Weekly Makeup Basket #1 WOC edition

I'm starting a project pan for 2015! I have a whole post on why I made the decision coming up tomorrow. But my first step is starting up doing weekly makeup baskets! The purpose of this is to challenge myself to focus on particular products and find awesome go-to looks that will come in handy when my panning challenge actually gets started.

I also noticed that every morning my tiny vanity table ends up a mess! It’s because I have too much crammed on to it. So in deciding what I will be using for a week or two I can pack my other products away and cut down on clutter.

So here are the shadows I'll be working with.

And the eye bases, the third one is MAC Indianwood

 Finally, my foundations.

NC45

Since this is my first time doing this I wanted to just focus on eyes and face  products. I didn't do a full face for a few reasons: 1. I don't own multiples of everything (ex. I own 1 face primer) 2. I still need to figure out what blushes and lippies look best with the eyeshadow  3. Since I'm new at this I didn't want to make it impossibly restricted. 

All the best, 

Jess

De-potting Adventures

I decided to take the plunge (or spatula) and de-pot my Urban Decay Smoked Palette. I got this one back when it came out in 2012 because I was on the “buy everything” bandwagon. When I did use it I mostly lived on Barlust because it’s like a more intense version of Smog from my original Naked Palette. Other than that I used the blue (Evidence), green Loaded) and purple (Rockstar) shades a handful of times. I decided to depot this palette because I realized that it’s not the perfect travel palette for me. The shades are mostly dark and smoky and when I travel I'm more likely to wear minimal or neutral eye shadow and I’ll wear a bright lip for going out. It just made more sense to get rid of the packaging and have easier access to the actual eye shadows on a daily basis.

Here are the results!

It was a super easy process I used the spatula provided in the Sephora Z palettes and used the no-heat  method from this video 

Stay tuned for my Full Z- Palette! 

Much love, 

Jess

Face of Yesterday

Face

black radiance bb cream in cafe

nars radiant creamy concealer in amande 

ben nye luxury powder in topaz 

mac msf natural in deep dark 

nars blush in liberte

Eyes

too faced shadow insurance

maybelline color tattoo in inked in pink

naked 1 buck (crease) toasted (lid) sidecar (inner corner)

mac swiss chocolate (crease) brown script (lower lash line)

urban decay smoked palette loaded (lower lash line)

Lips 

sephora nano liner in chic coco

milani power lip gloss stain in creamy cafe

I went with a lighter makeup look to see how it would go. I learned that the Ben Nye powders DO NOT control oil. I was oily on my nose after a few hours...and I have dry skin. I have been experimenting with some eyeshadows I had been neglecting, because I am thinking about doing a project pan with some of my naked palette shades. I also bought the lip color on Monday at CVS because I have no will power... Its a long wearing lip gloss from Milani  in a pretty pinkish nude color. I think it looks good. Its hard to pair lippies with pinky toned eyeshadows!

On the teaching side, I was told I looked happier while teaching today. I think I am. 

Nuff Love, 

Jess

FOYesterday & First full day of teaching

Face

Black Radiance BB Cream in Cafe

MAC Prolongwear Concealer in NC45

MAC MSF Natural in Dark and Deep Dark 

Nars Blush in Seduction 

Urban Decay All-Nighter

Eyes (The light totally washed it out)

Milani Brow Kit in Dark 

Too Faced Shadow insurance

Be a Bombshell cream eyeshadow (the one that came in the ipsy bag)

Naked Palette Buck & Sidecar 

MAC swiss Chocolate 

ItsJudytime palette bronze shade 

MAC Blacktrack  gel liner 

L'oreal Miss Magna Mascara 

Lips

Bite Beauty Cashmere Lip Cream in Sancerre (as a long wearing base)

Revlon Matte Balm in Standout

I'm actually liking the Black Radiance BB cream. It barely gives any coverage at all, and its a little darker than my skin so I thought it would be a no-go. But once I put on the concealer (Kim K style) and powered it looked like a pretty medium coverage. I reapplied the red lips once during my planning period and they he'd up like champs. I did notice that some of the product built up where my lips meet and I had to scrape the gunk off so that wasn't pretty. I am thinking about trying to pan a red lipstick so the Matte balm was my first stab at seeing whether or not I could stand doing it. I'm really not sure yet, especially with teaching I can't have lipstick everywhere and I can't reapply or check it often like I feel the need to. 

On another note, I solo-taught all day long all by myself! Im so proud of that :). I was a little nervous knowing that my teaching coach wasn't there but I have to say I rocked it. It wasn't perfect, but I've already realized that it will never be perfect so I'm happy. 

Another accomplishment: I bought 0 things for black friday/cyber monday! I am participating in boycotting the sales in solidarity with Ferguson. All weekend I only bought some yoni eggs from Organic Blood, which is a black owned business and some kanekalon braiding hair. 

Hope you had a great start to your week as well. 

K love you bye,

Jess 

Sephora Haul!

I became a VIB at Sephora in August or September of this year thanks to my Cohort Teacher Franz who enable me. So I was of course super excited for the VIB 20% off sale like everyone else in blogger/Youtube land. Here is my haul!

Since this haul was almost a month ago I have opinions on everything. Let the mini reviews commence... 

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette

Its so fancy, but I really can't tell the difference after an hour or so. I watched a few tutorials on how to use it more effectively, and there were basically two dark skinned girls who had some info. They were Destiny Godley and Simplebeautyblog on youtube. Even still I don't think that it makes enough of a difference to justify spending so much. Its going back. 

Wearing Ambient Lighting Powders on NC50 Skin 

Recommend? Nah

Nars Blush in Seduction

This blush, I hear, is a dupe for MACs Fever. Its a plummy wine color that works great on my skin tone. The blend ability and lasting power is awesome, I am the type that needs easy fool proof blushes because I still don't know what I'm doing! It works great with vampy lips too so I'm definitely happy with it. 

Nars Blush in Seduction

Recommend? Yes! Especially brown girlies! But fever may be a bit cheaper so check out that one too. 

Sephora Collection Cream Lip Stain in 07 Dark Berry

YAAAAASSSSSSS to this vampy sexy lip right here! Its a dark brown burgundy with visible bronze shimmer and its so perfect. I can rock it alone or under MAC Rebel to MAC Diva lippies. This is my second cream lip stain from sephora, and I can honestly say these are awesome products. The colors are opaque and long lasting. They go on as a thin blend able liquid and then dry down, actually the formula is similar to Mac prolongwear concelers. The cream stains are easily build able, and my favorite way to use them is as lipstick bases.You need one of these in your life, go check them out. 

Sephora Lip Cream Stain in 07 Dark Berry 

Recommend? YASSSSSSSSS! If you love MAC's Diva you need this. 

Sephora Collection Nano Lip Liner

This is my first lipliner from Sephora. Its a small little thing but the color is perfect to go with the Dark Berry cream stain. And it was only 5 bucks so no complaints here.

Recommend? Meh, its a lipliner, it does the job.

Kat Von D Immortal Lash and Line Kit. 
This comes with a full size mascara and the famous tattoo liner. Both are bomb!! The mascara took about two weeks to get good, the want is a stiff plastic thing that is hard to work with at first, but once you get used to it it gives great lash. I alternate between combing my lashes with e spiky head and twirling the spiral section from the roots to ends. Its good stuff.

The liner is as good as everyone says. Its not a felt lip, but its not quite a brush like I'm used to either, its like they had a perfect baby. It has the perfect combination of a sharp point and a still body. It makes liquid liner so easy I think I'm hooked. It knocked my Urban Decay Liquid Liner 24/7 in Perversion out of the game for sure.

Recommend? If you see this kit, get it.

Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer
Nars Nars Nars, I feel so conflicted about this product. I want to love it as much as everyone else does but I just don't. I got the shade Amande which is a great shade for me, and the finish is very pretty, but that about it. I guess I expected a miracle product. Ok so here are my qualms: 1. Its not creaseless, it creases under my else no matter how little product I use, or how fast I set it. 2. it cakes up under my eyes when i try to set it, my MAC prolong wear doesn't. 3. it can look a little dry/crepey under the eyes. I don't need concealer to make me look older, my job will do that just fine. But rant over. I still want to like it so I may keep it, I'm not sure.

MAC Prolongwear NC45 / Nars Amande 

MAC Studio Tech NC45/MAC Prolong NC45/Nars Amande/MAC Studio Tech NC50

Recommend? Not over the Mac Prolongwear, I don't.

All together now!

OK, Love you, Bye!

Back again? & My Makeup Inventory Nov.2014

I've been thinking about getting back into blogging again for a while. This past May I started graduate school to become a secondary english educator (fancy words, I really just attempt to entertain 6th graders all day while tricking them into learning to read and write new things). The whole doing student teaching 4 days a week while dealing with other life changes has been ridiculous. I kept planning this big catch up post but it always became too daunting of a task, and I'm my brain daunting tasks that aren't a grade get put on the lack burner indefinitely. So I'm going to do what educators do and start where I am and go from there.

Last weekend as I procrastinated on a short paper I was supposed to write, I created something amazing. Its a Makeup Inventory in excel. You can see it on google drive here 

Here is a screenshot of the first page. I have everything in categories of Eyes, Lips, Face, and the broken down into type. Since I did most of this without knowing how to use excel, I don't have everything completely organized by brand. But after I saw the list compiling, I had the Ides to at least include the product shade name and the actual color it is. I then listed the asking price and the season I bought it in. All Fall 2014 purchases are going to fall under 9/1/2014 for example.

On a separate chart in the same file, I have an empties inventory list as well so I can track what I'm using up and record any thoughts, this is only the end of that chart.  I have used up 109.00 dollars worth of product since this summer. 

This is definitely excessive, but I want to analyze how much I'm spending on makeup vs. how much I'm using up in 2015. For fun. Im so grad school analyzing data is fun for me. 

If you would like the original file to make your own, feel free to email me at beautylit2@gmail.com

Love ya, Bye!

Spring 2014 Wishlist

Spring 2014 Wishlist by iwasjess featuring Wet Seal