Cut Crease using Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

Hello glammies!!

I decided to do something a little different today. I have to say that I do find myself using Urban Decay's first Naked palette more than I use their Naked 2 palette and I bought both at the same time so I've had equal time to get to know both. I decided that it would be a good idea to push my limit in two ways. First, by using a palette that I haven't used much that I'm not totally 100% comfortable with and secondly, doing a cut-crease. Surprisingly the hardest part about this look wasn't coordinating colors or doing the cut-crease, it was the stupid cat wing eyeliner!! Both sides weren't equal, obviously, and it took me a little while to even it out. But now that that's settled, I love the look. Since I went with a dramatic eye look, I kept the rest of the face subtle. I actually really love how this turned out. You really have to have a lot of patience to do a cut-crease look. There's a lot of blending involved and I did use half the palette, so I'll explain this look in detail. I'll also tell you what brushes I'm using, because I just realized that I don't mention brushes in any of my posts and tools are just as important! So from now on, I'll be mentioning which tools I'm using. If you look at my top 5 lists for eyes, face, and lips, you can see which brushes are my favorite in each category. You can also easily wear this look in the day, or even out at night because I find that a cut-crease is just so intriguing!

You might also notice that I'm not wearing my monroe. The ball fell out  :(  And I ran out of spares. I haven't had the chance to go to the piercing salon and get a new one.

We've been having a crazy heatwave here in Montreal. It's been 33C all week so it's been impossible for me to do heavy makeup unless I'm staying at home in my air conditioned house. Like today's look I just did for fun. I will do that MAC look using their new Veluxe Pearl Fusion Eyeshadow in Greenluxe. I will tell you right now that it has to be my favorite that I've tried so far. I love it more than Smokeluxe, even though smokey eyes are my thing. It's a great palette with beautiful dark greens.


Cut-Crease using Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

I use Urban's Decay Primer Potion when using UD eyeshadows because I find they work best used together. Using a pencil brush (Sephora Pro Smokey Brush) and UD Tease, outline your cut crease. This is easily done by doing it with your eyes open and putting the line a little bit above your actual crease. Keep taking a look at how it looks with your eyes open as a guideline. Blend this outward with the same brush. You want to bring it in close to the inner eye and blend outward. Once you're happy with that, take UD Half Baked on a standard medium eyeshadow brush (Sephora PRO medium shadow brush) and put it on your lid, up until your cut-crease. Then take UD Snakebite on the same pencil brush and go over the cut-crease line to intensify it and blend out, but not past Tease. You want the 2 colors to blend into each other. I like using a pencil brush instead of a blending brush because it gives me more precision. Take UD Foxy with a blending brush (MAC 217) and apply it above Tease, under your brow bone and blend out. Bring it down towards your inner eye as well. Using the same blending brush, take Bootycall and apply it under the arch of your brow to really accentuate it and give the look more dimension. Now take MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack using an eyeliner brush (Stila 28) and  line your top eyelid in a cat eye fashion. I like to follow the line that my lower goes up by to do this. Once you've applied the liner to your top lash line, take a Q-tip with makeup remover and clean up any fall out or shadow that is past the cat eye line. Now, take UD Busted using that same pencil brush and blend it into the outer portion of your cut-crease. I find it adds more depth to the look. Make sure to blend it out really well. I like to do my face routine before doing the bottom lash line. Take UD Bootycall using an eyeliner brush (Sephora PRO Eyeliner brush) and apply it to the inner corner of the eyes. Take MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack with the same brush you used for it and do a thin line in the inner corner and it gets thicker at the outer corner and connects to your cat eye. Take Snakebite with the pencil brush and blend it into the fluidline. Now put eyeliner, like MAC Powerpoint Eye Pencil in Engraved, on your top and bottom waterlines. Add some mascara, MAC Zoomlash in Zoomblack, and your eyes are done and gorgeous! But you still need to do your brows, which I also like to do after my face routine. Using Benefit's Brow Zings in Light, fill in your brows however you'd like. I personally go for darker and more pronounced brows as you want to draw attention to your beautiful cut-crease eyes.

For the face, start by priming, using Too Faced Primed and Poreless. Take MAC Select Cover-Up Concealer to conceal your under eye circles using a concealer brush (Sephora PRO Concealer brush). Then take your foundation, MUFE HD Foundation, and gently buff it into the skin using a stippling brush (Sephora PRO Stippling brush). You can also use whatever method you're most comfortable with. Take MAC Studio Finish Concealer and hide any blemishes or redness that's still showing. I use my hands for this. Now take MUFE HD Powder using a kabuki brush (MUFE HD Kabuki) and set your foundation and concealer. Now it's time to contour, using Too Faced's Bronzed and Poreless. I use a powder brush (Sephora Collection Powder brush) and I pinch it so that it looks like a line and it helps to contour with. Apply it to the perimeter of the face, suck in your cheeks as a guide and put it in the hollow part. Also apply to the temples and down the sides of the nose. Next, apply a pink blush, like MAC's Powder Blush in Dame, using a blush brush (Sephora PRO Blush brush) and apply it to the apples of the cheek and sweep it outward. Use Stila's All Over Shimmer Liquid Luminizer in Kitten and apply it to the tops of your cheekbones, cupid's bow, on top of the brow bone arch, and anywhere else you want to draw some attention. I dab it in with my fingers. It's very important to dab and not rub. I then take my kabuki brush and lightly blend whatever needs to be blended. Now for your lips, use Chanel's Levres Scintillantes Glossimer in 87 Seashell (LE) and apply to your lips. This was a limited edition lipgloss from their Summer 2013 Collection and may not be available in certain stores. Now you're done the look!

Eyes:

Urban Decay Primer Potion
Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

• Tease
• Snakebite
• Half Baked
• Busted
• Foxy
• Bootycall

MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack
MAC Powerpoint Eye Pencil in Engraved
MAC Zoomlash in Zoomblack

Brows:

Benefit Brow Zings in Light

Face:

Too Faced Primed and Poreless
MAC Select Cover-Up Concealer in NW20
MAC Studio Finish in NW20
MUFE HD Foundation in 110
MUFE HD Powder
Stila All Over Shimmer Liquid Luminizer in Kitten
MAC Powder Blush in Dame
Too Faced Bronzed and Poreless

Lips:

Chanel Levres Scintillantes Glossimer in 87 Seashell (LE)

Products Used:

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette (60$CAD) shades used:
Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Tease, Snakebite, Busted

MAC Powerpoint Eye Pencil in Engraved - 19$CAD

MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack

MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack - 19$CAD

MAC Zoomlash in Zoomblack - mini shown, fullsize is 19$CAD

Benefit Brow Zings in Light

Benefit Brow Zings in Light - 36$CAD

Stila All Over Shimmer Liquid Luminizer in Kitten - mini shown, fullsize is 26$CAD

MAC Powder Blush in Dame

MAC Powder Blush in Dame - 25$CAD

Too Faced Bronzed and Poreless

Too Faced Bronzed and Poreless - 38$CAD

Chanel Levres Scintillantes Glossimer in 87 Seashell (LE) - 31$CAD

From left to right:
Urban Decay Naked 2 Eyeshadows in:
Foxy
Bootycall
Half Baked
Tease
Snakebite
Busted
MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack
MAC Powerpoint Eye Pencil in Engraved

From left to right:
Stila All Over Shimmer Liquid Luminizer in Kitten
MAC Powder Blush in Dame
Too Faced Bronzed and Poreless
Chanel Levres Scintillantes Glossimer in 87 Seashell (LE)

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the look! I really wanted to push myself to use my Naked 2 palette more, as I felt that other palettes get a bit more love. I do like this palette. There are so many beautiful looks you can create from it. I think I pulled off the cut-crease pretty well, considering my small eyes. My eyes aren't really made for a cut-crease and certain other looks. I don't have much lid space to work with, and not much crease space either so it's harder for me to blend outward in a big gradient, because there's just no room. So I think I did a good job on this.

Let me know what you thought of the look! Did you like this cut-crease look? Would you rock it? It really is simple enough, as long as you remember the key word: BLENDING! I really love the Chanel Glossimer in Seashell, it's such a nice natural pink. Too Faced's Bronzed and Poreless is becoming my favorite bronzer lately, it's just perfect for my light skintone. MAC's Powder Blush in Dame is also making it's way onto my favorites list. So let me know if you liked it, I had a lot of fun with it I must say!

More looks coming soon! Including everything I promised on!

Steph xo.

Urban Decay Naked2 Look plus my new Stila products and Look of the Day!

Hello beautifuls!!

I just want to apologize for not posting as often as I would have liked this past week. As you know, I got sick last Thursday and I've been sick ever since. I tried to tough it out and continue working and going to school but my cold kept getting worse. Started losing my voice on Wednesday and I couldn't talk for the next two days. Today I'm actually able to talk and I had a final exam in Chemistry today. I've literally been in bed for the past few days. I feel like this cold is never going to end. I've been sick for at least 10 days. So I just want to apologize for not having pulled through with all the looks I promised, but I will get everything done when I feel better, hopefully by this week.

But for today I'm starting off with a look from Urban Decay's Naked2 Palette and I'm complementing that with some of the Stila products I ordered. You can view the Stila Haul here. I feel like I look super horrible in these pictures but I'm still posting. I want to know what you think of the look and the new stuff I bought and I'll be asking specific questions at the end of the post and I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts.

For later today, I want to try doing mermaid waves with my straightener. I might not necessarily post this today, but once I get the technique right I'll post some pics.

And nails!! I finally took off the nail polish I've been wearing for the last two months (red) and I'm going to be trying out one of the kits I got for my birthday. So look forward to a nail post coming really soon!!

Now for today's Smokey Saturday I'm doing a look from the Urban Decay Naked2 palette and pairing it up with some Stila. I know the lipstick is a little too bold for daytime so I've included a calmer pink lipstick by NARS that I really like. I will be showing swatches of both and of everything else I'm wearing, as usual.

Urban Decay Naked2 + some new (new for me, old for you) Stila Products

Eyes:

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Urban Decay Naked2 Palette

• Bootycall: apply to entire eye area, acts as a base as well as highlight
• Tease: apply to lid
• Snakebite: apply to crease and outer V. also used to line upper and lower lash line

Too Faced Perfect Eyes in Perfect Black

Too Faced Lashgasm Mascara

Face:

MUFE HD Face Primer

MAC Select Cover-Up Concealer in NW20

MUFE HD Foundation in 110

Benefit High Beam

Stila Love At First Blush Cheek Color (valentine's day cheek color)

Too Faced Pink Leopard Brightening Bronzer

MUFE HD Powder

Lips:

Stila Long Wear Lip Color Matte in Exhilarating (pictured)

OR for day

NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Roman Holiday

Products Used:

Urban Decay Naked2 Palette - 60$CAD
Colors: Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, Snakebite, Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted, Blackout

Too Faced Perfect Eyes in Perfect Black - 25$CAD

Too Faced Lashgasm Mascara - 28$CAD

Stila Love At First Blush (I believe this is no longer available)

Too Faced Pink Leopard Brightening Bronzer - 38$CAD

Benefit High Beam - 32$CAD

Stila Long Wear Lip Color Matte in Exhilarating - 26$CAD

From left to right:
Urban Decay Naked2 Palette: Bootycall (you can barely see it, sorry!), Tease, Snakebite
Stila Love At First Blush
Too Faced Pink Leopard
Stila Long Wear Lip Color Matte in Exhilarating
NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Roman Holiday

So that's the look!! I hope you enjoyed it. I wanted to try out the new Stila stuff I bought so I incorporated that into this look. Some stuff is still available so you can still purchase it if you want. I couldn't find the blush on Sephora's site or Stila's site but it might still be around. Let me know what you think of this makeup look!!

Outfit of the Day

So I wore this comfortable outfit to school today to write my Chemistry of Solutions exam. Leggings are always comfy. The shirt is from Dynamite and I believe the leggings are from American Apparel. No idea where my mom got the slippers. lol. And now its time for me to go style my hair. I let it airdry last night. Cuz when you're sick, you just don't care.

So that's all for now! I'll be posting the nails later and maybe some pictures of the mermaid hair if I can get the technique down. Remember, if the lip is too bold, the NARS one is softer and lighter. I wore that color earlier to school today because the Stila one is a little much for day time wear. I wish you could see me in real life, it is really really bright!!

So I want to ask you, my dear readers, what do you think of the blush? Do you prefer Benefit's Bella Bamba or this one? What do you think of the dramatic lip? Naked1 or Naked2? What products do you want to see more of?

And here are just a few things that I will be posting about in the near future:

Empties & Extras: I will show you all my empty products and the extras that I have hidden away

Fashion Friday: That 60's Mod look I was supposed to show a couple weeks ago

Too Faced's New Pink Leopard vs. the Old Pink Leopard

My Chanel Eyeshadow Quad

More Reviews

Top 5 in various subjects (eyeshadows, palettes, primers, lipsticks, blush, etc)

Hauls

A monthly Love/Hate List for all the new products that are coming out

And this is just the beginning. So keep checking back for more fun stuff. Subscribe by email or RSS feed.

Thank you for reading, 

Steph xo.

Urban Decay Naked palette vs Naked2 palette

Hello babes!

Today I'm going to be talking about Urban Decay's original Naked palette and their newer Naked2 palette. I only own 3 palettes by Urban Decay and only started buying their products recently. My city only opened a downtown Sephora store a bit over a year ago and no other stores sell Urban Decay where I live. I'm really glad I bought these two palettes because they are truly amazing. The quality in both palettes is super, pigmentation is great and fallout is only a problem for the sparkly shades. The sparkles get everywhere!! There is only one repeat shade that is in both palettes, Half Baked. For 60$CAD you get 12 full-size shades, what a deal!

Each palette is 60$CAD

Urban Decay Naked palette
This palette contains warm colors. There are 2 matte shades, 3 sparkle shades and 7 shimmer. They are mainly nude/brown/neutral colors. This palette comes with a deluxe size Primer Potion and a Good Karma shadow brush. The Primer Potion really complements the shadows well. I haven't tried the brush yet. The shadows are house in a cardboard box. [The original release of this palette contained a double-ended 27/7 Eyeliner in Black/Whiskey instead of the Good Karma brush. I would have preferred the eyeliner as I have a ton of eye brushes.]

Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog. Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal

Urban Decay Naked2 palette
This palette contains cold colors. There are 3 matte shades, 1 sparkle shade and 8 shimmer. They are yellow-toned neutrals,  taupes and greys. This palette comes with a deluxe size Lip Junkie gloss in Naked and a Good Karma double-ended shadow and blending/crease brush. The Lip Junkie goes on very neutral only making your lips slightly redder. It plumps your lips and smells like peppermint, which gives it that cooling effect. The shadows are housed in a metal/tin box.

Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, Snakebite, Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted, Blackout

The Verdict: I don't have a favorite palette persay, but I find I am using my Naked palette more than Naked2. It's hard to compare both palettes as they are very different in tone and colours. It comes down to which tones and shades look good on you. If you have both of these palettes, you won't need another neutral/naked palette again. I think they are a must have for any makeup collection. If you're only just starting out in makeup, I would recommend buying at least one of these palettes, if not both.

I hoped you liked this review and I plan to do more "vs" comparisons in the future.

I've also planned out the days of the week for all things makeup to make it a bit more fun:

Monday: Mascara Monday (obviously won't turn into a long-term thing cuz I'm not that big of a mascara person, but it'll probably take 1-2 months to cover the mascaras that I do have)
Tuesday: Tutorial Tuesday
Wednesday: Working Wednesday (more neutral/nude safe for school/work looks)
Thursday: Tutorial Thursday / Throwback Thursday (on Throwback Thursday I will show you some makeup looks I did when I was younger and I'll try to remember what products I used)
Friday: Fashion Friday (more crazy, out there makeup looks)
Saturday: Smokey Saturday (yay for smokey eyes!)
Sunday: No Idea. Give me a suggestion!!

So I ask you, my fellow makeup enthusiasts, which palette did you prefer? Naked 1 or Naked 2 and why? What other naked or nude/neutral palettes do you recommend? What makeup theme should Sunday be? Did you like the brushes that came with these palettes and would you recommend I try them out?

Thank you and see you soon,

La-la-love,

Steph xo.

[Disclaimer: All products are bought and paid for by me. All opinions are my own.]

P.S. I might not be posting everyday for the beginning of this week because I have a lot of school work to do and my 3rd round of tests is coming up, and less than a week after, its finals!! So please excuse me if I'm not as present as I would like to be.