Sweet Spring

The vernal equinox has finally arrived here in the northern hemisphere! While there is still some patches of snow melting off where I live, I can't help but look forward to the bright, breezy days. When I think about spring, the first thing that comes to mind is flowers. When I see tulips and daffodils popping up, I know that spring has finally arrived.

It was still gloomy and gray here a few days ago, so I reached for some soft pinks and peaches to remind me of the fresh flower petals of spring.

Used a new dress for the background -- can't wait to wear it!

Didya miss my flashing numbers?

1. Revlon Colorburst Lipgloss in Strawberry: One of the brightest lipglosses I own! I thought the soft color selection needed a little pick-me-up.
2. MAC Sheertone Blush in Springsheen: What's a spring post without Springsheen?
3. Benefit Eyeshadow in Nice Melons: This iridescent light peach is my favorite spring eyeshadow ever.
4. Sephora Eyeliner in Flashy Pink: More like a subtle flash! It always brightens up my eyes without being too noticeable like white eyeliner.
5. AVON Eye Pencil in Floraluscious: The name says it all, luscious flowers please!
6. Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow in Honey Bunny: This pale salmon color screams pinky nude spring dresses to me! And the name, Easter anyone?
7. Lancome Juicy Tube Gloss in Kiwi Slice: Fresh cut grass, eh?

The shade names ended up painting a rather befitting picture of spring, huh? Very fruity. Kept them in mind and surprisingly enough, the colors all coordinated with each other. Don't you love it when the pieces just fall together? Happy spring, everyone! Are you looking forward to the warmer weather?

But I'm not a Nudist

Back when I first started getting into makeup, the lip colors I was most enamored with were nudes. I remember being swayed toward them by Laura (back then lollipop26 on Youtube), who sported the nude lip so effortlessly. (I might have been sold over by her accent too.) Consequently, I was at the drugstore almost weekly to seek out all these nude lip products to feed my obsession. Yeah, it was that bad.

Nude, nude, nude, nude, nude...

Because of that, I built up a little collection of nude lipsticks and lipglosses. However, they have not been given much love in the past year or two. I'd grown away from nudes, and I now much prefer darker lip colors like reds, berries, and roses. I mean, I would probably never even touch nude lip colors unless I'm wearing heavy eye makeup (which is pretty rare). And so I decided to take an inventory of the nude lip products I owned. Thanks to this, I realize that I actually have a nice variety of nudes.

1. Korres Cherry Lip Gloss in Nude: This is probably the least nude lip product I own. It's more of a 'my lips but better' shade. It's a redder/rosier nude with gold shimmers, which enhances your natural lip color making your lips appear as if they're nude (bare).
2. Maybelline Moisture Extreme Lipstick in Nude Blush: Like its name suggests, the color is similar to a natural flush of color in your cheeks. Nude Blush is probably my favorite nude lipstick because it is the most wearable, and it's oh so creamy. I need to start wearing this more often.
3. Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Gloss in Nude Lustre: Along with Nude Blush, this is my favorite nude lip gloss (it's always been, actually). It's a creme finish with the most subtle, barely barely noticeable, fine shimmer. I love it. Gotta finish this before it goes all bad!
4. L'Oreal Colour Juice Lip Gloss in Strawberry Smoothie: Not much to say about this one because I've never really used it (got it because it was 75% off) and it's really sheer, but it has a really interesting opalescent finish.
5. Maybelline Moisture Extreme Lipstick in Sugar Plum Ice: This is a pale beige pink with a silver/frosty finish. It's actually really really frosty. But for some reason, I must have used it a lot back then because this is down to almost a nub. Perhaps I'll finish it soon (or try to).
6. Revlon Colorburst Lipstick in Soft Nude: This is the last nude I ever bought. Everyone had raved about this when it came out, claiming it was the perfect nude nude. In many ways it is, but if I put it on now, I just look dead. It's basically a creamier, slightly pinkier version of the next one, Nude Attitude. 
7. Revlon Matte Lipstick in Nude Attitude: Nude Attitude was my go-to lipstick when I wanted to completely blank-out my lips, which explains why it's one of my most-used nudes (along with Sugar Plum Ice). This is a matte, peachy nude. Again, I don't think I'd go for such a nude nude nowadays, but it's nice to have this on hand.

Thanks to this little inventory check, I think I'll go back and finish some of these lipsticks. If not, they'd probably just sit there forever. Might as well mix up my lip color instead of sticking to one all the time. What do you feel about nude lip products? Love them, hate them or just okay with them?

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!

Bye Bye Brights

With the first official day of fall quickly approaching, it's time to say goodbye to those bright lip colors we sported over the summer. It's time to say goodbye to the bright-colored shorts I lived in outside in the sun. As I start packing away my summer clothes, I discover that I'll be "packing away" my bright lip colors as well. I'll probably be leaving these untouched in my makeup drawer for the fall and winter. And so, I thought I'd give them a go one last time before stowing them away in the back of my other lippies.

The line-up.

As I picked them out, I realized that most of my bright lip products were from Revlon. Save for one lipgloss from Korres, all the lippies are from Revlon. I guess the reasoning here is that I shouldn't spend too much money on something I won't wear super often. It's nice to have some adventurous options that I didn't need to shell out too much for. And well, Revlon probably has the best selection of lip products at the drugstore.

1. Revlon Colorburst Lip Gloss in Strawberry: This is probably my favorite bright lip gloss in my collection. It's a bright pinky red with such pretty silver glitters. The texture is great and the color really packs a punch.
2. Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Gloss in Pink Pop: This is another great bright lip color. It's a creamy, cool-toned pink and it's basically almost fluorescent!
3. Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti: A nice, flat-out orange. This is the only orange lipstick that actually kind of works for me. I talked about it more here.
4. Korres Cherry Lip Gloss in Fuschia: This is more so red than fuchsia. It has pretty multi-colored shimmers, but a not-so-pretty cherry scent.
5. Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Gloss in Coral Reef: Theeeeeeeeeee perfect coral peach color! This is absolutely beautiful on the lips.

I wanted to swatch these colors on the lips too, but didn't want to take so many pictures of essentially the same thing, so I decided to be a little creative and swatch all 5 colors...at once! Left to right it goes: Fuchsia, Coral Reef, Strawberry, Tutti Frutti, and Pink Pop. You can really see the beauty of Strawberry and Coral Reef here. I felt so "high fashion" the 10 minutes I had these crazy lips on.

It's times like this I wish I had a lip brush.

Doesn't this look like it would be in a magazine or something (not to toot my own horn)?

Speaking of bright colors, they remind me of a little watercolor quote thingamabobber I painted a few weeks ago. It's a quote from one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. I gifted it to my best friend (whom I got to like Haruki Murakami as well). Drawing cursive in bubble letters is really fun, but kind of tedious.

So, are you going to be stowing away your bright lippies this fall and winter? Or are you gonna wear them anyway? I'm so ready to break out the roses and reds and plums (I already am)! I hope this post "brightened" up your day if even a little, and have a great rest of the week!

The Rose Gold Craze

I've noticed that in the past year, rose gold has become quite popular amongst bloggers, Youtubers, and well, general trend-conscious people. I see countless videos and posts with recently acquired rose gold accessories and bloggers dawning said rose gold accessories (namely those Michael Kors watches). And even more recently, the obsession has crossed over into makeup.

I cracked open my Polyvore I hadn't touched in 2 years for this. Can you feel the dedication?

Lately, I've been hearing and reading a lot of bloggers ooh-ing and ahh-ing at how such and such makeup product "looks almost like a rose gold color." It's a pretty interesting obsession. I personally don't own any rose gold things (though it'd be lovely to own just one), but I can see why it's getting so crazy.

Rose gold (also known as red gold and pink gold) is a metal mixture of gold and copper, which explains the rosy hue. The more copper there is in the mixture, the more intense the red color is. So with that in mind, I decided to mix up some "rose gold" myself...using makeup. Shall we begin?

And indeed it created some rather pretty pretty shades.

Center: L'Oreal HiP Shadow Stick in 'Unmistakable', Clockwise from top: MAC 'Springsheen' blush, The Body Shop 'Sundown Glow' Trio, Benefit 'Nice Melons' eyeshadow, MAC 'Evening Aura' eyeshadow.

I used Unmistakable as a base to create the rosy hue. I then layered the products over the red base. I chose these more orangey shades instead of an actual gold eyeshadow because I felt that a gold would just completely mask over any red I'd add to it.

For the Sundown Glow trio, I swirled all three shades together to create a pretty bronze color to lay over the base. This little experiment produced quite the variety of "rose golds." I was already ooh-ing and ahh-ing by the time I laid the first shadow over the red base.

A tiny bit of fun: I just had to do a mini photo shoot with this little structure I made with the products. Balancing the eyeshadows on top of the rounded top of the trio proved to be quite the challenge. But I conquered it in the end, huzzah!

Now, finally to the swatches. Feast your eyes on some lovely rosy metallic-ness!

 L-R: Sundown Glow, Springsheen, Evening Aura, Nice Melons, all on top of Unmistakable.

The Sundown Glow trio created a really gorgeous rose bronze. The Springsheen combination turned into a pinky rose shade with a gold sheen. The two eyeshadows produced much more "rose gold"-like shades. Evening Aura leaned more gold with an understated rosy undertone. The combination I liked the most was Nice Melons on top of Unmistakable. Not only did it create the best "rose gold", it also had the prettiest finish. Nice Melons itself already has *the prettiest* iridescent sheen, and so paired on top of the red base, it created a phenomenal, glowy rose gold. 

So, now I must ask, have you tapped into the rose gold craze? Do you have a rose gold-like makeup product?

Mad about Mangoes

What do I love about late spring/summer? MANGOES! They're one of the best, most delicious fruits ever. My love for mangoes, however, does not stop at just the fruit. It has spilled over to beauty products as well! 

Every time I see something mango-scented or flavored, I have to stop in my tracks and take a whiff of it. It's becoming an obsession, and I think I can confidently say that The Body Shop has probably THE BEST mango scent ever -- it smells sooosooso so good!

Also, mango froyo at Pinkberry is da bomb.

I've accumulated a little collection of mango-flavored things and I plan on trying to find more! So far I have:

• C.O. Bigelow Mango Lip Butter: This smells and feels great. It's really moisturizing and the lip butter isn't too thick or greasy; it's juuuuust right!
• Burt's Bees Nourishing Lip Balm with Mango Butter: This. Is. One. Of. The. Best. Lip. Balms. I've. Ever. Tried. It smells so good and moisturizes so well! There's a really really teeny tingling sensation (like basically all Burt's Bees), which is actually really pleasant.
• The Body Shop Mango Body Butter: Umm. Two phrases: The Body Shop and Mango Body Butter? Is there anything more perfect than this? The Body Shop has the best body butters ever; they're creamy and not too thick. They don't feel oily on your skin. This smells AMAZING!

As you can tell, I really enjoy these products. What can I say? I'm mad about mangoes. ;)

Next on my list of mango-y things to try is Korres's lip butter and their mango lipsticks! Are there any others you would recommend? Do you have your own flavor/scent/fruit obsession?

Charlie and the Chocolate Swatchery

In the midst of writing my research paper on Roald Dahl, I took a break to play with some of my makeup. I had hit a bump in the road, so I decided to take a breather to loosen up my mind a little. Isn't it awesome that I'm doing my research paper on Roald Dahl? I'm comparing his children's and adult's stories. I've always loved him as an author (his short stories are fantastic), and so I was really glad my English teacher approved of him for my research project!

One of the books I'm using is the classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so I pulled some inspiration from all the sweets and chocolates to make a theme for my swatches. 

So I was basically still doing "research" on it, right? Ehehe. Here is one of my favorite passages from the book:

"Charlie was holding tightly onto his grandfather's bony old hand. He was in a whirl of excitement. Everything he had seen so far -- the great chocolate river, the waterfall, the huge sucking pipes, the candy meadows, the Oompa-Loompas, the beautiful punk boat, and most of all, Mr. Willy Wonka himself -- had been so astonishing that he began to wonder whether there could be more astonishments left. Where were they going now? What were they going to see? And what in the world was going to happen in the next room?"

Here's what I pulled out from my stash:

• C.O. Bigelow Winter Cordials Glossy Lip Balm in Triple Hot Chocolate: I just had to. Triple Hot Chocolate? YUM! The smell can get a little overpowering, though. The gloss is very nicely moisturizing (like most C.O. Bigelow's) and has the tiniest bit of subtle shimmer.
• Revlon Beyond Natural Defining Eye Pencil in Brown: It's such a pretty, rich red-brown color! For some reason, it reminds me of peanut butter chocolates. It's really nice and smooth.
• MAC Pigment in Cocomotion: Hehehe, just for the name, y'know? It's a gorgeous bronze gold with a stunning metallic finish.
• Benefit Box Blush/Highlighter in Sugarbomb: It has chocolate on the box! The four colors mixed together create a nice and sweet pale peachy pink color. The blush smell nice too!
• Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Rich Sable: This color just screams dark chocolate to me! It's such a nice and smooth dark brown. This used to be my go-to color for defining the crease (I don't really wear much makeup nowadays).
• L'Oreal HiP Shadow Stick in Meticulous: The prettiest pale taupe ever! This reminds me of chocolate milk; it's one of the best shadow stick bases ever. I love love love it.
• Revlon Colorstay Eyeshadow Quad in Coffee Bean: I realize I have a lot of makeup items with food names. Or rather companies like to name their shades after food. This is a great everyday eye palette, and I'm quite sad they don't have this quad anymore (I think).
• B&BW Liplicious Lip Gloss in Strawberry Bling: Needed something to pump up the excitement, yeah? Having all muted colors would have been a little boring, so this sparkle/glitter-packed gloss was perfect. It's SO condensed with glitters -- so pretty! It reminds me of sugar and rock candy.
• The Body Shop Lip Butter in Coconut: This smells and feels delicious! I really want to get the mango one too, especially now that they're 2 for $10. But boy, I really do NOT need another lip balm. I need to get crackin' on them!

This was really fun and such a nice little break! I think not only having a color theme but an actual theme is really fun when you're just having some fun swatching your makeup. Well, I just like swatching stuff in general LOL. So here are the swatches:

1. The Body Shop Coconut Lip Butter, 2. Benefit Sugarbomb, 3. C.O. Bigelow Triple Hot Chocolate, 4. Strawberry Bling, 5. Revlon Beyond Natural in Brown, 6. L'Oreal HiP in Meticulous, 7. Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Rich Sable, 8. MAC Cocomotion, 9. Revlon Coffee Bean Quad.

Don't you just wanna go munch on some chocolates now?