Follow Your Nose

Hola peeps! So I entered yet ANOTHER MakeUp Bee contest, this time Inglot is hosting a tropical theme. Initially I wanted to do a look based on all of the awesome flowers I had seen on my trips to Ecuador and Costa Rica.

I had such high hopes! :(

Alas, my first attempt at that had disastrous results (in my opinion) and I decided I needed to go another route. I decided to find another means on inspiration, and being that I am an animal lover, that's the way I went. First I was gonna go with a fish, but then I decided on a toucan. Since my name is Sam, why not base my look on Toucan Sam, the mascot of Froot Loops? So I googled pictures of toucans and pick out an awesome one to gather inspiration from. And here goes a pretty much step-by-step of how it went:

• Slather my eyes with e.l.f. primer and NYX eyeshadow base with my finger. My face is also covered in Hard Candy bronzer, I figured if it's tropical, you gotta be tan and golden (bronzed, if you will). My lips are left over from the first look, and by the time I finished my makeup the second time, I decided not to changed them. Initially I was going to paint them black. This is Maybelline's Coral Crush with a bit of MAC's Magenta Madness pigment (which i then accidentally spilled all over myself and my bed) in the middle

• With my MUFE Flash palette, add yellow detailing across my upper eyelid, then went over it with Sugarpill's Buttercupcake and another yellow from the BH Cosmetics' 120 palette, 1st edition.

• I then went in and added the rest of the colors: Sugarpill's Asylum, NYX's Jade Pearl and Baby Blue Pearl. As you can see I applied it really messy, I was only careful with the edges where the colors met.

• I then went in with my Maybelline Master Precise eyeliner pen and UD's Perversion and added black details/eyeliner to make it look more like a toucan. I think it was at this point that I forgot so take more step by step pictures. Whoops! I also took the black from the flash palette and drew a black line down the middle of my lips. Then I just added mascara and cleaned up the edges with a makeup wipe! TADA, I'm done!

Don't the plants just scream "TROPICAL!" ? Instead of "my front yard!"

I hope you guys like this look! If you do and you're on Makeup Bee, go vote for me!!! https://www.makeupbee.com/look.php?look_id=49073

HASTA LUEGO!

Sugarpill Contest Entry... Colorful Winter

Hola, peeps!!! This look came about by me finally getting the guts to actually enter a makeup contest for once. I came close once before when I saw a cool contest that would be inspired by candy, but after I saw my final product...I chickened out! :(  Well this time, I decided to give myself a real shot, and I must say that fairly satisfied with the outcome! Here's a rough step-by-step of how it turned out! (I took pictures along the way, in case I messed up, lol). For my "Colorful Winter Wonderland", I decided to draw a New Years' scene from my hometown, New Orleans. It's fireworks being shot over the St. Louis Cathedral...

First, I drew a rough sketch of my picture in white pencil eyeliner. 

After I was satisfied with the white sketch, I went over the cathedral in black liquid liner.

Since the building is white, I went in with my MUFE Flash color palette and added a white base for the white and gray shadows. For a first try, I started off BIG!!! Imagine trying to draw a white building AT NIGHT! That leads to needing all sorts of shading of white and gray for all the shadows.

To finish the cathedral, I colored in the steeples, colored in the front door, added shutters, and went back over some of the outlines that got smudged. (I forgot to go back over the steeples though... next time.)

After I finished the cathedral, I started on the night sky background. I started at the bottom with a sparkly black to simulate the dark, star-filled sky...

As I got closer to the fireworks on the other side of my face, I switched to a dark blue/black. Both of these darker blues came from the Wet N Wild palette, Blue Had Me At Hello.

Right next to the fireworks, I made the sky the lightest, since the sky would be lit up due to the pyrotechnics. I got 2 lighter blues from NYX, even though I am still mad about their 12th anniversary sale fiasco and will NEVER order anything from their site!!! After I finished the night sky, I went over my original white firework sketches with the NYX jumbo pencil in Milk. This was to help the fireworks standout as much as possible once I colored them in.

I colored in my the biggest starburst with a holographic gold glitter. Unfortunately the flash washed out the color so it mostly looks white still, but if you look closely you can still see some of the gold flecks. Too bad I did this in the middle of the night! :( With natural daylight, I think I could have picked up how awesome it looked in person. Maybe a better camera would have worked too, but I'm working with what I've got.

Since the gold holographic glitter didn't work out too well, I decided to nix the silver glitter I had for another of the bursts. Instead I went in with 3 different Sugarpill colors: Absinthe, Flamepoint, and Asylum. I LOVE Sugarpill, it's so bright, and was perfect for this look. After I touched up the cathedral and night sky again, I was content to say that the pictures below are the final product!!!! Hope you enjoy my efforts! Wish me luck!

TADA!!!

I did pretty well on this side considering it was hard to reach with my left hand! 

Added a festive hat!

Strike a pose!

Products used:

Wet N Wild palette- Blue Had Me At Hello

NYX jumbo pencil, milk

NYC liquid eyeliner, black

NYX eye pencil, white

Sugarpill- Flamepoint, Asylum, Absinthe, Tako

NYX ultra pearl mania- baby blue pearl, space pearl

NYX glitter mania-Hot gold

NYC lipstick- Ruby

MUFE flash color palette- black, white

BH cosmetics 120 palette, 1^st edition

HASTA LUEGO!

17 Magazine's 5-Week Workout Challenge

OK, so as everyone who knows me knows, it's against my nature to workout. I hate running, walking, lifting weights, the whole 9-yards. The only acceptable forms of exercise in my opinion all involve dance: Zumba, going out with friends for Latin Dance Night, etc. Every time I try to start a routine, it falls through after about a week.

So I figure that I wanna get more toned, I'm not 100% happy with my body, why not give this challenge a shot? I think the hardest part will be motivating myself to keep going and even HARDER will be eating right for this challenge. I'm a super-picky eater, so that makes it tough to take advantage of healthy eating tips when I don't eat any of the ingredients of a meal.

Side note: I wanna flatten my abs, tone my legs and KEEP MY BUTT!!! If it goes, I go (lol)!!! I guess we'll see... Wish me luck, peeps!!!