HUSBAND took me on a little trip recently and I decided to fancy up my makeup, as I often do when we travel. It just seems more fun that way, right? I packed Colonel and Nestyr from Shiro Cosmetics, for something sparkly and dramatic. Of course, I forgot to use flash when I took the pictures so they’re not awesome, but that’s life. It’s natural light through a window, but a bit on the blue side.

Colonel is a military blue packed with gold sparkle. It’s a beautiful color, but it’s fussy. I used it over Fyrinnae’s Pixie Epoxy so the gold sparkle would really stick, and I suspect that’s where the problem was. It was difficult to get it to apply evenly, so I spent a looooong time blending – which of course meant most of the gold sparkle was lost. Boo hiss. Anyway, it’s still a fantastic color, but I’ll probably stick to using it with a wet brush as eyeliner. I used Colonel in the crease. On the lid, I used Nestyr, Shiro’s 3rd birthday color. Nestyr is a soft purple glowing with green, gold, and red duochrome. It’s quite lovely and I highly recommend it! You can see a bit of the red shift in the photo. I used Tears of Retail Employees under the browbone and in the inner corners. The eyeliner is L’Oreal Hip Eye Kohl – discontinued, which is too bad. Stuff was awesome.

I wore Shiro’s Coconut Mall bronzer (still addicted to this) with a light dusting of Detrivore‘s Lascivious Blush. No lipgloss because I’m an idiot and forgot to put it on before taking a picture. I wore Aveda’s Rehydrating Lip Glaze in Gilded Lotus.

Before school was finished, I had gotten a bit lazy about doing my eyeshadow. Why do eyeshadow when you can sleep an extra fifteen minutes? (I know, I know. I’m a terrible beauty blogger.) But I did manage it about once a week, and I tried to make it really good. I wore this look to school, and got rave reviews from my fellow students. It was so good, I had to duplicate it for the blog.

I’m wearing Shiro Cosmetics’ Detective on the lid. Detective is a taupe color with blue duochrome. I put Alkahestry, also from Shiro, in the crease. Alkahestry is a sheer-ish pale violet with a brilliant blue-sparkle base. It’s amazingly beautiful, and I’m happy I got an out-of-focus shot so you can get a sense of the sparkles going on here. Also, Alkahestry is lip safe, and I won’t be happy until I have a custom lip gloss in this color. You know you want one too. I used Tears of Retail Employees under the brow bone and in the inner corners to highlight. IT IS TOTALLY YOUR LUCKY MONTH – because for a limited time, you can purchase Tears of Retail Employees again! GO! GO NOW! DOOOOOO EEEEEET!!!! It’s the perfect pale shimmery cream with a strong copper shift, and green and red sparkles. (While you’re at it, I suggest picking up Nic Cage Raking Leaves on a Brisk October Afternoon and Nestyr.) The eyeliner is L’Oreal Hip Violet Volt.

I also recently bought Shiro’s new bronzer called Coconut Mall. I am wearing it in the photo, along with a touch of Detrivore Cosmetics’ Lascivious blush. Coconut Mall is a shimmery light tan-bronze, and it has quite the gold sheen to it. I had a tough time, actually, deciding between it and the darker shade, and ultimately felt the lighter shade was the safer pick. But I bet the darker shade is awesome too. I really want the summer blush too. I need a job, dammit!

The lip gloss is Aveda’s Gilded Lotus Nourish-Mint Rehydrating Lip Glaze. It’s a nice caramel-gold color.

I decided it’s been way too long since I wore some purple. So I pulled out some great purples to wear, along with a bright lip color. My Pretty Zombie makes a bunch of pretty purples, but I picked Mad Cow to wear today.

Mad Cow is a mid tone purple with a blue shift. The shift is more apparent if you use a stick base, which I forgot to do. The crease color is MAC’s Grape pigment. I used Meow Cosmetic’s Bubble Bath to highlight under the brow bone and in the inner corners. The eyeliner is from L’Oreal, Violet Volt.

I used Detrivore Cosmetics’ Poison blush. It’s still probably my favorite blush color to wear. The lipstick is MAC’s Style Curve.

I have to stop tweezing my eyebrows so that they’re nice and bushy for one of my classmates to wax off when we start doing that in three weeks. It’s gonna suck! (I can’t shave my legs either, but at least no one can see that since it’s winter and I wear pants!)

Today was the first day of school. I decided to wear Black Rose Mineral’s Tiger Lily, because it’s such a great color. It came out a little messier than I’d like, but it mostly looks okay I think.

Tiger Lily is a neutral peachy tan with just a touch of pinky red spakles. Using a sticky base will make it appear more sparkly. The crease color is Premature Burial, an earthy brown glistens with pink and gold sparkles. The highlight color is from Shiro Cosmetics, a limited edition sparkly white color.

I’ve been using this eyeliner from Physician’s Formula, the Shimmer Strips Kohl Kajal Eyeliner Trio, Blue Eyes set. I know I don’t have blue eyes, but I really wanted the navy blue color, along with the brown color and black color. I used the brown color here. I need to do a review of these on their own, but needless to say, I’m really kind of digging the texture and formula.

The blush is Gallows, from Detrivore Cosmetics. I forgot to put on a lip color before I took the picture! Doh!! I wore L’Oreal’s Infallible Gloss in Coral Sands.

Since I’m on a budget, I’ve been more and more interested in checking out drugstore makeup brands. Most of these brands are owned by or are the parent company of department store brands, so a lot of the “fancy” formulas find their way into mass market products. Here are five new mass market products that I want to check out, in no particular order.

1. Physician’s Formula Super BB All-in-1 Beauty Balm Powder. I KNOW, I KNOW, the Western co-opting of the whole BB phenomenom is annoying at best, and offensive at worst. Let’s just set that aside for now, and ignore the purported “BB” aspect of this product, and focus on the fact that it looks like a pretty awesome face powder. It seems like a pretty nice formula for a face powder (just looking at the ingredient list) and I really want to try it out.

2. L’Oreal Shine Caresse Lipstains. L’Oreal doesn’t seem to have these on their website yet, despite the fact that I’ve seen them on displays at Fred Meyer. Annoying. Anyway, they are purported to be a mass market dupe for YSL Glossy Stains (L’Oreal owns YSL.) L’Oreal makes my current favorite longwearing lipgloss (Infallible Gloss), so I really want to try these glossy lipstains.

3. Cover Girl Lip Perfection Jumbo Gloss Balm. These just look cool. It seems like everyone is hopping on the “gloss balm stick thing” bandwagon, but I like the way these look the best.

4. Flower Cosmetics. I got January’s Allure magazine and Drew Barrymore’s makeup line Flower was featured. It’s going to be a Wal-Mart exclusive, and I am DYING to check it out.

5. The Total Intensity eye products from Prestige. I need to visit an Ulta soon and check these out!

Since it’s the weekend, and I haven’t worn Oh Hey Let’s Go Nuts With Sparkles eyeshadow in ages, I decided to bust out some bright colors and have a little fun today. I’m wearing MDMA from My Pretty Zombie with Homunculus from Shiro Cosmetics, and I think they look nice together!

MDMA is a rosy pink with gold afterglow, and it’s really stunning. It’s one of my favorite pink colors. Homunculus is a shimmery dark grey base with bright sparks of red. I’m addicted to Shiro’s dark gray/charcoal colors for their richness and ease of application. I used Unicorn Pee to highlight, because I wanted all those crazy rainbow sparkles. I used Pixy Epoxy underneath it all to make it stick. The eyeliner is L’Oreal HiP Color Chrome Eyeliner in Black Shock. I also applied more Homunculus to the lower lashline.

The blush is from Silk Naturals, it’s Guava. Guava is a sheer, nude mauve blush. The lipgloss is L’Oreal Infallible Lipgloss in Suede – one of my favorite colors from L’Oreal.

I wanted to wear purple-y colors today, so I picked out some of my favorite Detrivore Cosmetics colors to use. I have enough Detrivore now that I can do a whole Detrivore face! Speaking of Detrivore, they are having a one-day 50% off sale tomorrow only, so if anything strikes your fancy, you should order it tomorrow!

The lid color is Filth, which is a soft taupe eye shadow with heavy purple shimmer. I didn’t use a sticky base to really make the sparkles pop, but it is quite shimmery. I love how soft and blendable this color is. The crease color is Lividity, a dark pink shimmery eye shadow on a black base. It’s an LE color, but still available and very worth it. It’s so pretty. I used Languid to highlight. Languid is a soft sheer silver satin highlight. I used L’Oreal’s Violet Volt eyeliner pencil, and L’Oreal HiP Kohl eyeliner in black.

I used Lascivious blus, which is a soft shimmery pink blush. It’s currently my favorite blush to wear, as I love how subtle it is.

The lipgloss is Lament, the perfect your lips but better rosy pink color. It’s a must-have for sure.

Happy Thanksgiving! This is actually yesterday’s makeup and today’s makeup will go up tomorrow, lol, so this isn’t my T-Day face. I also need to think of something fancy for Black Friday (which I WON’T be leaving my house for…)

As a partner to my last 5 Things post, I wanted to make a list of five mascaras that did impress me, enough that I’ve re-purchased them and/or recommend them!

Let’s refresh what I want in a mascara. What do I want? Full, soft, individually defined lashes. My lashes are decently long enough already, so I mostly go for volume. I prefer not to have to bust out the lash comb to separate lashes, but a brief brush is ok. With that said, here are five mascaras that made the cut.

1. Kiehl’s Marvelous Mineral Mascara is gentle on the eyes, requires minimal work to make it look good, doesn’t flake off or smudge during the day, and washes off easily. I repurchased this twice.

2. Maybelline Volum’ Express One-by-One Washable Mascara. Oh my. This may very well win the award for Claire’s Favorite Mascara Of All Time. I’ve gone through two tubes, and will probably buy a third. It is FABULOUS. My lashes have volume, but also separation, I almost NEVER have to comb, it lasts all day with no smudging or flaking… dare I say, it’s practically perfect?

3. Maybelline Volum’ Express Colossal Cat Eyes Washable Mascara. Hate the waterproof version, LOVE the washable version. This one is all about the brush, which really does seem to help with curling, and getting all your lashes. I love it almost as much as the One By One.

4. Maybelline Lash Discovery Mascara. This one is all about the mini-brush. You can get right down to the roots without smearing mascara on your eyelids with this mini-brush. Nice formula too. I’ve purchased this at least twice now.

5. L’Oreal Extra Volume Collagen Plumping Mascara. I really liked the bigger brush on this mascara, and the plush look of the formula. It’s good stuff.