thankyouthankyouthankyou.

I'd like to take a moment to simply say that if you have visited this blog at all this week, you are in fact the best. It has taken me a long time to get up the courage to actually share myself in this way, and I've discovered during the past week that I really, really enjoy it. Should you enjoy yourself here as well, I would ask that you continue to visit. I'll be around whenever you're lacking a little girly or glitter in your life, and thank you for allowing me to occupy whatever time you have recently allotted me. There is so much more to come, and I am so excited.

katie.

Outfit of the Day: Comfy Chic.

Heeeelllllloooooo.

I wanted to share what I wore today because it is just. so. me. I mean, not that most of my outfits aren't. After all, I am the one wearing them. What I mean is, this is a good first outfit to show you.

Say "Thank you, Krista" for taking this picture. I didn't know what to do with my face or hands, but we will all get over it.

I love playing with my closet and getting dressed up, but I also really appreciate being comfortable. Thus, the maxi skirt. It was pretty cold out today, so I wore some leggings underneath. I love neutral colors, particularly creams and beiges and off-whites, which could all arguably be the same, but I think they're different. (I have to, or else I would have, like, far too many of the same color shirt in my closet. And that is just impractical.) 

From the Top Down:

The taupe cardigan is from Old Navy.
My earrings are also from Old Navy, though you really can't seen them. They are large leopard-print heart-shaped posts.
The necklace is from Charming Charlie. I am in a very committed relationship with that retailer.
My tank top is from Express, but I bought it at Goodwill. Seriously. Go to Goodwill. I tucked in the tank and then let it get bunchy. I like that it added even more comfiness to the look.
The beautiful blue subject of this outfit came from Forever21. It is one of the elastic, fold-over waistband maxi skirts. I didn't think I would love the top of it; originally, I was going to belt everything together, but then I decided I should not have judged the skirt before I gave it a chance to prove itself. I liked the fold-over much more than I thought I would.
And the shoes. I should have taken a picture of them separately, but I am sure you will see them again. There are by the brand Bucco. I got them from Hautelook, and they are wedge booties.

Thanks for visiting me! 

Eyeshadow 101.

I am so excited to start posting about specific makeup looks and ideas, but first I wanted to give you some definitions and such for words that I like to use when I talk about makeup. I don't mean to insult any of your intelligence, and if you think you know this stuff already, feel free to just look at the pictures :) For some of you who are just getting started, or are just interested, in makeup, I really just want you to know what I mean when I say certain things.

My friend Myra graciously allowed me to use her lovely eyes as examples for this post. She's a rockstar. I did my best to get the colors where I wanted them, but forgive the crooked lines. Using Paint is not necessarily a strength of mine.

Oh, and I believe that eyeshadow is one word. No matter what spell check has to say. I like to live on the edge and all that.

Here we go.

Eyeshadow Finishes

Shimmer: Shimmer eyeshadows can look very different from one to another. Some just have a very soft, barely-there sheen to them, while others are filled with chunks of glitter. I happen to appreciate the entire range of shimmer shadows very much. Some people like to differentiate between the different degrees of shimmer with words like pearl or glitter, but I really just like to keep it simple and say shimmer if it shimmers at all.

This is NYX's Mermaid Green Single Eyeshadow. It is a pretty classic example of a basic shimmer eyeshadow. The camera didn't quite get the loveliness of the color, but hopefully you get the idea :)

This is what we would probably call a metallic eyeshadow, which is just a sort of specific kind of shimmer shadow. These ones tend to look, well, like metal. It's Sephora's Outrageous Primsa Chrome Eyeshadow in Outrageous Metallic Beige and it is freakishly beautiful.

Here we have Milani's Runway Eyes Eyeshadow in Black Out. It's a bit difficult to really get a grasp on this color from the picture, but it is an actually almost matte shadow with very fine glitter worked through it. It gives a different effect than what a shadow like Mermaid Green (above) would. Just more glitter-like. Trust me, it's not as complicated as it seems.

And this is Wet 'n' Wild's Coloricon Shimmer Single Eyeshadow in Trashed. It is another almost matte color, but it has larger pieces of glitter worked through it. This is what we could call a glitter eyeshadow, but, again, I'll mostly just refer to any of these types as shimmer.

Matte: A matte shadow is one that does not have any shimmer to it. That's basically it.

This lovely is Wet 'n' Wild's Coloricon Eyeshadow Single in Panther. It is a black that is very serious about its job, and it is completely matte.

Parts of the Eye (That We Put Eyeshadow On, This Isn't an Anatomy Lesson, After All)

Everyone has different eye shapes and set ups, so I am just going to give you terms and definitions that fit the common, or standard eye shape. If you have hooded eyes or really large eyes or what-have-you eyes, just try to think about the words that I use in relation to your own eyes. I'll try not to be exclusive as much as possible, but I spend the most time with my own eyes, and when I describe things to you that I do on my face, I just want you to know what I mean :)

The Lid: This is the part of the eye that is below your crease. It covers your actual eyeball when the eye is closed.

The Upper and Lower Lashlines: These are just what they sound like. It's the part of your eye where the roots of your lashes meet skin.

The Crease: This is the part, of most eyes, that is created when the eye is opened. It is essentially a fold of skin created by the lid's and the skin under the eyebrow's meeting. It is usually a crescent shape, but changes with the shape of peoples' eyes. This could also be called the socket, which is decidedly more descriptive.

This is where the crease is when the eye is closed. When eyeshadow is there, it essentially just outlines the eyeball.

The Upper and Lower Waterlines: The upper water line is also called the tightline. These are the skinny lines of skin that are closest to your actual eyeball. (When you look at your eye, it goes eyeball, waterline, lashline. Make sense? Hopefully.) The upper one is harder to see, but if you put a mirror on a table in front of you and look down into it while pressing your upper eyelashes back with your finger, gently, you can see it pretty well.

I did my best to outline where Myra's waterlines are. Maybe just looking at the eye without the yellow lines will help you more.

The Browbone: I use this word to cover any part of the eye that is above the crease and below the eyebrow. It is generally visible whether the eye is open or closed. You can actually feel the bone if you just press your finger up under your eyebrow.

The Inner Corner: This is just what it sounds like: the skin that makes (usually) a triangle right next to the top of the bridge of your nose. The waterline-ish area in that same part of the eye is usually called the tear duct. I don't often put makeup there, but sometimes I'll put eyeliner there for a really smoky look.

The Outer Corner: This is where the outer edge of the lid and crease meet. Usually this is the darkest part of a conventional eyeshadow look.

Some Other Words I Might Throw Around...

Highlight: This just means a color that is very light and potentially shimmery. I'll use colors like this to lighten up the browbone and inner corner, and when I put them there, I'll probably refer to them as highlights.
Pigment/Pigmentation/Pigmented: This just refers to the level to which an eyeshadow is rich in color and texture. Generally, we want to use eyeshadows that are very pigmented and soft. Some of the best powder eyeshadows almost feel like creams.
Swatch: A swatch is just a way to display a color. When I get a new shadow or palette, I will usually play around with the colors just by spreading them on the back of my hand or swirling my finger in them a bit. If a shadow comes out well in a swatch, it is very likely to be great on the eyes.


Thanks for sticking with me, and keep an eye out for Eyeshadow 201!

A Visit to Wal-Mart...

I picked up a few things at my local Wal-Mart before heading back to school. I don't know that I want to call this post a "haul," since I was going to buy pretty much all of these items anyway out of necessity. For, the term "haul" implies a bit of a shopping splurge, and this is really not that. In the online cosmetic culture, if I may call it that, a haul is a time for someone to share their recent purchases. I think they are fun to watch, and really no one means for them to be boastful or anything like that.

Anyway :)

Seeing what someone buys and knowing why he or she chose to can help you get to know him or her. So think of this as a type of show and tell.

I picked up some 100% acetone by the brand ONYX Professional. I use 100% acetone to remove my nail polish. I know it can be drying for nails and cuticles, but I really just want a product that takes my nail polish off quickly, so I use lotions and such to deal with the dryness. I have been using acetone for years, and I have my share of cracks and chips, but I would not say it's ruining my nails.

I actually managed to leave the store without any impulse-buy nail polish. I am extremely proud of myself.

A few days ago, I changed up my eye makeup routine, which I realize you might know next-to-nothing about (and that's ok). I put a metallic gold in my waterline instead of a solid black, and I really liked the "glow" it gave my eyes. I've tried white before, and I just don't love the way it looks, so I picked up Rimmel's Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal Eyeliner in Taupe. It should give me that lighter look in the waterline, but with just enough darkness to deepen my lower lashline the way I like. I'll let you know how that works out.

I'm running out of mascara, so I decided to go in a very different direction than my go-to L'Oreal products. I love pretty much every L'Oreal mascara I try, and I am really never disappointed when trying a new one. The formula and pigmentation is great, and none of them really flake. But this time around, I picked up Hard Candy's Flat to Fab Mascara in Blackest Black. The packaging is awesome. Hopefully the product is as well. It makes a lot of claims about volumizing and curling power, as most mascaras do, but we'll see.

Another Hard Candy product: The Perfect Cover Up Skin Clarifying Concealer in Light. This is a crayon concealer, which happens to be my favorite kind for covering blemishes. I did test this out a bit today, and it seems very promising, which makes me very happy. I would venture to say that the fact it is labelled as skin clarifying means it has some sort of acne treating product in it, but I couldn't read the oh-so-tiny print of the wrapper to look at the ingredients. As long as it doesn't make me break out more, I'm pretty much good with it.

Ok, so obviously this foundation is not my shade. It is a super rich color, though, which should help it work nicely as a contour color for me. I've been trying out some different techniques for getting concealer, highlight, contour, and foundation on my face, and I purchased this Revlon Colorstay Liquid Foundation for Combination/Oily Skin in the color Cappuccino for an experiment. I looooove Revlon's Colorstay face products. Their whipped foundation is my absolute favorite. This cost just under ten dollars, and it is a fantastic foundation for that price. I'll be posting soon about how I get all those products on my face and still look like a human.

Last, I picked up some hair products. I've been loving my Got2b Kinkier Curl Cream, but they were all out. I usually don't buy the same hair product(s) in a row anyway, even if I really like it or them. I keep wanting to try different things, and I eventually come back to my favorites if I don't have time to browse. I chose some Not Your Mother's products. Mostly I am just looking for something to tame frizz and let my hair be what it is. Between the Beach Babe Texturizing Sea Salt Spray, its cream counterpart, and the Kinky Moves Curl Defining Hair Cream, I hope I picked a winner.

Thanks for stopping by, and let me know what you want to see reviews on, or just hear me talk about more! These kinds of chats are definitely not going to be the most entertaining, but I'd like to let you in on some of my tendencies and feelings when it comes to buying products as well. Feel free to leave a comment :)

Manicure Monday! Some Soft Sparkle...

It's Monday. So I've decided to share a manicure :)

I used Orly's "Bonder" Rubberized Basecoat, two coats of Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in "Pink Slip" (a barely-pink somewhat sheer polish), one coat of Sinful Colors's "Full Spectrum" (that's the sparkles), and finished with Orly's "Won't Chip" Top Coat.

Both the base and top coats are the best that I have found. They are on the more expensive side of what I am able to pay for products, but you can probably find them for less than ten dollars each at a Sally Beauty Supply, ULTA store, or online. The Sally Hansen polish is one of my favorites in my collection, although I say that about a lot of my polishes. I really like the formula of the Complete Salon Manicure line, and "Pink Slip" is a super easy-to-wear color. I picked up the Sinful Colors polish recently, just because I thought the sparkle combination was interesting and different. Here's a closeup:

I tried my best to get some natural light. The opacity of "Pink Slip" can change with lighting, and this a pretty darn accurate representation of the color. Unfortunately, sparkles just never seem to photograph perfectly.

"Full Spectrum" is a clear base with tiny green and silver and sorta blue glitter, and larger pieces of a nice pale/icy pink glitter. When spread over the nail, the larger glitter pieces have a bit more of a rose gold shine. Not a combination I have seen before, and I think it looked great. I love a white-ish, pink-ish nail, and when sparkle gets involved, it's probably the best thing ever. 

Thanks for visiting, and let me know if you have any questions about the products mentioned!

Have a happy day.