HSOE: Hawks Soar Over EVERYTHING/EVERYONE!

*walks in wearing Blackhawks pj's* Howdy doody, peoples! Yes, yes, I know I'm supposed to be posting the "Telephone" tutorials and I will...PROMISE!

It's just that...well...for the first time in what feels like F-O-R-E-V-E-R (but was really 2005), Chicago has a championship to celebrate! Unless you've been living under a rock (or not in the U.S. or not into hockey even more than I'm not), you know by now that the Chicago Blackhawks are the 2010 Stanley Cup Champions!! *does the Cabbage-Patch* I'll admit: I'm not really into sports, and hockey even less than that, but I LOVE when something positive happens in, to, or for my city. ^_^ I know, I know. I can already hear the shouts of "BANDWAGON JUMPER!" through the computer but c'mon now. Can y'all really tell me that you're into every single sport that's played at the Olympics? Even curling?!? Pshaw, I say. PSHAW!! *giggles*

Anyway...in honor this joyful occasion, I present to you my tribute to the Chicago Blackhawks!


First, a picture of the team's Home jersey...




Snazzy, right? Ok, now here are pics of the look. I only did one eye because I wasn't exactly sure which direction I wanted to choose and it took a whole hour to do one eye, including cleanup under the eye and to sharpen up the edges. *wipes forehead*








(I never really knew just how long my lashes are until I saw this photo. lol)


I'm not 100% happy with the results. Too much yellow (AND in the wrong place) and not enough green but I'm glad I did it! ^_^


Products Used for Eye

L'Oreal H.I.P. Cream Shadow Paint in 813 Witty (as a primer. Just found out it's been discontinued. BOOOOOL'OrealBOOOO! *pokes out bottom lip*)

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk (as a base for lid, tear duct, and brow bone)

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Black Bean (outer V, lower lash line)

MAC Primary Yellow pigment (This is a PRO color)

MAC Basic Red pigment (This is a PRO color)

Green, white, and black shadow in Manly 120 Eyeshadow Palette (pic highlights which ones I used.


Wet N Wild Mega Eyes Creme Eyeliner in 886 Black

Wet n Wild Mega Length Mascara

Wet n Wild Ultimate Brow Kit

Products Used - Face

The All Natural Face Vegan Mineral Concealer in Salmon

The All Natural Face Vegan Mineral Foundation in Rosy Honey


Brushes Used - Eyes

Sephora Collection Professionnel #26 shadow brush

NYX Eyeshadow Brush #1

M.A.C. 224 Tapered Blended Brush

Slanted liner brush included with WnW Creme Eyeliner

Eyeshadow brush included with H.I.P. Cream Shadow Paint


Brushes Used - Face

Synthetic Vegan Eyeshadow/Concealer Brush

The All Natural Face Non-Vegan Mini Kabuki Brush


Congrats once again to the Chicago Blackhawks!! WHOOOOOO!


I love my city/Really hope that God bless it,

Velvettine

Sneak a Peek at My Telephone

Hey, y'all! *waves* Just wanted to give you a preview of the next two tutorials I'll be posting. Well...it's actually more like 1 1/2 since the "second" one is nothing but a lip color change. Remember in my last post how I mentioned that Beyonce's looks in "Telephone" were practically the same except for lip color? Welp, now I can prove it! :-p Lady Gaga's on the other hand...that's gonna be a buttload of work to complete! *wipes forehead*

Anyway, here are the looks!


"You've been a very bad girl. A VERY VERY BAD BAD GIRL, Gaga!"




"You promise we'll never come back?"




Wishin' I was out at the club and sippin' that bubb,

Velvettine

Fyrinnae Lip Lustre (So Luxurious!)

Hello again! As already stated in my profile, I love lip gloss and lipstick. No, wait...I LOOOOOOOOOOVE lip gloss and lipstick!! It's amazing how so many looks can be created by simply changing your lip color (See Beyonce's looks in the "Telephone" video for examples). While scouring the web in search of new eyeshadows (currently my biggest obsession), I came across reviews for a company named Fyrinnae (prounced "fyeer-ih-nay"). All of the reviews were great so I decided to check them out.

...

The products I'm posting about are actually my SECOND order from Fyrinnae! I was so impressed with their eyeshadows (swatches and review coming soon) that I decided to take a chance on their Lip Lustres. I am seriously NOT disappointed I took that chance! ^_^ I ordered four colors: Monochrome, Hair Dye, Visual Kei, and Shangra-La. A couple of side-notes, first, though.

1. I've see various reviewers state that their order took for-ev-er to arrive, and I must say, after seeing the site's disclaimer, I wasn't really too hopeful.

June: Allow about 16-18 business days (excludes weekends and holidays) queue and creation time for most orders.

The reason for this?

Current time frame is always stated on this page and on your receipt. Thanks for your patience (keep in mind that this is not how long it takes us to pack your order, rather it includes the time it takes to create products and due to other orders we are currently filling--we do not buy bulk and re-package it!).

You know what? I can seriously appreciate that! Thing is, I've now ordered from them twice and...I got my stuff in 6 days. ^_^ Honestly, though for products of this quality, I would've waited longer if need be.

2. I'm not a huge fan of buying full-sized products blindly, so I ordered the 3ml "Mini" LL. One thing I didn't notice until getting all of the info from the site was this little tidbit:

Available in two sizes: 5.8 ml, or 3 ml "Mini", both are clear tubes with flocked wand (doefoot) applicators. Please note that the smaller container quality is not as good as the larger(the container, not the product--the different sizes are poured from the same product batch), and is offered as a sample size.

Pfft! Coulda fooled me! The contained is a thick plastic and VERY durable. Once I close it, I have NO worries of it opening and/or breaking and spilling everywhere. Oh, and the Minis are $2.50, BTW. Four Minis + S&H = $11.45! You know what else that equals? An immensely happy Velvettine!

Now...ON TO THE SWATCHES!!



OMGoshWTFGorg, right? Here's the ingredient list: Mangifera Indica (Mango) Seed Butter, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Oil, Mica, Caprylic/Capric/Stearic Glycerides, Orbignya Oleifera (Babassu) Seed Oil, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Iron Oxides, Tocopherol Acetate (Vitamin E, as a natural oil preservative), Flavor (lip-safe fragrance).
May contain: Titanium Dioxide, Tin Oxide, Manganese Violet, Synthetic Flurophogopite, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate.

The first LL I tried was Visual Kei which is described as "a rather bright pink". They are NOT joking! For quite some time, I've been searching for a "Barbie" pink (No Nicki Minaj) and I do believe I've found it! All of the swatches are on exfoliated lips but for this one, I lined them with a Jordana lipliner in "Baby Dreams". I decided not to moisturize beforehand because the only thing I have on hand is ChapStick (ew petroleum) and as you can see from the ingredient list, the LL are chock full of lovely, soothing oils. ^_^ AND...they're VEGAN! Gotta love it, right?


First, a pic of my lips without product (no bird lip and/or sad clown jokes, please!)





Ok, so as you can see, these are SUPER pigmented BUT I had no problem with staining. No color left in the grooves of my lips and no tell-tale ring on the edges. *sighs* I'm in lurve, y'all! The only thing I would suggest is if you have deep grooves in your lips (like mine), line and fill them in with a pencil first. I did this in my profile pic but I didn't in this swatch because I wanted to give y'all the true color. Well, I lined them but I didn't fill in with the pencil. *waves hand* Y'all know what I mean, right? Right!


Next up, we haveShangri-La which is described as "Vibrant, azalea purple-pink". Yep, that sounds about right. Heh.



In person, it's more purple-y and with my skin tone it almost works as a nude. o_O No complaints here!


Here we have Hair Dye. Their description: "a vibrant copper-hued orange." *sighs* Oh, Hair Dye...I had such high hopes for you. You were so gloriously orange on others that I just KNEW you would make my skintone pop.



Alas, it was not meant to be. Hair Dye looks a bit more golden on me and I'm not really feeling it in person on in pictures. This is also the only Lustre I felt that I HAD to try to even out with a lip brush. It also felt more liquidy for some reason. Maybe it's just me. *shrugs*


Finally, we have the LL that I was the most anxious to receive: Monochrome



*drools* So. Much. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!! \O/ (<----hands up) Fyrinnae describes it as "a true opaque black. No shimmer.". Once again, they are correct!

As you can see, no shimmer but SERIOUS shine! Kinda reminds me of patent leather pumps. *smirks* I didn't pencil-fill my lips but I lined them With L.A. Colors Auto Eyeliner in Black. I don't know if that practice is exactly lip-safe but I had no other alternative and it was only on for a little while. On a side note, are there any cosmetic companies that make a black lipliner?


Overall, I'm VERY happy with these Lip Lustres! A couple of little misses here and there but definitely not anything to put me off of the formula or the company. Thanks, Fyrinnae! *thumbs up*



Lip-Smackingly Yours,

Velvettine

Whoopsie doodle! (What a Frenzy!)

Well...that was a pretty long hiatus, wasn't it? >_< Honestly, where I first started this blog, I wasn't really comfortable posting any pics or tutorials because I felt that I still had a loooong way to go and that my skills weren't "good enough" to post. Now I have more faith in myself (and I've been studying my *points back there* off) and I'm ready to show ya what I got! ^_^

I'm still learning how to take better care of my nails (AND better pictures. UGH.) so I can't say that I'll be posting a NotD (Nail of the Day). Maybe more like Nail of the Week or something. So...without further adieu, here's my first ever nail post! *fanfare*




Sorry about the blurriness. Still learning how to best capture sparkles.



Ahhhh, now that's a better pic! My love for Funky French Manis (FFM) came about quite accidentally. I was wearing Sinful Colors' Show Me the Way and it began to chip off everywhere but my tips. I was in love with how it looked, so I decided to play around and see if I could do it on purpose. Turns out I can and so can you! ^_^ The only thing I would've done differently is I would've layered Frenzy over a purple polish to get maximum color payoff.


Products Used

Sephora De-Yellowing Serum as a base coat

Sinful Colors' Frenzy on the tips (about 3 thick coats since it's a clear polish with sparklies)

Icing Chip Resistant Diamond Shield (which totally works since the mani lasted for about a week. Record!)

Have you ever worn a FFM? Love it, hate it, or MEH? Lemme know!


Frenzied in Chicago,

Velvettine

An Intro...

Hi all and welcome to my little makeup blog! Before we begin, let me tell you that I am NOT a makeup artist. It's definitely a route I'm thinking of taking in the near future but for right now, I'm just a woman that loves playing around with different looks. I never really used to be into makeup that much but over the past year I've gained a love for it and all of the things it can do.

Most of the looks for the time being will be with cosmetics that aren't...well...MAC. Nothing against them, but being a woman of very modest means, I tend to look for products that can give me the same UMPH! at a lower price. After all..."inexpensive" doesn't always mean "cheap". *winks*


Well, that's about it for the first post! All of my basics are in the profile, so...thanks for visiting and have fun! ^_^