***Birthday Haul***

Hey Loves!



How are you all doing? I hope you're doing well and enjoying Summer so far!

I wanna let you in on a little secret; I turned 24 years old on the 25th and damn do I feel old! LOL. In this post I wanted to share with you some gifts/things/treats that I picked up because of my special day. Normally, I don't do make birthdays a big deal for myself personally, but I figure why not start celebrating my life more. I am not getting any younger, nor I am super old. Each year, I try to set a goal that I would like to accomplish during this point/age in my life. This year, I figure I treat myself more like a queen and appreciate myself more. I have insecurities like any other female living during these times where size 0, selfie filters, the newest diet fad, etc., etc, etc., is in. Wait, that's been going on for a while now. Never mind.

As I was saying, I would like to love myself more, which to me means that I take care of myself more. I will do things that truly make me happy, I will eat better, exercise, and do things that relieve my stress. It will take some time for me to get into the habit of loving myself more, but I know that I will get there.

Alright, let's get back to the reason for this post. Gosh, I go off on so many tangents. Luckily, they're at least related. Well, at least to me they are.

Anyhow, I had the privilege of going to Bath & Body Works, Forever 21, MAC, and Sephora, and getting my nails done. I didn't go all in one day and by no means am I trying to brag, show off, or flaunt that I got these items. Most of these were gifts from my family and friends and then I purchased the rest. If you don't like these kinds of posts, please feel free to take a look at my other posts that I have here on my blog.

You good? Alright, let's get into it!

Bath & Body Works Semi-Annual Sale

I got these candles during their semi-annual sale for $11 each which is essentially the 2 for $22 deal they have. I re-stocked on the Cherry Blossom Sangria scent. It is by hands down, my FAVORITE scent for BBW besides Pomegranate Lemonade (it came out a few years ago and has never returned *sad face.) It is a light sweet floral scent with a hint of citrus from the sangria. It is such an amazing scent and I love that it isn't too over powering. Most scents I tend to gravitate towards are more on the sweet, citrus sides. I guess I also tend to like that combo mixed with cherry blossom (I love, love spell from VS which has cherry blossom in it as well.) I'll post some of my favorite scents from BBW in the future if you all are interested. Let me know in the comments below if you would be.

Forever 21 Jewelry

I picked up some jewelry, which is rare for me to do since I stick to my everyday pieces such as my hawaiian bracelets and rings that match them. I decided to pick these up to try something new and also I thought they would be very versatile with clothing I already have. I wore the gold tree branch neckalace for my birthday dinner. I'll be doing a mini post breaking down my MOTN and OOTN soon.

Forever 21 Clothes & Jewelry

I also picked up a couple of clothing pieces from Forever 21. I wore the blue dress on my birthday, which actually has some cut outs in the back with a steel colored zipper. It's goes above the knee and compliments my body type. It helped to give me some curves and look slimmer. The cardigan I picked up is soo out of my color range and is soo comfy! It's soft to the touch and even the male cashier was in love with it. He said he wanted to buy it for his girlfriend so he could touch it all the time. LOL. It's going to be perfect for work and I love that it has a hoodie. The hoodie will def come in handy when I get too cold in meeting or annoyed. Either way, I'm using it. The flats are just adorable and I've never owned a pair of camel/brown colored flats before. It'll go soo well with my more lighter colored work clothes.

MAC & Sephora combined

Now to the part you've all been waiting for! I will have these items listed in alphabetical order which may not align with it show in the picture.

• Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in Dark Brown
• Benefit They're Real Push-Up Liner in Black *mini*
• Beauty Blender in Black 
• Bite Neutral Luminous Creme Lipstick Duo in Date & Fig
• Bite Vivid Luminous Creme Lipstick Duo in Lingonberry & Tangerine
• Kat Von D Lock-It Tattoo Fundation in Light 48
• Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella (deep red) & Satin Lip Pencil in Rikugien (dusty rose) *Sephora Beauty Insider Birthday Gift* 
• MAC Amplified Lipstick in Blankety
• MAC Dazzleglass in Sugarrimmed (Le Disko Collection)
• MAC Lip Conditioner
• MAC Paint Pot in Painterly (might return for soft ocre)
• Mac Pro Longwear Lipglass in Infinitely Likeable 

Now that I have posted up this haul, I can open these babies up and use them! I cannot wait! I have had my eyes on most of these for quite some time now. I am lucky to have had people buy or give me money to buy these precious new babies of mine. I am beyond blessed to be here on the Earth for a 24th year of life. I have learned and experienced soo much in my 23rd year of life, well, my whole life in general. I can't wait to see what is in store for me this year. I hope to continue growing and learning what I need to as well as live life to the fullest. 

Having said that, I will now end this post and wait patiently for the time where I can use all of these wonderful gifts. 

Before I go, do you all think my posts are too long or what? I would appreciate the feedback in the comments below as I am fully getting into this blog now. 

I'll see you all in the next post. Take care!

Xoxo,

Crystal 

My Current MAC Lipstick Collection & Swatches with BONUS swatches!!!

Hey Loves,


Welcome back to my blog. I've been looking at my bathroom counter lately and trying to figure out if I can fit a lipstick holder due to my MAC lipstick collection growing which gave me this idea for this post. I figure since my collection is growing, I should show you my current collection with swatches!

My collection will guarantee continue to grow due to the fact that I am obsessed and in love with MAC lip products. I have a list of colors I would like to purchase soon. It's one of my addictions... I currently have 13 lipsticks. I have been growing my collection since 2011. I still have that lipstick and I still use it. What? It still smells like cupcakes so I believe its good.... Also, I have found out how you can tell when the lipsticks were made. I will post about it soon!

As you can see from the pictures below, I have basically stuck with the "normal" shades and have some bright or bold colors too. I tend to stick to more nude colors due to the work that I do. I wish I could wear bright and bold lip colors to work, but I actually like wearing them at home when I do my full makeup looks or just playing. I've been doing it since my first lipstick purchase. I'll also be doing a post on that as well so be on the look out. 

My current & growing collection :)

Here are the swatches on my arm. I am light/fair skinned with a yellow undertone. I have the colors going from lightest to darkest #nofilter. 

Swatches in direct sunlight

Slightly more close up of the colors in direct sunlight

Colors in the shade/not direct sunlight 

I personally feel that the colors in general look better and are more true when they are in the shade. Don't get me wrong, I love what they look like in direct sunlight, but it's true form that I am used to is in the shade or indoors. Also, that's how I swatched them before I bought them. (duhhh, crystal!) 

B O N U S ! ! !

Before we get started with this bonus round, I just wanted to say that I took all of these lip swatches on the same day during the prime time for natural lighting with no lip liner. It was SUPER hot and my lips were burning soo bad from the combo of swatches and the direct sunlight on them. Ahhh, the things I do for this blog... LOL! It was all worth it though! 

Again, I am light/fair skinned with a yellow undertone so these are what the colors look like on me. Also, please don't mind the way my skin looks. I was testing a foundation stick and you can already see what it does/doesn't do. Review will be up sometime in the near future. #nofilter!

Anyways, let's get to it shall we? 

*The names of the lipstick will be listed under the photo as well as the finish.* 

Cremecup (cremesheen)

Cherish (satin)

Viva Glam V (lusture)

Viva Glam II (satin)

Mehr (matte)

Velvet Teddy (matte)

Whirl (matte)

Candy Yum Yum (matte)

Heroine (matte)

True Love's Kiss (Maleficent Collection LE)

Ruby Woo (retro matte)

Stone (matte)

Cyber (satin)

D O U B L E  B O N U S ! ! ! 

1 mineralize lipglass & 1 pro longwear lipglass!!!

Lovingly Yours (mineralize glass)

Anthurium (Pro Longwear Lipglass Maleficent Collection LE) 

So did you all enjoy these swatches or what?! I sure did! I can't wait to see what my collection will look like by the end of the year! I was thinking that I could do one more by the end of the year because as I mentioned earlier, these are vice for my addiction. You can find all of these lip products on MAC's website with the exception of the limited edition Maleficent lippies. Sorry! 

Before we end, just a funny little story: while I was doing my swatches, I had all of the caps on top of my iPad out of the sunlight and during this I was using my mirror to put on the swatches. Well, remember the part in Toy Story when Sid uses the magnifying glass to burn Woody's forehead? Well I accidentally did that to my FIRST MAC lipstick, which is my Viva Glam II! I was swatching a lipstick and thought I smelled someone smoking a cigarette. Then I noticed that there was smoke and I looked to find that the cap was melting from my mirror on top of my iPad. Luckily, I caught it on time before I could make any damage to my iPad, but it was too late for my cap.

Childhood memories turned to accidental harm to my prized possession

I started to laugh shortly after because the Toy Story scene came to my mind when this happened, but I am honestly pretty bummed out that I burned it since it was my first ever MAC lipstick as well as a name brand/high end product that I ever bought, but I was able to save it. I consider this to be one of my prized possessions. It reminds me how far I have come on this makeup collection, addiction, and/or hoarding journey.

Here's a pic of what it looks like now. It still manages to close all the way, but I wanted to show you what the damage was.

I made a boo boo :( 

Maybe for this case, I need to utilize my educational and work tool called "strengths based." You basically take a negative characteristic or behavior and turn it into a positive. For example, we have a youth that is selling drugs, we say "they are good with money or they're an entrepreneur." So with that, I will have to say "this lipstick has character and is uniquely different from the rest." *I'll just keep telling myself that to make me feel better. LOL!*

I love having these mini fails or fun, quirky moments that happen because it keeps life fun and interesting. Also, it reminds me that I am doing this as a hobby, self-care, and sharing my interests with whomever is willing to take the time to read/follow me or my blog. 

Thanks for sticking this out with me and I hope you enjoyed it. Also, I hope you saw some colors that you were interested in and maybe this will help you to decide what to purchase next from MAC.

Me & SID!  

I hope you all are doing well and I am extremely excited to see how far this blog is going to get. I will now leave you will a semi-awkward photo of me and my new weapon "Sid" with aftermath of the swatches. 

Take care and see you next time!

XOXO,

Crystal

Cut Crease FAIL

Hey Loves,

Long time no talk to! I have been busy with finishing up my last months of education, graduating with my Master's, and moving up to full-time at work. With all that being said, I have said time and time again that I would like to be more consistent with my blog. As a part of self-care, a term that most helping professionals use, I will use this as a positive outlet or way of taking myself out from the daily bustle of my work.

I will eventually do a Q&A type of blog where you can get to know me more on a personal level. Stay tuned for that. If that is something you all want anyways. Let me know in the comment section down below and shoot me some questions on Twitter. Information is listed to your right.

Okay now on to the reason for this post...

Soo I literally just got done with attempting a cut crease look and geez, it is not as easy as I thought it would be. I have to say that I understand that I have a very crappy eye shape, in terms of not being able to achieve many looks as most MUA's or YouTubers due to having more lid space, but can a girl catch a break? I had to wipe my eyes more than several times and my eyes are now dry, irritated, and I am afraid they will be swollen by tomorrow. UGH. I had that happen during the day of my graduation. It was TERRIBLE. I am thankful that it doesn't show in most of my pics, but it was like that for a couple days after.

Anyways, I was trying to follow a couple of videos that I watched and one YouTuber, Marla Nyamdorj's video where she angles her cut crease due to her eye shape. I was thinking it seemed sort of complicated, but I could recreate it if I tried hard enough. Definitely NOT the case. I attempted it and FAILED. I must have angled it at least four times and it just wasn't working. I figured maybe I had enough of a crease to do it the "normal" way. The video itself, is super helpful and I really like how she angled it versus doing it the "normal" way. Probably if I practice more and get more comfortable with cut crease in general, I'll be able to do it.

Then I watched J LINHH's video which seemed really easy to recreate. I figured with this that the most important part was the blend and make sure I still have a defined line. THAT was NOT the case. The look appears to be simple, but elegant. I love the look and thought it would be perfect for me. I ended up following her video and getting it after three tries, but alas at the end, it was a FAIL.

I had the look all completed with a full face done and all. I tried to take pictures of the look, but it ended up looking terrible on camera. I didn't even save any of them. I thought about creating this post after the fact. FAIL. Just a night of FAIL's. LOL.

I guess you can say that I am pretty mad that at my first attempt at cut crease, I was defeated and I feel like I am not capable in understanding my eye shape. I am not a professional MUA nor do I claim to be, but I am pretty confident in my skills and abilities as someone who is self-taught. I mean, I have been watching YouTube Beauty Guru's for at least 2 years now and have been able to pick up on various tips, tricks, etc, You would think that I would know my eye shape by now and how to best compliment it. I guess I need to study it more and search for more videos, blogs, articles, etc on those with hooded eyes or eyes that require more of a different approach in application.

I feel that overall, I have grown as a hobby makeup lover and have looked back at my Instagram posts from last year which have solidified my belief in my growth. TRUST. Look back at my old posts. Even my recent posts are better than some from a couple months ago. LOL. Okay, now I am feeling better cuz I had to revisit the journey I have been through and how I will continue to grow because that is what we do people. We go on multiple journeys and we grow from them.

Sorry that this has turned more into a rant than anything, but I felt the need to let you know because I am sure I have or will have people that follow my blog with monolids or hooded eyes who will share the same struggles as I do. Also, it is MY BLOG and I haven't been on here in a while.

Alright ladies and gentlemen, I will now end this post and go to bed... which means letting Bob's Burger play on Netflix while I'm on Tumblr. Hehe. If there is anything you would like to see on here, please let me know in the comments below or hit me up on any one of my social media platforms. I hope you are all doing well and are enjoying your summer so far. Can't wait to hear from you soon.


Take care!



XOXO,


Crystal