beauty – Page 10 – Blushing in Hollywood

October Favorites

It’s monthly favorites time and this month I’m talking about some amazing life-changing skin care products, the perfect red lip, how to look airbrushed, and more.

Hey y’all I’m back! I hope you’re recovering from Halloween nicely. I had a really awesome time and I’m going to do a post with details about my costume pretty soon. Although I’ve been a little lighter on the posting this month I’ve definitely had a LOT of ideas for upcoming posts and I’m always buying new products and testing them out “for research for the blog” wink wink. Seriously though, sometimes I do sit at my computer with Laneige BB Cushion foundation on the left half of my face only to see how long it lasts and if it stays dewy or becomes even more wet looking with time. The answer is that stuff never dried so if you want the dewiest face in the universe check it out at Target. I also spent a LOT of time reading reviews on one of the best sites out there MakeupAlley to find out what people thought about different products I was thinking about buying and to check out the products on the Best Value list. This website is a phenomenal resource if you’re ever on the fence about purchasing a product or want more information on it. Ok now let’s move on to MY favorites/reviews/recommendations for the month of October!

Before I even get to the beauty products I will let you know that the middle sparkly pumpkin was from Home Goods I believe and the two minis are real pumpkins from Trader Joes. The one on the left is painted gold with a really cool product called Rub and Buff and the right one is just painted white. Both of the stems are coated in gold glitter. My very crafty roommate made these and they looked great.

1. House of Lashes False Lashes in Iconic ($12 or 3 for $30) pictured with the House of Lashes Eyelash Adhesive ($8) – I have already talked about how much I love this lash adhesive back in my February favorites, but for a re-cap it’s latex-free and I think that’s why my eyes no longer water non-stop when I wear falsies. It’s easy to work with and apply with the brush, it dries quickly and invisibly, and it’s strong and long lasting. I bought the Iconic lashes during a Labor Day sale on the HoL website and finally got around to wearing them this past month and I love them! These are very bold, dense synthetic lashes that add nice drama. I’ve already re-used a pair with no issues. The only problem with these lashes is because they are the Premium Luxe line and have a multi-layered design they have to have a thicker band in order to hold all of those lashes together. This means that you pretty much have to wear black eyeliner on your top lid in order to hide the band, but that’s not a huge issue for my because chances are if I want this much drama I’m already rocking a big old wing up top. Here’s me getting pouty with them last weekend:

Me wearing House of Lashes falsies in "Iconic" — Me wearing House of Lashes falsies in “Iconic”

Continue reading “October Favorites”

Lilly Ghalichi’s Makeup Tutorial Part Three – Eyeliner, Mascara, Blush, Highlighter, and Nude Lip

This is part 3 of Lilly Ghalichi’s makeup tips and tricks and includes eye makeup finishing touches, how to glow, and getting a perfect nude lip.

On 8/15/14 Lilly Ghalichi streamed a live makeup demo with her makeup artist Bria Valencia. This is part three of the tutorial. Be sure to check out part one and part two – they are FULL of amazing tips! In this post we will get into Lilly Ghalichi’s highlight as well as her gorgeous nude lip.

September Favorites

Check out my favorite things from September!

It is monthly favorites time again and this time I managed to pick more than 5 things woo hoo! I try a lot of new products (but also tend to do the same makeup for work daily), but I’m so picky that it’s hard for me to choose which ones really stand out to show you all.

1. Versace Bright Crystal eau de toilette ($52 for 1oz. at Sephora, but I bought mine at Nordstrom Rack in San Francisco for $29.99) – This month I traveled to San Francisco for the weekend and had some time to kill so I went shopping. I love getting new stuff on vacation because it reminds me of the good times that I had on my trip. This perfume is light, feminine, and clean smelling to me, but let’s see what the pros say: “Bright Crystal is a fresh, sensual blend of refreshing chilled yuzu and pomegranate mingled with soothing blossoms of peony, magnolia, and lotus flower, warmed with notes of musk and amber.” Ok so I was pretty close. My only gripe with this perfume is that it does not last!! A quick glimpse on the reviews at Sephora.com confirmed that I’m not the only one that feels this way. That is why I bought this perfume 3 weeks ago and about 1/4 of it is gone already and I didn’t even wear it everyday! I do always apply it very liberally and I also like to spray myself and my sheets before I go to bed because it smells awesome. If I hadn’t gotten this one for under $30 I definitely would not be spraying it so much.

2. Boots Botanics Rosewater Toning Spritz ($9 at Target) – I love a face mist. I really love MAC Fix Plus which I lovingly refer to as “Gypsy Water” but at $22 a pop I can’t generously douse myself in it everyday like I would like to. I will make a whole separate post on MAC Fix Plus spray to explain what the hell it is and how I use it in the future. This toning spritz smells exactly like roses and feels super refreshing and luxurious. I spray it on after washing my face or before I apply moisturizer. I also will spray some on my face before applying “a second layer of paint” aka another coat of makeup for night time when I’m in a rush. It’s supposed to “visibly tighten pores and remove the last traces of makeup” and claims that “Skin feels smoother, fresher, and prepared for moisturizing”. I only mist it on my face not on a cotton pad to remove makeup so I have no clue if it removes makeup well. Are my pores visibly tightened? Meh. Does my skin feel smoother, fresher, and prepared for moisturizing? Sure. I feel like this has been nice in the 90+ degree weather lately and will probably be nice and moisturizing when it gets colder.

3. Proclaim Professional Care Argan Oil Intense Hydrating Masque ($2 at Sally Beauty Supply) – This is just a nice moisturizing mask that’s ultra conditioning and it’s supposed to nourish hair making it soft, silky and manageable. I think it definitely did those things and my hair looked a little healthier after I used it. You can see that this one is opened because I’ve already used it twice and will probably be able to get 2 more uses out of it. Not bad for $2.

4. Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade in Taupe ($18 at Sephora) – I have talked about this product before on my How To Fill In Your Brows post. I got this for my birthday back in July, but have honestly been a bit intimidated at the thought of using it. When I’m getting ready in the AM my brows are one of the last things I do and I don’t want to be late because I’m trying to paint on the perfect eyebrows with basically a gel eyeliner for your brows. I thought this was going to be hard to apply or time-consuming, but it honestly has been way faster and easier than I thought. The other great thing about this is you need so little product that it will last forever unlike their pricey Brow Wiz pencils that I also love. The only problem I have with this is that it’s easy to go overboard and it gives you pretty seriously defined brows so you have to be careful or else it will look like you drew on brows with a Sharpie. Continue reading “September Favorites”

How I Apply Blush Quick Video Tutorial

Quick video tutorial on how I apply blush!

Ok guys I made my first mini video tutorial! It’s showing you how I apply blush all over my face. Enjoy! Let me know what you think 🙂

How to Gently Remove Makeup and Stop Ruining Your Towels

Find out how to remove every last bit of your makeup gently and efficiently and how to prevent staining towels with your makeup.

Ok I’m about to share some tips that I know first hand about 90% of my girlfriends don’t know because whenever they’re at my place and wash their faces all of a sudden I have two eyeball-sized black marks on my pink towels. I find taking my makeup off incredibly annoying and I think I lose about 30 minutes of sleep every night because I procrastinate getting ready for bed just because I dread it so much, but I ALWAYS do it. Here’s how I remove my makeup:

1. Remove foundation from face and neck with a nice soothing gentle makeup remover wipe. I will wipe my eyeshadow off with the wipe as well, but if some is left over that is fine. The wipes I use (and I mentioned in my August Favorites) are Boots No7 Quick Thinking Wipes and definitely get the value pack. These have a nice snap closure to keep them from drying out. I try to gently and slowly pull of my falsies if I’m wearing them and you can also put liquid eye makeup remover onto a cotton round and hold it on top of the falsies to loosen them up before removing them. These Boots No7 wipes say they will remove waterproof eye makeup, but I wear about 10 coats of mascara and if I try to remove it with these wipes I’d be in my bathroom all night scrubbing and when I was done I wouldn’t have any lashes left. Luckily I do know of a product that will do this for you in the next step!

2. I’ve tried many products that have burned the bee-jesus out of my eyeballs and it turns out the best makeup remover was in your grandma’s beauty cabinet this whole time:

Ponds Cold Cream Cleanser is a super gentle eyemakeup remover

Continue reading “How to Gently Remove Makeup and Stop Ruining Your Towels”

Fall Beauty Trends

Check out the Fall 2014 Beauty Trends!

Today I went to the Nordstrom Fall Beauty Trends event and had such a fun time! I learned a ton and had a full face of high end makeup put on me and got lots of tips to share with you all. I will do a thorough re-cap of that very soon. Tonight I wanted to put up a quick post of the fall beauty trends for 2014:

1. Berry lips

Berry lips. Picture from Nordstrom's website. — Berry lips. Picture from Nordstrom’s website.

Some examples:

Nars Audacious Lipstick in “Charlotte” $32: Whew this is a pricy one I know, but the new NARS lipsticks are supposed to feel amazing on the lips and be long lasting.

MAC Lipstick in Rebel $16: I love this color I think I might snag it soon or get it through Back 2 MAC. I just really want to spice up my lips with something a little bit different. Continue reading “Fall Beauty Trends”

NYXFACEAWARDS 2014

Like most people I never win anything, but I was lucky enough to win a pair of tickets to the NYXFACEAWARDS 2014 on Twitter! I brought my good friend and fellow beauty blogger Molly aka Girl Get Glamorous. You have to check out her blog it’s really amazing and I learn tons from it. Molly came super glammed up with a classic black winged eyeliner and red lip (MAC Riri Woo which she swears by) for the event and looked amazing:

This event was a blast and the planners really did an excellent job making sure it was fun and that there wasn’t any boring down time. The only down time we really had was before we were let into the event which saws fine because Molly and I can gab about makeup and hair and boys for hours. The event was held at the Nokia Club at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles on August 22, 2014. The point of the contest is to find The National Beauty Vlogger on YouTube of the Year and the prize is $25,000. The contestants had made it through the four challenges and went from top 30 to top 6 and they were flown into LA to create their final video entry which premiered at the awards show. The contest was open to any beauty blogger 15 and older and 3 of the finalists were teenagers! Here’s a picture of the finalists: Continue reading “NYXFACEAWARDS 2014”

Mermaid Makeup and Tips for Glowing

I was playing around with my makeup and decided to try out a Halloween idea. I did this mermaid makeup and wanted to share some of the hits and misses product and application-wise to help inspire you for your own Halloween makeup!

I realized today that I hadn’t posted an Instagram picture of my makeup in a while and I had nothing else to do for the rest of the day so I decided to play with my makeup. I’ve been thinking about being a mermaid for Halloween for a few weeks now and in the back of my mind I was also thinking about how my LA Splash Cosmetics Crystallized Glitters would finally be put to good use with a mermaid look. This look could also be a fairy or a fancy alien. I think that playing around with makeup is a fun way to get creative and a good way to remind yourself of all the products you have but aren’t using on a regular basis. I wanted to share how I did it because it might give you some ideas for your Halloween makeup:

Here's me with a full on beating of mermaid inspired makeup. — Here’s me with a full on beating of mermaid inspired makeup.

Continue reading “Mermaid Makeup and Tips for Glowing”

How to Fill in Your Brows

I recently went to the Sephora Perfect Brows event and they showed me how to use a bunch of different Anastasia Beverly Hills products to get my perfect brows.

After I went to the NYX Face Awards recently I knew I wanted to attend more beauty events ASAP. I hit the internet and found a few. If you want to attend beauty events you can find them on websites for departments stores such as Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, Sephora, and MAC. The events are typically free and sometimes there’s champagne or gifts which is always fun!

My First Grouper Experience

When I first heard about the concept of Grouper I was intrigued, but instantly was turned off by it. Grouper is a social club that sets up drinks between 2 groups of friends: 3 guys and 3 girls. I immediately thought, but what if the guy I like likes one of my friends? That always sucks when that happens! You also get no choice as to who you are set up with so it’s a totally blind group date (except you know what your 2 friends look like because you invite them). You also have to pay for Grouper and I have never used a dating site I had to pay for. Grouper costs $20 per person plus a 10% tip for your server which covers their introduction and concierge service and a free first round of drinks at the bar they select for you (the concierge part).

Grouper is actually not claiming to be setting you up on a date and people who sign up don’t have to be single (but God would I be annoyed to go out with a group of guys who were all in relationships wtf). They are planning a night for you with the perfect girl to guy ratio and giving you ideas on how to make it fun. These ideas include preparing “two truths and a lie” before the date for a fun discussion or playing the iPhone game “Phrase Party”. I will say that going on a Grouper definitely takes a lot of the pressure off of the conversations you’re having and you feel less like you’re on a job interview and more like you’re hanging out with friends which is nice. Going out with friends also forces you to be a more authentic version of yourself because your friends might call your ass out or tell the embarrassing stories you might have tried to avoid which does help you get to know each other much faster. It also forces you to actually make a plan instead of getting stuck in chatting or messaging back and forth purgatory.

Continue reading “My First Grouper Experience”