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

My Cinderella Story

...a dream is a wish your heart makes...

Once upon a time I awoke early in the morning, washed my face, brushed my teeth, (didn't brush my hair), put a bit of moisturizer and mascara on my face and eyes, put my work clothes and glasses on and was out the door. This is the tragedy of that everyday routine:

Yikes! What a nightmare! Hard to believe I go my day-to-day life looking like such a mess.

The fact of the matter is, we don't all have time to make ourselves look like movie stars everyday. Heck, even movie stars don't look like movie stars everyday, they look like this:

And this is one of the sexiest women in the world, Sofía Vergara!

She probably doesn't look even remotely recognizable to her usual self because not only does she not have her hair all vamped up and makeup professionally painted on but she also doesn't have THE perfect lighting reflecting off her face like she does when we usually see her onscreen.

I guess the moral of the story is that we can't all look perfect all the time. Even makeup artists don't always wear all that makeup. So I am going to show you how I transform myself from the "everyday look" to the sophisticated date night look...my Cinderella transformation!

Fyi this look was my makeup/outfit for my Valentines Day dinner date, but it can work for any evening out.

Here is the finished hair/makeup. I did a low side-swept up-do for my hair which was super simple. It was actually an attempt at hair tutorial, which I will post the link to below.

As for the makeup, here are most of the products that I used:

 As always, my Coastal Scents 88 Color Palette. This thing is ah-mazing! I recommend every lady pick one of these up, they're less than $20 bucks and are very good quality for the price. For this look I was using colors from the pink row, the second lightest pink shade.

 Here are most of the products that I used to achieve this look:

•  Cover FX cream foundation
• Tarte Smooth Operator finishing powder
• EOS lip balm
• Lorac eye primer
• Clinique's eyeshadow/blush set in Strawberry Fudge
• Sephora shimmery white  eyeshadow
• Bare Minerals eye shadow in Wearable Medium Brown
• Maybelline Stiletto liquid eyeliner in black
• Sephora Nano eyeliner in White
• La Cross eyelash curler
• Lancome Definicils Mascara in black
• Bare Minerals lip gloss in Citrus Tart (I believe)
• Lastly...the lashes:

 

These are false lashes purchased from Forever 21 (yes, and they are rather decent lashes) for around $2.50 a pair. Good deal, huh? Obviously, these lashes were meant for someone with quite large eyes ( I have the opposite) so it is best to trim them down to size. However, I altered these lashes by making them into my own demi-lashes because I feel like my eyes appear a bit to, how do you put it...hookerish...when I have a full strip of dramatic thick lashes on. This is solely due to the fact that my eyes are so minuscule that the lashes take over and you can no longer see any of my lids (I am by no means suggesting that people with "normal" sized eyes look hookerish with a full strip of lashes). 

 So, what I did was trim these lashes exactly in half and after I curled my lashes and applied a coat of mascara but before I applied liquid eyeliner I applied the outer part of each lash to the respective eye it belonged on (being either the right or left eye). Now, what did I do with the other half of each lash, you ask? Well, I applied them (upside down so the hairs go in the same direction as the natural ones do) to the bottom lash line. I did this to open my eyes up more and create a dramatic doll like effect. It's a lot of fun, especially if you're looking to try something different and experiment with false lashes. You glue them the same way you would the top lashes by squeezing a dot of glue onto the back of your hand and then running the lash strip across this to apply a small bead of glue to the false lash. Wait a minute before applying  so the glue is a tad bit tacky and then ease the lash up under your lower natural lashes (making sure that the false lash is upside down, opposite of how you apply them on your top lashes). Since I was using the remaining half of each strip make sure that, like the top lash, the longest part of the false is at the outer corner of your eye.

And here is the finished look of the false lashes! Notice the doll-like effect from applying false lashes on both top and bottom. Yeah, that's never gunna happen with mascara with the natural wimpy lashes I have on the bottom. I know my explanation on how to achieve this effect was long winded but I definitely recommend trying it out for yourself sometime!

This overall look is actually very easy.

1. Clinique moisturizer all over
2. Apply lip balm to lips
3. Cover FX foundation all over face ( I actually apply it with clean fingers, it's very manageable this way and the heat from your hands warms the foundation making the application very smooth and you don't have to worry about cleaning a brush :) Although, using a regular 'ole foundation brush works just fine.
4. Tarte Finishing Powder all over
5. Lorac eye primer on the lids
6. Use a light pink color on the outer corner of each eye. Work it in and a bit above the crease and bringing this color towards the middle of the lid.
7. Take a white shimmery shadow and fill in all areas where the pink doesn't cover, so bring it from the inner corner into the middle of the lid. Also bring it up from the inner corner to the brow bone.
8. Take a light brown color (I used the lighter brown shade from the Clinique Strawberry Fudge set) and with a fluffy blending brush sweep it into the outer corner of the lid, defining that crease. Blend this on top of that pink so the colors flow nicely together. Don't go too heavy on the brown, this is intended to be a subtle romantic look, especially since we're using heavy lashes.
9. With a small fine brush sweep some of the shimmery white shadow under the lower lash line from the inner corner towards the middle of the lash line. Also do this with a dark brown color from the outer corner in towards the middle so the  two colors meet.
10. Line the water line of your lower lash line with a white eyeliner (such as the Sephora Nano eyeliner). I also used this white eyeliner in the outer corner of my eye (that little crack between wear the upper and lower lashes meet), to open them up more, and blended it so it looked very subtle
11. Curl and apply mascara to lashes
12. Apply false eyelashes (explained above)
13. With a black liquid eyeliner, line the upper lash line. Wing-out this line so that it comes out a bit further than where your outer lash line ends. It's best to do this after you apply the false lashes because then you can go over where they meet your eyelid to take care of any visible gaps or glue.
14. Define your eyebrows (I use an angled brush with a light/medium brown eyeshadow from my 88 Color Palette).
15. Contour the facial features. Use a contour brush (Crown Brushes has some great ones) and a dark brown color (this is what I used the Bare Mineral Wearable Medium Brown shadow for) to contour the cheek bones, shading this so your cheeks look more defined. This makes your face appear thinner.
16. Highlight the facial features. I used the same shimmery white eyeshadow again and with my finger tip blended it on the bridge of my nose, center of my forehead right above where the eyebrows meet, the high points of my cheeks, and right above my upper lip (makes lips look fuller).
17. Apply blush to apples of the cheeks. Blend pink colors from the Clinique Straberry Fudge set  together for a glow-ey rosy color.
18. Lastly, I used a nude/gold lip gloss by Bare Minerals, but any nude or light pink color would look great on the lips. I wouldn't use too bold of a color though, considering the eyes are rather bold.

Whew! That was a mouthful...hope you all made it through that! Even if you skipped over the directions and have found yourself here, at least you're still reading. Kudos to us all. So, for the hair, since I am a fan of Michelle Phan, I followed her video tutorial for the romantic updo. Click here to see video. P.s. another one of her video tutorials was the inspiration for the eyes that I did for this look as well (I had watched both videos that day and then made my adaptions when I was getting ready for my date that night). Therefore, if you didn't feel like reading my directions above following her makeup tutorial would result in a very similar look, minus the bottom lashes.

I had 10 minutes to do my hair so I really rushed through this process and it still came out rather lovely.

It's hard to take a picture of the back of your head yourself  :P

And to throw some fashion in here, to finish the makeover on myself here is my wardrobe change:

Before: my usual work wear.

After: little black dress with black tights, black pumps, and some gold bangles. I know, lots of black, but it is winter still, isn't it? 

So, that is how I dress myself up! I hope you all enjoyed my little Cinderella adventure and also enjoyed seeing the power of some makeup and a curling iron. Being a woman ain't so bad, after all, we do have the ability to transform ourselves with a pair of false lashes and some heels.  Maybe we can't look like the sexiest woman on Earth everyday, but neither does the sexiest woman on Earth!

♥Rae

The Necklace to End All Necklaces

Well my friends, by popular demand I present to you the greatest necklace of all time...my Betsey Johnson elephante necklace. I received this stunning piece as a gift from my mother for loving me as much as she does. She purchased it off ebay for 1/4 of the price than I'm sure it cost and gifted me with it's glory. This is no ordinary necklace it was purged from the depths of the...ha ha I could go on about this gaudy piece and keep us all in suspense but I don't want to come off idolizing it too much or anything since it is an image of a large animal with horns and all...so without further ado, here it is:

Seriously though, I get more comments on this piece of jewelry than anything else I've ever owned, from both women AND men. This came as a surprise because it's quite large and colorful and just outright out there, but people LOVE it for some reason. I'm not quite sure what it is about this necklace, but every time I wear it, without fail, I get multiple comments. I feel like it's a rather bold piece, so the popularity of my elephant makes me think that maybe everyone should make some bold statements of their own once in awhile...we all seem to like it on me, why not you?

I love Betsey Johnson for many reasons, first being that she is bold so I think we can all take some tips from her and her boldness (not in the hair department, however. :/ Sorry, I may not like to brush mine everyday either but that look just ain't workin'). SO I thought it would be fun to give some examples of some Betsey pieces, animal inspired, that could really spice up a rather dull outfit. I'm not sayin' go out and buy these exact pieces because, like my elephant necklace, some of her older stuff may be near impossible to find. BUT I would like us all to be inspired by the Betsey-ness.

 These funky monkeys would be a wild way to make any outfit more fun.

Love, love, love this elephant ring!

 Leopard. nough said.

Let this slither it's way into your style.

This dragonfly would look very elegant as a brooch or necklace.

Leopard attack!!!!!!! Please please please never wear pieces like this all together...I see that far too often than it should ever happen, especially since I work in a place where I'm in contact with a lot of retired women.

OMG I need this elephant bracelet!!!

I have this spidey bracelet. It's the closest I'll ever get to a spider and it gives a very elegant, gothic, kinda feel.

I think we all get the jist of it and I need to hurry and end this post so that I can go stalk down where to buy that elephant bracelet :P We could all use a little wildness in our wardrobe every once in awhile. A necklace, bracelet, earrings, or even a brooch similar to any of these may seem a little bold for your style but trust me when I say you're not going to be gawked at for wearing something unique. My elephant necklace experience is evidence enough that the masses will enjoy your willingness to be a little out there.

xo Rae