My Everyday Look is All That Glitters

Hi gals! I felt pretty in pink today so I thought I'd share with you my "everyday" look as well as my happy pink outfit ^.^

Face:
Stila Tinted Moisturizer SPF 20 in Medium
Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer
L'oreal Magic Smooth Souffle foundation in 518 Natural Buff
Dermablend Concealer in Medium Beige (I think, I'll have to double-check the shade name) for spots
L'oreal Magic Smooth Souffle blush in Angelic, topped with Physicians Formula Happy Booster blush in Natural. To be honest, I usually use my Maybelline Dream Mousse Blush in Coffee Cake, but it's discontinued so I used this combo today.
Physicians Formula Happy Booster Powder in Translucent (the L'oreal foundation is matte and this imparts a subtle, light-diffusing shimmer. I really like this over it and it does seem to extend the wear-time!)
MAC Mineralize Charged Water

Eyes: Too Faced Candlelight Shadow Insurance, MAC All That Glitters eye shadow, NYX Crystal Glitter liner in Crystal Onyx, Covergirl LashBlast Volume Mascara, Garnier Tinted Eye Roller

Lips: Lorac Multiplex 3-D Lip Gloss in 4D - Gloss Spam! Sorry, it's just such a pretty gloss :-*

Sweater, sequined tank top, trousers - Express
Lariat necklace - Jewelmint
Watch - Fossil
Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips

You can't see it but my pants are gray with skinny pink pinstripes.  I love how the sequins on the tank caught the light here :)

  Did I successfully block the toilet from view? heh

 It's like a lollie necklace... nom <3 Happy Thursday, everybody!

REVIEW: Kate Spade New York Supercalifragilipstick in Pop Art Pink

It's been a long, long Wednesday for me, girls! I'd rather not get into the office awesomeness, but instead I'm excited to bring you my review/photos/swatches of the first Kate Spade Supercalifragilipstick to arrive at my door: Pop Art Pink! ($24, katespade.com, but I paid about $17 for it during their F&F sale).
It came in a huge, non-descript mailing-box with lots of pretty beige-and-brown striped tissue paper and air-filled plastic mailing bags, but the pink-and-red cardboard box (remniscent of Victoria's Secret packaging) still got a little crushed. Over-package much?

As soon as I removed the tube itself, I was surprised by how large it is.  It's light-weight but still manages to feel luxurious. I haven't seen this type of packaging before, either.  The bullet-side sits upside-down in the cap and you push on the little spade "button" to pop it out.  So, the lipstick is actually smaller-looking than the large cap/base suggests.  I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of the spade "button" because it's actually the bottom of the bullet-side!

With a Fresh Sugar Passion Lip Treatment and MAC lipstick for size comparison

If you're a fidgety person, you'll have a lot of fun fidgeting with this. It could make a good conversation piece for a girls'-night-out! (LOL yes, I've noticed my abundant hyphen-usage in this post. Please don't hold it against me - it's been a really long day at work!)  The lipstick seems to have no fragrance but if I sniff at it really hard (as I do love to sniff products I'm reviewing... weird), it smells a bit waxy. Not pleasant, but you won't detect it unless you literally try to inhale the thing through your nostrils.  It wouldn't fit through most, but my nose... ok, I'll stop trying to be funny now :-P

Left is one stroke (sheer, no?) and right is many strokes

The "Pop Art Pink" color itself instantly reminded me of (Almost-dupe-alert?) CoverGirl Lip Perfection in Temptress, one of my favorite lipsticks of the year which got me wearing bright lips to the office in the first place.  It's a watermelon-pink, though the Kate Spade is quite a bit sheerer and doesn't stain like the CoverGirl does.  This makes the lipstick last an average amount of time, around 3-4 hours.

Far right is CoverGirl Lip Perfection lipstick in Temptress. They're very similar but Temptress clearly has more blue in it.

Like the CoverGirl lipstick, it has a slick, moisturizing feel that resembles a balm (though I would say the Kate Spade is lighter-feeling). It has a weight to it but it's not uncomfortable or sticky. I like to feel a lipstick on, personally, because that means I can usually tell if it has migrated as I wear it without having to check a mirror (nice when you're wearing a bright color). 

Why does it always rain on me?

I don't really love the sheerness though it is buildable, and the cheaper dupe is still my preference.  I do adore the packaging, though!  Ideally, you'll have both and put on the CoverGirl Temptress in the morning.  Later in the day when the CoverGirl has shifted into a lipstain, you could whip out this Supercalifragilipstick button-tube and touch-up, and all the girls will remark how cute and clever the lipstick is!

I wanted to do a lip swatch, but you can see I have lots of flaky dry skin going on right now! How embarrassing!

Two Stila 2011 BCA Palettes: Swatches & Photos

On this sunny Sunday afternoon, I thought the light was right to finally bring you swatches and photos of the two Stila BCA Palettes for Breast Cancer Awareness month in 2011.
Some of my favorite bloggers did a collaboration series of pink FOTDs that I think would be amazing for you to check out and be inspired by!
Ebru
Kayla
Jessica
Tiffany
Danielle

If I've missed anyone from this wonderful series, my apologies! Please let me know below in comments.

As you definitely know if you've been reading my blog for a couple of months, I love to collect the Stila Travel Girl Palettes.  Several were released this year, including two promoting Breast Cancer Awareness.  These both include a face chart look and a mirror like the other palettes released this year.

 I believe one is an Ulta exclusive: empowered in pink.  It is a set of three matte, neutral purples with a sparkly dark purple, and two light-to-medium pink blushes (one matte and the other with some shimmer).  I was surprised when I swatched them at how purple these shades all became; as you can see from the palette photos the shadows appear to be more putty-colored.  These colors should work for both warm and cool skintones.  Purple is a color known to complement all eye colors as well.  This palette is certainly universally flattering!

Eyeshadows, clockwise from top left: believe, strength, courage, support
Middle cheek color: pink, Bottom cheek color: ribbon (it's no illusion, pink is the matte version of nearly the same shade in shimmer, ribbon!)

Ribbon is the far right blush color swatched

The other, positive and pretty, is available from stilacosmetics.com or sephora.com.  It has an ivory with a tiny bit of silver sparkle (great highlight color), a pink-ivory matte shade which would make a great blending color, a super-pigmented and unique salmon color with subtle sparkles, and another super-pigmented cranberry color with subtle sparkles.  The salmon and cranberry were the most pigmented of all the BCA palettes eyeshadows.  The eyeshadows in positive and pretty, unlike empowered in pink, are true-to-pan.  I think because of the two ivory tones, this palette is going to be more useful for those with light to medium complexions.  I think it also leans more warm.

Sorry this photo is a little dark.
Eyeshadows clockwise from top left: gift, passion, beauty, positive
Middle cheek color: pretty, Bottom cheek color: empower

See how gorgeous that salmon color ("positive") is?

The blushes between these two palettes are rather similar, except for the darker of the positive and pretty palette ("empower") is slightly deeper and more plummy.  The eyeshadows and blushes kick up a lot of powder, unfortunately, but the color is easy to build up and the quality is otherwise there so I can ignore this one negative mark.

Even if you don't collect the Stila Palettes I think these are excellent.  The value is great ($14), I love that they are about BCA and give some percentage for charity (I'm sorry I don't know how much).  The pigmentation is strong (though not up to par with Stila's core line) and the color combinations are both well-thought-out and wearable.  Please pick these up and consider doing a BCA post of your own.  You won't regret it if you read the series mentioned above by those beautiful bloggers and think about donating to this cause!

Hot Pink and Black

Hi all! Just a quick matchy-matchy look I wore to a coworker's wedding.  I'd like to note I did my makeup and took photos in daylight but this was an evening affair.

Sorry it's so blurry! The light was either too dim or too strong that day.  The dress was $14 from Kohl's and the sequined, skull-print platform pumps were from Hot Topic $32.  The nail color is Revlon Not So Blueberry.

Rohto Hada-Labo BB Moist Emulsion instead of Foundation, BE Mineral Veil, Jill Stuart Mix Blush Compact in Romantic Poppy (really love this but, day-amn! It's $65!) Covergirl LipPerfection Lipstick in Siren

TFSI, Jill Stuart Crystal Eyes Romantic Onyx (so sheer, pain in the BUTT to get all four shades in the quad this intensity, but nice sparkle), Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Liner pen, Stila Glamoureyes Mascara.

I bought the Japanese cosmetics from iMomoko.com with my own money, and I do recommend them.  They respond very quickly by e-mail if you have questions about your order.