Fun At IMATS in Pasadena, CA

Hey guys! So, if you follow me on my social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) then you knew this was my first year at IMATS (International Makeup Artists Trade Show) and it was amazing. I got to meet a few fellow YouTubers along the way and also enjoy all the sites and sounds at the Pasadena convention center. Although there were a decent amount of makeup exhibitors that were selling items, there were also a number of beauty schools there too. This was very exciting and even though I didn't buy hardly anything (except one brush), enjoy the pictures.

Urban Decay releases Naked Basics Palette

I'm so excited to share that Urban Decay has released its long awaited Matte palette called "NAKED Basics."
Urban Decay describes it as:

über-wearable shades look great on literally EVERYONE. Richer than other mattes, the color goes on with a smooth, luxe finish (never chalky or powdery).  

The case is said to be  sleek, soft-touch case has a slight sheen and feels like suede. Small and compact so it travels well, this must-have palette is packed with six full-sized shadows.

This palette includes the following shades:

VENUS – soft, off-white demi-matte
FOXY – very light yellow/beige matte
WALK OF SHAME – very light pinky nude matte

NAKED2 – rosy taupe matte
FAINT – warm, dusty brown matte
CRAVE – deepest, darkest brown/black matte

The Naked Basics Palette (SRP $27) is available from Sephora, ULTA and select Macy’s stores. Or, online at Sephora.com, ulta.com, macys.com, beauty.com and urbandecay.com. 

I believe this price point is decent for this palette. I'm hoping to get my hands on one soon.

Are you getting NAKED basics?

Holiday Makeup Must Haves

This Holiday there will be tons of new releases in the makeup world. However, there are a few key items that need to stay in your makeup bag or at the very front of your makeup collection. Here are my pics for the Holiday 2012 season.

#1: Matte Lipsticks

I really love NYX Matte Lipsticks! They come in a number of amazing colors and are really affordable. Word of caution though: lips need to be exfoliated and moisturized before application to prevent crusty looking lips :)

#2: Mascara

These three are my top pics for long, full lashes this holiday season. Rimmel London Sexy Curves, Rimmel London Eye Magnifier and Benefit They're real mascaras all do an amazing job of separating and volumizing lashes.

#3: Long Lasting Black Eyeliner

My top picks would have to be Urban Decays' 24/7 glide on pencil for the smooth like butter formulation and long lasting stay power as well as NYXs' retractable water proof liner. The more cost effective choice would be the NYX liner, however, I do love the 24/7 pencil. I couldn't choose so I picked both.

#4: Warm Blushes 

I selected two of my favorite warm tone blushes. MAC mineralized skin finish in Ring of Saturn and Sleek makeup Rose Gold  blushes give you a hint of warm pink to the cheeks but also a lovely glow of shimmering gold.

#5: Lashes

No holiday look is complete without some amazing lashes! I chose the Ardell Double up lashes because they give the look of having on two lashes. This gives a full more vibrant look to the eyes without having to actually stack lashes yourself.

Holiday Makeup: Sugar Plum Sparkle

I love this time of year and I'm already in the Holiday spirit! I decided to start off my holiday makeup looks with something simple with a bit of sparkle. Enjoy!

Products used
Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Palette
Urban Decay Naked Palette
MAC Gem of Roses lipstick
MAC Heroine lipstick
Ardell Lashes
NYX Espresso lip liner
NYX eyeliner in black
Milano baked blush in Fantastico mauve
Too faced shadow insurance primer
Too faced starry-eye liquid liner
Perfekt eye lash perfection gel

Minnie Mouse Glam Inspired Makeup

Disney has been a big part of my life and I always loved Minnie Mouse. She is a DIVA in her own right and I feel I did her justice with this look.

Products used

NYX Perfect Red Matte lipstick

MAC Rocker Lipstick

BH Cosmetics 88 Tropical Matte palette

NYX Hot Red Lip liner

NYX Jumbo Eye Shadow Pencil in Baby Blue

Wet N Wild Blush in Mellow Wine

Ben Nye Banana Powder

MAC mineralized Skin Finish in Dark

Palladio Black liquid liner

Rimmel London eye magnifier mascara

Wig from Ebay: http://bit.ly/RsufJ8
Contact lens: PinkyParadise.com

Spider Queen Halloween Makeup Tutorial

I had so much fun creating this look! I was inspired by all the little spiders I pass by on a daily basis on my way to the library. I hope you give this a try for halloween!

Watch the tutorial!

Products used:
Too Faced Shadow insurance eye shadow primer
Urban Decay 15th Anniversary palette "black out" eyeshadow
Urban Decay 24/7 glide on eyeliner
Sugarpill Cosmetics Burning Heart palette
Maybelline gel eyeliner
Random black lip liner
MAC Heroine matte lipstick
MAC Rockstar lipstick
MAC mineralized blush "feeling flush"
Ardell double up eyelashes
Spiders from Target.

Groovy Fall Makeup Tutorial

Enjoy the first of many fall makeup tutorials for this season!

Products used:

MAC Call me Bubbles Quad

Urban Decay NAKED palette

Makeup Forever #92 eyeshadow

Sephora Lashes

Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencil in "Perversion"

NYX soft matte lip cream in "London" 

Magnolia Makeup pigment in "gilded"

Fall Brow Tutorial

Every season I change up how I do my brows. Here is how I like to wear them in the fall :)

How To: Save Money on Makeup

Thought I'd share some tips on saving money on makeup!

Urban Decay Naked Skin Foundation Review & Demo

Urban Decay recently released a foundation called NAKED Skin and I wanted to give it a try.

My biggest concerns with any foundation is that it must cover my acne scars, and so far it takes 2 pumps of the NAKED Skin foundation to do so. Overall it is a nice foundation, but color variations need more work.

Here are some Pros:

• Light weight
• Good coverage
• Oil Free
• Easy Application

Here are some Cons:

• Matching issues. There needs to be more color options for people of color
• Breaks down past the 5-6hr mark (on me)
• Must be "warmed up" with a colored setting powder as it appears ghostly without it.
• Fails to look like "skin." You will look like you are wearing makeup

Here is the video demo:

Have you tried this foundation?

Urban Decay Smoked 24/7 Glide-On Pencils

You can NEVER have enough eyeliners! Urban Decay totally understands and with the Fall season vastly approaching, they have released the amazing Smoked eyeliner set. It compliments the recently released Smoked palette and I love that it's travel friendly!

What you get
Six pencils in all with two back by popular demand limited-edition shades and two new shades.

Demolition- Matte darkest chocolate brown
Empire- Matte dark eggplant purple
Mainline- Matte peacock blue (brand new!)
Smog- Metallic warm brown copper
Uzi- Metallic gunmetal w/silver micro-glitter
Zero- Award-winning, best-selling zealous black

**Empire, Smog & Uzi are only available in sets

I cant wait to get my hand on these pencils! They appear to be so much fun to experiment with a really awesome smokey eye look.

Urban Decay Smoked 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil Set ($38) is available at select Macy's stores, Ulta, online at Sephora.com, Macys.com, urbandecay.com, ultra.com and beauty.com

Urban Decay Vice Palette for Fall 2012

(Photo Courtesy of Urban Decay)

I'm SO EXCITED (can you tell? lol) Urban Decay will be releasing a super new eyeshadow palette for Holiday 2012 called The Vice Palette. It is described as: 

an insanely gorgeous new palette that’s ALL about eyeshadow. All twenty new shades (yes, twenty!) were created exclusively for the palette—you’ve never seen these colors before because they are BRAND-freaking new...and you can’t find them anywhere else. With a range of mattes, shimmers, satins, neutrals and brights, there’s something for everyone.

The palette comes housed in a sleek purple soft-touch case topped with a sparkling jeweled UD icon, just as the Urban Decay 15th Anniversary palette was. 

The sophisticated case boasts a large mirror and a double-ended Good Karma Shadow and Crease Brush which is very generous of Urban Decay. 

Every eyeshadow contains Urban Decay’s brand new Pigment Infusion System™ , the proprietary blend of ingredients that gives every shade its velvety texture, rich color, serious staying power, and blendability. 

The Vice Eyeshadow palette includes (along with a double-ended shadow and Crease Brush) the following colors:

(Photo courtesy of Urban Decay)

• Desperation – taupe brown w/satin finish 
• Muse – deep sepia brown w/multidimensional sparkle finish
• Jagged – metallic black gold w/shimmer finish 
• Blitz – metallic yellow gold w/shimmer finish 
• Penny Lane – metallic peachy bronze pearl w/ golden shimmer finish
• Junkie – dark green/blue pearl w/ golden shimmer
• Chaos – bright blue matte
• Occupy – metallic steel grey w/multidimensional sparkle and shimmer finish
• Unhinged – metallic electric turquoise w/ shimmer finish
• Black Market – jet black satin
• Provocateur – light metallic mauve w/ multidimensional sparkle and shimmer finish 
• Rapture – dark greyish purple w/ multidimensional shimmer finish
• Vice – deep eggplant purple w/shimmer finish 
• Noise – electric punch pink w/gold sparkle and shimmer finish
• Armor – metallic dove grey w/silver micro-glitter shimmer finish
• Nevermind – metallic cork w/shimmer finish 
• Echo Beach – pale wheat w/shimmer finish 
• Anonymous – opaque almond w/matte finish 
• Free Bird – pink champagne w/silver micro- sparkle shimmer finish
• Laced – opaque pinky taupe w/matte finish 

I am excited to try Chaos and Vice. The Vice Palette will retail for $59 and will be available (September 27th) from Sephora, ULTA and select Macy’s stores. Or, online at Sephora.com, ulta.com, macys.com, beauty.com and urbandecay.com (mid-September)

BUT... if you’re in the NYC area, they are having a one-day pre-sale at Sephora 5 Times Square between 3pm-9pm today, Friday September 14, 2012 and get your hands on it before everyone else! 

What are your first thoughts on this Urban Decay Vice Palette? 

What's in My Makeup Bag

My makeup bag is very interesting lol. I have alot of those sample size items that I snag from Sephora, but I also like to purchase items that I feel are small enough for travel, but effective enough to get the job done.

Check out what's inside here:

New Makeup: MAC By Request collection

MAC recently released a MAC By Request collection. I mean, it's not completely a collection. Just a few discontinued items people voted on and were put on sale last week. I was able to get 4 items. They are available only online and while supplied last at www.maccosmetics.com

Jete and Moth Brown were the two eyeshadows that stood out to me. I felt these two would look great together.

Moth Brown looks exactly like its name. It resembles the dust off a moth with gives off more of a gray tone brown residue if you handle them. It goes on smooth with a frost finish and I think it's a great color for fall.

Jete is a very pretty pinky/ sandy coral color. Very light and natural looking. I think this would make a great highlight color.

Rocker (left) & Moxie (right)

The most popular lipstick from this collection was Candy Yum Yum but I passed on it because it may have been too bright for my skin tone. However, I did pick up Moxie and Rocker. I wanted rocker because I needed a nice deep red for fall and I wanted Moxie just to have a juicy pink in my collection.

Did you snag any of these limited edition shades?

Gold Medal Beauty Products!

We just got through the Olympics this past week and I really enjoyed the events I got to watch via the mess of a broadcast that was NBC. However, there are a few beauty products I feel would deserve gold medals of their very own.

The Urban Decay NAKED palette is one of the most versatile palettes I own. For any day or night look I reach for this palette the most.

SugarPill Cosmetics loose eyeshadows go on so smooth and soft. The colors are very pigmented and stand out on any makeup look.
 Rimmel London Eye magnifier is the perfect "fake lash look" mascara.
Wear this and you won't be reaching for false lashes for a while.

 

MAC MatchMaster foundation is a great matte finish foundation. 

If this could get 10 gold medals it deserves it. 

It glides on smooth and has a perfect matte finish

NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow pencils are great for beginners. Although they can crease if applied to thickly, they make amazing bases for eyeshadows.

The GO Palette in Beijing from Coastal Scents is great for on the go makeup application and eyeshadow touch ups. 

It fits perfectly in your purse for over night travel as well.

The NYX retractable eyeliners are great for persons that hate having to sharpen eyeliner pencils. They are very pigmented and glide on smoothly.