30 Day Makeup Challenge: Day 6

6) Do you like/wear false lashes? If yes, strip or individual?

I LOVE to wear false lashes! They're so much fun and I would wear them everyday but, well...that would be a lot of work and I tend to get lazy with my own makeup. I prefer strip over individual because individuals are pretty hard to apply to yourself, much easier on another person but they can still be more time consuming. I will use them on other people if I want a very natural look and to just add a little bit of length and volume. The strips that I do prefer for myself, however, are demi's or half strips. I have very small eyes so a lot of times when I apply a full strip of lashes it can overpower my eyes and any makeup I apply becomes unnoticeable, demi's add the perfect amount of length and drama for me.

♥Rae

30 Day Makeup Challenge: Day 5

5) Favorite lipstick, lip gloss, and lip liner?

My favorite lip stick (brand) would be Mac...color?..I'm not sure how to pick just one, hardly possible, but I love "Myth," it's THE perfect nude lipstick for almost every skin tone. Favorite lip gloss (brand) is Stila...again I could not pick a favorite color because I use a different color nearly every time but the Stila lip glazes are high gloss and come in a super convenient tube in a great variety of colors (and they offer them in sets). Favorite lip liner BY FAR is Urban Decay's lip liners, I only own a few because they're more expensive than other brands. I probably own over 100 lip liners of various brands and the few UD liners I have I use most often. "Wicked" and "Naked" are my favorite colors, although, I would love to one day buy all the colors. The reason I like UD so much more than other brands is because when it comes to lip liners you need a strong pigment and for the pencil to be very smooth and creamy, instead of rough and hard. These liners just glide on the lips perfectly and make it so much easier to line and fill flawlessly.

♥Rae

30 Day Makeup Challenge: Day 3 & 4

3) Favorite brand?

Oh man, this is a hard one. I don't know how I would choose just one because I use so many brands for so many different things...SO I'm going to pick two haha. Favorite brand for foundation would probably be Cover FX, they only have makeup for the face so that's why I can't say they're my overall favorite brand. Favorite in general would be Urban Decay...I've actually never used their foundations but they have the most amazing primers, eye shadows, eye liners, lip liners, everything I LOVE.

4) Do you like wearing foundation? If so, what's your color and favorite?

I do like wearing foundation. I feel so naked without any on my face but I definitely don't wear it every day...honestly, that is mostly because I'm lazy. But if I'm going anywhere besides the grocery store or to hang around I will usually wear some foundation and concealer.

I actually have more than one color because I don't use just one foundation. My colors are Loreal True Match in "Natural Beige" (which is kind of dark for me because I'm so pale at the moment), Revlon ColorStay in "Early Tan" (which is not a great match for me because, while this is a good drugstore foundation, the undertones are a little off so it's hard to find an accurate match), Makeup Forever HD Foundation #118 (a perfect match), and Cover FX Cream Foundation in C40 (I mostly use this as a concealer, rarely apply it all over on myself). Cover FX is my favorite brand for foundations in general (I use it on most clients) but since I use it on myself only as a concealer I will say that Makeup Forever is my favorite foundation at the moment. It's a medium coverage, looks natural, and it blends with my skin perfectly...I would use it everyday but it's pricey, that's why I use so many foundations, the drugstore foundations I use are still great and so much less expensive that I wear them on a day-to-day basis and use Makeup Forever when I'm working or "dressing up."

♥Rae

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...on my face...

It's that time of year again! Where we decorate our houses with garlands and wreaths, trim the fraser fir, elaborately wrap presents...ok, so this is actually the first year of my life doing any of these things...but this is my first (technically second, since I graduated Dec. 10th last year) Christmas since college and something about decorating your house for Christmas really makes you feel like an official adult. So, December 1st came along and I began to have all of these decorating ideas that I just couldn't help but try out. All of it was essentially inspired by a bird (you'll see below). Now here's a glimpse of my Christmas spirit :)

 The living room is pretty small so it was hard to fit a Christmas tree but after some furniture maneuvering we managed it.

This is one of the centerpieces I made. The sleigh was a gift "basket" filled with Ghirardelli chocolate but I ate all that up quickly and filled it with scented pinecones and silver and gold sparkly flowers from Michael's. Super inexpensive!

Pretttyyy!

This teacandle tree centerpiece is super pretty when it's all lit up

This poinsettia is from Home Goods (my favorite store ever!) I wish I could leave it out all year long!

Another Christmas tree :)

A Michael's find

Here's the cute bird ornament from Anthropologie that started it all. It was my original inspiration for all the Christmas decor I picked out and because of the sparkly silver and white bird, decorated the rest of the house with white, silver and gold. I wish I could have bought 20 of these ornaments but they're $15 each...maybe for an after Christmas sale? haha

F-L-O-R-I-D-A-S-T-A-T-E!

 

Chris' mom gave us these last year, they have our names on them AND light up!

 

Most of the ornaments on the tree are from Big Lots...it was like $10 for 50, pretty good deal.

 

Here's the whole tree :) we couldn't fit one in that was too full because, like I said, the livingroom could barely fit a tree at all, but we realized after bringing the tree home that it was super scraggly. Strategically placing the ornaments concealed most of it so the finished product looks ok.

 

I even coordinated all my wrapping paper with the rest of the decor! (Obviously, I am on my GAME this year haha) Home Goods has AWESOME fancy wrapping paper for $2.99 a roll and 2 rolls was more than enough for all my gifts. The fancy ribbon I found at Michael's for .99 cents a roll!

 

 This is probably my favorite present ;) fancy wrappings just makes presents look even more appealing

It's Chris' present!

I'll try to make this my last present picture :P

Even my wall plug-ins are festive!

 

Chris' stocking :)

 

Patton, Bella, Chris, and my stockings...we even have a real fireplace to hang them from! Haven't used it yet though, since it is Florida and all.

 

On to the snowflake doilies! This was a super inexpensive decorating idea. I read about it online, instead of using regular paper to cut out snow flakes I found silver, gold (which ended up being on clearance), and the usual white paper doilies at Michael's and cut out (probably over a hundred) snowflakes. I'm really happy with the finished product and hopefully can save them for next year! 

Here's a gold one

...and white

Above the kitchen entrance

 

 I wanted to share 2 of my favorite holiday scents from Bath and Body Works. The Holiday Gumdrop is a new one and absolutely delicious!

Now, what would a makeup blog be without some holiday makeup looks? I went with the whole silver and gold theme and played around with a cranberry color lipstick. Whenever December comes around I usually go crazy with the gold eyeshadow...something about the holiday's makes me think gold.

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The colors I used were a very metallic cream which I layered shimmery shadows over.

And there is my take on a holiday makeup! I usually do a few every year so I tried to come up with a new idea with this by taking inspiration from all my decorating ideas and using a cranberry lipstick instead of a bright red. It's fun to play around with inspiration!

Hope you enjoyed all my Christmas-ness as much as I did! Hope everyone has happy holidays and a great new year!

Merry Christmas :)

♥Rae

 

 

30 Day Makeup Challenge: Day 2

2) How did you learn to put on makeup?


I mostly learned how to put makeup on from my sister. Her and I have always been the makeup "type" girls and since she was older than me I spent most of my life coping whatever it was she was doing. Haha just kidding (mostly **she did potty train me this way**) ^_^
But we have always been into makeup and she would show me different products, kind of teach me how to use different things. I don't think there was an actual definitive point where she decided to do something and then taught me, it was more a process of growing and learning together.

I did learn A LOT of the techniques I know now from YouTube. That is kind of what started my career as a makeup artist and really sparked my professional interest after hours spent watching videos on how to do a smokey eye, apply false lashes, perfect cat eye, various "Halloween looks." YouTube is THE it place to learn how to put makeup on. Once that interest was sparked I attended professional classes through makeup academies.

♥Rae

30 Day Makeup Challenge

I saw this cool little makeup challenge on Tumblr (if you have a Tumblr and would like to follow me my url is avondale16.tumblr.com) and thought I would try it out on my "real" blog since I'm mostly just friends with strangers on there and people I actually know might read this. I also thought it would be a great way to get myself to blog on here every day for 30 days! Maybe if I get in the habit of blogging on here every day, even if it is short and sweet, than I will be able to keep up with that momentum.

1) When did you start putting makeup on?

I started putting makeup on when I was 3…I guess you could call that more of playing but I legitimately remember my sister and I giving each other makeovers. I remember sitting on my mom’s bed and staring at her while she did her own makeup in her vanity, she would yell at me for staring but I would just beg her to let me sit there and watch.
I probably started wearing makeup for serious when I was about 12…haha I would sneak clear mascara and blush because my mom didn’t want me dolling myself up too much ^_^

♥Rae

Here is what I've been up to...

I know, I know, I haven't posted in a century. I feel like it happens to every "blogger" at least a few times a year (unless you're a professional blogger...yeah, there's a profession for that now).

So, I figured I would post about what I've been up to as an excuse to why I haven't blogged (this should be long).

I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with many awesome photographers and models over the past several months...as well, as the honor to work with some beautiful brides! Here are a few photos of the past few months' work.

(In the future I am going to try to do a post for each photoshoot or wedding, but at this point I am playing catch up)

Ashley Lands was an extremely talented model I did a beach photoshoot with photographer Herbart Ruiz.

This photo was from a ranch photoshoot I did with photographer Ryan Sheehy. He is incredible at what he does and we had fun working with the horse...although it got a bit difficult after awhile and we lost the sun quickly, but the end result was great!

This is model Paola Duque, she's a young Colombian beauty! This photoshoot was with Image Works 123 at Disney's Boardwalk, there were some beautiful rooms in the resorts and lovely scenery around the boardwalk!

This was a photoshoot that Anette was doing for her husband coming home from being on military leave. We shot in Ty with TKT Photography's studio. Both Anette and Ty were a pleasure to work with and we had a lot of fun.

These are a few photos from a shoot I did with photographer Emily Roman. I had a lot of fun on this shoot because it was just girls...well besides the 1 male model haha

This shoot was a lot of fun for me! The photographer, Julia Mariel, requested a gothic makeup look, which is not something I get to do often. Julia, the model Rebecca Belmont, the wardrobe stylist Cherie Pickett, and I are actually collaborating on another shoot  for January that is going to be the most fun yet, so stay tuned for that!

And last but certainly not least, here are some of the weddings I've done in the recent months...

 Zach has been best friends with my boyfriend, Chris, since they were young kids at bandcamp (haha) so naturally Chris hoped that Lindsey and I would hit it off and fulfill his dream for the 4 of us to live happily ever after together. It's hard not to love Lindsey, I see why Zach married her (especially after seeing these wedding photos, how gorgeous does she look?!). She is so much fun to be around and was an absolute joy do makeup on. Their special day was so beautiful, I was just honored to be a part of it.

Amanda was my only roommate from college, so when she asked me be her makeup artist for her day I was beyond thrilled. She is a stunning bride so it made my job a breeze :) and her and JP looked so happy, it was a very special thing to see since I've known the couple since I was...18(?!) wow! All her bridesmaids were a pleasure to work on and they all looked so beautiful!

That is just some of what I've been up to...pretty good excuse for not blogging, huh?! I've had the wonderful opportunity to quit my part time job and do makeup full time so I've been working on my business and focusing on my passion. I feel so blessed to be doing this with my life and it makes me so happy every single day. I couldn't have done it without my loving and supportive other half, Chris. He makes me a better person every day and constantly pushes me to grow my business and as a person. I am so thankful for his and my family's support!
Thank you everyone and if you would like to see more of my work please check out the "Gallery" on my website, www.raemakeup.com!

♥Rae

How to look fab with 5 items

I suppose I must start this with saying YES I know I am a horrible blogger and haven't posted in forever, but unfortunately life just gets in the way of things we say we'll do.

Today I really didn't feel like doing much makeup, I thought I would be outside all day in the sun so I didn't want to put work into anything I would sweat off. Or I was just being lazy. One of those two things.

The laziness, however, resulted in something lovely.

Also, observe my lovely Betsy Johnson watch my love gave me yesterday :)

Yes, indeed, I used five items on my face. That is all.
1. Tinted moisturizer (mixed a tad of liquid foundation with my daily moisturizer, ok so maybe that's two items but 5 is a much more pleasant number and you can easily just buy a tinted moisturizer)

2. White eyeliner

3. Mac's pretty pinky color in "Jest" (I not only highlighted with this eyeshadow color but also used it as blush!)

This picture isn't all too great because it was taken on my phone but this is an awesome frosty pink color

4. Mascara

5. Lip balm

And voila! That's it! Try it out for yourself, you'll feel quite confident in your own skin :)

Stay natural, my friends

♥Rae

Feeling Dark

The other day I was feeling very color-less...and here is the result:

We don't always feel bright and cheery and sometimes just want to wear black.

My one tip for today...even though I was doing a smokey eye I still lined my waterline (or inside of the lower lash line) with white eyeliner. Usually, you'd do this with black eyeliner for a smokey eye but for someone with petite (that's a prettier way of putting it) eyes like mine white really opens them up and prevents the black eyeshadow from overpowering the eye shape/size. Just a thought. Try it sometime, even if you have big beautiful eyes. The Sephora Nano white eyeliner is $8 and works great! 

♥Rae

Strawberry Fudge

I have a confession to make...In my last post when I presented my "every day" no makeup look, well that wasn't completely the truth. While I don't wear a full face of makeup everyday I probably only present myself to work like that 2 out of 5 days a work-week. Sometimes I may wake up too late, be too tired, or lose track of time while I stare at the wall as I drink my coffee on the couch so then I have to rush through my morning routine and skip most of the makeup. On a typical day, however, I wear simple, quick makeup which I usually aim to accomplish in less than 15 minutes.

The morning after my Valentine's night out I recreated that same look with a few tweaks to transform that concept into an everyday wearable look. Here is the result:

This is closer to how I present myself on an every day basis

Almost every aspect of this look and the one from the night before are identical, all I did was skip a few steps, quickened the pace and toned a few things down. I'll just highlight the changes I made to the steps I did from my last post.

As you can see I'm still in my pj's since it's 7:30 in the morning

The differences I made in foundation application are that I used Loreal's True Match as my foundation and used that Cover FX cream foundation as a concealer. The reason for this is mostly $$! The True Match foundations are a great drugstore liquid foundation, there are options for you to find the best color for your skin tone and the makeup quality is good for the price. I also like to do this because I don't need as heavy coverage when I'm just living my day to day life. Since the Cover FX cream foundations are such heavy coverage they work great as a concealer which I use for my dark circles under my eyes, around my nose and then for any blemishes or discoloration (I don't always have the best complexion).

I highlighted the same as I had the night before, used the same blush, but skipped the contouring, for time's sake.

Since it's almost spring soft colors like pinks and purples are great

The Lancome Definicil mascara has really made a difference in my eyelashes. I'll have to do a post soon about the before and after of how it's improved the quality of my lashes' lives.

After using the pinks from my Clinique Strawberry Fudge set as blush I wanted to try the rest of the colors out. 

I used the light pink on the outer corner of my eye in a V-shape and brought it up so that the pink would be very visible. Next, with a fluffy brush, I used the lighter brown in the outer corner to define the crease and blended it with the pink to warm up that color while darkening the crease. Lastly, I swept that Sephora shimmery eyeshadow from the inner corner of my eye upwards to the brow bone and then took the fluffy brush again to blend where the white and pink/brown meet to make sure there weren't any harsh edges. The look is meant to be soft.

The only other difference I made was used the dark brown color to line the upper lash line with an angled brush, and brought this line out. After that I used the liquid eyeliner only on the outer half of the upper lash line, as to not make the line too dramatic since this look is intended for an everyday wear. I used the shimmery white eyeshadow under the inner half of the bottom lash line and the light brown on the outer half. I skipped lining the waterline with white. Curled and mascara-ed the lashes and I was done!

And that's how you take a makeup look from night to day! Same colors and products but I toned some things down and was able to do this with plenty of time to sip my coffee and watch the morning news.

♥Rae