It's that time again! October is coming to a close and November is well on it's way (holiday season is approaching YES). There is a special item releasing in November that I feel like all my fellow makeup lovers should know about...

Will you be purchasing this palette? Which shade stands out to you the most?

Yesterday I posted a Halloween look created with a bunch of products I had in my makeup drawer (see Bad Kitty here). Today I did the exact same thing; This look wasn't as quick, but it's still fun. I originally intended on being a zombie, but I decided that it took a turn at one point; say hello to the Man Eater (queue Nelly Furtado & Timberland).

I've listed each product in the order it was put on:
Loreal Infallible - Soft Sable mixed with Maybelline Better Skin Foundation - Warm Honey
Applied my foundation like normal, with a beauty blender, but used shades a tad bad lighter than my skin tone to give me me flashback that would provide me with the white cast effect. I'd dread this ever happening on my day to day, but for Halloween this is perfect.

Spirit Halloween Cream Grease Makeup - White
Used the exact same beauty blender and blended this on top of the foundation. That way it blended in a bit with my foundation color and didn't come off too pigmented (didn't want to look tooo ghostly).

Laura Mercier Loose Setting Powder - Translucent
My all time favorite, applied this like usual.

NYX Primal Colors - Hot Black
Used this with a small contour brush from BH Cosmetics (a brush from their 10 piece Sculpt and Blend Kit) to give me a harsh contour; I did the same thing for my nose and cheeks. I then started adding tiny lines around my fore head and down to my neck with a tiny paintbrush I picked up at Michaels.

BH Cosmetics 180 Eyeshadow Palette - Red
I took a small blending brush, the Morphe M139, and applied this over the top of the black contour line to help blend as well as give a bruised/scary/creepy effect on my nose, cheeks, and the tiny lines all over my forehead. I continued this down to my neck as well.

Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector - Opal
I of course needed a bit of a glow, so I applied this like normal to all my favorite areas to highlight; cheeks, nose, forehead and chin.

EYES
Covergirl Queen Collection Natural Hue Bronzer- Ebony Bronze
I used this as my transition shade and applied this directly into my cheeks. I'm sure I probably used this Sonia Kashuk brush, because it's one of my favorites and was about $4-$5 at Target.


NYX Primal Colors - Hot Black
I put this all over my lid with a flat brush and slowly placed the color all over the lid. This product is EXTREMELY pigmented ( I love it) so a little goes a long way. I also used this product to fill in my brows as light handed as possible.

BH Cosmetics 180 Eyeshadow Palette - Red
I used the exact same red as I used for to blend out my harsh black contour lines, to blend the black into the Covergirl bronzer I used as my transition shade. I wanted to add a bit more red while smoothing out the black harsh lines. I then took the red and placed it on my bottom lash line and brought it down towards my cheeks.



LIPS
I ended up mixing a tonnnn (the crazy spelling, I mean it; I was really ridiculous with the amount of lipstick I used) of colors. Looking back, the quickest way to achieve this color is to use:
BH Cosmetics 180 Eyeshadow Palette - Red
Used a plain lipliner brush, you could use this one from Target, and applied this just like I would a lip liner.

NYX Cream Eyeshadow Base - White
Placed this in the center of my lip with my finger to give my lips a highlighted effect.

NYX Primal Colors - Hot Black
I took a lip liner brush and put this over top of the white so that the center of my lips would look a tad grey.

BLOOD
I picked this up from my local dollar store. It has no brand or no name, but I've linked to Spirit Halloween a bottle that looks fairly similar.

By the way my nails are painted with Sally Hensen Hard as Nails in the color Black Heart (880).

That's it! Have a wonderful and safe Halloween my loves!

NYX Eyeshadow Base (Pearl)

Aren't the gorgeous? I'm in love with both, but Oh Darlin' is giving me so much life! Which one is your favorite, Oh Darlin' or Shaft of Gold? 
More from the MAC Magic of the Night Collection:

Getting your makeup brushes clean is definitely a must but, must you spend a fortune on brush cleanser? Not really! Want to know how to cost effectively clean your brushes with just a few simple steps?

Here's what you need:


So I bet you have some type of makeup sponge, whether its a Beauty Blender, a Real Techniques sponge or a generic one. There's no doubt in my mind that you want that clean and looking just like new as well. Follow the exact same steps as shown above and watch your sponge transform.


I hope you found this helpful! Do you like to see these type of pictorials & want more? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Brown lipstick is here, but is it here to stay? What do you think? If you're not too sure, see my post here for some tips on how to wear brown lipstick and try it out!

Take the poll:

Hi my loves! Today's post is going to stray away from the usual beauty posts for a second and do something a bit different.  If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you know that I post a motivational quote every Monday. For me, I find that Instagram and Twitter serves multiple purposes; keeping up with friends, finding makeup inspiration, gym inspiration and life inspiration. Just in case you are dragging this Saturday and can't get yourself movin', or just simply having a bad day (it's okay we all have them), I thought I would share a few of my favorite motivational quotes.

In case you're feeling neglected:


In case you're feeling like you can't move on:


In case you're feeling not good enough: 

In case you just need a laugh :)


I hope one of these inspired you today; remember, nothing bad lasts forever !

Love,

Let's go back to the 90s shall we? With fall being in full effect, so are dark lips; particularly brown, you know early 90's brown. Brown lips are back in style, but everyone may not feel like they can pull it off. Just in case you find it a bit intimidating let me give you some tips and tricks!

As with any makeup product, you must pick the right shade for you skin tone.
When you think brown, immediately many of us think a dark chocolate chip color (or maybe I'm just hungry), but let's not forget brown lipstick comes in different shades. Ladies with lighter skin tones should try a brown with a golden undertone (see Milani's Double Espresso shown below) and ladies with a deeper skin tone should try a brown that has a reddish undertone (see the lip color featured in my my post A Touch of Mink).




Don't forget the liner
Up until a couple years ago, I hated wearing liner. I have no clue what my deal was, or just didn't understand what I was missing out on but I just hated it. Now, its very rare that I put on a lipstick without it (yay for progression & open-mindedness). When using a brown lipstick, you want to make sure you stay in between the lines, your lip lines that is. I personally can get really messy with lipstick if there is no liner as a guide. You definitely don't want to go around with brown lipstick outside of the lines of your lips, no need to look like Matilda after she ate the chocolate cake.  As a bonus, lip liner also adds dimension to your lips and make them appear bigger and fuller. My all time favorite brown lip liner (that I've discovered thus far is NYX Soft Brown).

Switch up the finish
The great thing about lipstick is that you can alternative between a matte finish and a "glossy" finish. In order to turn any lipstick matte, just apply the lipstick of your choice and then pat some translucent powder on top. My favorite translucent powder at the moment is the Laura Mercier Translucent Powder, which could be found at Sephora or Bloomingdales. Let's say you have the found the perfect lipstick color, but it's a matte finish. No worries, add a gloss of your choice on top. The gloss of your choice can have a tint like the Lorac lip glosses shown in the picture above or a basic clear lip gloss. It's totally up to you to decide whether you wear a matte lip or a glossy lip; which ever one you prefer! Just a tip, if you have smaller lips, a glossy lip makes the lips appear bigger.

Try a couple different shades... or three or four
Don't be afraid to mix colors together. Makeup is art, and if you can mix paint to get the color of your choosing, why can't you mix lipstick colors?

Last but not least, don't forget to exfoliate
Dry lips can be a complete buzzkill, especially under matte lipsticks. My favorite way to exfoliate is to run down to the kitchen, grab some sugar and let it sit for a little. I then take a wet wash cloth and wipe the sugar off. Simple and sweet...literally.

Finally, here are 5 of my favorite brown lipsticks, straight from the drugstore:




Hope you all enjoyed! Have you tried brown lipstick?

If you are an avid Youtube viewer, I'm sure you've heard these blushes mentioned at least once. These Milani Rose Powder blushes are always sold out in my local drugstores. I just so happened to be in Walmart late one night as they were restocking the cosmetics aisle. I grabbed the entire collection, which is only three shades by the way,  and went back the next day they were gone. So clearly, these have been gaining popularity of makeup addicts every where. I haven't put these to the test just yet, but what do you all think of these?



Here's a couple more pics and descriptions, according to the Milani website:







These retail for about 7 dollars and can be found in local drugstores... when they are actually in stock. For those who live outside of the U.S., you can find these here at drugstore.com, which ships internationally.

Have you tried these, if so what did you think?