Zoya Hot Lips Glossy Balm

Several weeks ago, I purchased a bunch of Zoya nail lacquers from one of their promotions. I was a few dollars away from qualifying for free shipping, so I threw one of their lip glosses into my basket. I did it for the free shipping and didn't really have very high expectations for the quality of the product. I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I ended up liking it!

Though the color is a little intimidating in the packaging, when applied, it gives my lips a glossy, rosy glow. It smells nostalgically yummy, like berry Kool-Aid. The texture is similar to MAC's lipglass, but I want to say that it's lighter and less sticky. The moisture is also very long-lasting. This is definitely my new favorite lip color for my everyday, low-key look. I'm actually excited to pick up a few more of these in different colors!

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy your weekend! <3

Hugs,
Cat

Rose Gold Smokey Eye Video Tutorial

Good evening! Actually, it's pretty darn late. BUT, I wanted to do a last minute post before I hit the hay. Remember this rose gold, smokey eye look I did several days ago?

Well, I received so much good feedback and so many requests for a tutorial that I decided to film one. Check it out:

So, the lighting is a tad darker than I would have liked, but it was really dreary and overcast when I filmed it and I use natural light for my videos. With my *extremely* limited technical knowledge of filmmaking, that was the best I could do. 

The technique is completely intact, however, which is the important part. Hope you guys find it helpful in recreating the look!

Hugs,

Cat

Video Tutorial: My Eyebrow Routine

Happy Tuesday, friends! I've gotten a lot of requests for a video tutorial for my eyebrow routine. School has been keeping me busy, so my tutorial to-do list has been backed up and growing! But, this was pretty easy so I thought I'd get it out of the way while I still can.  Here you go! Hope you guys find it helpful! :)

Oh, I wanted to add that, though my brows look pretty light due to the lighting, they actually look darker and more natural in normal lighting.

Thanks for watching, guys! If you haven't already, please subscribe. ^_^ Knowing that you enjoy my videos and would like to see more makes me motivated to make more! :D

Hugs,

Cat

My Beauty Addiction HD Lip Paints

Vibrant lipsticks are so fun to play with! I especially covet the more eccentric colors. Unfortunately, lipsticks in more unusual shades, such as blues and greens, tend to be on the pricier side. Companies such as Lime Crime and Melt make beautiful, unconventionally colored lip products, but at $15 - $20 apiece, an offbeat collection of lip colors can quickly empty your pockets.

Anyways, I was browsing some indie makeup brands on Etsy when I came across My Beauty Addiction, or MBA Cosmetics. I was on a mission for cosmetic glitter, but noticed that they offered a product called HD Lip Paints. Sounds pretty intense, right? I was excited to see that they had such a huge variety of vibrant shades. They're also very reasonably priced and come in full-sized tubes or petite tubes, depending on how much you want to spend and how much you want to commit to a certain color. That, in itself, is pretty darn cool! 

I decided to try out three shades: Grape Crush, Hypnotic, and Indigo.

Petite, slim tubes. Grape Crush, Hypnotic, Indigo.

At $5 apiece, I'm pretty happy with them. Grape Crush looks pinker in photos for some reason, but it's a very pretty shade of violet and is probably the most "normal" of the colors I selected. Hypnotic is the most intensely opaque of the three. I'd consider it a good alternative to Lime Crime's No She Didn't if you don't feel like dropping $18. All colors are fairly faithful in real life to the on-screen representation from the company's site. It's pretty trippy seeing Indigo on in person, beautiful color, though a little more challenging than the other two to apply in an even coat. 

Still, I'm tempted to pick up the yellow and some of the greens, as well, from their collection. The formula is incredibly creamy and not at all drying like many opaque lipsticks. Removing Grape Crush and Hypnotic wasn't really a problem and Indigo wasn't so bad, though it did leave a raspberry-colored stain. I can't really tell you much in terms of wear. I sort of swatched, photographed, and removed since I was going out and these didn't seem appropriate for the occasion.

Anyhoo, here are the full-faced looks with these lipsticks so you get an idea of the overall effect:

Pretty groovy, right? The late afternoon window lighting makes my skin appear a little cooler than it normally would. That or the eccentric colors from the lipsticks threw off the white balance, I'm not sure. But you get the idea.

Alrighty, well, happy Monday, everyone! This was an especially fun post to do and I hope you guys enjoyed it! :D

Hugs,

Cat

Fantastic Frugal Find: $1 Matte Lipstick by Jordana

Hey, guys. Ever heard of that cheap-o cosmetic brand called Jordana? I've always noticed it in the bargain section at grocery and drug stores and have always avoided it because the products just looked so terribly cheap and "ghetto".

Anyhoo, I saw a bunch of their matte lipsticks on sale at my local grocery store the other day and thought it would be fun to just give it a try. What'd I have to lose? They were marked down to $1 from $1.50. I picked a bright, red-orange shade called Tangerine Tango.

I was completely floored by the quality of this lipstick! The color is richly pigmented and opaque, the finish is a creamy matte, the scent is reminiscent of M&M's, and it still looked great on my lips when I removed it 7 hours later, with just some slight fading and feathering (my bad, I didn't use any lip liner). I never had to touch up and I didn't find that it was overly drying for a matte formula. For just $1 apiece, I'm pretty sure I'm going to go back and purchase them in every color available.

A little bit of overkill with the electric, metallic blue eyeliner. Lol. Orange and blue were my high school colors, coincidentally.

I used the Naked palette for this look and accented with NYX Studio Liquid Liner in Extreme Blue, another cheapy-but-goody product that I love!

Full face product list:

• UD Naked Skin liquid foundation - 5.0
• ELF Clarifying pressed powder - Honey
• Etude House Drawing Eyebrow pencil - gray/brown
• UDPP - Eden
• NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil - Milk
• UD Naked palette
• NYX Studio Liquid Liner - Extreme Blue
• Sugarpill eyeshadow - Velocity (lower lash line)
• ELF liquid eyeliner - black
• Maybelline Full N Soft Waterproof mascara
• Ardell #403 eyelashes
• ELF Studio blush - Twinkle Pink
• Jordana Matte lipstick - Tangerine Tango

Hope everyone's having a fantastic Saturday! It's sunny and warm out right now, but I'm stuck inside all weekend working hard on my grad project. XD

Hugs,

Cat

EOTD: Smokey Teal

Happy hump day, all! Just wanted to post a quick EOTD. Did my one of my smokey, go-to looks with a pop of teal:

Product list for this look:

• Etude House eyebrow pencil - Gray/Brown
• UDPP - Eden
• UD 15 Anniversary Palette
• ELF liquid eyeliner
• Ulta Eye Crayon - Black Tie
• Maybelline Full N Soft Waterproof mascara
• Ardell Demi Pixies

Oh, I'm also using a new glitter called Chicklets, by Eye Kandy Cosmetics. It's really neat! You get a jar of fine, cosmetic loose glitter and a bottle of glitter adhesive solution. You dip an eyeliner brush into the solution, pick up a little loose glitter, and brush on wherever you want to sparkle. I love it! you can apply as sparse or dense as you like and it lasts all day without fallout. I can't wait to show you guys more glitter experiments! :)

Hugs,

Cat

Neutral Outer V Shading on Asian Eyes

Good morning, everyone! I thought I'd share some neutral, outer V shading that I did on my eyes yesterday.  Outer V  is one of my favorites, but I've always found it difficult to do because of my eye shape. I understand that the outer V is different for everyone and I think I've finally found the proper way to define it for myself.

I consider it a sophisticated look that requires intermediate skill. I'd like to eventually do a tutorial for it, though my workload is getting a little heavier since we're in the middle of my school term and I do have two other tutorials that I'd like to complete on my to-do list before jumping on this one, but it'll happen!

Eyes:

• Etude House eyebrow pencil - Gray/Brown
• UDPP - Eden
• NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil - Milk
• Naked 3 (Strange, Nooner, Mugshot, Darkside, Blackheart
• ELF liquid eyeliner
• Ulta Eye Crayon - Black Tie
• Maybelline Full N Soft Waterproof mascara
• Ardell Edgy #403 eyelashes

Face:

• UD Naked Skin liquid foundation - 5.0
• ELF Clarifying pressed powder - Honey
• ELF Studio blush - Pink Passion

Lips:

• Maybelline Color Elixir - Fuchsia Flourish

Happy Tuesday, everyone, and thanks for reading! <3

Hugs,

Cat