FOTD: Pomegranate Punk

Greetings from the Dark Side!

This week it finally started to feel like autumn here in North California...finally. It has been so freaking, so the sudden onset of chilly days have been more than welcome. I cannot wait for it to get even colder! I am really not a summer person and I much prefer the colder weather~ Along with the autumn weather we start to see autumn trends, that including makeup trends. I wear dark makeup all throughout the year, but I wear it even more during fall and winter. Here is an easy purple/cranberry look using indie makeup and some drugstore items~ I really do need to use my indie eyeshadows more often! They are gorgeous!I hope you all like it ^_^

Weekly Favorites #4

1. Revlon ColorBurst Matte Balm 'Standout'
When ever I have reached for a red lip product lately, I have reached for this red from Revlon. This week I used this matte balm various times and I am so in love with it! It is really pigmented, matte (but not drying), and it looks simply amazing on the lips. It is hands down one of my favorite red lip products!

2. Dior Creme de Rose 
I purchased this balm about two weeks ago and I have used it every day since then. It is a really pricey product (I think it was about $22), but I can say that this is worth the hype! My lips have felt more moisturized with this balm than with any other balm I have used in the past. It smells like roses and it makes my lips look so pretty! It does not have a visible color, but it leaves the lips looking a bit glossy with a touch of pink sheen. This stuff is absolutely wonderful. I think I will purchase another one to keep in my purse at all times!

3. Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser in the shade 'Neutralizer'
I'm sure I have already raved about this product more than enough, but I wanted to make sure I mentioned it again. This is definitely my HG undereye concealer. I love it very much! It brightens up the eye area and it is amazing to clean up any eye look. I recommend the shade 'Neutralizer' over the other shades though (I have the shade 'Light' as well, but I don't like that one as much). 

4. Tarte Airbuki Brush
I bought this brush along side the Tarte Amazonian Clay Airbrush Foundation,  but I use it with other foundations as well. I find this is a great brush for BB creams because it really blends in the product into the skin. I have used this brush pretty much all week to apply my Lioele BB cream on my skin. Definitely worth the money!

5. Illamasqua Cream Pigment 'Androgen'
The only cheek product I wore this week was this cream pigment here. I am loving corals lately and this is a really fantastic coral multi-purpose product. It looks so great on the cheeks though. It gives the skin a refreshed and glowing appearance. I highly recommend the Illamasqua Cream Pigments!

6. Shiro Cosmetics Seven Kingdoms Collection
The only eyeshadows I really used this week (besides the ones from my last FOTD) are a few eyshadows from the Shiro Cosmetics collection inspired by Game of Thrones. I particularly love 'Mother of Dragons' (purple/mauve with silver) and 'Maiden Queen' (emerald green). I pressed all of these eyeshadows so I have them conveniently all in one palette.

Thank you for reading!

     

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World of Warcraft Series: Alexstrasza

"Life is my Aspect, Dark One, and I, like all mothers, know both the pain and wonders that entails!"

Alexstrasza, the Life-Binder and Dragonqueen, is an "immense dragon...colored a deep, rich red that seems to shimmer and dance before your eyes" (source). For this look, I wanted to use red, purple, and gold as the main colors.

Not my image. Source.

EOTD: Summer Seashell

Greetings from the Dark Side!

I was in a rush to take a photo of my eye look today and so I completely forgot to take a full-face photo! I went to my friend's soloist concert (and if you read this, you did an amazing job Alma!) and I wanted to a do a fun eye look. I used a whole bunch of eyeshadows for this look, but I love the end result!

                                                                                      Products Used                                                                              

 

- Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser 'Neutralizer'

- Maybelline 'Sunwashed Sky' Color Tattoo (lid base)

- Shiro Cosmetics 'Mother of Dragons' eyeshadow (lid)

- Shiro Cosmetics 'Little Bird' eyeshadow (crease)

- Victorian Disco Cosmetics 'Evenstar' eyeshadow (inner corner) 

- Shiro Cosmetics 'Here I Stand' eyeshadow (lower lash line mixed with a bit of 'Mother of Dragons')

- Prestige Total Intensity black pencil eyeliner

- Kat Von D Tattoo liquid liner

- L'oreal Voluminous mascara

- Wet n Wild Ultimate Brow Kit

Thank you for reading!

     

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World of Warcraft Series: Deathwing

"And all will burn beneath the shadow of my wings..."

I am quite excited to show you my Deathwing inspired look! Deathwing is one of the Dragon Aspects from World of Warcraft, the MMORPG game. Deathwing the Destroyer is described as a "massive monstrosity before you rises up like a black, crag-covered mountain of scales and hide. The head is a spade-like terror spiked with cruel red eyes that shine with a frightening malevolence. Rivulets of lava and magma are visible beneath the great wyrm’s scorched scales" (source). I wanted to use black, red, and orange for this look and I am pretty happy with the result! I hope you all like it as well!

Source

Pressed Palettes!

Greetings from the Dark Side!

So I have recently been absolutely obsessed with pressing loose shadows. I bought one empty palette on eBay not too long ago to try out pressing and I have been hooked ever since! I just want to share the three palettes I have pressed so far! You can check out my pressing tutorial HERE.

This is the first palette I pressed. I pressed all 10 of the Shiro Cosmetics The Notebook Collection and added MAC 'Melon' pigment and Victorian Disco Cosmetics 'You're a Wizard, Harry!' eyeshadow to complete the 12 slots in the palette. They all pressed rather well~

FOTD: Mephisto

Even though it is already spring, the weather has been really dreary in my town. It has been raining and really cloudy! I can't get into spring makeup just yet, so I've been sticking to slightly darker makeup lately. I decided to break out my Fyrinnae eyeshadow called 'Mephisto', a stunningly complicated eyeshadow. I love this eyeshadow so much but it is really difficult to wear. Here I used it alone on my lid and my lower lash line and paired it with a daker lip color.

Mephisto is such a weird eyeshadow right?! It is red, gold, blue/purple, and a bit coppery too! I am still trying to find out the best way to use this eyeshadow and this is only one of many ways you could use it! I really do enjoy using my Fyrinnae eyeshadows :D

2013 Favorites: Indie Beauty Products

Greetings from the Dark Side!

2013 was a year of many new makeup purchases, and a year in which I discovered new favorites. I love indie makeup so very much and I wanted to dedicate an entire post to my favorite indie products of this year. I tried to pick the least amount of products as I could, so don't think that these were the only indie products I loved during 2013. These are not only my favorites, but also the products I used the most during the year. Enjoy :)

The Hobbit Series: Fifteen Birds in Five Fir Trees

Hello everyone! I have another look using the Shiro Cosmetics There and Back Again collection inspired by The Hobbit! I've sort of been obsessed with green eyeshadow lately so I just had to use green tones for this look! I hope you like it :D 

"Fifteen birds in five fir-trees

their feathers were fanned in a fiery breeze!

But, funny little birds, they had no wings!

O what shall we do with the funny little things?
Roast 'em alive, or stew them in a pot;

fry them, boil them and eat them hot?" (The Hobbit).

The Hobbit Series: The Desolation of Smaug

"Revenge! The King under the Mountain is dead and where are his kin that dare seek revenge? Girion Lord of Dale is dead, and I have eaten his people like wolf among sheep. And where are his sons' sons that dare approach me? I kill where I wish and none dare resist" (Smaug, The Hobbit).

Not my image. From Google Images.

Just a few hours remain before I head out to the midnight premiere of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug! I am so excited to see this movie so I dedicated today's makeup to the great dragon Smaug, the Chiefest of Calamities. Smaug is described as a "a vast red-golden dragon" (The Hobbit) so I wanted my makeup to reflect his coloring. I also chose some lashes that had gold and silver glitter to represent Smaug's hoarded treasure. And I used eyeshadows from The Hobbit inspired Shiro Cosmetics collection called There and Back Again  to make this a truly inspired look! 

^_^ I hope you like it!

The Hobbit Series: An Unexpected Party

Greetings from the Dark Side!

Oh my, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is out in theaters next week and I am so excited to go see it! If you did not know I am a HUGE Tolkien fan. I watched the The Lord of the Rings trilogy in theaters when I was in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. In 7th grade, I finally read The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion (albeit with some difficulty, Tolkien in not the easiest to read). I have read and re-read most of Tolkien's work throughout most of my teenage and adult life; The Hobbit is still one of my favorite things to read during the winter while I'm wrapped up in a warm blanket. Although I am a die-hard fan of Tolkien novels, stories, and poems, I still love to watch Peter Jackson's interpretations of Tolkien's works. They are not true to the books, however they are still fun to watch. I see the movies as completely separate entities and I try my best not too compare them too much. That being said, I am very thrilled to see the new installment of The Hobbit! I am particularly excited to finally see Thranduil, who is being played by Lee Pace. Holy moly, that guy makes the sexiest elf ever! 

Anyway...here is my Hobbit inspired look using two shades from the Shiro Cosmetics There and Back Again collection. I tried to keep this very Hobbit-like by using brown and green (those colors remind me of The Shire), and I think the two colors go well together since the brown actually has small green shimmer (which my camera did not capture...what a shame). And I absolutely had to use my LotR inspired products from Pumpkin & Poppy in this look too!

For a pictorial and product list, keep reading...

Top 5: Indie Eyeshadows

Greetings from the Dark Side ♥

Hope you are all healthy and happy :)

I haven't posted a "Top 5" post in a while, so I thought I could do a "Top 5" for my favorite indie eyeshadows. Now, I have loads and loads of indie eyeshadows; I am not even joking. I own more than half of the Fyrinnae and Shiro Cosmetics eyeshadows, almost all of the VDC eyeshadows, and bits and pieces from other brands. So as you can imagine picking only 5 is really crazy and insanely difficult for me. But I will do my best and give you a rough idea of the 5 eyeshadows I use often and love most. And remember that this list changes often because I try out new indie eyeshadows on a monthly basis.

Disney Series: Elsa (Frozen)

Greetings from the Dark Side!

Disney's Frozen is about to be released so here is my insanely late Elsa inspired makeup! Out of the two main female roles from this film, Elsa is by far my favorite. She isn't a villain, but not quite the "good guy" of this film either. I like the idea of having a Disney character with an uncontrollable power, it is quite reminiscent of many anime characters I have encountered. Also, her snowflake-themed dress is insanely cute! I will have to watch the film and see how I feel about Elsa then! 

EOT: Halloween Purples (Ft. Shiro Cosmetics)

Hello everyone!

Halloween is right around the corner and I haven't yet used my new Halloween shades from Shiro Cosmetics! So today I made a super simple eye look using both 'Zero' and 'Two Faced' eyeshadows from the Halloween collection :D

This literally took me less than a minute to do (I was in a hurry). I used 'Zaro' on most of the lid and 'Two Faced' on the crease and lower lash line. I added some black liner and mascara. BAM! You have a super quick and fun look!

Swatches: Shiro Cosmetics Halloween 2013

Greetings my lovely readers!

Here are the new Shiro Cosmetics products from the Halloween line, as shown in my last haul. I already have a review of the previous Halloween products and you can check those out HERE. The new products included are 'Zero' and 'Two Faced' eyeshadows and 'Something in the Wind' lip gloss. 

I haven't really used these a lot, so I can't even give you a first impression on the eyeshadows. The lip gloss is really nice, but a bit sheerer that I hoped. The smell of it is amazing though! It smells like lemongrass ♥ Anyway, I'll at least show you some swatches :D

Zero: is pretty accurate in the swatch if you also notice how it looks like a darker grey at the bottom. This is because this color is like that of a sea shell: it's pink and it has a silver duochrome.

Two Face: is exactly how it looks in person. It is a dark grey with a purple duochrome and lots of sparkles!

Something in the Wind: Is a vampy wine color. It is darker than what it looks like in these photos.

Here is a totally shitty shot of me wearing 'Something in the Wind'. Sorry I look like crap! I am still getting over being sick.

I'll have a proper review of these items once I actually use them for a while xD In the mean time, you can have pretty swatches :)

Early Birthday Haul!

Hello everyone!

As I mention in my Facebook, I have been lacking on my posting for the past days because I was really sick. I thought I felt better the other day, but then I went back to feeling absolutely freaking terrible. But today I feel better for sure :D I even did a bit of hauling! My birthday is coming up,  it's on October 25th. My super sweet supervisor/friend gifted me an early birthday gift: a Sephora gift card and some Revlon nail stickers! She knows me too well xD So after feeling like crap for the past week, I decided I needed a bit of retail therapy. Here is what I purchased~

1. Kat Von D Rehab Priming Elixir ($30)
I suppose I should start with the reason I was in Sephora in the first place. I was almost out of my Kat Von D primer and I needed a new one! I have been using this stuff on and off for the past 2-3 months, not really sure if I liked it or not. I decided this month that I absolutely love this primer for my combo-dry skin. This primer is especially amazing with the Kat Von D Lock It foundation! It's not cheap, but it makes my skin feel amazing and it makes the Lock It foundation look so much better! It was out of stock for the longest time, so I wanted to make sure that I had at least a new bottle stocked.

FOTD: Fall is Here!

Greetings from the Dark Side!

And yay for Autumn!

As a northern Californian, I very much welcome the Autumn weather. It has been so hot north of the Bay Area and it still felt like summer even though it was the middle of September. But finally we experienced some rain and some low temperatures on Saturday. It was a breath of fresh air! So now, it actually feels like Autumn to me. I decided to get out some of my Fall colors and get to work on a Fall look!~

Day to Night FOTD: Iridescent Smokey Eye

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well and perhaps enjoying better weather conditions (it is insanely windy here in North California!). I wanted to play around with some of my indie makeup, so I created a day look which I later transformed into a darker night-time look. Stick around if you want to see the transition :D

                                                                              Day Look                                                                    

This day look is by no means a neutral or conservative look. This is still quite bright and dramatic for some people! But I really love wearing dramatic eyeshadows and I like to wear them during the day. But notice that the rest of my makeup is very neutral and so the eye makeup is not too overwhelming. Of course, you can wear whatever you like whenever you like. Don't let the day/night makeup "rules" stop you!

Tutorial: Lingered in Twilight (Ft. Shiro Cosmetics)

Greetings from the Dark Side!

Someone of you might be aware that I recently acquired the Shiro Cosmetics There And Back Again collection and which is so fantastic that I just had to start making some looks using the collection. Two of the colors that stood out to me and to many other Shiro fans are 'Lingered in Twilight' and 'The Wandering Wizard', which I am using today to create this look :) I hope you enjoy this look, my little hobbits ♥

Swatches: Shiro Cosmetics There And Back Again Collection

Greetings from the Dark Side!~

Today I have some super exciting swatches to share with you!This is the entire Shiro Cosmetics There And Back Again collection inspired by The Hobbit. I LOVE The Hobbit and everything else written by J.R.R. Tolkien. And if you are wondering why I have this even though I am on a No-Buy, and that is because this was a present from my dear mother =3 She was so sweet and offered to buy it for me! Anyways, enjoy ♥

P.S. The artwork stickers for this collection are so freaking cute!!!

 

[WARNING: Many, many photos!]