Beauty Blog Advent Calendar 2011: Day Fourteen
How many of you regularly buff and polish your nails? Not "apply nail polish", but, you know...actually buff and polish?
Miscellaneous
Stray thoughts, opinions, and other odds and ends.
Beauty Blog Advent Calendar 2011: Day Thirteen
Lately I'm on this eye pencil kick. First I dive into the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils like they were chocolate (mmmmm, chocolate!!! ...now where was I? Oh, right:) Then I picked up the Buxom Eye Pencil set Armed and Gorgeous - because it lets me try six shades for the price of two fullsize pencils, and because it's got three metallic shades. Then I start looking at the Urban Decay Eye Pencil set. You know...just to do a comparison.
Beauty Blog Advent Calendar 2011: Day Twelve
Since yesterday's beauty-blogger chat topic was photography - and by extension blog images - this is a good day to mention a few image resources.
Beauty Blog Advent Calendar 2011: Day Eleven
I admit it: I'm a holographic-polish addict. Linear holos are the best, of course; but even scattered holos, if they're an unusual shade or are on the denser side of "scattered", catch my attention. I skipped the recent Tronica collection from China Glaze largely because its colors were the same base shades as the OMG collection (which I have most of), but with the scattered-holo effects of the Kaleidescope collection (again, which I own most of.) I do strongly regret that I missed the original formula of OPI's My Private Jet, which was a black holographic. (Black!!! I'm not a huge black-nail-polish fan, but...black holographic!!) I scrambled after the OPI Designer Series polishes because while they were scattered holos rather than linear, many of them had unique base colors.
And then, Scrangie swatched these...
Beauty Blog Advent Calendar 2011: Day Ten
Lost in Makeupland celebrated its one-year anniversary a few months back, with the release of the Nostalgia: When I Was Young collection. The Rock My Look collection was one of the first releases from LiM - and now Rock My Look 2.0 is in the pipeline. I was lucky enough to get these preview-samples sent to me!
Beauty Blog Advent Calendar 2011: Day Nine
I'm a huge fan of iridescent and duochrome effects. When I first noticed TKB Trading's Interplanetary Traveller micas, I bought the whole set. And then, on a recent visit to TKB's site, I noticed something new: Moon Dust powders.
Beauty Blog Advent Calendar 2011: Day Eight
I tend to be a cautious MMU buyer. I don't necessarily go scouting Etsy or Artfire or where-have-you for the latest indie companies to try out. I tend to try a few here and there, based on what I see on a few beauty blogs whose opinions I generally trust. (For example: I haven't tried one particular vendor because while they seem to have good buzz around the beauty blogosphere - including recommends from a handful of bloggers whose opinions I trust pretty highly - they don't really have many colors that I personally am interested in.)
Still...I do try new vendors. Some I only buy from the once, others I keep returning to their shop. Sometimes a vendor has offers so compelling, that I go just a wee tiny bit nutso. Such is the case with My Pretty Zombie
. I had kind of been aware of this company for a while, but hadn't really seen any swatch photos that made me start drooling, so I didn't wander over to the shop. And then...Toxid Lotus posted about the new Drugs Like Me blushes, and posted some swatch photos of MDMA, a gorgeous duochrome blush that looks excellent with my coloring. So wait: coral-pink? with gold duochrome? Oh, yeah, sign me up!!! (LSD and THC are also duochromes, albeit not as dramaticly so as MDMA.)
A good portion of the products are duochrome. Most of the eyeshadows are pretty saturated colors, though there are a few neutrals and softer shades. There are a few sets available as well, including Geekily Ever After, a collaboration with the owner of Geek Chic cosmetics. And hey, Toxid-lotus is hosting a sweepstakes for a set of all five MPZ blushes! The winner will be chosen on December 21, 2011. Head over, see the swatches, and enter to win!
Beauty Blog Advent Calendar 2011: Day Seven
I fell - HARD - for Stila's Sparkle Waterproof liner. I'd been thinking about trying them, but put off buying any until my DragonCon/Atlanta trip. And then I kind of went hog wild 
I owned just about every color they had, and was going to buy the last two during a store's Friends and Family sale...when I noticed that there was a new color out. Sequins has been out for a while, black with silver glitter. Spectrum, the new shade, is black with multicolored glitter.
I caved.
I now own all nine currently-available shades of this liner, and I'll be writing them up with swatch photos later on; but for now, a super-short review: Stila's Sparkle Waterproof liners are among the more costly items in my collection, they apply well, they do stay put, there's a good range of colors. And Spectrum is gorgeous!!
Beauty Blog Advent Calendar 2011: Day Six
Today is the kickoff of Meow Cosmetics' 12 Days of Meow holiday sweepstakes (full details). Starting today, and every day for the next twelve days, every order enters you into the pot to win that day's prize. On the thirteenth day there will be two grand prize winners, chosen from among all orders placed during the 12 Days: winners will receive a $100 Meow Cosmetics gift certificate, and a leopard print cosmetic train case. I won one of the prizes last year - I honestly forget which, but it was one of the later days. I got several full-size holiday 
shadows, including some from the Reindeer collection. If you've always wanted to try Meow's stuff, this is a good time to place an order or two: not only are you entered into the drawings, but with code JingleCat you get 20% off your order, and free shipping ($30 order minimum for international and Canadian orders to qualify for the free shipping - but the 20% discount is good regardless of the order amount.)
In celebration of a cool contest by a mineral makeup vendor whose products I really like, I'm hosting a giveaway of my own: one ramdonly-chosen commenter will receive a brand new, sealed 30-gram jar of Meow's Purrfect Puss foundation in Frisky Chausie. I've used Meow's foundation for almost three years, and I absolutely love it. (The only time I didn't wear it was when I was in Atlanta. I didn't really have a full-face primer, and knew that if I wore my mineral foundation it would melt off my face in all that heat and humidity.) This prize was purchased by me - this contest is not sponsored by or otherwise connected with Meow Cosmetics, except that the prize is one of their products. To enter, just leave a comment on this entry by noon Pacific time on December 7th 2011. I'll draw a winner from the comments on this entry and contact the winner via email, so make sure you leave a valid email address with your comment!! (Don't know if this is your shade? Here's Meow's page about the Chausie shade of foundation. Basically, if you have light-to-fair skin with cool pink undertones - or if you wear MAC's NC15 foundation or Bare Escentuals' Fair or Fairly Medium foundation - Frisky Chausie may be your Meow equivalent.)
Rules: open to any person who is a legal adult in their country of residence. US and international entrants welcome. Only one entry per email address and / or IP address.
(For folks wondering why I'm giving this away: this past Thanksgiving my parents were visiting, and I got my mom hooked up with a jar of Meow's foundation. Then I went quick-like-a-bunny to order a replacement for myself. And about five hours after I placed my order...I realized that I'd ordered Purrfect Puss, when I'd switched from that formulation to Pampered Puss, which is just a little more gentle with easily irritated skin. And Meow doesn't accept returns...so I have a jar of foundation that's the right shade for me, but isn't the formulation I have come to prefer. So into the "giveaway prize pile" it went! And this is the perfect time to give it a new home.)
Beauty Blog Advent Calendar 2011: Day Five
Most of Concrete Minerals' shades were "regular line" releases, until the limited-edition Arkham collection. Three of the four shades were okay, nice enough, but kind of close to colors already in CM's inventory. The fourth color initially didn't grab my attention...until I got the collection and swatched it. It's a yellow-ish looking grey in the pot that kind of resembles wet cement. Applied, though, it definitely shows its blue tones.
This was added to Concrete Minerals' regular collection in November 2011, so even if you completely missed the Arkham collection you can still pick up this shade.
