Esperanza Spalding's Grammy Dress

I was happy to see Esperanza Spalding win a Grammy for best new artist. I like her music and she is clearly very talented. I also thought her dress, designed by Selma Karaca, was interesting. I think the dress is pretty, it has a nice shape and it looked great on Spalding. I found the colour palette strangely alluring and so I decided to do an eye shadow look based on her outfit. From pictures I’ve seen most of the dress is varying shades of chartreuse with some darker woodsy greens and sea greens mixed in. I really like the combination of chartreuse and the sea green it is a colour combination that I don’t think I ever would have thought of.

Here is a picture of the dress:

I got it here: http://buzzworthy.mtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/esperanza.jpg

This is "Fall In" one of my favorites:

EYES:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance,
50/50 mix well rested/clear radince all over,
Petunia under brow,
Exotic Victoria foiled lash to crease,
MAC Spiritualize in crease and outer corner,
KVD Hard Luck with a tiny touch of Tijuana in outer corner and V and along lower lash line,
KVD Tijuana wet lined on top,
Rimmel Mascara.


CHEEKS: Optimist with a little Avant-Garden on the apples.
LIPS: Fruit Smoothie gloss with a little Tarte Charmed to darken it.

If you wanted to do this look with all BE I would use Perrfect in place of KVD Hard Luck, Foliage in place of KVD Tijuana, and maybe Treasured terri mixed with a bright blue (like crusin' teddi or azure) in place of MAC spiritualize (I don't really have anything in my BE collection that is very similar to spiritualize). I also thought about using Vienna Buxom under the gloss, if I had more time I would have.

Bare Escentuals: Rethink Radiant

This is the third and final installment of the Rethink A-D. I think this is by far my favorite. I love this set because there are really good staples like the brightening face primer (I love this!), foundation, and the two brushes. I use the blending brush to do a wash of colour and to do my highlight colour every day, so I was glad to get another one. The angled face brush is also a really nice brush. It is thicker than a blush brush, and bigger, so you could use it for foundation, MV or radiance, and since it is angled it is great for getting under eyes and such.

My kit has had a few glitches. I'm sure people will complain about some of the following things unless I was just unlucky. There was a little bit of eye shadow above the sifter because the sifter was not completely pressed into the jar. The second time I opened Lollipop the stopper (the thing that keep you from getting too muh gloss) got caught in the top of the lid. I was able to shake it out and pressed it into the gloss container but I'm not sure if that will fix it for good. I have and use 2-3 of the big and bright liner penicls and usually when you twist them up they stay up, but Plum seems to twist on its own so you kind of lose the liner while you are trying to use it--I was able to put it on so I guess it wasn't too much of a problem.

I forgot to swatch the Plum liner but I'm wearing it in the look so you can get an idea of what it looks like there.

Primetime for Eyes Brightening Pearl---this is a winner! I used it alone from lash to brow and it did a good job of neutralizing my lids. It is not really sparkly like the gold one and so it was easier to get an even application. I am sure I will use this alone as eye shadow when I'm in a hurry. I wish we had gotten two of these in this series.

Alive eye shadow is described as lilac fuschia, I think that is an accuate description. It is matte and goes on very sheer. I had to really pack it on in the swatches. I'm sure you could do a very light dusting of this shadow over the pearl primer and end up with a very soft pink.

Vivacious is described as sheer raspberry, which might be accurate--but I see it as more pink than red. It seems to have a similar texture to Boost blush. It does go on very sheer so you can't mess this one up.

Lollipop gloss is a sheer pink with lots of sparkle in it. I had to really blot it on to get it to show up in the swatch. Although it seems very sheer it did enhance the natural colour of my lips and looks a little more coloured on then I thought it would. It is a very glossy gloss which I like. It will look good over lipstick and lipliner.

Note about the close up pictures: The pearl primer looks more sparkly than it actually is in the close up pictures because the pictures are taken with a flash. I think the full face picture and the swatch on my hand more accuratly reflect the look of the primer. I would not say the pearl primer is matte like the UDPP Eden primer but it is less sparkly than the gold one--it has a luminous sheen rather than actual sparkle. The gold brightening primer looks really bad in close up photos because of the flash but looks much better in person. So just keep that in mind when looking at the pictures.

EYES:
Primetime for eyes Brightening Pearl lash to brow,
Alive lash to crease on outer 1/2ish and blended into the crease,
Big and Bright liner in Plum upper and 1/2 of lower lash line,
Rimmel mascara.


CHEEKS: Vivacious blush
LIPS: Lollipop gloss

Bare Escentuals: Fog

Fog is my new favorite grey! When I think of a sexy smoky eye this is the sort of look I have in mind. I think the combination of Fog with the Big and Bright eye liner looks really sultry and makes my eyes look shiny. I don't often wear a look more than once (I have too many colours!!) but I think I will be wearing this again.

EYES:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance,
50/50 mix well rested/clear radince all over,
Iced under brow and inner corner,
Fog lash into and above crease,
Midnight Diamond in outer corner and into crease part way,
Big and Bright eye liner in intense black,
Rimmel mascara.


CHEEKS: Irresistible
LIPS: Las Vegas

Wild Women

I’m not a big fan of browns. I think I look tired or something when I wear them. The wild women are a very popular set of bare escentuals colours and I can see why. They are, generally speaking, very nice browns. I especially like Wild Woman Melissa. WW Melissa is a dark espresso brown with lots of silver sparkle. I think there are many good ways to use a colour like WWM. Wild woman Debra is also pretty it has a nice sheen and a very dark base. I was not expecting it to be so dark but I think it creates a nice effect effortlessly. Wild Woman Sarah also surprised me. When I swatched it on my hand it looked like a relatively sheer peach, but on it creates quite a shadow and is not really good as a highlight colour on my skin tone. This would probably be a good crease colour in a pin-up girl kind of look. I haven’t tried wild woman Dawn yet but when I do I’ll update this post.

EYES:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance,
50/50 mix well rested/clear radince all over,
Wild Woman Sarah under brow with TSS Distant Rumor over it,
Wild Woman Debra lash to crease,
Wild Woman Melissa in outer corner and crease on outer 1/2ish and wet lined on top,
Rimmel mascara.


CHEEKS: Boost blush
LIPS: Biscotti gloss

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you have a good day today. Whether you have a valentine or not it is nice to know that there are people who love us. I'm all for telling everyone you love that you love them today and every day. The first look is what I'm wearing today. I celebrated valentine's day on Saturday so the second look is what I wore out.

EYES:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance,
50/50 mix well rested/clear radince all over,
Iced under brow,
Maraschino lash to crease,
KVD Lucifer wet lined on top,
Rimmel mascara.


CHEEKS:Smashbox Beige blush
LIPS: Fruit Cocktail gloss

EYES:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance,
50/50 mix well rested/clear radince all over,
Rock Crystal under brow,
Buxom Stay There Saint Bernard lash into crease on outer 3/4,
Crown in outer corner,
KVD Sugar Skull lash to crease on inner 1/3ish,
KVD Dagger wet lined on top, crown dry lined on bottom,
Rimmel mascara.


CHEEKS: TTYL blush
LIPS: Tarte Charmed lip stain

Say hi to Writing Beauty

I just wanted to give a shout out to a friend from the Bare Escentuals Addicts forum. She does really great reviews and other beauty videos on youtube and now she has a blog. Check it out!

Her Blog: http://putbeautytowords.blogspot.com/

This is her video tutorial for a cool Valentine's nail look:

Buxom Stay There in Sheepdog

Since today is my birthday I decided to wear some of my favorites and some of my new stuff.

EYES:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance,
50/50 mix well rested/clear radince all over,
Buxom Stay There Sheepdog lash to brow,
Fearless lash into crease on outer 1/2ish,
Loli in T,
French Navy wet lined on top, Fearless dry lined on bottom,
Rimmel Mascara with Tarte mascara over it.


CHEEKS: Avant-garden blush
LIPS: Las Vegas Buxom