Let me show you my St. Patrick's Day sparkle.

Products used: 

• UDPP

• NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk

• Sugarpill pressed shadow in Midori (on lid)

• Lit Cosmetics Mary Jane (on lid over Midori)

• Sugarpill Tako & Bulletproof from crease to brow to create the blended out black look

• UD 24/7 liner in Perversion

• Sugarpill Goldilux along bottom lash line

• Benefit They're Real! mascara

I love how this one came out. 

Blue da ba dee ba ba

Products used:
• Urban Decay Echo Beach from lid to brow
• Urban Decay Cobalt in crease and on lower lash line
• Urban Decay Anonymous on brow bone, blended with Cobalt
• Makeup Forever Aqua Black Cream Liner
• Dior Extase mascara in 090

reasons why I should have bought the 64GB phone in the first place

So this morning, after my friend Nicole gave me the idea of doing a Neapolitan ice cream themed eye, I did it and filmed a tutorial and because I am a dumbass, deleted the video thinking, oh, it is in iMovie after iMovie told me that there wasn't enough space for the video.  THIS IS WHY I NEED the 64GB PHONE. I didn't know when I bought the damn thing that I would be using it to make makeup videos or I MAY HAVE THOUGHT THAT THROUGH A LITTLE MORE.  So, that video was a disaster anyway, so I did a quick mock up of how I did the look and my eyeliner is crooked and I am obviously irritated and my accent is awful but WHO CARES because I look good.

Mint chocolate chip ice cream? Yes please.

I was up at 2 am, eating my feelings in a bowl of mint cookie crumble ice cream and was inspired.

I announced that I would have one up before I realized how tired I was, so it isn't my best work, but I think I did a better job at explaining what I was doing while I was doing it.  I hope you guys like it!

Stay beautiful, party people.

Today, I choose fire.

Products used:
• Sugarpill loose shadow in Goldilux (lid, and lightly on brow bone)
• Sugarpill loose shadow in Asylum (crease)
• Sephora cream eyeliner
• Dior Extase mascara in 090

and at some point, He created fire.

Products used:

Eyes:

• Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original
• NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk
• Sugarpill Tako
• Sugarpill Buttercupcake
• Sugarpill Flamepoint
• Makeup Forever Aqua Black cream eyeliner
• Smashbox Full Exposure mascara in Jet Black

Face:

• Dr. Jart+ Black Label BB Cream
• NARS blush in Deep Throat
• Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzing Powder
• Sephora Mattifying foundation (powder)
• NARS Light Reflecting Loose Setting Powder

Lips:

• Urban Decay Super Saturated High Gloss Lip Color in Glinda (a dupe for Naked)
• Buxom Big and Health Lip Polish in Sandy

The highlight of my day was Sugarpill Cosmetics retweeting my FOTD on twitter.  My day was pretty much downhill from there (at 630 pm, I went to go home from running errands after work to find out both of my headlights were out, some nice man at the auto parts store helped me and one still wouldn't work because a wire on one of the connectors needed to be fixed, then I go to start the car and the battery was dead; of note: it was 28 degrees.)  So makeup...definitely the highlight.

BUT.  I looked cute while doing it.

I think we can agree.

Stay beautiful, party people.

There is a champion inside all of us.

This is what my daily affirmation iPhone app told me this morning.  And yes, I have a daily affirmation iPhone app.  Don't hate, it gives you wrinkles.

Today, I decided to be a makeup champion.

I think I won.  Cutting the crease is so basic but really takes a meh eye look to GIIIIIRL WORK ITTTT in about ten seconds flat.  I prefer to be GIIIIIRL WORK IT to meh, so I go with it.

My eyes make me look like I am on drugs, and while I learned the price of heroin on the street today, I myself did not partake.

That photo is far blurry than I would like to be, but I did all of this using a Coastal Scents palette I inherited from a good friend (Erica, holla if you hear me, I love you boo).  The base was M.A.C Gesso over the NYX Milk primer pencil, but the effort I need to make Gesso work early in the morning is too much work, especially for a Friday, the day on which I go to work strictly on an appearance-only basis.  Anyway,  LOOK AT ALL THE COLORS:

Enter poorly taken picture of the palette.  For the price and the product being lower-middle-road, the shadows are nicely pigmented.  

I used a combination of the bottom magenta and purple to cut my crease with by wetting the brush, then brought it up some more blending in one of the more fuschia hues in, finishing off with more NYX Milk pencil with one of the very light cream colors pictured in the photo of the entire palette above.  I wish the white stood out more, but at 7 am, it is what it is (this is where I sound like my father, which I am sure he appreciates, especially in reference to makeup; I figure he has the television tastes of a 14 year old girl, why not add makeup into the mix?)

Next, I deferred to what I do best and did a cat eye with black eyeliner: I used liquid, keeping it away from the inner corners as much as possible because then it smudges in and I look a hot mess 2 hours into work.  My favorite liquid is made by Almay, and while I look down my nose at drug store makeup, I am not too proud to admit that.  I lined the lower lid with the magenta hue, then covered in the cream tone I used on my browbone and went over it with Urban Decay's El Dorado 24/7 Glide On eye pencil to dim the boldness of the look.  Mascara of your choice, I think I grabbed Kat Von D's Puro Amor which is not really a favorite, but it works and came inside a palette, and you're done.  (Well, done on the eyes, anyway.)

I call this my come-hither bedroom eyes look.  Or IMMA CUT YOU SON.  Could go either way, really.


MAKEUP CHAMPION Y/Y?

P.S. it has been so long since I have been in a mental headspace to keep up with this that it is time for ask for what you guys want to read/know about.  I can do FOTD forever but that gets boring.  I vaguely remember bronzer, pencil eyeliner and...? Drop me a suggestion in the comments, I would love to have the extra material to work with.

Stay beautiful, party people.

of mental struggles and how they lead to the perfect cut crease.

I have been anxiety's bitch for the last few months.  The idea of really DOING my makeup cripples me, along with thoughts like putting on my underwear or deciding what to have for dinner.

However, I managed this today:

Using mostly the Urban Decay Vice Palette, the outside of which I will not photograph because the second you take it out of the package it is fingerprint city (UD, WHY?).  I started with Echo Beach from lash to brow:

Then used Stila Smudge Pot in Cobalt to cut my crease (there are so many tutorials on cutting the crease, I will not be doing one):

Blended out with UD Chaos:

Then softened a little with Anonymous as a highlight on the browbone:

And a light dusting of Armor from lash to crease:

Finished with Makeup Forever liquid liner and BeneFit Bad Gal Lash:

And again:

In which our heroine goes to MAC and goes green

The last time I came in direct contact with a MAC counter was in a Neiman Marcus in southern Florida that smelled like CA$H MONEY without Lil Wayne and tear drop tattoos.

HOWEVER. I decided this morning that I needed (no, not wanted; needed-like-I-need-oxygen-NEEDED) a white matte eyeshadow.  Actually, I decided this a few days ago, but Sugar Pill was out of stock on their website and I had some meltdown about the possibility of having to go to a cosmetics counter and most if was of the WHAT IF THEY JUDGE MY MAKEUP!? variety .  So the meltdown part was already out of my system, WHY NOT.

They did not judge my makeup.  They put my eyeshadow in this:

That's an 8x11 sheet of paper next to it (and a nail file...yeah, I got nothin') and my little eyeshadow on top.

Clearly, MAC hasn't concerned itself with environmental conservation, so to make up for the damage I've done to the environment in the 10 seconds it took for me to make the purchase, I did this:

Keeping it as concise as possible because READING IS HARD:
1. Conceal and prime your lids
2. NYX Milk Pencil from lash to brow.
3. Build MAC Gesso shadow (which I will pretend means "matte white" somewhere in the world) over lid until it is opaque.  This is applied with a damp brush.
4. Cut crease with Urban Decay Bender (forest green) applied wet.  Blend upward.
5. Urban Decay Midnight Cowgirl (pale champagne with glitter) applied dry on brow bone.  Blend downward into green.
6. Using a damp brush, apply Urban Decay Skimp (another white, but with more shimmer) along arch of brow for a highlight.
7. Urban Decay El Dorado (yellow-gold) applied dry over the white of MAC Gesso on lid and blended lightly into crease.  I lined under the lower lash using a wet brush.
8. Using Smashbox Jet Set Waterproof Eye Liner in Midnight Black and an angled eyeliner brush, I lined along the top lash for a bold line, then a softer line underneath, and joined them together at the outer corner.  I brushed El Dorado over liner lightly to soften the look.
9. Benefit They're Real! mascara in black on bottom and top lashes.
10.  Because I am a bad ass, I filled my brows.  I use Urban Decay Brow Box in Honey Pot.

And voila:

I have been an Urban Decay shadow loyalist for years (though I do find the purple packaging garish, that is neither here nor there and has nothing to do with the product) and resisted MAC for a long time because the idea of the MAC counter almost terrified me.  Irrational, unjustified anxiety? Sure, just like EVERY OTHER ANXIETY IN MY LIFE.  Using their shadow for the first time, though, I know I have developed another product to covet.  It is highly pigmented and you can build the color up without too much frustration which are two of the biggest things I look for in eyeshadow.

Despite the green, we all know this did nothing to make up for MAC's disregard of the environmental conservation movement, and no matter how hard I try, I don't think Urban Decay's production of vegan shadows really absolves me of all responsibility.

I would be willing to live in a tree and see if I could repair the hole in the ozone myself if I had enough MAC shadow in Gesso.  I'd love to tell you that has anything to do with socio-environmental responsibility and BEING THE CHANGE but really, I just want free makeup.  Urban Decay, Too Faced, MAC, I HOPE YOU ARE LISTENING: