Vanessa Violet

I love, love, love the color purple! In case you haven't noticed, I do a lot of tutorials with purple because it's just such a gorgeous color! My favorite color used to be pink...but now I am more into purple or violet, golds, and browns. It changes all the time, but for now, im sticking to those colors.

Anyway, here is a quickie tutorial on the look I had yesterday...I bought a purple sweater that had silver glittery specks on it and thought id incorporate that into my makeup.

Also, I am LOVING MMBB (My Mineral Bath & Body), Lisa is so incredibly nice and helpful and she gives such generous samples of mineral eyeshadow, and I am definitely one of her frequent customers! I love "Black Emeralds" and "Highlights" which I used in this tutorial to highlight my brow bone, but I will have a post more in detail about these soon!

Enjoy!

What I used:

Eyes
- Homemade Mixing Medium
- MAC Painterly
- MMBB mineral eyeshadow in "Highlights" (good dupe for MAC Pigment in Vanilla or White)
- MAC Pigments in "Viz-a-Violet" and "Violet"
- Splash Pigments in "Purple Sponge" and "Silver"
- MAC eyeshadow in "Gentle Fumes" from the Smoke Signals Quad
- Indelible Gel Eyeliner in "Black Out"
- DiorShow Mascara

Face:
- Light Medium Golden Mineral Foundation
- MAC Blush in "DollyMix"

Lips:
- Milani Lipstick in Dolce Vita
- Sephora Lip Liner in #206
- MAC Pigment in Viz-a-Violet
- MAC Lipglass in Lightswitch

I later changed my lipstick to MAC "Snob"...

*BEAUTY TIP*: To save space when traveling or for your purse, transfer some of your pigments to a 3 or 5 gram jar, that way you aren't carrying that big jar of pigment, because if THAT spills in your purse, that's a big mess!





Objective:










RESULT after these steps:






To get this:






(not shown) highlighted brow bone with MMBB "Highlights", a gorgeous color!

Line your eyes and apply mascara, and then line the bottom using the same colored eyeshadow...





And VOILA!

WITH FLASH:


WITHOUT FLASH:


EYES CLOSED to see detail...

readmore »»

FOTD- Miss Jackie

My friend Jackie did such a cute look with the new Matte2 from MAC using Poison Pen from that line...





What she used:

Face
MAC Studio Fix Liquid NC42
MAC Select Sheer Powder NC40
MAC Blush Margin

Eyes
Urban Decay Primer Potion
MAC Paint Bare Canvas
MAC e/s Fig. 1
MAC e/s Poison Pen
MAC e/s Naked Lunch
MAC Fluidline BlackTrack
Shiseido Creme Eyeliner in Black
Loreal Telescopic Mascara
Loreal Earthscape (brow)

Lips
MAC Lipliner Whirl
MAC Lip Lustre Viva Glam V
MAC LipGlass Viva Glam V

readmore »»

DollyMix

Yesterday was unbelievably long and tiring, as usual I was stuck in traffic on my way to work, I would have to say that's probably the worst and most stressed part of my day is BEFORE I even get to work! I know we all deal with it, it just sucks because in California, there are A LOT of bad drivers, I hate the ones that just cut you off without signaling, I mean they paid $50,000+ on their cars you would think they would use everything it came with, like SIGNALS! haha, I am NOT Miss Cleo, I don't know whether you are going to make a a left or a right...sigh.

I got my refill blush in "DollyMix" today since I swear I eat all my makeup with how quick I go through things...


The more I use it the more I realize how much I love my baby blending brush from Essence of Beauty, it's super cute and is great for blending large portions of the eye, by the brow bone, decolletage, etc.


I know I already said this, but I really love the Smoke Signals quad, I use it often because all the colors are just so eye-popping, my favorite has to be Rondelle, it's just a gorgeous all over lid color or as a highlight!

readmore »»

Houston we have a problem...

Well rather an addiction! I think I spent about $300+ just on makeup alone this month...sigh...

I bought recently:

- Some shadesticks, as well as good dupes from Avon
- More pigments...
- Eyeshadows from Everyday Minerals
- TONS of stuff from madminerals.org
- Avon's Bendable Brush Mascara
- Vanity Mirror for when I travel (it folds flat to fit in my suitcase!)
- Copperplate from the Matte2 collection, I always needed a taupe/greyish color

I can't wait to get them all! I still am waiting on some other items I got from eBay, aiya!

And the wonderful boyfriend is taking me shopping this weekend, so knowing me i'll find more things I DON'T need!

Reminders:
*Photos courtesy of blog.specktra.net



October 4- Alexander McQueen Collection comes out from MAC! Features gorgeous colors and new paint pots and eyeshadows!

Paint Pots: Pharoah, Otherworldly, Electro Sky
Eyeshadows: Haunting, Nile, Pagan
Lipstick: Masque and Archtype
Lipglass: Nothingless and White Magic
Pencils: Feline, Black Karat, Jealous
Mineral: New Vegas

October 14 and up: The long-awaited Antiquity Collection! My girl Chastity and I are going to be hitting up the MAC Store and getting our stash as well as getting our makeup done! I am so excited!

readmore »»

Reader Question: NYX Chrome Eyeshadows

Q: Hi Vanessa, I love your blog. I was wondering if the NYX chrome eyeshadow are loose or like regular eyeshadows in tact?
______________________________________________________________________________
A: Thank you! The NYX Chrome Eyeshadows and NYX Ultra Mania are ALL loose powdered eyeshadows, they are similar to MAC Pigments and can be used with a mixing medium for vibrancy and to make it long-lasting. The only difference to me is the consistency, as the NYX shadows are softer in texture, almost like Flour, while the MAC Pigments are a bit more gritty, perhaps for long lasting hold and vibrancy.

readmore »»

AVON Eyeliner Brush only $2.99!

Get it here! AVON.COM

readmore »»

More NYX Swatches...

readmore »»

Rainbow Eyes

These were sitting in my camera for awhile...played with some of the vibrant NYX eyeshadows I have as well as other pigments.

Some of the colors were used wet with my homemade mixing medium. I later had an allergic reaction to the E.L.F mascara they gave me to test and my lower lashline was itching like crazy! But a cold cucumber pad later, I was fine...lol.

I DIDN'T bother to layer on the mascara or apply falsies because I wanted you guys to see the detail and color a bit more...

What I used:
- NYX Chrome Eyeshadow in "Sunny Day"
- NYX Chrome Eyeshadow in "Yellow"
- NYX Chrome Eyeshadow in "Lagoon"
- Mad Minerals Eyeshadow in "Envy"
- Makeup Forever eyeshadows

readmore »»

Reader Question

Q: Hi Nessa! How do you like the EM dual fiber brush so far? -Nga
__________________________________________________________________________

A: Hi Nga! I love the EM dual fiber brush, it seriously picks up a good amount of blush or foundation for those of you with heavy hands, and is also perfect for dusting off any excess powder or blush.

readmore »»

Reader Question: Where to get E.L.F brushes (international)

Q: Hi Vanessa,

Do you know where I can order the ELF Flat Eyeliner brush since I don't live in the US? Cause $1 is a really good deal, especially if you don't use it often! ELF in UK does ship to the Netherlands but they don't have that brush on their website! It's so hard to find a flat eyeliner here >.<

Thanks!

Claudia
_____________________________________________________________________________

A: Hi Claudia! When contacting me please provide your email address so I can personally reply back to you. You can order it online here at Drugstore.com.

readmore »»