Tweety FOTD: My 2009 Halloween Look

Hi everybody,

Gee, this is the second Halloween since MMB was born. Time flies, doesn’t it? Although I am not really into Halloween, I thought this time of the year is fun to do some wild looks without people thinking I am crazy. Most times, I wear boring neutrals and once in a while, I decide to bust out some bright and loud colors. The look is actually very wearable without the lashes and it reminds me of the post-orgasm post-workout glow. The pair of feathered falsies I picked up from Walmart for 4 bucks also inspires me to do this look.

Feathered Lashes at Walmart (4 bucks!)

When I saw these false lashes, I jumped with joy! They look like the Shu lashes that cost around 50 bucks. I have been dreaming of wearing lashes made out of feathers ever since I saw Karen wearing one. The ones I got are not Shu, but who wears feathered lashes everyday, right? Hence, it is justifiable to spend 4 bucks on these puppies than half a Benjamin on a pair o’ Shu.

Also, I have not been using the NYX ultra pearl mania pigments for a long time and while doing this FOTD, I almost kicked myself for not using them as often. These pigments are very potent and shimmery. “Pearl” actually reminds me of the shell-lacquered pictures my grandparents have back home. These dollar-something pigments give Chanel eye shadows a run for their money. I highly recommend them.

The look

Eyes: 

 The post-workout glow eye :)

I haven’t done such a multi-step eye look in a long time but this is not so hard to do. You only need a few colors, three brushes and liners.

• MAC Perky paint pot as base, applied with finger
• Apply NYX ultra pearl mania in Sky Pink all over the lid with EcoTools eyeshadow brush
• Apply NYX ultra pearl mania in Fanta on the outer-v and contour to 2/3 of the crease with MAC 217 brush
• Apply NYX ultra pearl mania in Pearl to the inner corner of the eyelid and underneath the brow bone, using the same MAC 217 brush
• For the upper lash lines, first curl your eyelashes and then line with black eyeliner
• For the lower lash lines, apply Wet n Wild Idol Eyes crème shadow pencil in Pixie as a base
• Then, apply the green color of the Pupa baked eyeshadow duo over the penciled area using a wet slanted EcoTools eyeliner brush
• To give the illusion of wider eyes, line the outer ½ of the lower lash line with NYC waterproof eyeliner in Teal.

Gifts from Italy and My New Fringe

Hi everybody,

The best part of having a blog is to interact with people all over the world. Since I've been writing here, some bloggers and I have become good friends via the internet. One of them is Gio from Beautiful with Brains and during one of my posts, she expressed that she wanted to try the products that are not available at her coast. So, we exchanged emails and did a swap. While I'm no longer a rookie blogger (this is my sophomore year, y'all), I rarely swap makeup. However, I jumped at a chance to try some European makeup and Gio furnished me with some really wonderful makeup love.

Gifts from Italy, yay!

As I may not have a chance to find replacements, I have been using them very carefully. The Pupa eye shadows are really gorgeous! I enjoy the pigments from Gosh, Barry M, and Sleek very much. The lipstick from Deborah is very silky and feels a lot like MAC Creamsheen. Art Deco stuff (the black jar and the brown eyeshadow) are tiny but they are also nice.

Gio, thank you so much for being my swap partner! I hope your stuff will arrive soon.

On another note, I got a chance to do my own fringe ("bangs" for the Americans.) As much as I love Aveda Institute, almost every time I go there, my bang got hacked off in some of the most unflattering way. I don't want to blame the student hairdressers but my hair is really straight and without using any products to make it swerve to the right, the cut has to be extremely meticulous. Otherwise, the hair would just hang down straight to my nose.

Nail Polish Rendez-Vous: Revlon Silver Screen or $$$$$Yes Twin

Hi everybody,

Guess what happened when I started to write this post? I became my own source! Seriously, more than a year ago, I blogged about some MAC LEs and mentioned my love to a nail polish called $$$$$Yes (click here to read.) In that post, I basically said that I loved the shade but hated to spend 11 buckaroos on a bottle of nail polish. And since then, for those who believe in "The Secret", the Universe did work out a way for me to get a bottle of $$$$$Yes (pronounced "Cash Yes") without breaking the bank. I did get the doppelganger and for a while thought it looked familiar. Then, one day while driving, it hit me like a truck that I indeed wore something on my fingers that looks eerily similar to the coveted $$$$$Yes for a lot cheaper! While I proceeded to search for some info on the MAC nail polish, I saw my post ranked number 4 in Google search. So that's how I became my own source and whoever created the phrase "what goes around comes around" was so right. This nail polish came around to me big time, wowza!

Ok, if you survived through my incoherent yapping, you deserve to see what I'm talking about. Let me show you Revlon Silver Screen nail polish, a $$$$$Yest twin:

What do ya say, Cash Yes?

The bottle by itself

Pretty, ya?

Organize It: Cataloging Your Mineral Pigment Sample Stash

Hi everybody,

Although I am not the neatest person I've known, I believe "a cluttered desk is a cluttered mind." While people embrace their cluttering and call it "creative chaos", I just simply refer my clutter as a mess. Sometimes, I have some sort of classification for my mess, aka "the dump system" or "the pile system", I realize I can only be sane if the mess is temporary. Who can live day to day having to step over junk to get to their desk? Not me, nuh uh!

Having all those said, I have quite a lot of mineral makeup samples gathered around the house. Of course, I had my own system to classify them and it looks like this:

Similar colors are bunched in the same bag

The advantage of this system is it does not take a lot of space to store stuff. However, it does not justify the disadvantage to find stuff when I need them. So, what takes to bring high entropy to this stash?

Y'all, I had to bring in the big gun: the photo album!

The wonderful part about the photo album is it lets me cataloging all my samples based on whatever classification I prefer. I chose to classify them in groups of colors (highlights, neutrals, golds, blues, greens, etc). It takes a bit of sorting to do and some space to do the sorting as well.

You sort out your samples like so, from dark to light (or light to dark)

That's a part of my purple pigment samples

Pencisl, Straight from the Vault!

Happy Monday, everybody!

Next to my unequivocal love to mascara and makeup brushes is my love to pencils, you know, eyeliners and lip liners. I did not know how many of them I've hauled home until I did an inventory and holy mother of pearl, I have a lot! Take a look at my pencil army:

The first 12 are eyeliners while the last 5 are lip liners. Except for the first one, which is MAC Teddy eye kolh, the rest of them are super cheap. #2, 3, 4 are Wet n Wild, #5 is a Revlon liner, #6 is from NYC (great stuff, by the way!)

Liner #7 is the famous Revlon Colorstay pencil that I've had for a while now. I refuse to throw it away even when the mechanical part does not work that well anymore. #8 is also Revlon Colorstay but in liquid pencil form. This one is great and so easy to use. I am going to do a review on it soon. #9 is a Victoria's Secret liquid pencil liner in teal. It is alreayd discontinued a long time ago but the color is really gorgeous.

#10-12 are chubby liners and they work to a certain extend. So far, I've had the worst luck with chubby pencils although I really love them a lot. I really want to try NYX chubby pencils but don't know how well they perform. I hate to spend money on things that do not work that well.

The lip liners are uber cheap: the red one (#13 from the left) is from Rimmel London and is very fabulous to use. I really love Rimmel lip liners as they are soft and pigmented (and cheap, too!) You don't need to spend an arm and a leg on lip liners if you can get your hands on some Rimmel. The next two are from Maybelline NY and I think they are already discontinued. They are the remains of my dark lipstick wearing past and I don't wear them anymore. These liners are really soft and I hate to throw them away.

The tall lip liner (#16) is the famous Wet n Wild 666 lip liner that I love so much! I did a review here and urge all of y'all to go get it. It only costs a whooping amount of cash around the neighborhood of 99 cents!

The last one is NYX lip liner in Natural, I rarely use it as it is quite hard. I prefer the 666 over this one although they cost the same price.

A Short Reading List

Hello, folks!

As an effort to support each others blogs, a group of beauty and fashion bloggers (including myself) has formed a reading club called "GILTY Pleasures Weekend Web Tour". By the end of summer, the web tour that I used to join just died down and I missed doing it a lot. I hope you feel the same, too. For its inaugural tour, this list is really short but don't worry, soon there will be more people to join.

Alison of the Advice Sisters offers readers a video interview with makeup artist Gabriel Almodovar for Maybelline Color Sensational Lip Color about how to pick and apply the perfect red lipstick for any and every skin tone -- a must have color for Fall and for the holidays!

Dao from My Makeup Blog found a way to revive your clumpy and dried up mascara and save you some money.

The Informed Makeup Maven gives you the chance to win a L'Oreal Intense Liquid Pencil, tube of Lipocils and Napoleon Perdis must have Camera Finish Foundation.

My New Moon

Hello ladies (and gents),

Recently, I've been in a mood called "A Girl's Gotta Bling" where I constantly crave for some bright and shiny little things. To fuel my crave, Michael's seems to have lots of sales on their crystals and they are quite affordable. I got some pieces and got myself busy. While they all turned out great, I love this piece the most:

I call it "My New Moon"

So pretty, see!

Joyous FOTD

Hi everybody,

Starting from last weekend, since the temperature went down a bit, I felt more positive and found myself laughing and smiling for no reason, as if all the burdens and fogginess in my life just vanished. While I tried to be as upbeat and cheerful while I blog, in real life things are a lot messier. Therefore, smiling because I want to smile and laughing because I want to laugh are good things. With cheerful mood comes cheerful makeup and recently, I did a Christmasy  look in October. Come to think of it, I don't wear red lipstick that much in the house, let alone outside. But that day, I decked myself down and man, I felt great!

Joyous FOTD

Eyes

Open eye

Semi closed eye

Vaseline Sheer Infusion Body Lotion: Alligator Skin Be Gone!

Hi everybody,

Since last weekend, the weather in my neck of the wood took a big nose dive: from 85 degrees Fahrenheit in Friday evening to chilly 54 degrees in Saturday afternoon! Overnight, I went from wearing slinky t-shirt to layering everything I could get my hands on. In a sense, I practice the "wearing everything" technique that Joey Tribbiani from "Friends" did. While I get a break from the heat and humidity in mid October, cold weather comes with its own woe: crackly, scaly alligator skin. Every year, I want to turn the Earth upside down to find the perfect moisturizer for my body. You know, the one that add just enough amount of moisture without leaving a film on my skin. This year, I may even come close to having a break for this problem.

All hail...

...the new Vaseline Sheer Infusion body lotion!

Recently, I got an opportunity to try the new Vaseline Sheer Infusion with Stratys-3 body lotion. The last time I used a Vaseline Intensive care product was a really long time ago and my favorite one was the cucumber scented one. While the old Vaseline products are cheaper and more available, they are petroleum based products. Hence, they tend to sit on top of my skin and make them feel filmy. I've been looking high and low for a body lotion that does not make me feel that way but they either are under or over moisturized. Being let down so many times, I did not think Vaseline Sheer Infusion would be that much different from the other guys.

However, the claim of having "light, silky" skin is very tempting.

So I took a plunge and opened up a bottle.

How to Revive Your Mascara

Hello, lovely folks!

Some couple of days ago, while preparing to go out I realized my new L'Oreal Telescopic Explosion mascara became clumpy. "Wait, what happened?" I said. "I got this thing about a month ago and do not use it that much. What's up, mascara?"

Right then and there, I had choices to make: I either could toss it or salvage it. To toss it could have been easy but the trouble I have to go through to get another one is just not worth it. "What if the next mascara I buy sucks?" I thought. Although this one is not perfect, I know how to work it. So I decided to salvage my dear ole mascara.

It's actually a simple process to revive an old (but not less than 3 month old*) mascara. You'll need these items:

Clumpy mascara, a glass or a mug, some hot water

Hot tap water works but it takes longer time. Usually, I put some water in a mug and nuke it in a microwave oven for a minute to get hot water. (That's how I get hot water for tea, people!)

Then dunk said mascara in the glass of hot water for 5 minutes.

If the material still looks clumpy, tighten the mascara and dunk it some more.

Tips:

• make sure the water does not pass the line between the tube and the cap, otherwise you'll have one soggy (and useless mascara);
• tighten the cap before you dunk!

Because I Can...

Hi y'all, again!

I know the first post of the day is no way a post. It is a disclaimer! And I just hate to leave y'all reading a disclaimer instead of something cheerful. As you may know, I am a fan of "The Big Bang Theory" since the beginning of this show. I've got to give it to Sheldon (Jim Parsons) to deliver geeky jokes week after week after week. He even got his Emmy nomination this year (but did not win.)

Last week's episode was ridiculously funny and involved one hand trick. Raj, in the heat of debate with Sheldon, did this hand trick to show Sheldon that he was not the superior person:



The link is here, just in case embedding does not work.

Then, the next day on NCIS, Tony did the same thing to McGee! Seeing how it bugged the other guy who could not figure out the hand trick, I think this may be fun to learn. Ask and you may receive, search and you may find. And found it I did :)

My Makeup Blog Disclosure

Hi everybody,

As I mentioned last week in this post, the FTC passed the regulation concerning endorsement and testimonials in advertising. While My Makeup Blog is still a small fry in the beauty blogsphere, I believe it is time to put a blog disclaimer up and act accordingly. As I mentioned in the above post, not a lot of things is going to change in my blog, except I have to disclose whether I receive free products to review or not.

This policy is valid from 19 October 2009

My Makeup Blog is a personal blog written and edited by Dao Lam. For questions about this blog, please contact makeupblog at gmail dot com.

To My Readers

Since the beginning of My Makeup Blog in June, 2008, I have been using this blog as a playground to express my love to makeup, skincare, and other beauty related topics as well as to interact with my readers (aka you guys.) Through this blog, I have learned more about makeup than ever and in the process, get a chance to voice my knowledge in this field to the world. 

Currently, I participate in Total Beauty's Sneak Peak and Beauty Choice's BeautyStar programs where I receive products to review in my blog. Occasionally, I receive offers from PR companies that send me samples and products to review. This practice has been going on in the magazine industry for a long time and recently, has extended to the blogging world. If they were not sent to me, these products may go below my radar and thus, I may not have a chance to discover them and share my thoughts about them to you. However, my opinions are not swayed by freebies. I do my best to test them out and give you my most honest opinions on them. With that in mind, I want to be fair about my reviewed products as well, by putting them in context so you can understand where they stand with other products I have seen before.

With all those said, there is one thing to keep in mind when it comes to reading my reviews: as much as I strive to write my most honest opinions and give you the best ideas of what the products are as well as how well they perform, the reviews reflect my own experience and opinions. As we are all different from each other, our experiences may not be the same even when we use the same product. Also, you are entitled to your own opinion as I am to mine.

Please keep in mind that my blog does not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. I am not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own. If I claim to like or love a certain product, I believe it is up to my personal standards. believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Use of Photo Images

Occasionally, I need a photo from the Internet and get them via Google Images. If and when I do so, I always give proper credit to the persons or websites these pictures originated from. If you see your photo here and do not want me to use it, please email me with the link to the post and I am happy to remove it.

Also, please do not use my photos without my permission. Most pictures I took and use in this blog have watermarks and if you decide to use them after I grant you my permission, please do not remove the watermarks. They are my labor as I took time to take the pictures, edit, and watermark them.

Use of Content

Please refrain yourself from copying my content verbatim. Like my pictures, my content is my labor and I spend a lot of time to blog here. When you copy my blog post without quoting, you commit yourself to the most heinous crime in the world of writing: plagiarism. If you need to use my words in your post, please quote instead and give credit back to me.

To PR and Beauty Companies and Their Representatives

I really appreciate your consideration to me as a good fit to review your product. I always look forward to explore new makeup, skincare, and other beauty related products. If you choose to send them to me, I will test them out and if the products pass my own standards, I will review them here in my blog. Whether they are reviewed or not, once the products are sent to me, they are mine to keep as I find it not practical to return used items back to you.

Also, if you would like to give away products to my readers, please email me and let me know.

Any PR queries, please email me at makeupblog at gmail dot com. I will do my best to answer your emails as soon as I can.

As time changes, this disclosure may be revised if new implementations and regulations come along the way. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions regarding products I review from this point forward. I will do my best to answer you.



P.S: Please subscribe to my feed. Thanks a lot!

Beauty Literotica: Fine Beauty by Sam Fine

Hi everyone,

My local library has an interesting mix of books in makeup and beauty. I was happy to find some very great books such as “Face Forward” by Kevyn Aucoin and “Bobbi Brown Beauty Bible” by Bobbi Brown. Among them, I found Sam Fine’s book published in 1998 titled “Fine beauty: beauty basics and beyond for African-American women”. As I have been a fan of his blog, I was more than delighted to read this book. And let me tell you, it’s a fine book!

Fine Beauty: Beauty Basics and Beyond for African-American Women

Image courtesy Clutch Magazine

Sam Fine

This book is beautifully illustrated with a mix of black and white as well as color photos. It is divided into three main parts: makeup 101, makeovers, video and editorial portfolio. In makeup 101, Mr. Fine covered basic topics from foundation, brushes, to makeup application. It is written in a simple and easy to understand manner, which is suitable for beginners. In makeovers, he transformed ordinary women (and one man), including his mother, into sensational beauties. The genius of his makeup is to make the beauty routine functional, based on their lifestyles and jobs.

How to get a good foundation match

Bloggers be Aware: FTC Passed the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising

Hi everybody,

Everyday, it makes my day to find out how you find my blog to be informative and fun. I hope my posts lighten up your workday and if you find them useful, that is a bonus. However, sometimes there are other issues out there that directly affect some of us and today I would like to use this time to make you aware of it.

During summer, there was a buzz about the new Federal Trade Commission to regulate endorsements and testimonials in advertising. It came in the most unconventional way to me and at the time, the person who voiced his opinion probably misunderstood the scope of implementation of this new FTC regulation (click here to read what I said regarding this issue.) Needless to say, I have been following this issue for a while and recently, this new regulation did get passed and is going to be implemented starting December 1st, 2009 (click here for the full document.)

The document is 81 page long and it boils down to two big issues: (1) disclosure of  any financial gains from bloggers and (2) liability between bloggers, companies that provide materials to them and the public. For the first issue, if a blog failed to comply, it will get some warnings and may even get fined. For the second part, this is actually a good mean to weed out blogs that publish faulty information, such as blogs that promote diet pills with outrageous results (lose 10 lbs in 1 week, anyone?)

So, what will affect "My Makeup Blog"?

For starter, let me reiterate this point to you: I do not blog for money. Since I started writing here at the end of June, 2008, I have never get any offers to promote any product in exchange of any types of monetary gain. Until recently, all products I reviewed were purchased from my own pocket and I reviewed them at my own time. Then as this blog progressed, I received some invitations from companies to review their products as they see my blog as a good fit. However, that does not mean I put in the good words even when their products do not live up to the standard. Like you, I am also a consumer and I do appreciate honest opinions. When I get a chance to voice mine, I make sure to portray the products in a truthful and fair manner. I would never say a foundation that costs a dollar is as good as a Chanel foundation. It may be the best one dollar foundation on Earth but it's not Chanel.

Yves Saint Laurent Parisienne: Paris Light

Hi everybody,

If I got to choose where I want to live and money were not a problem, I would choose to vivre à Paris. For some reasons, the City of Lights perks my interest and I for once would like to live there and eat cheese and croissant from a small platter (*smile*). However, the current currency exchange rate between the dollar and euro plus swine flu plus living expense say otherwise.

And then out of the bloom, I got a bottle of YSL Parisienne to play with. Talking about making my day, right? Before Parisienne, the only YSL perfume I have is "L'Homme", the male fragrance released in 2006. "L'Homme" is a very beautifully crafted perfume and sometimes when the temperature drops, I find myself applying a drop of it on my wrists.

Parisienne was crafted by Sophia Grosjman, the nose of the original YSL Paris, and Sophie Labbé. It is described as an "grand floral perfume with woody structure, luminous even in its mystery." This perfume, according to its creators, is "the perfume of ultra-femininty, warmed by the touch of the man who embraced her."  Kate Moss, a Londoner, was chosen as the face of YSL Parisienne.

"You were not born in Paris but Paris adopts you...

...because you know how to love, how to live"

YSL Parisienne

The bottle

Dear M.A.C...

Dear M.A.C,

Just a while ago, I went to your website to take a peek at your new limited edition collections and gawk at the beautiful promotional photos. While I did that, I wonder how I can super-size my bank account to match with your ever growing LEs. I have to admit, some of your most recent releases do intrigue me, until this one caught my eyes:

Yup, I'm talking about your new Zoom Fast Black Lash promo picture. You see, I'm a mascara addict and I always look for the next best thing that promises to make my lashes to look longer, lusher, and darker. So, it was my nature to stare, gawk, and covet...until I saw something strange in the picture. By the way, it took me about 10 seconds...

...to notice the model's real lashes sticking out!

Writer's Block

Happy Monday, folks!

Calvin and Hobbs (one of my favorite comic strips)

Once in a while, I get a big chunk of writer's block right on top of my laptop. I know I have products to review, and pictures to attach. Basically, things are ready to be posted. "Write me, write me!" the beautiful makeup product said. And what did I do? I bite my nail hard because I cannot write anything on that beautiful makeup item.

It's ironic, isn't it, to have a blog and not able to write. Sometimes, I wonder how other beauty bloggers truck 3-4 posts a day, 7 days a week while I barely catch up with my single post per weekday policy. I guess addressing the elephant in the room does help because hey...this is a post, right? (grin)

One of my friend has a good coping technique whenever he has a writer's block. It's called "cleaning my room"! And I can tell when it happens because his apartment is the beacon of shininess whenever he gets stuck in his writing. Apparently, cleaning his room helps him to declutter his mind and as soon as his place looks nice and neat, his writer's block also chips away to a very small fragment in his mind.

You Know You're a Makeup and Beauty Addict When...

...you accidentally found your teddy bear holding a jar of face cream!

How about you? Are you a makeup and beauty addict as well?

When did you realize it?

And what were your signs and symptoms?

Comments, ok?

This is too fun to pass!

P.S: If you like my blog, please subscribe to my feed. Thanks a lot!

Smolder FOTN

Hello beautiful people!

Around this time last year, I was fortunate enough to have two very pigmented eyeshadow duos from Fantasy Makers and guess what happened? I did not use them, not even a peep! They just sat there in my bin like Sleeping Beauty or something while I felt like I did not have enough makeup. My new organizing system helps a lot, as Smolder, the blue duo, got a chance to come out and play recently.

Remember this photo?

That was Smolder, y'all!

The origin of this FOTN is interesting: prior to this, I did not wear makeup for close to a month. My skin gave me the worst attitude ever and I decided to let it be. Then, I was invited to the party and I knew for sure people going there are going to dress up a lot. To up my ante, I decided to wear some makeup and thank God, my skin was a lot better that day. Smolder was within arm's reach and since it has two colors, I did not have to worry about how to coordinate them. The whole process took less than 15 minutes and it was the fastest time I've painted my face for a night out.

Eyes

Open eye

Close eye (with flash)

How to Get Incredible Eyebrows

Hello everyone,

Last week, I blogged about my incredible eyebrows and got some positive feedback from y'all. I was so happy! As you may notice, my eyebrows are not twins- they are sisters. While the left one looks chic and polished, the right one is more difficult to groom. I guess as my eyes do not have the same shape, the brows kind of mirrors them as well. I spent years trying to make the right one to look like the left one but always, they do not match. Then I realize, if the right eyebrow looks about 80% like the left one, I call it a success. But still, once in a while, I get a good match and that's it. It's rare to have my brows to look alike twice in a row.

I spent lots of time reading makeup books and paid careful attention in the eyebrow grooming section. Then one day the solution dawned on me: I can use a stencil as a guide to groom my brows! So simple, right? In this post, I will show you how to groom and fill in your eyebrows.

To groom your eyebrows

What you'll need: a pair of tweezers, white eyeliner, slanted eyeshadow brush, spoolie brush, gel and powder brow kit, and a brow stencil (I use Ardell's)

Step 1: wash your face and eye area

Step 2: place the stencil on the brow area...

...and use the white eyeliner to draw over it. The white lines are used as a guide to puck your brows.

Pluck the hair beneath them.

Step 3:

After you're done plucking (or waxing) the stray hair, use a spoolie to comb through your eyebrows in an upward motion. Use a pair of baby scissors, trim the parts of your brows that stick out.

Then, comb again but this time downward. Also, trim the parts that stick out. This step is crucial to make your brows look well-groomed.

Then, clean up the white eyeliner.

Your brows should look nice and neat.

Time to Organize

Well, hello there, gorgeous!

Once upon a time, my makeup stash used to look like this: things I use often get to be stored inside the train case while other makeup items were thrown haphazardly in a plastic container. I call this the "dump" system. Next to the "stack" system to organize my paper, this way to organize makeup products is the worse. Most times, I had to dig my way through my stash just to get what I need. Also, the "dump" system causes me an illusion that I do not have enough makeup to play with. It's a vicious cycle:

thinking not having enough makeup -> buying more makeup to be stashed away -> not seeing how much stuff I already have -> thinking not having enough makeup (again!)

It got to a point that I used the same stuff that I put in the train case over and over again while pondering on where all my makeup goes. Then, one day it dawned on me the root of my problem is my organizing system" the "dump" method just does not work! Coincidentally, Target had a sale on their back to school stuff and I got one of this:

My new makeup organizer thingy :)

It has 3 drawers and totally solves my stash problem!

First drawer: eyeshadow palettes

Second drawer: more eyeshadow palettes and some single eyeshadows

(Picassa! again! Side way picture!)

E.L.F Studio Powder Brush: My New-Found HG!

Hi everybody,

Happy Monday! Recently, I've gotten myself into another brush fiend and found myself checking websites that sell makeup brushes as if there would be no brushes to buy tomorrow. Coincidentally, E.L.F had a 75% off coupon code on their Studio line. From the intelligence I gathered around the Internet, the Studio brushes are a cut above the regular dollar ones. Among them, I've heard praises of the powder brush. At 3 dollars a pop, there's nothing to lose. However, the cost of shipping them from E.L.F is ridiculous but the deal did sweeten it a bit. So I chomped down and got a bunch of powder brushes for myself and others to use.

E.L.F Powder Brush ($3 USD)

The good thing is this brush does not disappoint: it is really soft and fluffy, maybe too fluffy for some folks. I've been using it to apply mineral foundation and it does not disappoint. After one layer, my face looked very airbrushed and even. For the first time ever, I did not really need to go to the second layer of mineral foundation as buffing the makeup does even out my skin a lot.

See how big it is? The brush is almost 1.75 inches in diameter!

...and fluffy, too!