Navy blue and gold (as requested by Erika)

The other day I asked for suggestions for looks to do and a follower, Erika, said she's graduating on Tuesday (congratulations, by the way!) and wanted to see a look using navy blue and gold.  Normally these aren't colors I'd necessarily pair together but I decided to give it a go!  I hope you like what I came up with!

I blended the gold into the blue, then back into the gold just below my brow bone to tie it together.

What I used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil "Milk"

Gold- Urban Decay "Half Baked"

Navy- Ingot 428 P

Makeup Geek "Corrupt" (black to darken outer v)

Highlight- Urban Decay "Bootycall"

L'oreal Lineur Intense Carbon Black liquid liner

Revlon Photoready 3D volume mascara "Blackest Black"

I think it was a nice smokey look with the unexpected pop of gold when I looked down.  I wanted gold to be as much a part of this look as the blue.  I hope you like this look Erika!  You'll have to send me pictures of what you end up doing!!

And on an unrelated note, I just wanted to post a couple things that fellow bloggers have said recently.  Yesterday Makeup Geek shared the picture of my purple and coral look on their facebook page and there was one girl on there who said, "It's cool but for drag queens.  This is way too much makeup unless you're a performer."  Now everyone is entitled to their opinions but I know this was meant as an insult (which I don't understand, honestly, if you don't like something, don't wear it yourself.  There's no need to go around trying to make people feel bad).  Unfortunately for her, this did not offend me.  I wish that look was good enough to be worn by drag queens.  

I told a few of my blogger friends about the comment and this is what they had to say, which I think is important. 

"I don't understand women using "It looks like a drag queen." or "It looks like something a drag queen would wear" as an insult. That's not an insult honey, that's a compliment. Drag Queens are FIERCE creatures and there is nothing shameful about what they do or what they look like. It's ignorant to think that you can use that as an insult to offend someone and their makeup. Really, get over yourself and grow up. I'm not talking about me and my makeup (which I would be HONORED if a Drag Queen wore!), but a friend (actually a few of them) who have been told this as a means to be insulted. And the women who toss around this supposed insult have to be the most cowardly, ignorant, and unclassy "women" I have ever seen. The internet sure does bring out the stupid in people in the worst way." -Dawn from Makeup by Siryn 

"As someone who gets called a drag queen/transsexual on a regular basis because of my makeup I would like to highlight the two problematic sides to this. A) I have the UTMOST respect for Drag performers. What they do is art, it's amazing and I only wish I could be at that level artistically. This is not an insult to a makeup artist. Period. B) Drag Queens and Transsexuals are NOT one and the same, first of all. Educate yourself. Secondly, equating either of those people with things that you dislike or using their identity as an insult to someone is ignorant, hateful and disgusting. If you do it. Stop. If you don't do it, call people out who do and put a stop to this ridiculous culture of hate in the beauty world. ♥" -Meredith Jessica from Pigments & Palettes

So please, if you're using these terms in a negative way, please stop because being a drag queen is not a negative thing and people need to stop making it seem like it is.

So that's my post for today!!  Thank you as always for checking this out and for supporting me!!

Two looks, one is definitely a favorite!

I have two looks today!  I really have been rocking the neutrals A LOT and sometimes I'll trade out a color here and there but my neutral looks all tend to be very similar (like the neutral look I did here) so I don't really take pictures of them unless I think it looks particularly nice.  I think that'd get boring.

But I have worn colors a couple of times this past week.  This first look is a look I will wear again and again and again.  I just really like how it plays off of my eyes and it's colorful and fun.  I just really like it. 

I dyed my regrowth with Garnier Nutrisse 82 "Champagne Blonde."  I'm always hesitant to use dye to lighten my regrowth because I have a tendency to go brassy but luckily this didn't do it to me.

I used the new Revlon Photoready 3D Volume mascara for this.  It's ok.  It doesn't really add volume to my lashes like it says... I'll do a review soon.

I have done this look a million times with all different brands of makeup.  I used Makeup Geek shadows for this look.  The colors I used are:

Wisteria (light purple)

Purple Rain (dark purple)

Corrupt (black)

Mango Tango (coral)

White Lies (white)

And this is a look I did the other day because I felt like doing something kind of dark but still using colors.  Unfortunately I was especially unphotogenic so I didn't get very many pictures.

You can see my natural hair color in my regrowth here, this was before I dyed it.

What I used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

MUFE 92

Makeup Geek "Corrupt"

Pretty Addictions "Desire" loose pigment (swatches here)

Makeup Geek "Vanilla Bean" to blend

Makeup Geek "Bling" as highlight

This is post number 192 for me.  My goal is to get to 200 posts before my liver surgery on June 21st.  I'm going to try to challenge myself a bit now because I'm feeling good, I'm medicine free and after the 21st I'm not sure how long it'll be before I can say that again.  So any suggestions for looks are more than welcome!

And this is a video I wanted to share with you. My brother lives in California, he's very involved in gay rights (if you live out there, go over to the club "Hype," he works there).  He's so funny, he's the most charismatic person I've ever met.  I don't think anyone dislikes him.  So he decided that he and his friends should do a spoof to the song "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen.  I asked him why he did it and he said, "We did it for fun.  We saw all these celebs like Bieber and Katy Perry doing spoofs like it so I said let's do it before any other gays do!"  So here's his video.  It's so funny.  My brother comes in at 24 seconds (he's the one wearing the Kelly Kapowski shirt haha).

And just forewarning you, this song will be stuck in your head!  I hope you enjoy!

As always, thank you all so much for your support!  I feel like I don't know where I'd be without you guys!  I hope you all have an incredible week!!

Inspired by Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory!

I know this is weird inspiration but I was watching The Big Bang Theory a few weeks ago (hilarious!  If you haven't watched it ever, you should) and if you've ever checked out Sheldon's outfits, he almost always wears some colorful t-shirt with a contrasting long sleeved t-shirt underneath (unless he's wearing some crazy plaid suit haha).  On this episode, he had on his Flash shirt with a green shirt underneath and I thought, 'I love those colors together.  I should do makeup like that!'  So that's what I've done today haha.

This is the best picture I could find of the outfit

And here's my look inspired by Sheldon's outfit!

I've been wearing so many neutrals lately that this was fun to do.  I've never tried doing a colorful liner like this before but I like the effect.

What I used (from lashline up to brow bone):

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

A green from my 88 palette

NYX Ultra Pearl Mania "Yellow" foiled on lid

Makeup Geek (MUG) "Cocoa Bear" in crease

Sugarpill "Love +" (red)

Sugarpill "Flamepoint" (orange) to make the red look more red and less pink

MUG "Yellow Brick Road"

MUG "White Lies"

Liner: L'oreal Lineur Intense Liquid Liner "Carbon Black"

Mascara: L'oreal Voluminous Carbon Black

Here are a few clips of Sheldon.  He's hilarious.

That's enough for now haha.

I hope you guys are all doing well!  I've been trying to go through and catch up a little on the blog posts I've been missing out on!  I hope you guys like this look!  Thank you so much for hanging in there with me!!  You guys really are the best!!!

Quick good news update!

So in my post the other day I said that they sent me in for a surprise CT scan to see how I've been responding to my chemo treatments.  Turns out I've been responding even better than they thought I would be.  The spots on my liver have shrunk considerably and there's one spot deep in my liver that the doctor said if it shrinks any more he won't be able to see it.  He doesn't want that to happen.  He said if he can still see that spot during surgery, he may be able to remove just that spot and a bit of surrounding liver instead of the whole right half like they had said to me the other day.  So they cancelled my next two chemo treatments and my liver surgery will be in about 7 weeks!  I get to get this over and done with even sooner than I thought!!!

Needless to say I'm super happy with this and think it deserves a happy dance!

or two haha

I was just excited and wanted to tell you guys my good news and thank you all again so much for your thoughts and prayers!!

Makeup Geek eyeshadow swatches and review!

Holla!  Two posts in two days!!  I'm feeling good today so I figured since my Z palette came in the mail today that I would just sit down and get this done!  Makeup Geek has been awesome and they sent me their entire eyeshadow collection.  And I figured since I do actually own them all, I should swatch them for you guys and tell you which ones I recommend and which ones I'd pass on.  So here we go!!

Color palette:

 Neutral Palette:

And now swatches!  I did them row by row on bare skin with no base at all

 And poor lonely Fuji.  My two Z palettes fit all of the shadows except one and Fuji is my least favorite of the whole bunch so he gets to stay in his little MUG package.  Don't get Fuji, he's very disappointing.

So overall I really like these shadows.  The shimmery colors are WAY more pigmented than the matte colors.  All of the shimmery ones are awesome, they're smooth and pigmented, just the way an eyeshadow should be!  And there are 3 matte colors that have an awesome texture, nice and buttery like my Inglot mattes.  Those colors are Wisteria (light purple), Latte (medium brown), and Bitten (brown red color).  The other mattes are ok.  Corrupt (black) and Cocoa Bear (warm brown) are super pigmented but don't have the nice texture of the mattes I just listed.  There are also a few colors that are matte with sparkles in them (Razzleberry, Mandarine, Ice Queen, Bada Bing) and they're decent.

I find that this collection is MAJORLY lacking in the blue department.  I found myself doing the dragon from Enchanted look and really wanting a navy blue but MUG doesn't have one so neither did my look.  The only color I'd actually consider to be blue is Poolside and Ocean Breeze is borderline blue/green.  There are tons of greens and tons of neutrals.  I really don't love any of the purples and I am a purple girl.  Wisteria is by far the best but the purple colors just don't do it for me, they're too much on the neutral side.  

You can tell that this collection is mainly for the neutral lover but even if you're not a neutral girl, they may turn you into one.  I did a neutral look today which I'm really really liking using these shadows.

You can find these shadows at the Makeup Geek store, they have just the pans that you put into a palette for $5.99 apiece (a steal compared to a MAC pan which is $11.50) and they have single shadows in their own little compact for $7.99.  Definitely check into the shimmery ones, you can't go wrong with any of those.  If I had to pick a top 10 it would be:

Mermaid

Bling

Homecoming

Shimmermint

Corrupt

Moondust

Glamorous

Goddess

Vanilla Bean (for blending)

Bada Bing

Most of those are neutrals.

And here are some attempted dupes of other colors I thought some of the Makeup Geek colors looked like in the pan, I know some don't look similar on the skin but I swear they looked alike in the pans haha.

Which black wins this contest??  Haha I always just used my NYX black but didn't realize that it really isn't black until just now haha.

So that's that. I hope someone finds this helpful!  Do you own any Makeup Geek shadows?  What do you think of them??  

As I was typing this up, I went onto Facebook and saw that Kassie from Unique Desire has just put up a review of these shadows too, you can check that out HERE to see what she thinks about them!  Also, if you want to see some really incredible swatches of them check out Mandy's review on the starter kit that MUG released and also the expansion kit (for real, her swatches are unbeatable!)!

Thanks for checking this out!!

Makeup Geek sunrise look, a neutral look, and a personal update!!

I wanted to use some of the Makeup Geek eyeshadows that I have but haven't really used yet (I have all of them and I promise, once my new Z palette comes and I can have them all out at one time that I'll swatch them for you and review them!).  So I went with a sunrise/sunset look.  

Color Placement:
1- Razzleberry
2- Purple Rain (for crease definition)
3- Mandarine
4- Chickadee
5- Yellow Brick Road
6- Bling
7- Poolside (on waterline over a black liner)













I was pleased with the way this came out.  I'm not usually one to play with colors on my waterline because I think it looks weird on me (I really like it on other people though) but I think it works here.  I kinda tend to steer away from warmer looks too, even though I like the way they look against my eyes, I just don't care for warmer colors on me.

Speaking of not loving warmer colors... you know how the majority of the Naked palette is warm golds and bronzes, I surprisingly like that palette.  However, I decided to get the Naked 2 palette as well!  I've used it a few times and I really prefer the colors in Naked 2, strictly because they're cooler toned than in the original Naked palette.  I didn't really need it but I got it anyways haha.  So here's a look I did with that.

Every once in a while I'm a fan on pretty neutral looks.  This has been the case lately haha.  I couldn't tell you my color placement on this one, all I know is I used Maybelline's Color Tattoo "Tough as Taupe" as a base.  

And now for the personal part of my post.  I went to Duke University yesterday and met with a surgeon there who will be doing the next surgery I will need done, which is a liver surgery to remove the cancer spots from my liver.  At first I wasn't aware the liver surgery was like a big deal, but it is.  It's a delicate area and there are lots of veins and blood vessels in the liver so it's not an easy surgery to do, hence my decision that I need to go somewhere huge to a doctor who only does liver surgery.

I met him yesterday (Dr. Clary, just in case anyone has heard of him) and he gave me some information that scared me a bit, it's not terrible news or anything but I was just hoping for better news.  He wants to remove 70% of my liver, which is a lot but they can remove up to 80% and you'll still be able to live because the liver is the one organ in the body that regenerates itself.  So he can take the 70% because eventually it'll grow back.  Before he does the surgery (which will probably be in July), he's going to basically clot of the vein in the right part of my liver where the cancer is.  What this is supposed to do is make the left side of my liver grow so they'll have more liver to work with.

I have to finish my next two rounds of chemo first and then they'll follow the liver surgery with 6 more rounds of chemo just to make sure it's all cleared up.  The doctor said that with the surgery and everything, 20-30% of people are completely healed of this cancer and they never see it again.  This is the number I was hoping would be higher.  While it's a WAY better number than the number I'm facing without the surgery, I just thought it would be better.  

They also did a surprise CT scan on me yesterday (which burn like a mofo when they put contrast into your veins so they can see everything going on inside) so in a couple of days I will find out the results of the effects the chemotherapy is having on the spots on my liver.  The doctor said that for the most part chemo just holds them to their size, 60% of people have their spots shrink, but the chemo won't cure the cancer.  He said even if the spots shrink so much that you can't see them on the CT scan, if you were to cut the liver apart, you would still find cancer cells in there.  Fingers crossed though that I'm responding positively to the chemo!!!

This is a CT scan machine in case you've never see one.  You lay down on the bed and they put you into the donut hole part and have you hold your breath while they take the pictures of what they need to see.  I felt like a lab rat on the table when they injected the contrast (as they call it, it makes certain parts inside your body visible) into my veins.  It burns!

But I counted on the calender and assuming they do the surgery exactly 8 weeks after the last dose of Avastin (a medicine I'm on that I need to be off of for 8 weeks before and after surgery or I won't heal) then I will be done with treatments and cancer free on November 7th.  This is assuming everything goes perfectly and according to plan.  I know this is a lot more information than you probably wanted to know but it helps me sometimes typing stuff out so I hope you don't mind hearing it haha.

Thank you as always for standing beside me and supporting me!  It really means so so so much to me!  And I just have to say it again, if you know something isn't right in your body, go to the stinkin doctor!!!  Health insurance or not.  Go to the doctor.  Do not wait because if it's something serious, all waiting is doing is giving the disease a chance to progress itself inside your body.  Even if you're embarrassed about whatever problem it may be, go to the doctor!  So please please take my advise and just go to the doctor if you know something isn't right!!  Did I say that enough?  I'm not sure haha.

Thank you again guys!!!!  Love you all!!