Maybelline Bleached Neons collection swatches

When I heard about the Bleached Neons collection coming out for a limited time for Summer 2014, I heard nothing but good things which made me immediately keep an eye out for it around here.

The main hype in this collection is the color tattoos. They are apparently identical to the ones that came out for a limited time last year...just under a different name! This is a bummer for people who bought both unknowingly but awesome for people who were sad they missed them the first time around (guess which camp I fall into)

So the one thing I remember most about the original color tattoos was that they were fine on their own but they really shined when over a black eyeliner/eyeshadow. I couldn't wait to buy these and try the technique out for myself.

My goods! Left to right. Maybelline master drama Chromatic eyeliner in turn on the teal, Color tattoo in Sunwashed Sky , Color Show nail polish in Bleached in Peach, and Color Tattoo in Shimmering Sea

Here's a close up of the color tattoos and nail polish

I tried showing the tip of this eyeliner. It's soft and wonderful.

Maybelline Chromatic eyeliner in Turn on the teal - with flash

Take a look at that swatch. I'm in love! I'm actually sitting here wondering this asking myself why I haven't used it in any looks yet. I don't know why, it's gorgeous! 

Maybelline chromatic eyeliner Turn on the teal - daylight bulb, no flash

Anyway I'm definitely smitten with this eyeliner it's probably one of my favorites! 

I am very tempted to go and pick up some other shades, as there was a pink, purple and more.

Unfortunately i don't have any better pictures of the nail polish. I purchased it to use in a Easter manicure which I never got to post because after a certain point it seemed odd to post an easter mani, am I right? 

Swatches of that polish soon. But for what its worth, I liked it!

Now for the real star of the show- the color tattoos

Maybelline bleached neons Color tattoos

Here are the two side by side...they look a bit different in pictures but in person they looked very similar to be honest. If you can't see the lids, Sunwashed Sky is in the left, and Shimmering Sea is on the right.

Let's take a look at Sunwashed Sky first.

Right away you can tell it's beautiful

Here I have a swatch of the color tattoo on its own on the left, and over black eyeshadow on the right. As you can see, the shadow really comes alive when placed over a black base.

I love the duochorme shift that becomes much more obvious over a black shadow. I had some trouble layering it but I think it's because I tried doing it over a powder eyeshadow. I think these would look good over a creamy pencil liner- like the cheap wet n wild ones I got in the packs I've reviewed lately. 

I think Shimmering Sea is my favorite of the two!

I like the way Shimmering Sea  looks on its own. It looks good over black but not as much as Sunwashed Sky does. 

All in all I think there are several things worth picking up if you see this display. Basically everything in this post! Haha! I highly recommend all of it. 

Have you seen this display in your area? I'll be honest I was surprised when I saw they restocked ours after I picked htese up. It still remains mostly full when I pass by! So you should still find them near you but don't wait too long as these are limited edition!

Valentine's Day Cut Crease FOTD

So as I am sure you remember, yesterday was Valentine's Day.

I am not going to get into defending this holiday because, I get it. A lot of people hate it.  But don't rain on my parade! I love all holidays! I love themes! I love red and pink actually no I don't which is why it's fun to like it on the holiday only! Hearts are fun! Chocolates are yummy!

You get the picture.

And it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm in a semi long term relationship. When I was in high school I was single as a nun and still had so much fun with it. I bought these super cheesy boxers with holographic hearts all over them and wore them to school along with wings and a bow and arrow and I ran around all day acting like cupid.
Sometimes I think of my high school self and ask, did that really happen? Yes, ladies and gents. It really did.
Which is why I don't buy the bitterness that people seethe out on V-day. I think it's fun to celebrate love- whether yours or someone else's!

SO as you may have learned by now, I like to do themed makeup looks that are over the top and utilize the holiday's colors (see: my Christmas look)

So for Valentine's day (which was mostly spent with friends as my man was working) I did an extremely colorful cut crease look.

I am still new at cut creases so it's still in a learning curve. And while I didn't take pictures for a tutorial because frankly I didn't know what I was doing, I still want to tell you how I achieved this look.


As you can see I did a red eyelid color (that really came across as more pink), with a purple cut crease and purple lower eyeliner, with a pop of bright pink in the inner corner.

The most dramatic part of this look is obviously the double/triple wing look. This is something that just kinda came about and I went with it.

So the first thing I did was prep my eyelids with Urban Decay primer potion + a coat of Nyx Milk to help the eyeshadow stand out.

Next I took out my BH cosmetics 120 palette and used the red color pictured above -marked with the daisy- and patted it all over my lids.

After that I took my MAC 212 brush to create a crease with the purple color marked BELOW from a Profusion palette that will be covered on this blog very shortly- consider this a sneak peak!

I was very careful to blend only the slightest bit as I didn't want to mess up the crease.

With the 212 I extended the crease to create a wing upward and then extended the red out as well.

Above the crease I blended out the purple color seen here. It seems really dark but it actually turns out to be a fairly light color. I think these 2 shades of purple blended perfectly together.

I forgot to mark it with a daisy but the pink that is 4 down from the red- that is the pink I used in the inner corner.

I again took the 212 and took the dark purple I used in the crease and ran it along my bottom eyelid. I extended it out to match the wing above it, creating a really interesting effect that I'm not 100% sure I liked.

Finally, I highlighted my brow bone with Virgin from the Urban Decay Naked palette.

Other products I used in this look are:
Mary Kay Time Wise matte wear liquid foundation in Ivory 7 (review of this coming up! this was the first time I used it! What do you think?)
Physicians Formula translucent multi colored pressed powder
eyebrows are the brown shade from the Wet n Wild I <3 Matte 8 pan
Covergirl lash blast volume mascara
E.l.f blush & bronzer duo in St Lucia for contouring
and Maybelline Superstay 24 hour lip color in Endless Ruby --I think. The label has completely rubbed off so this is just my best guess.

So did you guys do anything exciting for Valentine's Day? I didn't yet- I am going out to dinner with my guy tonight to celebrate. He also got me roses and Season 2 of Pretty Little Liars (a man after my own heart, huh!)

I hope you all had a great holiday and didn't get too bitter. Love is all around us and there's no reason not to celebrate it!

September & October hauls

Yes you read that right...Yes it is embarrassing that I am writing this in NOVEMBER. Let's not talk about it.

Also, this definitely isn't everything I hauled in September & October. But it's all the stuff I made sure to take a picture of. Ha!

makeup look featuring Benefit's THEY'RE REAL! mascara

A while back (an embarassing amount of time back, if we're being honest) I got a sample size of Benefit's They're real mascara from Sephora for my birthday. 

I created a look with this mascara but before I could post it, my computer was dunzo (10+ points if you get that reference)...but now it's finally here!

Feast your eyes on a purple eyeshadow look I did featuring They're Real!

cranberry and lavender makeup look

More pictures and products used after the jump! -->

Independence day nails!

So as you may have already seen I recently posted a quick post of what nails I did for Independence day, but now I'm ready to go more in depth with my look and tell you how you can achieve a similar one!

First off, I love holidays. I love...themes. and partying. and holidays provide a lot of that! Unfortunately this year I had a very uneventful holiday. But that didn't stop me from rocking some awesome nail art!

I had seen lots of inspiration on other blogs and on pinterest all week. But I couldn't decide what I wanted to do myself! I finally decided that there was no way I could choose one of the manicures, so instead I decided to take elements of several different ones and make it my own!

I apologize in advance that some of these are smart-phone quality photos. But I still think they get the point across!

4th of July nails!

Instructions after the jump-->

Family Birthday party look!

Hey lovelies I know it seems like I'm slackin' on the posting and I DEEPLY apologize! I have been trying to make my camera work with videos and it's been a stressful process.

VIDEO REVIEWS COMING SOON! :)

But for now let's get on to the makeup and outfit I wore!

It was my brother's birthday this past week so the family got together for some Publix subs and margaritas (as it was also Cinco de Mayo)

I had a rose gold and burgandy look goin' on. I know it's hard to tell the burgandy part but I'm about to post a picture of the makeup I used, and you can tell! 

Now I know I've talked about my Profusion Palette a lot, as I use it in almost all of my looks! (because I can't say it enough: a review video is coming!!) but here's a sneak peak at what the actual palette looks like.

ooh, pretty colors! 

As demonstrated by the arrows, these are the colors I used!

Here's the rest of the makeup used to get this look:

Face:

Covergirl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1 foundation in nude beige

Physician's Formula multi-colored pressed palette in Buff

for contouring: Elf contouring blush & bronzing powder in St Lucia

unknown concealer (I hate containers that fade so you can't even tell what product it is!)

Eyes:

Urban Decay Primer potion in original

the eyeshadows demonstrated above

Maybelline eyestudio gel eyeliner in blackest black

Covergirl lashblast volume waterproof in black

Nyx Eyeshadow trio in honeycomb for highlighting and eyebrows

eyelash curler from Forever 21 (how cute is that- purple + rhinestones = <3 )

As always when I'm looking forward to a long day, I topped it off with Urban Decay all nighter setting spray to make my makeup last! Not pictured is some lip color that I threw on and did not write down what it was 

:(

Last but not least, you can peep my OOTD here:

everything I'm wearing is from Target! In fact the skirt was on clearance for less than $10. Now that is a steal!

Follow your bliss, 

Ember Darling