Monday, January 28, 2013

L'un de mes favorites: L'Oreal Owl's Night

As I sit here sifting through La Declaration des Droits de la Femme et de la Citoyen, I decided that I'd share one of my favorite nail polish shades, Owl's Night from L'Oreal.


The complexity of this shade is hard to capture in photos; in some lights it looks like a forest green with gold shimmer shot throughout, however upon careful inspection, red and green shimmer are subtly noticeable. It is without a doubt amongst the favorites in my collection. My first L'Oreal polish as well.


Sadly I believe this shade was limited edition, however if you can find it, I urge you to pick it up. Between the application, color, and price point, it is definitely a gem.

What nail shades are you wearing this week? I am tempted to dive into spring shades already despite the snow outside! x

Monday, January 21, 2013

Blogging Resolutions for 2013

Ah, another 2013 resolutions post. Mine is clearly overdue, and it's more for my own utility than others, however feel free to pull some inspiration or offer some of your own tips.

When paring down my list of resolutions, I realized that a lot of residual goals from the previous year carry over into the new year, such as eating healthier, drinking more water, etc. For this post, I want to focus more on the blogging front, as I have not applied myself as well as I had envisioned in 2012. Excuses like not having enough time and schoolwork become redundant, and I hope this year brings newfound accountability for myself.

A few goals in no particular order...

1. Post at least 3 times per week

This one won't be easy, but I have a lot of post ideas floating around in my head, and they should be executed. I truly enjoy writing/blogging, and mental health is just as important as its physical counterpoint. In other words, making time for something you enjoy should rank high on your list.

2. Acquire a sharper blog focus

If there's anything anyone should know about me, it's that my interests stretch across a vast gamut. I want to represent this in the blog, and not limit myself to beauty/fashion posts. Variety is the spice of life, n'est-ce pas?

3. New blog template

While I currently enjoy the simplicity of my layout, I am contemplating a different template. My small knowledge of html (circa Xanga years) likely won't be sufficient enough, so I hope to learn more about web design in 2013.

So those are my 2013 blogging goals! I usually shy away from resolutions, but I found myself gravitating towards others' posts this year. I hope you enjoyed reading; let me know some of your goals for this year, I'd love to know x

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Making MAC Woodwinked Work in Winter

Happy 2013 blogging world! With school and the holidays, I've gone on a blogging hiatus however I decided that one of my New Years resolutions (sick and tired of that 3 word phrase yet?) will be to write, write, write. I need to not get so caught up in schoolwork and expend some creative energy here. But that is another post in it of itself...

Today, I wanted to share a tip I have regarding brassy, gold eye eyeshadow. The quintessential example in my book is MAC's Woodwinked.

Woodwinked bottom front
When I first bought Woodwinked, I anticipated what I saw in the pan/swatch. A lovely, highly pigmented gold with bronze undertones. However, I soon realized that it has a tendency to veer orange on my eyes, especially now in winter when I am quite pale (NW/NC 20). With the holidays and gold eye makeup on trend, I wanted to join the party. I have always loved wearing gold on my eyes, but this brassy, orange look was not flattering. The stubbornness in me decided that I must make this shade work.

My solution? Mixing Woodwinked with Patina (one of my favorite eyeshadows of all time, if you're curious). It is pictured above Woodwinked in the palette shot, and it is a more of an antique, lighter gold color with some taupe mixed in. It is complex, flattering, and I love it on its own. Now I adore it mixed with Woodwinked to give me a nice and noticeably gold eye.

Wearing Woodwinked + Patina with some brown in outer corner
This is pretty much the look I did for New Years Eve as well. The only difference is I added a little glitter on top to jazz it up...a rarity for boring, neutral me!

So there is my little tip for dealing with beautiful shades like Woodwinked that don't seem to mesh well with paler skin in the wintertime. You can apply this to any shadow you may have that has this problem - just try mixing it with its lighter, more non-offensive cousin shade like Patina in this gold shadow case study.

I hope you had a nice holiday and New Years! I hope to comply my 2013 goals/resolutions sometime tomorrow. They will not be strictly beauty-related I think. Thanks for reading x