Black Creme

Wet N Wild Black Creme. Lovely black creme. Medium consistency. Applies fantastic, minimal cleanup. 

One coat black creme. 'Nuff said.

Urban Decay Naked Foundation Shade 5.0

This foundation is not new to the world but it's new to me! Taylor over at Simply Beauty loves this and I remember her review and thought, I NEED to try this! I finally got around to purchasing it after trying it at Sephora (gotta love samples and makeovers!). 

I've been using this nearly every day since I bought it. I mostly use it with the Urban Decay brush it recommends using. At first I was stippling with the brush but pushing so hard the bristles bent and I put it aside and used a different brush for weeks. Then I went back to it and started gently stippling, and it made all the difference. I use one pump for my the "front" of my face, T-zone area and chin, which carries most of my breakouts and redness.  Then I use another pump (straight on to the brush, again) for the outer parts of my cheeks, forehead, blending onto my neck, and eyes. It doesn't perfectly cover under my eyes, but good enough for every day wear and it doesn't settle into lines like most concealers do on me. 

Urban Decay Naked Foundation Shade 5.0 on bare skin

My skin looks more yellow, which it is, as this shade has yellow or cool undertones. This is my usual undertone but you can't tell through all the redness. 

Bigger pictures, eek!

Bare face, no primer

Urban Decay Naked Foundation Shade 5.0, no primer

This foundation wears very well, all day with no migration. I do have to powder this down and once or twice during the day, even with primer, but I'm super oily and that is miles better than most foundations that are dissolved by the noon hour. It does make you very matte/flat so some highlighting or contouring is needed so you don't look like a mask. Love it!

Available at Urban Decay, Sephora, and Ulta, and I'm sure other places as well. I purchased mine from Sephora.

iHerb Order

I placed an order recently from iHerb as I'm out of conditioner. I like a site that only carries cruelty free and mostly natural and organic products. They even carry Real Techniques, e.l.f., and other every day names. I've been using them for body soap and shampoo/conditioner for awhile and there was a recent discount that I couldn't resist so I stocked up!

How about some Real Techniques products to keep it real? Love their brushes. I already have one set of the eyebrushes but another set can't hurt.

Real Techniques Nic's Picks 5 Brush Set

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

Real Techniques Stippling Brush (found after I took the pictures, sorry!)

Real Techniques Your Eyes/Enhanced Starter Set, 5 Brushes + Case

Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Line Smoothing Cream because I feel like I'm getting old and the lines around my eyes are ridiculous. And I love the smell of cocoa butter.

iHerb Stainless Steel Snap Mesh Tea Infuser (very excited about this! I've ben growing my own herbs for cooking and I'm excited to make mint tea!) On sale for $0.50!

Some awesome smelling massage oil. I have the regular almond oil I use as a moisturizer and I love it.
Now Foods, Lavendar Almond, Massage Oil

I bought four different conditioners as I tend to go through conditioner quickly with long hair and dry ends. I'm not sure which to try first! I think the Honeysuckle Rose went in the shower first because I really love Honeysuckle, it blooms wild here and smells amazing.

Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose Conditioner

Everyday Shea, Conditioner & Detangler, Lemon Lavender

Nature's Gate Conditioner, Hair Defense, Pomegranate Sunflower

Nubian Heritage Repair & Extend Conditioner Evoo & Moringo

Nature's Gate Pomegranate Sunflower, Aubrey Honeysuckle Rose, Everyday Shea Lemon Lavender, Evoo & Moringa Repair & Extend

And some lip stuff. I bought two of these (Hurraw! Black Cherry and Benecos Pink Honey) because of Viola and Killer Colours. The others were on sale and you can never have too much chapstick!

Benecos Natural Lipstick in Pink Honey

Hurraw! Balm, Tinted, Black Cherry

Sierra Bees Organic Lip Beeswax Lip Balm with Vit E, Pomegranate (on sale for $0.50!)

Sierra Bees Organic Lip Beeswax Lip Balm with Vit E, Honey (on sale for $0.50!)

Sierra Bees Organic Lip Balm, Mint Burst (on sale for $0.50!)

Sierra Bees Organic Lip Balm, Cocoa Butter (on sale for $0.50!)

Of course I have a discount code for you! Let me know if you place an order, I want to know what you got!

If you click here or use code TQQ430 to save $5 on orders less than $40 or $10 on orders $40 or more.

Tender Teal

Sally Hansen Tender Teal is an oldie but I'm just getting around to show it to you. I didn't like this set of duochromes once I got them on the nails, so I've given them all away. I realize now I should have done them over black as that tends to get the duochromes out more, but whatever. Someone else is enjoying them.

Sally Hansen Tender Teal

Sally Hansen Tender Teal

You can start to see the color shift at certain angles, but it's really just pretty in the bottle.

Edgy

Barielle Edgy is a gorgeous dark purple. I'm so in love with this type of color for the fall. The vampy dark almost black looking polish that still retains its color, even in low lighting. 

This polish did chip very easily despite Seche Vite top coat. It chipped while I was sleeping. Sleeping!

To save my mani, I redid a coat of Edgy and then to smooth the obvious unevenness, I did a quick glitter gradient with Shimmer Polish Jennifer but it chipped within a few hours. I should know by now to take pics while the mani is still in one piece before I actually live in it. Oh well. It was pretty while it lasted.

e.l.f. Lip Liners

e.l.f. Essential Feather Proof Moisturizing Lip Liners are pencil liners that are anything but moisturizing. Even swatching them on my skin had uncomfortable tugging and they broke easily. Spice, Bark, Mauve Lux, and Natural Blush were the only options when I purchased these, but there is a new color called Bitter that seems like a dark wine color. All are matte except Mauve Lux that had a little sparkle in it. The other three colors are really, really similar, despite what the website shows. Natural Blush if a little pinker, Spice is a little darker, and Bark is a little warmer. I haven't even used these yet because I'm afraid of what they'll do to my lips. Available here for $1.00 each.

e.l.f. Studio Lip Liner & Blending Brush are another set of lip liners that are in a black case, are twist up lip liners, and have a synthetic large brush on the other end to blend. These are a bit creamier and would blend better, but I haven't used the brush yet. I think it may be a good clean up brush for nails though. The darker colors, Red and Wine, are a bit harder to get even, but Nude Pink and Natural are gorgeous. All matte. Long wearing. Available here for $3.00.

I generally don't use lip liners unless I'm doing a bold red lip and want to make sure nothing migrates. I'll use these to color my entire lip and put a clear gloss or chapstick over it for long wearing color.

Ruby Ruby

Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby is a great neutral classic red.

Very shiny, only needs 2 coats for opacity. It is a little thin and will run if you're not careful. 

Gerry

I do love glitter. Especially when it's on over a glue base coat so I don't have to kill myself with removal. Weee!

Three coats needed for full opacity, went on smoothly over glue basecoat and came off just as easily.

Shimmer Polishes available here on Etsy.

Urban Decay Triple Threat Smokey Matte Pencils

Urban Decay Triple Threat Travel Pencil Set Smoky Matte Edition is a set of three travel sized pencil liners. Not full size, but not the mini pencils that come in some sets.

The set includes Perversion (blackest black matte), Smoke (deepest gray matte), and Sabbath (deep navy matte). These pencils glide like a dream 

I enjoy changing up my liner color, but generally stay in the dark colors, but I have fun with blues, greens, purples, grays, browns, and of course black. I save the brighter colors for the weekends or double lining for going out!

Urban Decay 24/7 liners are fantastic. They go on smooth without tugging or skipping (which I can appreciate with my aging eyes) and they give you time to blend (if you're into that) and then they dry down after about 30 seconds to be smudge proof! Fantastic. Love. Buy them. Now.

Available at UrbanDecay for $19. I bought mine from Sephora.

Spider Web Nail Art + On The 101

Happy Halloween! I did some fun spider webs for today. They didn't turn out as planned. I trimmed down a brush but the lines were still too thick. Something to work on, I guess. 

Again, inspired by Simply Rins - Cobwebs.  

I used Essie No Place Like Chrome with a small striping brush over Wet N Wild On The 101.

Wet N Wild On The 101 is a sheer black with red glitter of different sizes. Layers nicely to get an almost jelly-like appearance and lots of dimension with the glitter. I needed 4-5 coats to get some opacity and in the sunlight, still looks more gray than black, especially at the edges. 

Wet N Wild On The 101, low light 

Wet N Wild On The 101, sunlight 

Wet N Wild On The 101, sunlight, see how it looks more gray than black?

Wet N Wild On The 101, sunlight. Looks more black in not so bright light except at the edges. Sorry for extraneous glitter, it's hard to clean up!

With any glitter polish, removal is a hot mess unless you use a peeling basecoat, which I forgot to use since I was so excited to use this polish. Whoops. Clean up is also a nightmare since the glitter is hard to remove.  It was beautiful while it lasted!

Ghosts!

A ghost manicure is needed for Halloween isn't it? I certainly thought so!

This is another Halloween nail art inspired by Simply Rins - Not So Spooky Ghosts.

My favorite ghost. 

I chose to do the ghosts on a dark background of Wet N Wild Poison Ivy, which is a fantastic dark green with green shimmer. It's black leaning, but has enough green to retain its color even in shade and darker lighting and really is beautiful in the sun. This was part of the 2012 Halloween collection but I think it could also make a beautiful Christmas color as well.

The ghosts were done with white acrylic non-toxic paint and Wet N Wild Black Creme. I had to do 2 coats of Seche Vite (on top of a coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Flash quick dry top coat) because they were really rough from the white acrylic paint. You can still see brush marks, which usually doesn't happen, but I had trouble with this mani. I think it was painting under a fan (it's sooooo hot) and it dried quicker than usual.

Wet N Wild Poison Ivy, sunlight

Wet N Wild Poison Ivy, sunlight

Wet N Wild Poison Ivy, low light. Retains minimal shimmer but still looks green. Beautiful. 

Skulls and Stripes Halloween Nail Art

Time for Halloween nail art! I waited awhile this month to start but I was having too much fun with all the pink ribbons. This nail art is really simple but I loved it, and it wore suprisingly well. 

One coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme (love) and Essie No Place Like Chrome accent nail and stripes. Skull details are done with Wet N Wild Black Creme.



No acrylic paint used in this mani which made it a little more special since it's all actual nail polish. Small detail but makes me feel more accomplished. It helped that the nail polishes are opaque and easy to work with, no complaints here!

Based on Jack Skellington Nail Art by cutepolish.

Halloween Nail Art Ideas

With Halloween fast approaching, here are some of nail art ideas! I'm trying to find some that look fun and interesting for this year. All pictures link to post for supplies and materials used.

Halloween Nail Art: Monsters

Halloween Nail Art: Blood

Halloween Nail Art: Candy Corn

Halloween Nail Art: Tombstone

Halloween Nail Art: Spider Webs

Halloween Nail Art: Pumpkins

Halloween Nail Art: Mummies

Halloween Nail Art: Casper the Ghost

Halloween Nail Art: Spiders

Halloween Nail Art: Sugar Skulls

Let me know if you do any of these, I'd love to see them!

Preamp Breast Cancer Awareness Ribbon

Orly Preamp is a gorgeous color that was released awhile back but as I just put it on my nails for the first time recently. It's prob in my top 10 polishes of all time. Please don't make me list the 10, I think I'd go crazy but that may be fun to do one day!

Orly Preamp, morning light

I added a pink ribbon for Breast Cancer Awareness. As you've seen, I've been doing a fair amount of these pink manicures recently. I think I'm ready for Halloween nail art! Ribbon done with black and white nontoxic acrylic paint and Models Own Pastel Pink.

Orly Preamp, shade

Preamp is a pinky purple with light pink shimmer. In low light, it's smooth and unassuming (see above morning light pic), but in the sunlight, it really pops. Gorgeous.  Feminine yet powerful.

Orly Preamp, sunlight. Look at that shimmer!

Orly Preamp, sunlight