Tropical Fish With Glamour Doll Eyes!

I don't normally do 2 posts in a day, but I couldn't help it. I know I only just posted about getting my Glamour Doll Eyes package, but I couldn't wait to do a look! This is the first look I came up with. I wanted to do a fun cut crease and I think it ended up looking like tropical fish.

The colours I used were all glamour doll eyes shades. They are Schizophrenic, Electric Lemonade, Melancholy, Fiji Mermaid, Aqua Foil, Cloud Coverage and Electric Chair.

On my cheeks I have NARS Mata Hari and on my lips is Impulse Cosmetics Permafrost. This is the brightest blue shade that I own and it is amazing.

I decided at the end that I was going to try adding some false lashes to the look. I'm not sure how I feel about the result. They looked kind of cool, but felt so weird! I really can't stand having that much weight on my eyelids! I also think I look a bit crazy in all the pictures with my eyes open because I kept trying to hold them really wide open so that the lashes weren't in my line of sight. This is going to take some getting used to. I managed to get the lashes on without too much mess at least.

Well, that's it for the look! If you have any questions, ask me in the comments!

Unboxing: Mystery Packages!!!

So, I mentioned already, but I did go a little crazy ordering things for myself over the holidays. There were so many indie companies having amazing sales and I wanted to try a lot of them out. I bought so many things though, that when two packages arrived in the mail today, I had no idea what they were! So, here is my mystery package unboxing!

I decided to start with the white package. It felt smaller and I decided to save the big one for last. When I opened the first one up I found this:

My Star Crushed Minerals order!!! They were having a huge holiday sale and I decided to try out a few things. My package arrived with a sweet little note from the shop owner. Here are the three laid out:

The little baggy was filled with star shaped confetti/glitter too! I love adorable touches like that. The products I got are a mini jar of Wine, a burgundy red, and bigger jars of Electric Teal Nebula and Olive Pink. Olive Pink looks amazing so far, I can't even describe it. I will have swatches up very soon!

Now on to the next package! Here is what I found when I opened it:

My Glamour Doll Eyes Order!!! They were having a 50% off sale a little while ago, and you also got free shipping if you spent over $40! I have been wanting to try Glamour Doll Eyes products out for a really, really long time, so I couldn't pass up this offer. Here is everything laid out:

In the top row there is Melancholy, Schizophrenic, Gold Digger, Mushroom, Shamrock, Electric Chair and Electric Lemonade. In the bottom row is Aqua Foil, Smoked Diamonds, Presumptuous, Foxxie, Fiji Mermaid, Lexington and Cloud Coverage. I also got sample baggies of Victorian and Urban Trash. I will have swatches and a review of all these up soon as well. The package also came with a few cute business cards of theirs and a Sedona Lace card that has a discount code on it! Sedona Lace is a brush company I have yet to try, but I think I might check them out now. The spending ban is still on, but I can at least look and save this code for when I can buy again.

Well, that's it for this unboxing! I still have a lot more coming over the next few weeks, so look forward to more of these! I'm going to go play with all my new makeup now! :D

Have you tried either of these companies out before? What did you think?

Quick Look: Shimmery Cotton Candy

Todays look is really quick! I used some pinks, purples and blues from my BH 120 Shimmer Palette to do it, and used a shimmery blue eyeliner pencil on the bottom lashline and waterline. I also contoured my whole face, except my nose, with my new elf blush and bronzer duos. I'm really liking the result and will have a review up probably tomorrow on those!

I need to start wearing my hair down more often I think. Now that my bangs are almost done growing out, it looks a lot better!

That's it for this look. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments!

Hooded Eyes: Finding Your Crease

Ok, I'm going to start this off with a little rant. Sorry if I sound nuts, but I'm annoyed.

Last night I watched a Youtube video by Pixiwoo, and I normally really love their videos but this one bothered me a bit. Here is the link, in case you want to see for yourself. Basically, the video I was watching was how to do a smokey eye if you have hooded lids. The actual tutorial was well done as usual, but at the end she warned anyone with hooded lids to stay away from trying to define their crease, saying it won't look right on most people.

This is so wrong! Anyone regardless of eye shape can pull off a look if they want to. All it takes is some practice and confidence! She also said that people with hooded lids should stay away from putting anything shimmery on the hooded part as it will accentuate that. This also really bothered me as it seems to me that she was subconsciously pointing out a western ideal of beauty. Why shouldn't you want to accentuate your hooded lids? They can be just as pretty as any other eye shape, so why not call attention to them?

Now, I'm not trying to say she is a bad person for having this opinion and I'm actually still a big an of their Youtube channel. I just think that a lot of this is more of a symptom of western beauty ideals that most of the world just can't seem to shake. That doesn't make it right though. People with hooded eyes, listen up! You can do whatever the hell you want to your eyes. If you want a cut crease, go for it. If you want to shimmer up your lids, you should! Heck, if you want to turn your entire face into a disco ball, no one should tell you it's wrong.

So, after watching this video and getting only slightly irrationally upset over it, I have decided to start writing tips for people with hooded eyes. In this series I will of course start with the basics: How to find your crease, or where your crease would be, rather.

This is actually really easy. Take your pinky finger (I used a Q-tip so my hand wouldn't cover my face in the picture) and place it right under your eyebrow. Now, slowly slide your finger down until you feel your brow bone end. You can then run your finger back and forth lightly along that bone edge. This is your crease.

Familiarize yourself with where this is on your face so that you can find it without feeling for it. This is not a straight line and you need to get to know how it curves. This is where you will be placing eyeshadows to give yourself a defined crease and you want it to look like it naturally follows the lines of your face. If you find that this ridge runs directly under your brow and seems too high, instead fill in right underneath that ridge not along it, but make sure to keep the curve the same as you would have. From this you can either trace this line with pencil for a defined cut crease or fill it in with a shadow for a smokier look, which I did here.

Start by taking a darker shadow and a fluffy brush and work it into your crease like this:

I used Macabre Moon from Impulse cosmetics for this. Next pat a lighter colour all over the lid, right up to the blue. For this I used the creamsicle orange colour from my Lunatick Labs AlieNEON Stacker. I topped that off with another bright orange that had a ton of shimmer in it from my BH cosmetics 120 Shimmer Palette. It kind of made it a really pale orange though, but I don't mind.

Next, highlight the inner corners with a light shimmery colour and add a matte brow highlight. I used a light shimmery yellow from the BH 120 palette and a matte beige from my BH 88 matte palette to do this. Then, take a clean fluffy brush and blend everything out. Take an angled shader brush and go over the outer v of the blue to make it more intense. Finish off with eyeliner and mascara. Here is the finished look!

Please excuse the giant smudge on my cheek in this one, I have no idea what happened there.... This showed the eye makeup the best though.

The smudge on my face is driving me nuts... I don't know how I missed that before I took the pictures! Anyways....

That's it for my first hooded eye tutorial. I will have more of these up soon, as well as some looks that I think look best on hooded eyes! This look can easily be modified to have any colours you want in it. I hope some of you found this useful!

What do you think? Will this be a helpful series?

Review: Sephora + Pantone Universe Emerald Capsule Collection

This year Sephora and Pantone paired up to release a collection of makeup based on the colour of the year: Emerald. I know it is the new year already, so I am a little late getting this. There is already a new colour of the year called Radiant Orchid, but here is my review anyways.

The box contains six products and originally retailed for 89.99 I believe, but by the time I was interested in it it was already on sale for 50% off. I am pretty sure that is the price my parents paid for it when they bought it for Christmas. The products inside are a cream shadow product, an eyeshadow trio, a loose pigment, a cream eyeliner, a jumbo eyeliner pencil and a mascara. I will do a quick review of each of these products.

Graphic Sculpt Jumbo Waterproof Eyeliner In Emerald: I have yet to use this product as anything other than an eye base. It is great for that. It really is waterproof and doesn't budge an inch after it dries. I find it isn't really a dark enough or pigmented enough product to use a a real eyeliner, and the end is too fat anyways. This might look really good on the waterline sometimes though. It does go one a bit sheer though, which is my main complaint and also why I think it works better as a base.

Color Watt Mascara In Emerald: This was the most disappointing thing in the box. It was completely dried out when I opened it up for the first time. Maybe this is a symptom of it being old and sitting around on a shelf all year, but this should not have been opened before it got to me ever, so that doesn't make much sense. When I opened it up the wand looked like this:

Does that look usable to you? I added a few drops of contact solution to the bottle and shook it up to see if it loosened anything up and now it is slightly better, but still not really any good. I have tried several times to get some of the product on my eyes but to no avail. Literally no colour will transfer onto my eyelashes. This is a huge disappointment, I was really looking forward to trying a coloured mascara.

Color Code Prismatic Shadow Block In Emerald: This is the only other product in the box that I don't really like yet. When I first opened this one up this is what I got:

See how greasy that is? The entire top had this disgusting oily film over the top of it. I had to wipe several layers off of the top with kleenex to get to a usable patch. Even under the filmy layer of grease though, I still find this product to be oily unless I put an extremely sheer layer on. I have tried this as a base under eyeshadows and it creased after about an hour. Here is the proof:

This was literally after about an hour! Now I might be able to use this as more of a face paint product for costumes and such. If applied to places that aren't likely to crease it does look like a really nice colour. It is more of a grass green than an emerald green though. I will keep playing with this stuff because I love the colour and had read so many great reviews. I must just be doing something wrong.

Bionic Colour Grid Shadow Block: This is an eyeshadow trio that comes in some really amazing packaging. The top is held on by 1 hinge and 3 magnets. you push it aside and the hinge moves and all the magnets let go so it can slide. The bottom also opens the same way to reveal a mirror. Inside there are three colours: Emerald, White Out and Crown Blue. The emerald shade and the blue are mattes and the other is a very frosty, shimmery white colour. I only have two complaints with this product. The first is that the Crown Blue shade is a bit chalky and less pigmented than I would have liked. The next complaint is that I wish the emerald shade was the largest block. Why would they give me the most product in the worst shade? The emerald is smooth and incredibly pigmented and also the colour they were trying to highlight. I wanted mostly that products and a bit of the accent shades, not the other way around.

Lightspeed Glitter Dust In Emerald: This is an amazing loose emerald pigment that is jam packed with emerald glitter. It works really well over a sticky base. I don't have much to say about this product because I really like it. I think the packaging is super cute too.

Color Cube Lid Liner Stain In Emerald: This is probably my favourite product of the bunch! It is a super rich, pigmented cream eyeliner product. This seems like the most intensely emerald out of everything as well. It works great as a cream base for eyeshadows, as eyeliner, on the waterline, basically as anything. Once it dries it doesn't budge until you wash it off too. My favourite combination is this on my lids as a base underneath the Glitter Dust.

Finally, here is a swatch of all of the products on my arm:

From left to right the products are the Bionic Colour Grid Shadow Block (first 3 colours), the Graphic Sculpt Jumbo Waterproof Eyeliner in Emerald, the Prismatic Shadow Block in Emerald, the Color Cube Lid Liner Stain in Emerald, the Color Watt Mascara in Emerald (took a while to get a swatch of this), and the Lightspeed Glitter Dust in Emerald.

So that's it for the review. I really liked 4 out of 6 products which is not bad, and one of the other two is probably still usable anyways. The two standout products for me were the cream eyeliner and the glitter dust. Would I buy this set again next year in Radiant Orchid? Probably not, but there is a chance I will go buy those two individual products again. I would get another eyeshadow trio as well, as long as every eyeshadow has a good formula. I am a bigger fan of emerald than radiant orchid so I'm glad I managed to get one of these boxes!

What do you think? Would you get this next year in radiant orchid?

Unboxing: ELF Cosmetics Haul!

Before Christmas ELF was having a 50% off their studio line sale. I have never tried ELF products before and figured this would be a good, cheap introduction. They also had free shipping (or part off the shipping outside the US) if you spent over $35! Shipping to Canada over the holidays actually took less time than I thought it would. It made it here before New Years!

That's everything I received! I won't go through everything in this post, since that would take forever, but expect a few reviews in the future! Some of the things I am most excited to try are the Makeup Lock & Seal, the Hydrating Face Primer, the brushes I got and the lip products.

Their customer service is alright. They never gave me a tracking number at first. I had to separate emails from them that were supposed to have a tracking number and instead were just blank. When I contacted them about it though, they got back to me within the hour and gave me my tracking number. I also am missing one item that I purchased, a geometric eyeshadow palette. The invoice that came with my order even has that item circled on it, like they also noticed it wasn't there before they shipped it, or something. I have sent another email to them about that and am waiting for a reply. I expect it to take a bit longer since I am writing this New Years day. I will give you an update when they do reply.

Well, that's it for today. Sorry for the bad picture quality, but these were taken on a camera at my parents house instead of here with my camera. I had to go pick it up there and was just too excited to wait!

Have you ever tried ELF products before? What are your favourites?

Happy New Years! My Resolution

Happy New Years!!! I want to take a minute and thank all of my amazing followers. I haven't been doing this for very long, but I have already met so many great people. I'm thankful to have you all read all my ramblings every so often, and I love reading a lot of your awesome blogs too! I thought, to celebrate the new year, I would highlight a few blogs from a few ladies that I think are pretty awesome! Some of these ladies, I feel I've gotten to know a bit through the blog-verse, and I'm really glad I have.

Giedre Grey. She does a lot of great product reviews, and has some really lovely makeup looks too. She also does the occasional outfit of the day that I always think is really cute!

Makeup Love by Emma. She is super cute and is currently doing a series on how to get really easy curls in various ways that I am loving! (My requests may have helped push her to do this :P)

Meet Me On The Bright Side by Kristin. She has an awesome blog and once a week also hosts a great blog hop for beauty bloggers. This is a great way to link up, meet new people and maybe get a few followers, so check her blog out!

Diary of A Trendaholic by Erica. She is a fellow Canadian blogger who does amazing makeup looks. I'm also a big fan of her photography. The pictures she took of her latest vacation are to die for!

Brightest Bulb In The Box by Robyn. Well, she certainly is. This blog is a great read! It is filled with reviews that often go much further in depth than most. She has a better understanding of biology and chemistry than the average person (or maybe just me I don't know....) and is able to explain things really well.

There are so many other great blogs that I have discovered over the past year, but I just didn't want the list to go on too long. If there is anyone I missed, I'm really sorry! This is just a small sampling of my favourite blogs. Now on to my new years resolution.

It's time to jump on the spending ban-dwagon. This holiday season I went a little bit crazy with the online shopping. It is time to let my poor credit card have a little rest and recharge. There were just too many amazing sales going on! I don't regret any of my purchases, and technically I was able to afford them all, but I just don't need anymore clothing or makeup for a little while! Don't worry, I still have a lot of packages coming in the mail over the next few weeks, so I will have lots to review for you guys.

I think I will keep the spending ban going until May. My birthday is in May, along with a comic convention I will be going to, so hopefully I can save up a little extra cash until then. I am also hoping to visit my friend in London sometime this coming year and will need to save up for that as well.

Ok, so here are my rules to myself:

1. I can only buy makeup or skincare if I run out of something essential like mascara, foundation or toner.

2. I have to try and use up all old containers of said skincare products before buying anything new. This includes things that have been lying around for years that I don't like very much. Suck it up me!

3. I am not allowed to buy any non-essential clothing. I am allowing myself a few basic pieces as there are some things I really need to replace in the new year. I need new pants and shoes quite badly, so I am allowing myself those.

4. Any clothing or shoes I do buy has to be very neutral and able to go with most things I own. I have been buying too many crazy pieces that are hard to pair with other things lately. If I need to replace something, it needs to be basic. I also can't go nuts and buy the most expensive pants ever just because I can't buy anything else.

5. No accessories. None.

Those are my rules. I will of course have to spend money on other general life things, like my boyfriend's birthday that is coming up, but that can't be helped.

Is anyone else planning a spending ban this coming year? Are you doing any other resolutions instead? Let me know in the comments! I'm sorry this was such a long, picture-less post. Happy New Years Everyone!!!