How Young is TOO Young for Makeup??

Hi Lovelies! Do you remember when you first started wearing makeup? Was it a big to-do with your mom unveiling her coveted makeup collection and teaching you how to do it? Or was it more like mine where each year I'd get to incorporate a new item to my routine?

I was always allowed to wear lip gloss (and there were Bonne Bell lip smackers all over my room lol). But when I was about twelve, my mom let me get my first ever "compact" which was a little pressed powder and mirror from Wet 'n Wild. I felt so grown up! And it was only powder!

via

In 8th grade (I was thirteen) I was able to start wearing lipstick which was a more teenage version of lipgloss;) (still Bonne Bell lol).

In 9th and 10th grade I got eyeshadow and eyeliner... as long as I didn't make myself look like a whore (my parents never used the word "whore" but I knew there were reasons my dad didn't want me wearing crazy blue shadow). Wanna guess what brand I was using? lol. Bonne Bell (seriously, the best makeup for younger women!;)

Mascara and blush came about in college and only recently have I started wearing foundation on a regular basis.

So is there any right or wrong time to start using makeup? How do you feel about tween girls wearing makeup?

 

geoGiRL decided that the 8-12 year old girl market needed some makeup products! They produced all the basics--powder, eyeshadow, lip gloss, eye liner, and even some facial masks! All natural/mineral products that wouldn't be clogging pores or causing any rash or skin abnormalities. Or so was the plan.

There was an outrage of parental concern! Girls are too young! They have their whole lives to mess with makeup, why start so early? What is this teaching them? Does it say "you're not pretty enough on your own, you need help for others to like you"?

This is the first of a few posts about geoGiRL, more to follow; but for now, tell me what you think!:) How do you feel about tweens wearing makeup? If you have/had a daughter, would you let her wear makeup? At what age? What products? How old were you?

Flashback Friday: Pink and Blue Eyes

Happy Friday!!! There was more sunshine this week, and it was harder to be stuck inside at work:( But! I'm looking forward to the weekend and hoping for some more beach days! Yay!!

When I was younger, I was very impressionable when it came to reading magazines. If Cosmo told me that boys liked girls who wore gorilla suits and pink mohawks, it's quite possible I would've done that. (thankfully, I never read an article that said that;) What I did read, however, was that blue eyeliner made brown eyes pop!

Now, for most of my life, I was convinced my eyes were the color of muddy puddles. You know what a muddy puddle looks like right? Just a dingy brown.. maybe some scum or mold floating around in it... ew. Gross. And that's how I felt about my eyes. They were brown.. but not a pretty chocolate brown. Not some deep color boys would get lost in, lol. There were flecks of green/hazel in them too. And sometimes a yellowish tint... I'm getting sad just thinking about how disgusted I used to be with them (update, I have since grown to accept and enjoy the unique color that is my eyes;) Anyway, if Cosmo said blue would make them pop, I was going to make my eyes pop!

From then on out, it was the same beauty routine on my eyes all the time. Day in and day out. Bonne Bell Eye Style Shadow Box in Girlie Pink (shocking, right? Some things never change... lol) and Wet 'n Wild eyeliner in Deep Blue (or Navy Blue, I can't remember the exact one I was using then. But the eyeliner that was pretty much 99 cents at CVS lol). I rarely used mascara.

I was still all about wearing eyeshadow the "right" way. I would use the lightest pink on my brown bone, the medium pink at the bottom over the lid, the dark pink in the crease for contouring, and the silvery color on the inner corner of my eye. This was my eye routine for my junior and senior year of college... and probably part of my post college life, too...

So... why do I bring this up now...? Maybe it's regression, but.... I'm doing it again. Haha.

Now, I've definitely matured it some! (I'm now using purples instead of pinks; and have upgraded to Maybelline's Define-A-Line eye liner in Navy Blue) But some wisdom from Cosmo is ever enduring, and I really do think that the blue makes my eyes pop!

How about you? Do you ever go back to beauty trends you used in the past? What are your thoughts on colored eye liners?

Everyday Makeup Q&A

Happy Wednesday! The week is halfway over! Hope you're having a great one and looking forward to some fun stuff over the weekend:)

Today's Q&A is actually one I got on last week's post. It comes from Beautiful Stranger from A Thing of Beauty and she asked:

Q. "Do you prefer natural or eye-popping makeup? It always fascinates me to what other makeup junkies consider to be an 'everyday' look :D"

A. This is a great question! And it's a good point. All these bloggers out there that review great products and show all this stuff, it's very easy to wonder what they use and how they look every day.

Hate to disappoint you, but on most days I have very basic, minimal makeup routine, especially during the week. (partly 'cause I don't want to overdo it at work... but mostly 'cause I'm lazy and I choose a few extra minutes of sleep vice a few extra beauty minutes lol)

my everyday makeup bag

So it's usually moisturizer (Pond's), primer (Hard Candy), eyelid primer (e.l.f.), powder (MAC Studio Fix), eyeshadow (usually pinks, purples, or browns) (Wet 'n Wild, Hard Candy), liner (which I am positive is the secret to making my eyes noticeable at all lol) (e.l.f or Maybelline), mascara (e.l.f. right now, often Maybelline), lipgloss (too many brands to list!). DONE! I call it 5-minute makeup!

For night's out and weekends, I'll usually add darker eye makeup and some contouring powders. More on this another time:)

What are some of your go to products? How do you wear your makeup every day?

Wet 'n Wild Baking a Cake Review and Swatches

My latest obsession has been the Wet 'n Wild's baked eyeshadow in "Baking a Cake" (you'll remember when I bought them and gave a quick comment about them in this post). Anyway, I've been using the palette almost exclusively for the past few weeks and I LOVE THEM!!! Like, I can't even say enough good things about how wonderful they are!! Now, I've mentioned that I'm a fan of baked eyeshadows and I really like Hard Candy's---this selection even far surpasses that!! For instance, even with eye primer, oftentimes I'd have the Hard Candy shadow still crease and fade away on my eyes--Wet 'n Wild? Lasts ALL day. This morning, I forgot to put my primer on (okay, confession, sometimes I do my makeup in the car in the parking lot at work and I'm usually in a rush!) and the Wet 'n Wild shadow stayed perfectly in place all day long!

Now to rewind a bit, these are carried at Walgreens, but not EVERY Walgreens. I'd watched a few YouTube girls before I purchased them who'd said you sometimes have to look around a bit and even visit more than one Walgreens to find them. I figured I'd have to browse a bit, but I nearly missed seeing them altogether!! There wasn't even a display case, the holiday palettes were all just stacked together sideways near a number of other random beauty products! But it was well worth the search!!!

Here's the swatches I did first dry then wet:

The colors are all perfectly blendable, layerable, and usable for every occasion!! They all have a shimmer in them (light glitter/sparkle) which I really like, but may not be for everyone. (however, since it is a holiday palette, everyone can use a little shimmer around the holidays!:) I'll get some pictures of eye looks I've been using lately and will post those for you soon! It came with an eye pencil, which I know some people didn't like a whole lot (saying it was waxy). I think it works just fine--sure, it's not necessarily the quality of a high end eyeshadow, but it works great.

So you may be wondering how do I use the eye shadows wet? Some people use water (using a spray bottle just to moisten them; or dip the applicator in water). I read one time that bacteria can end up in the shadows using regular water (don't know if that's true or not; but I'm not sure I want to take my chance). The article I was reading went on to say that eye drops (like Visine) work perfectly. That's what I've been doing! The plastic lid comes off the shadows, put a couple drops of Visine in the cover, dip the applicator, and away I go! No eye infections ever!

Run to your nearest Walgreens, look around a bit, and pick these up! They're $4.99 and come in three different color combinations (Baking a Cake [pinks], Baked Not Fried [browns], and Bake Off Contest [blues])--get them while you can!! I'm hoping to get back to Walgreens and pick up Baked Not Fried before they're gone! :)

xoxo,

Q&A Nail Polish Brands

OMG, it's been so long since I've sat down to blog! I just realized I hadn't even opened my netbook since my last post! What a slacker! A lot to catch up on! But first, I know a lot of you were interested in my doing more Q&A times. (if you have a question, just tweet me @GlossandGlaze or email me at glitterglossandglaze@gmail.com; I promise to answer each and every one of them!)

Q. Dear K, what is your favorite polish brand? Do you think the expensive ones are actually better and last longer? ~Emily


A. Dear Emily, I'm really glad you brought that up. Nail polish comes in all different colors, textures, types, brands, prices, etc. You don't have to be rich to have a lot of bottles! I'm going to give you some thoughts of what I think, but keep in mind, these are just personal opinions and you might think other ones are better for you. I'd say all my polish falls into about three price ranges: cheap (I prefer to say "affordable"; as cheap has some negative connotations:); average; and expensive (and really the "expensive" ones to me are not THE most expensive on the market!)

Affordable
So for affordable, there's Sinful Colors (which you'll see in a lot of my pictures!). You can pick it up at Walgreen's, CVS, etc. for about $1.99. It comes in a variety of fun colors and doesn't get gloopy at all. Also, N.Y.C New York Color and Wet 'n Wild (which I talk about a lot too!) and are both about $.99-$1.99, and they have come a LONG way since when I started polish back in the 90's. With the proper base coat and top coat, these polishes work great and don't look cheap at all! Because they're cheap, you can pick up a whole bunch of them and still stay well within your beauty budget!! :) I have found that they may take a few extra coats to get the strong color that you're going for. Because of that, sometimes they cheap a little more 'cause there's so much polish layered on. (or I'm more tempted to pick at them 'cause it just peels right off!)

Average
This is where I'd put polishes that are in the $4-$6 range--Sally Hansen, Revlon, etc. I have one Revlon polish--it's a scented polish (which I plan to do a whole post on!) It's fab, but very light and chips pretty easily. Now, I can't say this about ALL Revlon polishes because I only have this one. Sally Hansen on the other hand is pretty much a-maz-ing! There's a bunch of different kinds in the line (there's the Hard As Nails, Diamond Strength, etc.) and they are heavy duty! My one complaint with Sally Hansen is their sorry excuse for a crackle polish--it was clumpy, didn't crackle at all. I ended up taking it back to Walgreens. Good try, Sally, but I'll pay a little extra. Which leads me to the...

Expensive
Now as I already stated, these are "expensive" to me (since a lot of my polish is from the "affordable" section) lol, but I know a lot of girls buy only the "expensive" kind, and that is totally cool. These are your $7.50 and up polishes. The O.P.I, Essie, Zoya, etc. My favorite thing about O.P.I is all the different kinds they have--the different lines they come out with (still haven't gotten the Muppets yet, but I reallllllyyyyy want to!!!). It's a smooth polish that doesn't need a lot of coats and lasts for a long time. I only have one Essie and I'm pleased with it, but I'm not sure I'd say it's THAT much better to be worth what it costs. I have yet to use a Zoya polish (how sad, right??)

So, what are the bottom lines? What are my favorite polishes? Here's the breakdown, my base coat is always O.P.I. Partly because I got a bottle for free when I bought my shatter polishes this summer, but I really do think it works extremely well! Even using cheaper base coats, I would still sometimes get that orangey, dingy look to my nails; since using this one, my nails always look natural and healthy:) For color, Sally Hansen wins this category for me--especially the Hard As Nails. I think it's the longest lasting (for the price)! My top coat that I've been using for a while now is N.Y.C super shiny; but mostly because my Nicole by O.P.I. is getting too low to get any on the brush! I'm really not picky about my top coats (but I'm sure if I were even the cheaper polishes would last longer!)

I know I got all rambly, but I hope that answers your question!!

(note: I know I didn't discuss ALL of the nail polish brands out there; I have some ORLY ones, Nicole by O.P.I; but I focused more on some of the more popular ones in my collection:)

xoxo

First Loves

So today is the 28th birthday of high school boyfriend! Happy Birthday to him!!! If he and I were still together the total amount of time would be... 11 years 9 months and a few days lol. Oh, how far we've come and changed over that amount of time. He really was my first love and will always hold a special place in my heart.

There are other "firsts" in my life that also will always hold a special place in my heart. I remember vividly my first *real* lipstick. It was by Bonne Bell "Lip Gear" and came in a grayish tube.. the shade was called "Honey" and it was a very soft, light brown. I loved it so much, I got another of the same brand just another color--that one was "Pink Lemonade" and as expected was a light pink color. Lipstick was the first makeup I was actually "allowed" to wear. And it was probably because it was so much like lipgloss (which I'd been using my entire life;) I've searched high and low for pictures of these first lipsticks and I can't find them anywhere! I did however see a multitude of other Bonne Bell products that were also very early products for me. I had the lip sheers lipstick (in "Wine Cooler" which was a deep burgundy wine color and another brown one I can't remember the name). All of my lipsticks back then were really matte and simple. :)

How about first nail polishes?? I can't remember exactly which ones were first, but my first three were a dark blue and a silver glitter from Wet 'n Wild and a hot pink I'd bought at Claire's. I used these polishes ALLLLL the time. My dad didn't really like the blue one 'cause it made me look trampy or something lol, but the glitter was totally okay and I wore it so much the bottle was almost empty!

Years have past and I don't have any of those firsts in my life any more, just the pictures and memories. But even though times have changed (and so have I) I still find myself enjoying some of those firsts--I still have a lot of Bonne Bell items in my makeup collection; most of my lipsticks are still pink and brown; and I now have multiple pinks, blues, and glitter polishes:) Maybe some things never really change...

What were some of your firsts? Do you ever find yourself reverting to the age old staples?

TGIF!

Wow, this has been one of the longest weeks in a while! Even though it's Friday, all day it felt like Thursday--kind of like the week that would never end! Work has been busy and has taken a lot out of me. I laid down for a little nap after work and ended up sleeping for almost three hours! 


I'm very excited about the weekend though! (aside from catching up on some much needed sleep). I'm going to tea with some of my best girl friends tomorrow! Not just regular tea, but actual formal sit down tea with little sandwiches and sweets, etc. SUPER excited!! I hope it's not a letdown:)


In beauty news, there are a few things on my "to buy" list. I've seen several reviews on YouTube now regarding Wet 'n Wild's holiday baked eye palettes! I *love* baked eye shadow--wear them wet or dry! The ones I have in my current rotation are from Hard Candy (surprise, surprise)--their Kal-eye-descope Baked Eye Shadow Duos

Apparently the Wet 'n Wild ones are only at Walgreens and only certain Walgreens. A lot of girls have had to try several stores to find them, and even then some of the stores that were selling it were sold out already. So I'm gonna look around this weekend and see if I can find them:) I think they've got some special holiday nail polishes out as well that I'd like to try.

The other product I'm going to pick up is thanks to Karen at Beauty and Makeup Blog! e.l.f.  has nail polish remover pads for $1!! (sidenote, how wonderful is, like, almost EVERYTHING from e.l.f.) She says they work great on non-glitter polishes. So I'm going to pick some up and see how I like them. Then I'll let you know!