Halloween Look: Neon Mermaid

This look started out as just a trial of my new Lunatick Labs glitter adhesive and it ended up turning into a full blown Halloween look!

As you can see this is a full on glam mermaid look, with lots of glitter!

To do this look start with a completely bare face, no foundation. I primed my eyes with BH Eye and Lip Primer before anything else. Then, I used Lunatick Cosmetic Labs Helper Skelter Glitter Adhesive on my eyes up to and slightly above the crease. After that I patted BH Cosmetics glitter in Mermaid Blue on the outer 2/3 of the eye and Lime Green in the inner 1/3. At this point I cleaned my face again to get all the glitter fallout off. I then did my foundation like normal and put on a very light blush. I used my new Lunatick Cosmetic Labs AlieNEON pigments on the bottom lashline. I used the bright yellow on the inner corner, the green in the centre and the bright blue on the outer corner, all over NYX milk. I also drew some red coral coming out the corner of my left eye. To do that I used an angled eyeliner brush and the bright red in the AlieNEON stacker. I shaded it in a bit with a darker red and a black from my BH Cosmetics 88 matte palette.

To finish the look I used Hard Candy's liquid eyeliner and NYX Doll Eyes waterproof mascara. On my lips I used Revlon's Colorburst Lipstick in #080 Coral.

That's all for my crazy bright mermaid look, I hope you liked it! Halloween is pretty much here, I can't wait! I will be spending the evening trick or treating with my cousin's awesome kids. What are you being/doing for Halloween?

Quick Look: Purple and Orange

I just wanted to quickly post the first thing I came up with after getting my Lunatick Cosmetics!!! If you didn't read my last post, I did a little review of the things I got from them there.


The picture doesn't look that great. In fact, the makeup isn't really perfect either. I was pretty rushed, I just wanted to try some of these colours out on my face! They are so much fun! This picture does not do that orange justice. It is exactly like a highlighter, I swear!

I look forward to doing tons more looks with these!!!

Unboxing/Review: Lunatick Cosmetic Labs

My package finally came!!!!! I was actually beginning to worry that I was not going to receive my package. I accidentally put the wrong postal code for my shipping address, but somehow it found its way to me anyways! The package I got was from Lunatick Cosmetic Labs. I placed my order about two weeks ago and my package was sent out the very next day. It would have been here about 1 week ago probably if I hadn't messed up the postal code. I was tracking my package online and it made it into Canada about a week ago and then got sent back to the US. From Lunatick Labs, I ordered the AlieNEON Supercharged Stacker and the Helper Skelter glitter adhesive. It arrived in a very sturdy, very cute box!

Shipping to Canada was fairly reasonable. I think it was about $10. When I opened the box, everything was securely wrapped in black tissue paper and there was a sprinkling of glitter!

The glitter adhesive came in the cutest little wooden coffin! I will definitely be keeping that on my dresser or something. It is adorable, and has a little latch on the side and everything!!! Here are my two products with a quarter for size reference:

Now for a quick review of the products. I shall begin with the glitter adhesive. Helper Skelter glitter adhesive sells for $8 American and comes with 4 grams of product inside a squeezy tube. The product looks white in the tube but it is clear once you rub it onto the skin. It has a nice vanilla scent to it. This has a kind of greasy texture that never seems to completely dry. It is extremely good at getting glitter to stick though. I tried it on the back of my hand with a BH cosmetics glitter that I own and have been walking around using my hand for a few hours now and all of the glitter is still there! I tried eyeshadows over this base though, and found that it was too greasy. The website does not say anything about using this stuff with eyeshadows though, I just wanted to try it. Because of the greasiness of the product I would suggest still using a primer underneath. This stuff may crease a bit, but I have yet to find anything that actually makes glitter stay on my face properly, so I can handle a bit of creasing if I have to. Overall, I like this product, but I don't love it. I think it was very good for the price, and it does work, but I haven't found my holy grail glitter adhesive yet.

The AlieNEON Supercharged Stacker on the other hand, may be the best eyeshadows I have ever used!!! This stacker sells for $45 American and comes in two finishes. Supercharged is the glittery stacker and they also have a matte version. Normally when there is a matte option I pick that, but these were just so over the top I had to get the glittery version! There are nine insanely bright, UV reactive colours in here and each colour has 2 grams of product. This stuff unfortunately has not been approved for use on eyes in the USA by the FDA, but it has been in Canada and the UK. The packaging on these is alright. I actually hate dust stack packaging normally. The lids seem to twist off too easily and I always feel like I am going to drop it and it will shatter. This one is no different sadly, but it looks so cool that I can live with it. The jars do have sifters in them, which I like.

As for the colours inside the stack, they are AMAZING!!! I was immediately blown away before I had even opened them up or tried them out! These shades are literally brighter than highlighters! Aside from being the best colours I have ever seen, they are also very pigmented and blendable. I literally have nothing bad to say about these. All of my makeup dreams came true today when I opened this box. Here is a swatch of all the colours with and without flash:

Neither picture shows quite how intense these colours really are! The orange near the top is so bright I can't stop staring at it. It looks like it must be glowing!

Overall, I really love Lunatick Cosmetic Labs! I will definitely be getting more things from them in the future. I might, in fact, need the matte version of this some day. On top of these great products they also have a whole line of crazy coloured lipsticks, tons of eyeshadows, palettes and a few face products. They do sell things for special effects makeup as well, like their zombie paint stacker, which has every colour needed to do zombie makeup in it!

I am really glad I found this company, and hope you check them out!

Halloween Tutorial: Demon

It is almost Halloween! Only two more days!!! I definitely wanted to get more than just one Halloween look posted this year, so I sat down tonight and came up with this! This look would be good for a devil or demon costume.

This look was actually fairly easy to achieve. I used a very light foundation on my face and didn't bother with under eye concealer. I then basically filled the entire circle around my eye with a flat shader brush and a matte red eyeshadow. Mine is from Makeup Forever, but the number has rubbed off. I then took a very fine angled eyeliner brush and used the same red to make streaks down my cheeks and at the outer corners of my eyes. I then took a matte black eyeshadow and, using the same brush, traced the inner edge of each line with the black to give it a bit of depth. I also did a very smoky eye with the same black and a fluffy blending brush. I then filled the inner corner of my eyes with a shimmery yellow pigment. I also filled my eyebrows in with a matte black shadow, exaggerating the arch in them a bit. To do the lips I outlined them in Sigma's eyeliner in Boost and then filled them in with the same matte red eyeshadow. I blended the edges of the red and black with a lip brush.

That's it! This look was done very quickly, since I felt like I needed more Halloween posts.

Hope you like this look! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

What's In My Purse?

This is just a fun list of products I always make sure I have in my purse before leaving the house.

Makeup in my purse:

- Chapstick (of course). Usually it's Burt's Bees. My current favourite is Burt's Bees Acai Berry chapstick.
- Concealer. In case I need a touch up, I normally carry BH Cosmetics' Jumbo Pencil Concealer. It matches my skin well and the pencil shape makes it easy to carry in my purse.
- Hand cream. Especially this time of year, my hands start to get dry all the time so I like to keep a little travel bottle of hand cream with me at all times. I am currently using Naturally Upper Canada's Pressed Olive Avocado Hand & Body Lotion.
- Compact mirror. Obviously, this is for touch ups. I have been using the same compact mirror for years. It is small, round and has little butterflies with a sort of mother of pearl finish.
- Lipgloss. I don't always use it, but it's nice to have one in your bag just in case. Currently in my purse is a BH lipgloss in Peace, Love & Mod. It is a good neutral colour for me that will go with any makeup look, just in case.
- Setting powder and a kabuki brush. Right now I have some sort of loose Covergirl powder and a Bare Minerals kabuki brush in there.

What else is in my purse?

- My ID and money normally. That's right, no wallet. I like to live dangerously disorganized.
- My bus pass. I'm 23 and I don't drive. Sad? Maybe.
- MY cell phone (of course). I have a water resistant, dust proof and scratch resistant. It is as close to entirely cased in bulletproof glass that I could get. For some reason, I throw my phone when I'm angry.
- A book. Those bus rides can get long and boring! Right now I am reading Medalon by Jennifer Fallon, it's a really good fantasy book.
- A giant mess of garbage, kleenex just in case, and various candies (also just in case).

What is not in my purse right now???

- My keys!!!! I lost them and am waiting for the replacement still. I guess living dangerously disorganized has its drawbacks..... The past few days my boyfriend and I have had to coordinate who would take the keys or be home to let the other one in first. It is starting to get really annoying.

So that is everything in my purse right now! I don't think there is much in there out of the ordinary, is there? What can't you leave the house without? Let me know in the comments!

DIY Beauty: Coffee Sugar Body Scrub

This recipe is for an insanely easy body scrub. This is like the amped up version of the lip scrub I showed you last time. The addition of ground coffee makes it a rougher texture, which is better for use on the whole body. There are literally 3 ingredients to this scrub: sugar, ground coffee and oil. I suggest you use raw sugar but if all you have is white or brown granulated sugar, go for it. I used regular white sugar this time, since I have run out of almost all of my skincare making products right now. I just ordered some new fancy oils and things online, but they aren't here yet, so here we are. You can also use any kind of oil you want. I used mineral oil for the same reason as the sugar. You could use olive or grapeseed oil, or anything else you like too.

To make this scrub you basically take equal parts of ground coffee and sugar. I think about a 1/4-1/2 cup of each makes a good amount if you are covering your whole body. All you have to do after that is add some oil, just a bit at a time, and stir until everything starts to get clumpy. You don't want this to be runny at all. The oil is just helping everything stick together. When you are finished it should look a little like this:

Once you are done take your bowl into the shower with you and when you have finished soaping up, scrub this all over your body. The sugar and coffee will remove all the dead skin and the oil will make your skin feel very smooth and soft. You will also smell delicious afterwards! This actually made my entire bathroom smell like a toasty cup of coffee all night. I used this scrub last night and my skin is still feeling silky smooth today, almost 24 hours later.

Next time you are feeling like doing something special for yourself and don't want to spend any money, consider this! One warning though, you will need to take a minute to wash the coffee grounds out of your shower afterwards! I hope you like this recipe and give it a try!

Review: Balea Purifying Face Mask in Cucumber Melon

I don't often pamper myself with store bought products. If I want a mask or body scrub or bath melts I tend to try and find a way to make them myself. Sometimes, though, it is really hard to resist those little face mask packages when I walk by them in the drug store. Occasionally I end up buying a handful to keep in my bathroom for days when I'm feeling like having a lazy pampering. They all cost about $2-$3 so why not?

Tonight, I decided, was going to be one of those nights, so I pulled this Balea purifying face mask out. This one is the cucumber melon variety. The package says it is paraben free, hypoallergenic and dermatologist tested. It says it is supposed to remove dirt and oil and leave your skin feeling refreshed and invigorated. It is kaolin clay based with cucumber and melon extracts.

To use it you are supposed to apply it with your fingers and then let it sit for 10-15 minutes before washing it off. I like to squirt the package into a little bowl or container first, so that I don't get it everywhere while trying to apply it (which normally happens anyways). When I squeezed it out it was a light blue colour. This is what it looked like:

It was extremely cold to slather on my face, and it did nothing but get colder. The smell was also kind of strong at first. It had hints of the melon and cucumber, but there was a stronger more menthol sort of scent over top of it. Here is my lovely masked face:

After a couple of minutes my face started tingling all over. It was actually almost too cold to the point of hurting, but not quite, so I pushed through and left it on for the full recommended time. Washing it off in the shower was a bit of a challenge, I would suggest using a face cloth to get the bulk of it off first. I wish I had thought of that before I spent 4 minutes scrubbing at my face with my eyes shut!

In the end my skin did feel nice and softer than usual. I like the way it made my skin feel but I was not a huge fan of how icy cold it got or the smell really. This was fun to try and very inexpensive, but with so many other options to choose from, I doubt I will buy this kind again.

Impulse Cosmetics

I just wanted to take a few minutes of your time to tell you about an indie cosmetics brand that I discovered on Etsy! Impulse Cosmetics has a range of ridiculously bright looking lipsticks, as well as a fairly large selection of fun eyeshadows and glitters.

The reviews on their page seem mostly positive, with lots of people saying that the lipsticks are very highly pigmented and moisturizing. The prices are also extremely reasonable, as is shipping. An eyeshadow or glitter is $4.29 Canadian and the lipsticks are $7.51 Canadian. If these products turn out to be good, I will definitely be getting more! They have some ridiculously cool, unique looking duochrome shadows that I am now regretting not buying.

I ordered a few goodies to test them out and I will have reviews up as soon as I receive them. I picked a couple of their lipsticks in fun, unusual colours, a glittery eyeshadow and their sticky eye base. I have never bought a lipstick that wasn't a typical red or pink or almost purple before, so I'm really excited to get these!

An unboxing and reviews will be up as soon as I receive my package! Until then, check out their Etsy shop and see what you think!

DIY Beauty: Why You Need Witch Hazel!

This episode of DIY Beauty isn't exactly a recipe for anything, but I would like to bring to your attention an amazing product that I will be using in a lot of future recipes. Witch hazel is a product I use every single day. To me, this is a miracle product. It helps to clear acne, soothe irritated skin, reduce puffiness under the eyes and so much more!

This is the witch hazel I normally use:

This is Thayer's Original Witch Hazel with Aloe Vera. I buy this at Rainbow Foods, the nearest health food store. It costs between $15-$20, but I don't remember the exact price. You get a ton of product for the price. The bottle has 12 fluid ounces in it! This particular witch hazel is a toner, so it is mixed with a few other ingredients, but you can get pure witch hazel astringent as well. I just don't have any of that on hand right now.

I use witch hazel every day after I clean my face or have a shower, before I put on my moisturizer. It is amazing at helping to fight acne, and my favourite part is that it helps reduce under eye puffiness. I also use this sometimes if I have razor burn on my legs. I also add witch hazel into a lot of homemade beauty product recipes, like a homemade toner that I will be showing you soon!

While doing a bit of research for this post, I came across this article that lists several great uses for witch hazel beyond what I have mentioned. It also goes a bit more into detail about why witch hazel works so well. I definitely suggest you check that out if you are interested in getting any witch hazel.

I hope you like this post and that you seriously consider picking yourself up some witch hazel. This product is so great for so many things!

The Hair Chronicles: Washing With Baking Soda and Vinegar

The end of my second week without shampoo is fast approaching, and my hair right now is not looking great... I have been doing some reading, and a lot of people suggest that for the first 2 weeks you wash your hair twice a week with baking soda and then condition it with apple cider vinegar. After those two weeks you are supposed to go cold turkey. Eventually, once your hair has reached a proper balance of oils, you are allowed to start washing your hair again with baking soda and apple cider vinegar once a week. I decided to just skip to the end step. I had already been washing my hair only once a week before this, and used a very small amount of shampoo, so I didn't think my hair would need the first step.

The other night I decided it was time to finally clean my nasty greasy hair. I was going to a Halloween party and there was no way I was going to wear my hair tied back again! It had been two and a half weeks of no shampoo and my hair was not actually looking that bad. It was only very greasy at the roots. Still, I wanted it clean for the party, so it was time to try the baking soda and vinegar method out.

I put a couple teaspoons of baking soda into a little bowl and put a bit of water in it until I had a paste. I then filled a second little bowl with apple cider vinegar and left them on the edge of the shower. When it came time to wash my hair I basically stuck my fingers into the baking soda goop and then rubbed them into my scalp as much as I could. I used about half of it up rubbing it through my hair. It never actually foamed up of course, but it turned from being gritty to smooth and soft in my hair as I rubbed and I could tell my hair felt cleaner. It took about a minute to get it all through my hair and then I rinsed it out.

Next it was time for the apple cider vinegar conditioning. I normally avoid conditioning my hair unless it is feeling extremely dry. I have very thin hair and conditioner tends to just sit on it and make it heavier and look greasier, no matter how much rinsing out I do after. I decided to use the vinegar anyways for a few reasons. 1) I wanted to do it for this experiment, because everywhere I read told me to use them together. 2) I thought that the baking soda must have somehow dried out my hair. 3) I did really believe that apple cider vinegar would actually condition my hair as much as a regular conditioner would.

Getting the vinegar onto my hair without dumping it everywhere in the shower was a bit of a challenge. I found the best way was to cup one hand and pour some into it and then turn my head sideways and lower my hair into my hand. Then I rubbed it into my hair from the bottom up. I was actually surprised at how soft my hair immediately started to feel. It wasn't as intensely slippery as when you use a conditioner, but you could definitely tell it was working. I don't use conditioner often, so I was actually amazed at the feeling of my hair and couldn't stop running my hands through it in the shower after that.

Once out of the shower, I blow dried my hair to find it was still greasy looking, but most of the grease was in the middle part of my head instead of the scalp, where it had been before! I can't say for certain why this is, but I have two theories. The first is that all the grease in my hair is finally moving outwards to the ends of my hair, to naturally condition it, which is what is supposed to happen. The other theory it that the baking soda actually did a good job of cleaning my hair, but then I overdid it with the apple cider vinegar afterwards, and it made it look dirty. I am not yet an expert on these things, so I have no clue. Regardless of my dirty hair, I still wore my hair down and it wasn't that bad in the end.

Sorry this post was so wordy and without pictures. I didn't exactly feel inclined to photograph my nasty hair at the time. You can see what my hair looked like in my previous post about the sugar skull makeup I wore. If you haven't seen that already, you can find it here.

Have you tried the no shampoo challenge? Does anyone know why my hair turned out like this? Let me know in the comments!

Halloween Tutorial: UV Sugar Skull

I finally have a Halloween look! I absolutely love Halloween. Ever since I was a little kid, it has always been my favourite holiday. Candy is a nice perk, but I love playing dress-up more than anything!

I did this look yesterday to wear to a Halloween party where there were many black lights. The whole thing took about two hours in total. To do this look I used Kryolan's UV-Dayglow aquacolour in UV Pink. This product is sort of a pain to work with, because it is hard to make it look even. It may seem annoying at first, but this stuff is really worth it if you either want the most insanely bright Dayglow colour during the day, or a glowing face under black lights. I will give you a quick run-down of how I use them, in case you decide to try them out.

To use kryolan aquacolours, you dip a brush or sponge in some water and then into the product and swirl it around a bit to make it a pasty consistency. If it is too runny or thick it will end up patchy. You also need to make sure you get the colour buildup you want on each prt of the face before moving on, because you can't really go in later and add a second layer. This tends to just rub off your first layer! I have found that the easiest way to apply this is with a large flat foundation brush. I make this aquacolour a thick pasty consistency and then apply it in a thick layer with short dab/stroke motions. Then, once it was dry, I set it with the brightest pink blush in my BH Glamorous Blush Palette. I then contoured with a matte black eyeshadow by NYX in my temples and the hollows of my cheeks and blended it out with the darkest red in the Glamorous Blush Palette. When I was done it looked something like this:

Then I traced the circles around my eyes, filled them in completely with Sigma's eyeliner pencil in Boost and set that with a matte black eyeshadow from NYX. I also traced a skeleton nose hole on my nose and filled that in with boost, then set it with the same eyeshadow. After that, I took a NYX black liquid liner and drew flower petals around my black eye circles and started to draw designs on my face. At this point I needed to take a break to eat and drink something before I did my mouth. This is what it looked like then:

After my delicious dinner of spinach and bacon pasta, I continued with drawing designs on my face. When I thought it looked good enough, I took a lip brush and used that to clean up all the edges with the aquacolour. I then used a package of green gems in various sizes and glued them to my face with lash glue anywhere I wanted. I also took a flat liner brush and dipped that in water and made a much thinner consistency paste with the Kryolan Aquacolour. I ran that brush all along my lashes so that they would be hot pink too. This product is not technically meant for use around the eyes, so I am not necessarily recommending you do this, but I like to live dangerously.

I did my lips last (in case I wanted a sip of anything). The teeth around my lips were done in liquid eyeliner but my lips were lined with Sigma's Boost liner and filled in with MAC's lipstick in Cyber. Two more gems on the outer corners of my new mouth and I was done. This was the finished product:

This look lasted a full 8 hours without looking very much worse at the end. This 8 hours included lots of dancing and minor amounts of sweating. It was just below freezing out last night and the doors and windows to the venue were all left open so the sweaty, dancy people wouldn't overheat. This was a bonus for me, but not so great for my friend who hates dancing and sat shivering all night. I took a picture of myself at some ridiculous hour in the morning just for you, to see how well it lasted:

As you can see, some of the makeup around my mouth and nose was wearing off and 3 of my rhinestones had fallen off. Some of the pink around my cheek area is also looking a little patchier as some sweat shows through. Other than that, I was surprised at how well this stayed on for such a highly water soluble product! I was most impressed, though, with how well Sigma's eyeliner pencil in Boost stayed on my eyelids with just a light wash of matte eyeshadow to set it. After the 8 hours, there was almost no creasing. I will definitely be trying this out as an eyeshadow base again in the future.

It took four cotton pads soaked in mineral oil plus some other scrubbing to get this all off of my face! Washing it all off was so heartbreaking! I wish I had managed to get pictures of it under black lights, but I forgot to bring my camera with me. I might post an update if I find anyone who was there who took pictures of me!

I hope you like my first Halloween tutorial! What are you going to be for Halloween this year? Let me know in the comments!

Meet Me On The Bright Side Beauty Blog Hop!!!

I am a little bit late posting this, but this was a very busy couple of days and I m a bit behind...

Last week I participated in an amazing thing called a blog hop, hosted by Meet Me On The Bright Side, who has a great blog full of awesome product reviews and makeup ideas! If you aren't already following her, definitely check her out! On top of other great beauty posts, she regularly hosts these beauty blog hops. The basics are explained below, but it is pretty much a great way to find new blogs and have others find yours! Every week the person who had the most views on their page the previous week gets to co-host. I was lucky enough to be that person last week! So, if you are reading this, please take the time to have a look at the blogs below and follow any you like!

Thank you so much for letting me co-host this, and again, I'm sorry this post is up so late!!!

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Happy Friday Bloggers! The weekend is here! Come link up to my Bright Side Beauty Blog Hop for a chance to gain new followers and find amazing new reads. Linky list will be open now until this Monday night 11:59 pm, Ohio time. There are only a few guidelines , so read, follow, and let the fun begin. Don't forget to come back every Friday to join the blog hop and enter future giveaways :) The blog this weekend with the most views will win a co-host spot on next weekend's hop so get your network on :)

Face Off. You Should Watch It!

This post is going to be a little bit different. I wouldn't normally post about something I've seen on television, but I couldn't help myself!

I'm sure a lot of you have heard of or seen this show before, but if you haven't, it is amazing! Face Off is a reality television series where a bunch of special effects makeup artists compete to win money and a bunch of great makeup. For you Americans, this show is every Tuesday at 9/8 central time. I have been a bit slow to the party, though, since I am only on the fourth season, but they are currently airing the fifth.

Every episode they do a mini challenge at the beginning, which is normally just a face or head makeup, and then they do a main challenge, where they have to put together a whole costume from head to toe. The show also has amazing judges like Ve Neill, whose work includes Beetlejuice and Glenn Hetrick, who worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer! On top of that the contestants are so incredibly talented! It's hard to believe some oft he crazy things they come up with every episode.

Every time I watch an episode of this show I am filled with new makeup ideas by the end. Have you seen this show before? If not, you should definitely check it out. Let me know what you think of it if you do!

Look of The Day: Vaudeville Inspired?

I'll start this post off by quickly saying I now have a Bloglovin account so now you can also Follow my blog with Bloglovin. Now that that business is over with on to some fun makeup!

I don't really know what to call this look. It looked sort of vaudevillian to me when I was finished, so that's what I'll go with.

This makeup was extremely fun! It was really hard not to pull a weird face for every single picture I took. I only managed a few normal ones. :P Sorry about the low picture quality again. My camera and I just were not getting along, so I gave up and used this. I really am trying to be a better photographer, no lies!

This look was done with the BH Cosmetics 88 matte palette on the eyes. The cut crease is done in a very dark burgundy colour, there is a pale pastel blue on the lids and a grass green under the eyes. The cut crease is not connected to the outer corner of the eyes at all, it just floats there. I put an extremely thin line of black eyeliner on the top lashline that only wings out the slightest little bit. I then lined the bottom waterline with a white pencil liner.

For my cheeks I used NARS blush in Mata Hari and for my lips I used a MAC lipstick in Cyber.

I hope you enjoyed this one. Now, go do something fun with your face too!

Old Look: Splatter Paint

I didn't have much to write about today, so it's time for another ancient look from my makeup archives. I'm running low on these looks though.... Soon I'll actually have to do some real work! Anyways, on to the pictures. Here is my splatter paint inspired makeup.

I can't remember exactly what products were used for this look but I can say for certain that the purple and orange are both makeup forever eyeshadows in #92 and I think #18 but the number has rubbed off now. It is probably hard to tell but I took a bunch of the pigments I had used and threw bits of them all over my hair so it would look splattered too.

This look was extremely fun to do and I hope it gave you a bit of inspiration. Now, go put something crazy on your face!

The Hair Chronicles: No Shampoo Challenge

If you read my last post you already know I hate taking care of my hair. The less work I have to put into it, the better. That is why I have wanted to give the no shampoo challenge a try. I'm sure we have all heard of it by now, but if you haven't, here is a quick run-down.

The idea is that shampoos strips our hair of to many natural oils, so our scalps compensate by adapting to make more oils faster. This is why when most of us go for just a couple of days without shampoo our hair looks like a giant grease ball. Apparently, if you stop using shampoo, your hair will regulate itself again and eventually look healthier and shinier than ever before. Sounds awesome right? Less work for better hair, yes please! Now this method won't work for anyone who uses a lot of styling products in their hair regularly. There's just no way to get all that product build-up out of your hair without shampoo.

I started this challenge a week ago and my hair is pretty gross right now. It has not come out of its bun for days, whenever I run my hands through my hair they feel horribly greasy after. Here are a couple pictures of my nasty head:

Yep, pretty gross. This process does take a few weeks though. Sometimes even up to a month. I'm not worried though, my hair can stay in a bun forever for all I care.

I will be trying out a few natural hair cleaning methods that don't strip away natural oils. The first one I plan to try is a mixture of apple cider vinegar and baking soda. I will let you know how each cleaning method works and my general hair progress in future posts!

If anyone has tried the no shampoo challenge before, let me know how it worked out for you!

The Hair Chronicles: An Introduction

Welcome to the hair chronicles! These are going to be basically any post related to my hair. If I dye my hair or cut it or do anything else to it, you will hear about it. I have also just started the no shampoo challenge so a post about my first week experience will be up later today.

Before we dive in though, I better tell you about the relationship I have with my hair. Let's just say I kind of hate it. Well, not my hair, just having to deal with it. This hate goes all the way back to when I was a little girl, refusing to brush my hair. My mom would have to chase me down with a hair brush to get any tangles out of it. When I was old enough to be brushing my hair on my own, I pretty much stopped doing it except for once or twice a week. I have very fine hair that used to be stick straight, so detangling was a giant pain. My hair lived in a ponytail most of the time.

In grade 8 I discovered the magic of hair dye, when my mom helped me dye all the tips of my hair red. This was somewhat of a hair turning point because it did of course look best down after this, so I was forced to actually take care of it. I have been dyeing my hair various colours since then, but only ever in small chunks. There are 2 reasons for that. 1) I really do like my natural brown hair colour and I want people to still be able to see it. 2) The thought of my entire head of hair being damaged by bleach terrifies me because that means more work in the long run.

When I was in highschool I had it all chopped off on a whim after someone jokingly threw a pile of leaves at me and they all got in my hair and made a huge mess. Class had just finished and my hair was a giant mess that I did not want to detangle, so I went straight to a salon. The next day I had almost no hair and it was great! I kept my hair short for a couple of years until I had almost forgotten about my hate for hairbrushes and decided to grow it out again. Since then it has been long and it still rarely gets brushed with more than just my fingers.

The past few years my hair has drastically changed texture though. It went from being so straight it could barely hold a curl longer than 15 minutes, to being naturally wavy. It's almost as if my hair has adapted to how little I care for it! It now looks voluminous and wavy without having to do anything to it. I still hate brushing my hair, and it does live in a messy bun on top of my head a lot, but I think we are finally starting to get along! Maybe someday my hair will learn how to detangle itself!

This is basically what my hair texture is like now with no products in it. This picture is a bit old, so the colours are not the same anymore, but this showed the texture the best.

So that is the story of my hair. This was the first of many long-winded, rambling posts in which I complain about it. If you actually read through that entire thing, you deserve a prize! I don't have one for you, but know you deserve it. :P

DIY Beauty: Lip Scrub

Welcome to my new series: DIY Beauty. I love making homemade skincare products! There are so many things you can do with basic kitchen ingredients and a few other things.

The first DIY Beauty recipe will be for a very easy lip scrub that uses 2 very common kitchen ingredient. All you need is some granulated sugar and olive oil. This lips scrub is great for removing dead skin if your lips have been flaking or peeling!

All you have to do is put about a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of oil in a bowl like this:

4

Next mix them together. you want a very pasty consistency. If it is too runny add more sugar. If it is too dry add more oil. It should look like this:

You just take this mixture and put it on your lips and lightly rub it around for about 20 seconds. If it starts to hurt stop. You don't want to take off too much skin! After that just rinse it all off and apply a bit of chapstick or something to keep your baby smooth lips moisturized!

I only use this scrub when my lips are feeling extra dry and flaky, but you could use this as often as once a week. I wouldn't suggest using this more than that because it is taking off a layer of skin. I have tried this lip scrub with brown sugar, and also with a bit of honey mixed in with the oil. There are many variations you could try, so have fun and use what you like!

I hope you like this idea and maybe even try it out. If you do, let me know how it worked for you in the comments!

My Favourite Lip Products: Reds

I have decided to do a small series of all of my favourite lip products! Each post will be about one colour group. Of course we will kick it off with red! Everyone needs a good classic red shade. Unfortunately my list of favourite reds does not include any blue toned red lipsticks because I don't think they look as good on me as ones with an orange undertone. I did throw a lovely red gloss with a blue undertone into the mix though.

Here are the products I will be talking about:

From left to right the products are L'Oreal Colour Riche Lipstick in #350 British Red, Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in #180 Jet Set Red, Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Mocha Rose and Lancome Juicy Tunes Smoothie in Cherry Burst. I will talk about the lipsticks first and then the lipgloss.

H Here is a swatch of the 3 lipsticks:

From top to bottom the colours are British Red, Jet Set Red and Mocha Rose. British Red and Jet Set Red are almost the same colour, but the formulations are very different.

L'Oreal's Colour Riche lipstick in British Red was one of the first red lipsticks I ever purchased and has been one of my favourites ever since. It is a true bright red with an almost glossy finish to it. The formula is very creamy and fairly opaque, but I find I need two coats to make it completely opaque. This is what it looks like on my lips:

I couldn't help but wear my adorable lipstick print dress for this!

Rimmel's Lasting Finish lipstick in Jet Set Red is another bright true red, very similar in colour to British Red, but it is a bit darker. This is an extremely creamy lipstick and it is also very opaque. One swipe is definitely all you need. This lipstick is a little bit less shiny than the British Red. I love the colour on this, but the staying power of it isn't great. This colour will definitely find its way on to your chin if you decide to have a sandwich! This is what Jet Set Red looks like on my lips:

Revlon's Super Lustrous lipstick in Mocha Rose is a darker red that still manages to be bright and dramatic. It has a slight brown undertone as opposed to orange, so it is definitely in the same colour family but deeper and richer. This has a creamy concistency but is a bit thick, which I like. The finish on this is almost matte, which I absolutely love. The staying power on this lipstick is also phenomenal. This is probably my favourite of the bunch. Here is what it looks like on my lips:

Next we have the lipgloss. I really love Lancome Juicy Tubes. I have tried a few other colours and I like their extreme glossiness and relatively good opacity. They of course aren't completely opaque, but they give your lips a really nice wash of colour without being too intense. My only complaint about these glosses is that they are quite sticky. I won't wear this on a day I plan to leave my hair down!

This Lancome Juicy Tube is in Cherry Burst. It is a very bright pink/red with a slight bluish undertone. I absolutely could not make my camera take a good picture of the swatch on my hand for this one. No matter what I did the shine ruined it or it turned out fuzzy!!! I am not a photographer, that's for sure. Anyways, this is what it looks like on my lips at least:

So those are all of my favourite red lip colours! I hope you enjoyed reading this! I have at least 2 more posts like this one coming, an orange lip colour post and a pink one. I might even do a purple post or a nude post, but I don't own or wear many of those. I might squish the purple and pink in to one. Let me know what you think, or what colour you would really like to see next!

Thanks for having a look!

Old Look: Mime

Once again, I don't have much in the way of real content today, so here are a couple pictures of a fun old look I did a long time ago. This one was mime inspired.

This look was so very long ago I honestly can't remember what products were used, but I hope you enjoyed the look!

Quick Look: Green and Purple

I didn't have much to post today, so I thought I would throw up a quick picture of the look I wore a little while ago to the Montreal ComicCon. I didn't dress up in a costume or anything, so I wanted my makeup to be extra dramatic. I did all this makeup in the car ride up to Montreal. I don't suggest you try this unless you are sure you won't stab your own eyeball out every time the car stops. There weren't many good pictures taken of me that day, but my boyfriend managed to snap this one, so here it is:

Montreal is outside that window! I used BH Cosmetics 120 4th edition palette and the 88 matte palette for this look. Hope you liked it!

Review: BH Cosmetics Liquid Foundation

Yesterday I did a review on the BH Cosmetics Round Stippling Brush and now it is time for the foundation! I'll give you the basic information and a few comparison photos and there will be pros and cons at the end.

The BH Cosmetics Liquid Foundation costs $8.95 American on their website, but it is often on sale. It comes in 12 shades and you get 0.85 ounces in the bottle. The website says this is medium to full coverage, fragrance free, lightweight and long lasting.
Here is what the foundation looks like:

The colour I ordered is Light Ivory, which seems to be the very lightest shade they sell. It comes in a glass bottle, which makes me worry I am going to break it. I was a little bit surprised at how dark this was when I first put some on the back of my hand, but I had read a few reviews already saying it would be. I'm glad I found those reviews beforehand because I normally get the second lightest shade in foundations. This was still darker than my natural skin tone, and quite orange! Here is what it looked like when I first put some on my hand:

Doesn't it look quite orange? Once blended out it really wasn't that bad. It was a shade darker than my skin, but I have been setting it with a very light powder to sort of even it out.

Now for the part I am not so fond of.... You get to see my completely naked face! I have taken a few pictures of my face with and without the foundation on and with and without flash, so you can see how well this foundation really works. Here is my bare face straight out of the shower and then my foundation-ed face, both without flash:

And now the pictures with flash:

I wasn't kidding about those dark circles was I? I still haven't applied any under eye concealer yet though.

As you can see my skin is a bit darker with the foundation on, but it doesn't look unnatural. If I carry a bit of the foundation down on to my neck everything actually looks just fine. It is sort of like using a bronzer and foundation in 1 for me. Unfortunately this will not be the case if you are even one shade lighter than me. Any pale folks out there, just avoid BH Cosmetics for your foundation needs. I have also read in a few reviews that this range doesn't include any colours for very dark skinned people either, so if your skin is between kinda tanned and chocolate brown you are the lucky ones.

Finally here is a picture with concealer and setting powder:

This foundation is very easy to blend and dries to a really nice dewy finish. I am used to things that dry matte, I've just always been more drawn to a matte finish, but I really like how natural this makes my skin look.

As for the claims BH Cosmetics makes about this foundation, it is medium to full coverage, long lasting and lightweight, but it is definitely not fragrance free. I actually really do love the smell of this. It smells exactly like my Grandmothers bathroom filled with expensive face creams used to smell like. I don't really know how to describe it beyond that, perhaps it is a mildly floral scent. The smell does disappear once the foundation dries though.

Ok, time for the pros and cons list.

PROS:
- Good Coverage
- Long Lasting
- Easily Blends
- Buildable
- Natural Looking
- Amazing Price!!!

CONS:
- Terrible Shade Range
- Not Fragrance Free
- Glass Bottle

Overall I do really like this foundation, but I probably won't buy it again because there isn't a colour that matches my skin exactly. Winter is coming and I am only going to get paler, so I know this won't be usable all year long...

I hope you found this review helpful!