Jade Green and Coral

Jade Green and Coral by lightsenmusic featuring mossimo flip flops

Bird of Paradise

Bird of Paradise by lightsenmusic featuring j. crew jewelry

Bird of Paradise

Since Dior will be releasing its summer make up line in May,I decided to see if I could duplicate looks that play with the color palette that line will play with. The Bird of Paradise palettes in "Blue Lagoon" and "Peacock" are super gorgeous, but I can't afford a piece that is $60 and relevant to one season of the year. I searched around for similar colors and found the picture above, on Temptalia. She used Make Up Forever shadows to create this intensely bright, true color look. 

My look is a little less intense, but also lost some intensity due to the incandescent lighting in this room. As you can tell, I fudged the eye liner a little bit- but this is the first time I have used my Sephora + Pantone emerald liner and it's gorgeous. 

I used the lighter lime green color from a Too Faced Duo Shadow in "Lucky Charms" (here) on the lower lid and the teal shimmer shadow "Deep End" from the Urban Decay Fun Palette in the crease. Below the brow line I used an Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Duality pencil in "Sand Shimmer" to highlight my brow bones. I think I did an okay job for a first try!

I used CoverGirl Lip Sensation Lipstick in "Sweetheart" on my lips to balance out the colorful eye look. 

This lipstick has really become a staple for me. The entire Lip Sensation line is SO moisturizing and that makes it ideal for someone whose lips turn into Boris Karloff at the slightest hint of sun or cold. 

 I should note that some other beauty reviewers have criticized the frostiness of the color. I noticed that that was only evident after around 2 coats. So this shade really only needs one coat to give lips a healthy, neutral pink sheen. 

This was a look I wore to class last week. I used "Sweetheart" on my lips, a CoverGirl anti-dark circle concealer, a generic face moisturizer and Bare Minerals loose powder to set everything. 

Eyeshadow like a Heroine

I tried out MAC "Heroine" yesterday and it looked even cooler than I thought it would. I got a little fancy and decided to take photos of myself while I had natural lighting- as we were on our way to getting groceries from the Kroger.

This shadow definitely needs a base as the color seems to disappear after around 3 hours without one. So, I prepped with NARS Pro Prime Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base (here)... 

.... Then I applied "Heroine" to my lids with a thick eyeshadow brush. It needed around three coats in order to achieve the look you can see here. I also lined my lids with a Kat Von D Autograph Pencil in "Wonderchild" from her UH-MAY-ZING "Mi Vida Loca" Palette, see a great review here. I found that adding the liner deepened the color and also cancelled out Heroine's emphasis on the green color of my irises. 

This eyeshadow is gets an 8 out of 10 on my scale. I love the color, but it cannot stand alone: it needs a base and liner to keep it from migrating and/or fading after three hours. Get "Heroine" while it's still available at MAC.

April Showers

Today we are awaiting some pretty heavy storms and apparently the weather is a little strange everywhere. It is supposed to rain here for the next three days so my amazing Dr. Martens boots are getting broken in really quickly.

Oddly enough, this is also the first week I've actually worn summery clothes- even wearing shorts as I went out to grab groceries with Drew over the weekend. Last Friday, Drew was very busy with a visit weekend for potential students which is very exciting. Sadly for me, this meant I only really got to see him on Sunday really. Knowing that he would be away and that I needed a night out, on Friday night I set out for a grand adventure in Indianapolis which is quite a bit of a drive from where we are. Though I won't lie and say that the nearly two hour commute wasn't lonely, I will say that I had fun just striking off for myself and doing something spontaneous. It was kind of thrilling in a banal way!

My first stop at the mall in Indy was Gap, of course. I love preppy colorful clothes just as much as I love Star Wars tee shirts and high waist hipster jeans! And I was definitely there at the right time. I've gotten extremely lucky with sales of late. I have wanted this Harbor Jersey Striped Pocket top from Gap (here) ever since it came out around a month ago for around $30. I got it for $12! I love clothing with pockets and I feel like so many stores are noticing that this trend is very important to working women. And yet, many stores are finding ways to integrate pockets into shirts and dresses in a way that doesn't look to overall-y (you know what I mean!). The fit of this top in a size Small is fantastic even on my busty figure. I cannot wait to pair it with white trousers or pink shorts. This Gap 30% sale made new spring clothes very affordable!

My last stop (yes I only went to like two stores but it was worth it!!) was the MAC Cosmetics store. Speaking of sea faring prints and bold colors, MAC Cosmetics released their fashion sets on April 4th and of course, they had virtually no stock online the day of and the day after. I actually had to call a store to see if they had them in and, luckily, the amazing ladies of MAC told me what was in stock. This was another incentive for me to embark on a beauty mission. Sigh... the woes of a beauty writer! First world problems, I know. But it was totally worth it. The lipstick and gloss in "Silly" are fantastic, mainly because of the color payoff. I wore the matte lipstick today and noticed that it definitely required an undercoat of lip balm to prevent it from settling in lip lines. Other than that, the color is brilliant. I plan on trying it out with the gloss over it on the weekend.

As you can see, I also purchased the eye shadow in "Heroine". I cannot wait to wear it! The blue is half way between a cobalt and a periwinkle and looks very cool simply based off of the commercials. It's tricky to make shadows like this wearable in a professional environment so I will likely also try this one on during the weekend. Oooh! My first eyeshadow review! This should be fun....

Black and White and Blue

Black and White and Blue by lightsenmusic featuring skinny ankle pants

Rosalita

Rosalita by lightsenmusic featuring a striped tote bag 
Kudos, as always, to the lovely blogger at the upper right, Temptalia, for her amazing swatches !