Christmas Makeup Look

This year seems to have flown by us and now we’re in December which means that parties and dinners and get togethers seems to be piling up on the schedule. Because of the festive season that is quickly approaching, I decided to whip up a Christmas makeup look that anyone can recreate and look gorgeous for those Christmas parties coming up.

The first thing I do is moisturize my face using Pond’s Dry Skin Cream which is such s hydrating skin cream especially during the cold weather. Then, I prime my face using Nyx’s Photo-Loving Primer which is also great to use during the cold weather and I find that my makeup really lasts when I use this. After this, I mix a bit of Tarte’s Amazonian Clay full coverage foundation in the lightest shade with a bit of It Cosmetic’s Color Correcting full coverage cream. I do this because the Tarte foundation is a bit too light for me at the moment, and the It Cosmetics foundation is too dark.

After this, I do my eyebrows using Nyx’s Eyebrow Cake Powder which is by far my favorite drugstore eyebrow powder to use and I highly recommend it. Because it is a Christmas look, I think golds and reds make such a gorgeous eye look which is why I used Tarte’s She Dreamed, She Believed, and She Succeeded Eye and Cheek Palette. In the palette, I used the shade Trailblazer for my crease and transition shade. Then,  I applied the shade Lucky Penny on the rest of my eyelid. This shade is so pigmented and is such a beautiful gold color, I did at some point use it on a daily as you can see in the photos. Once I apply that shade, I blend a tiny bit of the shade Smile On on my outer corner to give it depth. Again, Smile On is very similar to Lucky Penny, it’s just a much, much deeper brown color. And if you’re feeling extra festive, you can add a little bit of glitter like I did and I used Mac Pigment in the shade gold mode. The next thing I do is winged eyeliner. I use my favorite Nyx’s Matte Liquid Liner. This is the best drugstore liquid eyeliner that I’ve ever tried and because it is matte, it just won’t budge at all throughout the day. Highly recommend! Of course, the liner is an optional step, the eyeshadow looks great without any liner, I just think the liner really ties the look together.

Next is under eye and face concealer, I use It Cosmetics’ Bye Bye Under Eye full coverage waterproof concealer in the shade neutral medium which is actually travel size as I wanted to first try it out and Laura Geller’s Easy Cover Up hydrating concealer crayon in the shade medium. Let me rave about It Cosmetics’ Bye Bye Under Eye full coverage concealer though as I do believe I have the worst dark circles in human history, and this stuff covers them right up. It great, it’s amazing, and I love it. After that I powder using a loose powder by Maybelline in the shade light or 01. My favorite drugstore highlight is Nyx’s Illuminator. It’s so pigmented and lovely and I think around Christmas it’s great to overdo it on the highlight. Next is, of course, lashes. Now I have quite long lashes which is why I don’t usually wear fake eyelashes or have extensions, but adding lashes would also look great. I don’t like the hassle of popping on fake lashes so instead I use three mascaras: L’Oreal’s Telescopic, Maybelline’s The Colossal and Bare Minerals’ Lash Domination which is actually travel size as it was a gift. Using this combination of mascaras really makes my eyelashes look fake without actually having any fake lashes on.

The last and my favorite thing which is lips. Personally, it’s not a Christmas look without a red lip, so for this look I used the Rimmel London Kate Moss in the shade 111 or Kiss of Life and on top of that I used the Nyx Liquid Suede cream lipstick in the shade 11 or Kitten Heels which is so incredibly pigmented and long-lasting. I absolutely love it and would definitely recommend if you’re looking for an inexpensive, good-quality lipstick.

Love, Lilly

 

Fell in Love with Colorado

This is my first blog post and instead of writing an introductory post, I decided just to go straight into it with my trip to Colorado for Thanksgiving. Now, I had never spent Thanksgiving, or any other holiday, out of Texas and it was definitely something everyone should try at least once in their life. Not only was the landscape and our view from the ski resort we stayed at beautiful, but the land and weather was completely different from the dry, flat land and hot weather that seems to be a consistent thing in Texas. Aside from the fascinating views, the afternoon we arrived, we were worried that it would not snow and we would not be able to ski the next day like we had previously planned. To my surprise, though, we awoke with over seven inches of snow. As well as skiing, we also left the resort the day before Thanksgiving to visit the town of Durango that was about a half hour away from where we were staying and took a five-hour train ride through the San Juan forest which was absolutely breathtaking.

 

Of course, as the trip from Texas to Colorado was fifteen hours, we decided to spend a night in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe was very, very welcoming, as it is a small town. The people were incredibly sweet and I felt extremely comfortable. After having an early dinner, we decided to visit the oldest house in Santa Fe which was amazing. All the old artifacts were set on display and the tour explained how people used to cook, bathe, and sleep. The next day, before heading off to continue to trip to Colorado, we found a small, old-fashioned restaurant to have breakfast at called Plaza Cafe, which had such amazing food and the best 1920s music.

Colorado, and New Mexico, will always be these truly calming states for me and even on the way home, I was already excited for when I could go back. It all seemed like a dream to me, and Colorado completely captured my heart. It’s definitely one of those places that I could see myself going to college to and living in eventually. I couldn’t have asked for  anything better from Colorado.