Sunday, June 24, 2012

Quest For BIG Hair- Not Your Mother's Girl Powder Review

My hair is thin, fine, limp, dry, frizzy and relatively lifeless in its natural state. As a result it has spent most of its life in a pony tail or bun (due to military service), but I am bored with all that. In my quest for big hair I have tried a lot of "volumizing" products and most just don't do anything for me. Volumizing shampoos and conditioner are too drying and make my hair feel like straw.

Using deep conditioner and coconut oil I have conquered the dryness and frizz for the most part. Now I need to turn my hair from limp and blah to at least normal hair volume. Today, this is where Not Your Mother's Girl Powder Volumizing Powder comes in.



Tuesday, June 19, 2012

LOTD- Rainbow



Decided to try my hand at rainbow eyeliner. It's such a simple yet bold look and it's really easy to do. I was able to do this whole look with just two brushes in less than 10 minutes.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

BB Cream VS Tinted Moisturizer

There is a big misconception in the beauty world that BB creams are just over-hyped tinted moisturizers. This may be true for Western BBs like Garnier's and Maybelline's but it's not true for the majority of Asian BBs.

I'm really not sure why Western BB creams are so sheer and so poorly representative of BB creams as a whole. Garnier's especially is an epic fail of a BB cream and really shouldn't be called one. It's a tinted moisturizer through and through and it seems like BB cream was tacked on just because it's a big buzz word at the moment.

BB creams are designed to be multi-purpose products that leave the skin with a flawless finish and are supposed to help improve the condition of skin over time. In general BB creams are supposed to take the place of moisturizer, primer, foundation and for most creams sunscreen as well. Many also provide other benefits such as lightening, brightening, blemish control and anti-aging.

Tinted moisturizers, on the other hand, are just that. Moisturizer with a hint of color. BB creams from Asian companies tend to have much more coverage, I have tried a few such as Skin Food Red Bean, Skin Food Good Afternoon Peach Green Tea, Skin79 Hot Pink and Skin79 Dream Girls. All of them have been medium to full coverage, not at all like what you would get from a TM. TMs are sheer and designed to give just a hint of color to even out skin tone. While there are some sheerer BBs, most aim to cover up flaws are reduce the need for concealer.

I used the two previously mentioned Skin Food BB creams on a near daily basis. When I use them I do not apply any moisturizer, primer, sunscreen or concealer (except on my eyelids). Red Bean is a moisturizing cream which DOES moisturize much how a TM would but it provides quite heavy coverage that makes my rosacea all but completely disappear. GAPGT is for oil control and is applied to my T-zone, an area where a tinted moisturizer certainly could not be applied. It has a matte finish and helps control shine for a few hours. I has reduced my use of blotting papers a bit. The use of these products has seemed to improve my skin just a bit, it's less dry and I have just slightly less obnoxious monthly break outs. But most of all when I wear them my face looks amazing, pores vanish and imperfections are covered up and my skin looks like skin, not a mask.

I have used tinted moisturizers in the past and they are just not for me, unfortunately I was not blessed with nice skin and need full coverage foundations.

Any way, if you have tried Western BBs and were left feeling disappointed don't write off BB creams as a whole! Get one from a Korean company and experience what these products are really supposed to be.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

OOTD- blak n blu

Outfit of the day...
Tank top- Walmart
Light blue "skirt"- tube top from Walmart
Darker blue skirt- Wet Seal
Boots- Demonia Riot 20

Jewelry is all made by me. The big blue beads are from US Beadery, the spike beads are from CrushCrush on Etsy, The rest are probably all from Michael's craft store.

EOTD- blak n blu







I started this look with a base of Too Faced Shadow Insurance then a coat of NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk in the shape that I wanted to do.

I used Wet n Wild coloricon shadow in Panther (it's a matte black) to start the winged liner.

Above it I applied Hi Fi Cosmetics Super Sonic Overdrive (a bright blue that is slightly metallic when foiled).

At the outer V around the black I applied Sugarpill Afterparty (bright medium blue with low shimmer).

Above Super Sonic Overdrive I applied Meow Cosmetics Telepathy (super shimmery blue/green shift highlight).

Over the black shadow I applied Jordana Semi-Permanent Liquid Liner, and here's where it got ugly. I can not handle liquid liner. I don't know why this is but if I try to use it I will, no matter what, make a Huge. Ugly. Mess... and sure enough I did.

Any way, I continued with the look by foiling the blue shadows using Medusa's Makeup sealant. I then foiled Super Sonic Overdrive over the Jordana liner. Then I foiled Fyrinnae La Noche (metallic navy blue) over the Jordana liner and this pretty much evened it out to a point where it looked presentable.

Finished it up with a black liner on the water line and my newest love, Revlon Photoready 3D volume mascara. The formula isn't anything revolutionary, it's the brush. It has bristles on the tip of the wand! This makes it sooooooo easy to get the little lashes in the corner and to apply extra mascara at the base of the lashes for increased volume.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

NOTD- Acid Moons


First attempt at a moon manicure, probably would've went better if I had not chosen that Milani polish. I love the color but it is sooooooooooo sheer and chips if you look at it.

Milani Neon Totally 80s, 4 coats+
Pure Ice French Kiss*, 2 coats

I used paper reinforcer stickers as a guide. They didn't play nice with the Milani polish and pulled some of it off. I had to go back over it a few times on a couple nails. They also left my nails very sticky! I had gobs of lint all over them in no time and it was a pain in the arse to clean that up with out damaging the polish.


*French Kiss is not as green when it's not applied over green polish

Friday, June 1, 2012

Sugarpill Heartbreaker

Getting back to business... 
I love the new Sugarpill Heartbreaker palette. The colors are so bright and summery and super pretty. I have not yet used the purple shade 2 am because I am currently obsessed with doing this look:


Fyrinnae Bifrost in the inner corner blended into Sugarpill Acidberry and then Sugarpill Mochi in the outer V. Sugarpill Velocity applied wet with Medusa's Makeup eyeliner sealant as the liner on top of the lid and the waterline.

Lips are Shiro 40 Cakes.

I find that the colors in this palette are a bit softer than the single pressed shadows I have from SP. They are easier to blend as a result (I love Poison Plum but sometimes this one can be a bitch to blend). 


ALSO... I HATE TRYING TO MAKE A POST IN THE NEW BLOGGER WTF ARRRG