Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Guest Post: Military Appreciation

Hey to All of Megan's Awesome readers! This is Sarah from Samarium's Swatches.
 I am so excited to bring you this post today!! I am not that excited about how it turned out, but so excited for the reason she needs guest posts! I tried to do a military Mani because I know relatively what she has been though, it is close to my heart <3 My Hubby is in the Army and only a few months ago he returned home too, It always warms my heart to see loved ones being reunited. I live on post and everyday I see families going through deployments & separations, and it makes me appreciate military wives, husbands, girlfriends etc so much more especially after being one, I have nothing but respect for these women & men and wish them all the best!
For my Nails I tried to represent the US Navy, Army, Air Force, & Marines. I failed pretty bad (imo) haha But I am still new to freehanding, and I think you at least kind of get the idea LOL 
Try to ignore my little nubbin I broke it last night :( I hope everybody had a absolutely AMAZING week, Especially Megan & Jeremy <3  But I think we all know you will be ;) hehe

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

My Heart Is Whole Again

Ladies, by the time you read this, my man will be home in my arms again. I scheduled in advance because I knew  I'd be busy spending time with my lovey. I will try to post pics of us though ;). Knowing I'll be spending so much time with him, I scheduled some guest posts in advance for about a week. My ladies really came through for me and I'm so happy with all the posts! You'll love them too! I will still be reading the comments ladies, so please continue to show your love!!

After six long months apart, we'll finally be together. While he was in the desert defending our freedom, I was holding down the home front. Now he gets to come home and help lol. Boy do I have a serious honey-do list for him! Although I'd never say anything is worth being away from my love for so long, I have learned so much this deployment and have taken some valuable things away from it:

  • I am strong. I can do it. He is strong. We can make it together. 
  • I can find a way to do what I need to do. Rubber jar openers come in handy when there isn't a man in the house. 
  • It's amazing how much of a mess one person can make. I can't blame it all on him anymore. 
  • No matter how much free time you have, you always feel like you don't have enough. 
  • Nothing makes time go by quicker or slower. It just goes. 
  • Most of the time there is nothing you can do about it. Accept this, and continue living life one day at a time. 
  • No matter how many times I tell myself I need to understand, it's still annoying to see someone complain about how much she misses her significant other when they'll only be gone a weekend. Feel free to help me get over this. 
  • Our love is worth all the lonely nights because I know he's coming back to me. 
This is what we call, in the deployment world, the Donut of Misery. It tracks how far you've come, and how far you have left to go. We got through 6.2 months, 26.6 weeks, 186 days of loneliness, and we did it together!

I made a sign for him to put inside the door so he'd see it the moment he walked in!

Here is the dress I'm picking him up in. 

 And now, finally, a closer look at the homecoming nails :D. I wanted to do red so it was patriotic and romantic at the same time.
I was worried OPI DS Tapestry that I wanted to use wouldn't be red enough, since it seems more of a blushed red slightly leaning toward orange, so I layered it over Sally Hansen Zip.
Here is just one finger layered with OPI DS Tapestry. 

 And this is one coat Zip and two coats Tapestry

The redness does vary in different lights. This is more of what I wanted from it. 

It didn't feel holoy enough, so I added some ChG Fairy Dust. This is the first time I have used it, and I love it! I was worried it would make it too silvery, but it really didn't. It just made it more scattered holo-licious!

<3

Then I wanted to add a little more interest, so I used this red glitter that I haven't tried yet. This is a pic of it on the top of the bottle. WetNWild Blitzen is red tiny round glitter and medium hex glitter in a clear base. 

The finished product. 

Homecoming nails! They match my dress, are a little patriotic and romantic, and are just pretty so he'll like them :D. 

Hope you ladies will enjoy the guest posts I have lined up for you! So excited to spend some much needed time with the love of my life!! 

Monday, August 1, 2011

EOTD: Playing With Color

I really love colorful things, and like to play with color in my makeup as well. I used to think very bright looked ho-ish, but I feel like the average person can totally pull them off if done the right way. Here is what I like to do.

I love colored eye liner, and the Jordana ones from Walgreens are retractable (no sharpening ever) and are just $1.99 and often on sale for 99cents!! They aren't the best eyeliner in the world, but totally good and worth the price for sure. When playing with color I like to use a neutral for most of the eyelid to tone down the overall look and make it more wearable. My go to neutral shadow is No7 Wheatsheaf. Some No7 products can be found at Target, but not this one. It comes straight from England :D. My color of choice here is Sephora Fame and Fortune in a bright green glitter.

First I line the top lid with the colored liner. I never usually do the bottom lash line because I think it looks weird on me, even with my normal makeup.
Then, using an angled eyeliner brush, I follow the eyeliner with my colored eyeshadow starting from 3/4 in all the way to the outer corner. Near the outer corner, I start making the line thicker and more bold.
Finally, I add the neutral all over the lid, starting from the top down so I don't get green all over my lid. Then I gently brush some over the top of the color to blend the two together and tone it down.

 Green and pretty :D. 

 See, pretty toned down for a bright color, but still green. Totally wearable right!?!

This is a pic of the finished eye, but you can see the eyeliner well here. It's blended nicely, which is why I put it on first. 

Now if only I could get mascara on the top of my lashes without getting it all over my skin lol....

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Name My Franken

I still haven't named this baby! Help me out ladies! I can start a poll on my Facebook page once I get a few ideas too! :D

More pics on my post about it!
What do you think?

Friday, July 29, 2011

My First Franken!

So I finally jumped on the Franken bandwagon. I started with a shitty old polish in a mini bottle and cleaned it out with acetone. It actually took quite a while to get it all the way clean since I couldn't really reach the inside. Using a pipe cleaner really helped get the polish gunk off the inside of the bottle.

I used a total of 14 polishes, kind of a ton lol. I wanted to make coral, but didn't want to start with a coral base. It felt like cheating :P.

Pretty gold shimmer

Pretty!

See the glass flecks?

Then I crackled them just for fun!

Here is a cellphone pics that shows the more orangey side.

Like it? Like to franken?

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Longwearing Lip Color

In my quest to find a lip color that actually lasts, I have tried quite a few. When it's a normal lip stick or a gloss, it isn't so bad to reapply it. But sometimes I want one that I won't have to worry about touching up! I have tried:

MaxFactor Lipfinity (good but not available in the states anymore)

CoverGirl Outlast Lipstain (fun to apply, didn't last)
Covergirl Outlast Double Lipshine (didn't last at all and came off really ugly)
Covergirl Outlast Lipcolor
AAhhhh finally! This is the one you want! I used my Covergirl Outlast Lipcolor in Soft Pink Satin #800 and it was so fabulous! Let the pics do the talking!

Time passed 0:00 - Here it is at the very beginning, without the lip balm topcoat that comes with it.

Time passed 0:00 - At the beginning after the top coat, really feels nice now. 

 Time passed 0:00 - Outdoors with top coat

 Time passed 0:30 - And after eating macaroni trying to eat normal

 Time passed 1:35 - Still fab

 Time passed 4:10 - Still great

 Time passed 5:30 - After a shower, almost freaking flawless

 Time passed 5:30 - Reapplied top coat for the first time

 Time passed 9:00 - The color is a little faded, which makes the imperfections in application more obvious. I still think it looks freaking awesome. 

 Time passed 18:25 - I went to bed with it on because it still looked good and I wanted to time test it. This is how I woke up. 

Time passed 19:00 -  Overall look before school, still wearing it. Wow!

 Time passed 21:30 - This is after eating 3-4 meals, showering, sleeping, brushing teeth, everything. It honestly didn't look that bad, but it was faded and coming off a bit on the inner lip which you can see int he pic below.

 Time passed 21:30 - Pic to show the wear on the inner part before I finally took it off. 

There you have it ladies. I'd say this was pretty much perfect after 20 hours of wear and normal daily activity. Freaking amazing right?

This was easy to apply with the lipgloss style wand. Because it is long wearing and is kind of a lip stain, you have to be really careful not to mess it up and paint out of the lines. It also dries very quickly, so you need to paint each lip quickly. If you want to go back over it I feel like that's when you can see the thicker areas and it doesn't always look even. You're not supposed to rub your lips together like you would after applying a traditional lipstick. You apply to one lip, then the other, and hold your mouth open for about 30 seconds more or until they're totally dry. Then apply the top coat, which adds moisture to it like a regular lipstick and is supposed to help it stay on. 

Let me know what kind of long wearing lip color you have tried and what you liked and didn't like!!

This product was purchased by me and reviewed just for you!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Facebook WHAT?

So I was looking at my followers, and I have almost 100 more Facebook followers than blog followers. I would think it would be the other way around. What WHAT? lol


So how does this work ladies, you just see me on FB but don't follow me to my blog? You post here too but aren't following and just follow my FB? I'm so confused haha!

Anyone else have more FB followers than GFC blog followers, or am I backwards?