Illamasqua Speckled Nail Varnish Polish Swatches

Just a few quick swatches of Illamasqua Speckled Nail Polish Varnishes. They retail for $16/bottle and come in five base colors all with ultra-fine and chunky black glitter. They are somewhat sheer and with the first coat look like a jelly formula and are streaky with the first coat (although truthfully I never judge a polish by it’s first coat). The second coat is where the magic happens. I looks like a cream yet because it’s more sheer some of the black glitter is subdued as it’s under a coat of color and some more apparent as it’s sitting on top. So some of the black glitter has a coat of polish over it but you can still see it. Like glitter under tulle. Then the top coat’s glitter pieces are darker and much more visible. Does this make sense? It gives the glitter dimension. These are just a few swatches. In a week or two I will review after I’ve seen how they hold up. These polishes absolutely remind me of a eggs or those Easter malted eggs. I chose these over the Deborah Lippmann Staccato versions because, as far as I could see online, the D.L. polishes are one size of glitter and look more like poppy seeds. I loved that the Illamasqua polishes different sizes and look more like eggs. Of course I’ve never seen the Staccato polishes in real life and never swatched them so I can say for sure this is the difference between the two brands. The available colors are:

• Scarce – a beautiful dusty rose jelly with micro and chunky black glitter
• Speckle – lilac jelly with micro and chunky black glitter
• Mottle – refreshing vibrant mint green jelly with micro and chunky black glitter
• Fragile – sky blue jelly with micro and chunky black glitter
• Freckle – according to Sephora is a tan with micro and chunky black glitter (note, I did not buy this color)

Here are the swatches. Please don’t judge my horrible paint jobs. I painted each nail with 2 coats just to take some pictures. You may even notice in on particular picture my skin is quite red from the previous polish I didn’t remove that well.

Speckle (lilac)

Scarce (dusty pink):

Mottle (mint green)

Fragile (sky blue):

one coat:

two coats with flash:

two coats, indoor light without flash:

two coats with flash:

just playing around with the colors. I didn’t not invent this, I saw it on a different blog.

Hope these were helpful. Feel free to ask me any questions and don’t forget to check back in a week or two for a review.

A wink & a smile,

Taffy Beauty

Valentine’s Day Macaron

Happy Valentine’s Day. This is a raspberry/lychee macaron from Chantal Guillon. Obviously it’s a limited edition macaron for around Valentine’s Day. Isn’t it cute? And pretty yummy too. Side note, if you’re ever in San Francisco you must try Chantal Guillon’s macarons. They are the best ever.

Valentine’s Day Manicure

Here’s my favorite Valentine’s Day Manicure. Just as the last manicure I used Zoya’s Pixie Dust polish in Godiva and a red polish with Seche Vite on top. To create the hearts I used a dotting tool. First I with the larger dotter for the biggest hearts. I did all 10 nails with that size. Then I used the different sized points to create different sized hearts at various locations on a nail. I tried to keep them random but still kept them at the same angle. Once that was done I let the red dry a bit as red polish tends to take the longest to dry AND I applied the polish quite thickly to create a smooth heart. Lastly I applied the top coat. The contrast between the matte glitter of the pixie dust and the shinny reds really catches your eye. Enjoy!

Simple Heart French Manicure Nails

Here’s a simple Valentine’s French-ish manicure. I used Zoya’s new pixie dust in Godiva as the base and a red polish on top. The Zoya Pixie Dusts and OPI Liquid Sands (review and swatches to come soon) are a matte glitter. Not fully matte but rather the colored polish is matter but the glitter still catches the eye. It reminds me of the glittery asphalt we’ve all seen before. However, due to it’s rough uneven texture, you do need to use two coats of red to get the red to be smooth. All I used was a striping brush to get these heart-ish shapes. Side note – Zoya and OPI say to not use base coat but I did use Orly’s Rubberized Base Coat. Lastly, on top of the red polish ONLY I applied Seche Vite Top Coat.

Love-ly Makeup

Here’s my Valentine’s Day makeup. It’s simple and girly. I am loving pink lately and wanted to do a romantic uber feminine look with the smallest amount of smoke. I used various pinks and greys to get to this look. I had pink eye makeup, pink cheeks, and pink lips (not to mention pink hair) and I really loved this look. All the pinks were different so they didn’t fight with each other. Or so I think. I used quite a bit of products but most notably Tarte’s 12-hour Amazonian Clay Blush in Dollface and on the lips a mix of Revlon’s Super Lustrous Lipstick in 012 “Sky Pink” (matte) and Revlon’s Colorburst Lip Butter in 090 “Sweet Tart.” I really felt perfect in this makeup today. Not too much but not too little. I felt it was glowy but not overly so and just turned out perfect. So happy I decided to do this.

Becoming A Unicorn: Nine Steps To Go From Dirty Blonde To Purple /Pink Ombre Hair

My computer has been dangerously low on memory of course. So until I plug in the external hard drive and transfer some files and ask my brother to help me upgrade my memory I’m taking it easy with the blogging. But I had to show y’all my new hair. I’ve love Cora’s hair color which are layers of beautiful ultra-violet blueish purple, pink, and dark almost black colors. I wanted to do something with purple and pink. An ombre meets dip dye effect. I think it’s turned out quite well. I went to the SFIEC to get this done and cost me $61 (not including tip). It took 4 hours 15 minutes. I will say they were rushing a bit towards the end so the bottom hairs at the nape of my neck are more blueberry than purple and there are some streaks where they didn’t get color so my hair is just bleached. Most importantly on my right side the pink goes up to the top of my ear but on my left side the pink is just the bottom half inch or inch. It was supposed to be like the left but the helper working on the right was a little too sloppy. Normal people can’t really tell but I can and the whites make me look grey so I will be scheduling a time for them to fix it. The worst news was when I was told, after the bleaching was done, that the colors are only semi-permanent. I know most bright non-traditional colors aren’t permanent but I was thinking a professional salon would have permanent colors. I’ve heard good things about Special Effects. In the future I will be coloring my hair on my own but I wanted to watch them the first time.

So here are the pictures and my steps to getting this hair color/look. Happy holidays and happy new year to my lovely readers.

STEP 1 – FOILS / BLEACHING / “LIGHTENING”

Bleach hair where color will be applied to insure that color will be vibrant.

 

STEP 2 – APPLY COLOR

After washing out the “lightener” as they call it, toning the hair, washing again, and blow drying, apply color where you want it. I wanted purple ombre type hair so I’d still have roots then pink tips at the very end. So they applied the purple color to my hair that was bleached and the pink at the ends. As I stated above I had two different people working on me at this point and the helper brought the pink a little too high up. Also, the purple at the nape of my neck on that side is more blueberry. Lastly, they missed a few spots of hair so I have some hair that is white. Therefore, I will have them fix this when the holidays are over and they’re open again.

STEP 3 – WASH OUT COLOR AND (TRY TO) ACCEPT REALITY

Ok, I love the color. So vibrant. And awesome. This color is great. But I didn’t really want the top layer of hair colored but it still looks good. I told them I wanted the color on the under layers but it’s still great. But kinda looks like I have roots. But I never know how I feel til I get home and this looks good. I also haven’t eaten all day and sat in this chair for over 4 hours, I just want to leave.

roots:

STEP 4 – REGRETS

After every haircut or color I always end-up thinking the following:

• “Oh no, what did I do? What was I thinking?”
• “Fudge. Fudge. Fudge.”
• “This is horrible. I hate it. I have to go in public like this. Why don’t I keep sheers at home?”
• As Joey would say, “Why God, WHY!?! Why are you doing this to us me?”
• And, inevitably, “I look like a boy.”

STEP 5 – SLEEP WITH A TOWEL

I was instructed not to wash my hair for three days and that water will cause my color to run (good weekend for a rain storm) and it will rub off on fabrics at first. So I decided to protect my pillow as much as possible by using a pillowcase that isn’t the best looking and using a towel on top of that.

STEP 6 – MAKE IT WORK/DON’T GIVE UP

Ok, it can’t be that bad if you don’t have nightmares about it. Normally I like to have lots of texture to my hair and normally I sleep with wet hair that has been twisted. Maybe it’ll look better that way. It really can’t be that bad. You’re Kathleen, you can rock anything. So let’s not give up just yet.

STEP 7 – CURL THAT HAIR

Since I can’t wash or wet my hair for three days, I’ll do the next best thing – curl my hair with a clipless curling iron (the only curling iron I have).

STEP 8 – LOOSEN THOSE RINGLETS & FALL IN ♥

Gently using my fingers I loosened the ringlets to get more texture and, most importantly, more volume. This is when I realized I absolutely loved the color.

STEP 9 – TAKE SILLY PICTURES

I am VERY happy with the way this has turned out. I can’t wait to see how my bosses feel about it and all the people in the Financial District where I work but comeon, it’s not like I’m doing drugs or am all punk-y. It’s just some purple and pink hair.

A wink & a smile,

Taffy Beauty

Rocker Glitter

12/12/12. Only 9 days until the apocalypse. You’d think since the world is ending and all I would slow down my spending but I’m trying to be an optimist and hope that we’ll survive. I mean if we can survive Y2K, we can survive anything! It ain’t our first time at the rodeo.

On to today’s makeup – I wanted to do a rockery, dark & stormy look that’s still wearable. I did a simple smoked eye with grey and black and topped it off with NYX Liquid Crystal Liner in LCL 105 Crystal Gun Smoke in the center of the eye and Tarina Tarantino Glitter Liner in Black Diamond on the outer v or c, whatever you want to call it/however you apply it. The eyes did get a little sticky at the beginning but eventually the lower eyelid stopped sticking to the upper, they stayed stuck together, OR I finally got used to it. I feel like it was the first option but that may just be my vanity.

Today’s Look Features:

• NYX Liquid Crystal Liner in LCL 105 Crystal Gun Smoke Dramatic Sparkle Studio Effect
• Tarina Tarantino Glitter Liner in Black Diamond

A wink & a smile,

Taffy Beauty

Gold Glitter and Red Lip Holiday Look

I have learned that glitter is very hard to photograph. Especially right now as I work with a sub-par camera where I cannot control F-Stops, flash, etc. I’m hoping in a month or two I’ll have a new camera (hint, hint Santa).

Today’s look was photographed at the end of the day so I’m sorry if there’s some wear on the makeup but I generally don’t touch-up my face as the day goes on. The exception would be lips and concealer as I blow my nose a few times a day and my makeup comes off on my nose. I did gold eye makeup with a thin blended out line at the lash line. I then topped it off with Lorac Lustre Drops. I loved this look. A sophisticated, glam-but-natural look with strong lip. The lip color, for those of you who are asking, is OCC Liptar in Radiate. By far my favorite color. Some people say it looks orange on me but in my eyes it’s the perfect red, for me. I’m not into dark burgundy lips, no matter how much blush they wash out my face. I love hot and bright reds and this is exactly what I needed.

A wink & a smile,

Taffy Beauty

Weekend Glitter

I’m a naughty girl and getting coal for Christmas. This post is a bit late but here’s what I wore on Saturday. I was going for a really toned-down, natural look. I was spending the weekend with my teenage niece and was: a-inspired by her natural skin, and b-like to try to keep my makeup natural looking around her so she doesn’t become too into makeup. Not that I think there’s anything wrong with people like me but I know how young girls are-they start to feel they can’t do anything without a full face (been there, done that) and I want her to continue to be happy in her skin. Then if she wants to play that’s ok.

Today’s Look Features:

• MUFE Holodiam Powder in 303

Side note, I ordered some glitters from Lit Cosmetics (not that I need them) and cannot wait for them to arrive. I just hope they’re here before the end of next week. I owe you all two posts to make up for Sunday and Monday (Tuesday’s post is after this) so expect two posts for the next few days.

A wink & a smile,

Taffy Beauty

Double Winged Liner With Glitter

I’ve survived my first week of Beaudecember! Today I wanted to do a more glam makeup look that sill used glitter so I decided to go with a doubled wing liner. I love doubled wing liner yet very rarely do it. I mean like maybe once a year. But it’s so fun I need to do it more often. It was a really fun look to work with and looks classy and tame until you see my face at the right angle (which also meant it was hard to photograph but I survived). Being that it’s Friday night and that there isn’t much to say about this, I’ll let the photos do the talking. But first check this photo out below. In San Francisco there is a building that puts HUGE glittery red ornaments out. It’s glittertastic!

Today’s Look Features:

• Lorac 3D Liquid Lustre Drops in Diamond

A wink & a smile,

Taffy Beauty