Beautiful Hair = No Poo???

Have you joined the "no poo" craze? I myself had several reservations based solely on the NAME!!! I mean really? We couldn't come up with anything better than THAT??? What is it you ask? I haven't told you yet? Okay so it's basically not using shampoo (hence the awful phrase "no poo").  I explain in this video my journey to sheer desperation in even considering saying goodbye to shampoo. I do feel that all the years of using shampoos full of chemicals and harmful toxins have aided in the downfall of my scalp and I was hoping this would help. So far so good, but I'm still a newbie. Watch this video to learn more, visit this site and see what you think! Will you join this even if you don't have a huge "why" like me? What are your thoughts? And PLEASE rename it for crying out loud!!!!!P.s. DyInG over Taylor's flower headband here. It is my firm belief that a big obnoxious bow balances ones head out and should be worn on a daily basis.....just sayin.

Cotton Candy with Darling Girl Cosmetics

Hey! This is a little look I did the other day using my Darling Girl Cosmetics in cute, cotton candy colors! :)

 Products:

-Lime Crime Eyeshadow Helper

-Mystique on lid (palest aqua with pink sheen)

-Mardi Gras on outer lid (medium minty teal with copper shimmer)

-Sweet Savage in crease (matte candy pink)

-Lucky on browbone and tearduct (white/turquoise sparkle duochrome)

-Rapture on outer lower lashline (warm purple with pink sheen)

-Forget Me Nots on inner lower lashline (light lavender with orange shift)

-The End used with BFTE Mix & Fix and applied wet as eyeliner (deep purple/blue shimmer)

-Adoration to blend around edges (nude pearl)

-Sephora white pencil on waterline

-MAC Blacktrack Fluidline (tightline)

-Maybelline The Rocket mascara

-Tiny holographic nail decal stars from drugstore

-Urban Decay Naked Basics palette (brow)

-Cover Girl clear mascara (brow)

-Wet N' Wild Coverall Foundation in 815 Fair, and mark. Powder Buff in Nude

Underexposed flash pic to show sparkles!

 Sadly it was monsooning out on the day I did this, so I didn't have much natural light for pictures. I had to do them the old-school way, standing in front of the lamp in my room, lol. These colors, being pretty light and with all kinds of shimmers and shines, were hard to capture on camera, but I tried. :/ I didn't have to do much editing to them since I don't think I could have made them much better anyway, lol.

The eyeliner color I used is actually more purple in person, like a deep smokey blackened eggplant, but it does have the blue shimmers also, and that's what mostly showed up in these photos. If you're wondering why you don't see the colors Rapture and The End on the website, they were part of the limited Cute de Grace collection and aren't available anymore.

Pic of how the makeup looks on my face for context :)

Thanks for reading!♥

*Some or all images were lightly edited using Aperture and/or Photoshop; for details, please read the photo editing disclosure widget at the bottom of my right-side bar.
**All products were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Swatchfreak makeup collab: Dreamy Mermaid and Sultry Siren

 Yay! I'm so excited to bring you this much-anticipated collaboration post! (You can check out Tamara's post here!)

The story: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I was contacted by the extremely gorgeous, sweet, and talented Tamara of Swatchfreak to do a makeup collab; we tossed around some ideas and her idea of Siren/Mermaid was agreed on. I chose Siren and Tamara chose Mermaid, and we each made a design for the other. Since I'm bad at drawing, I enlisted my sister BeckyPennArt to help me! I told her exactly what I wanted and she made it appear like magic. :D

The Designs:

Mermaid design; concept by me, digital artwork by BeckyPennArt. We made a version with notes like the one below but it's kind of distracting so I posted the cleaner one, hehe.

Tamara's Siren design; she used real makeup and drew it by hand, how cool!

 After we sent each other our concept sketches, we agreed that creative license could be taken and we got busy planning and then sharing our looks. Check them out and please click for most detail!

The Dreamy Mermaid:

Tamara's Dreamy Mermaid, even more beautiful than I envisioned!♥

Mermaid eye close-up! I adore the colors and crushed-up seashell, Tamara's genius idea! The purple brow is also the exact color I imagined, it couldn't be more perfect.

Used products:

• Fyrinnae – Nevermore – on brow (applied with water)
• Sundara Cosmetics - Turmeric - in tearduct and outer under lash line area (from a company that don’t exist anymore )
• Darling Girl Cosmetics – Purple Haze* – Soft Focus Blush + Fyrinnae – Nevermore + Fyrinnae - Marshmallow Puffs - all three used to go from yellow area on lid to pink, to purple
• Fyrinnae – We’re All Mad Here – inner under lash line area
• Fyrinnae – Futuristic Glamrock – in crease
• Tick:Tock Cosmetics – Frozen in Time – for HL
• I’m not pretty sure what false lashes I used, but I think they are from Misslyn

 The Sultry Siren:

My Siren, complete with damp hair ;P

Siren eye close-up!

 Products:

 Since I did this look last September I don't remember exactly what-all products I used, but what I do remember is that I made the eye shape with Urban Decay Zero pencil and filled in the outer corner, crease, and under my eye. I went over the black with Lucky eyeshadow by Darling Girl Cosmetics, one of my fave eyeshadows. It's similar to Sugarpill's Lumi and looks amaaazing over a black base! I also used some black eyeshadow around the very edges to preserve the black like in the sketch. On my lid I used the popular Wet N' Wild eyeshadow color that is in several of their palettes; it's a warm brown with teal iridescence. I packed that heavily on my lid and blended it a little with the teal. Then I used a gold, I think it was Autumn by BFTE Cosmetics, on my inner lid, blended with the gold and coming down to a point at my tear duct. Under my lower lashline I used BFTE Patriot, a matte navy blue at the outer corner, and then more Lucky in the middle. I used Lucky again as my highlight shade from browbone to tear duct, and also patted some over the WnW brown to intensify the iridescence. Lashes are Ardell #139.

On my brow I used NYX and Sephora pencils in light and dark brown for the over-all shape, then combed through my brow hairs with some Darling Girl Glitter Glue and heavily applied the WnW brown-blue shade.

On my skin I think I just used Revlon Colorstay and mark. Powder Buff foundations, with some bronzer as a contour. I used Lucky again to highlight my cheekbone for an ethereal glow♥

My lips didn't quite turn out the way I wanted but I used NYX slim lip pencil in Black Berry, and OCC Lip Tar in RX (the blue one). Tamara had mentioned some gold at the cupid's bow so I used BFTE Autumn for that.

It was super hot and humid in my room and I started to feel sick so I didn't get to do both eyes, but I tried to hide it with my hair. :D

This was so much fun to do and I'm super grateful to Tamara for inviting me to participate! I also want to thank her for letting me use her cute little collage pics because I was too lazy to make my own. :)

Please go check out her blog, she does awesome makeup and take beautiful photos too!

http://swatchfreak.wordpress.com/

Thanks so much for reading!♥

 *Some or all images were lightly edited using Aperture and/or Photoshop; for details, please read the photo editing disclosure widget at the bottom of my right-side bar.

Ipsy Bag For May

ATTENTION!!!!!!!!!

NEW WINNER!!!!!!!

Sadly the time elapsed for our winner to claim her Norwex rags so I had to choose a new winner. That should come as GREAT news to the rest of you!!! Okay, so I put the numbers into Random.org and here is the new winner!!!!

BAMANNIE

Please oh pleeeeaaaase contact me so that I can send you your fabulous rags that you are just going to LOVE!!!!! Congrats =).

Some BFTE Gel Liner and Eyeshadow swatches

My friend Uncut Color on Facebook just posted that she got a BFTE Cosmetics order today and loved the colors and would be posting swatches soon; this reminded me that I have some unposted swatches too, so I decided to post them. :)

Gel liners, $8.99 from BFTE: Peacock, Venomous, Marcasite.

With flash: Peacock, Venomous, Marcasite.

Direct sunlight.

 I've wanted to try these liners for a long time, so since BFTE was having a 15% off promotion for April, I decided it was the perfect time to get a few. The colors are gorgeous; Peacock is a shimmering teal, such a gorgeous color. Venomous is a completely matte purple with no sparkle or shimmer. Marcasite is a metallic charcoal gray with silver shimmer. Can't wait to use these!

I also got the COTW Deal, the full sized Color of the Week and 3 sample jars of my choice for $6. A great deal :)

Funky Fruit (COTW), Appletini, Riveted, Big Island.

With flash: Funky Fruit, Appletini, Riveted, Big Island.

Direct sunlight.

These were swatched with brushes since there were only 4 colors this time. Funky Fruit is a fruity pink color, like the inside of a watermelon, with pinkish sparkles. Appletini is a pale satin-finish green color; I may actually like it better than Mint but I have yet to compare them together. Riveted is a medium blue, slightly subdued, but looks to me like it has a very slight copperish sheen to it; you can almost see it in the middle of the swatch. Big Island is a very sparkly golden bronze color.

As always, I like everything! BFTE never disappoints♥

 

 *All products were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.