Incoming!

Seeing as I'm back to blogging and everything, I think it's only fair to warn all you readers that someone better take my wallet away fast, because I'm going on a spreeeeeee!
Fyrinnae's new Halloween 2011 collection is out, and from all the swatches I've seen I knew I had to get everything! Well, I'm missing some of the lip lustres I've wanted since forever, but I added Coffin Velvet (it's such a gorgeous purple, if it doesn't fit my complexion I'll just paint my whole face), Visual Kei, Romantique, and Lollipop-pop to my order. Sweetest Poison was sold out :( and so was Fanservice, which I want so bad I'm about to turn inside out.
So I placed that order earlier today. Just a tip: I couldn't find the lip lustres on the Fyrinnae website, so I just Googled it, and there was a link to the page. Sneaky.
In addition to that order, I'm totally salivating over my order of Shiro Intertubes, which I think (hope) should be arriving some time late next week. 40 Cakes looks so gorgeous! I'm not ususally a pink person, but when I saw that lippie I felt like I'd been posessed by the good faerie Flora from Sleeping Beauty. "Make it pink!"
I also got Shoop da Whoop (which I can already tell is going to become a very good friend of mine), Numa Numa, NyanCat, and Rickrolled.
I think that's everything, so I'll keep you posted on when it arrives! Til then, Happy Halloween!
Edit: The larger sizes of the Lip Lustres restocked when I checked back, so I went ahead and nabbed Fanservice, Sweetest Poison, and Meloncholy. Yay!

The yummy stuff that's good for you! Glowing skin and rambles.

Hello all! In my last post, I talked about an oil-based face mask I'd made. After using it, I noticed a drastic increase in the softness of my skin (and not because I don't usually exfoliate. I do!) and a lot of the redness on my skin was reduced to a barely-noticeable level. I'd had a bad breakout recently and my trusty face wash did nothing to help it. In fact, it turns out it only irritated my skin more.
I've been using the same type of face wash for about five years now and it's never failed me. So, as you can imagine, I was pretty surprised. But at a helpful tip, I reluctantly used a regular bar of soap to wash my face with. In about a week, the old blemishes were retreating and nothing new had sprung up. This doesn't have so much to do with my aforementioned face mask, but I feel like it's worth talking about because I've tried scrubs and frothy washes and I always use moisturizer, but somehow it wasn't helping much. So here's what I discovered:
I've been stripping too many of the natural oils from my skin. In reaction to seeing a spot I'd often wash more attentively and obsessively. Which, of course, only made matters worse. So, after several weeks now of using bar soap and nothing else to wash my face off, I can happily say taking the more laid-back approach is working! I'm so pleased... and I have the prospect of not having to spend a pile of money every few months on  another tube of face wash!
So that's taken care of my breakout, but I've always had fairly dull skin. Being quite pale anyway, my skin just seems to take on this ashen look when I'm tired or stressed, and the rest of the time I'd say it's pleasantly matte, at it's most remarkable. The use of my newly invented face mask has really helped my skin become clearer and softer, but I can't say I noticed much in the way of a new dewy glow.
But a few days ago I began using honey on my face for a minute or so before washing. Now just so you know I'm not just leaping off into the deep end, I actually used to use honey on my nose and lips because it seemed to help with these wonky mini-spots I used to get. Still don't know what they were, but they'd stay for weeks when I didn't use honey and aloe. So anyway, after this recent honeying I rolled out of bed this morning and I look dewy! Sure, it's probably a minor-dew in comparison to some, but for me it's pretty exceptional and even though my hair's like a haystack in the mornings, my skin really stood out. For only a few days of honeying I'd say that's pretty good news to me! So I figured I'd share the discovery. Has anyone else tried this? Or used honey or another raw natural ingredient in their skincare regime? Til next time!

Hello! and new things

Hello all, I am back from an extended absence! Not to worry, I'm alive and well. SO much has been going on, but I promise new looks and reviews soon and I have to say I'm absolutely drooling over the new Shiro Intertubes collection, so I'll be swatching those as soon as I can lay my hands on them.
Hope everyone had a lovely summer. Mine was fabulous and filled with new discoveries... I've been looking into the ingredients behind skincare products recently. You know, things like Prunus amygdalus dulics and Linum usitatissimum and actually looking at their properties and purposes instead of just going 'Eh, whassat?' and putting the product back down.
So I recently purchased several different oils to experiment with, and I'm so happy that I did!
I made a face mask last week with green tea, flax and hemp oils, sweet almond oil, and finely ground turbinado sugar for exfoliating purposes. I leave it on for maybe ten minutes before I wash my face in the mornings (though I haven't repeated the process daily... don't want to get too oily) and then put a moisturizer on after, and I'm good to go. I have persnickety combination skin that doesn't react too well to changes in my skin regime, so I'm beyond thrilled to see that my skin is loving this new approach.
I don't think my face has been this soft in years and I've gotten several compliments already on how nice and even my skin looks.
I'll keep you posted on these experiments with natural organic ingredients and in the meantime thank you to all my readers who stayed subscribed while I was away!

Silly Ode to April - EOTD

The saying says "april showers" and where I live that is currently very true! But without the showers, no May flowers so I guess I'm paying it a tribute. Either way, I'm happier with this rain than the gross incessant ice and slush that came before!
But, this is me we're talking about. So am I really going to do some kind of rainy blue look, or grey like stormclouds to dedicate to this month? Of course not! That would be too sensible! Instead, I'd like to introduce my friend the snail, who devours my plants every year without fail as soon as they start to grow again. I don't actually have a huge problem with snails nomming on plants.... unless it's lettuce, because who wants to eat the leafy leftovers of someone else, really? Other than that, I don't really mind them. In fact, I think the little critters are kinda cute. I have a weakness for cute things. And unfortunately I find a lot of things to be cute... including little garden pests :) But sorry, I'll stop burbling and get straight to it!
Here's the look I've created!! Yes, it's a snail. So the paragraph above wasn't just me losing my mind. Or maybe it was, but there is method in my madness. That's right, I just quoted Hamlet, in a garbled sort of way. Oh dear -.-
AHEM!
I used the following:
Nijiro - Fyrinnae
Aztec Gold - Fyrinnae
Chrome - Fyrinnae
Atomic Afterglow - Fyrinnae
Chronos - Aromaleigh
Hollywood - Glamour Doll Eyes
And I'm a bit lazy right now, so I won't specify what I used on which part, but if you'd like to know then feel free to ask in the comments and I'll tell you :)
On to the (many) pictures! As always, click to zoooooom!

That's about it. Don't you love the glittery snail trail? Hehehe. Comment please :D and thanks for reading. Have a wondrous April!

FunnyFace's Dare To Wear Charity Challenge, For Japan!

This is an excellent cause, so I couldn't pass it up. It's from the wonderful FunnyFace Beauty Blog, and you can find the link right here! Unfortunately, I don't know all that much about Japan. I spent a little while racking my brain for something clever and then realized that the top thing I know and love about Japan is their food! So here's my Japan post. It's wonky and funny and I'm not really a pro so I look goofy, but here's a pretty little shrimp roll in honor of Japan!
I used Hi Fi Cosmetics' Sugar for the white, and the rest of the look is primarily The Chequered Lily's "Sushi Ginger" which I thought was fairly fitting ^.^
And here's how it looked:

 Hehehe, so that's my post! Comments encouraged. I won't take it personally if you have a bit of a giggle :)

Oh my! A blog award!

The stunning Samantha from Give Me Samantha tagged me for a blog award! I'm so excited and honored! Thank you Samantha! (For the record, Samantha has been with me from the beginning of my leap into indie makeup and she's always been so nice to read my ramblings and drop comments. I'm very grateful to her!)
Here's the award I recieved :) It's green!

And I'm just going to copy the rules/requirements straight from Samantha's page. I think that's what I'm supposed to do!

The Requirements:

-Thank the person who gave you the award, and link back to them on your blog
-Tell us 7 things about yourself
-Tag some more bloggers for the award
-Contact these bloggers to let them know they've been tagged

Seven things about me:
1. Like Samantha, I've never tried MAC. How shocking! I plan to at some point... after I purchase every single Fyrinnae shadow and have a better-paying job!
2. I pierced my own ears! It didn't hurt and they healed fine. I was very hygienic about it.
3. When I am retired, a long time from now, I dream of having an enormous library filled with all my favorite books so that when I'm crazy and forgetful I can pick up something off any shelf and reread the same page for the first time over and over again and adore every word.
4. I have freelance edited a book, which then got published in the UK :) Very proud!
5. If I had to pick one person in the world to girlcrush over, it would be Kate Winslet.
6. I collect Pac Man merchandise! Hehe :D
7. When I was little, I memorized a Beowulf passage in Old English.

Now, on to the tagging and awards!

The Versatile Blogger I choose to tag is Sophie from Ethereal Beauty! Not only does she create the most stunning EOTDs in a wide range of colors, of which I am super in awe, but she also plays WoW ^.^ and I tend to geek out when writing comments to her. 

And as for the Stylish Blogger Award, I nominate Tomi / my tiger lily! Her style is so above and beyond description. She inspires me to push the limits of makeup application to create truly fantastic looks. I'm super jealous of her skills. The way she writes makes me giggle, too!

So there are my awards. And a special thank-you to everyone who reads this blog and/or inspires me. You guys are the best!

Autumn EOTD and Evil Shades Lipstick Raving

For me, this Spring has been somewhat miserable (excluding pretty makeup and my lovely readers of course!) Lots of illness, lots of disgusting soggy weather. My conclusion? I want autumn back! So here is my Autumn-themed EOTD. I may do the other seasons, I may not. Haven't decided yet.
Here's what I used:
1. Rapunzel Had Extensions - Fyrinnae
2. Fire Opal - Fyrinnae
3. Polar Bear - Fyrinnae
4. Physician's Formula 2-in-1 Ultra Black liner
5. Fire Opal - Fyrinnae
6 a. Painted Roses - Fyrinnae
6 b. Fire Opal - Fyrinnae
7. Golden Fair matte base - Everyday Minerals
Mascara: Sephora Lash Plumper in Black
And here's how it looked:

And to show off the shimmer:

I was really happy with the way this turned out and remembered I had a sample of Evil Shades lipstick in Ardour in my makeup stash. I'd dared to wear it out once before, a long time ago. And I wasn't very careful about applying it I guess because it feathered and stained a kind of orangey hot pink under whatever lip gloss I used. I felt a little like a clown. So this time I made sure to be precise in my application and I didn't use a gloss. It's very moisturizing on its own! And OH MY GOD it's sooooo pretty!
Hours later, it still hadn't come off and hadn't feathered or anything. In fact, it wore like a charm. I'm so happy with it that I ran back to Andrea's Evil Shades store and bought a full size! And then I returned to my stash and played around with other samples I'd recieved. In short, I now have Ardour and Primrose Path on order, as well as two of the super-intense looking Hardcore glosses in Not Your Barbie and Roué. I'm really excited! I usually stick to a normal-looking gloss on a daily basis because all of my lipsticks are a bit too... zealous for work. But it looks like Primrose Path is going to turn into a staple for me. I'm really liking the color.
So here are (dun dun dun!) lip swatches of Ardour. Obviously this is the first time I've ever provided a lip swatch for anything. And I'm not used to it yet. So be nice!

Thanks for reading! Please leave comments! Have a happy Friday :)

The TKBeast!

Warning: Ridiculous extended metaphor below and other obscure ramblings and references.

What is the TKBeast you may ask? Well, I'm here to tell you! The TKBeast is a lovely creature that will shed a generous sample amount of beautiful mica-beast dust on you! How lovely! However, this only works when the creature is fed a small meal of $1.50. Now, that's not a problem. The problem here is that there are so many colors to choose from! I want them all! And I think if I let it, the TKBeast would happily snarf up my wallet. Mind you, I'd be rolling gleefully in beautiful micas... but I try to be practical (heh).
So instead of offering up an all-you-can-eat buffet to this TKBeast, I simply presented it with an appetizer of crispety crunchety bills... which it seemed to enjoy. Because today I was showered with 9 mesmerizing micas that I CANNOT. STOP. STARING. AT. O.O!
Now, for some reason I thought each baggie held one teaspoon (probably because some of the micas tell you that's the amount you recieve for $1.50) but that's just not so. The ones that don't say anything about a teaspoon actually hold a whole tablespoon! This TKBeast is generous!
The micas I chose to be showered with were Blue Sparks!, Echo, Chameleon Glitter, Smokey XXX, Ballad Blue, Her Majesty, Capricorn Sea, Pisces Blue, and Taurus Orion. Now, a teaspoon of product is generous and wonderful. But a tablespoon? There's so much mica in here I think it'll last me til I'm 90! Well then, I'll fade into a colorful senility!

These micas come in big thick baggies approx 4 inches tall, 3 wide (so yeah, big) and I'm not a huge fan of baggies. Especially these. For some reason I really have to wrestle with the zip-lock seal to get it to open, and it makes me uneasy to know I could easily slip and rip the packaging open like some kind of hungry predator. So I've placed an order for over 9000 5g jars! Just kidding, only 200. But still quite a few! I look forward to the (IMO) more convenient packaging :)
Personally, I cannot seem to get over how pretty these are. Not to say, by any means, that the rest of my collection is not up to par (cause it is ^.^) but man! Any of you remember the Mirror of Erised from Harry Potter? If you wear these kinds of colors, I believe it's quite possible that people will want to sit and waste away or be driven mad by your eyelids. SOOOOO PRETTY!
Don't believe me? Ask the dishes! Er.. swatches! (All swatched over Pixie Epoxy... which, by the way, is a girl's -and many guy's I'm sure!- best friend. Because diamonds cannot foil your eyeshadow!)

First picture, left to right: Blue Sparks!, Echo, Chameleon Glitter, Smokey XXX (not as purple as it looks here)

Second picture, left to right: Ballad Blue, Her Majesty (the purple glitter didn't show up on camera AT ALL! Sorry!), Capricorn Sea ( a bit greener shift than it looks here), Pisces Blue, Taurus Orion

As always, click to zoom! Thanks for putting up with the many random insanities in this post. Please comment!

Link: TKB Trading

A picture of the TKBeast! (Those curly things are wings, but I can't draw.)



The Blitterpoard Mani

Okay, so as to the title of this post. No, my nails aren't dying of a terrible-sounding disease --- I've simply titled it this way because it's a combo of blue, leopard-print and glitter, and I mangled the words horribly to form it's name. I don't actually have a lot to say about this other than that I suck at doing my nails and I still got tons of compliments on this! It was very encouraging :)
I used Sally Hansen HD in BLU, my Physician's Formula liner for the leopard print, Confetti in Pink Confetti, and Sally Hansen Advanced Strengthening Topcoat.
And heeeeere's what it looked like! (Ignore my ugly cuticles -.-)

There you have it.... please comment! Thanks for reading!

Good Behavior.... Did I say that?

So last time I checked I was supposed to be on fairly good behavior. That lasted til about St. Patty's Day. But I seem to be on my spree of the year; I'm currently waiting on 10 separate orders to arrive. *_*. This isn't counting those that have already arrived. Currently my camera seems to have divorced it's battery charger and ditched it in some foreign country because it is nowhere to be found. So annoying! And so I'm sorry, I'll only be able to post the pictures I've already uploaded until I find it again. The camera does seem to have realized the mistake however; it's dead now. How morbid. With a bit of luck, though, the charger will return and my stupid camera will get a res. Ah, there are too many references in this paragraph. Overwhelming!
Aaaaanyway, point being, expect some swatching and reviewing in the following posts. Also, my first-ever nail post! I know, no one voted for that on my blog poll, but I was happy with the way it turned out and wanted to show it off a bit anyway. So, that's upcoming too. Keep your eyes out for it, I think I'm dubbing it Blitterpoard. Which won't sound as much like a terrible disease, once I actually post it (hopefully).

Quick and random EOTD

It was sunny out with a clear blue sky, so I decided on a yellow and blue look and this is what I came up with...
I used:
1. Blizzard - Detrivore (with a highlight of Earth Angel Minerals "Old Flame" shadow)
2. Invertebrate - Detrivore
3. Vacancy - Detrivore
4. Physician's Formula 2-in-1 Ultra Black liner
5. Pathos - Detrivore
6. N/A
7. Golden Fair matte base - Everyday Minerals

And the pictures!

Ethereal Beauty is holding her first Giveaway!

And so many goodies too! Go check it out here: Ethereal Beauty. You don't even have to be a follower. But she's worth following, so I recommend doing so anyway! :)

Uhm LORAC, and a random look

So I'm probably the millionth person to be in on the LORAC sale on Hautelook, but I caved. And then I got carried away. So I've got the Croc Mocktail mini set on its way, as well as three other Mocktail shades/flavors in Chi Chi, Caffeini Martini, and Lava Flow. So expect some major haulage. What drew me in (besides the price!) was the description of these glosses. I'm a sucker for lip gloss in general, but especially when it tastes good! These Mocktail glosses are flavored like different cocktails, so how was I supposed to resist? ^.^
The funny part is that I really WAS being good and not buying a thing, but then I thought 'Hey, St. Patrick's Day is juuuuuust around the corner and I need me some green glitter!' and it all just went downhill from there. But it looks like my mailbox will be getting happydanced at once again!
I recieved my order from Zoya -- I got Envy instead of Shawn, which kinda sucks because I was really looking forward to that shade... but Envy is lovely too! It was still a pretty great deal so I guess I was just a little slow and Shawn ran out? Not sure. I need to show pictures of those. Unfortunately it seems my little camera had intentions of it's own and has scuttled off somewhere. I guess it wanted a spring break. Until I can hunt it down, I hope you'll be appeased with an EOTD from a little while ago.
I used:
1. Abalone - Archetype Cosmetics
2. Lilith's Daughters - Archetype Cosmetics
3. Dragonmagic - Fyrinnae
4. Physician's Formula 2-in-1 Ultra Black liner
5. Mystic - Fyrinnae
6. N/A
7. Golden Fair matte base - Everyday Minerals


First picture first: this one looks a little funny to me... like my eyelashes are reaching out. Slightly unnerving.

Blurry, but it shows off some sparklies:

Sooo, that's that. Drop me a comment! :)

Oh! I almost forgot! My OCC Lip Tar in NSFW arrived... I. LOVE. IT! Expect a review as soon as I'm able to photograph swatches!

Upcoming posts and that kinda jazz

Hey guys! I haven't posted in a bit, which makes me feel lame now since this post doesn't include any looks or pretty pictures or anything :(
I just wanted to tell you what's up for now:
I'll be swatching my Glamour Doll Eyes sample baggies (lotsa glitter!)
Fyrinne swatches (I got Mephisto and CAN'T. STOP. LOOKING. AT. IT. It's so beautiful!)
China Glaze Crackle review (I got one! Yes! This particular post will happen when my nails stop being ugly... so yeah, the future.) <<<<< Heh, that's my optimism talking XD
Speaking of nails, I splurged a tiny bit and went for the 3 for $5 deal at Zoya (I guess that's more of a steal than a splurge) and I got the tip-off from xSparkage... I can't find the deal thingy on the Zoya site any more which bums me out a little cause I feel like I should have the link for it in here.
Uhm.......... Oh!
Then we come to the reason for this post, kinda. Yeah, you know that unobtrusive little poll I have over to this side? >>>>>
Well I've been looking at it (5 votes so far!) and OCC Lip Tar is winning. Now that's fine with me because I have been dying to try these. I only have a few red lippies. And I'm like some hopeless lovestruck loony who doesn't care how unrequited her love is when it comes to red lips. They can push me away or make me look like hell but I'll run back to them every time. I think (or I hope) that they're finally bending to my will a little (okay, ENOUGH with the love metaphor here cause I'm just not gonna draw it out any more hehe) because I've gotten compliments on my red lips the last two times I've tackled the crazy color. What this all boils down to, is that I ordered a Lip Tar in NSFW. For those of you who don't know, I'm pretty sure this stands for Not Safe For Work. Either that or Nosy Seals Fear Windshields. But yeah, I think it's the first. So I'm SUPAAAAH excited about that because I have heard so many great things about these products and I've never tried anything from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics before. If I like this stuff as much as everyone says I will, then I will definitely be buying Beta, Reverb, and Anime next! Time to go for something a little crazier and try to master it. Anyway, here's the link for the OCC site: Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics. Have you tried them before? Do you want to? ARE YA GONNA?! Comment below, and thanks for being my lovely readers :) I can't tell you how much I appreciate you

How I Store My Makeup

I think this was a long time in coming. No, I'm not sure where this nifty box came from (but if you know, tell me cause I totally want to buy another!) but it's super convenient and I love it. The jars are mostly Fyrinnae, except for those 9 on the left, which are Pure Luxe. I love how easy it is to store my sample baggies in here. And the clamshells are a pain and I don't really like them, but they fit too!
I'm just going straight to the pictures here, because there's really not a lot I can say. This was originally some kind of sewing box I think. But I plan on going hunting at Hobby Lobby or Michael's for another similar thing, since I've got several other jars coming and don't really have a nice home like this to put them in. I just love how 9 fit in each of the large compartments (and they're not hard to take out) all snug and serendipitously. Yay :)

Comments? Questions? Thanks for reading!

Are your eyes bigger than your stomach? LOL of the Day

I have a face on my face!

WARNING:  Not your average makeup!

I don't think I'll be making a habit out of this or anything, but I had this weird idea in my head that I wanted to try out (but probably not wear out) and it makes me giggle!

I used (in no particular order):

Kamikaze - Fyrinnae

Prestige liquid eyeliner in Popstar

Physician's Formula 2-in-1 Ultra Black liner pen

Integra's Dog I - Archetype Cosmetics

Beetle - Detrivore Cosmetics

Black Rose Bath - My Pretty Zombie Cosmetics

 The best part of this look, is when you blink it looks like the mouth is biting! Heeee! Omnomnom rawr.

 I won't mind if you question my sanity, but do comment!

GotW - 450 Enchanting

Here is Sunday's Geek of the Week look, "450 Enchanting"! You'll probably notice it's made up of colors similar to the Baby Vampragon look... this won't be the case for most of the GotWs though, don't worry.
In WoW, the enchants that are put on weapons usually make them glow, glimmer, or something similar. Also, you can disenchant, and recieve many pastel-colored dusts. Here's kind of a tribute to both those, with the dusts as the shadows and the enchants as the liner...
A picture of enchanted weapons in the Dalaran shop:

Stuff being enchanted:

I used:
1. Sugar - Hi Fi Cosmetics
2. Futuristic Glamrock - Fyrinnae
3. a. Spun Sugar - Archetype
3. b. Pixie Poop - Archetype
4. Physicican's Formula 2-in-1 liner Ultra Black under Real Wild Child - Hi Fi Cosmetics
5. Sex, Drugs & Rock'n'Roll - Hi Fi Cosmetics
6. Futuristic Glamrock - Fyrinnae
7. Golden Fair matte base - Everyday Minerals

I wish I'd managed to capture the glitter better....