Fallen Angel kinda look

I saw the latest challenge on Makeup Geek is to do a look using black and orange, it said to be inspired by a picture (?) so I googled "orange and black pictures" and I saw this

And I thought it was super cool and I could definitely do a look inspired by this.

So I got started and I started playing with my liner on the outer corner of my eyes and I stepped back, took a look, and felt like this looked like a "Fallen Angel" type look so I went with that and tried to make it a little darker and more evil looking, hence the crazy contouring on my cheeks haha.  So here is the look I came up with!

Sorry about the insane amount of pictures, it was raining outside so I didn't have good lighting so I tried to take some pictures outside, which wasn't working out super well so I took some more in my bathroom.  However, bathroom pictures aren't as nice as outside pictures so I was getting a little frustrated because I wanted it to look good but my lighting wasn't working with me haha.  Oh well.  I really tried on this look and I hope you guys like it!  

The colors I used were NYX shadow in "black," Inglot shadows 366 M (a matte reddish orange), 407 P (a beautiful golden orange), 393 P (as a highlight), 2 oranges from my 88 palette. The liner is a mix of NYX studio liquid liner "extreme black" and Revlon Colorstay black liquid liner. I used Inglot 366 and NYX "Black" shadows to do my cheeks as well.

Thanks so much for checking this out guys!! 

Ease yourself into color

I know a lot of people like the look of colored eyeshadow, they just feel like they can't pull it off.  Well I'm here to tell you that you're wrong.  Everyone can wear color on your eyes, you just need to ease into it and feel comfortable with the color you're wearing.  I think purple is a really good starter color because it can read as a shade of brown sometimes.  So here's a look I did as an example of a way to wear color that's not overwhelmingly colorful.

I used Inglot shadows:

407 P on lid (I stinkin love this color!)

AMC 72 to define outer v area

392 M to blend up

And of course my highlight is 393 p (I almost always use this or 395 p because they're VERY similar)

The liner I used on my lid is Revlon Colorstay Black liquid liner.  On my waterline, it's Bobbi Brown's "Black Ink" gel liner.  I have on L'oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara.  And on my lips, I have MAC "Creme Cup" lipstick under Buxom lipgloss is "Debbie."

I think this is a super easy way to wear color without being over the top!  I hope this is helpful to someone out there who wants to try color but isn't sure how!  Thank you guys so much!

Quick post about contouring!

I don't know if you guys are into contouring your faces but I most definitely am.  I have a face that is lacking in bone structure.  I don't have very well defined cheekbones, a kinda wide nose, and I have a relatively large forehead.  Luckily, there is contouring which helps me to look like I have nicer cheekbones, a nice nose, and a smaller forehead.  So here is what I look like before and after my contouring.

Obviously, besides just adding more color to my face, you can see how much more narrow my forehead looks.  And my nose.  And my cheeks look way more defined (still not how I'd like them to look but hey, it's what I've got haha).  

So here are the tools I use to do this:

There's my ELF blush/bronzer duo which I use every single day.  

Obviously I use the bronzer more than the blush haha.  

Then there's NYX's "taupe" blush.  Which I use sparingly as it makes my skin

 look grey if I use too much.

Then I have a Revlon Colorstay highlighter.  But any light shimmery color will do.

And I have my Sonia Kashuk stippling brush (for the highlighter) and everything else is done with my angled blush brush.  I really like the angled brush because it helps me get up under my cheekbones nicely.  

Whoops, I also use a large fluffy eyeshadow brush because I contoured my eye socket too with the taupe blush.

I think if you haven't ever given contouring a try, you should.  Even if you don't have anything weird on your face like I do (hello nose!), there's no shame in playing up what you've got!  If you have awesome cheekbones, show those suckers off!  

Meredith Jessica from Pigments and Palettes actually shows how she contours in this video:

She starts the contouring around 5:00 but you should still watch the whole thing!

It's a rainbow eyes kinda day

I'm not really sure why but I wanted to do something fun today.  So I went for rainbow eyes.  When my husband saw me, he was like, "are you feeling artistic today?" haha.  I told him I felt like a bird of paradise, thinking he knew what that was.  Then we were talking and he said something about going to the store and I said, "If you lose me, you can just ask if anyone has seen the girl with the rainbow on her eyelids" and he said, "yeah, or the girl who looks like one of the birds from paradise."  Haha turns out he had no idea a bird of paradise was a flower, he thought I literally meant a bird you'd see in paradise.  So that made me laugh.

So here's my rainbow/bird of paradise look.

Sometimes my camera does this cool contrast thing by accident where it makes my skin look super light and the background really dark, but I like how it shows my eyeshadow.

I used a lot of colors for this look haha.  I used NYX JEP in "Milk" as a base.  Then I used Inglot colors: AMC 60 (yellow), 366 M (red orange), 407 P (golden orange), 384 M (green), 372 M (robin's egg blue), 371 M (bright blue), 351 M (light skin toned color).  Then I used Ben Nye pigments in Cherry Red and Sun Yellow, NYX ultra pearl mania in "lime," and then I also used a bunch of colors from my 88 palette (which I can't remember because I just dabbed in whatever color I thought I needed haha).

I think this is a fun look, it definitely gets people's attention.  I saw people looking at me (which I'm not a huge fan of haha, I always get all self concious when I see someone look at me for more than a second).  I didn't realize we were going anywhere when I started doing this.

I'll throw in a picture of a bird of paradise flower just in case you don't know what they look like

I think they're really cool flowers.  

That's my look for today!  Hooray for two posts in two days!

Army green eyes

I really like green eyeshadow.  Especially the yellowy greens.  I don't know why but I always am drawn to the army greens, olives, and lime greens as opposed to the blue greens.  So this is a look I did using my 88 palette.  I really wanted to create some depth with this so hopefully that come across haha.

Sorry this is kinda blurry

And here are the colors I used from the 88 palette

So that's my super exciting look for today!  I hope you guys all have a great weekend!  I can't believe that tomorrow is October already!  Thank you all so much!

Getting used to my brown hair!

So this has been different.  It's amazing what a change in hair color can do!  The makeup I can wear is different and now different colors look better than the ones that used to.  And I can NEVER leave my house without filling in my brows now (not that I would anyways but now I really can't haha).  So here are two looks (we went to Myrtle Beach this past weekend, otherwise I'd have more) that I've done recently.  They're not super exciting but I like them anyways!

I like how this hair color makes my eyes stand out more, so I kinda tried to play that up a little.

I used Inglot pigment 68, Urban Decay "Twice Baked", a tan from my 88 palette, and Inglot 393 p for this look. 

And this one has been a staple in my makeup routine lately (I change the colors though).  It's so easy but it's dramatic enough to keep me happy.  I'm actually more comfortable having a heavy line under my eye than on my lid.  I think it's because of my eye shape.

Sorry about the wet hair!

I used MAC "Vanilla" and "Melon" pigments, a super sparkley gold/white Jesse's Girl pigment (sorry, it doesn't have a name on it) which is so pretty but didn't show up on camera very well, and a little bit of Inglot 363 m to contour my eye.  And under my eye, I put a layer of NYX "Black bean" JEP and then I used a Sally Girl baked purple eyeshadow (sorry, again, no name.) this little shadow is GREAT over a base (on its own, not so much) but it's only .99 at Sally Beauty Supply.

 I just got this new facial moisturizer that so far I'm in love with.  If it keeps it up, I'll do a review for you because so far, it's awesome!  I have troublesome skin that usually hates new things so since I haven't reacted badly yet, I have high hopes!

Sorry the makeup isn't amazingly creative but it's getting harder and harder for me to find time to wear crazy makeup because sometimes I have to go to my daughter's school and always the bus stop and I don't want to be the crazy makeup mom haha.  But I hope you can appreciate the toned down makeup as well!  Thank you guys!!

Holy brunette!

I mentioned in my last blog post that I was debating on dying my hair dark and I checked my e-mail last night and saw a comment from FoxyAries that said something along the lines of 'if you want to dye your hair dark, go for it.  If you don't like it, you can change it back.'  And I thought, 'ya know what?  She's right.'  So I went to my bathroom and pulled out the leftover hair dye (L'oreal Healthy Look in the color 5 Medium Brown) that I had used to do lowlights with the other day.

I was planning on doing my whole head that color.  However, that does not work out so much when you only have half a box of dye and a lot of hair.  So I got the dye all through the top and realized I was totally not going to have enough to do my whole head.  Luckily for me, right now there is a huge trend of ombre hair, where the roots are really dark and then it fades to light.  So I did what I could to cover as much as I could then I tried to comb the color through my hair, hoping that would help it fade to the light color.  It's a demi permanent color so I figured if I hate it, it'll fade.  So here's what I look like now!

 It's different but I dig it.  I think it's a nice change of pace from my platinum blonde.  I think if it had worked out where I had enough color to do my whole head I wouldn't have liked it.  But I kinda like the fading.  It makes it look a little more realistic and not quite as harsh.

And now my makeup!  I saw a picture of MakeupbyRenRen from youtube's makeup the other day and I really liked it so this was inspired by her.  I used 3 eyeshadows for this (on top of a layer of NYX jumbo eye pencil in "black bean").  I used the MAC Sea & Sky mineralized duo, Ben Nye "Azalea" pigment, and Inglot 393p. 

I really like this look.  I like how it's colorful but not overly bright.  

Thanks so much for checking this out!!!  I appreciate you all so so much!