The importance of waterproof mascara...

... was revealed to me today. It's -20 and windy here, very very cold. My lashes froze over on my way to work, moisture from the air I breathed out condensed on the lashes  - and as I arrived and entered the warm hall - it all melted and deposited itself under my eyes. Since I have quite long lashes it messed up my eyeshadow too. Would not have happened with waterproof mascara. I have never bought one of those cause they are more difficult to remove afterwards - I do not like to rub chemical stuff around my eyes.
Colors used here are: TKB Trading's mineral pigments Athena all over lid, Dusty Rose in inner corners and blended on the crease, Ivory Lace on the browbone, Lumene Blueberry Curl mascara, Manhattan's eye shadow primer.

Panen tänasesse postitusse ka Crucible Collectioni näidised - segatuna läbipaistva küünelakiga. Järgmisena vaatame, kas leiab ka sillerdava hõbeda kusagilt. And here's TKB Trading's Crucible Collection mixed with clear nail polish:

Crucible Red became dark orange :S - not at all similar to what it looks like as powder. Crucible Khaki on the other hand is not as greenish as in powder version. Of these four I like Forged Gold the most. Crucible Gold remains dark metallic gold color.

The best EDM foundation swatches I have ever come across...

... are in this Polish blog, very nice color selection for comparing. She also has a wonderful overview of EDM's brushes and very nice EOTD's.

Lily Lolo's Golden Lilac remake

I've come across several wonderful reviews (Sirvinya's for instance) of Lily Lolo's Golden Lilac - a soft lilac with golden sheen and thought, why not make a copy using TKB's purples, hilites and sparkles. I cannot use TKB's purples on their own anyway.

Made 2 sets: one with Grape as base and the other with Pure Purple. Unfortunately it was not Pure Purple that gave the better result...

 I used zip loc bags and did not measure the amounts. Small amounts of course :D.

Mix based on Grape is in inner corners, Pure Purple mix in outer corners and Hilite Gold as highlighter. No other makeup anywhere. No primer, all applied dry.

Since I do not have Lily Lolo's version of Golden Lilac, I cannot compare it in person but it looks very similar to the swatches posted on the net.

PS! One of the pale-skinned blue-eyes reviewers on Makeupalley complained, that the color was too gray for her eyes so I started to suspect my mix is still too pinkish. Solution - added a little orange to balance out the purple.

TKB mineraalpigmentidest saab ise endale segada just vajaliku tooni, samuti saab olemasolevaid ja mittesobivaid värve endale sobivamaks muuta. Vajab vaid veidi harjutamist ja värvisegamise kogemust. Puhtad raudoksiidid ei segune kuigi hästi, neid tuleb nt kohviveskis segada - TKB lauvärvipõhi enam kohviveskit ei vaja, seguneb suurepäraselt vilgupõhiste mineraalpigmentidega.Oksiide tuleb seevastu ALATI kohviveskis segada, sest muidu jätab valmissegu nahale triibud - kilekotis mudides/segades ei õnnestu oksiide kuidagi ideaalselt baasiga läbi kloppida.

EOTD Green: Lotsa Lime

Edda Got Attitude Lotsa Lime is the main player here. Lotsa Lime all over lid, Lemon Drop in the crease, Satin White on the browbone, Hilite Orange and Hilite Gold are used for blending. Hilite Orange is also used under the eyes. EDM's Pearl Sunlight under the eyes as concealer, Conservatorie's Caramel Light mixed with Archetype's Yellow Beige lev 1 as foundie.

EOTD blue? Experimenting with Edda's set

What colors go well with blue eyes? Definitely not blue and never anything that even remotely reminds turquoise, at least in my case it's definitely THE rule. It automatically adds 20 years and makes me look like an old tired prostitute.

This EOTD is all about experimenting - the first time I ever used a white color in my eye makeup: TKB Trading's Satin White as highlighter. The latter has strong sheen and not much coverage so it makes a superb highlighter.

TKB Trading's Edda Got Attitude Set was at first quite disappointing - the other day I used Lotsa Lime dry without primer and it was far too sheer - it got better though, using wet application and primer. And OMG do I look bad with Pure Purple! It's exactly the color of a bruise... I've tried to make something with it for at least 3 times but always ended up removing everything from my face. Totally Teal though is something that needs some consideration... as a solo color it's definitely a no go but it can be used in combination with others.

Stuff used:
Satin White under the brows and inner corners
Totally Teal in outer corners
Lotsa Lime in inner corners
EDM's Pearl Sunlight under the eyes
The Conservatorie's Caramel Light foundi tweaked with Archetype's Pink Beige level 1. My own mix of Paris Pink and eye shadow base (50:50) as blush.

EOTD Brown: Oriental Beige and Australian Amber

Oriental Beige has wonderful coverage and applies well, it's a color that will go well with others cause it reminds my skin-color (ok, it reminds my skin color after I have applied the foundi - Conservatorie's Caramel Light).

Colors used here are:
Oriental Beige in inner corners
Australian Amber (which I do not fancy that much - don't know why) in outer corners and wet as liner
Satin Orange Gold as highlighter
and I think I put something light as lower liner (dry) but it does not show anyway.Probably the Satin Orange Gold there too.
EDM's Pearl Sunlight under the eyes to brighten them up.

Foundi is The Conservatorie's Caramel Light in Deluxe (the cheapest mix) which by the way is getting too dark for my skin. The remains of the summer "tan" have worn off my face and now it's time to return to EDM's fairest foundies. Difference between neck color and face are becoming more noticeable with every passing day.

Judging from the color of my neck I could have been screened in the Avatar movie using minimal amount of makeup :D.

And these are my nails of the other day - simple clear nailpolish with TKB's Apricot. It's a rather sheer, a bit orangeish gold. High sheen and pretty but not really my color. One coat.

Nails and frankenpolishes

Firstly - I am lazy. Very lazy and I admire people who have the patience to apply the undercoat, then 2-3 layers of polish and the top coat and wait at least 30 minutes for it all to dry. IMHO nails take at least an hour to do. They loose their luster on the second day and wear/chip off at the third day the latest and then you have to do it all over again! Not to mention - nail polish removers stink quite unpleasantly and they do not get everything off.

My nails always come out as a total mess, therefore it's not worth the trouble. The only way they can look good with polish is when I use just one layer of protective undercoat - that dries up quickly enough and I do not have the opportunity to mess them up. I usually wear my nails clipped short and do not think about them much. I promise I'll start wearing nail polish regularly when it only takes one coat to apply and it would take at least a week to even show some signs of wear.
But since I am willing to go through a lot just to do some research I got myself among other things some bottles of nailpolish: black, white and blood red. Why black? Naturally because of all the hilite and interference colors I recently acquired from TKB that  look their best over dark base. Luckily the polishes were on sale in local store - dollar per bottle.

 

 All these are mixed with black polish: 24K Gold, then Crucible Red, Hilite Green, Hilite Red, Radiant Gold, Satin Orange Gold, Sparkle (this does not look like much at all), Travel to Earth (my favorite - warm greenish tint) and Travel to Jupiter. Since I mixed the polish and the powder right there, on my nails - the surface is not nice smooth and pretty - sorry, it's all about color here.

Only now did it occur to me that I could have left my poor nails in peace and done the swatches on some piece of plastic instead. Would have been easier to mix too. The colors would look a lot better if mixed properly - the polish and powder poured in a fresh bottle, added a metal ball and shaken well - at the moment I just dipped the polish brush in the polish and then in the powder and just wiped the brush clean with tissue paper.

EOTD Plummy Pink

This weekend was busy and fun – went to the country. Winter wonderland continues still… Tried to do some EOTD’s during last week too but I was so disappointed with the results that I did not want to post them. The problem is the lack of light in the morning – and what seems ok in the early morning is not so ok later on in  daylight.
During the weekend I decided to play some with my piggies: Smokey XXX has a lot of black iron oxide as base and when one smudges it (instead of patting it on) it becomes dark murky gray and looses it’s pink sheen.  So I mixed it with the TKB Trading eye shadow base (white), added some Raspberry, Paris Pink  and Travel to Mars. Result is matte dark plummy pink with the slightest red sheen.  Goes well with my dark pink office suite too.

On the pics: Conservatorie's Caramel light in Deluxe as foundi
EDM's Pearl Sunlight under the eyes
"Winter Sunset" as I call it all over lid and
Paris Pink diluted with TKB eyeshadow base as blush.

Ever heard of stuff called Vahar?

Well neither had I. Apparently it's mostly propolis (strong antibiotic properties), beeswax and pollen (beebread?) mixed with oil (usually sunflower oil). Saleslady swore it's good for herpes and  it makes the starting herpes go away in 3 hrs or so - if one applies the cream every 20 minutes. Also recommended for cold sores and extra dry skin. We'll see, at least it smells nice - like honey - and there's no preservatives etc in it. It's made by a couple who keep a bee farm somewhere in Põlva county. Small jar for 50 EEK~ 3,3 EUR.

Sai ostetud uut ja huvitavat kraami koduselveri looduspoest - vaatame, mis tulemused on. Kreemi nimeks vahar ning toodetakse mesitarus leiduvast - mesilasvaha, taruvaik, õietolm segatuna tõiduõliga. Kuna kreemis taruvaik, mil tugev antibakteriaalne ja raviv toime, siis on tõenäoliselt tegu hüva kraamiga. Ja loomulikult - ei sisalda säilitus- ega värvaineid. Soovitatakse ohatistele ja igasugustele nahalõhedele, ka lihtsalt kaitsva kreemina kuivale nahale.

PS! Delfi naistekas oli juttu, et vaha põhjustab pooride ummistumist - mul pole punne juurde tulnud. Ju propolis tasakaalustab. 

In an Estonian beauty forum it was told that beeswax causes pores to clog up - so far I have not noticed. But I do think that all people allergic to honey should keep away from Vahar.

EOTD Travel to Mercury with Hilite Copper

One thing - Travel to Mercury was not as reddish orange when I applied it in the morning in artificial light - it was much more bronze then, more yellowish. Now in bright daylight it looks bright reddish orange. Travel to Mercury is applied dry all over lid and wet as liner, some Hilite Copper is used just above the crease and as lower liner, dry (totally unvisible).

This time used the primer and EDM's Pearl Sunlight under the eyes, foundi is Conservatories' Caramel Light and blush is a mix of TKB's Paris Pink, Winter Rose and Apple Blossom.

I'll use the same post for Sunday's eyes too: TKB's Radiant Gold all over lid and Forged Gold wet as liner, Hilite Gold above the crease. Note: Radiant Gold is very sheer! But - on blue eyes the yellow-golden colors really rock!

Nice subtle colors these gold ones, will use primer next time I'm using them. TKB's Radiant Gold reminds me a lot of The Conservatorie's 18K Gold.

First Meow swatches featured in this blog by Ms K.

In the comments of the previous post Ms K. gave some links to her swatches of EDM and Meow light foundations (the Inquisitive - ones). I think they'd be more easily accessible if I'd put them here as a post too. Thanks to Ms. K!

From Everyday Minerals, left to right:

Fairly Light (original glow)

Golden Fair (matte)

Fair Intensive

Fairly Light Neutral (semi-matte)

Sandy Fair (matte)

Meow swatches in Pampered Puss (?), from top to bottom:

Sphynx

Chausie

Bengal

Mau

Siamese

Meow homepage used to give me the creeps but they have improved their homepage considerably. The foundation color charts are added and the overall structure makes a lot more sense then it did a year ago.