Playtime in Makeup Land

Tonight around 1AM I started putting on makeup and trying to come up with a look to do a tutorial on tomorrow. Redid each eye about 4 times, tried on 3 pairs of lashes before one looked right, and now my eyes are watering to beat the band. Ah, the life of a guru. *eyeroll* Well anyways here's some of the creations...

This is what I decided to do a tutorial on. Also it is SO much more vibrant in real life, camera didn't pick it all up. Do we like?


















This next one was my first attempt at something tutorial worthy. Big fail, although I liked the purple lid with teal glitter




















Finally, did a 2 second recreation of xSparkage's Northern Lights/Aurora look (didnt bother with mascara or anything, just playing with shadow!) I LOVE this, will be wearing it soon :)




















Oh and since a few people asked, here's the makeup I was wearing in my 'contest winners' video from yesterday. Im not really feeling it, so probably no tutorial.

Nail Swatches!

Here's a bunch of nail swatches from the past month or so, enjoy!




















China Glaze 'Purple Panic'




















China Glaze 'Secret Peri-Winkle'




















Sally Hansen 'Aquamarine Chrome'




















Zoya 'Yasmeen'




















Konad 'Neon Pink'




















ORLY 'Prepster'




















ORLY 'Enchanted Forest'

Makeup, Movies, Music, Books!

Things to look forward to in the last 1/3 (yes, I said it) of 2009:

-August 28- Rob Zombie's Halloween II AND The Final Destination in 3D
-September 1 (or sometime in September)- OPI Holiday Collection, yes its early but I'm not complaining!
-September 10- Mac in HD collection
-September 15- Dan Brown's new book
-September 17- Mac Fall/Winter Trends collection
-September 17- New season of The Office
-September 18- Mine and Andrew's 4 year anniversary :)
-September 23- New season of SVU!
-September 24- Mac Style Black and Dazzleglass Creme
-September 26- Another NYC meetup with friends!
-October 2-12- Topsfield Fair
-October 12- Mac D Squared Collection
-October 13- Say Anything's new album
-October 15- Mac Holiday
-October 17- Meeting Sid Haig AKA CAPTAIN SPAULDING at the horror convention!
-October 23- SAW VI! CANNOT WAITTTTTT
-October 30- Andrew's birthday
-October 31- Oh hi its Halloween
-November 21- IMATS TORONTO ahhhh!
-November 27- Black Friday, the true meaning of Thanksgiving
-December 24- Oh hi its my favorite day of the year
-December 29- VC Andrews new series 'Heavenstone Secrets'

*NEW ROCKET SUMMER ALBUM falls in there somewhere, which is the thing I am MOST excited about after Saw! Rocket Summer music makes me alive and its been so long since new material:) There will be a tour to look forward to also

*ALSO LUSH HOLIDAY SALE starting probably in November! Buy 1 item get 2 of the same TYPE of item FREE. Including gift boxes. Limited edition holiday products. AHHH!

Did I miss anything? Do you love any of the same stuff I do?

Mac Photorealism Quad Swatches+Review

I have really cut back on my Mac spending this year, and while the huge Makeup Art Cosmetics collection that came out today was enormous, I managed to only walk away with one thing and I'm pretty pleased with my choice! Mac Photorealism Eyeshadow Quad:



















The quad costs $36 and the colors are:
Photorealism (gold shimmer with gold pearl)
Fresh Approach (cool mint green)
Image Maker (dirty grey green)
Grey Range (deep blue green)

Here are straight up swatches, done on top of Beigeing Shadestick:















Grey Range, Image Maker, Fresh Approach, Photorealism

Now for some comparisons so we can see which colors are really unique!
















Cloudbound eyeshadow
Aquavert eyeshadow
Deep Blue Green pigment
The STAR indicates that nothing I own dupes that color! (Image Maker)




















Photorealism Quad is on the top,
Bottom is: Deep Blue Green pigment, Satin Taupe e/s, Aquavert e/s, Cloudbound e/s




















Colors enhanced so you can see the differences more clearly!

Closest dupes:




















Grey Range+Deep Blue Green Pigment. Grey Range is a lot greener than Deep Blue Green, making it a lot prettier in my oppinion! Deep Blue Green has more of a sheen coming off of it because it is a pigment.

Photorealism+Cloudbound. Photorealism is A LOT more yellow/gold than the other similar colors you may be thinking of, such as Cloudbound and Solar White. Those are white highlight colors that flash gold, but Photorealism is more of an actual gold highlight color!

Image Maker doesn't have ANY dupes that I own or can think of. Temptalia was RIGHT ON when she said it's like Club eyeshadow without the reddish brown. Think of how Club is a duochrome of reddish brown/grey/green, and take out the reddish brown. What's left is awesome and unique, can't wait to use it!

Fresh Approach is the only unimpressive color here. Much like Aquavert, it is so light and lacking actual green, that it REALLY needs to go over a green base to look like anything besides a kind of silver.

Sooo I tried the whole quad (other than the highlight) over Lucky Jade shadestick, to make it green enough for my liking:

















These all look a LOT better and a lot GREENER in real life, try them over a green base, because at first glance the 'green quad' isn't all that green.

I will be doing a look next week with this quad and doing a tutorial. As far as the other two quads in the collection, the purple one was TERRIBLE, the colors were mattes and satins, were VERY chalky, and had virtually no payoff, even when scraped with your finger. The warm colored quad was pretty, but all the colors are things we've seen before, probably in the permanent Mac collection.

Swatches!

Here's some random swatches from the past month!























(ALL MAC)
Top: Maroon Pigment
Middle: Fig 1 e/s, Deep Damson e/s, 100 Strokes e/s
Bottom: Smoke Signals Pigment

CALYPSO MINERALS:























China Glaze 'Branding Iron':

Nails: I'm On An Island

It's been raining all month, so I'm pretending I'm elsewhere:

With flash:

Nail Polish Is China Glaze 'It's My Turn':

^Would you be interested in seeing more nail polish swatches like this one or no?

Nail Art Reviews and Comparisons: 4 Brands!

Here is the at-a-glance comparison info from my 2-part video reviewing 4 different brands of nail art pens and stripers! I spent a lot of time on all this and I really hope it is helpful to you :)

Prices (cheapest to most expensive):
Color Club Art Club Nail Art From 8ty8beauty: $1.88
NYX Ink Nail Art: $2.50
Konad 2 Way Nail Art Pen: $6.99
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen: $6.99 or $7.99 depending on store

Amount of Product (most to least):
Konad 2 Way Nail Art Pen: 10 ml
NYX Ink Nail Art: .28 oz
Color Club Art Club Nail Art From 8ty8beauty: .2 oz/7 ml
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen: .067 oz/2 ml

# Colors Offered (most to least):
Color Club Art Club Nail Art From 8ty8beauty: 51
NYX Ink Nail Art: 24
Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen: 8
Konad 2 Way Nail Art Pen: 3

Where To Buy:
www.mscuppycakes.com for NYX
www.wowsocool.com for Konad
www.8ty8beauty.com for Color Club Art Club
Walmart, CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Target, etc for Sally Hansen

Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens:












Art Club Color Club From 8ty8beauty:











NYX Ink Nail Art:
























Konad 2 Way Nail Art Pen:








Tip Comparison:














Brush Comparison:



Konad




Art Club Color Club





NYX Ink Nail Art




On a light colored base:























On a dark colored base:




















Konad smudged when topcoat was applied:























Sally Hansen faded off when I washed my hands: