Full, fluttery, voluminous, sexy eyelashes are something that I have never had and probably will never naturally have without the help of some medicinal glaucoma eye potions and other similar witchcraftery. Maybe it's because of the monolids, maybe it's sub-par lash genetics, but I've faced the fact that no amount of curling and plumping will make them the fluttery beauties I wish they were.

Enter eyelash extensions. While applying eyeshadow on my friend Amy, I noticed how poppin' her lashes were! No mascara, no eyeliner, no glues or strips or mascara to speak of. At that moment I decided I must  test it out for myself.

Eyelash extensions are something that I've been curious about for a really long time, so I wanted to make sure I shared my experience as well as the tips I've gathered to get the most bang for your butterfly kisses.

Hey everyone! As Halloween and holiday times start creeping up on us, the advent of many festive parties come to our attention as well. What will we wear? Gold or red sequins? Boots or heels?

One accessory that is fabulous at accenting our look and is perfect for the season is something you may not have thought of: false eyelashes!

Whether you are a novice and want to amp up that lion costume for Halloween, or you are a lash pro and are curious for tips you may not have thought of before, I wanted to share a bit of my knowledge of lashes that I've picked up over the years. I'll admit it, I'm lash obsessed!

Check out the vid below to get the low-down on lashes:

I'm very excited to say that it's time for another monthly favorites video! This past month, the weather has gone from mild to HOT so my favorites have adjusted to the change. I've been less interested in covering every last flaw up and turning more toward my skincare routine to give me a healthier canvas to work with. Because of this, I have a couple new skincare favorites and my new favorite warm-weather essentials to share with you!

Check them out below, as well as the announcement for my giveaway winner!

Hey guys! I was originally planning on recording a green St. Patrick's Day tutorial but somehow my weekends always seem to be busy busy. The good news is that I did the second best thing, a "face of the day" from the actual morning of March 17th to show you how I really did my makeup. I feel like it's been a long time since I did a good 'ole FOTD without a video, am I right?

Here's a second little preview of my ombre hair which I am really loving so far. It's not too intense in real life that I feel uncomfortable with it, and it looks nice even when I don't do anything at all to it like in these photos.


Here's one with eyes closed so you can see the shadow. Although I actually do this a lot, it's actually a technique that I haven't used in a video yet so I might go ahead and show it in a video anyhow in the future. As you can see, the concentration of shadow is pretty horizontal as opposed to the rounded shape that I did in my smoky pink eyes tutorial.


Colors used:
Inglot shadow in AMC Shine 15 (orange-gold) for inner lid
Inglot shadow in Pearl 418 (dark green similar to MAC humid) for outer-v/contour
Teal shadow from Josie Maran Natural Wonders Palette in center of lid (looks bright green when layered)

When eyes are opened you see just a hint of color on the lids. It's a pretty effect when you are blinking.


I also used the NYX Mosaic Powder in Highlight for the browbones, inner eye corners, and tops of cheeks. Urban Decay 24/7 Liner in Lucky is on my lower lash line. Lashes are Pretty & Cute Korean High Fiber Lashes in M146 which look nice and fluttery. I just have Blistex Silk & Shine lipbalm on my lips.

Here's a close-up of the eyes. You can click to see it larger.


Since I was totally kidding in my last post about talking about my hair here, I will do a hair post VERY SOON for real, and also have a review and swatches of both my Inglot palette (thank you sis!) and a few Josie Maran items including the one I used for this look.

:)

*salutes*

Today I have another Halloween tutorial to share with you. I'm probably the most excited about this one because it's so over-the-top and probably what I'm going to wear for Halloween this year. (I love that lion costume so much but it's too close to Puss in Boots that I wore last year and I have to switch things up!) I hope the intensity of this tutorial comes across in the video because in person it is really over-the-top for me, especially since I wear pretty low-key makeup most days. ^_^


Presenting: Toy Soldier Halloween Tutorial!


Products mentioned:
MAC Studio Sculpt Foundation in NC30
MAC Face & Body Foundation in N1
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Urban Decay Naked Palette (Buck, Virgin, and Hustle eyeshadows)
Lioele All In One Gel Eyeliner
Revlon Matte Eyeliner in White
Dollywink Eyeliner
Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler
Lioele Real Waterproof Up & Down Mascara
NYX Fabulous Lashes in EL105
Lash Grip Adhesive in dark tone
Pretty & Cute Glamour Lash #122
NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Taupe/Ash 03
Lioele Blooming Shimmer Pearl Base in Pink Pearl
NYX Rouge Cream Blush in CB07 Red Cheeks
NYX Blush in 24 Red
Paul & Joe Lipliner in 01
MAC Select Cover up concealer in NC30
MAC Venomous Villains Heartless lipstick
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Medium

Circle lenses are EOS Candy Green lenses
Link to the Toy Soldier costume
Link to Goldilocks blonde wig
I bought the legwarmers separately from http://www.sockdreams.com

I was actually inspired to do this look after seeing the ridiculously adorable costume from dwdshoes.com which, I want to say for the record that they offered to send me a few things and although they had shoes and clothes I basically made a beeline to the costumes to do tutorials for you all. What's the point of doing a review on shoes when I could get something that would give a bit of fun back to the beauty community that has been so supportive of me?

So no, I'm not crazy enough to buy a million costumes to tramp around to several posh parties on Halloween this year, but I have been blessed an incredible amount of love and support to be able to make my silly little videos which I would not have been able to do without you. Sometimes even little opportunities give big rewards. :)

So here are the pics to my Toy Soldier/Doll/Mannequin look:









I did notice in the close-up photos that light was reflecting right into my cheeks so the red circles don't look round but you can tell in the full-length photos that they are. It was just the Lioele Blooming Shimmer Pearl Base that I used to make my face shiny and more doll-like that gave it that extra bounce of light. ;D

I also noticed that the blonde wig makes me look fairer. Totally weird! I hadn't even worn a wig before this one so I was impressed at how nice this looked. I'm going to have to find excuses to wear it again. (ooh, blonde Disney girls! ^o^) Hope you don't get sick of me as a blonde. I've never had anything lighter than dark brown highlights before. Haha!

Okay, for SERIOUS I am going to bed early tonight for some well-deserved rest. Thank you so much for reading/watching and let me know how you liked it in the comments. ^_^

Disclaimer:
Costume provided by http://www.discountwomensdressshoes.com, Lioele products, wig, and bottom lashes provided by http://www.prettyandcute.com, circle lenses provided by http://www.pinkyparadise.com.
I was not paid to use or promote any items in this tutorial. I only use what I like!

What do you think?

Screencaps I took of Dara in 2ne1's "Clap Your Hands"


And my take on the look in photos:

So, this look may or may not have been from St. Patrick's Day. We are just going to pretend that I regularly match all-green on any ordinary day because that's what reasonable, ordinary people do and obviously I am a reasonable and ordinary person. Ahem.

Green is one of those colors that I think everyone can pull off. It's especially nice on those with green, hazel, or brown eyes and it's much easier to have it not clash with Asian skin than, say, blue or other cooler colors. If you think about nature and how nice trees look then it's not so hard to imagine the same colors working well for makeup, right? ^.^

One of my favorite ways to wear bright colors is using it as a "pop" of color on a more neutral lid which is exactly what I've done here.


Here's a close-up of my eye. I did a basic neutral lid, MAC Fluidline for the eyeliner, Sugar criss-cross lashes, and a nice dose of Urban Decay's green 24/7 liners with Graffiti on the waterline and Covet smudged underneath. I skipped any black liner on the bottom lashes and instead had a nice long coat of mascara to open up the eyes.


For base makeup, I used Lioele's Beyond the Solution BB Cream which has great coverage but I have since stopped using since Skin 79's Super Functions (hot pink) BB matches my skintone better. One effect that I do find interesting looking at the photos where I used the Lioele is that it gives that really flat, almost mannequin-like perfect look to the face. Maybe it's just how it reacts to my skin but this is definitely something to keep in mind for those interested in purchasing. This is high on the coverage-scale and low on the glowy-scale. I'll have to do a review and comparison soon on the BB's that I currently own which are only Lioele Beyond the Solution, Skin79 hot pink, and Skin79 DermaRX.


I'm also using Lioele's Cushion Touch Blusher which I still love. The matte baby pink looks more peachy here since I'm wearing the Canmake Maxi Volume Rouge in 22 Peach Beige that I got as a gift from Eki. Thank you for the lippy babe I love the color sooo much! I'm very much obsessed with peach shades lately. ^.^


I know this is terribly late and I had already posted this color in my last nail post but I wanted to show how my NYX Las Vegas polish matched the eye color and also my shirt. I LOVE MATCHING OKAY? We should all have our own club called "matchers anonymous" where we can commiserate about how our lives aren't color-coordinated enough.


And this shot I think came out a bit artistically so I just wanted to share. My lovely Lioele Princess Mirror which I <3 a little too much. Speaking of which, yes, the coupon code frmheadtotoe still works at prettyandcute.com for a free princess mirror for orders over $30. You can choose baby pink or hot pink, just write frmheadtotoe in the comments at checkout. I was getting a lot of questions about it. :)


Time for dinner and editing more videos! Love you guys and hope you have a fun, fantastic, amazing weekend! I'll just leave you with one question to answer in the comments: If you color-coordinated an entire outfit from head to toe (har har) what color would you choose?

xoxo

Disclaimer: Lioele products provided by Pretty and Cute, and the pegasus necklace is mix-matched DSK Jewelry.

Yay! Finally a new tutorial! I've had so many requests for a Valentine's Day look so I recorded this so I could get it up in time before the big holiday. For those of you who have been following me for a while, you'll recognize this as the look I wore last year for Valentine's Day! I really liked the look so I recreated it to share with everyone. ^^

This look is basically a hot pink eye with a smoky charcoal as the contour color. I do want to mention that although I used Wonder Eyelid Tape here, monolidders can wear the exact same look just without the tape.

Sometimes there is no greater critic than yourself and I'm a perfectionist when it comes to blending! I think everyone should at least attempt to do a dark smokey eye on themselves at least a few times. A lot of people are intimidated by smokey eyes but I think most of the time the big issue is the shape that you create that's difficult, not the darkness of color.

It's not my everyday thing but it is a lot of fun! For reference, here is a step-by-step Smokey Eye Tutorial that I did a while back. You can replace the tutorial color for any other color and in this case, I stuck with a midnight blue-charcoal-black palette. Lips are Dior Creme De Gloss in Creamy Gold.


Close-up of the blending:


One trick I love doing on dramatic eyes is doubling my false lashes. In this case, I layered wispy lashes on top of criss-cross ones to get this feathery, volumized effect. Loooooves!


And here are the earrings I was wearing. Adorable purple crystal earrings from He Qi Crystal Designs that I previously mentioned here.


Just being in a silly mood. Here is my friend, Domo the pumpkin. ^o^


Silly, silly

I was telling Eki that I see so many girls who have what I like to call a "camera face" that they use to pose in alllllll their pics. She asked me to show her, so here is my best attempt. LOL! Gangstaaaa... XD (ok, I hope you guys know that I am totally not being serious here!)


Hope you have enjoyed this very educational post. :D