Been away way too long

Do I even remember how to blog?

I have been buying makeup randomly throughout the past few years. I currently am more concerned about skincare due to a terrible year of breakouts and 'aging' skin.

30's are not the new 20's if we're talking about the ability of our skin to heal and let's not even talk about premature wrinkles.... LOL!

What are your favorite skin care products? I'm interested in all cleaners, toners, moisturizers and serums. If there are any other items I should be aware of, fill me in!

Expiration dates

Ok maybe I'm a little SLOW but I just realized that some makeup/face products have the expiration timeframe right on the bottle or packaging! I was looking at my primer the other day and noticed it had said 6m so I guess there goes trying to skimp on product make it last as long as possible. Not that a little 1oz tube will last me very long anyways, but I swear that my SB and old english primer lasted me forever!!  So what do the other symbols stand for? I'm sure the one on the right is that the package is recyclable and the one on the left has something to do about reading the packing and/or pamphlet that comes with some of their products... any ideas?

I think I better start going through my cream products and get rid of the expired one! ^_^

Btw got the pic @ Cici does hollywood

Smootchkiss blog giveaway

Karolina is having a giveaway on her blog, which is called Smootchkiss.com for having more than 100 followers. You can join the giveaway by being a follower of her, posting a comment, and if you want more chances of winning you can blog or tweet about it!  She is giving away some of her favorite items which includes a bunch of Mac items (including HK!), falsies, barry m dazzledust and collection 2000 items. Go check it out!  Here is a pic straight from her blog below:

Finally some pictures! :)

Ok so I finally uploaded some pictures of my MAC To the Beach haul.  I also have some pictures of some items that I picked up at NARS last week.  Our Nordstrom had a makeup event last week that I attended with Kristen. At the event they had master makeup artists who flew in and were doing makeovers. Before we go there,  there was also a fashion show. It was fun! I wish that we could have gone earlier in the day to spend a little more time there, but all in all it was great.  I got my makeup done at the NARS counter and Kristen got hers done at the MAC counter.  I have never used NARS b/c of it is a little more on the pricey side, but I loved the makeup and the look and how gorgeous their shades are.  I have a new love, move over MAC!

Can someone please let me know how to fix my photos so they are not sideways?  They are saved on my computer upright, but when i upload them they come out sideways! :(

This is just a sneak peek at my palettes.  I also have about 100+ other MAC shadows but haven't depotted any of them yet. If you want to see any of the specific colors, LMK

blush palette

my e/s palettes

Hope you have fun with some of my pictures! If you want a review of any of the products just ask

Mac - To the Beach

So I picked up a few things from this collection, but since the weather is really bad and rainy right now, I couldn't really get any good pictures showing the colors of the products.   I only wanted to get things that were limited edition and not just for the packaging.

What I picked up:

Sand & Sun e/s
Firecracker e/s
Sweet & Punchy e/s
Hipness blush
Beach Bronze creme bronzer
Float on By eye kohl

I already own the other 2 e/s in the collection, which are Shimmermoss and Humid.  They are part of the permanent collection.  There was another creme bronzer which I believe was a little lighter, but I decided to go with the darker one since the MA told me it looks more natural on my skin, and they both were actually pretty sheer.  I am one for too much bronzer or shimmeryness on my face, I like to keep the shimmer for my eyes and lips.  The other two powder bronzers are part of the permanent collection, so I skipped those.  I didn't really care for the lipsticks , lipliners or lipglosses for myself b/c they were a little too bright for my liking.  However I think overall the collection was really nice and had some great products.  I would love to see what other people think of this collection, what they picked up, and what they think of the products that I didn't pick up such as the lustredrops and bronzing body oil.

I can't wait to try out these eyeshadows, they are just so gorgeous!

Got my hair did

"mini me" and me.... "smile!!!"

Ive been having some major stress recently so decided that I needed a "me" day and got my hair did!

Last year I highlighted my hair and put really purple streaks in it.  I had them in for about 2 weeks when I had to dye it back "normal" for work.  That over-processing really damaged my hair and it was horrible! I let my hair recover for a whole year.  I had used drugstore color about 2-3x to cover up the highlights that could you could still see, but didn't i didnt highlight at all. So on Saturday I got my hair did! I wasn't going to go light, I had wanted to keep the color dark so I wouldn't have to retouch too much.  But I told my friend to go with whatever she thought would look best b/c I trust her! I love the outcome.  She colored it and gave me some partial highlights.  I will have to touch up probably every 4 weeks, b/c my natural color is a really dark brown, but I <3 it!  Since my hair is lighter, I had to change the color of my eyebrow shade.  I used to use either MAC charcoal brown or espresso, but now I have to use cork.

Love.....

For MAC that is. I got me some greasepaint sticks and HOPEfully will be able to post some pics in a few days.

xoxo

MAC Liberty of London & Spring Colour Forecast

I haven't posted in a while but thought I'd share my small haul from the MAC Studio Talk class I went to the other week.  The focus was eyes and lips.  I bought some things from the Liberty of London collection as well as a few items from the Spring Colour Forecast collection that I didn't pick up before.

Some of the items that I already purchased included: Spring Colour Forecast Crushed Metal Pigments Stacked 1 and 2, Blush Ombre in Ripe Peach, and the Colour 4 e/s quad. Most of the items are becoming sold out so buy them now if you want them! You can still get some at MAC and some at Nordstrom or other higher end dept stores / online.

Colour 4 e/s Quad

Liberty of London Collection e/s

Spring Colour Forecast e/s

(I don't know why the picture is showing up sideways, its not saved that way!)

Liberty of London Blush - LOVE THIS ONE! It's my new fave, may have to get a backup. Love love love it!

I also bought a black traincase from Sephora the day before I went to the Studio Talk class.  This fits some of my makeup.  I still have 80-90+ MAC eyeshadows that I have to depot. This doesn't include much drug store makeup.  It basically has my fluidlines, concealers, Fix+,  some pigments, my NYX eyepencils, mascara, and palettes.  It fits a lot of palettes in the bottom section. One thing I don't like about the train case is that its hard to take out the dividers.  The inside is also made out of a foam like material and if you put the dividers in the wrong place, the foam will dent. Don't like that....

I didn't do any swatches, but let me know if you want any! I really liked the Liberty of London collection even though at first I really thought I wasn't going to like any of it.  I would definitely recommend Prim & Proper blush if you are considering anything from the collection.  I think it could complement any skin tone. I normally only like peachy type blushes, but this one is goooorgeous!

MAC foundation review

Ok as I've said before, I've been using MAC makeup forever. I've esp been using MAC SFF and MAC SF powder. I'm a liquid and powder kind of girl, definitely not a powder only type of coverage. I'm an NC25 for reference.

I love my SFF and SF powder.

Studio Fix Fluid is awesome! It has a natural matte finish and med-full coverage. 

PROs: Long wearing, lasts all day! Very good coverage. If you have really bad acne, it may peek through, but this and concealer really does the job. Great color range! $26.50

CONs: Has a sort of orangey color to it by the end of the day.  Several friends have commented on their SFF doing the same thing, and they are all a darker skin tone than me. I think I'm b/t NC20 and NC25, but I stick w/NC25.

I recently bought MAC Studio Tech and today was the first time I used it. I wanted to try something that would give a little smoother, heavier coverage than SFF.  Not looking for cakey coverage.

Studio tech is a cream foundation that is supposed to apply matte and have a powdery finish.  It comes a compact and sponge as shown on the left. I applied it with the sponge and tried to build coverage,  and then used SF powder to set.  It is supposed to have a "full range" of coverage. **watched some videos on youtube.... apparently i should try to use my foundation brush!**

PROs: Took a minute or two to apply. FAST! Great if you're on the run! The color is truly closer to my skin tone than the same shade in SFF. Evens out skin tone (with the exception of dark circles). No orange color to it like SFF!

CONs: I dont feel like it has that great of a coverage. You could still see my dark circles even with my concealer and you could see through the makeup and see some of my blemishes. $29.50

I have also tried Studio Sculpt.   If you're not familiar, it is a gel-based foundation w/medium - full coverage and a satin finish.

PROs: Coverage is great.  It is more orangey that I'd like, but not as orangey as SFF.

CONs: Throughout the day it makes your face look oily. I personally don't have an oily face, but this makes me look like I do. I do not like satin finish!! $29.50

Finally MAC's Full Coverage foundation.  I bought this at my regular MAC store a while ago, but I think its a PRO only product now. (I do not have a PRO card).  I think it was about $30. I originally bought this to have more coverage than SFF, but I don't use it much any more.

PROs: It covers wonderfully! You can use it as concealer.

CONs: Cakey if you wear it for more than a short time. Especially under the eyes, or anywhere that creases - such as around your mouth. Did not have NC25! I had to buy NC20 and NC30. Does not cover black on tattoos very well.

Well I hope you enjoyed my review, if you have any suggestions on how to make my studio tech a fuller coverage, please let me know! Good night!~ xoxo, Caitlin

Tired....

Today was super crazy at work. Busy busy busy... when I get home it doesn't stop since dd demands all my attention! <3 it doesn't help that I'm still sick! my congestion just doesn't want to go away. When will it end.... *sigh*

I was going through my makeup brushes last night and deep cleaned them all, or at least 99% of them. I found out that I have over 40 brushes. I couldn't believe it. I know that I don't use every single one of them, but would say I probably use at least 75% of them. A lot of them are MAC, I have quite a few Sigma and then some Artistry, ELF, Bare Escentuals, and other miscellaneous brands. Of course I love my MAC, but I also really like my Sigma which are high quality and are very reasonable priced, and very comparable to MAC. Surprisingly I use my ELF $1 e/s brushes just about every day to blend.... they're soooo good at blending! The bristles are so soft too. However for long lasting, high quality, least shedding brushes, I will continue to buy MAC.

My MAC e/s collection has topped 100 a while ago I think. I have a large selection from their permanent line, and some d/c ones, and a bunch from diff collections including holiday sets and other quads. I'm trying to use the ones I haven't used in a while and make them more noticeable. I used to be scared of color, but I LOVE makeup, so why be so subtle? I'm still learning how to apply and mix colors and use pigments * <3 * so if you know any youtubers I should keep my eye out for, lmk!

Anyhoo its off to bed soon, since i'll be up early again for work!