Pre-Valentines Party

Yeah, yeah. I know I'm super late with posting this but I've been busy...the semester is ending soon (SUMMER SOON YES) so everything is just piling up... haha. Sigh.

Anyway, how was your Valentines'/Chinese New Year? I didn't really celebrate myself since I'm single..haha. But I did have dinner with my family (immediate and cousins etc) because it was my cousin's birthday--and of course, to celebrate Chinese New Year.

I did go to a party last Friday though, at my friend's house. We decided we would have a 'Wild Lovin' theme--basically just an animal theme. I didn't have anything animal-ey to wear so I thought I could paint my nails but then that wouldn't be very noticeable. So I went out to see if I could get anything cheap to wear (since I'm not likely to wear anything animal print on a normal day). I managed to find leggings for only P70 (less than $2), so I just figured I could go to the party kinda casual. Good thing a lot of other people did the same, I mean people didn't even follow the theme! Lol.

I just did my makeup to match my outfit so I wouldn't be too out of place. Forgive the crappy image quality. I slept over at my friend's house (the house where the party was held) so I couldn't bring a lot of stuff.

The makeup:

Since I had school that day it was too much of a hassle to bring a lot of stuff..so I only brought my Coastal Scents 88 matte palette and my Shawill 12 palette. Despite this, 3 of my friends still wanted me to do their makeup..haha.

FACE Maybelline Clearsmooth face powder

CHEEKS Ever Bilena blush in Raisin

EYES ELF studio eye primer and eyeliner sealer, Coastal Scents 88 palette, Maybelline eyeliner, Maybelline Volum' Express Cat Eyes mascara

LIPS Shawill gloss

CHEEK CHEETAH PRINT ELF studio eye primer, Coastal Scents 88 palette

The cheetah print on my cheek was a lot more clear and defined in real life..my camera phone is sucky :( It wasn't that blurry, the lines were sharp I promise! Hehe

I forgot undereye concealer..so I couldn't conceal my dark secrets. Sigh

The outfit:

Leggings (they are supposed to be grey).

The casual outfit...haha

Anyway. I'm working on something right now--my baby thesis! It's going to be about makeup so I'll be posting here what I work on for it. (:

Happy Wednesday, have a good day today!

It's been rainy! FOTD + Daily Staple 07/16/09

It's the rainy season here again! Technically here in the Philippines, we have two seasons. Wet and Dry. Obviously wet is the rainy season. When it's the rainy season you can practically expect for it to be raining everyday! That's why I never leave the house without my trusty umbrella. :) It's such a hassle to get caught in rain after all, but then I digress.

Today I decided to procrastinate and take a moment to relax, and what better way to do it than....you guessed it!! Playing with makeup! :D I felt like making a gloomy look because it's so rainy and all and a lot of people are stuck at home. Man, I've grown quite rusty with the eye makeup! I guess that's what happens when you take a break for more than a month without practicing at all (at school the most I usually wear is foundation, mascara, lipstick/balm/gloss and when I'm feeling daring, blush). I came up with a simple wearable look.

look at me pulling a stupid face. LOL

And of course, I have a tutorial. :) Well, more like a step-by-step since I don't remember going into detail... x.x

What I used:
FACE Celeteque moisturizer as base, PAC two-way powder foundation applied with a wet sponge, Ellana Minerals finishing powder in espresso con panna
CHEEKS Ever Bilena powder blush in Raisin
LIPS Revlon Matte lipstick in Mauve It Over
EYES Art Deco eyeshadow base, coastal scents 88 palette, Victoria's Secret beauty rush luminous shadow in after midnight, Dollface gel eyeliner in black, Maybelline volum express cat eyes mascara waterproof in black

Let's get started! :) First prime your eyelids with a good eyeshadow primer or base (this step is optional).

Colors used: Click to enlarge

1) highlighter
2) all over lid
3&4) blended out over crease and outer v, brought inwards

Here are the next few steps:

Pat color 2 all over lid and pack on color

Using a blending brush or crease brush, bring color 3 inwards, emphasizing the outer V and the crease

Go over the same area with color 4 (black), blend out

Highlight under eyebrow and in the inner corner of eyes with color 1

With a thin/small angled brush, apply color 3 on lower lashline (apply white eyeliner on waterline-optional)

apply eyeliner and mascara

That's pretty much it. :) Of course after that I just put my lipstick on. I used Revlon Matte lipstick in Mauve It Over -- it's the 2nd lipstick I've ever bought for myself and it is currently my favorite. This item has definitely become a daily staple for me, I can't even think about leaving the house without this on (sometimes though I do substitute for other lipsticks...don't want to look the same everyday after all!). Personally I think that mauve it over is a good nude pink.

So here's a mini review on it:

Pros:

Affordable, considering the quality (475 php for 4.2g)

Nice, sleek and matte packaging

Pigmented, Good color payoff

Smooth-textired, easy to apply over lips unlike some other matte lipsticks

Really matte

Long-wearing

Good range of shades to choose from (matte collection)

NON-DRYING

Cons:

Can sometimes make your lips look very dry

Cannot be applied (or at least, shouldn't be) over chapped lips

Tips:

Apply a light coat of lipbalm before applying the lipstick to make it glide better if you feel like you are having a hard time with it

Make sure your lips are moisturized/not chapped prior to application (to make sure I put lip balm on every night and in the morning while I am doing my routine)

Wear gloss over it if your lips look dry (although this defeats the purpose of it being matte)

Now that that's done, here are a few more photos of my finished look. :)

That's it for today, everyone! Hope you have a good Thursday/Friday!!

An attempted look + Elianto brush set review

So last night my aunt, mom and I went to Metro Comedy Bar, where most of the acts and comics are gay guys. And one specific acts, the Foxy Ladies, caught my attention. Not just because they were funny, and crap they were sexy (One of them had Beyonce's figure in Dreamgirls--I swear because they were lipsinging the song from it), but because their makeup was amazing! Amazing amazing cut crease work and theatrical stuff. When they were going around asking for tips I actually considered giving them one just because their makeup was so amazing. But...alas, I am broke and saving for future purposes.

Last night I told myself I would give it a shot--I mean, doing a look based on theirs, and I think I did an okay job. I definitely need a hell of a lot of practice (especially with the freaking false eyelashes, I must've applied them 10 times just to get it right), but well... gotta start somewhere right? I didn't do so well with the cut crease, mine wasn't so sharp--but this is partly because I've had to reapply my shadow over and over whenever putting the falsies on screwed it up and believe me it was a lot of times! Anyway.... here are pictures:

Yes, you can see that I suck with the eyelash application. I used too much glue (I did let it dry though) and well...the lashes were hard to work with. For a total noob at false eyelashes, I tried to be pretty adventurous and oops! Faaaail! Oh well, this is how you learn, right? :x And PS, I know I look silly! XD

And now, onto my very very first review: The Elianto 8pc brush set!

 

I bought this set at Landmark Trinoma for 999php (almost $20). The SA claimed they were made of goat hair. I don't know, I can't really tell. Sometimes SA's will tell you BS to sell you stuff...and I found this is mostly true when they are trying to sell brushes.

Anyway... 

PROS

• Cheap! For 999php for 8 brushes it comes down to about 125php per brush
  
• Goat hair (or so they said) is supposedly good for blending, at first it was soft and not scratchy
• Good coverage from the powder brush and blush brush, good control from the e/s brushes
• Comes with all the essentials (This is what attracted me to it mostly)
• Sleek design makes the brushes look expensive
• Comes in a leather case (zippered) that is pretty fashionable
• Very good for beginners (like me) and practice

CONS

• Hair/bristles SHED SHED SHED even if the brushes are new and have never been washed. This is a very big con for me because they shed as I am using them. Otherwise I would not have cared very much.
• Stray bristles!

• After washing the powder brush, it became VERY scratchy and rough on the face. Because of this I am thinking about getting the ecotools powder brush or the Ellana buffer brush.

TIPS

• SKIP IT! Like I said this is good for beginners, for practice. I'm going to stick with this set until all the bristles fall out or something...as for now I'll be focusing on buying more makeup (yeah yeah I know, I shouldn't spend all my moneyyy)
• That said, be careful handling the brushes, they seem rather fragile to me--don't forget to wash them still though

WILL I REPURCHASE?

That is a big NO!I would rather spend my money on better quality brushes. 

Any suggestions for what I can replace this brush set with? :) Nothing too expensive please! I am just a student still after all.

I had loads of fun! :D (Hangout + Makeup)

My eye hurts--not because I poked myself with brush or eyeliner or anything (I got past that)... it's just that I was wearing my glasses and playing with the puppy...and she hit my glasses and bam! The nosepiece hit my eye and I was wincing and tearing up like a maniac. Sighhhh, accidents, accidents. Bleh!

I had so so so much fun today! Class was okay, not so boring but we were really challenged to think. And I didn't really mind so much--I didn't think political science would be anything but boring but maybe I was wrong. Who knows, maybe I really can achieve my dream of a 4.0 QPI (aka GPA) this summer term.

Anyway, today Kaila came over for our hang out and stuff and it was way fun--I totally missed her! We were bonding over old memories and talking about life in general, watching Enchanted and Mr. Bean while we (well I) played around with makeup... I'm jealous of her, she's got good skin. x.x Mine sucks like whoa.

First I did a neutral look on her--omg finally a neutral look from me! Haha. It seems that ever since I got my CS palette I couldn't stop playing with colors. Here are pictures:

I used: The Face Shop makeup primer in green, Ellana mineral foundation in toffee mocha, Ellana blush in fulfillment, ELF blush in glow, CS 88 palette, MAC Bagatelle e/s, Elianto stay-on eyeliner, Cinema Secrets mascara

Isn't she pretty? :D

And of course, I had to do my own makeup (I think I might make a tutorial on this later...or make it another entry for a contest, idk! Maybe tomorrow...). Kaila was playing around with my camera and she took a shot of me while I was doing my face... you can see how messy my room is! XD

Why yes I do have a couch setup in my bedroom! XD

And this is what came out of my playing around with makeup on myself:

I used: TFS makeup primer in green, Ellana mineral foundie in hazelnut latte + finishing powder in espresso con panna, generic blush, Maybelline concealer+purple lipgloss on lips for nude effect, Eyes: PAC e/s in blue, coastal scents palette, elianto stay-on eyeliner, Cinema Secrets mascara.

Of course we had to have a picture together...

Then Kaila also wanted a rainbow look on her (I don't really think I did that well :() So I did my best! Here is the outcome: I used VOV e/s and my coastal scents 88 palette--we just erased her neutral e/s. Didn't wanna bother with putting foundation all over her face again. Haha.

Excuse the poor quality, I forgot to mess with the settings and take another picture--wth Chrissy? D:

And of course, more girl bonding + camwhoring! Messy hair is due to electric fan pointed directly at us.

I'm really glad I got to hang out with an old friend today. :) How did you spend your day?

On a sidenote--Cheysser I will do the random 7 things tomorrow! I don't have room for it in this post. XD <3

I joined a video contest!

So I was looking around on youtube tonight, and I realized that a way for me to practice and play around with makeup is to join contests! Of course I don't really expect to win, but I hope to, so I decided after looking around to try one specific contest because it seemed really fun.

I joined BrushingOnBeauty's April makeup contest on youtube.

She had an inspiration picture, and she basically said to take it and do whatever look you wanted. Here is the inspiration picture:

Here is my entry:

I bet you're getting uber tired of seeing my red headband!

I tried to use all the colors I saw in the pictures, and I think I did it pretty well. It's a bit crazy but oh well, I had looooaaads of fun.

And of course I made a video for it--but I only made a slideshow since it's really late and I was totally too lazy to be talking XD

For what I used:

FACE Ellana Mineral Foundation in Hazelnut Latte, Ellana Finishing Powder in Espresso Con Panna, Ellana Mineral Blush in Lust, Aziza duo brush for highlight, Physician's Formula bronzer for contour

EYES artdeco eyeshadow base, PAC shimmer palette, Coastal Scents 88 palette, Elianto single shimmer e/s in Ivory, Elianto stay-on eyeliner, VOV eyeshadows, Cinema Secrets glamour eyes mascara

LIPS Cinema secrets rip roaring red 32, the color workshop lipgloss on top

What about you, what's the craziest look you've ever done?

I so totally had fun with this, and I really hope you like it! Until next time. :)

It's time for my first ever video post!

So today I decided I would spend my time making a nice video tutorial. I always wanted to do one, and so I finally did make one, and even though I made many bloopers/mistakes (sorry!) I think it's okay enough for others to watch. So I'm uploading it as I am typing this, so for now, I'm going to write about my fingernails!

I really love what I did to them yesterday--after inspiration from Ate Nikki I decided to do gradient nails with baby pink and cotton blue. I also put rhine stones (salvaged from an old shirt) on my fingernails and coated them with a glittery top coat--I actually put the rhinestones there to hide the bad gradient job (but shhh). I hope someday I'll be as good as Ate Nikki at nail art.

I used all local products (polishes, base/top coat etc).

Here is a picture, sorry I couldn't take one more zoomed in than that.

Youtube has been really hard to work with today, but it's all going to be worth it because I finally managed to upload my first video, and here it is:

Anyway, sorry for the bloopers and mistakes I made--this was my first time making a video. I'll get used to it soon, though! I hope you liked my video tutorial.

Also: I'm currently looking at how to contour and highlight faces--and I think I might be investing in the CS contour palette. Does anyone have any experience with it?

Now I'm gonna go read other blogs and start lemming over stuff again (thanks Gia T-T). Until tomorrow, everyone! :D