Dramatic Smokey Eyes

I just wrapped up a shoot testing out hubby's new camera, so I decided to put a little extra effort into my eye makeup today.  Using my Coastal Scents Original 88 palette, I did a super-dramatic smokey eye using the darkest neutrals included and then topped it off by applying my Ardell Demi 120 false lashes.  Check it out!

Lol, now I'm going to have to go to class with really intense eyes and big hair.  Oh well.  :)  Hope everyone's enjoying a lovely Wednesday afternoon!

Hugs,
Cat

FOTD: Yellow & Blue

Hey all, just playing around with my new UD stuff as well as some old stuff.  Here's today's face!

I realized, for as long as I've had my Coastal Scents Original 88 palette, I've never actually touched the bright yellow that's included in it.  So I thought I'd pair it with UD's Minx:

Drat my stupid bathroom lighting!  It looks so much more vibrant in person.  Wish you guys could see it! :(

So it's Coastal Scents yellow and  UD Minx on the eyes with black eyeliner and my fav Maybelline Full N Soft Waterproof mascara.  I have ELF Studio Blush in Tickled Pink on my cheeks and UD's Pocket Rocket gloss in Dustin on my lips.  Lol, "Dustin on my lips..." sounds so wrong! (my new lip glosses crack my hubby up!)

Last day of my summer vacay!  School starts tomorrow...waaaaaaaaaaah!  Oh well, brings me THAT much closer to getting my degree. :)  Happy Tuesday!

Hugs,
Cat

FFOTD!

FFOTD...is there such thing?  Well, if there isn't, there is now!  Face AND fashion of the day!  Got a busy day ahead of me and thought I'd do something simple, but spectacular!  Well...I wouldn't call myself spectacular, but I like using alliteration. :)  So I went for my favorite go-to look of the summer, neutral eyes with a color-pop lip:

Yes, I'm still in my sleep tee...lol!

Gawd!  My hair is getting so unmanageably LONG!  Which is why I'm off to Danny's for a haircut today.  Will post my new 'do tonight! :D  But, anyhoo...here's the breakdown of today's makeup look:

FACE

Etude House Precious Mineral BB Cream Bright Fit in Honey Beige

(been slow to post the review on this...sorry!)

BROWS

Etude House Drawing Eyebrow Pencil in Dark Gray

EYES

Coastal Scents 28 Neutral Palette

CHEEKS
ELF Studio Blush in Pink Passion

LIPS

Revlon Lip Butter in Sweet Tart

Feelin' kinda blah today because the weather is on the cooler side...below 70 degrees F, so I figured I'd liven things up with some colorful denim:

As you can see, my fashion photographer has been too busy to fulfill his duties as of late, so you guys are going to have to bear with these self-shots via iPhone for awhile, lol.  Hope you don't mind!  The cami and cardigan are from Hollister, mint denim (although they look more aqua here) is from ASOS Petite Collection, and the linen bow slingback heels are by Rampage.

Hope everyone's having a good hump day (Wednesday) so far!  Can't wait to show off the new hair later!

Hugs,

Cat

First Look: Coastal Scents 28 Neutral Palette

Waaaaaaaaaaah!  Sorry I've been so absent.  Finals week is no joke!  Anywho, just thought I'd quickly post my first look using Coastal Scents 28 Neutral Palette.  I wanted to wear a bright lip out to brunch with my best friend yesterday and thought that a subtle, neutral eye would be a good compliment:

Lippy is Girl About Town by MAC.

Nothing special or complicated, it just worked with what I wanted and the palette was perfect for it!  Hope you're all having a groovy Monday!


Hugs,
Cat

Coastal Scents 28 Neutral Palette

Hi all!  I have a minute before I head off to work, so I thought I'd share a little goody that I got in the mail today!  I'm so excited to have received my 28 Neutral Palette from Coastal Scents!  I've practically used up all the neutral shades in my 88 Original Palette, so it just made sense to bite the bullet and purchase a palette of full-sized neutral shades.

So lovely, no?  I can't wait to try it out!  I'll see about updating this post with some swatches once I get a moment.  Hope everyone is enjoying their Friday so far!

Hugs,
Cat

Minty Pink Tutorial

Hey, remember my Minty Pink look from last week?  I finally got around to editing photos for the tutorial, so, here you go!  I'm going to try something a little different this time, I've compiled all the tutorial photos into a step-by-step collage.  Let me know what you think...if you find this method more useful or if you prefer the way I've done this before.

Step 1

• Starting with primed eyelids, I apply a soft, matte mint shade to my entire top and bottom eyelid.

Step 2

• Next, I apply black pencil liner to the outer corners of my upper and lower lash lines

Step 3

• Using a deep, espresso shade, I layer over the pencil eyeliner, being sure to thoroughly smudge and smoke the shadow along my outer corners.

Step 4

• With a medium brown shade, I blend out the area I just smoked to soften the edges.

Step 5

• I draw a modest winged line along my upper lash line with black gel eyeliner.

Step 6

• Curl lashes, apply mascara, and I'm done!

*note* These colors are fairly common and you can use them from any brand.  I chose mine from Coastal Scents 88 Original Palette (now on sale for $9.48!) because I prefer my shadows to be on the matte side. :)

For lips, I applied ELF Mineral Lipstick in Runway Pink and then glossed over it with ELF Luscious Liquid Lipstick in Perfect Pink.

I finished off by brushing ELF Studio Blush in Pink Passion to my cheeks:

Overall look?  Minty fresh! :D

Hope you all enjoyed the tutorial and I look forward to your feedback!  Enjoy your Thursday!  (I'll be stuck in class until 10pm tonight, however...boohoo!)

Hugs,
Cat

Purple Print-cess

Yesterday I attended a big dinner party with lots of close friends and family to celebrate my mom and dad's 37th wedding anniversary.  Oh, they've had their ups and downs, as I'm sure most couples do, but the bottom line is that they've worked hard to build a rock-solid marriage and have been determined to stick together...no matter what.  They're inseparable companions: working together, eating together, sleeping together.  Lol, I love my husband, I do, but I think that if we had to spend every waking moment together, we'd probably drive each other crazy!  All joking aside, however, I truly admire my parents' resilience as a couple and can only strive to build such a strong, lasting bond with my husband.

I'll take any excuse to dress up, but I think this occassion was an excellent reason to do so, don't you think?  I wore a flared, clip-dot cotton voile dress printed with purple florals and accented with delicate crochet lace as well as pintuck and pleat detailing.  It was a gift from my mother and sister, who saw it on a shopping trip at Kohl's and immediately thought of me.  Wasn't that sweet of them?  They know my taste so well!  I paired it with some white leather eyelet platform mules by Guess and jewelry by Lovelina, of course. :)

Lavender tips and toes: Revlon Scented Polish in Gumdrop

 

Love Gives You Wings Necklace

I kept my makeup soft and simple, a lavender smokey eye with pastel-pink cheeks and lips. 

Eyes:

• Coastal Scents Original 88 Palette

Cheeks:

• ELF Studio Blush in Pink Passion

Lips:

• ELF Studio Lipstick in Runway Pink
• ELF Essential Luscious Liquid Lipstick in Perfect Pink

Thanks for hanging out and reading!  Hope you're all having a lovely Sunday! :D

Hugs,
Cat

Minty Pink

Just playing around with some of my favorite colors in response to the cheerful, almost-summer weather: mint and pink.  Can't really explain it...I just really love this color combo. :)

Eyes:

• Coastal Scents Original 88 Palette

Cheeks:

• ELF Studio Blush in Pink Passion 

Lips:

• ELF Studio Lipstick in Runway Pink
• ELF Essential Luscious Liquid Lipstick in Perfect Pink

Hope you're all enjoying your Wednesday so far!

Hugs,
Cat

Easy Glam Purple Smoke

So I realized I never did the "Part 2" segment to the April MyGlam review!  Whoops!  Therefore I'm going to make up for it by giving you guys another tutorial on how to do a simple smokey purple look using the UD 24/7 eyeliner pencil that I received via MyGlam as well as including the false lashes that came in my goodie bag this month.

Usually, when the word smoke comes to mind, one envisions a sultry, dark diva-esque look.  In this instance, however, I wanted to create a light, wearable smoke that's transitional from summer-y daytime to dramatic evening.  This is me before heading out to work yesterday:

Cheeks: ELF Studio Blush in Pink Passion  Lips: ELF Luscious Liquid Lipstick in Perfect Pink

Want the look?  It's easy. :)  As usual, we start with primed eyelids:

Next, using my MyGlam fluffy eyeshadow brush, I'm going to choose a light, lavender shade of shadow to apply all over my top eyelid.  For convenience sake, I chose to go with my Coastal Scents Original 88 palette for all my shadow colors in this tutorial.

Then, using the UD 24/7 pencil eyeliner in Ransom, which I received in my April MyGlam bag, I'm going to trace the outer corners of my upper and lower lash lines:

Now, using a deep purple shade, I'm going to smudge and blend the pencil eyeliner to smoke out the outer corners of my eyes.  I found that the petite shadow brush included in this month's MyGlam bag was perfect for the job!

In order to soften my lower lash line, I'm going to apply some more of that pale lavender shade along the bottom edge of my lower eyelid:

Then I'm going to add a little matte ivory right under my brow arch as a highlight:

With black gel eyeliner, I'm going to draw a modest wing along my upper lash line:

To finish, I'm going to curl my lashes and apply mascara:

So here, I'm pretty much finished with my soft, smokey daytime look:

If you're going out for the evening, the quickest way to amp up this look is to add a pair of false eyelashes.  Here is the pair I received from MyGlam, appropriately themed for a "Girl's Night Out":

Bam!  Instant glam!  Talk about doll-eyes...  These lashes are pretty cool in that the band is very soft, flexible, and comfortable, unlike some others that can be hard and rigid.  They're easy to trim to the correct size and are very lightweight to wear.  They're definitely a lot of fun and aren't for the faint-of-heart.  Don't like double-takes?  Then these aren't the lashes for you!  Lol!

Alrighty then, friends!  Hope you're all having a lovely Saturday evening and that you enjoyed this little lesson and review.  Until next time!

Hugs,
Cat

Simple Soft Smokey Eye

TGIF everyone!  I must apologize for being so intermittent lately.  I've got more of a workload this quarter at school.  Boo!  But I've also been making more jewelry sales.  Yay!  This does mean less blogging, however, but I promise things will pick up in June while I'm on summer holiday. :D  Anyways, I thought I'd do a simple tutorial on how to achieve a soft, smokey eye today.  99% of the time, I just can't seem to go without my definitive, black winged eyeliner.  I guess it stems from my previous self-consciousness with having small, almond-shaped eyes...I try most of the time to make them look bigger, to stand out more.  I thought it would be a mini challenge to find a complimentary way to apply eye-makeup without a hard, black line.  This is what I came up with:

It's great for a daytime smokey look because of the softness, but can easily be amped up in the evening by adding winged liner and false lashes.  So let's get started!  As usual, I begin with primed eyelids:

For the sake of convenience, I'm going to use my Coastal Scents Original 88 Palette.  You can use any other palette you prefer, all you need are similar colors with the same shade values. :)  I'm going to start by applying a slightly shimmery, pale sandy shade to my entire upper lid:

Next, I'm going to highlight my brow arch with a soft ivory shade:

Then I'm going to take black pencil eyeliner and apply it to the outer corners of my top and bottom lash lines:

With a deep, espresso brown shade, I'm going to smudge and blend out the eyeliner to create a smokey look along the outer corners of my eyes:

Then I'm going to use a medium-brown shade to soften the dark corner shadow:

Curl lashes and apply mascara to finish:

All set!  This is a quick, easy method for impressive-looking eyes without the hard black liner.  I used neutrals because they're versatile, but you can really achieve this look with a variety of colors, as long as you have a light, medium, dark, and highlight shade.  It's also really simple to transform from day to night if you don't have the time to redo your makeup before going out for the evening.

Hope you guys found this useful and have a fabulous Friday!

Hugs,
Cat

I've got the Baby Blues: eyeshadow video tutorial

Ok, so the video is up!  Those of you who have been kind enough to subscribe to my YouTube channel probably already saw it, but it's basically a 5-minute tutorial on how to get this semi-smokey, baby blue shadow look:

I'd say it's a pretty wearable blue look and I used the Coastal Scents 88 Original palette to create it.  If you don't have one, any similar colors will do.  It's just important that you use a good eyeshadow primer, which is key to making colors look really pigmented and long-lasting.  Here's the video:

I hope you guys have been enjoying them.  I'm really new to being in action in front of a camera and to video editing, so these are always evolving.  I don't really know how to incorporate really fancy special effects like a lot of the other bloggers out there, but I'm working on it. :D

Overall look:

The colors stand out so much better in photos than video!

Additional Makeup Details:

Eyes :: Coastal Scents 88 Original palette

Cheeks :: ELF Studio Blush in Pink Passion

Lips :: ELF Studio Glossy Gloss in Wild Watermelon

Happy Saturday everyone! :)

Hugs,
Cat

Bruised: dark purple and pink smoke tutorial

In the spirit of upcoming Halloween, I decided to try a really deep, dark pink and purple smoke look inspired by my newest makeup idol, Viola H.  You can check out the look here: Smokey Purple and her awesome blog here: Killer Colours.  The woman looks like a freakin' supermodel and she's got these gorgeous grey cat eyes.  I did the best I could with my small almond asian eyes:

She also did the look using expensive eyeshadow.  Let's face it, there IS a big difference in pigmentation, formulation, and performance when it comes to a $15-per-color brand as opposed to $10-per-100-colors brand.  Still, when applied correctly, cheap makeup can make you look just as pretty as expensive makeup.  I've learned to do this because I don't have a choice!  Lol. :D

For this look, I start with a primed eye and I'm going apply Wet N Wild's Idol Eyes Creme Eyeshadow Pencil in Graphite on my upper and lower lids as a base:

Graphite is a really dark grey with a satiny shimmer, nearly black.  Next, I'm going to choose the matte black shadow from my Coastal Scents 88 Matte palette and I'm going to layer it over the creme shadow base:

Then, using the darkest purple from the CS 88 palette, I'm going to soften the edges of the black shadow.

At this point, the purple is very dark and hard to see.  Blended with the black shadow, it nearly looks grey.  Our next step is to smoke the edges with pink.  To do this, I'm going to use the matte, hot pink shade from my CS 88 palette:

You can see the gradient now from black, to purple, to pink.  To give my upper and lower lash lines a little more definition, I'm going to line them with Wet N Wild's H2O Proof black liquid eyeliner:

It's a very subtle difference, but I feel like it does make a difference.  To finish, I'm going to curl lashes, apply mascara, and apply falsies:

Ok, these are probably my LEAST favorite style of falsies.  I'm not sure what brand or style #, but I just found these at the bottom of my makeup case and decided to try them.  They're longest in the center and taper towards the edges...not the most flattering.  Sorry guys!  I need to stock up on false lashes.  My favorites are the ones that flare out longer towards the outer corners.  I'm just out of those. :(

Overall look:

Sorry about the blurry right image!  Half the photos I take blurry and that's the best I got out of the bunch.  Boo!

Cheeks: ELF Studio Blush in Fuchsia Fusion

Lips: ELF Studio Matte Lip Color in Natural and ELF Studio Glitter Gloss in Twinkle Pink.

I don't even know why I bothered to do my hair because it started raining as soon I went outside.  *sigh*  In any case, hope you all enjoyed today's tutorial!  This would be a fun look to do if you decide to be a witch, sorceress, vampire or whatever this Halloween!  Or you could just wear it to school, like I did today.  Hehe.

Hugs,
Cat