Here's a quick friday jams post while it is still friday! (ed. note: I wrote this last night, really, and must have been really tired because I didn't actually post it, sorry!!)
Jam:
Star Wars Radio Play from the 2012 ECCC
This video features some of the best voice actors in the biz, doing some of the voices that they're most known for in a live reading of Star Wars scenes. This includes Kevin Conroy (Batman) and TARA FREAKING STRONG (Bubbles, Twilight Sparkle, Raven and SO MANY MORE). I could've done without so many celebrity impressions but I was still dying with laughter and I bet you will too!
Jelly:
I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH. I've read it twice now, and this past week, I started reading it, after getting about halfway through and putting it aside months ago, and honestly it's like I never left. The premise (as I understand it) is that instead of emigrating to Israel a large portion of European Jews were given a piece of Alaska to settle in. The story itself is a really good police procedural built within this reality and it's just perfection.
Marmalade:
Alkaline Trio!
I love that Alkaline Trio has gotten even more catchy than they already were but they still maintain a nice air of spookiness, they are one of my go to bands when I am in a rotten mood and need to sing in the car.
So this past weekend I realized that I absolutely had to get my license renewed which also meant a new picture! I spent part of Saturday morning watching youtube tutorials and planning my makeup, which sounds silly but if this is a picture that will be around and scrutinized for the next 5 years, I want it to look as good as humanly possible. Are you in a similar situation? If so, then read on for my tips for a super fine license picture!
I can narrow down my license photo makeup tips to two words: Clean Definition. For me this meant the following:
Bright eyes with sharp brows: Primer, a lighter than flesh-tone shadow (WnW Creme Brulee), a thin line of black eyeliner (UD Zero), and mascara. I use a MAC shadow and brush #208 to fill in my brows.
Lip tint and blush: I'm a big fan of Benetint and Stila's lip crushes, and any low-shimmer pink blush.
Even skin: Primer (I'm really liking Tarte's primers right now), Smashbox BB Cream (or use the foundation of your choosing), concealer, and powder to set.
I also needed the appropriate products for contouring but there was one problem, contouring was a complete mystery to me! And maybe it's also a mystery for you? Well mystery solved, thanks to the wonder that is the Pixiwoo youtube channel!
This video is a great guide to basic contouring and made a world of difference for me! Now to show you what products I used:
Too Faced Milk Chocolate bronzer, Wet n Wild Creme Brulee eyeshadow (a perfect pale beige matte shadow, which is getting its own post soon!), Sonia Kashuk Flushed blush, Tarte Amazonian Clay Shimmer Powder in Champagne (a pale gold/white shimmer) and a couple of Ecotools brushes. And this is my look:
My goofy face. So in case it wasn't super obvious, I only contoured the left side of my face (and was a little heavy handed with it) to give you an idea of what kind of difference contouring makes.
Since license pictures wash everything out, it's important to use a slightly heavier hand for the contour, brows and lips, while leaving your eyes and cheeks light so that they're still easily visible. Especially your eyes, if you wear an overwhelming eye look they could be totally lost!
So in spite of all my time and effort, when I went to AAA on Saturday they told me their camera was broken and would just re-use my old picture. Of course! Nevertheless, I hope this helped you and here's to many lovely license pictures!
So a week went by without a peep on here, I'm so sorry! I fell behind on blog posts and as soon as I would turn my thoughts to posting something, I caught an extreme case of writer's block! But I'm back and I have a few new polishes to review plus one layered manicure that was so froofy I couldn't NOT post it!
The good:
Essie Mojito Madness!
How gorgeous is this?!!?
This is a part of the "Bikini So Teeny" collection, and I had been wanting a color like this for a while and I'm so glad this is the polish I picked up! It applied like a dream and I barely needed 2 coats for it! I did apply over a ridge filler, but I use that more to protect from staining. Either way I bet it would still apply really well, this polish didn't get goopy or drag and it looks BEAUTIFUL. Definitely recommend it.
The Bad:
Revlon Runway Pearl
4 coats!
I wanted to love this polish, it's a beautiful LE white/ivory with a red/orange/gold shimmer. It's really stunning in the bottle. BUT it goes on so thick, a little streaky, it took 4 coats to build opacity AND IT BUBBLED LIKE CRAZY.
THE BUBBLES! (editing note: I cropped and sharpened this using flickrs editing tools)
And you can see a little bit of the bottle in the above shot, the shimmer is really beautiful but the formula isn't worth the headache.
The Awesome:
Here are my "prom dress" nails! Every time I looked at my nails I kept picture a puffy skirted sky blue dress with baby pink tulle that was covered in bits of silver glitter. I have a major soft spot for froofy dresses, let me tell you.
This is OPI What's with the Cattitude topped with 2 coats of Pirouette My Whistle from the NYC Ballet Soft Shades collection that just came out and CND Raspberry Sparkle on top of all that. I really like PMW, it's a mix of silver microglitter and white pearl hex glitter. It's really beautiful and looks lovely over pastels. It's the best picture I could get of my nails before I took this off but isn't it lovely?
And that's all I've got for today! I've got another beauty post in the works for Wednesday and of course there's Friday Jams! Thanks for stopping by!
