Instagrammin'

Guess what?

I jumped onto the Instagram bandwagon. I've had it for a while, but I hadn't really tapped into it that much until now. It never appealed to me that much, but it's actually really fun playing with the filters and options. Here are a few snapshots I've had so far.

If you'd like to see more of the food I consume, where I am, what I'm up to, and what I'm interested in (basically if you want to know more about my life, I guess), you can follow me on there! My username is 

maagggiieeee. 

Ch-ch-check it out, kiddies! I'd love to find a few of you on Instagram too, so leave me your username in the comments if you'd like. ;)

Five Things

Here are five things that have been floating my boat lately. The weather's been really hot, but thankfully not too humid. Good thing I've mastered the art of walking to work wearing a blazer in the heat. It's actually quite bearable if I walk slowly.

{Building my actually "mini" perfume collection.}

{Re-watching the first two seasons of my favorite show.}

{Getting really nice freebies from work -- that's real leather z0mg!}

{$1 cubicle snacks.}

{GPA satisfaction...finally!}

Summer Coral

A while back I found this picture of the beautiful Chinese model, Liu Wen. I was instantly drawn to her makeup look. It's so fresh-faced and radiant. I fell in love with the eyes. The dark clumpy lashes contrasted so well with the glowy coral/tangerine eyeshadow. It's such a simple look, but something about it is so magical.

 

And so I decided to try and recreate the look. It's perfect for summer, and I also wanted to find out if orangey eyeshadow would look good on me. I don't actually have a tangerine/coral eyeshadow (though now that I found this look, I'd love to own one), so I made due with a blush: MAC Springsheen.

 

I just used my fingers for this look. First, I patted on Springsheen to get as much of the color as possible. Then I added on L'Oreal Iced Latte to the center of my lids, my browbone, and my inner tearducts. I also purposely didn't curl my lashes up too much so that it would have a more natural effect. I piled on a bunch of mascara, but I didn't want them to clump. I put on a little bit of black eyeliner on my bottom lashline and smudged it to get a somewhat softer look. 

Upon finishing it all, I stepped back from the mirror and my jaw literally dropped at how beautifully glowy it was. I was seriously amazed. Seriously. Here are some full-faced shots. Been a while, hasn't it? I got quite tan as you can tell. Oh, and of course, a silly face is necessary.

Products I used:
-Avon Big Color Eye Pencil in Floraluscious
-MAC Blush in Springsheen (as an eyeshadow AND as blush)
-L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in Iced Latte
-Maybelline XXL Pro Volume Mascara in Very Black
-Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eyeliner Pencil in Jet Black
-NARS Lipstick in Flamenco

If only my camera could capture how amazingly glowy and eye-brightening it was! This is definitely going to be my go-to eye look this summer. It was so simple and clean too. Hope you'll all have a great week ahead!

Beautiful Blue Beach

Haaaayyyyyy guissseeezz! 

I'm back from Puerto Rico! It's actually been almost a week since I've come back, but my internship started so I haven't had the time to check back in. My Puerto Rico post will come...soon enough! I took soooo many pictures that I don't even want to look at them yet, let alone edit them. In the meantime, I did sift through some of them and found these shots of the beautiful beach my resort was next to. They really blue me away (ehehehe I had to).

The varying colors of blue, light blue, dark blue, blue-green, green-blue...such a multitude of blues blending together into the horizon. The sky, the clouds, the water -- they were all so beautiful and clear. The sand was so finely grained and had such a vibrant color. As the warm waves washed up on shore and retreated back again, I pondered about life and its mystique.

 

The only things obscuring complimenting the sky were these fluffy white clouds, passing by and moving along their ways. How great it would be to reach up and grab some off to eat like cotton candy (though it wouldn't taste very sweet).

And so, I decided to pull some colors from my collection to remind myself of that temporary getaway, that "paradise lost." While definitely not as beautiful and vibrant, these do make me reminisce about where I was a week ago. Along with this little turtle as my companion, I took another trip back to Puerto Rico in my mind.

Clockwise from my travel companion (Just noticed how it went from blues to gold/champagnes...I did not plan that little spectrum -- how cool!):

• Urban Decay eyeshadow in Painkiller: This gorgeous, vibrant aqua blue screamed "THE OCEAN" to me. It's so bright and blue-tiful. 'nuff said.
• L'Oreal HiP pigment in Valiant: This is such a complex blue to me. The base color is a cornflower blue, but because of the purple duochrome, it flashes an indigo that's so pretty. I don't know about you, but an indigo eyeshadow is hard to come by in my opinion. 
• Lancome Le Crayon Kohl in Le Bleu de Jim: I've showcased the beauty of this eyeliner before, but here again is this beautiful, bright, super-vibrant, kapow cobalt blue eyeliner PENCIL. I still, to this day, am shocked by how bright it is despite being a pencil. This color really represented the sky to me. Sometimes the sky can be so blue, it's shocking.
• L'Oreal Color Chrome Eyeliner in Gold Charge: This is the most perfect gold color ever. Not to mention, the eyeliner is smooth and stays on forever. Gold is such a summery color. Like coral, it invokes the images of the beach, the sand, and the hot sun.
• L'Oreal Colour Juice Lip Gloss in Strawberry Smoothie: I picked this not only because of the name, but also because the color of it is exactly the same shade as how the sand was. Yes, it was that orange.
• MAC lipstick in Marquise D': This has the prettiest golden sheen ever. It may seem like a boring ol' sheer pink lip color at first, but that sheen running through it just makes it beautiful. I think that this is perfect for summer, not only is the lipstick light and sheer, but the color is just gorgeous.
• L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in Iced Latte: This is the quintessential champagne color. And white is the quintessential summer color. People wear white bikinis, white shirts, white dresses, white hats, white pants -- white everything in the summer. It helps people stay slightly cooler since white reflects sunlight (as opposed to black). Here, Iced Latte is the perfect balance of that summer white and the beautiful pearls in oysters. 

I just realized there was a whole lot of L'Oreal goin' on in this grouping...oh well! Here are swatches of the colors. Doesn't it scream the beach to you?

1. Marquise D', 2. Strawberry Smoothie, 3. Iced Latte, 4. Gold Charge, 5. Valiant, 6. Painkiller, 7. Le Bleu de Jim

One of my mentors gave me these magazines that my company publishes. They talk about the projects that the whole firm works on and other design interest stories. He's letting me keep them! I really liked the cover on this one. Try finding the items that were in this post! Some of them are pretty well hidden. ;)

Tell me if you found all of them!

It's only my third day at the internship and already I'm being exposed to so much design and architecture. It's really amazing how much work goes into one single project. I can't help but feel scared and overwhelmed about what my future could be like. But at the same time, I'm really loving every minute of it.