Halloween EOTD--An Everyday Look

I didn't think that I'd have time to do a post after I posted my quick Happy Halloween wishes post late last night. Happy Halloween! When you tink of Halloween, what colors do you think about besides orange? I often think of gold, purple and black. I decided to do today's EOTD based on this color theme for Halloween.

 

Products Used:

 

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion (not pictured)

MAC Goldmine and Print Eyeshadows

Urban Decay Omen Eyeshadow (From Annivesary Palette)

Dior Ultra Violet Eyeshadow

The Body Shop Eye Shimmers in 02 and 06

K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner

 

 

As is my standard practice, I primed my eyelids with Urban Decay primer potion. Out of my bag of treats, I pulled out MAC Goldmine and applied it to the inner 1/3 of upper eyelid from lash line to crease line. Omen is applied to the middle 1/3 of upper eyelid from lash line to just above the crease line and blended upward toward the brow bone. Ultra Violet is applied to the outer 1/3 of upper eyelid and blended upwards towards outer brow bone.

 

From my bag of tricks, I pull out The Body Shop Eye Shimmer. 02 is a gold tone and 06 is lavender tone. Since I'm at work, I'm writing this post on my work laptop, which is relatively new so the display color set up is different from mine at home and I can't tell how well the pictures will show up--sorry! I also took this one picture really quickly while at work and it isn't the greatest picture but hopefully it'll give you some idea of how the eye shimmers work. From left to right, black liner pencil, 06 eye shimmer, black liner pencil with 06 eye shimmer applied over it.

 

 

As you can see from my swatch, 06 lavender eye shimmer is very sheer and doesn't show up well, although it might do a little better if I had used primer on the paper. The magic of this eye shimmer is that when you apply it over a dark color, the color and brilliance shines through. Creams work best with it but it does work over powder eyeshadows too.

 

Back to my EOTD...I decided that I wanted a little more shimmer to this look so I applied 02 over Goldmine and 06 over Omen. Since both Goldmine and Omen are not dark colors, it just subtletly pops the gold and purple colors. Print is applied to outer "V". Entire upper lash line and outer 1/4 of lower lash line is lined with K-Palette. Using Print, I go ogver K-Palette on lower lash line and blend it inward toward mid eye. 06 lavender is then applied over Print at mid eye of lower lash line.

 

 

I hope that your Halloween is filled with lots of treats and no tricks!

 

*Kat*

Happy Halloween!

I was planning on doing a post on "strange" beauty things that I like along with it being a creative ideas thing plus have it coincide with Halloween. Unfortunately, I failed. Perhaps I'll work on it and post it later.

We've had some unexpected guests show up and we've been busy taking them around. For now, I'd like to just wish everyone a Happy Halloween!

*Kat*

P. S. Here's an interesting video--there is singing but it takes a while for it to start.

Evening Out FOTD

Last night I had a business dinner to go to and so I felt that I needed to dress up a bit even though the restaurant that we went to doesn't have a high class environment.

Products used:

Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill 20, 21 and 23
Addiction Eyeshadow Mystic Mirage
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner
NARS Larger Than Life Long Wear Eyeliner
Shiseido Mascara Base
Canmake Agebuto Mascara
Sephora Full Action Extreme Effect Mascara
Clarins Skin Illusion Natural Radiance Foundation 109
Canmake Cheek & Cheek Blush 06 (LE)
Urban Decay Super Saturated High Gloss Lip Color Love Child

I did an explanation of the Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill EOTD in my post here. The only difference is that I added Mystic Mirage to the outer brow bone area and used NARS eyeliner on water line of upper eyelid. I curled my lashes and used Shiseido mascara base which helps to hold my curl. I applied Agebuto mascara, which is a waterproof mascara and that also helps hold my curl. I then applied the Sephora mascara because I like the effect that it gives as it really seems to darken the lashes and make it fuller. I'm sorry but I forgot to separate my lashes before taking the picture!

The foundation that I used tonight was Clarins Skin Illusion Natural Radiance Foundation in 109. This foundation gives a nice finish and while it's rather natural looking, it also gives good, long-lasting coverage. Since my eyes were made up darker than normal, I decided to go with light cheeks and lips. I'm really loving the Canmake Cheek & Cheek blush in 06. Too bad it's an LE shade. Lips were done using Urban Decay pencil gloss in Love Child.

I love how this Canmake Blush gives a nice pink flush to the cheeks. It's nicely pigmented so you can apply too much--yes, I've done it! Please take note of my beautiful handmade earrings from Fushigi Shop. I wore these thinking that it's the perfect time to wear it. Please do check out this wonderful store with enticing jewelry pieces. Yasumi is away on vacation right now but she will soon be returning and coming up with more beautiful and unique creations.

I must say that when I purchased the Eyes to Kill eyeshadows, I was hesitant on #23 (the opalescence white shadow). I'm so glad that I bought it because it has to be my favorite of the 3 colors that I purchased.

*Kat*

Kat's False Eyelash Adventures

I used to wear false eyelashes regularly when I was in college but haven't done so in many, many years. I found that as I got older and started to raise a family, it was just another thing that I needed to do in the morning that took time, something of which I had little of being busy with 3 active sons. When I did try them again, I found that I didn't like the way they hooded over my eyes and kind of blocked out some light. Again, getting older, you find that you need to have thing more brightly lit to read. I recently decided to try playing around with false eyelashes again especially since now there is a great variety of styles and brands to choose from.

First up is from my previous post of Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill EOTD. I used Spring Heart 04.

The EOTD uses Eyes To Kill eyeshadows and K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner. (Sorry, I used the same EOTD pictures from that post.) This eyelash is a Japanese brand. It was actually very comfortable and I liked the included glue. The spine was nice and pliable and held the curve nicely. I found the lashes to be a little too long to comfortably wear during the day at work, especially since I don't work in an office and my work dress is pretty casual.

Red Cherry #747XS

This EOTD uses the pink and browns from the Tarte Starlet palette and K-Palette eyeliner. This was a really inexpensive pair of lashes--only $1.99. It's made in Indonesia. I like wispier lashes but those usually come with a clear spine. Like Spring Heart, the spine was very pliable and held the curve. For the price, these were very comfortable.

MAC (I can't find a number for it)

EOTD was using Jill Stuart 08 Dazzling Moon eyeshadow palette and K-Palette eyeliner. I bought these eyelashes a couple of years ago because my favorite Dior counter SA (no longer there) did my makeup for a mini school reunion that I attended with Mai. While I was wary, she said that these wouldn't be uncomfortable to wear and she was right! I have to admit that it's only the 3rd time that I'm wearing it since I purchased it that long ago. The spine on this is thin but quite stiff and doesn't hold a curve. That makes it a little difficult to apply the lashes since it's straight. I have to admit, though, that this is my favorite pair of lashes because it's the most natural looking. The length of it is similar to the length of my natural lashes. Too bad it's the most expensive of them all.

Missha Dolly Eyelash A-114

EOTD is done using Dior 804 Extase Pinks eyeshadow palette and 186 Ultra Violet eyeshadow single and K-Palette eyeliner. I actually bought these a few years ago from a store that is no longer around. I liked the length of the lashes since they are shorter, almost the length of my natural lashes. The spine on this was stiff and didn't curve like the MAC lashes. I think that they are also a little thicker so I felt that these were probably the most uncomfortable of all the lashes I tried.

As you can see from my pictures, I had to cut quite a bit of excess length of the lashes to fit my lids. Unfortunately I have to cut quite a bit so this changes the eyelash style a bit, especially if they normally taper down at the ends. This just goes to show you how small my eyes are. It's no wonder that I couldn't get those darned circle eye lenses in when I tried. The post is somewhere in my blog. 

I also think that when I use false eyelashes, it makes my eyelds look like I have hooded lids. When Jen from From Head To Toe wears lashes, her eyes look much bigger. Speaking of which, I found it ironic that as I got ready to start typing this I found a new blog post by Jen of From Head to Toe on "How To Apply False Eyelashes". Please check it out!

Do you wear false eyelashes? Please share with me your favorites.

*Kat*

Purchase Review: Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill, EOTD, LV Haul

I have returned from my trip to Las Vegas, albeit a little lighter--in the wallet. Haha! The gambling scene in Las Vegas wasn't kind to visitors this trip, at least all of the people that I knew who were there, including me. We only deposited in Las Vegas.

I didn't do too much hauling there but did manage to find a nice deal on the Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill eyeshadows at the CCO Store in Premium Outlet Mall North. Regularly priced at $32.00, there were 3 different colors available at $27.00 each. Luckily, these are colors that I would wear so I purchased all three colors.

#23 is an off white with iridescent/metallic finish. It has hints of pink, blue and green shimmer and reminds me a lot of an opal, which happens to be my birthstone. #21 is a shimmery medium gray with silver shimmer. I love this color! #20 is a deep navy blue-black color with metallic finish. It has hints of teal, navy and perhaps silver shimmer. Ironically, I had not intended to purchase this color but it must have been misplaced in the separate stacks as I meant to get another #23 and I didn't realize it until I returned back home to Hawaii. Fortunately, I do like this color too.

I used all 3 colors to do today's EOTD.

Products used:

UD Primer Potion
GA ETK #20, 21 & 23
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner
Springheart False Eyelashes #04
L'Oreal Mascara

After priming my eyelids, I applied #23 in the inner corner of upper eyelid, #21 middle 1/3 of  upper eyelid and blending it into and just above the crease line. #20 was applied to the outer 1/3 of upper eyelid and blended upward toward outer brow bone. I then lightly swept #23 over entire eyelid to blend out any harsh lines. K-Palette was applied to upper lash line and outer corner of lower lash line. #20 was then applied over K-Palette on lower lash line and blended in towards mid eye along the lash line. I lightly curled my eyelashes and applied Springheart false eyelashes. I don't normally wear false eyelashes and couldn't find the other more natural-looking pair to wear. I really like the eyelash glue included with this brand of eyelashes.

After a while, I decided that these lashes were a bit too much to wear during the day to work so I pulled them off and applied mascara to my upper lashes instead. I also had to redo my eyeliner and it had to be redone wider than I normally like to apply it.

My other purchasing was done at Trader Joe's.

Butter Waffle Cookies, Lightly Salted Pistachio Nuts, Unsalted Dry Toasted Slivered Almonds and Kitchen Cloth. I also discovered after I shopped at Trader Joe's that there's a Wasabi Flavored Seaweed Sheet and it's so yummy! I will need to remember that for my next trip to Las Vegas, or where ever there's a Trader Joe's.

*Kat*

NOTE: Okay, I just remembered that I did make another purchase at Walgreens. Unfortunately, it was because I didn't pack a lip balm. I also didn't realize that my container of Mezaik stretch double eyelid fiber only had one left. I bought false eyelash glue to use as a substitute. I actually ended up not needing it.

Gift Review: Fashionista Blush Plus A Couple of Creative Ideas

As I was preparing for my current trip, I really wanted to try to pack all ofmy makeup into my Freestyle Magnetic Palette. In the past, I've used the NARS Orgasm blush that I have in there, which I use to help with concealing. During my trip to Japan, I found that I really wanted to use another blush other than Orgasm and ended up purchasing a couple of blush at Daiso. Remembering this, I went in search of a blush that I could depot and use as I wasn't too keen on depotting my Daiso blush just yet. I found a Fashionista blush in my stash. It's a UK brand, I think, and I know that it was given to me as a gift, but I don't remember how long ago and by who. It's really a neat blush as it pops out of the case, although still encased in the plastic base.

The color is Cinnamon Spice #2.

Using my heat gun method, I depotted it, added a magnet and label to the back and placed it into my magnetic palette.

The blush itself is really nicely pigmented. The powder is on the soft side so it picks up a lot of color easily. I found that this color is really pretty on and it gives a nice flushed look.

I'm so glad that I decided to give this blush a try and that it depotted very nicely.

In my last post I wrote that I would post about a creative idea. In a previous creative idea post I wrote about using the Swifter Dry Refill sheet as a covering inside of a palette and it helps to pick up the stray and loose powders from pans of shadows that you have used. That post is here. Remember the little pack of cut up Swifter sheets in my travel makeup bag? Well, I discovered that if I keep a little piece of it by me when I'm applying makeup, I can tap my brush on it to take off excess and loose powders on my brush before applying the makeup. It has helped with eyeshadow fallout. It has also helped me with highly pigmented colors, which can get packed onto your brush. I also tend to pick up blush color with a heavy hand so being able to tap off some of the color onto the Swifter Dry refill sheet helps me to avoid excessive color. All I do is pick up color, whether eyeshadow or blush and stipple tap it on the Swifter a couple of times.

All I need is a small rectagular piece, similar in size to a cosmetic puff rectangle.

When I traveled to Japan, one thing that I found is that there isn't great lighting in Japanese homes. I found it difficult to apply makeup the way that I normally do because it not bright enough for me. Thinking about this for next time, I really didn't want to pack and lug around my lighted mirror so I played around a bit and came up with trying out a gooseneck clip on book light. I ended up with the Hello Kitty one because it uses regular AAA batteries. There was another one that I wanted to try but it used those little button type batteries and I didn't want to fuss with those.

I clip it onto the top of my mirror and angle it to my preference for how I like my lighting to be. It works well enough but it's definitely not perfect. Hopefully I can search around some more to see if I can find another clip on light that I like but for now, it works. My mirror is a stand alone mirror. It's really thin so it's great for traveling. I have a tissue in front of the mirror so that I could take a picture without the flash reflecting off. You can see a slightly better picture of the mirror in the previous post. I'll be putting this to a good test this week so I'll report back on how well it worked.

*Kat*

This is a scheduled post

What's In My Travel Beauty Bag(s)

I know that I've done this post before but decided to do another one as it's good reference for me for the next trip(s) I take.

As you are reading this, I'm either on the airplane or already landed in Las Vegas, an at least yearly trip--sometimes more than once a year.

Here's what's packed in my carry on bag:

In the burgundy bag:

Travel brush set, a Hello Kitty x Liberty set. This was a gift from a lovely blogger. I finally get to use it! Cotton puffs and Swifter sheets, Freestyle Magnetic Palette, sample powder foundation, some mini spoons, loose powder compact and toothbrush. I actually forgot my toothbrush the last time I went to Vegas! In my next post, I will explain about the Swifter sheets, it's another creative idea thing. I also need to add to this bag my eyebrow pencil and eyebrow powder.

Brush roll:

This holds almost all of my daily use brushes. I actually have another brush roll that I use too but will be giving it to my mom since she wants one. By the way, these are made and sold by Yumeko of Bittenbefore and her blog shop Tezaiku. The shop is on hiatus for the month of October but please be sure to check it out next month. I'm going to have to order another brush roll since I'm giving my mom the other one, which is the really pretty one.

Clarisonic:

I pack my Clarisoni Mia in a bottle holder. I've taken the Clarisonic Plus with me and it fits in there too but decided to use Mia for traveling purposes.

Plastic Quart-Sized Ziploc Bag:

With the new TSA travel regulations, my liquid and gel items need to be packed into the ziploc bag. It's mostly skin care items that I don't want to be without just in case my luggage gets lost. All of them are mini size or samples. I forgot to include in the picture my concealer and small bottle of toner.

Freestyle Magnetic Palette:

I will be doing a review in the next post of the blush. (It's in the top left corner.)  I did a bit of depotting for this trip.

Packed in my suitcase:

Flat Iron:

Mini travel flat iron packed into a thermal bottle holder. This was also made by Yumeko.

In the black floral bag:

The majority of my skin care items as well as some hair items. I did include the mini Morrocan Oil bottle but I found a sample packet of Tsubaki hair oil, so I switched it out. For my skin care, I usually buy the trial-size set of the Noevir skin care line that I like but I decided to pack and use all of the sample packets of skin care that I have. Hopefully I don't react to anything, although it's rare that I do. I packed the sample packets by what they are into small ziploc bags and labeled it.

Light Blue Foldout Bag:

I did the pictures by the section. Lowest level:

I have a magnified mirror in there with my toothpaste and blue paper towels.

Middle section:

I found a trial set of my Noevir skin care and decided to throw that in there just in case I do react to something from my sample packet set. Wet Ones to do daily quick cleaning of brushes and Neutrogena Makeup Remover Wipes.

Top section:

It's just a pair of scissors to cleanly cut open the sample packets. I always carry these scissors when I travel and it's come in handy for other things as well. Some extra mini ziploc bags and hanging clips.

I also packed my pink mirror and there's a Hello Kitty aspect to it. I will explain that in the next post as it's also a creative idea thing.

Take care everyone and I'll be back next week.

*Kat*

Note: This is a scheduled post

Using My Stash

The last time I posted a "Using My Stash" post was back in June. I thought that I didn't have enough things to show last month but I didn't realize that I had as many empties as I did!

Facial Cleansers:

I have several other facial cleansers that I need to use up and then I will probably be caught up on not having anything in my stash. Honestly, didn't care much for the Shiseido Perfect Whip. It was okay but I felt that it was just a regular cleanser--nothing special for me. The Face Shop and Biore Makeup Remover Wipes were good but my HG is Neutrogena. The one thing that I didn't like about Biore was that the sheet is around half the size of a Neutrogena sheet and I felt it was too small. I ended up using two wipes per night.

Skin Care:

These are two toners, a serum, moisturizer and trial-sized massage cream. I actually bought the L'Occitane toner last year in Las Vegas hoping that it would be a nice hydrating mist but it sprayed out awfully so I ended up using it as a toner. Noevir is my usual toner but I do have a couple of other toners in my stash that I will use before replacing. Clarins Vital Light Serum is a dark spot correcting, age repairing serum but I didn't notice any lightening of dark spots. It was okay as a serum but will look around for another serum that works just as well or better at a lower price. I found the Shiseido moisturizer too rich to use on my face so I used it on my neck.

Makeup Items:

I actually used up another eyeshadow! It took me forever and it's a color that I really like but I have it in a regular single eyeshadow and not as a pan shadow so I'll use it instead of purchasing another pan. K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner is my standard item and I do have several backups of it in my stash. Oops, the sunscreen should have been in the skin care section but this is also a standard item and I have quite a few backups of it. Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch primer. I liked this a lot and have another one in my stash. It's not being used now as I feel it's better for cooler, dryer weather. It's too hot and humid right now.

Miscellaneous Cleansers:

I had been using Wet Ones to do a daily quick cleaning of my brushes but am thinking that perhaps it might be more cost effective to use the quick brush cleanser sprays. I had 2 partially used bottles and used them up--one a Bare Minerals and the other a Sephora brand. Suave Keratin conditioner--I really like this conditioner. It's actually the 2nd bottle that I've used up but I have to finish up other conditioners that are in my stash before I purchase another one. MOR Hand and Body wash was a lovely item to use but it's not something I would purchase for myself. This was given to me as a Christmas present.

Various Disliked Items:

I decided to throw this into the post because I will be getting rid of it anyway. Korres Quercetin & Oak Face Serum and Primer. I just couldn't stand the scent of this more than anything else that I can't finish it up. Anastasia Brow Gel--this was okay but I rarely used it and it's a few years old now. Lancome Bright Expert--it's a mini size but after using it for so long, I didn't see any results.

It's already October! I hope that everyone is well and that the year ends on a high for all.

*Kat*