Madd Style Cosmetics: Golden Mint Chocolate Tutorial

After receiving the Emerald City grab bag, I felt compelled to use Wishes & Wonders! I've had this crazy obsession with the color 'mint' lately and this eyeshadow did. not. disappoint. I also had the urge to do something a little different and decided it was time to try and incorporate gold into my look. When I was done 'playing' I realized that these colors kind of remind me of the different colors in my own eyes! ha ha

Products used for this look:

Top left: Stila smudge stick waterproof eye liner in "stargazer", theBalm What's Your Type? mascara in "the body builder",

Tick:Tock Infinity Eye Shadow Base in "Milky Way", Too Faced Shadow Insurance Anti-Crease Eye Shadow Primer, 

and NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in "Pure Gold"

Bottom left: bdellium tools brushes #781, #777, #716, and #760

Top &bottom right: Madd Style Cosmetics eyeshadow pigments in: 

Wishes & Wonders, Chocomint Robot, Birf'day Suit, & Honey Badger

Start off by applying your preferred eye shadow primer and base! :)

Grab your eye shadow brush and pat 'Wishes & Wonders' all over your lid. Use a lighter hand toward the inner and outer corners of your eye, and lightly blend up into your crease.

Using the outer corner of your lower lash line as a guide for the angle/placement - very lightly apply 'Chocomint Robot' to the outer corner of your eye up into the crease. 

To soften and blend (if you prefer), go in with a shade that matches your skin tone. In my case, I grabbed 'Birf'day Suit' and blended out the edges of 'Chocomint Robot'.

Your last step(s) is/are all about eye liner (and don't forget the mascara)! I used my NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in 'Pure Gold' on my waterline to give 'Honey Badger' a little something to adhere to. I also applied 'Honey Badger' to the inner corner of my eye and finished up by adding Stila smudge stick in 'stargazer'. :)

Thanks for viewing! :)

Ipsy: March Glam Bag

A hot pink bubble mailer showed up in my mailbox yesterday...! The "Great Escape" themed Ipsy bag for March! :)

Pictured:

Glam RX - Mini Freestyle Palette

Yaby - eyeshadow refill in 'Seashell'

Yaby - eyeshadow refill in 'Azalea Petal'

LA Fresh - Travel-Lite Makeup Remover 8ct

Juice Beauty - Hydrating Mist

Lets just dive right in!

Glam RX - Mini Freestyle Palette

From my understanding this mini freestyle palette was made exclusively for our glam bags this month. They are normally sold as a touch up palette (with a top compartment containing: shine eraser, eyeliner, concealer, and lip balm). The touch up palette can be purchased here and retails for $16.50.

Other than that - this cute little magnetic palette is about the same as their touch up palette. It is the size of a credit card (just thicker) and opens up like a book. A magnetic closure makes it easy to open and close, and it also has a nice little mirror on the inside of the cover. :)

The top left photo shows the cover, while the photo on the right shows what it looks like when open (and empty!). The photo on the bottom left will hopefully give you a better idea of how tiny this palette is - pictured inside the palette are my two yaby eyeshadows (15.5mm pan size) next to my Mirabella eyeshadow from a previous glam bag (26mm pan size). Click to enlarge the photo. :)

Yaby - eyeshadow refills in 'Azalea Petal' & 'Seashell'

Yaby eyeshadow refills retail for $3.15 and can be purchased here. However, since Yaby is a Canadian based company you may want to check out the selection carried by Camera Ready Cosmetics here. ;)

My favorite part about this company is that they are vegan friendly and cruelty-free. I also found the eyeshadows to be quite pigmented and easy to work with. The colors I received would not have been my first choice but they are quite lovely all the same :) Browsing their website, the first thing that caught my eye was packaging. Almost all of their products are sold as refills! This not only keeps the cost down, but makes everything less bulky and easier to store and use on the go. Not to mention if you were to ever hit pan on a product - you can easily clean and reuse for mixing. ;)

The top left photo shows the convenient labeling on the bottom of the eyeshadows as well as the clam shell container they arrived in which kept them nice and safe. Bottom left is a size comparison between a MAC eyeshadow refill (26mm) and the Yaby eyeshadow refill (15.5mm). The Yaby refill pans are slightly taller (but smaller) whereas the MAC pans are shorter and wider - if that makes sense? ha ha

Top right is a close-up of Azalea Petal and Seashell, and bottom right is the swatch I did over NYX JEP in 'Milk'!

LA Fresh - Travel-Lite Makeup Remover Wipes (8ct)

LA Fresh travel friendly makeup wipes typically retail for $1.99 each and can be purchased from their website here. I love that these come in a resealable package.. and, well, let's face it - this little 8ct package is 100 X better than the single use packet I received in a previous Birchbox! ha ha

Looking forward to trying these out and I love that they carry a variety of products - from nail polish remover wipes, antibacterial wipes, shoe shine wipes, etc.. they basically have it all covered! Impressive!

Juice Beauty - Hydrating Mist

We received a deluxe sized sample (1 fl oz/30ml). A full size (6.75 fl oz/200ml) retails for $22 and can be purchased here. (1/6.75 * 22 = $3.26)

Pretty excited to try out another Juice Beauty product! Though I have to say.. I'm not quite sure how I feel about a toner in spray form just yet ;) I'm not at all bothered by the scent and actually find it to be refreshing, light, and more 'natural' rather than perfume-y! Whew!

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the bag this month &I'm enjoying all of the products we received. There was a different eyeshadow variation ('So Vein' & 'Sand Dune') that was sent out as well - I honestly wish I had received that combo instead. But, I love the colors I received regardless - heck, I love all the colors! I'm not hard to please and I totally hoard them all..! (... it's my weakness.. gotta catch 'em all..)...errr, I mean.. anyway!

I've seen others mention it and I think that this bag is lacking in comparison to previous months.. Everything seems so much smaller than usual? Not as many samples? I can't quite put my finger on it.. But I hope it won't be a reoccurring theme. I have a hard time complaining because quite frankly all of these products are multi-use and at least we aren't getting foil packets. I seriously am not missing foil packets at all..

The bag itself has the most amazing print and I adore it nonetheless, but the material used is really thin and.. cheap feeling? I can't even describe it! I'm just hoping I can make it last a while. Nautical designs get me every time. <3

(in case you couldn't see it very well up there)

Updated to add my 'look' using the eyeshadow colors I received! :)

This is Seashell (inner corner/highlight) & Azalea Petal (on the lid). 

I used my Stila smudge stick in 'Oscar Fish' for my liner, 

& Stila kajal eye liner in 'Pearl' on my waterline. 

Mascara is theBalm What's Your Type? "the body builder" :)

Thanks everyone! <3 <3

FTC: This subscription is paid for by myself/by my boyfriend. I am not being compensated to write this post, these are my honest opinions on the products and company. All photos of products and swatches were taken by me in natural lighting, and are unaltered aside from cropping/collaging!

Coastal Scents: Haul + Hot Pot Swatches

This is a post I've been unintentionally slacking on (quite majorly)! I've been wanting to share my Coastal Scents haul of goodies that I purchased during their Black Friday sale. Yep.. you read that right! During their Black Friday sale.. oops. ;)

I actually stumbled upon a LivingSocial* deal (back in October) for a Coastal Scents voucher. The deal was $12 for a $25 voucher to use on the Coastal Scents website. At the time, I wasn't sure what I wanted to use it for.. but I had a few items in mind that I had been wanting to purchase. It was a good deal so I figured.. why not!? And then I got wind of their Black Friday sale (every year, they have had a 50% off sale - entire site marked down!)..... I knew what I was saving my voucher for!
*LivingSocial is a daily deal site much like Groupon! But, my favorite part about LivingSocial.. If you purchase a deal and then share that deal with your friends - if at least three of them decide to purchase the same deal, using your share link, you get yours for free! They can also share after their purchase and get three more friends to buy to get their deal for free, too! ;)
If you are interested in checking out LivingSocial/signing up - you can use my referral link if you like and LivingSocial will set you up with 5 'Deal Bucks' to get you started!

I had been anticipating the sale and so I was a bit ahead of the game by making my 'wishlist' (or rather.. 'plan to purchase' list) ahead of time. While I was adding things to my little virtual shopping cart (Thursday night), I noticed that they had already marked everything down to 50% off before making the big announcement. I didn't waste any time - I got my order in quite a bit early. ;) I had absolutely no issues with using my voucher toward my purchase (it acted as a coupon code, no code was needed during the 50% off sale = score!). Shipping was a  bit high for me but it was totally worth it! I know many people dealt with delayed orders/shipping because of how big the sale was - so I consider myself extremely lucky to have placed my order when I did. I only had to wait a week for it to arrive!

So...I wonder what this could be? ;) ...

The box was insanely bright! &Everything arrived safely bubble wrapped together 

and secured by tons and tons of tissue paper. :)

Here it is!:

Pictured: CS Winterberry Palette, CS Creative Me #1 Palette, CS Empty Magnetic Palette,

12 Hot Pots eyeshadows, two African Black Soap samples.

I made my own 'custom' palette by ordering an empty magnetic palette (retails for $5.95) and picked out 12 Hot Pot eyeshadows (retails for $1.99 each) to fill it with. The other two palettes had quite a bit of the colors I already wanted and it was much cheaper to purchase them in the pre-made palettes. :)

The palettes are pretty small and compact - when open, the entire top of the palette is a mirror &the bottom holds the eyeshadow pans magnetically. There is a small indention which makes it easy to lift out the eyeshadow pan if you ever decide you want to switch them up/rearrange them! The only thing that bothers me about the palettes is that the pans move around easily (I noticed this quite a bit when I was in the middle of doing swatches). Now on to the swatches!

I added in the text for the names of each color (and the previous number they went by before they were named).  As always, swatches are done over NYX JEP in Milk and are photographed in natural lighting. :)

Winterberry palette &swatches:

Creative Me #1 palette &swatches:

(Holy brights, batman!) I have to warn you, these colors have some staining power!
(Neon Red, Neon Bright Pink, Deep Grape, Magenta &Indigo leave a tint of pink behind).

'Teal Green' is just barely lighter than 'Shamrock Green' - also

'Teal Green' has a hint more blue, 'Shamrock Green' has a hint more green! 

Both photographed more blue, but in the eyeshadow pan (in person) they appear more green. 

Once again, 'Teal Green' & 'Shamrock Green' photographed much too blue. :( 

In person, these are much more on the green side and not cyan/blue.

Also - 'Indigo' is a beautiful blurple and photographed a tiny bit more blue.

My 'custom' palette &swatches:

Hot Pots in: Bombay, Light Slate, Empress Teal, Virbrant Blue Green,

Periwinkle (M11), Thistle Lavender (M15), Vibrant Plum, Profound Plum,

Bronze Peach (B03), Fine Wine, Light Taupe (M16), Timeless Taupe

Coastal Scents eyeshadows are pretty fantastic (especially for the price point)! I've never had any problems with application - as long as I use a good eye shadow primer and base (for them to stick/adhere to), these work very well for me. Some of these shades are meant to be more 'sheer' but all of them are really easy to build up. :)

I hope this post will be helpful, thanks for looking/reading! <3 <3

FTC: These items were paid for by myself/by my boyfriend. I am not being compensated to write this post, these are my honest opinions on the products and company. All photos were taken by me in natural lighting, &are unaltered aside from cropping/collaging!

Madd Style Cosmetics: Smitten with my Doctor Who mattes Tutorial

Hey everyone! :)  It's been a bit of a hectic (but fun!) month for me - lots and lots of celebrating. Between Valentine's Day, my birthday and anniversary.. I haven't been around too much, but I hope you don't mind me squeezing in a pretty girly look for our last day of February! :)

Here's what I used to create this look:

Pictured:

Top left: Too Faced Shadow Insurance Anti-Crease Eye Shadow Primer

& Tick:Tock Cosmetics Infinity Eye Shadow Base in 'Milky Way'

Bottom left: Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in 'Perversion'

& theBalm 'What's Your Type?' mascara in 'the body builder'

Top &middle right: MSC eyeshadow pigments in: "Smitten" Potion, Birf'day Suit, 

I think you call me Sexy, Hallucinogenic Lipstick, &Bow Ties are cool

Bottom right: bdellium tools green bambu brushes #716, #777 & #781

Start off by applying your eye shadow primer and eye shadow base. I like to focus my eye shadow base on my eyelid and gently blend it out and up to my brow.

Next up, grab 'I think you call me Sexy' and apply this to the inner corner of your eyelid until about mid lid and then bring this color up lightly above your crease.

Then, lightly add in some 'Hallucinogenic Lipstick' focusing on the center of your lid (try keeping this below where you placed 'I think you call me Sexy' above your crease).

A little goes a long way with 'Bow Ties are cool,' so when applying to the outermost portion of your lid, you may want to use a small amount and build this color up little by little :)

Go back in and make sure you do a little bit of blending with your colors. To brighten up the inner corner/duct, apply '"Smitten" Potion' to give a bit of a glow.

After playing with '"Smitten" Potion' a bit, I decided I wanted more sparkle. ;)
I first went in with 'Birf'day Suit' to blend out/soften the area above my crease to just below the brow, and then took a tiny bit of '"Smitten" Potion' and sort of 'dusted' right along the area above my crease.

Last but not least.. Apply your eyeliner and mascara and you're all done!.. (unless you're like me and fell in love with '"Smitten" Potion' so much you had to add it to your bottom lash line, too... hehe) ;)

Thanks for looking! &I hope you all enjoyed! :D

Ipsy (formerly MyGlam): February 2013

It's that time again! My February Ipsy bag arrived yesterday! :)
The theme this month is 'Red Carpet Ready' which, I think, is a bit of a breath of fresh air - I'm quite happy to see that not everything is centered around Valentine's Day this month.
The only varying product for subscribers this month was the Coastal Scents eye shadow sample set. There were two different sample sets sent out ('In The Spotlight' containing Dark Goldenrod, Sunbeam, Golden Globe, &Dark Golden Olive and 'Glitz & Glamour' containing Candlelight, Gunmetal, Incognito, &Ashen).

Here's a look at my Ipsy bag and the products I received:

Pictured:

Lash Card - The Lash Card

POP Beauty - Smoky Lash Kapow!!! mascara in 'Smoky Black'

Coastal Scents - 'In The Spotlight' eye shadow sample set

MicaBeauty Cosmetics - Gel Eyeliner in black

Pixi - Flawless & Poreless pore minimizing face primer

&now for the close-ups!:

Lash Card - The Lash Card deluxe sample

I received a deluxe sample containing four lash cards (individually wrapped as pictured above - click to enlarge the photo :)). These retail for $6.99 per pack of ten on their website, found here. My deluxe sample is an estimated value of $2.80 (4/10 * $6.99 = $2.796).

Personally, this isn't a product I feel like I would need or use often.. but I will likely still give them a shot eventually. If nothing else, they may come in handy for catching fallout while applying overly glittery eyeshadows. ;)

POP Beauty - Smoky Lash Kapow!!! mascara in 'Smoky Black'

I received a deluxe sized sample (0.17oz/4.8g) and a full size (0.25oz/7g) retails for $18.50 on their website, found here. My deluxe sample is an estimated value of $12.58 (0.17oz/0.25oz * $18.50 = $12.58).

I've seen a lot of bad reviews so far, but I actually quite like this mascara. Bottom line is that it didn't replace my holy grail mascara (Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes) but it worked decently enough that I will finish off the sample. This mascara gave me more length and volume, but it can easily get clumpy during application, wouldn't hold much of a curl, and transferred/smudged underneath my eyes after a few hours of wear.

Coastal Scents - 'In The Spotlight' eye shadow sample set

I received a quad of these little sample sized eyeshadows (2g/0.07oz) with an approximate value of .99cents each. These samples are actually comparable to the size of the eyeshadows found in their 88, 120, & 252 palettes and NOT the size of their Hot Pots eyeshadows (which retail at $1.99 ea.). You can visit their website here. 

We've received this type of sample set in the past, and a size comparison can be found here from my previous post about them. :)

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love and highly recommend Coastal Scents. These eyeshadows are great quality and highly pigmented at a fraction of the cost! I own a few of their palettes myself, and I have a ton of swatches I still need to post from the most recent palettes I've purchased.. but, for now.. here's some quick swatches for the 'In The Spotlight' sample set I received! ;)

Left to right: Dark Goldenrod, Sunbeam, Golden Globe, Dark Golden Olive

*Swatches were done over NYX JEP in 'Milk', 

&photographed in natural sunlight.

MicaBeauty Cosmetics - gel eyeliner in black

I believe these MicaBeauty gel eyeliners we received are full size, though the container doesn't specify. A full size (0.18oz/5g) retails for $35 on their website here, and typically comes with a cap that has a brush inside.

I cannot even put into words how much I love this eyeliner! Super creamy, super pigmented, very easy to use (thankfully I have a few eyeliner brushes already). Also love using this on my waterline.

Pixi - Flawless & Poreless pore minimizing face primer

I received a deluxe sample (15ml/0.5fl oz.) and a full size (30ml/1.01fl oz.) retails for $29 on their website here. My deluxe sample is an estimated value of $14.50 (15ml/30ml * $29 = $14.50).

I'm not super impressed with this primer, unfortunately. :/ The consistency is a bit watery at first but after rubbing it into my skin it feels more like I'm applying lotion. I expected it to feel really hydrating, but instead it feels drying on my skin.. maybe not so good for the 'winter' months. heh 

I'm not ready to give up on this primer just yet!

Last but not least.. I put together a look using the products from my Ipsy bag this month. I also had a hard time capturing this look with my camera.. so, please forgive my silliness. :)

*Products used:

eyeshadows: all colors are from my Coastal Scents sample set aside from the brow highlight which is a random white from my Coastal Scents 88 palette.

Sunbeam (inner corner/duct), Golden Globe (inner portion of lid), Dark Goldenrod (outer portion of lid), Dark Golden Olive (outer corner/crease)

eyeliner: MicaBeauty Cosmetics gel liner in black (upper lash line/wing and waterline)

mascara: POP Beauty Smoky Lash Kapow!!! mascara in Smoky Black (upper and lower lashes)

Hope you all are having a wonderful Valentine's Day, thanks for reading! :)

FTC: This sub was paid for by myself/by my boyfriend. I am not being compensated to write this post, these are my honest opinions on the products and company. All photos were taken by myself in natural lighting, are unaltered aside from cropping/collaging!

Madd Style Cosmetics: Sheer Sparkle Tutorial

I was playing around with some of my newest MSC additions and actually liked how this turned out! It looks so much more shimmery in person, and 'Fade Away' has such a beautiful blue-purple iridescence that was seemingly impossible for me to photograph. Even though the weather hasn't been on my side (at least for photographing makeup, anyway) I hope you will still enjoy this look I put together. <3

Here are the products I used to achieve this look:

Top left: Tick:Tock Cosmetics Infinity Eye Shadow Base in 'Milky Way' 

& Too Faced Shadow Insurance Anti-Crease Eye Shadow Primer

Middle left: Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in 'Zero'

& theBalm 'What's Your Type?" mascara in 'the body builder'

Bottom left: bdellium tools green bambu brushes #777 & #781

Top &bottom right: MSC eyeshadow pigments in: 

Birf'day Suit, Frankenberry, The Zed Word, &Fade Away

Apply your eye shadow primer and eye shadow base :) I focus my base on the lid, but lightly bring it all the way up to the brow.

Next, using a shadow brush, apply 'Frankenberry' to the inner-most part of your lid. Use a lighter touch as you get closer to the center of the lid.

Still using your shadow brush (I continue to use the same shadow brush - I keep a paper towel handy &wipe my brush off between switching colors) apply 'The Zed Word' to the rest of your lid. Focus 'The Zed Word' more on the center of your lid, lighten your application toward the outer corner. You may want to overlap 'Frankenberry' a bit to help them blend a little better.

Next up is 'Fade Away' :) Apply using a shadow brush (or whichever brush works best for you!) to the outer corner of your lid, working slightly into the crease &blending with 'The Zed Word'

I then went ahead a blended my colors together a bit more and applied 'Birf'day Suit' above my crease, using my fluffy crease brush, to blend them out.

Apply your favorite eyeliner &mascara and you're all set! :)

(Since these shades are particularly sparkly.. I know, hard to tell in the photos :(... you may need to clean up some fall out! I usually just grab a q-tip and lightly dip it into a liquid makeup remover to clean up any mistakes!)

Thanks for viewing! <3

Birchbox: January 2013 (box #23)

My love/hate relationship with Birchbox will live another year ;) I decided to re-subscribe for now and I am actually pretty happy with my box this month! Here's a look at what I received:

(Insert from my box)

Pictured:

DDF - Acne Control Treatment

Embryolisse - Lait-Crème Concentrè

theBalm Cosmetics - Hot Mama

Aerie - Shimmer

LA FRESH - Waterproof Makeup Remover

&now, the close-ups!:

DDF Acne Control Treatment

I received a sample size (0.5 oz). A full size (1.7 oz) retails for $44, giving my sample a 'value' of about $12.94 (0.5 oz/1.7 oz * 44 = $12.94). I think this is actually a decently sized sample that will allow for multiple uses, &I'm looking forward to trying it out!

Embryolisse Lait-Crème Concentrè

I received a sample size (5ml). A full size (30ml) retails for $16, giving my sample a 'value' of about $2.67 (5ml/30ml * 16 = $2.666). This is actually a really tiny sample.. especially for being such a multi-purpose product! I had never heard of this product before Birchbox but a lot of ladies are referring to it as a 'miracle cream' so I'm excited to see what all of the fuss is about. :) This cream can apparently be used as a primer, moisturizer, and even makeup remover!

theBalm Cosmetics Hot Mama

I received a cute little sample size (1.0g). A full size (7.08g) retails for $20, giving my sample a 'value' of about $2.82 (1.0g/7.08g * 20 = $2.82). I absolutely love theBalm and actually already own a full size of this! ;) Hot Mama can be used as an eyeshadow or a blush, making it that much better. Though it looks really small, this sample will go a long way and I think this is a perfect example of a 'deluxe' sample size. I've received other samples of theBalm products through beauty subs and I really love that their packaging for samples is always on par with their full size products and are always very generous.

Here's a size comparison of the sample I received and the full size I already own, and why I think the sample is 'cute' :)

(sample size from Birchbox on the left, full size on the right)

Aerie Shimmer

Received a little sample perfume vial, no size specification which doesn't surprise me as perfume samples are typically free anyhow. A full size retails for $39.95 (1.7oz).. however it appears to no longer be available from American Eagle/Aerie.

I don't even know what to think about that, haha. At least it was nicely wrapped (like a candy/treat) and smells a lot better than I expected? (a light scent with noticeable citrus and thankfully not over-powering when it comes to the vanilla!) :P

LA FRESH Waterproof Makeup Remover

Received a single use packet (1 wipe). A full size retails for $9.99 and contains 18 of these individually wrapped packets, or for the same price you can purchase a package of 24 wipes (not individually wrapped).  My individually wrapped packet, which is actually my 'lifestyle extra', has a 'value' of about $0.56 (1packet/18packets * 9.99 = $0.555).

This will come in handy for on-the-go use &although I don't wear waterproof mascara, I am curious to see how well this will remove Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils.. because those things are stubborn! :)

If you want to join in the Birchbox madness, I won't hold you back from signing up and using my referral link here. ha ha  Thanks for reading! <3

FTC: This subscription is paid for by myself/by my boyfriend. I am not being compensated to write this post, these are my honest opinions on the products and company. All photos of products and swatches were taken by me in natural lighting, and are unaltered aside from cropping/collaging!