Lacquer and War Paint.

i'll be moving all my makeup and nailpolish posts over to my new blog and keeping this one strictly for the yarny side of my life.  come join me at Lacquer and WarPaint!

Cotton and Chroma baby blanket

i'm making this one up as i go along.  the white is a cotton from a huge cone my mum gave to me.  the coloured yarn is KnitPicks Chroma in Roller Skate.  i only have one ball of the Roller Skate, i'm thinking i may order a second to make the blanket bigger.

yes... it'll probably end up a baby blanket.  yes... more kids of my own may be in the very near future.  so with some luck it might end up being a baby blanket for my own new offspring!  otherwise it will end up on Etsy for sale :)

and: more nails!

thumb and index: OPI The Show Must Go On. middle finger: OPI Let Me Entertain You. ring and pinky: OPI Ali’s Big Break. black dots: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black Out. Seche base and top coats.

 i've been wearing it a few days now.  i haven't touched it up at all and it's only started to chip a little at the tips today.  i'm going to let it because i have to remove all polish tomorrow night anyway... i have a medical procedure Wednesday afternoon.  fun. fun.  :\

another day, another nail polish

told ya i was on a binge...

this is Joe Fresh in Peacock.  the dots are Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Plum Power.   Seche base and top coats.

i really need some pointers on doing neater manicures.  why do i always end up with gloopies at my cuticles?  how do you all avoid that?  what's the trick i'm missing?  anyone?  :)

more polish!

while i was waitng at my local Zehr's for a prescription to be filled i wandered into the makeup aisle.  such as it is.  and took a good look at the Joe Fresh polishes.  i figured, meh, they're 3 for $10, i can afford to grab a few.  i grabbed Persian Blue, Twilight and Peacock (which has a pretty greenish tint to it that i just cannot capture with my camera).

but whoah?... hold up.  check out Twilight again.  it's a flakey!  i had no idea Joe Fresh had released a flakey polish!!  i could not resist... a flakey polish that i can afford??  yoink!

i did my best to try to capture the way the flakes change colour depending what angle you see them from:

now i am totally tempted to take off the easter-ish polish i put on last night to try these out!

a day late...

for Easter-y coloured nails.

i used all China Glaze polishes: Bahamian Escape (blue), Light As Air (purple), Something Sweet (pink). and a Seche top coat. i’m still pretty new to doing my own nails, pardon the untidiness :)  and pay no mind to the hangnail.  :\

...and now i'm going back to bed.  i've had a migraine all day.  and i'm a dumbass and then filled up the room with the smell of nailpolish.  now my nails are pertier, but gah, my head is pounding!

Nail Me!

i've been on a bit of a nailpolish kick lately.  i don't usually paint my fingernails because, well, frankly, it never lasts longer than a day.  but i've been poking around some nail blogs and picked up some tips for longer manicures and thought i'd try them out.  and then i found the most awesome nailpolish at a local discount store and the rest is history.  i've become addicted!

the polish that started my obsession (OPI Designer Series DS 007):

and then i came across some fun China Glaze polishes (full size bottles, from left to right: Dynasty, Luna, C-C-Courage, Drastic, Good Witch?.  and the mini bottles - i really don't know what collection they're from -, top row left to right: Something Sweet, Light As Air, Re-Fresh Mint.  bottom row: Peachy Keen, Lemon Fizz, Bahamian Escape):

base coat, top coats.  i only just bought the Seche products this afternoon, i haven't had a chance to try them out yet.  the Essie No Chips Ahead top coat was applied yesterday.  i haven't been too hard on my nails since then so i don't have a quality comment on how it's holding up.  yet.  anyway... on to the picture:

and my current home-made amature manicure.  i'm wearing China Glaze in Drastic and Essie No Chips Ahead top coat:

i plead temporary insanity

my apologies for the not so great photo.  it's dark already, i had to use the flash to take these photos.  here's a better look at what temporary insanity does to me:

8 NYX round lipglosses.  8 NYX round lipsticks.  4 Amuse lip pencils.  4 No7 lip liners.  1 No7 blush. 1 No7 Sheer lipstick.  and 1 QUO sparkly lipgloss.  i got the NYX and Amuse via Cherry Culture.  they came very well packaged and arrived quickly :)  and the No7 and Quo items were on super clearance at my local Shopper's Drug Mart.  $10 lipliners for $2.50?  i couldn't resist grabbing some!

i'll take some time, when it's light out and i can take better photos, to do some swatches up and post them here :)

mmmm. pear.

so, a couple of weeks ago i got stranded in Shopper's Drug Mart.  no, really.  stranded.  see... i was on my way, on foot, to pick up paper work from my doctor's office.  unbeknownst to me, because i check the weather by looking out the window and cold cannot be seen, it was minus three bazillion degrees out.  i managed to get a whole two blocks from my house when i had to take refuge in the nearest indoor anything.  which happened to be Shopper's Drug Mart.

...anyway.  so, a couple of weeks ago, i got stranded in Shopper's Drug Mart.  while i was there enjoying their wonderful heating system i took a gander around at what they had to offer.  i saw this:

mmm, pear

 ...and decided it had to come home with me.  i have no idea what "mangosteen" is, but i do know i love the scent of faux pears in body lotions and soaps and it's a rather hard scent to come by.  it's made by Upper Canada Soap and i am in love.  so much that i think i'm going back to get a second bottle before they are all gone (oh i hope they are not all gone already!)  it is the perfect sweet faux pear scent i like.  and a wee bit of this lotion goes a long way.  i only use a pea sized squirt and it moisturizes my entire arm.  love!

while i was there i, ofcourse, had to look at the makeup.  i ended up buying four Annabelle eyeshadows and the funky palette that's made to put them in.  i can't comment on them too much, i've only used "Fantasy" (the teal-ish green in the upper right) and "Divine Diva" (the purple-y colour that is all washed out in my photo because i used the flash :\ ... it has a gold shimmer which is kind of cool in the pan but doesn't show up so much on the lid).  i do like those colours.  the pigmentation in them is really good :)  the other two colours i got are "Lagoon" (the deep blue) and "Rainforest" (the green).

when i have some time i'll do up some swatches :)

i also recently ordered 16 NYX lipsticks and lipglosses from Cherry Culture.  this is my first time ordering from them, i hope it was a good choice!  and yeah... 16.  i know.  maybe a little excessive??  but... but... they were on sale!  and even with shipping they were cheaper than if i went to buy them at the only drugstore in town that carries (a very small selection of) NYX!  ...that's my story and i'm sticking to it.

Sleek I-Divine eyeshadow palettes

here are some swatches of the new Sleek I-Divine palettes i ordered from the UK and received in the mail the other day :)

for reference i swatched on bare skin, on my inner arm. i’m NW 20 in MAC’s foundations. although in winter i could probably go to NW15. i’m pale. :\ i swatched using the foam brush that was included in the palettes.

i find their shadows very soft. the pigmentation in them is good! i have MAC shadows that cry out for this much pigmentation. it seems uniform through each shadow… unlike MAC where it seems some shadows are more pigmented than others. picking them up with the foam applicator that comes with the palettes gives more colour payoff, but they are soft and crumble easily using the foam. with an eyeshadow brush there is less crumble/fallout but you have to layer for super pigmentation (but again, i still get more colour payoff using the brush with these than i do with some of my MAC shadows).

the shimmery colours are VERY shimmery. so if you’re not in to shimmer, pass up on these. they’re almost sparkly.

here’s what the palettes look like closed:

this is the Original I-Divine Palette:


and here it is swatched under natural light:


and here is the Sunset I-Divine palette:

swatched under natural light:


and finally the Bad Girl I-Divine palette:

again, swatched under natural light:

more makeup stuff

i got a new pink GOSH Cosmetics eyeshadow yesterday... i had to try it out. if you guys haven't tried out the GOSH eyeshadows you really should. marvelous! i apply them over a MAC paint pot and a sponge applicator to lay down more colour. the brush i have right now is kind of sucky and doesn't allow me to pack on much colour with most of my eyeshadows. i did get a new QUO crease blending brush recently and have to tell you all that i'm loving it :)

(knitting to come soon. i have nothing exciting to show you at the moment.)

drama queen!!

a little dramatic for running some errands and Stitch and Bitch... but what the hell.

... i cropped the photos this way on purpose. i'm not wearing much in the way of foundation (just a very light dusting of powder) and i thought i'd spare you all the worst of the vitiligo patches.


for the curious, here's what i used (all MAC unless stated): paint pot in Painterly, Mi'Lady (red side only), Odd Couple (purple side only), Hot Contrast (black side only), Stars n Rockets, Forgery, GOSH Cosmetics eyeliner in Hypnotic Grey, Covergirl Lash Blast mascara in black, and some old Rimmel matte black eyeshadow on my brows.

a little makeup pr0n...

what's this?

oh, the bag is beautiful, but the stuff inside the little black bag is even better:


Electro Flash Mineralize Eye Shadows! and a Paint Pot in Painterly (i use it as a base... awesome!). i was planning on getting the green eyeshadow duo (Fresh Green Mix), but when i tested it i found the colours on both sides very similar. however, if i do have an extra $21 in the near future i'm considering picking it up anyway because the green is vibrantly awesome!

look at the shimmer in these suckers:


Hot Contrast:

Odd Couple:


Sea & Sky:
i can't wait to start playing with these. especially the blue. it's freakin' marvelous! if i apply it just right i might be able to emulate an 80's hooker... it's that vibrant. love it!!

...yes, the way to my heart is through the MAC store. i will knit for makeup! ;)

i'm into makeup too.

and since i don't have any new photos of the Peacock Feathers shawl to show off, i'm going to post some of my recent decent makeup looks.

it's kind of fitting to start off with a peacock-coloured look:




and then my "oooops, i slipped with the liner..." look. forget starting over, i just worked with the slip.



and a rainbow look. it was fun to do. i thickened up the liner after taking the photos... it looked much better with darker liner. but i was too lazy to take more photos.




i use a mixture of MAC, Gosh Cosmetics, Too Faced and Taylor Made Minerals shadows for the looks above. the eyeliners are L'Oreal H.I.P's cream liner and Too Faced Liquif-Eye. and i can't forget to mention Urban Decay Potion Primer... can't live without that!