Dramatic Smokey Eye

I did some makeup yesterday for a friend's mom and wanted to share! She was attending a traditional Indian wedding and wanted some very dramatic makeup. Here is the before photo:

I think she looks great before! She's also wearing her outfit for the wedding. Here is after!

I ended up being very happy with the results. She wanted dramatic, and she got it! For the eyes, I used Urban Decay's Naked 2 palette. The lashes are by Mac. The brows are Dipbrow by Anastasia and Gimme Brow by Benefit. Here are a few more angles and her complete outfit:

Kylie Jenner Challenge

Hi Pretties! Today I'd like to demonstrate how to make your lips appear bigger a la Kylie Jenner. No, I'm not going to promote bruising your lips inside a bottle or shot glass. Because there's a better, less painful alternative! Here goes.

First, start off with bare lips. You're going to want to use some sort of lip scrub (I love the ones by Lush) to get all of the dead skin off your lips. This gives you a smooth canvas to work with so that everything you put on your lips afterwards will look nice and pretty. I also like to dab on some Burt's Bees chapstick, but this is optional.

Next, you'll want to use a concealer with a thicker consistency to essentially make your lips disappear. Use a cream or stick concealer to achieve this. Here's what it looks like and, fair warning, it's super creepy.

The reason behind this is so that you can overdraw the lines of your lips. The concealer makes the skin around your lips and your lips the same color which makes it less obvious that you've overdrawn your the line.

After making yourself look like an alien, use any lip liner to overdraw your lips. Only overdraw them by up to the width of the pencil. This may be a little too dramatic on some people, so you'll need to play around and see what works for you. Make sure you fill in your lips with the liner as well. This makes everything the same color so you avoid drawing attention to the fact that you've overdrawn your lips, and it also helps with staying power.

Finish up by applying the lipstick of your choice and dabbing a bit of clear gloss in the middle of your bottom lip. This helps utilize light to make your lips look plumper. Here's the finished product!

That's me doing my best to pull a Kylie Jenner face. Here's the before if you're curious.

Lorac's Liner

Today's post is going to be quick. I just wanted to give a real life example of the Lorac liquid liner pen I talked about in my previous post so that you can all see how amazing it is. So here is my eyeball for proof! The liner for this look only took about a minute, give or take a few seconds.

Liquid Liner Pen

Hello All! Today I'm here to talk to you about liquid eyeliner, everyone's favorite beauty tool. If you're a hardcore gel potter, then this post isn't for you (unless you can be persuaded to switch it up). I want to share with you my very favorite liner pen. Here it is!

It's by Lorac and comes in three colors - black, charcoal, and navy. The line pictured here doesn't even nearly do it justice. You can make it much thinner and the color is so much more concentrated than that. What's so special about this fabulous pen is that instead of a felt tip like a marker (think Stila's pen), it's got bristles like a paint brush. I also feel like it comes to a much sharper point than your average eye liner pen, and on top of that the bristles are somehow both more firm and more bendy than a marker tip pen. The only way you'll ever understand what I mean is to try it for yourself. I get the smoothest and most precise line with this pen, and I've never had it wear off throughout the day. It's absolutely phenomenal. It also lasts forever. I think I've been using this liner for around two years (maybe even a bit longer) and I'm still only on my second pen, though granted I don't use it every single day. The only drawback to this pen is that the liquid dries a little shinier than I'd like, but it's really not too noticeable. On the days I really want to take my time and put on some flawless makeup I dab a little bit of matte black eye shadow on the top of my liner to take away any shine. All in all, I really couldn't expect too much more out of an eye liner. It earns a big, fat A+ in my book.

Let's talk about Bareskin!

Let's talk about Bareskin!

For those of you who don't know, it's the new liquid foundation put out by bareMinerals. The brush sitting next to the bottle is new as well. The little ditch is a reservoir for the foundation. You're supposed to put a few drops of the foundation into the reservoir then apply it by swirling it onto your face.

I work at Ulta so I'm lucky enough to get to play with all of the new products. I haven't had the chance to apply it to my or a customer's face yet, but I did put it on the back of my hand to check it out. I have to be honest, I am not a fan. It immediately settled into all of the little lines and creases into the back of my hand. For a comparison, I put my favorite foundation, Urban Decay's Naked Skin, on the back of my other hand and it didn't settle into anything.

As far as the brush goes, I thought it was just fine. I think the reservoir is strange and unnecessary, but I don't think it really takes anything away from the brush either. I would like to see how it wears and tears as most of the bareMinerals brushes don't last very long (i.e. the bristles fall out). But as far as a liquid foundation brush goes, I am obsessed with Urban Decay's Optical Blurring brush. Like I said, I haven't used bare's foundation on anyone's face yet so I can't truly speak for their brush, but UD's brush is fantastic. All of my coworkers and I own it and love it.

Now back to the foundation. I'm sure many of you lovely ladies are cult followers of bare, and it's great that you've found a brand that you love! But I'd just like to advise you to be careful. I have helped countless women in Ulta who were stuck on bareMinerals. I put a different foundation on them and they liked it so much more than what they were using by bare. Try to be open minded about other brands! There are other great things out there that you may never find because you're too stuck on one brand. And that's the great thing about Ulta - you can go in and try out just about anything you'd like. So go in and play around a little before you make any decisions (:

The Best Foundation for Oily Skin

Hey all you beautiful, oily-skinned ladies! If you haven't already discovered it, I'm here to tell you about a miracle liquid foundation for you - Tarte's Amazonian Clay foundation. Here it is:


I have really oily skin, and I used to think I couldn't wear liquid foundation because of it. Powder just wasn't doing it for me; I wanted something with a little bit more coverage than that. When I started working at Ulta, one of my coworkers suggested this to me, and it is fantastic. It claims to be medium to full coverage, but I think you can get a sheer coverage out of it too if you put it on thinly enough or mix it with a bit of your face moisturizer. It's also buildable, so you really can get a full coverage out of it too.

I think it goes on great and doesn't make my skin any oilier than it already is. Personally I top it off with Matte Maker by Laura Geller to keep away the shine. It's a compact translucent powder to finish everything off (I also use powder foundation over my Tarte foundation for a little extra coverage).

If you want to know everything I wear to combat my oily skin, let me know! I've been trying to control it for years, so I have lots of tips and tricks that I've fine-tuned!

Coconut Oil

Coconut oil. I'm sure you've heard a lot about it, because I know I have. I haven't used up until now though. I just picked up a jar for nine dollars the other day. This is what I got.




Now you can use coconut oil for cooking, but I bought it for my hair. The first time I used it, I slathered all over my hair (roots to tips) about a half hour to an hour before I took a shower. It took a little work to get it all out (I shampooed two or three times before it came out - I use the hydrating Moroccan Oil shampoo now), but it was absolutely worth it. My hair felt like butter after it dried. The stuff is amazing. You can use it as a lotion too. Also, it works great for lips as well (the kicker - it tastes great, and it's supposed to be pretty healthy for you too). I also use it as a leave-in treatment for my ends between washes. I wash my hair once every two, maybe three days, and if I notice that it feels a little dry between washes, I'll rub a bit of it onto the ends. Don't put too much on though; it's very oily. I also try and put it on a little thicker before every shower as well, though I don't think your hair always needs it from root to tip.

It's great stuff, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who feels like their hair needs a little extra work. It's cheap, and it's natural. I love it!