Look of the Day: Silvery Blue

This look is actually a lot brighter in real life, but for some reason my camera didn't really pick it up and just makes it look silvery. I used one of the colours from my new Urban Decay palette (Painkiller) as well as some other blue eyeshadows. I also used the silvery green eyeliner that I was given with my Sephora gift set ANNDDDD my new mascara. I'm started to rethink the Makeup Forever mascara, but I'm gonna use it for another couple days and see how it goes. Hope you like!

The Smokey Eye vs. The Red Lip

There are many celebrities who tend to have a signature look... either the smokey eye or the red lip. But what happens when they decide to switch it up and try something new?!?! Is it a complete disaster, or does it look absolutely amazing? Here's some pictures of celebs sporting the classic red lip vs. smokey eye. What looks best? You decide!

Jennifer Lopez

Beyonce

Gwen Stefani

Angelina Jolie

Kim Kardashian

Megan Fox

Hayden Panettiere

Kate Hudson

That's a nice look Christina

I have been blogging like crazy about Christina Aguilera and her makeup choices... for those of you who don't care please let me know!! Otherwise I will continue the Christina madness! The video for her newest single I'm Not Myself Tonight is premiering this Friday (April 30) and some stills of the video have been released. Check out those lashes!!! At first I thought it was her eyeliner, but you can see on her right eye that they're in fact ridiculous false lashes. I'm pretty excited about the video, and may or may not post it on here... do any of you even care? Hahaha let me know!

Annalynne Mccord in new issue of Nylon looking fab!

Annalyne Mccord (I think she's a 90210 actress... my lovely friend Kristin who is a 90210 ADDICT will have to set me straight if I'm wrong!) is featured in the newest issue of Nylon and let me just say, her makeup is gorgeous! I especially love that blue winged eyeshadow. I'd love to be able to rock that but I think it'd be a bit too much for job hunting, no? Or maybe it would be nice for Sunday morning church? Hahahah totally kidding. Love the smokey look too, especially the shape of the eyeshadow and how the dark colour is extended right up to her inner brow bone. Very inneresting...

Scarlett Johansson looking gorgeous at Iron Man 2 Premiere

Scarlett Johansson recently attended the Iron Man 2 World Premiere in Hollywood and she looked absolutely GORGEOUS! Her hair and makeup go beautifully with her dress. Her skin is absolutely flawless and dewy and she just looks stunning. A perfect ten, good job Scarlett!

Brush Cleaning Basics

Before - what dirty brushes!

I think you all know what a bowl of soapy water looks like, but ya know... just in case.

After! What beauties :D

So my makeup brushes have been getting pretty gnarly lately. I tend to majorly slack when it comes to cleaning my brushes, just because I'm lazy and am the complete opposite of a germaphobe. BUT I've been reading lately about the importance of taking care of your makeup brushes and cleaning them on a regular basis, so I decided to give them a good scrub a dub dub today. There are many different ways to wash your brushes, but here's how I did it:

1. Fill up a large bowl with hot soapy water. You can buy special brush cleaning shampoo but I just use regular shampoo. Your brushes are made of hair so it's no biggy to use normal shampoo. Just use a basic one, with it's primary purpose being to clean hair. I used the Fructis Clean and Fresh shampoo. Neutrogena Anti-Residue shampoo would also be a good option.
2. Fill up another large bowl with clean, warm water.
3. Start by dipping your brush in the first bowl with soapy water to get it wet. Then apply a dot of shampoo to the palm of your hand, and swirl your brush around until you create a nice lather. You can keep dipping your brush back into the soapy water and then swirl it in the palm of your hand again until you're satisfied that your brush is squeaky clean.
4. Dip your soapy brush in the second bowl of clean water and swish it around to get rid of the excess soap.
5. Finally, rinse your brush under warm running water until it rinses clean.
6. Reshape your brush and lay it flat on a piece of paper towel to dry. DON'T leave your brushes to dry standing upright, because the water will drip down into the base of your brush where the glue is, and it'll loosen up the glue and cause the brush hairs to fall out easier.

Now that I've typed out my steps, I'm realizing how completely unnecessary the two bowls of water are. You can totally just wet your brush under running water, lather it up in the palm of your hand with your shampoo and then rinse again under water, but I like to make things difficult for myself, which is why I did it this way.

People tend to recommend that you should wash your brushes on a weekly basis, and spot clean them using an alcohol based brush cleaner after every use. This seems totally unnecessary to me if you only use your brushes for personal use. I'd recommend washing your brushes every couple weeks. It's nice to use clean brushes every time you apply makeup, but it would just take way too long, especially if you have a ton of brushes. Remember though, clean brushes are happy brushes, and you really should make an effort to clean them on a regular basis. It'll not only prolong their life but your makeup will also apply a lot nicer onto your skin.

Hope this helped for you all!

Look of the Day: Bronzed Brown with Urban Decay eyeshadows

Cute face, huh?

Just blogged about my wonderful journey to Sephora yesterday and today I used my new Urban Decay eyeshadow colours. Decided to go for a smokey bronzed brown look, using the colours Toasted (which is a shimmery coppery brown), Smog (a deep bronze colour) and Mildew (a forest green). I also used the 24/7 black eyeliner pencil that comes with the palette, and here's the look I came up with. Hope you like!

Merry Christmas to me

SO yesterday was pretty much Christmas Day for me. I went to the mall to apply for jobs and decided that I might as well stop by Sephora to spend my gift card that my lovely friend Steph bought for my for my birthday. Needless to say, I was very, VERY excited and not only bought a couple things but I also scored some freebies!! I plan on doing a review on all of these products very soon :D

What I bought:

• Urban Decay Show Pony Shadow box. All of these colours are absolutely GORGEOUS and uber pigmented! The palette also comes with their famous Primer Potion (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, this is pretty much the reason I bought the palette over the other Urban Decay paleettes) and their 24/7 Eye Pencil in Zero (black). So far I'm in absolutely in love with this palette. I love the packaging, the colours and the extra tidbits you get. Amazing!
• Makeup Forever Smoky Lash Mascara. I've been thinking about buying a nice mascara for a while but wasn't sure which brand to go for. This was recommended to m volumizing e by one of the Sephora girls. It's supposed to be really volumizing (which is what I look for in a mascara) as well as lengthening. I used it today and so far, I really like it!

The Freebies

• I couldn't resist signing up to be a Sephora Beauty Insider and because it's the month of my birthday I got a little birthday present set that comes with a mascara, eyeliner and eyeshadow. Haven't tried any of these products yet because I was WAY too excited to try out my Urban Decay eyeshadows and new mascara but I'll definitely be using them tomorrow and I'll include these products in my reviews when I do a full review on all these goodies.
• NARS Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base. I used this today... it has a really nice texture and glides onto my eyelid really smoothly. I have yet to see how it works in terms of preventing creasing, but I plan on taking a photo of my makeup at the end of today to see how it worked.

Appropriate for daytime?

Yesterday I recreated a look from a recent tutorial posted by one of my favourite youtube gurus pixi2woo. She claims that this would be a really nice everyday look, but I can't really agree. While I would definitely wear this to class or out with friends, I don't really think it's an appropriate work look... ya know? Regardless, I really like this look and hope you guys do too! Anywho sorry for the slackage over the past couple days but I will blog again soontimes... PROMISE!

Christina.... take note.

I just recently blogged about the good, the bad and the ugly of Christina Aguilera's makeup (scroll down to see it). One of the photos features her wearing a bright pink lip with uber strong eyebrows. Not cute. Here's how you should wear a bright pink lip. Keep your lips the focus by doing very little with your eye makeup. Some neutral matte eyeshadows, mascara and a really thin line of eyeliner is all you need. AND DON'T OVERDO IT WITH THE BROWS. Keep them natural!! This is Ashley Greene btw (from Twilight!)

SO GORG!

Stumbled upon this photo of Amanda Seyfried at the NYC Chloe Premiere. Her makeup is absolutely gorgeous, it totally makes her green eyes pop. The general rule of thumb when it comes to picking eyeshadow colours to make your eyes stand out is use an eyeshadow colour that is the opposite of the colour of your eyes on the colour wheel... remember learning about that back in grade school art class? Since Amanda's eyes are green, she's gone for a bronzey coppery eyeshadow look (green eyes look great with eyeshadows with a red or copper undertone). So pretty! I'm gonna be blogging soon about what colour eyeshadows to wear to suit your eyes but I'm wayy too lazy for that right now. And plus, I want to do some eyeshadow looks for every eye colour, so stay tuned!

Friday Night Makeup YAYY

So I am FINALLY finished all my exams (thank GOD!!) and managed to survive all of them (for the most part). I'm so excited to get back into the groove of blogging, I've missed you all so very much.

My roommates and I are celebrating the end of exams tonight and we're going out dancing. Should be a good time. Here's what I did with my makeup, it's a greeny blue look and I used my new MAC Undercurrent eyeliner! YAYZ!

Christina Aguilera... the good, the bad and the ugly

I have always loved Christina Aguilera, but she can be known for wearing way way wayyyy too much makeup. Now that she's married and has a kid and all, she's settled down a little bit and seems to have hired a MUCH better makeup artist. I like that she takes risks with her makeup, but sometimes it's a bit too much. Here's some photos of what I think are her best and worst looks from her post dirrty days.

THE GOOD

Christina wears the red lip so beautifully and her makeup looks great because she's kept the lips the focus, with just some black liquid liner and lashes .

Very classy, love it.

A very unusual look for Christina... NUDE LIPS!! (gasp!) She looks gorg, and her skin is flawlesssss

Another unusual look, but it's beautiful.

THE BAD

Her strong brows and pink lips just don't work. Really not a fan of this look. It would have been much nicer had she not gone for the thick brows.

Once again, strong brows and a mountain of eyeliner just doesn't work. If she just toned down one or the other (or both) this would have been quite lovely.

Not really much to say about this other than... SCARY! At least she tried something new though. But unfortunately it failed. Sorry Chris!

Just wayy too much eyeliner with the pink lips. When you're gonna wear a bright lip colour you really shouldn't do too much with your eyes. A thin line of eyeliner would be perfect.

THE UGLY

Seriously... matching your, blush and eyeshadow to the colour of your dress is NEVER cute. Don't do it. Or else I'll have to hunt you down with makeup remover. And take it off myself. Whether you like it or not.

Simple daytime look with pink lips and cheeks!

I recently bought a super cute pink blush from MAC (Pink Swoon) and have been using it everyday since! Yesterday was the first day I had the time to do my makeup and spend as much time as I wanted on it (YAYY I didn't have any studying to do!!) and so I opted for some simple eyeliner, a pink cheek with pink lips! Hope you likey

Oh Gaga, how I love you

Stumbled across these photos of Lady Gaga (from Fashion Uncensored) back in February when she attended the amfAR New York Gala (co-sponsored by MAC!) to promote AIDS awareness and her VIVA Glam campaign with MAC. Let me just say... I love how fearless Lady Gaga is. It's not everyday that you see someone with white beads stuck to their face. It looks like she's got barnacles growing all over her face. Regardless, I love her whole ensemble, including the beads. Her pink lips just make the look 10 million times better, and I read that she's wearing her VIVA Glam lipstick! YAY!

How to win my heart...

My wonderful roommates know exactly what makes me happy... makeup. FYI to any of you thinking of buying me a birthday pressie, here's a hint: MAKEUP!!!!!!
For my birthday my roomies bought me a gift card to MAC (yesssssss) and I immediately went out the next day to spend my money. I ended up buying a MAC blush in Pink Swoon (I have been wanting a girly pink blush for sooo long) and a Pearlglide eyeliner in Undercurrent (it's a gorgeous smudgy green eyeliner with flecks of gold glitter) from the MAC Art Supplies Collection. SO pleased!! Of course I used both of my new purchases today, and here's the look I came up with.