Birthday Night OUT! Blue Flame

One of my favorite looks from the past few months has definitely got to be hands down this one I wore for my birthday. It's incorporating MAC's mineralized shadow in Blue Flame and it's so much fun! I'd bought it awhile ago from my local CCO but hadn't quite figured out how I was gonna use it. On top of primer, on top of the black NYX Jumbo pencil....I knew it was going to be something but I wasn't sure what. Then - but oh then. Then I found a new guru on YouTube that I love (Vintage or Tacky - go check her out) and while she was demonstrating a different mineralized shadow in one of her tutorials it was her methodology that blew (blue- hah!) me away.

She created this beautiful dark green smoky look and did pretty much the opposite of the usual steps: she created her crease shading first and then went back with a stiff shader brush to lay down her lid color. I was inspired - amazed - ENTHUSED - because I finally knew what I was going to try.

(Plus there was that whole easy just dampen the damn brush for mineralized shadows thing she taught me, but I feel kind of like an idiot that I didn't think of it before so we're gonna gloss over that.)

I went with my new shadestick in Sea Me as an overall base under the look because I figured that if for some reason the shadow didn't last then that particular stick would look better peeking out beneath the sparkly black than my bare skin would. After covering the lid with Sea Me I used Soft Brown to warm up the crease and then went back with Contrast to really deepen the blue and create a soft focus affect around the eyes. Finally I dipped my shader brush into a bit of water, grabbed some Blue Flame and patted it on my lids. I finished everything off by lining my water lines and upper lash line, throwing on some fake lashes and adding my new YSL Mascara.

Isn't it pretty? And sparkly? I absolutely love it.

Product List:

~~UDPP

~~MAC Shadestick in Sea Me

~~MAC eyeshadow in Soft Brown

~~MAC eyeshadow in Contrast (deep blue)

~~MAC Mineralize eyeshadow in Blue Flame

~~Stila matte eyeshadow in makalu (black)

~~Sephora Kohl Pencil in 01 keep black

~~YSL Effet Faux Cils Mascara in #1 Black

~~Sonia Kashuk false lashes

Finally here are a couple pictures of me that are safe for blog, as in no alocohol, lol. The first is my friend Jessica and I (she ALSO had a birthday this month, two days before mine) and she looked fantastic in this short black jersey dress. My dress is from Forever21 and is the only piece of clothing I own that has fabric flowers on it. The peep toe booties are from Off Broadway Shoes (I think) in Potomac Mills, but I bought them last year.

You know what else I love in these pictures? My hair. I'd just gotten in cut and blow dried earlier that day and I swear it seems like Josephine has the hands of a goddess. When she blow dries my hair it still comes out super straight but has body!