carrie bradshaw look

since i have accidental free cable tv now, i've been a total bum and have basically done nothing except work and watch tv. yup, the post-grad life is a good one. while watching an old rerun of sex and the city the other night, i couldn't keep from staring at carrie's stunning makeup. she had very warm gold eyeshadow on (which is basically my favorite eyeshadow look of all time) and bright pink cheeks. but what really killed me was her perfect spicy-neutral matte lipstick that made her eyes look so blue. observe:

instyle

instyle

ok, so the pictures don't do her any justice. but if you've ever seen an episode of sex and the city, you know what i'm talking about. so i instantly thought, how can i try this myself?? i dug out some old covergirl outlast lipsticks, and this is what happened:

eyes: the gold pan from covergirl's 4-pan in "country woods"

cheeks: that same cotton candy pink blush from last time (i'm looking for a new one, btw)

lips: 2 covergirl outlast shades- "sleek suede" (L) and "my papaya" (R), below:

i actually wore "my papaya" to my wedding.... which made me smile today :). i've forgotten how much i loved these outlast lipsticks. i think i have like... uhh too many. i'm definitely gonna have to start wearing these more, since they stay awesome-looking for hours upon hours, which is great for this ridiculously hot nashville weather.

sale at rite-aid!

look what i scored today (on the cheap!):

i've been running low on my staples (my maybelline eyebrow pencil, concealer, and mascara), but i've been waiting for a good drugstore sale. i was really holding out for a BOGO sale, but this week's sale at rite-aid is almost as good. it's 40% off on all maybelline cosmetics! pretty good. so all i had to do was register for a wellness+ card (i haven't yet because i hardly ever shop at rite-aid), and i got all my items at a discounted price. here's how much i spent:

concealer- $3.33
brow pencil- $4.01
mascara- $3.11
----------
TOTAL: $11.42 (with tax)

not bad, eh? the receipt said i saved $6.98. i was feeling pretty smart, until i realized... uhhh why didn't i buy more necessities?? i may have to go back for some superstay lipsticks, because i'm quite fond of them :).

i feel spoiled

look what my parents-in-law just got me for graduation! 

it's a jewelry armoire! i was sooooo excited!

ok, so now you've seen all of my jewelry... ha. i even had room to fill the bottom 2 drawers with all of my lipsticks! pretty cool.

a big part of me feels guilty for all of this stuff, though.... i have a clarisonic, enough jewelry to fill a large piece of furniture, a very easy part-time job that i love and happens to pay well, a nice apartment, internet, and yesterday my husband and i discovered that the internet guy accidentally hooked up our cable too! so now we have cable tv.... who the heck am i?? i never thought i would have all of this.... 

i feel bad. 

no more shopping for me for a while. i have waaaay more than i need, and some people don't have nearly enough to stay alive. it makes me sick to my stomach.

not that i don't appreciate an awesome gift, because i definitely do!

alexa chung eyes how-to

every picture i've ever seen of alexa chung has me green with envy about her eye makeup. how does she do it?? it's magical. it makes her eyes look such a cool steel blue. 

selective potential

see? she has the same makeup going on. it makes her blue eyes look bright and sparkly, without having to use anything sparkly at all. how??

well, i've been playing around with it for a while, and i may have come pretty close. and let me just say, it looks more dramatic in real life. i'll let you be the judge.

wanna know the secret? you first make a thick line of chocolate brown shadow over about half of your lids, and then black liquid liner close to your upper lashes. see?

i finally figured out that you need that smudgy stuff to get the look i was going for. the liner of liquid liner just wasn't enough. at least for me, because i have huge eyes, apparently. some would even go so far as to say i look like a precious moments doll, which i do not.

some products you need (which you probably already have anyway):

1. matte chocolate brown shadow (mine is from the japanese Y100 store from like a billion years ago. i used the darkest one is the tiny pan. my point is, anything will work).

2. an angle brush. i used my ecotools one to apply the brown shadow. wet, in case you were wondering. i suppose a regular applicator would work too, but probably not a fluffy eyeshadow brush.

3. black liquid liner, of course. this is absolutely essential. mine is from n.y.c. and it's $2! more about that later. 

4. cotton candy pink blush. have you noticed that in all of the first 3 pictures that the girls have that perfectly-pinched pink cheek thing going on?? this shade of blush does that. it's from the japanese revlon line, also from a million years ago. but i think sonia kashuk's pink flamingo blush is almost exactly the same.

5. a swipe of pink gloss. again, alexa always pairs her smudgy eyes with pink gloss. the one i used in the pictures was covergirl's lipslicks in cutie. at first i thought i hated that gloss, but now i realized i love it. more about that too!

in other news, i dyed my hair with coffee last night. in the bathtub. i've smelled like coffee all day, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. it turned out ok, so i may not dye my hair with store-bought dye anymore. i'm getting tired of it. when i get it all figured out, i may do a tutorial on that.

these nail polishes make my mouth water....

holy moly. i think i NEED all of these!

american apparel nail laquer in "office", $6

essie resort collection summer 2010 collection in "playa del platinum", $8

photo: makeup and beauty blog

and my favorite:

china glaze vintage vixen fall 2010 collection in "ingrid", $6

photo: makeup and beauty blog

i've never tried any of these formulas, but the shades are great. i know they're everywhere now, because they're so of-the-moment, but i still love them! especially that china glaze shade. soooo pretty! it's different from the rest of the "greige" shades these days, because of that awesome shimmer.

yes, i know it's too early to be pining for fall makeup colors.

no more holy grail foundation....??

i can't believe it. my favorite foundation is no more. how did this happen?

when i browse the drugstore makeup aisles, i keep looking for a good deal on my foundation (i'm down to my last bottle now. i usually buy them BOGO so i always have an extra). but everywhere i go, i can only find 4 crappy shades. i just thought that since it's not a new foundation, the stores had pared down their selection to make room for newer products. but noooooo. i checked the revlon website last night, and they only carry those 4 shades!! who ever heard of a foundation line with only 4 shades? preposterous! the lightest shade is "buff". i'm almost 100% sure it's too dark for me.


you know what this is, don't you? discrimination on my pale skin. just kidding (but seriously).


ok, so now the question is, what do i use now? i'm leaning towards the regular revlon colorstay for normal/dry skin. any thoughts/reviews/opinions? they still have ivory shades for us pasty people. i'm hoping it's similar....?

my favorite perfume of all time

i just realized i've never said anything about fragrance before. maybe because this is one of the few areas where i know exactly what i like- fruity and happy. so it only makes sense that i looooove escada. they have several different scents, but they all smell very similar. this is the one i'm using now:

since this is one of escada's earlier fragrances, you can find it for cheaper (about $25-ish?) than some of the newer ones. but like i said, they all smell pretty much the same- happy! as soon as i spray it on, i have the inexplicable urge to dance around like richard simmons.

here's another favorite:

it also smells happy. but maybe sweeter than the escada one? i would totally wear this one a lot, but it's expensive! it's about $25 for that tiny, tiny amount. boo, gwen stefani.

what are y'all's favorites? especially for spring/summer?

exciting beauty news: i have a new fancy gismo!

sorry i've been MIA lately. i've been busy with, you know, graduating from colllege!!! woooo~!

in celebration of my being awesome, my husband bought me a ridiculously awesome present:

a clarisonic!! how excited am i? very. i've never even said i really wanted one. he just did some research and thought this sounded like something i would like. what a good husband :P haha. he even bought the brand-new yellow clarisonic mia and had it engraved for me! i guess he really wants me to stay pretty, huh? ha.

daniel's pretty cute, huh?

i always imagined the brush to be kind of stiff to get all that crap out your pores, but it's surprisingly soft!

the box i keep it in, with a trial-size clarisonic cleanser and a replacement brush head. oh yeah, it also came with a full-size (big!) cleanser called gentle hydro cleanser, which is pretty cool. it retails on its own for $25 online :S. eep.

my clarisonic box, heehee

well, i've been using this for about a week and a half so far, only at night. has it made a big difference? definitely! i guess from the stress of trying to get all my schoolwork done, my face went crazy a few weeks ago. i've never broken out that bad in my entire life, not even during puberty. i had several big pimples, plus the delightful mt. vesuvius on my chin. nice for all those grad pictures, huh? thankfully, i did a good job of concealing all of it. but still! having tons of zits lurking under your makeup does nothing for anyone's self-esteem!

my little clarisonic friend has cleared all of that mess up. in just a few days. and now my face feels like velvet.... or suede.... or something that's not human skin. awesome! and i haven't broken out since. i still have some little tiny bumps (i get those all the time), so maybe when i switch from the sensitive brush head to the normal, that will clear up too? who knows. all i know is i love this guy. 

like i said, it's only been a week and half-ish, so i'll update you on any further progress. but i'm guessing that things will only get better from here.

new nail polish: wet 'n wild in "blazed"

why am i so attracted to this shade of nail polish? on all accounts it just doesn't make sense.... it's um, orange. i usually hate orange. but something about this punchy, coral-y shade was calling to me. see for yourself. can you take your eyes away from it??

fyi, this isn't a very long-lasting formula. but hey, it's $2. and i still love the neon color.

new favorite body wash!

i don't think i've ever repurchased one particular kind of body wash/shower gel before. it seems to take me forever to finish a bottle, and by that time, i'm bored. but i tend to go for citrusy scents. one of my favorites was bath and body works' white citrus shower gel. but um, it's kind of pricey for such a small (but cute!) bottle.

but HOLY MOLY, i think i heard some handel's messiah when i smelled this body wash. WOW.

olay sheer moisture ribbons with mandarin oil

it's singularly amazing. of course, it's all wrong for me. the bottle isn't green, it isn't an amazing bargain, and it's not citrusy at all. but i can't help it, i'm in love. it smells kind of sweet and exotic at the same time (yall, i really can't describe scents to save my life. i'm not one of those people who can be like, "well the top notes are such-and-such and the drydown is doo-hickey...." yeah right). but trust me when i saw it's awesome. 


it's a little over $6 at walmart, which is probably twice as much as i'd usually pay, but can i help it that my mom is in town and told me i needed it?? haha, i think not. it also comes in bar soap, for about $3 for 2, which is a considerably better deal. maybe next time i'll do that.


i'm not used to such a creamy body wash. i always do the gel thing. but it's nice. it's also really great for shaving your legs. just saying....

review: st. ives green tea scrub

well, i totally caved on this the other day. i saw it at a drugstore, saw that it had green tea (i'm such a sucker for green tea anything- beverages, skin care, anything.... i did grow up in japan, after all!), and that the product itself was bright green! had to buy it.

it's a little pricier than the regular st. ives apricot scrub (a little over $5 at walmart) for a smaller amount of product. but hey, i like trying new things. is there anything worse than being stuck in a rut? i think not.

i really like it! it feels kind of weird for a scrub, but in a good way. it has smaller granules than the apricot scrub, but they aren't sharp like a microderm abrasion product. it feels more like a washcloth. just slightly rough. 

like i said, it's bright green (love!) and the smell is awesome. fresh and pretty, but not old lady at all. and it makes my face feel very smooth. but i don't really worry about using it 2x a day, because it feels gentler than the apricot scrub. i don't think it's as stripping of my skin.

i've been using it for a couple weeks now, and i think i like it. but of course, i'm fickle, so i may change my mind. in which case, i'll let you know!

found: holy grail lipstick!!

revlon colorburst lipstick in soft rose!

i've suspiciously eyed this lipstick many a time in the drugstore aisles but never convinced myself to spend $8 on it. but THEN....

i found a $3 coupon! go to revlon.com, and all you have to do is register your e-mail address to print out a $3 off coupon for any colorburst lipstick. woot!

what i love about this lipstick is it's exactly the same shade as covergirl's now defunct blushberry shine. PLUS everything they've said about this lipstick is true. it feels very light and luscious, but is highly pigmented. it's not as sheer as blushberry shine, but i'm ok with that. that means it actually stays put on my lips! after the creamy feeling kind of fades and you think your lipstick has all worn off, it leaves behind a super pretty vintage-doll-looking stain! even after eating a meal, which means it's perfect for dates!

also, you can get different effects with it. in the picture above, i just applied one very light layer. it just kind of brightens up your face and looks natural. but if you apply more, it's a more classic, sophisticated look. the shade is neutral enough to go with practically anything. i've worn it with cool eyeshadows and warm eyeshadows. oh, it's definitely never leaving my purse.

i think i will cry if they ever discontinue it, which means they will, just because i love it.