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!

Best Served Cold

Hola, Peeps! Here's my next tutorial, YAY! I got the inspiration from a video on Youtube by BionicVaporGirl. She used the (now discontinued) Sugarpill palette in Cold Heart. Since I have all of the pressed shadows, I still had all of them, but it involved both palettes and my single Bulletproof. So here goes nothing!

Eyes:
MUFE Flash Color in White
Sugarpill Burning Heart palette, Poison Plum
Sugarpill Sweetheart palette, Tako and Afterparty
Sugarpill pressed shadow, Bulletproof
e.l.f. eyelid primer
e.l.f. waterproof eyeliner pen
Maybelline Falsies Volum' Express
Pixi by Petra eyeliner in No.1 Black Noir

Lips:
Victoria's Secret lipgloss in Cherry Bomb
NYC lipstick in Garnet (not pictured, oops!)

First as usual, I primed my eyes. Then I put down a white base, using a small concealer brush and my finger. Then all across my top lid I put Afterparty.

After that, I went in with a contour brush and filled in the outer corner and my crease with Bulletproof. Getting  both eyelids to look even was a bit tricky, and honestly I'm not sure it ever got that way. But hey, what can you do?

After that was sufficient, I went to the inner corners and added a bit of Tako, just to make it stand out a bit. I forgot to take a picture of that step though. :-( After that, I did my bottom lid in Poison Plum.

YAY! So finished with the hard part. Then all I had to do was go in with the eyeliner pencil on my water line an the eyeliner pen on my top lid. I'm getting better at drawing straight lines, woo hoo! Also added some mascara on my top and bottom lashes.

Then, for the FIRST TIME EVER, I successfully put on some false lashes. They were some half-lashes that went in the outer corner. While I did get them on successfully, my camera didn't want to focus during those pictures, so they're a bit fuzzy, lo siento.

Then my scary face! AHHHH!!!

Yeah, so hope you enjoyed this one, try it out let me know how it goes and all that jazz...

HASTA LUEGO!

Remembering New Orleans... With Makeup!

So today marks the 6th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting the city that I love and call home. Even though it seems that the media has largely forgotten about us, we still face challenges everyday to make our community a little better and strive to regain what we once had. Now stepping off of my soapbox, I decided to do a makeup look today to pay tribute to the great state of Louisiana. For that reason I stuck mostly to using blue and white, the major colors of our flag.  Hope you guys enjoy!

First, the stuff I used:

Eyes:
Sugarpill Sweetheart palette, Afterparty and Tako
NYX eyeshadow base in White
Too Faced Exotic Color Intense Eyeshadow in Midnight Mist
Urban Decay Primer Potion
MUFE Flash Color in Bright Blue (014)
NYX Glitter Cream Palette in Ocean Breeze (11)
Maybelline Pulse Perfection Vibrating Mascara in Very Black

Lips:
NYC Liquid Lipshine in Honey on the Hudson (584)

Brows:
MUFE Flash Color in Black(011) and Brown (023)

Well first off this is what I looked like before I started....

AHHHH!!!! Lol, I had just gotten back from taking a tour of my neighborhood, taking pictures for my other blog post.
First I primed my eyes with UDPP, then I applied the NYX eyeshadow base to my lids with a small concealer brush and my finger (left index if you're curious). Then on the inner corners of my eyes, I placed Tako with my favorite smudge brush on the upper lids and an angled brush on the bottom lids.

Yeah, I know you can't see much of a difference between the base and the shadow, but let's pretend... Then I went in with Afterparty on the rest of the lids, using the same brushes respectively. I find it kind of hard to successfully blend white shadow into other colors, but fortunately this blue is light enough that it's not too much trouble. Or it could be that I've gotten better at blending since the last time I've tried. The world may never know...

Looking at my pictures, I realize that I forgot to take a picture after I did the top lid, so all of the blending you see here is only the bottom lid. Oops. Moving on... After I finished blending the Tako and the Afterparty to my liking, I started adding the Too Faced eyeshadow in Midnight Mist with a crease brush. I really like this color because it's purple, but depending on the angle it and also look blue and green. It has a lot of depth, so I'm pretty happy with it, even though it's a bit more expensive than what I normally spend ($18). I tried to concentrate the color mostly over the blue, but there is a little over the white as well, so that it has a uniform shape.

After that, I took a bent eyeliner brush and lined my eyes with the MUFE Flash Color in Bright Blue. At first I wasn't sure if I liked how the blue liner looked over the white shadow, but after seeing the final product I am pretty satisfied. However, I might try this look again without it. Before the liner had a chance to dry completely, I took the NYX glitter palette and pressed the dark blue glitter into the liner. After I was satisfied with my liner, I applied the mascara and lip gloss. It's a weird feeling to use a vibrating mascara wand. The shaking made it kind of hard to apply the mascara with my eye open. The vibrating also made my eye water, which leads my mind down all sorts of perverted avenues that involve vibrations and moisture, lol. But I digress... ANYWAYS! So this is what the final product looks like!

This lighting is mostly flash, with a little bit of window light thrown in. The rest of these pictures were taken right outside of my back door so I could have natural light. I don't think I was 100% successful with that because the flash went off a few times, but like I said it's mostly just sunlight.

I hope you guys enjoyed my memorial to my great city and will say a little prayer for all of those that lost their lives, families, and homes. Remember- Union, Justice, and Confidence!


HASTA LUEGO!

First Makeup Tutorial

Ok, so here's my first attempt at writing a makeup tutorial, we'll see how it goes. So the first look that I'm cataloging is one that I came across on Sugarpill's Facebook page. I've worn this look a few times, and I figured it was the perfect look to try this with. I figure the simplest way to do this is just jump right in and include lots of pictures, so here goes nothing!

So this is the look I'm recreating. First, here are the products:

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
NYX Eyeshadow Base in White
Sugarpill Burning Heart palette, Poison Plum
Sugarpill Sweetheart palette, Afterparty, Dollipop, and Tako
Tokidoki Perfetto Eyeliner in Sabochan
Sephora Jumbo Liner in Violet
Hard Candy Lashaholic super volume mascara in Blackest Black

Brows:
MUFE 12 Flash Color Case in Black (011) and Brown (023)

Lips:
CG Outlast Smoothwear lipliner in Coffee (145)
e.l.f. Luscious Liquid Lipstick in Cherry Tart

So first I put on my UDPP and used a small concealer brush/ my finger to apply the eyeshadow base.

I applied both the UDPP and base to both the upper and lowerlids.

Then using a smudge brush, I applied Poison Plum to the inner inner eyelid. Using the same brush I used the Afterparty and applied it to the outer lid. Both shadows went all the way up to my crease.

Then, after applying both shadows, I took a Sonia Kushuk blending brush, I picked up a little more Afterparty and blended the 2 lid colors together.

If either color gets too overpowered, you can always go back in with more. I tend to used blue to blend them since the Poison Plum is darker, but either way works. Then I took an angled brush and repeated the above process on my lower lid. (This pic is out of focus, but the colors show really well)

Taking a crease brush, I go into my crease with Sugarpills' Dollipop. Then a make sure all 3 colors blend together well. After the blending is done, I usually go back in with more Dollipop to make sure it really stands out.

To make sure I have as much pink as I wanted, I went in with a contour brush and added more Dollipop on my brow bone, as I as I wanted the color to go.I then went in with Tako and my blending brush and added it under my eyebrows as a highlight. Because my skin is dark, and Tako is white, I make sure to add small amounts at a time so that it doesn't look like my eyebrows have been snorting cocaine.

 After finishing my shadow, I added the Sephora violet liner to my waterline and used my tokidoki liner pen on my upper lid to draw cat-eye winged liner, and also on my outer lower lashline. I also used hard Candy Lashaholic mascara on my upper and lower lashes. Then I used the MUFE flash colors to fill in my eyebrows cuz I barely have any. Here's my final look (minus lips)!

 For my lips, I lined them, filled them in with the liner, and then applied the lipstick. TA DA!

Hope you enjoyed!

HASTA LUEGO!