Look: Aries Angel

A blue smoky winged-out look using Aries shades from the BH Cosmetics Zodiac palette.

I'm back with another Zodiac look, hooray! I decided to use the baked metallic blue and pair it with it's fellow Aries shade, a matte purple-black. (I call it purple-black because when blended out it seemed to have almost a purple tinge to it. I'm not sure it really is a purple-black; obviously in concentration, it just looks black.)

Please click the pics!!! and then scroll down for product info :)

Products:

Face/Cheeks:

-The Ordinary High Adherence Silicone Primer

-Wet n Wild PhotoFocus foundation in Shell Ivory, applied heavily with Real Techniques sponge

-Maybelline Fit Me concealer in Fair, mostly under eyes

-Maybelline Fit Me powder in Translucent

-Darling Girl Koalification blush powder as contour (cheekbones)

- Milani Bronzer XL in 04 Dolci (cheekbones)

-BFTE Cosmetics blush in Winter Mauve

-Hourglass Iridescent Strobe Light highlighter

Eyes:

-Urban Decay Primer Potion original

-BH Cosmetics Zodiac palette, baked metallic blue and matte black Aries shades

-Wet n Wild (new) Nude Awakening eyeshadow palette, matte ivory and taupe shades

-Maybelline Push-Up Drama mascara (not a fan)

-Ardell Demi Wispies

-Urban Decay Venus eyeshadow (tearduct and browbone highlight)
- Brows: 

-Urban Decay Blackjack eyeshadow
Lips:

-Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche lipstick in Sugarcane

-NYX Slim Lip Pencil in Pale Pink (applied after lipstick to define edges)

Once again I applied the metallic shadow with my finger and wasn't too meticulous about it. I also didn't use a spec of eyeliner; that's all the matte Aries eyeshadow, even on my waterline!

I unintentionally did my brows bigger than usual, lol. I don't think it's too much, though... what do you think? 

I used a new lipstick, the Bite Amuse Bouche in Sugarcane, a light milky pink. I got it in a mini set for my birthday. Initially I was worried it would be too light on me and I'd never wear it, but after trying it for this look I really like it! I think it's a nice alternative for fair people to use as a nude lip with smokey or dramatic eyes; it has just enough warmth to not look dead on fair skin, but just enough coolness that it works well on my cooler skintone, as opposed to traditional "nude" lipcolors which tend to look too peachy or tan on me. I really loved how it worked with this look; the pink lip picks up the subtle pink cheeks and plays off the blue eyeshadow, making it pop. The smokiness of the eyes keeps the whole look from being too "Barbie". 

I know that some astrology buffs are unhappy with the color choices for each sign; I can't speak to that, I'm just the "messenger", using the palette to create fun looks, hehe. What do you think of this look? Would you wear it? Do you have the Zodiac palette? Let me know!

Thanks for reading!♥

Look: Scorpio Rose

 A sultry and soft metallic look featuring Scorpio shades from the BH Cosmetics Zodiac palette.

I'm super excited to be posting this look today! I recently bought myself the Zodiac palette from BH Cosmetics, and right away I wanted to do a look with it. Like most people, the first color that drew my attention was the metallic copper Scorpio shade, so I had to use that one and decided to pair it with it's complementary matte for this look. (I'm not a Scorpio but my sister/best friend Becky is lol.)

Keep reading for details and please CLICK THE PICS to view full size!

Products:

Face/Cheeks:

-The Ordinary High Adherence Silicone Primer

-Wet n Wild PhotoFocus foundation in Shell Ivory, applied heavily with Real Techniques sponge

-Maybelline Fit Me concealer in Fair, mostly under eyes

-NYX Stay Matte Not Flat powder in Ivory

-NYX blush in Taupe (cheekbones)

-Tarte Amazonian Clay blush in Paaarty

-white gold highlighter from palette as skin highlight

Eyes:

-Urban Decay Primer Potion original

-baked metallic copper and rust matte Scorpio shades from palette

-Wet n Wild (new) Nude Awakening eyeshadow palette, matte ivory shade and black shades

-Maybelline black gel liner

-Maybelline Push-Up Drama mascara (not a fan)

-Ardell Demi Wispies

-white gold highlighter from palette as highlight
- Brows: 

-Urban Decay Blackjack eyeshadow
Lips:

-Wet n Wild Liquid Catsuit in Rebel Rose

Once again, I didn't retouch these photos much, just a bit of skin smoothing and sharpening. I did auto-contrast in Photoshop (which I mainly use for watermarking and resizing) because the photos were actually under-exposed. All it did was brighten my skin just a touch.

This was my first official attempt at a halo eye as part of the January Inspiration we are doing in the Phyrra Facebook group. I applied the metallic copper to the middle of my lids with my finger, and patted a bit of the gold highlighter just in the centers, but I'm not sure if you can really tell. Before this I only loosely knew what a halo eye was lol; now I know I can do one! :D

I wanted this palette as soon as it came out months ago, but was broke at the time lol. However after the holidays I had some Christmas money so I decided to splurge and treat myself. I don't know why but something about this palette really attracted me; I love the packaging and the theme and the colors... I haven't bought many palettes in the past year or two but I just had to have this one.

I absolutely loved this look, and I love my Zodiac palette! I'm excited for all the looks I can do with it. I'm thinking of doing a series, like a look featuring each sign's shades from the palette. We'll see ;)

Thanks for reading!♥

Look: Metal Asylum

 A classic look featuring a glam metallic red lip!

This look combined two different days from the January Makeup Inspiration I have been participating in from the PhyrraNyx group on Facebook. You don't have to do every day, and you can pick and choose which challenges to do. It's more for inspiration to motivate you to do makeup and have fun. 

My two inspirations were metallic and red lipstick. I didn't have a metallic red lipstick so I made my own using a red lip pencil and a metallic red eyeshadow. Scroll down to see which ones, and please click the pics to view in better detail!

Low-exposure shot to show the amazing glow!

Products:

Face/Cheeks:

-The Ordinary High Adherence Silicone Primer

-Wet n Wild PhotoFocus foundation in Shell Ivory, applied heavily with Real Techniques sponge

-Maybelline Fit Me concealer in Fair, mostly under eyes

-NYX Stay Matte Not Flat powder in Ivory

-NYX blush in Taupe (cheekbones)

-Tarte Amazonian Clay blush in Paaarty

-wet n wild MegaGlo Illuminating Palette in Catwalk Pink

Eyes:

-Urban Decay Primer Potion original

-Wet n Wild Nude Awakening eyeshadow palette, matte ivory shade

-Urban Decay eyeshadow in Nudie
-Maybelline black gel liner

-Maybelline Push-Up Drama mascara (not a fan)

-Ardell Demi Wispies

-Urban Decay Venus eyeshadow (browbone)
- Brows: 

-Urban Decay Blackjack eyeshadow
Lips:

-NYX Slim Lip Pencil in Deep Red

-Sugarpill loose eyeshadow in Asylum 

Other than the lips, there's nothing special about this look so all the pictures looked the same, lol. I do love the lip though♥

Thanks for reading!

Look: Force Awakened

 A minimalistic look in a tribal style featuring matte blue eyes and black lips.

This look was done for one of the days of the January makeup challenge I'm doing; the inspiration was Black Lips, so this is what I came up with. For some reason it reminded me of Star Wars, hence the title. (Though if you look at this makeup and think "clown", you're not alone... haha.)

Please click the pics for best detail!

 

Products:

Face/Cheeks:

-The Ordinary High Adherence Silicone Primer

-Wet n Wild PhotoFocus foundation in Shell Ivory, applied heavily with Real Techniques sponge

-Maybelline Fit Me concealer in Fair, mostly under eyes

-NYX Stay Matte Not Flat powder in Ivory

-NYX blush in Taupe (cheekbones)

-Darling Girl Cosmetics blush in Fantasia

-Urban Decay eyeshadow in Venus (highlight)

Eyes:

-Urban Decay Primer Potion original

-Wet n Wild Nude Awakening eyeshadow palette, matte ivory shade
-Maybelline black gel liner

-Maybelline Push-Up Drama mascara (not a fan)

-Concrete Minerals Pro Matte eyeshadow in Bulletproof (royal blue) applied with my finger

-Urban Decay Venus eyeshadow (browbone)
- Brows: 

-Urban Decay Blackjack eyeshadow
Lips:

-NYX Slim Lip Pencil in Black Berry

 Originally I intended to do the eyeshadow color in a neon green, but I couldn't find my neon green pigment. (Don't ya just love moving? v_v) I also couldn't find my black lipstick or else I would have preferred a satin finish on my black lip, but I had to content myself with just the lipliner pencil. Bulletproof is an awesome loose eyeshadow; I literally dabbed it on with my finger because I wanted it to look messy, almost like warpaint. I pictured a desert nomad, like Rey; maybe scavenging for junk or even training to be a Jedi.

I love playing with makeup and creating all sorts of looks, but when all is said and done, these minimal artistic looks are my fave.♥ 

Thanks for reading♥

Look: Neon Smoke

 A new look featuring an edgy silver halo eye, neon accents, and a bright red lip! I don't know if the name is fitting but I really couldn't think of a title for this look...

It's definitely been a while since I posted! I figure I'll just pick up where I left off, if you don't mind ;)

This look is my first foray back into blog makeup since close to a year ago. It's been a year of dramatic changes for me personally but I won't go all into it. I hope to utilize these changes and channel their energies into things like makeup, blogging, and personal/creative growth. Anyway, on to the makeup!
(Click for larger images!)

 For this particular look, I'd had an idea in my mind for a while which was a smokey silver eye and an orangey lip. I pictured kind of messy, like editorial or runway style. Well this is what came out, and it's nothing like what I pictured, but I went with it. The eyeshadow is way out of my comfort zone; I never use silver and I prefer soft blended looks, but I do like how this turned out.

 In the photos it looks like my lash strip is coming off, but it WAS actually glued on securely, lol. It wasn't at all noticeable in person.

Products:

Face/Cheeks:

-The Ordinary High Adherence Silicone Primer

-Wet n Wild PhotoFocus foundation in Shell Ivory, applied heavily with Real Techniques sponge

-Maybelline Fit Me concealer in Fair, mostly under eyes

-NYX Stay Matte Not Flat powder in Ivory

-Darling Girl Cosmetics contour powder (cheekbones)

-Hourglass Luminous Flush blush

-MAC neon pigments in Red Electric and Neo Orange

Eyes:

-Urban Decay Primer Potion original

-BFTE loose eyeshadows in Smoke, Silver, and Gun Metal
-Matte black from new WnW Nude Awakening palette
-Ardell Demi Wispies
Brows: 

-Urban Decay Crave eyeshadow
Lips:

-UD lipstick in EZ

I took these photos with my ringlight and my old Canon Rebel. I love that the background is black; this is what I always tried to achieve, but never could because I was working in tiny bedrooms. I recently moved to a new house and my bedroom is much larger, so it gives that effect. 

I'm still working on taking good eye closeups; the ones above were the best I could do for now, but it's an ongoing effort.

I'm so pleased that I barely had to edit these photos! All I did was use Aperture to soften my skin slightly to compensate for extra sharpening, crop, and use Photoshop to watermark/resize. That's it. No exposure, contrast, vibrancy, nothing. My skin has been doing better since being off dairy completely for the past year, so I didn't even need to edit out any pimples or anything. I was also sick with a cold at this time, and I was astonished that you couldn't detect the dryness around my nose from excessive tissue use, lol. This foundation really does look good in photos! Incidentally, I think Shell Ivory is a pretty spot-on match for my skintone which is awesome since I can never ever find anything that matches me. The NYX powder is a tad dark/orange, but it still works.

So there you have it! Thanks for reading! It's good to be back :)

Fall Look: Plum Noir

 A dramatic Fall look with bold winged eyeliner, sparkling antique brass eyes, and deep plum-red lips.

Since I'm trying to branch out a bit, I tried a few different things with this look. I've been watching tutorials on how to do winged eyeliner when you have small, hooded/creased eyes like I have; also, my eyes are different shapes so I have that added complication as well, lol. Lucky me! It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted, for instance the liner kind of got away from me, but who hasn't experienced that, am I right? ;)

I will say the tutorials worked- I never realized I had to do my liner a special way because of my eye shape. (If you're interested in the tutorial I used, you can watch it here.) I think this person has similar issues to mine so it helped me see what I was doing wrong and what I needed to change. It also helped me see that maybe I should move away from liner and more towards shadows for defining my eyes and making them look larger...

Please click for max size and resolution:

 Face/Cheeks:

-Revlon Colorstay foundation for Combination/Oily skin in Buff

-Maybelline Fit Me concealer in Fair and Light

-Maybelline Fit Me powder in translucent

-Milani Bronzer XL in 04 Dolci

-Darling Girl Cosmetics blushes in Koalification (contour) Rose Queen, Racy Raspberry

-NYX powder blush in Taupe

 -Urban Decay eyeshadow in Venus (highlight)

-Eyes/Brows:

-Maybelline Color Tattoo in Creamy Beige

-Darling Girl Cosmetics Glitter Glue on center of lids

-Darling Girl Cosmetics eyeshadow in Dragon's Breath on lids

-Urban Decay eyeshadows in W.O.S and Venus (highlight) and Crave (brows)

 -Maybelline black gel eyeliner

-Maybelline Falsies Big Eyes mascara

-Some drugstore falsies, forget the brand but they're nice 

Lips:

-Urban Decay Vice lipsticks in Blackmail and Sheer Shame (applied first but went over with CP)

-Colour Pop Cosmetics Ultra Matte Lip in Notion

 From my "bad side" lol; you can see that the left eye liner turned out better than the right; my left eye is less round/creased, so it was a bit easier to get a good straight wing. I hadn't intended to cover up so much of the gorgeous eyeshadow but the wings kind of took over. :(

Also I did a dumb thing and applied the eyeliner AFTER I'd packed on that sparkly shadow, so it was super hard to apply on that bumpy surface. You can also see some sparkle through the black, lol. The makeup looked nice in person, if super dramatic, and I initially thought the photos just weren't coming out. But looking at them I think they turned out fine, somehow.

The lipstick is another pretty one from Colourpop! It looks very satiny but that might be because I had originally used some UD colors from my Vice lipstick palette, one of which is a sheer and very glossy shade, but then decided to go over it with the Colourpop lippie.

Thanks for reading♥

**I'm so sick of disclaimers but people should know what I'm about, so here we go: I have nothing to disclose. That's right, nothing. I'm not affiliated with anyone. No one paid me to write this, I didn't get these products for free, I bought them with my own money. I'm not getting sponsored or compensated for anything. I do this because I love it. Period.**

**If you wish to know what my photo editing policy is, please see the widget at the bottom of the righthand bar.**

Lost

I used this as the opening picture because I thought it would make an arresting thumbnail image :D

It's obviously been a while since I blogged; a lot has happened in my life and it just hasn't been high on my priorities list. I moved houses which was an extreme challenge all it's own, and my health took a nosedive as a result. Life has basically been a struggle this Summer, and the Fall is gearing up to be the same deal. :( 

However I do love doing makeup and taking beautiful photos with my fancy camera and ringlight. I recently made my first order from Colour Pop Cosmetics and got some of their famous liquid lipsticks, and am enjoying using them, so I may be posting again sporadically. Mostly I'm active on Instagram so follow my profiles if you'd like more frequent posts from me:

Makeup and nails: @Makeupfancy

Photo edits: @Technicolorworld

Personal: @makeupfancies

For now, please scroll down and enjoy the pics and products :)

 Face:

-Covergirl 3 in 1 foundation in Ivory

-Maybelline Fit Me concealer in Light

-Maybelline Fit Me powder in Translucent

-Darling Girl Cosmetics blushes in:

Koalification (contour) 

Neon Trees

Cougar

To Love A Beast

-Urban Decay eyeshadow in Venus (highlight)

-Milani Bronzer XL in 04 Dolci

Eyes:

-Maybelline Color Tattoo in Creamy Beige

-Urban Decay eyeshadow in Venus (highlight)

-Urban Decay eyeshadow in Crave (eyeliner and brows)

-Maybelline Falsies Big Eyes mascara

-Some drugstore falsies, forget the brand but they're nice

Lips:

-Colour Pop Cosmetics Ultra Satin Lip in Lost

 Can I just say I looooove this lipstick? I looooove this lipstick! It's perfection. Not sloppy or shiny, but not completely matte; went on like a dream, so pigmented, and made my lips look full and smooth. Stayed on for hours without changing or wearing off, transfered minimally, and didn't dry my lips out at all. Miraculous. And the color... be still my heart. It's a deep warm brick/blood red; dark enough to be bold, but light enough to be wearable. A step or two up from vampy, but still totally dramatic. Lovelovelove.

This look was mainly to showcase the lipstick, and I wanted it to be fall-ish, hence the orangey blush. I like how the beige color tattoo looks on my lids, it just adds a touch of warmth that really goes with the warm blush and lipcolor. I hope to post more looks with more lippies from my recent haul :)

Thanks for reading♥

**I'm so sick of disclaimers but people should know what I'm about, so here we go: I have nothing to disclose. That's right, nothing. I'm not affiliated with ahyone. No one paid me to write this, I didn't get these products for free, I bought them with my own money. I'm not getting sponsored or compensated for anything. I do this because I love it. Period.**

**If you wish to know what my photo editing policy is, please see the widget at the bottom of the righthand bar.**

Look: Metallurgy

 Hey! This post is for a look I did at the very beginning of the year, but it's taken me this long to post it... I tend to put off the most important things because I'm too afraid of messing them up, know what I mean? lol. Anyway, this look was so much fun to do! I wanted to do something extremely clean and androgynous; the aesthetic is sort of like a cyborg assassin in a military post-apocolyptic future. Or something.. :P

The first few photos are the first phase of the look– bold, defined brows, cheekbones, and lips, with little other makeup. There's a little neutral color on my eyes, but that's all.

Check out my clickable pics!

Close-up to show the makeup.

i will cut you!

 For the second phase, I added more cheek color, mascara, and some highlighter to make it a little more feminine:

This shot was my sister's favorite so she wanted me to include it, lol.

For me, it was strange to do an androgynous look; I don't feel that I have a very feminine face, so I usually rely on things like blush and mascara and eyeliner to make me look more feminine. However, it was fun relying less on the makeup and more on my own features... and sort of empowering, like "I can look cool with dark green lips and no lashes!" lol. Of course I do prefer the version with mascara– note how I look like I have no lashes in the first photos!

Products:

-Loreal Infallible Pro Matte foundation in lightest shade

-Darling Girl blush in Koalification* (contour)

-Darling Girl blush in Neon Trees

-bronzer

-Jesse's Girl eye primer* (I think)

- Urban Decay Naked Basics palette, Venus as highlight and Crave on brows

-Urban Decay Naked palette, Buck and Naked on eyes

-Cover Girl The Super Sizer mascara*

-Portland Black Lipstick Company lipstick in "Metallurgy"

My skin was a MESS; breakouts, redness, dryness, flakiness, the works. I really caked on the Loreal Pro Matte foundation, and was super surprised at how full-coverage it was, although my skin was way too dry to wear it properly. It was pretty flaky on my forehead, and I had so many wrinkles across my cheeks and under my eyes, but nothing a little Photoshop couldn't fix. :)

I loved wearing the Metallurgy lipstick too, although my sample is so old I probably should have tossed it long ago. Ah well. 

Anyway, THERE IT IS, YAY. I hope you enjoy this look as much as I did! I love playing with makeup and trying to take interesting photos. I'm trying to push myself a little outside my comfort zone in both areas. 

Thanks for reading!