Sparkle Shack Shenanigans – When did October Sneak Up on Me (2015)?

Goodness, time is flying. For a while, I had gotten into the groove of photographing the Diavoli Collection from Aromaleigh. My plan is to show the collection, or at least most of them, here all in one post. Seeing swatches and photos side-by side is the best way to see collections of products and I know that I have always enjoyed seeing posts of full collections on other blogs even more than little one-off blurbs like my Daily Sparkle project.

Recently, my little soapmaking business took over all my free time. I’m rather proud of how they turned out (pictured above). You can find them on my site Nerdy Girl Soaps if you’re a fan of supporting infinitesimally small businesses and like home-made soaps. I’ve already sold out of all but one (almost complete) set. Deadly Nightshade (green/purple/yellow soap above) sold out in the first few minutes of going live.

This week, I begin the process of concocting new scent creations for my upcoming Winter Holiday Soaps, which will hopefully be ready to sell the last week of November. In the mean time, I’m starting the process of putting my vegetable garden to bed for the season.

I hope to get back to photographing makeup very soon. I may have to skip the eye swatches for a bit. My eyes have been swollen often of late. At first I thought it was just random days where I’d eaten too much salt the night before but I’m seeing a solid pattern emerge and now I’m swollen all day every day. I go into the endocrinologist in two weeks and I have a feeling my thyroid medication will need to be adjusted. Every time my thyroid hormones are too low I end up with puffy eyes and generally feel run down and exhausted, which makes it difficult to work on my hobbies and other fun activities like make-up photos and swatching.

But, my thyroid problems aren’t all doom and gloom. Some of you may not know that this blog and my Daily Sparkle project, which predates this blog by more than a year, all started because of my thyroid disorder. During the worst of my weight gain and swelling, I decided to take the time to do pamper myself and to also document and accept the physical changes that were happening to me as they came. My challenge, at that time, was to learn to love and accept how I looked no matter what and to document it all through photographs. Maybe it is time for me to get back to the original spirit of the Daily Sparkle project and to photograph myself even on the bad/puffy days.

In the mean time… Sparkle on! You’ll see me again soon. I promise! Also, here’s a photo of my dog, Sagan, being very lazy while cuddling on the couch with my husband. Life is rough when you’re a cute dog.

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Daily Sparkle: Aromaleigh’s Scarmiglione

 

Today’s look features one of the eyeshadows from Aromaleigh’s Diavoli collection. Scarmiglione is a muted purple-taupe with a gold to green duochrome. It is beautiful. If you aren’t familiar with the Diavoli collection you should check them out here. They are a seasonal Halloween collection. If you like a good smokey eye you’ll absolutely love them. This collection mostly features eyeshadows with muted plush base tones with gorgeously subtle shimmer, duochromes, and in a few cases sparkle.

Kristen at Aromaleigh has been slowly rolling out reformulations of many of her eyeshadows; making them adhere to the skin better. This one and the entire Diavoli collection have just been rereleased in the new formula in time for Halloween.The base colors are more vivid than before which also helps to make the shimmer and duochrome more noticeable. I still used Nyx skintone primer because I think they usually work so well with Aromaleigh’s products.

I truly loved this color. I think it would work well for daytime to evening and could be worn in most office settings. See you all next time. Remember to stay sparkly.

Eye Products:

• Primer – Urban Decay – Primer Potion
• Primer – Nyx – Skintone
• Eyeshadow – Aromaleigh – Scarmiglione
• Eyeshadow – Tarte’s Tartelette Pallete – Natural Beauty (crease)
• Brow bone highlight – Benefit – Eyebright
• Avon – Supershock Gel Liner – Black (upper waterline)
• Eyeliner – Stila – Stay All Day Eyeliner Pen (cat eye & wing)

Brow Products:

• Anastasia of Beverly Hills – Brow Wiz in Ebony
• Anastasia of Beverly Hills – Dip Brow in Medium Brown

Face Products:

• Foundation Powder – Dreamworld Hermetica – Hecate II (Luna) and III (Vapor) (I’m in-between colors)

Lip Products:

• Lipstick – Urban Decay– Shame Revolution Lipstick (patted on over clear balm as a sheer stain)

Daily Sparkle: Femme Fatale’s The Ghost Next Door

Good morning Sparkle Nation. Today I’m wearing The Ghost Next Door eyeshadow from Femme Fatale Cosmetics. It is a muddy green with violet duochrome and I’m surprisingly in love with it. I added a little bit of FF’s Slumber Sand on the inner corner and used some neutrals from Tarte’s Tartelette palette to darken the crease.

I also am in the process of testing out some new powdered foundations from Dreamworld Hermetica. In the photo below I’m wearing a combination of Hecate II and III. The coverage is amazing but the color match isn’t quite as good as my Meow Cosmetics Korat, which literally melts into my skin. I think maybe it is because I got Hecate II in Luna and III in Vapor. Vapor is titanium dioxide free and is a bit darker/more yellow than Luna. So basically, I got the lighter formula in the lighter color and the darker formula in the darker tone. It seems to work pretty well when I mixed them though, don’t you think?

And I almost forgot to mention… DWH’s site is down while they rebuild it. Ellamae at DW is awesome though and offered to help color match me while the site was down. You can find a bit of info about her foundations here along with her contact info.

See you all next time!

Eye Products:

• Primer – Urban Decay – Primer Potion
• Primer – Fyrinnae – Pixy Epoxy
• Eyeshadow – Femme Fatale – The Ghost Next Door
• Eyeshadow – Femme Fatale – Slumber Sand (currently out of stock)
• Eyeshadow – Tarte’s Tartelette Pallete – Natural Beauty, Best Friend, and Fashionista – all in the crease
• Avon – Supershock Gel Liner – Black (used in the upper and lower waterline)
• Eyeliner – Stila – Stay All Day Eyeliner Pen (cat eye & wing)

Brow Products:

• Anastasia of Beverly Hills – Brow Wiz in Ebony
• Anastasia of Beverly Hills – Dip Brow in Medium Brown

Face Products:

• Foundation Powder – Dreamworld Hermetica – Hecate II (Luna) and III (Vapor) (I’m in-between colors)

Lip Products:

• Lipstick – Colourpop Cosmetics – Lumiere Lippie Stick

Daily Sparkle – Post Apocalyptic Warrior

Good morning everyone. I know I’ve been absent for a bit. I was busy with PAX prime and when I got back from that I was busy finishing my Halloween soap collection. I post pics of both of all that soon. For now, here’s a me channeling my inner warrior. I’d just gotten back from the gym and after a fierce workout and was feeling strong. I had a few minutes to play around before showering and getting ready for the rest of the evening.

It also coincides with Shiro Cosmetics’ Post Apocalyptic make-up challenge on their FB group – Shiro’s Happy Funtime Group. If you aren’t already a member check them out and join up. They do biweekly makeup challenges. What could be more fun? And!!! the winner (randomized so you don’t have to have mad-skills to win) gets a bit of store credit. I think it is $10 or so.

For this photo I’m wearing Shiro’s The Blood of My Enemies lipgloss layered over a tiny bit of Colour Pop’s Grind lippie stick. They were both patted over just the inside center of my lips after I’d applied lots of concealer to nude the edges out.

Shiro’s Riddles in the Dark eyeshadow was mixed with a little bit of Darling Girl’s Superstar Serum (liquid makeup fixative) to make my warpaint across my forehead and over my eyebrows.

Aromaleigh’s Spectre de la Nuit is the contour I used for my cheekbones, temples, and jawline. For my eyes, I choose to go with a barely-there look and used mattes from Tarte’s Tartlette pallette.

 

Eye Products:

• Primer – Urban Decay – Primer Potion
• Eyeshadow – Tarte’s Tartelette Pallete – Power player (crease and to darken under eye circles), Natural Beauty (upper lid), Caregiver (upper lid and below lower lash line), Multitasker (upper lash line)
• Avon – Glimmersticks Eyeliner – Cosmic Brown
• Eyeliner – Stila – Stay All Day Eyeliner Pen – Black (just used to lightly sweep up the outer corner)
• Concealer – Amazing Cosmetics – Amazing Concealer in “Light Golden”

Brow Products:

• Anastasia of Beverly Hills – Brow Wiz in Ebony
• Anastasia of Beverly Hills – Dip Brow in Medium Brown

Face Products:

• Foundation Powder – Meow Cosmetics – Pampered Korat in Frisky and Naughty (I’m in-between colors)
• Contour – Aromaleigh – Spectre de la Nuit
• Eyeshadow – Shiro Cosmetics – Riddles in the Dark (used for “warpaint)
• Eyeshadow Fixative – Darling Girl Cosmetics – Superstar Serum

Lip Products:

• Concealer – Amazing Cosmetics – Amazing Concealer in “Light Golden” (outer lips)
• Lipgloss – Shiro Cosmetics – The Blood of My Enemies
• Lipstick – Colourpop Cosmetics – Grind Lippie Stick

A Challenge to Myself and Others: Acceptance and Gratitude

 

Here’s a challenge for myself and for anyone else who wants to join me: For the next week I am going to give out AT LEAST one honest compliment to someone every day. If I happen to get any compliments I will only answer them with “Thank you”. I will not justify, downplay, negate, or otherwise lessen any compliments I am given. I will simply accept them with gratitude.

We as human beings, and especially women, are taught from a young age to be humble to the point of being self deprecating. I do not want to live in a world where I am constantly making myself feel less than nor do I want to send that message to anyone else. I would like to see if this change has any affect in how I feel about myself and also in how I feel about others. I would like to see if it has changed how I interact with the people and world around me.

If words have power then a lack of negative self-talk should also have some sort of power. Please feel free to join me, I hope you will.

Daily Sparkle: Femme Fatale’s Tiny Manticore

 

Here’s a quick, everyday kind of look using Femme Fatale’s Tiny Manticore. The website calls it:  A warm sparkly brown with slight green shift, which I would say is the perfect description for it.

Tiny Manticore is super creamy and applies and blends like a dream. It is a great product for one-color look and it is just dark enough to be used as a day-time smokey eye. I love the green shift that catches in the light. The shift would probably be stronger with a sticky primer but because I wanted something subtle for today I patted and blended this color over UDPP (urban decay primer potion).

That’s all for today. Sparkle on until next time. 🙂

 

Eye Products:

• Primer – Urban Decay – Primer Potion
• Eyeshadow – Femme Fatale – Tiny Manticore
• Eyeliner – Stila – Stay All Day Eyeliner Pen – Black

Brow Products:

• Anastasia of Beverly Hills – Brow Wiz in Ebony
• Anastasia of Beverly Hills – Dip Brow in Medium Brown

Face Products:

• Foundation Powder – Meow Cosmetics – Pampered Korat in Frisky and Naughty (I’m in-between colors)
• Contour – Benefit – Hula Bronzer
• Blush – Benefit Cosmetics – Sugarbomb blush

Shiro’s Flash Ignite Collection – Swatches and Photos

 

Hello everyone. Long time no sparkle. I finally got a chance to take the last photos for this collection. Whew! That was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed it. Sorry it took me so long, I’d meant to have this out weeks ago but I got sick and wasn’t able to do the eye/face photos until I recovered.

I loved the range of colors in Flash Ignite and found most of the eyeshadows to be very easy to work with. A few were a tiny bit difficult but, even with those, I found that they really shined with a few tweaks to application.

For all the following photos UDPP = urban decay primer potion, FPE = Fyrinnae Pixy Epoxy. In most of the FPE photos the shadow was applied in a patting motion unless otherwise noted.

Any time FPE is mentioned as being “buffed” what I did was apply FPE, wait for it to dry a bit, then I applied the shadow heavily, pressing it down for max adhesion. Last, I used a soft-natural bristle eyeshadow brush to buff everything down (think about buffing your shoes only way more gentle… because skin)

I would like to be completely transparent about the fact that the lovely Caitlin of Shiro sent me samples of this set for me to play with and test out before the collection went up for sale on her site. That said, I was not paid to blog or write anything about the collection so all opinions are my own.

As always, any of the titles (in pink) are links directly to the product so click away. And now, let’s get to the photos!

 

NomNomNomNom

Deep cool burgundy with strong blue shift

I’d say the description is pretty much spot on. The Urban Decay Primer Potion (UDPP) and Bare Skin application look more similar in person than the photos show. With UDPP it is a bit more matte but not as matte as the photo shows. Over Fyrinnae’s Pixy Epoxy (FPE) the color shifts to a cooler tone.

Eeeny, Meeny, Miney, Burn!

Bright fuchsia loaded with fiery red sparks

A bit Patchy over FPE when patted on, not recommended directly over UDPP (not photographed) as it is very patchy with this primer. I might have to try this one over a cream-based primer like the one from ELF.

On the other hand, when buffed with FPE it looks like the most beautiful oil-slick. The bronze shimmer becomes a metallic overlay.

Lets Use All the Colors!

Bright cool purple with strong golden shift

Vibrant medium-dark purple matte base with subtle to strong pale gold shimmer (depends on primer). Very smooth over UDPP. Patchy when applied over FPE without buffing it. On the other hand, when buffed, it takes on a strong gold metallic over-shimmer.

“Lets Use” looks very similar over bare skin and UDPP. Sorry I forgot to take a photo over bare skin. Bad me 😦

Who Needs Reasons?

pale grey-blue with such a pink shift

Sheer and soft, this is one of the palest colors of the collection. Over bare skin it takes on a bluish cast to its base color. Over UDPP it is a beautiful sheer blue-grey with pink-purple duochrome. Over FPE the blue in the base becomes more apparent and a bit darker and the pink/purple duochrome comes alive.

And now… all four in action. In the next two photos (also the photo at the very top of this post): Eeeny, Meeny, Miney, Burn is below the crease (on the lid) – buffed over FPE. Who Needs Reasons is on the inner corner – patted over FPE. Lets Use all the Colors is on the lower lash line – over FPE. OmNomNomNom is in the crease – blended over UDPP.

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha.

Metallic true yellow-gold

Deep golden with mustard-yellow tones. FPE really brings out the metallic sheen of this one although it is a tad bit warmer in color over UDPP. Over UDPP it is shimmery but not quite metallic.

My Mind’s Telling Me No

almost-matte, almost-neutral rose-tinted tan with the most subtle metallic red shift

Over Bare Skin or UDPP this eyeshadow has a bit of a whitish-buff tone. It is very creamy and matte. When applied over FPE it becomes a bit warmer and golden and becomes a bit more shimmery.

“My Mind” looks basically the same over bare skin and UDPP. I probably should have gone back and taken a photo over bare skin but…. real-life time-constraint-reasons 😉

Violence Solves Everything

Bright, bold, somewhat shifty red – pinker in some lights and oranger in others

This color shifts a tad bit more pink over FPE. Over bare skin or UDPP it is a beautiful red with orange undertones.

In the next two photos “Violence” and “My Mind” were blended into the crease over UDPP. “Ha, Ha” is patted on over UDPP.

The eye photo was taken in natural light but the full face (indoor daylight bulb) shows the mustard tones of “Ha, Ha” most accurately.

Gems are Outrageous

Layers and layers of blue – this is a blue base with several different kinds of blue shimmer, a metallic blue shift, and blue glitter to boot. The overall effect is a very sparkly deep turquoise blue with lots of depth

Sapphire blue sparkles and shimmer over a medium-deep, slightly sheer, grey-blue base. Super sparkly even over bare skin. A sticky primer like FPE is recommended just to keep glitter fall-out at a minimum. This is the most sparkly of the bunch and the photos don’t do justice. Very smooth in person so please ignore the weird camera distortion that my macro lens does.

Gift of Toadstool

Deep swampy brown with a green shift and purple-mushroom sparks

In a dark room with no direct light hitting the swatch, this color looks mostly like a dark brown. When the light hits, it flashes with dark golden-green duochrome, and pinky-purple sparkles. The green is not very noticeable without a primer. On the other hand, over a sticky primer, it is much stronger than the FPE photo shows.

The photos don’t do this color justice. My macro lens likes to show a strong distortion because of its shallow depth of field. This color is not patchy at all in person

Surprise!

Semi-sheer ghostly grey with pale green shimmers

Over bare skin this shadow is very sheer – a slight grey base with translucent green shimmer. Add UDPP and the green glow begins to grow. Over FPE it is absolutely glowing and the grey base becomes darker and takes on a blue cast.

In the next two photos I used “Gems” across most of the lid and blended up into the crease, “Surprise” on the inner corner/tear duct area, and “Gift of Toadstool” on the lower lash line. They were all applied over FPE except in the crease area where “Gems” was blended over UDPP. Can you even believe how sparkly it is on the eye close-up below? Gah!

Come Play With Me

Cool muted ashy green with a strong antique gold shift

Patina blue-green matte base with golden shimmer. Very sheer over bare skin. Over FPE when buffed it becomes a strong yellow-gold duochrome with a greyish blue-green base.

This one is a bit difficult to apply and reminds me of Shiro’s No Men Like me in the fact that it can sometimes end up patchy; with the matte color in the center with a golden ring around the edge. For that reason, I like to use this color over FPE and then do a light buffing.

Even with it being slightly harder to work with, this color was one of my surprise favorites out of the bunch. It looks absolutely beautiful on the eyes ❤

Demaciaaah!

Deep, rich navy blue with strong metallic gold shift

Dark blue base with golden shimmers. Very velvety-smooth in person. When buffed over FPE it takes on a very strong greenish-gold-bronze duochrome. Not patchy at all. Bad camera. 😦

An now in action, along with Surprise on the inner corner. “Come Play” is lightly buffed over FPE across most of the lid. Demaciaaah is blended in the crease and applied to the lower lash line over FPE.

I wish I’d remembered to get a full face photo of this one. It was so incredibly pretty and surprisingly flattering on my warm skin.

It’s Mine, I Licked It.

Deep shimmery murky-water-green with a trove of bright blue sparkles

Dark evergreen with green-blue shimmer. Shifts bluer when applied over FPE, a tad bit sheer over bare skin compared to over UDPP. Not patchy. No biscuit for you camera!

Hut, Two, Three, Four!

Bright chartreuse loaded up with purple sparks

Bright yellow-toned green with pink sparkles. Sheer over bare skin. Even though the photo doesn’t show the shimmer in the photo it is very similar, though less translucent over UDPP. The pink shimmer is strongest over FPE.

And now my face, again! “It’s mine” and “Hut” were blended and applied over UDPP. Next, I patted some FPE over the lower portion of my upper lid and applied more “It’s Mine” to bring out the color and sparkle. Over the course of the day, the color drained out of “Hut” a bit. Next time I’ll use a sticky primer to keep it vibrant.

Wings of Night

Deepest black-blue with strong red shift

Matte black base with deep red shimmer. When buffed, the shimmer becomes more orange in tone and is a bit stronger than the photo shows.

I had totally meant to use Wings of Night along with “It’s Mine” and “Hut” for the previous look. I completely derp’ed and used regular eyeliner.

Well, that’s it for today folks. I hope you enjoyed the photo journey through this wonderful collection. See you next time!

Sparkle Shack Shenanigans- August 2015

Wow, it has been too long since I last posted. I’d hoped to have arm and eye swatches finished for Shiro’s newest collection “Flash Ignite” by now. I’ve had everything done for weeks except for the last eye swatch. I promise, the slacking off hasn’t been on purpose. I got sick and one of the complications was that my face got really puffy. It isn’t anything serious, I’m already recovered from most of it.

In the mean time, I’ve been keeping busy with other non-makeup things. Here, for your sparkling pleasure, are some photos of what I’ve been up to.

First off, soap stuff. Something you may not know about me, I’m actually a scientist by trade. Soap making is one way that I combine my love for beautiful things and science. I make my soaps the super nerdy way using nothing but fats and oils, sodium hydroxide (turns the fat into soap), water, fragrance, and natural pigments for color.

The collection pictured above, inspired by the Greek Gods and Goddesses, sold out in less than a week (I only made about 80 bars of soap). I wrote scent-stories for each soap, which was a lot of fun to do. The soaps even came with a special label which flips open and has the story inside.

 

I also made some companion cube soaps as party favors for a geek-themed party last week. I hand-painted the hearts on and scented them like chocolate cake. If you’ve played Portal, you’ll get the joke. 🙂

 

You can see my soap site here but please remember that I’m only quasi-open to the public. My soap company is more of a hobby – done in my spare time – than a real business. There is no shopping cart and sales are handled through email only. I’m currently completely SOLD OUT but this past week I’ve been hard at work in the creation of a Halloween soap collection which I should have ready by October 1st. Hurray for Halloween, my favorite time of year!

In other news, I’ve spent a good amount of my spring and summer in my veggie garden. Below are photos of some Japanese turnips I grew, a star jasmine flower from my jasmine bush, and a harvest of pea shoots. If you ever get a chance to try pea-shoots, you should. They taste a lot like sweet pea pods and are great fresh (if young and tender), or quickly wilted with a little bit of butter and salt and pepper.

 

In other Sparkle Shack news, I’ve been hard at work being a Disney Princess, apparently. Three little tree frogs have decided to call my third-floor patio home. There are no stairs up to it, so they had to climb the side of the building. I like to imagine them as cute little ninjas climbing up to their arboreal monastery. I have a little patio garden out there and the frogs seem to like it.

The first one you’ll see is in a jar. We had to do a catch and release because he snuck inside my house like the little ninja he is; camouflaged in the pea shoots when we took them inside for harvest. The second one lives inside of an empty planter. The third one we find mostly at night on the walls hanging out near our outdoor light.

That’s about it for the news around here. Have a sparkly day, enjoy the last of the summer, and I’ll see you soon. (Hopefully with more make-up pics)

Daily Sparkle: Femme Fatale’s Bat Wing Hall and Desecration eyeshadows

 

Happy Tuesday. Here’s another quick look using Femme Fatale’s Bat Wing Hall, which is a pink with purple undertones and golden shimmer, across the lid. Desecration, which has sadly been discontinued, is shown in the crease. It is a mid-toned blue/purple with green shimmer. I promise the crease doesn’t look this patchy in person, but you can see Desecration’s purple base along the edge of the crease where it was blended out.

 

Both of these eyeshadows were applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion (to keep my shadows from creasing) with Fyrinnae’s Pixy Epoxy over the top of that. For what ever reason – probably because I couldn’t get the ambient light in the room dark enough – I couldn’t get this either of these eyeshadows to show off their duochrome nature without resorting to a ring-light. Apologies for the flat lighting and weird ring on my iris. I’m not a fan of this type of lighting but it has its uses.

 

A quick note: Fyrinnae’s site is down until the 12th of this month so if you click on the link to the Pixy Epoxy before that date, you won’t find anything.

 

See you all next time.

 

Eye Products:

• Primer – Urban Decay – Primer Potion
• Primer – Fyrinnae’s Pixy Epoxy
• Eyeshadow – Femme Fatale – Bat Wing Hall
• Eyeshadow – Femme Fatale – Desecration (discontinued)
• Eyeliner – Stila – Stay All Day Eyeliner Pen – Black
• Eyeliner – Anastasia of Beverly Hills – Gel Liner – Black

Brow Products:

• Anastasia of Beverly Hills – Brow Wiz in Ebony
• Anastasia of Beverly Hills – Dip Brow in Medium Brown

Daily Sparkle: Femme Fatale’s Candied Apple and Underlord

 

Hello everyone. Another quick post today. I’m wearing Femme Fatale Cosmetics’ Candied Apple and Underlord. Aren’t they just gorgeous?

If you can believe it, Candied Apple (from tear-duct to across 3/4 of the lid) is even more shimmery in person. I tried to capture the duochrome nature of it and show off its warm burgundy toned pink base color along with the silvered teal shift. In person and over a sticky primer like Fyrinnae’s Pixy Epoxy (FPE) the teal looks almost liquid metallic with a warm medium-pale burgundy undertone.

Underlord, shown here on the outer v and crease, is a deeper berry with burgundy tones and green shimmer. I’ve shown it here blended out in the crease over Urban Decay Primer Potion to show off the base color. Below the crease you can see it lightly patted over FPE to get just a bit of the duochrome to show up.

I found them both to be very easy to work with. There was no patchiness or problems with blending of either.

Until next time, Sparkle On!