Girl on Fire Week - FotD - The Parade

Katniss in her Parade costume. Scanned from the Illustrated Movie Companion.

I have been ramping up for The Hunger Games for almost a year now. I've read the first book twice already and I am preparing to read it for a third time next week in preparation for the movie.  I thought I would do Girl on Fire Week in order to lead up to the premiere of the movie this Friday.

Today, I have a look inspired by the above costume and makeup. This is the outfit that Katniss wears during the initial parade of tributes and where she earns the nickname "The Girl on Fire". The look is so simple, that I wanted to give some suggestions on how to do this look at home. It is subtle enough for every day wear as well as able to be spiced up for evening.

No flash...

List of items used:
Eyes:

• Laura Mercier Eye Basics in Linen
• tokidoki 24k eye shadow palette - Sabbia
• tokidoki Cromatico eye shadow - Adios Star
• Shiro Cosmetics eye shadow - Thinking With Portals
• Maybelline Falsies Flared Mascara - Blackest Black

Lips:

• Geek Chic Cosmetics Geek Gloss - Happy Ending

Cheeks:

• Wet n' Wild ColorIcon Bronzer

First, I put a dab of Laura Mercier Eye Basics on each eyelid and spread with my fingertips until smooth. This helps the eye shadow to wear longer as well as hide any imperfections on the lid. Then, I took Sabbia which is a pale off-white color (More info can be found here at Musings of a Muse). I chose this color because it's neutral and doesn't really stick out that much. The key to a lot of Katniss' looks outside of the interview and the parade are that they are very natural and they stay that way even when she's dolled up. Due to the nature of the Laura Mercier base though, you can choose to wear just that, I just felt that when it came to adding the orange flare, it was easier to blend.

Next, I took a flat liner brush and used Adios Star to tightline my upper lash line and add the tiniest flare that follows my lower lash line at the outer edge. This color is a glitter packed black, which I love. After lining, I used Maybelline Falsies Flared mascara in Blackest Black to further enhance my lashes and give them that luxurious and fuller look.

Onto the cheeks, this was the hardest as my skin isn't the best right now but I tapped my brush once in my bronzer and swept it across my cheekbones. No more than that. Also, for my lips, it looks as though she is wearing a clear gloss and my favorite is Geek Chic Cosmetics' Happy Ending. It is a glitter packed clear gloss and my go to for everyday.

Well, that's it for this intallment...

And may the odds be ever in your favor!

Catch Up: Shiro Cosmetics

So I am finally starting to spread my wings ad try some other companies. I recently bought 3 full-size jars and 23 sample baggies from Caitlin of Shiro Cosmetics.

First of all, I was very surprised to find 2 extra sample baggies in BOTH of my orders. This floored me because I don't usually expect something like this with sample only orders. As far as packaging, my orders came in organza bags. My full-size order came with two delicious pieces of candy. A nice little extra. The green tea candy was delish.

Shiro Cosmetics has a Mix n' Match offer where depending on how many you order, you'll get a tiered discount. Since I got at least 20 samples, they came out to abut 85 cents per color. Even less when you consider the two extra samples she threw in. :) Shipping was prompt and Caitlin was very friendly in all communication.

My sample of Majora's Mask to show just how much product is in a baggie.

My swatches are divided for the most part by color family. All swatch photos were taken without flash in natural indoor light. First up, we have the greens.

L to R: Acid, Bulbasaur, Rupee, Kokiri Forest, and Link

 I think these are some of my favorite greens that I've seen yet. Most of the ones I got were sheer and glittery which I like for colors that can be strong.

Acid is a bright chartreuse green. Something I wouldn't have bought at first but I am getting used to taking risks. I think this would be amazing blended in with a yellow such as Pikachu or even used in tandem with Bulbasaur. The color seemed a bit deeper in the center and lighter around the edges. That would probably be my only complaint is that the color itself didn't apply evenly.

Bulbasaur is very true to the color of its namesake like all of the colors named after Pokemon. I would probably describe this almost as a lettuce green. It also matches the organza bag my samples came in perfectly. This one is more sheer than Acid and this works to its advantage.

Rupee is a sheer yellow green, similar to Acid however the application is even lighter.

Kokiri Forest is a neutral olive-y green. I love this and this is being added to my arsenal for work. I might even line it with Link.

Link is a deep green to match its namesake's tunic. This will more than likely be just a liner color for me as it's a deep matte but that's not a bad thing at all. It's very smooth and perfect for wet application.

Overall, these are some great colors. Acid seems just a little chalky and the color seems deeper at the center of the application than at the edges but I may need to work with it and get used to it a little more.

L to R: Spiritomb, Rattata, Reverse Psychology, Majora's Mask

 Spiritomb is as ethereal as it's ghost Pokemon namesake. It reminds me of the cloud that makes up Spiritomb's body and only adds a little bit of color. Another great color for daily wear as it's not too overwhelming.

Rattata is a deep warm purple that also matches the fur of the cute yet common rat Pokemon that annoyed me endlessly in the original game with how common it was. This color is nowhere near as annoying though. It's purple enough that it won't just look like a bruise but still warm. I will probably experiment with this as a liner as well.


Reverse Psychology is from the Portal inspired Science collection. Very pale, almost pure silver and a great way to add that glitter.

Majora's Mask is vibrant but more on the cool spectrum of purple. It's more matte and it really reminds me of Geek Chic Cosmetic's What's Under the Helmet? I will probably do a comparison swatch soon but that was my first impression at least.

L to R: Squirtle, Gyarados, Emancipation Grid, A Neat Gun, Oshus, Veran

 I have to say that the vibrant blues definitely caught my eye and that's part of the reason why I have so many.

Squirtle evokes the look and feel of shimmering water. Matching the main coloration of my second favorite starter Pokemon.

Gyarados, well who knew that Magikarp would evolve into such awesomness? The same goes for this vibrant blue shadow. Although it will be relegated to use as a liner, I'm thinking it may need blending with Blue Box from A'dor Beauty Supplies to see how they look together.

Emancipation Grid is a sheer blue with tons of glitter. Usually this grid means you lose any items you had in the previous room, but I think of more positives with this color than negatives.

A Neat Gun is what I would call the perfect Portal blue. It's a light shimmery blue with orange glitter in it. That's the exact opposite of Thinking With Portals which I will be writing about in a moment. I am hoping to do a gijinka GLaDOS costume and this will be an integral part of my look.

Oshus is a deep blue with gold sparks in it. Fitting of the Ocean King from Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. It also makes me think of one of the spirits as well that has a blue tinge to it.

Veran is a deep navy blue. It reminds me of Solid Snake from Geek Chic but there are some very obvious differences. Solid Snake has a lot more glitter than Veran. This was one of the extra samples I got from Caitlin and it will be used as a liner.

L to R: Subrosia, Master Sword, Brock the Rock, Boomerang, Small Key, Vulpix

 I went for a lot of browns in the hopes that I could find at least one color that I could wear to work and silently show my geekdom. I definitely found at least three colors.

Subrosia is a deep reddish brown with red glitter. Not my first choice in colors but I've been pleasantly surprised and I think this would make a great rusty liner or accent color. This was another one of the extra samples I received with my order.

Master Sword is an amazing highlight color. The gold is very pale and it's something that blends really well with my skintone. It's added to my holy grail products for neutral eye shadows.

Brock the Rock  is another extra sample and I am so happy it was included. I think this would make a great alternative to Everything is Bears which has both gold and red glitter in it and may overwhelm some people.

Boomerang is more of an orange toned gold. A great metallic and not a shade of gold that you see very often.

Small Key is more of a typical shade of gold. Nothing really stood out to me for this.

Vulpix a deep copper which is one of my go to shades. I want to use this as a metallic liner.

L to R: Thinking With Portals, Charmander, Pikachu

 Thinking With Portals as I mentioned before is the opposite of A Neat Gun. This is an orange base with a blue shift. Both of the colors are nice and sheer and are perfect for any fan of Chell or even GLaDOS.

Charmander is slightly deeper and a little more matte orange. A great highlight color.

Pikachu is a yellow with red glitter. The thing I like about Shiro's eye shadows is that the glitter is so small, you can usually spot the different colors but it's not overwhelming by any means. I got this eye shadow to use as part of my gijinka Pichu cosplay.

L to R: Porygon, Mew, Clefairy

 Porygon surprised me. It's the deepest of all the pinks but still somewhat sheer. I have to be careful with this though or I could look sleepy.

Mew is exactly what I want in a pink. It's shimmery and sheer, and plenty of glitter.

Clefairy takes the sheerness one step futher. Suitable for both cheeks and eyes more than likely as it will add just a small amount of blush to the cheeks.

Articuno

Articuno was a color that I didn't have others from Shiro to really compare it to. It is a pure silver and I'll probably compare it to some other silvers side by side so I can get a better idea of what may or may not make it different. A great highlight color and very smooth.

Final Verdict:
Would I order this again? Absolutely. Both full size jars and samples are great deals. I am looking forward to trying some of her lippies as well. The price point is amazing especially if you take advantage of her Mix and Match sets like I did with the samples. She also generously packs both the jars and the baggies. My only tiny complaint is that in my full size jar of Pikachu the product was so packed in the jar that it wouldn't come through the sifter so I had to remove it and loosen the eye shadow and then put it back. A very solid showing.

Review: Bath and Body Works - Halloween PocketBacs and Lotion

Okay so as I mentioned in my earlier post, I thought I would start by reviewing some of the newer products in my haul. These are all part of the Halloween line of limited fragrances. Now this is not the complete set of PocketBacs, they brought back favorites from last year such as Vampire Blood (a plum fragrance and my fave from last year), Haunted House (which is a sour drop, grape fragrance), Gumball, and Chocolate Chew. I picked up 2 out of the 3 from the Scary bundle as well as the Sinful Vanilla mini-lotion and a Pumpkin Patch mini-candle.

First up is the Scary Cats PocketBac. Normally, I wouldn't go for such sweet scented anti-bacterial gel but I like this one. For me, the fragrance goes on strong but fades quickly. This is a good thing for me because just every so often to I get the hint of Black Cherry fragrance that this PocketBac boasts. I have a lot of good memory associations with this style of black cherry and to me, it smells like Dr. Brown's Black Cherry soda which is something I used to drink a lot of around Passover as it has no corn syrup. Would I buy this again? Probably around Halloween but it's not an everyday fragrance for me.

Next up, Skulls which is in the new "Forbidden Apple" fragrance. This is something that has a lot of depth despite being a pure apple fragrance. It's a red apple fragrance so it's definitely sweet but there's something to it that reminds me of the freshness of smelling a red apple before it's been bitten into. This fragrance is a bit stronger than Scary Cats but in my case, it's not a bad thing. It's more refreshing than sickeningly sweet.

Sinful is definitely the right descriptor for this vanilla lotion. The vanilla based fragrances tend to be my go-to sweet fragrance. It goes with almost any fragrance I may put on at another time in the say and usually blends pretty well. Sinful Vanilla is no exception. It has a rich, buttery vanilla fragrance that makes me melt and relax every time I smell it. I wish it were more than just a Halloween fragrance and I would love to see them work this into the regular Signature Collection, even if it means a name change.

First of all, I want to note that I've already used candles that have the Pumpkin Patch fragrance and it's one of the things I look forward to every Fall. With the release of the new mini-candles however, I don't feel like I'll get sick of one fragrance while the candle is only partially used. For folks who may not want the bat on their candle, it's a plastic wrapper around the white candle and it's easy to remove. Since it's Halloween, however, I decided to keep it on there. I really like the idea of the 1.5 oz. candles and will continue to try other fragrances in them.

Overall:

• Scary Cats - Something I would keep only for Halloween but not something I would use every day.
• Skulls - Amazing. One of my must buys and I would love to see this in the main candle collection.
• Sinful Vanilla - Another one of my go-to fragrances.
• Pumpkin Patch - A perennial Fall favorite and I love the new 1.5 oz candle size.

LotD: Crime Scene: Do Not Cross

As you can see, I have the most awesome Crime Scene tape hair clips that were made for me in an NCIS themed craft swap. Well, now that my hair is long enough to use them I thought I would do an entire Face of the Day.

For the Face:

• Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer SPF 20 - Porcelain

For the Eyes:

• Geek Chic Cosmetics - Continuum
• Geek Chic Cosmetics - Sleeping Bucket
• Wet n' Wild Eyeliner - Black
• Maybelline The Falsies Flared Mascara - Blackest Black

Eesh... I need to work on my lining skills. >.>

For the Cheeks:

• Geek Chic Cosmetics - Eyes of the Werewolf

For the Lips:

• Bath and Body Works Liplicious Gloss - If the Tiara Fits (Any clear sparkly gloss will do)

Overall a fun look to do and while I did use yellow and orange, it wsan't too over the top for me. Other than the fact I need to practice lining I think I'm good to go!

Review: Geek Chic Cosmetics - Assorted Full Sizes

Hey everyone!

So I finally decided to try out some more colors from Geek Chic Cosmetics and I thought I would share my thoughts and swatches with you. Although there is an extra swatch, I will be coming to that a little later as that's a Cosplay Foundation.

The set that I got the most from was Go Boldly which is their newest set inspired by Star Trek. Coming in 2nd if you include the sample baggie is N7 which is inspired by Mass Effect, and then I got a single eye shadow from the Mushroom Kingdom set which is inspired by Mario Bros. The little sample clamshell is Na'vi Navy, one of their cosplay foundations which I wanted to test out for a Mystique costume I have planned.

Unfortunately, my swatch photos didn't turn out as I liked so I promise there will be a new swatch post coming this week.

Up first is Naked Wedding. This color lends itself more to the lavender or pastel purples than many of the other Geek Chic purples. Despite this description, the color payoff is intense with very little build up. There is a good amount of glitter to it which photos really can't do justice at all. This is the purple with the most intense payoff and applies very smoothly. I have yet to see a purple quite like this in high end although there are plenty of similarly toned eye shadows with even more glitter but those have had next to no color to them.

Now we have What's Under the Helmet? from the N7 set. While I love this color, and it looks a lot more blue in the photo than it does in real life, when I went to use it in my crease, it just would not apply smoothly. I always ended up with one streak of intense color in the center and just hints where it's blended. Regardless, it will make an amazing eye liner so it's still worth it to buy to use for that.

Although not the brightest of the purples I got, this definitely has the most intense glitter pay off. I originally got this one for party nights and it lives up to that. It requires a little bit more build up but then the color stay and is intense. There is some fall out from the glitter but although I don't own it, I get the feeling like it's nothing that a little Pixie Epoxy or a similar product couldn't fix.

Ahhhh, Continuum. Never once did I ever expect myself to fall in love with such an amazing yellow. I purchased this to go with my Engineering uniform and it is amazing. The color pay off is great with very little build up necessary and that is even without a primer. I wouldn't suggest not using one as it makes it wear longer but I can't believe there's so much color in such a tiny amount.

Sleeping Bucket is one that is an interesting color for me but it doesn't have the intense pay off that I had hoped and seen in photos. I used it on my eyes over Laura Mercier Eye Basics in Cotton but it still didn't get as solid as I had hoped. This kind of reminds me of Cheetos but with a subtle glitter to it. Still something I will use just not quite what I expected.

As far as packaging is concerned, I was happy to see all of my products in a purple organza drawstring pouch. I don't know if that was on purpose since 3/5 of my eye shadows were purple (Chantel and Deb are cunning like that) or if it was what they had on hand. All of the full size jars were securely shrink wrapped although some of them when opened had some extra fall out around the rim. It got all over my fingers but I'm not sure if that can always be helped.

Would I buy these colors again? As a whole, absolutely. Even the colors that I was surprised with, I could still find an amazing use for and that says something. I love when products are versatile and I love the geeky theme of the inspirations (as if by the theme of this blog that weren't obvious enough). What's Under the Helmet makes a great eye liner if not a shadow and Sleeping Bucket is subtle but sparkly.

Review: New Seasonal Anti-Bacterial Hand Gel

Hey everyone!

I know I kind of shied away from beauty the past couple of weeks so when I went to redeem my coupon for a free Anti-Bac Hand Gel from Bath and Body Works, and these were there, I knew I had to get some and write a review for you!

Serously, how could I pass these up? The two that I wasn't able to get were Friend Me? which has a Pina Colada fragrance and Seriously??? which is a Starfruit fragrance. Just as an FYI, I am a glutton for Bath an Body Works anti-bac hand gel. I've usually been able to find something that is great to carry around at conventions and also has a fragrance I love.  The theme is only one part of the reason why I hurried to add these to my collection though.

Whaam! has a Fruit Punch fragrance to it which makes total sense for this theme. Some people may think fruit punch to be a little too sweet and this is something that lingers on hands for quite a while. I like the balance between fruity and sweet that this achieves.

I <3 Geeks is probably the one fragrance I can suggest to just about anyone and everyone. It's a plain vanilla fragrance. To me, it doesn't smell too much like cake or cookies. It just smells like fresh vanilla. Vanilla tends to be my go to fragrance because it goes with just about anything. I use a lot of other previous vanilla fragrances from Bath and Body Works as well such as Lemon Vanilla which is from 2010's Summer Vanillas collection and also Yuletide Pear Vanilla which I got in 2009. So of course, a plain vanilla fragrance mixes well with these. I also use Brown Sugar Vanilla which is currently available in the Bath and Body Works Signature Collection.

One of my favorites of the sweeter flavors I tried, Pow is yet another fragrance that fits the sound effect used on the label. Even without it being coined "Smash" Berry, the mixed berry has a punch of sour to it. It smells like natural raspberry that has a hint of tartness to it. It also reminds me of the mixed berry they came out with for the Royal Wedding collection in honor of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Not a bad thing, mind you, since that collection was so limited and you have a bit more time to get your hands on this one.

One of my main gripes about the PocketBac line in general is the cost. At full price, one bottle costs $1.50. The thing is, though, that they are always giving out coupons for free PocketBacs (no purchase necessary I might add) as well as having a 5 for $5 sale going on almost constantly. The latter at least knocks the price down to about $1 per bottle. Still expensive but here's another reason why I use these. They have Tahitian Palm Milk which helps condition hands. No matter how constantly I've been using it, I haven't had the same drying issues as regular drugstore brand anti-bacterial gel. So that's always something to think about when using this. Also, with as much as I travel to various conventions, it is always always always something I pack because I'm around so many strangers and doing so much networking.

All in all, I fell in love with the packaging and it had me right on sight. It is my hope to be able to review the last two fragrances in the Comic Book line soon so that you can decide for yourself which you like. As I said before, I love the PocketBacs in general and I don't have drying issues like I do with other brands so I'm not totally against spending the extra money even for such a small bottle. On top of it all, they are always coming out with new fragrances that you should be able to find something you like.

Bottom Line? 5/5