Look of the day- April 3 2015!

Today I accidentally had perfect hair so I decided to put on makeup. Because that's what you do when your hair looks good.

One of these days I'll be photogenic! My top is from Vivien of Holloway if you're curious.

Let me preface this by saying a lot of my look today was achieved with Urban Decay Naked on the Run palette.  I've listed it as "UDNotR."

FACE:
Josie Maran tinted moisturizer- fair
OCC skin conceal- Y0
Blush & highlighter- UDNotR

EYES:
UDNotR- Dive, Fix, Resist, Perversion mascara
Kat Von D Lightning Liner - Fyfe (original version)

BROWS:
Tarte EmphasEYES- Rich brown
Blinc Brow Mousse- Dark brown

LIPS:
Kat Von D liquid lipstick- Vampira (barely patted on and rubbed in really well)
Benecos lipstick- Pink Honey

Look of the day 1/11/2015

I got inspired by a Venus Palette Dupe post on Reddit since I had two of the mentioned colors, so I came up with this look.

Face: Featherweight primer
Lock it foundation in L45 mixed with an old tattoo concealer equivalent to L42
Lock it powder foundation in L45 (all by Kat Von D)
OCC skin conceal in Y0
Tease from the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette to contour

Eye brows: Tarte EmphasEYES high definition eyebrow pencil in Rich Brown
Blinc eyebrow mousse in Dark Brown

Eyes: Cleopatra from the Kat Von D Ladybird palette
Bootycall from Naked 2 for the highlight
Fixated from the Melt Cosmetics Love Sick Stack in lower lash line/outer corner
Hourglass Film Noir Mascara

Lips: Bite Lip Lab Creme Deluxe Lipstick in 01/15

Illamasqua lip pencil in Severity

Nowhere special makeup

Who doesn't like to leave the house without makeup? *raises hand* Maybe I'm koo-koo, but I am not all that keen leaving the house like this:

 With that said, who wants to go crazy putting on the face when you're just going outside to run errands? (not me, usually) So this is my super easy and fast look for when I'm not going anywhere special.

Step one: Face!

You should always start with a clean face before applying any makeup-- you don't want to set yourself up for clogged pores or makeup going on weird!  So after I've washed + dried my face, I put on tinted moisturizer.  Since I have some scars and things going on, I'll put some concealer on underneath my eyes and scars/blemishes.  If I feel like it, I'll put on blush.

Steps 2/3: Lashes and Lips!

Crazy easy, folks: put on the mascara of your choice and a tinted lip balm!

What I used:

• Urban Decay Urban Defense Tinted Moisturizer
• Kat Von D Tattoo Concealer
• Benefit Coralista Blush
• Urban Decay Urban Lash Mascara
• Clinique Superbalm in Black Honey

What's your routine when you want a quick look? Let me know in the comments!

Review: Urban Decay Lush Lash mascara

Urban Decay's Lush Lash mascara is a lengthening mascara infused with a lash growth serum. I don't use it every day, so I can't really attest to the effectiveness of the serum, but this does its promise of lengthening lashes. This also works well if you layer mascaras-- I sometimes use this in conjunction with my KvD mascara to add more length to the volume that mascara offers.

The brush is unique to any mascara I've ever tried.  It has these hard spikes that are excellent at really defining the hairs and eliminating clumps, but they're very uncomfortable if you get them super close to your lash line.

Before

After!

All in all, I really like Lush Lash.  Even though I prefer curling mascaras, it's a great no-fuss product that is very welcome in my makeup collection. Once this runs out, I'll  definitely be re-purchasing.

You don't have to take my word for it.  It's available now at Sephora.

Review: Kat von D True Romance palette --Saint

Kat Von D's Saint palette is the first palette of all neutral shadows from her line.  Like all of her palettes, it comes with the standard eight shadows, and like the other new palettes that came out this fall, it comes with an eyeliner and a sample of the High Voltage Eye Primer.

I hesitated to pick this up when it came out in September because I thought it would be too similar to Urban Decay's Naked palette and/or some of the pigments I have from the brand (namely Rapture, a metallic peach with a golden shimmer). The only color that proved to be similar enough to something I already have is luckily something I really love. Also, I never really look at the weights of shadows, but the eight shadows in the Saint Palette are 1.4g a piece, vs Urban Decay's 1.3g. Sure, this has 8 shadows vs the Naked Palette's 12, but this costs $13 less. Even though the colors in this aren't really like those in the Naked palette, if that $48 price tag hurts your wallet, this may quell your hunger for a neutral palette.

L-R: Heavens, Enjoy the Silence, <3, Downtown

Heavens: Frosted cream. This came out slightly sheer, but I LOVE this as a highlight color, so I'm not mad.
Enjoy the Silence: Frosted pale pinkish champagne
<3: Matte pastel pink with multicolored glitter. As you can see in the swatch, the glitter didn't stick at all!
Downtown: Metallic bronze-y peach (previously appeared in the Ludwig palette)

L-R: Sunny, Pray for Me, Bookworm, Caravaggio

Sunny: Metallic dirty gold. This is very similar to Urban Decay's Half Baked, which leans more yellow.
Pray for Me: Warm brown with dirty gold shimmer. I was a bit disappointed with how sheer this was
Bookworm: Matte brown with gold sparkle. I thought this was similar to Urban Decay's Darkhorse, but this has more of a red tone and doesn't have a metallic finish.
Caravaggio: Greyed matte brown

Puro Amor eyeliner: Deep matte black. I don't know if it's me, but I feel like this is less black than the eyeliner that came with my Sinner palette.

PACKAGING: While the metal case looks so much more elegant than the rubberized plastic packaging of the prior palettes, I'm not a fan of how the mirror doesn't stay up when the palette is open.  I was also concerned about the shadows breaking more easily because something about this packaging seems less sturdy, but I've been taking this everywhere with me, and so far so good!
PRICE: $35 for 8 shadows + eyeliner.

You don't have to take my word for it, the Saint palette is available now at Sephora.

Look of the day: Low-key (NOT)

Hi!  Do you ever have one of those days that you don't want to fuss over your look too much, then accidentally find something fun to play with?  That was me today. I was trying to get ready fast so i could go to the drugstore in my neighborhood, but then I found my Urban Decay Urban Ammo palette.   It's a really awesome little collection of colors-- some glitters, all shimmers, all great quality.  So here is today's look:

This is my cover of Vogue lolzzz

On my eyes:

Urban Decay Primer Potion (original)

Crease/outer corner: Last Call (shimmering medium burgundy)

Lid: Grifter (shimmering pink-lavender with silver glitter)

Lower lash line: Chopper (shimmering light bronze with silver glitter)

Highlights: Sin (shimmering pink champagne)

Eyebrows: Lucifer by Kat Von D (matte black)

#11 liquid eyeliner (sparkley burgundy) by Make Up Forever

Lush lash mascara by Urban Decay

On my face:

Tattoo concealer in Porcelain and Light by Kat Von D

L'Oreal True Match foundation in W1

Make Up Forever HD Powder

Pink Swoon Blush by MAC

On my Lips:

Rush (glossy pinky lavendery nude) lipstick by Urban Decay

Oh yeah if you're interested on how I did my 40's faux bangs, I learned from this awesome video by none other than Miss Fleur de Guerre.

What do you do for a low-key (or not) look? Let me know in the comments!

Review: Urban Decay Urban Defense Tinted Moisturizer

It seems tinted moisturizers are a must-have item for a lot of ladies, especially in the summer time, but I never paid much attention to them since I need heavy-duty coverage on my face due to acne scarring and uneven skintone.  When I tried Urban Decay's Urban Defense tinted moisturizer, I started paying attention!

PIGMENTATION: Urban Defense has enough pigmentation to even out my skin tone, but not cover my scars (as a tinted moisturizer, I wasn't expecting it to, but you can check out how I use it to suit my needs here).  I have this in the lightest shade Sephora offers, Halo, and I think it's an excellent match for my skin tone.

PERFORMANCE:  This has an almost mousse-like texture, and goes on very easily and evenly.  I love how it has a built-in sun protection (SPF 20), so i don't need a separate sunscreen.  My qualm with it is that it feels a bit heavy on my face, as if i was wearing a heavy-duty foundation, and that I've had to be more vigilant with the blotting sheets when wearing this.

PACKAGING: It's a simple squeeze tube-- super easy to use.

PRICE: $30.

Warning: here are some before and after shots of me.

No makeup whatsoever.  

With UD's Urban Defense (PS: I learned all my awesome posing skills from America's Next Top Model. just kidding. sort of.)

Since Urban Defense takes two steps out of my makeup routine, it's a bit of a lifesaver.  If you're lucky enough to not have scars, and need something to moisturize + protect your skin + even out our skintone when you've got 6 seconds before you run out the door, I highly recommend this.

You don't have to take my word for it, Urban Defense is available at Sephora.