All posts filed under: Miscellaneous

The Workhorses

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There are just some products that you keep on going back to again and again. Not because they’re exciting or new, but because they are reliable. Here are some of my ol’ reliables—my workhorses—that somehow find themselves in my routine almost without fail. More often than not, I just use the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer as my base. Then again, I’ve just been a lazy daisy these days…ies, heh. This concealer is wonderful because it dispenses a lot of pigment but is easy to apply and blend out. It also doesn’t really crease on me much, but I always set it with the Le Métier de Beauté Eye Brightening and Setting Powder. For eyes, I’ve been using the Le Métier de Beauté True Colour Eye Shadow in Tamarack, which is this cool matte brown, for my crease work. It’s not half bad as a contour either! For an all-over lid shade that’s fuss-free and beautiful, though, my go-to is the shu uemura eyeshadow in ME medium brown 885, which is a beautiful warm reddish brown …

Recent Aquisitions/Currently Testing

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Remember when I said I was done with shopping! Done with too much makeup! Done with being a consumerism hag! Well. It turns out that I am not, in fact, done with those things just yet. I haven’t gone off the deep end—I have been quite good between March and mid-June—but in the end, I think I decided that it was okay to try some new things, as opposed to all of them, from time to time. Here are some of my recent purchases, brought on by a crippling sense of discontent (I got over it), and what I think about them so far. NARS Semi-Matte Lipstick in Heat Wave I was in a fairly bad place when I placed (ha) an order for a couple of NARS lipsticks plus the Yachiyo brush. One of those lipsticks was Heat Wave, bought because of a sudden hankering for MAC’s Lady Danger. So far… Well, I really like it. The first time I tried it on, I fought with an overwhelming sense of dread because I felt …

Carina Santos: Outfit Repeater

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I claimed, once upon a time, that this was a beauty and style blog, and I did in fact post the occasional OOTD here and there. I think the reason for that is that I am the type of person who chooses comfort over style, always. The other reason is that I am a complete outfit repeater. I don’t really have a lot of outfit pictures, so I looked for instances that I repeated whole outfits, or at least the major components of them. For your reference and for the sake of this post: when I started caring about clothes (after college, sadly, lol), I went for better-looking comfort, so I had a lot of cardigans, pull-overs, short-sleeved sweaters, vests, etc. to make my outfits look a bit more put together than your true blue basics. I mean, these are still basics, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. Ahem. Okay, so let’s start with a really funny picture in which I try to look “fierce,” lol. This was from a magazine feature! The makeup was …

20 Days of Lipstick: Week 4 Recap

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And the last week of 20 Days of Lipstick is late and ends on a Tuesday. Mostly because I didn’t want to extend it for another week (i.e. prolong the recap and post next Sunday), just because I ran out of days for lipstick-wearing. Anyway, ahem. DAY FIFTEEN feat. Le Métier de Beauté Hydra-Crème Lipstick in Signature I got this in the first Le Métier de Beauté Beauty Vault VIP box, when they had yet to launch the Hydra-Crème line, and I would never have picked this for myself. Mostly because I don’t believe that reds look all that good on me. I’m glad I got this, though, because I think it might be my favorite “real” red (in case Guerlain’s Orgueil is too purple to count for all y’all. The formula is fantastic, too, if anyone was wondering. Especially for a matte lipstick! I forgot how much I loved this one, to be honest.

Sample Stash Sunday feat. Benefit: BDJ Box 7 Day Challenge

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I’m not sure for how long these monthly BDJ Box challenges run, but there was so much stuff to sample from the Benefit exclusive box by BDJ last month that I felt I should try and do it, so I could try everything out, at least! Here’s a diary I began some time in June. The products were used, collectively, for seven days. I tried to get a rotation going, but I missed using all my other makeup, too. 🙂 The eye cream was a mainstay, though, but I’ll put it out there right now—it wasn’t my favorite of the bunch! DAY ONE And on the first day, I used the It’s Potent! Eye Cream, and I saw that it was good. Intended for “brighter, younger-looking eyes,” It’s Potent! fades dark circles and helps smooth fine lines. I noticed that it has a more emollient texture than my current eye cream (Bobbi Brown Hydrating Eye Cream), but it also sinks in much faster and isn’t sticky. I’ll try to use this under makeup/concealer during this …

June Monthly Favorites & July Beauty Goals

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Aside from my Beauty Dare (20 Days of Lipstick), June was a pretty lazy makeup month, partly because I was more antisocial than usual. Here are a few of the beauty bits I enjoyed a lot the past month, though. I kept switching it up in the eye makeup department, but a quad that I went back to a lot is THREE’s Star Guitar. I also practically used a MAC Paint Pot called Groundwork on my lids as a primer when I became too dark to use Painterly. I’m still loving my NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer. I have the shade Ginger and was convinced that I maybe should have gotten Custard instead but that turned out to be too light for me. For my quick face base, I was using the Le Métier de Beauté Peau Vierge Anti-Aging Pressed Powder in Shade 2 a lot last month, though towards the end, I began using my liquid foundations and bases more. My go-to cheek has definitely been the Illamasqua Cream Blusher in Dixie. I used to …

Makeup Inventory + One Week Series: Rouge Bunny Rouge Long-Lasting Eyeshadows

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My Rouge Bunny Rouge Long-Lasting Eyeshadows multiplied like gremlins when I jumped on an RBR sale. Prior to that sale, I only had Solstice Halcyon and Abyssinian Catbird, which is a really pretty soft taupe, so I actually have a swatch post of these shades, sans Solstice Halcyon and Eclipse Eagle, already (click here). So I figured I might as well show how beautifully these shadows apply on my actual face. Swatched, L-R: Solstice Halcyon, Bohemian Waxwing, Eclipse Eagle, Delicate Hummingbird, Abyssinian Catbird, Periwinkle Cardinal, Tantalizing Lovebird, Bejewelled Skylark The quality and texture of these shadows are unreal—I don’t mind the price tag… much. I mean, I get why they’re so expensive: because they are phenomenal. You’ll notice that I don’t have any mattes here. While I’m sure their mattes are exceptional, I didn’t find a shade that I was willing to spend 24€ on. My favorites are probably Solstice Halcyon, Delicate Hummingbird, Abyssinian Catbird, and Bejewelled Skylark. The most obvious beautiful texture belongs to Delicate Hummingbird and Abyssinian Catbird; they truly feel like the …