I wanted to do a fun green eye look for work today, but I didn't think I did a good job.  So after working out and hanging out with my sister, I decided to re-do a proper fun bright green eye.  I thought I would spend maybe 15 minutes on it, and only focus on the eye, but I ended up doing a huge dramatic smokey look that took me almost an hour!

Too bad it's already 12:30 and I'm ready to head to bed.  This look would be perfect for a fun night out.  It's definitely not work appropriate unless you work in fashion/beauty/music/somewhere funky where your look can be super dramatic.  I'm a bit tired so I'm not going to crop anything out or even resize it properly.  I have to be up in 6.5 hours and I still need to wash off all this pretty makeup.  If you guys want a tutorial, please let me know.  Otherwise I might forget about it.

Before, some tips for applying a bright eye look.

1.  Prime your eyelids!  I chose to go with a MAC Paint in Canvas today, but anything would work.  Urban Decay Primer Potion or even your concealer!  The key to have a good nude base so your color will stand out.

2.  Clean brushes!  You want your color to be bright and clear.  That brush you used yesterday to apply brown/purple/whatever will make the color look dirty and muddy.

3.  Try applying the brightest shades wet!  I had to clean my brushes just before doing this look, but it worked out since applying the colors wet allows it to stand out even more.

4.  Blend blend blend!!  Have a clean blending brush (MAC 217 is the best) ready to blend out all the colors.  You want a pretty gradient, not blocks of colors on your eyes.

5.  Don't worry about being precise and just have fun!  Just have some q-tips at standby to quickly remove any mistakes, or blend out that error with your blending brush.  Or, keep a concealer (dry is the easiest) around, and just cover any mistakes with a concealer when your done.

I didn't have much of an idea when I started applying.  I knew I want that bright green to stand out, so I pretty much let it grow organically.  Hope you like it, and again, if you want a step by step, let me know!

Straight close up without flash

Looking sort of down without flash

Another angle with flash.

Whole face with flash

Tell me what you think!!  This way I won't feel so wasteful about spending all this time (and product) for a look I'm only wearing for less than an hour.  Gah it's already 1!!

I wanted to submit this to Karen at Makeup and Beauty Blog yesterday for the Share Your Look post, but I didn't have enough time.  I finally got around to uploading the images to my laptop, so here it is.  I played with the pre-set frames and shapes to hopefully make my pictures more interesting.  I love how Karen does her pictures, but I have no talent to do it with her style.

This was for going out to dinner with my really good friend Patty.  I'm doubt she wants me to reveal her real age so I'll just say she's turning 21!  Woot woot!!  I wanted to keep it simple yet elegant as I also didn't have much time since I was lying in bed taking a nap when I should have been getting ready.  I ended up grabbing my NARS Alhambra duo, and defining my creases a little bit with my dark plummy red eyeshadow from Missha.  I then wetted my small tiny eyeshadow brush with contact solution, and lined my eyes with the same dark plummy red.  Topped it off with some mascara and I was out the door!

and a close up of the eye (i took it from my car so the lighting may not be ideal)

Items I used:

Face: Shiseido ZA True White Two-Way Foundation in 32, MAC Hipness Blush from Fafi Collection, and MAC Fun & Games from Hello Kitty collection

Eyes: NARS Eyeshadow Duo in Alhambra (pinkish shade all over up to the brow bone, gold shade concentrated on lids), Missha Eyeshadow in PP202, Kiss Me Goodlash Power Beam Eyes, Green contacts from Fresh Blends

Lips: NYX Lipliner in Rose, Laura Mercier lipgloss in Bellini

So what do you guys think?  I think I need a hair cut!  My hair is looking a tad limpy unstyled.

I love browsing Avon.com.  It stemmed from browsing my mom's Avon catalogues when I wasn't really old enough to buy makeup.  Their products have great prices and great qualities.  I saw these 8 in 1 palettes beneath and completely fell in love.  The Water Colors palette is just beyond gorgeous.  Since last summer, I've been more and more into aqua/teal blues.  The Water Colors palette has that, plus awesome nudes to play with.  The price, again, is awesome.  $12 for this palette.  Plus now, if you go to the Avons website, it's under the special where you Buy 1 item at regular price, and you can get a second item on that page for $1.99.  So yes, you can get 2 palettes for $14.  Let's see.. for $14, you can get 1 lipgloss from MAC.

 

 

8-in-1! Eye Palette

$12.00 at Avon

Versatile shades from dark to light. Each palette includes both matte and shimmer shades, and a mirrored compact with 2 dual-ended applicators. .32 oz. total net wt. Mirrored compact includes see-through window on lid and 2 dual-ended applicators.

Another item I'm eyeing (that's also in the $1.99 page) is the Avon SuperShock mascara.  I got a sample of this last year to review for The Beauty Brains site, shortly before they stopped putting reviews up.  I really liked the mascara, but I had received it in brown, which doesn't work with my dark eyes.  The color was just too light, and my lashes looked washed out.  Other than that, it's a really fanastic mascara that curls and voluminizes without any clumps.  It has a big brush, similar to Lash Blast from CoverGirl, but I feel like it's easier to use and gets better results.

Supershock Mascara

$8.50 at Avon

Unique microfibers instantly expand and plump lashes to larger-than-life proportions...for head-turning drama in a flash. Up to 12x more volume...in a single step. Maximum amount of mascara in just one dip. Molded teal plastic fine combs separate lashes for a precise, bolder-than-ever look. .35 oz. net wt. SELF Healthy Beauty Award Winner 2008 All AVON mascaras are hypoallergenic and opthalmologist-tested.

 

 

I had a somewhat traumatic weekend.  I basically puked for the first time ever at a club/bar, and just felt nauseous and gross the entire weekend.  This morning, when work rolled around, I found myself being super late (has to do with the left over nausea).  I looked in the mirror, and I looked like shit.  It was kind of weird because mentally I felt so awake, but my body just felt exhausted.  Anyhow, the harsh weekend I had reflected on my face, and I didn't have much time to make me pretty.

At that instant, I thought of a paint pot I had received last year from the MAC Fafi collection.  I had stored it somewhere safe, which those who knows me knows that's code for I have no idea where the hell it is, but I did have an idea.  I had stuffed it safely in the back of my mini makeup drawer, which happened to be on my counter!  Huzzah!!  Only took me 30 seconds to think of where it would be and actually find it!

First, MAC Paint Pots are the way to go when you don't have much time in the morning.  You can apply and blend it quickly with your fingers, and there's no worrying about things like fall outs.  No digging through the drawer for that one eyeshadow brush you want to use.  Just dab dab dab, blend blend, and voila, you are done.

Second, Perky is this light coral-salmon mostly matte color with just a teensy amount of shimmer.  I'm not sure if it can be described as shimmer because it's so slight.  The color just covers all the darkness around the eyes, and makes it instantly, well, PERKY!  I start by dabbing it in the middle of my lids, then eventually smoothing it out toward my brows.  The entire thing takes about oh, 15 seconds for both eyes?

Since I looked instantly better, mentally I felt more confident going into work.  I won't say that I performed at my best today, since I just kept feeling slightly feverish and woosy, just knowing that I didn't look like shit helped me get through the day.

Oh, another thing about paint pots?  They don't smudge or crease.  Well, this one creased on me about 12 hours later, but I have extremely oily lids that seems to be even oilier when I don't sleep enough.  I think this might have been an limited edition product, but google around for Perky, or see Makeupalley.com to see if anyone is swapping!

This is the collection I would get if I had more money right now.  The collection I would get if I didn't need to pay almost $75 for my phone service (hubby used to pay for it since combined, our phone service was less than $75, but we had to get the iPhone).

When I saw it at the store, I thought to myself, "wow.. the colors are really soft and pretty.  So perfect for spring!"  It contained 10 contains, a dark and light version of each color.  A sheer and a bold if you might.  From the pan, the colors all looked matte and soft.  Plus the packaging was so pretty.  It does give you this feeling of being a muse, a beautiful soft-spoken muse that gave artists all the bright inspirations to create one of a kind artwork.

Here's how it looks from pix taken from my phone

The shades on the top, the lighter shades, are meant to be worn all over your lids to give it a soft touch of color.  The darker shades on the bottom are meant to be used on top of your eyeliner to make the eyeliner pop.

There are other items from the collection, but this palette caught my eyes.  Then I come home to watch this video from Smashbox, and I wonder if I should go back to Sephora to get it.  Hm...

It costs $48 and can be found at Sephora, Nordstroms, and anywhere else that carries Smashbox.  Should I go back and get it?  What do you guys think?

 

$48.00 by Smashbox at Beauty.com

 

Lavshuca is a Japanese drugstore brand that's sold throughout Asia.  I first heard about them through PJ at A Touch of Blusher last holiday season, where I proceeded to hunt down their 2007 Holiday palette.  I ended up finding it on AdamBeauty.com, which is a Hong Kong based website that sells all your favorite Japanese brands, and to this day, I haven't used the palette yet.

I have however, acquired a lot of other items from Lavshuca, and one of them is their Eye Color Select palette in PU-2.  The Eye Color Selects contain 4 pots of colors, and the pots form this pretty multi color heart shaped flower.  The PU-2 contains a light lavendar, a dark purple, a light champagne, and a brownish taupe that contains tons of shimmer.  As with most Japanese eyeshadow palettes, Lavshuca will print a diagram showing you exactly where to place each color.  I have since discarded the packaging that held the diagram because what's the fun in doing the expected?  Sure, you are guaranteed results if you follow the printed diagram, but isn't life, and subsequently make up, all about risks?

So do what I do and play around with all 4 colors!  Put them anywhere and everywhere!  Use the dark purple as a eyeliner, or use it for your crease!  Use the dark taupe as an all over color!  Use the light purple to highlight!  Apply the champagne over the brownish taupe and blend!

Oh, speaking of blending and flaking and all other pertinent things that you probably want to know before buying, Lavshuca's eyeshadows blend extremely easily.  The colors are all quite pigmented and finely milled, so the quality is more like Urban Decay vs Wet n Wild.  It could be applied for a sheer finish, but the pigments are easily buildable.  The giant shimmer/glitter particles do fall off and land on your cheeks, so take care when you use it.  The crease factor is quite low, even without a primer.

And how do you say the brand name?  My sister and I figured that Lavshuca is a very Japanese way of saying "Love Sugar".  I think my sister was imagining her old Japanese teacher from high school talking when she thought of it, and I agree with her.  Afterall, the logo of the brand is a heart, so LOVE must be somehow related to the brand, right?  *wink*