with a matte grey shadow (376 M by Inglot) and filled that in.  Then I put some eye makeup remover on a stiff brush and cleaned up the edges and blurred them a little.  I kept going back until they looked decent.  

For the colors on my lid, I primarily used Inglot 388 M which is the perfect mix of purple and blue for this look.  Then I used NYX's "Black" and "White" shadow and also NYX's "white" ultra pearl mania.  In some parts I had let the purple/blue color get too dark so I went on top of it with Inglot 351 M to lighten it back up a little.

I used like 500 things on my lips.  I don't have any purpley lip colors like this so I did what I could.  I used a purple eyeliner, MAC "Pink Friday" lipstick, NYX's soft matte lip cream "Addis Ababa", some eyeshadows, and I'm sure there are some more things I cannot remember haha.  And the color still isn't purpley enough.

My look is far from perfect but I definitely think you can see what I was going for.  I made the brows too high and the purple/blue color is too light in some spots and it definitely would have been better with a set of false lashes but it's all good.  This makeup didn't last very long on my face though haha.  My daughter saw me and said, "Whoa.  Crazy."  And every time I got a glance of myself, it startled me. 

I hope you like this, Siobhan (and everyone else!!)!  Thanks for challenging me to do something outside of my normal box!  P.S. Do you happen to have a picture or a clip of the look on Sarah Jessica Parker that you were thinking of?

Have a great day everyone!!!

MAC "Sea & Sky" Mineralized Eye Shadow and a few Daytona pictures

When I went to the Cosmetic Company Outlet, I was browsing through their MAC collection and I saw this shadow and knew I had to have it.  I have not seen a royal blue like this before and it's so beautiful.  I know blue eyed girls aren't "supposed" to wear blue eyeshadow but that doesn't stop me haha.  I love blues and this is such a beautiful color I couldn't pass it up.  Just take a look...

All the way to the left is what I'm assuming to be "Sea" and the middle is "Sky" and all the way to the right is them mixed together

 These shadows are super pigmented with like a metallic finish.  I love them.  Here are 2 different looks I did using them.

The first is a smokey eye

Obviously this is heavily edited but I think it's a cool picture since I really don't have that many of the hubby and myself together
In this look, I have MAC "Myth" with my new "Right Image" Cremesheen glass on top on my lips

The second is a simple look using the shadows on my waterline and under my eye

And in this look I have MAC "Pink Friday" with "Right Image" Cremesheen glass on top on my lips.  Can you tell that I like that lipgloss?  Because I totally do.

On the MAC website, these shadows retail for $20.  At the CCO I paid $13.75.  If you can find this color and you like blues, I'd say scoop it up.  It's a pretty original color and it's so pigmented that I definitely think it's worth it.

Now on to some pictures from our mini vacation to Daytona this past weekend.  We were only there for a couple of days but it was fun.  It was my daughter's first time at the ocean and I just love everything about the ocean so it was like a dream trip for me.

 It started raining at Daytona Beach so we drove up the coast probably 3 miles to Ormand Beach and the weather was perfect there so that's primarily where we hung out.

I am in love with this picture. 

Aren't they cute?

Haha I took a picture of us together because I'm the photographer and I'm not usually in any pictures but I wanted a picture to show that I was there too!

It was a good (though short) trip to go on before my baby girl goes to school (tomorrow!!!)!  Thanks everyone for checking this out!  I hope you guys are having a great week!!!

Guest review of Sonia Kashuk's Highlighting Brush by Amalia from Dear Makeup Diary!

I like reading people's reviews of things and honestly, it's not too often when people have a nice, to the point review.  Some people have a tendency to go on and on... wait... that would be me... haha.  I knew when Amalia from Dear Makeup Diary said that she was going to stop blogging that I'd miss her reviews.  She always got to the point and told you straight up if she liked something or not and then why.  So I got the idea to ask her if she'd be willing to come on my blog every once in a while to do a guest review.  And she said yes!  So I hope you enjoy her reviews as much as I do!

"First of all, thank you Sonja for inviting me to do this review!  It's a real treat because I enjoy your blog so much! 

 

Today I am reviewing the Sonia Kashuk Highlighting Makeup Brush.  There are two types of Sonia Kashuk brushes- the white handled ones, which are kind of like the "economy" line, and black handled ones, which are also sometimes called "Kashuk Tools" and are generally a bit more expensive and have a black ferrule rather than metal.  These brushes are available at Target.  This particular brush costs $12.99. 

 

I love this brush!!  I think the most common comparison to it is the MAC 187.  I used to use the 187 for liquid foundation and mine is years old, but I have taken a couple pics to show how similar they are.  They really are.  They are the same height in both the handle and the bristles.  My MAC brush looks a little different (aka not new) because of age and how I used it.

 

This Sonia Kashuk brush is absolutely perfect for applying cheek highlighters.  I rarely use MSFs, but when I have, I used this brush and love it because it picks up a perfect amount of powder and distrubutes it evenly on my face.  I also like using this brush for Sleek brand blushes because they are soooo pigmented that my blush brushes are way too dense. 

 

The only negative I've found about this brush is that the bristles seem a bit hard to retain their shape.  However, this has never shed on my face.  It is very easy to clean and does not build up product if washed properly.   

 

I have a lot of Sonia Kahuk brushes from both lines, and I've had issues with a few of them that I would not recommend, but this is one I really enjoy.  I've had it for almost a year and it hasn't broken or shed. 

 

Overall, I think this is an excellent brush that serves its purpose very well. "

Thank you so much Amalia for doing this review!!!

Another day without eyeliner. Plus a new MAC Cremesheen lipgloss!!

I don't know what's wrong with me.  I have not been wanting to wear eyeliner.  It feels too fussy some days.  Oh well.  So today was another eyeliner free day.

Haha rockin my new trucker hat (my first!)!

So you can see the awesomeness that is my eye makeup (just kidding!)

So as you can see, my makeup was pretty boring.  I just used 4 Inglot shadows (351 M on lid, 379 M in crease, 376 M in outer v, and 393 P as a highlight).  Then I finished it off with L'oreal Extreme Volume Collagen mascara in Blackest Black.  Pretty exciting, huh?

The other day when my mom was here we decided to go to an outlet mall that isn't too terribly far from my house.  I was super excited when I saw a Cosmetic's Company Outlet there.  That means I have 2 CCO's within an hour of my house.  Nice.  

So I checked out what they had and if I had all the money in the world, I would have bought WAY more stuff.  Sometimes I need to take a step back and think, 'do I really need this?' haha and most of the time I answer 'yes' strictly because I don't have it yet.  But I grabbed a MAC mineralized eyeshadow (which I'll show you in another post, but it's GORGEOUS!), and MAC's "Right Image" cremesheen glass. 

I had a lipglass from MAC (the color was "Underage") a long time ago but I hardly ever wore it because of how sticky it was.  I don't know if they're all like that, but I haven't bought another one because I didn't like my lips sticking together.  But this cremesheen glass is another story.  It is not sticky.  I mean, your hair would probably stick if it was blown into it but I think that would happen with any lipcolor with any kind of sheen but your not going to have that uncomfortable feeling of wondering if you have a bug stuck in your gloss haha.  

So here's that color

Initially I had picked up a light nude color but the sales lady immediately said, "that'll wash you out" and I got intimidated and put the color back (I'm still kinda regretting it haha).  But after I had bought this one, I was worried that it would be too close in color to another lipgloss I recently bought, which is Revlon's super lustrous gloss in "Pink Pop".  Luckily after I got them next to one another, I saw that they are quite different.

When I first got the Revlon gloss, it didn't seem sticky to me but after wearing the Cremesheen gloss, in comparison, now it feels sticky.  Nothing like the lipglass, but it's more sticky than the cremesheen glass.  So since I'm comparing them anyways, I'll show you swatches of the Revlon one.

I'm pretty impressed with the pigmentation of both, I think the Revlon is a bit more opaque than the MAC one but whatever.  I like them both and would definitely recommend them.  The Cremesheen glass was $13 (they sell for $18.50 online, I just checked and "Right Image" is still available there) and the Revlon lipgloss I paid $3 for (because they were having a 40% off sale and I had a coupon).

I have yet to find a good drugstore (other than NYX) light pink non sparkle-filled lipgloss.  If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!  I'm always on the hunt for good light nude-pink lip colors (like I don't have enough, right? haha).

If you've been following me for a bit, you might recall that on one of our trips to New York, we came home with 41 snapping turtle eggs.  They decided they were going to hatch this week.  So now I have a million baby snapping turtles swimming around in a tank upstairs.  Luckily enough for my husband there's a huge reptile show in Daytona, Florida so take a wild guess where we're going this weekend.  Yup.  He already talked to a guy who's going to be there who will buy the snapping turtle babies from us.  And we're going to go to the beach, it's going to be a short family vacation before my baby girl starts kindergarten (Thursday!)! 

And here's a picture that makes me laugh, just to end the post.  Thanks everyone so much for checking this out and sorry this is such a lengthy post!

Haha he has to make you laugh!