Callooh and Callay: Amazing Jewelry!

One of my dear friends Lillian recently opened a shop with her (adorable) girlfriend Claire called Callooh and Callay. It is a jewelry shop containing an array of different items. Most of them are inspired by pop culture, but they also had a Halloween collection with bats and pumpkins and other spooky things.

As you know, Lillian is part of The Makeup Heroes collab so I naturally wanted to try a few things. I ordered through their website: http://calloohandcallay.storenvy.com/. I was able to checkout with Paypal and my credit card and had no issues receiving my receipt or a shipping notice.

I ordered the 'Jareth the Owl' necklace and the 'Balloon Heart' necklace. Jareth the Owl was $16.00 and the heart was $14.00. I find those prices to be insanely reasonable, and I'll tell you why.

The branding of this company is strong, and I absolutely love it. I know Lillian is my friend but because she is my friend, I feel the need to be even more honest! I love the circus theme and their banner, and even the small touches like the red and white striped paper that my necklaces came in. This isn't just a randomized start up company by people looking to make money. They had an idea, they went with it, and they've created a strong brand around their name. I look forward to seeing what they put out in the future!

Both of my items came in little black boxes (which is great for storing the necklaces or using for other things) and a few business cards. The charms are made of cut acrylic, while the chain is a fine grade silver. Neither of these necklaces are particularly long; they will sit at the middle of your chest. The balloon heart did have a slightly longer chain.

There's not much else to say here other than the fact that I love my necklaces! I'm a huge Labyrinth fan and the heart is unique and fun. I've gotten compliments each time I've worn them and I'm proud to report that even with my sensitive skin, I've had no allergic reactions to the metals or materials used... so I'll do a bit of a model for you:

Do check out Callooh and Callay (and let me know what you order!). Their Christmas collection should be out soon!

15 Questions Tag Video - with my husband!

I uploaded it a while ago, but here you go!

Video Tutorial: Belle Inspired (Beauty and the Beast)

I did a look for The Makeup Heroes recently and did a video tutorial for the Disney series. I choose Belle from Beauty and the Beast... check out the video below to see the finished look (and follow along with my instructions!)



It's been a while since I did this look (it took me forever to edit the video!)... but from what I remember: The black liner was Mac's Blacktrack Fluidline, the blue was Sephora's Flashy Liner in Blue, and the mascara was Rimmel Sexy Curves. The eyeshadows were from the Wet n Wild Vanity Palette (both the pale gold and the darker gold), Urban Decay Honey, Mac Patina and Mac Hocus Pocus. The contour blush was Mac Prism and the pinky blush was probably Milani Dolce Pink. I'm not sure what was on the lips!

Sleek PPQ Me Myself and Eye Palette Review + FOTD (+ OOTD!)

Lillian was lovely enough to send me the limited edition PPQ palette recently and I've had a chance to swatch and play with it... so here's a quick review!

This won't be too in depth as honestly, a lot of the Sleek palettes are similar in quality. This one is no exception. It was only available online, for £6.49 (about $11). You get 12 shades of varying finishes and textures.

Upon first glance, I sort of went "Wha?!" at this palette... there's a really interesting mix of cool and warm tones, shimmery and matte, and neutrals and brights. Nothing is insanely bright, but that shimmery lilac does stand out in the bottom there. I will say, before we even get to swatches that there are some similar colors from prior palettes:

Barry White: Standard shimmery white as seen in Circus (this version is more pigmented) and Bad Girl, to name a few.
Black Box: Their standard matte black that is in virtually every palette.
Salt 'n Peppermint: Unique, as far as I'm aware.
Simply Red: Similar to Bloody Mary from Curacao, this may be SLIGHTLY lighter.
Pink Beret: Like Pamper from Oh So Special without the shimmer.
Primal Green: Unique as far as I can tell. They've done olives, but not in this same tone.
Fade to Grey: Pretty unique, though they've done other greys in Bad Girl.
Blue Monday: Unique.
Supernova: Like Wrapped Up from Oh So Special, but this may be lighter. Maybe more like Sand Walker from Monaco.
Chris De Burgundy: Unique.
Lilac Allen: Identical to Lotus Flower from Monaco.
Golden Silvers: I can't find a match but I swear I've had a pale yellow from them before!

Left to right: Barry White, Black Box, Salt 'n Peppermint and Simply Red.

Salt 'n Peppermint is nice, no? I like the red of course, as well.

Left to right: Pink Beret, Primal Green, Fade to Grey and Blue Monday.

Blue Monday is a really lovely blackened green. Primal Green has a really pretty gold undertone.

Left to right: Supernova, Chris de Burgundy, Lilac Allen and Golden Silvers.

CHRIS DE BURGUNDY OMG. Love it.

Top is natural light and the bottom is flash.

All of the colors were insanely pigmented and smooth. Even the mattes were superior quality to what you find in a higher end brand. Supernova and Pink Beret were the least pigmented, if I had to pick one. The burgundy is just amazing and was worth the $11 price tag just on it's own! I thought the color array was odd at first but now that I've used it a few times, I really like it. I like the odd combinations and the fun you can have by doing a bit of experimentation.

For my look, I tried a cut crease and sort of liked how it came out. I like it in photos but I'm not sure if it works on my eye! I think in person, it makes my face look strange. Anyway, here you go:

FACE:

- Cover Girl Aqua Smoothers Tinted Moisturizer in Fair to Light
- Mac MSF Natural in Light Medium
- Maybelline SuperStay Concealer in Cream

EYES:

- Too Faced Shadow Insurance
- NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk

- Sleek PPQ Palette: Barry White (lid and inner corner), Pink Beret (inner crease and lower lashline), Chris de Burgundy (cut crease and lower lashline), Simply Red (to blend out crease)

- Revlon Matte eyeshadow in Vintage Lace (brow)

- Smashbox Limitless eyeliner in Onyx

- Maybelline Lash Stiletto Mascara (Black)

LIPS:
- Boots Natural Collection in Rose Bud

- Essence gloss, unknown name (it's a purpley green duochrome)

I decided to go really casual for work today. I didn't feel like wearing tights so I wore my new knee high socks instead with my favorite boots. I think they're really cute, even though they make me look like I'm 10.

Outfit:

Necklace - Accessorize

Top - Old Navy

Skirt - Levi's brand

Socks - Forever21

Boots - Olsenboye

Guest Post: Janna from Clever and Colorful

*I would like everyone to welcome Janna as my guest poster for today! She runs an amazing nail blog (be sure to check that out) and has some of the loveliest nails I've ever seen. Hope you enjoy! -Wendy *

Hey everyone! I'm Janna from the Clever and Colorful blog, here today with a guest post. My blog is primarily a nail blog, so I'm going to show Wendy's readers some really awesome polishes that you can use for layering.

First up is a gorgeous polish from Zoya called Breezi from their Summertime collection of Summer '11. It's a really pretty blue cream. Here it is solo:

And here it is with one layer of Nubar 2010, a "flakie" polish that shifts from red to green. This polish is awesome!

And just for fun, here it is with a matte finish using Essie's Matte About You topcoat.

And my next and last layering experiment starts with OPI Manicurist of Seville from the Fall 2009 Spain Collection, which is a wine- or maroon-colored cream....

And on top, I added one layer of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Fuchsia, which is a glitter that shifts from fuchsia to green. Check it out:

So which of these layering experiments is your favorite?

Thank you so much for reading! And thanks to Wendy for letting me guest post on one of my favorite blogs =]

Janna

The Obligatory Halloween Post

Totally late in posting this but I had to sort through all of the pictures! We went to a Halloween dinner on Saturday followed by a party in the evening. My husband and I choose steampunk as our theme this year as he had some ideas to build a mask out of parts. My costume was less exciting in my opinion, so I spiced it up with a wig and of course, crazy makeup.

Makeup first:

I did my brows with a mixture of a dark purple and a bright blue from my 88 matte palette. The lid is a lot of products: NYX Jumbo Pencil in Pure Gold, Amber Lights eyeshadow by Mac, Espresso eyeshadow by Mac, Jesse's Girl eye dust in Pixie Dust... the brow highlight is the pale gold from the Wet n Wild Vanity Palette (A LOT of it) and I also used the matte medium brown to blend out the cut crease. I used Candy Corn loose glitter from Darling Girl all over the lid. I believe that the lashes are Ardell Invisiband Lacies (they are HUGE). The black liner is from ELF (the kind in the pot, not the pen). I think I also used a Sephora liner in Bronze or Brown on the lower lashline as well.

I didn't have much on my face -- I used Mac blush in Prism as a contour and Mac MSF in Semi Precious Crystal Pink as a blush and highlight. On the lips, I used Jordana's lipliner in Cabernet and put Illamasqua's Hermetic lipgloss over top (which I just got recently!). I loved the look but the gloss is SUPER sticky, so my wig hair kept wanting to get up in it all night, haha.

This makeup turned out good but it was a huge pain! I had major trouble with the false lashes. They look like they're falling off even though they weren't -- the problem was that they were SO long that it made it impossible to do my liquid liner over top to cover the band. I forgot that these were Invisibands so I could have done the liner first and then they would have blended right in, minus a tiny bit of clear banding to cover. I ended up getting ink all over the tips of the lashes and it went everywhere the first time I blinked. 'RAWR' doesn't even begin to cover it.

Outfit pic:

Wig: Available here. I didn't do much to it except fluff it and use a little hairspray to maintain it.
Hat headband: Claire's.
Steampunk cogs: Underground Asylum, but sold in many places
Shirt: H&M, old
Corset top: Thrift store... for $1. No joke and probably the best find I've had in years.
Gloves: The Icing? They're from my Lady Gaga costume from a few years ago.
Belts: Various, some are thrifted and one was from Burlington Coat Factory.
Skirt: Forever21
Boots (you can't see them :( ): Rack Room Shoes

The costume barely cost me anything except the cost of the headband (it was like $12) and the wig... but I wanted a blue wig anyway. I'm pretty impressed with how it turned out considering everything was thrown together.

My husband went for a much more complicated look:

He made the mask from a white Phantom of the Opera/Jason mask for $3. The paint is acrylics that we bought in a set and a few individual colors to add depth. The glasses were labeled as 'nerd glasses' at some Halloween store, but were actually Harry Potter glasses, for $2. The cogs are from the same place I got mine, they sell them in bags. He also added nuts and bolts to the edges of the mask to look like it was part of his face. Everything else, he already had in his closet. He made the cog cufflinks with a bit of superglue, and well, some cogs.

So he had the mad scientist look and I just looked... like Katy Perry apparently (I got asked that a lot, really?). Here's a pic of us together:

Complete with creepy dolls in the background... thanks Chris! For the evening, I also did makeup on my friend Chris (he wanted to be a zombie) and my friend Brandie (she was a fairy). Here's how that turned out:

His skin was done with Ben Nye's Death Wheel cream palette (I used the grey, skin tone colors, and a little burgundy and green). I also contoured with the matte purple from the Wet n Wild Lust palette and some browns and burgundies from the 88 matte palette. His eyes were also the 88 palette. The fake blood is Ben Nye's stage blood and the bullet wound was using their brand of clear liquid latex as well. I think that's everything!

I mostly used the Sleek Acid palette on Brandie with some glitter liners that I had with me. She had a Micabella loose glitter with her and we sprinkled it EVERYWHERE, including all over her face. I'm unsure of what is on her lips as she brought something with her. Sorry for the bad picture, it was inside and dark, I had to use the flash!

That's pretty much it -- I've got a couple of other photos from the party but nothing terribly exciting, here you go anyway!