This past week and a half has been NUTS! Among several big things going on in Magpieland, my husband and I were fortunate enough to be a house tour stop for one of our favorite musicians, Jim Bianco (cue fangirlish screaming that I held back while trying to be cool… if you haven’t heard his music yet, STOP READING THIS and go listen to Never Again).

It was an evening of wine and great music. What a night!

God damn terrific!

But onto the makeup. I wanted to go for a lighter smokey eye that was a bit more wearable, a touch of contour, and a pink-y lip that wouldn’t look too intense but would still stand out.

I used the mattes in my Laura Mercier Artist for Eyes 2013 palette, because all of my indie shadows were packed in their travel case in my closet (sorry indies!). Fresco was applied across the lid and blended onto the bottom lash line, with Truffle blended up from the lash line. I did use some of my new Lorac Pro 2 palette as well; light brown into the crease, and Cocoa in the outer edge of the eye.

We rearranged the top floor of our apartment to accommodate a gathering, and unfortunately in the rearrangement, my Palladio Herbal Foundation primer (which I love) went missing. So I went for a dusting of the Fyrinnae Hollywood Sorcery powder over my moisturizer, and then applied my foundation over that (Wayne Gossing it up). It worked well enough, I think! I was impressed with the staying power, and I think the slight ‘blurring’ effect of the Hollywood Sorcery powder really made my skin look all nice and dewy.

I also gave my Life’s Entropy Lip Theory samples a real first go! I will be doing a full review this upcoming weekend, with some shadows and everything that I got from my lovely and generous blogger pack, but as a preliminary use… god DAMN this stuff has staying power! It is super, super pigmented, and stains quite a bit as well. Considering I was looking for something that I wouldn’t really need to worry about applying (let’s be honest, I wouldn’t be giving a shit three glasses into a bottle of wine), I think I made the right choice. I used Vaccine (red) with just a touch of Synapse (yellow), and then blotted that down and applied Coralation over it. Ultimately, it gave me this sort of rosy/sort of bright pink/red color. I wore it for about 7 hours, didn’t reapply, and it did fade some, but was really distinctively still ‘there’. I did find that my lips felt a little bit dry after a couple of hours, but I dabbed a little bit of lip balm over it, and found the stain was solid enough that it wasn’t really impacted.

Here it is after about 7 hours of use and drinking, no reapplication:

Of course I used my now standard Pumpkin and Poppy Oak Bark contouring powder, and then My Pretty Zombie’s PCP blush. Perfect orange-y peach!

Ahhh, the curse of glasses! I could have probably gone for a smokier eye, considering, but it was step one in the direction of maybe a… dare I say it… more daily usage of smokey eyes?

By way of lips, I think that the Lip Theories make an excellent replacement for OCC Lip Tars. Not only are they less expensive, but their pigmentation is excellent and I thought they applied wonderfully with a lip brush. PLUS they have a terrific science theme. How can you say no?! The only thing that might not appeal to everybody is that they stain like a bitch, even using coconut oil to try to remove it. However, if you are planning on drinking all night, you too might find that to be a plus! 😉

Some swatches coming up soon, more from Life’s Entropy, and ALSO some killer mattes from Blackbird Cosmetics!

Products

MUFE HD foundation in 110

Fyrinnae Hollywood Sorcery finishing powder

Laura Mercier secret concealer in 01 and secret brightening powder

Anastasia dipbrow in Auburn

Clumpcrushers in black

MUFE full coverage concealer

NARS smudgeproof eye primer

Laura Mercier Fresco and Truffle, and LORAC Light Brown and Cocoa

My Pretty Zombie PCP blush

Pumpkin & Poppy oak bark contour powder

Life’s Entropy Lip Theory in Vaccine, Synapse, and Coralation

Urban Decay All Nighter setting spray