Thursday, April 28, 2011

it's a samurai, it's fourth, it's white, it's a castle- it's Shiro Cosmetics!

     Hello everyone! In this post I'll be reviewing some eye shadows I purchased from Shiro Cosmetics, a shop on Etsy. At first glance, Shiro looks like a Japanese word. Upon googling it, I discovered that as a name it means either samurai or fourth born and as a word it means white or castle. Guessing from the cute sandcastle in the shop's banner, I'm going to assume that the shop owner, Caitlin, was going for "castle!" The first thing about this shop that really pulled me in was the fact that they have a whole collection dedicated to Pokemon, the Super Effective collection. Now, I don't know about you, but I adored Pokemon as a child, and still enjoy playing some Pokemon Silver on my handy-dandy Gameboy Color from time to time. I still have a binder of over 500 trading cards that I can't bear to part with, as well as some awesome Nintendo 64 games. Back to the shop- the loose eye shadows looked so nice! Each shadow actually resembles the Pokemon it was named after, and there is a Legends collection that does the same thing for The Legend of Zelda. In addition to these shadow collections, Shiro offers a couple more shadow sets, pressed blush, and "tubes of win" called intertubes. For my order I finally settled on mostly Pokemon colors, all of which looked stunning and would be unique colors that I didn't own anything close to yet. I also nabbed Epona, because outside of the Zelda context, Epona was the Celtic goddess of horses and other equines (I love that she mentions that in the shadow's description!) So how could I pass that up?

From left to right: Epona, Sudowoodo, Poliwrath, Lance the Dragon Trainer, Clefairy, & Shaymin.

Top is without flash & bottom is with flash.
From left to right: Shaymin, Clefairy, Lance the Dragon Trainer, Poliwrath, Sudowoodo, Epona.

From left to right: Zubat, Temple of Time, & Jigglypuff.

Top is without flash & bottom is with flash.
From left to right: Temple of Time, Jigglypuff, & Zubat.

     Overall, I was super pleased with my order! The shadows are finely milled with fine glitter/ sparkle, are easy to work with, and resist creasing and fading for a looong time. They easily earn a 5/5 rating. These do come in jars with sifters, which is a nice touch for sifter fans and people concerned about making a mess. However, I'm not a sifter fan, so it made my day that these weren't too difficult to pop right out :D As if the products themselves aren't wonderful enough, Caitlin sends her orders sweetly packaged with candy (candy?!? Anyone who gives out candy to my fat- kid self is at the top of my list!) and free samples. Yes the samples are in bags, which some people don't like, but it doesn't really bug me toooo bad. I like the way Ki does it better, though- on a comment she left at Fierce Nerditude she shared that she cuts off a corner of the baggie in question and puts the sample in a jar. I tried this myself and it's a great solution, especially with these particular samples; the round label is easy to pop off and stick on a jar and it fits perfectly! I will be ordering from Shiro Cosmetics again. The intertubes seem fun and will definitely find their way into my shopping cart, and those blushes are hard to ignore!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

prom eye #4: inspired by tropical shores

     My Junior year the theme for prom was "An Island Escape", or something of that nature. I wound up not going because the date interfered with a 4H trip to Kentucky which was way cooler. This eye look would probably have worked for "An Island Escape", as well as any other tropical-themed prom. Instead of something inspired by the ocean or the lush vegitation, I focused on the beach itself for this look. Hope you enjoy :)



      I didn't think that I could make the pic all cutesy with placement labels (that duo kinda sorta messed that up!), so I'll just list the colors and how I used them going from right to left:
-Smashbox Eye Shadow Duo in Sinful/ Pure: I used Pure (the light shade) as a highlight and I smudged Sinful along my upper lash line because it's a nice dark lagoony- blue. Unfortunately, Sinful is pretty hard to see in the pic.
-Fyrinnae Eye Shadow in Sacred: You can't really have a beach without sand, so I put this sandy taupe all over my lid.
-Mac Eye Shadow in Bright Sunshine: This went above my inner corner and up through my inner crease. Going to the beach without sunshine isn't too fun.
-Shiro Cosmetics Eyeshadow in Shaymin: A bright sunny orange helps to add a pop of color into the outer "V" and up through the outer 1/3-ish of the crease.

     I finally got my duff in gear and uploaded pics for the next two looks, a purple flower inspired look and a green smokey eye. I also completely forgot about the Shiro Cosmetics review I've been planning, but I'll be working on it! I'm going to include pictures of the Pokemon that inspired the colors along with the pics of the actual colors, so you can judge for yourself if the interpretations are coherent (I think they are!)

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Versitile Blogger Award :)



     While looking over the new posts for today by the blogs I follow, I saw that the wonderful VijiiS of Fierce Nerditude: Looks and Reviews For Cosmetic Junkies, Glitter Addicts and Makeup Nerds had been nominated for another Versitile Blogger Award (you go girl!) One of the things you're supposed to do when you get the award is say thanks for whomever gave it to you, list seven random things about yourself, and nominate other bloggers for the award. And while looking through her list of bloggers, I saw that I was on that list! I would like to say a huge "thank you"- I never really expected anyone to actually read my blog, much less enjoy it enough to nominate it for an award, so this is quite an honor. So, now it's my turn to list seven random things and nominate some other blogs/ bloggers!

Seven Random Things About Me
1. Even though I was always "the quite girl" in school, I am very opinionated. I can get along with almost anyone and I'm a firm believer in the golden rule, but I don't take crap off of anyone. Thankfully, I'm rarely in situations where I have to be anything less than pleasant :)
2. One of my favorite summer activities is having bonfires! My twin sister and I like to have them in our field behind our house though, which means they usually get no larger than a larger- sized campfire. They still roast a mean marshmallow (or weenie!)
3. I love my job. I work as a team member for Tractor Supply Company, and even though I usually work the front of the store (register/ seasonal/ clothing/ et c.), I still love getting to help customers. And even if I don't always know the answers to their questions, I'm glad that I can always send them in the direction of some one who can.
4. I've never been mudding. My sisters love it, and not that I mind getting dirty (um hello, I live on a farm, for Pete's sake), I just can't justify getting dirty just for the sake of getting dirty. Plus, I hate doing extra laundry!
5. I am obsessed with Spike TV's show Coal. New episodes air on Wednesday nights at 10. One of the coolest things about the show? I watch it with my daddy, who was a coal miner for seven years a while before I was born, and he gives the most interesting commentary ever. Also, the mine is only about an hour to an hour and a half drive away from where I live, and I went to high school with one of the men from the show's son! Cool much?
6. I have an accent. To me, it's not obvious (obviously), but I talk somewhat slow, with a drawl. It's pretty common around where I live, but it seems like whenever I go anywhere outside of my little dot on the map I get alot of "I like your accent!" Sometimes I have to repeat myself, too. I asked a lady at the McDonalds at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, "Do y'all have any sweet tea?" and she looked at me like I had just grown a third eyeball out of my forehead. Her reply? "Excuse me?"
7. Speaking of sweet iced tea, I love the stuff. I might as well have an IV drip filled with it.

Bloggers & Their Blogs
-Jill of Just Peachy. She's a country girl like me and rides horses, too! What's not to love? She has some of the coolest posts- about a month ago she did a series where she made her own bath and body products and compared them to indie sellers' products- too cool!

-Ki of Ki and Makeup. I'm still pretty new to Ki's blog, but she has such great swatches that I just want to *squee*! Buying online is hard (especially when it comes to indie brands), but great swatches make it better :)

-Laur of Laur's Beauty Blog. This is one of the first blogs I really started following, and it's one of my favorites. Laur is so sweet, and her reviews are really helpful.

-Thu of Editions of Me . I love seeing her LOTDs. She really has a knack for color combinations! She also does posts for Painted Ladies.


     Even though my cow had her baby yesterday evening, I haven't had the chance to take pictures yet, but hopefully I will get to tomorrow! I'm trying to think of a name for her. Right now I'm really liking "Angelene," but I'm still thinking (any suggestions?) Also, I have pictures ready to go for a tropical beach- inspired prom eye look, so hopefully I will have a post up on it tomorrow night!
     **Just a quick update, I was just informed that Coal has been moved to 8PM on Sunday nights. Just thought I would share!**

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter pics :)

     I hope that everyone had a lovely Easter! I spent mine with my family, and I thought I would just share a few pictures from today. I found out some exciting news yesterday evening- my heifer is getting ready to calf! She's pretty dialated and her udder is full, so hopefully the baby will get here by tomorrow. I checked her three different times today, but she didn't really seem in too much of a hurry :)

Me & my twin sister!

Some of the flowers that my Mamaw has growing in her yard.

One of my Mamaw's lilac bushes- they smell absolutely divine!

Some of the babies! The one around the middle with the yellow ear tag is the little one that I had been bottle feeding previously. Since finding a new mama, she couldn't have less to do with me!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

the little lippies that were left behind

     Hi everyone; this post is just to share my pictures of the Nyx Round Lipsticks that I forgot to include in my last Nyx post. Oopsy! Today was also a great mail day- I got in my orders from MAC and Concrete Minerals. Sooo pretty! CM's eye shadows are a whopping 10 grams, and packed full of lovelyness. Also, my pictures have been taken for my Shiro Cosmetics review, so be expecting that by the end of the week-ish :)


Sunday, April 17, 2011

prom eye #3: natural/ neutral/ simple

     This is the third look in my prom eye make up series. Its very neutral and natural, so it can easily be paired with a bold lip or dress. I think that the winged liner adds a bit of edge and elegance; plus, I think that it makes lashes look longer (no need for falsies!) By keeping things monochromatic with the browns, you won't have to worry about clashing colors. Because all of the shadows are in one tidy little palatte, choosing shades is simple enough and the directions are pressed right into the shadows, making application simpler for a newbie. I did use the middle shade in my outer V, too, not just my crease ;) The trickiest part is the liner, but the most important thing to remember is to just work slowly and be calm. If you're worried about getting the angles on each eye equal, a handy trick is to use tape so that you have a line to go by (and, that way, it's easier to keep the line precise!)




The shadows I used are all from Wet & Wild's Walking on Eggshells Iconic Eyes palette and the liner is Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Gel Cream Liner from the set for blue eyes.

Friday, April 15, 2011

a great value in blush- Korres for $10 at Sephora!

     If you had asked me a year ago what my favorite blush was, I would have laughed. The only blush I had ever owned was one from Covergirl that made me break out in middle school. Since then my skin has became slightly less sensitive and I've became a little more adventurous in regards to what I put on my face. My personal preference for blush is that they be natural looking and not glittery. Subtle shimmer is okay, but glitter is just an epic fail on my oily skin. Now that I have started using blush, it has became a part of my everyday routine because if I don't use it, my face looks washed out thanks to having to use such heavy coverage to hide old acne scars. 



     My latest find is from Sephora and it's at a special value; $10 for a brand of blush that normally costs $24. I've always read rave reviews about anything that Korres makes, so I decided to give them a go. The product itself is quite lovely. The texture of this blush is very soft and smooth, and the finish is close to matte, but has a very slight amount of shimmer to it- just enough to make it glow. It can be worn sheer or be easily built up for more opaque color. The size of the pan is generous. 

The left swatch has flash and the right is without.
Mauve/ Purple is the top color and Plum Bronze/ Purple Brown is on the bottom.

     Now, for $14 cheaper than the other blushes Korres has on Sephora, I had to wonder what the reason was for the price cut. I'm guessing that it's for quality control. The packaging is sturdy, but what is on the packaging is slightly inconsistent between the two. Also, when they arrived, the pan of one of my blushes had became unglued from its compact. The compact is quite hard to open, I guess because of its modern, clean design. The colors noted on the compacts are not the ones listed on the website or on my invoice, although they seem to match the online swatches. Where I ordered "Mauve" I received "Purple" and "Plum Bronze" is "Purple Brown." 


       I plan on buying palettes to start depotting some of my blushes and eye shadows into, so the packaging isn't such an issue, but still. I guess you get what you pay for? The bottom line is that this is a very nice blush and a great way to sample the brand for a lower price, if you don't mind wonky packaging. The product would win a 5/5 star rating, but the packaging is just an epic fail in my book. Since the price is right and I needed to order a full- sized TFSI, I went ahead and ordered the other two colors. If you order from Sephora, I encourage you to sign up to be a Beauty Insider- that way you qualify for more samples once your points add up (just a heads up!)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

hardest post ever :P

     This post has literally been the most difficult one I've done yet. This isn't because I've been hard pressed to come up with charming subject matter, or even because I've been pressed for time; no, what has taken this post over three days to finally get posted was the fact that Fotoflexer has decided to hate me. I had the idea of putting descriptions and color names in the pictures to make them easier and quicker to read. I'm guessing that the heavy use of such features to enable this made Fotoflexer mad at me, so it has decided to stop letting me save pictures directly from the site. This has extended a maybe ten minute process for each finished graphic to around twenty minutes, not just because now I have to email pictures to myself to save them, but because I have to crop images similtaneously (if I try cropping one at a time, the other gets cropped out with the rest of the junk.) Bleh. And if that isn't bad enough, I have a prom eye that I wanted to post the other day but couldn't because my laptop won't detect it on my memory card, even though my camera will. I'll stop ranting now- I justed wanted to explain why I've been MIA despite promising not-too-long-ago several new posts! Now that I'm done flapping my jaws (tapping my fingers?) we'll get into this whole swatch & review deal.
     The only items that I hadn't previously tried were the Nyx Girls Round Lip Glosses, so I'll only be reviewing them in this post. Reviews for everything else can be found in this previous post:  http://chasingbluefeathers.blogspot.com/2011/02/time-to-nyx-having-to-drop-ton-of-cash.html. Whilst fetching this URL I just realized that I left out two lipsticks, which almost sent me into another fit of pulling-out-my-hair. But, because I like my hair (and my sanity), I'm just going to include them in a later blog post. :) By the way, left-clicking on an image will take you to  a new window where the image is much larger, or you can right-click and select "Open in New Tab" or "Open in New Window" to keep this page up and still open the larger images. This is how I do quite a bit of color-comparing when buying new products ;)

Single Eye Shadow



Powder Blush


Mega Shine Lip Gloss


Nyx Girls Round Lip Gloss

Pros: These have a similar consistancy to the Mega Shine glosses, though they are a touch thinner and they lack any sort of added scent. These are also very pigmented and are opaque on the lips, but they can be sheered down if youuse a lighter hand. The glitter/ shimmer is ultra- fine and is a nice touch without having the in-your-face-lipgloss-glitter-residue effect after the gloss wears off (I don't know about anyone else, but I HATE it when the gloss wears off and there are still large bits of glitter spread all over my bare lips... it's not a good look for me!) Another cool things that happens when the glossy-ness wears off is that there is a rich stain left over. The gloss itself hangs around for quite some time (a few hours) but the stain lasts until you physically wear it off, eg. eating, drinking, smooching, et c. I'll stop now with the Latin abbreviations :D
Cons: Since these do stain, care should be taken to not over-apply onto the face, unless you are going for a look that says "I've been noshing on something messy and forgot to use my napkin." The same care should be used around fabrics that don't need accidental polka- dots.
Stars: 5/5
Would I buy again?: I'm interested in how "Whipped" would perform for a nude lip and "Sorbet" looks darling, so probably.


Thursday, April 7, 2011

prom eye #2: pretty, pretty princess

     When I was a little girl, my sisters and I loved to play this game called "Pretty Pretty Princess." It was fairly simple, really. You spun an arrow that let you move your game peice, and if you landed a on peice of jewelry you took it from the box. The first girl to collect all of the jewelry in her color won (I remember a crown being involved, somewhere, too.) I think the reason that we loved the game so much was because every girl, no matter how much of a tomboy, loves feeling pretty. On the day of Prom, almost every girl will get prettied up in hopes of looking and feeling like a princess. When I think  of princesses, I think of sweet, girly pinks and lots of bling, so that influenced this look quite a bit. However, a princess always relies on her natural beauty, so I tried to keep the eye make up soft and not too over-the-top as far as the colors went, but I couldn't help but amp up the glitter and sparkle ;)

The pink wouldn't pop as much in the pictures as I was hoping, but at least this time it showed up as pink! This is the look I did >a week ago that photographed oddly.

Urban Decay's Snatch, Shiro Cosmetic's Cleffairy, and Fyrinnae's Polar Bear. Both Snatch and Cleffairy are more pink IRL.


This is one of the "wonky" pics. I used the exact same colors, but Cleffairy showed up purple- looking! I'm going to go out on a limb and blame it on the bad lighting in my room combined with the fact that Cleffairy does have a slight purple undertone to it.

     I hope everyone enjoyed this one! I welcome any suggestions for different looks I might try my hand at. So far, I'm planning another "royal"- themed look that isn't as girly, a tropical look, a neutral/ taupe look, and a natural beauty/ "no-make-up" look. I'm going to leaf throught some dress catalogues for inspiration for even more looks :D


Wednesday, April 6, 2011

what's going on in my world

     I hope that everyone's week is going well! I'm just going to share some farmy pics in this post and give an update on what's in store as far as upcoming blog posts. If you saw the last post you will know that I'm doing a series of Prom- worthy eye make up looks. There are a few already planned, but if anyone has any requests I will see what I can do (just drop a comment or email me at chasing_blue_feathers@yahoo.com!) I'm also on Facebook now, if anyone is interested in connecting in that way. I also have some reviews in store (quite a few, in fact!) I still need to review and swatch some of my new/ newish Nyx products that I ordered forever ago, along with some goodies from Shiro Cosmetics, Meow Cosmetics, Too Faced (yeah, I totally scored some awesomeness during the vintage sale!), and Hard Candy. 
     I'm also toying around with the idea of doing a post about the importance of taking care of your brushes/ tools and maybe another on organization. If/ when I begin to get more followers, I may do a give-a-way (more details will be available soon.) Does anyone have any suggestions on topics that would make interesting posts? Again, just leave a comment, shoot me an e-mail, or look me up on Facebook (if you do a search for "Chasing Blue Feathers" I'm listed as 'personal blog' and my picture is the logo/ watermark/ you name it that I usually stamp on my pictures.)

This is a calf that I helped my daddy bottle feed for a little while- her momma had twins and only had enough milk for one baby, so she abandoned her. Now she has a new momma, a cow that lost her own calf, but the new momma has accepted her and treats her as if she had given birth to her herself. This means that we were finally able to put her back with the rest of the herd and she is happy as could be :)


This pic is of Sarah's cow (Bobbie Joe, left) and Marlena (my cow, right.) They're both growing well and Marlena should be having her calf in another month or so. I'm really excited, because she is my first personally owned cow; I'm hoping that it is a little heifer so I will be able to keep her and breed her.


     Now that the weather is getting nicer, I'm hoping to be able to take more photographs of the farm to share. We have another bottle calf that I'll be trying to get pictures of. He has a momma, but she's been running low on milk. Also, the calves in the herd are just the sweetest things! They run around playing like human children.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

prom eye #1: peacock inspired

     Shortly after my boyfriend revealed to me what the theme of this year's prom will be, I began thinking of every last little detail possible. Yup! I'm a planner! The theme is masquerade, so I decided that a ballgown-style dress was a must, along with classic pearl jewelry. But how I wanted to wear my makeup was fairly fuzzy. I think I may know now, but, I am a woman, and I do tend to change my mind quite a bit. So I decided to start testing looks, even looks I didn't think I would wear to the prom, and share them on my blog. This "series" was going to start over a week ago, but alas, my first look photographed wonky and I didn't realize it until the end of the day *sigh.* That discuraged me, but I'm going to try it again soon. Today's eye make up was peacock inspired, and because peacock inspired looks can be intimidating for some people, I'm also including a more subtle peacock look that I often wear to school/ work/ where ever. And because I'm a nerd, I'll share a fun fact with you: "a female peacock" is an oxymoron. The term describing both sexes in general is "peafowl," and a "peahen" is the female ;)  


The more dramatic of the two looks.

Urban Decay's Painkiller, Too Faced's Deep Space & Moon Beam, Fyrinnae's Lucky Charmed & Finnigan's Wake.

This is one of my favorite casual looks for everyday!

Urban Decay's Mildew, Fyrinnae's Jaguar, Polar Bear, and Finnigan's Wake.

     I hope you enjoyed these looks and hopefully, if you're in the same boat I am regarding prom eye make up looks, hopefully this helped! If you do use one of these looks or do a look inspired by them, please email pictures to me at chasing_blue_feathers@yahoo.com and (with your permission!) I'll share them in a blog post :)  

Sunday, April 3, 2011

"Why are you putting chapstick all over yourself?"

     One of my "rewards" for paring down my Bath and Body Works stash is going to be an order from the Morbid the Merrier. So far I own three lip balms and two solid perfumes from this lovely brand, and I can't wait to buy more. To be a one-woman company, the presentation and quality of the products from the Morbid the Merrier is phenomenal. I love that my package held such sweetly wrapped little parcels. It adds such a nice extra touch; one that says "Thank you" as clearly as the included thank-you note. Make sure to visit at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/themorbidthemerrier

They were too cute to tear into without snapping a picture!
    

Harlot Lip Balm
Pros: This is the first balm I've owned that comes in an oval tube, and I like it! Because the tube isn't as fat as regualr ones, they are easier to slide into a purse or pants pocket. These are super- moisturizing; they feel very soft and supple on my lips and not waxy or greasy. The scents/ flavors are so nice! I have Sweet Cream and Honey, Honeysuckle Nectarine, and Natali (it is a perfect orange-chocolate!) Natali was an extra goody that came with my package, and possibly my fovorite balm because I can get matchy- matchy with my Natali solid perfume!
Cons: Even though the name is edgy and attention- grabbing, I do feel a little self- conscious while flashing it around in certain crowds.
Stars: 5/5
Would I buy again?: Yes! I love these little jewels!

On the top are the lip balms and the solid perfumes are on the bottom.

    
Solid Perfumes
Pros: These come in the same oval tubes as the lip balms, so these are also super portable; however, if you are more of a tin type of person, those are available, too. The scent is quite noticable and last a fair amount of time. The texture is similar to the lip balms', which means that they aren't waxy or runny. Natali (smells like a chocolate orange, but not in an overly sugary sort of way- there is a sultry, mysterious side to it, too!) and Dessert Absinthe (you'll have to read to shop's desciption, but it is the embodiment of the phrase "sugar and spice and everything nice"; girly, but with attitude!)
Cons: These are not for use on lips :(  You might get a few strange looks while putting these on, too- my younger sister asked me why I was putting chapstick on my pulse points, haha!
Stars: 5/5
Would I buy again?: Yes- they are perfect for touching up fragrance in the middle of a long day :)
     Hope you enjoyed the review!