Long Time No Post

So very much has happened since I posted three years ago! Geez, how time flies! I'm still freelancing.  I won't write a super long drawn out post on everything because Lord knows there has been some serious things that happened especially in 2013...omg!! The most important thing that has happened is I've had a baby y'all! My husband and I have been together almost 15 years this year and this is our first child. We had our baby girl Elle on January 23, 2015. She was born via c-section and weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce and was 20 inches long. We are absolutely in love! Needless to say, she is keeping us plenty busy and I have put all makeup on hold to take care of her and get into the swing of the things.

I have been thinking about starting my blog back up, but don't even know where to begin. I know that it is pretty time consuming and with a new baby it will be even more challenging, but I miss it. I don't want it to be a chore and want it to be something I look forward to and want to do. So I will probably start off really slow and build as I get more time. I haven't been wearing lots of makeup, but have plenty of things I can swatch and review. How have you guys been? What new products are you all in love with or found out didn't work for you?

Here's some pictures from our maternity shoot this past December taken by Claire McAdams Photography:

Here's Elle: 

See you all soon! :)

~Devin

Crease/Blending Brushes Part 3 & 4

Finally onto the conclusion of my crease and blending brushes. These brushes are my multi-use brushes. Sometimes we can get stuck on the description of a brush and use it for only that purpose. I have found that some of my brushes are created for one use, but work best as something completely different. You definitely need to experiment, because you never know what may work best. Please check out my first post to read more information on brush hairs, uses, etc. here.

Mac Electric Cool Eye Shadows

It's been a while since I've bought products from Mac, but these eye shadows really intrigued me! I love the sponge-like texture and the color pay-off is phenomenal! I plan to use them as a base. Some of them I would wear alone, but I'm sure I would definitely need a base to prevent them from creasing. The site describes them as:

A soft, lightweight, springy formula delivers hue-rich colour in a modern mode. 

Crease/Blending Brushes Part 2

So continuing on with my comparisons. Today I will be discussing what I like to use as detail brushes for my crease because they are so small. I use them when I want to carve out my crease and create a really defined shape. Please refer to this post for more detail on crease brushes and brush hairs.

Crease/Blending Brush Comparisons Part 1

I decided that with the one million and one brushes that I have I needed to do a comparison post. Since I love a great blended eye I will start with blending and crease brushes. Blending/crease brushes are an essential part of an eye look.

Unless you are intentionally creating a harsh or carved crease then you absolutely need blending/crease brushes to diffuse and blend colors smoothly and evenly from one to the next. I typically blend the colors where they meet. These brushes are also excellent when you have heavily pigmented colors that you want to have lightly applied to the brow, crease, or mobile lid. They are also great for a light wash of color over the eye.

Inglot Rainbow Eye Shadows

When Inglot released their rainbow eye shadows I knew I had to have them. If they were anything like their other pressed shadows they were going to be excellent. This past Christmas I open up a gift from my sister who had just returned from Las Vegas a month or two prior and I see ALL of the rainbow shadows!!! I was so excited I could not believe it. It was the one thing she knew I had not purchased yet. I can be an impulse buyer, and when I want something, especially makeup I don't wait!

When I brought my colors home I carefully arranged them on the bed in the order I wanted to place them in the palette(that's my ocd kicking in). I always label my palette before placing colors inside of it so that I don't have to try and remove the colors and risk breaking them. Well for some reason I thought that I had mislabeled my colors and had to remove them anyway and that's when tragedy struck! Several of my eye shadows chipped, cracked, and broke! :(

I learned later from the fabulous Enkoremakeup that a heavy duty magnet will resolve the issues of removing the Inglot shadows from the palette. I promptly drove over to Home Depot and purchased one and now my removal woes are solved...hallelujah! The first picture will be one that I took when only a couple of shadows had been chipped. The next picture is when I tried to remove the shadows and several of them chipped and cracked. Oh well, they still work the same. :-/

All of the colors are matte. They are $8.00/eye shadow and are 2.5g/.09 oz. You can purchase the rainbow eye shadows here.

Inglot Body Pigments Pearl

If you love shimmer, sheen, and multi-dimensional glitter then these pigments will be right up your alley! The Inglot body pigments pearl are chocked full of metallic shine! These pigments are absolutely divine and a little bit goes a long way, so you don't need much. I always wear my colors with a base for intensity and when you add a base to these colors that's exactly what you get! You can also mix the pigments together for your own custom color. The pigments are extremely finely milled and feel like silk. Each pigment is 1g/.04 oz and they cost $14. You can purchase the pearl body pigments here.