Winter Makeup Look

There really are no excuses for my absence at this point other than I started a new job and have been overwhelmed preparing for grad school. Damn, those are excuses, aren't they?

Anyway, let's get down to business (to defeat, the Huns). I'm writing to you from a very dangerous location, it's called Nars Lane. Aka, the place where I bought one Nars powder product and now can't stop. The blushes, the eyeshadows, the special collections. I can't help myself and I don't really know if I want to. 

So here's my take on a glowy, probably overdone, definitely themed winter makeup look.

The star of this look is my Nars Dolomites eyeshadow duo. This came out with the autumn collection so it may be hard to get your hands on it, but if you can, do. I hunted it down off of Barneys.com and am so glad I did. The lid shade that I used is the purplish pink on the left. It has a shot of silver sparkle that gives the shadow a metallic look on the lids. After applying one or two layers of this over my Laura Geller Cool Lids Eyeshadow in Rose Gold (a product I got in a kit that is nice but I wouldn't necessarily recommend), I worked the brown hue on the right into my crease. 

The costar  of this show is definitely Nars Almeria Blush. It is also limited edition although it was from the winter collection so it should be more available. The packaging is special (not pictured, a shattered glass-esque print of the front of the normal Nars packaging). In addition to that, the actual product is gorgeous. The color is a rusted brown plum color with hints of red. The perfect "wind swept" winter blush to pair with any lipstick, especially those of the darkest hues.

To complete my cheek look I pulled out my newest and go-to highlighter, the Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Moonstone. I could probably write an essay about this product and let me know if you want a full review, but overall it's just a gorgeous, pigmented, smooth, soft as butter, and luminescent highlighter. It creates the most gorgeous candlelit glow that I can't get enough of. I also use it as a highlight on my inner corner and brow bone.

Ahh, a plum lipstick. My old friend. This is an old tone for me but a new product. This is Bobbi Brown's Creamy Matte Lip Color in Crushed Plum. I'm pretty obsessed with this formula because as an avid matte lipstick wearer I often suffer from dry lips. This color is mostly matte and doesn't dry out my lips to the point of no return. Way to be Bobbi. 

So here's the finished look! A winter look that I wear in about ten different variations all winter long.  Glowy skin, smokey-ish eye, dark lip. 

I hope everyone is having a fantastic start to the holiday season. Wear some red lipstick, sing some Christmas songs, and drink some hot chocolate (either spiked or not). 

Happy Holidays, I'll be checking in soon! (I've been buying myself two gifts for every one I buy for someone in my life...whoops)

Face of the Day #3

As the title suggests, this is another face of the day. I know, I know, I've already done a couple of these but I've been bogged down with school work, (Who let me double major? Why did I think this was a good idea? Someone tell me!), and so this is one of the easiest posts that I can make. I've still been pretty slow with posting so I figured it was okay that I show you what I wore the other day on my facial region.

These are the products that I used along with a picture of the whole look.

So as you can see I went for a taupe, shimmery eye look along with one of my favorite Spring lipsticks. For face I did my normal routine which I'll do a post on all by itself soon.

 I started by priming my eyes as always and then applied the shimmering taupey gray color in the bottom left corner, called Sandy Rose, from this palette all over the lid, then applied the matte counterpart, called Hot Stone, from the upper right corner into my crease just for some definition. Then I used the white shade on the top left under my brow and in the inner corner of my eye for a bit of a subtle highlight. I got this palette over a year ago and it's the Bobbi Brown Sand Tortoiseshell Eye Palette. I don't think you can get it any more but you could use any taupe shimmery shade and get the same effect.

To finish off my eyes I used a new mascara that I have, the MAC In Extra Dimension Lash mascara. I hated this mascara at first but now that it's aged a little and dried up a bit I love it so much more. Apparently I'm a dry mascara formula kind of girl.   Unfortunately that means I need to get another new mascara soon. I'm thinking the Make Up For Ever Smoky Lash? Maybe? We'll see.

Moving on to cheeks, I went for a pretty natural and neutral pink blush, Benefit's Hervana Blush.

I truly love this blush and wear it basically every other day. It's the perfect neutral pink that goes with just about any eye and lip combination without ever overpowering either of those things. I also highlighted my face with my Mac Cream Color Base in "Pearl". This baby doesn't look like much in the pot but it's perfect for day to day use. It's a gorgeous cream shade with a pearl that gives my skin a nice dewy glow without any obvious sparkle or chunks of glitter.

Once I was done with all of this jazz I got to my favorite part, the lipstick. I didn't fully appreciate this lipstick when I first got it, but recently I've been reaching for it all the time. It's a great transition color for this time of year, when it's still cold (at least in Michigan, we're still in a deep freeze with no signs of thaw) but you still want to have some more color and brightness to your face. It's Mac's "Speak Louder" lipstick.

As you can tell this lipstick is a great dark, reddish pink. It's a creamsheen formula, which isn't my favorite most of the time, but in the Spring I do appreciate the extra moisture that this formulation provides. Here's the whole look!





So there you go, my third face of the day! I will be posting more in the next week or so, so keep a look out. Thanks for reading, I hope everyone is enjoying the madness that is March, and Go Green!