All posts filed under: Miscellaneous

Makeup No-Buy Update: Two Month Mark

Published by

Hello, and welcome to the two-month mark of my makeup no-buy! I very nearly bought a lot of items, but I resisted. Mostly. It’s not that hard if you don’t look at makeup on the regular and window-shop, online or offline. While I still do read blogs and watch beauty videos, there aren’t a lot of items that I feel like I need to have now, omg, so it’s not so hard anymore. Some lessons I learned, though: — Do not go to a beauty event if you can’t really buy anything. — Do not go into beauty counters “just to look” That’s pretty much it. I went to a shu uemura event, which was apparently a launch for their 30th anniversary collection and I had like a mother. When the Karl Lagerfeld Collection came out, I bought so many items that I earned myself a loyalty card upon check-out. I was very, very tempted, but then I swatched some of the eyeshadows and the ones I was able to check out were powdery as …

Softly Special: Matte Matters

Published by

Since I posted about the NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencils yesterday, I thought about posting some of my favorite matte products. LIPS Clockwise from the top: NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Dolce Vita, NARS Pure Matte Lipstick in Montego Bay, MAC Lipstick in Mehr, Revlon Matte Lipstick in Fabulous Fig, MAC Matte Lipstick in Russian Red, and Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet in La Favorite. Here they are, swatched in the same order. EYESHADOW An obvious recommendation for a matte palette is the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette, which consists of five matte shades, out of the palette’s six. It’s a great companion to all the eyeshadows you have right now, and you can definitely use it by itself. Here are a few of my other favorite matte eyeshadows, from a variety of eyeshadow palettes: L-R: Urban Decay Naked Palette (Buck), Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette (Tease), Laura Mercier Artist’s Palette for Eyes (Plum Smoke, Café Au Lait, Coffee Ground) L-R: Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette (Blackout), Laura Mercier Artist’s Palette for Eyes (Deep Night), …

Quickie: Charm Retractable Kabuki Brush

Published by

Here’s an old brush that I never think I featured on here, for whatever reason. It’s not because the Charm Retractable Kabuki Brush is bad. I think it’s because I don’t really use it that often because I stowed it away, in a place I didn’t regularly interact with. Speaking of which, I’ve reassembled my makeup and now everything is pretty much within reach, so all is well. Anyway. This is pretty awesome. A kabuki brush is something you use for all-over face product application. It’s a dense brush that is often very soft but not bendy. They usually come with short, stubby handles that you can use to prop them up on your desk. Kabuki brushes are used to buff in all sorts of foundation with the aim of a flawless base. I’ve tried this with a pressed compact: Loose, setting powder: and Guerlain Météorites: I’ve also tried this with loose, mineral foundation, but have no pictures. I’m happy to report that it works really well for all of them. I don’t know how …

Mineral Madness Day 6: Charcoal TARDIS on the Nude Beach

Published by

Welcome to Day 6 of Mineral Madness, and today, I have dared to venture into the world of bright blue eyeshadow! If you want to see a true blue swatch, check my haul post. As far as this look goes, however, I decided to take a more toned down route, as usual. I started by patting on a Shiro Cosmetics shade, TARDIS, on the outer 2/3 of the lid. With bareMinerals’ Nude Beach, I blended out the blue edge towards the inner corner. On the crease, I applied Velvet Charcoal from bareMinerals’ A Vision in Velvet holiday set. And that’s pretty much it! 🙂 Easy peasy. I used goat hair brushes for this look which throws away the theory I had that synthetic bristles applied mineral eyeshadow better. On my cheeks, I have Shiseido’s Luminizing Satin Face Color in RS 302, I think. On my lips, I have a NYX Round Lipstick in Peony. Then I just did my brows, business as usual; on my face I have a layer of bareMinerals’ Mineral Veil. That’s …

Mineral Madness Day 5: When the Thrush Knocks, It’s Gonna Be MAY!

Published by

I know I missed several days for this challenge, but work and life have both been very busy. I have a few posts lined up, but no pictures, really, for some of them. I’ve especially slacked off on these mineral makeup looks, so sorry about that! I wore this one a few days ago, though. I used When the Thrush Knocks and It’s Gonna Be MAY! by Shiro Cosmetics. I know you can’t see it very well so I’ll update this post when I get a better picture of it, because it’s rather pretty 🙂 UPDATE: I recreated the look and took pictures to give you a better idea of what the look was. In this version, I packed on more of When the Thrush Knocks and lined my eyes with MAC’s Prunella instead of Teddy. I think it looks similar to Mineral Madness Day 2’s look. Which I am not totally a fan of. Next time, I won’t pack on so much of the goldy color, I think. 🙂 In case you were interested, …

So You Want to Build a MAC Quad? Part I

Published by

Here are just some ideas if you want to venture into the world of MAC but can’t justify purchasing eleventy billion eyeshadows in one go. I’ve posted about my friend Laura’s suggestions over here, but to narrow things down, have a look at the combinations I made with the shadows I already own. 🙂 I chose to put together quads, since they seem to be the most cost efficient for people who are starting out, and because MAC creates customizable quads in their PRO stores and online. Sadly, these are not available in the MAC counters here in the Philippines, but you can put them in Wild Peach palettes or Z-Palettes instead. 🙂 Without further ado, here are three of the quads I’ve “created”: Purple Haze — Malt, Quarry, Trax, Sketch This first combination is an assortment of purples and purpley shades. We have two matte shades (Malt & Quarry), and two velvet shades (Trax & Sketch) This is great for all kinds of purple looks across the board. You can have a day look, …

Mineral Madness Day 4: Nestyr Lingered in Twilight Mist

Published by

We made it to Day 4 of Mineral Madness, where I take on the challenge to try to make 7 eye looks with mineral eyeshadow! To address some questions: — nope, I am not using any other mineral makeup besides eyeshadow — BUT, a mineral makeup foundation, etc. post is in the works — a rough guide for mineral n00bs is also in the works, as you guys had some questions for me in the comments — also, I may post more looks but perhaps in the next month or much later For Day 4, I decided to do a very soft look using three eyeshadows, two from Shiro Cosmetics and one from the bareMinerals holiday set, A Vision in Velvet. Here is what I came up with: I made a soft crease gradient with bM’s Satin Mist, which is a sort of light silver grey, with very slight, imperceptible shimmer. It’s pretty matte, actually. Then I patted on Nestyr on the inner two-thirds of my eye. Lingered in Twilight was blended into Nestyr from …