7.4.11 4th of July Face

I'm beginning to find my summer look that utilizes a whole bunch of dollar bronzers I bought last year from elf makeup. They make the perfect eyeshadows. Last night I was doing swatches of all my cheap-o elf face products. And I found that the 1$ blush and bronzer duo has the be the best one. Not glittery. It's more shimmery than glittery. And then I used another elf 1$ bronzer in Sun-Kissed as a layer over the bronzer from the duo on my lid. Excuse my ridiculous faces, but I feel these best show how well elf makeup can make you look. I'm going to attempt a youtube tutorial on this. I was very excited on this turnout.

4.21.11 Face of the Day

Last weekend, I went to Marukai and picked up face masks for like 98 cents each. I only tried one that's supposed to keep whatever moisture I had back in my face. And I like to think it's working even though I haven't been rubbing on the dry skin under my nose like I usually do. I feel like it's working and my skin is slowly getting better. Today, I wanted to do a matte grey eye but found that I didn't have any.... and then telling myself, don't buy any makeup til you finish up the ones you have! And then I realized, I think I am almost finishing up the ones I have. I had already finished up a No 7 Nude lip liner (the one Lisa Eldridge uses a lot in her videos), and I'm actually thinking of experimenting with a different brand nude liner.

I hope to at least attempt another art project by taking more pictures of myself. This is the first one I did and decided to try and look my best for it. Here I'm not wearing a lot of the products I typically use and in fact, am really using mainly all elf products. I'm not even wearing foundation in this one.

02.14.2011 Orange Crush

Me having fun with my makeup for Valentine's. Throughout the night, I ended up reapplying Rimmel's Crush on. I think it's a great lip color. Hint of color.. nudish.. sheen. Perfect for going out. Ugh, now that I'm looking more at it, I hate the discoloration on my face.

01.31.2011 Beauty

Today I went to the dept store where my mom works at and found they sell drugstore cosmetics for ridiculously cheap! Not only that but they sell those cheap NYC and Wet N Wild right next to each other! On top of it all, I found that they sell freshMineral makeup! I cannot stress it enough, for ridiculously cheap! I was ecstatic when I saw this, but didn't get too crazy right away because I've never tried it before. It looked like they were running low on a lot of products I would be interested in getting anyway. Like their foundations, and neutral eye makeup.

However, I picked up this for less than 9 bucks. It's twenty on their website. And it's so goofy because the main reason I got it was because of the flat top kabuki brush. When I got home to open it, I found it soooo ooo soooooo soft. You know, I just found out and I don't think this brand is affiliated with the other fresh beauty company. Whatever, the packaging looks so chic. Although just looking at the mineral foundation it comes with, looks shimmery.... I'm a little hesitant, but I know I can find use for it, like as a highlighter. Hmm. So, while I was also there, I picked up some other beauty products I didn't take a picture of because A. They're rather generic.. nothing too exciting, and B. I think there's something wrong with my camera lens I just got.. sadness. I picked up the last Tresemme dry shampoo on the shelf, an NYC blushable creme stick in Plaza Pink, and a NYC Color Wheel Mosaic Face Powder in Peach Glow. Excited to be getting into beauty again. I've got another update on my friend's wedding that I was a part of just last week. Beauty related, as well.

01.19.11 Beauty

So I came back from Santa Barbara yesterday and finally had time to try out my new Sally Hansen nail polish strips. I feel like you have to work with it quickly and try not to yank on it so that it fits on your nails cause I messed up a little bit. Not to mention, I'm a real cheap-o and cut most of the strips in half so that I could still have some for another use. My nails are already short anyway.. These are terrible Photobooth pictures, obviously but I wanted to throw these in. Esp my last one. I didn't do much shopping in Santa Barbara because most of my money went to this Wine Tour, food, and going out to this ridiculous but insanely fun nightclub called Wildcats.

Hah, I bought this lovely tunic dress that is currently being washed right now because I had worn it already to Wildcats and the next day driving back home. And I wish I could mention how beautiful the drive back was, but that's going to go into my other blog. My diary. hehe. While we were shopping, my friend had lost a blouse she had bought and caught the Victoria's Secret semi-annual sale. Found a bra for 17 bucks, but after her lost shirt, she was sulking at the thought she had really paid 40 for it. hah. I also came back with a Victoria's Secret product. I bought a ridiculously creamy lipstick called Scrumptious. The last picture is a pretty accurate photo of the color, and I love that it's not entirely nude. I feel it makes me look like I have at least some color to my face. Excuse my face though because before we left, I went to reapply my lipstick and found that I had knicked the tip of it on the cap. I wanted to cry.

01.06.11 SJP and her cool watches.. and my face

I'm excited to get to try something I got a hold of that is Sarah Jessica Parker's NYC fragrance. I'm really excited because my mom got it at the dept store she works at on clearance for 50% off. Not only that but it came with this watch with interchangeable bands. Very cute! I'm excited because it's a gold watch.. Although the bands are multicolored, it's still very cute. I must say though, that the bands look a bit cheap.. However, the NYC scent smells really nice. It's a soft, sweet, powdery smell. Packaging's plastic, but it's still cute.

My mom's hilarious. She bought two of the fragrance sets but only got one of the free watch set. So she's going to try and get the other one tomorrow. No picture of the fragrance set. It's pretty generic. It comes with palm sized spray perfume, lotion, and shower gel. I feel like I've been using enough stock photos so I'm going to get back in the habit of taking pictures again.

Ugh.. on a whole other side note. I messed up big time. This winter weather has dried my face so much that it hurts. And the other day I thought maybe I can peel off the dry skin by using a peel off masque. Bad idea. Not only that, but I decided to do it after taking a shower. If anything, I was thinking it'll freshen my face. As though I've given myself a chemical peel, I thought. Except, I've never had a chemical peel... Wtf was I thinking? So the last few days have been dedicated to getting my face back to hydration. Although it's made my bangs look greasy while walking into work, my face is slowly, but surely getting back to normal.

It's hard to tell, but my face looks like I'm having a rash in this one.

My face today. I didn't even use mascara. I was attempting to use as little makeup as possible without looking scary.

My raw routine: After cleaning the makeup off my face and washing with a face wash once at night, apply my Clean & Clear moisturizer, then Philosophy's Hope in a Jar, Carmex tub slathered on my lips, and ooh (new product), just got a Vitamin E stick from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and applied that onto the driest parts which are underneath my nose (that sadly, the dry skin flakes tend to resemble boogers), and underneath my bottom lip. I also try to remember to use my Garnier eye ball roller thingy every morning and every night.. Sometimes I forget though. When I take a shower, I'll immediately moisturize now and do my routine and every morning I'm currently just splashing water on my face and then do my moisturizer routine.

12.5.2010 Beauty FOTD

My friend who got me into beauty told me about this British makeup artist named Lisa Eldridge and then I started watching her beauty videos. And then I became inspired. Not only does the makeup she does on editorials look amazing, but she's ridiculously beautiful. And tonight, I'm about to head out for my mom's birthday, and I was inspired by Lisa when I did my makeup. I was going for simple and fresh look and I think I kind of achieved it. Although I'm beginning to have wished I used some eyedrops in this one.

I'm going to attempt a step-by-step approach to how I did this look.

1. Moisturized.

2. Mixed primer and foundation and applied it with a foundation brush.

3. With the same brush, I applied Mac's Joie de Vivre on my cheeks.

4. Dusted my face with a Maybelline powder foundation.

5. Applied a Covergirl lipstain then applied a pink gloss over it, but then it looked like too much so I tried taking it off, but there was still a hint of lipstain, and so I just applied the pinkish lipgloss (man that was a long one.) haha.

6. Used Nyx's eyeliner in Pearl White on my brow bone and a tad on the inner corners of my eyes. Blended that.

7. Applied UDPP. And a taupish-brown generic eyeshadow on my eyelids.

8. Covergirl Lash Blast Luxe mascara (I think this is my favorite).

9. I eventually noticed how blah my eyes looked, and so I tightlined with a black-brown eyeliner.. and then a tad of black eyeliner on the bottom.

Dang.. I think next time I'll try to condense my beauty routine. And eventually try to achieve a 5-minute face. I was trying to do that a couple days ago, but it turned out to be a 10-minute face.

11.10.2010 FOTD, OOTD, HaOTD (Hair Accessory)

Check out my new hair accessory. Actually, it's another one of my newest asian product obsessions. It's actually similar to the hair velcro clips I got. It holds snuggly on my hair through velcro. I was in the Clairemont area today and stopped by Marukai again. It's ridiculous what I had bought. I also bought another one of the hair velcro clips that I already have, but this time I got the pink ones. They're actually not so expensive. And well, that was pretty much it.

I never really touch up during the day unless I'm at home, and obviously need it. So these are my eyes at the end of the day. I think it's the primer that kept it from creasing. I also didn't wear eyeliner today and I'm liking it.

10.30.2010 FOTD, Annoying HOTD

So, I didn't do anything for Halloween. I never found my Vulcan ears. But tbh, I think I might really go look for them when I might go to the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention next year. Some of my very good friends moved there recently, and reminded me and my bf. My bf's really into Star Trek. Instead I did a fun project tonight. It started out earlier in the day on a search for felt and adhesive based googly eyes. That was a failed attempt. I guess because it's the day before Halloween, and the JoAnn's Crafts store lot I went to was packed like a tin can of sardines (I love that metaphor). And it didn't help much that I brought my dog, Porkchop with me. By the time we got there, he was panting and wining. We ended up taking a walk in the park instead.

When my face melted during my very important appointment, I now realized it was probably because I didn't use any fix spray on it. After that day, my best friend suggested I get MAC fix plus, but I had just got my Caudalie beauty elixir and so I used that instead today. I really wanted to look my best today for no particular reason. I woke up to a rainy morning and all I wanted to do was get in a hot bath, and doll myself up. I even grew tired of my dark nails already and repainted them in what looks like a taupe color. I'm also really getting tired of my super long hair. They're passed my bra-straps. I'm planning on chopping it off short around the end of January and donating it to Locks-of-Love. I'm scared I might get attached to them, but then I was just seeing Blushing Ambitions newer posts, http://blushingambition.blogspot.com/, and how she owns clip-on hair extensions that she uses on occasion. I might have to look into that.

10.29.2010 Face and Hair of the day (FOTD) & (HOTD) HOTD?

Still learnin, still learnin...... I was trying to go for au'natural. I can't remember, but will probably look at my previous post to see if the looks are similar. I didn't use the same products.