Bold Blushing Beauties are the Trend...Do You Dare?

Happy Wednesday Fabulous Readers!

Jessica here and this week we have been reviewing blushes. Now according to my #1 go-to magazine, People Style Watch, a top fall trend is rosy cheeks!


I have always worn blush so it's a daily process for me and very normal for my makeup routine. It actually surprises me when I see people without it! Pink cheeks just brightens up your whole look and compliments skin tone, when used the right way with the right color of course. There is a right and wrong way to wear blush and it can be very hard to tell sometimes if you have too much on or not. Trust me I have made this mistake and some of my friends are not shy to let me know! Since I don't have a makeup artist everyday I have had some trial and error days... don't worry your not alone...I mean how else are we suppose to know what works best if we don't experiment?

My latest, bold experimentation with blush has been my purchase of the e.l.f. (eyes lips face) brand. First of all this brand has some amazing products that are VERY inexpensive. I know if I want to do any testing out of colors I will turn to this brand...some things are as low as $1...everyone has at least $1 to spare for the sake of beauty! I signed up for their mailing list and they have some amazing bargains and give-a-ways all the time, on top of their low prices! How do  they do it?! Okay so there was this color that caught my eye in the store when I was looking for a new blush. I have been trying to copy a bunch of cool makeup looks that had these amazing sweet girl blush look to them. I have always been in love with Emily Browning's makeup in Sucker Punch so when I saw e.l.f. blush in Pink Passion I immediately thought of her (pictured below).


Emily Browning in Sucker Punch

The color is beautiful and I do love it but it is easy to get carried away with a bold color if you are use to sheer /natural colors. So I will admit I went a little blush crazy at first, but now I have worked with it and have it down to a reasonable amount :) Like I said it's cool to try things / looks out but you might want to practice first!

As for my everyday, natural blush I switch between two. One of my faves is Almay powder blush - 140 Pink. The color is very natural and easy to use without the fear of over applying. It is pretty sheer and has a build-able type of a color. In my opinion it is mistake proof. This is an easy pick for quick, simple color.

Lastly, my other fave blush pick goes to CoverGirl Classic Color blush in 540 Rose Silk. This also has a very natural look to it, but it is not as sheep as the Almay one so be careful not to over apply. But this is also a type of blush that you can build color on, so you can make it look ight and classic  or dark and dramatic. This is an easy one to transition from day to night and easy to travel with, as it comes with a handy mirror.

A few things to keep in mind when picking out colors (thanks to advice from my stylist, People Style Watch - September issue):

• Dusty Rose or Warm Pink blush  = Fair Skin
• Fuchsia or Bright Bubblegum = Olive Skin Tones
• Raspberry  = Darker Complexions
 

 

Until next week, Keep On Being Beautiful You!



Katy Perry Shatter Nails...I Love You!

Happy Wednesday Fabulous Readers!

Jessica here and I am so excited about nail design week and being able to share with you my review on the awesomeness of the cracked/shattered nail look.                


Specifically I tried out the O.P.I Katy Perry Collection, Black Shatter. I LOVE the look of this! It is the first time I experimented with the cracked/shattered nail polish and I wasn't sure how it worked...still don't really know how it works, but I think it looks FABULOUS! It actually comes out looking like a zebra or leopard print over the nail color you use as the base color.

You know I like my products to work with little to no effort and let me tell you, it looks like I spent time on my nails when it only takes a few minutes to paint on and it dried SUPER fast. That being said I do have some tips and suggestions for you to do if you want to try this.

TIP: First you can choose any color you want as the base color, but I recommend picking a lighter color than what your shatter is or if you have a light shatter (silver) picking a dark color for the base might look best. Since I tried the black shatter I used a baby pink color as the base. Once you have painted your nails a color and let them dry you are ready to apply the shatter.

TIP: The shatter dries so fast, so you want to make sure you have an ample amount of polish on the brush before you apply. It's always better in this case to have more than less, because when you have less and have to "double dip" it's not as nice looking and you end up layer / over lapping too much.

This actually lasted a long time when used correctly...I had experimented and tried putting the polish on by itself and it basically was just like a matte black nail polish and it chipped off easy...very strange considering when applied with nail color it shatters and last forever....but anyway I get curious :)

This is for sure my go-to nail design polish and I will use this up fast for sure! I love the look of it and I don't think I could ever get bored or tired of looking at it. Too cool, and I have so many options to change the look by just changing the nail base color.  I loved this SO much I have to show you all a demo of it working before your eyes! So this Friday I will work on a YouTube video dedicated to showing you how amazing this is and you can see for yourself! I will use a bunch of different colors so you can see the different looks...

Until then, Keep on Being Beautiful You!

PS - Katy Perry is just plain cool, so you can only expect products with her name attached to them to have a "girls rule, be your own person" type of strong style!

Polish that Nailed It...Brands and Colors that Work!

Happy Wednesday Fabulous Readers!

Jessica here, welcoming you into this new month (wow, is it already May?!) we begin summer prep and that means we need to start paying attention to our nails...fingers and toes (some people have already started wearing sandals)!

I will be honest with you, I really don't have much nails...I feel like my toe nails are too tiny to paint sometimes (I barely have a pinkie toe nail). Between that and having the bad habit of biting my nails there really is no hope for me to have perfect and polished nails....but I love color and nail polish! It's something that makes me feel truly girly and like a woman at the same time (depending on the color I choose) and it gives life to my outfit and look.

A benefit to me when I take time and paint my nails is that I bite them less or not at all so they actually grow! Which makes it fun and a lot more easier to paint them. I have been painting my nails since I was a teenager and I typically just stick with colors, I usually don't have the patients to let me nails dry beyond trying something elaborate.

One of the best brands I have come to love and has been around forever is Sally Hansen, I have tried all sorts of their polishes and all have proven to be as they claim them to be. I currently have the Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in the color of Gunmetal, which is a grey blue silver-ish. This is one that you have to build the color up if you want it to look darker, so the more coats you apply the darker it will be. Long lasting and awesome for the quality of my nails, keeps them polished and strong. I typically wear this sort of color when I want to match it to an outfit or if I am going out for the night, a great fall/winter color but I don't believe nail colors should be limited to wear them on certain seasons.

Sally Hansen also makes an awesome Teal color that I searched high and low for last summer when it was a hot color. Insta-Dri Fast Dry (my kinda polish) in the color of Teal-y Fast. A beautiful dark teal color that looks great with one coat but you could put two on if you were not satisfied. Small metalic- like, light reflecting flecks are mixed in which makes the color look vibrant in the light. LOVE this color!

Another brand that I love using is L.A. Colors, I have a bunch of their Color Craze nail polish with hardeners. They have some pretty wild colors and with cute names! I have a basic red and a VERY bright neon orange that is very cool. They do last a long time as well. That is basically something I am looking for when I find the perfect nail polish, it must be easy for me to apply (one or two coats), fast drying and long lasting! I do not have time to repair chips or time to do a whole remove and re-do process, nor do I want to if I did have the time. I remember putting on the neon orange color on my toe nails last summer and it seriously stayed on until the beginning of fall! That was just...so...AWESOME :)

If you don't want to spend too much on nail polish (omg it has become SO expensive...I remember being able to buy $0.99 polish!) then I recommend N.Y.C. New York Color Long-Wearing Nail Enamel polish. VERY inexpensive and brilliant colors. I have a few of these as well (I mean it is one of my favorite brands of course) and it has always done me right. I love my Taxi Yellow Creme color which is bright yellow, I wear that a lot in the summer and it looks great on the beach. With these polishes I find you need to apply more than two coats sometimes but it dries super fast and the colors are so pretty, so I don't mind.

Lastly I had to mention a new one I tried this season, everyone was raving about Gel Nails and how they last forever so I wanted to try it. It was so involving though and I heard it damaged nails...so I searched for something comparable and all my searches came back with Revlon ColorStay Long Wear Nail Enamel. It claims to have a  gel-like shine and up to 11 days of shatterproof color! YES PLEASE! I bought the Marmalade color which is a melon orangey color, very pretty and a great addition to your Spring/Summer collection. Although I don't like to say a color is specific to a season because I think there are colors that are hot for the season but I like to watch my nail colors with my outfit, clothing or accessories and I also look at the event I am going to or if I will be going to the office or a fun night out with the girls. My favorite year round color is plumb!!! I love how it is dark and mysterious and that's how I feel when I wear it, hah. Don't be afraid to wear dark colors in the summer! Beauty is what you make it to be for yourself, so don't hold back on expressing who you are or what you like...EVER :)

Okay that was a nail overload...I know, but do you expect anything less from me?!

Until next week, Keep on Being Beautiful You!

Drab to Fab in Less Than 60 Seconds!

Happy Wednesday Fabulous Readers!

Jessica here this week to discuss lip glosses!

Now, not to brag or anything, but I consider myself to be a self professed makeup expert. I love makeup so much and I have tried SO much of it...this to include, lip glosses. I can't even tell you how many I have stashed around my apartment, hiding in my purses and in my many makeup bags. There is no doubt that lip gloss is probably one of the most popular and common of makeup products women own. Even from people who I know don't wear makeup, they at least have a lip gloss! As my fellow bloggers mentioned earlier this week...it is a truly easy way to feel glamorous in less than 60 seconds.

I have my opinion on my favorite clear, tinted and colored glosses...so with all of my gloss experience I will now let you in on my MUST HAVE choices :)

First up, clear and tinted lip glosses. I am combining the two categories because one type has won the BEST OF in my head. Victoria's Secret Beauty Rush Lip Glosses have always, and will always, have my heart. I own about four different types of these and the clear gloss, Sugar High, is the ultimate clear gloss! It does not take away from any lip color you apply before it and it only makes my lips THAT much more amazing :) I use this on top of my lip tints, it gives it the perfect amount of moisture and pop's the tint color beautifully! It lasts a long time too. What I love about the colored glosses, are that they really make my tint color more dramatic if I choose to...for example I love my Vincent Longo lip gel stain and I love throwing on the Beauty Rush Gloss in Yummy Berry which just makes the color stand out...very eye catching. The colors are very subtle so they can be easily made bold if used over a color (tint, stain, lipstick,etc) or you can wear it alone for a hint of amazing color and shine. All of that AND it smells and tastes sweetly wonderful! If the look alone doesn't draw huge positive attention, then the scent and flavor will :)
If they ever discontinues this line...I would be very lost! Okay, you get it, right...I can't live without it, hah.

Moving on to colored lip glosses. Usually I am not one to buy these because they seem too...lipsticky to me, but I have accidentally found a true gem in the world of colored lip glosses and I must spread the word. While out shopping at Ulta, for my favorite 4-in-1 Pressed Mineral Makeup Foundation by Pur Minerals I was cashing out and was told I got a free lip gloss with my purchase. Who doesn't love that?? After I got home I looked at the free gift and saw it was a Pur Minerals Pout Plumping Lip Gloss. Of course I tried it right away and let me tell you, it was a great experience that changed my judgmental colored gloss mind! It went on so smooth and looked sensational! The color was beautiful and my lips looked healthy, nourished and plumed :) When I had to buy a new Pur Mineral foundation a month later, I again, got the free lip gloss with the purchase! This was not only great but it was a totally different color so it made my day that much better...because that color as well was just as brilliant...if not better. Not to mention the healthy lip benifits (a mineral lip gloss infused with vitamins which provides intense hydration and conditioning and helps to improve the condition of your lips while increasing volume by up to 60%) that are included with each use :)

SO...now the secret is out....Keep On Being Beautiful You :)