Friday, January 23, 2015

Sweet Screams: Monster High Spectra Vondergeist Inspired Makeup

Sigh. They're all growing up. Seeing them turn into young ladies make me think that I'm so old already. Yesterday my cousin Micah turned 11, and threw up a simple Monster High Themed party. I don't know what's with my family these days that we're into themed parties. It started on my son Draven's first birthday, then Jana's Frozen Themed party and now this. Unlike the first two birthdays I've mentioned this one isn't planned well, but then it was spiced up by the cake made by my aunt and a makeup for young girls inspired by the characters from Monster High. Since my aunt can easily make cakes into any character that you wish, we all now look forward to our birthdays. I'm still thinking what cake do I really want for my own 
birthday...
I'm a big Monster High fan and maybe if I'm still a bit younger I'll collect all the dolls and I will throw up a party with the same theme. Most of the dominant colors were fuschia pink, dark purple, royal blue, midnight blue and black. The ghouls were all uniquely created with one of a kind names inspired by spooky characters. I know Halloween's over and I was supposed to do the same makeup look for Hallow's eve but then I was too busy. Now that I'm given a chance to do it again I was really excited for Micah's birthday.
Taking all the colors for inspiration, here's my Spectra Vondergeist Inspired Makeup. It's actually hard to have those big doll eyes and I don't want to wear dolly lenses or too thick false eyelashes, so I just took all the colors that could possibly represent Spectra through my makeup creation. Atleast we have the same eyebrows and face shape.
Spectra is the daughter of ghosts. She can pass through walls and hear conversations in each classroom so she knows every latest gossip from Skull Shores. Her favorite color is purple and she has a best friend, her pet named Ferret Rhuen. She's my favorite from Monster High, and the others were as badass and as awesome as her.
A photo of my paraphernalia that day. We were at my grandma's terrace, a perfect place to hang out with young girls and do their makeup. I'm a young at heart and I get along well with younger generation. You can also say I'm still immature for my age, but it doesn't hurt if people or random strangers think you're only around 18 or 21. With my height and body build I can say kids these days were really bigger than me.
Another solo shot of my Spectra inspired makeup. Camera used was from iphone. We're supposed to use a DSLR camera from Canon but the memory card has been corrupted. The color payoff's still great in broad daylight. No false eyelashes used, and just a minor cheek contouring enough to be appropriate for a day makeup.

Products Used

FACE
NYX High Definition Foundation Primer
Estee Lauder Cyber White Liquid Foundation in Cool Beige
Origins Mineral Pressed Powder
Sugar Skull Cosmetics 10 Correct & Conceal Palette

EYES
Sugar Skull Cosmetics 120 Rainbow Palette
Sephora Custom Smokey Palette
Makeup Geek eyeshadow in Corrupt
Estee Lauder Lash Primer
Estee Lauder Sumptous Mascara
Nichido pencil eyeliner in Black
Etude House Code B gel eyeliner in Strong Black


CHEEKS
matte medium brown eyeshadow from Sugar Skull Cosmetics 120 rainbow Palette
for contouring cheeks
Mac Hello Kitty Powder Blush in Tippy

LIPS
Pati Dubroff Lip Tint in Violet
Wet n' Wild Megalast Lipstick in Pinkerbell
Lavender eyeshadow from Sephora Custom Smokey Palette

Here's me doing my cousin Carlyn's makeup, still having the inspirations taken from their chosen MH characters. There were more young girls who joined the fun, had their makeups applied and took hundreds of selfies using their latest gadgets. Kids these days were really far from the 90's kids..

The before and after shot


Carlyn chose Venus Mcflytrap and Micah chose Elissabat Hauntlywood

I chose Draculaura for my cousin Jana for the cute heart on her cheeks.


Frights, Camera, Action!
 

 The three of us: Micah, me and Carlyn. Jana's nowhere to be found once again.

With a poker face, my baby wants to say 'hi'!

January has been really good. Full of birthdays, parties and family get together.
See you all for another colorful February post. Today's really cold I should be taking a shower now or else, I might endure a chilly water and suffer hypothermia. Adios!! :)


Thursday, January 15, 2015

Imaginary Snowflakes on a Sunny Day: Frozen Themed Party and a Makeup to Match

Time flies swiftly and here goes my little cousin who turns seven a few days ago.
I could still vividly remember how small she was at the nursery and held her in my arms and I even bottle fed her for her first milk. She's growing fast and she's turning into a beautiful young lady. Last year I did Frozen's Elsa Inspired Makeup on her. Still a Frozen movie fanatic, she wants a simple celebration on her birthday with of course having a Frozen inspired theme. Here's her cake made by my Aunt Judith. She also did the Mickey Mouse Themed cake on my son's first birthday.



A 7 year old girl shouldn't be actually wearing makeup but she really wants to have her face done, even her dad agrees to glam her up on her big day. Since she's too young I just want a vibrant, fresh makeup look for her with glitters and shimmers, I even added glitters to her hair so she doesn't need to get a blonde wig just to be like Elsa. I've seen a lot of young girls getting a blonde wig, and I don't think it's cute...


Just like the last time, it's so hard to do her makeup. She asks a lot of question and couldn't keep still and stay on her seat for more than five minutes. It's like every two minutes she has to stand up, and check if her classmates have arrived. I have to nag her and call her name several times. Her hair and makeup was supposed to be done for just 20 minutes, but it took us an hour!

and she's about to sneak again.. going towards the direction of the door...

Here's the final result for Jana's sheer glittery Elsa Inspired FOTD and OOTD: Fresh and youthful


Products Used

FACE
Nyx High Definition Primer
Jazzy Collections Cream Foundation applied sheerly with a flat top brush
F21 two way powder foundation
Sugar Skull Cosmetics 10 Correct and Conceal palette


EYES
Sugar Skull Cosmetics 88 Earth Palette (gold and shimmery vanilla)
Etude House Tear Powder in Crystal Gold Tear
Estee Lauder Lash Primer
Avon Extralast Mascara in Black
Revlon eyelash curler


CHEEKS
Mac Hello Kitty Powder Blush in Tippy
Etude House Tear Powder in Crystal Gold Tear

LIPS
Wet n' Wild Mega Last Lipstick in Pinkerbell
City Color Lip Lush Crayon

I don't have a solo picture of her and more pictures of how's the makeup applied on her face. Why? coz I couldn't find her after doing her hair and makeup. She's running around, playing with kids, and running again. I don't want to chase her coz I'll just get tired of it, she won't stop for sure.

I did the same look for myself and replaced the lip products with my favorite Mac Please Me lipstick. Here's my selfie. Sorry but I don't always carry digital cameras or dslr's with me. I have no time for those, and even no space in my bag. Just a good camera phone will do for me, and of course now's the era of smartphones that are meant for good selfies.

A zoomed out version: Just a wash of eye colour, pink lips and glowing cheeks


Zoomed in: Glitters! Shimmers!


I'm afraid I'm falling in love again with shimmers, glitters and gold... Should I say goodbye to matte eyeshadows? But I've just bought two matte Makeup Geek eyeshadows... let me think for a while! Well then, It's currently 3am here and I gotta hit the sack! Thanks for reading ladies! Adios!







Monday, January 5, 2015

Ever Bilena Cosmetics Review and Swatches

My first blog post for 2015! How's your new year lovelies? Is it dazzling yet? Time for a fresh start and organize our thoughts, goals and everything! 

I really hope I could live up with my resolution for this year on buying cheaper makeups. I've always been tagged as a girl who loves high end products. I want to prove everyone that they're wrong. It's not that I only love high ends, it just so happened that I buy those used in some tutorials or famous makeup gurus and beauty bloggers that I know, since they're proven and tested to be good, effective and can work wonders. I remember buying Cosmopolitan magazines when I was high school just to wait whenever they have their beauty awards coz they'll pick up all products from skincare to makeups and accessories that are worth every penny and where most people who have tried it and swears by it. It actually saves me from trial and error and definitely saves money. Now that there's internet I just only have to access those trusted websites from my favorite beauty bloggers and vloggers, or female forums and everything I need and every questions that I have were automatically answered.

I know there are always dupe for every popular high end goods, and I'm still in search for them. For me if a certain product does the trick then why bother to spend more? Wet n' wild, Nyx, Rimmel, Coastal Scents and Elf were popular drugstore brands that have dupes for Mac Cosmetics, Nars, and more. Now I'll be reviewing a local brand in the Philippines named Ever Bilena. It has been around since 1983 and has claimed to provide world class beauty products to Filipinas. As far as I remember it was around 2005 to 2006 when they've upgraded their products and some reminds me of Mac Cosmetic's packaging for their makeup line and some reminds me of Victoria's Secret Body Mist for their perfume line's packaging.
What I have in here is a gift from my cousin Nikki. She works in PAL Express (Philippine Airlines) and as a part of her training they were provided with some information regarding personality development, grooming and proper application of makeup. She said they had their own table filled with cosmetics, sponsored by Ever Bilena for them to try and she found out some products were really good and friendly for her sensitive skin. Since I share that skin sensitivity with her (blame our genes), I'm now a believer that Ever Bilena's products were safe and non comedogenic.

Ever Bilena Pro Flawless Foundation

First up she introduced to me the Pro Flawless liquid foundation in Beige. That time I ran out of my holy grail foundie Jazzy Collections cream foundation and we had to go somewhere, so I grabbed her bottle of foundie and tried it. It's gel-like for me, and when applied on skin it reminds me of Maybelline's aqua smooth gel foundation's consistency. It's actually sheer and the coverage is buildable. Once it oxidizes on your skin the color doesn't change, skin's not oily. It's just dewy. However, it couldn't cover all the flaws that I have like blemishes, broken capillaries, visible veins and freckles. I still need a cream concealer then top it off with a powder. I only use it as a tinted moisturizer, coz It's moisturizing for me and I don't know if it really helped heal up the existing pimples I had, but it didn't aggravate the existing ones either, and the next day the bumps were gone. The sweet vanilla scent is also good, not overwhelming. Unfortunately you can't control the amount of foundation you would get from the pump bottle, which is a thumbs down for me. Just one pump and you'll get too much. It's unhygienic to put it back and a total waste if I just wipe the excess off with a tissue. My verdict: This foundation is good for those who wants lighter and sheer coverage. Not for me, I always want full coverage foundations.



Ever Bilena Pro Lipliner in Red


It's about time to let my holy grail red lippie Mac Russian Red take a good rest coz I've found its cheap dupe. I'm actually using it as a lipstick so I filled my lips with it and it lasts the whole day. It still couldn't beat up the pigmentation, staying power and consistency of Mac lippies, but the orange-red tint and just bitten stain is good enough, and even after eating there's still a reddish stain on my lips. My cousin Nikki bought four of it coz she likes it that much! She uses it for work by the way.


Ever Bilena Matte Lipstick in Offbeat Pink

I'm proud to announce that I've found a dupe for my favorite lippie. It's a good everyday lipstick and comes pretty close to Mac please me. Most local muas were using it and it's one of the most raved product from Ever Bilena. This is actually the third time I have it and I noticed a change from its shade. First time I bought it was 2011 and it was a light baby pink color. The second and third time somehow becomes bright pink with a peachy tinge to it. I use it every time I go out now and it stays on my lips for a long time. 
However since it's matte it emphasizes the cracks, dryness and fine lines of my lips. Though it stays for a long time it leaves a white mark on my inner lower lip like I didn't lick it, it's not good though... My verdict: I actually love it, now that it's a brighter pink. I just have to moisturize my lips prior to using it, and to prevent that white mark on my inner lower lip I guess I just have to reapply it on and wipe the prior application with a tissue. By the way, I noticed that this lippie looks better to those with tanned skin or to those with morena skin tone.
Ever Bilena Matte Lipstick in Mauvey

I'm actually expecting mauve lips but then it's like a nude lipstick in a purplish pink base, it reminds me of my Revlon Pink Pout Lipstick. It'll look great when paired with smokey eyes, but I'm actually disappointed on how it made me look so pale, and it's not for an everyday wear. 
Maybe it's not the right shade of nude lippie that goes well with my skintone, and I think I still have to top it off with a pinky lip gloss. When my friend Gladinette posted her selfie on Facebook using it, it looks so pretty on her! She paired it with the blush palette and eyeshadow palette she got from Sugar Skull Cosmetics. Sigh.. My Verdict: Disappointed but I will still definitely use it and it's my second tube by the way. I'll use it in the future if I have to go for a smokey eyes on a night out.
Swatches on my hand:
More products I would like to purchase from Ever Bilena:
Since I'm a lipstick girl, I still would love to try more matte lipsticks in Viva, Skin and there's one with my name on it, Cherish.

This isn't a paid advertisement from Ever Bilena or a sponsored post. I got them as gifts and my cousin paid for it.

There you go, my first post! What's your favorite product from Ever Bilena? I hope I could make more haul and reviews for local cosmetics and drugstore makeups for this year. Gotta earn more first! Thanks for reading!