The nail polish that launched a thousand ships...

Holy shit. It's been forever and a day since I visited the blogosphere.
But here I am. Let's do this.
Summer is totally here (I mean not officially, but in my book as soon as it's slightly warm- summer).
So of course you all know I had to break out the summer nail polishes.
Here's one of my favourites for the summer by OPI.

Readers, meet Melon of Troy. Yes, this polish from OPI is actually called "Melon of Troy" - so cute.

It's obviously a melon-coral colour and its got a decent amount of shimmer mixed in. Not glitter, but a subtle shimmer that's gorgeous and makes the polish really reflective. 

The shimmer in this polish makes it somewhat more difficult to apply and it did take me 2-3 coats to get it completely opaque.

But c'mon. The end result is so totally worth it. C'est la vie, non?

Just a Few Things...

• Despite the fact that my real obsessions lies with makeup, this blog is like 90% nail polish. How did that happen? Oh right, nail polish is 100, 000% easier to photograph. 
• I do however have not one, but TWO makeup hauls photographed and they will be up shortly. Not to mention a skincare post as well. 
• I got some new palettes from the UK (mentioned above) which are SO SO beautiful. I don't even want to use them they're so beautiful. God, I'm such a hoarder.
• Revlon came out with some REALLY cute cream blushes in their summer collection. They look awesome. Can't bring myself to actually use them yet... *sigh
• Every summer it's insane how much nail polish I collect. I just love summer colours.
• Mad Men season finale was this past Sunday. So sad! I love that show so much. I think I may do a Joan inspired look soon
• Stupid boyfriend's taking summer school (by choice) and he never sees me. Thus, you have a blog post!
• Got an iPhone recently. Instagram: tashasingh10

That'll be all from me this time. As always, thanks for reading,

-Tash <3

Bold Lips: Raspberry Popsicle!

Another bold lip post. I know, I know.
I just really enjoy these, I have a lot of lipsticks I really really love hopefully those who read my blog can find something they enjoy too!
So there's a story behind this lipstick. A friend of mine (Meghan) got tickets to go to a tradeshow for America's Next Top Model Live and invited me and another one of our friends (Sarah) to go with her. We had so much freakin' fun and they gave out tons of samples and free products. Excitedly, one of the booths was giving out free full-sized Benefit lipsticks and we all got one! So this post is about the lipstick I got there which is called "Sassy-frass."
Side note: There was a photobooth at Biore and they had props, we got some fun pictures there. I will add a few at the end of this post.

This is obviously a lipstick with some serious shine. I tend to stray away from lipsticks that are shimmery, they just aren't my taste. However there are no shimmers in this lipstick. It is very smooth and moisturizing and gives your lips that "just finished eating a cherry popsicle" look. Juicy, I guess is the best way to describe it, but that sounds weird. 

Funny thing about this lipstick is that it's somewhat like MAC's "Rebel" lipstick, which I own and love dearly. Like "Rebel" this lipstick is a very dark, almost black-purple in the tube but it comes across as much brighter on the lips. It looks like a raspberry pink when worn. So, it goes to show you- don't fear bright or dark lipsticks. Always try them on. You never know what you may end up loving. 

I should mention here that I love that with each Benefit lipstick, they include a little card that has a makeup saying or idea on it. The one that came with this lipstick said "All's fair in love and lipstick." I love them! Personally, I use them as bookmarks. 

You can see here with a sheer coat the lipstick actually looks like a medium pink. I like that this lipstick can be layered for a darker colour or worn sheerly for daytime. 

And that's it for this lip look. Here are just some of the photobooth pictures of the many photobooth pictures we took while we were there:

That's Meghan with me on the left and Sarah on the right.  

Hope you enjoyed this post. Remember, be fearless with your makeup because all's fair in love and lipstick.
Thanks for reading.
-Tash <3

Bold lips (for a good cause): Neon Pink!

I sure am productive at blogging when there's nothing else to do. I envy people who do this for a living, makeup blogging is awesome. If working at a magazine is half as fun as this, maybe I won't hate being a journalist despite the 5837429 lists that rank it as a terrible job.
Oh well, least I'll have a BJ after graduation and that's something (my degree is called a "Bachelor of Journalism" or a "BJ"- that's just beautiful isn't it?)

Anyway, on to the makeup!

I have another bold lip post for you today and this one is close to my heart for two reasons. 

The first being that I used the Viva Glam Nicki lipstick and I love Nicki Minaj so very much. 

Why? She's bold, independent, outspoken, confident and she's also making a name for herself in an extremely male dominated industry. Not to mention she rocks the most gorgeous, outrageous makeup I've seen on a celeb in a long time, and she makes it look damn good.

The second reason is that her lipstick is part of the Viva Glam program at MAC, which if you don't know is a really great charity that benefits men, women and children directly affected by HIV/AIDS. What I especially love about the program is that every cent of the purchase price of a Viva Glam lipstick or lip gloss goes straight to helping someone affected with HIV/AIDS. That means every cent of the price you pay goes towards helping someone, not just the profits from your purchase. I really love this campaign and I think it's one of the great things about MAC. 

If you'd like to learn more about the MAC Viva Glam program or buy something you can go the MAC AIDS fund website. 

When I heard Nicki Minaj was coming out with a Viva Glam colour (Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga are just two of the other celebs who've done MAC Viva Glam collaborations) I knew it was going to be AWESOME and I was first in line (literally) to get it. 

Is it sad that I'm super excited to have something she kind-of signed but not really? 

I promise you the picture does not do this justice. This is absolutely the brightest, neon pink lipstick I own or have even seen. It's SO  pretty and very on trend because neon is very popular for this summer, or so I hear. Fashion escapes me a lot, mostly because I'm too busy looking at lipsticks... 

I can't lie, this would be hard to wear. It's very bright and it's somewhat matte as well, so if your lips aren't in the best condition it will definitely show. But I find it you tap it on your lips and blend it in instead of swiping it on, you can get a much softer colour that's easier to work with. Also a lip liner will help to stop the colour from smudging, bleeding outside the lip line or making your lips look too dry. And hey, even if you never wear it, don't forget the money goes to a good cause! 

Just a Few Things...

• I haven't done one of these in a while so I thought I'd add it in!
• Writing this post makes me realize I should actually wear this lipstick sometime soon. I quite enjoy it.
• Two more posts are already photographed. Another lip look and a skin care review. I'm quite excited about both!
• I have some makeup coming to me from TheBalm, maybe I'll review it. It's supposed to be very good stuff. It's on sale on Hautelook right now (which is a flash sale site where you can get stuff 50-80% off) here's a link in case you're interested:  http://www.hautelook.com/short/3Ee0i
• Jon (the boyfriend) is in California. Don't expect this level of blogging when he gets back.
• I miss my friends from J-school desperately. Especially the ones who went far away. 

Hope you guys enjoyed this post and as always thanks for reading!

-Tash<3 

"Picture Perfect" - Lilac Nails

I need to admit something. Can this be a safe space? Yeah, let's make this a safe space.

I have an embarrassingly large nail polish collection. Enormous. Gigantic. Hulk-sized if you will.

It's so bad. Not to mention, at any given moment I have about 8-10 unopened bottles I haven't even had the time to try yet. Sad, I know. Life of a makeup addict- don't be surprised if you see me on that show Hoarders someday. 

So I decided to shop my own collection and  break out some new ones to see what I thought. 

Essie's "She's Picture Perfect" is a creamy lilac purple shade with a somewhat strange duo-chrome of pink. It's easy to see when you look at the bottle but it's much more subtle when applied. 

I used China Glaze "Prism" for an accent nail. I got this polish in a Luxebox and it's a really great glitter nail polish. It's mostly fine and medium sized, multi-coloured glitter in a lilac base, so it was perfect over the Essie colour. It applies so smoothly, it's one of easiest glitter nail polishes I've ever tried. 

As this is my first time using both, I have to say I'm impressed. The Essie polish is a nice creamy colour with a pink twist but still not overwhelmingly special. I don't especially love how lilac looks next to my darker skin tone so maybe that's making it hard for me to love this polish. It's not terrible though and I'll probably keep it on for at least a couple of days. The "Prism" colour, however is really beautiful and  a new favourite for glitter polishes, I really love it!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading,

-Tash <3 

Review: Physician's Formula Nude Palette

Hello again makeup junkies,

I recently picked up a few palettes both drugstore and high-end and I noticed that recently there's a huge trend among most brands to release "nude" or "natural" palettes that contain a lot of browns, taupes, and champagne colours. People love palettes like that because they're easy to use, portable (travel-friendly) and convenient. Urban Decay has both the Naked and the Naked2 palettes, both of which I own and are fantastic and totally worth the money. However I recently saw a nude eyes palette from Physician's Formula and wanted to see if it was a comparable drugstore dupe.

I have to say the packaging alone is gorgeous! Light pink with a black lace overlay and bows, obviously I was in love. 

Colours range from light champagnes and pinks to medium browns and taupes with some darker browns and a black at the bottom. This is a perfect set-up for a nude palette because it give you enough options that you could also make a darker, smokey eye with it. It comes with an angled sponge-tip which you could use for some liner if you wanted. I think the palette costs about $10.

Bottom line

This looks strikingly similar to some of the high-end nude eye palettes I own so I had high hopes for it. Sadly, I can't say I love it. It could work for people with lighter skin than me maybe. But for my darker skin, the entire top half of the palette is not pigmented enough to even show up. The bottom half is alriiight I guess but I still had to pack it on. What I really didn't like is that these shadows were somewhat hard and I didn't like the consistency which made them harder to blend. It is probably also important to mention that all these shades are very shimmery and there are no matte shades in the whole palette which makes it harder to use on its own.

I have used mine twice at the most. I would use my Naked palettes any day over this. While I'm aware they are more expensive ($60) the quality is absolutely worth it. The shadows are creamy, almost like butter and blend beautifully. Not to mention, these palettes contain 12 shadows which makes each shadow only $5 a pop, not bad for Urban Decay. And hey, if you still can't bring yourself to spend $60 on makeup, I totally get it. Try an 8-pan palette from Wet'n'Wild (my absolute favourite drugstore brand for eyeshadow) called "Comfort Zone." Creamy shadows and great pigmentation and I'm pretty sure it only costs $4.99! So in the end, I would say MAYBE if you had really fair skin this could work for you. But if you have darker skin, don't bother. This will just sit in your makeup drawer. 

(It's occurring to me now just how many nude palettes I own. Maybe I'll do a post on all of my favourites, both high-end and drugstore).

Anyway, thanks for reading!

-Tash <3

Avengers Series: Black Widow

Look at me, not failing at sticking to my blogging. I'm a winner and so are you (because you're reading it).
On with my Avengers series, which I highly doubt I will finish before the movie comes out but there's not hard in trying.
Tonight's attempt: Black Widow otherwise known to non-comic book readers as the hot, badass Scarlett Johansson plays in Iron Man 2.
I credit this photo as my inspiration as I am definitely not creative enough to have come up with this concept on my own.

Holy cow was this harder than the Hulk makeup. Jeebs. Okay first I started with my brows. I know I promised I'd do a thing on how to blank out your eyebrows but this look required black eyebrows, so it wasn't necessary for me. I will next time. Double promise. 

Filled in the eyebrows with a very dark black powder and concealed around the edges with a light concealer. 

Covered my lid with a black creamy base (limited edition from MAC called "Bat Cave"). WARNING: This product creases like no other. You can see it almost creasing in the photo and I JUST did the makeup. You are warned. 

Topped the base with the darkest black powder I have. This look requires a cut crease which for makeup n00bs is essentially when you have a stark contrast between the lid colour and crease colour with little to no blending. They are supposed to loon completely separate and defined. My orange wasn't super pigmented so it was hard to do this, but I tried. 

Above that I added a lemon yellow colour and again left it unblended. 

That's what I love about fun looks like this, you get to break all the so-called makeup rules.

I ran a concealer that is about 3 shades light for me under my eye to brighten my browbone area. 

Not gonna lie, love me some false lashes. These are the 109's from Ardell in black. and lined my lid with a gold glitter liner. I seriously have glitter everywhere now. Good lord. It also got all over my falsies, which I couldn't do anything about. Anyhoo, I rimmed my waterline, tightline and lower lashline with a black eyeliner (MAC "Feline" eye kohl) and added mascara.

Despite the face that it's really messy, I kinda like it. More to come with the Avengers!

Thanks for reading

-Tash <3 

Avengers Series: The Incredible Hulk

Admittedly, this is a super nerdy thing to do but I'm going to do it anyway.
So begins the series of eye looks using colours from all the different members of the Avengers!
I started with Hulk because he's the easiest (only 2 colours) and I have to work out the problem of not having any red eyeshadow for Captain America or Iron Man.
Credit for this idea totally goes to this picture I found on the best time waster website in the whole world:
themetapicture.com

Obviously there's the green, so I graduated from a sort of emerald green on my lid to a darker forest green in the crease and blended it out with a lime green towards my browbone. I used a TINY amount of black to darken the outer corner.

Lined my top lid with purple liquid liner. 

I tried to blank out my eyebrows and fill them back in with green. I failed because I was missing something important. But I will get it for the next look and have a little "How to" section about blanking out your eyebrows. 

I put some of the same lime green in my inner corner to brighten it up a little. Then I just curled my lashes and added mascara. 

My lower liner looks blue in the pictures but I promise it's purple in person. I used "Ransom" 24/7 eyeliner by Urban Decay and topped it off with a purple shadow. I rimmed my waterline and tightline with a black liner and added mascara to my bottom lashes. 

And that's the Incredible Hulk from the Avengers in an eye look. Can you tell I'm excited for the movie?

Thanks for reading

-Tash <3