Smashbox at Gilt Group sale + $10 off

Hey guys! I know I'm late on the boat to post this but Gilt Group has a Smashbox cosmetics sale going on. I just checked this out, and there are sales for 7 different lots going on and everything is around 50% off or more from retail price. Usually I only see sales for clothes or handbags on there so this is really exciting!



I personally like Smashbox cosmetics a lot and their makeup is really nice quality so you know I'm going to check this sale out! Instyle.com is also doing a promo with Gilt that will automatically take $10 off your order when you are checking out. The offer is good until April 5th. The Smashbox sale ends on 3/31!

If you don't already have a Gilt Group login, you can sign up here:
http://www.gilt.com/invite/eqqhvx3gnvk493yrhmh3

Happy shopping!

Hello Kitty Konad Nail Art Tutorial

I made a Konad tutorial tonight with the infamous Hello Kitty fauxnad (GCOCL A02) plate that I won from Polish Pixie. After going back and forth with the lovely Inge through e-mail, I have also commissioned her to buy me some L'Oreal Star Magnet polishes.

I don't know if you guys have heard of this before but it is the same concept as the Lancome Le Magnetique polishes that create a star-pattern using a magnet that reacts with the polish while wet. One of my favorite nail blogs, The Nailphile, has a couple awesome swatches of these and they are just gorgeous!

Anyway, getting back to the task at hand (literally), here is the youtube video uploaded and embedded for your pleasure.

For the tutorial I used my Zoya polish in Stephanie with Sally Hansen Chrome "nail makeup" polish in Pink Pearl. Did I mention that Inge snuck that polish in with my plates sent all the way from Denmark? It is a beautiful pink metallic that looks SO GOOD konaded. I keep staring at my nails, not just because adorable Helly Kitty is on them but because the contrast of the cream polish and metallic design is beautiful. It makes me so dang happy.

Anyway, here are my photos:


My cute new plates. The non-kitty plates have mirror-image designs which should be awesome for my anal-design tendencies.


With all new plates, you MUST peel the plastic layer off. This killed me the first time I tried Konading and failed miserably. I didn't take the plastic off!


I won't lie. The formula for Stephanie sucks. I needed 5 thin coats for opacity! But gosh, isn't it beautiful? I need a good recommendation for a truly opaque pale pink/off white cream. Anyone? Bueller?


And finally, my Hello Kittycure.


I love how the light hits that metallic pink.



Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I absolutely love Seche Vite top coat. Seche clear base + big 3 free polish + Seche Vite top coat = no chipping. Super shiny, hard nails that dry quickly. I'm amazed.


I didn't realize how late it got. Off to bed I go but please let me know what you thought of my vid! Love you guys. :)


XOXO

Primary Colors FOTD and Lime Crime

To support my alma mater's current attempt at the NCAA basketball tournament, I have for you a red, yellow, and blue FOTD. I'm not gonna lie, a big reason I did this look was just because I'm obsessed with my Victoria's Secret PINK collegiate hoodie and it inspired me. REGARDLESS of the reason, it gave me a chance to do a really fun look, using one of the fantastic Limecrime shadows that I got the opportunity to try out.

The main tools used:

Urban Decay Primer Potion
NYX single eyeshadow in Atlantic
NYX single eyeshadow in Hot Cherry
Limecrime magic dust in Circus Girl
NYX Jumbo Shadow pencil in Cottage Cheese
MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack

Apply the golden-yellow circus girl shadow to the inner half of the lid. Then, apply hot cherry to the outer half, blending into circus girl in the middle. Take atlantic (royal blue shadow) and blend into the outer-v and along the bottom lashline. Add a highlight color to the brow bone and frost tearducts with the NYX shadow stick in cottage cheese. Apply liner and mascara as usual.


How amazing is Circus Girl? I've been really searching for a good, pigmented yellow since it's hard to find one that will look good on my strong yellow undertones and this one is just perfect. I've already used it a few times and it always looks great.



LOOOOOOOOVE this hoodie!



Here are the swatches of the Limecrime shadows I received. I got Circus Girl (yellow), Empress (purple), and Princess Caraboo (dark green). All of them have beautiful pigmentation and feel very creamy. These swatches are using the little bit of shadow from the lid of the containers.

Top is one swipe with no primer, bottom is on UDPP.



I really wish I could show a look with all the shadows on but I realized after I swatched that it looks like Mardi Gras! Oh well. I know I will definitely be using these a ton in the future. If you are thinking about ordering, DO IT. Really. Not only are the colors available amazing but Xenia from Doe Deere Blogazine is incredibly nice and her blog is beautiful and insightful. Go visit it, you won't be disappointed. :)

I also got my NYX lot haul in. OMG SO OVERWHELMING.

Santa, is it Christmas???


Lipglosses


Shadow Trios


43 Eyeshadows D:



I will have to do swatches of all my NYX shadows sometime. I have a ton now. Hehe.

Okay it's super late so I'm going to bed. Goodnight everyone!

Hello my lovelies! I am in a very chipper mood today and I wanted to share my good news as well as LOTS of nail polish swatches. Everyone loves looking at pretty pics of polish, right?

For the good news, I'm sure most of you know this but here in the States, Spring has officially arrived! I'm happy to say that the weather (for now) has been compliant so I finally get to bust out more t-shirts and sandals. I also got to rip off the yucky plastic covering we put on our sliding door for the winter. My plants are already thanking me for the increased sunlight.

Also, I have a really awesome shopping find for you super petites who have trouble finding jeans. I heard that Pacsun carries 00's so I stopped by there yesterday. Almost every 00 was actually too large for me except for one style called Solana Extreme Skinny.


These fit like a DREAM. I can't get over it. I ended up buying 3 pairs (black, dark rinse, and marine blue) because in my area, they didn't sell well and were put in the sale area for $19.99. This is a ridiculous price to me considering my kids' seven for all mankind jeans were over $60 on clearance! When I asked, the manager said they were still selling for full price on the west coast and indeed, I checked online and it was so. There's a sale on jeans though, 2 for $55 and if you have skinny chicken legs like me I highly recommend this cut.

I also picked up this gorgeous cotton O'Neill dress with embroidery around the bust. The xs fit perfectly and I had a $25 off pacloot card so the whole situation made me a really happy camper. Yay for summer dresses!



Okay, to kick off the polish swatches I have one of my favorite Spring polish colors, yellow. I totally think yellow will be big this year and I was really excited to find a drug store brand carry this color. I will say that I don't love the polish bottle and brush. The brush is almost awkwardly wide which made my polish layers a bit thicker and clumsier than I'd like, but it is quick to dry as the name implies and the end result was totally worth it. It is a flattering shade for my skin tone and gave me a week of having excuses to accessorize with lots of yellow and warm tones.



yellow + tan (love this mix)



I also got a gorgeous greenish-blue with green iridescence from my cherry culture order called Jungle. I wish the camera could pick up the true depth. So pretty. I was impressed with the formula NYX polishes have. For being so cheap, they apply really easily with nice color.



Now, here are all of my Zoya swatches like I promised.










I will admit that not every bottle had the great opacity and application that Audrina had but aren't these colors gorgeous? Sienna kills me. This orange looks awesome in person and actually looks flattering on me, not to mention it looked great at 2 coats. The lightest and darkest colors needed 3-4 coats for opacity and evenness which I think is worth it for Stephanie and Gaia.

I loved Gaia so much I decided to paint the set this pretty white-with-gold-shimmer and add some Konading to it. This was the first time I used 2 colors in one stamp and I am really happy with how it turned out.



a close-up

This stamp set actually has a ton of nostalgic value for me because the prints are inspired by the designs on a Korean card game called 화투 pronounced "hwa-tu" which means "flower cards". I used to play this with my grandfather when we would visit Korea, when I was little. We used little tiny coins (10 won, 50 won, 100 won) which were basically worthless since 1,000 won = $1 USD.



Ahhh, the wonderful memories of childhood gambling. Hehe.

Speaking of gambling, remember how I mentioned I won a giveaway from Polish Pixie for fauxnad plates with a Hello Kitty print on it? They finally came all the way from Denmark! The Hello Kitty Konad tutorial will be my next nail endeavor. :D Inge from Polish Pixie is SO sweet and awesome so definitely visit her nail blog and post lots and lots of comments and tell her I sent you!

Now I am going to eat my Springtime Oreos with yellow filling and daydream about sunlight and bunnies and flowers. Have a great weekend!

Silver Smoke FOTD

Hey guys. Is anyone else freaking out about that NYX sale still? I just got shipping notification today and I am SO excited. Haha.

Anyway I have another FOTD to go along with my rock star theme lately. I actually did this smokey silver look for a shoot, then came home and changed. The makeup actually went surprisingly well with simple, casual clothing as well as with the glamorous look of the shoot. I absolutely think this type of makeup is great for those who need their makeup to take them from day to night.

The key ingredients:
NYX Star (greyish-purplish-slate) on lid
NYX Opal for highlight
Revlon Colorstay Quad charcoal color for outer-v
MAC Fluidline in blacktrack
Shisem Falsies x2


smile, smile :)


Close-up of the thickly winged eyeliner. I was going for a vintagey glamorous look.


To give the lashes a little more drama, I layered half-size winged lashes on top of my shorter shisem criss-cross falsies.


And my outfit.
T-shirt - Urban Outfitters, Jeans - Sirens, Peep-toe wedges - Nordstrom kids' section

Just practicing my Olsen-twins duck lips. (Heehee)



Speaking of the Olsen twins, I just bought their coffee table book, Influence.



You may love them or hate them, but you can't deny that they have great access to some very influential people. There's really great photography as well as interesting stories and interviews. I can't wait to just chill and read through it!

As I sit here and wait patiently for my online orders to come in, I will also be preparing loads of nail polish swatches that I will be posting soon. Until then, please tell me, what is currently on your coffee table?

NYX Lot Sale!!!

AMG, nyxcosmetics.com is having a huge lot sale. Anyone who frequents my blog knows that I LOVE Nyx products. It is seriously my favorite "drugstore" level brand because the products are really nice quality and much more affordable than say MAC (which I love also!)

There are 4 different lots.

Lot 1: 5 trio eyeshadows and 8 megashine lipglosses for $16
Lot 2: 30 lipsticks for $24
Lot 3: 43 single eyeshadows for $43
Lot 4: 16 spray-on body glitters for $9.60

D:


There's only 500 sets of each lot available, so get them before they run out. I caved and bought set 1 and 3. Set 2 is a great deal, but I just don't wear lipsticks much!

I'll definitely be getting some doubles of shadows and colors I already own, so expect a big sale here on the blog's shop soon. :)

Zoyas! And recent nails!

I had very high hopes for a recent konadicure. I really did. I combined many of my favorite things: China Glaze For Audrey, China Glaze OMG, and cute characters. Sadly, not all experiments wind up with awesome results and this was one of those times. Here is a photo of a sad nail job that I could only handle for 3 days.



Maybe it looks okay in the photo but trust me, it had bedsheet texture pressed into it from a crappy top coat (*hiss*revlontopspeed*hiss*) and I was just very disappointed. IT HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL! Miserable failure!

SOOOOOOOO, obviously I have been VERY anxiously awaiting the arrival of my box of ZOYA polishes from the recent polish exchange and was crazy excited to find the shipping box placed on my chair when I got home yesterday. I (carefully) thrashed around the contents and revealed these beauties.



Some close-ups to appreciate the sparkly, glowy, shiny awesomeness.





Of course, my impatient self had to try out one of the more intriguing colors, Audrina. She is a lovely, 50's pin-up style fuscia cream. There is a berry-ness that is missing from the photos and I don't know if it's just my camera, but it is GORGEOUS on the nails. Has anyone tried those sweet plum hard candies from the Asian supermarket with the pink wave in it? If that taste could be made into a polish, it would be this one.

I'm almost disappointed that these came out more hot-pink here than in real life. It has a purpley kick that makes it really special.



You can kind of see the purple a bit more here in my konadicure. Looks like tire tracks on my tips, no? Very rockstar. I love it. Also, SOO much glossier with my Sally Hansen Insta-Dry topcoat!



Let me tell you, it wasn't just the color that wowed me. The consistency was fantastic. Thin but not watery or streaky. This was perfect in 2 coats and I am a serial 3 coater. I don't know how they got so spot on while being "big 3 free" (aka better for the environment) but they succeeded with flying colors. I'm a Zoya convert! I can't wait to test the other colors and see how they compare to Audrina.

Just to let you guys know, the current Zoya exchange has been extended through June 1st under the premise of "going green" for Earth Day. If you missed the first time around, you still have plenty of time to check these out.

I also wanted to mention that Cherryculture.com is having free shipping through today (march 10-12) and I just discovered flaky topcoats from their NYX polishes! I ordered Peach Ave and Purple Ave as well as Jungle and a couple more NYX single eyeshadows. Definitely try them if you haven't yet, they are my fav.

All this pretty polish is making me so happy and looking forward to this weekend. Share your happy and let me know in the comments what your favorite polish brand is and why. :)

Wild Lime Tutorial - shading guide

Hello Everyone! I promised you all that I would do a more fun look soon and this one is a little more dramatic. Since these colors are brighter, I thought it would be a good way to show you girls with flatter eyelids where to shade eyeshadow. It can be tricky and daunting at first because there are no obvious guidelines but it's really not that difficult. We even have an advantage over some people because our eyes have more of a canvas to work on! The thing to note is that our bones are similar underneath and that will help us find where to apply certain shades.

The tools:
NYX Single shadow in Wildfire
NYX Single shadow in Lime Juice
Revlon Colorstay quad in Nude Elements (charcoal and white shadows)
NYX pencil liner in Moss
MAC Fluidline in blacktrack
Covergirl Lash Exact waterproof mascara

Step 1: Apply your "mid-tone" color. I used wildfire in this shape.


Step 2: Apply your "highlight" color. I used lime juice, but I typically use a light, neutral color that coordinates with my mid-tone color such as MAC Shroom, NYX Opal, or NYX Vanilla Sky. Apply this under your brow bone. You should be able to feel this bone with your fingertips.


Here's what this step looks like without guidelines.


Step 3: Apply contour/outer-v/crease color. This is often a darker shade of the mid-tone color but it can also be a totally different color such as with Charcoal in this case. Typically, you will want this color to be the darkest eyeshadow color you use because it is mimicking the shadow and depth of your eye socket. If you take a shadow brush under your brow bone, you should be able to feel where your eye socket is, which is where the color should go. Apply this color to the lower eyelid and in the outer-v, blending the color into the eyelid.


This is how it should look.


Step 4: Apply eyeliner to upper and lower lashline. Here I used MAC fluidline for my upper lids and an NYX pencil liner in Moss 3/4 in from the outer corner of my lower lashline. I also added a bit of Wildfire on top of Moss to make the pencil liner last longer. You can also add a highlight color to your tearducts. Then, curl lashes and add mascara. (Yikes! Sorry my eyes are so red!)



Here's the finished look.



I decided to pose with another TJ Maxx find: Lancome Juicy Tubes in Guava Enchantment. It's a lovely sheer coral, perfect for balancing a strong eye look like this one. (Tip: Remember, a strong eye = neutral or natural lip while a strong lip = a more neutral or natural eye.) And look how pretty the packaging is! I'm a sucker for nice packaging. :)

Hope this tutorial made sense and was helpful. The shading guides can be used with any colors from dramatic to very natural and, of course, this is simply my basic technique. You can always use more colors and even I switch up my shading technique sometimes. For me at least, this does seem to be pretty foolproof especially when experimenting with new color combos. Try it out and let me know how it goes.

Love you guys!