Trying Something New?

For me, an important part of being an indie seller is supporting other indie sellers.  We don't have the money for huge advertising campaigns like drugstore or high-end companies, so we've got to stick together!  One of the shops I follow is Aromaleigh, which reopened a year after being forced to close.  Aromaleigh has  a giveaway contest right now for samples from their entire  "Ancient Magick" Egyptian collection which is limited edition.  If you want, click here to sign up!

We should all be supportive of each other-after all, we're just people trying to do something nice for the rest of us.
Have a lovely day!

Phoenix Blood Cosmetics Review

Of course, I can't do a review of my own products; that is not ethical and usually not the kind of review people want to read.  Instead I have for you a review from a lovely lady who recently bought a bunch of samples and gave me the link to her blog.  Her name is Bobbie, and she's a sweetheart.
You can find her review here.

On another note, I am currently testing recipes for an eye shadow base to make my shadows last better.  I have tried several companies' bases, plus trying multiple  DIY remedies.  I want my base to grab onto shadows so that they show up nice and vibrant, but I also want the base to prevent creasing (my lids are dry, but in a shape that encourages creasing) and extend the life of my look.  I'll keep you posted!

Have a beautiful day, everyone!

Max Payne 3 Inspired FOTD

I only play video games sporadically, due to my tendency of taking them way too seriously, getting frustrated and not having any fun as a result.  My hubby, though, loves to play video games and I find a certain pleasure in watching him play and absorbing the visual style and story of the game (my favorite aspects anyway).  After the dark, broody nature of the original Max Payne, the third installment (yes, I skipped one) was odd in its sunny South American setting.  Here for you is a look that combines the bright, cheerful nature of yellow with a deep, melancholy green.   The colors are a bit more vivid in person; I was not able to use my nice camera today. :(

This angle shows the impact a lighter/brighter inner corner color really has on the overall shape and effect of the look.

Products Used:

Face:

• I made a foundation-like compound out of moisturizer, baby sunscreen, powder foundation and a smidge of stick concealer.  It works, so far at least, and doesn't have the nasty texture, et. al of regular liquid foundation.
• Physician's Formula mineral veil powder
• regular black mascara on brows.

Eyes:

• I used my own home made shadows like so-softly blended warm brown in the crease (Santa Barbara), yellow in the inner corner (Come On, Son), grass green on center of lid (Suck It, Gus!), dark green on outer corner, crease and lower lash line (Primeval), and sheer white sparkle under brow (Toothy).
• Generic black pencil liner to line upper lashline and upper and lower waterlines
• Almay Get Up and Grow mascara in black, two coats.

I forgot entirely to put anything on my lips...oops!

Anyway, hope you found this helpful, and have a fantastic day!

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!

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! :) )

I also used it as blush.  It's a little frostier than I like my blush to be, so I might reformulate it with less shimmer to suit my tastes better. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Rainy Day FOTD

The rainy season has finally come to Arizona, relieving the heat wave and rejuvenating the earth.  For one, I also feel relieved and refreshed when the rain comes...I probably appreciate it so much because of the dryness of my home state.
Anyway, I was inspired to do my makeup in cloudy, rain-friendly colors.

Blurry photo is blurry...ick.

My hair is in desperate need of re-dying...please look away from the bad roots and humidity frizziness. :)

Inner thoughts- "Is it focused? Is it? Is it?  Oh heavens, don't blink!!!"

Eyeball closeup!



Okay, here are the materials:

Face: Meow Cosmetics Pampered Puss foundation in Frisky Siamese
Brows: Black mascara.  I still need to get actual brow stuff...
Eyes: Detrivore eye shadows in Apparatus (lid) and Abyss (crease and lower lash line)
I just finished it off with mascara and (slightly crooked) liquid liner.

Also, here is as much of my outfit today as I could photograph.  The stripey shrug (originally Forever 21), black dress (originally a slip) and fancy short necklace were all thrifted.  The rosary was originally rose scented, and came from a stall that sells Catholic and Rastafarian items in the halls of my university's dining hall.

Have a wonderful day!

Success!!!

I am incredibly excited because...I made my very first eye shadows today!  It is so much easier than I thought it would be, though I realized that I still have so much practicing to do before I can whip out some of the colors I really want to make.  I got my supplies from TKB Trading, and so far they are performing marvelously.  Now, to be fair, I've only made two colors so far, and they aren't terribly dark or Gothic...I made one shimmery butter-yellow and one glittery nude beige.  See, not that impressive.  I'm still so pleased with them though-especially since my beige was made with dark brown, magenta and bright yellow pigments.                 I will be making some wonderful brights and darks soon, though, and I will start showing you guys what my colors look like and how they perform.  So far my mix is quite opaque, smooth, blendable and long-wearing, and that's what really matters when it comes to this sort of thing.
'Til next time, have a glorious day!

Covergirl Eyeshadow Quad Review-Drama Eyes and Blossoms

The other day I was at Walgreens, searching for last-minute items to add to a gift basket I was making.  Of course, I couldn't leave without visiting the makeup section, and there was a BOGO 1/2 off sale on Covergirl.  So, I came home with two quads.  I have been craving burgundy eyeshadow looks lately (no idea why) and the colors I already had just wouldn't go together the way I wanted them to. So, without further ado, let's get to what I tried.

This is Covergirl's Drama Eyes palette, number 222.  This palette has been reviewed and used in tutorials multiple times, I think because of its accessibility and the rather unusual (for the drugstore) burgundy shade on the far right.

Here are my swatches:

The bottom row is without primer, the middle row is with Detrivore Original eye shadow primer, and the top is with Wet n Wild Fergie Take On the Day primer.  The best shades in this palette are the burgundy and the silver, placed second to the right.  The black ( which has slight shimmer that basically disappears after the first swipe with a brush) is extremely sheer, but blends fairly nicely.  The white is sheer as well, but super frosty and would still make a formidable highlight.

This is one of Covergirl's newer palettes,  257 Blossoms.  I loved the mix of bright and muted pinks and purples, and knew that they could make a fantastic "bruised" smoky eye.

Here are the swatches-the primers are in exactly the same order as the Drama eyes: nothing, Detrivore, Wet n Wild.

As you can see, there is one extremely disappointing color in the mix.  The light plum second from the left is basically invisible, despite all the packing I could muster.  However, it does make a nice blending shade for black, dark brown, or purple eye shadows. The dark purple is okay, but primer really brings out its shimmer and depth of color.  The two pinks are just fine, though primer helps them a lot too.

Overall, I give these palettes a 3.5 out of 5-they are quite affordable and extremely easy to find, but they need some working with to really get your money's worth from them.  They range in price from $5-$6 or so, and are available just about anywhere that sells makeup.

Hope that this helps-now go have a fantastic day.

My Favorite Lippies

Hi, all,
I thought it might be fun to take a look at my favorite lipsticks and favorite lip gloss.

Here is the stash-it consists of two Revlon lipsticks, one Revlon lipgloss, one Maybelline lipstick and one Morgana's Crypt lipstick.

Here are my bare, naked lips for reference.  They're not always this pink...I had just exfoliated a little.

1. Revlon Colorburst lip gloss in 008 Peony.  This is part of the Colorburst core collection, and the best "my lips but better" lip gloss I have ever found for my skin and lip color.  It is fairly sheer, with a medium amount of gold and peach shimmer.  This is the only lipgloss I have not only run out of, but repurchased simply because I could not find anything better.  These glosses range from $6.50-$7.50, depending on where you buy them.

2. Maybelline Color Sensational Vivids in 875 Vivid Rose.  I bought this as my spring/summer bright lipstick, and it did not disappoint.  The color is very bright, but very flattering to the skin (unlike some of the more extreme colors in this collection).  The finish is somewhere between matte and cream, and the staying power is amazing.  This is due to its high tendency to stain.  I think this might be limited edition, but at the time of this posting it is still widely available.  Prices range from $5.50-$7.50.

3. Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in 477 Back Cherry.  I am, sadly, almost out of this color.  It is a slightly sheer (but buildable) blackened burgundy-red cream.  I like to think of this as the perfect Goth red, and the formula, though slightly prone to fading and shifting, is silky and fairly moisturizing.  Prices range from $5-$8.

4. Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in 663 Va Va Violet.  This is such a rich plum-purple cream, the perfect wintry purple lip for me.  This formula does leave a little to be desired, though-it is a bit sheerer and more slippery even than its red counterpart Black Cherry.  However, I deal with it because it's inexpensive and I love the color.  It doesn't bleed or feather much, so that's a plus.  Prices range from $5-$8.

5. Last but not least is Morgana's Crypt lipstick in Licorice, which I have reviewed in a previous post.  This is still by all-time favorite black lipstick-during school, I sometimes did a quick morning look with a touch of gel eyeliner, some mascara, face powder and a slick of this...it worked very well, if I do say so myself. :)

That's it for this session-feel free to check out my other lippie and assorted makeup reviews including my Morgana's Crypt review.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonder-filled day!

Video Share-DIY Corrective Concealer

If you have read some of my earlier posts, you know that I am a big fan of DIY fashion, beauty, and hair products.  I love to just dig in and try new things, especially since DIY usually has the advantage of being cheaper than ready-made products as well as being completely customizable to what you need.

Wayne Goss, Youtuber and makeup artist, is a proponent of corrective concealers for undereye darkness and overall issues with ashy or dull skin. In this video, he shows you how to make your own peach or pink-toned concealer to brighten the undereye area.  I haven't tried this yet, but I think I will just as soon as I can get my hands on some peach or coral lipstick.

So, what do you think of mixing your own concealer, or odd-colored correctors in general?  Comments are welcome.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonder-filled day!

Iron Man III Tribute FOTD

A day or two ago I went to the movies with my hubby and mom-in-law to see Iron Man III.  It. Was. Awesome!  The Avengers is still my all-time favorite comic-movie adaptation, but IMIII was tons of fun to watch.  The day after, I had a jones to wear red and black eye shadow.  I kind of wish I had thought to wear this to the theater, but that's the way things go, I guess.


(iPad pictures aren't so great in low light-sorry, guys.)



Whenever I curl my eye lashes, they look invisible when I close my eyes...

Anyway, here is the list of
Beauty Stuffs:

Face:
Nivea Creme (my fave moisturizer-I have super-dry skin)
Meow Cosmetics Pampered Puss powder foundation in Sleek Siamese

Brows:
Black brow mascara
Detrivore loose eye shadow in Abyss

Eyes:
Wet N Wild Fergie Take On the Day eye shadow primer (review coming soon)
Detrivore loose eye shadows in Vitriol (lid) and Abyss (outer V)
L'Oreal Infallible Lacquer gel liner in Blackest Black (thin line on upper lid, medium line smudged pretty far down on lower lash line, plus tight-lining)
L'Oreal Voluminous Original mascara in Blackest Black (on curled lashes)

No blush or lippie, I ran out of time!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a fantastic day!

Amethyst Butterfly FOTD

Hi there!
This look was from a day or two ago, when the weather was very soft and springlike.  I felt it was definitely time to bust out the pink eye shadow.  I named this look after a great friend of mine suggested that the extended crease gave the impression of butterfly wings.

Beauty Stuffs:

Face: Meow Cosmetics Pampered Puss powder foundation in Sleek Siamese

Detrivore blush in Lascivious

Brows: Detrivore eye shadow in Fortress 

Eyes: Detrivore Original eye shadow primer

Detrivore eye shadows in Laboratory (lid), Livor Mortis (crease and lower lash line), and Apparatus (to blend)

Maybelline Volum' Express The Falsies mascara in Black Drama

Lips: Revlon Color Burst lip gloss in Bordeaux

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonder-filled day!

Gloomy Blues FOTD

Hi all,
Today I was inspired by the hail and snow outside to do a look with gray and blue...it turned out a bit brighter than I expected, but I still like it.

Beauty Stuffs:

Face: Meow Cosmetics Pampered Puss foundation in Frisky Siamese
Hard Candy Blush Crush Baked Blush in 127 Honeymoon

Brows: Detrivore loose eye shadow in Fortress

Eyes: Detrivore Original eye shadow primer
Detrivore eye shadows in Test Tube (Light blue, on lid), BSoD (Bright blue in inner crease), and Apparatus (soft gray in outer crease)
Detrivore Pallor Mortis white face powder to blend and highlight
Milani Runway Eyes eye shadow in 02 Black Out (as liner)
L'Oreal Voluminous Power Volume 24H mascara in 681 Blackest Black (review coming soon!)

Lips: Revlon Color Burst lip gloss in 008 Peony

By the way, I just finished performing in a production of Così fan tutte at NAU, and my hubby brought me some lovely orchids I just had to share.

Aren't they pretty?  Anyway, thanks for stopping by, and have a wonder-filled day!

Meow, meow, meow, meow...

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

Last week I received two full-size canisters of Pampered Puss powder foundation from Meow Cosmetics.  Let's take a look...

I got a jar each of Sleek Siamese and Frisky Siamese.

Not only do they hand-make all their products with no fillers or extra chemicals, Meow Cosmetics offers 85 foundation shades, with color bases being named for a cat breed (Siamese for neutral, Manx for warm, Bengal for beige, etc) and levels of lightness/darkness named for feline attributes (Sleek, Naughty, Slinky, etc.).  The website is a little unwieldy, but I think the enormous color range makes it worth it.

Each of these 85 shades comes in three foundation formulas; Purr-fect Puss (light/medium coverage), Pampered Puss (medium coverage), and Flawless Feline (full coverage).  I picked Pampered Puss because I have some acne and redness, but didn't want too heavy of a finished look.  All right, enough blabbing, picture time!

This is the unopened jar--it carries 1/4 cup of product rather than the standard 3 tsp in most mineral foundations.

Pretty lid!

This is the lighter color I chose, for my winter complexion (or whenever I feel like going pale)

This is one shade too dark for me now, but in the summer I think it will be perfect! If not, I can always use it as eye shadow or contour...

This is the two colors heavily swatched side by side. S is for Sleek, and F is for Frisky.

You can see that the Sleek Siamese looks too light for my hand, and that makes it perfect for my face.

For some reason it didn't show up on camera, but this foundation has a bit of shimmer under bright sunlight.

The shimmer doesn't bother me, as it is very subtle and helps to bring a bit of radiance to my dry skin.  Speaking of which, as long as I don't try to pile on the powder my skin is not dried out by this foundation.  I always put a layer of moisturizer and a layer of sun protection under my foundation, and the moisture from those products really helps the powder foundation both to stick effectively to my skin, and to not strip the oils from my face.

From ordering to reception, the process took about 2 1/2 weeks. Full-size jars of Pampered Puss foundation are $25.95, not counting shipping or sales tax.  Purr-fect Puss, being a lighter concentration, is $23.45, and the full-coverage Flawless Feline is $28.95 a jar.  Samples are a dollar, and each formula is also available in a travel-size Munchkin jar, which holds about a fifth as much as the full size.

Hope you found this helpful, and have a fabulous day.

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

Detrivore's Mad Scientist Collection

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

My set of Distorria's latest collection has finally arrived in my mailbox, and the colors are lovely!

Distorria states on the Detrivore website that this collection, which will be later expanded, was created from the same gray base and inspired by the "doom and gloom of winter."

All the pretties at once!

Here are the colors swatched over a stripe of Detrivore Original eyeshadow primer, in alphabetical order(descriptions in quotations are from the Detrivore website).

Apparatus: "satin gray with heavy purple shimmer" On my eyes, this translates as a pale, muted periwinkle

Hypothesis: "light taupe satin with heavy golden shimmer"  I love this shade--a cool, slightly pinkish taupe.

Laboratory: "satin light pink with heavy shimmer" This is a perfect cool baby pink or cotton candy pink.  Very springlike!

Lab Rat: "dark brown satin filled with heavy gold,  silver, and copper shimmer" This is a wonderfully understated shimmery copper.  By understated, I mean that it isn't overly bronze, red or orange in tone.

Specimen: "medium purple satin with heavy shimmer" This is a gorgeous violet, directly between lavender and royal purple.

Test Tube: "light blue satin loaded with different blue, white and violet shimmer"  This powder blue shade is pigmented, not chalky, and makes me think for some reason of Marie Antoinette

From left to right: Apparatus, Hypothesis and Laboratory

Lab Rat, Specimen and Test Tube

I think the names of these colors are fascinating, even if they aren't as murky or dark as I would expect from a "gloomy" winter collection.  In terms of formula, smoothness and pigmentation, I couldn't find one dud in the bunch--just make sure you use a cream eye shadow or sticky base if you want the full impact of the colors.  The collection in its entirety is selling for $19; individual colors are $4 each.

And now, the Mad Scientist look I wore today:

Hypothesis on the lid, Lab Rat in the crease

Closed eyeballs...

For foundation I wore my Meow Cosmetics Sleek Siamese foundation (review coming soon!)  with my L'Oreal gel eyeliner, Detrivore Lascivious blush and Maybelline The Falsies mascara.

Have a wonderful day!
All opinions are my own, and I was not solicited to do this review.

Soft Lilac FOTD

The other day, after painting my nails lavender (SpaRitual Thunder Road), I decided to try my Detrivore Special FX blush as an eyeshadow...and it worked!

Here it is-

Beauty Stuffs:

Face:

Maybelline CoverStick Concealer in Light (my in-between while I wait for my Meow foundation to arrive)

Detrivore Pallor Mortis Dehydrating Powder

Meow Cosmetics Lush Blush in In-cat-uation (one of my samples from them-it's simply gorgeous!)

Brows:

Detrivore Fortress (a matte gray that still makes my brows look black...I don't know why. )

Eyes:

Detrivore Special FX blush in Conquest (on lid and blended out)

Maybelline Volum'Express One By One mascara in Blackest Black

Lips:

Revlon Colorburst lip gloss in Peony

And off to class I go!  Have a wonder-filled day!

Oh, the Horror! And assorted things to come.

Hello, I am back--this year was my very first Christmas, and it was awesome/crazy/wonderful and all those good things.  Somewhat recently I discovered the Skin Deep Database, which rates nearly all known cosmetic and personal hygiene products on a toxicity scale of 0 to 10 (0 being perfectly harmless and 10 being, "Holy bats, how is my skin not peeling off?!?").  Anyway, my interest was piqued and I immediately began searching for all the products I use and checking their toxicity levels.  Much to my chagrin, a large portion of my already fairly-small stash was rated at a 5 or higher, and personally I only feel comfortable using products rated a 3 or below, 4 at the very most.  This does mean that my red lip review series will be much shorter than expected; Covergirl Lip Perfection lipsticks, which have wonderful texture, pigmentation and lasting power, are rated a 7.  I don't know about you, but I know that some of my lipstick is definitely going in my mouth, and I just didn't want to risk it.  Shame, though.  On the up side, I will be trying mineral foundation from Meow Cosmetics, and will tell you guys all about it.  They have over 70 shades of foundation in 3 levels of coverage (light, medium and total coverage) along with coordinating concealers and skin-balancing primers.  The foundations range from pure white (definitely an awesome Goth or Halloween option) to the deepest rich browns.  I'm pretty excited, especially since I have always really liked powder foundation but have never really had the guts to shell out for mineral foundation.  I will also be trying some SpaRitual nail polish and possibly Morgana's Crypt (formerly Morgana Cryptoria) lipstick.  Thanks for your patience, and here's hoping that 2013 is your best year yet!

Emerald Greens

Hello, I hope everyone's holiday season has been a good one so far.  I got sucked into the stress of college finals, then the start of the holiday season, and have been sadly neglectful of this little blog.  However, I am back with some pictures of another Detrivore look I did, this time with some new colors which I will review more fully soon.

Picture time:

The color of Putrid is somewhere between the pics above and below.  It's not quite as yellowy as the top pictures show, but brighter than the lower one shows.  Darn you, camera!

Shadow from camera hand...eep.

Pardon the bad eyeliner; this was the first time I had worn contacts in weeks!  I had gotten used to putting on makeup essentially blind, half an inch from my magnifying mirror.  :)

The list of beauty stuffs:

Face:

Revlon Colorstay foundation Normal/Dry formula in 110 Ivory

Detrivore Pallor Mortis Dehydrating Powder (not actually dehydrating, but more on that at a later date)

Brows: Jordana Color Effects eye shadow duo in 08 Perfect Team, the matte black side

Eyes:

Rimmel Fix and Perfect Primer

Detrivore Original Eye shadow Primer

Detrivore loose eye shadow in Putrid (bright green on lid), Plague (dark green in crease), Abyss (little touch in outer V to darken) and White Chapel (for brow and inner eye highlight)

LA Colors loose eye shadow in Snow White to intensify highlight (I do not recommend this shadow; I got it at the dollar store and it is essentially fluffy white Mylar-esque glitter that goes everywhere. )

L’Oreal Infallible 24 hour Lacquer Liner (gel eye liner) in 171 Blackest Black  (I have to get a thinner eyeliner brush...I'm always making a mess with the one that came with the eyeliner.)

Maybelline Great Lash Big mascara in Blackest Black

Cheeks:

Maybelline Single Eye shadow in Pink Petal (I don't know what possessed me to buy a pale pink eye shadow, but I have since salvaged it by using it as a soft, subtle blush.  Hey, it works.)

Lips:

Rimmel London Lasting Finish lipstick in 070 Airy Fairy.  This is slightly pinker and more muted than my natural lip color, so it's great for days when I don't want my lips to be the center of attention.

Also, I was reminded this week why I should stay away from waterproof mascara.  I have only one tube, which I keep for days spent at the beach/pool or dealing with heavy rain or snow.  Flagstaff had its first major snow a few days ago, and since I knew I would have to be out in it I decided that it was an appropriate day to bust out the waterproof.  As usual, (why do I keep doing this to myself?) when I tried to remove it, it stuck to my lashes so badly that I ended up with six little eyelashes broken into stubs and blobs of mascara still stuck in the roots.  Not good.  Next time, I either have to try the Vaseline/olive oil removal method or just deal with runny mascara.  Oh, well.

Have a wonder-filled day!