A Present to Myself- Stereophonic Lemming

Zero......Crash......Underground......Gunmetal......Midnight Cowboy Glitter ...I totally caved. I went to Ulta and got the Stereophonic 24/7 Set earlier today. I justify this in two ways- 1 way is that I am almost out of Zero and I normally pay $11 from Ebay to get the mini one and the 2nd way is that I haven't smoked in SIX days!!! $6 per pack x 6 days = $36 saved!

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These swatches are in the dark so they aren't that great. Each color is put on and then a strip of Midnight Cowboy Heavy Metal Liquid Eyeliner on top.

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Crash was the Exclusive shade in this kit. It's very pretty, a dark, dark burgandy plum with a slightly brown tone to it. There is supposed to be gold shimmer, but I don't see it.

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And Underground? Where the hell have you been all my life? A perfect taupe-y glimmery liner! It's not quite as "gold" as it looks in the pics.

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Well that lemming didn't last too long! I also got Sally Hansen Carmindy Pressed Powder too (for free! Yay Ulta Club!) and I will review it in a couple days! Have a great Labor Day!!

Droolworthy: New UD 24/7 Kits

I've been waiting for new 24/7 kits forever, it seems! I like the travel size liners the best...because really...who needs a full size bright blue eyeliner? (I thought I did...I use it maybe once a month, if I'm lucky!).
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These are available at Ulta and at Urban Decay's website. I'm a bit salty since I thought that the 20% Ulta code would work on it (28671) but it doesn't. Boo!
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The Stereophonic set looks amazing- Zero, black - Underground, metallic taupe - Gunmetal, gunmetal with teeny tiny silver glitter - Exclusive Crash shade, deep plum - Midnight Cowboy, beige glitter -
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The Hi Fi set - Zero, black - Flipside, bright teal - 1999, plum with teeny gold glitter - Exclusive Mildew shade, deep green - Distortion, iridescent glitter -
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The kits are $29, which is roughly $6 each! These sell for $8 a piece on Ebay + shipping!
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There is also a new 24/7 Kit available at Urbdan Decay that has 9 travel liners for only $36 with 4 new shades! But since I don't care to pay for shipping, I probably won't be getting that!
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Will you be getting one of these sets? Have you ever finished a 24/7 liner?

Aromaleigh Elemental Lustres Swatches & EotD

Color Descriptions-
-Swank: A mysterious lustrous pool of navy blue complexity with shimmers of deep pewter, cobalt and burgundy
-Entangle: A perfectly smooth silvery cinnamon pearlescent cocoa shade with a hint of pink
-Torrid: Flashy garnet burgundy brown with gold sparks
-Fume: You wanted a true silver, with no gray and no black? This is truly your silvery silver!
-Torment: Deep, vivid burgundy with smoke undertones. This color in person can only be described as wicked
-Underworld: Deep purplish indigo with specks of blue and deep burgundy. Complex and moody
-Abyss: Deep bluish teal with green and blue sparks
-Ardent: Golden mocha shade with gold shimmer
-Wonder: Intensely rich silver-based heathered ruby. So equisite!
-Spark: Sweetly shimmering honeyed mocha
-Pyro: Smooth and shimmering cardamom/cinnamom shade
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Most of the colors are a teeny tiny bit darker in real life. Fume is insane though! A must have for any makeup junkie! Right now, the Elemental Lustres are 25% off on weekly sale and you can use the code "virgo20" to get an extra 20%!!
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Next week I'll do the rest of the swatches. For now though, look at how shiny and yummy these are! They actually have REAL bits of copper, bronze and aluminum...of course, its all FDA approved and the particles cannot be . These can't be used on lips though (even though I want to smear Torment on!) so don't even think about it!

Yesterday I posted my Underworld look so I thought today would be good to show off another Elemental Lustre! I dyed my hair again too and Torment kind of almost matches it. The thing that sucks about Manic Panic is that you can go 3 weeks MAX before another dye job. I'm really anal about fading color, so I think this is only a couple weeks. Simple one here (of course...you guys probably think I'm lazy!). I used Entangle (which is luscious, btw) all over lid and inner vee. Then I wetlined Torment as a liner but it turned out lighter than I wanted so I also brushed on some of it dry. It looked more red in real life, more like in the picture below. Sorry about the crappy closed-eye shot...They all came out like crap. Do any of you have Labor Day plans? I have some family in town from England, but there's been some weird secretive shit going on lately with my extended family. It's like all the "adults" in my family are in high school and the kids (me and my two older brothers) are the old people! This weekend will be...awkward, to say the least. Thank GOD Katie (my brother's fiance) is coming! My poor husband doesn't even want to go. He's sick of all the drama. My dad (who is divorced from that side of the family) used to be like that too...He never wanted to go to holidays and stuff. It's getting frustrating, all this bs happening! I just want to stay home but I haven't seen anyone in my family (except my mom) since Christmas. Well...the least I can hope for are some belated birthday presents!! :P Oh Lisa Kate, you can always put a positive, greedy spin on everything!

EotD Underworld

What I used:
-Aromaleigh Elemental Lustre in Underworld- deep purplish indigo with specks of blue and deep burgandy (the pic up there is rubbish...I should have swatches up by tomorrow or Saturday at the latest!)
-Aromaleigh Pure Eyes Frost in Longing- a pale, cool mauve/pink toned grey/silver frost
-Aromaleigh Pure Hue in Fairy Green (duh, forgot to put green and I don't feel like fixing it!)- a white shimmer with glimmering iridescent sparkles of pale green
-NYX lipstick in Creamy Beige- a medium brown (not as "nude" as I thought it would be...definately NOT nude on me at all)
-Fyrinnae lip lustre in Lickable- soft, shimmery beige peach (I find it a wee bit rose colored)

Yes! Winking cupcake with bow makes an appearance in this photo! He needs a name...
I'm so in love with Longing...ever since I posted it about it here, I've been lemming it. Like a good bloggette, I waited until it was on sale to get it! It's so pretty!

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Eh so this look isn't all that exciting! Underworld is beautiful in person, totally worth the $1 to try it out. I used it dry as a liner on top and bottom. Longing is on my lid and Fairy Green as a highlight! Another fast one...I've been lazy lately I guess!
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I got NYX Creamy Beige in a swap awhile ago...It's not the color I thought it would be. It's a bit too pigmented and dark to be a nude on me. I don't give it nearly enough love, so I threw a tiny bit of Lickable on top. Weird combo though...A very icy cool eye with a super warm lip? Not sure why that one happened!
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Its now been 2 1/2 days since I've smoked!! It's getting easier, sort of. This is really f-ing hard. My husband keeps saying he's "gay" for smoking and it makes me laugh. I need to get all healthy so we can have a nice, healthy baby though (one day!). Plus saving $6 a day REALLY helps feed my makeup addiction. I mean, really, it's one or the other! (It's like one Aromaleigh eyeshadow a day...oooh so sparkly!)
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How was your day, bloggettes? Do you have any lemmings? Do we still call it lemmings anymore or is that "uncool" like "haul" now? I'm totally not on top of things :P
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Oh yeah! Help me solve a "tiff" (re: HUGE PILLOW THROWING FIGHT) with my husband! What color do you think my eyes are? Blue, green or grey?

Aqua Gold Eotd & Smoking Update & Tool Academy!

Sorry there was no post yesterday...I'm having a bit of trouble with my smoke-less lifestyle, as in, I want to punch everything. Plus my car broke down yesterday and that, again, added to the stress and the "wanting to punch anything that is in front of me". BUT! I'm over the 24 hour hump now! I'm really proud and feel great about it. I haven't smoked since yesterday at 8am! Since the Nicorette is making me nauseous (supposed sign of nicotine overdose?) I'm trying to go without it. Right now I'm monching on suckers and trying to keep my hands busy! Oh and wearing lipstick even though I can't even leave the house. I actually swatched TWO collections for you already- Aromaleigh Elemental Lustres and TSS Utterly Fabulous Fall! What I used:
-Sleek Pallette in Original (i wuv it so moshe!) in the black and gold colors
-Barry M Dazzle Dust in Aqua Gold
-CG lipslicks in Bronze Goddess (I always forget how much I love these lipslicks!)

Of course I have semi wet hair again! I hate blow drying in the summer, plus my hair HATES heat!

This was a quick look again. Just used Aqua Gold on lid and inner vee. Black on the outer vee and a little underneath and then the Gold up to the crease mixed in with the aqua a teeny bit! Took all of 5 seconds.

If you live in the UK, you are sooo lucky! I love Barry M...Mama wants more!

Oooh plus did anyone watch Tool Academy? My husband and I love that show...(Mike don't tell him I put that on the internet!!)...Those guys are hilarious. I couldn't believe the one guy who left kept telling his girlfriend to "tell the camera you love me!"!! What a d bag! I love stuff like that...It really makes me appreciate my husband even more!

You girls probably noticed that I don't really post giveaways on here, right? It's mostly because I think that its boring to go look at someones blog and every other post is about someones giveaway...(please don't yell at me, I just think it is!). BUT I couldn't resist this one! Dana from My Simple Randomness and D&T Charms is giving away all the cute, kawaii things you see above! Check out her contest, yo!

QotD...Chicago & Smoking Update

Woot! So this one's not a beauty related post either. I'm going to be going to Chicago for the first time in October! I'm really excited...I never go ANYWHERE, this is sort of a big deal for me! My friend is there at school and since this is her last year, I really wanted to check it out. I'm taking the Megabus for $16 roundtrip and staying with her, so its really inexpensive.

Have you ever been to Chicago? Any places I should check out while I'm there?

I "officially" quit smoking yesterday. It, uh, didn't go well. I was just so mad...like there was this angry little gnome in me! I ended up buying a pack. Ugh. So angry at myself! Then today I bought a bunch of candy and Nicorette gum. The gum tastes AWFUL, like seriously bad. It also makes me want to throw up...but I paid $50 so I guess I'll use it anyways. My husband just quit smoking a few months ago. He had really bad pneumonia and was hospitalized. So his first few days were fine, he literally couldn't smoke. He couldn't leave the bed AND they gave him the patch right away. Knowing this, one would think he would be ultra supportive but he's totally not. He doesn't want to get yelled at (which I understand) so he wants me to keep smoking. I wish this was easier. I hope tomorrow will be better since I have the gum and candy. Boo, I wish I never started smoking in the first place!! I can't wait to be done with it though...an extra $150 a month, being able to breath, being able to TASTE and SMELL!! Yay!! I'm going to keep updating on here cause then I can track my progress. :o)

Etsy Crack: Mixology Review, Swatches and Looks

Mixology Makeup is available from Etsy. It has a pretty large cult following so I've been excited to check them out. 5% of sales go to Blood:Water mission and other sales go to help support the owner is who doing volunteer work in China!

Their color collection is fairly large and probably best for warmer skin tones or those who like a more sheer color spectrum to choose from. You can get 1 "pod" sample for $1.25 or 10 for $10. You do get a nice amount of product in them, definitely worth the price.

Probably the thing I liked least about Mixology is the color difference from the pictures on the site and once I got them. I understand that pictures look different on different monitors, but the descriptions are not much help. Now, don't get me wrong, the colors are very beautiful but I suggest buying samples before full sizes. See below for what I mean about the colors being different. The middle pictures are mine, the sides are from the website.

Color Descriptions and my thoughts:

- Pirate: dark matte purple

-My thoughts: definately NOT matte and more of a medium color, even when foiled. In fact, it was so light that I ended up needing to foil it to use as a liner below

-Chai: Mocha Beige color, light and easy to layer to deepen shade. Slightly lighter and a bit more purple hue than Fray

-My thoughts: This color was the standout, in my opinion. A very pretty shimmery beige color. I do not see any purple in it.

-Moss: khaki green liner with hints of gold

-My thoughts: Pretty and wearable, more brown than green

-Mermaid: blue/green

-My thoughts: a pale green color with fairly heavy shimmer, need to layer it on to get a bold line

-Conundrum: deep brown rust with a emerald green afterglow

-My thoughts: Like always, the color I'm most excited about is the one I'm disappointed in. Very VERY red/orange! It is not very dark, even wetlined. It's still nice but I'm not one for warm colors. The green is very subtle...you can sort of see it on.

-By Chance: matte mushroom color

-My thoughts: Again, this is not matte. Greyish lavender shade that is good for crease, but not highlighting.
I did a few looks using Mixology over the weekend. The first is with By Chance (dry on lid) and Pirate (wetlined as liner). The second is Mermaid on lid, Chai on crease and Conundrum as liner. Sorry for the crappy pics! It's been raining a lot here!

All of the colors lasted pretty long, especially when foiled.

EDIT: I forgot to add that shipping was SUPER fast!! Like it was shipped the day after I ordered it! Always a big plus in my book!

Have you tried Mixology? Do you like them?

100 Followers Contest!! Spread Hope!!

Heather from The She Space announced Hope Quest in May after she found out that one of her customers took her own life. Hope Quest is a way to spread a little love and to show people that you care about them and also to spread some awareness of depression. Having been diagnosed with major depression when I was 14, this "campaign" really spoke to me. I had just quit my job of 3 years when this came out and was quickly thrown into a depressive "funk". I do take medicine but life is hard and medicine doesn't take care of everything. I emailed Heather, telling her that it meant a lot to me that she started Hope Quest and that even though I wasn't able to purchase it, I still wanted her to know that her customers and everyone involved appreciated it. She ended up sending me the first quad as a present! It was so kind and sweet in a time where I was feeling decidedly not-so-happy. I ended up purchasing the second quad myself and each time I look at them I feel a little tingle of happiness- there are still good people out there who really care about others!

Here is a little bit of info direct from the website to help you understand:

"Certainly depression is something to be taken very seriously, and there
are places we can call like local hospitals, various hotlines and support groups
that can offer professional help and assistance when it just becomes too much to
carry on our own shoulders. But what I am talking about here is just
reaching out and taking a moment to remind the person across the table from
you….or in the next cubicle, or at your daughter’s school, or whoever….that she
truly matters….that tomorrow will be better…that as long as we are breathing,
THERE NEEDS TO BE HOPE! For some of us the belief that tomorrow will be
better is a myth that only applies to everybody else. For many,
the idea that people really do care is always just outside of our
grasp. Maybe even you, the wonderful client reading this, don’t
know how special you are. My goal is change that…and with your help I
believe that I can!"

"Each color name is very intentionally created to serve as a reminder in
some way so that every time we read it, and apply the color we are quietly
layering on a little positive energy and light. Each time we look
in mirror my hope is that one little eye color can serve as an uplifting little
tap on the shoulder. I realize that eye shadow in and of itself
offers no magical quick fix, but sometimes symbolism can lead to substance,
right? How many of us carry good luck charms or little tokens of something
to act as symbolic little reminders for us? Well, this is our chance to
turn one little eye color into something very special!"

"For every quad that you purchase I am going to send you two free
full size pigments in the shade of Hope No Matter What (or The Mirror
Loves Me with quad 2) and they will each come with a little card that
includes a tiny message of hope. My wish and prayer is that you will pick
two people and pass these cards and pigments on to them with the goal
being the idea of spreading a little hope!!! So, just to be
clear….for every quad you purchase, you receive two free pigments that you have
the ability to share with somebody who could use a colorful little
hug. "

So! One lucky girl will win her choice of EITHER Hope Quest Quad! It comes with 4 pigments for you and 2 to pass onto anyone you want! Check out the website for color descriptions!

Here's the rules:

1. Must be a follower, of course!
2. Can be from anywhere, international is okay!
3. This is what I want you to do- Either make a blog post OR send me an email (lsliter@live.com) with a picture of you feeling fabulous and happy! Easy as pie! It can be ANY picture from anytime doing whatever! Then write who you would give the 2 extra colors to! (Mine were my brother's fiance, my best friend, and 2 girls from work)
4. Drop me a comment if you post on your blog! If you email, I will put your name on the list myself!
5. For every entry (up to three per person) I will put your name on a list, then at the end I will put em in a hat and draw the old fashioned way!
6. Must be at least 5 people for me to do this!
7. Closes September 9th
8. You must be okay with me reposting the picture on this blog

Here's a couple examples of what I'm talking about:

Me & Rob at our wedding- It's about 11pm here and we are both exhausted and excited at the same time! My wedding didn't cost very much and was absolutely not traditional, but it was so "us" and so fun anyways! I felt so beautiful that day!

This is a random picture a few weeks ago. My husband and I were meeting his sister and her husband for dinner. It was just a lazy fun night but I felt really pretty with my giant flower!Hmm....This is from last year sometime. Orange hairs, bangs, Gus! It's not really a special occasion or anything, just me and Gus hanging out! I love it though, he has the cutest face!

I'm hoping to spread a little hope and happiness here! Please feel free to repost on your blog or anything! I wanted this to be super easy so I could have a lot of people enter and hopefully (pun SO intended) get people talking about Hope Quest again! This is really important to me, so THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I've met so many amazing people here, I love it!