Happy Pink Wednesday!

I have to admit that I came very close to skipping Pink Wednesday this week since I just finished the 31 day challenge and really didn't want to do another mani where the color or theme was chosen for me. However, I had recently acquired a new pink polish and was itching to wear it, so I gave in! It took me a long time to decide on what I was going to do with it, though. I had originally planned on doing another tape mani, but that would make 3 in a row, and I wanted something awesome, but also something that I hadn't done in awhile. I finally settled on water marbling, but I wanted to use the new pink and black, and the pink doesn't ring out very well. It needed a polish that spread well to push it into the ring, and none of my blacks managed to do that. I was bummed out, thinking that there was no way to marble with this pink. Strangely enough, I also have a new purple polish that I've been wanting to try out, and that one did the trick! It ringed beautifully as soon as it hit the water, and was able to spread the pink out with it, making it possible to water marble with the pink after all.

For this mani I started with my usual base coat of Instant Artificials and 2 coats of Orly "Oh Cabana Boy", a beautiful hot pink with subtle blue shimmer. I then marbled with Oh Cabana Boy and Revlon "Decadent", which is a stunning blue/purple - not quite blue enough to call it blurple, but it does have the blue to it. I then used a very light coat of Essie "Carnival" (One of Essie's rare glitter topcoats pre Luxeffects. Carnival is a  sparse Holographic Glitter in a clear base.), and topped it all off with Seche Ultra-V.

Please forgive my pics! I was groggy when I stumbled out to take these pics this morning and didnt realize that I still had cuticle balm stuck in my cuticles! Ack!!


First, with flash:

Outdoors, Direct Sunlight, left hand:

Outdoors, Direct Sunlight, Right Hand:

And in shade, right hand:

I didn't think I would love this color combo as much as I do! In person, it's just stunning. Bright and fun, yet not as in your face as my last water marble.  The light coat of Carnival added just the right amount of sparkle without being overwhelming. I'm actually keeping this on for more than 12 hours.  I also just love how my right hand turned out. As I progressed, I was able to make crisper designs, and since I used a smaller cup to marble, the designs were small enough to show more than just a few swirls.  Very awesome since I'm so used to having just a few swirls when I marble with my nails at this short length.  I forgot to get pics of my thumbs, but I was able to fit the entire flower design on them.  I can't wait to try out the smaller cup marble again!

I am expecting my new MASH 2012 stamping plates tomorrow, so expect a stamping post soon! I have no idea what color I'm going to be posting next; I have so many untrieds that it's almost impossible for me to pick! I plan on wearing Wallis, Big Smoke, and layering with Essie Luxeffects Shine of The Times this week, as well as swatching the last of my Sally Hansen smooth and perfect polishes.

Speaking of swatching, do you guys think I should swatch more? I'm not sure what you want to see, so I'm asking for some input here! :)

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

One look worn two ways

I wanted to do something holiday-ish.  So I went for silver (with glitter, which you can totally not see at all!) with red lips.  And then me, being SUPER uncomfortable in red lips decided to change them to pink.  And I took pictures just to show what a big difference a lip color can make.

The eye makeup:

What I used:

TFSI (as always!)

NYX JEP (so I had something for my pigment to stick to)

NYX Ultra Pearl Mania "Silver" foiled on lid

NYX Ultra Pearl Mania "Silver" not foiled above crease and under eye

NYX "Black" shadow along lashline and in outer v

Balmbini Volume 2 "Promiscuous Pearl" as highlight

L'oreal HIP Color Chrome Eyeliner "Black Shock" (may I just say holy burning eyeballs!!  Don't put this on your waterline!)

L'oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara

Some false lashes I had hanging out

 Now on to the full face pictures!

Now I realize that it looks like I changed more than just my lip color when I went from red to pink.  But all I did was add just a bit more blush (I looked too washed out without it).  The lighting outside changed in between the time I got done with the red and the time I got the pink on.

Red lip colors:

NYX Soft matte lip cream "Amsterdam"

NYX Electra

NYX Snow White

I used a bit of all of these because I couldn't get it to look right

Pink lip colors:

The light pink Lipthix from Calypso Minerals

MAC "Right Image" Cremesheen Glass

Face makeup:

Revlon Colorstay for Oily/Combination skin

(in the colors "Buff" and "Sand Beige" mixed together)

Maybelline Dark Circle treatment in Fair

Maybelling Super Stay concealer (the second lightest color)

Covergirl Professional loose powder in translucent fair

ELF studio blush/bronzer duo (LOVE this bad boy!)

Balmbini Volume 2 "Promiscuous Pearl" for a highlight

And with the pink lip I added some of Ulta's "Girlie" blush

Which look do you like better?  Which one would you wear?  I know for myself, I really tend to like the look of red lips, just not on me haha.  I don't know what it is but still, I feel like people are staring at me with the red lips.  I feel like the red lips are much more Christmas-y though.

Thank you all so much for checking this out!!  

And if you haven't yet, be sure to enter my Calypso Minerals giveaway!! 

Long time no see

For a long long time, I have felt out of my game and out of inspiration. But today, remembering my love for the aesthetic masterpiece Water for Elephants I had an urge to vintage myself up. 

Wearing my Hubsch Und silk shirt

A glowy cheek achieved with both bronzer and highligter frames the smoked out eyes with a long winged liner, lots of lashes and a glossy lip

And most importantly I have to play around with my camera a bit.

31 Day Challenge, Day 31: Re-create your favorite challenge

Ahhh, such a bittersweet post! However, I have found a form of nail art that I am just loving, and will inundate you guys with all too often, I'm sure! For today's challenge, I chose to re-create the Inspired By A Tutorial Challenge, this time with Patchwork!  You can find the tutorial at Chloe's Nails, under the Tutorials tab. :)

I am just loving these scotch tape manis! I have a bunch I want to do, so I apologize in advance for inundating you with them. But, since Erika is on hiatus, someone has to play with tape! Gotta keep the scotch tape manis alive! ;)

For this mani I started with a base of Wet N Wild Black Creme, then taped off my nails and added Sinful's Purple Diamond. Then I taped my off my nails again, and added Wet N Wild Buffy The Violet Slayer, topped it all off with SV, and voila! Patchwork Mani! If you like tape manis, Erika is the queen of all scotch tape manis, and has awesome tutorials on her page.

And with that, I bid adieu to the 31 Day Challenge. It's been awesome, but I'm really looking forward to creating some awesome tape manis as well as swatching my collection.

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Tutorial: Adele inspired look

Hi cutie pies! 

Today I'm going show you how to do my version of the makeup that Adele wears on the December 2011 issue of Cosmopolitan.  This is really a super easy look to achieve and still it looks great! Hope you like it :)

Step 1

Start by applying a primer and then an eyeshadow about the same color as your skintone all over your lid, all the way up to your brows. 

Step 2.

With a blending brush add some matte bronzer or teracotta colored eyeshadow to your crease. Blend out well with circular motions. Fill in your brows with a brow pencil or an eyeshadow similar to your natural brow color. On the picture Adele's brows looks absolutely fabulous. Mine are a bit wild and crazy right now to I also ran them through with some clear brow gel on a clean mascara wand. If you don't have any brow gel you can use hairspray on a clean mascara wand instead. 

Step 3.

For the eyeliner I chose MAC fluidline in "Blacktrack" but you can use a liquid eyeliner as well. Draw the line quite thick. Make sure that you get the liner between your lashes as well. 

Step 4. 

Add mascara and a pair of long but still natural false eyelashes. The ones I'm using here are from H&M. Their maybe not great eyelashes but they were cheap and not too bad. ;)

Step 5.

It doesn't look like Adele has anything under her lower lash line so I went over my waterline with a off white eyepencil and put a teeny tiny bit of mascara on the lower lashes. After putting on the mascara I ran through the lashes with a clean mascara wand. 

Step 6. 

Put on your foundation, concealer and powder (if you need it). If you have oily skin you can powder your T-zone, but if your skin is dry you probably won't need any powder at all, especially not now during the winter when your skin is even dryer than normal. 

Put the same bronzer you used as eyeshadow on your cheeks to mark out your cheekbones. 

Step 7. 

On the picture Adele's lips look quite nude so I put on Clinique Long Last lipstick in "Creamy Nude" and on top of that Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector. 

Here's the finished look! 

AMY'S BIRTHDAY NAILS!

Calypso Minerals Giveaway!!!

*Edit* I know these colors are beautiful but I just found out that Calypso Minerals has been taking people's money and not sending them the products they've ordered.  So please don't order from them!  I don't know about dupes for all of the colors but Glamour Doll Eyes has a color called "Mingles" which is a good dupe for "True Blue".  I'm so sorry!*

I just posted a review on these Calypso Minerals products that I bought recently.  And I figured I'd stop teasing you guys and just tell you that I'm going to be giving some away!!!  I mean, I was excited when I reached 300 followers and like two weeks later now I have 356!  I can't even believe it!  I just want to thank you all so much for reading my blog!

There are going to be two winners.  The first prize is a 10 color matte stacker:

Which is the same stacker that I have, I just added a matte black to the bottom because everyone needs a good matte black.

The second prize:

These colors are shimmery and one is obviously a loose glitter.  

The colors are Drama Sparkle, Lime Lite, Aquadelic, and Green Glitter.

So the giveaway starts as soon as I post this and will be ending on December 19th, 2011 at 10:00 pm (EST). You must be a follower of my blog to enter.

How to enter:

1. Leave me one comment below telling me who your celebrity makeup crush is and also your GFC name (so I know you're following me) and your e-mail address.  That will give you one entry.

2. Post a link to this giveaway on your blog (which you will have to post a link to in your comment, if you don't, I won't realize that you did it a it won't be counted).  This will give you two additional entries.

3.If someone enters and names you as a referral, you will receive another entry (for each referral).  So be sure to tell them to mention your GFC name if they come here because of you!!!

I am going to have this open internationally.  I have never shipped overseas but I'm willing to try it!

I will be using random.org to choose a winner.  I will enter your name as many times as entries you have (does that make sense???) in the order in which they are received.  If the same name comes up for both prizes, I will  go to the next name for the second prize.  Both prizes cannot go to the same person.  I'm hoping to announce the winners on December 20th.  I will then contact the winners and they'll have to reply to me within 48 hours or I will move on to the next name.  

I hope that all makes sense!  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!!!

Calypso Minerals review!

*Edit* I know these colors are beautiful but I just found out that Calypso Minerals has been taking people's money and not sending them the products they've ordered.  So please don't order from them!  I don't know about dupes for all of the colors but Glamour Doll Eyes has a color called "Mingles" which is a good dupe for "True Blue".  I'm so sorry!*

Just so ya know, this is going to be a LONG post!!

If you've been following me for a little bit, you've seen me use Calypso Minerals matte loose pigments.  I stumbled across these by accident.  I was looking around on etsy, which I think is a cool site because it gives people a chance to sell their homemade products (anything from makeup to soap to jewelry to paintings to hats, scarves, and all sorts of stuff) on that site.  I'd been browsing around for a while and almost all of the loose pigments (I call them pigments, I'm not sure if they're actually considered that but they are mineral makeup) that I came across are shimmery.  I like some shimmer but not a ton of shimmer.  So I searched for matte pigments and Calypso Minerals' store popped up.

I was very intrigued by the swatches I saw.  So I contacted Jennifer, the owner, and asked if they do custom stackers because, while I liked most of the colors in both of the premade stackers I saw, I wanted some different colors.  She said they did and so I told her what colors I wanted and she put those colors in a stacker for me, as well as ordering a few extra pigments.  I also asked for 2 of her "Lipthix" which are supposedlly similar to OCC liptars (which I have never tried) and I told her what lip colors I like wearing.

So I placed my order, and like an hour later I got a notice saying that my order had shipped along with a tracking number.  I checked the tracking number a few times over the next couple days and all it ever said was that the electronic shipping information was received.  It never said it shipped.  It never said where it was.  But I placed my order at like 11:00 at night on November 11 and my order came on the 17th.  There was also a holiday and a Sunday in between those dates when the mail doesn't come so I thought that was pretty good.

So I got my makeup and swatched it right away, which I've shown you before but I'll show you again (swatched over NYX JEP "milk").

Here's what I got

Now I really wanted to test these out before I attempted a review.  So I did.

Each of these (except the loose glitter) comes with a sifter and a piece of sticky plastic over the sifter so you don't lose any product during shipping.

They're each 5 grams of product and individually cost around $7.  A stacker generally has 11 or 13 colors and costs $75 in her Etsy store.  However, since following Calypso Minerals' Facebook page, I have seen her offer many deals such as buy one get one free.  And I have to say, I did get confused because I couldn't seem to find a concrete listing of colors they offer.  Their Calypso Cosmedics webstore has some different prices and different colors than they show on both their facebook page and in their etsy store.  So that was a negative for me.

I have been applying these with my Studio Tools smudge brush (which I got from Target) over NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in "Milk" to help them stick.  The colors are really really beautiful.  And for the most part, they've been pretty easy to work with.  Now, my favorite color would be "True Blue."  I mean, look at it.  But I noticed if I didn't pack it on, the color went more navy blue than the bright blue that you see in the container.  This is another color I completely believe is worth fighting for.  You really have to pack it on to get the same color on your lid that in the container.  Like really pack it on.  But I'm willing to do that.

I haven't had issues like that with the other colors.  Here are some looks I've done using these

"True Blue," "Sublime," "Lemon Sorbet"

"Drama"

I used "Matte Violet" and "Razzle Dazzle" and a little bit of the black for this

"True Blue", "Grape Pop", "Matte Violet"

Now here are some swatches of these colors vs other similar (or maybe not so much similar) colors

I was very impressed with this black.  It's really nice!

Gosh, it looks like someone here likes purples.  I think they're all great.  I love all of these colors (except the Inglot AMC's because they're just not favorites of mine).  The Calypso Minerals do not stain like Sugarpill and the MUFE shadows do.  That's because there are NO dyes added!  So they're perfect for anyone who has dye allergies!

Yeah, I really don't have any colors similar to the Calypso Minerals ones.  This was the best I could come up with.  Envy is the only color I have yet to use, which is weird because I LOVE olive greens.

Ahhh True Blue, what a beautiful color you are!  

Besides True Blue so badly wanting to be navy blue, I still love it.  Also, I'm not sure if the particle size is a little bigger on True Blue but I have to take the sifter off of the container when I use it because I can't really get any out.  And Drama worked very well for me the one time I used it!

Again, I really don't have any colors like these Calypso Minerals colors.  I just figured I'd show them next to other colors so you could see the differences.  Lemon Sorbet is so much more of a wearable yellow than Buttercupcake.  It's much more subtle.  And Torrid is a GORGEOUS color!  I love the warmness of it.  I've used it like 3 times just by itself in the outer corners of my eyes, just for something simple but pretty.  And that Inglot shadow is the color I fill my brows in with.

And now the Lipthix I received

I have yet to use the one on the right.  It's a bit grey for me.  I've held it up to my face and it doesn't really look like it'd be that flattering.  So I didn't want to use it if I might give it away, you know?

LOVE this color!!! HATE the packaging!  It makes such a mess.  Without me even having to touch it.  I'll use some, clean up the tube, set it down, and when I come back an hour later, it's sitting in a little puddle of color. Very messy.  Not something I can carry around with me because it'll get all over everything.

This is a very light, cool toned pink.  It reminds me very much of a lighter version of MAC's Pink Friday lipstick.  I like this but I cannot wear it by itself.  It looks very very unnatural.

Love these under glosses but definitely not alone.  And you need only the littlest bit!  They're $10.  But they will last you forever!  I think I read somewhere that she can match any color you want her to, she just needs a sample.  I think that would be worth doing.  I've actually been considering it.  I've used these under other colors I think every day since I got them.

Overall, I would definitely 100% recommend these!  I love them.  Loose pigments are a bit different to work with than pressed shadows but that doesn't bother me.  Again, the color selection is a bit confusing, as are the prices but Jennifer got back to me very quickly with answers to my questions.  I'm a big fan of supporting small businesses as opposed to huge ones.  That's why I'd been looking around etsy for stuff.  I'm so glad I did!!!  

But man, am I sick of typing haha.  I hope that helps someone if you've been looking at these. 

Disclosure notice: I did purchase all of these products with my husband's own money (haha, I'm a stay at home mom).  Jennifer sent some extra products because that's another promotion type thing she does.   

I'm doing a giveaway that's running until December 19th, 2011 at 10:00 pm (EST) so be sure to enter HERE!

Green Monday Night time look

So, here's the night time version of the look that I posted earlier today! :) I added some black eyeliner to the waterline and upper lash line, black eyeshadow in the crease and under the lower lash line and a pair of false eyelashes. As you can see I also updated the lip look. 

Products used to update the look:

Eyes

*Make Up Store Microshadow "Pollution"

*Isadora Inliner "Indian black"

*H&M false eyelashes Long black

Tip! If you are going out after work and are planning on wearing the same makeup as during the day, remember not to put any powder on so that you can reapply your foundation later! Your foundation will most certainly need to be reapplied after a long day at work and if you have powdered your face reapplication of foundation or more powdering will create a cakeyness that is anything but cute!