Being a responsible blogger

I haven't forgotten about my blog, or blogging! And I'm happy about that. I made a commitment and I'm sticking with it. xD To show just how much I love this blog, I made a new layout for it. Yay! Bye old layout, hellooo pretty new layout. ^_^

I'm still working out the kinks but it's mostly up, and I'm happy.

New post tomorrow! How do you like my spiffy new layout? :D

ETA: The common consensus seemed to be that my font size was small, so I made it bigger. How's that?

Woo!

Sigh. I am REALLY starting to feel awful for not being able to post so much. Blame it on school and busy schedules. I'm just sneaking this post in, right now! I'm so sorry I can hardly read people's blogs anymore. My gosh, I didn't think I'd be this busy. I pride myself in rarely getting stressed due to workload, but holy wow, this year is going to shape up to be very busy. So if things do not work out I may have to take a hiatus... but I will always miss everyone on here!


I just wanna share a fab find with everybody!


Last week, I was with my parents at TriNoma, a mall nearby. They were shopping for clothes so I went off to the health/beauty area at the department store. I was about to leave when I spotted something:

I was really fortunate to see this brush hanging there on the display shelf because...

If you can't see what it says, it says P39.75. That's about... 80 US cents. Not even a dollar. This is what it looks like:

It's small, but just perfect. It's a great crease brush. Well, I use it for cut creases now.

It's really hard to find cheap brushes, especially crease brushes! Because normally cheap brushes would be normally just shaders and such.

Nicely packed, soft to the touch, picks up perfect amount of eyeshadow.

No shedding or bleeding, even after being washed.

You can find it at TriNoma Landmark Department Store, 1st floor. Near the Sally Hansen kiosk.

Try it out, you'll love it like I did. :)

Have a good weekend, girls! Now I'm off to go back to doing homework. :(

Contest Winners

I really feel sooooo bad for taking so long to post this. But I talked with Gia and promised to post it last Saturday at 6, only I got sick and had to be quarantined for a couple of days…and I guess I never got around to talking to Gia again cause I hardly saw her around and she didn’t reply to my texts. So I just got to talk to Gia now and she said that I should go ahead because she's really busy...

So, after almost a whole month of waiting, here are the contest entrants.

Crissy http://makeuppackrat.blogspot.com/

Sarah http://kiss--and--make-up.blogspot.com/

Janie http://hellobrokecollegestudent.blogspot.com/

What she used (no picture was included):
Amuse foundation
Cover Girl invisible concealer NYX
NYX oncealer
L'oreal true match
NYX liquid eye liner
Maybelline define a line
Amuse glamour eye shadow palette
Costal scent 28 neutral eyeshadow
Amuse sweetheart eyeshadow
Max Factor lash perfection mascara
L'oreal Lash out mascara
Styli-Style lip stain
NYX tinted lip spa

Thiamere http://thiamere.blogspot.com/

Yu http://notsodainty.blogspot.com/

And finally…
It was hard for Gia and I to decide the winner—of course, after all the entries were amazing. Everyone put their own spin on the theme and all looked pretty authentic Beijing Opera makeup… We would give everyone prizes but since we can’t afford it we had to choose just one. So the winner is…

Sarah

For being so creative and thinking out of the box for her inspiration. Congratulations, Sarah! I’ll e-mail you about getting prizes right after I post this.

My first ever xdeal as a MUA!

Initially I was going to wait till I got the edited pictures to do this post, but I decided I'd just post and show you all the edited pics later on (it's been almost two weeks and still no edited pics...Tamy's computer had crashed, and I'm not holding it agaisnt her cause I know how it is!).

A friend introduced me to a girl who usually modeled for photographer friends, Joyen. Long story short, Joyen eventually asked me to do makeup for her and another model for a harlequin themed photoshoot. The theme was supposed to be different but it was eventually changed due to the wardrobe availability. The photoshoot was even postponed one day because of the weather, but it eventually pushed through, which I am totally glad for!

I was initially very hesitant to do the makeup because...well, this was the inspiration that they all decided on:

I had no idea how I would manage the lips...or making the skin whiter and the eyebrows more defined. But eventually I told myself it might be best if I just gave it my best shot. After all I needed practice! Everybody does, right? :) I didn't even mind doing it for free (my mom thought I was crazy, using my products for someone else. She thought it was a 'waste'!). Well, I got a Banoffee pie in return, mmm.

So on the day itself I packed my traincase with all the stuff I thought I might need and hauled myself to the shoot site (model Ceejaye's house). Tamy (the photographer) was a bit late but I didn't mind, I just sat around, getting familiar with the people I was going to work with.

The shoot is titled Spilled Harlequin Secrets, and these are the people I worked with:

Photographer: La Tamara Lyn http://myspace.com/omfgtamaralynphotography http://modelmayhem.com/omfgtamaralyn

Models: Joyen Santos & Ceejaye Tantengco

MUA: Chriselle Sy (me! :D)

Hair: Aeya Fontanilla

Lights & Assistant for a day: SJ Manliclic

These people are amazing! They are so fun, and even if they all knew each other and I was pretty much the only new one there, they made me feel so very welcome. I felt like I was with friends while I was working with them. There was a lot of laughter (this distracted us at times so it took longer to get ready). Everyone was CRAZY! In a very very good, endearing way. I'm really glad I decided I would do the xdeal because I couldn't have had a better first MUA experience.

Let me show you pictures! All of them are courtesy of Tamy. :)

My traincase and stuff laid out for the day

Joyen

I decided that to get the skin white, I would put on a pretty good amount of makeup base (I used The Face Shop professional makeup base in green) because that significantly whitened my skin before (which is why I rarely use it now) due to leaving a white cast on skin. Then I took my kabuki brush and my Elianto white e/s and got to it. The result:

Joyen white as a ghost!

Everyone else watching...L-R: Aeya, Ceejaye (behind her is Joyen and I), and SJ

LIPS! The eyebrows have also been done here. I think I did the inspiration pictures sufficient justice...

After falsies and contouring, all done!

Doing Ceejaye's lips

Joyen getting her hair done while I do Ceejaye's makeup

Aeya doing Joyen's makeup, funny how the picture was cropped lol

Cleaning up a small mascara mistake

Joyen striking a pose while I fixed Ceejaye's makeup and while Tamy played with lighting options

Ceejaye, Joyen, Aeya and me

Ceejaye, Joyen and I


Joyen and Aeya


Ceejaye after her makeup was changed for the final scene in the shoot/set

Well, that's it!! I can't wait to show you all the real pictures. I hope Tamy can upload them soon. I can't wait to see them too. I had so much fun that day! They even let me give my suggestions for some of the makeup.

Again I've missed you all, I'm so glad to be back to blogging!

I feel so disconnected from the world!!

My laptop is still dead, but my dad will be home soon so I'm hoping he can fix it somehow... if he can't, well then I will have to find other means to blog, don't I? I miss all of you girls and reading all your blogs!! I feel like I have missed so much.

School has started so I can't exactly read back on all your entries...but I will definitely be reading more from now on. :D I'm going to try to be around more often than not. x.x

So yes, I am glad to be back. I can't wait to post some more, I have so much to blog about!

PS
To all those who tagged me, I'm sorry I never did the tags.

Thank you so much to the people who have followed me since I fell off the face of the earth! I promise I'll make it worth your while. :)

To those who joined our contest, winners will FINALLY be posted June 20 at 6PM (GMT+8). I am sorry it has taken so long but with all the computer issues I have been having it has just been hard to sneak the post in.

My laptop is dead--

It's a videocard and motherboard problem. I'll be around but not so much, girls. I'm sorry. I hope I can get it fixed, or at least that I can get a new one sometime soon (since school is starting up in a week). The winners for Gia's and my contest will be announced sometime soon I hope. I'm really sorry. :(

Mineraux Mineral Makeup

My laptop gave me the BSOD (blue screen of death) the other day. I figured it would happen soon enough since my laptop has been having trouble booting up lately anyway. So girls if I'm missing that is why. :( I have to wait for my dad to get back so he can fix it (anywhere from a week to a month or more). I'm going to do my best to keep posting anyway, but please understand that I may not be able to read everyones' blogs/comment!!

Let's see...this is a week overdue. I was lucky enough to get invited to the launch of Mineraux mineral cosmetics on May 23. This brand offers premium mineral makeup products tailored for the new Filipinas. Minéraux is dedicated to further empower women to shine inside and out.

I did a simple FOTD for that day with my Jesse's Girl bejewelled quad. I didn't even bother to use any eyeliner because my eyes were uneven (one was puffy--don't you just hate when that happens!? It's bad when both of them are puffy but when ONE is and the other one isn't..GRR!! Lol, sorry =D). Here is my FOTD:

I miss my long nails!! Anyway, for this I used MAC studiofix in NC35, Ellana finishing powder in Espresso con panna, G-lish Patrick Rosas blush, NYX round lipgloss in real nude, PAC white eyeliner, Jesse's Girl Bejewelled Quad, Maybelline Cat Eyes mascara

During the event, which was held at Barcino Wine and Tapas Bar at The Fort, the owners of the Mineraux talked about their brand. The supplies and product come from and are made in the US and in Canada, but Mineraux prides itself in being a "Pinay" brand. Mineraux was initially established in 2007.

After a while, we were served food and allowed to see what they had to offer on the makeup bar. They had available foundations (premium blend), blushes, eyeshadows, eyeliners, brushes, and bronzers. They also had mineral veils and color correctors. They will have lipsticks and lip glosses available this month (June).

The makeup bar

We were given freebies in gift bags--three full-size jars of products of our choice. My choices were foundation (warm medium tan), blush (raspberry), and neutral mineral veil. My mom was with me and she chose foundation (cool fair), eyeshadow/eyeliner (dark brown--can also be used as eyebrow powder), and let me have one of her choices, so I chose eyeshadow in soft green.

My initial thoughts on this brand are (please note that this is my opinion, and I got to play with the products for a limited amount of time only):

Packaging:
The packaging for me was sleek, and quite nice. The sifter in the foundation jar was good, it had big square holes so the foundation can reenter the jar and not make a mess. The only thing I don't like is that the stickers on the bottom of the jar are starting to come off.

Foundation:

The holes are nice and big so the powder goes back in the jar so things don't get as messy.

From what my mom and I have observed, these foundations last pretty well throughout the day. I still got oily after some time (2-3 hours), but I'm taking into consideration the fact that I'm really oily, and the heat/humidity really worsens my situation (but I should be seeing a difference in my skin after a while, since thanks to Catherine I am now trying Jojoba Oil as a moisturizer). The foundation applied nicely, and quickly, and blended perfectly into my skin (at first I thought it was either too light or too yellow but it blends perfect). The coverage was not that good, I still had to use concealer, though there was considerable concealment of my undereye circles.

Blushes

This is my choice of blush from the collection because from what I saw, it was the only blush that was not very shimmery. That is one bad thing I noticed: most of Mineraux's blushes were shimmery, and that did not go well with me because I do not want to look like a disco ball!! There were only about one or two shades that weren't too shimery, or matte and this was one of them. Good thing it was a pretty shade. :) As for the staying power, well this blush faded on me after a while..around 2-3 hours the moment I got oily.

Mineral Veil

The amount they gave for this product was not very generous considering the amount of foundation they gave. But that's okay, I can repurchase because it's not very expensive (prices later). This transluscent mineral veil works really nice for me. I sometimes just put this on after I put my sunscreen on so my face will stay matte longer, and it really does do the job, although my face still got oily (as usual 2-3 hours later). It applies nicely and evenly.

Eyeshadow

On the first swipe the eyeshadow shows a decent amount of color. It is very blendable and stays well with a base. I didn't need to apply wet because even dry this shade was pretty pigmented. From what I've observed while I was playing with the others during the release event, everything is pretty pigmented. They have some matte shades and more shimmer shades, but I love a matte shade called Apricot. I wish I'd asked for it but then I wouldn't have really been able to use it. I will purchase it instead. :) All in all I think their eyeshadows are nice, I just wish they would release more shades.

These four are the only products I have really been able to try from the brand, however I will definitely try the rest when I get the chance.

Here are swatches:

1: foundation in warm medium tan, not blended

2: neutral veil, not blended

3: blush in raspberry

4: eyeshadow in soft green, several swipes

Now I would like to show you the prices for Mineraux, in peso. What is good is...the brand is so AFFORDABLE!! See for yourself below:

Now I'm sure you can ask yourself where you can buy Mineraux products. Well, for you readers who live in the Philippines, good news!! The first two Minéraux make-up corners are targeted to unveil in Power Plant Mall in July 2009 and in Glorietta Mall in August 2009.

But, of course, I'm sure some of you can't wait that long, so if you can't, then starting this June (1st week supposedly) you may purchase online from http://mineraux.com.ph/ and http://mineraux.multiply.com/. I'm not so sure how international readers may avail of the products, but I'm sure you can buy online. We'll see how things turn out!!

Swatches are available, but personally I can already see that they are not accurate. I will wait until a more accurate version comes out before I show you all.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed my post! Have a good day. :)

Project 10 pan update: Another product panned today!! Vaseline healthy sunblock. That brings my total up to 4!!