&*(Nail Tutorial -- Cheatin' Cheetah)*&

Hello everyone! I'm back with another nail tutorial. I hope you all enjoy this really easy tutorial! Be creative, you can always change the colors or do something different than what I did! =) That's the beauty of nail art designs or makeup, its a way to express yourself!

Let's get Started!!!

I ALWAYS start with a base coat. Currently I'm using Sally Hansen Double Duty Strengthening Base & Top Coat. Always protect your nails from any nail polish because you don't want to stain your actual nail.

Base coats, depending on the one you use, can alway strengthen and condition your nails. I sometimes use a hardener nail polish in this stage too. As you can see, I broke my pinky nail off so I'm being extra careful as I grow it back out! If you are really into doing nails, I ALWAYS recommend using strengtheners so you can keep your nails growing long and beautiful! =)

Next, I painted my nails with this color by Pure Ice.. Jaguar. This is a really unique color. It's a pale gold with gold glitter in it. It's really pretty.. Sadly, when taking pictures of gold toned nail polishes, my camera freaked out and didn't take the best pictures.. =( *sorry!!*

Always add thin coats of nail polish and let them dry. This will dry MUCH faster than globs of nail polish. It's a pain but patience will take you places with doing nails! haha This was just one coat. I did two to get the color I wanted.

Next, I used this very sparkly gold glitter nail polish by Sinful Colors.. called this is it. I decided to add some extra detail and did a french tip with this nail polish to all of my nails. It gave the nails just a little depth and a little more "pop" in my opinion. French tip is always optional!

Here is a pic after I did the french tip.. you can see the Jaguar color better here. =) Its one of my favorite everyday colors. =) Remember, the trick to french tip... Roll your finger and leave the brush still, it'll give you a clean straight line everytime!

This was just an added step because I love everything to be sparkly!! haha I did a thin line under the french tip as well as all over the nail after I did the last step of the black C's around the spots to just add some sparkle.

Time for the spots! I chose this true copper color by Pure Ice, called Gold Dust. I decided to stay within the gold shimmery family so this is what I chose for the spots. You can choose whatever color scheme you like though! =)

For this design, I chose to just have the spots going up the side of the nails other than the middle finger which has spots everywhere. You could use a dotting tool for this, a q-tip, or as I did.. just the nail polish brush. I didn't want all the spots to be perfect... No cheetah's spots are all the same! =)

Now to add the black around the spots! I used Kiss Nail Art Paint in Black. This is one of those nail polishes with a thin brush.. If you don't have a thin brush, you could always use a toothpick or a thin paint brush to do the details.

Create small C shapes around all the spots you made. Make them messy and all different just like cheetah spots! =)  Add a top coat, and you are finished!!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. It's super easy and is meant too be messy so be creative. This took me 30 minutes from start to finish!! Hope you all try them and enjoy being fierce! =)

Remember, Always Keep Smiling!

XoXo,

LB

&*(ELF Cosmetics Haul/Review -- Misc. Products)*&

Hello again! =) Hope everyone has been enjoying their week. As promised in my last post, I have another random review of some more ELF products. This will be on eye products and a few concealer type products. Hope you all enjoy! Remember to stay tuned for more nail tutorials!! =)

Also, please give me some ideas of nail designs you'd like to see! I want to take some requests from people who actually view my blog! I am currently working on tutorials for: strawberry nails, cupcake nails, rainy day nails, penguin (by request) nails, stars (by request) nails, hello kitty nails, and some striped nails. Give me some ideas of what you'd like to see!!

NOTE: I BOUGHT THESE PRODUCTS WITH MY OWN MONEY. I DO NOT WORK FOR ELF OR AM I BEING PAID TO DO THIS REVIEW. THESE ARE MY HONEST OPINIONS && I HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!

Anyways, let's get to the review!!

ELF Cream Eyeliner -- $3.00
1.) (top) Gunmetal
2.) (bottom) Purple
*My Opinion -- Okay, I love cream eyeliners for my lower lash line but these are terrible. I really wanted to love these because I love the colors but they are very chalky and hard to smooth out the clumps. The top swatch is just to show the color, next is too show it blended out (which does really well if blended out with a finger, but not practical for a liner), and last is a line done with the brushes that come with this. I HATE these brushes... Upside to this product is it could probably be used as a cream eyeshadow, a base for dark colors possibly? Not sure.. Hoping I don't have to just throw these away. Note these are also NOT smudge proof!!*

*All $3.00*
1.) (same as above) Cream eyeliner in Ivory
2.) Elf Pigment Eyeshadow in Passionate Purple
3.) Elf Pigment Eyeshadow in Naughty Noire
4.) Cream Eyeshadow in Dawn
*My Opinion -- My review on the cream eyeliners is above.. As for the pigment eyeshadows, OMG I love these! haha The left side of the swatches are dry, the right is wet. These are AMAZING wet so I'll use them as eyeliners even. I think they are worth $3.00 and you get quite a bit of product so gotta love that too!!
As for the cream eyeshadow, I love these as well! (see better review on this product in my misc. eye products review) They are super creamy and blend really well. I ended up ordering this one for when I do neutral looks.*

ELF Mineral Eyeshadow -- $3.00
1.) Outdoorsy
2.) Dreamy
3.) Beachy
*My Opinion -- These are probably my favorite buy from ELF. The left side is dry, the right is the eyeshadow wet. I have been using Outdoorsy a lot as an eyeliner as you can tell from the spot on the lid haha NOTE: Beachy is actually darker than on here, the flash brightened it no matter what flash I used! Sorry about that.. anyways, they are really great! I have been using them with the eye primer from ELF and they stay on all day! Gotta love that. Plus they have added new colors as well, lots to choose from! Definitely try these out!*

*All $.100*
1.) Waterproof Eyeliner Pen in Black
2.) Liquid Eyeliner in Silver
3.) Liquid Eyeliner in Plum
4.) Liquid Eyeliner in Black
*My Opinion --  *sorry that the lines were not straight haha Couldn't draw a straight line to save my life that day!!!* The eyeliner pen is okay.. Not my favorite but worth a dollar I guess... Not really impressed but a cheap alternative if you don't want to buy an expensive one in the store or something.. The liquid eyeliners... The silver is especially awful!! The tip was really hard and I couldn't imagine putting that on a sensitive area like my eye!!!! The other two were also not the greatest but at least better than the silver's tip. I am kinda indifferent about this product. Not the worst, not the best.*

ELF Duo Eye Shadow Cream -- $.100
1.) Coffee & Cream
2.) Berry Mix
*My Opinion -- These are seriously shimmery, especially the lighter colors. These were blasted all over YouTube as a great base for eye shadow.. I agree, IF you want a shimmery look at least with these two colors. I can't say its the same for all of them but I actually didn't like the shimmer. I might use this for a night out with eyeshadow on top but not alone. Worth the money as a cheap base alternative though to help especially hold loose eyeshadow in place*

1.) Eye Primer & Liner Sealer -- $3.00
2.)Under Eye Concealer & Highlighter (glow/fair) -- $3.00
3.) ELF Mineral Blemish Powder in Sheer -- $8.00
4.) Eyelid Primer -- $1.00
5.) ELF Concealer Pencil & Brush in Fair -- $3.00
*My Opinion -- Starting with the first one, the eye primer is okay but I like the formula of #4. The first product creases and I personally don't use the liner sealer.. The second product is actually really nice. I like the highlighter.. The left side is the highlighter and the right is the concealer.. The concealer works well for under eye area and this product has a really creamy easy to blend formula. The third product.. I added a lot of product just so you could see there was a swatch there.. This is a bit shimmery which I don't like but I haven't tested this fully to see how it works for blemishes. I will try this product everyday for a month and see how I feel about it then.. The fourth product is an everyday product now! This works well with the loose eyeshadows and doesn't crease. Great cheap alternative to something like Urban Decay's Primer Potion. I also have the mineral eyeshadow primer from ELF *not pictured* but I like it just the same. The last product I hate so much. It is not fair at all and has an orange tint too it. The brush is great but not worth buying this product for that brush.

ELF Nail Polish Remover Pads -- $1.00 for 18 pads
*My Opinion -- I LOVE THESE! My husband always complains about me using strong smelling nail polish remover but these don't have that strong smell. They have a pleasant lemon smell too them and really do a great job removing nail polish. If you don't like the smell of nail polish remover, try these. They may not be very cost effective in my opinion since I do nail tutorials BUT I like them anyways. I bought three more of these after I tried it when I first ordered these. I just really like the smell of them and hey, it makes my husband happy! WIN WIN =P *

Well thank you everyone for checking out my beauty blog and I hope you like my reviews on these products. I will be doing a review on products from Avon soon as well as more reviews of ELF products. I have brushes, brush cleaner, and another palette from ELF to review!! Will be up soon!

If you are reading my review and don't have me as a friend on facebook, add me! BeautysMagic@yahoo.com Let me know you saw my Beauty Blog!!!! =)

Remember, always keep smiling!!

XoXo,
LB

&*(ELF Cosmetics Haul/Review -- Misc. Lip Products)*&

Hello everyone!! I apologize in advance for this being late. I have been crazy busy since my husband and I will be moving in a few months and starting to make plans for that! I promise I am still doing my beauty blog! :)

I have tried recording some videos for my YouTube channel but I'm having to figure out this camera.. It's not focusing for some reason so if anything, until I get it working right and such, I will post tutorials on here with pictures. =) Next nail tutorial will be posted after I finish this. =) Cheetah nails, I'm going to be doing cupcake nails and strawberry nail tutorials soon! =)

Question of the Day:

Either answer on here, or my facebook page... What kind of nail designs would you like to see? Always looking for more ideas!

NOTE: I BOUGHT THESE PRODUCTS WITH MY OWN MONEY. I DO NOT WORK FOR ELF OR AM I BEING PAID TO DO THIS REVIEW. THESE ARE MY HONEST OPINIONS && I HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!

Onto the lip products!!

Therapeutic Conditioning Lip Balm - $1.00:
1.) Vanilla Creme (smells like vanilla)
2.) Orange Creme (smells exactly like orange cleaner)
3.) Blackberry Creme (has a sweet berry smell)
4.) Strawberry Creme (has a faint fake strawberry smell)

*My Opinion -- These are each a dollar and for the price, I guess they are not bad although each is a little different in the quality. I'm not sure if its the ingredients in the vanilla one but its really moisturizing and would be my reccomendation out of all of these.. I personally do not like the texture of the other three. The vanilla one is really creamy and goes on really smooth and actually feels like its conditioning my lips.. the others, not so much. They are more chalky too me. I really don't like the smell of the orange creme balm.. it's really strong smelling and it smells like something you'd use to clean your kitchen.. Not my favorite ELF product*

ELF Mineral Lipstick - $5.00
1.) Natural Nymph
2.) Runway Pink
3.) Barely Bitten
*My Opinion -- Honestly, these are not worth the money. I even got these on sale for 2.50 each and I still don't think they are worth that.. They are chalky, you'd have to use gloss with it and even then I don't like the way it looks. I prefer creamy lipsticks so they stay smooth as you wear them but the formula in these, I just really am disappointed in. If you did try these, NOTE: The colors on the website are not accurate. Each of the ones I got, the colors are actually a lot darker than the site shows. So personally I do not like these. Not worth $5.00!*

ELF Luscious Liquid Lipstick -- $1.00
1.)  Ruby Slipper
2.) Baby Lips
3.) Brownie Points
4.) Cherry Tart
5.) Raspberry

*My Opinion -- I actually really like these. It doesn't take much product to get a good color pay off. They all smell like peppermint. These are a little sticky and I'm really picky about that but I really like these even though they are not very creamy feeling. I like the wearability of these and that they come in a lot of colors!! Definitely try these.. Don't be afraid to go dark with these also! They are not as intense as they are in the tube.. Also, I actually really like the applicator on these. It makes for really easy application.*

I ended up ordering two more colors of the liquid lipstick. SEE REVIEW ABOVE.

1.) Caramel Candy


2.) Strawberry

ELF Mineral Lipgloss -- $3.00
1.) Trophy Wife
2.) Au Naturale
*My Opinion -- These are actually really decent glosses. Very creamy and pigmented. I wish the doe tip applicator would come out of the bottle with more product on it but that's really not a huge complaint. Lots of colors. NOTE: Trophy wife is pretty much a clear gloss even though it looks gold in the tube. It goes on clear.*

ELF Conditioning Lip Balm SPF 15 -- $3.00
1.) Romantic Rouge
2.) Peaceful Pink
3.) Blissful Berry
4.) Mellow Melon
*My Opinion -- I actually LOVE these. They get a lot of bad reviews on ELF's website but I really love how pigmented these are and how they are really creamy. I definitely recommend these!! These have way more pigmentation than the liquid lipsticks so I prefer these over those but both are great products for the price. I will definitely be getting more colors of these. Only complaint: The opening to actually get the product out is small and with nails, its extremely difficult. I just bought the set of 10 lip wands though to get the product out so not really a big issue!*

2 in 1 Conditioning Gloss -- $3.00
1.) Golden
2.) Perfect Pink
3.) Supermodel

*My Opinion -- Absolutely NOT worth the money!!!!!! As you can see the first two, the color doesn't even show up that comes out of the center of the lipglosses. Cheaply made, glossy is very tacky. I will NOT buy any more and will throw these away, that's how much I don't like them*

These are TERRIBLE! Hard to get the product out.. This was after wiping the gloss off three times and still no color.. Not worth it..

ELF Super Glossy Lip Shine -- $1.00

1.) Malt Shake

2.) Pink Kiss 

3.) Honey Do

4.) Candlelight

*My Opinion -- These smell really good so I really was hoping I'd like these. They have a really great grape vanilla scent BUT are awful glosses!! SUPER TACKY, I mean its literally hard to rub your lips together, its that tacky. The color payoff isn't very good either... Plus the colors on a couple of these are way off from the site.. Not worth a dollar! These will be thrown away too*

 ELF Minty Lip Gloss -- $3.00

1.) Los Angeles

2.) Nashville

3.) San Diego

4.) Chicago

5.) Miami

6.) Houston

*My Opinion -- Saved my FAVORITE for last!! These are worth even $3.00 a lipgloss! I love everything about these. The color may not be as pigmented as I'd like but they are buildable colors, have mint in them so they give a strong cooling effect, taste amazing!! haha I'll be buying the last three so I have all the colors! Because they are not as pigmented, don't be afraid to try darker colors. These are definitely worth the money!!!*

Only complaint is that the lid is cheaply put together... Easy fix with super glue though. I love the gloss so much that I'm okay with the lid being really cheap. haha The two seperated as soon as I opened it.. Fixed it and am happy with the product.

I hope you all enjoyed my lip product review. I will be posting a misc. product review soon since I have a few things that I didn't post in my first post of eye products and such since the orders hadn't come in yet! Hope you all are having a great day!

Remember, always stay smiling!!

XoXo,

LB

&*(Nail Tutorial -- Pretty in Purples)*&

Hello everyone! I'm sorry it's taken so long to get back on here to post again. I've been really busy with work and with stuff coming up this weekend. I promise the other reviews I have for ELF cosmetics will be up on Sunday!! Anyways, until then I decided to try to do a tutorial on here for nails since I am big into nail design. I just did a simple french tip but with bold colors! Keep reading for tips and tricks!! =) Hope you enjoy! Thank you again to everyone who has read my blog and such! =) The feedback has been great. =)

Here we go!!

I will list the products I use first then a picture of my nails as I was doing them.

So first I ABSOLUTELY love AVON nail products. I couldn't grow my nails out before for the life of me but started using Nail Experts -- length & strength complex and now I have long nails!! Now this product is supposed to be used alone without nail polish but I always use it as like a primer for my nails. I do have ALOT of AVON makeup/Nail stuff, etc because I do sell AVON but I'm not on here to promote myself, I'm on here to promote products that I really like and to give reviews on things I've tried. =) This is one of those products I use ALOT. =)

Now, I can not stress enough when doing nails that you should use a good base coat. If not, you end up with a situation like I have in this picture. haha I had painted my nails a bright pinky coral color without a base coat since I couldn't find one and it dyed my nails. I'm working on getting the tint off of my nails using another AVON product but it takes a little bit.. so PLEASE use a base coat.

Trick: If you don't want to spend a lot on getting a nice base coat, keep white nail polish on hand! I use white when I can't find a base coat or if I just want the colors to be true to the bottle and more vibrant. I totally goofed and didn't take a picture of the white coat I did, but I did take a picture of the product I used! lol




Product I used was Sally Hansens Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear nail color in White On



I am a huge fan of Sally Hansen nail polish, the Xtreme wear especially. You'll find that you don't have to spend $6.00 dollars on a single nail polish just to get good quality. Now I love china glaze, sephora brand, etc just as much as these but these cost $2.00 versus $6.00 so I can get more colors and still have a great quality product. You'll find most of my nail tutorials will be done with this brand, AVON, Sinful Colors, or Pure Ice.. All cost about $2.00 at your local walmart, drugstore, kmart, or on avon.com etc. You can find them pretty much anywhere that nail polish is sold! haha

Next color I used was Black on Black by Sinful Colors.. I love the formula of these and how they don't chip easily. I also love that this is a true black so you don't need 5 coats to get the color. =)

Now one of my biggest tips about doing nails, DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT BEING MESSY! haha You will see in most of my tutorials, that I'm not worried about making sure not to get any nail polish on my skin.. Either take a Q-Tip dipped in nail polish remover to clean them up OR wait till your nails are COMPLETELY dry and take a shower. The nail polish on your skin will come right off in the shower. If you don't want to take a shower, soak your fingers for a bit in warm water for about 15 minutes then carefully peel the nail polish off your skin!

Nails art is supposed to be fun so give yourself time to relax, watch your favorite TV show, just be prepared to let them dry fully then clean them up. =)

After letting the black nail polish dry, I put a coat of this polish over the entire nail. This is such an amazing color, one of my favorites at the moment. This is by Pure Ice in the color Cheatin. I have almost all the colors of Pure Ice from my local Walmart just because I love the price and the wearablity of this nail polish. Plus, I'm a sucker for color names and theirs are adorable! haha

With the color Cheatin, add as much or as little glitter as you want. Make sure if you build the amount of glitter like I did, to make thin coats and let them dry inbetween. Or use a nail dryer product such as ONYX Professional 3-2-1 Dry! Salon Nail Dryer.. It's a product you spray over your nails to help dry them faster. Personally with these colors though being so pigmented, I found you really need to rush the drying time. =)

For the french tip color, I used this purple color by Pure Ice called No Means No. This color goes well with the glitter colors in Cheatin. I like how this color has a blue undertone so it compliments the purple and teal colored glitter.

Remember, be creative! You don't have to use the same colors I did!! =) Nail art is about your style, the color combinations YOU come up with! Don't be afraid to be bold or if you want, soften the colors! As I always say BEAUTY IS DEFINED BY YOU! =)

Alright, the best tip I can give about doing a french tip is 2 things:

1.) Seriously, don't be afraid to be messy and get nail polish on your skin. It comes off. =)

2.) Start on one side of the nail and instead of dragging the brush across your nail,... rotate your finger to apply the polish. It'll give a cleaner line and gives you more control.

 To add the pin stripe under the No Means No color and to just clean up the look of the line, I used Kiss Nail Art Paint in Black.. This is a GREAT item to have in your nail collection. The brush in very thin so you can make fine lines instead of the bigger lines you make with a regular nail polish brush.

 And here is the finished look!!

I didn't take a picture of it all cleaned up but literally after this dried, I just took a shower and it cleaned it up for me! =)

I hope you enjoyed my tips/tricks/ and this look!! I will next be doing a cheetah print next week so keep a look out for that!!

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Remember, be creative & just be you!!

XoXoXo,

LB

&*(ELF Cosmetics Haul/Review -- Misc. Eye Products)*&

This will be Part 2 of a very large ELF cosmetics Haul/Review.

I found out about ELF by viewing some YouTube videos and everyone raved about these products. On top of that, they are cheap! They have their regular line which is all.. wait for it.. $1.00. The studio line is usually $3.00 or $5.00 plus they have a mineral line which I think is amazing!

You can find ELF cosmetics at http://www.eyeslipsface.com/ or sometimes at your local dollar stores or Target!
*Just a tip, if you have facebook, like their page http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/elfcosmetics to keep up to date on sales that they have going on!! I got most of my items 50% off!!*
I will explain each product as I post pictures since this is just random products I bought from ELF!

NOTE: I BOUGHT THESE PRODUCTS WITH MY OWN MONEY AND AM NOT PAID TO DO REVIEWS ON THESE PRODUCTS!!*

1.) Eye Widener in Pearl White
2.) Shimmer Eye Liner Pencil in Black Bandit
3.) Shimmer Eye Liner Pencil in Precious Pink
4.) Shimmer Eye Liner Pencil in Blissful Blush

*My opinion -- Okay... I don't like these at all. The product is alright but it does smudge easily. The lids are a great idea to have a built in sharpener in the lid but the caps fall off super easy and they make a huge mess. I will not be keeping these in my makeup collection since they are not practical*

Beauty Encyclopedia, Sparkle Eye Edition
*My opinion -- OMG I LOVE THIS PALETTE! It comes with 12 eyeshadows, two cream eyeshadows, an eyeliner pencil, and a small brush. I love all of the colors and they are extremely pigmented. This palette is $5.00 on the website and so worth the money. I'll be buying the other edtions they have as well!!!*

Same palette as above, just with some swatches as well! I even like the cream eyeshadows as well! All very pretty colors and you can do lots of looks with this including everyday neutral looks!

ELF Studio Endless Eyes Pro Eyeshadow Palette -- Limited Edition (100 eyeshadow palette)
*My opinion -- I LOVE THIS PALETTE! haha The colors are amazing and for the price, $10.00, you can't go wrong. Now, a few of them are not as pigmented as I'd like but for the amount of colors you get and such, such a great buy! I have a few coastal scents palettes that were like double this price for 88 colors!! Grab one of these while you can!! Only Con -- The packaging is cheap plastic and can easily break... but for the price I'm not going to complain*

Just some random swatches of colors out of this palette! :)

ELF Eye Transformer -- $3.00
*My Opinion -- This is a really interesting product. Basically this is to transform the eyeshadows you already have to make new colors such as I took a black eyeshadow from the 100 palette above and layered the eye transformer colors on top. This is basically so you don't have to buy every color out there. Example: You could take a dark purple and layer this on part of the eyelid to make a lighter purple to make a smokey look. Really great product in my opinion, especially if you are just starting out with makeup!*

Top swatch -- Elf Liquid Eyeshadow in Sultry Satin
Left Swatch -- Duo Eyeshadow in Blueberry
Right Swatch -- Berry Mix
Bottom Swatch -- Olive
*My Opinion -- I love the liquid eyeshadow especially as a base to make eyeshadow a bit shimmery. The duo eyeshadows are really great for on the go. I am not really excited about the packaging,.. cheap screw tops but great product. The duo eyeshadows are not extremely pigmented but are buildable!*

Elf Cream Eyeshadow in Eggplant
*My opinion -- These are great as bases!! I am ordering the other two colors that I don't have just because their stay power is pretty amazing and I like the formula of these. I also have this in Candlelight, pictured below! They are really shimmery though, so if you don't like that, I recommend a different product.*

         ELF Cream eyeshadow in Candlelight
         *My Opinion -- Really great product for the price. $3.00*

Left - Single Eyeshadow in Pebble
Right - Single Eyeshadow in Coffee Bean
*My Opinion -- $3.00. Good pigmentation although I've found with these single eyeshadows that they are a hit or miss. These two colors are a hit, I personally love coffee bean. Its a shimmery chocolate brown. Pebble is more a taupe/brown color, a good color for your crease to add a bit of depth to your eye look.*

Left -- Single Eyeshadow in Amethyst
Right -- Single Eyeshadow in Raspberry Truffle
*My Opinion -- Both of these eyeshadows are shimmery although Raspberry Truffle is a little more intense shimmer. Both colors are buildable and I love that these have a little clear opening in the lid so you can see the colors. Makes it easy to find colors in my makeup storage*

Just a random look I did with all elf eyeshadow products! =)

I hope you enjoyed my random eye product review of ELF cosmetics. I do have more products that I'm reviewing now and more in another shipment on its way!! If you would like more info, please feel free to contact me! I'm really wanting feedback to see what people think of my reviews or what I should do differently. =) Thank you!

Look forward to my review on lip products coming soon!!

XoXoXo,

LB

Remember if you want to try out any of these great products, go to: www.eyeslipsface.com

=)