I'm a Heartbreaker!

Hola, peeps!!!

So last Friday, Sugarpill Cosmetics released the last palette of their "Heart" line. This one is the Heartbreaker, featuring bright colors that are sure to make your eyes pop and make heads turn! Needless to say, I stayed up until 2am to order as soon as it was available. I got my shipment super quick, and it was waiting for me on Monday morning. At first I wasn't sure if I felt that they were as bright as what I was hoping for, but after trying them out I would say I am definitely satisfied and can't wait to try new looks with it in the future. Individually, the shadows are $12, but if you buy it in palette form, they're only $34, which is a savings of $14.

Amy, being super sweet as usual!

New color packaging

All of my goodies, including a sample of Junebug

New sticker design

THE PLAYERS:

Acidberry: Bright lime green, similar to Sugarpill's Loose shadow in Absinthe, but a little less yellow and a little darker. Swatched pretty sheer, but was easy to work with on my lid.

Velocity: A nice medium blue color, similar to Royal Sugar, but not sparkly. It's also darker than Afterparty.

2am: A medium reddish purple, it's lighter and more red than Poison Plum. When swatched, it was the sheerest color, but shows up on the lid just fine. Love the name of this one, and can't wait to use it more.


Mochi: A light aqua blue, the most opaque of the quad, I feel like it's a bit light for me to use on a regular basis. I guess only time will tell. Swatches super easy, so if you love the color, it will be easy to work with. In the pan it appears similar, but light than Midori, but I don't think they are really comparable in usage.

Right after this, I accidentally stuck my fingernail into Velocity :(

The fingers I used to swatch

Velocity, Acidberry, 2am, Mochi

I put all three of my quads from this series next to each other for comparison since a few would appear to have similar colors. Here they are for comparison.

Sweetheart, Burning Heart, and Heart Breaker

So after all of the tedious swatching, picture taking, and captioning came the fun part, PLAYTIME!!!


Please indulge me with all of my angles, face making, etc. Just wanting you to get all of the Heartbreaking goodness! :)



Products Used:

Tear duct- Absinthe
Inner Corner- Acidberry
Center- Velocity
Outer Corner- 2am
Crease- Poison Plum
Lower Lid- Mochi
(All shadows are by Sugarpill, my mascara is Hard Candy's Lash Call in Peacock)

The world is sad... they can't all be Heartbreakers

Who are you telling I don't look good?

Side view

I give this palette 2 thumbs up, as usual for Sugarpill. I hope this review helps someone, and inspires you guys to get this awesome palette. Brighten up your world, it's the only one we've got! :)

HASTA LUEGO!

MAC Ruby Woo vs. Maybelline Red Revival

So while watching Youtube, I came across a red lipstick that was lauded as "the best red for lipstick for dark skin". This color was none other than MAC's retro matte lipstick, 'Ruby Woo'. As I had never bought anything from MAC before, I was not sure I was willing to part with $14.50 plus tax just to try it out. I have plenty of different drugstore reds that I hadn't been happy with before, so I didn't want to waste money to endure more disappointment. By searching dozens of videos, I came across a video that suggested Maybelline's Color Sensational in 'Red Revival' as a dupe for Ruby Woo. With a price of $5.50 plus tax at my local Walmart, it was hard to pass up. I bought Red Revival and did a few swatches, and while I loved the color, I wanted a totally matte color. Red Revival has a bit of a shine, and also it seemed like it would transfer fairly easily, something I detest! On a trip to the mall to collect my birthday Beauty Insider gift from Sephora, I decided on a whim to splurge and pick up Ruby Woo. I swatched it in store and it seemed perfect. So far I am liking both colors, but I'll leave it up to you guys to decide which it best...

(Left: Ruby Woo, Right: Red Revival)

Stats:

Ruby Woo, $14.50 plus tax for 3g/0.1 OZ

Red Revival, $5.50 plus tax for 4.2g/0.15 OZ

(Top: RR, Bottom: RW- Direct Sun)

Natural light

Left: RR, Right: RW no flash

with flash

Left: RW, Right: RR

One thing that I LOOOVVVEEE about Ruby Woo is that there is little to no transfer of the color, unfortunately it is also more drying, as is true of most matte lipsticks.

Either way, both colors are great. So give one or both a try. If you're balling or just balling on a budget, there's no reason why a girl can't have some Rocking RED lips!!!

HASTA LUEGO! :)

Way too long!!!

OMG! It's been forever! I've been so bad with keeping my blog up to date. It's literally been MONTHS! Even though I've had a million ideas, and have even started writing a few posts, I haven't really had the patience to sit down, finish a whole tutorial or string of events, and hit the publish button. Sorry for the few people that may care to hear about a stranger or those that just take a glance every once in a while to see what makeup the crazy chick is wearing. I PROMISE that I will do better in the coming weeks, as this is an awesome outlet for me and I really need to get back into it so that I feel more productive with my life as I transition from broke college student to broke adult looking for a job and planning my future. Wish me luck! :)

HASTA LUEGO!

Birthday Gift from Sephora, and gifts to myself from MAC: Ruby Woo and Girl About Town...review coming soon!

Colorful Fun-EOTD

So, after watching an awesome video on Youtube, I was inspired to dust off my makeup collection and go bright for no reason at all. I did my own spin on a colorful 80s-inspired look. Here are some pics, and I may sit down, repeat this look and make a tutorial.

Products used:

• Sugarpill Cosmetics eyeshadow: Afterparty, Absinthe, Buttercupcake, Flamepoint, Dollipop
• tokidoki cosmetics eyeshadow: Killer Candy
• BH Cosmetics eyeshadow: yellow from 120 palette, 1st edition
• Urban Decay Primer Potion
• pixi cosmetics eyeliner: Black
• NYX Cosmetics eyeshadow base in White

Hope you guys enjoyed!

HASTA LUEGO!

Hard Out There For A Pimp...

Ever felt like you aren't the person that people see when they look at you? I'm sure the answer is 'yes' for just about 99.9% of the people that will ever ponder that question. The tougher part of that comes in when you decide why the answer is yes. Is it because they only assume what you are without getting to know you in order to learn the truth? Is it because who you are on the inside is not what you show to the public? Is it because you are not sure who the real you is? I'm sure one of those has been the case for everyone at least once. The last of those is the hardest to figure out. What do you do when you feel like the person you are is not the person you were born? In the case of transgendered individuals, many dress as the gender they identify with and eventually have a gender reassignment surgery. Difficult journey? DEFINITELY! But insurmountable? Certainly not...

What is there to do about being born into a culture that feels foreign to you? What type of surgery is there to remedy this? As culture is a learned societal behavior, what is there to do? You learn your culture and you live accordingly, but let's say you pick up certain characteristics that are borrowed from a group that you were not born into? As I was perusing the latest issue of LATINA magazine, I read an article that addressed the unique challenges faced by Afro-Latinas. The article spoke VOLUMES to me!!! It talked about how for decades, there had to be a choice between being Black or Hispanic, often being ostracized by both groups, often being stereotyped based on skin color, hair texture, whatever. I've had stuff like that happen to me, even as recent as last Friday night as I was carrying out my weekly ritual of getting my bachata(hate it, but it'sgrowing on me)-salsa-merengue on. Barely a night goes by where a guy will ask me where I'm from, and where in the world did I learn to move like that because, "you dance so well!" I always feel like that sentence trails off to...'for someone that looks like you'. I've had guys that sit and talk about me to my face in Spanish because of course no entiendo. On the flip side I have had 2 different guys walk up to me and ask, "Quiere bailar?" This didn't really bother me, since I understood the question, but a tiny part of me wondered did they assume that I also spoke Spanish since I had the dance part of the culture down? My loving boyfriend tells me that I'm just being paranoid, and reading too much into the situation. I'm trying to see it that way, and forget about it. I can't control what people think of me when they meet me, and I'm sure these guys aren't approaching with malice, I guess most of the time I'm just being sensitive.

Here's the fun part! Even though I have these Afro-Latina experiences, I do not fit the category! As far as I know, all of my most recent ancestors (except one of my great-great grandfather, whom I hear was white) are "100%" Black. And I guess I may have the proverbial Indian blood, but that's it. The only Latina heritage that I can lay claim to is the fact that I have studied Spanish since I was in 2nd grade, I love salsa and merengue, I have taken several trips to Mexico, and once studied abroad in Ecuador for the best 3 weeks of my life. So if culture is what I make it, then who am I? I'm Black, there's no negotiation there, but if you ask me am I apart of the culture, my only answer is that I feel it in my blood.

Today is not the first time I've faced this conundrum in my life, I feel like I'm too much of so many things to just be defined by any one of those things alone. I need a title like Black-almost-latina-likes-sushi-ramen-and Korean-but speaks-Spanglish-and-loves-merengue. Too long, right? I think just writing it down helps me deal with it though. All those things make up the reality of who I am. Even if that's not who people see when they look at me, I need to always make sure that I see this person every time I look in the mirror. I need to make sure the woman I see there is proud to be all of those things. Make sure that I have pride in who who I am, and embrace ALL of the culture that I have chosen for myself.

After all, several very wise women stated the fact that, "Cultura es Orgullo, Orgullo es Exito", "Culture is Pride, Pride is Success"!

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!