All posts filed under: Miscellaneous

Swatchfest and First Impressions: Oslo Cosmetics

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No joke. Every time I see a new purchase I receive in the mail, The National plays in my head: “Oh you’ve done it again, Virginia…” Except my name is Carina but I think I get the point. Anyway. This is a second order I placed for Oslo Cosmetics mid-December. It got shipped out on the 31st and I only got it today. Welcome to International Shipping! This time, my order is much smaller. I got 5 eyeshadows, a lip slick, an eye primer thing, and a blush sampler. I got a sample of a blush for free. Here us everything, swatched, but of course, I’ll talk a bit about each thing I bought. As you can see, I am the world champion at sucking at swatches. Swatched, L-R: Voltanis, Winter is Coming, Lux, Andromeda, Asterism eyeshadows, Hibiscus Lip Slick, Sextens, Equillus, Caille, Indi, Gemini, and Pictor blushes. Voltanis is a kind of a patina’d gold that’s pretty frosty as a finish. It’s described as a “Smoldering, metallic, deep primal gold.” It’s quite pretty and …

One Week Naked 2: Day 2

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Hey all! Just a quick post right now. I’m actually about to get to work but I’m doing this challenge/series with Natalie and we both agreed to get our posts out at 12 noon everyday… so here I am, trying hard to do that. As you can see, my hair is still wet. For today, I just wanted something simple and warm-ish, so I used Suspect all over the lid, blended out with Tease at the crease. For outer corner depth, I added a bit of Snakebite, which I brought down to the outer half of my lower lash line as well. You guys seem to like it when I line my eyes, so I used a little bit of Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Twice Baked on my upper lash line and lower waterline (outer half). I curled my lashes and was done. 😀 Super easy, super simple, and maybe a little boring. I’ve got to say I’m pretty happy “rediscovering” how great a lid wash Suspect is. 🙂 Face: AHAVA Essential …

One Week Naked 2: Day 1

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Yay! My Urban Decay Naked One Week Series wrapped up the other day. 🙂 If you’re new, the One Week Series as I’ve dubbed it is a week-long series with looks using a single palette. I don’t know how long I’ll be doing this, as I have a lot of LE palettes, but let’s see! Anyway, for the meantime, I thought I’d carry over the series to another less-utilized palette in my possession: the Urban Decay Naked 2. I’ve said quite a lot of times that I prefer the Naked 2, but I thought I’d show you some looks with this palette, to kind of demonstrate why I feel like it’s much more versatile than the original Naked palette. I think Natalie is doing this along with me. 🙂 Be sure to check out her blog sometime today or this week! This is a pretty simple eye look! I really like it, even though I just made it up for this post. I’ve got Bootycall all over the lid over a MAC Paint Pot (Painterly), …

Quick-ish Beauty Update: Confessions

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Hey, everyone! Just a quick beauty~ update here, as we approach the end of the first month of the year. I don’t really “check in” and update very often when it comes to my makeup affairs—I just post looks and reviews and stuff and not a lot of “thinky” reflective things—but I’ve been having a hard time sticking to my resolutions and have been breaking a few of them. Yes, this early! Anyway, I got to the bottom of things, of this mysterious situation I’m in that should really have been something I figured out right away because it’s so damn obvious: I’m a compulsive beauty shopper.

One Week Naked: Day 5

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One Week is a series I’m starting where I wear a single palette for a week, resulting into 5-7 makeup looks. I’m starting this series with Urban Decay’s original Naked palette. Of course. For this look, I did a cut crease with a shade that I never ever really use on the Naked palette: Gunmetal. It turned out to be way more wearable than I thought. I just softly blended that into my crease and tried to do a soft winged out corner… Did it work? I used Buck as a transition shade, and Virgin as a browbone highlight. Because why not? On my mobile lid, I have sin, and a bit of Toasted in the outer corner, and Half Baked in the inner corner, just because I thought it would be fun. I did a very, very thin wing with a liquid liner. Along my lash line, I smudged a bit of Gunmetal and on my waterline, I used Le Métier de Beauté Anamorphic Lash Mascara in Tamarack. I curled my lashes and applied …

5 Things Friday: Change Your Makeup Game

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If you’ve ever longed for a simple step in your makeup routine that will add just a little bit of ‘oomph’ to it, well… I’ve got five! Obviously, you don’t need to do all (or any) of these steps, but they totally improved my makeup. At least, in my opinion! 1. Finishing Powder If you don’t want a defined highlight, but want to keep a little glow all over your face, grab a finishing powder like this gorgeous tin of Guerlan Météorites. They add just a bit of ‘wow’ to your face that most people will notice, but can’t quite place. Other favorites are the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powders. 2. Primer This is a tricky product, but investing in a primer is seriously one of the best things I’ve done. They make my foundation—liquid, powder or mineral—go on much more smoothly, and they extend the wear time of my bases. This is my favorite, the Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer, but worthy contenders are the Ellana Minerals Make it Last Primer* and the BECCA Resurfacing Primer. …

One Week Naked: Day 4

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Hello! This is Day 4. I am determined not to lose interest in this challenge, and I actually had fun with the palette today. I kept the lid light (mostly) and went to town on the lower lash line. This look was done over the NARS Pro-Prime Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base. (LOL the white stuff on my shirt is the LUSH Dry Shampoo, NOT dandruff, eek.) I first blended Naked into my crease, softly. Then I patted on Virgin on most of the mobile lid. I lightly put Smog on the outer ‘v’ and lightly blended it into Virgin for a soft gradient. On the inner corner, I used Toasted to make this look softer. You can’t really see it that well, but I think that it softened the whole look. I lined my upper lash line with Dark Horse using an angled brush. On the lower lash line, I went in with Smog and kind of smudged it down pretty low. I used Toasted on the inner third. Then, I felt like it was too …