Makeup Withdrawal

Storage: Makeup Brushes and Products

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Good evening!

I don't know about you, but I love looking at how other people store their makeup! Today I thought I'd show some you how I store some of my makeup items, it's kind of been a work in progress ever since I moved here a year ago. I'm currently working on expanding and decorating my polish drawers, so hopefully I'll show you that at a later time. Today's post is all about storing brushes and other items I use on a daily basis.

As you can see, everything is in my preferred flat black finish. I like the way that looks but it's also prone to showing fingerprint smudges in photos (not in person though). I replaced the little paper inserts that come with the desk organization with scraps of fabric (ties in with my drawer organization, you'll see that later).

This little organizer holds various odds'n'ends.

1. Lip Balms & Oil Blotting Papers:

Burt's Bees, Nivea A Kiss of Relief, Nivea A Kiss of Moisture, KBShimmer Raspberry & Cream, etc. Kose Oil Blotting Paper and e.l.f. Oil Absorbing Sheets.

2. Sponge Tipped Applicators - used for swatching.

3. Various Hand Creams

L'Occitane, ToykoMilk Dark, Trader Joe's, etc

This piece is from IKEA, one of the boxes in the FÖRHÖJA set. It comes with a divider shaped like an "X".

1. Pencil Products - various.

2. Mascaras - various.

3. Random things:

Kroylan Brow Plastic, Monistat Anti Chafing (pure silicones, essentially), glue stick, pencil sharpeners

4. Eye Primers & Glue:

NARS Smudge Proof Eye Base, LORAC Behind The Scenes Eye Primer, NYX HD Eye Base, e.l.f Eye Primer, Wet'n'Wild Fergie Take On the Day Eyeshadow Primer, DUO Lash Glue, Andrea Strip Lash Glue

This desk organizer holds frequently used face makeup and face brushes. Purchased at Marshalls.

1. Foundations:
MUFE Mat Velvet, MUFE HD, Dolce & Gabbana Luminous Foundation, Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk

2. Face Products and Spare Foundations:
Avene Thermal Water, Avene Micellar Water, Hadalabo Hyaluronic Acid Toner, Revlon Colorstay Foundations in random shades, spare GA Luminous Silk

3. Face Brushes:
Too many to list, but I have another fairly recent post on brushes. I'd say I've acquired maybe 20 more brushes since I wrote it, but it's rather up to date.

This spinning pen carousal was also from Marshalls. It has six sections and holds my eye brushes quite well. I considered filling it up with vase fillers but I can't find one that I like. Also, the brushes stand up on their own since so many are crammed in there. I'm looking for another one as my brushes are started to overpopulate this little gadget.

They're not labeled in the picture but if you were curious, each section contains:

1. concealer brushes, lip brushes, cream product brushes
2. rounded mop brushes
3. chiseled, smudge, pencil and blending brushes
4. Brow brushes, lash & brow grooming brushes, eyeliner brushes, brow gel
5. Frequently used eye base products (NYX Jumbo in Milk and Black Bean), Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy, liquid liner
6. Lash curlers, traditional and heated (Shiseido, Tweezerman, Panasonic & no name)

So hopefully you enjoyed this detailed peek into some of my storage. I still have more to show you, so I'll save that for a later post!

I'm always curious as to what other people use. If you're a blogger who has written a post on this, feel free to link it in the comments! If you don't write a blog, please let me know what sort of set up you have at home!

Femme Fatale Cosmetics Swatches & Looks

So every year I go on a BUY ALL THE LOOSE INDIE SHADOWS kick, and 2013 was no exception. I managed to rein it in a bit and only purchased sample sizes from Femme Fatale Cosmetics. Femme Fatale is an Australian brand who makes both makeup and polishes (which I also happen to adore).

This is sort of a two part post arc because I have more shades to show you, but thought it might be too tedious to stuff in a single post.

The sample packets ship free which is nice, as it is international post. Samples come in either a 5 pack or 10 pack, you get to choose the shades. Generally the dispatch time seems to be very quick (within a couple of days) but the post can take a while. FFC's shadow powerhouse seems to be subtle and tastefully made duochromes, which isn't to say that the other shades aren't pretty but there happen to be many, many duochromes.

All swatches are done over primer.

Left to right: Banshee Scream, Witchwood, Bone Dust, Secret Shiny, Hallowed Ground, Nightlash, Dispersion,.

Banshee Scream is a pale lilac with green secret shimmer. Witchwood is a tan with golden green shimmer. Bone Dust is a matte dust color with pink shimmer. Rampage is merlot based with gold shimmer. Secret Shiny looks like Banshee Scream but more lilac and gold instead of green shimmer. Hallowed Ground is pale matte mint with faint pink shimmer. Nightlash is a rich purple with bright gold shimmer (think Zoya Tru in eye shadow form) and Dispersion is a brick red with blue sparkle.

Left to right: The Masquerade, Pumpkin Shrine, Candied Apple, Spearmint Candy.

These shades are all on the lighter colored side, from the Handful of Treats Collection (which being a WoW playing, Halloween lovin' girl, I love). The Masquerade is a lovely soft dove grey with pink sparkle. Pumpkin Shrine is a shimmery green with golden orange shimmer. Candied Apple is a matte brick red base but with dominating icy green sparkle. Spearmint Candy is soft lavender in the pouch but is a gleaming icy blue frost.

Some of these shades are great packed on, while others look better as a sheer wash. Here's a few EOTDs that I did with these shades.

Here, I've used Witchwood all over the lid with a matte warm brown in the crease and brown liner.

Pumpkin Shrine is the main focus of this look, with a matte green under the eyes and in the crease as well as coppery and gold in the inner corner.

The Masquerade is all over the lid here, with Nightlash under the lashes. I've used a matte grey in the crease.

This definitely filled my duochrome cravings! Have you tried anything from FFC?

Products featured were purchased by me, for my own use. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

Celebratory Manicure

Monday, January 20, 2014

Good evening!

Tonight I have a manicure that probably would have been great for New Year's Eve, had I actually done anything fun to celebrate that night. Instead, we saw a terrible movie and fell asleep, saving champagne for the next day (and Korean BBQ, yum!).

I used LeChat Dare to Wear Just Breathe on my pinky and pointer, topped with Laquerlicious Bottle of Bubbly. On my middle finger I have Zoya Dream, stamped with Winstonia 117 plate and Kiko #399. On my ring finger I have Zoya Tomoko. Thumb has Dream with Bottle of Bubbly over it.

Have a great night!

Mundane Mondays, Vol. XIV: Some Food P0rn

Hi folks!

I have some regular content to post too, but I thought maybe I'd share a bit about one of the other joys in my life - food! I love to cook, bake, eat and photograph things so today's post combines all of those things.

My dessert of the week last week was panna cotta. I couldn't decide between salted caramel or blackberry sauce, so I made both! I ended up preferring the blackberry while Morgan loved the salted caramel. I used a recipe that had Greek yogurt which gave it a bit of tangyness which went well with the sweet sauces.

We also went to quite a few restaurants in the last couple of months, between our wedding and Dine Downtown Sacramento event. Here's some of my favorites/least favorites.

Roasted bacon with maple glaze, wild frisee and truffle. Meh. Not sure why I ordered this - I actually deteste maple syrup!

Crispy Meyer lemon prawns. Pretty good, though the sauce tasted essentially like sour mayonnaise.

Pheasant with wild rice, cranberry and fennel. This looked much more interesting than it tasted. Pheasant was on the dry side.

Braised lamb with polenta and red wine jus. This was absolutely fantastic. Possibly the creamiest polenta I've ever had.

Butterscotch bread pudding. A dessert that surprised me- I usually am not big on bread pudding but it was scrumptious!

One of our local sushi spots that we hit up pretty often. I tried something new, a roll with asparagus inside. Loved it!

Have you eaten or cooked anything extra delicious lately?

Influenster Jolly VoxBox Review

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Hi folks!

Hope you're having a great weekend. I've been busy with a DIY decorating project which I hope to reveal to you soon and sushi so tonight here's a quick review of the items in my first Influenster VoxBox.

Let's discuss the non makeup items first.

Skinny Cow Divine Filled Chocolates in Peanut Butter Creme? Delicious. I actually am a huge fan of the whole Skinny Cow brand, especially the caramel ones. I like to eat them with a sprinkle of salt on top.

Puffs® Ultra Soft & Strong To Go Tissue Pack came in handy while I had the sniffles this week! Perfect to have in the purse or car.

Ducklings™ Mini Roll was cute! I used some of this to seal up packages, a little more attractive and fun than plain transparent tape.

Also inside the box was a NYC HD Color trio in Long Beach Sands.

This is swatched over primer. The lightest shade is pearly, the other two are satin. Not super exciting but work friendly and good for beginners, not to mention extremely budget friendly. Definitely requires a good primer though, for color payoff.

Also in my box was Rimmel Show Off Lip Lacquer in Luna.

This was a peachy-coral shade. I was excited to try out this formula, which I thought was quite nice. Really pigmented, slick but not oily feeling and not sticky. The only thing was the color, it looked awful on my lips! I think it photographed much more nicely than it looked in person. It really made my lips look like they were full of wrinkles. Perhaps a darker color would have been better.

Definitely an interesting box, it was nice to try some old favorites like the Skinny Cow chocolates and new products like the Rimmel Show Off Lip Lacquer.

Products featured were press samples. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.