Two days later...

And I am still in love with my makeup from Friday. 

Products used:

–Makeup Forever HD foundation &  powder
–Nars Lovejoy blush
–Urban Decay Gilded bronzer
– Urban Decay Nevermind, Jagged, Penny Lane, and Anonymous eyeshadows
–MAC Saigon Summer with Revlon Lip Butter in Creamsicle

sparkling for the city that never sleeps - FOTD

Products:

• Lit Cosmetics Siberian glitter over Sugarpill Lumi shadow
• Urban Decay Armor
• Urban Decay Provocateur (both from the Vice Palette)
• Make Up Forever Aqua Black cream liner
• Dior Extase mascara in 090

I uploaded it to Instagram when I got on the train to the city and a few minutes later saw that Phyrra had liked it and I felt like I WON THE WHOLE DAY.  //fangirl moment

P.S. I am trying to get back into updating on a more daily basis, I have been having a makeup identity crisis with a new-found love for lipstick but I am starting to find my footing again.

so I promised a video...

and felt like I was completely exhausted from existing today, so I was going to not do it, but I promised, so I did it.  I had major lighting issues but the main idea was someone wanted to know how I did my blush, so.  Not my best work, but here it is.

I am having a makeup identity crisis, so let's just talk more about blush.

So, this week.  This week, I bought a plane ticket to visit friends across the country in 61 days, and my biggest concern is not wanting to check all my makeup because I don't like being that far away from it and WHAT IS SOMEONE STEALS A NARS BLUSH.  I assuaged this worry by buying a cute dress so that my legs have some breathing room for when it is BALLS HOT:

Why hello, Old Navy fitting room.  It matches my eyes.

I also set out on a mission to prove that I could wear Nars blush in Exhibit A, since the entire internet said it was best suited for women of color and fair-skinned ladies may just want to stay away.  Legit, historically it has been hard to find good color matches if you are at either end of the color spectrum.  Too light, everything makes you look like a clown. Too dark, nothing shows up on your skin.  I am not saying I completely feel the pain of the women who had nothing but Covergirl's Queen line (which I think has been since discontinued) back when all we had where I live was drugstore makeup, but when someone tells me, oh pshaw, you can't wear that color, it was like when my ex-husband told me that I couldn't go out and get more tattoos.  I went out and got one.

Here is Nars in Exhibit A:

I keep seeing it described online as a FIERY ORANGE.  No.  It is red.  It is a bright, matte red.  So the first thing I did  when I got it was wear it to work:

I had to do a lot of blending and remember a little of this color goes a long way.  On my skin tone, which is a NC15ish if we are talking MAC, 115 in Makeup Forever HD foundation, and an N2 when I have a tan in the only drug store foundation I will touch, L'oreal True Match, I had to diffuse the color LIKE A BOSS.  A little goes a long way, but I had to blendblendblend, then set with powder foundation and setting powder.  It worked though, and I proved the naysayers wrong.  By the time I got home from work (some 9.5 hours after putting it on), the setting powder and powder foundation were wearing a little thin and I kind of looked like I had just run a breathless mile, but it won't be a blush I never touch again.  I actually really liked the color, which was a pretty true red on my skin, giving me a rosy cheek look.

Yesterday, I wore Nars Lovejoy:

Not sure where the bad shadow came from, but the color is a little rosy with brown undertones.  I loved it on:

You can see my baby fine hairs on my face again, which is totally hot. (Fun story: one time I decided I wanted to get my entire face threaded for flawless makeup application.  So I did, and apparently I am allergic to the lotion they use because my face was a contact dermatitis mess for 2 weeks which ruined any future thoughts of doing the same thing. Don't be me.)  The color is buildable and doesn't go on too heavy, but seriously, I looked flawless:

This brings me to my makeup identity crisis.  In those two photos, I am wearing Nars Heat Wave semi-matte lipstick.  In the photo showing Exhibit A, I am wearing Nars Pure Matte in Vesuvio.  If you know me, you know that I simply don't do lipstick.  I do lip gloss, usually in a nude color, that I apply once and forget about for the rest of the day.  Apparently all that changed this week.  I decided that I wanted to be a red lipstick person, because dammit, I feel like one on the inside.  I guess I am one on the outside now, too, and it is making me loose my footing a little.

I promised someone a tutorial on how I apply my blush, and that will be up later today. I PROMISE.

One can never have enough blush.

There is nothing that supersedes my love of eyeshadow and eye glitter (the same category, really, but they

 are things I can leave the house without.  I will not leave my house without blush, and seeing someone with foundation on and no blush or badly applied blush that leaves them looking like a clown are tragedies to me.  I seem to always be on a mission to make things work that people say can't work with my skin tone, and for this reason, Nars Exhibit A and Nars Desire are both on their way to me.  But that will come later in the week. 

My go-to company for blush is Nars.  I have never been a big MAC girl, mostly because it isn't sold at Sephora.  I hear good things about everything MAC does, but I am loyal to Nars because their blushes are highly pigmented and many are true to pan, yet can be blended out so that fiery orange you see in Exhibit A is not what shows up on your face (like I said, later in the week; I don't doubt I can do it once it gets here).

Today I wore Nars Outlaw:

and Nars The Multiple Undress Me, which is probably my favorite The Multiple, which I mainly use as highlighters. This one has glitter but not so much that I could even pick it up in a photo of my face.

 
 

Enter awkwardly angled photo of my face:

And up close, where you still can't see any glitter. You can see my baby face hairs, though. Hot.

 

 

These two products go well together and is a deviation from the coral blushes I used for years. It is a deeper rosy pink with some shimmer and The Multiple further highlights my cheekbones. I would say this shade is one of my favorites, but...they all are. Stay tuned for more blush all week long!