Nightingale Rose: July 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Showbiz

Showbiz by misha-sylvester featuring illamasqua

Agent provocateur
net-a-porter.com

La perla
theoutnet.com

Lace lingerie
$28 - topshop.com

Charlotte russe
charlotterusse.com

Aldo shoes
aldoshoes.com

High heels
bluebanana.com

Illamasqua
asos.com

Illamasqua
$22 - debenhams.com

Guerlain
nordstrom.com

Estée Lauder nude perfume
bloomingdales.com

Fornasetti Burlesque Large Scented Candle
barneys.com

Face Lace Burlesque Eye Embellishment
urbanoutfitters.com

Friday, July 26, 2013

Gothic Mermaid Makeup Tutorial

My first ever tutorial!!! It's just a slideshow, but I hope it still gets the point across. It showcases some of the eye shadows I've been busy making.

Products Used:
Face-
generic moisturizer and sunscreen
Maybelline Cover Stick Concealer in Ivory
Meow Cosmetics Purrfect Puss powder foundation in Frisky Siamese
Eyes-
Phoenix Blood Cosmetics loose eyeshadow in Shining Armor (silver), Lady of the Lake (aqua), Gloaming (dark teal), Leviathan (dark charcoal gray), and A Very Juliet Story (light beige)
Detrivore Original eye shadow primer
Wet n Wild Fergie Take On the Day eye shadow primer
Wet n Wild non-waterproof liquid eyeliner
Almay Get Up and Grow mascara in black
Lips-
Morgana's Crypt lipstick in Absinthe

My Etsy shop for makeup can be found here, and is called Phoenix Blood.

Have fun everyone, and have a wonderful day!

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Almay One Coat Get Up and Grow Mascara Review

This review is not sponsored in any way. All products were bought with my own funds

I finally bit the bullet and decided to try mascaras that were designed to be healthy for the lashes. You may have seen from my previous mascara review that I am addicted to having voluminous lashes. I decided, though, that health was more important than big lashes and that I could work around a weaker, more natural looking formula. So, I bought a tube of this Almay mascara. I had never bought any Almay products before, and I was pleasantly surprised by this mascara.
First off, packaging.

This mascara is not only supposed to be strengthening and moisturizing to the lashes, but also produce a lovely effect with only one coat. Side note: this is precisely why I buy volumizing mascaras. Not only can you produce a near-falsies effect, you only need one coat to look "done" on a lazy or busy morning. Back to the mascara at hand, a look through the ingredients lets you know that the moisturizing ingredients are primarily silicon oils (a red flag for some) and the strengthening ingredient is protein, which can make hair rigid. Whether your particular lashes will respond well to protein is different for everyone; but I would assume that if your head hair does not like protein-based products, your lashes won't either.

The actual tube has a nice weight to it, and feels more expensive than in actually is. The cap clicks softly when it is completely closed. Simply lovely.
The brush...

Is huge. I expected a smaller, basic brush. This one is wider at the ends than in the middle, which fits the contours of my prominent eyes surprisingly well. My first impression upon seeing it, though, was something like this:

Whoa.

So, enough chatter, let's see it in action.

Naked lashes, curled.

One coat of mascara

So, I actually like the look of one coat. It lifts the lashes and makes them wonderfully black, reasonably thick and a touch longer. But I couldn't leave it well enough alone...I needed to see two coats.

Two coats and a bit of a comb-through

Wow! This is the big, fluffy look I like. For me, this rivals Maybelline's The Falsies for crazy volume.

This is the driest mascara formula I have found in the drugstore. That may sound bad or gross, but let me explain; wet mascaras are difficult to apply. They can be clumpy, smudgy, and either difficult to build or difficult to control in terms of how much gets glopped on. This mascara feels like nothing while you're applying it, but has great visual impact.

I give this mascara a 9.5 out of 10. I haven't had it long enough to know if it makes my lashes longer or stronger, but I love how it looks. The ingredients are not for everyone; it is not organic or completely natural in origin. I have a few more mascaras to review before I make my final choice, but this may just be a repurchase for me (mascara repurchases are extremely rare for me). It costs about $7-$9 depending on which drugstore you purchase from.

Thanks for visiting, and have a fantastic day!

All opinions are my own, and I was not solicited to do this review.

My Vanity Setup

I am a messy person. I get so frustrated because, regardless of how civilized I feel, I seem to leave chaos and dirty teacups in my wake. However, I was finally able to impose some order to my perfume and personal jewelry stash. It's so unusual for me, I thought I'd share it.

I love old-fashioned perfume misters. I found the fleur-de-lis one at Hobby Lobby (functional!) and filled it with inexpensive but yummy body spray (EDIT: I later found that the glue in the mister had been dissolved by the perfume, and the top came off and doused me. Do not do this.), and I found the short one with the pink bubble at Goodwill. It doesn't work, but it's still cute. You can tell I have eclectic tastes; my scents range from a Bulgari unisex fragrance (which I love) to a silly $1 cotton candy-scented spray.

I keep my necklaces on my closet rack because they tangle so horribly in my jewelry box; that is now reserved for rings, earrings and decorative hair clips.

I got this cool seance card in my last Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs order. I thought the (broken) mirror slot in the box would be a perfect frame for display. I just taped it in.

Anyway, have a marvelous summer everyone. Goth on!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Rosy Nude FOTD

Finally, I am sharing with you a look done with makeup I made. I didn't make all of it-there's still store-bought mascara and pencil eyeliner. It will probably be a while before I try to make items that ambitious. However, here is one of the favorite eye shadow colors I've made so far. I named it Romanza after an Andrea Bocelli CD I like (it's not Goth, but I don't care! :) )