FOTD!

So, it wasnt really the face of the day, I was just bored because I am stuck inside because of the snow so i decided to practice doing looks with eyeshadow. I think i will do something similiar for New Years Eve with something darker in the crease. I love Mac Satin Taupe eyeshadow and I am realllyyyy loving how Make Up Forever's HD foundation photographs!

Face:

Make Up Forever HD Foundation IN 175

Mac Mineralized Skinfinish in Dark

Mac Darkly My Dear Blush (LE)
Nars Albatross higlighter

Make Up Forever HD powder

Eyes:

Loreal Voluminous mascara in Carbon Black
Mac Spiked Eyebrow Pencil
Make Up Forever HD concealer to highlight under eyebrows
Mac Satin Taupe (lid)
Mac Arena (Browbone highlight)
Mac Saddle (tansition/ blending)
Mac Brown Down (crease/ outer corner)

Lips:Mac Cork Lipliner
Touch Lipstick

1 year hair update, Fotd, and outfit!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I decided to go to the hairdressers Christmas Eve and got my hair straightened and a much needed trim. This was my first professionaly trim since April, I trimmed it myself once or twice in between though so my ends werent terrible luckily. While looking through pictures, I found a picture from last Christmas and my hair has definately made some progress! At the time my hair was also not completely natural, I still had relaxed ends at some parts.

December 25, 2009

December 25, 2010

Here is a picture after I got dressed and put on some makeup, I wish I took more picturesss:      

Face:

Make Up Forever HD Foundation IN 175

Mac Mineralized Skinfinish in Dark

Mac Doll Mix Blush

Make Up Forever HD powder

Eyes:

Loreal Voluminous mascara in Carbon Black
Mac Spiked Eyebrow Pencil
Make Up Forever HD concealer to highlight under eyebrows


Lips:Mac Cork Lipliner
Mac Touch Lipstick
Mac Mad Cap Lipgloss


This is some of what I wore. My earrings, flat suede ankle booties, and ring are not pictued:

The black sweater dress is from H&M and the grey fishnets are from Forever 21

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! :)

FOTD

Wore some makeup today! I am still working on my eyeshadow application and rarely wear any although i have tons, today was no execption lol.Lately I have just been wearing mascara on my eyes (I don't like eyeliner on me) and a bold lip or cheek.I aslo ended up changing my makeup later that night so I will post both. I changed from a tinted moisturizer to a foundation and changed my lips and cheeks. The lighting in each picture is different.

DAY

Face:
Laura Mercier Oil Free Tinted Moisturizer in Walnut (love!)
Mac Mineralized Skinfinish in Dark
Nars Taj Mahal blush
Nars Albatross highlighter

Eyes:Loreal Voluminous mascara in Carbon Black
Mac Spiked Eyebrow Pencil
Make Up Forever HD concealer to highlight under eyebrows


Lips:Mac Touch Lipstick
Mac Cork Lipliner
Mac Madcap Lipgloss

NIGHT

Face:

Make Up Forever HD Foundation IN 175

Mac Mineralized Skinfinish in Dark

Mac Sweet as Cocoa Blush

Nars Albatros higlighter

Make Up Forever HD powder

Eyes:

Loreal Voluminous mascara in Carbon Black
Mac Spiked Eyebrow Pencil
Make Up Forever HD concealer to highlight under eyebrows

Lips:Mac Magenta Lipliner
Mac Girl About Town Lipstick

Straight Hair :-D

So I finally decided to stop being lazy and do something other than my everyday bun.I straigten my hair about once a month in the fall and winter and pretty much never in the warmer months.Since I use alot of conditioner and oil in my hair through out the week  I washed my hair with Neutrogena Anti Residue Formula Shampoo and followed that with my usual Biolage Smoothing Shampoo. After that I conditioned with Biolage Conditioning Balm. Since I was short on time I only conditioned while I showered. I have always loved the Biolage products and my hair always seems to come out better when I use their products. Also, the less products you use when pressing your hair, the better it will turn out. After shampooing and contioning all  I use is a heat protectant.


Products:

Biolage Smoothing Shampoo, Neutrogena Anti Residue Shanpoo, Biolage conditioning Balm

Hair after being shampooed and conditioned (No Product):

After shampoooing and conditioning i apply a quater sized amount of Chi Silk Infusion through out my hair then begin blowdrying my hai starting in the back with my Conair Pro Silver Bird Hair Dryer. I do one inch sections at a time. The blow dry is very important, if you blow out has no movement and is stiff your flat ironed hair also will be. I intended on buying a salon quality blow dryer until i asked my hair dresser what blow dryer she said she uses this one. This blowdryer only cost 29.99 and gets my hair straigter than any blowdryer I have ever used, I use it with the comb attachment. After Blowdrying ,I flat iron in very small sections using my Generic Value Plus Ceramic Flat Iron and the comb chase method. This flat iron only cost 59.99 and works as good as or better than my Chi flat iron.It gets my hair straight and shiny in one pass. I also like it because you can adjust the heat. My hair seems to be pretty heat resistant so I usually flat iron on the hightest setting, adn have not seen any negative affects of doing so. I use the Jilbere Vented Straightening/Cutting Comb for the comb chase method.

Products:

Conair Pro Silver Bird Hair Dryer,Jilbere Vented Straightening/Cutting Comb,

Chi Silk Infusion,  Generic Value Plus Ceramic Flat Iron

Blowdried hair:

Flat Ironed hair:

!

In the Nude- My favorite nude lipsticks for dark skin!

I wasnt very interested in the Tartan Tale collection and didnt plan on getting anything, but I ended up ordering The Faerie Glen at the last minute since I loveeee nude lips! My go to nude is MAC Touch lipstick with  MACs Mad Cap lipgloss and MACs Cork Lipliner, I also own MACs Fresh Brew. Touch and Fresh Brew are both Lustre formulas. Touch is a peachy brown shade, and Fresh Brew is the color of creamed coffee. Fresh Brew is lighter and has more brown undertones while Touch is darker and more peach.
The Faerie Glen, which is limited edition, is a also a Lustre formula and is a light nuetral color with pink undertones. The Faerie Glen is more similar to Touch, it is just lighter and more pink than peach.

Left to Right: The Faerie Glen, Fresh Brew, Touch

(Sorry, since they are all lustres they are pretty sheer on my arm so it was hard to get good side by side swatches)

Here are some lip swatches, one day soon I will stop being lazy and do my whole face so I can show more than just my lips lol :

The Faerie Glen

 Fresh Brew

Touch

* All swatches were done with MAC's Cork Lipliner

I think all three are great nudes for dark skin tones, Touch being my favorite and the easiest to wear. On me (NC50) Touch can be worn straight out the tube with no lipliner or gloss. For the other two i have to be more careful to avoid looking dead lol. Also Touch appears more brown on my lips than it does in the pictures, the flash emphasizes the peach. Fresh Brew is hit or miss, somedays it looks great and others not so much. I am very pleased with The Faerie Glen and can;t wait to try it with a full look!

Urban Decay Naked Palette

Like a lot of people I fell for the hype and rushed out to buy the Naked Palette. I dont wear eyeshadow often but I loveddd that it was all neutrals so I had to have it. The pallete contains 12  full sized eyeshadows and only cost 44$! Two of the shadows are matte (naked and buck) and the rest are pretty shimmery. All of the colors show up on my skin well excepy virgin. The two matte colors work well as transition colors over the crease. I love half baked, smog, toasted, and gunmetal.

Left to Right: Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal

Virgin is a very light frosty beige

Sin is a very shimmery frosty champagne

Naked is a matte beige

Sidecar is a shimmery bronze 

Buck is a matte brown, similar to naked but darker

Half Baked is a shimmery gold

Smog is a shimmery dark bronze 

Darkhorse is chocolate bronze

Toasted is a shimmery pinkish brown

Hustle is a dark plummish brown

Creep is black with silver and teal shimmer

Gunmetal is a metallic blue gray

With Flash

    No flash

Top:Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog

Bottom: Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal

The pallete also contains a double ended eyeliner with the colors Zero(Black) and Whiskey (Chocolate brown). Both are very creamy and matte. The package also came with a mini Urban Decays Eyeshadow Primer potion.

Whiskey, Zero

Over all I think it is a nice pallete to have espicially if you are just starting to build your makeup collection, but probably not neccesary if you have other neutrals, I definitely use my Mac neutral pallete I put together more often.I also feel it may be better for those with a lighter skin tone than mine, the colors show up kind of dull on me. But for those it does work for a multitude of looks can be created with the avialable colors so it is well worth the money!

Pink Lips!

       Lipstick is my latest addiction and i have been searching for more pinks that work for my skin tone. I already had Mac's Lovelorn and Creme in your coffee, but wanted something a little brighter. I was interested in Pink Friday, but swatches quicky changed my mind lol the color was way too light to ever work on me. I ended up choosing Girl About Town and Pink Nouveau. They arrived today!

Left to Right: Creme in Your Coffee, Lovelorn, Pink Nouveau, Girl About Town

* please excuse my lip swatches, they are a little sloppy

Creme in Your Coffee is described as a creamy mid-tone pink brown and is a Cremesheen formula. Of the 4 it is the most natural pink .

Lovelorn is described as a emotive blue pink  and is a Lustre formula. The lustre formula is very moisturizing and although the color is bright it applies pretty sheer.

Pink Nouveau is described as a bright pink  and is a Satin formula. The color is similar to Lovelorn, it is just darker and applies more opaque.

Girl About town is described  as a fabulous fuchsia  and is a Amplified Creme formula. This color is very bright and not for those scared of color!



I love all four, I can't choose a favorite!

La Femme Blush!

I loveee blush, and La Femme did not dissapoint! I usually use Mac or Nars for blush, but i decided to give these a try after reading about them on forums and blogs. These are the most pigmented blushes I have ever used and they show up easily on my nc50ish skin. I ordered these a while ago but havent had the chance to wear make up lately. It took about 2 weeks for these to arrive after ordering but it was well worth the wait. I ordered the 12 blush palette for 35$. There are tons of colors to choose from, i had a hard time deciding.


sorry my pallete looks a little beat up, that was my own doing lol

Top row: peach, cinnabar, coral, russet, sienna, golden sunset
Bottom row: Pink velvet, stormy rose, golden rose, fushcia, golden ruby, bordeaux


My favorites are Golden Sunset, Golden Rose, Russet, and Golden Ruby!
Dupes: Golden sunset is very similar to Nars Taos

Nakeddd

Like a lot of people I am pretty confused about the whole hair typing thing. It seems pretty simple just focusing on curl size, but everyone else’s confusion confuses me lol.  I have been typed by others and I pretty sure I am a 3c/4a. The back and middle of my hair is mostly 4a with coils smaller than the diameter of a pencil, and the front and nape is 3c with coils the size of a pencil. My hair is pretty cottony when dry and I think my strands are medium sized.

Here are a couple pics of my wet naked hair after being shampooed and conditioned:

-T

Hair story and first post!

 I begged my mom for my first relaxer when i was starting middle school; I wish she would have said no. I remained happily relaxed until i started college and started frequenting hair forums.

Before then the thought of being natural never crossed my mind and didn’t even seem like a possibility. Freshman year of college (2006) I had no idea what to do to my hair so weave was my friend.

Jan 2007

That friendship was short lived and by the summer after I decided I would cut my hair to shoulder length and began researching healthy hair practices.

May 2007

 I began taking care of my relaxed hair and by the summer of 2008 I was apl.

June 2008

But again i got bored with my hair and decided to get highlights. I had my last relaxer in May 2008 and got red highlights in August 2008.

Oct 2008

 I knew my relaxed hair probably could not handle highlights and decided I would go natural if it began to break off.  As I suspected, that was just what happened and I planned on transitioning. That transition failed and I self relaxed at the 8 month mark in December 2008. At that point I also cut my hair to about neck length and dyed it black.

Jan 2009

I immediately regretted that relaxer and luckily that was my last one. I transitioned for a little over a year keeping my hair cut to should length. I know i shouldnt have, but i flat ironed every other week throughout my transition, and occasionally did braid outs.  At the 8 month mark in my transition  in August 2009 I got a bob hair cut with a bang.

Aug 2009

I kepy up that hair cut, and by April 2010 I was all natural and about neck/shoulder lenght streched!

april 2010

 In the summer of 2010 i experimented a lot with wash and goes and wash and go puffs.

May 2010

Now it has been almost 2 years since my last relaxer and my hair is about apl straightened and neck lenght shrunken.

braid out Dec 2010

wash and go Oct 2010

oct 2010

Thanks for reading!