12 Days of Christmas: Christmas Nail Art

Just a quick post today to share the different holiday nails I've been sporting over the last few weeks. I did a traditional red and green color scheme, a frosty blue, white, and silver theme, and a whimsical pink, white, and silver combination. Hope you enjoy!

 

12 Days of Christmas Update

So... Yeah. The time has gotten away from me and I won't be able to commit to my full 12 days of Christmas plan. Christmas is coming way too fast and I am running out of time. Work has been insanely busy and I come home absolutely exhausted! I just kind of stare numbly at my monitor and hope that I have miraculously gained some sort of power that will write my posts for me. Alas, I have no such power. There will be a few more posts (hopefully) before the 25th. I have the photos taken and just need to edit and put them together into a semi-interesting post, lol. 

This project has kick-started my passion for crafting and creating, though, so expect to see more of those kind of posts incorporated into my blog into the future. I will probably be covering all sorts of subjects at some point. I want this blog to be a direct reflection of me and I have a lot of interests! I still plan on having makeup related posts - reviews, tutorials, looks of the day, etc. because I am still an absolute makeup junkie. January and February are always a little rough for me because it's so depressing and gray outside and I'm hoping this blog will provide a little bit of sunshine for my life.

Thanks to anyone who is reading and if I don't come back before then, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

12 Days of Christmas: My decorations

Today I just wanted to quickly share with you the decorations I have up for Christmas this year. I'm attracted to non-traditional colors when it comes to Christmas so I have a lot of pink, purple, and bright green and teal. My main tree is filled with fun ornaments in these colors.

I also have a smaller tree with a more vintage/natural feel to it. Lots of owls, cream and light rose colored ornaments with silver accents.

I have a post coming soon detailing the packaging on my presents!

There are a few items I have around the apartment as well. I've never been into the "other" decor items as much; for me it's always been about the tree(s). But this year I got more into it and I'm really liking how they've turned out.

Stay tuned for a couple of posts/mini tutorials on these items too!

 And that's it! For everyone reading, are you drawn more to the traditional Christmas colors of red and green or do you go for something a bit different? Let me know in the comments below and thanks for looking!

12 Days of Christmas: Handmade Christmas Cards

One of my favorite activities to do every Christmas is to make Christmas cards. I don't have a ton of people to send to, so it's a fairly quick project for me. I think the largest amount I've ever made was maybe a dozen and this year it's even less than that. 

Every year after the holidays all the Christmas decorations, crafting supplies, etc. always go on sale for really cheap so I grabbed a card-making kit from Michael's last year. (I'm pretty sure they come out with new ones every year if you're interested in purchasing one). The colors and patterns of the papers and elements were right up my alley and I figured a kit would stream-line the process. It even had a small cheat sheet with card ideas if you really wanted to make things simple and quick. It also limits my focus so I only have a limited amount of supplies to choose from. (I have a slight addiction to paper-crafting supplies and sometimes it gets a little overwhelming to choose what I want to work with!)

This kit included everything I needed to create the cards except for adhesive which I have plenty of. I also delved into my stash and grabbed a few extras like glitter, sequins, trims, etc. to give the cards a little glitz and glamour. Plus, I'm pretty sure it's a rule that Christmas cards have to have glitter, right?

 Basically I just laid everything out on my table and picked what I wanted to work with and started putting things together. It's as simple as that really. Once I had each card laid out how I wanted, I glued things down and that was it! 

I hope you liked my cards as much as I do! For anyone reading, do you prefer to make your own cards or do you purchase some of those fun boxed sets that are everywhere this time of year? 

12 Days of Christmas: Christmas Stockings Tutorial

I figured what better way to start off my 12 days of Christmas than with a tutorial on how to make Christmas stockings. My family somehow manages to lose their stockings each year and we were down to a pretty rag-tag group of mismatched leftover ones. So I decided to make everyone new ones this year! 

Our stockings don't stay in one place since we all live in different locations so instead of having them match each other, I made a different one for each person based on what I thought they would like. I did try to unify them a bit by adding a white cuff and accents. 

Here's what you'll need:

• Fabrics for the outside of the stockings. I chose flannel and I bought 1/2 yard of each if it was an allover pattern, 2/3 yard if the pattern was 1-way.
• White fabric (again I chose flannel) for the cuff, heel, and toe. I used 1/4 yard for each stocking.
• Fabric puffy paint in colors to match your fabrics
• Patterns for stocking, heel, and toe. Find patterns here.
• Pins, scissors, thread, sewing machine.

Optional: I found a fun font and printed out each person's name on sheets of paper. I then traced over that (process is explained below).

I wanted to make sure the names looked fairly uniform so I looked online and found a great font that I wanted to use on the stockings. I made sure to print them all the same size and I made them bold so that I could really see the names through the fabric. For the cuffs, I cut 2 9"x11" pieces of fabric (I didn't attach a pattern for this since it's just a simple rectangle). I laid one of the pieces on top of the paper and used the fabric paint to trace the letters. (If you like your handwriting and aren't worried about them looking the same, free-hand the names onto the fabric.) I did all the cuffs ahead of time so the paint was completely set before I continued with the stockings.

Next, you'll want to cut out the patterns. You'll need two pieces of the stocking fabric and two each of the heel and toe (cut out of the white accent fabric). The toe and heel both have two layers of the white since you could see the base fabric with just one layer. I laid the cut pieces onto the stocking base so you can get an idea of what the finished product will look like.

Now you'll need to sew the heel and toe onto one of the stocking pieces. Make sure you're using the same side for all your stockings so they all face the same way. First I used a straight stitch to tack the pieces to the base, then I used a small zigzag/button stitch to applique the edges down. 

I forgot to take a picture, but you'll need to sew the front stocking piece to the back making sure the right sides are together. Turn the stocking right side out after you've finished.

The next part is in two steps. First you'll need to sew the two cuff pieces together (again, right sides together and turn right side out when finished) and fold the sewn cuff in half with the name on the outside. The best way I can think to explain this is you'll fold the bottom edge up so it meets the top edge. You'll have a skinny tube if you've folded it correctly.

Next you'll need to pin the cuff to the stocking. This is where it gets a teensy bit tricky to explain because you have to make sure you're pinning the side of the cuff with the name to the front of the stocking. The cuff is pinned to the inside of the stocking, with the name facing the wrong side of the front part of the stocking. Hopefully the photo above shows that alright. Sew the cuff and flip right side out.

And you're done! This is my first tutorial, so please let me know if there's anything you liked or you think I could do better. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions and thanks for looking!

12 Days of Christmas

My favorite time of year is Christmas. Everything about it is just absolutely magical and I don't think I'll ever outgrow that giddiness and sense of excitement whenever the day grows near.

And don't forget about the snow! I'm not one of those outdoorsy types who loves being in the cold, brisk air swishing back and forth on a ski slope but I can't imagine Christmas without snow. The way it blankets the ground and glitters on tree branches just makes me smile. Have you ever seen bare branches just frosted with the stuff? Again, magical.

This was taken several years ago on my way to work. Digital overlay by Robin Gough Designs.

So with all that being said, I've decided to do (attempt to do) 12 days of Christmas here on my blog. I'm going to try my best to have a post everyday from December 14th through December 25th. 

A little sneak peek at what's to come!

 The posts will be a mix of Christmas crafts, decor, and baking along with fun holiday makeup looks. It'll be everything from full tutorials to quick and simple photo posts. This time of year gets busy for me and for everyone (and I work in retail which is hectic on a normal day!)so this is a pretty big undertaking. If anyone is reading this, please feel free to share ideas or things you would like to see. I have several of my posts planned out already but there is definitely room in there! Thanks for reading and I hope you'll join me in the next few weeks for my 12 days of Christmas adventure! 

Ursula makeup and costume

This past April, I attended an anime convention called Anime Detour. I've been there a couple times before but this was the first year I dressed in costume, or cosplayed. I decided to go as Ursula from the Little Mermaid.

Photo by WM Andrew Murphy

 It was really fun! I made the tentacles and underskirt myself out of fabric, wire, and fiber fill. I purchased the corset because there was no way I was going to try and tackle that project! I also made the necklace and earrings out of air dry clay and paint. I originally considered making them out of polymer clay but thought they might get a bit heavy. My favorite part of the costume by far was the makeup.

Photo by WM Andrew Murphy

The base was just standard cream face makeup available at party stores. The rest was almost all eyeshadow! The contouring was done with a Fergie by Wet n Wild palette, and I'm pretty sure the actual eye makeup was done with a large E.l.f. palette. (I did three trial runs to get the look right and I don't remember what I finally decided on.) The  hardest part was covering my eyebrows so I could create Ursula's dramatic brows. I did some research and eventually chose to cover them with a standard school glue stick. It worked pretty darn well! Now I just need to decide who I'm going as next year...

Quick FOTD

With the holiday weekend, I didn't have time to put together a proper post so today will just be a quick face of the day featuring Revlon's Kissable Balm Stain in Lovesick. Regular posts should resume on Friday!

Happy 4th of July!

Just a quick face of the day post. I wanted to create a fun, patriotic look in celebration of Independence Day. I used a white shadow all over the lid with a matte blue to create sort of cut crease (my first attempt!), winged liner, and falsies to finish the eyes. Bright red lips complete the look. Bonus pic of my fancy schmancy nails!

 

e.l.f Eye Transformer Palette

Today's post will be a short review on the e.l.f. Eye Transformer Palette. This was another birthday gift from my lovely sister (Happy Birthday to her, btw!) and I'm glad she gave it to me because otherwise I wouldn't have known it existed. I've never seen it reviewed or talked about elsewhere so it was brand spanking new to me. The palette consists of 4 very pale, pearly shades and comes with a small, stiff brush.

 At first glance, the colors aren't exactly impressive but they're not really meant to be used alone. According to the package, "Wear alone or in combination with your favorite dark eyeshadow or line color to transform the shade." And as you can see in the photo, when swatched over a dark color (in this case Nyx's Jumbo Eye Pencil in Dark Chocolate)the shades really do come to life. I also applied each color to my eyes to get a better idea of what they would look like:

 I was most impressed with the green and purple/blue colors - they popped the most on top of the dark base. The other two were more muted, but still pretty. It's definitely a fun concept to be able to change your shadow color but the extra step doesn't seem like it would necessarily be worth it. If I want any of the colors in the photo above, I would be more likely to just choose them from an eyeshadow palette instead of creating them myself. Still, not a bad little palette and for $3.00, it's worth it just to play around.
 

e.l.f. Ariel Collection Haul

I first saw glimpses of this collection on the blog nouveaucheap. And I, being a huge Disney fan, could not wait until I got my hands on it! When it arrived at my Walgreens, I snapped several pieces up.

As you can see above, I bought the lip set, lash set, shadow duo set, and eyeshadow palette. There was a small brush set and a few hair accessories available as well but I was mostly interested in the makeup items. The artwork is absolutely gorgeous and this set is probably one of the few things I'll actually keep in the packaging just so I can hang on to it. 

The item I was looking forward to the most was definitely the eyeshadow palette. I have a weakness for eyeshadow so I knew I would be purchasing that for sure. It comes with 9 shadows, 2 bronzers, 1 lip gloss, and 2 brushes. The palette also has a small mirror and some artwork demonstrating 2 looks you can create with the colors.

I swatched everything over bare skin - no primers used. The bronzers are very pigmented but shimmery; they almost have a metallic finish that I think would be more suited to an eyeshadow than a bronzer. The shadows would certainly benefit from a base underneath. I've found this is the case with most e.l.f. shadows though so no surprise there. The gloss has a creamy, semi-sheer finish that looks like you can build up to more full color.

I also swatched the rest of the collection:

Sunrise and Sunset are their super glossy lip shines and Pink Petal is a lip stain marker. Sunrise is fairly sheer while sunset was surprisingly pigmented. I'm excited to see what Sunset will look like on my lips. (My lips have been stupidly chapped so it'll be awhile before I can try them out. Boo.) I was pretty impressed with the staying power of the stain; I really had to scrub at my hand for awhile to get it off. The shadow duos had a little more pigmentation than the larger palette. The purpley color in the Coral Reef duo has a really pretty almost duo-chrome finish that looks fun. The waterproof eyeliner pen is a very rich, solid black.

I really love the collection. The packaging and artwork is beautiful and the products inside look like they'll be fun to play with and create some great looks. I bought a few items from their Disney villains collection when it came out over the holidays and I'm pumped they're continuing to collaborate with Disney to create more collections. I hope e.l.f. comes out with more fun collections in the future! 

Galaxy Chic palette review

I received the Galaxy Chic palette on my birthday from my wonderful sister who knew I'd been eyeing it for awhile. I had received a single of the color Neptune in an Ipsy bag and thought it was super pretty. (For those of you who don't know what Ipsy is, it's one of those monthy subscription programs where they send you a small sampling of makeup, skincare, and haircare items for $10.) The Galaxy Chic palette retails for $22.95 and can be found here. It consists of 18 shimmery, baked shadows that are named for different celestial bodies. Hence the name! 

Typically baked shadows can be used wet or dry so I swatched them first dry on bare skin, then wet on bare skin. Top photo are the shadows in the first row, second photo is the second row, and third photo is the third row.

Swatching them wet really brought out the metallic finish and definitely helped with pigmentation in some of the colors, especially the pinks & burgundies in the top row. I'm absolutely happy with the palette. They are all shimmery finishes so if you're not a fan of those, I would steer clear. I do have a couple of matte palettes from other brands so if I need to, I'll use one of those to help blend out the edges so I don't look like a glitter bomb. There's a wide range of colors but not so many you get lost and I think you could really create some fun looks with this. 

For this look I used Milky Way all over the lid, Moon & Eclipse in the crease and outer v, and Neptune in the outer v to add a little more intensity. I also smudged Eclipse over Jordana's 12 Hour eyeliner in Purple Fix along the lower lashline. Kat von D liquid liner for the wing and Jordana Best Lash Extreme mascara to finish out the eyes and Loreal Extraordinaire in Blushing Harmony on the the lips.

Sephora Haul

I made a trip to my local Sephora to pick up a few things. Well actually, I only went in there to pick up one thing but you know how well that always works!

 I wanted to test out the Becca mattifying primer because I kept hearing great things about it. My skin is combination/oily and it gets especially oily in the summer. I've tried several options and nothing really works as well as I would like so I decided to plop down the money and try this. I've heard it's tricky to work with, you have to pat it into the skin vs. rubbing it in or it tends to pill. Despite its uncooperative application possibilities, I'm excited to try it.

I've also been on the lookout for a new moisturizer to help keep my oil and shine at bay. I pretty much just grabbed this Clinique Dramatically Different moisturizing gel while I was waiting to check out. I see it mentioned a lot on different blogs and forums so I'll have to see if it works for me.

The biggest purchase was the Bare Minerals Get Started Complexion Kit. It includes 2 of their foundations - one regular, one matte, a prime time primer, a blush/bronzer, mineral veil, a brush, and a bag to hold everything. I've never tried anything from Bare Minerals before so I'm looking forward to testing everything out. I'll be doing a full review on this kit sometime in the future. Stay posted!

And last but not least, a mini Tarte Flushed cheek stain that I got as a 100 point perk. I don't have a ton of experience with Tarte. I received a large set of their Lip Surgence lip crayons from my sister Jessica and a kit that had a blush, mini Maracuja oil, and a mini Lights, Camera, Lashes from my coworker Anna for Christmas this past year. But that's really it. Typically cream-like blushes don't work well with my oily skin but I still want to give this one a try.

So that's it. Like I said, I will be doing a full review on the Bare Minerals kit in the future but if there's anything else you'd like a review on, please let me know!

Electric eye look with the Creative Me 1 palette by Coastal Scents

One of my favorite eyeshadow brands is Urban Decay. I have several of their palettes and they're definitely my first choice when I'm deciding what to put on my eyeballs every morning. I'm a huge fan of their vibrant colors and I'm equally impressed with their neutral palettes. Their Naked 3 is my go-to when I want something neutral but pretty and I want it to look great every time. So when they came out with their Electric palette, I swooned. But, I just couldn't get myself to fork over the money for something I probably wouldn't wear all that often. Neon eyes aren't exactly work appropriate, ya know? Eyeshadow is definitely my weakness when it comes to makeup so this was a pretty big thing for me. Me? Not buy a new shadow palette? What?!?!?! 

I started looking through the palettes I already owned to see if I could recreate some of the amazing looks I'd been seeing made with the Electric palette. I had a couple that I might be able to work with, but for the most part I was batting zero. So I started browsing around on different websites to see what I could find. And I found this: Creative Me 1 palette. From the photos, it seemed pretty spot-on. And I love the fact that I found something that didn't have 100 colors in it. Sometimes with those huge palettes it's really easy to feel lost and overwhelmed when choosing your look. 

Swatches on top are on bare skin, ones on bottom are over Nyx jumbo eye pencil in milk

 I was really impressed with the colors and pigmentation. They swatched really well over my bare skin and did amazing over a white base. Since I don't have the Urban Decay Electric palette, I can't say which colors might be spot-on dupes. The 2 colors that don't really appear are a limey green and a silver (which I probably wouldn't use much anyway). The Coastal Scents are all matte where the Urban Decay have a few that have satin/shimmer finishes. For $14.95 though, I really don't have any complaints. Another great thing is that each color is removable so you can customize it to your liking if you want to trade out a few shades.

My peacock inspired eyes. I used the green on the bottom right of the palette on my lid, the teal blue two to the left of that color on the outer third of the lid, the dark purple in the outer v, with the light pink/purple in the crease. I also smudged a little of the dark purple on the lower lash line. Other products used are Kat von D liquid liner for the cat eye, Jordana 12 hour pencil in black smoke in the waterline, and Jordana Best Lash Extreme mascara.

Overall, I think it's a great palette and I know I'll have a lot of fun experimenting with different looks.