FOTD: Happy Valentine’s Day!

Dear all, happy Valentine’s Day! Whether you’re single or coupled up, I hope you’ve had a good day and everything will continue in the right direction. If you have any plans tonight, what are they? I’m posting a quick FOTD (doubling OOTD I guess) before heading out for dinner with Dr. D. We started planning WAY late, so I’m happy the Thai restaurant we wanted to go to still had a free table. But anyways, onto the FOTD!

I did the same look as this one. It one of my firsts and the pictures were really bad, but I really like the duo and think purple is a pretty romantic color, so I went with it. Also, I’m wearing one of the few items I own that are cooler in colors, so I thought the silver would coordinate better than for example gold. I used quite a bit more purple today, so it is smokier than the first go. However, it did take some patience to build the purple up. I had the feeling that every time I blended too much color disappeared, so I had to go back and add more! I used Tarte Peaceful on my cheeks, and Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Peach Parfait.

Just one more so you can see the amount of contour color there actually is:

I used Bdellium Tools 953 duet fiber foundation brush to create the perfect base with foundation, 934 precision concealer brush to conceal the undereye area and spots, and 965 duet fiber blusher brush to achieve very natural-looking flushed cheeks. My review for the 3 brushes are coming up soon, so stay tuned!

I am wearing one of my favorite Lavand dresses, so I thought I’d take a picture of myself from farther away to show you:

Don’t worry. It’s not SO freezing cold out there and I’ll be wrapped up with cardigan, scarf, coat, and boots, so I’ll be fine!

I have some exciting posts coming up, so keep your eyes peeled. Until then, I hope you’re having fun!

Lots of love,

Sunny xx

PS: Have you seen my Vote for Sunny post? I’m participating in the Bobbi Brown Pretty Powerful campaign in Belgium, and I would really appreciate it if you could vote for me! Voting is a little tricky because the page is in Dutch, but my talented bestie made a graph so everybody could follow the steps easily. Want to challenge yourself, learn some Dutch, and earn my eternal gratitude? Please check this out! Thanks a lot in advance!

FOTD: Snow Bubble Pop K-pop Inspired Look

Hey everybody, it’s FRIDAY! Isn’t it almost the best day of the week? What are your plans for the weekend? Do you have exciting things planned or are you going to chill?

Dr. D and I made plans to go for Thai food tonight, so in the early afternoon I proceeded to take my shower, put on some makeup, and then go work at a cafe till dinnertime. When I got out of the shower however, I saw large snowflakes falling. I heard earlier today that there was a snowstorm in the Netherlands, and I knew my foolish hope of having the weather stay freezing but sunny was over. Since I had more time to spare, I decided to follow a K-pop inspired tutorial by Jen from From Head to Toe. Hyuna’s Bubble Pop was BIG last summer when I was in Taiwan, and despite the fact that the only part I could follow is “bubble bubble bubble pop bubble bubble pop pop,” the song has stuck in my head. It’s just so bright and cheerful!

I largely followed Jen’s tutorial, replacing what I don’t have with the closest shades I have. Here is the list of products and breakdown:

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in 53 Light Beige
NARS Stick Concealer in Custard (swatch and review coming soon)
Tarte Smooth Operator finishing powder
Bobbi Brown Sable on eyebrows

The middle shade of NYX Rock and Roll was used in a half-moon shape (Jen used Urban Decay Underground which I don’t have, and this one is the only remotely taup-y shade I own at the moment). Darkhorse was used in the same shape closer to my lash line. With the tip of MAC 239, I put the gold shade of L’Oreal Metallic HiP duo in Gilded on my lower lash line (Jen used Urban Decay Honey, which is also a yellow gold), Half Baked in the inner corners and layered a bit on the lower lash line, and Smog to smoke out the outer half of the lower lash line.

I lined my upper lash line with Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Gel Eyeliner in Blackest Black (Jen used a pencil liner for both her upper and lower lash line, but I knew a pencil liner doesn’t stand a chance on my upper lash line so I went with my usual gel liner), but the line doesn’t go up as what I usually do. Instead, it is just slightly extended following my natural eye shape. I was supposed to line my lower waterline with Urban Decay Zero, and then connect the outer corners with the line I created with the gel liner. However, I might have been a little over-enthusiastic with all that gold shadow earlier on, and I found it pretty difficult to line! After some struggle, I ended up with both my water AND lash line lined, and it wasn’t very neat. Oh well…

Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes (review coming soon)
Tarte Blissful on cheeks (Jen didn’t use a blush, but I was testing this one out. Swatch and review coming soon)
Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Bronze on the top of my cheekbones, forehead, and down my nose bridge
Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Soft Matte Bronzer to contour
Chanel Rouge Coco Mademoiselle was dabbed onto my lips, creating more natural pink lips

Here are some close-ups so you can see the eyes better:

This is how the eyes look when they are downcast. You can also play spot-the-kitten with this one 🙂

I took some pictures in the usual bathroom light, but since there was still natural light I wanted to play with that too. It washed my complexion out, and I had to switch to “snow” mode on my camera to deal with the super bright white light, but I kind of like how “surreal” these pictures turned out.

So that’s my snow day Bubble Pop FOTD for you! What do you think? Do you like my regular winged-out eyeliner better or when I follow my real lash line like in this look? I need some input here! Also, are you a fan of K-pop or celebrity-inspired looks in general?

I have recently hauled quite a bit of exciting stuff that I want to share with you, so definitely stay tuned for that! Follow me on Twitter (especially if you want to see more kitty photos) and Bloglovin’. I have plans to start a Mostly Sunny Facebook page soon, and I will keep you posted when that happens!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Sunny xx

FOTD: Gilded Smokiness for New Year’s Eve with L’Oreal HiP duo Gilded

Hello everyone, happy new year! Did you have a good celebration? D and I went over to some friends’ for a copious amount of food and alcohol before going out at midnight to see the fireworks. Nothing crazy, but definitely a lot of good conversations and fun!

I am here to show you my New Year’s Eve look. Since I don’t do smokey eyes very often, I am going to do a more detailed breakdown of how I achieved it. I will also be reviewing how L’Oreal HiP duo in 806 Gilded performed.

For a detailed breakdown and more pictures, please continue reading:

1. I began by filling my eyebrows in with Bobbi Brown Eye Brow Brush and Sable. I know that some people prefer to do that after completing their eye makeup, but I think eyebrows offer good indicators of for example how far the outer edge of eyeshadows can go, so I always do it first.

2. Next, I curled my eyelashes with Shiseido 213 Eyelash Curler. I know that most people do this right before applying mascara, but I don’t like to have my eyelash curler against my freshly-applied eyeshadows (it’s probably my particular eye shape and bone structure though), so I try to do it before I put anything on my eyelids.

3. I primed my eyes with UDPP. I knew that it’s a bit more of a challenge to have a smokey eye hold up perfectly towards the end of the night, so I paid special attention smoothing UDPP over my eyelids, lower lash line, inner corners, and outer corners.

4. To minimize fallout, I held a tissue under my eyes throughout the process of eyeshadow application. With a pencil brush (I used the Yves Rocher one that is too fluffy for my inner corners, but serves this particular purpose pretty well), I applied the darker side of L’Oreal Gilded all over my lids, smoothing it out and carefully blending the edges as I went. If you have limited lid space like me, I would suggest you be a bit more cautious with this step. Going overboard right in the beginning will be very tricky to deal with afterwards, unless you are planning to wear false lashes and going all out. For the inner half of my lids, I like to keep the height to a point that the shadow is barely visible when I open my eyes.

5. Once that was done, I used MAC 239 to pat the lighter side of the duo to the center of my lids. You will notice how this step dramatically brightens up your eyes!

6. I then proceeded to highlight the inner corners of my eyes with Half Baked from the Naked Palette, and my brow bones with the lightest shade of NYX Rock and Roll. I used a light hand, but I did blend it down to the edge of the black shade I used earlier.

7. I lined my upper water line and lash line with Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Gel Eyeliner in Blackest Black before patting a but of Creep from the Naked Palette to set it. I lined my lower lash line with Urban Decay Bourbon and layered the darker shade of Gilded over it. I could have used Zero for the job, but the way I looked at it, I could either play up the gold or the black in the look, and I wanted to test Bourbon out.

8. Now the eyeshadows were finally done! I used 3 coats of Maybelline Magnum Volum’ Express Black on my upper lashes, and one careful coat on my lower lashes.

9. I cleaned up the fallout with the piece of tissue before doing my foundation (Bourjois Healthy Mix) and finishing powder (Tarte Smooth Operator finishing powder). That helped cleaning everything up nicely!

10. I used Tarte Peaceful on my cheeks, a bit of Bobbi Brown Bali Brown on my face (concentrating on my temples and below my cheekbones, sweeping gently across my forehead, nose bridge, and jaw line).

11. Last but not least, I applied Bobbi Brown Lip Gloss in Nougat.

Here are some more pictures so you can get a better look!

I am very happy with the way the look turned out, but to be honest the darker side of Gilded is not the easiest eyeshadow to work with. It produces more fallout than what I would like to see, and smoothing it out is a bit of work. It is not patchy, but even application takes patience. The good news is the edges did blend OK, and once you manage to make it nice and smooth, it does hold up with no creasing/obvious fading (I wore the look for 8 hours). The lighter side of the duo is an absolute joy! It is very pigmented, smooth, and easy to work with. Just for this shade along I would still recommend this duo!

I wore my mustard yellow turtle neck under a new dress. You can see some of it in a couple of pictures, but the whole dress is more interesting than that in a sense that the print is not uniform! It is from my favorite brand Lavand. I have been collecting their dresses (especially winter dresses) for two years in a row, and now come to think of it I haven’t worn anything but dresses for at least one year! I love colorful dresses because they are very flexible. When it’s cold, you can pair different turtle necks, stocking, cardigans, and boots with them, but they can be worn alone when it’s spring/autumn. You can really play with colors when you dress this way. I don’t think/know this is common everywhere, but in Europe you see enough of this (I think girls have a better idea what colors work for them here). If anyone is interested I can do a post about my dress collection at some point, just give me a shout 😉

So that’s my New Year’s Eve look! What do you think? What did you wear?

Again, happy new year and please stay tuned for more swatches, reviews, and style posts!

Sunny xx

FOTD: What I Wore for Christmas and Beautybay Sale!

Hey everyone!

How was your Christmas? Did you have a good one with a lot of nice presents and food overdose? My Christmas Eve was quiet, but I did see quite some friends over Christmas Day and Boxing Day, so I would like to share the looks I did with you.

First and foremost is my Christmas manicure. I very seldom wear nail polish nowadays, but since D cooked on Christmas Eve and we were going over to some friends’ on Christmas Day, I thought I’d seize the chance. The polish is OPI Merry Midnight. It is from the 2009 Christmas collection, so it is rather difficult to find one now. I only found out about it this summer when I picked this shade for my pedicure back home, and I was lucky enough to find a bottle on Yahoo Auction in Taiwan (it’s the equivalent of EBay in Taiwan because it has been there for much longer). I don’t like to tease you with limited edition or hard-to-find items, so I am not going to write a separate review about it. As you will be able to see in the following picture, the polish is a jelly purple with multi-color shimmer and flakes. The first coat is stunningly uneven, un-sparkling, and uninspiring in general. I remember being so taken aback during my pedicure when the lady put on the first coat. I almost said:” you must have made a mistake! This is NOT the shade I picked out!” But after the second coat things get dramatically better. You do need more skills and experience to work with this nail polish, and I find it difficult to avoid some unevenness altogether (though nothing too concerning). Something else I don’t like so much about it is the fact that it doesn’t last as well on me as a typical OPI nail polish. I’m getting tip wear and some chips after just a couple of days, while normally OPI polishes last 3-4 days with minimal tip wear on me! I do hope OPI will bring the shade back with a better formula.

Now moving on to my Christmas Day makeup. I did a “classic” look with the Naked Palette. I used Sin on the inner half, Buck on the outer half, the lightest shade of NYX Rock and Roll on the inner corner, and smudged my lower lash line out with Gunmetal. I was also testing Tarte Exposed out and was pretty happy with it! On my lips it’s Chanel Rouge Coco Mademoiselle.

For Boxing Day I did something a bit more dramatic. I used my L’Oreal HiP duo in 106 Sculpted. The lighter shade all over my lid, and the darker shade on the outer corner, brought into my crease, and on my lower lash line. On the inner corner is Sin from the Naked Palette, Tarte Exposed on cheek, a bit of Bali Brown to add some dimension to my face, and MAC Sweetie on lips.

I have to report that the darker shade of the duo is really rather hard to blend, and there is some fallout. The fallout isn’t too concerning at all, but the lack of blendability is a pain. The lighter shade doesn’t pull orange on me though, so I’m happy about that. I wore makeup for 11-12 hours that day, and by the end of the day I could see some fading, but it was still OK. Man, you can see the print my glasses leave on my nose SO clearly in this picture (for some reason it is worse on the left side)! I might have to start looking for a decent concealer now.

Also, I’m still looking for a way to take clearer pictures of my FOTD. As what I have told you, we haven’t had a lot of natural light in Belgium, and the flashlight doesn’t always allow colors to be captured on photos as they are. I will work on this issue, but in the meantime I hope you at least get an idea!

Last but not least, Muffin the new kitten wants to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a 2012 with a punch!

She has been with us for a bit more than two weeks now, and she is a total sweetheart! I’ll for sure introduce her properly in the blog soon. She plays go fetch just like what Brownie used to do. Can you believe that?

Lots of Christmas love,

Sunny

Oh, and pssst I almost forgot to tell you about this! Beautybay.com is having a 10% off sale till midnight Wednesday (UK time, so it might be earlier/later depending on where you live. For example, in continental Europe, it would be 1AM on Thursday). I am a registered customer, so I received an e-mail with 15% off. The promotion code is the same though (XMAS), so I guess the system just checks if you are already in it. If you have been lemming for Cargo blushes for example, this would be a great opportunity to get some! What I LOVE about Beautybay is the fact that it doesn’t rip you off. A 25-dollar Cargo blush would cost about 18.60 euros, but the rate does change a little from time to time (or even every day?). Beautybay also carries Too Faced, Urban Decay, Bedhead, Bare Escentuals, and so on. I got some stuff myself, and will show you soon!

Swatch, Review, & Comparison: L’Oreal HiP Metallic Shadow Duos in 106 Sculpted, 306 Gunmetal, 806 Gilded

After my good experience with L’Oreal Electrified, I felt the need to lay my greedy little hands on more of these HiP Metallic Shadow Duos. Since they are unavailable in Belgium (why, L’Oreal, why? Why can’t you love thy neighbor?), I turned to Makeupalley swap. I found this wishlist-only swapper who had something on her wishlist that I could part with, so I messaged her. It turned out that she actually put the wrong item on her wishlist, but decided to send the duos for me as a random act of kindness. I was such a sweet surprise that I didn’t know what to do with myself anymore!

Therefore, before I begin to show you the review and swatches, I have to say thank you, thank you, thank you to Sarah. According to her, her top three hobbies are makeup, knitting, and jewelry-making. She has two Etsy shops. One for knitting and spinning supplies, and the other for handmade jewelry. Now, I have poor hand-eye coordination and no patience, so knitting is really not my thing. However, I LOVE her jewelry especially because she pretty much only uses sterling silver. I have once bought something off Etsy because I find jewelry with bees and birds adorable. However, I couldn’t find anything that was made with sterling silver, so I had to compromise and get something that was not. I am very unfortunately allergic to anything that is not silver and gold, so I ended up wearing that pair of earrings only twice. Every time I tried, my ears would swell up painfully, and I couldn’t wear earrings for days afterwards. If you have the same problem, do check Sarah’s jewelry site out! I can feel that it is before long that I cave it to one piece or another!

Now, let’s move on to the most picture-heavy post of this blog so far, shall we? 😉

The lighter side of Sculpted (106) is a gorgeous shimmery plummy pink. I really like this color, and the texture/pigmentation perform pretty well. The dark side of this duo is a little tricky. It looks more purple/burgundy in pan, but from the swatch you can see it is almost black. It definitely leans warmer though, and the pink and purple glitter in it makes it more fun! I haven’t tested it out on my eyes so I can’t tell you for sure if there is fallout. However, I don’t have the impression that it is going to be the case from doing the swatches (or rather even if there is going to be fallout, it is not going to be dramatically bad). I do have to mention that this shade is slightly stiffer and the color pay-off is not as amazing as its lighter neighbor though. As this post goes on you will see this is consistent for all the HiP duos that I own. You can build it up rather easily, but it is a little more effort.

The closest colors I own to these two shades are Urban Decay Toasted and the left-column definer shade of Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone, so I did a little comparison here:

As you can see, Toasted is FAR from the lighter shade, as it is not nearly as plummy. The definer shade of Comfort Zone is browner and warmer than the darker shade and less glittery.

Next on our list is 306 Gunmetal:

It is perhaps a little weird to name a green duo “Gunmetal (306),” but after swatching both shades, I can see that they have a grayish, smoked-out quality about them. The lighter side is a grayish olive green with a nice sheen. The darker side looks like an intense glittery forest green in pan. However, once swatched, the vibrancy of the green doesn’t transfer to skin. In my swatch picture you can see it is an extremely smoked-out green, though in person the glitter is much more impressive. Again, the texture is rather stiff, and it takes work to build it up. I know that the major complaint about this duo is that it looks very different in pan, and I have to agree with that. If you purchase the duo without having seen some swatches, you are likely to get something that is far from what you expected. With that said however, I personally like the colors (they’re green!) and I would like to see how they perform on lid!

I did a little comparison lining up all my greens next to the lighter shade (MAC Humid, MAC Sumptuous Olive, Urban Decay Mildew), and the right-column crease shade of Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone next to the darker one:

I would say the lighter shade of Gunmetal is a blackened cross between Humid and Mildew. Next to the right-column crease shade of Comfort Zone, you can see the grayish greenish quality of the darker shade better. Also, the Wet n’ Wild shade is not nearly as sparkly.

Finally, I have saved the best for last with 806 Gilded!

The lighter side of this duo is a wow. It is a metallic true gold. Despite the fact that these duos bear the word “metallic” in their names, not many shades come out as metallic as this one. The texture buttery soft, and color pay-off more than amazing. If you put a little more pressure on your finger, the shade almost “melts.” Yup, that’s how buttery it is! For me personally, just this side makes the duo “worth it.” The darker side is a little less “deceptive” in this case. It is a grayish black with gold glitter, and it is what you get on your skin. Again, the texture is pretty stiff, and you have to work a bit for it to show up nicely. Something else that worries me a little is that I can already tell there will be some fallout. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that it isn’t too bad!

Again, I did a little comparison for you. I swatched Urban Decay Half Baked next to the lighter shade, and Urban Decay Creep next to the darker one.

Next to such a true gold like this, Half Baked looks surprisingly bronzy, almost orange! I love doing comparison swatches for you guys also because I learn so much from doing them. Half Baked is one of my all-time favorite eyeshadows, and I have used it so many times that I thought I knew it very well. Next to this shade however, I have seen a different side of it! Creep is considerably cooler than the darker shade of Gilded, and the sparkly bits almost don’t come out next to its much more glittery counterpart.

Finally, I did a happy family reunion shot of all of my metallic duos! From left to right: Electrified, Sculpted, Gunmetal, and Gilded. This is the first time I used flash, because we really haven’t had a lot of natural light here, and I kept getting blurry pictures! I did make sure the colors are accurate though.

Bottom line: Despite the fact that I wouldn’t rave about the HiP Metallic Duos as a 10/10 product, some of them are definitely worth looking into. My personal recommendations are Electrified and Gilded, because the lighter shades of both are true to the word “metallic” in their names. Sculpted is nice to have especially if you like plummy pink. I can see how Gunmetal wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but from playing around with it myself, I can say it is more phenomenal in person than a lot of the swatch pictures you can find online. It would be good for a more understated green-themed smokey eye, especially if you have something else from the green family to add some pop!

Phew, that is one very dense post! I will definitely do FOTDs soon with these duos, especially with the upcoming holiday celebrations. Please stay tuned if you want to see how they do on lid! Don’t be shy if you have any questions regarding these duos!

So what do you think? Would you be picking any of them up? Do you like metallic shadows in general?

Stay tuned and stick around, folks!