Hey everyone! Things have been super crazy on my end lately. Sometimes I feel like being busy never, never ends but at the end of the day it's better to be too busy than not busy enough, right?

If you follow my Twitter, you may have heard some murmurings about the New York Times contacting me for an article. I promise I'm not trying to be too mysterious about it, I just don't want to jinx myself before it comes out! I have my fingers crossed that it will promote my opinions and myself in a positive manner. If not, there is always the saying that there's "no such thing as bad publicity". No worries, the article isn't about me, it's just about circle lenses. ;) I'll definitely link it or scan it or whatever once it comes out but I don't actually know when that will be!

Anyway, on to the main topic of this post, here is a truly belated review I did on Janth Avenue jewelry and Joyce Jewelry. Both sweet ladies had sent me some wonderful items and I wanted to share them with you. (By the way, I didn't choose this screencap. It was youtube's HAPPY default! lol) This was recorded a couple months ago so forgive my Spring/Summer reference!

And Joyce Jewelry


I forgot to add this in the video, but she also sent me this lovely scarf! I love the lightweight, soft texture and I've been mad about florals all spring and summer so I definitely wanted to show this off. I've been wearing it with EVERYTHING.
It's been a long day so I'm about to go pass out. Love you guys and thanks again Janth Avenue and Joyce Jewelry! I'm always so humbled that you'd think of me to send items to. <3

Hey everyone! As you may have picked up from reading my blog, I really love to share my love for makeup and beauty. This can only mean that one of my favorite things to do is express, express, express myself in multiple facets! I'm so blessed to have some amazingly talented friends to have fun together with, so I wanted to share some of those moments with you. ^.^

A couple of months ago my good friend Kassia, who happens to be an incredible photographer, invited me to come along to her photographer friend Kelley's house to have a just-for-fun shoot. I brought some of my kit and the two talented women brought their weapons of choice (camera, a balloon, jewelry, etc.)

Here's some behind the scenes video that Kassia caught of me applying makeup on Kelley and some of Kelley's gorgeous shots:


And I did my own makeup of course too! It was a pinky-brown look with extra-long winged liner, one of my favorite "natural but popping" looks. The weather was just ridiculously nice and Kelley lives out in the country with acres of land so they caught an incredible sunset that gave everything this heavenly warmth.

Here are a few shots that Kassia took of me.


And some that Kelley took. Can you see a difference in their styles? I think it's fascinating! Love it! :)


And one of the incomparably beautiful Kelley. She's actually currently offering a special deal on mini-shoots for $250/30 minutes of shooting and 15 edited images on a cd for you to print. Contact kelley@kelley-photo.com for more details. :)


For kicks, they also took some old school polaroids. I just adore how authentic these look. Somehow they seem more like you are actually catching reality off guard. Its innate imperfections make it that much more beautiful.


I know it was SO many photos but with these two amazing, friendly, professional photographer friends, everything was just a blast and I am constantly reminiscing about the experience. ^.^ Nothing like good memories caught on film to brighten your day. Thank you so much Kassia and Kelley! You two shine like bright beacons in a world where everyone with a camera thinks they are a master photographer. You don't take pictures, you create art and I will always be in awe of your talent and inner beauty as well.

Hope you could feel transported along with me to our vision of sunshine, giant balloons, yellow grass, brown boots, and smiles. :)

Today's review is on some lenses that I've really been adoring (no pun intended... or is it?). Adore is a European brand of colored contacts that curiously reminds me a lot of Solotica lenses which I've posted about in the past a few times before. The thing that really makes both Adore Bi-tones and Soloticas stand out from the rest is the faded pupil hole which gives a very natural appearance to the eyes since the color blends in with your natural eye color.

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.