Fall Drugstore Makeup Tutorial (FULL FACE!)

So heres to the longest video I've made yet. Honestly, I can't imagine anyone wanting to watch a nearly 18 minute video but in case you do, here is one I made that is a full face drugstore tutorial. All the products used (except a few brushes) were from the drugstore. I encourage you to search through your collection and work with what you have; I didn't buy anything new for this tutorial and just worked with what I have. I think you'll be surprised if you can rediscover some oldies but goodies in your collection. I think I may have even found some of this months "favorites" while filming this. Enjoy!

De-potting Mac Eyeshadows [Video Demo Included!]

A few months ago I wrote a blog post on how I depot my Mac eyeshadows (catch that here!). I wanted to make a video to show the procedure so that you would be able to get a visual. I hope you find it helpful! Please Enjoy =]

Faded Purple Lip Tutorial

Hey Everyone! Late last night I posted a super quick and easy tutorial on this faded purple lip look. I have been wearing this A LOT lately and keep getting compliments and questions on what color I am wearing. If you are interested, be sure to check it out and subscribe to youtube.com/beautyandblogging

Youtube.com/beautyandblogging

Hey Everyone! So after endless hours of devoting myself to my Youtube channel today, I finally have a CUSTOM DOMAIN name which I am thrilled about! It took me a lot of google searching and research to figure out how Youtubers get all the stuff so unique and put together on their pages so if you guys have any questions regarding Youtube please let me know because I would be happy to help and even make a blog post about questions people have about Youtube. Some of the things I've learned today include but are not limited to
1) Using a watermark image in your videos
2) Changing your URL to your own custom domain
3) Adding websites to your channel home page
...and much more that I cannot remember off the top of my head!

Any who, from this point on, you can find me HERE on Blogspot, over on Wordpress, and at www.youtube.com/beautyandblogging

Thank you all so much for your continued support, I'm having so much fun blogging and VLOGGING, I'm excited to see what all I can create =]

Beauty Blender Thoughts...

First off, let me begin by saying I want to cry because I let eleven days slip out from underneath me without blogging about anything. I'm at this point where I have so much to post about that I'm having a hard time narrowing down what to talk about first. On top of that, I'm working on getting a YouTube channel up (soon, like, soon soon) and everything is just all so crazy! Also, quick note, how is September almost over?! I literally just wrote a post about how hectic August is and now it is nearly November. Oh my goodness, time is just going too fast and pretty soon Sephora, Ulta, and the drugstores are going to start releasing Holiday collections and then the reviews and blog posts are REALLY going to be flowing.
But until then, let me tell you my thoughts on the extremely popular and well known Beauty Blender.

This little pink egg of squishy goodness is like nothing I've ever experienced. I've never been a fan of using a brush or a sponge to apply my foundation. I'm more of a blend-with-my-fingers kind of gal. I have never found a brush or sponge that I found to do an amazing job that was worth ditching my extremely convenient hands behind, until now!
What I really love about the Beauty Blender is that it is small and compact and really precious and pink...until you squeeze some water into it and it expands to nearly twice it's size. At that point, it has no more room to absorb any liquid, so when you dip it into your foundation, it doesn't all get sucked up and end up being a huge waste of money. It truly does blend foundation like a dream, and it doesn't end there! I then go in with my concealer and brightener (down my nose, under my eyes) and blend it in quite quickly with the pointed tip of my Beauty Blender. Within seconds my face is covered with a natural finish that I absolutely love. It's unreal.
I also love that after I use all my powder products like bronzer and blush and highlighter, I can take the large rounded side and just go around the outline of all my contouring/blushing/highlighting and make all my lines look totally seamless. I even take the extra time to contour my bridged nose because the Beauty Blender can quickly fix the extra product that I've applied to heavily or darkly.
Cons to the beloved Beauty Blender would definitely include cleaning. OH MY GOSH, it's like having a child or a pet, you cannot just ignore it and hope it gets cleaner or you'll get used to it because it does not happen. It just keeps getting grosser and dirtier and soon I'm sure the stains are probably irreversible and then you have to go out and buy a whole new $20 sponge. 
Also, truly think about it...you are putting a sponge all over your face, getting it wet, putting it all over your face, getting it wet, and repeating over and over again without cleaning. Um, talk about a breading ground for bacteria. No Thank You. So you really do have to clean your Beauty Blender every single day, which is quite the responsibility, especially if you are anything like me and absolutely dread the thought of even cleaning one cosmetic brush.
Also, another obvious con is the $20 price tag...yikes! I had a really difficult time coping with the price issue of the Beauty Blender because breaking it down you really are spending a whole Andrew Jackson on a sponge that is neon pink. I figured "it can't be worth it". For me, my Beauty Blender was worth it. It gives me something to look forward to each morning when I apply my make up and I use it every single day. I also did not let it be an impulse purchase. It sounds silly to say I saved my money to buy a $20 Beauty Blender, but I really kind of did. I actually returned something I had sitting in my collection for a few months that I never used and exchanged it at Sephora for my Beauty Blender.
Final Thoughts it you are looking for a refreshing change to your make up routine, I would highly recommend looking into the Beauty Blender. I could live without it, but at this point, I wouldn't want to. It blend out foundation so nicely and comes in handy all through out my make up application process. It really is unique and quite useful, but not an immediate necessity.


Quick Tip: I clean my Beauty Blender with the Mac Brush Cleanser (thats what I use and have laying around, when I run out I may look for a cheaper alternative). The greatest Beauty Blender tip that I can give is to clean it when it is dry. I clean mine in the morning before I apply my make up, not after. The reason this works better is because the sponge is not full of liquid, so all the foundation in it is pushed towards the surface thus making getting it out of the surface much easier than if the sponge was already filled with water. I pour some cleanser on it and massage the whole Beauty Blender in my hands and then run the water. I continue squeezing and drenching the BB in cleanser/water until the squeezed out liquid is not the color of my foundation and is clear water instead. I do this process every single morning before I take my shower. 

DIY: How To Depot Mac Eyeshadows!

This is the simplest way EVER to depot Mac eyeshadows. This would work for their blushes as well and once you have the technique down it is easy to find ways to depot eyeshadows from the drugstore and from brands other than Mac that you could put into a Z-Palette if you own one.
It may look and seem complicated, but do not be intimidated because it is nearly impossible to mess it up, it's basically just a lot of picking and maneuvering to get the shadow loose in the pot.
So without further ado, this is how I depot my Mac eyeshadows!

Things That You Will Need:
-Mac Palette (or Z-Palette. Whatever you are putting the depotted eyeshadow pan into)
-Eyeshadow in a pot
-Aluminum Foil
-Dull Butter knife (optional)
-Tweezers
-Magnetic strip (best if one side is pre-adhesived)
-Hair Flat Iron

Step 1: Preheat your hair flat iron. I use a really old one that I used to use when I was in middle school, but you can use any flat iron that you have.

Place foil over the bottom plate as it heats up so that the foil begins to get hot too

Step 2: Find the small crack in the Mac Eyeshadow pot where the pan is inserted into the pot. It is near where the pot opens up 

I then use a dull butter knife and wedge it into that crack and just wiggle it around until the top pops out of the pot. If you prefer to use tweezers, they would work too. Be sure to apply pressure towards the top of the pan because you wouldn't want it to fly out and crack your eyeshadow!

Step 3: Once the pan pops out, it should look something like this image below; it will still have a black plastic pan around the color. Stick that on top of the foil that is on your hair flat iron, but no longer than 30 seconds! It does not take very long long. This step is important to melt the glue that holds the eyeshadow pan into the black plastic. 

Save this! For the "Back To Mac" recycle program

Step 4: 

Begin to apply pressure to the underside of the pan with tweezers to push the colored eyeshadow pan through the black plastic. I like to use tweezers because they are sharp and can help pull the eyeshadow pan from the other side. 

You should now have 3 parts!

An optional step that I chose to skip is using rubbing alcohol to get some of the sticky glue off of the eyeshadow pan. I skip this step because the goo doesn't bother me as I feel like it helps keep the eyeshadow pan in the palette. 

Step 5: Another optional step, but this is one that I do, is create a label. I use my moms label machine on the smallest font size to type out the name of the eyeshadow. This particular one is called "Free To Be", it is a gorgeous matte peach color. 

After I print it out, I trim it down to as small as possible and stick it onto the back of the pan. Like I said, this is completely optional!

Step 6: I then add a small magnet to the bottom of the pan so it can stay in my magnetic Mac Palette.

And Voila! Now you have a convenient way to keep your Mac eyeshadows as well as an empty black eyeshadow pot that you can take back to Mac! After accumulating 6 of their recyclable items you can return them to a Mac counter you can get a free lipstick! Or if you return to an actual Mac Store, you can get a lipstick, lipglass, or eyeshadow! Additional rules may apply, check the link I supplied up above for further details!

My new Mac palette is off to a beautiful start!

(Vex, Saddle, Free To Be)