Girl, Decorated

Yesterday I hacked up a bunch of my lipsticks. Oh yeah.

It wasn't temporary insanity - I'd purchased a palette and empty pans from Makeup Forever. (I believe Yaby Cosmetics carries them as well, but again, I had the MUFE discount.) I know I'll probably have to eventually look into getting some warmer tones for the lips, or blending my own, but I wanted to make a palette of some of the colors I already have so they'd be easy to carry and blend. I was braced for a mess, but this was actually simple to do and didn't seem to mess up the formula at all. Time will tell.

( You did WHAT now? )

So, why am I in such a hurry to put a kit together, anyway? Well, I wasn't kidding about getting my goals together. Yesterday, I met with a professional photographer. It was a happy coincidence, actually. She was doing a 3-day benefit for the local animal shelter, offering free 5x7 dog portraits and donating what would have been the full combined cost of the sessions (ultimately about a $900 donation!) I had snuck a friend's dog over to her (GORGEOUS) studio to be photographed as a surprise gift for the owner, whose birthday is next week. I spent most of the session trying to make funny noises to keep the dog's attention. It was hilarious.

That session was a few weeks ago. Yesterday, I got to see the slideshow - and wow, the photos were absolutely beautiful! Our friend's dog is a Boxer, and the photographer totally managed to capture her buoyant, playful, comic personality. We picked one image with her ears up and a tennis ball hanging precariously out of one corner of her mouth. It's adorable.

So after we'd finished, we got to talking, and in the course of the conversation I mentioned that I was interested in doing makeup. She immediately got excited and said she'd been wanting to do more portrait work but didn't know any artists. I said "Well, you do now." Know what this means? Not only might I do some work for her (for free, in exchange for portfolio-worthy images and for much-needed practice), but when I suggested getting some models together and doing a test shoot, she was all for it. She also needs some press releases and web stuff written, which is ALSO what I do so, happily, I have lots to trade for her talent. *is super-psyched*

Here's the lipstick that changed the way I think about... well, OK, not so much ORANGE. Maybe coral.

See, I'd had only wretched coral-lipstick experiences before. I bought this one DC'd lipstick by MAC based entirely on its name.* It looked appallingly awful on me. Then I heard great things about another one called Dainty Cake, and kept seeing it in FOTDs looking completely fabulous. (This was several years ago, when it was somewhat easier to find. This LE lipstick was so popular there was actually an internet ballot you could sign to encourage MAC to re-release it.)

Like any good lemming, I tracked it down and... WOW, again with the awful! I can't even put my finger on why these two popular lipsticks looked so horrible on me, though I suspect the high frost was probably a factor - I can't pull off pale frosty lipsticks really at all. I'm sure I could have made either of them work with a gloss or a bit of creative layering, but... no. Too much work, too many lipsticks already. I knew they'd languish in my collection, so away they went with the quickness.

But then this color caught my eye, and I decided to give it a chance, especially since I have total orange appreciation. (It's a color that deserves much more appreciation than it gets, amiright? Orange needs a PR firm.)



Like all the Slimshines, High 90s is glossy and semisheer. And bleeds like a mofo. I don't much care; I love this formula and rely on Prep+Prime Lip, plus the occasional liner (I'm generally lazy about liplining, but love Creme Sherry for coral/peachy lip looks). I love how bright-yet-wearable this is!

( Full face this way... )

Damn. I miss summer already. Although I'm more of an Autumn fashion fan, and complexion-wise MUCH more of a winter than a summer, I kind of liked trying out the sunnier looks this year.

* COCKATEASE, if you must know.

Oh man, they went and glued a little dagger to the bottom of the tube? How fierce. My eyes, they cannot roll enough.

Snark aside, some of the colors look pretty - plenty of vampy shades for Fall - and I love the fact that the products can be organized by finish and texture. It looks like they may not be as über-frosty as UD's previous lipsticks (but I'm only going by the website and product descriptions). Anyway, I'm not sure I see myself shelling out $22 for a lipstick anytime soon (especially when I already have so much), but I'm curious about the colors and texture, so if anyone has any feedback, weigh in!

Oh - and they're all apparently vegan. How did they create all those reds without carmine? Neat (or would be, were I vegan - unfortunately I'm still hung up on the dagger).

I'm such a perfectionist sometimes. Sadly, my recycled cardboard lipstick holders were just NOT standing the test of time. The cardboard I used was too floppy - the lipsticks kept sliding out underneath whenever I opened the drawer, and the rows would lift out, and the whole shebang just wasn't stable. Within days, the drawer was a complete mess again. If I'd used sturdier (and, unfortunately, harder to cut) cardboard, and taped the rows into place so they wouldn't keep sliding up, I'm sure they'd be fine. So keep that in mind if you decide to follow EnKore's tutorial.

Me, I wasn't about to do that all over again and have achey hands from slicing up stiff cardboard! So I caved and ordered these trays from The Container Store. I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives, but I was not having loads of luck with my searches. ( And as you can see, they work perfectly. )

I've always appreciated elegance and simplicity in packaging. The trouble is that everything. looks. exactly. the. same. in my drawer. For the most part, lipsticks and glosses are labeled on the bottom of the tube. If I wanted a specific color, I'd have to grab handfuls at a time and flip them over. It was maddening... especially considering that lips are the last bit of makeup I do before bolting out the door. I needed them to be able to stand upside down, labels up. And I really needed to use my space more effectively, because I couldn't find any particular colors without having to root endlessly through this lovely mess:



( YouTube to the rescue! )

sparkle_shortz is entirely at fault for turning me on to this color: MAC Hot Tahiti.



(Note to self: time for WhiteStrips.)

It's one of those deceptive, sheerer-than-it-looks colors. In the tube, it looks like a fairly deep brownish red. But then it goes on all smooth and natural. No shimmer, no glitter, just warm midtone red with a hint of coral (and coral is NOT an easy color for me to wear). This is a lipstick you could easily whip out for friends who profess a desire to try, but also have a terror of, red lipstick. I actually made two of my officemates try it on and they were both deeply skeptical but they both loved the way it looked.

As do I. Although I'm always in favor of bright, true-blue reds, you've got to appreciate a "day" red. When I want something more sparkly, I always grab MAC's Fresh Moroccan, but I also love Clinique's Berry Freeze. (Talk about an inaccurately named lipstick... it sounds like it should be a frosty raspberry color or something. And the swatch online makes it look brown. But it's a deep, warm red cream on me. Shrug. I wore it to the mall yesterday and the gay boy working at Torrid totally complimented me.)

On the other end of the color spectrum, I've been a bit of a slut for pink lipglasses lately:



^ MAC Cultured



^ MAC Starlet Kiss (from the Heatherette collection) - applied lightly. It's a bright, sparkly baby pink.

And finally, here's my ACTUAL lip of the day: good ol' MAC Ample Pink plushglass, which I'm nearly out of.

This lipstick? Cost about $2.



TWO. DOLLARS.

It's N.Y.C.'s Blue Rose, and I found it at Walgreen's. Or maybe CVS. One of those. Talk about an impulse buy... I think I spotted the color from the tampon aisle. It's a holy-bright matte-ish fuchsia with blue iridescence. Doesn't have a particularly delicious smell and I have yet to determine how well it wears over the long haul (it may well be drying), but the color? Pure love. I don't buy much N.Y.C. but I still keep one of their black pencil liners in my desk at work, and I used one of their eyeshadow palettes to death (I think it was called Manhattan Mauve). They're worth checking out. Pretty sure they're not cruelty-free, though, if that's a consideration. (I try to stick to CF cosmetics, but guiltily make the exception for drugstore staples. There's probably a separate post in that.)

Other drugstore faves: NYX (they're seriously amazing - review forthcoming!), Milani (lovely shadows), and Prestige (good shadows and liquid liners). And then, of course, there are the mascaras - plenty of good ones to be had (right now I'm liking Maybelline Full N' Soft, and I'm also eager to try Cover Girl Lash Blast next)! What drugstore lines do y'all prefer?

( And more lips, since I seem to be a lipstick-swatchin' fool lately... )

I've been such a makeup slacker (and blogger) lately. The daily morning rush to get my car warmed up/de-iced during the winter severely cuts into my makeup time, so for weeks, with few exceptions, I've just been doing the face-cheeks-brows-Urban Decay 24/7 liner-lashes-lips looks. It's like a special day when I wear eyeshadow at all. I need to start getting up earlier, ha!

I did doll up a tiny bit on Monday, but it was still a rush job - I didn't even bother concealing the fabulous breakout I've been slowly recovering from.



( Check me out, I'm wearing pale nude lipstick and not hating it! )

I seem to be in a rut of oversleeping lately. Let's work backwards, shall we? I am expected in my cube at work every morning at 8:30am. My commute takes between 35 and 45 minutes, depending on traffic and whether I get stuck behind a school bus (GROAN). And now that it is winter, I usually have to warm up/defrost the car before I can depart. So, if I'm not out the door by 7:50, or at least pulling out of my driveway at 7:55, I'm likely to be at LEAST a few minutes late.

My morning routine is as follows: shower, après-shower (moisturizer/sunscreen, deodorant, scent if I'm wearing it - today's is Armani Code), dress, breakfast, lunch prep if I didn't do it the night before (and this morning, I hadn't), hair, makeup, out the door. I need at LEAST an hour for all of that, but preferably an hour and a half. So my habit is to set the alarm for 6, hit snooze a few times, and then get rolling.

Unfortunately, I abuse the snooze. And, naturally, the parts of my routine that have to be sacrificed the most are hair - which I'm already fairly lazy about - and makeup. (No, skipping breakfast is NOT an option. I've learned the hard way that I need protein in the morning, but that's another post. Seriously, though, breakfast changed my life. So does brown-bagging it for lunch most days, but again, off-topic!)

On oh-shit-I-have-like-a-minute-to-do-my-face days, I usually pare down to the four essentials:

1. Something on my face to even out my color. (Today: a tiny bit of cream foundation, MAC Moistureblend, blended to invisibility with a skunk brush, the 187. No blush today - too little time, and enough of my natural color still shows - but I usually use my other 187 to dab some on the apples of my cheeks. No concealer, either - I carry Moisturecover with me in my purse and can always put it on after I arrive if there are any spots I'm determined to conceal.)

2. Something on my brows. Today I didn't linger; I just gave 'em a few swipes of brown pencil liner and clear Great Lash.

3. Something on my eyes. My usual in-a-rush routine is an easy, soft pencil liner and mascara, and at the very least a browbone highlight of some kind, but today I didn't even have time for that. I just swiped Volume Exact on my upper lashes and that was IT. Holy naked eyes.

4. Something on my lips. This could just be tinted balm or gloss, but since I was feeling so damned naked everywhere else, AND since it's winter and supposedly deep lips are "in," I pulled out a bright color: MAC Rebel. It's a deep cream-finish raspberry that edges into purple territory without being as intense as, say, Violetta. (I have so many similar colors, too - damn this addictive color family.) FYI, I am the only person in my office that EVER wears vampy lipstick. (Or not-so-neutral eyeshadow, for that matter.) But no one seems to care, so...

I was in the same boat yesterday and actually left home with only clear lip balm on my lips. I do keep a small stash of makeup in my desk at work, however - mostly drugstore stuff. I was wearing a lot of brown so I decided to go for an earthy red. I pulled out this Clinique gift-with-purchase set from a million years ago - it contains two eyeshadows (a flat, pale beige and a shimmery mid-tone brown), a soft plum blush, two applicators (a shadow sponge-tip and a blush brush that is tiny, square and completely useless unless you like 1980's cheekbone stripes), and a miniature lipstick: Long Last Soft Shine lipstick in Berry Freeze. I don't know why the hell they call it "Berry Freeze," since that brings to mind a cool/frosty raspberry - this is a cream-finish, warm brown-toned day-wearable red. It's very similar to MAC's Fresh Moroccan, only without all the coppery glitter/frost. It looked great and lasted through the Hanukkah kick-off dinner party I attended after work. I'm considering getting a full-size version because I like the color so much. I'm convinced I can pull off both warm and cool reds (as long as they aren't super orange-y).

So, that's what I do in a morning rush - lean heavily upon my lips. What do you do on mad-rush mornings (assuming you have time to do anything makeuppy at all)?

( My gettin'-hitched face, and some really basic wedding/big-event makeup tips. )