Tuesday, March 30, 2010

HAUL

Hi Lovelies!
Today's post will be on MAC Give Me Liberty of London haul. It came out about three weeks ago and I love the packaging. I love the cute little flowers and birds! This makes Spring official and I'm so glad I got everything I wanted.






Here's what I got:

Beauty Powder Blushes
Shell Pearl
Summer Rose

Eyeshadows
Dame's Desire
Bough Grey
Birds and Berries

English Accents Lipglass
Blooming Lovely Lipstick

Aside from the collection,
I also bought:
Green Smoke and Free to Be eyeshadow
True Babe Lipglass
Dubonnet Lipstick
Artifact Paint Pot
#138 brush

I love the #138 brush because it contours the face beautifully and it's so soft. I hope you enjoy!

*FTC Disclaimer* I purchased the items myself.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Prom Makeup 2010

Hi Dolls,
Today's post will be on Prom Makeup I did for a few girls for their Senior Prom. How exciting, right? It seems like purples and pinks are all the rage this prom season. I did makeup for 3 lovely clients and they were very pleased with the results.

My first client is Vanessa. As you can see in the picture below, Vanessa had her hair pinned back with beautiful curls and classic chandelier earrings. She was going for an Old Hollywood look but with a twist of purple. How clever! Vanessa printed out a photo of eyeshadow that was a purple smokey eye and chose. On to the pictures of the girls for their big night!





Products used:
Face
Cetaphil Moisturizer (Equate Brand)
MAC Prep and Prime Skin Base Visage
Eve Pearl Magic Salmon Concealer underneath eyes(Medium)
Bobbi Brown Concealer in Peach
Graftobian High Definition Warm Color Palette
MAC Bronzer in Bronze
MAC Mineralized Skinfinish in Dark
MAC Blush Ombre in Azalea Blossom (Love this blush)
MAC Prep and Prime finishing powder

Eyes
Embark eyeshadow (Brows)
Painterly Paint Pot
Ricepaper
Violet and Push The Edge Pigment
Carbon
CoverGirl Lash-Blast Mascare
E.L.F. Lashes

Lips
Vaseline
Magenta Lip Pencil


My next client is Ciara. Ciara wanted a very soft pink eye with a hint of a sliver and pink glitter and soft cheeks and lips. Ciara's hair is long and she went for a pretty half up do with curls.






Products used:
Face
Cetaphil moisturizer
MAC Prep and Prime Skin Base Visage
Eve Pearl Magic Salmon Concealer (Light)
Graftobian High Definition Warm Color Palette
MAC Pink Swoon blush
MAC Prep and Prime Finishing Powder

Eyes
Embark eyeshadow (Brows)
Painterly Paint Pot
Silverstroke Fluidline (lid)
Ricepaper
Passionate Eyeshadow
Sushi Flower Eyeshadow
Electra Eyeshadow
Kitchmas Pigment
*Ciara opted out for false lashes and used her own mascara. She has pretty lashes!

Lips
Vaseline
Soar Lip Pencil
MAC Viva Glam VI Special Edition Lipstick


Last but certainly not least, my client Gina wanted a purple smokey eye with a hint of pink. Gina wore her hair in an updo with curls and a pretty purple top and pencil skirt.




Products used:
Face
Cetaphil Moisturizer
MAC Skin Base Visage
Graftobian High Definition Warm Color Palette
MAC Bronzer in Bronze
MAC Frankly Scarlet Blush
MAC Prep and Prime Finishing Powder

Eyes
Handwritten Eyeshadow (Brows)
Painterly Paint Pot
Eve Pearl Magic Salmon Concealer (Dark)
MAC Ricepaper
MAC Stars n' Rockets
MAC Girlie
MAC Sketch
E.L.F. Lashes

Lips
Vaseline
MAC Magenta Lip Pencil
MAC Up The Amp Lipstick
MAC Sugarrimmed Dazzle Glass

Here is Vanessa and Gina in their Prom dresses. Ciara had to leave and pickup her peach colored dress from home so I was not able to get a picture of her. :(







The end of the appointments. The girls all looked beautiful! I'm sure they had a blast hanging out and dancing at prom. Yay for Class of 2010!

Monday, March 22, 2010

My Old Faithfuls

Hi Dolls,
Today's post is on hair products and I hope everyone is well and enjoying the transition from Winter to Spring. Hair products may vary for everyone from season to season but I for one stick with my "Old Faithfuls" all year round. I have my moments when I want different hair styles whether it's choppy layers all over, longer hair with bangs or right now I'm totally into long hair with longer layers. I love it because my hair is not as high maintenance to style and it not so time consuming. Besides, I would rather spend my time doing my makeup rather than my hair. :)




No matter what type of hair style phase I'm in, I always stick with these products.
Starting from left to right:

Redken Workforce 09 Hairspray is fabulous. I would say it is more of a mist rather than spray. It smells great and makes it easy to comb my fingers through my hair whenever I need to and it's lasts a long time.

Redken Guts 10 is basically a root booster. I usually spray a liberal amount at the crown of my head when my hair is damp and use my fingers to really work it in my hair otherwise once my hair dries it will stay crunchy, hehe. Once I work it in, I blow dry my hair with a large round brush and I've got tons of volume and full, voluminous hair.

Tresemme Heat Tamer is basically a hair life saver. I could not be without this product! When my hair is wet, I comb it out and spray a generous amount all through the bottom half of my hair. I spray a few times near the top of my head but the heat from the blow dryer, flat iron, curling iron and hair wand is mainly focused on the bottom half of my hair. Ive been using this for about 3 years now and I have noticed a huge difference at the ends of my hair. I don't get split ends nearly as quick as I used to. A huge plus is that the spray is vitamin enriched which is great because it's healthy for your hair.

Next is my Ojon dry shampoo spray. I know this may sound nasty but I don't like to wash my hair everyday because I feel it's not good for my hair. I use this for second day hair. Once I'm ready to style my hair I will spray this a the top of my hair, wait a few minutes until it turns white and then rub it out with my fingers. I like this because it takes out the oil in my hair and it makes my hair look clean and smell powdery fresh.

TIGI Bed Head After Party is definitely a classic. I've been using this since I was about 18 and I use it to make the bottom half of my hair shiny and feel smooth. The texture is amazing and a little bit of After Party goes a long way. If you ever use it, be sure not to get too much out other wise it you put it in your hair, it will make your hair appear super oily.

I got my pink teasing hair comb as a little prezzie from my sister. I like it because it has two rows to tease your hair with and it really grabs your hair and who wouldn't love a pink comb, right?

Finally, I have my pomade that I use to give my hair some control and texture. This pomade is unlike any other I have tried and it's extremely thick. It has a lemon-y smell and does a great job with styling my hair. I love this pomade!

I hope you all learned something new about my hair styling products. The Redken, Tresemme, and Bed Head products can be bought at Ulta. I think the pink teasing comb is from Sally's and I got my pomade from my hair salon. What are some of your favorite hair products? Let me know. Take care!

- Nicki

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

San Diego

Hi Dolls! This post isn't exactly beauty related but I thought I'd share some pictures of my trip to San Diego. Last week I went to beautiful San Diego, California with my family and I loved every minute of it. While there, we went to Mission Beach, Sea World and of course did some shopping at a few places including Fashion Valley Mall. There is no place like San Diego, it is so green and I love how everything is up-hill. SD is very different from Phoenix but there's no place like home!

I also wanted to do a comparison on two brushes that I had mentioned in a previous post. One is the MAC 239 and the other is a Loew Cornell 3/8. In the pictures below, you will see the MAC brush is black and the Loew Cornell brush is purple. These brushes are great for brow bone highlighting and applying color to the lid. The MAC 239 is around $25 and the Loew Cornell 3/8 is around $5. I bought the Loew Cornell at Michael's which is an awesome arts and crafts store and both brushes work great! I would recommend either one. However, if you are looking for a great quality eye shadow brush that is inexpensive, buy the Loew Cornell 3/8. The cool thing about Michael's is that the send out coupons in the Sunday paper here in Arizona so you can buy your brush at an even lower price. Pretty sweet, right?!?




Here is a picture from an "All Decades" party that my boyfriend and I went to a couple of weeks ago. We decided that we didn't want to match and dress in different decades. He went as a Thunder Bird, better known as a "T-Bird". Check out his wig LOL! It's hilarious we were all laughing all night. He kept having to fix it and brush it because it kept messing up. I went dress in 80s. Although you can't tell what eye shadow colors I was wearing due to my glasses, I had on eye makeup.

Eyes
-Rice Paper as my highlight
-Swiss Chocolate in my crease
-Nylon on my lid

Face
-Studio Fix Fluid in NC 30
-Azalea Blossom Blush Ombre

Lips
-Carmex to prep
-Brick lip pencil
-Cockney lipstick




I had to write my name in the sand lol. It was such a beautiful day!



Shamu!



Soaking in the Sun rays! :P



Quick snap of me in the car. The windows were down and my hair looks crazy lol!



How beautiful!



Betsy Johnson Girls at Fashion Valley! How fun do they look? As a Makeup Artist and Fashion major, I found their hair, makeup, and clothes so inspiring!



My super cute Madonna shirt. I love Madonna's music from the 80s! "Get Into The Groove" is probably my most favorite song.



MAC 130 brush and Two Virtues blush



MAC Viva Glam makeup bag. I think this is the coolest MAC makeup bag I've ever seen.


The other side of the bag. Pretty red lips = Oooo



I got this Coach wallet from one of the Coach outlets stores. The day I bought this, they were having a huge sale so I ended up paying only $28 for this. What a steal!


This bad boy only cost $30. Not bad for a Coach makeup bag. I had to buy it. It was calling me!




My cool Jelly fish I got from Sea World



My baby Shamu that my Brother-In-Law bought for me. Thanks, Bryan!



I bought these pretty crystals at Sea World. I haven't seen anything like them and at $5 a piece, I totally thought they were worth it.


MAC 239 and Loew Cornell 3/8



This pic is blurry but hopefully you can see the comparison :)

Til next time Dolls! I can't wait for Give Me Liberty of London Collection. The Beauty Powder Blushes look fabulous and I can't wait to try them out.