All posts filed under: Features

Stash Shopping No. 7

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It’s been a while! I tended to grab “easy” makeup and not bother with a lot of the items I picked out from my stash, so I didn’t want to bother with this for the past few weeks. But I want to do something more “stable” again, I guess. I really like having my stuff in rotation, generally, so this is a pretty OK arrangement for me, to be honest. For this week’s edition of stash shopping, I only picked out a few products I already have, since I’m testing out quite a few new products this week. 🙂 In line for Carina Abuse are the ff: EYES: Suqqu Quad (Sumiredama), Urban Decay Primer Potion (Sin) CHEEKS: NARS Powder Blush (Sin) LIPS: Snoe Beauty (Plum Crazy), shu uemura x Karl Lagerfeld (Luxe Burgundy), OCC Lip Tar (Strumpet) Lots of purples in store for me this week! What forgotten products are you trying out more this week? Do share! 🙂

Nosy Beauty Vol. 14: Laura

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Hello everyone! For this week’s installment of Nosy Beauty, we have Laura! I met her on LiveJournal when I was in high school (!) and I knew her from her photography and cute comics. Many, many years later, I discovered that she loved makeup but I never really thought twice about it until after I got into makeup, too. Here’s a peek into her makeup bag and quite a bit of her somewhat-daily staples. Enjoy! “Hello, my name is Laura, and I am currently a makeup artist working for MAC Cosmetics. My other passions include arting, photography, and more recently science (especially astrophysics!) and writing. I love reading, watching a good movie or show, and cats. My partner Phil and I are definitely cat obsessed!” On Laura’s face, a casual Look: Bare Study paintpot and Extended Play mascara on eyes, Coquette in the brows, Select Moisturecover and Studio Fix Powder, Fleur Power on cheeks, Tarte’s Hope and MAC’s Lip Conditioner on lips. *Disclaimer: You’ll notice that 99% of my makeup is from MAC. Aside from …

Without Further Adieu, Goodbye Eye Makeup Month!

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(LOL. I know my title is wrong. Give a girl a break for trying to crack a joke!) I was going to post an eyeshadow collection, but then it made me feel like a poophead for having so much. So I won’t post it right now, but let me know if you’d like to see it. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for enduring an eye makeup only month and for being so nice about my stupid queued posts and the frequency of them. 🙂 I really appreciate all the comments and the suggestions. Since this Eye Makeup Month is a sort of special celebration of my birthday… are you wondering when my birthday was? It was yesterday! 🙂 I was nursing some bizarre allergy so I didn’t get to take a photo of what I wore. However, if you were curious, here’s what I used: I turned 25, gag. I think my brain stopped being aware of my age at nineteen. Aside from Eye Makeup Month over here on Softly, this is …

Quick Tips: Face-Eye Makeup Coordination

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For the last feature on this month’s eye makeup special, I wanted to bring the rest of the face along. 🙂 You can wear the most elaborate, exciting eye look but a not-so suitable cheek and lip match may dull the impact of your eye makeup either by being too subtle or too bold. Just a disclaimer: there are really no rules you have to follow when it comes to makeup. Wear whatever you want, but here are some tips to consider if you want a more ‘put together’ look. 🙂 I’ve gathered some of the things that I felt work well, and attempted to explain why they worked well! As a general rule, it helps if you pick one feature to highlight. If you want to wear a bold lip, go easy on the eye and cheek makeup and go for a more natural, defined look. You can do that by eyeliner + mascara combination, and a strong contour instead of going for a bright blush, or going for a neutral, understated eye.

Falsies: Why Go Through All the Trouble?

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I’ve always been fascinated with false lashes, or falsies, but could never figure out how to wear them without feeling like I was someone else. It honestly just felt like too much effort, and I didn’t understand what the big deal was. Was the effect that dramatic that it would merit an added, somewhat complicated step to an already multi-stepped routine? Due to uneven eyelids the lashes don’t look the same on both eyes, either, because one eyelid would eat the band up, and it was just not pretty. The nail that put the idea of false lashes in the coffin was this photograph of myself… …and this video by Jenna Marbles (What A Girl’s Makeup Means) where she pointed out that having on false lashes was literally a sign of you taking the effort of gluing little hairs to your eyes. It is proof that you cared enough about how you would look that you would take fake hair and glue it to your eyes. And I didn’t like the idea of that, so …

Nosy Beauty Vol. 13: Sam

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For this week’s Nosy Beauty, we have Sam of Samandro. She is currently studying in London, and her blog is one of my favorites to read. 🙂 You can read her posts on beauty and her experiences as a foreign student over there. Without further ado, Sam! Makeup Bag “I could pretend that I have a really classy makeup bag, but, 90 percent of the time, my makeup is stuffed into a either a really cheap zipper bag or a plastic baggie. I spend too much money on makeup to invest in a proper bag. Whoops.” Eyes “I am a big fan of white eyeliner. I have been using the Rimmel London Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Liner Pencil for about five months now, and I don’t know how I ever lived without it. It’s such an easy fix to brighten up the eye area, but the trick is to blend it out. I also like to use a white shadow from my Wet n’ Wild palette in the corners of my eyes and on my …

Breaking the Neutral Mold: Colored Eyeshadow for the Not-So-Bold

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I’m sorry for the no-post day yesterday! I had a scheduling conflict, lol. But it’s kind of sad because it’s been a while since I went a day without a post. I’ve just been a bit busy lately! But hopefully we are back on track. 😀 I think you all know by now that I love eyeshadow. I mean, let’s get the obvious out of the way. I used to be really scared of colored eyeshadow and would stay away from them. Except for purple because purple is really pretty. Don’t get me started on blue eyeshadow! I mean, yikes, right? But then I got over it. And certain blues didn’t seem so bad. I think a lot of people are scared of wearing colored eyeshadow because they think that it’s a one-way ticket to Train Wreck Island. I was one of those people, but here are some ways you can ease your way into the colored eyeshadow world. Here’s just a few things to keep in mind if you want to be a bit …