10 Month Natural Hair, Contaminated Brushes & Other Things =)

Heyyyyyy loves!!

Glad to be back with some new updates. Slightly lengthly post since I'm particularly excited about 3 things:

1. My 10 month hair: I big chopped June 9, 2010 after no transitioning. I wear weave for the most part but its so refreshing to see my hair growing back in its natural texture after being relaxed for so long. I'm going back to weave this week as a protective style until my one year anniversary =) It's really an accomplishment for me because I had SOOOOO many failed attempts at being natural. Here's my hair currently below:

Yay for growth!! Lol, I'll do a before/after for my one year! 

Yeah my Christmas streamers are still up! I decided they were yearly festive Hehehe

Eyes => I used colors from my new Inglot palette. I will upload photos of the new palette soon along with swatches. Unfortunately I found the yellow EXTREMELY difficult to work with. I'll try working with it again and update. Falsies Mascara, NYX Milk pencil on waterline.

Lips => MAC Cork l/l, Pink Friday lipstick (LE) and Ample Pink plushglass

Face => Revlon ColorStay Foundation in Cappuccino, MAC MSF Natural in Dark, Blunt blush to contour, MAC Fix+ Rose annnnnnd here's where the CONTAMINATED brush comes into play! I had just washed my brushes but I guess I forgot the blush brush I used. The original blush for this look was NYX Pinky. I realized that the brush had a darker color after the first cheek but out of sheer laziness I just had decided to go with it by then. So yeah the cheeks are a LOT less muted then I was going for. Lol, has this ever happened to you?

2. Candy Yum-Yum lipstick: So yall know I was initially interested because of the cute name right?! But I saw the color and I was able to snag one of these online and good thing I did because I heard it went out of stock a few hours later! I'm still interested in swatching Playing Koi and Playtime but I'll have to wait til I go downtown for that. My Yum-Yum comes tomorrow (I'm a serial package tracker) and I'm quite excited about this pink because although I have a lot of pink lipsticks I don't have a matte one in this particular shade. Definitely expect a look from it. I can't wait to wear it on a nice spring day!

3. New kitten!!! Most of my friends know me as the "cat lady"'. I have an obsession with cats that parallels my makeup and I've wanted a Siamese cat since forever! My mom brought one without telling me so I talked my mom into letting me "watch" the cat she brought (until I can fully convince her to let me have him) She's black but comes across brown on my camera. She sleeps on my chest and her purrs are the sweetest thing! She's such an affectionate and playful kitten :)

Lol, she's resting on my hip in this pic. So cute! Her eyes are extremely sensitive to the flash so I'm hoping to get a better pic in the daylight. I'm planning on naming her Onyx or Jinx. Which ones to you loves like?

xoxo.Leigh.

Sick Days...

So, I haven't posted for a while because I was in the hospital for surgery and then I relaxed for about a week until I felt better. Of course I've been laying around looking like crap but luckily I'm almost back to feeling like self. ANDDDD I wanna to post something... sooooooo here's some random OLD things that I meant/considered posting but didn't lol

This was my Mardi Gras look! Can't really tell by this crappy camera but there's about 6 different eyeshadows. I so wish my brows looked like this everyday! Lol, a girl can dream...

 I posted this picture mainly for the curls. I loved them! I used a pack of the hard Annie spiral rods that you can find at your local BSS. This was my first time using them, awesome experience. The curls were done on wet hair, no products and slept on overnight. They were tighter but I pulled them apart. 

This is my current icon. I felt like wearing lotttttts of makeup (as usual lol) but I wanted a very sweet paradise-y look. Got this!

If you'd like to know a specific product or something just ask :)

xoxo.Leigh.

My Inglot Experience

Hey loves!

So I went to NYC during my spring break and of course Inglot was on one of my must hit places. The website was up by the time I went but I figured it'd be better to be able to swatch the colors I wanted live instead of looking for them over the web. I also wanted to get some of these shadows before their price increase in May! Overall, I must say that my experience was "Eh...". (I'll explain). I went into Inglot expecting to get a 20 palette. I was NOT so much as greeted or welcomed by the MA's which was my first indicator that my customer service experience might be a little iffy. The thing is, I'm not one of those people that have to be spoon fed but it is nice to at least be acknowledged in store :-/ So I grabbed one of their little magnetic shopper things and went to work. Man, I was swatching this, swatching that having fun. At some point (I guess when they realized I was actually spending money) the MA's came over to ask if I needed assistance and if I did I got their opinions and then carried myself on my way. I came up with THEE most magnificent palette (roughly 10 neutrals and 10 brights) and I handed it to the MA. Now here comes the  DIZ-ASS-TAH...he TORE my palette APART! It went from my dream 20 palette to "We don't have this shade but we have... *points to some slightly similar shade I don't want*" until I was left with about 12 eyeshadows (3 of which I had substituted for). It no longer made any sense to get a 20 and I got a 10 palette but I wrote down the other shades I wanted so I could order them in the future. My question is this, WHY are the shades on display when they're not available for purchase?! I felt like they should have been seperated into an out of stock table or something because it truly is disheartening to go through so much only to be told an hour later that basically you wasted your time. Overall, the store has a great feel and ambiance but the MA's will only help with the least (and that's when ASKED). So, I ended up getting a 10 palette and a slim lipstick (review for this soon) I also love the feel and shape/design of the palette but I am at a lost as to why Inglot uses a number system. I feel like the difficulty to remember the #'s is an extreme disadvantage but whatever I guess. Here's the palette I made with swatches

                                 

  

TR: AMC 64, Pearl 453, DS 463, Matte 366, DS 494

BR: AMC 63, Matte 348, Matte 390, AMC 51, AMC 60

As you can see, the color payoff is AMAZING and really make no difference on top of base (NYX milk) These shadows (so far) blend easily and are beautiful! My camera really didn't catch the full essence of the fine glitters that are contained in the shadows, but they are very much visible in person and enhance them even more! I'm hoping to make another palette or two....or three lol before the price increase. Have you been to an Inglot yet? How was your experience? This Inglot can be found on 1592 Broadway New York, NY in case you're in the area and like to check it out!

xoxo.Leigh.

Gradient Shatter Nails

I got the chance to finally order OPI Black shatter (admist the unreasonable prices I've seen) which made me pretty excited. I wanted to do pink (which ill do later and pic) but my local BSS didn't have the exact shade I was looking for. I ended up getting a 2 different greens and a gold which I did the greens outward to the gold tips. I ended up loving it! It's a little more loud then my usual nails but its definitely kickass if you're looking for some bold look at my fingers type nails. What do you loves think?

xoxo.Leigh. 

Foodgasm: A Bit of France at Home

I am an EXTREME French enthusiast so of course I was excited to try out a French restaurant for lunch. This place was very quaint and located in a hotel, and the food was awesome! I was even more excited to find that they had a lunch special going on! I was able to get French onion soup, Steak frites and three (yes THREE!) Martinis. Lol needless to say I had an amazing time. My friend had pan seared salmon and it was probably the tastiest salmon I've had at a restaurant, as I am very picky when it comes to fish. The drinks were AMAZING. I had a Cosmopolitan and Rob Roy and gave my 3rd drink to my friend. Definitely plan to go back even if just to have a drink at the bar. Overall good day. Had a chance to snap a few pics.

xoxo.Leigh.



If you're in the tri-state area, check out Amuse at Le Meridian Hotel :-)

Jump into Spring!

So, I'll be the first to admit that when the weather gets a little nice I'm the first one to pull out the bright colors in festivity! We got some weather around 70 degrees and I was up and at em! Lol scroll down for products.

Face => Revlon PhotoReady Foundation in Cappuccino set with MAC MSF Natural in Dark, La Femme Blush in Sienna and MAC Blunt blush for contour

Brows => MAC Eyebrow pencil in stud then defined with MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NW45 

Lips=> I lined with MAC lipliner in Cork then I filled in my lips with Brave New Bronze Lipstick by MAC (LE Style Warriors Collection)

Eyes => I used my concealer as a base all over the lid, then used Deep Truth eyeshadow all over the lid and Black Tied (both MAC) in the crease. No highlight. The green shadow I used for my lower line was a random one from the 120 palette. I used Falsies mascara on my lashes. 

What's your favorite way to celebrate great weather?

xoxo.Leigh.

Let's have a Quickie!

 Not that kind! hehe. Hey! So I'm on Spring Break (FINALLY!) so I'm playing catch up with some of the things I wanted to post. Yay me! Lol. These are quick looks that take me about 10 minutes to do and are perfect for going to 8am classes looking put together or whenever you're GRF (getting ready fast)! ha!


                                                            Glowing Bronzed Babe

Face => MAC MSF Natural in Medium Dark, MAC Blunt Blush for contour, NARS Taj Mahal Blush (Packed on quite heavily! Lol, blush crazy!) Revlon Stiletto Lash Mascara

Eyes => Wet & Wild black liquid eyeliner

Brows => MAC Eyebrow pencil in Stud, then defined with MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NW45

Lips => MAC lipstick in Photo topped with MAC Bright & Perky (LE Tartan Tale Neutrals Holiday Set) 

Rainy Daze

Face => MAC MSF Natural in Medium Dark, La Femme Blush in Terracotta

Eyes => Random black eye pencil on waterline

Brows => MAC Eyebrow pencil in Stud, then defined with MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NW45

Lips => I lightly lined my lips with MAC lipliner in Gingerroot then filled in with Marquise D' lipstick, also by MAC (LE Wonder Woman collection)

So yeahhh. Both of these took literally no time at all (so little time I had a chance to snap pics! Lol) What's your favorite quickie make-up?