GILTY Pleasures Weekly Blog Tour: Vol 9. 2010

Hi everybody,

This week's GILTY Pleasure beauty blog tour is going to be a short one, thanks to Spring Break:

Alison of the Advice Sisters has continuing issues with her Blogger blog, but she's still reviewing products. You can catch her review of "Riveting" a limited edition cosmetics collection from M.A.C.that's sure to bring out the 80's rocker chick in you!!

Lisa of Bridal loves champagne no one creates a better gift for a happy couple than Dom Perignon.

LuxuryBeautyProducts introduces mySkin.com beauty, skin care, a personalized recommendation for your particular skin.

Dao from My Makeup Blog started a Makeup Lesson series. First order of business: How to apply eyeliner.




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Makeup Lesson: How to Line Your Eyes

Good morning, my beauties!

Recently, my friend Carol the Cookie Monster asked for tips to apply eyeliners. People always assume lining your eyes is a simple and easy task but the truth is very far from that assumption. It took me years to master the art of lining my eyes with pencil liners and many years after that to get over the fear of being poked in the eyes by a liquid liner. Just when I thought I was a pro, I found myself stuttering when I lined my friend's eyes. You see, applying eyeliner is not that simple and I guess it is time for me to write a tutorial about this topic.

What you need: pencil liner (Teddy eye kohl from MAC) , a slanted eyeshadow brush (I use MAC 266), a powder eyeshadow (mine is Hazel Brown from Aura Science, a discontinued makeup line at Victoria's Secret), an eyeshadow primer (optional, I use MAC Bare Canvas paint pot), an eyelash curler (mine is ELF, also need to review it!)

Not shown: a mascara (I use L'Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black)

 Optional step: prime your eyes with an eyeshadow primer

Even when I don't use any eyeshadow, I apply Bare Canvas paint pot so my eyes would have some nice glimmers. But most importantly, I have oily eyelids that tend to crease and the eyeshadow primer helps my eye makeup to stay put.

Step 1: Curl your eyelashes

Although curling your eyelashes before or after applying eye makeup is still up for debating, I prefer to curl my lashes first. To my friends who are not into makeup (or are guys), curling eyelashes looks like something from Guantanamo Bay. A friend of mine always refers to the eyelash curler as a torture device. The truth is, it doesn't hurt at all!

Step 2a: Warm up the tip of your pencil eyeliner

While I have other eyeliners, I prefer the Teddy eye kohl for this tutorial because it is soft and glides more effortlessly than the other eyeliners I have. Looking back, my failure line my eyes was mostly due to the pencil I used. Hard ones are more pokey and do not tend to glide that well. Soft ones lack control and if you mess up, it is hard to fix. MAC eye kohl is between hard and soft, which is why I prefer it on days I just need to line my eyes really fast and go.

Warming up the tip of the pencil will make it even softer and hence, make it a lot easier for you to work with.

The Big Zzzzz

Hi everybody,

So, it's Spring Break for those who are enjoying it. Last week was Spring break for me but instead of chillin' at St. George Island as planned, I was in Spring Break Stat Camp for Cool Kids at Gator Nation, aka University of Florida. And let me tell you this: compressing a one-year statistics course into 4 days is intense! Right now, all I want to do is...

...this!

Source

Mr. Belly was with my neighbor the whole time I was away and he was knocking on my door about 15 minutes after I was back. However, I was too wigged out to play with him. All I want to do is to get enough sleep and make my brain function again.

Being sleep-deprived does strange things to my body: half of the time I was there, I felt hungry even when my stomach was full. The other half of the time, I tried to sleep but could not. The room was near to the highway and I could hear all of the cars, trucks, and vans driving pass. But anyways, I survived the Stat camp!

Also, there were 2 packages waited for me when I came home: one from Tammy and the other one from my Secret Valentine. Thanks, ladies! Right now, I'm just too tired to write anything coherrent and feel excited about the gifts but they are really awesome!

So please give me some time to get back to my regular routine and post something decent. If you have any requests, please email me or send me direct messages at Twitter. I'll do my best to answer your questions but before that, I need to catch some Zzzzzzz....


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GILTY Pleasures Weekly Blog Tour: Vol 8, 2010

Hi everybody,

Weekend comes early for this week: for those who are going to Spring Break, this is a chance for you to review the best of GILTY Pleasures weekly blog tour before you have some fun. For those whose Spring Break is coming to an end, I hope you'll enjoy the rest of your vacation. For the rest of us, have fun!

Alison of the Advice Sisters has discovered "The Bobble," a novel and inexpensive way to carry tap water that purifies the water while you drinkand is great for travel, especially at airports!!

Nicole Pearl of The Beauty Girl reveals the star's secrets to looking great on the Red Carpet and she's giving 10 readers the chance to win the coveted items (worth $150).

Missy of Luxury Beauty Products wants to share some great new spring beauty products Bring a cup of coffee and enjoy the reviews.

Gio from Beautiful With Brainswonders if skincare and cosmetic products offer enough sun protection.

It's a brush war: My Makeup Blog's Editor-at-Large compared makeup brushes from EcoTools, StudioTools at Target, and E.L.F Studio.

The Informed Makeup Maven is giving the 250th follower a full sized Bobbi Brown Nectar Shimmer brick for following her publicly.



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Belly at Large: Brushies Brushies

Wassup, my home girls? It's Belly time, are you happy?

 Yeah, that's yours truly doing the seksay thang called "licking the armpit" :D

I'm more flexible than Madonna, yo!

"Brushie Brushie", what the... Who wrote that? Ah meow, that was me. You see, having no opposable thumbs makes it hard to type. I meant to type something smart and clever but ended up with that, which is tackier than the bad cat food* the human handler Dao forces me to eat.

While Dao is busy crunching numbers and jumping** with her laptop, I get to use her other laptop as well as raid her stash. HaHA, take that for givin' me chicken flavor cat food. I am a salmon and tuna feline, yo!

Guess what, Dao? I got access to your brush stash, meow meow meow meow meow *big grin* And I also found out you got a request from Tweeter on brush comparison. I either gnaw your dearly beloved brushes into pieces or do a review for you. I could have gone feline crazy but instead, I chose to ride the high horse. Imagine me, a cat, riding a high horse. Ha!

The request from Tweetie was to compare brushes from EcoTools, StudioTools, and E.L.F Studio.

Recap:

• Amazingly soft EcoTools six-piece brush set
• Cheap and wonderful StudioTools dual fiber brush (so good, they don't see it anymo'!)
• Deceptively affordable E.L.F Studio powder brush
• Vintage StudioTools brushes (#9, 11, 12)

Wanna know my opinion about these brands? JMP!

Hotel Room and Tiredness

Salut!

How are you doing? I know it's late but I'd better blog when I still can. The next ten minutes or so, I may dose off. Did you watch the Academy Awards yesterday? I did, and then I had to go to this week-long boot camp early in the morning. So, for this week the agenda is crunching numbers and more numbers. And it's all for a good reason: I am getting closer to publish my first paper after all. Dao et. al is going to available in a prestigious scientific journal near you some time this year. Seriously, it's about time already!

Anyways, I don't know if I can blog anything with essence this week. And I hope you understand. But I'll do my best to keep this blog afloat :)

Mr. Belly: Gimme that camera!

The tiger inside of him came out, see :)

That's all for now. I need to get me some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be another number crunching day for me!



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GILTY Pleasures Weekly Blog Tour: Vol 7, 2010

Alison of the Advice Sisters loves the Spring 2010 collection of gorgeous cosmeticsfrom FACE Stockholm!

Dao from My Makeup Blog shows you how to trim and style your side-sweep bangs without going to the salon.

Nicole Pearl, The Beauty Girl reveals her favorite body cream and is offering 3 readers the chance to win one for themselves


Missy of LuxutyBeautyProducts.blogspot.com would like to share a wonderful company that will help you protect your precious skin and feel good at the same time.

The Informed Makeup Maven spills her secret for maintaining her skin's warmth during winter.


Gio from Beautiful With Brains reveals the Beauty History: cosmetic secrets of the Ancient Greeks.


Ageless Elaine points out that summer is coming but the living may not be easybecause of shaving and waxing" target="_blank">so take a tip from Kelly Ripa and get laser hair removal.


Jacket Dresses can really dress up your look, be it professional, for church, a special occasion or even a formal occasion. Trendy Plus Size Clothes picks this season's best Plus Size Jacket Dresses.


Do you need eye makeup tricks? A lot of people have no idea how to apply eye makeup to get the exact look they want! Here are the best Eye Makeup Tricks from The Beauty Blog.




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Lashed Out FOTD

Hi everybody,

"Uh oh, 'Lashed Out'? Why is she so angry today?" you may ask.

Truth be told, I am not angry, I am not in denial, I am nowhere near being negative today. Nobody ticked me off yet (and let's hope so!) What I am talking is about false eyelashes. Like this:

I looked like a 15 year-old here :)

The pair of lashes I used are more natural than the ones I did in the lash application tutorial and the "Baby Doll" FOTD. In fact, it was the first pair I bought that I didn't ruin. It just gives me enough oomp without looking like a drag queen. The whole thing was fast and pretty simple. Here are what you'll need:

A pair of false lashes (mine is Ardell's 110), gel black eyeliner (Blacktrack), slanted eyeliner brush (mine came from Coastal Scents) Bare Canvas paint pot as a primer, black mascara, eyelash curler*, and undereye concealer (mine is Maybelline)

Not pictured: white eyeliner (I used Wet n Wild Idol Eyes pencil in Pixie), lash glue, and Rimmel London Celeb lipstick.

Wanna recreate this look? Jump!

All Banged Up: YouTube Videos

Hi everyone,

In yesterday's post, a reader suggested me to post some of my favorite YouTube videos about cutting your own side-sweep bangs. While there are many, I chose two of my most favorites in this topic and another one about styling your bangs. I hope you'll enjoy!

1. Kandee Johnson: actually, I watched this video and it got me started. Kandee's video is well instructed and she uses a razor instead of serrated shears like I do.

How to Trim Your Own Side-Sweep Bangs

Hello everybody,

I got into a serious case of not knowing what to blog about. Seriously, I have lots of pictures of products and looks that are ready to be written, yet I don't know where to start. One good thing did happen: about 2 weeks ago, I mentioned about a bang trimming tutorial. And now, with all these confusions and writer's block in my mind, a scheduled post is the solution for me.

Nicole Richie and her famous side-sweep bangs

Source

After consulting various magazines and YouTube videos regarding bang trimming, I concluded that DIY bang trims are not so difficult. However, cutting your own hair can potentially give you outrageously ridiculous result, I advise you to proceed with cautions. I still can't forget the catastrophic fringe trim job I did on myself in 7th grade.

Breath in, breath out. Inhale, exhale. Are you ready? Let's go!

Tools for the trade: several pieces of old newspaper to line your hair cutting place, a pair of serrated scissors, a pair of scissors, a comb, and a rat-tail comb

Wanna know how? Jump!

Belly at Large: Marchesa Spring Makeup

Hello folks,

As a cat, I like to sleep a lot. When I don't sleep, I take naps or just close my eyes to think.

Like this!

That was me dreaming of catching some birds on Twitter.

Recently, I went online to browse on Marie Claire for Spring 2010 trend etc and this picture caught my eyes:

Marchesa 2010 (slide 14): Girlfriend got some fierce whiskers dangling from her eye.

This is the cat's meow, yo!

As a cat, I like to promote makeup trends that emphasize the feline-ity in humans. Cat eyes: yes yes yes! Fierce eye whiskers: me to the ow! Marchesa's makeup is simple yet clean and elegant, which I love.

My other favorite is Rodarte's Lolita Tribal Chola (slide 11). I should use Dao's Sharpie marker to fake-tattoo my arms before playing football with the rest of the Stripes.

Ciao, homies!
Mr. Belly, cat extraordinaire

P.S: I know my column is on Tuesday but this week I post a day earlier. Apparently, the human handler Dao complained about writer's block or something like that. I wonder if I can eat it.

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