The Beauty Department

{all images from The Beauty Department}

My new obsession is the beauty and lifestyle blog: The Beauty Department.
It is written by three lovely ladies (including one Lauren Conrad)
and is packed full of beautiful images and inspiring tutorials.
Seriously, take a look.

I hope you all had a wonderful week. I had a nasty case
of early mornings and was absolutely uninspired to write anything.
Sorry. But that phase should be gone for a while. I hope you all had a
wonderful Easter weekend. I ate myself silly and need to spend my
day catching up. Have a wonderful Monday!
xoxo



oh! and happy birthday to the most
wonderful person in my life, Justy ;)

Finding My Color Season

As many of you have guessed- new hair color means new clothes. Not new clothes per say, but figuring out what pieces in my wardrobe suit my new coloring best. Feeling a bit frustrated by this conundrum, I decided to revisit my color season analysis and see how things have changed...

Photo Credit: The Chic Fashionista
While I used to consider myself a warm or soft autumn, it seems that I am now more of a warm spring. The trickiest thing for me is that I have color-changing eyes and neutral skin tone which really is neither warm nor cool. While it's easy for me to peg down my hair color, I feel that my chameleon eyes create a challenge- they can be green, blue-green, olive green and even grey-green leaving the options open for Warm Spring, Soft Autumn and Warm Autumn. But in the end, what this all boils down to is a dress, more specifically the lovely Ava dress by Pinup Couture.
Wanting it for holiday parties, I need to know- would I look better in jade green or teal blue? Opinions needed! If all else fails it does come in black!...Yours,

Red Eyebrows

After dying my hair I wasn't very happy that my eyebrows didn't match. Knowing that the salon couldn't dye my brows, I did a little googling and decided to bleach them myself using Jolen. It was a little risky but after a few two minute bleaching sessions, I finally reached the right shade of blonde. Once I got my brows light enough, I went to Sephora to buy some light auburn eyebrow powder. I'm quite happy with the results.
Bleached brows
Anastasia Strawburn powder
Brows filled in...What do you think?

Yours,

apple & bee makeup bags

I recently acquired a few new makeup and cleansing products for the winter and would love to get my hands on a new tote to carry everything around in.  Apple & Bee shop has the cutest assortment of make-up and toiletry bags  in fun prints and various shapes.

Prices range from $21.95 to $59.  These would make a fun and useful gift for the holidays too, don't you think?

shop found via Adore Home Mag

Makeup Tutorials

My most frequently asked questions, and the answers...


This was taken with my iPhone 4 camcorder. Not the most amazing quality, but better than nothing!
...
Here's a close up of the makeup used...

Eyeliner- Smashbox,Jet Set waterproof in Midnight Black; Eyeliner brush- Sephora, Angled eyeliner #15; Lipstick- Revlon, Matte #006 Really Red; Lip pencil/brush- Body & Soul, Havana.

...
Back to more cleaning and organizing! Can't wait to get out of town!

Yours,

Pink Nails & Red Lips

{photo found here}

Dear readers,
What is your favorite trend right now?
Mine is definitely red glossy lips
and light pink nail polish
I have found myself buying all
different shades of pink nail polish.
My favorites right now are White Lavender by Savina
and Clinique lipstick in Cranberry Cream.
Share your thoughts!
xoxo

Lipstick and Eyelashes

I've had so many questions about the lipstick colors I wear, that I thought I would just do a quick post about them. Here are all of my favorite lipcolors (please excuse the messily applied lipstick, I'm usually much more precise):

Aveeno, chapstick (no color)

Chanel, Waikiki

Revlon, Wine Not

Revlon, In the Red

Revlon, Really Red

I recently bought some drugstore fake eyelashes. I'm not so great at applying them, but I like the added oomph they give my lashes. They're too bothersome for everyday wear, but they're perfect for when you're feeling flirty and want to bat your lashes.






Happy Sunday!

No more creases

Winner of the Shabby Apple giveaway, according to Random.org is...
lucky #12! Madamesoleil! Congrats and I'll be in touch with you soon.
Big THANK YOU to Shabby Apple for making great dresses and for sharing one with us!
~
There are some things in life that I've simply resigned myself to accepting, one of them being creasing eyeshadow (i.e. eyeshadow that looks fab when you first put it on but 4 hours later leaves this gunky line in the middle of my eye lid). Eeew, but it's simply been a thing for me, no big deal, right? Well, it wasn't a big deal until recently.

See, I won this giveaway on Iva Messy (wahoo!). I'd never heard of Illuminare Cosmetics, but the prize was pretty sweet- an eye kit with three creme eye shadows and two brushes. This mineral makeup has the added benefit of some serious sunscreen so I was pretty excited about trying it, but as for their promise of no creasing, well I was definitely skeptical.

All Day Eye Color Kit Special $48
There's nothing fancy about the packaging (in fact, it kind of reminds me of toothpaste). I decided to test this makeup on a Saturday, which for me means all day at the very warm vintage shop. The application was a little tricky as the products are thick and need some extra care for blending but the neutral colors are very pretty.
After a day of work, I skeptically peered at myself in the mirror ready to smudge out the crease lines and holy S%#* my eye makeup looked completely fresh! NO CREASES! Thinking this was a fluke of an application, I've worn this makeup everyday waiting for a crease and, alas, nothing.
I'm in awe...of an eye shadow...is that ridiculous? How am I supposed to go back to regular eye shadow when I've found one that doesn't crease?! Crap.
Do you have an eyeshadow that doesn't crease? Don't keep all of your tricks to yourself!