Holiday Gift Guide

Here are my recommendations of what to buy as holiday presents this year.


For the Fragrance Fanatic:
Deluxe Fragrance Sampler For Her, from Sephora,.It is a collection of 12 samples of best selling fragrances, as well as a refillable fragrance atomizer. It also has a voucher for the gift recipient to bring to Sephora and choose the full size of their favorite fragrance after sampling all of them. For $50 this is a really great value and an amazing present!

For the Crazy Crafter:

A cute mini glue gun. I got my zebra print mini glue gun at Michael's this summer, and I can't find it on their website but hey have other really cute ones too. They're not too expensive, I think mine was about $10 or less, and really handy and adorable! Anyone who enjoys anything crafty would love this present. 

For the Product Hoarder:

Birchbox Subscription! I know personally I've been waiting all year to ask for this for the holidays! For anyone who loves constantly trying out new products this is the perfect gift! If you're not familiar with Birchbox its a subscription that you get and then each month you get a box with 5 deluxe samples, and the occasional full sized product. You can gift Birchbox for 12, 6, or 3 months. 

For the Polish Addict:

Seche Vite top coat is an amazing gift to give anyone who loves to paint their nails at home on a regular basis. It leaves a really professional finish to any polish, even cheaper ones. Also, it helps polish stay longer without chips, which is great for anyone who does designs because it keeps them on after all the effort put in! 

I also think that the Shades of Seasons nail polish sets that come out every year at CVS are great gift. Its really affordable, and a wide range of colors in the set. The colors are actually pretty unique and the polishes are a surprisingly good quality.

For the Makeup Lover:

Ok this last one I think anyone would love! The Naked Palette is by far my favorite makeup product I won. You can crete the most neutral looks to smokey dramatic looks. Definitely worth the price, and the hype was well deserved Now that the Naked Palette 2 was released this, hopefully, will be eaier to get hold of. If you can, definitely pick it up. 

Twilight Cover Nail Design

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part One comes out on November 18th. To get ready for the movie, I decided to do a Twilight inspired nail design. On my left hand I put a different book cover design on each finger, and the release date of the movie on my thumb. On my right hand I decided to write out twilight over the different fingers, and again put the date on the thumb.

To start out, paint all nails black on your right and left hand, except for the pointer on your left hand. Paint your left pointer finger with a sheer, nude color.

Twilight Cover (hands holding the apple)
1. Start off with the sheer, nude color.
2. With nail art brush, paint a small black circle at the top of your nail. Paint two diagonal lines connecting from the circle to the base of your nail.

3. Fill in the triangle created by the two lines. Then, paint another two diagonal lines in black, parallel to the first but coming from the middle of the apple instead of the top.

4. Fill in the the circle with a red polish. Fill in the remaining two bare spots with black, as well. 

5. Add detail to the design. I didn't have an opaque, pale skin colored polish, so i mixed together the sheer polish with a little bit of white. I filled in the two "arms" with this color. I also added little bits o black with a detail brush to shade the hands and arms, and the base of the Apple. I also added a little bit of white to highlight the apple. 

New Moon (ruffled red and white tulip)

1. Using small strokes and a nail art brush, start to paint the flower design. Use the cover art as a reference, and follow the ruffled shape. 

2. Again, with the nail art brush and small strokes, add the red detailing to the flower. Stipple the color onto the edges of the petals, ass well as the more detailed lines on the other petals, just like on the cover art. Also, paint the red drop coming from the flower. 

3. Using a green polish with a striper brush, paint on the stem coming from the flower and connecting it to the base of your nail. 

Eclipse (torn red ribbon)

1. Using a nail art brush and red polish, start to draw the red ribbon. Leaving the space where the ribbon is torn and where it folds. 

2. Then, add detail to the ribbon with black for shadows, folds, and rips. Use white to add highlights. Go over the black and white with more red, then repeat and go back with the black and red until you get the detail as close to the cover as you can. 

Breaking Dawn (chess piece)

The Breaking Dawn cover has a white chess piece in the center, a red chess piece in the back, and a checkered chess board backdrop. To simplify the design I just painted on one white chess piece. 

1. I started out by painting a straight vertical white line on my nail. Then made the bottom of the line wider, into more of a triangle shape. I also made one horizontal line at the top of the line to start out the top of the chess piece. 

2. I aded more lines coming from the top of the line to create the look of a chess piece. 

For my thumbs I put the breaking dawn release date. I painted on the "11.18.11" by carefully painting with a white striper brush for the 1's, and a nail art brush for the 8 and the dots. If your 1's come out too think, don't worry, just go over it with black in between the lines. 

For the remaining fingers on my right hand I wrote out "twilight". I put the "T" on my pinky, "wil" on my ring finger, "ig" on my middle finger, and "ht" on my pointer". (this part isn't that difficult to do, but if you mess up like I did don't worry. I, by accident, managed to make the "h" backwards. To fix it i just went over the white line on the wrong side with black, and re drew it in the right place)

(he pictures showing the mirror image of the letters)

Cheetah Print Eye Makeup

This is a fun way to do an easy makeup look for halloween, and a little different then just doing a cat eye with the ears.

1. Apply a gold eyeshadow all over your lid.

2. Using liquid or gel eyeliner create a winged, cat eye on your upper lash line. The easiest way to do this is start at the middle of your lashes and work out to the corner. Then go back and fill in with a thing line from the inner corner to the middle. Then to do the wing, follow your lower lash line and wing it up. then connect the line to your line on the lash line. Fill in the little triangle you made. 

3. With the eyeliner, create small little c shapes and little half circles, on your crease towards the outer part of your eye.

4. Fill in the shapes with a small brush and a gold eyeshadow. I found it was easier to use a cream eyeshadow.

5. If you want, use a gold glitter eyeliner on your eyelid and on the print and liner for added shimmer. 

6. Finish up with two coats of mascara. 

To get the full cat effect, add ears and cheetah print clothes. To finish up the makeup use the liner to make whiskers on your face and fill in the black nose. I also chose to use a gold pigment to go over my lips. 

How To Wear Bright, Colorful Eyeshadow

The basic rule to follow is to only play up one feature at once. If you are going to go heavy, or bright, with eye makeup then keep everything else relatively simple. You could either do a bright eyeshadow on the lid, or a bright eye liner as a pop of color on the lower water line. 

If you wear two, or more, bright colors on the lid make sure that the colors coordinate nicely together. Pat the colors together so that there isn't an obvious line of where each color ends, but don't over blend the colors because it'll become a muddy color. To ensure that the colorful look doesn't only make a statement, but also remains flattering, add a thin line of black liquid or gel liner to the upper lash line.


To do a pop of color on the water line, keep the eyeshadow on the lid pretty simple and natural. Use soft beiges, browns, and other earthy toned colors. Then, add a bright colorful eyeliner to the lower waterline. To set the liner put a similar color eyeshadow over the liner, then smudge the eyeshadow a little bit under the water line. 


With either look, keep the rest of the makeup simple. Go for a sheer blush color, to give a wash of color without making it the focus of the look. Use a sheer lip balm or gloss to add a little bit of color and balance the look, without overpowering the eyes. 


Recommended Products: 
Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Shadow & Liner, Eye Candy Collection (for your eye color) 

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Pencil

Product Rave: Physicians Formula Green Concealer Stick

This product is amazing! It hides facial redness amazingly well! It can be used to cover blemishes as well as just all over facial redness. How I usually use it is after I wash my face and have moisturized, I let the moisturizer sink in for a few minutes. After that, I apply the concealer on each cheek with a few stripes. Then I blend it in. The green cancels out the redness. My face is left looking a little bit pale, but not red anymore. After that I follow up with either foundation if I want heavy coverage, or tinted moisturizer or powder for lighter coverage. 

$5.45

This is the perfect product to cover facial redness; it's also the one of the cheapest products that claims to cover redness. I highly recommend it!

Stop the Makeup Meltdown

Summer heat is almost inevitable, but what you can avoid is the smeared mascara, and blotchy foundation. Here are some tips to avoid a makeup meltdown through the summer heat. 


1. Less is more; to avoid makeup being smudged and ruined throughout the day, put less on to begin with. Instead of caking on the foundation, concealer and powder, opt for a tinted moisturizer or light coverage foundation and add concealer in spots that need a little bit extra coverage.


2. Cream blush/cheek stains; the cream and liquid powders blend more into the skin, rather that the usual powder blush, leaving a more natural flushed look. The powders and creams are also more likely to stay on through the hot, summer weather. 


3. Sheer lip balms; bold, bright colored lipsticks are always a summer trend, but tend to accentuate every fault of chapped lips. Instead, opt for a sheer, lip balm that will help to treat your lips, and add a hint of color. 


4. Simple eyes; instead of layering on different hues and shades to create a smokey look, opt for a simpler look. Start with a cream shadow base in a shimmery color all over the lid. Add a similar shade on top of the lid to lock it in place and ensure the staying power. Add a matte neutral color a few shades darker than your skin tone to the crease. Apply a matt highlight, to avoid looking too shimmery, a few shades lighter than your skin tone to the brow bone. Apply the same color to the inner corner of your eye. Finish off by curling your eye lashes and applying a few coats of a water proof mascara. 


Recommended Products:
Covergirl CG Smoothers Tinted Moisturizer 

$7.77

Benefit Benetint Lip and Cheek Stain

$28

Mac Paint Pot in Bare Study

$16.50

Covergirl Lashblast Waterproof

$7.79