Love&Beauty Gold

I received this little bottle o' gold as a free gift a while back when I made a decent sized purchase at Forever21. I am really picky about my perfumes so I was glad it was a small bottle, I planned to try it out a couple times, not like it, and store it as a backup. Boy was I surprised when I instantly loved the scent of this perfume! Here is the description from the Forever21 website:

"Capture the essence of opulent gold with this perfume that features a wonderful mix of gardenia, star jasmine, caramel and other intoxicating scents."

Well, I don't know what any of that means. What I do know is that the smell of this stuff, as well as being feminine, is very sophisticated. It makes me feel like a luxurious business woman when I wear it. It also lasts a very long time, so I don't have to reapply throughout the day-2 sprays in the morning (one on my wrists and one in my hair) and I'm all set! This is probably now my second favorite perfume, and it is super cheap! Yay for surprises!
Thank you Forever21, you never fail me!




Purchase this item here: Love&Beauty Gold Perfume




Love&Beauty,
Barbi

Beige, Purple, and Mint Plaid nails?

Kind of. I used e.l.f. nail polish in "nude" and Wet 'n' Wild megalast salon nail polishes in "on a trip"(periwinkle purple) and "I need a refresh-mint"(light turquoise)

To get the thin lines I used a synthetic painting brush (winsor and newton 000). I won't even try to claim that I have a steady hand, I never have and I never will-so my lines are never perfect. But I don't let that keep me from having cute designs on my nails (and it certainly doesn't keep me from my other forms of artistic expression!)


I thought this would look cool for this time of the year, since it is kind of a transition period between winter and spring and this look is a combination of color and neutral! What do you think? Would you try it?

Polish and Ponies,
Barbi

A colorful look for blue eyes

Today I am going to show you step by step how to get this look: 

This is a great look for all of my blue-eyed friends! the blue and pink eyeshadow will enhance the color of your eye, while the grey outer corner will enhance the shape of your eye.

Step 1: Prime your eye! I used Urban Decay eyeshadow Primer Potion:

Step 2: Apply a light blue (or turquoise if you would like) eyeshadow to the main part of your eyelid, staying below your eye crease, I'm using an eyeshadow applicator sponge:

Step 3: Apply a light pink eyeshadow to the inner corner area of the eye, and drag it through the crease about halfway across the eyelid:

Step 4: Apply a medium grey eyeshadow on the outer corner of the eye, following a sideways 'V' shape, pointing away from the eye. Apply the grey into the crease of the eye, and drag it down to the lash line to get that 'v' shape. When you apply the grey eyeshadow into the crease, blend it slightly with the pink when the two colors meet.

Step 5: Use a light brown eye shadow, matte would work best, and lightly blend it on the brow brown to create a smooth transition between the crease color and your skin color, for this I used a blending brush:

Step 6: Apply a light cream eyeshadow below the eyebrow to create a highlight:

Step 7: Eyeliner! Use whatever liner you prefer, I used my ELF liquid liner in black, apply a thin line that is smallest near the tear duct and grows larger towards the outside of the eye:

Step 8: Mascara! I used L'oreal Voluminous in Carbon Black, but you can use whatever you like:

Step 9 and 10: I used Elf Candid Coral blush for a subtle glow to the cheeks, and a nude lipstick. I curled my hair to really polish off the look.
The eyeshadow I used for this look is from the ELF cool colors 32 eyeshadow Pallet. Wow I used a lot of ELF in this look!

I hope you Liked this step by step tutorial, let me know if you have any questions!

Love and lipstick,
Barbi

Revlon Nail Polish in Mischievous

I picked up this polish the other day when my local drugstore was having a sale, thinking it would be a perfect winter neutral. AND IT IS! It is a warm, medium plummy-grey color, and I am very pleased with it. I love that it has warm undertones so even though it is grey, its not boring! It also compliments the warm tones in my skin color pretty well too. Another great thing, as with all of the Revlon polishes I have tried, is the opacity-one coat pretty much does it. I always do two coats just so that the polish lasts longer, as well as a clear top coat to seat it up. It ended up looking very classy and great for this time of year (I always feel kind of silly wearing bring colors of polish while its overcast and rainy). If you are looking for a warm neutral for your nails, I recommend this. It should look great on all nail shapes and lengths!
Peace and Polish,
Barbi

Smokey Valentine's Tutorial

Today I made a valentine's tutorial, a smokey/sultry one as requested. Maybe next year I will do a soft, more natural look. The look is a smokey eye with a violet accent. Here is a list of the products I used to get this look, plus a description of what it is so that you can find dupes or find the actual products if you don't already have them.
(Not shown:) Face: -Rimmel Fix and Perfect Primer, -L'oreal TruMatch Foundation in W2, -Laura Geller Real Deal concealer in Light, -Clinique Loose powder, MAC matte eyeshadow in Brun(eyebrows)

Demonstrated:
ELF studio blush in Candid Coral-a neutral glowy blush
Maybelline shimmer eyeshadow single in Vanilla-used as a sheen cheekbone highlight
Urban Decay eyeshadow Primer potion-basic eye base
Maybelline color tattoo cream eyeshadow in Painted Purple-color base for our vibrant eyeshadow
Covergirl Eyeshadow single in 575 FRVR FG-whatever that means-plummy lid highlight color
Urban Decay Naked 2 pallete: busted, blackout and bootycall- plummy brown, matte black, light sheen highlight for browbone (can be replaced by maybelline vanilla eyeshadow)
Clinique Quickliner in Really Black-blendable long-wearing pencil eyeliner
L'oreal Voluminous Mascara Carbon Black
Urban Decay lipgloss in Naked-sheer nude lipgloss(seriously just go with your natural lip color, its beautious)

I only used ELF brushes in this video, some were the studio brushes, one was a pro brush and one was a mineral brush.

This look should look good on everyone, but it will especially enhance green/brown/hazel eyes! If you have blue eyes, try using pink instead of purple! That would look great as well!

Happy Valentinies Day! I hope you all feel loved :)

Barbi

L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara, Carbon Black

Hello! Just wanted to tap in a quick review! I have been using this mascara for a couple of weeks now, in place of my favorite benefit bad gal lash mascara (review on that coming soon). I had this one in my back up stash and decided I should use it up instead of breaking the seal on my back-up bad gal lash mascara....(yes, I keep a lot of back-ups!).
This product seems to be a crowd favorite in the drugstore mascara department. I'm not totally crazy about it though. I give it a 6 out of 10 and here is why:
Although it does give a great amount of volume and is, of course, VERY black, it tends to be very clumpy and goopy. I always have to scrape off extra formula from the wand before I apply it, which is just plain annoying. In addition, layering it doesn't turn out well, as it continues to clump and give a spider-look to the lashes. The other thing that bugs me about it is that it does transfer onto my brow bone in only a couple of hours (in other words, it smudges, leaves black marks where my lashes have touches the skin on my brow bone/eyelid area). I go to school during the week starting from early in the morning and ending in the late evening, so I need my mascara to keep it together!

If those cons don't bother you or if you don't have problems with smudging, then this mascara could be great. Keep in mind it is a "volumizing" mascara, and does not provide significant lengthening. It is affordable and certainly very black, so I might try a light layer of it over Benefit Bad Gal Lash and see how that looks. I'll keep ya posted!

Peace, Love, and Lashes,
Barbi

Video Contest!

That's right! I'm doing a contest for all of my viewers! You don't even have to be a subscriber, though that would be very nice of you. All you have to do is watch the above video, then give it a "thumbs up" on its youtube page, and THEN post your estimate of how much I spent on this haul in the comments section of the video! If you guess correctly then you get to choose one of the unopened items from this haul as your prize! I will send it to you free of charge. I am really excited about this and I really hope you all participate and share with your friends!
For the sake of the contest I am not providing a written list of the items, so you have to watch the video to find out what your potential prize is.
Also remember that some of these items I bought at a discount and some of them were free, but just do your best-I have faith in you!
If you have any questions about my video or the items, comment on the video or on this blog and I will help you out the best that I can. Thank you all for reading and watching my videos!

Yay for competition!

Barbi

E.L.F. Glossy Gloss

I recently purchased this gloss along with a bunch of other items from E.L.F. (eyes, lips, face). It is the e.l.f. Glossy Gloss in "pink candy" which is a really cute, light pink color. I LOVE the consistency of this gloss. Its smooth and just sticky enough to last a good couple of hours without reapplying, but not so goopy that you feel like your lips are glued together! The color is sheer, but does give off just a hint of the pink tint. It looks really great over a nude lip, like if you put foundation, lip spackle, or a nude lipstick on your lips first (I like to use my Laura Gellar lip spackle and my Revlon matte nude lipstick for a nice solid nude look). Another thing that I love about this gloss is the applicator! Its a real brush-not one of those doe foot spongey things that barely put any product on your lips and don't feel good at all- its a real brush applicator!! It provides a perfect smooth application without agitating your lips, and you get enough product on one dip for a whole application so you don't have to keep sticking the brush back in to get more product!

As you can see I'm pretty thrilled with this product from e.l.f. as I am fairly often with their products, and there are a lot of color selections so I will probably purchase more soon. As usual, the very best thing about this product is the price- only $3 for this awesome gloss!

Get yours now!
http://www.eyeslipsface.com/studio/lips/gloss/glossy_gloss