All posts filed under: Miscellaneous

5 Things Friday: How to Do a Duo

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Eye shadow duos are sort of the “no brainer” option in Makeup Land. The colours are pre-picked for you, and if you’re like me, you would intuitively place the lighter shade of the duo on the lid and then add the darker shade on the outer “v” of your eye. Et voilà—depth and complexity! Of course, not all duos are created equal. There are some that are not so easy to use and some combinations that look pretty together, but don’t make sense when used in the aforementioned way. Here are a few ways you can play around with a duo that has stumped you.

Recent Acquisitions / Currently Testing

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Hello there! A new batch of “recent acquisitions” and stuff I’ve been testing recently. These are accumulated previous purchases as well as stuff I’ve received from several awesome companies. 🙂 MAKE Colour Post-Impression Palette by We See Beauty I’ve been jonesin’ for these makeup items since the dawn of time (jk, 2013) but never got around to purchasing them because the website doesn’t want to take my money/credit card info. Anyway, I had such a hard time picking a palette—mostly because I wanted them all—but I ended up with this one. It’s freaking beautiful and it’s very “out of the box” for me, but I’m liking it so far. If I love it remains to be seen!

4 Skin Care Items I’ve Been Enjoying Lately

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I have a bad habit of toying around with my skin care quite a bit, but along with my mainstays (Human Nature Nourishing Facial Wash, Aesop Parsley Seed Cleansing Masque, some type of scrub), I’ve been using these bits quite a lot in the past month or so and enjoying them quite a lot. LUSH TEA TREE WATER I’ve mentioned this before and it is just a really great spray to follow up cleansing with. Tea Tree Water is one of the main ingredients of this toner water. It’s made by “dispersing the essential oil in water,” and is included because of its clarifying and antibacterial properties. I quite like this, even though it’s meant for oily or spot-prone skin—I notice a big difference in the clarity of my skin. And we all want that! LE MÉTIER DE BEAUTÉ DAILY REFRESH TONIC This is something I received in the Beauty Vault VIP Subscription, and it is basically something you use to prep the skin to “receive topical restorative treatments” such as creams, moisturizers, serums, etc, …

My Eyeshadow Diagram

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So, Tellie asked me to make a quick diagram of my “eye makeup” because she was confuddled about where to put what color. I was kind of surprised she asked me because I don’t think my technique (lol) has evolved that much, but here is a general sketch of how I do things ‘round these parts. Here are my eyes. As you can see, I have just a little bit of lid space. It’s pretty fun to add different shades and levels of haziness (more on that later) right above the crease, but for the lid space, I observe the rule of thirds. By the way—I tried so many times to make a video demonstration of this. It was really hard, and I had to wash my right eye three times before I gave up trying because it was itching so damn much from all the soap. So, I did it some other day. YER WELCOME. http://youtu.be/9-U-qalkUGk When I was starting out, I would shade in the inner third with a darker color as well, …

Recent Acquisitions / Currently Testing

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Yup, another one of these things! I guess these are kind of like the offspring of hauls and first impressions posts. I don’t know. I had a moment in during which I splurged and now I’m in a very zen place of not spending money but spending time with the stuff I already have. I’ve got a package coming in with more ILIA and Kjaer Weis, but other than that, I haven’t been shopping. I’ve been trying to be more mindful of what I purchase, but I’ve been thinking that purchasing might be the bigger problem, so I’ve been limiting that as well. I know it doesn’t look it, but these things were ordered and received quite a while ago (international postage and all). But that’s another story. Anyway, onto the actual products! Makeup Geek Blush in Rendezvous (pictured above) This was the only available shade on my to-try list from the new Makeup Geek blush releases. I feel very lukewarm about it because I thought it would be more purple. As far as blushes …

5 Things Friday: Five Things I Wish I Knew

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I thought this would be fun to kind of look back into this hole of doom (i.e. makeup obsession) and think of five things I wish I knew before I took the plunge. Research is your best friend. Trawling the WWW in the dead of the night and reading reviews without taking much in is not research. Take note of colors that work well on you—don’t be happy with “it swatches well” as a criteria. Think of what you, as a person, would like to wear on a daily basis and then take it from there. Hype fades away. Refrain from letting yourself being swept away by the newest fad or product. Sometimes, you’ll run into a few gems—ahem, Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder—but hyped products are usually things you can live without. Be smart and level-headed about your purchases and consumption. Don’t always just base your opinions on a collection. I know, I know. This is your favorite thing about makeup—when the collections make sense and look whole and well thought-out. The problem is that …

Feelin’ Fancy

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I’m not really that fussy or picky with my things—usually—but I do recognize the power that something fancy holds. When I put on something just a little fancier than my normal wares, I feel my mood perk up a little bit. Call it superficial, but it’s the truth! (Perhaps I am just a superficial person? Cue another existential crisis for Carina.) I don’t really rely on much makeup for pick-me-ups, though I do have to hand it to Guerlain Rouge G L’Extrait in Orgueil for making me feel like the HBIC and not a tiny, awkward mouse. I also feel a little bit better about myself when I pull out the Dior Addict Lip Glow to moisturize my lips, which was given to me by Laala from our swap! Recently, I’ve taken it upon myself to spritz on some perfume, something I used to do a lot in high school, but have outgrown now that I’m actually at an age when perfuming yourself is the norm. For extra fancy fumes, I use Diptyque’s Vetyverio. Normally, …