Makeup Palettes / Sets To Look Out For

Drool fest!!!

I don't know why I keep torturing myself looking at Sephora's website when I know it would be a struggle to get my hands on stuff we don't have locally. Dear Sephora, please come to the Philippines and bring all your brands and not just a selected few like what you did in Hong Kong before that sadly closed down. Pretty please? :)

Anyway, get ready to salivate, ladies (and gentle-ladies ;) )! Here are my top picks:

Clockwise from top left:
1. Tarte Carried Away Collector's Set, USD54.00 (Php2,257.16)
It has 24 shimmer and matte eye shadows, 8 lip glosses, a blush, finishing powder, mascara, face brush and a bag. You can survive with just this palette your whole life! Yeah, yeah, we always say that... But seriously, if you're looking for just one makeup item to splurge on, this set is a pretty darn good winner. All items in this set are wearable and have great reviews too!

2. Urban Decay Ocho Loco 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil Set, USD59.00 (Php2,466.16)
8 pieces, FULL-SIZED. For serious collectors, this set comes with four new and exclusive shades, plus another exclusive shade from a previous set and three bestsellers. They're highly pigmented, creamy (which makes it easy to use) and waterproof. This set is equivalent to just 3 pencils if you get them individually. Serious value for money! Plus you get a sharpener too!

3. Tarte 5-Piece LipSurgence Collector's Set, USD34.00 (Php1,421.18)
Lip tints are great especially for everyday wear. And for USD6.80 a pop vs. its regular price of USD24.00, how can you go wrong?

4. Benefit Perk-Up Artist, USD30.00 (Php1,253.98)
Correctors can be a girl's best friend if you know how to use it. This kit can take care of redness, discoloration, dark circles and imperfections. A pretty promising kit.

5. Benefit Upgrade To Gorgeous, USD34.00 (Php1,421.18)
I like this set for the pretty mini suitcase. Benefit really has the most adorable packaging! It comes with Sugarbomb blush, High Beam highlighter (both full-sized), POREfessional primer, They're Real mascara and Laugh With Me LeeLee fragrance.

6. Tarte Fantastic Foursome 4-Piece Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush Enthusiast, USD35.00 (Php1,462.98)
You'll get a highlighter, a bronzer and two blushes. Although, I believe these are just half in size of the regular blush but I'd rather have four different blushes than just one with the set's price (full-sized blush retails for USD25.00). The more the merrier, right? 

Thank goodness Benefit is already available in the Philippines. I think I'll give the correctors set a try when it arrives in our shores. But I'm really lusting over the Tarte Carried Away Collector's Set and Urban Decay's eye pencil set. Which are you crushing on?

Arm Party

I had a mild craft attack yesterday which is good because I noticed that when I think of something to make, I get all excited looking for the materials and when I finally have them, I just lose interest. Horrible, right? So I'm glad I was able to make some trinkets from the loads of stuff I have been buying. And I'm wearing most of the new bracelets I made today. The only one that wasn't handmade is the silver cross bracelet. The colorful braided one was made a few months ago. Next on my to do list is a friendship bracelet with cone spikes! Can't wait to see how that will go!

Ta-Dah!

Is this just lovely or is this really just lovely? :)

I finally finished my lip palette project. I even have space for more! I actually have a couple of lipsticks that I wasn't able to include in the palette as I ran out pans. Hah! And I thought I bought too much!

In case you want to know how I did it, I documented the steps for you.

Here are the things you'll need:

• An empty large magnetic palette (I used a large Z Palette)
• Small metal pans (from Z Palette as well)
• Spatula
• Lipsticks - of course!
• Alcohol
• Baby wipes
• Tissue
• Sticker labels and a pen

A pack of Z Palette's small metal pans contains 10 pieces. So I worked in batches.

Disinfect and sterilize the pans first with alcohol.

Wipe clean with tissue.

Line up your lipsticks and make labels so it will be easy to refill.

Since I was on super OC mode, I took a step further and melted the lipsticks so they will settle nicely in the pans. The melting part wasn't really part of the plan but when I finished filling in the first batch of pans and placed them in the palette, there were lipstick stains all over the clear window because the product wasn't packed as tight as possible. I knew I would always get those stains and I would have to clean them up again and again and I didn't want to deal with that.

While I placed the pans on an oven tray, I already turned on the oven toaster.

I placed the tray inside the oven toaster and the lipstick melted very quickly. I actually left it, went to get something, and when I came back, they were already in liquid state. I'd say it took less than a minute.

I turned off the oven toaster (I actually pulled the plug in panic) and let everything cool down. I didn't want to take the tray out of the oven because I was sure the melted lipstick will spill on the tray.

After about 5 minutes or so, I brought the pan out to let it cool further in room temperature. And I was so glad I did the melting part as the lip pans look so pretty and new and professional!

And the most fun part is arranging the lipsticks by color! I swear, I was so kilig while doing it! :) I can't believe how much pink lipsticks I have!

The large Z Palette can fit 50 to 57 small metal pans. I only have 40 pans. In the first photo above, the pans were arranged by 10s and can accommodate 5 rows. There will be extra space and I believe I could fit in a lip brush. In the next photo, you'll see that I rearranged the pans where a pan is in the middle of two pans above or below it which actually really maximized the space. It can hold 3 rows of 10 pans and 3 rows of 9 pans, alternating. This will leave you with no extra space, making your palette look like it was bought from the store. So freaking pretty, I tell you!

Here's why I love my new palette so much:

• I now have just one palette instead of the 6 palettes I've been using
• I can easily take a pan and place it in another palette with a blush and whatever else I need when retouching - less stuff to carry around!
• I can see all the lipsticks that I have in one go

And here's a tip I got from another makeup artist: do not cut up matte lipsticks and place them in a palette as they dry up real fast.

I am so in love with my new palette! I can't wait to fill it up completely! But you know what, I think that because they're so pretty, I'm afraid that I wouldn't want to touch them. Hahaha.

Sneak Peek: Makeup Organizing

This has been in my to-do list for months already and I'm glad I brought my stash with me to our TV show taping yesterday and was able to start my little project while waiting.

I am still not done working on it though. I get super OC when it comes to this. Can't wait to finish and show you guys. It's gonna be super pretty, I tell you! :)

September 2012 Calendar {Free Printable}

Yesterday, I printed out a free monthly blog calendar I found online and thought that I could make my own so I did. I'm no graphic artist (I wish I had the skills though) but I think I did a pretty good job. The design is very simple yet interesting, right? ;)

Please feel free to download my first-ever free printable and let me know your thoughts about it. I'm thinking of making this a monthly thing. :)

Click here to download the calendar.

OCD Stikes Again

A month or two ago, we had a flooding problem in our house. It wasn't from a storm or heavy rains, it was just raining continuously and it turned out we had a drainage problem. My husband & I woke up at 3am and found our room with about 3 inches of water. What a hassle!

Long story short, a lot of stuff got wet - shoes, bags, laptops, boxes, etc. One box was where I kept our files (bills, insurance, car, kids' schooling documents, warranties, manuals, etc.) and another was a school/office supplies box. Of course, everything inside the boxes got ruined and since then, I have been looking for a file box made of plastic to waterproof my things.

I have seen very few options which is really disappointing. Last night, I popped in at True Value and they only had the generic plastic containers but were on sale. The size that I needed was about Php275.00, discounted. Just before reaching the counter, I decided to check out Howard's Storage World next door and found a real plastic file box for about Php1,000.00. I'm sure you already know which one I bought.

I don't understand why manufacturers have to place huge stickers on the sides of their container products... Why not just a piece of paper taped on the sides instead, right? Worst part is, the stickers they use are crazy sticky and give you a hard time removing them. What a nightmare!

At around 11:30pm last night, I had this problem:

I googled and found a couple of techniques to try:

1. Soak with any of these products and peel off:

• Cooking oil
• Lighter fluid
• Nail polish remover
• WD40
• Tea tree oil
• Pond's Cold Cream - my mom's own trick
• Peanut butter - really???
• Hot soapy water
• Vaseline
• Mayonnaise
• Vinegar
• Hair conditioner

2. Use a specialty product like Goo Gone.
3. Use a hair dryer to soften the adhesive.

Some of the products under the soaking method needed to left alone for a couple of hours and even one whole day. It was almost midnight and was determined to remove the damn sticker. There was no way I could wait that long. I don't have Goo Gone on hand and I don't think we have that locally. So I busted out my hair dryer and blasted away.

The problem with huge stickers (this was about half the size of a letterhead), you can only work on a small portion at a time. Then you'll end up with torn ragged edges which are a pain to remove.

When removing torn edges, you will be left with adhesive residue. Take a portion of the sticker that you have already removed and use its sticky side to take off the residue by quickly and repeatedly bouncing it on the area.

At this point, I was just so frustrated and I just wanted to give up.

Being impatient as ever, I tried to remove the remaining sticker with nail polish remover hoping it will be faster and cleaner. That didn't go so well. It did melt the adhesive a bit but it left some residue and just smeared it all over. Maybe because the remover I had on hand was the acetone-free kind. Or maybe I was just too impatient to wait for it to soak and get through the adhesive. 

Anyway, I went back to my hair dryer and when all the sticker was gone, I used a creamy kind of makeup remover similar to Pond's Cold Cream to take off the remaining residue. By 1am, I was done with my little OCD project. Finally!

I think the hair dryer technique works the best because it is fast and not as messy as soaking the sticker with whatever. A note of caution though, try not heat up a particular area for a long time. The plastic might start to melt and warp.

And to plastic manufacturers, please cut us some slack and use a flimsier adhesive or stop plastering huge sticker labels on your products. Please. Have mercy.

The "Ber" Months Are Here

Happy September everyone! :)

I can't believe it's already September. How time flies so fast! I just realized I have to start doing my Christmas list and some present-hunting. And I also can't believe I didn't have any blog entries last month. Very bad! So let me try to start things right this month...

First of all, here's the list of September's Photo A Day Challenge by Fat Mum Slim. I am happy and proud to announce that I completed the August challenge! I post my challenge entries on Instagram and I've been using Instagram a lot more than Facebook and Twitter. Viewing photos are just a lot more fun than reading statuses, don't you think?

The challenge is sometimes quite challenging (umm, maybe that is why it is called a challenge? Haha.) especially when you've had a busy day and it's almost midnight and you still have nothing. But I really try not to miss a day. I think it's a great way to be inspired and creative everyday. 

I would also like to share a beauty article I wrote for smartparenting.com.ph:

I was asked to come up with 10 must-have makeup products that each mom should have. Being one myself, I know how little time moms have to put on makeup so I listed the essentials and some multi-tasking products that are quick and easy to use. Personally, I do not put a lot of makeup on for my everyday look. Very simple and low maintenance. The goal is to look polished and well-groomed but still you. To read the full article, click here.

So, that's all for now. I am looking forward to a super awesome September! I have makeup reviews, DIY projects, GIVEAWAYS (yaaaay!) and a lot more in store. See you again soon!