Hiatus and other things Nails

Hi Everyone!

I apologize about my hiatus. I have been fairly preoccupied with all things professional life the past week or so and blogging has suffered as a result. Looking for a job in this economy has been a futile search, but we shall see, I have been interviewing.

BUT...my friend Lindsey, who I will be asking to do some hair product reviews in the near future, has been asking me to do some tutorials. I know, I know...I have said I wouldn't do one, but I changed my mind for this particular technique I am going to teach. As I will say in the video, I kind of had no choice because I need both hands and taking pictures wasn't enough instruction for the level of activity involved. So, here is my first attempt at a video. I am going to be teaching you a really neat nail technique called water marbling.

ENJOY!!!

 
                             

Bright Pink Lipstick!

I've mentioned before that I don't really talk about lip color too much only because lip colors really depend on your skin tone and they can look completely different depending on who is wearing them. However, today I thought I would break my own rule. I am pretty obsessed with the bright pink lipstick trend. I think I first fell in love with the color that Christina Aguilera was wearing for some event.

It is really funny because a blog had the same picture and called the color ugly. Oh well, I like it.

Ever since I saw it on her, I had to get my hands on a tube of it. However, hot pink and bright red lipsticks are probably two of the hardest colors to find the right shade of...unless you are going to a make-up counter of course. I think all together I have four that are my favorites. Each are different and hit at two different price points. Here they are in order of favorite to least favorite.

1. Napoleon Perdis - Calypso
I love the Calypso color because it is so intense. It is a very bright pink, but has a bit of a reddish in it, which went very well with my skin as you can see in the picture below. It goes on very smoothly, but I would definitely recommend using a lip brush to apply it. I like to wear my Cottage Cheese NYX pencil as a base and then put the color over it to give a little more shimmer. Still, it is very shiny on its own. I guess the only drawback is price. This lipstick is great, but also $22.00. I bought it with a gift certificate a couple of months ago at Ulta.

Of course the lighting in my dining room does it no justice, but I think you
can get a somewhat good idea of how bright and shiny it is. It is really an intense pink. 

2. Milani - Fuchsia Freeze
Milani is great because a lot of their shadows and lipsticks are really good quality, but for a really good price. The Fuchsia Freeze is a slight bit lighter than Calypso, but definitely just as beautiful. It also has a bit more shimmer than the Calypso of which I like. I bought mine at Walgreens, but I didn't see it on their webpage. If you find it at Walgreens, it will cost you $4.99, but Amazon has it for $3.88. I did see one color called Rose Hip on the website, but I think if you have a more yellowish skin tone it would not be good. It seemed to be more fitting for someone with blonde hair or African American women.

3. Loreal Colour Riche- Minx
Minx is kind of a tricky color. It looks like of dull and almost purply on the hand, but it is a pretty intense shade. I really like Loreal Colour Riche lipsticks. I think they make up more than half of my obscene lipstick collection. They are moisturizing and the colors are also very diverse. They also don't seem to feather as much either. If you were looking for a pink that is a little more subtle, yet still bright, this might be the right color for you. Of course, I couldn't find it on the Walgreen's website, but they may still have it on the shelf. That probably goes for the Milani color too. I did find it on E-bay brand new for $2.99 though.

4. Milani Sheer Color Lipstick - Luscious
I have a swatch below of all four colors, but if you go looking for this color, make sure it is part of their sheer color line and has a pink base with a gold cover rather than a full gold case. They also make a color called luscious that is very dark and red. I like this color least only because it is a much lighter bright pink and is definitely more opalescent than rich with color. Still, it is a really beautiful shade. This one again could not be found on the Walgreens website. I think it was on sale when I bought it, so you would need an alternative location to find it. I did find it on Amazon for $6.20.

So, those are my four favorite pinks and here is a swatch of each one!

Ugh, I really need to do something about the lighting in here and get my camera fixed. This was taken with my phone camera and I don't feel the colors look as nice. Sorry guys!

Pictured from left to right.

1. Milani Luscious
2. Milani  Fuchsia Freeze
3. Napoleon Perdis Calypso
4. Loreal Colour Riche Minx

DIY Nail Polish Colors

I am on a nail polish kick this week and wanted to share a really cool trick I learned for making your own nail polish while performing my nightly research. First, I want to thank Afreen at Marafy for posting this. 

There are two methods, so you can choose whichever you like. The first option is for a one-time application and the second will be for those of you who wish to keep the color you have created. 

The best part about this technique is that it will only cost you price of a clear nail polish and an old eye shadow you don't use anymore!

You Will Need:

• Paperclip
• Eye shadow you don't mind destroying
• Clear nail polish (no top coats or base coats)
• OPTIONAL - small case for keeping color
• OPTIONAL - extra nail polish brush so you don't ruin your clear polish brush

Method 1 - One-Time Quick Use

1. While a loose powder would be most advantageous for this method, you can take a paperclip and scrape shadow out into a container or in a small mountain on piece of paper. I have a ton of extra contact cases because I get a new one with each saline purchase or optometrist appointment, so I use those as my containers. 
2. Start by dipping your nail polish brush into your clear nail polish.
3. Dip the nail polish soaked brush into your shadow color.
4. Apply it to your nails.
5. Voila, it is that simple. You may need to add multiple coats to ensure the color is thicker, and a top coat is a necessity. However, it is that easy and you can use any color you wish.

Method 2 - Multi-Use Method

Start by prepping your container. 

1. If you are using a loose powder, decide if you want to add your shadow to the nail polish bottle or you want to add the polish to the loose powder container. The difference here is that if you add the shadow to the polish, you no longer have a clear nail polish color. Also, if you have too much powder, you will run out of space within the bottle. While my choice would be to add my polish to the shadow, I would also highly consider using a separate container so you can keep adding a little powder or a little polish if your ratios are off. If you have a pressed shadow, you will want to use your paperclip to scrape shadow into a container or on a piece of paper to be used as a funnel should you want to add your shadow to your polish bottle.
2. Regardless of whether you are using a powder to polish or polish to powder method, you will want to ensure your polish is at a 4 or 5:1 ratio. In other words, your shadow will go a long way, but it is extremely important to ensure you have a lot more polish in the mix than shadow so that it will not be too gritty when it is applied.
3. Mix the new polish color until all particles are smooth and you can see that the mixture is more glossy than pure color. It will kind of look like the nail polish is floating above the color, but it actually isn't.
4. Then, apply as usual and add a top coat. 

Since I am not great at HTML, I have trouble getting my pictures to line up with steps when I use auto-number. So, here are some pictures of the process along with swatches of how it comes out. 

Sorry the pictures are kind ofdark, but this is what the quad looked like after I scraped out my color.  I used that paperclip to do it. 

This is what the colors looked like after I mixed it with the clear polish. You can see with the purple in the bottom right hand corner that the clear polish kind of has that effect where it looks like it is siting on top of the coor. 

Here is a swatch of all four colors. I put it over my Cottage Cheese NYX pencil for ease in getting it off, but also so you can see it better. If you make colors like my peach or even that light purple next to it, you may wish to add a white coat as a base first to ensure the color is really potent. It is up to you though. 

Product Review: Lip Plumper, Tigers and Bears...Oh My

Funny story...a little over a  year ago one of my cousins bought a lip plumper called Lip Fusion by Fusion Beauty. If you are interested, read on, but they sell for $29.00 at Ulta. She obviously bought this thing because she wanted fuller lips, but quickly realized she didn't like it very much.

Now, some background is that this particular cousin and my sister know that I am a make-up junky. So, when then dislike a product or think the color is off, they usually give it to me because they think I will be able to pull it off, or maybe I will just experiment with it. Either way, it is better than throwing it out and wasting the money.

Well, since she didn't like it, she gave it to me in a bag with a couple of others items. I left it in my purse for maybe a week or so forgetting I even had it until I needed a lip gloss in a hurry. I was trying to hurry up to go somewhere and I needed the gloss to go under a lipstick I loved, but really needed a boost of moisture. Without thinking twice, I grabbed the pale pink, sheer gloss and threw it on (the color's name is Sweet). However, as I started to rush down the stairs of my building, I began to feel kind of strange. My lips were burning a bit, they felt swollen, and numb. I first thought they may be a little chapped, so I started to smack them together, but all that did was make the feeling more intense. Then I began to worry that maybe I ate something I was allergic to, but that couldn't be, I hadn't eaten anything and why would only my lips get numb.  

As I made my way into my sister's car, I folded the mirror down only to notice that my top lip was slightly fat. I was mortified because I already have pretty thick lips. That is probably the moment I realized I better look at the lip gloss because it was the only thing I used that morning that differed from any other morning. Sure enough, I noticed it was a plumper. My sister had a good laugh at me over it and I warned my cousin she better let me know the next time she buys some crazy product, but it was pretty funny.

The worst part is that I couldn't bring myself to throw the lip gloss away because of how much she spent. Of course this means that since that day I have used that lip gloss accidentally many times over since it looks like any other gloss you might have. Each time I got the same reaction and freaked out cursing my cousin "Oh, P-Nut, damn you and your poisonous lip gloss." Then again, what else are female relatives for? Good memories, scary make-up product hand-me-downs, and drama with a capital D.

With that said, my thoughts on the product are this:

If you are looking for a very effective lip plumper, this may be a good product for you. I don't think it can compete with lip injections, but I also think that is a good thing. You don't want a fake look, you just want an added boost if this is a look you are going for. This lip plumper definitely feels unsettling, but it does the trick and the bad feeling only lasts fifteen minutes tops. Then again, it only lasts that long before the product wears off, so you are going to have to re-apply it throughout the night. I would warn against making out in this lip gloss, you don't want to plump your guy's lips or have numb lips while doing so. Probably not a good look, right? So, I leave the decision to you. For $29.00 is it really worth it to have all of these conditions for plumped lips? I would rather be happy with my own features and just wear a really pretty lipstick color. Or, learn new tricks on how to make your lips look thicker. In honor of this post, I will post a follow-up on just how to make thin lips look larger without the purchase of a plumper.

New Fun Nails Mix and Match

Hi Everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend. Did anyone watch the MTV VMAs? I sure did. I was looking for inspiration, hot new trends, really fun make-up looks to talk about, or anything else that caught my eye. However, I didn't find much. Selena Gomez definitely had a gorgeous dress, I really liked that train back to her black dress. However, no else really caught my eye with the exception of Deena Nicole from Jersey Shore. I usually hate gaudy, but that rainbow dress with the blonde streaks in her hair was very bright and reminded me of sunshine. In any case, so because I couldn't find much to talk about, I wanted to bring you my latest fun nail project.

As you can see it is mix and match. Definitely a look that wouldn't pass a fashion inspection a year ago, but today I keep seeing this concept everywhere. Fun nail designs and colors are definitely a hot trend this summer and fall. It was a very simple look to achieve, I will give you the deets on what it took to make it work. 

I started out with my Essie Sand Tropez completely covering my thumb, index finger and pinky. I then added my OPI Ski Teal We Drop as an accent to those three nails. The thumb is a simple french manicure. I didn't use a stencil, so it wasn't perfect, but it is up to you if you would like to perfect the look. The index finger is just simple dots I added using the OPI brush, but again you can use a toothpick for a more precise dot. As you can see on that finger one of my dots got a bit smudged. Still, perfection isn't supposed to be the goal here. The pinky was done using the same OPI brush and I just painted vertical lines along the nail. Generally, you can do any kind of design you would like to achieve this fun mix and match look. However, I am sure you are curious about how I got that abstract swirly look on the pointer and ring finger. This is actually very simple.

Items needed

• Two nail polish colors
• Small, wide tub, such as a shallow bowl, filled half way with water
• Toothpick, bobby pin, needle, or something else thin and cylindrical

1. Position yourself in an area where you can sit for a bit since you will need to wait for your nails to dry. I would opt for your bathroom or an area you don't mind getting messy or wet if an accident occurs.

2. Start by pouring a blob of your darker color polish into the water first. Make sure you pour slowly rather than allow droplets of polish to fall. If this occurs, they will just bead at the bottom and make your bowl more difficult to clean later. 

3. Follow by pouring your lighter color in a smaller blob next. As you can see, I made a little design with mine, but this really will not matter due to the next step. 

4. Next you will want to take your mixing tool (i.e. bobbypin, toothpick, etc.) and drag the tool throw the colors so that you get a nice swirl. You can zigzag through it, or make lines through it, whichever you fancy most. Make sure you do this step quickly after pouring the polish colors in because they will dry quickly and make a film at the top that will create issues.

5. Once your swirly pattern is made, you will want to dip your finger in the mixture parallel to the top of the bowl so that only the top of your finger is covered with color. If you dip your finger straight in, this will not work. Again, make sure you are doing this quickly before the polish dries or else you will need to start over.

7. You are done. Yes, your finger will be covered in polish, but once it dries, you can use a q-tip or cotton ball and some nail polish remover to get rid of the excess. Once you removed the excess polish, put two thick coats or three thin coats of your favorite top coat over your nails since the designs will be slightly raised and easier to chip. If you have thick enough coats, you shouldn't have an issue though. 

Note: The bowl pictured in my examples is not what I used to get the look. This is far to small to dip your finger in effectively, which is why I suggested the bowl. The item in this picture is a rubber cupcake holder I had in my kitchen just for giving you a visual concept. 

Good luck and have fun. Bring any issues or questions back to the blog and I can try to troubleshoot with you.

Reader Feedback - Help Me Entertain You

I posted this maybe a month ago, but didn't get a lot of feedback. Essentially, I want to ensure that I am providing my readers with things they are interested in hearing about. If you are a loyal reader then you know, I am pretty swift with returning my opinions on your requests or answering your questions because this is important to me. I developed a short survey to gather more information on who my audience is, so I can bring you more posts like it. Please fill out this short survey to keep me updated with what your thoughts are. It should only take five minutes at the most.

Keep it Fashionable Ladies,

Michelle

Are You A Good Make-up Brush Mommy?

One of the best things that ever could have happened was the creation of cheaper, yet good quality make-up brushes. However, now that we have access to these brushes, there is responsibility that comes with the territory. One of these responsibilities, and probably the most important, is brush cleaning. Of course suggestions run the gamut, but I am going to give you a couple different ways to ensure the brushes you use are in good condition for make-up application, reduce bacteria build-up as often, and ensure your skin stays clear.

That's right, I said it, if you are new to make-up brushes for concealer or foundation, and you notice you are breaking out more often, your brushes may be to blame. This is one of the reasons why make-up brush cleaning is so important. If you are one of these people I described, or you have acne-prone skin, this first method is probably the way to go. 

Brush Cleaning Process 1

1. Purchase a daily brush cleaner. Sephora makes the cheapest one I have seen. It is called Sephora Professionals Daily Brush Cleaner and will run you $6. You can purchase it online here. You can also investigate some of the brush cleaners sold at Sephora, but I warn you, they are generally double, if not triple the price. 

2. Then, what you will want to do is use the spray after each time you apply your make-up. You will spray either your brush or a paper towel and wipe away the make-up traces. This is very important, especially for the items you use that are cream make-up products, such as concealer, foundation, cream eye liner or shadow. The reason is because these products tend to build bacteria faster than powders and can clog your pores or even infect your eyes if you get some in it, which we all know happens. 

3. To ensure your brushes are completely clean, you will want to do a deep cleansing maybe once every month for really acne-prone skin or once every two months if not. I will outline the deep cleaning method below. 

Brush Cleaning Process 2

If you are not particularly acne-prone, don't feel like buying a spray and would rather use something around the house that does not require a strict regiment, the following process should work fine. Just remember, whether you are lazy or busy, cleaning your brushes not only keeps bacteria from building, but it also ensures the colors you apply are clean and as they appear. By using brushes with traces of old make-up you can sometimes end up with a mixed color that doesn't blend well. Trust me, with the highly pigmented make-up, cleaning your brushes is extremely important in avoiding this issue. You will want to do these steps once a month, at least, to ensure your brushes are clean. Some experts suggest weekly, but lets face it, that is kind of a tight cleaning schedule when we are all busy with life. Still, keep in mind that a clean brush equals healthy skin and nicer make-up application. 

You will need

• paper towels or two clean hand towels (not wash rags, the next size up unless you want to use rags, but you will need more of them depending on your brush collection size). 
• hair shampoo, Dial soap, or Dawn dish detergent.

1. Start out with your first brush by running it under warm water.

2. Take a small bit of soap and lather your brush. For flat concealer brushes you can rub the brush between your thumb, and pointer and middle finger. For liner brushes with thin, stiff tips, you will want to essentially scribble the brush on your finger as if you were writing applying gentle pressure. For shadow brushes you can spin the brush between these fingers.  You will notice the color starting to come off in your hands. 

3. Once you are confident you have gotten the brush clean, rinse it under the warm water until the water runs clear. You will also want to rub the brush between you fingers to ensure the water is washing away all soap between the bristles or hairs. 

4. For concealer and foundation brushes, you may want to repeat these steps three or even four times. I have noticed that those brushes are the stiffest and hardest to get clean, so repeating the steps is very important to make sure all make-up is gone. 

5. As you finish each brush, lay it on a clean towel or paper towel until you are done with all brushes.

6. Once all brushes are clean, move the brushes to a second clean towel or paper towel for drying. If you are doing this in your kitchen or bathroom, please move the drying brushes to a new location, such as where you do your make-up. It is incredibly nasty how much bacteria floats around in places like bathrooms and will defeat the purpose of your washing if you leave them in these locations. 

7. Wait for them to dry. 

Note: For the shampoo you use, use something gentle. I used my Nexxus Dualiste volume, color formula because it smells great and isn't very harsh. You can generally use anything, but I try to avoid full color formulas because I worry about what that may mean for washing color out of my brushes. Try also to avoid straightening shampoos as some of those chemicals may be too harsh for delicate brushes. 

My brushes drying after their latest cleansing.