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.

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!

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!