Lady C's Holiday Stash & Tutorial Part II

Hi beauty lovers! Click here to watch Part II, where I use the products I got for Christmas. Enjoy...

My Christmas Stash- Product Review

Happy Holidays, everyone! I got some great beauty gifts for Christmas this year and wanted to share them with you. I also gave the makeup studio walls a makeover with my sister-in-law Corine, check them out in the video below! Special shout out to Youtube for always choosing the ugliest photo stills of me for each vid. lol

PRODUCTS

Chantal's Lush Gifts

Comforter Bubble Bar

Blackberry Bath Bomb

Ro's Argan Body Conditioner

Allyson's Gifts

NYX Lip Liners

Urban Decay 24/7 eye liners

Urban Decay Naked Palette

My Purchases

Beauty Blender Sponge

Lise Watier Base Miracle Pore Minimizing Primer

How to Shape Your Eyebrows

Tired of paying the wax lady mucho dinero every two weeks to groom your brows? Neglecting your brows because you don't even know where to start? Click on the video below for some quick and easy ways to keep your brows tamed. Enjoy!

PRODUCTS USED: 

MAC #266 Angle brush

MAC Trimming Scissors

MAC Slant-Edge Tweezer

MAC Brun Eyeshadow

Makeup For Ever Eyebrow Correcting Gel in #3

Frosty Makes an Appearance

Once again, I was inspired by Cute Polish's latest video for this design. I can't help by smile every time I look down at my fingers! 

PRODUCTS USED:

Black Magic By Milani -- I used this for the snowman's eyes and mouth, with a dotting tool.

White on White By China Glaze- I applied 2 coats of this for the base.

Unconditionally Fabulous by MAC- I used 2 coats of this on top of the white to give it the "sparkly snow" effect.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Deborah Lippmann - I made the snowman's carrot nose using this with a nail art brush.

Holiday Gift Guide 2011

The holidays are approaching, ya'lll! If you are looking for a gift for the Beauty Fashionista in your life, you have come to the right place. I compiled my gift favorites that Sephora is offering this season to make it easy for you. Nothing is worse than walking into a store and being bombarded with 500,000 gift sets and not having a clue about any of them! What's great is that all these gifts are under $30!

The Wyndham Collection- $20.00

For the nail fiend in your life, Sephora recently started carrying British brand Nails, Inc. in their stores. Nails, Inc. is a high quality nail polish brand that I'm beginning to be a huge fan of. The Wyndham Collection features the Teal Black Kensington polish and The Wyndham Overglaze top coat, "which contains hand cut, irregular particles to create dramatic holographic effects when applied over other polishes." I'm already swooning.

Black Honey Glow   $28.50

Clinique's Black Honey Glow gift set includes the High Impact Mascara in Black, a limited edition Black Honey Gel Blush (LOVE), a moisturizing Super Balm gloss in Black Honey, and a shadow duo is Lucky Penny and Rose Chocolate. Flattering for all skin colors and YUMMY!

Gingerbread Man Hot Salt  Body Scrub- $25.00

Philosophy's set caught my eye when I read "Hot Salt." According to the site, "the Gingerbread Man Hot Salt Scrub features sea salt and natural extracts to exfoliate and polish dry, rough skin, leaving it feeling silky soft, super smooth and conditioned." I read the reviews and the salt actually heats up and gives you a tingly scrubby feeling all over. Yes, please!

Makeup For Ever Best-Of Collection $55.00

I've had my eye on this since last year, but I already have every thing in it. This gift set features all of Makeup For Ever's best sellers in smaller sizes so you can sample what you've been missing out on. If you are looking to get into Makeup For Ever, this is a perfect place to start. And let's not even talk about how soft and heaven-sent their HD powder feels! This set includes: the HD powder, HD primer, the waterproof version of the Smoky Lash mascara in Black, Lab Shine gloss in S4, and a shimmery champagne Aqua Cream. *Sigh

Fresh Sugar Plum Glam & Glow  $28.00

My heart palpitates when I think about this amazing little set from Fresh. This set includes a full size of their AMAZE BALLS Sugar lip balm in Plum, which is flattering for everyone. You also get small sizes of their SuperNova Mascara in Black, their Twilight Glow moisturizer (with red pearl, it's gorge), and Soy Face Cleanser (great for sensitive skin). 

Unsung Hero: Clear Nail Polish

Does the gem fall out of every single nose ring and you're sick of buying new ones? I literally go through about 12 nose rings a year, because they each last about a month. I like the ones that hold a little gem at the end-- so dainty and adds a touch of sparkle to your every day look! But unfortunately, there isn't such a thing as a "high-quality" nose ring, so the gems always end up falling out. I have had my piercing for about eight years and throughout that time, I've searched far and wide, including places like New York City, L.A. and Las Vegas, and every single vendor cart and jewelry shop I've gone to sells the same darn cheap-o nose rings. Imagine my delight when I purchased my last round of nose rings at Claire's the other day and the girl who worked there told me she paints the gems with clear top coat nail polish to hold it in place. 

Can we say...genius? Why the heck didn't I think of that!?  

I am happy to report that since painting all of my nose ring gems with clear top coat, they have all stayed put. We'll see how long they last, but so far, I'm pretty impressed. I spoke with another sales girl at a different jewelry store, and she told me she also paints all of her fashion (a.k.a. cheap) jewelry with clear top coat to keep the finish from rusting. I went to town last night on all my Forever 21/Claire's/Icing accessories and drowned them all in top coat. I can't believe I didn't know this little trick! Did you? 

Xmas Nails by Xtine

Merry Christmas everyone! I've been wanting to try the reverse half-moon design in red a la Dita Von Teese, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to throw in a little Christmas tree-green glitter in the mix. 

PRODUCTS USED

OPI's Pretty & Privileged -- A cheery, pearled red from OPI's 90210 collection.

Forever 21's Green Glitter-- I know: who knew Forever 21 had nail polish? I spotted this little gem while in the checkout line and snagged her (yes, it's a her) last minute. I think it was like $2. Score

Reinforcement stickers from Staples-- Yup. 

STEPS:

1) Paint the bottom half of your nails with the green glitter. I did 2 coats so it would show up better. 

2) After it has completely dried, cover the bottom half of your nails with the reinforcement stickers.

3) Paint the part of your nails above the reinforcement stickers red. 

4) After all has dried, carefully peel off the stickers and apply top coat. Voila!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Clearly, I live in L.A., and the coldest it gets here is 55 degrees at night. But still. Call me warm blooded but I am always freezing! I sleep with a comforter, blanket, and sometimes a Korean blanket (which weighs like 75 pounds, no lie). I wanted to interpret how frigidly cold I always am in the winter with a mani and found this great one from Cute Polish on YouTube. Check her out! She has literally has the cutest designs and they are super easy.

PRODUCTS USED

"Unconditionally Fabulous" by MAC Cosmetics

Essie's Lapis of Luxury

Inglot Nail Art Enamel in White

Orange You Know I'm Engaged?

Ok, I know, my title isn't the best, but it's the end of the day and my brain is fried.

Dylan and I took our engagement photos with our amazing photographer, Rustin Michael, at Paramount Studios' New York Street last month. We both starting working for CBS at Paramount and have a lot of memories there together. We still go on movie premiere dates and actually live in walking distance of the studio, so to be able to take photos there was incredible and super meaningful. I was pretty nervous at first because I'm not used to being a "model," and it was so hard not to laugh while staring at Dylan's pores about 2 inches away from his face the whole day, but we really had a blast.

I've talked about Lime Crime's My Beautiful Rocket shade of lipstick, and I think it's worth bringing up again since I wore it here. We did a heck of a lot of kissing, and while Dylan's face was covered in orange stains, the lipstick did stay on pretty darn well. I didn't even touch up for the four-hour shoot! It was so creamy and really popped in the photos. I'm so over the red lipstick look and I didn't want to do some boring nude color, so My Beautiful Rocket was the perfect choice. Clients love it too. This is a must for every artist's kit. 

 

Click Rustin's link below to see the whole shoot!

Photographer: Rustin Michael Photography

Venue: Paramount Studios

Hair Stylist: Ella-Maria Alonzo

LIP PRODUCTS USED

MAC Pro Long Wear Lip Pencil in What A Blast

Lime Crime's My Beautiful Rocket



Derek's World

Two weeks ago I had the honor of painting a very good (and very pregnant) friend of mine's belly, Sharon.  She and her husband John were expecting their first baby on November 21st and well, baby couldn't wait that long. She gave birth ONE WEEK after we did this photo shoot on November 14th to a healthy baby boy weighing in at 9 lbs, 8 oz! We made it just in time lol. Since John and Sharon have always been travelers and have gone all over the world together, we came up with a "world" theme. Here are some photos of the process shot by Mr. Photographer/Dad Extraordinaire, John Ejimofor.

I started out by tracing the shapes of the continents on Sharon's belly. The baby was fluttering around here.

Then I filled in the "water" first with the light blue in the MUF Flash Palette and set it with MAC's Light  Blue pigment.

Cappy loves pregnant people lol

Momma was such a good sport

Next I filled in the continents with MUF Flash Palette's green color and set it with various MAC green eye shadows.

Mid Action

I left Antarctica white, because let's face it... it's icy cold!

So fun!

The blue dots represent all the places John and Sharon have traveled to. The heart is over L.A., where the baby is :)

Momma likes glitter, so we did a sparkly baby plane

Isn't he a cutie?

She literally has the whole world in her hands

We went with a mother nature theme, isn't she radiant?

And finally, without further adieu...

Welcome to the world, Derek John Ejimofor!

November Plaid

Happy Thanksgiving Week! I found this cute design on Cute Polish's Youtube page and gave it a whirl. I was inspired by the leaves turning colors this month and was looking for a "fall nails" look to do, and this was perfect. It was a little harder to do than some of my other nail art designs but well worth it. My cuticles are a little sloppy here, but the nails looked SO cool in person! I got compliments everywhere I went. I think the secret to them looking so cool was the base color I chose. I went with OPI's 18K Ginza Gold, which is a buttery marigold with tiny silver flecks. It's like an orange pumpkin that's turned yellow from the sun. *Sigh* I love fall....

PRODUCTS USED

Kiss Nail Artist Paint in White, Black and Gold Glitter

OPI's "18K Ginza Gold" as a base

October's Shop & Tell

Hi peeps!

I'm a little late on posting this but I recently went Halloween makeup shopping and wanted to share some of the items I purchased with you. Click below to watch my "Shop & Tell."

You can find the products below at http://shop.cinemasecrets.com/

Party Girl (Katy Perry) Wig -- So fun! The wig looks great out of the bag and the curls are easy to manage.

Flesh Latex-- Works great. I dribbled some onto my face and neck for a "melted skin" appearance on Halloween eve and it totally worked. I just dabbed on some concealer in my skin tone on top and it was good to go.

Super Sealer spray -- I sprayed some over mine and my fiance's Halloween looks and it worked pretty well. I also used some recently for a maternity painting and it worked so good that I got a text from the mom-to-be the next day saying the painting was STILL on!

Black lipstick-- I was SO bummed because this Cinema Secrets-brand lipstick came out super sheer and looked like Clinique's Black Honey lipstick shade.

Glow in the Dark Body Gel-- Total waste. It smelled funny and felt gross. And didn't even glow.

You can find the products below at http://www.naimies.com/

Elegant Lashes-- According to a trusty friend, these lashes are from the same distributor as MAC's eye lashes. I have to agree because they went on just like MAC's lashes do and worked fabulously. $2.99 a pair and probably the best purchase I made all day.

Beauty Blender-- This adorably bright pink teardrop-shaped little wonder is amaze-balls. My foundation has never looked better. I absolutely love the pointy end to get into the nooks and crannies (like around your nose and eyes). The best part is that this sponge, unlike others, actually washes out and is reusable. And it better be, for $18 a pop!

MUF Eyebrow Corrector-- I love this stuff! I've talked about this fab eye brow filler before on my blog, but it's worth a second look. If you don't believe me, ask recent convert Allyson Stagg, who now swears by the number 0 shade. I'm a number 3 girl myself.

MUF Mate Velvet-- I'm pretty happy with this medium coverage, matte finish foundation. It keeps up with me as I work, make meetings and appointments, hit the gym, walk the dog and make dinner.

MUF Flash Palette-- The colors go on beautifully and did really well when I used them with MAC's Invisible Set Powder for body painting. However, I found that they moved and melted when I used them to draw intricate designs. Bottom line is, it's a great palette for body painting, not so much staying power on the face.

Nail File-- It's aight. I've had better.

iHate Products

Advanced Home Active Brazilian Peel

MAC Pro Long Wear Foundation

Monster Bride-To-Be

Halloween was SO much fun this year! Here I am as the Bride of Frankenstein. Dylan found the costume online discounted for $16. I found the wig ($27) at Cinema Secrets in Burbank. This was my first time concealing my own eyebrows, and I got the biggest kick out of it. I feel like if Lady Gaga was to dress up as the Monster Bride, this is what it would look like. Enjoy!



Lovin on my Lil' Monster



PRODUCTS USED

Face: Makeup For Ever Mat Velvet foundation, MAC's Studio F/X powder in Lavender
Lower Eye Lid: MAC eyeshadow in Nocturnelle
Upper Eye Lid: Makeup For Ever's Flash Palette in green as base, MAC pigment in Chartreuse, MAC eye shadows in Bitter, Velvet Moss, Femme Noir, MAC Crystalized Yellow Glitter
Eyebrows: concealed with glue stick, covered up with various MAC concealers, and set with MAC Invisible Set Powder. New shape drawn on with MAC Fluidline in Black Track.
Lips: MAC Velvetella lip liner and Cinema Secrets black lipstick.
Face and Neck: Contouring done with MAC's Bark and Scene eye shadows.
Stitches: Makeup For Ever Flash Palette in black
Melted skin effect: Cinema Secrets Flesh Latex and MAC Select Coverup.



Lil Frankies

I took this idea from GoldieStarling on Youtube. It worked well since Dylan was Frankenstein for Halloween. This design is SO easy to do, it's ridiculous. It was time consuming, but totally worth it.

What You Will Need

A white polish

Black nail art polish (that comes with a brush)

Bright green polish

A bobby pin

STEPS

• Paint two coats of the green polish
• Carefully draw on Frankie's "hair and sideburns"
• Take the ball end of your bobby pin, dip it in the white polish and draw two eyeballs on each nail.
• Use your black nail art pen/polish to draw on eyebrows, pupils and the mouth with stitches. DONE!

Franken-Fiance

What...a good sport. Right? Here's my monster lover, who was basically the happiest Frankstein I've ever seen. I'm totally swooning at the fact that he allows me to dress him up like this once a year, and doesn't even complain when the makeup takes two days to remove. I didn't have a lot of time, as I had to get both of us ready for a party in the O.C. and my parents were in town helping me with wedding stuff, but here's what I came up with. Enjoy!

What a looker

PRODUCTS USED:

Cinema Secrets Cream Makeup Stack in Undead
Woochie monster bolts
Cinema Secrets Frankenstein foam latex prosthetic
Spirit gum
Cinema Secrets Flesh Latex
MAC eye shadows in Swimming, Nocturnelle, Velvet Moss and Femme Noir
Makeup Forever's Flash Palette in black and green
MAC Paint Stick (in the dark purple shade, I forget the name, but it's only sold in Pro stores)
MAC Invisible Set Loose Powder

Vanity Girl's Table Top Mirror

Holy smokes...this is a makeup artist's wet dream! Since many of my clients come to my home studio, I've been on the hunt for a lighted table-top vanity mirror. I'd heard about Vanity Girl but now that I've done some online research, I'm pretty much chomping at the bit for this amaze-balls mirror. My fingers are literally shaking with excitement at the thought of having this mirror in my home, standing in front of it and dimming/raising the lights while doing a future bride's trial run. After moving in with my fiance, I haven't really had the time to paint the walls and redecorate the room my studio is in. This mirror is inspiring me in so many ways, I could barely sleep last night just thinking about it! I know...what a nerd. But seriously...As soon as the wedding planning is over I am going to whip up something amazing with this mirror and that room! The question is...can I wait that long?



Broadway Lighted Vanity Mirror, $399




How cute is this bedroom look with the mirror?!




Cobwebs and Glitter

Is anyone really surprised that did this look? A) I love Halloween and B) I am obsessed with glitter on everything so I thought, why not do both on my digits? Now, anytime I look down at my hands I smile with Halloween glee (whatever that looks like). The cobweb was done with a long, skinny nail art striping brush using silver, and highlighting with white. This particular glitter is my favorite in my collection, with chunky pieces of gold, blue and hot pink glitter (my heart beats for thee!) I wanted to do the glitter on the rest of the nails but I figured this would be quicker to remove. Nothing's worse than sitting there for an hour with your poor fingers drenched in remover and cotton ball-hairs stuck on every piece of glitter!



Boo!





PRODUCTS USED:

Milani's Black Magic

OPI's Sparkle-icious (from the Burlesque line)

Sephora by OPI in Social Climber

Inglot's Nail Art Enamel in # 29 

October Survey

1. Mood: Inspired. I'm been plotting mine and Dylan's Halloween looks as well as my Halloween tutorials and I'm SO excited to see how everything comes out!

2. A children’s book that brings back fond memories for you? Adventures with Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm. Does anyone remember this precious series? I learned how to read on them. Love!

 3. If your life were fictionalized and made into a movie, what genre would it be? It would be a dark comedy. I constantly laugh all day long, and like most people, I've been through many tragedies that have helped shape me to who I am today.



4. Are you saving up to buy anything? Ugh when am I not saving up to buy something? I'm currently saving up to "buy" us our next vendor for the wedding, haha.

            

                      

iWish



5. Where was your first kiss? Spin the bottle at a party in 5th grade. What...a scandal.

 6. A book you started reading but never finished? The Catcher in the Rye. Bo-ring Zzzzzzzzz

7. Do you have a good luck charm? Does Cappy count?

Cappy sun bathing in our backyard

8. Your favorite place to grab cheap eats? Fresh & Easy has great to-go salads for like $6 each.

Fresh & Easy's Chinese Chicken Salad

 9. Which celebrities or other famous people have you seen in real life? Too many to count. I work in entertainment and live in Hollywood, so I'm always around the famous (and the Z listers, lol) I did almost lose my shizz when I saw Michael Jackson walk past the restaurant I worked at on the Las Vegas strip about 8 years ago!

The Sunset Strip

 10. Weekly goals: Research Florists and Coordinators, tape my next Halloween tutorial and hopefully post it on Youtube, hit up Costco and make it to church and LACMA with D on Sunday.

LACMA