Monday, January 27, 2014

Personal Note: A Big Thank You to All of You

Hey lovelies! So if most of you readers on here know me on a personal level, today was actually my first day of my Spring semester for college. I currently study fashion design and merchandising and I was honestly not even expecting the sudden quick head rush of knowing that suddenly I was back in school.
While also the fact it's been 1 week, yes exactly 1 week ago from this Monday, I just premiered my blog, and I'm already at 300+ views on here. I can't even believe that this blog is growing so fast and I just want to thank each and everyone of you for the love and support you all bring to me. You all just brought a huge smile to my face and the warmest feeling to my heart I have ever had in my entire life.
Starting from today, I'm going to be making school and this blog my #1 priority. Still trying to see how I'm going to set up these posts by day and time, but don't worry! I always figure out a way to everything. I also have some exciting news, but I can't say just yet because it hasn't been finalized. But it is exciting! Will be posting a makeup review soon, as well as a post that will have everything to do with what's new in trend, just for my fashion lovers out there!

Love you, xx

Friday, January 24, 2014

Review Time! ♡ : Bare Minerals "Degrees of Dazzling" 20 Piece Eye Shadow Collection

So around Christmas, I've received this beautiful eye shadow collection as a gift from my grandmother. When I opened it, I was in utter shock. This long thing was literally the most gorgeous makeup set I have ever touched in my entire life. I was so appreciative that my grandmother would even go out of her way to even get me this beautiful eye shadow collection. Grandmothers right? You just got to love them! And along with that present, she gave me ANOTHER Bare Minerals makeup collection set. Which will be reviewed by yours truly in the near future ;) Alright so let's get right into it. Presenting today on A Blog About Beauty xo.. (DRUM ROLL PLEASE!)
Bare Minerals "Degrees of Dazzling"! A 20 piece eye shadow collection that comes in 4 different kinds of finishes! Velvet Finish, High Shine Finish, Glimmer Finish, and Liner Finish, with 5 eye shadows in each category. So let's get right into it! Picture above taken by me from my Instagram page.
So here we have the "Velvet Finish" eye shadows. Gorgeous neutral colors that are perfect for anyone that are afraid of those "pop, in your face" statements, but still want a little color. These are perfect for a neutral smokey eye.
The Velvet Finish eye shadow names. Top, left to right: Velvet Mauve, Velvet Emerald. Middle: Velvet Lavender. Bottom, left to right: Velvet Nude, Velvet Charcoal.
And here are the swatches of these eye shadows on my arm. Left to right: Velvet Mauve, Velvet Emerald, Velvet Lavender, Velvet Nude, Velvet Charcoal. Velvet Mauve is this muted rose bruised color with warm undertones. Velvet Emerald is this deep forest green. Like a jade emerald, just as the name itself. Velvet Lavender is a pastel purple, almost a white like snow color to it. Velvet Nude is just like the name itself. A yellow based nude, perfect for a tear duct shade on the eyelids, for all skin tones! And lastly, Velvet Charcoal is a purple undertone charcoal black, lovely for a outer-v crease color in the eye. Recommended color to use for a smokey eye! I have to say that they are pretty creamy, and they do have a quality about them that seems to feel like "velvet" to the touch, but honestly, I'm very sad at the fact that when I try to take them off, all of them just rubbed off instantly on my arm, instead of Velvet Mauve and Velvet Charcoal which left just a little tint of color left over. So in a situation where if someone just wanted a natural look as their eye shadow and they would want to take it off easily with makeup wipes, then these 5 colors will be perfect for you. But not in situations where if you have a high fashion photo shoot, first date, or to even go night clubbing, you definitely need something to hold you over longer than at least 3 hours. These colors will still do, I just recommend putting on a heavy duty eye shadow primer, or just a little bit of concealer as a base on the eye lids before applying these.
Here are the "High Shine" eye shadows. By far my favorite category from this collection. These eye shadows are literally high shine color, with loose based glitter in the pigment. Be real careful with these because one false application, these will get all over on your face. My best recommendation is to put a loose tissue underneath your eye, or a makeup pad with a little bit of tape when applying these. Perfect for packing onto the eye lid or to even put as an outer crease color.
The High Shine eye shadow names. Top, left to right: Pewter, Stay Golden. Middle: Deep Sea. Bottom, left to right: Iridescent Iris, Rose Gold.
And here are the swatches for the High Shine eye shadows on my arm. Left to right: Pewter, Stay Golden, Deep Sea, Iridescent Iris, Rose Gold. Pewter is a silver eye pigment with a medium tone purple as it's undertone. Stay Golden is just like what it means as the name; a bronze gold. Deep Sea is by far my favorite one out of the whole collection! A deep teal with a jade undertone. Iridescent Iris is a beautiful bright lilac. And Rose Gold is a bronze rose, not so much of a gold color.
Here above are the "Glimmer" eye shadows. More of the matte finish, but still highly pigmented, pastel eye colors. These here are perfect to make that bright pop of color, statement shade. Or you can mix them with other calming shades to bring the look a little more neutral. Remember when to apply these, make sure to put a loose tissue. Don't want your face to get glitter overload! Unless you like that kind of look..
The Glimmer eye shadow names. Top, left to right: Silver Dollar, Ginger Sugar. Middle: Violet Spell. Bottom, left to right: Golden Pear, Strawberry Mousse. 
Here above is the swatches for the Glimmer Shadows on my arm. Left to right: Silver Dollar, Ginger Sugar, Violet Spell, Golden Pear, Strawberry Mousse. Silver Dollar is this highly pigmented silver white, chocked filled with glitter. Can you say perfect brow bone shade? Ginger Sugar is a warm toned muted gold with just a hint of shimmer underneath. Violet Spell is a matte light violet, beautiful color in the inner corner of the eye lid if creating a statement eye look. Golden Pear is a muted light matte shade that does resemble the color of a pear in person. Lovely as a lid color for a nude eye look. Strawberry Mousse is a pastel baby pink, reminds me too much of those "It's a Girl!" baby banners at baby showers. Still love the color none the less!
And last, but definitely not least, above here is the "Liner" eye shadows. Meaning that these shades are as an eye liner for above the lash line or even underneath the water line. But never mistake what the packaging says, in the makeup world, you can basically use anything you want on your face, as long as your happy! These shades are still perfect as an eye shadow color. And in my opinion, these liner shades are the most beautiful colors I have ever graced upon in my entire life.
The Liner Finish eye shadow names. Top, left to right: Black Leather, Starry Night. Middle: Toasted Espresso. Bottom, left to right: Lagoon, Yoga.
And here are the lovely swatches for the Liner eye shadows on my arm. Left to right: Black Leather, Starry Night, Toasted Espresso, Lagoon, Yoga. Like I said, I just love these liners. You just can't go wrong with a good eye liner at the end of the day right? These are perfect if you are not the kind to do crazy eye looks or you just want to run errands in the day, but still want to look good while you just rolled out of bed, these are PERFECT for you. These colors will bring out any eye color too (personal opinion by moi). Highly pigmented, I can honestly say that these were even messier than the glitter pigments. But hey, if it's opaque and pigmented, IT WORKS! Yay! Black Leather is literally a black leather jacket kind of black. IN LOVE. Starry Night is a deep violet with shimmer, perfect for night time (says the name - HA!). Toasted Espresso is a deep warm toned bronze with just a tiny hint of brown underneath. Lagoon is a deep, midnight teal, resembling what the ocean looks under a full moon light. And Yoga is a rusted, copper brown with rose tones underneath.

So that's it! That was a LONG blog post, and I hope you enjoyed it. I honestly love all these shadows and I would 100% recommend this collection to any one who is just starting to play with makeup. Or to even anyone who has a huge obsession with makeup and would still like to grow their collection. And shhhhhh... just between you and me, Bare Minerals actually still has this product left online, and it's on SALE for $49.00! If you order this, you get FREE SHIPPING when using their promo code that's left by them in the description box of this product. Now that's what I call a deal. Here's the link to lead you to the eye shadow collection set.

http://www.bareescentuals.com/Degrees-Of-Dazzling/US66616,default,pd.html

So I hope you like this long blog post I wrote for all you lovelies. And just for the record I'm not getting paid to say this. I'm meaning this from the bottom of my heart that I am truly in love with this product :)

Love you, xx

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Review Time! ♡ : Sephora Exclusive Benefit Cosmetics 3 in 1 Pack "Gettin' Cheeky!"

Hey lovelies! So around a week ago, I received my package that I purchase from Sephora on the after Christmas sale. Pretty much everything on their sale tabs we're discounted at a fairly affordable price. Ladies, if you ever need to shop there and you have your credit card ready, sign up for their emails, be ready, and shop to your hearts content. I've decided that I wanted to buy something from Benefit Cosmetics, so I figured "why not!". Turns out that Benefit had just released a new cheek and lip tint from their cheek stain collection, which as it turns out it's on there top seller list.
And here it is! Lollitint. Apparently it's supposed to be this orchid purple stain, inspired by candy land that will give you a nice subtle, kind of a natural glow like no other. Definitely on my "must review!" list for you.
The promotion ad for "Gettin' Cheeky!".

Photo above taken from my Instagram page.


And here is the swatches of all the tints on my arm, on NC 15 skin. Left to right - Posietint, Sunbeam, ChaChatint. As you can see that Posietint is not that opaque, but nonetheless it's perfect for that subtle/natural look that you would want to go for during the day. Sunbeam is a soft, warm yellowish undertone bronzer and honestly, I think it'll be perfect for all skin tones! ChaChatint is VERY BRIGHT and completely reminds me of summer time, so I'll defiantly put that one aside and wear it out over that season. Perfect for anyone that wants to make that drawing center of attention, daring statement, with a pop of color on their cheeks.

Here above is a swatch of Posietint on the cheeks. It's very bright if you apply it after a couple times.

Above is a swatch of Sunbeam. Very subtle, but easily wearable.

And lastly, above is a swatch of ChaChatint on the cheeks. A little bright after just one application, but looks a little clownish if you apply it multiple times. Only one application is recommended.
So beware, because these stains literally STAIN. After I applied the tints on my face, I had to scrub whichever one that was on my face to put on another one, and it made my face turn tomato red. Makeup wipes are definitely a must to take this off. But if these stains are hard to get off, at least the product is doing what its supposed to! Money well spent on something that works! Yay!

Here above is my attempt (and proof) of scrubbing the stains once. That's right, you can read again, your not going crazy (haha) ONCE! So these stains are definitely stains. Which is why I love them!

I honestly can recommend these stains, because even though they don't come in that much of a variety (just yet!) their all completely AMAZING and they can pretty much suit any skin tone that's out there in the world. They do what their supposed to, which I pretty much think that almost all of us look for in a product if we're going to spend pretty much half our paycheck on a high end product, we definitely want the product to work. For $30.00 on a full size bottle, I know it seems pretty pricey especially since it's a stain, but it's totally worth it. It'll pretty much last you for about 1 year, maybe even 2 depending on how much you wear makeup, how much you'll use it, and how much you put on (which I mentioned earlier that you really only need one application to last you for the whole day. YAY!).

So in conclusion; I recommend these 3 cheek stains to each and every one of you to try out, because they are all AMAZING! Will review in the future the new tint Benefit Cosmetics recently released Lollitint, and their original tint that is their bestseller, Benetint. I promise!
Thank you so much for reading!
Love you, xx

Monday, January 20, 2014

Welcome! ♡

Hi there lovelies! Welcome to my beauty blog. Since this is my very first post, as I'm trying to write I'm thinking of more ways to make this post more welcoming, but I can't think of anything without sounding too "cliche" so I'll just explain myself.


My name is Shainnen, I'm an aspiring makeup artist and I'm currently studying in Orange County to major in fashion merchandising and design. I'm just an average girl, probably the first thing that comes to my head to eat for breakfast is pizza. I'm a little too obsessed with makeup and fashion and I want to share my passion with the world by guiding, recommending products, and helping you to look your best in your comfort zone.

 
This is currently what my desk looks like now. I have way more products than what you see here, just currently testing new things I recently bought and reviewing them. So don't be afraid to ask me questions about products. I will be reviewing TONS of makeup lines and products, ranging from high end to drug store, if you believe that makeup should never be bought more than what you would buy for a table dinner of two. Trust me, I still think like that to this day. I'm also a fashion junkie, so I will be reviewing what latest
is in trend since it's always my assignment to do so. Everyone is welcome :)

And remember, that it doesn't matter how much or how little makeup you wear, its about wearing as much as YOU want and as much as YOU are happy wearing. I hope I can help you find some new techniques and products to try!

Thank you so much for reading!
Love you, xx