HOW TO: Easy Long Lasting Curls with just sponge curlers and NO HEAT!

      Ever wondered how you could get beautiful ringlet curls without heat and without a lot of work? I have found literally the perfect, least damaging way to get those beautiful ringlets and...THEY LAST! For this post, I'm going to fill you in on my secrets on how to get my perfect ringlets<3 I hope this helps!

These are larger and medium size sponge curlers.

    Heard of sponge curlers? Neither had I until I was given some by my mom. I decided to give them a try and after much practice I am like a pro when using them! You'll need to sleep on them, so no pain no gain!  They're not that uncomfortable to sleep in once you get use to them!

What you'll need:
Sponge Curlers (Available at ANY drugstore or beauty supply store)
Mousse (Any kind that works for your hair)
One night of sleep
Hairspray (Again, any kind that works for your hair)

How to curl your hair with sponge curlers:

Step 1: Shower and towel dry hair. Wait until your hair is about 80% dry and apply mousse. I use L'Oreal's Vive Pro Glossy Volume Mousse.

My favorite. Found at any drugstore!

Step 2: Put the top half (from the crown up) of hair up. You'll put that in curls last.
Step 3: I like to be organized, so I divide the sponge curlers into two equal amounts. Half of them you'll set to the side which will be for the hair you have put up in a clip/ponytail.
Step 4: Take 1" of hair (approx.)..(having the sponger curler unhooked) holding the piece of hair with your index and thumb of your left hand, hold the curler above or below the sponge curler (doesn't matter) and start to roll it around the curler, just like a regular hot roller.
Step 5: Once you get as far as you want it rolled up, clip the sponge clip thingy.
Step 6: Repeat.
Step 7: Once you're done with the bottom half of your hair, unclip/untie the top part of your hair you first put up, and put that up in sponge rollers too!
Step 8: Sleep.
Step 9: When you wake up in the morning, it doesn't really matter what order you undo them, but I find it is easiest to start at the bottom and work your way up.
Step 10: Do a bit of fluffing with your hair depending on how defined or big you want your hair to be. 
Step 11: You want it to last? Spray generous amounts of hairspray. :] I use Big Sexy Hair: Spray and Play Harder Voluminizing Hair Spray.

<3

Step 12: Optional! Add any hair accessory like a head band or flower to help accentuate your beautiful curls!

Cute in curly hair. :] See?

Add a pretty headband that sparkles and shines. This headband is from Forever 21...for $5.00

Hello Kitty Hair Bows from Claire's. CUTE!

 

Makeup 101: Contouring

    First off, many of you new to the makeup world might wonder, what is contouring?!

      Contouring is using a product (for purposes of my blog, i will just be using powder, but you can use liquids and creams for contouring as well!) to make desired areas look receded or shaded. The best example?...the hollows of your cheekbones.  Contouring  the hollows of your cheekbones makes your cheeks and face appear to look thinner. Yeah, I think this is pretty handy when you have chubby cheeks like me! ;]

What you need:
A medium size angle brush ( I'm using a Studio M Angle Brush from Meijer)
A small size angled brush ( for the nose contouring)
A matte bronzer that is 1-2 shades darker than your skin tone

To the right: NYC Smooth Skin Bronzing Face Power in 720A SUNNY-It's matte, found at drugstores and only like $3.00!

Get Away Bronze Blush from MAC's 2010 To the Beach

It's a frost so it's not super glittery, so you can still use it as a contour.

      There will be 5 areas we will be focusing on when contouring- cheeks, temples/forehead, jaw line, nose and lips.

Ooo. I look crazy! Mhaha.

1. Cheeks (GREEN!)

     Contouring the hollows of your cheekbones makes your face appear thinner and is quite simple.  Suck in your cheeks like a fishie and you'll see and can feel the area right below your cheek bone. That's the hollow and the part you'll want to contour! Get a bit of product on your brush and tap the excess off. (Don't attempt to blow the excess product off the brush because you might get spit on your brush and that's caca!)  Apply it starting from right in front of your ear moving the brush down in a diagonal line towards your lips but stop right below your pupil line (hold the tip of your index finger right in front of your pupil like you're pointing up, that's generally where your contour should stop.) Blend it out so there are no harsh lines.( If you're a visual learner like me, I will include a video link to a favorite beauty guru on Youtube who shows you via video, how to contour your face.)

2. Temples/Forehead (BLUE & RED!)

    Think you have a five-head or a wider forehead? Yep there's contouring for that!
Along the temples...take your brush with a bit product on the end (tap off excess!) and make a "C" kind of shape. (See the red lines). BLEND BLEND BLEND. This will help your forehead from looking too wide.
    If you think your hairline falls too far back and you don't have bangs (like me!), then maybe do a bit of forehead contouring (See blue lines). Apply just a little bit across your forehead closer to the line to make your hair line...less receding.

3.  Jawline (PINK!)

     If you have a double chin and would like to kinda chisel it away, you can use contouring to make your double chin disappear. Feel along your jaw line to find where your jaw bone is and that will give you an idea as to where to actually contour. Once you've found it, start brushing your contour on right along the jawline to your ear and focus some powder right below your chin as well. Make sure to blend any harsh lines out and use a light hand to apply any powder!

4. Nose (YELLOW!)

   Think your nose is too big? Contour it! Take a smaller brush, (doesn't necessarily have to be angled but it helps), start at the bridge of the nose and lightly brush down the left side then right side. Make sure you don't go too far down or it'll look funny.

5. Lip (BROWN!)

     Want your bottom lip to look fuller? I like to take an eyebrow pencil in a medium brown (instead of powder but that's just my preference) and draw and upside down triangle lightly, right in the middle of your lip. This will make it look like your lip is SO full that it casts its own shadow. Remember LIGHTLY or it will look like you got something on your face, and that's not cute!

Any questions, comments, or thoughts email me or leave me a comment!

P.S. Here's the video I recommend if you want a better description of contouring and even highlighting! Marlena is an amazing Youtube Beauty Guru, from Michigan and a professional makeup artist! Enjoy!  


How to Contour and Highlight your face-MakeupGeek

How TO: MAC Eye shadow Palette Organization AND Swatches GALORE!

        As I have blogged about before, I was planning on having two MAC Pro Palettes; one filled with just colors, the other just neutrals. Since this is quite an expensive goal, I have been purchasing one or two eye shadows every now and then. I'm probably most proud about this part of my makeup collection, then any other part, because not only did it take a significant amount of time and money, it's custom to ME.

Color Eyeshadow SWATCHES with Too Faced Shadow Insurance Applied beforehand.

Color Eyeshadow Swatches. As you can see the colors are not as strong when they don't have a primer below!

        Today, before work I was tossing around the idea of doing some swatches of my MAC shadows and figured most makeup fans/geeks love looking at swatches as if it was pron...drooling over the vast variety of colors, shimmer and pigmentation. Not only are they aesthetically pleasing, swatches serve as a guide to which colors are worth the dough. To me, if a shadow has a good color payoff.. then it's of higher quality then those shadows who are very sheer and have little to no pigmentation at all.

  
 Organization:

        As for organization of my palettes, I broke them up into two separate palettes as you all know.  I took a sheet of lined paper and cut it to fit just inside of  my palette. I drew lines to create 15 boxes ( 3 throws of 5 columns). I wrote the name, type and whether the eyeshadow was part of the permanent collection ( P) or if it was in a collection and if it was, I wrote the name of the collection and the year. I bought a strip of magnets with a stick back so after I depoted the eye shadows out of the containers, I could just stick the sticky side to the eye shadow pan, and the magnetic side would stick to the metal palette. Makes the eye shadows pretty easy to get out, but be careful they're still fragile and fall out a bit easier than you'd think!

     As you can see, these sheets help keep my eye shadows organized and help me remember which year and collection they came from! I just have these taped to the top part of the inside of the palette. Let me know any thoughts, comments, or questions. :]

Your Basic Poof-Hair Tutorial

   This post will be a short and easy how to: create a basic "poof". From the bangs pouf to the half head poof, it only takes a few steps and a few simple (read: affordable) tools to get these great hairstyles.

Snooki Poof

 What you will need:
-Teasing comb (you can use a bristle brush or even a regular comb)
-Hair Spray
-a few bobby pins (depending on how thick your hair is and if you're doing a half poof, you might need more)
-a dry head of hair
-shine serum (optional)


First you will need to decide if you are going to do a bangs poof or a half head poof. If your bangs are at least 4" you can achieve the bangs poof.

Step 1: Grab your hair that you will be "poofing" and hold it straight above your head. Spray a little bit of hair spray on the back side close to the roots. Let this dry for a second or two.

Step 2: Firmly hold the hair up and take your brush or comb and gently brush towards the scalp while continuing to hold the hair firmly in the other hand. It takes practice but you'll get the hang of it! This action, also known as "teasing" should be repeated to create a voluminous tangle of hair. Don't worry, it shouldn't be too tangled.

Step 3: Spray back root area again with a spritz of hair spray to hold teasing in place. Once you've did this comb the front side of the hair you just teased lightly to tame the hair and give it a more clean appearance.

Step 4: Depending on how much hair you are deciding on pining back, you may need more than just two bobby pins. If you're poofing your bangs, you should only need two bobby pins. Grab your bangs and twist the hair once and push it towards the front allowing you to create a bump aka a "poof".

Step 5: Bobby pin this down to your head by placing the first bobby pin in and then coming from the opposite direction/ side of the first bobby pin, create an "X" with the pins to securely hold it in place.

Step 6: Once you're happy with the poof you've created, spray with hair spray and you're complete!

Step 7: (optional) For that extra shine and frizz control, you can add a tiny tiny amount of a shine serum (I like Biosilk's Silk Therapy or Got2B's Smooth Operator's Satin Drops).