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!

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!

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.

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!