Color Relationships: Complimentary Colors 1

So... First look of the new Color Relationships series!! I started with complimentary colors, these colors are opposite one another on the color wheel. I started with Yellow and Violet (that's right, not Purple. The "correct" color name is Violet.) I also painted my nails with China Glaze Happy Go Lucky for the occasion. Its a creme yellow.

Complimentary colors by their nature make each other look more intense, and therefore, more noticeable. Those drug-store eye palettes that are made specifically for your eye color?

They work off this principle. Blue's complement is Orange, Red's compliment is Green, Yellow's compliment is Violet, and so on. They also will "vibrate" against each other if they're both super saturated hues. Don't believe me? Well, I

have an art degree, so... I know these things. Also, look here

See how the colors sort of "bounce" off each other? Told you I was right about vibration.

Anyway, here's my look!

Eyes

• Primer: Two Faced Shadow Insurance
• Base: NYX Jumbo Eye shadow pencil in Milk
• Outer half: Makeup Forever... lemony yellow. I forget the name. Its super bright and matte
• Inner half: Inglot light yellow shimmer pressed shadow, forget the number, but its sort of lemon-meringe-y
• Liner: NYX Studio Liquid Liner in Extreme Purple (metallic)
• Lower Lid: Inglot Matte Violet shade, forget the number, but its a violet hedging on blue-violet
• Browbone: MAC Shroom
• Waterline: NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Milk, set with MAC Shroom
• Mascara: Maybelline One By One (god I can't wait to finish the damn tube, its really terrible)

Face

• Primer: Makeup Forever HD Primer
• Foundation: Smashbox High Definition Healthy FX Foundation in Light 1
• Powder: Pur Minerals 4-in-1 Powder Foundation (yes, I wore two foundations today, but I'm out of all other powders and broke, lol) It was actually quite effective at staying on in this terrible rainy weather we're having
• Blush: MAC blush in Rhubarb (its a Pro color I got in Chicago. SOOO bright and a perfect contrast for this look)

Lips

• OCC Lip Tar in Memento, set with a translucent setting powder that kinda tasted funny, I might not use it again...
• Tarina Tarantino lip gloss in Parade just in the center. Its a sheer pink gloss with SO MUCH GLITTER in it. I love it.

So, thats the first look in the Color Relationships series. I will probably go bolder as time goes on... I kinda did the look and then decided to do the series, lol. I think it came out really well though, although I'm not super thrilled with the applicator on the NYX liquid eyeliner. I may have to invest in an eyeliner brush.

Keep an eye out for my next post!!

Announcement: New Series!

So... I have two series in mind at the moment. One is... more involved than the other. So I'm sticking to the easy one right now.

The series is: Fun with Color Relationships. Basically, I'm going to look at the color wheel, and draw on my graphic design knowledge to make a series based on the various color relationships, primary, secondary, complementary, analogous, pr

inters primaries, etc.

My other series is for Game of Thrones, and I picked like 14 characters to do looks based on.. and colors for each, and they're in-depth and take time... and I'm lazy. I tried one and I didn't like the way it looked so I'm re-doing it at a later time.

So.. look for my Color Relationships series.. star

ting with my next post. (Which I'm going to write right now, lol)

Hair products :)

So, my hair is generally pretty ok. I don't dye it that often, maybe once a year, but I do wash and blow dry every day, or nearly every day. I'm also lucky that my boyfriend's mother is a hair-stylist and when she owned her shop, I got all kinds of free stuff all the time. Since she sold her shop, she pretty much just takes me to the "professional only" supply stores where stuff is SUPER cheap. She recently bought me Joico's K-Pak Reconstructor, Deep Penetrating Reconstructor. According to Miss Joann (my boyfriend's mother) you shampoo and condition your hair, then put this in for 3-5 minutes and rinse it out. It smells like artificial banana, which is up to you if its a good thing or not. Its lightweight, and has an odd consistency, sort of like greek yogurt.

And it's awesome. My hair feels like silk for about a week after using it. Its easy to brush, super shiny, much less frizzy (no product has yet to stand up to Baltimore humidity in my experience) and so manageable. I also noticed today that after not washing my hair for a day (thanks to being drunk and passing out at a friend's house) that it came clean a lot easier than normal. Getting the excess oil only took one shampooing rather than the two it normally takes after missing a wash. I did the treatment again today, since there's no limits in the directions about how often you're supposed to use it.

I want to sing this products praises from the rooftops! So awesome. Go buy it now! It would appear you can buy it at Trade Secret, and I know they carry some Joico products at Ulta, but I actually have no idea how much it costs, since it was a gift. And Ulta.com doesn't carry it due to "manufacturer's restrictions". But a little bit goes a long way. I've been doing it bi-monthly (or whenever I remember) but I'm going to try to do it weekly now.

Not much else to report. You'd think unemployment would make me post more... but... no.... ha ha.

I did however start an account on Beautylish.com. Its awesome, come find me! and other beauty junkies :)

Review

So, I haven't reviewed anything in a while. I'm on a makeup-buying freeze at the moment due to my lack of job, but I still have a few new things that I bought with giftcards, groupons and on sale.

I had a Groupon for the Body Shop, it was $20 for $40 worth of stuff. Pretty good deal I thought. If you don't get Groupons, you're totally missing out and should go sign up using that link immediately.

So, I go to the Body Shop at Towson Town Center and peruse the stuff there. I ended up buying a mini cocoa butter lotion, a mini olive butter body scrub, and then two anti-aging products, which I will review... now:

#1 Wise Woman Intensive Firming Mask for Mature Skin
Yeah, I don't have mature skin. But, I'm a smoker and a sun worshipper, so I stress out about aging my skin. You might say, "Hey Ellen, why not wear super strong sunscreen and quit smoking?" Well, I do wear SPF 85 on my face and chest, but I sweat a lot and I'm not good about reapplying it. And as for smoking... well.. shut up, I look cool.
Anyway, so the firming mask. I've used it twice so far, and I love the way it smells. Kind of earthy and clean. Its very very thick, which makes me worry about clogged pores, but it didn't make me break out either time, so thats good. It supposedly plumps skin to help hide fine lines. I get two little worry lines, right between my eyebrows. The directions say to apply it for fifteen minutes and then either tissue off or rub it in. I put it on generously (but not thickly) last night and just let it absorb while I slept, and... I haven't really noticed a difference. The jury's still out though. It doesn't say how often to use it, but I figure I don't need to every day. So, I'll give it a whirl twice a week and see if it makes a difference. In the end, its still moisturizing, so its not like its gonna hurt me.

#2 Vitamin E Eye Cream for all skin types
I've needed an eye cream for a while. I have a ton of samples from Sephora, but never enough for me to form an opinion. Also, they're all too expensive. So I figured having a Groupon was the perfect time to get one and give it a try. I've been pretty good about using this one. It helps reduce fine lines, puffiness and dark circles. I have noticed that my dark circles are a little bit less, but I've been getting more sleep, so I don't want to reward the cream just yet. I like that its very light and absorbs quickly, so I can put it on right before my makeup and not have any trouble. So, yeah, I guess the jury's still out on that too.


Hmm. Two completely useless reviews. Ha! Go me.

Makeup Look - Aurora

I was just gonna put on a random bright look, but it looked so pretty I thought I'd blog about it. Yes, I'm narcissistic.
Eyes

• Two Faced Eye primer
• Sephora nano-eyeliner pencil in white spread across the whole lid as an additional base
• Kat Von D Memento Mori Palette: Hard luck on most of the lid (tealy-green shimmer) and Solitude (matte lavender) on the outside corner.
• Kat Von D Truth Palette: Snake Eyes (yellow green, with emphasis on green) on the lower lid, Sister (light peach) on the inner lower lid, and Sugarskull (light buttery yellow) in the inner corner
• Nyx Ultra Pearl Mania loose shadow in Grass Pearl (minty, but still yellowy light green) on the inside of the upper lid, blended really well into the Hard Luck
• Make Up Forever Star Powder neon pink in the crease
• Two Faced shadow duo in Skinny Dip, the light iridescent blue on the brow bone
• Nyx Liquid eyeliner in purple, overlaid with EyeKandy Glitter in Gumball
• MAC Penultimate liquid liner
• Maybelline One By One mascara
• Urban Decay 24/7 liner on waterline

Face

• Make Up Forever primer
• Pur Minerals 4-1 pressed mineral foundation
• MAC concealer
• MAC blush in rhubarb

Lips

• Toki Doki Lip gloss in Rocketeer

I haven't been getting enough sleep lately, so I'm having some trouble with under eye circles. More sleep, more water! But I should probably look for a halfway decent product as well.

I've joined BeautyLish, its actually pretty awesome. I can tag products and write reviews, and its easier to connect to other beauty-addicts, and learn about new products.

Also, don't forget to follow me on Twitter!

Summer Solstice!!

So, today is the Summer Solstice. In honor of the longest day of the year, I decided to do a sunny bronzey look. It didn’t come out as bright as I wanted, but its still quite pretty. I tried to
make it look as little like Aztec Gold as possible. I may have gone a little overboard with the number of shadows I used.... heh.

Eyes

• Outer corners: Urban Decay Naked Palette in Darkhorse (dark shimmery brown), blended with MAC pressed shadow in A Little Folie (matte finish reddish brown)

• Outer half: EyeKandy mineral shadow in Creamsicle, with Makeup Forever bright orange pressed shadow on top

• Inner half: Kat Von D Truth Palette in Sugar Skull, had to work really hard to blend it with the EyeKandy

• Inner corner: Makeup Forever Lemon Yellow


• Crease: MAC Pigment in Blue Brown


• Above Crease: Makeup Forever #306, its a dirty orangey/gold shimmer


• Browbone: Inglot buttery yellow shimmer shadow

• Undereye: Makeup Forever navy blue shimmer pressed shadow, blended into Makeup Forever orange

• Applied sort of all over: MAC Glitter in Reflects Blackened Red


• Outer corner liner: Urban Decay Heavy Metal eyeliner in Baked


• Upper lid liner: EyeKandy glitter in Honey Drop

• Lashline/Waterline: Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Whiskey


• Mascara: Maybelline Volume Express One by One in black

Face

• Urban Decay De-Slick Makeup Setting Spray (before applying any products and again after everything’s done)


• Primer: Too Faced Primed and Poreless in Bronze Tint


• Foundation: Smashbox HD Healthy FX foundation in Light L1

• Powder: Inglot


• Concealer: Smashbox HD, great when applied with a brush and liberally. Awesome on undereye circles


• Bronzer: Flirt! Bronzer in Sweet Desire, I used the “E3” method I learned from xsparkage, you make a three on the right side of your face, the top of the three being your forhead, the middle your cheekbone and the bottom along your jawline, then do the same in reverse on the other side. Then just a swipe down in the bridge of your nose, top of your lip and a bit on your chin. Perfect sunkissed look everytime.

Lips

• Loreal Hip Pigments gloss in Coy


• Some random shimmery gold lip gloss that I had, applied directly in the center. The label’s worn off, but I think its some kind of metallic Maybelline.

Also, I did do a rainbow look for the Gay Pride festival to go along with the rainbow nails, but I was in a rush when I was doing it because I had to go to my boyfriend's cousin's graduation party, so I got my boyfriend to take a picture of it at the party. I was sitting under a red umbrella in very warm sunlight and sweating profusely (so that's why I'm bright red in the picture...). Mostly Makeup Forever pressed shadows, I think the green was Too Faced shadow duo in Lucky Charm. It looked nice, but not as good as my nails did :)

Don't forget to follow on Twitter! I put little looks up there every so often:) But I kind of suck at social networking... lol.

baltimore pride!

quick post. i'm going down for the block party of the baltimore pride festival tomorrow and i wanted to do my nails for the occasion. i used china glaze colors in: ruby pumps, breakin', happy go lucky, paper chasing, blue sparrow, and tempest. i'm not super great at doing my nails, but it still came out pretty good i think. i used seche vite quick dry top coat and then sally girl "granny's wet glaze" on top of that.

tomorrow i'll post a rainbow eye makeup look to really drive home the point. woo. its fun being an ally.

Makeup Look - Aztec Gold

I saw a screening of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides last night. I liked it, but it its nothing to write home about. I've also been playing Lego Pirates of the Caribbean lately since my roommate brought it home. It's super fun! In honor of pirates, I decided to do a really shiny gold look. And here it is:Eyes

• outer corner: EyeKandy - metallic mineral shadow in Creamsicle, applied wet for extra oomph.
• inner corner: Smashbox shadow and liner trio in Girls Night Out (the light gold shade) applied with a larger brush and then blended like fuck to get it to fade into the metallic
• crease: MAC pigment in blue brown
• just above the crease: Inglot shadow, a shimmery pumpkin orange
• highlight: MAC pressed shadow in Shroom
• liner: Smashbox shadow and liner trio in Girls Night Out... its a brown gel liner, applied to both upper and lower lids
  
• inner liner: MAC Pen-Ultimate liner, very very narrow and precise, just for definition
• on top of both liners i put Urban Decay Heavy Metal liner in Baked for some glitter to add to the shine
• waterline: Beautique eyeliner pencil in black (since all pirates apparently wear black eyeliner)
• mascara: Smashbox DNA mascara in black, then a layer of Peter Thomas Roth lashes to die for on top of that.

Face

• foundation primer: Makeup Forever HD Primer in Neutral
  
• foundation: Smashbox Healthy FX foundation in L3 (which is a bit too dark for me right now, but won't be as summer progresses)
• concealer: MAC, the kind in the little pot
• powder: Inglot
• blush: Inglot
  
• lips: Kat Von D lipgloss in Rocker (its a pretty reddish/gold shade)

I think today that I used every brand of makeup that I have in my collection. Good for me :) Don't forget to follow me on twitter: @vortexofsin!

Earth Day Makeup Look!

Hey all (all three of you...)

Happy Earth Day (and also Good Friday if you're into that sort of thing).

I spontaneously made up this look as I was putting my makeup on today. I realized as I reached for my new Inglot palette that since I got back from IMATS I've been neglecting my other makeup. Including the stuff I got from the MAC pro store in Chicago. So this look uses a good blend of all my makeup brands. Why do I care? I dunno.... lol.

Eyes
Crease: MAC pressed shadow in Humid (emerald green) (trees)
Lid: Two Face pressed shadow duo in Lucky Charm (the lighter shade) (grass)
Inner corner & Brow bone: Inglot golden-y yellow shimmer (sunshine)
Under eye, and surrounding all the dark green: Two Faced pressed shadow duo in Skinny Dip (the lighter, iridescent blue/lavender) (clouds)
Lower Lid: Makeup Forever Star Powder in neon pink (flowers)
Liner: OCC pure pigment in Ultramarine (water) & Beautique black
pencil (just for a bit of definition)
Mascara: Peter Thomas Roth Lashes to Die For in black

Face
Urban Decay De-Slick makeup setting spray to start, Makeup Forever HD Foundation Primer (neutral), Smashbox High Definished Healthy FX foundation in Light L1, Inglot powder, MAC blush in Rhubarb (pro color), MAC concealer pot in NW20

Lips
L'Oreal Infallible Lipstick in Java Jolt (dirt, earth), OCC Lip Tar in Memento in the center (uh, just for fun)

I think the results are pretty cool. I may take the lipstick off before I go out, I don't like having bold lips and bold eyes at the same time.

Happy Earth Day everyone, and don't forget to follow me on Twitter!

OCC IMATS discount!!

Hey, real quick!!

OCC (Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics) is giving you the 20% IMATS discount (the same one I paid $40 in travel and $30 in admission to get!) through 4/17/11!

Login with username: OCCDISC and password IMATSNYC (case sensitive!)

I recommend the lip tar and any of the eyeshadow pigments. Wicked awesome!

Hair curling!

OMG! Two posts in as many days... go me..

Last night I got it into my head that I wanted curly hair today. This is always a struggle with my stick-straight ultra-fine hair. I remembered having success as a kid with squishy foam rollers that you wear overnight. So I ran out to Target and bought these:


I put them in last night around 1am, in completely wet hair, then went to bed around 3am. I slept very poorly and woke up around 1pm. The rollers had been in for roughly 12 hours. The little fuckers were still slightly damp. I left them in for about an hour after getting out of bed, and aimed a hair dryer at a few of them, in hopes of drying them further. It was super curly when I first took them out. Its now been about three since I took them out. Here is my hair:


I'm actually pretty happy with the results. Its bouncy and voluminous and full of lovely texture. But I predict in about two hours it'll be back to straight. God damn my hair! Maybe I should just get a perm and be done with it.. ha.

Twitter! IMATS!

So... I got a twitter for this blog. You can follow me! @vortexofsin Yeah, that's about it. I feel dumb. I've railed against Twitter for a long time now. And I'm still not sure I'll use it, but, hey, hopefully it'll get me some more followers on here.

Recent news: Me and two friends decided to go to NYC for IMATS! That is, the International Makeup Artist Tradeshow. We had SUCH a blast. I got a TON of stuff for waaay cheap.



Purchase 1. Eye Kandy

The top three are Sprinkles Glitter (left to right), in Gumball (deep purple), Semi Sweet (royal blue) and Honey Drop (gold). The bottom three are mineral shadows in Sweet Pea, Creamsicle and Peppermint. I swatched them with mixing medium and without in each color (the glitters don't really work without mixing medium). As a special IMATS deal, they were 6 for $40 and included a brush and their "Liquid Sugar" mixing medium. They claimed it was water based, but the lady got a bit in my eye when she was demonstrating on me and it BURNED. Probably because the second ingredient is alcohol (the first is indeed water). I like them... but I kinda wish I'd gone the route of my friend who just bought one color for $5. The brush included with the kit is garbage. Its just a little kids paint brush, very chinzy. After the first use it won't go back to its original pointed shape. And as shiny as the glitters are, I do not need that much glitter... The gumball shade is missing the little plastic liner dispenser that allows you to tap out just a little at a time, so basically I have a tiny jar FULL of very fine purple glitter. I can predict this will end well... All that being said, I'm very fond of the mineral shadows, they're metallic and look very lovely. I like that there's no metal in anything, its all very fine plastic.



Purchase 2. Brushes from Royal & Langnickel





Not super exciting, except that they were cheap. And seem to be good quality. And fairly reasonable on the website too. I got a concealer, big eyeshadow, powder and kabuki brush all for $26. The kabuki brush is just about the softest thing I've ever felt. I used it today to put on my powder, great coverage, not too much product wasted. I'm actually quite pleased with these, and will probably continue to buy from their website. I swore I'd never go back to buying "makeup" brushes when art brushes work just as well, but these seem very reasonable.



Purchase 3. Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics




I bought OCC Lip Tar in Memento and Pure Pigment in Ultramarine Blue. Both of these are INSANE pigmented. The lip tar is really really thick and could be used as a cream blush as well. I will use it very sparingly as its SUPER thick, and once its set, behaves like a stain. It stays put (even after eating Sonic yesterday). I'm scared to death to actually try the Pure Pigment. It can be used for anything, though I'll be using it mainly as an eyeliner. But the shit is BRIGHT. I swatched it both just as loose powder and with the Liquid Sugar mixing medium. The sheer powder is eh. Doesn't seem to have great coverage, but I used a q-tip to swatch it, AND my hands are really lined. But with the mixing medium... whoa. One drop swirled with some product in the cap and I suddenly had tempera paint. Its about that consistency and color. Holy crap. I can see this being some AWESOME liner and probably a great shadow too, if I can get the right consistency to blend it. Running my finger over the swatch now, it does seem to smear a bit, but maybe if i dilute it with enough mixing medium it might be better. I'm excited, and scared. The brush I used to swatch it came clean... mostly, but I had to use soap and water (I know, bad me, but it was an old brush). It also came completely off my hand with soap and water, which is more than I can say for the lip tar which really wants to hang on... good!



Purchase 4. Inglot


Omg. Inglot. This company was pretty much the reason I went to IMATS. Inglots used to be only available in Inglot stores. And up until recently the nearest Inglots store to me was Las Vegas. They now have stores in New Jersey and New York, AND online! They have this freedom system, where you custom create your own palettes. They have round and square (round is slightly cheaper, but you may as well pay the extra few bucks for square since there's more product). You can buy eyeshadow in 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10. Same (or almost same) goes for lips, eyebrows, blush and concealer. You can buy powders in 2's. And they're freaking stackable with the little super powerful magnets in the corners. Or you can just have the lid which is also magnetic. I'm not finding the powder, blush, eyeshadow palette online, so that may be only in stores, or only to pro's (like at IMATS) or something, but I'm glad I bought it. The shadows are SUPER pigmented for being pressed shadows. The orange-y/gold shade is SO beautiful. The white/yellow shade is very similar to Kat Von D's Sugar Skull out of my Memento Mori palette, which is awesome since that shade's only available in sets. And the pans are huge. It'll take me forever to go through these. But I haven't talked about the powder. That powder is the best powder bar none. Its fucking great. I put my makeup on about 12 hours ago and I'm only just now seeing a bit of shine on my nose. I can't recommend it enough. Love love love. I want to buy everything they have. Like now. I almost wish they didn't have an online store so I wouldn't spend all my money.



Guess that's it. I'm unemployed now, so hopefully that means posting more. Don't forget to follow me on twitter! Ha!