sailor moon series #1 - sailor chibi moon

Wow, where did the weekend go?

After spending Friday night and Saturday visiting my sister and my best friend at my alma mater, I came home late last night so I could catch a movie and a zombie makeup artist at a nearby theatre, and now it's the end of the weekend and it's weird.

This marks the start of a new series of looks! I've loved Sailor Moon for the majority of my life, ever since the dub first aired on television when I was a child. I started doing makeup looks for each sailor scout over on my Tumblr about 2-3 years ago, but I'd like to think my makeup skills have improved and maybe I'll actually finish it this time.

I'm aiming for matching my hair to each sailor scout, so this series is going to take a while, but hopefully it's worth it. Since my hair is currently pink, the natural first character is Chibi-Usa, or Sailor Chibi Moon.

Okay, so the eye makeup is not immediately noticeable in this photo, but it's really not that important. I used a white eyeshadow in the inner corners, a light pink in the center of my lids, and a slightly more vibrant blue-toned pink in the outer corners and under the lower lash line. Taupe eyeliner finished all the eye makeup and then I curled my lashes and put on some falsies. If I were to do this look again, I'd line my lower waterline with a white eyeliner to give the wide-eyed, shoujo look.

My eyebrows are lighter than I've worn them in some time because I went with powder rather than the Dipbrow since Chibi-Usa is young, and I wanted to emulate that somewhat.

I used a light gold-pink eyeshadow in place of blush and a blue-toned pink lip colour topped with a multi-dimensional white shimmer gloss.

My hair is in pigtails to further emphasise the youthfulness of this look and the character. I'm still debating wearing clothing in the character's colour scheme, but I went with it and apparently all I have that's pink is this old sundress.

BROWS
Anastasia Beverly Hills Beauty Express brow kit in Brunette
Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel in Granite

EYES
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Inner corner - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Bobby Dazzle (metallic white/pale gold micro-glitter)
Center of lid - Geek Chic Cosmetics eyeshadow in Pretty Guardian + Urban Decay eyeshadow in Alien (pink-peach/golden shift)
Outer corner + lower lash line - Sugarpill Chromalust pigment in Birthday Girl (princess pink with fuchsia sparkles)
Crease - Sugarpill pressed eyeshadow in @#$%! (vampy pearl red with silver metallic sheen)
Liner - Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Desperation (deep taupe to gray matte)
False lashes - Ardell Fairies Black lashes

FACE
Urban Decay Naked Skin liquid foundation in 1.0
Benefit boi-ing concealer in 01
Under eyes - It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Corrector Concentrate Cream in Light
Urban Decay eyeshadow in Scratch (rose gold shimmer)

LIPS
NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Milan (mid-tone blue-toned pink)
Shiro Cosmetics Lip Gloss in Moon Prism Power

celebrity-inspired looks #1 - elizabeth henstridge at the 2014 ctv upfronts

Hello! It's been a while and somehow I logged in to find that I've gotten 70 pageviews today. You're all popping out of the woodwork, what happened?!

Anyway, so if you follow me on Tumblr, you'll notice that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is sort of taking over my life. (And by sort of taking over, I mean has 300% taken over.) I also have a habit of loving casts and their dynamic even more than the show itself, and this show is no different. The ladies of AoS are phenomenal and after I saw this picture of Elizabeth Henstridge, I knew I had to try to copy her look.

(I tried to take a picture with my teeth showing and I just looked so awkward. And yes, I'm wearing a lazy t-shirt because it was disgusting in my room and I didn't want to change!)

What made me want to try this look was the lip colour. I currently don't own anything of the sort, as slightly purple-leaning cool pinks aren't entirely my style. But it looked amazing on Elizabeth, so hey, why not?

I didn't have much of a close-up on her eye makeup, but she seems to favour neutral eyes with a bit of a flick on the eyeliner, so that's what I tried to do. Dot a shimmery, light eyeshadow in the inner corners of your eyes. (Alternatively, you can wait until the end so you can adjust the pigmentation as necessary.) Take a matte eyeshadow close to your natural skin tone and swipe it across your entire lid. This acts as more of a base than a part of the look, as it will make blending the other eyeshadows much easier. Use a gold eyeshadow and pat it onto the centers of your lids, and tap a medium-dark brown eyeshadow into the outer corner. Blend the dark eyeshadow into the lighter shades with a tapered brush.

(By the way, you should all be proud of me: I didn't finger paint my eyeshadows like I usually do!)

Take what's left on your eyeshadow brush and blend it into your lower lash line to give some definition. Use a black gel eyeliner and a small push liner brush (I used Wayne Goss' No. 8 brush, which is sort of a godsend) and press liner into the base of your lashes. Use a normal angled eyeliner brush to line your upper lash line and create a small flick at the outer corners. I completely forgot to use mascara, but you can layer some on after curling your lashes. Falsies are totally optional, but I think Lil is wearing some in that picture so I just went for it.

For the lip colour, I blended two different shades together to achieve a similar look and then added a layer of the lighter colour on top. I think the final colour looks pretty similar, although I can't say for sure as most of the pictures I've seen of her were edited.

Also, might I mention the miracle of layers? My hair is a lot longer than it looks in this picture but my front layers are noticeably shorter. Huzzah!

BROWS
Anastasia Beverly Hills Beauty Express brow kit in Brunette
Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel in Granite

EYES
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
(All eyeshadows from the Sigma Beauty Bare palette)
Inner corner - Approach (pale, warm beige shimmer)
Entire lid - Elope (matte cool beige)
Center of lid - Command (light gold shimmer)
Outer corner - Hitch (matte medium-dark ash-brown)
Liner - Inglot Cosmetics AMC Eyeliner Gel in 77 (matte jet black)
False lashes - Ardell 109 lashes
Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in 15 Fair

FACE
Urban Decay Naked Skin liquid foundation in 1.0
Benefit boi-ing concealer in 01
Josie Maran Coconut Watercolor Cheek Gelée in Poppy Paradise

LIPS
Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Matte Lip Tar in Pretty Boy (super-rich fuchsia) + Stained Gloss in Hedonist (neon pastel pink)

wicked series - glinda the good

Chicago, seriously, can we tone it down with the weather? I love snow far more than the average person (judging off of the Facebook posts I've seen filled with complaints) but this is a little much. And then there's the cold.

Today is colder than the polar vortex days that came through the area two weeks ago, and it's supposed to continue tomorrow. Hopefully, it'll warm up soon because I think I'm going crazy being cooped up in my house, but at least that means I have no excuse to not clean, right? Ahem.

This look was also requested by Meg, who asked for looks based off of the two main characters in Wicked. I happen to have a long standing love for this musical since the 8th grade. I listened to the soundtrack continuously for over a year with almost no variation. It was just always on repeat, and when my then 48-year-old Chinese father started dancing around behind me singing the words to Popular, I knew I had gone too far. I went to see the musical on Broadway with my high school music department and if I hadn't been bone tired from the 3 hours of sleep a night we were averaging, I would have been the most irritating human being that entire day. Trust me.

I slept with my hair in 11 (!!!) little French braids last night and not only did it take forever, but my arms were so sore and I kept missing pieces of hair. So frustrating! But it was worth the trouble because I woke up, took them out minus the one I did around my hairline, and I was left with something akin to crimped hair without the frizz. Well, sort of--you can see the left side of my hair being hilarious.

Anyway! Not that you can entirely see it in the above photo, but the eyeshadow was really fun. Because Glinda's colour scheme in the musical is so varied but always bright and mostly pastel, I focused on her sparkling blue dress when she's travelling by bubble and her pink dress during Popular. (Sidenote: how many of you knew that her dress from the dance into the Popular scene was originally blue?) The original Glinda was also known for her famous pale pink dress.

I started with a light blue matte shadow into the inner third of my lid. Next, I took a pale pink shimmery eyeshadow over the rest of the lid, and then blended the two colours together with a lavender shadow. I blended a deep pink eyeshadow into the crease and tapped on a shimmery, iridescent white eyeshadow up toward the browbone. Taking a shimmery blue-toned iridescent eyeshadow, I traced the colour along my lower lash line.

For eyeliner, I took a white liner to my lower waterline, and a black liner to my upper waterline and lash line. The black eyeliner was mostly to anchor the false lashes so there wasn't a gap between them and my natural lashes.

With a pale pink blush on my cheeks and a slightly shimmery pink gloss on my lips, the look is complete! I mixed a NYX lip cream with a shimmery lip gloss for this because I didn't think a single product would produce the effect I wanted, and I used a bit more of the lip cream along the insides of my lips to give it a bit of a gradient effect.

Glinda is a very whimsical character, so that's the overall effect for which I aimed here. She's cheery and colourful, and you can definitely switch out the blues and pinks for other colours. Maybe the yellow she wore to the Emerald City?

BROWS

Anastasia Beverly Hills Beauty Express brow kit in Brunette

Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel in Granite

EYES

theBalm Put a Lid On It! eyeshadow primer

Inner lid - Sigma Beauty Crème de Couture eyeshadow in Blue Chocolat (light aqua matte) and Blueberry Cream (milky blue velvet matte)

Center lid - Sugarpill Chromalust pigment in Paperdoll (lavender shimmer)

Outer lid - Sugarpill Chromalust pigment in Birthday Girl (princess pink with fuchsia sparkles)

Crease - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Woodstock (saturated deep pink shimmer) + Shiro Cosmetics loose eyeshadow in Moon Prism Power (pale pink-cream shimmer with opalescent green shift and golden sparkle)

Inner corner + lower lash line - Sugarpill Chromalust pigment in Lumi (snow white with turquoise sheen)

Lower waterline - Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Yeyo (metallic white)

Upper lash line - Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero (black)

False lashes - Ardell Double Up Lashes in 201 Black

FACE

Urban Decay Naked Skin liquid foundation in 1.0

Urban Decay 24/7 Concealer Pencil in DEA

Under eyes - Benefit Fake Up Concealer in 01 Light

Sigma Beauty Crème de Couture Blush in Strawberry Ambrosia

LIPS

NYX Xtreme Lip Cream in Strawberry Jam (geranium pink) + Shiro Cosmetics lip gloss in Moon Prism Power

look of the day - retro inspiration

I've always been a fan of 50s-inspired hair and makeup and that was only made the more obvious to me when I joined a jazz a cappella group during my years at university. I'm still too lazy to do my hair and now there are too many layers for me to attempt any sort of decent curl, but maybe one day I'll actually do the makeup and the hair and post the results.

I look like I'm trying to channel the sexy librarian look, which, let's face it, is pretty awesome. Yes, that is the same sweater from Wednesday's post where the pictures were taking on Monday. Don't judge--I love it and it was cheap!

I'm usually not a big fan of lip products because all I do is chew on things when I'm sitting there doing nothing, but I just bought one of Revlon's new matte balm pencils and it's fantastic. I don't know how to describe it exactly since I put it on over another red lipstick in these photographs, but the colour is this really wonderful neutral red that is slightly dark and leans just a tad warm.

My bangs are doing something weird in these photos, but disregarding that, I love wearing a red lip with winged liner and no blush. In reality, I really hate blush because I'm naturally a tomato (yay rosacea!) but I love some subtle contouring. It actually kind of looks like I have cheekbones here!

BROWS
Anastasia Beverly Hills Beauty Express brow kit in Brunette
Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel in Granite

EYES
Lid - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Foxy (very light yellow/white matte)
Crease - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Faint (warm, dusty brown matte)
Upper waterline - Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion (matte blackest black)
Liner - Maybelline Line Stiletto Ultimate Precision Liquid Eyeliner in Blackest Black
Lashes - Maybelline Volum' Express the Mega Plush mascara in Blackest Black
False lashes - Ardell Wispies Black lashes

FACE
Urban Decay Naked Skin liquid foundation in 1.0
Under eyes - Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in 15 Fair
Benefit boi-ing concealer in 01 Light
Contour - Maybelline Fit Me foundation stick in 235
Highlight - Benefit high beam

LIPS
Maybelline Color Sensational Vivid lipstick in 895 On Fire Red
Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in 250 Standout

Coming up next, I'll be posting about all the drugstore lippies I've bought over the last two weeks because I'm trying to find colours I enjoy and then I might splurge, but for now, the drugstore options are pretty wonderful. Have a great weekend!

halloween looks - broken doll tutorial

Wow, it's been a week since my last post. I've been lacking in inspiration and focus as of late, but I just discovered a desire to try special effects makeup and I went full out with recreating my look from last Halloween.

Ta-da! This was my last-minute costume that I wore to my a cappella group's rehearsal. I had my hair in tight ringlets and only managed to curl about 2/3s of my hair before we had to go and I was already late... And it still took me two hours to do the hair alone. I wore a dress I bought at Hot Topic, ripped nylons, and round-toed black heels. I think it worked well for something I slapped together.

There are a few changes I made this time around: I filled in my eyebrows to mimic a more rounded shape, I didn't bother curling my hair with a 1/2" iron, and I chose a lighter lip colour.

Pre-broken doll...

My hair takes too long to curl regardless of what I do to it, but I think this was worth it. If you want to try this for Halloween, you don't even need to curl your hair! You can just put your hair into pigtails of your choice, but I was going for a very made up doll look. The tutorial follows the next picture and if anyone needs a detailed description and/or photo for a particular step, please don't hesitate to ask.

1. Prime your face. I'm using Embryolisse Lait-Creme Concentre because it's wonderful and my skin needs the extra moisture, but you can use a normal foundation primer if you'd prefer. (If you want to go all out and use circle contacts, put those in now before you start your makeup!)
2. Using a foundation brush, cover your face with a foundation that is one shade lighter than your skin tone. You can forgo the lighter foundation if you don't have it, of course, but they don't call them porcelain dolls for nothing.
3. Conceal as needed. I have a lot of redness in my cheeks, so I focused on that and on the dark spots around my face. Dolls have completely flawless skin, so aim for that. You can also use a full-coverage foundation so you don't need to do as much concealing!
4. After applying eye primer, use a matte shadow that is close to the colour of your skin on each eyelid. You don't need to be precise with this--it's mostly to help the rest of the eyeshadow blend more easily. (Here's the fun part: you don't need to stick to the eyeshadow look I've done here! As long as you keep it simple, anything goes. If you want to use a light blue eyeshadow, go for it. Use a green, if you'd prefer!)
5. Using a matte shadow that is a few shades darker than your skintone, work the colour into the crease of your eye. Make sure to blend blend blend! When you're done with this, use the same shade and contour slightly around your nose. You want to connect the inner corner of your brow to your nose and then draw a straight line down, and then shade the tip of your nose to get the dainty doll look. Make sure to blend out all the harsh lines. (I forgot to do this here, but you can also brush the shadow below your bottom lip to make your lips appear fuller. Add a little white pencil on your cupid's bow, too!)
6. Take a matte black shadow and work that into the crease over the nude shadow. This is mainly to provide definition that will emphasise the doll lashes you'll be putting on later.
7. Fill in your eyebrows! Mine are naturally thick so I didn't want to work against that. Dolls tend to have thin eyebrows so if you have thin brows or your brows are light, try playing around with changing the shape of your brows! Aim for a soft, rounded shape with no discernible arch.
8. Line the waterline and just under your eye with a white pencil. You're shooting for big eyes, and this will work in your favour.
9. Line your upper lash line with a black pencil. This will give you a place to hide the false lashes.
10. Draw a dashed line with your black pencil below where you've used the white pencil on your lower lash line.
11. Curl your lashes and add a coat or two of mascara. Now for the fun part: glue on those falsies! Thickness is not what you're aiming for--you want a pair of long, fluttery lashes.
12. Using a red blush or shadow, go wild with colour on your cheeks. I used an eyeshadow with a sightly heavy hand. Focus the colour on the apples of your cheek and don't be afraid to make the colour bold.
13. Take a taupe or brown pencil and dot some fake freckles on over the cheeks and the bridge of your nose. You don't want these to look too perfectly spaced, but aim for clean dots.
14. Take a pink lipstick (or lip product of your choice) and fill in your lips. Don't be afraid to exaggerate the look and work out of your lip line! Dolls have naturally pouty lips so you can focus on the bottom lip and not apply anything at the corners of your mouth. If you have very pigmented lips, you might want to put a little concealer into the corners with a concealer brush.
15. Place a bit of a light pink gloss on the center of your bottom lip.
16. Time to make yourself as creepy as possible! Take a sharp black pencil and lightly begin to trace where you want the cracks and chips to go. Don't make these lines too harsh at first and don't think too hard about what you're doing with the lines. Make them haphazard! You can outline large pieces that will be missing.
17. Fill in the large broken pieces. Use the pencil with a heavy hand to fill in the outlines to make them appear more multi-dimensional.
18. If you're going out, you can possibly set your face with a translucent powder. However, the black pencil might prove difficult. Test it before you go out, and if that doesn't work, a setting spray will help tremendously.
19. Keep reminding yourself not to touch your face. If you look at the first photo in this post, you can see that the eyeliner kept smudging because I have that bad habit of touching my face constantly. I'd also advise not to put a big missing chunk on your nose because that's likely where you're smudge things first.

BROWS
Sephora Brow Sculpting Pencil in Dark
Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel in Granite

EYES
Lid - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Foxy (very light yellow/white matte)
Crease - Urban Decay eyeshadow in Naked2 (taupe matte), Faint (warm, dusty brown matte) + Crave (deepest, darkest brown/black matte)
Upper lash line - Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero (black)
Lower lash line - Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Yeyo (metallic white) and Zero (black)
Lashes - Maybelline Volum' Express the Mega Plush mascara in Blackest Black
False lashes - Ardell lashes in #105 Black

FACE
Marc Jacobs Gel Genius Foundation in 10 Ivory Light
On cheeks - MAKE UP FOR EVER Full Cover Concealer in Pink Porcelain 1
Benefit Fake Up concealer in 01 Light
Under eyes - Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in 15 Fair
Blush - Sugarpill pressed eyeshadow in @#$%! (vampy pearl red with silver metallic sheen)
Fake freckles - Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Desperation (deep taupe to gray matte)
Broken patches - wet n wild coloricon eyeliner in black

LIPS
NYX Soft matte Lip Cream in Sao Paulo (plummy-pink)
NYX Butter Gloss in Merengue (pink lilac)

My mom told me that I'm creepy. I think that means this is a success.