Teal Glitter EOTD featuring Lit Cosmetics + Blog Housekeeping

Hello!

I feel like I used to do a lot of Face of the Day and Eye of the Day posts but I haven't been doing much lately because I've been feeling a little creatively stagnant. There is a part of me that can't help but compare what I do to other looks I've been seeing and mine look rather drab in comparison. I think it is all too easy to get into the mindset of trying to strive to be the most creative however I'm much more comfortable doing more simpler looks like this, I certainly don't have the artistic skill to do anything complex.

I had some credit to the Beautylish Shop so I used that to purchase some Lit Cosmetics glitters (three glitters plus the Lit Kit for only $8.00 including shipping, I am the master of scrounging up and using credit). I picked Cayman specifically because I wanted to recreate this look by Queen of Blending. Hers is infinitely more superior but I wanted to try my hand at it anyway. 

I hope you enjoy the look! 

(I received the Anastasia Brow Powder Duo that I used in the look free courtesy of The Makeup Show LA as part of a giftbag)

Cayman is a beautiful turquoise color, a little more green than it appears in the photo. I applied this on top of Sugarpill's Darling Chromalust and it made for a dynamic duo.


Products used:

Milani Cosmetics Eyeshadow Primer
Urban Decay Deluxe Eyeshadow in Zero applied lightly in the crease
Wet n Wild Brown eyeshadow from the I Heart Matte Eyeshadow blending out from the crease
Wet n Wild Brulee on the browbone
Darling Girl Glitter Glue on the lid 
Sugarpill Chromalust in Darling on the lid
Lit Cosmetics Glitter in Cayman (Size 2) over Darling applied with the Lit Cosmetics Clearly Liquid Glitter Base
NYX Gel Liner & Smudger in Betty for the liner
Miss Adoro Eyelashes in #423
Anastasia Brow Powder Duo in Dark Brown (it doesn't appear this light and red in person!)

I hope you have a nice Friday! I'm supposed to find out my grad school admissions result today from my first choice school so here's hoping all goes well!

Disclaimer: I received the Anastasia Brow Powder Duo in Dark Brown for free courtesy of The Makeup Show LA.

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Blog housekeeping:

You may have noticed the slight blog changes I did because I am super indecisive. I changed the blog tabs from white text on a black background back to black text on a white background. I increased the size of the font to make it easier to read. I've updated the "Indie Swatches" and "Mainstream Swatches" Pages so there should be more recent posts added.

I also decided to reinstall Disqus for commenting purposes. I haven't yet found the perfect commenting system but for now I'll stick with Disqus as I was really displeased with how Blogger's commenting kept glitching up and creating double commenting along with people continuing to leave links. Disqus will also allow me to send you a notification when I reply (hopefully keeping me on my toes about being good and responding! 

If you're having any problems with the system, please contact me at mai@portraitofmai.com or my contact form (under the Contact Me Tab)

Turquoise and Brown EOTD

On a much lighter non-Lime Crime note, I'm redoing an amazing look I saw on Pinterest. (Original credit for the image here by Vivid Emotions Make-up). I'll include the promo image after my set of pictures. I loved the bright teal/turquoise on the lid with the transition to a smoked out brown. Not necessarily super complicated but very gorgeous.

My camera decided to freak out a bit and my pictures a little more red toned than usual (at least to my eyes!). Do ignore that. Unfortunately none of my closed eyed pictures looked good so here's a barrage of open eyed photos!

The camera muted the turquoise a bit so here's an extra picture with my Ottlite to show off the turquoise better!

and here's the awesome look that I copied/redid! Credit goes to Vivid Emotions Make-up! As you can see, she did a much better job!

Eyes
Coastal Scents Shadow Worx Matte Primer

Inglot DS 504 Eyeshadow on the lid, lower lashline, and on the waterline

Wet n Wild I Heart Matte 8 pan

- Brown Eyeshadow in the crease

- Black Eyeshadow as a transition color

- Skintone color as a highlight

Urban Decay Naked eyeshadow as a transition between the crease and highlight

Maybelline EyeStudio Master Shape Eyebrow Pencil in Deep Brown

I apologize, I can't recall which lashes these are!

Inglot Names Are Not Conducive to Good Titles

I did this look yesterday but forgot to take pictures of it so I redid it tonight. I got my inspiration from a look Phyrra did (hers was with black and teal instead of grey and teal) but for the life of me I couldn't find the actual look to link to; if I can find it I'll link to it.

By the way, Grey is having an Inglot giveaway so if you don't have access to Inglot you can try your luck at winning some!

The teal does look a little brighter in person and not as blue.
Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden

Inglot 78 gel liner as a base and on the waterline

Matte 348 on the lid

Double Sparkle 504 in the crease

Double Sparkle 493 as a highlight

Wet n Wild Taupe eyeliner for the brows

L'oreal Voluminous WP Mascara

Bright Teal-y Blues

I feel like this isn't as color accurate as it should be but I thought I would post it anyway.

When I have time to be in the sun I'll do a better swatch of Marina! My undereye is looking a bit odd so ignore that.

Urban Decay Primer Potion
BFTE Marina in the inner lid and inner lower lashline over NYX Teal eyeliner
MAC Teal in the outer lid and corner and outer lower lashline over NYX Black eyeliner
NYX Sahara as a highlight

NYX Black eyeliner on the waterline
Wet n Wild Eyeliner in Taupe for brow
Wet n Wild Mega Liner in Black
Wet n Wild Megalength in Black (I don't like this but I feel the need to use it up)

Sparkly Sugarpill Darling!

*Contest winners, your prize will be sent out on Monday, I've included extras inside to compensate for the long wait!*

*Don't Ask Don't Tell passed the Senate today :) I'm rather sad that the DREAM act didn't but DADT was an amazing victory!*

I'm trying to use Darling with every color eyeshadow that I have because I love it so much

I only recently tried using Darling with Pixie Epoxy only because I thought the matte base wouldn't work out well with PE. Oh but I was wrong. I then combined this trick I read from Cosmetic Viking's post about doing several PE/Eyeshadow sandwiches to intensify the color.

Here is the result of the experience.

I know in this picture it looks really patchy near the outer corner but I only decided to try the Pixie Epoxy trick AFTER I did my eyeliner so I was trying not to get PE on it.

But hello! Look at that gorgeous turquoise sparkle! Before this I had some trouble getting the sparkles to show up and now I know how to do it!

This was 2 layers of eyeshadow total, first PE, then eyeshadow, then a small amount of PE dabbed on top and finally eyeshadow. That sparkle is so droolworthy.

Kat Von D High Voltage eye primer

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

Sugarpill Darling

Sugarpill Midori
NYX Sahara

NYX Eyeliner in Black on the waterline and on my brows (trying out this trick Phyrra did)

Wet n Wild Mega Liner in Black

Maybelline Falsies WP mascara

This weekend is for recovering from finals week. Yesterday I had to turn in an 8 page paper and do a final. I don't believe in school on Friday, Fridays are days that I relax and see my boyfriend.

Luckily I was able to see some of my friends yesterday because we all went to see Tron together. I won't spoil it for you other than to say loved the music, was meh about the movie. Go listen to the soundtrack and save your money unless you're really a diehard fan.

Nutcracker Series: Arabian Coffee

*One more day before my giveaway ends!*

Now there are a lot of variations on the costume for the Arabian (my old dance studio had Purple and Gold) but I saw this gorgeous costume from San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker and it so reminded me of Sugarpill's Darling eyeshadow.

So I didn't think Darling would work well with Pixie Epoxy because it is fairly matte but damn it worked fabulous! It made it so you could actually see the sparkles so I say use Pixie Epoxy in conjunction with it.

Darling is a lot greener in person than it is in the picture, it looks really blue-tinged for some reason.

Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

Sugarpill Darling

BFTE If I Only Had a Brain

NYX Sahara

Wet n Wild Mega Liner in Black

Maybelline Falsies WP mascara

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder

Day 15: Turquoise and Sugar

Psssst don't forget to enter my giveaway of the Wet n Wild Holiday palettes! Ends December 4th!

Not quite my best but I really really wanted to use Darling and Royal Sugar together!
But the colors look so prettyyy

NYX Eyeshadow base in White

NYX Teal eyeliner on the lid

NYX Black eyeliner in the crease and lower lash line

Sugarpill Darling on the lid

Sugarpill Royal Sugar in the crease

NYX Sahara as a highlight

Maybelline Falsies WP Mascara

Bleugh I've got to study for swallowing disorders. I never realized how complicated swallowing could be until I saw videos of tongues not working correctly or velums not lifting right. Complicateddd