How cool is this: for the 10th Anniversary of Wicked, Deborah Lippmann has created a Wicked Set. A trio of Oz-inspired mini lacquers: Defying Gravity (Elphaba’s unlimited green), Popular (Glinda’s glistening pink), and One Short Day (positively perfect emerald).
On sale at Sephora for $29
Guy Bourdin Holiday Collection: One Night Stand Cheek Palatte
After buying the wrong drugstore brand red, I finally caved and forced myself to go to MAC. What I really like about MAC is that their employees not only know the product but most of them are make-up artists and know what looks good and what will work on you. I walked into the store and explained that I was looking for the most electric red that they had, but in a satin finish (not looking for matte right now). The associate knew exactly what I was looking for: MAC Red. Simple, bright and exactly what I wanted. I am obsessed with the color:
Lately I’ve been searching for the perfect red lipstick. I have a couple reds already but it’s not the red. No, the red I am looking for is the reddest of red, cherry-red, neon-red, orange-red. I want the brightest red, something like this:
Judge me all you want but Kylie Jenner’s red lips are my inspiration. After a lot of weird and creepy research that involved me watching youtube vids from years ago. But alas, I could not find the color that Kylie uses. Kourtney Kardashian uses Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Pur Couture in 13: Le Orange if anyone is interested. The closest I came to discovering Kylie’s color was from a weird youtube vid where she mentioned a discontinued MAC color called Red Racer. I don’t really have a game plan for finding this mythical red. But for now I’m just investigating all my favorite brands for their brightest color of red lipstick. I am welcoming any and all suggestions!
Stumbled into Sephora today, what a surprise, I know, I was so excited to see a new brand. The cool New York-vibe of the Ardency Inn products and display caught my eye. I talked to one of the associates about the brand, she was gushing over the eyeliner telling me how amazing it is. The brand is kind of punk-rock, Kat von D-esque minus the tattoos. Here is a few things that I’m obsessed with:
PUNKER World’s Baddest Eyeliner
AMERICANA Natural Lip Color Pencil
(comes in cool names/shades: Delancey, Essex, Bowery, Houston, Kenmare)
MODSTER Long Play Supercharged Lip Color in Black is Blue
How freaking sick is this color?
You all know how I feel about NYX (*insert synonym for beyond obsessed here*). For the past few years they have hosted the FACE Awards (Fine Artistry of Cosmetic Elites) which is a competition among youtube beauty vloggers to find the Best Beauty Vlogger of the Year. The competition was inspired by the growing number of beauty videos surfacing on Youtube. The FACE Awards allows NYX to shine a light on these talented people and give them a chance to showcase their artistry. The winner receives $25,000, a year’s supply of NYX cosmetics, consultations with professional make up artists, and the chance to begin their career as a make up artist.
The competition began with 1000 contestants and had 3 video challenges which resulted in elimination periods. The themes were Vintage Beauty, Secret Agent, and Futuristic. The top contestants were narrowed down and the chosen ones were allowed to advance to the following rounds. I was especially impressed by the Futuristic category, all of the looks required difficult drawing and blending skills. The final round was held live in Los Angeles on August 24 and streamed on www.nyxfaceawards.com. The top 6 contestants were given 30 minutes and a model to create a Modern Goddess look. All of the interpretations were amazing, it was exciting to watch the competition live.
In the end Missy Lynn aka start2finishmua won the Best Beauty Vlogger of the Year. Her Goddess of the Night was dark and yet still completely beautiful. I’m so happy she won! Congrats!
The top 6 contestants
The winner: Missy and her model via Ulta Beauty
From her style to beauty, she’s been going for an edgier and more adult look lately. I’m so obsessed with her, even beyond the fact that I’m a huge fan of The Mortal Instruments series. Lily is so amazing and she’s on the cover of the Seventeen magazine September issue.
City of Bones premiere: Berlin
City of Bones premiere: Hollywood
City of Bones premiere Toronto
The Haul:
1. Anastasia Brow Pen in Universal Light
2. NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Biscayne Park
3. Deborah Lippmann mini in Happy Birthday
4. Maybelline The Colossal Cat Eyes
5. Living Proof Satin Hair Serum
I have been wanting this color since the new NARS Satin range came out. Do you ever feel drawn to a name, or compelled to buy a product simply because the name is too good not to buy? Biscayne Park is all of the above to me. But then again, NARS always has the best product names. I love this color its a very natural peachy/nude on me.
I’ve been struggling in the eyebrow department lately. I feel like the base of my eyebrows are so thin and I’m not sure why. I have both the Anastasia brow wax and the Brow Wiz and use them alternately. The Brow Wiz is not my favorite and it actually hurts to drag the pigment across my eyebrows. So I found this Brow Pen which is actually a marker, and you draw the color on your brow. It goes on a lot smoother and you can use a brow brush to spread out the color. The only problem I have is that I personally can get a bit heavy handed with the marker. You can’t let yourself go crazy with it or you’ll end up looking like they’re tattooed on. Just a word of advice.
I’ve known about the Pantone matching system at Sephora for a while now. I remember that there were only two outposts (or something like that) and one was at the Times Square store in NYC. More recently they’ve been heavily promoting the program and I think that almost all the stores have the system in place. This is wonderful. Wearing the wrong color, in any sense of the expression, can really affect your look. The “Color IQ” system at Sephora works like this: they take 3 pictures, one on your neck, cheek, and above your temple. Your Pantone color is an average of the 3 skin photos. Mine is 1Y01. The sales associate helping me explained that the 1 means I am the lightest on the color spectrum (not surprised), and the Y means I have yellow undertones (No, not me, not yellow, I practically look pink, I have pink undertones, I swear!). I’m learning to cope with this number, yellow is completely foreign to me. Regardless, Color IQ is very cool. When you get your number you can input it into Sephora.com and it lists all the foundation products that work for you.
The sales associate pulled a BB cream by Tarte for me to try. I’ve never really used any of their products so I was curious to try a sample. He suggested that I pair it with NARS Siberia for a full-coverage look, if I so desired to look extra porcelain.
Have you spent time abroad and found products you cannot live without, but they’re tragically not sold in the US? You are not alone. I went to England a few years ago and had a pretty good idea of what was on the UK beauty market. Fast forward to now and I so long to go back and stock up on every brand I missed! This post is dedicated to international beauty products and brands, most are from England but I’m working on spreading the international product love.
Lee Stafford- One of my favorite blogs Bird’s Words makes me miss England so much. I see all these amazing products that I’m super jealous of. Aside from all these amazing UK hair extension brands that she gets to try, she brought a new hair-care brand to my attention: Lee Stafford. The packaging is hot pink and very girly and made me want to buy. Luckily it is available in the US (I got my products at Duane Reade, but it’s also sold at Ulta). I first bought the Hair Growth Treatment in hopes that I could have mermaid hair. Honestly, I have no idea if it worked or not, it just really deep conditioned my hair and that was great. More recently I bought My Big Fat Healthy Hair Shampoo which is supposed to add volume. I think it definitely added texture but not totally sure on the volume.
Barry M– Oh Barry M, how I miss thee. It’s possibly most tumbled nail polish, not that tumblr means anything, you know. The formula is ridiculous. It’s one of the only nail varnishes that will actually stay on without base/top coat. I own two colors from Barry that I bought in Boots when I was at Oxford and how I wish I had a few more.
ShuUemura- When I had my make-up done for the Refinery 29 shoot, the artist told me that I should go to K-town or Chinatown to buy make-up because I am so pale. Not sure what to think of her statement, I began to investigate some Asian beauty brands. She reccommended that I look up ShuUemura. I had heard of the brand but never knew too much about it. They used to have a store in NYC but it sadly closed. All their products are available online. I’m so tempted to buy a few things, I just have a totally unused foundation that I need to work on first.
Kevin Murphy– Back when hair chalking was first popular I discovered a cool contraption on tumblr by Australian hair brand Kevin Murphy. The chalk is adorably named: color.bug. I was obsessed for a while but fearing that I would get dye all over my clothes I opted not to purchase the bug. But recently Kevin Murphy has been in the spotlight for a new anti-aging hair treatment. Sounds cool right? My salon sells these products. (Shout out Shampoo Ave. B ) Kevin also has some stunning packaging, so bravo on that as well.
Eyeko- I first heard about Eyeko when I read that it was Alexa Chung’s eyeliner of choice? Who can argue with that? If Alexa Chung uses your product, it’s probably legit. I got a sample of the Skinny Liquid Eyeliner from Birchbox. It took me a couple of times to get used to the product. I was terrible at it but now I think I’m slowly getting the hang of it.
These are just a few cool international brands. Have any that you’re obsessed with?
♡ Pretty Well Dressed ♡ 