Warm Purples and Gold

With NYFW Fall/Winter 2013 coming soon, I thought I'd recreate one of the looks from last year's F/W. I ended up choosing the look from Nanette Lepore, which was a warm purple smokey eye with orange cheeks and a coppery orange lip. The colors were so vivid and glowing. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. So, let's have a look-see at how I attempted the look.

I tried to mimic the model's smolder...didn't work out too well. Clipped my hair back like her too.

The smokey eye consisted of an all-over lid color of reddish-purple/plum with an orange-brown smoked all the way up to the brows. The same reddish-purple was smudged out on the bottom lashline as well. And then there was the beautiful pop of gold in the inner tearducts. For the lips, I didn't really have a coppery-orange lipgloss so I layered a sparkly gold gloss over an orange lip. Then I added some gold eyeshadow to the cupid's bow and center of my bottom lip. I also did not have orange blush, so I used an orange lipstick on my cheeks!

Prepare yourself for quite a few selfies. I tried to channel that modelesque deadpan expression. To say the least, it didn't work out after a while, hahaha.

Channeling my inner Messy Wands, eh?

That striped "scarf" you see? It's a tank top I looped into a scarf because I didn't have a black one LOL.

Yeah, I couldn't do it anymore.

CAUTION: The image you are about to view may scare young children and small animals. Continue at your own risk.

Imagine if we all did our FOTD pictures like this?

I think you've had enough of my face, right? Here are the products I used for the look.

• L'Oreal HiP Shadow Stick in Unmistakable (sticky base)
• L'Oreal Color Infallible Shadow in Smoldering Plum (base for purple shadow)
• Benefit Sunday Funday Palette shadows in Pretty in Plum and Shimmering Bronze
• Stila Charmed Palette, upper right hand corner
• L'Oreal HiP Liner in Gold Charge
• Max Factor 2000 Calorie Mascara in Black
• Revlon Superlustrous Lipstick in Apricot Fantasy (cheeks)
• Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti
• Revlon Superlustrous Lipgloss in Toast to Shine
• (not pictured) L'Oreal HiP Duo in Gilded

And lastly, I leave you with this precious gem...

Oh, how I wish.

I really liked how this turned out! It's such a nice, warm smokey eye -- warmed my spirits in this cold, bitter winter. I'm really looking forward to NYFW, and I might just recreate another look. ;) Are you looking forward to New York Fashion Week? Are there any makeup looks inspiring you lately?

Purples are Gray-t!

It was just another boring day in Maggie's room but then she decided to put makeup on!

I wanted to do a darker eye/fall-into-winter look, so by default I turned to purple eyeshadows. And well, I thought purple would be a good color for this kind of look anyway. Plus, I wanted to use my MAC Moth Brown that I got from Dovey, hehe.

In addition to Moth Brown, I also used a L'Oreal Infallible in Sahara Treasure that I got from Jian a while back. Next to Moth Brown, it turned into this lovely grayish-brown as opposed to its usual gold-bronze nature. Such an unexpected, but pleasant turn of events!

Even though my eyes were a little bit more dramatic, I thought red lips would still go well with the look. I really didn't want to do nude lips. That weird expressionless picture of me on the right was supposed to show off the perfect flush my Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush in Plum Wine gives me!

Why yes, I do have weird bottom dimples.

To intensify the look, I used Urban Decay's Frigid to deepen the outer v, and to balance all the darkness, I popped on L'Oreal Iced Latte in the inner corners. Products used:

• Benefit Creaseless Cream Eyeshadow in Birthday Suit
• L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in Sahara Treasure & Iced Latte
• MAC Eyeshadow in Moth Brown
• Urban Decay Deluxe Eyeshadow in Frigid
• Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Vintage Lace
• L'Oreal HiP Color Chrome Eyeliner in Violet Volt
• Max Factor 2000 Calorie Dramatic Look Mascara in Black (thanks Jian!)
• Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush in Plum Wine
• NARS lipstick in Flamenco

Alas! Maggie would have been all dolled up with nowhere to go...but she did have somewhere to go. And she had forgotten that she'd run out of makeup wipes, so she ended up going out to dinner with her parents with all of that on (well, sans red lips)!? It was a lot more makeup than she was used to, but her parents said it was pretty (for once), so perhaps it won't be too bad if she were to wear something like this more often?

Yeah, I don't know why I'm speaking in the third person either.

Thinking Pink

Hey y'all! I said I was back, but oh-so conveniently, I started getting sick this past Monday. First, I got an intestinal infection (still recovering, can't eat oily foods and dairy until the end of the month) and then on Wednesday, I caught a cold! I've lost 5 pounds this week...scary. And you know that nasty, crunchy cough? Yeah, I have that right now (le sigh). But anyway, let's not brew on my sickly-ness.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and to show my support, I decided to do a pink look.

Now, more than ever, we need to find a cure for this horrible disease. I personally don't have much experience with a family member having breast cancer, but there are millions of strong, beautiful women who are affected by it right now. This post is dedicated to these women and their families. Stay strong and fight through it, ladies!

Love the boobies! // Can you identify some products in my make-shift pink ribbon?

Didya miss my face? Haha, I hope I don't look too tired here. My skin's been acting up because of my health lately (or lack thereof). Also, please excuse the fact that I'm in my pajama shirt!

For this look, the star of the show was my Urban Decay Roller Girl palette, which consists of a ka-pow! bright fuschia pink (Woodstock) and 3 lovely neutral shades (Verve, Suspect, Darkhorse). I applied Woodstock all over the lid. Then, I placed Darkhorse in the outer v and outer lower lashline. I used Suspect to blend Darkhorse into the crease, and I also used it to line my lower lashline. Lastly! I applied Verve as an inner corner highlight. I also used:

• Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Vintage Lace (highlight)
• Avon Professional Eye Kohl Liner in Dark Brown (top liner and waterline)
• Maybelline XXL Pro Volume Waterproof Mascara in Very Black
• Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Pink in the Afternoon
• Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Pink Pop (just a little bit)

Oh yeah, my little toys had a little something to say too:

...so let's save them!

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend. I will be back in tippy toppy shape very soon! I would love to see you all do some pink looks this month. Let's show our support for the boobies!

3 Looks, 1 Infallible

Remember how I raved about some L'Oreal Infallibles a couple months ago? Here I am today to show you just how much I love the one in Smoldering Plum. It is so unbelievably versatile. I created 3 looks using solely the eyeshadow (and of course, a few different lip products).

Feast your eyes on this chameleon of an eyeshadow!

1. bold purple winged liner, 2. an actually "smoldering plum" smokey eye, 3. everyday brown.

Sorry about the weird scowl in the middle picture. I was trying to look fierce and angry or something...yeah, that happened. I wanted each look to have a different feel: the first would be bold and edgy, the second would be sexy and more undone, and the third would be light and refreshing. I even put on different shirts for each look! In all three looks, though, the focus was on the eyes.

Here are the products I used:

• L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in Smoldering Plum
• Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Nude Lustre (look 1)
• Revlon Color Burst Lipstick in Soft Nude (look 2)
• Maybelline Moisture Extreme Lipstick in Born With It (look 3)
• Maybelline XXL Pro Volume Waterproof Mascara in Very Black (look 1+3)
• A variety of brushes (ecoTools, Essence of Beauty, The Body Shop)

Look 1: Bold Purple Winged Eyeliner

Here I used Smoldering Plum as eyeliner. I used a thick eyeliner brush to build up the intensity of the eyeshadow, and then a thin eyeliner brush to get a more precise wing. I also used the thicker brush to drag some of the color down to the bottom lashline. The focus was the eyes, but I wanted the lips to still have a little bit of color with Revlon's Nude Lustre.

Look 2: "Smoldering Plum" Smokey Eye

In this look, I used the Smoldering Plum as a dark, pigmented eyeshadow. I packed on the color with a flat shader brush and blended out the edges with a fluffy rounded brush, creating a nice gradient effect. It was a rather (intensely) "undone" eyeshadow look so I skipped out on mascara.

Look 3: Everyday Brown Eyeshadow

I went for a more toned-down, everyday look for this last one. I used Smoldering Plum as both eyeshadow and eyeliner. I dabbed just the tiniest smidge of color with my fluffy blending brush and buffed it out all over my lid, which created the prettiest purpley brown. I used the thin eyeliner brush again to apply the eyeshadow as eyeliner onto my bottom lashline. Then I applied mascara to the top lashes only and a bright lip color, et voila!

This was one heck of a workout! Changing shirts and doing my hair and doing all these looks -- but it was so much fun! Do you see how awesome this eyeshadow is? I shall stroke it lovingly! Anyway, I CHALLENGE YOU to do 3 looks with ONE EYESHADOW (only)! Well, if you want to, I mean, I'm not forcing you...but it's totally worth it!

In other news, I am finally braces-free!!! I got my bottom braces off yesterday. 5 years and 3 months, and I'm finally FREEEEEE (with straight teeth)! So I'm sorry for the yellow teeth, I will be working on that in the coming weeks and months, hehe. It feels so weird having an entirely normal, metal-free mouth now. 

I hope you all had a great weekend because well, you know I did.

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!

I'm seeing blue

Before last week's NYFW becomes completely irrelevant, I wanted to recreate another one of the makeup looks at the shows. This one is from Anna Sui. The model here is Xiao Wen, one of my absolute favorites. I'm so glad she's been getting more editorials and shows! She's so beautiful and she reminds me of a delicate porcelain doll.

The look is really fun and quirky! The little dots under the eyes are actually stickers, so I tried my best to create little circles with my eyeliner (though I failed in the end).

This was the most precise I could get with my pencil eyeliner. But the blue is gorgeous, no? I brought the color up until my fold because then there would be a nice, sharp natural line (see below pictures). I think not putting on mascara really let the already-loud blue stand out.

It didn't look like Xiao Wen was wearing any lip color yet, so I decided to be ever-so-spontaneous and go for an orange lip! The bright orange really compliments the blue. It pulled the look together quite nicely.

I Used...

-Lancome Le Crayon Kohl in Le Bleu de Jim

-Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti

It really is such a quirky look! I actually quite like it (maybe without the dots) and wish I had the guts to rock it out in public.


I wrote this post up last weekend, but forgot to schedule it. Just got back from California! I must say it's such a huge state compared to mine. I think LA is basically the size of Massachusetts LOL. I took so many pictures, be ready for lots and lots of picture spam. But firstly, my birthday is tomorrow! However, I think I'll just be sleeping or doing all the homework I should have done last weekend. Anyway off to sleep I go!

Teal Enchantment

I'm sure you all follow Eva Chen, Beauty Editor of Teen Vogue, right? Well, if you haven't already, you must! Her tweets and posts give you the best inside look on various fashion weeks and upcoming makeup collections. NYFW just ended, and I must say I loved so many collections.

On her tumblr, she posted a photo of this stunning eyeshadow look (done by MAC) on one of the models at Prabal Gurung.

I swoooooooooooooned.

Gorgeous, right? I was so inspired, or should I say, enchanted to take a spin on this look. It's not a recreation, but more so an inspired look.

Wait, I mean an enchanted look.

I hadn't touched my makeup brushes in almost a year, so I'm a little rusty on the whole eyeshadow application. However, it felt like I was painting, which was really nice...me likey!

I tried my best to find similar colors in my collection, but alas! I don't have that GOSH-DARN-GORGEOUS cobalt blue. I settled with the brightest blue I could find.

It is actually a very "undone" look, so I didn't use eyeliner and I actually thought it looked better without mascara on.

And a mugshot for good measure! This actually shows the colors much better than the close-ups. The model had a very natural lip color on, so I went for that too.

What I used:

-Avon Big Color Eye Pencil in Bluesmoke

-MAC Pigment in Deep Blue Green

-Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Painkiller

-Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Tempting Teal and Vintage Lace

-Maybelline XXL Pro Volume in Very Black (only used the mascara side)

-Revlon Colorburst Lipstick in Soft Nude

-Lancome Juicy Tubes Jelly in Kiwi Slice

Maggie's eye looks are back with a bang!? Hope you all are having a great weekend! :)