Author: Carina

Nosy Beauty Vol. 5: Romila Marie

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For this week’s installment of Nosy Beauty, I have Romila Marie or Romsz of Run Barbie Run. Her favorite things to do include blogging, taking photographs, baking cupcakes, and traveling. She’s one of my favorite local beauty bloggers because of her varied taste in cosmetics. 🙂 Her blog is definitely not a run-on-the-mill sheep blog, and it features a collection of makeup products that are tried and true. Her beauty philosophy is: “If you don’t have enough time to put on makeup: forget everything else, but never, ever, EVER forget to fill in your brows!” “Since I like to think that I can actually use up all my makeup, the content of my bag actually rotates every so often. Here’s what inside my makeup bag right now: For my base, I have the Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation in Cashew Beige. It doesn’t last as long as I want it to, but the shade matches me perfectly and that’s all that matters, really. For spots and scarrings, I use the Make Up For Ever Full …

Quickie: Buxom Stay-There Eyeshadow in Pug

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I am a Cream Fiend when it comes to eyeshadows, so I pounced on one shade of the Buxom Stay-There Eyeshadow when I saw them online for the first time. Turns out, these are not creams and are more like a mousse-sponge-type thing. Nevertheless, these are pretty great. Product description: “This bounc-i-licious new eye color offers the ultimate experience with an unexpectedly plush, lightweight texture and vivid color. It leaps and bounds beyond what you’ve come to expect from eye color—and it’s even waterproof. Named after our loyal four-legged friends, these stay-put shades will be your faithful new beauty companions as they comfort and care for your pretty peepers. The mineral-infused, paraben-free formula pampers delicate skin with soothing Aloe extract and vitamin E—all with a non-greasy, long-wearing finish. Touch it. Pet it. Love it. Only at Sephora.” I got the shade Pug, which is a “smokey pewter,” and is rather pretty. Originally, I had my eye on Collie, a champagne, but I couldn’t say ‘no’ to pug. We had a pug named Gabby when I …

Drugstore Finds: e.l.f. Liquid Eyeliner

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After reading rave reviews on this, I decided to try it out. The e.l.f. Liquid Eyeliner is a pretty straightforward product. It’s a liquid eyeliner, with a fine-tip brush and a pretty opaque formulation. Its brush allows it to draw thin, precise lines. I don’t really have a lot of trouble with this applicator even though it is super thin, which is weird because I am the worst at line control. It draws a pretty solid line, but it creases on my eyelid. The flexibility of the tip also allows you to draw different thicknesses of lines. If you are good at that. I usually just layer the lines over top of each other. 🙂 Here’s a fairly thin one on my upper lash line: I was looking for a cheaper alternative for my K-Palette Liquid Eyeliner, since that is pretty pricey. Though this e.l.f. one performs decently, I still prefer my HG liquid eyeliner. e.l.f. is cruelty-free.

Get your glow on with BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector in Opal

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I was incredibly surprised at how much people wanted to find out what I thought about this product. I had posted a picture of it on Instagram and briefly mentioned it in my Highlighter/Illuminator Inventory way back when. The item in question is none other than the BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector in Opal. Product Description: “A water-based moisturiser with an SPF of 20+ and light-diffusing particles of shimmer that creates instant radiance and vitality and reduces imperfections.” This sort-of cream is a kind of a lightly burnt bronze-y color with a lot of shimmery particles. Supposedly, this is the key to a natural glow. I think it was buzzed about for a while in the beauty community because of Lisa Eldridge. I don’t know what particular video that was, but if you know this product, chances are, it was because of her. So. How do you use these? You can mix them into a liquid base product like a foundation, a tinted moisturizer, or a BB Cream. This is my preferred method of applying it, …

Made-Up History: Claude Monet’s Rouen Cathedral Series

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Hello, everyone! Here’s a really, really (and I mean really) quick look I made for Made-Up History. If you’re new here, Made-Up History is just a series I’ve been doing where I translate works of art into makeup looks. I also take this opportunity to take a bit more about the art. Today, we talk about Claude Monet’s Rouen Cathedral series, this one in particular: I feel like although this series is fairly popular, Monet is still most associated with his waterlily paintings. Monet is an impressionist, which just means that he likes to paint “impressions” of light, instead of copying a scene or a picture in detail. Impressionists liked to paint from life, which explains the appearance of movement in their pieces. They generally liked to explore the influence of shadow and light on objects and environments. Monet painted the Rouen Cathedral in France, across which he set up a temporary studio. Fascinated by the different effects these times made, Monet made paintings during different times of the day and the year, using different …

Unboxing: BDJ Box July 2013*

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Imagine my surprise when I got home to another BDJ Box for the month of July! When the team originally emailed me, I was supposed to get a certain number of boxes to try and I thought my BDJ time was up last month, but I counted wrong… HEH. So, I was so happy to get this month’s because I was eyeing that too cool for school BB Cream! This month’s box is freaking awesome, by the way. I’m so happy I was sent one. Thank you to the BDJ Box team. 🙂 And for my next trick—pictures!

Quickie: Hakuhodo H601 Powder Brush

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The Hakuhodo H601 Powder Brush is one of my all-time favorite brushes. It’s a retractable brush that is intensely soft and fluffy. Whenever I wash brushes, this is one of those that take the longest to dry, because it’s so dense. The hairs are black and made from goat’s hair, I believe. I got the H601 in Japan, and it cost about $30 in Japanese yen. It was the only Hakuhodo brush on my list that I was able to get, since they don’t have the full range at the Osaka counter. I use this brush for most of my powder products for the face, so I feel like it’s such a great deal. I’ve used this for a pressed powder, a loose powder, setting powders, finishing powders, et al. and it has worked great every time. This is also an awesome blush brush, because it picks up and deposits just the right amount of pigment. The fact that it retracts makes the “head” of bristles smaller or bigger, catering to your needs. Big and …