Dare to Wear Challenge - Tribal Mermaid anyone?

Hello everyone,

Few days ago I saw that FunnyFace Beauty extended the deadline for her latest Dare to Wear Challenge, which is not only fun but also for a good cause. Seeing as I have only been following her for a short time, I had no idea she was doing those challenges so the extension benefited me a lot :) For this challenge, she is inviting you to create a look inspired by African tribal images/makeup. Me being myself, I took a look at inspiration pictures she provided, googled some more images, even saved them, but at the end I didn't even look at any of them before starting my look. And of course the colors are not exactly what I would associate with African tribal colors.... Figures.

 This morning I woke up nice and early, and because my husband is away and I don't have to cook the turkey, I had lots of time in the morning to play with makeup. Perfect time to do something crazy right?

I started out with my usual primer/foundation/concealer routine, nothing special about that. Then I picked out the colors I would use. A while back I bought some Aromaleigh eye shadows in their closing out sale (big tear here), but they just sat unused so I decided to give them some lovings.

These colors were talking to me... begging to be used.. and while applying my makeup I kept thinking that I look like some kind of tribal mermaid with her war paint on. Tribal Mermaid it is then!

 I wish I didn't drew the pink line on my forehead... I will know for the next time. This is my first ever time doing anything this crazy by the way.

 My pathetic attempt at a battle cry. :)

 Love this picture! I call it Tribal Mermaid zombie.

 Sorry about lipstick on my teeth :( I didn't notice it until editing photos, and I'm not that skilled with Photoshop to take care of it. But check out my pout! Considering my lips are not the fullest of the bunch, I loved how gloss made them look.

Face:

• GOSH  Velvet Touch primer
• GOSH Natural Touch foundation in 34 Vanilla
• COLLECTION 2000 Illuminating Touch Light diffusing concealer in 2 Natural
• RIMMEL London Stay Matte pressed powder in Transparent  to set the foundation
• AROMALEIGH Gothic Lolita in Aqua Nightmare overall, blended in some places with Cobalt and Watermelon (not sure what collection)
• AROMALEIGH Watermelon and Rocks! Sonic Eyes Hitormiss for the lines
• BOURJOIS Shimmering Shine liquid eye shadow in 35 Gris Platine for the dots

Eyes:

•  E.L.F. Mineral Eyeshadow Primer as a base
• AROMALEIGH Gothic Lolita in Aqua Nightmare on the lid, with Watermelon on the brow bone 
• COLLECTION 2000 Extreme 24 hour felt tip liner in Teal for the eyeliner and brows - told you I would use it again today. And let me also tell you how much fun I had trying to remove it! But to be fair, I knew exactly that it would stain, and I wasn't going to use it on my brows..... until it was the perfect color. 
• NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk on waterline
• EYELURE Naturalites Intense eyelashes

Lips: 

• AROMALEIGH Watermelon mixed with  Clinique Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss

I think there are still couple days to get your entries in! So come on, it's fun and for a good cause!

~ Lyuba

November favorites

Although November is not over yet, these are the items I keep using over and over again. And I am pretty sure that I will keep using them until the end of this month.

• Sleek STORM palette - my very first Sleek palette that I got after reading all the reviews of Sleek makeup. I love this palette, especially two pink shades. They are my favorite, and I find myself reaching for them almost on autopilot. 
• NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Auburn/Red - I only received it a couple of days ago, but I don't know how I lived without it before! I was a little intimidated by the powder, but turned out that applying powder to eye brows in not as hard as I thought. 
• No7 Exceptional Definition Mascara in brown - it's all about the brush I'm telling you! 
• Ecotools blush brush - although I use it for powder. Can you believe that this poor little brush sat unused for almost 2 years? Shame on me!
• COLLECTION 2000 Illuminating Touch Light diffusing concealer in 2 Natural - that stuff just rules! I brought it with me to US for vacation, and ended up using it on my friend for her cosplay. Look at her skin tone, now look at mine, works wonders for both!  And she normally suffers from serious case of black under her eyes, but do you see it in the picture? I ended up giving it to her and just buying myself another once I got back to UK. 
• Clinique Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss in 09 Currant - I got it as a sample in one of the magazines, and I bought the magazine just for the sample lol. I don't haven any Clinique glosses but I really wanted to try one, so I figured why not? Been using it almost every day since. 
• COLLECTION 2000 Extreme 24 hour felt tip liner in Teal - every since I swatched those in Boots, I wanted the Teal one. Now I have it and I've been wearing it 2 days straight and I think tomorrow will be another Teal day.

What are your favorites for November? 

Cheer me up mail haul

Hello :)

Today have not been a very good day for me. Nothing really happened that I didn't already know about, but still my mood was not the greatest in the morning. But then I went to check our mail, and there it was, my long awaited package from ULTA.com! That brought my spirits up. This is the first time I ordered with them and I am pretty impressed. Shipping took exactly 1 week, all items were nicely packages and nothing got damaged. I will be ordering again from them for sure!

 My cats decided to investigate new stuff. The one above is Echo (bengal), and one below is Mittens (moggy).

Here is a rundown of what I got:

• Ecotools 5 Piece Bamboo Mineral Brush set 
• Ecotools 5 Piece Bamboo Complexion Brush set
• Rimmel London Stay Matte pressed powder in Transparent (for some reason I got 2.... I even double checked my order, and nope, I didn't order 2. Guess I'll have 2 now lol)
• Rimmel London Lasting Finish Powder Blush in Autumn Catwalk
• NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk
• NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Auburn/Red

Notice how I have two items from every brand? All I can say I love sales! Buy 1, get another 50% off. Plus free shipping is also a nice added bonus.

~ Lyuba

FOTD loving me some shiny

Today is a little emotional day for me. A lot actually. Sometimes being a military wife sucks, and today is one of those days. Unfortunately I'm facing 3+ month of those days, and although it's not as bad as for some (15 month deployments anyone?), it still SUCKS! Especially when I'm in a country with no friends and family.

So in order to cheer myself up a little I decided to do some pretty and shiny makeup. My husband approved too, so double points for that!

 I'm in need of serious hair trim, but I'm avoiding the hairdressers for now as I want my temporary color to wash out as much as possible before I color my hair again. THEN I will hit the hairdresser :)

 Closeup of my eyes. I was going for a 'light' smokey look here. Not sure what I got, since I'm still trying to master the smokey eyes, but it was fun trying.

Face:

• GOSH  Velvet Touch primer
• GOSH Natural Touch foundation in 34 Vanilla
• COLLECTION 2000 Illuminating Touch Light diffusing concealer in 2 Natural
• COVERGIRL Trueblend Minerals loose mineral powder in 405 Translucent Fair
• REVLON ColorStay Mineral Blush in 030 Roseberry

Eyes:

•  E.L.F. Mineral Eyeshadow Primer as a base
• Urban Decay Suspect all over the lid
• UD Smog on the crease
• UD Money on the inner half of the lid
• Lightest gold from Sleek STORM palette used as a brow highlight and on inner corner of the eye
• Dark green from Sleek STORM palette on the outer corner/crease (just a tiny bit)
• Eyeko Graffity Eyeliner Pen in blue on the lash line
• COVERGIRL Browshaper&Eyeliner in Henna Brown for eye brows
• No7 Exceptional Definition Mascara in brown

Lips:

• MAYBELLINE lipstick in 670 Natural Rosewood
• MAYBELLINE Super Stay lip liner in 41 Rosewood

Pure Makeup GEEKINESS!

I am a huge geek and proud of it, so imagine my excitement when I read in one of the makeup blogs that I follow about Shiro Cosmetics and their Pokemon collection! I am a big Pokemon games fan, that and Dynasty Warriors are the only games that I would ever play religiously (and in general as a matter of fact) and I am glad that there is someone out there that thinks that makeup addicts can also be geeks. You heard it right! Redefining stereotypes all the way! I don't know about any of you, but I always get "the look" any time I go to the comic shop/game shop/etc... probably because I don't look like their typical customer. I don't want to start a discussion on stereotyping, but we all been there, we all know how their "usual" crowd looks like. And I don't look anything like it.... unless I'm dressed in my Red Sonja costume of course ;P

But after reading about Shiro Cosmetics I decided that I need to try all of their Pokemon samples.  They also have Legends collection, which is Legend of Zelda, but it doesn't appeal to me as I never played Zelda.

Also check out interview with the creator. If I was in doubt about trying her eye shadows, I definitely decided to try them after reading it. Now I'm just hoping she will release something Sailor Moon related..... a girl can hope right?