Author: Carina

Nosy Beauty Vol. 2: Mona

Published by

So, here’s my second installment of Nosy Beauty, featuring my mama, Mona! This series is basically just me poking around other people’s things, specifically their makeup bags. You can read the first post, on my sister here. My mom’s name is Mona Lisa. Incidentally, she is a full-time artist, but she manages an art gallery with my dad, who is also an artist. She likes going on her Facebook, getting good deals on stuff, dogs and babies. She is also very generous and likes being helpful, though like me, she has a short fuse, haha. Also like me, she is a middle child. My mom is the kind of lady who is annoyingly pretty, especially given her age. I won’t disclose it, but her oldest kid, my brother, is in his late twenties. Her beauty philosophy strikes me as somewhat utilitarian. She likes finding products that work for her, instead of trying new things all the time, which is what I tend to do. My sister’s more like her, in that aspect. I am very …

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tars & Loose Color Concentrates

Published by

I wouldn’t call this a haul, really. I originally bought three products from OCC, but they sent the lip tars without the loose color concentrate, and long story short, they sent one more LCC along with my missing item. So, yay for me. 🙂 This was a very old post that I hadn’t finished doing, but I thought I would post it still because I haven’t spoken about these yet. Anyway, here are some quick thoughts on the Lip Tars, which are what I have gotten around to using. I love both colors that I got, namely Lydia and Strumpet. Here’s the description on the OCC website: Product Description: “A stunning new innovation in lip color, OCC Lip Tar combines the longevity of a lipstick, with the ease of application of a gloss. Goes on slick and moist, and dries down to a satin finish. Ultra-saturated in color, Lip Tar contains an unprecedented amount of pigment – a little goes a very, very long way! An intense yet featherweight layer of color that never looks …

Mineral Madness Day 4: Nestyr Lingered in Twilight Mist

Published by

We made it to Day 4 of Mineral Madness, where I take on the challenge to try to make 7 eye looks with mineral eyeshadow! To address some questions: — nope, I am not using any other mineral makeup besides eyeshadow — BUT, a mineral makeup foundation, etc. post is in the works — a rough guide for mineral n00bs is also in the works, as you guys had some questions for me in the comments — also, I may post more looks but perhaps in the next month or much later For Day 4, I decided to do a very soft look using three eyeshadows, two from Shiro Cosmetics and one from the bareMinerals holiday set, A Vision in Velvet. Here is what I came up with: I made a soft crease gradient with bM’s Satin Mist, which is a sort of light silver grey, with very slight, imperceptible shimmer. It’s pretty matte, actually. Then I patted on Nestyr on the inner two-thirds of my eye. Lingered in Twilight was blended into Nestyr from …

Made-Up History: Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn Diptych,” 1962

Published by

Made-Up History is a series I made up in which I try to make looks based on works of art. In this week’s installment, I take on a work by Andy Warhol called Marilyn Diptych. To see the rest of the looks, click here. This work of art was made on the year my mother was born. It was also the year that Marilyn Monroe died. During this period, Andy Warhol created more than twenty silkscreen paintings of her, which remain to be some of his most recognized work. Marilyn Diptych is a duplication of a promotional image of Marilyn Monroe for her film Niagara, which was made in 1953. Setting it apart from the other images, this particular work has two renderings of the same image—one done in color, and one done in black—beside each other. Warhol was famous for the things he would say, one of which was Art is whatever you can get away with. While I don’t necessarily believe that to be totally true, it seemed to be what propelled him …

Mineral Madness Day 3: Plums & Hyacinths

Published by

For Day 3 of Mineral Madness, where I force myself to use my mineral eyeshadows, I have here a fairly purple look anchored on the very beautiful shimmery lilac by bareMinerals called Hyacinth. Not wanting to take away from the general prettiness of this color, I just used Satin Plum, also from bareMinerals. It is a fairly matte color so I used it in the outer corner of the eye, as well as on the outer crease. I added an eye kohl to my lower lash line, too. It’s MAC’s Prunella. I like it, though I feel like I should have used a deeper neutral like a dark brown instead of another purple. As it is, this has a very 90s feel to it; I can’t put my finger on it, but it may be the general cool lightness of the shadow paired with a milky lip, which makes me think of the frosted lipsticks of the past. I could just be making all of that up, though. (‘Scuse the spots, I didn’t feel like …

Mineral Madness Day 2: The Hum of an Espresso Rebellion

Published by

This is a mouthful… but I tried. Anyway, this look features some of my favorite colors from three different brands! I’ve got Hum on the inner two-thirds of my eye, which is an LCC or loose color concentrate by OCC. Then, on the crease and outer corner, I have Velvet Espresso, which is an LE color from bareMinerals’ holiday set, A Vision in Velvet. Finally, I deepened the outer corner with Rebellion from Shiro Cosmetics. Truthfully, I don’t really like it. Although, I think it’s pretty cool how much it seems to change with just a quick replacement of the lip color. It’s a pretty easy look, and actually fairly colorful given the combinations I normally wear. This color by OCC is also really, really pretty. Semi-review coming up soon. I actually have a haul/short review post on my first OCC purchases from March or something. I just never got around to actually finishing the post. But it shall be done. Anyway, that’s mostly it! I hope you enjoyed this post. I’m having fun playing …