The other day I ended up doing the first part of my photoshoot because my model is moving to Florida and she has an excellent face for an Edwardian hair style. I'm sad that we were crunched on time today because we were unable to get a quality photograph of her for my portfolio--bummer.  I still will put this in my portfolio but it doesn't show the hair well enough. The hair turned out wonderful.

The plan for this look was to bring the romance of the Edwardian Period and give it a modern twist. With lightly filled in eyebrows, and a bronzie pink smokey eye and relativity flawless face. Keeping to the classic Edwardian feel with a light pink blush, in a more upward pattern instead of the traditional circle and a deeper pink lip. The look complimented her face, and the framing of the Gordon Girl hair style really played well with her face. 

Products Used: 

Foundation: Dinair "Alabaster

Face Powder: Airspun Loose Powder "Naturally Neutral:

Concealer: Cover Girl "Illuminator"

Eye Primer:

Eye shadow: Naked 3 and Lorac Unzipped 

Eye liner: NYC Black Liner

Blush: Cover Girl Classic Color "Rose Silk"

Lip liner:

Lipstick: NYC "Haute Couture" 

NYX Haul--Swatches included!!

Just yesterday I was complaining about how long it was taking for my NYX order to ship. I was growing very frustrated, and then it came in today. I guess it was just all wonky on the website. I've never shopped on NYX's website, I have never owned a NYX product and I can't say I've really used one. I've swatched an eye shadow once at Ross or something. But I'm pretty much a virgin to it.

I've heard many good reviews about it and had to find out for myself, and they came out with their Macaron collection and it really impressed me. I loved the vibrant out there colors. So, I purchased a few from the Macaron collection as well as some other lipsticks, and lip liners (and one eye liner!) from their other collections.

Some of their lipsticks when I applied them I knew I would be in love with, and others I knew would take some...fun loving. Or some work to get them to be what I wanted them to be. 

BUT! Before I get into the lipsticks can we talk about the little bag it came in? It's the cutest little drawstring bag. It looks like it should hold highclass lingerie not lip products, and I got a free lip balm--which I didn't swatch as the color pay off is not exceptional. 

The lipstick that caused the...I MUST BUY LIPSTICK problem was when I saw a beautiful blue lipstick called "Blue Velvet" I've always been one for vibrant lipsticks, from hot pinks, to bright orange and so forth. And if you remember from a previous post I was noticing how popular blue lipsticks were becoming and I was very excited to get this one. And the pay off is awesome! Now I got an eyeliner to use as a lip liner to prevent any fading and to keep it crisp. But wow! It shocked me at how good of a pay off it had. 

Another lipstick from the Macaron collection, and one that--for me anyway--is not as shocking is "Orange Blossom" Now....the pay off of this color really sucks. Like super sucks. I took a picture of it with out the orange lip liner and it looked like a nude in the photograph and I didn't feel it was really worth sharing. But with NYX's orange lip liner it is a really nice orange. Not too bright, but bright enough that it will not be mistaken for coral. Haha. 

The last color that I purchased from the the Macaron line is "Chambord" which is just a classic black lipstick, again I purchased a liner that compliments it well to prevent feathering yadda yadda. The color pay off was okay. It was not as...black? As I thought it was going to be. Haha. i mean it is definitely black but I expected a higher pigmented black than what I got. But with the liner it does have that solid goth/punk rock black that I was looking for.

Now to get into the colors that aren't as crazy there has to be some balance somewhere. This one is a matte (as is the one to follow) lipstick in "Sweet Pink" the NYX website describes it as a violet-fuchsia. Which is what I thought it was going to be. But the color pay off is much more pink and less violet/fuchsia. I do quite enjoy the color and the pay off is very nice. It does have a slight blue undertone, which is nice to make my not so pearly whites look white. 

Probably my favorite of the lot is "Siren" (also matte). It is a very nice deep plum and I can see using it many ways. I have a few plums, and their color pay off is not as good. I purchased (shocker) a liner to go with it, and the liner really brightens it up. And I have a brown liner that deepens it nicely. It's very versatile. I will definitely be sharing some looks featuring this baby! 

And the last lipstick of this haul is from NYX's Round Lipsticks it is "Haute Couture".  Out of all of them it is the most sheer and I would almost say it's "Cream Sheen" (is that just a MAC thing?). It is a lovely color and I am sure it will get much use for those less daring days, and for a certain client tomorrow. 

Over all. I was very pleased with my NYX order. The amount of time it took for it to get here was a bit ridiculous, but that's alright. It was well wroth the wait. :) 

Shaaannxo recreation

As most people do I have this weird obsession with watching makeup videos on YouTube. It's how I've learned to do ALL the makeup that I know how to do for the most part, some things I have learned from tiral and error on myself. But for the most part they come from watching people on the internet and wanting to try what I've watched. And sometimes they turn out really well and sometimes they turn into a train wreck. This was one of the times that it turned out really well. And I needed a post for Monday. So here it is!

All the colors I used are from the BH Cosmetics 120 pallet, my blush is CG in Rose Silk, and my lipstick is MAC's Vivaglam Rhianna (which I have a post about that'll be up later!)

It's really simple, if you have white liner, and an angled brush it is super simple and it gives a nice twist to the usual 'PinUp' look. Twas fun, I hope someone finds inspiration in it and tries it on their own. :) 

First Arie, now Colbie is there hope?

About a year ago Arie sported that they were no longer going to photo shop. I called B.S on it for a while. Until I went to the mall and saw a woman with stretchmarks on her bum. It made me really excited. It's good to see that one big company is taking the stand to do such a wonderful thing. 

Everyone knows photoshop happens. And yet very little is happening to try and stop it. 

Colbie Caillat's new album features the song "Try" because she was tired of being photoshopped. The song may not find it's self at the top of my favorites but the message it sends is wonderful.

 I really love someone coming out and saying love yourself, and fuck the masses. 

Even John Legend has kind of a similar idea sprouting 

Asian inspired lunch

I was rummaging through Pinterest like any unprofessional chef does when they are in search of something for lunch. I kept seeing stir fry pop up and well...if you've ever made one stirfry is the easiest thing EVER to make. Take vegetables, add to pan with flavors, satay. Magic stir fry.

It was "Asian" inspired...sort of because to me "Asian" is anything with ginger, and soy sauce. I got super fancy and added rice wine vinegar to it. The nice thing about this lunch is I have lunch for the weekend, and for the first part of next week. Just warm it up and boil up some more quinoa and lunch! Yay. Putting on a pot of steel cut oats tonight for breakfast tomorrow. Yum yum!

Recipe: Ingredients
2 Carrots 
1/2 cup of green beans
1/2 cup peas
1 can of watercress'
1/2 can bamboo shoots
5 mushrooms
2 small broccoli heads
2c Vegetable broth
1c Quinioa
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp garlic
Splash of soy sauce
Splash of rice vinegar

Warm oil in a large pan and satay your vegetables. With ginger and garlic until soft and to your liking. And serve over Quinoa (add garlic and use veggie broth instead of water). 

Edwardian Styles

I've really been enjoying the elegant style of the Edwardian (or Victorian) time period. 

The Edwardian period or Era was the time following Queen Victoria's reign in 1900-1910 during the reign of Edward Vll of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, and of the British Dominions and Emperor or India. 

During the Victorian era wearing makeup was highly frowned upon, but just as today women had the want to appear younger than what they were. So women would find cosmetics in various beauty 
salons in a very...shameful manner. No one wanted to know that they needed the cosmetics. But coming into the Edwardian period Gordon Selfrige opened what would be closely similar to the modern day makeup counters! Cool, right? 

The Edwardian period kept some of the trends from the Victorian period and tossed out others. Pale skin was still very in. Women would use many forms to whiten their faces such as using white face paint--with lead, rice paper, or pear powder would also be applied to the skin. The blonde hair of the Victorian era however was out! And brunettes were in. A healthy glow from rouge was applied, and the lips would be stained with geranium and poppy petals. Eye makeup wasn't the big show, occasionally charcoal would be applied to the eyes to darken them. The eyebrows were the big thing, and they would even use belladonna drops to  dilate the pupils and brighten
 their eyes.

The soft, warm shadows and the almost child like lips and roughe. The large hair pulled up around the face and the eccentric hats. Granted this was also a time period when they mixed petroleum jelly (Vaseline) and charcoal together to create mascara and eyeliner. I find something very beautiful, and graceful about the look. The thought that women would go through back doors, and hide the fact they wore makeup amazed me. 

Flower Beards

Several months ago a gentleman named Pierce Thiot was attending a family party. And his whitty mother asked the grandkids to show off their talents. Mr. Thiot did not want to be excluded from the festivities so he began seeing how many pens he could fit in his beard. The kids thought it was funny, and I'm sure his mother was more than proud! 

But the idea of putting wacky things in his beard did not end there. He began a Tumblr (and later Instagram, Pinterest, etc) called "WillitBeard?" Where he put various things in his beards and his photographer wife would take pictures. You can even go onto his Tumblr and request him to put things in his beard. Interesting, right?

It is well known that I love a good beard. I find them to be one of the most attractive things on the right man. Adds a nice amount of ... ruggedness?  I don't know. 

Pierce Thiot's "WillItBeard" has what I assume started another trend the "Flower Beards" trend. Now I am not going to complain about it. I think that it is actually kind of neat. (Wish I had a friend with a beard, haha!). But these guys of varying beard stages, from stubble, to Santa Clause, and ZZ Top beards. 

I honestly really like this trend. I hope it sticks around. When I saw someone post about it I thought that it was maybe just an odd thing a few guys had done. But no! There are hundreds of photographs on Pinterest and Google of guys with Flower Beards. Huh.

And, I don't know about you but the guy on the top left, yum. His beard is very well groomed. I thought he deserved a cheesy heart.

Anyway, what's your thoughts on this flower beards? My mom wondered how many of them had gotten stung! Haha. Do you like it? Is it too weird?