Plays With Color

Good-bye, Aromaleigh.

June 29th, 2010

Woke up this morning to the news that Aromaleigh is closing in the next few weeks.  It seems sudden to me, especially if you scroll down and read the news from the 26th, but on the other hand, there have been clues.  The forum was closed a few weeks ago, and the online presence was drastically scaled back other than the store’s website itself.  I get the idea from reading comments on Phyrra’s blog that there was some drama I was unaware of…I have to say I never pay attention to stuff like that, honestly.

Aromaleigh wasn’t the first mineral makeup I’d used, or even the second.  It was the first company to send me press samples (okay, the only company, actually), and I’m glad I forced myself to try the Rocks! line even though it seemed so Not Me.  I haven’t been in the mineral makeup scene long enough or deeply enough that I’ve gotten attached to any company yet, but it’s always sad to see a company go, especially one so established.

If you use the code ADIEU35, you’ll get 35% off your order.  Keep in mind that the availability isn’t updated in real time, so even if you can order a product, it may be sold out already.  Unfortunately, unless a job offer comes in, I won’t be able to place a last order, but good luck in your future, Kristen.

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EOTD: Rocks for work, experiment #1

June 25th, 2010

And I think I might have erred on the side of too subtle!

Only eyes today.  Foundation and I are having a rather tempestuous relationship, and I think it may be because I haven’t found quite the right summer moisturizer for my skin.  Also, my hair is truly scary.  I’ve discovered that a flat iron is an excellent tool for making my hair professional (when it’s shorter than shoulder length, despite being otherwise straight it bends in odd places), but I have to buy some heat protectant before I try it again and give you pictures.  (It’s also not as hard to do as a lot of other hair tricks, important for me and my klutziness!)

Enough babbling.  Here are my eyes.  First open….

And then closed.

See what I mean about too subtle?  You can barely see the liner, especially on my right eye where I put it on a bit more narrowly.  (Is that even a word?  Well, it is now.)  My vision is significantly different in my right and left eyes (much blinder in the left, in case you were curious), and I seem to have not gotten the hang of compensating for that when I put my eye makeup on.  Either that or I overcompensate.

What I used:

  • Concealer, for once!  Benefit Erase Paste in the lightest color on my dark circles.  It’s a bit cakey, which means I really need to be more religious about eye cream, because the skin is getting a bit dry there.
  • Painterly Paint Pot as base (next look, I swear to you I will try my Detrivore primer again…pinky swear, even!)
  • Fyrinnae Valhalla on the lid
  • Fyrinnae Maneki Neko on the outer corner, quite lightly, and dry on the lower lash line
  • Fyrinnae Shinkirou as a brow highlight
  • Aromaleigh Rocks in Dirtydeeds, used dry as a liner on the upper lid
  • Cover Girl Lash Blast Length on the upper lashes…it’s a lot more subtle than the Volume, so I think it’s a better everyday mascara for me.  I seem to be extra sensitive to the smell of it though, because it really bothered me today.  It hasn’t gone bad (I just opened it a couple of weeks ago)…it’s just a bit more chemical-ish than the Volume.

Valhalla and Maneki Neko are very neutral browns–in fact, I’d venture that Valhalla is pretty darn close to taupe–and they both seem to have a slight purplish cast on my skin, either from combining with the Paint Pot or just from my skin, which didn’t really come through in either photo.  I’d be perfectly willing to wear this makeup to work–especially behind my glasses, it’s very subtle and professional.  In fact, next experiment I think I’m going to throw some Pixie Epoxy in there and see how professional I can keep it.

I used a neutral pink gloss with this, and it worked well, though I think I’d have been happier with something more on the matte side.

(For the record, no job yet, though I should be hearing back soon about the first job I second-interviewed for, and I have another second-interview scheduled, this one for the job I reallyreallyreally want, just after the 4th of July weekend.)

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Beauty Blogs Backstage: I’ve done some interviewing!

June 21st, 2010

Oops!  I was supposed to post my questions to Jen and her answers!  Never fear–I’m still awake, and here they are:

What’s your daily makeup routine?  Do you do a full face every day, or do you do a basic routine and then glam it up when you feel inspired?

I stay home with my daughters (ages 1 and 4) and putting on a full face to play Candyland and sit next to the sandbox seems silly. I manage to put on a basic face when I’m going out for errands: sheer foundation over my beloved Bobbi Brown Corrector; a neutral shadow with mascara, lipstick or gloss. I “do it up” for tutorials or actual events. The mail lady is used to seeing me in jeans and a ratty t-shirt with a full-face of makeup.

What non-makeup, non-beauty, non-fashion thing tends to inspire you most when you create a look?

I’m inspired mostly by color. I’m a painter, an artist, so I sometimes just have a mood for a certain color or color combination. I think a lot of it is unconscious, for example the other day I had a dental appointment and then got a pedicure. I had to go back to the dentist the next day and realized I had matched my toenail polish to the color of the accessories I could see from the chair. Bizarre. But still, a lovely lilac! ;)

If you were an animal, which one do you think you’d be?

I’m silly and sleep a lot, so I’d probably be some kind of puppy.

How long does a pedicure last before you get sick of the color and redo it?  How about a manicure; different amount of time, or the same?

My pedicures can last for two weeks before I resent the color, but manicures bore me after about two days. Or maybe sooner. I’m incredibly mani-fickle!

If you had to choose your one favorite work-appropriate nail color, what would it be and what do you like about it?

Since I’m a makeup artist, I have no limits with “work appropriate”! If I feel like I have to keep my polish subdued, though, I like soft peaches or my favorite shade: lovely taupes. I don’t think colors like Sephora by OPI’s Metro Chic are ever inappropriate.

If you could only eat the cuisine from one culture for the rest of your life, which culture would it be?

I’d eat Indian food, definitely! It’s my favorite. And luckily there are tons of vegetarian choices, so that plus the spices means I’d never have a bored palette.

I see you post about fragrance too…what’s the one note that doesn’t work on you that you really, really, REALLY wish did?

That’s a great question. I really love sticking my nose in a rose, but for the most part rose notes just get terribly overwhelming on me. I don’t care to smell like a granny’s lingerie drawer.  I wish I could wear leather notes, too, because they pair with a lot of my favorite notes in some very interesting-sounding scents. Sadly, tobacco tuns into “ashtray” on my skin, and that’s never cute.

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Beauty Blogs Backstage: I’ve been interviewed!

June 21st, 2010

LiAnn from Sparklecrack Central has put together a blog exchange, I guess you’d call it, called Beauty Blogs Backstage.  In this, bloggers interview each other!  I had the pleasure of interviewing and being interviewed by Jen from Beauty School Blog.  I don’t think she’s had a chance to post her answers to my questions yet, but here are my answers to her questions!

I see you like some of my favorite brands. What is it about lines like Aromaleigh and Fyrinnae that you like?

The colors were what drew me in.  I’ve purchased colors that I never thought I’d ever wear, and loved them!  I find it easier to use loose shadows, especially when I want a dramatic eye look, because you can use them wet or on Pixie Epoxy if you really want them to stand out.  (The fact that they don’t irritate my eyes is another plus!)

OK: tough question time. You get to pick one color for the rest of your life. What shade do you pick for eyes? Lips? Cheeks? Nails?

This is really sort of an evil question!  Cheeks are easy actually, since most of the time I forget to wear blush altogether!  So a neutral peachy-pink, not that I’ve managed to find one I like yet.  Eyes I’d have to say purples, because purple tones do really good things for my green eyes.  There’s also a lot of variation in the purple family–warm, cool, bright, practically neutral–I could make it work.  Lips I’d probably go with some variation of nude.  I’ve been wearing NYX’s Bravo a lot lately.  It’s similar to Thalia in color, but a wee bit lighter.  Nails are the hard one though.  I think I’d have to go with the peach/coral family there.  Pinks are harder, because my skin is a smidge on the warm side of neutral, and at some point I’m going to have to get a Real Job that may or may not frown on nail polish colors such as blue or neon green.

What’s the one makeup technique you wish you could master?

Dealing with my waterline.  It tickles!

What’s the one non-makeup thing you wish you could master? (eg ski, jump out of planes, sewing, etc)

Ice skating.  I can roller skate forever without falling down, but my ankles just do not like ice skating.  I don’t feel nearly stable enough on a wee thin blade.  Wobbly ankles, I fall down, and then of course there’s ice melting under my bum and I stand up all wet.  (I totally would have played ice hockey if I’d been able to skate.)

We’ve all answered this kind of question before and then eaten our words, but I’ll ask anyway: What is the one color that we’ll never see on your eyes? Nails?

Ha!  My words have already been eaten many, many times on this question.  “No, I’ll never wear hot pink eyeshadow…except it totally looks good.”  “Acid green?  Not a chance.”  (Also looks good.)  I’m going to say brown for the nails, and eyes?  Um.  I’m pretty sure I have worn every color on my eyes at least once.  I think I’m going to go with khaki though.  Aromaleigh’s Fig is an excellent example of a gorgeous khaki shade that just does not work on me.  I can’t wear it as makeup or clothing.  (Well, khaki pants are an exception.  Khaki shirts just make me look dead.)

Vampires or werewolves?

My soft spot for Remus Lupin requires me to say werewolves.

Tell us three things we don’t know about you? For example, your blog has a kin of art nouveau or deco styling – what’s what that?

Honestly, the styling of my blog was an accident–mostly I was looking for a theme that I liked that wasn’t crazy multicolored, and this was the first one I came up with!  Okay, three things y’all don’t know about me.  (1) I don’t have a driver’s license.  I own a car, and I have my learner’s permit, but no license yet at the ripe old age of 31.  (2) I seriously love reading cookbooks, but I don’t cook very often.  (3)  I got the same score on my math and verbal SAT (surprised me, because I always thought I was better at the verbal side than the math side).  A little over 15 years later, I got the same exact score on the GRE.

What’s the next trick we’ll see on your blog? A new brand you’re eying, a new type of product you want to dive into?

Back on the Real Job theme, I’m probably going to start experimenting with work-appropriate eye looks…seeing exactly how colorful or dramatic I can go and still feel comfortable in a professional environment.  (Subtitle: Can I wear Aromaleigh Rocks to work?)

Thanks for the great questions, Jen!

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Your favorite recent find

June 11th, 2010

Wow, the last few weeks have been busy.  Between school, finding a job, and computer woes, there hasn’t really been much makeup going on here!  The makeup I have worn has been boring, interview-ish, looks-like-bare-face-in-photos makeup, so haven’t bothered to post it.  Haven’t bought anything new lately to tell you about either.  (I could tell you about being up to my elbows in the innards of my computer, or about my anxiety about the timing of my upcoming interviews, but that’s really sort of boring, yes?)

So until I have something to show you (I’ll probably at least do my nails later), I’m going to ask you to tell me something:

What is your favorite recent find? New makeup, body wash, scent, whatever–if it’s new-to-you and you love it, please tell me about it!  I love hearing about new stuff.

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Swatches: Victoria’s Revenge

May 26th, 2010

You’ve probably already seen swatches of these, and in fact the swatches you’ve already seen are probably a lot better than these.  This is the new Aromaleigh eyeshadow collection Victoria’s Revenge, and Kristen was kind enough to send me a sample set to review.  (My first PR samples!  So exciting for a wee blogger.)

Most of the swatches I’ve seen so far have been foiled or over Pixie Epoxy or some other base.  With mine, I wanted to see how the colors would look with a softer touch, so these are over bare skin, rather lightly applied.

The shimmer never really comes through on camera (and when it did, resizing the pictures did away with it!)  Especially on Mourning’s Whimsy and Oleander Vapor, I was entranced by the glints of electric blue I saw when I angled my arm to catch the light.  Infernal Chaos gave me FITS to get right, and finally I gave up altogether.  It looks like a beigey ivory in the bag, but on my arm it’s more of a beigey pink.  In every single damn picture I took, it looks like a muddy khaki.  Trust me, though, it’s gorgeous.  Sort of a pale neutral rose with the multitoned sparkles that seem to be the hallmark of this collection.

This picture is a case of resizing-ate-the-sparkle.  See? This is the same picture, full-size crop of Mayhem’s Trilogy and Skeleton Key (with a wee corner of Splintered):

Skeleton Key was especially lovely…it’s a pale gray that almost doesn’t show up on my skin, but for the sparkles.  Poison Utopia is a dark purple that my camera seemed to hate, but my dark green eyes will LOVE.  Brazen & Bitter is another one that will suit my eyes and my skintone. Mania’s Locus is one of those colors that changes a bit depending on the angle; sometimes it appears gray, sometimes it appears lilac.  In the bag, I figured Airy Ethos was just another gold, but when I put it on, I realized that it was an antiqued gold, rich and dark.

These are all complex colors, lovely on their own, and they work together incredibly well as a collection.  I can think of so many ways to create looks with these, but unfortunately, it’s too darn hot to bother putting on makeup.  It’s supposed to cool WAY down tomorrow (from high 80s to low 70s), so I’ll have a chance to play then.

Obligatory disclaimer: I was sent these samples by the company for review purposes.

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(T)NOTD: Speaking of chartreuse….

May 20th, 2010

I’m beginning a period of time where I have to look responsible and make a good first impression because I’m scheduling job interviews, so I’m forgoing the fingernail polish for a while. I have a couple more sedate colors, but I’m still not that great with a brush, so I’d rather not wear it at all than have to worry about getting it right.  (If I could just afford to go get a manicure, I’d be all over that!)

This means I’m going to do a lot of bright toenail polish in the near future :)   My interview shoes are closed toe, so I don’t have to worry about being responsible and sedate there.  Apparently I have a chartreuse fixation lately:

This is Zoya Tangy, described on the website as “A bright apple green shimmer with peachy-orange duochrome.”  The duochrome shows on the bottle quite nicely; it’s a little more subtle when it’s on, and I can’t get a picture of it at all.  This isn’t a color I’d normally buy, and in fact I didn’t.  It was one of the selections in the 2009 Black Friday promotion, where you spent I think $20 and got 6 free green polishes.  The formula was a little runnier than I’m used to.  It pooled a little bit at the base of the nail when it went on, but ended up evening out.  This was two coats, with Seche Vite on one foot and Poshe on the other. (I started out using my Poshe top coat, but I got some crud on the brush and couldn’t find anything at hand to clean it off, so I grabbed the Seche Vite to do the other foot.  I’d forgotten how strong the smell is!)

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NOTD: Zoya Mieko

May 13th, 2010

So now that I’ve started to get the hang of photographing my makeup, I apparently have to relearn everything I ever knew in order to photograph my nails.  Every single picture I take made my nail polish look uneven and dull, when in reality I did a pretty good job with it, for once, and the top coat gives it a good shine.  At least I got the color pretty accurate, if a little on the light side, and I got a (blurry) picture that shows the sparkle in the finish.

Today’s polish is Zoya Mieko, described on the website as “A rosy pink with a touch of orange and tons of bold metallic gold shimmer.”  This one was a 2-coater, at least on my left hand.  When I’m polishing my right hand, I tend to go too thin on each coat so I don’t get polish all over the place with my weaker hand.  So a couple of fingers on my right hand technically got 3 coats, but they look like the 2-coat nails on all my other fingers.

See, the picture makes it look sort of ragged and dull, but trust me, it’s shiny.

Here’s a shot of the gold sparkle (and of the bits that haven’t worn off my cuticles yet):

Overall it’s cooler-toned on my nails than I’d expected from the bottle color, which showed the orange tones quite a bit, but I like it a lot.  No brushstrokes–it went on nicely.

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FOTD: Chartreuse, again?

May 12th, 2010

I got new glasses last Thursday (technically I’ve had the frames for a while, but I’d been using them for reading glasses, not everyday), because I’ve had to confront the fact that I need…bifocals.  At 31!  I got progressive lenses, which are actually taking quite a while to get used to.  The new frames are a lot different too, so I’m finding that I have to do my makeup differently to get it to show.

See?  (Also, yes, that baby-face is 31.)

And a closed-eye shot to make up for the lack of ability to see my eyelids:

You know, for a color I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to wear, I’ve been wearing Estranged a lot.

Eyes:

  • Back to the Paint Pot in Painterly for a base
  • Aromaleigh Rocks! in Estranged on the eyelid
  • Fyrinnae Dokkalfar dry in the crease and over Pixie Epoxy on the lower lash line
  • Sweet Libertine in Gold (not the most creative name, but this particular color actually came out of a Gift of the Magi set) in the inner corner (not very neatly, either)
  • Victoria’s Secret velvet eye shadow in Bunny on the browbone
  • Revlon Colorstay liner in black along the top lashline
  • Cover Girl Lash Blast Volume on lashes, and I *think* I curled them.  I can’t remember for sure though.

Face:

  • MAC Studio Fix foundation in NW20
  • Sephora blush in Peche Tendre (just a hint)

Lips aren’t worth making a list, just NYX Lips in Bravo.  It’s about the same tone as Thalia, but a lighter color.

Gawd, ignore my hair.  I’m in the in-between stage where it flips instead of hanging, and I have to learn how to handle it all over again, because it’s been ages since I’ve had it at this length.

I did my nails this afternoon, so I’ll have a NOTD post tomorrow once I clean up the cuticles.

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NOTD (a few days ago): Zoya Cassi

April 29th, 2010

Saturday the boyfriend and I went to a christening, and since it was time to take the old polish off anyway, I decided to put on something a little bit more tame…still fun, but tame enough to feel okay being in a Catholic church.  So Friday night was spent with a nail polish brush in my hand.

I still can’t manage to not paint my cuticles.  This is Zoya Cassi.  The website describes it as “Light warm peachy-pink with coral tones and sparkling white gold shimmer. An undeniably girly shade for fingers and toes.”  Yup, it’s definitely girly!  Boyfriend told me later he liked the red better, but he never likes girly stuff on me.  I used the Zoya Anchor basecoat and Armor top coat, but skipped the Hurry Up drying drops this time.  I sort of regretted that when I went to bed and realized I could still fingerprint my polish, but at the time I didn’t want to deal with the mess.  3 coats of polish, and I had a slight bit of VNL on a couple of fingers.

The polish lasted reasonably well.  I had a teeny bit of visible tipwear on day 4, a bit more on day 5, and got the first chip today, day 6, which is when I took it off.  Here’s a picture I took last night:

You can see the tipwear most on the pinkie.  I’m surprised it lasted so long, considering I really wasn’t careful with my hands, had to do dishes twice (yes, I wore gloves), and have a slight addiction to green tea ginger ale, but in cans only, please.  Also, I never refreshed it with more topcoat, so it lost its shine after a while.  I’m okay with that, mainly because I’m lazier than I am vain.

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