I was really inspired by the look of the soap. Especially the colors. It was like gold over blood orange. So, I thought I’d do a face of the day to match.

Here’s what the soap looked like:

And here’s how the makeup turned out:

Rawr!

(This was one of the rare occasions where I straightened my hair.)

I used Cupcake Cult Eye Shadow is some mysterious red color at the outside of my lid and a bit into the crease. Then I used MAC Eye Shadow in Orange in the middle third of the lid. Near the inside corner, I used the gold shade from the L’Oreal HiP Metallic Eye Shadow in Gilded.

I used a bit of Urban Decay Eye Shadow in Oil Slick on the lower lid to darken things up a bit.

Finally, shadow-wise, I used the Fyrinnae Loose Eye Shadow in Polar Bear in the inside corner and below my eyebrows as a highlight. And, unfortunately, I knocked the little pot of loose shadow after using it. It fell on the bathroom floor and is gone forever. I’m sad about it.

I finished up the look with Maybelline Define-A-Line Eyeliner and Smashbox Full Exposure Mascara.

What do you think? Did I pull it off?

You know me. I couldn’t resist pulling off a metallic face of the day. And this one uses gold to achieve the look.

I used the L’Oreal HiP Metallic Eye Shadow in Gilded, which comes with a gold shade and a black shade. I used the gold all over the lid and the black to darken the crease. I also busted out some Sephora Eye Shadow in Aspen Summit to lighten near the inside corner of my eye and just under my eyebrows.

I lined my eyes with BlackCocoa from the Pixi Endless Silky Eye Taster Trio, both the top lid and the lower waterline. Then, I used the Maybelline the Colossal Volum’ Express Mascara in Glam Black on the top and bottom lashes.

Turned out pretty good!

Did you watch Alcatraz last night?

Last night was the premier of the new show, “Alcatraz.” Did you check it out?

It was awesome.

I especially love Jorge Garcia (Hurley from “Lost”) on the show as an Alcatraz expert and comic book writer. He’s my favorite.

What did you think?

And that’s how Starry Night Sky was born.

Instead of a pink background, I went with black and a silver waterfall. I used…

• Sinful Colors Nail Hardener as a base and top coat
• Sinful Colors Nail Polish in Black on Black as the base color
• Wet N Wild Wild Shine Nail Polish in Kaleidoscope for the rainbow silver sparkle

In the end, it looked like a starry night sky, with a cluster of stars fading down to the root of my nails.

It was really very beautiful and sparkly, which is hard to capture on camera. Here’s another angle:

Pretty!

To get the change in thickness for the sparkles, I applied multiple layers with only one layer near the root of the nail, and lots of layers toward the tip. (Make sure you use a sparkle nail polish with a clear base.)

I’ve been getting a lot of compliments on this!

Here’s a plus side: both Starry Night Sky and Pink Sparkle Waterfall last way longer than most nail art. Why? Because of the sparkles at the tip. Sparkle nail polish is notoriously resistant to removal, so it keeps the tips from chipping. I’ve had this for days and it still looks good as new.

Would you try this nail art?

A pink glitter waterfall!

Here’s what I used to get the affect:

I used Sinful Colors Nail Hardener as a base and top coat, Wet N Wild Wild Shine Nail Polish in Tickled Pink as a background color, and Wet N Wild Wild Shine Nail Polish in Sparked as the waterfall.

This is how it turned out:

Pretty!

It’s hard to capture the sparkle on camera. Here it is from another angle:

I wanted it to look like the sparkles are trickling down the nail. I made it dense at the tip of the nail by adding multiple coats of Sparked at the tip, and only a few dabs of sparkle in the middle of the nail.

If you want to copy this look, just make sure you use a glitter nail polish with a clear base, rather than a colored base.

(And you should totally post links to pictures of your sparkle waterfall in the comments below!)

And that’s how this blue leopard print look was born.

Before I did anything with makeup, I did a Google Image search on leopard print. Just so I could be sure that it would actually look…leopardy.

Then I picked my colors: blue, black and yellow. This is how it turned out:

Rawr!

Nope, these aren’t stamps or stickers. I created the blue leopard print with regular eye shadow and eyeliner.

I used:

• MAC Eye Shadow in Submarine over the outer half of my eyelid and out over my temple and a little above the eyebrow, applied with a  blush brush.
• Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen in BlackTulip for the black spots.
• MAC Eye Shadow in Chrome Yellow dabbed in the middle of the spots with a regular eye shadow brush.

And yes, I actually went out like this. I did this makeup in the evening, but then was invited to go for a bit of holiday shopping at Walgreens. Did I mind walking around with a bit of blue leopard on my face?

Nope, not at all.

Would you go out with this dramatic makeup? Where would you wear it?

It reminds me of the special edition DVD box set of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It comes with one of those hologram-style lenticular pictures where, when you look at it from one angle you see Harry and Draco, and from another you see Dumbledore and Snape.

Layla Magneffect is like that. It moves and morphs…like a 3D hologram.

On my left hand, I have Velvet Groove, one coat.

On my right hand, I have Golden Nugget, two coats.

How it works: Coat your nail with the Magneffect polish, then flip over the cap, while it’s still wet, and hold the cap over the polish. It will create holographic lines in the polish in the direction of the line on the cap.

Layla promises that you don’t need a base or top coat, and I found that to be true. I’ve had this on my nails for a week now and it only has a few very tiny chips. This is high quality stuff.

Though, admittedly, I liked Velvet Groove better than Golden Nugget. How about you?

In the bottle, it looked like a nice, shiny, turquoise color with lots of awesome shimmer. And, since I was so impressed with Nirvana, I expected Rise and Shine to be just as impressive.

Here’s how it turned out:

No, not as impressive as I thought.

First, I wasn’t expecting the matte finish. It’s not that I hate matte or anything. I just didn’t know it would be that way. Sinful Colors should really mark that on the bottle.

But also, it didn’t have the kind of shimmer I was expecting. On my nails, it had almost no shimmer at all.

In fact, it reminded me a lot of POP Beauty’s Nail Glam in Radioactive, except not nearly as neon.

I like this though, even if it wasn’t what I was expecting.

It’s almost November…

…and you know what that means (or do you?): It’s almost National Novel Writing Month!

NaNoWriMo, for short, is a world-wide event. The goal: write 50,000 words of a novel through the month of November. Most locations have write-ins where you can get together with fellow Nano participants. You become a “winner” if you hit the word count goal before the end of the month.

This’ll be my sixth year doing NaNoWriMo and I’ve “won” the last two years in a row. This’ll be my third win (because I don’t plan on losing)!

If you’ve always wanted to write a novel, or you just want to challenge yourself, I suggest signing up.

But, for the last few years, my hair has been the same. Side-swept bangs. Long and curly. Brown or reddish-brown.

It looked fine, but I needed a change. So, I chopped my bangs. They’re much shorter now. And I added a reddish-orange streak underneath. Check it out:

I like it! These bangs are way better than my old ones (and check out previous FOTDs to see what I mean). It’s a subtle but noticeable difference. Plus, I can wear them straight down and blunt if I want to.

Now it’s time to talk about the makeup. Since I was celebrating a subtle bang change, I wanted a subtle makeup look.

Most of the products, including the eye shadow, blush and lip color, are from the Pixi Ultimate Beauty Kit (I’ll talk more about this later this week).

I chose a light beige eye shadow color for the inside corner of the eye and up under the eyebrow. Then, a very light pink on the lid, and a slightly darker pink in the crease.

I lined my eyes with BlackCocoa from the Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen Taster Trio, both on the tip lid and in the lower waterline. I finished up the eye look with Max Factor 2000 Calorie Extreme Lash Plumper mascara in Black Velvet.

Have you made any hairstyle changes lately?

When I first glimpsed this completed look in the mirror, I thought to myself “this is kind of out there.”

And that’s how I came up with the name Outer Space.

Check it out:

Nice, huh? Super colorful.

For my face, I used the new Pixi Wakeup Concealer in Cream under my eyes, and Raw Minerals foundation over my entire face. I also brightened myself up with some L’Oreal Bare Naturale All-Over Mineral Glow in Rose Glow.

On the lips, Wet N Wild Silk Finish Lipstick in 521A.

I’m ready for my close-up!

Here’s what I used for the eyes:

• Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy all over my lid to help create a bold, colorful look.
• Fyrinnae Loose Eye Shadow in Polar Bear at the inside corner of the eye and moving up toward the brow.
• L’Oreal HiP Shocking Shadow Pigments in Fiery on the lid and just below the lower lash line.
• Wet N Wild Color Icon Eye Shadow Single in Kitten in the crease.
• Sephora Eye Shadow in Aspen Summit just under the eyebrow.
• Sephora Kohl Waterproof Eyeliner in Keep Blue all around the eye, including the lower waterline.
• Smashbox Full Exposure Mascara in Jet Black, top and bottom.

I really like the way this look turned out. It kind of reminds me of candy.

I got a visitor today!

I always take my FOTD pictures by my living room windows because they get the best natural light. As I was snapping pics of today’s look, I got a visitor at the window.

This is China, a Siamese cat. She likes to stop by and meow at me. She rubbed against my hand through the screen. Awww. Sometimes I find her sitting outside my window, staring in at me. I think she wants to move in.

This is the same window where I saw the adorable mama deer and fawn.

I hope you’re having a great day. I know I am!

To be more accurate, I kept eyeing it for someone else. Trying to convince my mom to get it because it would look perfect on her.

She never did get it, though. So…I did.

This is Nirvana by Sinful Colors ($1.99):

Nirvana by Sinful Colors, 2 Coats

It’s a very neutral brown (so neutral that it feels more like brown mixed with a lot of grey). It’s solid. No shimmer here.

And the longer I wear it, the more I love it. It just feels so rich to me. Like something a wealthy middle-aged lady might wear. But, you know, in a good way.

It made me want to wear jewelry. That’s how posh I felt.

It’s been a few days now and I still love this. It hasn’t chipped at all. If Nirvana was a man, I would marry him.

Have you had a favorite new nail polish lately? Would you marry it?

A lot’s different in the summer. Weather, mood, and even makeup. Since it’s going to be in the 90s today and I plan on going outside, I didn’t want to do a really heavy look.

So, instead, I went for something light, pretty, and warm.

See my shoulder? You can still glimpse the remnants of the sunburn I got over the weekend. It made me sad.

I used some Dr. Jart+ Premium Beauty Balm on my face for tinted moisturizer and SPF 45. Obviously, I’m normally really wise when it comes to sun protection. Normally.

On my lips, I have Yes to Carrots C Me Shine Lip Gloss in Rose Bliss.

In the close-up, you can see that I have the eye makeup pretty simple. Not nearly as bright or bold as I normally go.

I used Revlon Matte Eye Shadow in Vintage Lace all over my eyelid, from lash line to eyebrow. Then I used a bronze color from the Lanmei 24 Color Eye Shadow Palette in the crease.

Just two colors!

Then I used Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Lionfish, a nice brown. I lined the top lash line and a bit of the lower waterline. I topped it all off with Almay Intense I-Color Volumizing Mascara in Raisin Quartz, a brown plum, on the top and bottom lashes.

What do you have planned today? Anything out in that summer sun?

I’m going for a bike ride after lunch. It’s just to run an errand to the bank, but I like the idea of getting exercise and sun out of the event, too.

Have a good weekend!

But, it’s kind of swept the Internet lately.

So, what is water marbling? Well, you basically use water and different colors of nail polish to create a marbled look on your nails. This video, by Simple Little Pleasures, sums it up pretty well:

And that is the tutorial I used to do my nails this week.

I originally wanted to do a black and white marbled look, but the black polish wasn’t working out right, so I switched to white, light pink and dark pink. To be more accurate, I used Wet N Wild Wild Shine nail polishes in French White Crème, Tickled Pink and Lavender Pearlescent.

This is how it turned out:

Left hand.

Right hand.

I’ll tell ya: water marbling is tough. I had to redo a few of the nails because they got all messed up. But some of these look great. I really like the thumb and pointer fingers on the left hand and the thumb and pinkie fingers on the right.

I’m really excited to try this again. I have all sorts of color plans now.

Summer Sale on My Books

Just a quick heads-up. I’m having a 25% off summer sale on my beauty ebooks on Smashwords (though not on Amazon. They won’t let me change prices). This sale is for the month of July, 2011.

To get the 25% off on The Complete Eyebrow Guide or The 30 Day Ultimate Beauty Makeover, just enter the coupon code SSW25. It brings down the price from $4.99 to $3.74.

And, as always, 50 Ways to Look and Feel Beautiful is free.

I’ll announce this sale officially next week, but I thought y’all might want to know now.

Honestly, I needed this. The weather here has been cold and rainy for months. It seems that the weather knows what’s up, because now it’s already in the 70s and sunny.

To celebrate the start of summer, I decided to do a look inspired by this season’s makeup color trend: turquoise.

I just had to get adorned to match summer, so I threw on some dangly turquoise earrings I got at a farmer’s market last year. Super cute!

I’m wearing a nice green summery dress with capri jeans on underneath.

For my face, I used the Philosophy Hope in a Tinted Moisturizer in extra light for some color and added SPF 20.

On my cheeks: the rosy reddish-pink side of the Hard Candy Hide & Glow Cheek. It’s dewy and delicate color.

On the lips: um…nothing. I forgot to put anything on. You’d be surprised how often that happens. It seem that my lips are my lowest priority, makeup-wise.

But the eye makeup is where it’s really at.

I used the Lanmei 24-color eye shadow palette (that I got from BidRack and mentioned in a Nutrisystem post) for all of the eye shadow colors. I used white at the inside corner and under the brow, yellow/gold on the lid (and lower lid) and a combination of blue and green to get a nice turquoise color in the crease.

Pretty!

I lined my eyes in the Maybelline Define-A-Line Eyeliner, both on top and on the lower waterline. I also used the new Smashbox Full Exposure Mascara on the top and bottom lashes (one coat).

What are your plans for the first day of summer?

I know for sure that I’m going to go for a walk later. Then maybe read a book in the park. We’ll see.

Happy summer!

So, I wanted to do my own version of her green eyes from February.

But, since I was already wearing blue and because I wanted to put my own spin on it, I did the look with blue instead of green. Here’s what I came up with:

Kablam! Totally some blue drama.

(Ignore the bad hair day.)

Now, different from Keiko Lynn’s look, my blues don’t have as much contrast. As in, my darkest blue isn’t as dark as her darkest green. Get it? But I still like how it turned out.

Since the eyes are so bold, I didn’t put anything on my lips. I totally went au naturale.

Now I’m ready for my close-up.

The lightest blue color is Urban Decay eye shadow in Shattered and the darkest is MAC Eye Shadow in Submarine. I also used a bit of Sephora Eye Shadow in Aspen Summit to lighten up the color near the inner corner of my eyes.

I lined all around my eyes in Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen in Black Blue and coated my lashes in Maybelline the Colossal Volum’ Express Mascara in Glam Black.

I like it. And now I plan to use this method for other color combos.

(Did you watch the season finale of Castle the other night? OMG…that was one of the most intense things ever. Castle has really stepped up their game. Were you as shocked as I was?)

Unfortunately, that one nice day is amidst a sea of shivery, cold, cloudy days. Today is once again cold and…dumb.

But oh well! At least I had one good day!

And today’s look shows off what I really want: tropical weather.

I’m having a pretty day. You know. One of those days where you look in the mirror and think “yes, I’m very pretty today.” I like those days.

For my face, I used the philosophy Hope in a Tinted Moisturizer in Extra Light (and there will totally be a review of that soon.) And, instead of blush, I swiped some Maybelline Blush Bronzer in Sunlight on my cheeks instead.

Oh, and Clinique Full Potential Lips Plump and Shine Gloss in Sugar Plump on my lips. Can’t forget about that!

But the eyes are where the real tropical feeling is. You know what I mean.

I used the Cover Girl Eye Enhancers compact in Tropical Fusion for all of the eye shadow. I put the lime color on the lid, green color in the crease and up, and the orange color on the lower lid (but barely.)

Then, I lined my eyes with Maybelline Define-A-Line Eyeliner in Ebony Black. And I used Smashbox Full Exposure Mascara in Jet Black on the top and bottom lashes (there’s a review of this soon, too!)

Woo! A lot of makeup! But it lets me pretend it’s warm outside, even though it’s totally not.

I hope you have an awesome weekend! And Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there, including my own.