Monday, Monday

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Monday, Monday. The holidays have fallen in a really weird way this year. Monday, Tuesday, and Friday were work days (at my, “real life,” job) last week and this week – but the week of Christmas was super busy. With all the traveling to see friends and family, I’m afraid I didn’t get much in the way of work done for the blog (not an excuse, just reality!)

I’m trudging through this Monday with a cranberry Red Bull (because Bawls isn’t readily available and the original Red Bull reminds me of cough medicine). I’m thankful that I re-learned how to use my Maybelline Color Tattoos since they, along with a L’Oreal Infalliable shadow, enabled me to slap on some eye makeup in under 90 seconds to look like I give at least a couple bothers.

Regular content will return Wednesday (with December 2014 Favorites). In the meantime, here’s some stuff to check out/do:

Outside of Beauty Skeptic, I recommend:

  • Coastal Scents, who is currently having 40% off their entire site through the end of the year – great if you want to experiment with color without committing/investing in a prestige brand, also great for their Elite Brush sets and 22-piece brush set.
  • Capitol Hill Style, a professional style blog rife with snark.
  • The Small Things Blog, which is a little bit of hair and beauty and a little bit of lifestyle. Kate makes hair wizardry look so easy – but I guess that comes with professional territory, huh?
  • Too Faced is currently holding 50% off their sale section.
  • Sephora has an extra 20% off their clearance.
  • Go watch some Batalash; learn some makeup stuff and laugh.

I hope everyone enjoyed their respective holidays. Let’s chat – if you celebrated a gift-giving holiday, did you get any fun beauty stuff?

Everything Nice Palette Tutorial: Teal Look

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A while ago, I shared a creepy, low-res shot of this eye makeup (all single eye shots are creepy, face it) I did with the Too Faced holiday palette. I had taken it with my cell phone, but got a few requests to produce both a tutorial of the look and an Everything Nice Palette Tutorial. Although it is starting to be a bit late for holiday parties, this look is appropriate for them, and will carry you through any New Years’ festivities you may have. It would also be pretty cool for Mardi Gras or…you know, if you just felt like it (who needs an occasion?).

5hXauN0Everything Nice Palette Tutorial: Teal Look ft. Too Glam

Start with clean skin (obviously, we aren’t savages). When doing this look, I recommend doing your eyes first as these shadows have a good bit of fallout. You don’t want to mar your base, and who really has time for shadow shields?

Prep your eyes as you see fit – I’m going to use Too Faced Shadow Insurance. You can use whatever primer or concealer your heart desires, but since I have it, I’ll use it for this Everything Nice Palette Tutorial.

Next, grab a fluffy blending brush (I’m, using bdellium tools 785, a tapered fluffy blender), dip into Fawned of You (neutral light brown from the top row, second-to-last) and apply in your crease using circular and windshield-wiper motions. This will help us blend more later as well as provide definition to our eye socket.
 Everything Nice Palette Tutorial - Crease Shade

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Formula X Polish First Impression

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Sorry for the delay in today’s content – I didn’t have my photos uploaded (I thought I did), so it had to wait until I could access that SD card.

Last week I shared that I received a Formula X Polish System due to winning a giveaway. I broke it out on Saturday before our Christmas party to get festive.

After shaping and gently etching the surface of your nails with a fine-grit buffer, reach for you break out the left-most bottle in the Formula X Polish System kit. This bottle contains a thin, light blue liquid – this is the Cleanse step. It is basically just a nail dehydrator similar to those used on you at the nail salon before enhancements or with in-home DIY gel nails. I twisted the cap open and heard/felt a, “snap!” only to find the squared off caps on the Formula X Polish bottles are vanity caps. You have to pull it off before you can unscrew the simpler, cylindrical cap beneath. The snap was a piece of the interior to the vanity cap snapping off. Boo.

After that, continue to the clear pink – this is your base coat; the, “Prime,” step. The Formula X Polish Prime is pretty normal base-coat as thickness goes. Here, though, the brush started to annoy me. I expected cheap bristles in the brush-on cleanser, but these bristles remind me of the thick-stranded, cheap ones that resided in Wet n Wild nailpolishes of the early-to-mid 90’s. With a base coat, it wasn’t too much of a deal, but getting my nails fully covered wasn’t as easy (and as you can see, I don’t have large nails).

Formula X Polish - CleanseFormula X Polish System

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Worth it? Pantene Blowout Extend Dry Shampoo

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I ran out of my beloved Psssst! Dry Shampoo. No matter, my local Walgreens carries it! Or, they did, at least. I spent at least five minutes scouring my location’s tiny hair aisle for it. Not wanting to leave empty-handed and not wanting to make a special trip elsewhere, I picked up this can: Pantene Blowout Extend Dry Shampoo.

Pantene Blowout Extend Dry ShampooPantene Blowout Extend Dry Shampoo

Pantene Blowout Extend Dry Shampoo is one of three of Pantene’s dry shampoo offerings. They also have one called, “Original Fresh,” in a similar can with a green band and one called, “Root Reboot,” packaged the same but with a purple band. Along with the stand-to-Pantene vitamin boasting, Pantene Blowout Extend Dry Shampoo contains tapioca as an ingredient. Why? I really couldn’t begin to tell you.

Because I do not live in a fictitious world in which people actually do get regular biweekly salon blowouts, I’m testing this against the conditions my hair normally faces. Typically, I wash my hair every other day (e.g., Mon, Wed, Fri). I don’t usually need dry shampoo on that second day, but sometimes use it anyway to stay ahead. Sometimes, I want to push it another day – so, wash hair Monday and then again on Thursday, for example. Last week was one such week.

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Too Faced Everything Nice Swatches

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Remember this?

DSC_0126

I hope so, I shared its unboxing last week. That was exciting and all, but more exciting (in my opinion) would be looking at this limited-edition mega-palette in a bit more detail.

Let’s just jump right into the Too Faced Everything Nice Palette Swatches and review!

Starting with the top row of shadows:

Everything Nice Swatches - Row 1Too Faced Everything Nice Swatches

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November 2014 Favorites

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November 2014 FavoritesNovember 2014 Favorites
1. Innisfree Hand Cream, $? / 2. bareMinerals Concealer Brush, $20* /
3. Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter, $5 / 4. Alpha Hydrox 10% AHA Moisturizing Lotion, $10 /
5. Too Faced Everything Nice Palette, $56

Blah blah, November went sooooo fast, etc. You know the drill. November 2014 Favorites!

But before the jump, have you entered the EcoTools Eye Enhancing Duo Brush Giveaway? Open until December 16!

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