GILTY Pleasures Weekly Blog Tour: Vol 6, 2010

Hi everybody,

This week's blog tour comprises a variety of makeup and beauty tips, tricks, and tutorials. I hope you'll enjoy our effort to give you the best of this week.

Alison of the Advice Sisters has picked her favorite show of fashion week (so far, more to come on the advice sisters blog). It is "THE BLONDES" runway show featuring everything from sexy dresses with golden spikes and glittering, sky-high Louboutin pumps, to a gorilla suit!

Talented hair and makeup artist Altjana Banja created the hair look for emerging designer Carmelita Martell a sophisticated, braided bun.

Lisa from Bridalease has great skin protection advice during these crazy cold and windy days of winter.

Ageless Elaine explains cosmeceuticals and why you want them.

Gio from Beautiful With Brains talks about the benefits of olive oil in skincare.

Missy of Luxury Beauty Products reviews Sun Botanicals SunScreen with SPF 30made by women for women specifically designed to protect against the sun’s harmful UV radiation from damaging the skin.

Beauty and Fashion Tech reviews DHC Skincare, including DHC Olive Oil Cleanser.

Dao from My Makeup Blog found an easy and fool proof way to apply false lashes that guarantees an eye opening result!



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Fun with Black and Red FOTD

Hi everybody,

New York Fashion Week is gone but its essence still lingers in the air. This year, the colors are stronger in both eyes and lips, which makes it my favorite fashion week ever! For every woman out there, once you master the art of painting the smokey eyes, you are set for life. Seriously, clothings can get in and out of style but every single season, the smokey eyes are there to stay. You can play it up for a sultry date night or play it down for a fun day at school. There's no limit to the smokey eyes.

Normally, smokey eyes are paired with nude lips. But not this year, sisters! People go all out for strong and bright colors these days. I like my smokey eyes with cherry red lips. The combination reminds me of the 50s, or Angelina Jolie. Brad Pitt's baby mama pulls this combo extremely well.

But so can I :)

Look, I can do sultry, too!

 The hand trick was an attempt to cover a flaming zit. Watching "America's Top Model" did pay off.

Fun with Marie Louise Restoration Clear Gel

Hi everybody,

At the end of last year, I got a chance to sample Marie Louise Restoration Clear Gel from Japan. Marie Louise Aberdein, the mother of modern beauty, created the first beauty creme in Japan to become a favorite in the Imperial Court. In 2004, Marie Louise skincare was debuted and sold only in professional spas and salons. Now, it is available online for everybody and I was very honored to try their exfoliating gel.

Marie Louise Restoration Clear Gel

I have always been fascinated by Japanese skincare since Japanese people have the most beautiful skin in the world. Also, since my skin does not exfoliate itself very well, a little help goes a long way. This exfoliating gel is a novel product to me since it does not use mechanical (tiny exfoliating beads) or chemical (AHAs or BHA) exfoliators.

How to Apply False Lashes

Hello beautiful people,

When I did the Baby Doll tutorial, I got some comments about false eyelashes and how to apply them. Gee, you guys made me feel like I am an expert in applying falsies or something. Or maybe it's the result of me pulling MAC editorial's leg? (Lookie here if you don't know what I mean.)

Truth be told, I was scared of falsies for years. Applying eye shadows: yes; wearing mascara: yes; grooming my eyebrows: yes. Applying falsies: heck to the NO! There was something about the fake lashes that made me feel uncomfortable and one day, I found out I was not afraid of wearing fake lashes. I was afraid of the application process, precisely of being poked in the eyes.

After doing my own research online and watching an episode of Rachel Ray repeatedly, I concluded there's nothing to fear but fear itself. So, I went to Sally's Beauty and bought my first pair of Ardell lashes and a tube of lash glue. The rest was history. While I don't wear falsies on a daily basis, I prefer to use them when I need to take pictures. They make a huge difference and today I am going to show you how to apply them, too!

First thing first: the necessary items

You will need an eyeshadow primer (I use Bare Canvas paint pot), an eyeliner (I use Blacktrack gel liner), an eyeliner brush if you use gel liner, mascara, eyelash curler, and a pair of falsies of your choice.

Also, don't forget the lash glue

For those who read palms, that's my left palm :)

First step: curl your lashes

That's me with intense concentration

Belly at Large: Made in China?

Greetings,

"Gimme back that lipstick!" said Mr. Belly, My Makeup Blog's Editor-at-Large

Yo, what's up my home girls? It's Belly time! Last week, my numero uno biggest fanista commented on my post about fake makeup. La McNunu wrote:

I once sent a message to one of the Ebay sellers notifying her that what she's selling in her shop is fake, she had the guts to email me back saying that she's reporting me to Ebay for malicious behaviour! and that her products come from MAC's factory in China, and that they're the colours that did not make their way into the official collection!!
Can you believe that?

McNunu dear,

I, Mr. Belly the cat, can't believe that. It is outrageous! But your comment made me think hard. Did MAC ever make anything in China? Hence, stash raiding time >^.^< Of course, I directed Dao, the human handler, to do all the hard work while I take the full credit, meowhahahaha.

Thanks to Temptalia's supply of MAC makeup to Dao, I was able to track the country of origin of several MAC products. Let's see:

Pigment: Made in the U.S of A, yo!

Glitters: Made in Japan

Nail polish: made in USA again

Scientific Names and Beauty Products

Hi everybody,

Since I have been trained geek-style for so long, I get used to scientific names of species. When it comes to product labeling, manufacturers use scientific names for sources of natural extracts. For example, instead of writing aloe vera, they would use Aloe barbadensis. For common sources like aloe, most people can recognize the scientific names. However, for uncommon ones, you can feel lost and in most case, confused. I don't blame you, it takes forever to remember these names since they are long and hard to pronounce.

When it comes to naming species the scientific way, it is quite similar to naming people: you have a first name and a last name. However, in scientific naming, it is first name last, last name first.

Using aloe vera as an example: Aloe is the last name, or gender, and barbadensis is the first name, or species. The first letter of gender is always capitalized while that of species is not. There are two ways to write scientific names: italicize (Aloe barbadensis), or underline (Aloe barbadensis).

Ok, to be fair, Aloe barbadensis is an easy one. But can you guess the common names of Hamamelis virginiana or Simmondsia chinnesis? They are common plant extracts found in beauty products and I guess it's a good idea to comprise a short list of scientific and common names of plants, fruits, and flowers used in beauty products.


Achillea millefolium: yarrow
Actinidia chinensis: kiwi
Aloe barbadensis: aloe vera plant
Althaea officinalis: marshmallow
Anthemis nobilis: chamomile
Arctium lappa: burdock
Arnica montana: arnica
Avena sativa: oat

Borago officinalis: borage
Butyrospermum parkii: shea butter

GILTY Pleasures Weekly Blog Tour: Vol 5, 2010

Hi everybody,

This week's rendition of GILTY Pleasures weekly blog tour is a fun one: we have makeup tips from Johnny Weir, an interview with Napoleon Perdis, many other reviews as well as tips and tricks. I hope you'll enjoy it!

With the Olympics in full swing, Alison of the Advice Sistersget answers to makeup questions from Johnny Weir" who gets artistic support from M.A.C. Cosmetics. He is on the US Figure Skating Team (check out his amazing performance to Lady GaGa's "Poker Face"-- from before the Olympics).

The Informed Makeup Maven hangs out with fellow Aussie, Napoleon Perdis Backstage at NYFW Fall 2010

Ageless Elaine explains how to deal with large pores

Dao from My Makeup Blog reviews the lovely NYX Champagne and Caviar palette from the Runway Collection.

Is your foundation too dark? Gio from Beautiful With Brains shares some tips on how to make it work for you.

The Beauty Blog continues the Eye Shadow by Eye Color Series with makeup tips for Makeup for Green Eyes.

Suzanne at RN Guide to Skin Care reviews her favorite Philosophy Skincare Products.

Trendy Plus Size Clothes picks this season's best Plus Size Casual Dresses.




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Thank You, Temptalia!

Hi everybody,

Guess who is the lucky girl? It's me, yo! For a very long time, I did not win anything when it comes to giveaways. But that did not deter me from hosting giveaways in my own blog, right? If you believe in karma, you know - "what goes around comes around", there is karma. I guess Lady Karma saw through me and decided to make the "come around" part happen. And you know why I know that?

Because the great Temptalia picked me as the winner of her fall giveaway, yo! And it could not come at a better time, either. After I defended my thesis and stuff, I was so exhausted but decided to check my emails before the week came to an end. For that whole week, I did not even have a minute to breath, left alone checking emails. And guess what? I got an email titled "Temptalia Loves You". Now, for those who know me in real life, I have a different email account I use for a very long time, which is different from the blog email. I prefer to separate church and state, ie blogging from real life. For some reasons, I used that email address for the giveaway and she emailed me.

Let's put it this way: it was a nice graduation gift. Besides, I could not afford department store makeup at that time (and still can't for now). With all the stuff she sent me, I've had a lot of fun! Wanna see what I got? Jump!

NYX Champagne and Caviar Palette: More Neutral Goodness!

Hello there, beautiful!

It seems like Christmas has not come to an end to me as I have not come any closer to review things I got for Christmas. This review is way overdue but it is better late than never, right? My secret Santa was so generous to include a palette that I wanted for so long: NYX Champagne and Caviar! To be honest, she was the one who started it by posting a gorgeous FOTD on her blog using this palette. It made me salivated up and down the blog since then :)

So, what's so wonderful about Champagne and Caviar? First of all, the palette looks very sleek and reminds me a lot of Bobbi Brown palettes.

It's a sleek plastic palette that looks so professional

On top of that, you get 10 eye shadows for $8-9

Once opened, it looks like this

This palette contains 10 skin-flattering neutral colors for all the neutral lovers out there!

Wonderful Wednesday

Hi everybody,

Wow, I haven't blogged since Monday! At this point, I guess I've become a Southerner and with that, I don't like cold weather anymore. This winter is so outrageously cold and for this week, 49 out of 50 states have snow. The only state that does not see fluffy precipitation from above is Hawaii, the Aloha state. My Hawaiian readers, you guys are so lucky!

Since V-Day, my energy level went way down. On Valentine's Day, I slept like Sleeping Beauty for the whole day. And the same thing happened the next day and the day after that. So yeah, the lack of blogging has been due to the surplus of sleeping. I am looking forward to warmer temperature soon, there's so much sleep I can take at this point.

Mr. Belly said hi hi meow!

Either he was very happy or he mocked my monolid eyes. I can't figure this part out!

Guess what came in the mail yesterday?

A Valentine card with a bee in the front, so cute!

And guess what's inside?

Happy Valentine's Day, Happy Lunar New Year, and More

Hi everybody,

So many events are rolling around this Sunday: first of all, we have Valentine's Day. Secondly, for those who celebrate it, we also have Lunar (or Chinese) New Year. Also, we have the GILTY Pleasures weekly blog tour as usual.

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day and Lunar New Year. May you have all the best in the upcoming year as well as a good time with your loved ones today and everyday. I feel very lucky to get to celebrate New Year day twice a year. If my resolutions did not work out so well on the first New Year, I have another try at this one :)

How about you? What are you planning to do today?

Wait! Don't go yet! The GILTY Pleasures blog tour is coming up next!

Valentine's Day Giveaway Winner

Hi everybody,

Thank you for participating in 2010's Valentine's Day giveaway. 81 of you participated, which made this event the most participated one in My Makeup Blog's history. Sounds good, doesn't it? As usual, I used Random.org to select a winner and this was what they gave me:

Lucky number 76, where art thou?

"I Miss You" from Sinful Colors: Glittery Glam Goodness!

 Hi everyone,

First nail post of this year! To be honest, I did not blog so much about nail polishes at all simply because I am not so much of a nail polish addict. However, that has changed since Christmas. You see, my Secret Santa sent me some nail polishes and since then, I enjoy the pleasure of applying colors to my nails, Sinful Colors nail polishes, no less.

Sinful Colors in "I Miss You"

"I Miss You" is love in the blingiest form possible: I can't help but smile whenever I wear this color. Basically, this shade is a mix of purple and silver glitters in clear nail polish. You can wear it by itself but it would probably take 4 coats to cover the finger.

I have worn it over black nail polish (glam goth love!), pink nail polish (very girly) and purple nail polish. The one shown in the pictures is Vericose Violet from Dame Edna collection that I won from Temptalia's fall giveaway.

 

MAC Vericose Violet

Baby Doll FOTD

Well, hello there my gorgeous!

It's almost mid-February and I haven't posted a FOTD look so far. Shame on me! It used to be at least a FOTD a week and I do have lots of pictures in my archives. So really, I have no idea why I don't post them up here.

I've been following Kandee Johnson's blog for a while now and she is one of the most talented makeup guru on YouTube. I like her style and when she posted her "Getting Married" makeup tutorial, I have GOT to try it out. The thing is, I don't have all the MAC colors she used in the video.

But I do have Coastal Scents 88 palette! So let the fun begin!

My version of this look using CS 88 palette

Please forgive my skin, it has been so sensitive!

First off, here's Kandee's video clip. I watched it once and now if you give me a blushing bride, at least I know what to do for her to make her look gorgeous on her big day. Kandee's instructions are very clear.



Secondly, if you have all the colors she used, please pull them out. If you don't the CS 88 palette will be suffice.

 

(*): Colors I used

Belly at Large: Fake Makeup

From the desk of Jack Belly, My Makeup Blog's Editor at Large:

Hello there, my beautiful ladies!

Sorry for the late update today, last night the fellows and I had a football game up in the roof top (Editor's note: it was their Seven Hills Kitty Bowl.) My team is the Stripes and we played against the Gamine. They were weak, we won, I got MVF*, woohoo!
 (MVF: most valuable feline)

Anyways, Dao insisted I post something since my last post was really popular. As you beauties may know, I pitched a topic to her and she liked it. She even tweeted online (by the way, is there any bird on Twitter?)

So, with my sore paws, I type this post. Football is fun and all but beauty is my passion, yo!

Remember this post about a fake MAC makeup party? Now, in this economy, saving a dime or two for the rainy day when you run out of cat food is a good thing. Like every other feline, I love to look pretty. I like my coat to be shiny and my whiskers to be long and curly. And I would do whatever it takes to achieve that clean feline look.

The same goes to humans. Based on the amount of time my editor-in-chief spent in front of the mirror, I can deduct. She also talks a lot about saving money. Yes, it's a good thing. However, it is not swell to buy counterfeit.

And counterfeit makeup is everywhere. You go on eBay looking for cat toys and the next thing you see is fake makeup. They are cheap and they look fabulous. That was then. Now, people not only host makeup parties, they also sell makeup from their cars.

From a cat's opinion, please don't buy counterfeit makeup. Wanna know why? Jump!

Pressies from McNunu!

Howdy partners!

How are you doing? How was your weekend? Did you watch the Super Bowl? Well, the marching band that performed in the pre-game is my alma mater's. Cool, right? They also performed with Prince in half-time show a couple of years ago. Moreover, they were the only marching band that performed for President and the First Lady during the inauguration. The Marching 100 is probably the best band in the country right now. I don't know much about football but I enjoyed the performances very much.

Thank you for your outpouring support for this Valentine's Day giveaway. If you haven't participated, there's still a lot of time. I have a lot of fun reading all your comments, some of them make me laugh and God knows I need laughters these days.

Talking about cheer and joy, La McNunu Doll (remember her from this post?) sent me a package from the Winter Olympics 2010 Land.

 

The loot

Wanna know the details? Jump!

GILTY Pleasures Weekly Blog Tour: Vol 4, 2010

Alison of the Advice Sistersreports on her second round with the Zerona Laser, hoping to lose up to six inches in two weeks with this "lunchtime
lipo" treatment..

Ageless Elaineasks "Do You Know How Much to Tip?or do you
worry through your whole "relaxing" massage?


Dao from My Makeup Blog shows you how to get celebrity cascading curls as seen on
the red carpets and photoshoots.

Bridalease has met the Clark Kent of the wedding industry Matthew Christopher.




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Valentine's Day Giveaway

Hi everybody,

It's giveaway time again! I'm so happy to do another giveaway just in time for Valentine's Day! This time around, the goody bag is all on moi and I handpicked all the items as well as wrap them for one of y'all lucky people. Let's see what we got here:

The prize for Valentine's Day giveaway

Want to know the details of what's inside and how to win? Jump!

Get Poutiful Lips with L'Oreal Infallible Plumping Lip Gloss

Hi everyone,

When I became a beauty blogger, I did it because I feverishly love makeup and beauty. Then, when I started receiving samples to review, I was elated. What added to the exhilaration is when the review items actually work. For those who have been reading my blog, you already know how much I love L'Oreal products. When a L'Oreal publicist contacted me regarding the new L'Oreal Infallible plumping lip gloss, I was more than happy to give it a try. She was very generous to send me four lip glosses and since that moment, I guess I found my new HG lip gloss.

Warning: this is a picture-heavy post, I went a bit overboard with the illustrations (my bad!) but I hope you will have the feel of how these lip glosses perform.

Top-bottom: L'Oreal Infallible plumping lip glosses in Plumped Red, Plumped Pink, Plumped Plum, and Plumped Mauve

From L'Oreal website:

Now, get plumper lips, long-wearing color and incredible shine for 6 hours in one easy step. Infallible Never Fail™ Plumping Lipgloss gives your pout a voluptuous new look. A pleasant plumping experience. Virtually pain-free. No injections. Just gorgeous, fuller-looking lips. Comes in an array of 8 positively plumping shades.

It has been a while since I used anything from L'Oreal and I was quite surprise to see how pretty the packaging of these lip glosses are.

Plumped Red is a sheer patent red lip gloss without any shimmer. Although it is sheer, the color is buildable.

This is Leighton Meester's favorite red carpet item.

The wand is not your typical doe-foot applicator. It is designed for colors to spread out quickly and evenly. I prefer this wand over the doe-foot ones.

Wanna see more colors and lip swatches? Jump!

How to Get Celebrity Cascading Curls

Hello my beautiful people!

Thank you for your love to Mr. Belly's first column yesterday. He was so happy that he came to my place to party all night. And boy, can he party! At 2 am, he still scratched the door and wanted to come in to have the after-after-after party to commemorate his debut column! Needless to say, yours truly did not get that much sleep and since there were so many things needed to be done, I did not get a chance to blog until now.

With the award season coming at full swing, cascading curls are spotted everywhere on and off the red carpet. Basically, anybody with hair a bit below their shoulder can sport this style. Heck, even Russel Brand has cascading curls these days! (Click here for a pic. For those who does not know who Russel Brand is, he's a British comedian and Katy Perry's fiance.)

My everyday straight hair

My all curled up hair

For years, I have been trying to curl my hair like they do in Miss Universe. Since my hair is stick straight, I want curls. Sometimes, I got fantastic curls, other times I got crappy uncurled curls. And then, once in a while, I burned myself and my hair! So kids with straight hair who want curls, you are in good hands here. After years of doing research, I came up with an infallible method. Before doing this tutorial, I did not curl my hair for months, yet the result was awesome!

Want to learn more? Click after the jump!

Belly at Large: Change Your Lash Curler Pads

From the desk of Jack Belly, Editor-at-Large of My Makeup Blog
(As typed and edited by Dao)

Yo, what's up my home girls? How are you doing? This is Jack Belly, your new editor-at-large. Since I signed my contract under the dotted line, the human handler Dao gave me my first assignment and I had to dig real hard to find my inspiration. Writing is not as easy as chasing squirrels, ya know? Also, she threatened to cut off my keebler supply if I don't write. I need to make a living as well and here is my debut post.

Since we mentioned about inspiration, I went around the house and put my nose in everything. Beside finding where my editor-in-chief put her stash as well as my cat food, I found this disgusting little thing in the trash:

The thing I talked about is the object on the right paw side

Disgusting, innit?

I'm Back!

Hi everyone,

I'm back, baby! Thank you for all of your support and kind words. Are you still there? Hellooooo!

Alright, just checkin'! Thanks for standing by :) At this time, I'd like to introduce the newest member of My Makeup Blog's editorial team (which, has been consisted of me, myself, and I, ha!):

Please help me welcome Mr. Jack Belly, Democat!

He is going to be our Editor-at-Large and somewhere along the line, Belly (a la Prince and Madonna) is going to have a column here at MMB.

Now, for those who are scratching your belly button and wondering out loud what your girl is doing, let me address the elephant in the room: true, Mr. Belly is a cat but he is a very opinionated kitty. In the daytime, he goes around the 'hood interviewing folks (mostly my elderly neighbors) regarding fashion and trends. Then, at night he comes to my place, scratches the door, and meows loudly with the Southern accent of his for a report. He is a tough negotiator and we agreed upon a big bowl of cat keebler, water, and half an hour of tummy scratches a day.