Makeup & The Edge

Today was a pretty awesome day!! This morning was exciting! We had an educator from TIGI Bedhead cosmetics come in and introduce us to TIGI's line of makeup, which I must say, thoroughly impressed me. Everything was high quality and  highly pigmented. The eyeshadows were sososo prettty, and reminded me of MAC. The line isn't nearly as big as MAC, but he had very nice kit with everything in it, but it still had everything you could possibly need. I think we can get that kit at a student price of about $500, and I plan on getting one in the future... distant future, ha!

He also showed us TIGI's 10 piece makeup brush set, and it was AMAZING~! The brush handles were a gorgeous, bold hot pink, and the bristles were SO soft. All off the brushes were full size and came in a carrying pouch or a neato brush belt (WANT LOL) and they only cost $60, including taxes. That's a great price, especially considering the brushes run around $16 each if you were to buy them individually.

It was a great learning experience as well. He told us how he went through Cosmetology school and in his mind, quit every day because it wasn't as easy as he imagined it would be. He kept at it and graduated,  passed his state board, got a job in a salon and also became an educator for TIGI. His story inspires me because I admit, sometimes I can get really frustrated and stressed out when I don't grasp some concept, or am the slowest one in class.  The thought of quitting is there in the back of my mind... but then I have to remind myself why I'm there, and that quitting will get me no where in life. I know I can make it. I may struggle, but I know I gotta keep going. I deserve to be successful!

After our makeup party was over, we went out on the salon floor and worked on a haircut from the Milady Edge DVD. I missed the first day we were supposed to work on it, so I was really struggling with the parting for it... cause it was funky, and Anime inspired.. which I LOVED. Once I got the parting... I enjoyed doing the cutting. And I love how my cut turned out. This is the first hair cut I've done so far that I actually like!

Some of the Hairiest Blogs I've Seen

I love having options when it comes to haircutting and styling. Just imagine how well-rounded your skills would be if you met stylists all over the world, and learned something new from each and everyone of them. That is my dream. I want to have all kinds of experience and influences, and that's when the internet comes in handy. Youtube videos are great for this as well, but I think blogs about hair are an awesome idea! Here of some of my absolute favorite hair related blogs. Expect the list to keep growing, and please add yours if you like. :)

Babes in Hairland  

For Young'ins )
Princess Hairstyles (for the little princess in your life)
Girl Hairdos & Ideas




Great blogs that are no longer updated :(
Cutie Pie Hair Creations
Hair Between My Fingers

Halloweenie

Last Friday at school was so fun! I just love Halloween and any excuse to get dressed up in a costume! I went as the Mad Hatter (as played by Johnny Depp). It was a fun costume! My favorite part of it was my hat and my mismatched makeup w/ white eyelashes!! I was inspired by my favorite makeup artist, Kandee Johnson, and her Mad Hatter tutorial video. Look her up on YouTube... her happiness just makes me smile!

I'm not gonna lie... I was pretty proud of my costume, especially after spending so little on it. I already had most of the stuff at home (the scarf, pants, shirt, makeup) and got the rest really cheap (the jacket $1 @ Goodwill) and the hat and hair color for cheap at Wilson's 5 cents to $1. I used NYX's Milk Jumbo eyeshadow pencil as the all over color because I didn't have any white greasepaint. It worked better than I thought it would... after powdering with white mineral powder and hairspraying my makeup in place, it lasted all day,

I might like to do it again.. maybe a tutorial? Or at least a list of products I used. Anywho, here's some pic spam!

 

Haul: Eyes Lips Face Columbus Day Sale

My lil' ELF cosmetics haul :)

Eyes Lips Face (or ELF for short) had a great  50% off of everything Columbus Day weekend sale recently. There isn't a wide selection of ELF available in stores, so when they have sales like this, I highly recommend that you take advantage of them! I love saving money, and who can pass getting already affordable $1 cosmetics for 50 cents each?! I'll be testing these out this week and doing a review later on =) I spent a total of $13.05 on all of this, which isn't that bad for all I got! :) Everything cost me 50 cents each, except for the studio kabuki which was $2.50 on sale, and the studio blush which was $1.50 on sale. I almost spent more on shipping ($6.95) than I did on the goodies!

Here's what I ordered:

Shimmer Pencil in 7606 Grassy Green

Shimmer Pencil in 7607 in Twinkle Teal

Shimmer Pencil in 7608 Plum Passion

Waterproof Eyeliner Pen in 7301 Coffee

Eyelid Primer 7501 Sheer

Zit Zapper 7801

Studio Blush in 83135 Berry Merry

Studio Kabuki Face Brush

 

Shimmer Pencils: Plum Passion, Twinkle Teal, & Grassy Green

Cocoa Eyeliner Pen, Eyeshadow Primer, Zit Zapper

Studio Kabuki Face Brush, Studio Berry Merry Blush

FOTD: A Great Day for Colors

This is my Face of the Day from yesterday. I used my 120 color palette for this look. I hadn't done a rainbow look in a while, and it was Friday so I was in a great mood, so I thought I would let it shine through my makeup. :)

Fave Fridays: Wet n Wild Mega Mixers Pina Colada Flavored Lip Balm

On Fridays, I'm going to share some of my favorite, go-to, & often-found-in-my-purse products. :) This week, its a cute little lip balm from Wet N Wild. The flavor is Pina Colada. (If you know me, you know that I loooove anything that smells like pineapple/coconut/pina colada, heehee) It goes on clear, it moisturizes my lips nicely, and it smells divine. The taste is okay.. not the best pina colada I've ever had. ;D It kind of has a waxy taste, but I'll continue to use it, just because its the only Pina Colada lip balm that I've found for 99 cents!

*The lipbalm featured in this post was purchased by me; no form of compensation was received for this post.

Benefit Stay Put Mini Set Swatches

I ordered this sweet little deal off Sephora.com, where it is exclusively available as a limited edition. This cute little set contains mini sizes of three different Benefit products: Stay Don't Stray eyeshadow primer, Erase paste concealer, and RSVP cream eyeshadow. They are generous little sizes, for $10. They cost me about $16, with shipping. Swatches below, review to come!


From left to right: Eye Primer, Concealer, Eyeshadow
(with flash)


From left to right: Eye Primer, Concealer, Eyeshadow
Indoor, no flash

St. Ives Naturally Clear Green Tea Cleanser Review

I bought this at my local Walmart for under $6. I been using it for about 3 weeks now so I feel I've tested it enough to give an accurate review.

Details on the Packaging:

Clears breakouts and reduces redness. Salicylic Acid Acne Medication With 100% Natural Green Tea
Product Description

This cleanser deep cleans to gently remove dirt and make-up and helps maintain skin's moisture balance.

Application

Wet face. Apply a generous amount of product over face and neck with fingertips. Rinse with water. Use daily for best results. Avoid contact with eyes. In case of contact with eyes, flush thoroughly with water. Use with Naturally Clear Green Tea Scrub.
Product Claims

Dermatologist Tested • Hypoallergenic • Non-Comedogenic • Dermatologist Tested • Not Tested on Animals • Does not contain animal ingredients • Formulated without Parabens and Phthalates

*Product description from product website



My Experience
My skin hasn't always been so easy to please. I'm actually really impressed with this cleanser! I absolutely LOVE the refreshing green tea scent.. It reminds me of my old favorite shampoo, Suave Green Tea & Jasmine, now discontinued, so now I look forward to using the cleanser, just so I can get a whiff of that lovely aroma.

When I apply this too my face, I make sure my face is already a little wet, but not too much, because the cleanser doesn't seem to lather as well if your face is soaked. When it comes to how much you use, less is more. It has a nice pump that makes it easy to get the product out. It doesn't take a lot for your face to feel clean and refreshed with this cleanser. I massage it in circular motions all over my face, and then rinse with lukewarm water. It seems to reduce redness, and doesn't leave my skin dry at all, just clean, smooth, and pretty. :)

Since I've been using this cleanser, I haven't experienced any breakouts at all! I'm amazed at that alone. I noticed though, that I did get a breakout on my forehead and chin after I didn't use it a couple of days, but that was my fault because I was sick and got lazy. :P

Summary
Price: 5/5
Packaging: 5/5
Performance: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

There aren't many St. Ive Products I don't like. The reasons being the quality of their products for their GREAT prices! I also love the fact that all their products are cruelty free, and do not contain parabens or phthalates. However, for me, their Green Tea cleanser stands above the rest, and it is now one of my skin care staples!

This concludes my first review. Yay! Next I'll be posting the review of the Green Tea Scrub that complements the cleanser so well!

*I purchased this product with my own money. Remember, this review is my personal experience with this product. Your results may be different than mine, and contributing factors could be your skin care routine and makeup habits.

Sally Beauty: Shampoos to Try

I love Sally's Beauty supply, especially with the discount card. My usual drugstore shampoos just aren't cutting it now, so I'm on the search for a better shampoo. After looking over reviews on Sally's website, these are the ones I've narrowed down that I want to try. Keep in mind I have medium-curly, bleach-highlighted, and somewhat dry hair.

GVP Tea Tree Oil Shampoo (Paul Mitchell Dupe)
Proclaim Olive Glossing Shampoo
Ion Curl Defining Shampoo
Silk Elements Megasilk Olive Shampoo
GVP Conditioning Shampoo/Shimmerlites Dupe

Spreading the St. Ives Love

St. Ives has a great line of skin care products. Almost all of my skin care regimen consists of something of theirs. The thing I love best about St. Ives is the quality for the price. I don't think they have anything that's over $7 (or maybe even $6 depending on where you buy it). Other great things about them are that they don't test on animals or use animal ingredient, and the products are paraben and phthalate free. That's some pretty sweet stuff if I do say so myself. :)

This is my collection of St. Ives products. I'm sure it will only get bigger. I'm currently loving the Green Tea cleanser & Scrub!

NOTD: Seafoam Waters

I just come up with these names off the top of my head because I can't remember the names of the polishes ;)

We did Manicures and Pedicures this week at school. Most everyone was iffy about touching other peoples' feet, but it didn't really bother me so much. Michelle (my bff/cousin) did mine. We chose blue and green, and did like french manicure style.

After I got home, I had the urge to try water marbling again. And I succeeded (minimally)!

Review: Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Hush Lip Tar

The studying aspect of Cosmetology is keeping me so busy! I'm lucky if I get 10 minutes of internet time for myself. But that's how it goes. I've got to study hard and keep my grades above a 90% average so I can get the $1500 scholarship from Mr. Shuler. :)

I finally got around to trying out my sample of the Hush lip tar from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics. The color is sort of nude pink with a little coral/peach tones. It takes very little to get full coverage on your lips, so apply sparingly with a lip brush. Its definitely drying without a lip balm underneath, and I don't particularly like the matte look of it once its dried. I like to top it off with some more balm or clear lip gloss for a little sheen. It lasts a lot longer than gloss or lipstick by itself. I think it was on my lips for about 4 hours before it started to disappear.

My bare lips with lip balm:


Hush with lip balm:

Beauty Bootcamp

I said I was going to do reviews on this blog, and I'm going to get around to it! Right now with our "10 week beauty bootcamp" at school its a little hectic, learning all the stuff from the textbooks. I spend all of my free time studying. So I plan on doing reviews after 10weeks is over, unless I can get around to it on the weekend. Hopefully that will be case!

With Love,
Megan

Nail Designs: Marbling

My dear hubby so sweetly was trying to help me with marbling. My hubby let me use his nails to practice on. I watched a couple of tutorials on youtube, but I still haven't managed to get it just right. The colors seem to come out too pale. Not sure why, I guess I (or we) will have to keep practicing!

NOTD: Blue Green Dreams

FOTD: Green & Blue

Green and blue eyeshadows are probably my favorite combination of colors to put together. When I wear them, my eye color really seems to pop, because I have both colors in my eyes. :)

Phase 1, Week 3 Complete

I had another great week at school! :) Everything was fun about cutting men's hair.. except for all the little hairs getting stuck everywhere and being sooo itchy! LOL. We were a little behind on our practicals this week and so this morning we had to catch up, so we didn't get to have family/friends come in to let us practice on them. We did finish in time to practice shampooing/styling each others hair and do each others makeup. You can tell when Friday rolls around, because by the end of the day, most of us tease our hair and have big bumps on our hair, and we glam up our makeup. :)

I had my bangs trimmed, and of course had my hair bumped up because it's so flat anyway. I'm loving my new bangs. Just that little change makes a world of difference. Thanks to my instructor, Ms. Ingalls for cutting them! :)

Haircutting One Oh One

Soo today at school, we started learning about hair cutting. Wow. Its alot harder than it looks, to me anyway. When I see a stylist cut hair, they make it look so easy and effortless, but there's alot more to it than that. Learning how to hold your tools makes all the difference in the world. Its going to take a lot of practice for me to get the shears feel comfortable/natural in my hands, and I'm going to keep at it. I can't wait until we get our kits and can bring them home, because then I'm going to practice practice practice. Its won't be perfect for a while, though! ;D

I'm pretty psyched. I saw a rave review for Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetic's Lip Tar, so I decided to order some samples. I ordered Hush, Memento, Cha-Cha, and Divine. I can't wait for them to get here so I can test them out and review them!

Hope everyone's week is off to a great start!

Lisa Frank Nails, L.A. Colors Nail Polish

I'm enjoying my weekend so far! I woke up early this morning, and didn't want to wake Brad, so I decided to browse some beauty Gurus online. I found a link on xsparkage to a tutorial for "Rainbow Leopard / Lisa Frank nails" and just fell so in love with the look that I just had to go out and buy some polish so I could try it out on my nails!

So while we were out and about today, we took a trip to Dollar Tree. Usually they have a very limited selection of nail polish, but today I got lucky. They had several colors of L.A. Colors' Color Craze. They were so pretty that I couldn't pick a few... I ended up getting 9. They are regularly $2 at CherryCulture.com, but are on sale for $1.49 each right now. I paid $1 for each at DT, so I think I got a great deal on them!

Here are the different colors I got. Sorry, I'm not sure of the shade names. The numbers on bottom don't match any shown on LA Colors website.



I chose three shades to recreate the design on my nails, plus New York Color's 119A Black Lace Creme to do the leopard print.



& Here's my finished recreation, though a little messy!

Phase 1, Week 2 Complete

I'm having lots of fun! Another week has passed, and I'm loving Cosmo more and more! We learned lightening, and highlighting/lowlighting with foils and caps, and today we got to put what all we learned into practice. I got caramel highlights on top along with some peekaboo blonde highlights underneath, Laura did an awesome job on my hair, if I do so say myself! It came out really pretty!

Here's how my hair turned out :)



I had a super fun week, and it went by really fast, but I'm so glad its the weekend now. I'm SO ready to spend time with my hubby, cause it seems like I haven't seen him at all since he started his new job. He works late most nights, and has been out of town the past couple of days, but he's coming home tonight, thank goodness. I feel incomplete and lost without him!

Might do something exciting later.. like Wal-Mart at Midnite, and Steak n' Shake at 2am. Nothing more fun than that!

Phase 1, Week 1 Complete

I'm so proud of myself. I'm not sure if I've ever finished anything completely in my life, sad to say, but I am proud of myself for making it through my first week of Cosmetology. I gotta say, it wasn't what I expected. It was SO much better. I love my teacher, and my classmates. Everyone is so nice and wonderful to be around.

I've learned alot already.. we covered hair structure, types of haircolor, and haircoloring techniques, including all over color on pre-colored and virgin hair. This week we're going over Communication skills and moving on to highlighting and lowlighting techniques. I'm looking forward to it. I'm really excited about my new career path!

First Day of Cosmo

I was hoping to have been able to blog more by now, but my laptop hasn't been fixed yet.

So today was my first day of class at Kenneth Shuler, and it was a lot of fun. We learned about the hair and scalp, and related disorders and disesases. Then we went hands on shampooing our mannican heads. it wasnt as easy as I thought it was going to be, but with practice I know I'll get it.

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My Skin Care Routine

I thought it best to start this beauty blog off with a post about my skin care routine, since a bare face is the blank canvas for creating makeup masterpieces. I'm no Van Gogh, but ia clean, smooth base is just as important to me. I don't have to use high end products to get great results.

My routine varies from day to day, but I have my daily essentials. In the morning, Isplash my face with some cool water, then I use just a tiny pea-sized amount of St. Ives Timeless Microdermabrasion scrub. It gets my skin super smooth and soft without being too harsh. About once a week I may use St. Ives's blackhead apricot scrub instead. I follow either scrub with Mario Badescu's Special Cucumber Cleansing Lotion (toner), and then I moisturize, which I've been rotating because I haven't found the perfect one yet. Then I apply my makeup.

At night, I remove makeup with St. Ives Makeup Remover and Facial Cleansing Lotion. Then I use the Mario Badescu toner, or just a Stridex Alcohol free cleansing pad (I use these alone on days I don't wear any makeup), and I don't usually follow wih moisturizer unless my skin is really dry, because I like for my skin to get a chance to breathe at night.

My skin stays fairly clear with this routine. What's yours?

Firsties!

Welcome to Glamadelic, my beauty blog. My name is Megan, and I'll be using this blog to write about my journey through Cosmetology, as well as my favorite beauty products, and product reviews. If there's anything else you'd like to see, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know!