DIY: Ombre Glitter Mirror

Let me just start out by saying that this project required a bit of trial and error - it didn't end up exactly how I imagined it. However, thats the beauty of this project, it doesn't have to be perfect and if you aren't thrilled with the way it turns out you can easily undo it and go back to the original. This will be fun for someone who is willing to experiment a little and spice up a plain mirror. Here's what you'll need: a frameless mirror (I found this one at Goodwill - if you don't have a thrift store near you try Ikea or a garage sale!), ModPodge - any finish will do but I used Glossy, a sponge brush (about 25 cents at a craft store like Michael's), painters tape, small bottle of white acrylic paint, and 2 or 3 jars of glitter in various shades (light to darker) of any color you like. If possible, do this outside. If that's not an option, cover the floor around your workspace with newspaper.

Start by taping the edges of your mirror with painters tape. This will help create a clean edge where the glitter meets the mirror and also makes it easy to remove the glitter if you decide you want a plain mirror down the line.

Next, paint over the blue tape using the white acrylic paint. This will make the glitter "pop" and stay more true to color. I messed this step up a bit because I brought the white paint beyond the tape, which made the glitter edge much thicker than I wanted. So I recommend keeping the paint only on the thin line of blue tape. Sometimes when it comes to glitter.... less is more.

Now its time to start adding glitter! I messed this part up a bit too haha, like I said this was a trial and error situation! At least I learned from it so now I can give better advice. So where I went wrong was the order I applied the glitter, starting with the lightest color on the inner edge and working towards darker on the outer edge. INSTEAD what I should have done was the OPPOSITE: start with the darker shade on the outer edge then work your way to the medium and light shades on the inside. When you go from DARK TO LIGHT the ombre effect will be very nice and gradual. However, since I went from light to dark, there were some areas that didn't blend as well. So please keep this in mind when looking at the pictures - instead of starting with light on the inner edge, start with dark on the outer edge and work your way lighter as you get closer to the inner edge. Hope that makes sense!

Apply a thin layer of ModPodge to the OUTER half of the white paint, then start adding your darker shade of glitter. After you have done this on all four edges allow it to dry for a bit (this doesn't take long). Then apply another thin layer of ModPodge on the middle third of the white paint, making sure it slightly overlaps the darker glitter you already applied. Then apply the medium toned shade and allow to dry. Finally, apply another thin layer of ModPodge to the inner portion of the white paint, slightly overlapping with the medium shade of glitter but not covering it totally. Then apply the lightest shade to the inner edge. After this has dried, apply one final coat of ModPodge over the entire glitter section to seal it and you're done! I know this isn't the best tutorial since I made a few mistakes along the way but I hope some of you still like it and get inspired to experiment with your own version. Thanks for checking this out and please let me know if you give it a try!

Finished Product

The Aftermath...

Glitter Vengeance.

How To: Cleaning Makeup Brushes!

Normally I "deep clean" my makeup brushes about once per month, this is when I wash the brushes with a mixture of either dish soap or hand soap and olive oil. I like using this combination because the soap is good for removing all the makeup residue and buildup, plus it helps get rid of any bacteria, while the olive oil keeps the brush bristles from becoming stripped and drying out too much. If you don't have olive oil on hand you could also use a moisturizing body wash. In the time between "deep cleans" I like to "spot clean" my brushes. For this I like to use MAC's Brush Cleanser ($15 for 8 oz) which I have transferred to a little spray bottle from Target. Having the cleanser in a spray bottle helps to evenly disperse the product and avoid using too much / wasting it. I just take a dirty brush, spritz it with cleanser a couple times on each side, then rub the brush back and forth and in circles on a clean wash cloth - adding more cleanser as needed - until the bristles are clean. Tip: if possible use a white washcloth so it is easy to tell when the brush is clean!

 Alright, now on to deep cleaning! Here's a (semi) quick step by step of the deep cleaning process (pictures below!): first I mix together the olive oil and soap using a bit more soap than oil (about 3 parts soap to 1 part olive oil) because otherwise the bristles will remain oily after drying, then dip your brush in the mixture and swirl it around, next run the brush under cool or warm water (not too hot or it can dry out the brush hairs) always making sure to keep the handle upwards and bristles angled down because if you get water too far up on the brush handle it can loosen the glue that holds the ferrule (the metal part which holds the brush hairs together and connects them to the base of the brush) to the handle - and your brush might fall apart! While rinsing the brush at a downward angle run the hairs back and forth over your palm - like you're painting your hand - to help remove any dirt, continue this process until the water from the brush runs clear and is no longer soapy or bubbly. Squeeze or shake out any excess water, then put on a brush guard! Brush guards are something I came across about a year ago at Walmart and have been loving them ever since, in addition to brush drying they are great for traveling you can find them here: on Amazon. To put the brush guard on: slide the plastic mesh on to the handle in first then pull it down over the brush hairs. Last, put the brush bristle side down in a cup or jar - this way any remaining water will drip downwards so the glue holding the brush together is not loosened by the moisture. If you are not able to find the brush guards or do not want to purchase them, you can also roll up a washcloth or small towel and prop the brushes on this to dry (with the handle on the rolled up cloth and the bristles pointing down), which I have done many times before I found the brush guards. Although this technique doesn't allow the brushes to dry completely upside down, it is definitely a good option for those who don't have access to brush guards.

Voila all done - now you're a brush cleaning pro! Hope you guys found this helpful :)

xoxo emma

Fab Finds For Less

Hello all! So today I decided that I wanted to make the first edition of a series I have been thinking about for a while now. This series is called Fab Finds For Less where I will be comparing some high end products with more affordable alternatives - or sometimes I may just share a product that is high quality but also a great deal. So let's get down to it! For the first installation in this series I will be sharing some more wallet friendly substitutes for the YSL Rouge Volupté Lipsticks which I talked about in my Costco Blog Post and my Collective Haul Post. Although these lipsticks are lovely, at $35 a pop (GASP!) they are also a major investment, and lets be real - not everyone is willing or able to drop that kind of cash on a lipstick. So when I found some lip products that I liked equally as much as their expensive counter parts I wanted to spread the word! These more affordable options are NYX Butter Glosses and NYX Butter Lipsticks which retail for $4.99 and $5.99, respectively (I got mine at Ulta but have also seen NYX products at Target). In general I'm not a big fan of lipgloss, but these butter glosses totally changed my mind! They are sooo smooth, not sticky like many glosses can be, and also very pigmented. I have actually been loving these butter glosses for a while, the other two colors I have are Éclair (light pink) and Crème Brulee (peachy nude), but when I got the shade Tiramisu and swatched it next to YSL Nude Beige I was blown away, they look almost identical! Since Tiramisu is a gloss it is obviously a bit more shiny, but the colors are a great match. Also, I found it to be equally smooth, pigmented, and moisturizing as the YSL lipstick. The same is true of the NYX Butter Lipsticks, very creamy and great color payoff! So all in all I thought these were some Fab Finds and great alternatives for those looking to save some money with out sacrificing quality. I hope this post is helpful when you're deciding whether you should save or splurge :)

Left to Right: NYX Tiramisu, YSL Nude Beige, YSL Peach Passion, NYX Lollies

Let's take a look at the closer match first, which was YSL Rouge Volupté in Nude Beige (No. 1) and NYX Butter Gloss in Tiramisu. As you can see below there is almost no line of demarcation in the center of my lips, which shows how close the colors are to one another. I love both of these products but if I HAD to pick one to recommend or repurchase for myself I would consider this: you could have seven, YES SEVEN, NYX Butter Glosses for the price of one YSL Lipstick. This might make the choice a little easier haha. 

Then we have YSL Rouge Volupté in Peach Passion (No. 13) and NYX Butter Lipstick in Lollies. Although these were not quite as similar as the other pair, they are definitely still both lovely colors that could be used interchangeably - unless you are very picky about subtle color differences, which I am not! As you can tell from the pictures below Lollies is a bit lighter and more pink toned (yet still peachy), which Peach Passion is a slightly deeper color and has more peachy, coral tones. Both are very smooth and pigmented with great color payoff. They are also pretty moisturizing which is a bonus if you tend to have dry lips or if you are turned off by lipsticks that have that dry, waxy texture on the lips. Looking at the photos now I think that NYX Lollies would also be a great dupe for the YSL Nude Beige shade mentioned above! Lollies is one of my favorites because it is so smooth and pigmented and the color is somewhere between a true pink and a true nude. I think the color and formulation are comparable to both of the YSL lipsticks mentioned in this post. 

So ultimately it's up to you to decide if you should save or splurge, but I think these NYX products are a Fab Find because they are high quality, affordable, AND make a great alternative or dupe to YSL lipsticks. I hope you guys found this helpful! Please let me know your opinions on these products if you have tried them out or if you have any requests for future editions of "Fab Finds For Less" (like if you are in search of a great, yet affordable bronzer, concealer, etc. - please let me know so I can try to help out with your quest! hehe). Hope everyone is doing great!

xoxo emma

HUGE Collective Haul: Sephora, Ulta, Nordstrom, & More

Woo! Ok, let me just start off by saying that all the stuff in this haul was not purchased in on day. Over the past month and a half I have been picking up a few things here and there which is how I wound up with all these goodies.  Also, in no way am I trying to be rude or brag by sharing these things with you all, but I always LOVE looking at hauls on other peoples blogs or YouTube channels which is why I decided to do one myself. That said I hope I can give you guys some suggestions and ideas if you're in the market for any new makeup or skin care items :) Since I did collect a lot of things over the past couple months I probably won't go in to too much depth on each product, but I might do some reviews on individual items once I start trying them out. Alrighty here goes nothing....

Advanced Night Repair Complex, Advanced Night Repair Eye, and all the Freebies!!

The first few things I got were skin care from Estée Lauder, I picked up a bottle of Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II (face serum) and a jar of Advanced Night Repair Eye Synchronized Complex (eye gel). Both of these were repurchases because I ran out of the ones I got myself for my birthday last November - they both lasted about 8 months! I picked these guys up from Nordstrom, and at the time they had a free gift with any $50 Estée Lauder purchase so I made 2 separate orders and doubled up on the freebies :) So in addition to the serum and eye cream, I got two mini (0.25oz each) Advanced Night Repair serums, two 0.5oz moisturizers (Resilience Lift and Revitalizing Supreme), two Sumptuous mascaras (0.1oz each - this mascara is AMAZING but sooo expensive which is why I am always very excited to get a free sample of it!), two Nutritious foaming cleansers (1oz each), 2 lipsticks (not a fan of the shade so I gave it to my mom, but can't complain about a freebie), 2 eyeshadow sets, and a bag to hold everything. Even though the free bonuses seem small they are actually a GREAT deal, because for 1oz. of the Night repair serum its about $62 and with the samples I ended up getting an additional 0.5oz (about $30 worth) for free! 

Estée Lauder Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator Serum

The next couple things I got were from Costco, which I already made a post about so I won't go into much detail but here's the link to that post if anyone is interested: Costco Haul. On this trip I got two bottles of the Idealist serum which I have been LOVING and two YSL Rouge Volupté lipsticks (shades No.1 Nude Beige and No.13 Peach Passion). The next few trips were to Ulta...

Certified Mascara Hoarder.... 

Over the past couple months I've gone to Ulta a handful of times. Just as soon as I convince myself that I am not buying any more makeup they send me a 20% off coupon!! What is a girl to do?? So anyway over the few trips I picked up a BUNCH of mascaras. Is it just me or does anyone else think it's silly to buy high end mascara?! I'll be the first to admit that I have shelled out $40+ on a high end foundation or blush, but to me drugstore mascara is equally amazing as the pricey ones you find at Sephora. I have tried a few fancy mascaras over the years (DiorShow, DiorShow Blackout, and Benefit's Bad Gal) but I always find myself going back to L'Oreal, Maybelline, etc. So normally I just pick up a new mascara when I run out but lately I kept coming across ones that caught my eye and since I had several Ulta coupons and some points built up I decided to make a mascara stockpile. Some are repurchases that I have used before and love, including: L'Oreal Telescopic Original (SO AMAZING, please try this one out if you haven't yet!) and Maybelline Volum'Express One by One. Besides these two all the rest are ones I have not yet tried out but that I have heard are great. The newbies are: L'Oreal Voluminous Original (this seems to be a classic that is loved by many so I definitely wanted to give it a go),  L'Oreal Voluminous Extra-Volume Collagen, L'Oreal Voluminous Butterfly, L'Oreal Voluminous Miss Manga - haha wow now that I'm listing them all out I'm noticing how many are different variations of L'Oreal Voluminous!, Covergirl Clump Crusher Extensions (I actually meant to just get the original Clump Crusher, woops I'm sure this one is pretty similar). Last I got a three pack of Covergirl Lash Perfection volumizing mascara. I had been really wanting to try this mascara out after seeing Megan, aka Ciaoobelllaxo on YouTube here's a link to her channel, talk about how she loves the Covergirl Lash Perfection but I ended up having to get these ones I actually got on eBay because apparently it has been discontinued and is no longer sold in stores. 

NYX Butter Gloss in Tiramisu, NYX Butter Lipstick in Lollies, Maybelline Line Stiletto in Brownish Black

Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette, Too Faced La Creme Lipstick in Naked Dolly, Anastasia Brown Wiz in Soft Brown

Besides my mascara hoarding I also got a few other things at Ulta including, NYX Butter Gloss in Tiramisu, NYX Butter Lipstick in Lollies, Maybelline Line Stiletto in Brownish Black. Then one morning I got an email from Ulta, surprise surprise they send out emails basically everyday, but this one said that if you were a platinum points member you would get 10X points on any purchases made that day. Now normally I try not to fall for these offers but in this case I figured out that if I spent about $100 I would earn 1,000 points which is equal to a $50 gift card! This is what I love about Ulta's points program, you can actually redeem points for a significant amount of money, unlike Sephora where you just get glorified samples for spending $500. So upon deciding that it would be worth making a purchase to get the $50 gift card I picked out a few things I had my eye on already - the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette (not that I need another eyeshadow palette but oh well),  Too Faced La Creme Color Drenched Lip Cream (aka lipstick) in Naked Dolly, and an Anastasia Brow Wiz in Soft Brown. I'll swatch the NYX and Too Faced lip products below.

L to R: NYX Lollies, NYX Tiramisu, Too Faced Naked Dolly

 Then once I made the order and earned 1,000 points (thanks to 10X points from Ulta) I wanted to go pick something up with the $50 store credit. Like I said before, I do not need any more eyeshadow palettes. But then this happened....

Original Urban Decay Naked Palette

I already have the Naked2, Naked3, and Naked Basics Palette (plus the TF Chocolate Bar Palette I just got), and even though all the colors are neutral and fairly similar, I still really wanted the original Naked palette in my collection. Since I had the $50 store credit I decided to give in and go for it - plus I only ended up spending a little over $4!!

Naked Palette for $4.36? Yes please!

Shadows up close

After this major Ulta extravaganza I took a break for a while. However, at some point recently I have become obsessed with trying out new foundations. Don't ask me why, I can't explain it but it is what it is. So I decided to pick up a few to try out. One is a different shade of a foundation I already have, the Makeup Forever Face and Body. I already have shade 2 a light shade with pink undertones, but since I am SUPER fair it is almost too dark on me so I got shade 36 a very light color (also with pink undertones) so I can mix them together to match my face better. The shade 36 will also probably be a good match for me in the winter when my skin goes into full ghost mode.... At the same time I got the MUFE Face and Body I decided to splurge on the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette. The price of the palette is quite steep, $58, and it comes with three powders which are each 0.116 oz or 3.3 g for a total of just under 10 grams (0.348 oz). The individual Ambient Lighting powders are $45 for 0.35 oz, so the palette is essentially $13 more for the same amount of product - however I decided it was worth it since you get more variety. 

Makeup Forever Face & Body in 36 and Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette

The other two foundations I got were the new(ish) liquid foundation from BareMinerals and Chanel Vitalumière. I had seen tons of good reviews on the BareSkin foundation and it sounded like it had some of the key things I look for in a foundation: light to medium coverage and a natural, dewy finish. I got the second lightest cool toned (pink undertones) shade which is 02 Bare Shell. I have only used this a few times but am really liking it so far - stay tuned for a review. Then I set out to the Chanel counter. Originally I wanted to get the Vitalumière Aqua but the lady at the counter recommended I try the Vitalumière since my skin is dry and this formulation is more hydrating than the VA. When she put it on my face I was sold! This foundation is SOOO hydrating and left me looking glowy which is not an easy feat considering how dry my skin can be. I got the lightest shade in the Chanel Vitalumière which is call 07 Ivory / Ivoire. I find this shade to be a bit too yellow toned for my skin but nothing major and it still works well. However, anyone who has either very fair skin or very dark skin would probably have trouble finding a shade that matched them because this line only has 8 shades ranging from fairly light to medium dark, with no options for deeper or very light skin tones :(

BareMinerals BareSkin in shade 02 Bare Shell

Chanel Vitalumière in shade 07 Ivory 

Woooo almost done... apologies for the longest post ever! The last few things I got were a couple of Sigma makeup brushes and a few drugstore goodies. I only owned one Sigma brush, the Sigma E65 Small Angle brush which I LOVE and use for both filling in my brows and for eyeliner, before adding a couple new ones to my collection. The two I got are the Sigma E30 - Pencil Brush and the Sigma F05 - Small Contour Brush. I have only used each of these a couple times but am loving them so far :)

Sigma E30 & Sigma F05

Sigma E30 - Pencil

Sigma F05 - Small Contour

The last things I got are products I have been wanting to try out for a while now but it took me forever to find them! One is the Milani Baked Blush in the shade Luminoso 05. I kept hearing people rave about this on various blogs and YouTube channels but couldn't find it in stock anywhere so I was very excited when I finally came across it at Walmart. On this same trip to Walmart I was walking up and down the cosmetics aisles to see if anything jumped out at me. I came upon the Rimmel section and, low and behold, there was the Wake Me Up Concealer! I have been searching for this one for a while and after months of fruitless effort I finally decided that this concealer is probably only available in the UK (because pretty much everyone I have seen talk about this product lives there). So I was happily surprised to see this little guy sitting on the shelf. I got the lightest shade they had in stock which was 125 Very Fair. I haven't actually had a chance to try this out yet but hopefully it lives up to the hype, I'll let you guys know :)

Milani Baked Blush in Luminoso & Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer in 125 Very Fair

Ok so that's finally all for now! I do actually have a few other odds and ends I didn't include in this haul since it was already so long but I will probably do a separate post on those other "Mini Hauls" soon - you've been forewarned! Hope you guys like this and please let me know what you think of these products if you have tried any of them or if there are any specific products within this haul you would like a review/first impression on - I would really love to know your opinions!

xoxo emma