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Friday, November 23, 2012

Makeup Geek Gel Liners

Makeup Geek recently sent me four of their new(ish) gel eyeliners.  I have been playing around with them since I got them.  The liners cost $7.99 for 1.8g of product.  To compare, MAC fluidlines cost $15 for 3g of product, so they're really quite similar in price per gram.  So here are the colors I got:

Immortal:  
What the MUG site says the bottom line about this color is, "A true intense black color with a matte finish."
I think this is a great basic black gel liner.  I've never had any issues with a black gel liner (I've also used L'oreal HIP, MAC, and Bobbi Brown) and I wouldn't necessarily recommend this over the others or the others over this.  It lasted well for me, but I did set it with a shadow as I always do.

 Electric:
"True royal blue with a matte finish."
This color, when used as a liner, does not come across as bright.  Also this needs you to give it drying time.  I used it to line around my eyes and it transferred like nobody's business.  I learned that setting it with shadow before opening your eyes is a very good idea.  This worked well for me on the waterline.

 Fame:
"A dark aquatic teal with a navy undertone and smooth shimmery finish."
My favorite.  I love this color.  It applied super smoothly and it's just the most gorgeous color.  I had no issues with staying power on my waterline.  If you have hazel or gold eyes, you NEED this color.

 Rave:
"A dark metallic golden brown shade with a smooth shimmery finish."
This is like a silvery-brown color.  It's really pretty, I used it as a base, I haven't used it as a liner yet.  But it applied nice and smoothly and it's a really pretty, interesting color.

 Swatches:

And here are two looks I did using these.

A look with "Electric" as the star of the show.

What I used:
MUG "Electric" Gel liner all around my eyes and on waterline
MUG "Neptune" shadow to set the liner (they need a shadow color that better coordinates with Electric)
MUG "Bling" shadow on lid and as highlight
MUG "Stealth" in outer v area
MUG "Purely Naked" to blend up from Stealth

My second look.  Using "Fame" and "Rave"


I used "Rave" as a base on my lid
MUG "Prom Night" on top of Rave
MUG "Latte" in outer v area
MUG "Beaches 'n Cream" above Latte
MUG "Shimma Shimma" as highlight
"Fame" gel liner on waterline, topped with "Ocean Breeze" and blended down into "Mermaid"

I definitely like these liners.  I think they make great eyeshadow bases as well, they don't stay creamy like the NYX jumbo eye pencils do, but I didn't have any issues getting shadow to stick on top of them.  Have you guys tried these gel liners yet?  What do you think of them?

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  Thanks so much for taking time out to check this out!!!

Friday, November 16, 2012

Date night smokey eye

I don't know if I have ever told you or not but I ADORE the Naked palette from Urban Decay.  I have both the first and the second ones but I use the first one way more (which I was totally not expecting).  I never thought I would use it as much as I do, but I swear I use it like 5 times a week.  So if you haven't gotten this palette because you think you'll never use it, I think you're wrong and you should get it.  Totally worth the $50 I say.

Today I wanted to do something I thought my husband might like, something good for a date night.  So I wanted dark dark eyeliner and to go relatively simple on the rest of my makeup.  So here's the look I did.


I've done this color combo a million times before, I just tried to make my liner darker by going over it a few times and then going over it with the black shadow from the Naked palette.  The colors I used from the palette are "Creep" (black), "Gunmetal" (grey), and "Naked" (tan).  My eyeliner is Avon's Glimmersticks Liqui-glide eyeliner in "black."  On my lips I have a mixture of "Interlace" and "Femme" OCC lip tars topped by Anastasia lipgloss in "Barely" (great color, HORRIBLE applicator).

So that's my super easy date night look.  According to my husband, "it's cool" so I'm not sure what that means.  But I like it so that's all that matters!  Well, I hope you guys like it too haha!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

I have been gone for way too long!

Hey guys!  Thank you if you're still out there and reading this.  I know I've been the world's worst blogger and I do apologize.  If you follow me on facebook, you'll know that I had to have surprise surgery in October for a partially obstructed small bowel (which is NOT a fun thing to have, by the way, I puked my brains out.  I lost 10 lbs of just water weight and it took bags and bags of fluid just to get me peeing again).  But I'm healed from that and am back on my chemo schedule.

After surgery I tend to get into a slump because I don't feel well so I don't really wear too much makeup and then I get used to not wearing makeup so I just kinda don't.  And honestly, my skin has been a wreck so I figure even if I do good eye makeup you won't notice because my skin is so gross.  Darn steroids.  So today I decided for the first time in way too long that I would try something at least slightly artistic.  I don't have many good pictures of it but here it is!



I used all Makeup Geek shadows for this look.  
Product placement:


1. Pixie Dust
2. Peacock
3. Ocean Breeze
4. Appletini
5. White Lies











So that's my creativity for the day haha.  I haven't worn this much color or this extreme of a look in a very long while so I feel like I look kinda crazy.  This used to be kind of tame for me too.  Who would have thought the day would come where it would be a struggle for me to wear eyeliner without thinking it looks like I'm overdoing it?

Well that's about all I have for today.  I will try to be a better blogger, but it honestly depends on my energy level and my skin.  Because my skin has been a huge deterrence to my blogging. 

Thank you to all of you who are still sticking it out with me!  My last unhook from chemo is scheduled for Decemeber 22nd so I should be done by Christmas!!  Yay!  I cannot wait for it all to be behind me and for me to get back to my "normal" life!  Thanks guys!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Bright blues and purple using BFTE

It had been a while since I'd worn any real color on my eyes, I honestly just haven't felt like putting the effort in.  Lame, I know.  So I decided I wanted to do something colorful.  When I do looks, I like to use exclusively one brand of eyeshadow (unless there's a specific look I'm going for or if I really need another color) so if you want to copy it you don't have to go all over the world to do so.  So for this look I reached for the sampler set I have from Beauty From the Earth (or BFTE) Cosmetics.  So here's the look I came up with (you've already seen it if you follow my facebook page, I did this look like a week ago)!




The colors I used (all from BFTE) were:
Lid: "Blue Bayou"
Crease: "Blue Bird"
Purple part of crease: "Midnight Kisses"
Purple above crease: "Kastra"
Highlight: "Beautiful"

Liner: Avon Glimmersticks Liqui-glide eyeliner "Black"
Mascara: L'oreal Voluminous Power Volume 24H

And this has nothing to do with makeup but recently I did a 5k to help raise awareness for colon cancer.  I really want people to know that it can happen to young people too (though that wasn't really addressed, they said, "If you love someone over 50, make sure they get screened").  So I have some pictures that my family, who are completely amazing and drove down from New York to do this with me, took so I thought I'd share them with you!

It was called the Undy 5000 where they encourage people to run in their undies to help raise awareness but I'm not really an undies-showing kinda chick so that was a negative for me haha.  I wore leggings under the boxers they gave me haha.

This is the photo of my whole team.  My team came in 2nd place for fundraising, we made $2,248!  The first place team had 66 members so it doesn't surprise me that they won, we only had 9 members signed up to fundraise so I say we kicked butt!

The shirts my family had made up

My adorable niece's shirt

Me, my sister (to the left), and my cousin

Most of the rest of my team

Me at the one mile marker!

Crossing the finish line arm-in-arm!

Me and my hubby!

With the other 19 survivors, I got really emotional and had a hard time not crying.  Who looks out of place haha?  They kept looking at me like wondering why I was standing up there, I think they thought I was just confused haha.

Me and my dad with my "survivor" medal.

It was really fun.  I didn't realize I'd have a good time walking 3.1 miles just to do it but I really had a good time.  And we raised so much money, I'm so proud!  My time wasn't very good but I finished in under an hour so I guess that's not terrible haha.  Good thing I wasn't in it for the race, I was just in it for the experience and to raise some awareness that this happens to young people too!  It is easier to prevent if you're older and get screened regularly but if you're young and something isn't right, get checked out!!  

So that's my lengthy post for the day haha.  I hope you guys are having a great week!  Thank you, as always, for sticking with me through this whole thing.  I promise it'll get better once I'm done with treatments and cancer-free!  Here I am getting treatment number 8!  Four more to go and I'm done (fingers crossed) forever!!

Thanks guys!!!

Friday, September 21, 2012

Super quick look for fall!

Today I felt like doing something easy for fall, with some dark (well, darker than normal for me) lips and a bronzy fall eye.  This is like the easiest look ever but I like it.  The lips look darker in person, I swear.  The lip color is one of the Revlon Balm Stains in the color "Honey" which is like a natural plum color, it's not nearly as light as it looks on the package so if you like light lips like I do, you may not like this color.  But anyways, here's the look I did!



My lighting was super off because the lips look way darker in person!

What I used on the eyes:
Lime Crime Eyeshadow Helper
Makeup Geek eyeshadow "Pretentious" all over lid, slightly above the crease, and under the eye
MUG "Mocha" shadow in crease
MUG "Bleached Blonde" to blend "Pretentious" 
MUG "Bling" as a highlight
Avon Glimmersticks Liqui-glide Eyeliner in "Black"
MUG "Corrupt" shadow to set liner

I just thought the color "Pretentious" looked like such a fall color, it's a cool toned bronze color, and I thought mixed with the natural plum lip, it would be perfect for an easy fall look.  Do you have a favorite fall color combo??

And I just got this Avon Glimmersticks Liqui-glide eyeliner and I really like it so far.  It really does feel wet when it goes on, but it glides on like one of the Urban Decay 24/7 pencils.  And it does not transfer.  I have the biggest issue, because of my eye shape, with eyeliners transferring onto my lid and it drives me bonkers.  That hasn't happened yet with this liner.  I'll do a full review on it once I give it a bit longer of a trial but so far so good!  

That's all I have for today, just a really quick post, but as always, thank you so much for your support! 

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

New post! It's been a while!

Sorry guys that it's been so long since I've posted anything!  My daughter brought a nice stomach bug home with her from school that I caught and it messed everything up.  My immune system couldn't shake the bug by itself so I had to be put on antibiotics and fluids and that helped but it pushed my chemo schedule back.  I was supposed to be done the week before Thanksgiving but now my new goal is to be done by Christmas so I guess that's better than nothing.

Well for my birthday, I decided to check out the sale section on Sephora's website and I ordered a bunch of these Prisma Chrome eyeshadows because they were only $3 and I figured I couldn't really go wrong (there are only 2 colors left now but there were way more when I ordered).  There's an orange one that's really pretty and I wanted to wear a bright pink lip (using OCC Lip Tar in "Anime") so I figured I'd go with simple orange on the eyes and this is the look I came up with:


please excuse the lazy brows, I just filled them in with pencil.
Two of my shadows came broken (the orange one being one of them), they are pretty soft, but here's what the orange one looks like in the pan (they sure made a weird shape with them in the pans, almost like a wave).
From not really expecting too much from this, I was surprised at how much I liked it.  I've been using these shadows quite a bit, a lot like how I used it here.  Just super basic.  I haven't even been adding a crease color lately.  Gosh, what is wrong with me??  I need to get back to my makeup doing, I just don't feel like it, you know?

Here are unedited pictures of all of the colors I got: 






too bad this is broken because the color is GORGEOUS!!

I did this look probably 2 weeks ago, just between being sick and chemo I've been really thrown off schedule.  So I'm sorry for that and I really hope to post some more.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Thursday, August 30, 2012

A reflective birthday post, completely non-makeup related

Today's my 27th birthday.  Because of the cancer I am so so thankful that I've made it here.  I know some people don't believe in God but I do and here's some of why.  Colon cancer isn't a disease they start looking for in people until they're about 50 years old so when I finally decided I needed to go to the GI doctor to get looked at, they made my appointment about 2 months away from the day I called.  I knew I needed to be seen sooner than that.

I really wanted a female doctor because I just feel more comfortable with women.  So I called the practice back and asked if they had a cancellation list or something so I could get in sooner.  They didn't.  So I started looking around for another female GI doctor who accepted my insurance.  God sent me to Dr. Jyothi Mann.  I was SOOOOO nervous and anxious going there, the preliminary questions they asked me made me cry because I was so mortified about being there and being asked such personal questions.

Dr. Mann was so incredible, she didn't do a physical exam on me at all because she must have known if she had, I would have been so scarred, I wouldn't have come back.  I feel like most doctors would have said something like, "well, let's change your diet and see how that goes.  We'll see you back in a couple of months."  I didn't have a couple of months.  She saw me back 2 weeks later for a colonoscopy, the one that saved my life.

I never cancelled the inital GI doctor appointment and when they called to confirm that appointment, I was on my second round of chemotherapy.  I had already had surgery to remove the mass from my colon and was on the road for treating the rest of the cancer in my system.

Another thing that has proven to me that God is real is that I am in one of the best locations in the country for cancer treatment.  People fly in from other countries to have treatments done where I live.  I couldn't understand for the longest time why I got moved from my life in New York (Upstate, not the city) and my family and friends but after finding out about the cancer, I know why I'm here.

I just am so grateful every single day for God putting me where he has.  It's not been easy by any means but since this has happened, I'm so glad that it's happened the way it is.  The only thing I would have changed is me being stupid and not going to the doctor sooner.  I was just too embarrassed.  Lesson learned.  I may not have made it to my 27th birthday if I hadn't been sent to Dr. Mann, if I had waited and gone to the other doctor, I honestly feel like my issues would have been brushed off because of my age.  Luckily Dr. Mann was sensitive enough to my feelings that she must have known if I was there, it was for a reason.  She has followed me every step of my treatment and has been such a huge encouragement for me.  I can't rave about her enough.

I really just typed this out for myself but thank you for reading it if you have.  Things may happen and we may not know the reason for them but there is a reason, rest assured.

BFTE Giveaway Winner!

The winner has been chosen for the "Get the Look" mini set from Beauty From the Earth!  And the winner is Claudia Amaya!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations!  E-mail me at starryskies214@yahoo.com within the next 48 hours with your information so I can get your prize out to you or I will move on to the next person!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Come to chemo with me!

A while ago I had asked you guys is you may be interested in a "come to chemo" post where you can see a little bit of what goes on during a chemo treatment.  Well after I asked that, my doctors took me off of chemo so I could have my liver surgery.  But I'm back on it now so I figured I could show you how it goes.

So the first thing to really prepare for chemo is to numb my port (also known as a portacath).  Now you may not be familiar with what a port is.  I know even after they put mine in I was still confused as to how it worked.  It's basically a small ball that they place under your skin in your chest that has a catheter tube that they connect to a vein where they can directly put the chemo medicine.  They access it by needle, it doesn't remain open or anything.  They placed mine quite low or I'd show it to you, I think they placed it so low because I'm young and they figured I'd want to hide it.  They give you a prescription for lidocaine numbing cream and you use that and some press-n-seal plastic wrap about an hour before your treatment to numb it so you don't feel them poke you.

Entrance at my cancer center
When you get to the cancer center (or wherever you're being treated) they'll register you and give you what I call "the beeper of doom."  Which is the beeper that goes off when it's your turn.  Just a little thought on cancer centers: I think it's awesome that people are so focused on curing cancer that that's all they do however, sometimes it makes me feel, when I walk into the cancer center, that I am not supposed to be with the other "healthy" people.  I know that's not the case but it has made me feel that way.

The first time the beeper goes off, you go back for "labs" where they'll probably poke your finger for blood and make you pee in a cup (they don't make everyone pee in a cup.  I'n on Avastin and sometimes that can make protein spill into my urine and they want to make sure that's not happening).  They want to make sure that your blood counts are where they should be and that you're healthy enough to continue with treatment.  They'll give you another tube for them to draw blood from your port.  And then they'll send you back out to wait for the beeper to go off again and then it's treatment time.

My beeper with another tube for blood attached to it, I have to bring this back to my nurse.
And here's the treatment area:


The first thing that hits you here is the smell.  It definitely smells medicine-y.  And this smell seems to get worse every time you go back, I think because of the negative connotation that goes along with it.  Now they sit you down in your little treatment area and access your port.  Then they'll draw that tube of blood (which they check for liver, kidney functions, and all sorts of different things with), and start your pre-meds (which are steroids and anti-nausea medicine).

Once that stuff all gets in, which takes a bit, they'll bring your chemotherapy medicine over from pharmacy (they mix it fresh for every person).  The nurse gets to wear an awesome suit that makes you feel like you're contaminated when she gives it to you but it's just to protect her, so she doesn't get any medicine on her skin.

And then they hook up the chemo and let it infuse for however long your treatment is.  My scheduled treatment time is 5 hours, which is one of the longer treatments, but here's what I look like all hooked up (I kinda look miserable haha)!
You can see the patch on my left shoulder, my port is under there in like the top of my boob
There's a tv and stuff, there's a seat for a guest so you don't have to be there all alone. And I personally like having a window seat, it lets me look out and see if there are squirrels or anything haha.  They'll bring you heated blankets if you're cold and food or drink if you're hungry or thirsty.  

So you sit there and entertain yourself until your treatment is over.  Then for me, I have to take a pump with medicine home and let it infuse over the next 46 hours so they gave me a fanny pack but I couldn't deal with that so I got this bag instead.  And this is how I walk around for the next two days (I sleep with the pump and everything, no showers because it can't get wet).

Two days later I go back and get unhooked from my port and hopefully my side effects from the medicine aren't too bad.  Usually I get sick at least once, I get VERY tired (I sleep about 16-20 hours a day, I'm basically useless), my skin breaks out like crazy, and by a certain day the steroids makes me incredibly antsy, I can't sit still, I can't get up and do something, I can't do anything without feeling anxious.  I'm not allowed to eat or drink anything cold for like a week so that stinks (it's because of the Oxaliplatin, by the end of treatment my own saliva is too cold for me to swallow and it hurts going down) but I don't usually feel much like eating anyways because when they tell you not to eat foods you like when you're on chemo, they mean it.  I ate pizza my first treatment, I didn't get sick or anything.  I cannot touch pizza now.  It makes me want to vomit.

That's a little peek into what it's like to go to chemo.  I hope it was helpful for some of you who were wondering.  If you wear pretty makeup, you'll get lots of compliments!  I wore a dark purple smokey eye and got so many compliments, I think they're so used to seeing people who feel sick so they don't feel like getting ready, which is totally understandable because most of the time I feel that way too but I rocked a smokey purple eye and everyone loved it!  Yes, I wear makeup to chemo!
I used BFTE "Big Ego" for this with some other colors I can't remember for blending and highlighting.

Again, I hope this helped shed some light on what goes on at a chemo treatment and that some of you found it helpful