nude lips

So yesterday I just got my first ever too faced make up products! and I will do some reviews here soon promise but one thing I had to get on and rave about right away is the the perfect lips universal lip liner it is a perfect pinky nude! not too dark not too brown oh it is amazing! I had bought the Urban Decay 24/7 lip liner pencil in naked and it was too dark and too brown for me to be a nude but this pencil has the most amazing color! the texture is nice i like the texture of my urban decay lip liner better and it lasts amazing, but this one is almost as good texture wise but the color is the best nude colored lip liner I have found yet

So what are your favorite lip liner products and colors?

Liquid Eye Liner

I have always been a big fan of liquid eyeliner ever since I first discovered it's wonders in middle school, and have used it almost daily since high school. I can't recall all the different ones I have tried, but I do know the ones that were my favorites and I wanted to share a bit.

My first all time favorite liquid liner was Physicians Formula EyeBrightener eyeliner when I first discovered this product it was something I had never used before it had a sponge tip brush instead of a regular brush tip, it had a slight metallic shimmer to it so it doesn't show up as a true black.

Though the Physicians Formula was great I used to swim a lot and go to the beach a lot, and play soccer a lot and well it just would not hold up. So I worked at Dillards for a few years and while there I made friends at the Clinique counter and she turned me on to this product...Clinique's Water Resistant Eyeliner in Natural Black...this stuff was amazing! now I know things have changed a lot but it was probably 8 years ago at least that i tried this product for the 1st time... anyways it was a dry powder cake and it came with a brush, you got the brush wet and mixed in the powder and painted on the eyeliner. And these cakes were a fairly good size so they lasted a long time, but because they were a dry powder it limits bacteria growth, and I say limits because you do get it wet and mix it. Similarly to the physicians formula one it is not a true back its more a charcoal grey/black...but I loved it! Then one day I go to buy a refill and I am told they don't carry it any more (this was probably 4-5 years ago) I was devastated.

I was then introduced to gel liner...but that's whole other topic...but today I was doing some research online and I found it again! So I don't know if they brought it back or I was misinformed. I think I may have to go buy some more of this stuff for my kit.

So from there I went to Gel Eyeliners for a while and they are great and like I said that's another post for another day but the downside to gel liners is they take time to apply and you need to have a brush and you wanna clean that brush right after or it gets gross and crusty. I needed to find a new liquid eyeliner to use too...I found this wonder by Covergirl. It's their line exact liquid eyeliner, its small compact self contained its like a felt tip marker you shake it up and the eyeliner comes out the tip and draws on smooth and quickly love it! will always keep this little treasure in my purse.

A recent find that i'm loving is this one by L'Oreal Paris it's their Lineur Intense. Right now I have it in Black Mica and I am hoping to get it in carbon black soon as well this is also a felt tip eyeliner great fine tip point does wonderful cat eye's and very easily controlable

and my last on my all time favorite liquid eye liners list is Urban Decay 24/7 liquid eyeliner in perversion. This is a super fine tip brush applicator, super stay liquid eyeliner. Not my favorite for super quick easy everyday use but wonderful for long lasting applications

So thank's for stopping by and hearing about my favorite liquid eye liners, I would love to hear about yours, I am always looking for great new products to try out, either for my own personal day to day (which is quick and easy since my work day starts at 5 am, or to add to my professional kit which is mostly for bridal and special occasion)

I am also working on a HUGE Mascara comparison project I hope to share with you soon.

but for now,

Love and Beautiful inky eyes,

Lindsay

New Years Resolutions

New Years Resolutions Time!

Hi! This is me...27years old and over weight me...

I have never been big on New Years Resolutions but this year I look at where I am at and I am so far from where I want to be. I am married and have a house and 2 dogs and 3 cats and I am so happy with that part of my life, But I am struggling with my weight, Struggling with trying to have a baby, hating my day job... and coming up on my 10 year high school reunion. So I think this year is the year for me to start caring about Resolutions. So I sat down and made a list of this years BIG goals, and then I will take each week one at a time to accomplish them.

1)Eat Healthier!

I know it wont happen over night, and I know it is hard to break bad habits, so I have started off the 1st few weeks of this new year small, not starting a drastic diet that I will fail miserably at again, but rather with one goal in mind....MAKE BETTER CHOICES... so far so good and each week I plan to adjust and modify that goal. So far I have made sure when we went out to eat one night I got soup and salad to start me off and absolutely NO desert, yep everyone else at the table got the 3 course meal kind of deal at mimi's cafe and i opted no desert, last night at a family bbq/party... half my plate was filled with salad the other half had a piece of steak and broccoli casserole (had rice and cheese in it an stuff)...but then....absolutely no desert! so these have been small victories for me, but they are getting me going in the right direction. so far I am down 4 pounds!

now I need to add in taking my vitamins every day

I also joined a free site called loseit.com and they even have an app for my phone, this week starting today my goal is to track track track, even if i go over my daily calories even if i don't make good choices, even if i gain a pound or 2 back. I need to hold myself accountable for what I put into my body and I need to track it on my app every day...I'll let you know how that goes.

2) Exercise Regularly/Be More Active!

Yep I was always active I plaid soccer went to the gym and loved the beach and now I don't do any of the above because I hate how I look and feel. And yep that is me on the left holding the body board in the photo above and me riding a wave in the photo below (red hair is the give away lol) So for Christmas I bought myself P90X I haven't started yet because I am still working crazy overtime hours at work I haven't had the energy, I have been walking a few times a week though last week to get myself started and this week my goal is to start and stick to my p90X, because I would love to be able to go to the beach again for my birthday this summer and actually be able to enjoy myself...not even saying bikini, a flattering one piece would be great but to a manageable weight and fitness level where I can go out and body surf and enjoy myself and not feel so self conscious

3) Take Pride in Myself!

What do I mean by that? I mean take better care of myself, for myself. and yes this encompasses the above 2 resolutions as well but for this one what I mean specifically is take better care of my skin and hair. Do my hair and makeup daily. I feel better about myself when I do and right now I think I need a confidence boost, I always did my hair and makeup before...always, I always dressed nicely and took pride in my appearance, these days I think I gave up hope because my weight brought me down. And it doesn't help that I have to get up at 4 am every day for work, and the past few months I have been working 10 plus hours a day 6 days a week because of mandatory over time at work. So I used a photo from my high school graduation for this resolution, because as i said before this year will be 10 years! OMG! and back then I was healthy and active and happy and I took pride in myself and my appearance and it emulated, and I want that part of myself back.

4) Put me First!

and I don't mean that in a selfish way...

I mean I am going to track my progress and do what I need to do for myself make myself feel better about myself. I want to find more time to do my blogging for myself, more time for me and my husband to be together and enjoy being married. Get the work that needs to be done on my house finished so we can enjoy our home. And make time for the things that make us happy, that we never get to do anymore, like going body surfing, going to Disneyland, going camping and hiking, going out to the desert for him to ride his dirt bikes... put me/us first. The below photo is of us on our 1 year wedding anniversary a few years ago at Disneyland, back then I had a job I loved we didn't have a fixer upper money pit of a house to worry about I was overweight but no where near as bad as I am now, and we could just enjoy being together

I would love to know what your new years resolutions are for 2012 if you want to share, and I wish you all the best of luck on all your new year resolutions as well!

So Be Beautiful, Happy and Healthy in this new year!

Lindsay

Kirkland/Costco brand cosmetic brushes review

Well I am back, I don't know that I have anyone even reading or following me at present anyways so I am sure no one really missed my absence lol,

but none the less I am back and I have lots of posts to schedule!

But for starters, last time I posted I shared all sorts of Urban Decay goodies I got under the Christmas tree this year, but I also mention brushes....

Now the Upside to this taking so long to post if that I can now actually do a review on what I think of these products too!

SO first just to let you know where I stand with makeup brushes I do not own an expensive high end makeup brushes at the present time. The brushes I presently own are Mark Kay, which I do love they have beer great for every day use they are natural hair brushes. I also own a large "Mac" set, 2 small "Mac " sets and a large "Victoria's Secret" set. Now you may be wondering, I thought she said she doesn't own any expensive or high end brushes....I don't before I knew any better when I was starting to get into making and doing friends weddings etc I needed brushes so I shopped on ebay... So I thought I was getting amazing deals on brushes and it turns out I am almost 100% positive they are all knock offs, but they work ok, and have gotten me by until now and I am going to work on building a better collection of brushes over time. I also have a few other miscellaneous brushes I got at Imats like 2 years ago that have been great to me as well, and next on my list are some sigma brushes... but for now I have the Costco Kirkland brushes just added to my collection.

(I am having camera issues so these photos were found online so I claim no rights to them)

So this is a 10 piece brush collection and a brush roll. It was $25.00 in store before the Holidays (make sure to read through the bottom for a great deal)

This brush set has a combination of synthetic and natural hair brushes.

so looking at the photo above we will go through them from left to right then the 2 at the top.

1) Powder Brush: Natural fibers, plump domed fluffy brush

Very soft bristles nice density for loose powders. I have been using this brush for setting powders and HD silica powders etc and I am loving it! It is one of the largest brushes I have in my collection, but I am loving it with the loose powders

2) Finishing Brush: duo fiber stippling brush

very soft, but a little large for my taste for applying liquid foundations on their own, I could be wrong since I haven;t used it that way yet, but what I am loving it for it, I have been using the new L'Oreal Visible Lift foundation with the brush top applicator. I love that foundation right now for winter, but it does apply it a little heavy and it is a shiny finish foundation for me. so after I place/apply the liquid foundation where I want it for the coverage I want I go in with this brush and I buff using a swirling motion and it blends out the foundation and gets rid of any extra product and leaves with a more matte super smooth finish to the foundation, this is by far my favorite brush of the bunch!

3) Foundation Concealer Brush: paointed/tapered synthetic brush designed to get into all the knooks and crannies of the face and eye area. Now at first I thought this may be too large and it still may be as I think I use more product that I would like but when using concealer under the eye it does work the product into the fine lines and allows you to buff and blend it out so it doesn't look thick and cakey

4) Cheek Brush: a flat topped natural hair brush

I love flat topped brushes for just about everything from mineral powder application, contouring and cheeks... I have a flat topped brush from MK i use for my MK mineral powder foundation which is great so this one I have been using with bronzer to contour my cheek bones and jaw line, and I have been using with my cheek colors as well. Very little product goes a long way with this baby! and it buffs and blends out the product so nicely

5) Crease Eye brush: not specified on the papers if this is natural or synthetic but I am almost positive it is a natural hair brush, soft fluffy large blending brush. this is the largest of the crease brushes I own and I love it! its wonderful with blending and buffing. I have also used for some soft contouring around the nose and eye areas and its great!

6) Angled Eye Brush: natural fiber angled brush very soft and has a good density for applying eye shadows, does have a "flat" top so to speak I used it it was nice but I don;t find myself reaching for it much.

7) All Over Eye Brush: soft dense tapered shadow brush natural fibers, great for packing on colors , just an all around great eye shadow brush

8) Liner Brush: synthetic flat liner brush, I love that the bristles are not too long on the brush they are a good length and goo density for cream, get or powder products

9) Highlighting Brush: this the the synthetic fiber half moon brush on the left at the top, supposed to be great for contouring and highlighting and travel etc I haven't really used this specific brush yet, but feels like it would be a great all purpose face brush for my purse

10) Contour Kabuki Brush: I love Kabuki Brushes great small handheld brushes that you can do practically anything with for the face. Blend out liquid or cream foundations to soften the application, apply powders, bronzers, blushes etc of the few different Kabuki brushes I own I do not have a single angled one. This one is angled and shaped. it doesn't specify natural or synthetic but i am sure it is synthetic. It's great for contouring to get in the hollows of the cheeks and blends out beautifully, and cheeks gives a great soft blended blush

Over all I think its a great brush set. they have acrylic handles with an aubergine color core. Because they are acrylic you don't have to worry about damage if they get wet, and they are easier to clean and sterilize as well, which may not seem important to everyone to have sterilized handles on your brushes but when you do make up on other people the less bacteria you come in contact with and spread around the better. The ferrules of the brushes are firmly attached, and all of the round brushes are perfectly round not pinched in this allows for the brushes to maintain a great shape. All of the brushes are soft and full, the bristles and well packed and balanced evenly.

The last piece of the set not included in the count is the makeup brush roll, also in an Aubergine/eggplant/plum color vinyl with a alligator skin texture. The exterior is easy to wipe clean. Once opened there is a place for each brush a protective flap to cover the brush heads and keep them clean, and a removable zip closure mesh pouch that you can use to hold the travel brushes or take a specific brush or 2 and a few cosmetics with you on the go.

Overall I love this set and for the price of $25, or 27.19 after tax here in Southern California that is 2.72/brush not including the brush roll, that is a great Deal! good quality for a great price. And it gets even better... yesterday I was at my local Costco and they still had half a palette left! and the price was cut to 19.99! I of course bought a 2nd set! so now one for my personal use only and one for my Freelance Kit only... So I have decided if next time I go to Costco if they still have them I am going to buy at least one or 2 more...not for myself but rather for this site! I think I will have to hold some sort of raffle or contest, but I don't know yet I will have to wait until next Friday to find out, so if you are out there and reading sign up to follow my blog here and I will keep you updated if we will be having a give away soon.

Stay Beautiful,

Lindsay

It was a Very Merry Urban Decal Christmas!

SO I love Urban Decay! Ever since I first bought their alice in wonderland palette last year! I had first seen that palette in a papercrafting challenge and I had to buy it and of course it was sold out everywhere! but I had to have it so I ended up spending a lot more money on it than it retailed for but I managed to get one on ebay! and I was in love!!

Well this year I have been working a few makeup jobs and trying to expand my kit so after thanksgiving this year I got a bunch of great goodies for a super steal! omg they were rock bottom prices! so good that i not only placed one order but once it was delivered I put in another and stocked up on some duplicates

I got a bunch of this tinted moisturizer normally $32.00 each and they were on sale for only $4.00 each! I ordered 4 different shades Halo, Bodyguard, Bulletproof and forcefield so I could add to my kit and have a range of colors with no intent on using it for myself as I am not normally a fan of tinted moisturizer, but I tell you what once I tried out this product it was amazing it was smooth and creamy had went on great not streaky at all and i bought 4 more in bodyguard 3 for myself and 1 for a friend love love love it!

I also bought 2 cans of Santa Tanita tinted sunless tanner and bronzer, normally $28.00 a bottle on sale for $2.00 each! seriously for $2 who cares I bought it anyways but I actually like it it has instant color it's not orange or streaky at all so i got one for me and one for my kit

I bought one of the eye shadow transforming potion for $2 I don't know the regular price as it isn't on the website anymore and I have not gotten to actually try it out yet but once again for $2 who cares lol so I can't wait to try it out as well, I'll let you know what I think once I get to test it out.

The Rollergirl Palette normally $32.00 and on sale for $18.00 has 3 great neutral colors and one bright fun pink shadow a 24/7 eyeliner pencil in whisky which i am loving too! and an oober bright pink gloss no idea what color it is because it doesn't have the color listed on it or the website but it is super super bright pink great gloss but not a color i will ever wear but saved it of course anyways because may come in handy in my kit.

and I got the feminine palette normally $34.00 and I got it for $19.00 and its great it comes with a mini primer potion in eden which I have used the original primer potion and the original and sin but i am loving the eden one so far, but comes with a travel size 24/7 eyeliner in zero which is always a fav but great eyeshadow colors 3 neutrals and a pink a blue and purple.

and with those 2 orders i got a deluxe sample with each of the 2 orders I placed

one was a lipstick sample in jilted which is a very bright and dark color for my skin tone so once again wont ever use for myself personally but added it to my kit good texture and coverage though.

and another lip gloss sample in Wallflower it's a great pinky nude kind of color with a great minty smell

so that was all pretty much after thanksgiving , now on to Christmas goodies, so this year i kinda bought/picked out my own Christmas gifts, and I got a lil discount from Sephora so I ordered the urban decay Book of Shadows IV and I havent gotten to play with it much yet since I only actually got to have it yesterday, but i love the color selection of the shadows and since i already love urban decay showdows I know I am set. it of course comes with a little tube of primer potions I can never have enough of that stuff. and it comes with a 24/7 liquid liner in carbon black I have not yet tried any of the UD liquid liners so I am excited about this as I love my liquid liner it is almost an everyday necessity, and it comes with a travel size of the super curl mascara also never tried the UD mascaras so I am excited to try this out as well

My wonderful sister added to my addiction here and bought me the original Naked Palette at our local sephora came with another mini primer potion can;t wait to play with this!

and another goodie I bought for myself (well it was from Santa) was the Naked 2 Palette oh man has this been hard to get my hands on they kept selling out but I managed to get one! came with the awesome naked gloss sample I love this gloss it's already in my next order lol , but I also got a sample size 24/7 eyeliner pencil in corrupt and i really like it but i don't see that color for sale on the site so I am going to have to look into that a bit further but it's a great dark brown color

so those are my Urban Decay goodies so far. My after thanksgiving sale shopping as well as my Christmas goodies/gifts

I have to admit I already submitted another order last night! lol yes I ordered on Christmas day too lol, but they had some great offers, so I ordered 3 items regular priced the lip liner, lipstick and full sized lipgloss in Naked, and with that i also got some freebies, another random color eyeliner pencil sampler, a limited edition lipstick cap, a black light special gift with purchase which oh jeeze i believe its an eyeliner pencil and mascara.... i could be wrong but it was only up for teh one day so i can;t go back to it today, and a free makeup bag to top it off! and free shipping to boot! so I can"t wait until that arrives so needless to say I think I am well beyond stocked on urban decay for now.

so I also have some other great goodies to share with you but that will have to be saved for later I have to go clean my house for company, but I promise to be back soon and not forget about this blog again , and my next post I will have to tell you all about the makeup brush set I got for Christmas and this amazing skin moisturizer I found for me and my kit! so have a great day after Christmas you all, anyone who may be reading this and I'll be back as soon as I can

Fresh Start

Wow! I forgot I even had this blog lol so much has gone on in my life in the past year or more...wow my last post was may of 2010!

Well I am not going to delete my meager attempt to begin this site since that is where I started but I have gotten so much more and done so much more since then. and since its been well over a year I don;t even think I could begin to catch things up all at once, So I'll just start from where I am at for now and move forward from there and go back on things when I can

Wally World Finds

So... Have you heard of Manistat's Chaffing Relief Powder Gel? It was designed to use on areas where your skin rubs together and causes irritation, such as between your legs maybe... Well it has been all over You tube with many of the makeup artists and make up guru's...why you might ask?!?!

As a makeup Primer...yep, a primer. To be applied to the face before makeup appllication in order to give you a super smooth application and help it last as well... It soooooo WORKS!!!! I LOVE IT!!!

I have tried a few primers in the past one by MUFE and one by I think it was Laura Mercie and of course Smashbox... all of which are quite pricey!!! Now I will say of those 3 the MUFE one was my fav, but cost me close to $30 at the time, but I bought it because I needed it for my sisters wedding as well as mine which were only 3 month a part...now the MUFE one does help with a slightly smoother application, but mostly it really helped the makeup stick and last longer, especially since my sister and I both have oily skin and it can just melt right off our faces sometimes. So I am not knocking it because it did work wonderfully!

Smashbox however I chose not to get because if you rub it too much it rolls back on itself and flakes away, which was also a part of a lot of the you tube reviews I watched on this monistat product...also price difference is HUGE!

The high end ones on average cost between $30 and $50!!! and on average only give you 1 oz for a full size product

now don;t get me wrong a little does go a long way with most of them.... but a little goes a long way with this as well! the monestat powder gel has dimethicone in it as it's active ingredient which is different from some of the other primers, but it does work wonderfully!

and you get 1.5 oz for lesst than $6.00...yep $5 and some change thats it...how can you beat that!?!?!

I hae tested it out a number of times and I do love it! and I have combination/oily skin I am very acne proned and get tons of blackheads and I have not broken out from using this at all!

...now I know some people may still not be able to get pastthe fact that it is a monistat product so I did find another option yes i bought and kept both of these.... if you don;t already know Wal Mart started to carry Hard Candy cosmetics in many of their stores as well as online....

Well Hard Candy also has a makeup primer out it's a 1.6 oz tube and cost's $8.00 and is basically the same as the monistat using the dimethicon eas the active ingredient I have also tested this and have the same results as the monistat, and I love it...now why keep both?!?! ... why not? lol well frankly because some people do get weirdedout about the thought of you putting a monistat product on their faces

Now next find... Hard Candy had these concealer pallettes, they had 2 one for fair skin tones and onf for medium skin tones...each had 3 corrector colors, green, yellow and pink, and 3 tones of flesh colored concealer for $8.00 each set
.....WORST buy EVER!!!
yes these were the worst concealers I have ever tried! they were so thin they didnt cover anything!
So do not buy these! I tested them and returned them the very next day they were sooooooo bad!

I did buy one of their eye colors...mostly because they were all most out of all of their different color sets.

The one I purchased was Secret Rendezvous.... LOVE IT! only $6.00 and the colors are beautiful, good pigmentation, and has a beautiful shine!!! I love me my shimmery shadows lol ;) he hee anyways the only problem is with all of the Hard candy baked products...blushes, eyeshadows, bronzers etc is the do break easily! half of the ones on the shelf were crummbled and I bought one and by the time I got home it had cracked... so be careful not to drop your bags or slam them around at all...now that I have started using mine no problem so far as I do tryto be careful and I have sprayed it with alcohol a few times because I tested out on myself and I used on a customer already etc soi spray it before and after use to sanitize...and i dont know if maybe that helpsit or not but my shadow and 2 bronzers are doing fine.

So next I am going to talk about is the bronzers...love them! they have a slight shimmer/glow to them but they are not super shimmery.

There are 4 shades Tiki, Hulahu, Tropic and Heat wave. I bought Tiki the lightest and Heat wave the darkest and I am going to go back and get the other 2 I love them that much

Tiki is super nice, I am very fair and so was my client last weekend and it worked beautifully! It didnt look over done or too dark or unnatural etc it just warmed her up a little and gave her a light glow! I have used heat wave on myself as well (sparingly) and it still looked great but I did have to be cautious of not using too much since I am fair skinned...the bronzer online is listed for $9.00 each but I think they were only $8.00 in the store where I live

..so those are my goodies for nowI have more to show soon.

Lindsay