Make Your Own Eye Shadow Palette

Okay before we go into this tutorial there are a few things that I discovered while doing this! 

1. Cutting the plastic is not for the faint of heart. It reminded me of Christmas when you have to cut toys out of all the annoying thick plastic, yuck!
2. To de-pot my eye shadows I used a VERY flat, flat head screwdriver and just kind of shimmied them out. I have heard of other people using a strong paring knife but you just need something strong with a  flat edge. You do need to be careful because most of them were glued in and the more glue they had the harder and more likely to break they were. Just shimmy them out slowly and carefully
3. Some of the eye shadows were easier to de-pot than others. If you feel like the eye shadow is starting to crumble, keep trying at your own risk! I did loose a couple of eye shadows, although non of them were my favorites so they were worth the risk! 
4. Originally I wanted to put my blushes in too, but I found that trying to de-pot something as big as blush didn't work too well and there were some casualties. :(

Besides all my disclaimers, I LOVE my new palette! I am always using tons of different eye shadows at a time and it's so nice to have them all in one place. I also love that there is plenty of room for all my applicators. Plus I think I'm sort of a makeup hoarder and this makes it look like I have a lot less than I actually do! Muahaha! So here are the easy steps to create your own palette.

P.S. You can click on the pictures to make them larger!

So what do you think? Will you create your own eye shadow palette? Let me know how it goes!

Hair Color Fun

I LOVE fun colors in hair. I had hot pink ends a few months ago and I loved it! Every time I glanced at my hair in the mirror it made me smile. I loved the way the color looked in braids and up style's. However, I felt like it wasn't always appropriate. I felt weird about it in church and I had a job interview where I tried to hide as much of it as possible. So I found some techniques for getting some fun color without having to wear it everywhere!

Use oil pastels

College Fashion

First pick a section that you would like to color and dampen with a spray bottle. Next take the section and color with an oil pastel (I suggest using a small children's book and piece of scrap paper as something sturdy to "draw" on). You can seal the color in by flat ironing or curling on low heat. The color should rinse out after a wash or two! If I had blonde hair I would love to try Lauren Conrad's peachy ends, so pretty!

Use yarn

A Beautiful Mess

I LOVE this idea! It's SO easy and the color combinations are endless. Just section off the hair above your ears and secure. Take small sections and tie yarn around the hair and knot. Release the top half of your hair and finish with a fun style. I love the yarn with the fishtail braid!

Poor Mans Product- Tool Edition

Infrashine Flat Iron: Buy Here

Using good quality tools is so important to getting the style you are after. Straightening your curls with a less than amazing flat iron isn't only hard on your hair but takes more time and effort on your part. My favorite flat iron is the original black Infrashine flat iron. I have used many different brands of professional flat irons and this is the best I have come across. I bought one a little over six years and up until 2 month's ago it has worked just as well as the day I bought it. Now keep in mind that I use a flat iron much more than someone who isn't a hairdresser. I would leave it on all day sometimes, it had been dropped and used often. However, a couple of month's ago I dropped it and one of the ceramic plates came loose. Even though it STILL heats, it's pretty unusable. I was pretty sad when my trusty flat iron that lasted so long, finally bit the dust. 

 Andis Flat Iron: Buy Here

Now let's keep in mind that I had purchased my Infrashine in my wonderful early college day's. I was living at home and working two job's whose income was solely used to buy myself fun things :) Nowadays no such income exists so I set out on a journey to find a cheap, but just as amazing flat iron. My journey was long and annoying, but after returning about 5 different flat irons I found the most unlikely yet AMAZING straightener! It was the one I was least expecting to work well and turned out to knock my socks off!  I bought it at Walmart for about $16-17. The one trick I found with this flat iron is to keep the heat turned all the way up, otherwise your hair snags in the plates (which is the main problem I had with all the other irons that I tried). But I felt it was definitely a worthy opponent to my Infrashine. 

So while someday I would love to be reunited with an Infrashine, the under $20 price tag of the Andis is too good to pass up!

Makeup Trends of 2011

Let's take a look back at some of this year's biggest makeup trends.

Eva Mendes is actually wearing 2 of this years hottest trends, the cat eye and metallic shadow. The cat eye has been seen on a ton of celebrities (most notably, Adele). It's a quick and easy yet sexy makeup trend which I LOVE because it looks great under glasses! Shiny, metallic eye shadows have been hot this year. I have always loved any color eye shadow as long as it is super sparkly and shiny so I have been loving that this is actually in style!

source: taaz 

Bold lips were huge this year. Even some unusual shades have been seen like orange and neon pink. This is my personal favorite makeup trend, I have been rocking bright lipstick since high school!

Bright eye shadow has also been a huge hit this year. I have been loving seeing all the pretty color combinations and creative use of color on the eye. The photo below is of Keiko Lynn, she has an amazing blog with lots of great makeup tutorials!

Keiko Lynn

Before I leave you for this year lets see who this years biggest style icon was. Without a doubt the moment this year that made me say WOW, was when I saw Kate Middleton at her royal wedding. She was the most beautiful bride I have ever seen, and reportedly did her makeup by herself! EVERYTHING was perfect, the hair, the dress, the jewelry and the makeup. She has impeccable style and I can't wait to see what she wears in 2012. 

What were your favorite beauty trends of this year? Can't wait to see what this next year brings!

Happy New Years Everyone!

Best of 2011

So obviously this month I have not been so great at writing, the craziness of this month really slowed me down. We went out of town for Christmas this year to visit my in-law's and it was STRESSFUL trying to get everything figured out and packed before Christmas. But I'm back and have some exciting plans for 2012. Tutorials and giveaway's, hurray!

Before we begin 2012 let's take a look back at all the lovely hair trends that we've seen this year. 

The biggest hair color trend of this year was definitely ombre color. It seem's that the super drastic ombre trend is fading out, but I think ombre in general is here to stay. In 2012 I think we will see a lot more of this trend but in a soft natural way, seen below on Jessica Biel. Her hair is definitely on my hair do list for next year!

If you have curled your hair this year, it's most likely been in beach waves. These gorgeous loose curls have been seen on everyone throughout the year, including me! I think this trend is here to stay for 2012.

Retro glam waves! Star's have been wearing this at every awards show of this year. Selena Gomez looks AMAZING with her vintage inspired dress and glam waves. I even wore this look to my husbands Christmas party and it was one of my personal favorite hair style's of the year!

Braids have been HUGE this year. I have seen braided hairstyles galore and I love ALL of them! Fishtail braids, french braids, maiden braids, braided bangs, and so many more. This is another trend that I don't think will fizzle out any time soon, and I couldn't be more happy! I love beauty trends that are super easy and work on most length's of hair.

source: Free People

 source: A Beautiful Mess

Come back tomorrow so that we can look back on some of the biggest beauty trends of this year!

One Length Bob

I have been growing my hair for what seems like FOREVER! I cut it pretty short right before I got married 6 years ago and it is finally gotten to my collar bone. My hair grows SUPER, ridiculously slow. I have been working so hard, for so long to grow my hair out but every once in a while I see a hair cut that make me think about chopping it off again. I love this haircut! It's a newer, more modern take on the super layered, Victoria Beckham bob that has been so popular. It's all one length (or very long choppy layers, about to the shoulders or shorter, and slightly shorter in the back. I have been oh so close to forgetting my dream of long locks and doing this cut!

Jennifer Aniston made this cut popular. Is there a cut that she's had that hasn't been a major hit?! Love the one length, slightly graduated bob. To get the texture she has try a sea salt spray or some hair wax. 

Dianna Agron from Glee looks gorgeous with this short haircut. She has a few more layers in hers and it's a little shorter. To get her volume use a volumizing mouse or spray at your root's before blow drying.

Katy Perry also recently chopped her hair into this short one length bob. This length looks so good on her and frames her face so well. And can I tell you how much I love the pink root's, they are so fun! I think this is her best look yet.

So what do you think of the one length bob? I'm hoping that I can influence some of you to get this cut so I can live vicariously through you and keep my length! :) If my hair grew faster than a few inches in 6 years, I'd be all over this!

Holiday Inspiration

It's that time of year and the Christmas season doesn't feel like it's started until I watch some of my favorite  holiday movies. My absolute favorite? Little Women. I watch it every single year and it totally gets me in the holiday spirit. Besides being a wonderful movie, there is some beautiful hair! I just love this hair era. The gorgeous long, unruly hair and lavish updo's, not to mention the beautiful clothing. The funny thing is, if you look at a lot of the updo's in the movie they are totally in style right now!  Center part, hair twisted back into twists and braids. So beautiful and classic. Here are a few pictures from the film for inspiration:

Ever since seeing this movie I have wanted to grow my hair this long. It has been an epic fail so far.

 My favorite look in this movie is when Jo and Laurie walk in the woods. 

Amy's hair is always perfection. I especially love her updo's when she's older.

all photos from :the fan carpet

So, are there any movies that you HAVE to watch during the holidays? My other favorites are White Christmas (of course), It's A Wonderful Life, and Holiday Inn. It doesn't feel like like Christmas time until I watch them!!