How many languages do you speak?

Hopefully, in a few weeks, I'll be able to say "two, fluently!" I know a lot of you ladies probably have multiple languages, so I'd love to hear what they are!

[And no, I don't speak Chinese. I'm so damn tired of people asking me a)CAN YOU TRANSLATE THIS?! and b)WHY DON'T YOU SPEAK CHINESE?!, always in tones LIKE THIS -- clearly -- because they are a)ignorant, or b)annoying.

I am Canadian. And that is what I speak. Now stuff it, jerks.]

Tessa Thursdays: Exaggerate those eyes!

Eyeliners are the one thing I am super-ultra picky about. Why? Because if they don’t smudge well into the lashline, it looks odd. They smudge a little too well, and end up under your eyes. They can be really ‘soft’ resulting in a line that’s a little too thick, or they can be really ‘hard’ and end up scratching your delicate eyelid. They either stay all day and refuse to come off (resulting in you scrubbing your eye off), or they give you racoon eyes within the hour. Or (here’s a kicker) they disappear from your lashline completely, and you have no idea where they went!

My other requirements for an eyeliner; they must have a solid range of colors, be able to wear through almost anything, portability, ease of application, and nice pigmentation.

Anyways, I’ve found an eyeliner that performs great, scratch that, it performs awesomely, and has nice little extras. Meet Rimmel’s Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer (mine is in Deep Ocean, a deep, dark, navy blue). This is an automatic pencil with a dual ended foam smudger/sharpener on one end.

Ever notice how automatic pencils get really dull, and there’s really no way to fix them? Rimmel’s come up with an innovative solution. By putting a sharpener in the end (you pull out the smudger to reveal the sharpener on the other end) you can sharpen on the go. Super skinny (and therefore, portable?) check. With the added bonus of a foam smudger, I don’t have to carry another brush with me. Perfect! The smudger works decently, though I wouldn’t recommend it as a total replacement for a good smudger brush. I like using it to blend my eyeliner into my lashline, but it’s not too great for smokey eyes.

As it’s a pencil, the application is a breeze. The tip is a tad bit soft for my liking, but it does give enough control for a wing, and gives a nice line. Also performed nicely on the waterline (though I usually don’t wear my liner there!). Pigmentation is fair, though I feel like I should go over the line twice to get a nice dark navy line. (My new favourite look-a swipe of this on the upper lashline, and some of L’Oreal HiP’s teal cream eyeliner blended overtop). As a waterproof eyeliner, it got through sad movies (Marley & Me, anyone?), but not a vigorous swim practice (hello racoon eyes-though not too serious). At least it was a breeze to get off! (Clinique’s Take the Day Off for Lips & Eyes-thanks Rae!) I also love the range of colors-though not huge, it has the customary black and brown, along with a purple, gold, and teal!

My recommendation? Buy it! It’s a pretty good buy at about $7.

Gold/purple tutorial

I did a quick tutorial for yesterday's look - on my eye, though, not on mum's! I didn't want to make her sit through all the photos etc.

You can do this in a simple three-step method, so stick around or scroll down. We'll go over the materials/products first.

The materials:

I always do intersecting swatches to see which bases to pair with my shadows, and I thought you guys might like to see them! Bases are the one thing I cannot stress enough - they make a huge difference on the outcome of your look! I love mixing and matching products. It not only helps with staying powder, but it also amps up the vibrancy a TON!

Purples --
I ended up choosing Senna Twilight mixed with Korres Plum overtop of Smashbox Smashing Mystic jumbo pencil fort his look, though in real life I would have just used Twilight. (It doesn't show up as well on camera as it did in real life!)

Golds --
Man, these were SO different over a base! Some of them turned orange, others brown... and one, the perfect shade of gold! I went with the Victoria's Secret Mosaic Moss palette, which contains a gold shade. In real life, I'd layer it over Benefit Gilded, but for the photos, I chose Smashbox Smashing Velvet jumbo pencil as my base.


The steps:
1. Apply a base. Messiness doesn't matter! Use a synthetic concealer/cream product brush or your finger to "pat" the product into itself, the other shade, and your lid. Don't rub; this will only rub the product off.
2. Apply corresponding shadows overtop.
3. Blend. I know this looks more subdued in the photos than step #2, but I'm not quite sure why. In real life, the transition between 2 and 3 is definitely necessary and is conducive to a cleaner look! Get rid of all those harsh lines.
That's it! Line and apply mascara if you wish; I didn't bother, as I knew I wouldn't be wearing this out of the house.

One look, two different lid types

I tried something different today: instead of just using an eye look as inspiration, I decided to do it on my monolid, and then use the same look for double (normal) lids! It was definitely fun, and not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be (as this one's vertically, not horizontally, blended.) Tutorial tomorrow.

The promo that inspired the look:I know that my camera white balances very warm/bronze in DIRECT-direct sunlight (as in, oh-g0d-my-eyes-are-burning sunlight), and I wanted that bronzed look to match the promo - so I took the finished photos in this lighting!

Here's my mum's eye to start with. I did mine first, and hers about two hours later, so it was dark by the time we finished hers! I had to bump the ISO to 400 in order to get a clear image, so please excuse the noise! I really loved how her eye looked very purple from one side, and very gold from the other!
For the record, she'd never wear something like this out of the house - nor would I force her to! I know she isn't the optimal age for this look, but she's the only double lid I have easy access to, so dammit, I will take advantage of that fact! :P


And, finally, here's my eye:

Hope you enjoyed the post! I had SO much fun doing a similar look on a monolid and a double lid - it was definitely fun making tiny alterations for the different lid types!

#1 Beauty Tool? You better believe it.

It's not a lash curler.

It's not nail clippers.

It's not even a toothbrush.

May I please introduce to you the new love of your lives, the holy grail of tweezers?? *applause*Product: Tweezerman mini slant tweezer.

On the size and tip: I like a shorter tweezer - you can get closer to the mirror, allowing for even greater precision. They do come in a "regular" size, though, so that shouldn't be of any worry to you! Pick which ever one you prefer. And as for the tip? I prefer a slant tip, simply because they're the most versitile. Point tweezers can only be used on ingrowns, and flat-top tweezers can only be used on larger hairs and larger areas, so these were the right fit for me!

What's great: These are honestly the best tweezers I've ever come by. Now, that doesn't include crazy high end ones - but who can actually afford to blow $100 on tweezers, for crying out loud?! Go feed a small nation for a month instead. They're super-precise, so it's easy to pull out little brow hairs that other tweezers can't reach. Even better is the fact that when they dull, you can send them in for free sharpening! Now that's a deal. As long as you don't lose these babies, they'll be with you forever!

(You better not go about losing them. Would you leave your baby in your one-night-stand's bathroom?! Exactly. Don't do it.)

The verdict? Do I even need to say it? Buy, buy, buy. I'd even pick these up if they're not on sale (though if they are, even better!) Yes, folks. They're that good.

They're give-up-chocolate-for-a-month good.

We mean buisness.

Update

As much as I miss you guys, I must admit - Rivière-du-Loup is kinda freaking fantastic. It`s gorgeous, the people are great, and I`ve somehow managed to make friends that I do not hate within the program.

Oh, right -- I`ve also been learning French =P Somehow, though, this seems less of an OHMYGOD factor than it did a month ago. Walking down the street, it`s hard to remember you`re in an entirely different province with an entirely different language... that is, until you hear someone speak. Or until an old man glares at you -- as a minority, I`m feeling much less welcome here than I do at home. Alas, the side effects of small towns in Québec.

Anyhow; it rained for about the first week and a half and I was a little worried I`d never see the sun again. But alas, it`s returned, and now I`m missing the rain (oh but of course!) We`re given pretty much every meal in the cafeteria - the food`s alright but very processed - except dinner on Friday through Sunday and lunch on the weekends, but they give us $40 to deal with that (which is incredibly strange, might I add.)

There isn`t too much more to be said. (Perhaps this is the reason for the rambling and poorly structured post?)I`ve been reading and responding to all your comments, and I really do hope it`s like I`m still 100% there! We`re kept fairly busy and get a ton of physical activity (if by this we mean that I`m on the third floor and you have to go down five sets of stairs and up another two to get the the cafeteria) so I`ve been pretty wiped by the end of the day -- so sorry for the lack of "fresh news"! (You know I love my brackets and scare quotes.)

Also, my friends have seemed to decide to revere me as the makeup god of the program. Though I don`t agree with this fact, I`m totally ready to abuse their false conclusions and make the most of it - faces practicing on! Colour me psyched. However, as you all know, most of my makeup is at home, so I haven`t any variety, colour, or brushes. We`re not quite sure how to deal with aside from each person buying a product or two from Shopper`s for their colouring - I`m considering the Maybelline quads under Tanya`s advice (read the review here) and cannot find NYX here, but any drugstore rants or raves would be greatly appreciated in the comments!

ON THAT NOTE, Shopper`s is Pharmasave here, and it sells professional colour. So, of course, I picked up some 10vol and 5-99 for myself ^^ For a colour girl, it`s pretty damn exciting!

Off to go finish mes devoirs. I hate that we have homework and tests, but it`s not heaps and heaps, so I really haven`t a problem with it.

Yet.

What you can do with a six-pack of tealights

...make a brush holder for your mini brushes! I used cue cards, cut up and taped in carefully, in order to make three compartments: one for brushes, one for q-tips, and one for nail implements.They're cute, cheap, and then you have another couple for actual tealights. (Well, I don't really burn tealights, but I do use that black one to hold fragrance vials.)

Tessa Thursdays: Who doesn't love a light kiss?

If you didn’t know this already, I am a lip balm connoisseur. I have one on me at all times, and I really never get tired of trying new ones! My latest favourite is none other than Nivea’s Light Kiss-the only downside with this one is that it doesn’t have SPF!

Let’s take a look at Nivea’s product description; “...indulges lips with an immediate touch of softness, extra-light texture is quickly absorbed leaving no sticky or waxy feeling..”

Check, check, check! Nivea’s Light Kiss lives up to all of its product claims. The balm feels silky smooth on lips, and sinks right in. The texture is my favourite part of this balm, it has the most gorgeous silky, creamy texture. There really is no sticky or waxy feeling with this balm, and it’s super-light. It sinks in super-fast and keeps your lips hydrated for next to forever. My lips haven’t been dry or flaky (I have this bad habit of picking off dead skin from my bottom lip when stressed-ew, I know!) since I’ve started using Light Kiss! It’s even fixed up my lips after a not-so-nice encounter with a drying SPF lipbalm (more on that later).

The product is packaged in pot form, which makes for a very unsanitary application! Another of my habits is to apply lip balm when I am stressed/nervous/otherwise agitated. With finals here, I’ve been using a lot of lip balm! I know I should be applying this with clean fingers, but when you’re studying for a math final and you don’t really want to get up to wash your fingers? Well, I’m pretty sure the balm isn’t too sanitary right now. If only it came in a tube form!

Another downside (for some) may be the smell. It smells faintly of Almond Oil and something I can’t quite place. Actually, come to think of it, it smells a lot like Nivea’s Soft! I actually like the smell of both Light Kiss & Soft, so the smell isn’t too much of a problem for me. However, it is quite strong, and may be bothersome to some.

As for the price? You really can’t beat $4 for such a great product.

The verdict? For anyone who wants a super-light, long-lasting, balm with the silkiest texture and doesn’t mind the strong smell.

Just out of curiosity...

Bobbi Brown released a LE foundation palette recently - the BBU. I was looking at it (and it's hefty $250 price tag!) and wondering - if you were starting out as a makeup artist, would this be worth it?

Well, short of doing an in-depth study, I'll just go over the cost breakdown. It contains correctors, concealers, and foundations... but what would the cost be if you were to buy the products from her normal line and split them with other new makeup artists?
The palette has 0.04oz/1.2g pans of nine different correctors. Bobbi Brown makes three others, but I'll pretend they don't exist for this breakdown :P We're just sticking to replicating this palette!

Normal cost: $22
Product per pot: 0.06oz/1.7g

This means you could get 1.5 pans per container, so let's pretend we're buying four and making six palettes (you'll see why later). You'll have 0.24oz of product, letting you make six 0.04oz portions.

Then there's 12 pans of the 14 creamy concealers, 0.03oz/1.1g in each pot.

Normal cost: $22
Product per pot: 0.06oz/1.7g

Just like with the correctors, four of these is equal to six of the pans in the palette.

And finally, pans of all 17 shades of Bobbi's foundation stick - you'd get 0.05oz/1.7g of each.

Normal cost: $44
Product per stick: 0.33oz/9.0g

If you buy the sticks, you'll get 6.6 pans per stick. See why we're doing six, now? For the sake of my brain, I'll pretend the last 0.6oz disappeared - let's say the six of you got together to make swatch sheets, and that was used up.

So - what are my findings??

We're buying four of each concealer and corrector, and one of each foundation stick.

=$22[4 x (9 correctors + 12 concealers)] + $44(17 foundations)
=$1848 + $748
=$2562

Let's divide that by six, because you're getting six palettes out of it!

=$2562/6
=$427

Man, that took up way too much time for such a small result. Which was...?

If you're going to buy all of Bobbi's foundations, this is very much worth it.

That is all.

I'm alive!

And borrowing a computer - so all I'm going to say is "hi!" and that Quebec is kinda freaking awesome.

That is all :) Remember to keep checking the chatter box, which I'm trying to remember to update!