Katharine McPhee vs. Minka Kelly

 

Hey Girls!

Today I have a really quick and simple tutorial: Red Lips! I was inspired by this month.. not only is February the month of Love it is also the month of Women’s Heart Cancer awareness. I encourage you to wear red and learn about the illness, and maybe even become an advocate on your blog!

Red lips are bold and beautiful and very simple to achieve. The question we all ask ourselves is how do you make a red lip lasts all day (or night). I have a couple of tips that will definitely make the lifespan of your red lips increase!

Things you need:

• Clean & Exfoliated Lips

Exfoliating your lips is necessary when wearing ANY lipstick because lipstick accentuates dry skin.

• Chapstick

Remember to always moisturize your lips, I like to apply Chapstick before I began my makeup and while I do my eyes the Chapstick gets absorbed.

• Red or Nude Lipliner

Lining your lips with a lip liner is key to making it stay, think of it as your base.

• Red Lipstick & Lip Brush

Pick your favorite red, you can go for a deep wine to a bright coral-red.

• Tissue (1 ply)
• Translucent Powder & Powder Puff
• Concealer & Small Concealer Brush

Step 1: Clean moisturized lips are a necessity with any lip color. Many lipstick formulas are drying so keep that in mind! Exfoliate with a toothbrush and then apply Chapstick, let it absorb while you do the rest of your makeup.

Step 2: You can line your lips with either Red or Nude liner, depending which you are more comfortable with…either way it won’t matter. I chose red today. Don’t worry about making mistakes, we are going to clean them up later. Liner acts as a base for your lipstick, since most lipliners are dry and stain the lips more it helps to boost the color and keep it there. The liner also creates a barrier that prevents your lipstick from “bleeding” into the fine lines by your lips.

Step 3: After applying your lipliner to your entire mouth apply lipstick with a small lip brush. A brush is essential when applying colors such as red, plum, or hot pink because it gives you more control than just applying with a brush.

Step 4: Here is where the real tip comes into play! Blot your lips with the 1 ply tissue and apply translucent powder over the top of the tissue with the powder puff, this will not only remove extra moisture but it will also “lock” in the first lipstick application, making it turn into almost a stain.

Step 5: Reapply the lipstick.

Step 6: Using your concealer brush clean up any mistakes you made along the way, this will also create more dimension making your lips look bigger and fuller.

VOILA! The perfect red lip!

Hope you enjoyed this, let me know what your favorite red lipstick is!

XOXO,

Marla

Marla is a guest poster on OpalStevens.com. She’s a beauty addict who wants to share her love of makeup with the world. You can find all her awesome guest posts here. Also, make sure to check out her wonderful blog – Makeup By Marla.

 

This WWYRW post features The Chief Blonde from Still Blonde after all these YEARS, a blog for Women over 45 (and their younger friends) with Giveaways for ALL, ALWAYS over $50! Still Blonde after all these YEARS hosts the largest Fashion Giveaway on the web. Signups for the Spring Fashionista Event are going on now. The event with 115+ bloggers is scheduled to take place March 2-7!

 

Rooney Mara vs. Blake Lively

 

Many male and female beauty bloggers, along with their fashion interested followers, have been a victim of ignorant judgment at least once in their life. Individuals who keep up with their self image have all too often been misperceived as self-absorbed, narcissistic, conceited, or superficial all because they use themselves as the ‘art pallet’ to express their creativity and feelings. Other forms of creativity people choose to express themselves with are not so quick to be judged as self-absorbed. For example, if a musician spends time practicing for solos they do nightly at a local club for a crowd of people they are more likely to be quickly judged as passionate and artistic while if an individual puts their all into their outward appearance every morning people can begin to misperceive them as narcissistic and self-centered rather than passionate and artistically minded. Many outsiders to the fashion world do not understand that it is very artistically driven by creative people just like other forms of art communities; it is not solely driven on a superficial basis. individuals who take a strong in self image tend to be more self confident than others, which may be another reason a strong interest in maintaining a well kept self image may be confused with narcissism, but everyone should keep in mind that self confidence and being self centered are two completely different things. Fashion is meant to express someone’s personal feelings to their peers or even to the entire world whether it is just to express their personality, their self-confidence, their mood, their creativity, or art, some people even just feel the need to look at their best everyday to simply feel comfortable in their own skin and not to impress anybody!

I asked a few bloggers and local fashionistas on their opinion on this topic.

Moltofashion says, “For me, keeping up with my appearance is all about expressing myself. I see it a bit like coloring and drawing and playing music; it involves focusing on what we like best, mixing and matching it in ways that suit our moods and taste on a given day, to take what we love and what we are thinking privately and turn it into an outward display for other people to see. Anything that is personal is sacred because it’s part of who we are, who we think we are, who we want to be” Find her at emoltofashion.blogspot.com/

ArtInOurBlood says, “I believe that when you take the time to really think about what you wear, it shows others that you take pride in yourself. Ironically, I’ve had people come up and tell me that they wish they could get more dressed up for school like me but they don’t have the confidence to do it; however, when I dress up for school, I actually gain more self confidence through wearing clothing that makes me stand out.” artinourblood.blogspot.com/

Marlaandmakeup said, “The lack of knowledge and insight definitely hinders their judgement. Personally I do not think of myself vain or narcissistic, it is like I said before a lil’ TLC and some makeup doesn’t hurt anybody.” marlaandmakeup.blogspot.com/

Falteringbird said, “I honestly do believe that how you look and dress is an outward way of expressing how you say, without even opening your mouth.” falteringbird.blogspot.com/

Mollie says, “I think they label me these things mostly out of misunderstanding, because it’s hard to look from someone else’s perspective, and understand why they do the things they do.”

The lovely Kendall Wrote this guest post! On her blog (kendallca.blogspot.com/), she displays her own fashion to inspire others, which is generally more on the alternative side. She avidly post pictures on her Lookbook, which you can find here: lookbook.nu/kendoll. Make sure to follow her blog!

 

Hey Girls!

This week I decided to do a review on a semi-new nail polish company called Julep, which is stirring up waves in the Beauty Community.

A little about the company…

Julep is a boutique nail salon, they are a place that makes innovative and healthy nail polish, and hand/foot care. They are a subscription based company. You take a quiz to determine your style (ranging from American Beauty, Bombshell, Boho Glam, and Classic with a Twist) and every month they send you a box valued at over $40! The box includes never released nail polishes and a hand or foot care item.

They also offer you 20% the entire Maven boutique (meaning all released nail colors, treatments, and tools) when you are a member. Becoming a member does not mean you are “tied” down… you can choose to skip a month after you preview that months box and you can also choose a different “style” box if you feel that yours just isn’t your cup of tea.

They also have FREE SHIPPING ALWAYS!

** They donate $1 to womens organizations from the sale of each of the nail polishes**

My experience…

I have about six different colors of nail polish from them, the Glycolic Hand Scrub, and the Glow On hand brightener. My review will be on just one nail polish called Anne.

Anne is described as an ultra-saturated tropical violet cream. It is my definition of a very cool toned purple, that is actually quite wearable and perfect for springtime around the corner.

I found that this polish, probably relating to the fact that it is a cream, gets thick after doing 2-3 nails… But closing it and warming the bottle in between your hands allows you to finish up just fine, but this can be time consuming. I did 2 coats and achieved an opaque finish, I then followed to top it off with Essies Super Duper Top Coat. The nail polish dries fairly fast which is great for a girl thats always on the run.

The durability of this polish is not the best, in fact I find that it chips after 2-3 days and the shininess does not last. At $14 a pop I would expect it to last a bit longer!

Overall verdict…

I was very happy to have received this polish through giveaways and such, but I would not spend $14 on it. I simply could not justify paying that much for a polish that does not last on my nails more than 2 days…

Color payoff: 5 out of 5 stars

Durability: 1 out of 5 stars

Packaging/Shipping: 5 out of 5 stars

Customer service: 5 out of 5 stars (the women working there are so nice!)

Cost: 1 out of 5 stars

Overall: 3 out of 5 stars

If you want to check it out and see how you like it you can do so by going here: JULEP!

xoxo,

Marla

Marla is a guest poster on OpalStevens.com. She’s a beauty addict who wants to share her love of makeup with the world. You can find all her awesome guest posts here. Also, make sure to check out her wonderful blog – Makeup By Marla.

 

Are you looking for a great way to quickly gain some blog exposure? Then please join Opal Stevens and 100 other bloggers from 12:01am EST February 12 until 11:59pm EST February 18th as we give away major beauty related prizes during Valentine’s Day Week!

Current Grand Prizes:

• 18 Full Size Eye Shadows & Two Paint Pots from Tick Tock Cosmetics 
• $125 L’BRI Pure n’ Natural Gift Card (you can find all their products here)
• FHI GO “Love Your Heart” Flat Iron with complimentary red satin clutch
• $25 GoJane Gift Card
• $25 Stella & Dot Gift Certificate
• Intro Maven Box from Julep

What you can expect:

• The event will be promoted to the fullest.
• You’ll gain new Facebook, Twitter, and G+/GFC followers!
• A Facebook group to allow you to communicate and connect with other participating bloggers before and during the event.
• Questions answered and detailed instructions.
• A linky that will contain all participating blogs in the event.

What we expect:

• A giveaway post specifically for this event.
• A small paragraph (2-3 sentences) about the main blog sponsor (will be announced soon!)
• The event button and linky in your giveaway post and it’s suggested that you put the button in a prominent place on your blog to help promote this event to the fullest
• Giveaway entries should be quick and simple.
• A valid email address to contact you with updates.
• We hope that you will actively promote and participate to give as much exposure as possible to the event.
• Communication. If we contact you, please contact us back at your earliest convenience
• The event button either in your sidebar and/or events page of your blog

What You Need To Do:

• Please send $5.00 payment via Paypal to opalstevensblog@gmail.com. This fee is to ensure participation, help cover some of the costs to promote the event, and is non-refundable. Two participating bloggers will get a chance to win a nice sum of cash after the giveaway event!!!
• Fill out the Google form below.
• Add yourself to the linky after you have sent the payment.
• Ask to join the event’s Facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/308222169208189/

During the week of the giveaway all you have to do is write up a post that includes the giveaway button, 2 or 3 sentences about the main sponsor, and the Rafflecopter code which will be given out in the Facebook group and through email.

 

 

 Orange Bag Look

Bag: LuLu NYC
Jeans: Old Navy
Sweater: Vintage
Green Shirt: Bongo for Kmart
Scarf: Vintage
Boot: Monroe and Main

Red Blazer Look

Red Boyfriend Blazer- Monroe and Main
Jeans: Levis
Blouse: Worthington for JCP
Necklace: Forever 21

Brianna Dale aka BresBaubles
bresbaubles@gmail.com
bresbaubles.blogspot.com
FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Baubles-Accoutrements-and-Garb/238152926205760
@BresBaubles on Twitter

 

Cindy Molitor is the designer, manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer of Retro Revival aprons and shower caps. Her handmade beauties combine vintage domesticity of past decades with today’s practicality and are all handmade in the USA from original patterns

Retro Revival aprons are the perfect gift for stylish entertainers, vintage designers, retro collectors, domestic goddesses and take-out divas! From cherries to cupcakes, a wide variety of cotton fabrics, as well as hard-to-find authentic, vintage, upcycled tablecloths, are available. Uniquely designed to fit most women’s sizes 2-16 (larger sizes are available upon request), tie one on and you’ll feel positively feminine, a bit retro and all fabulous! (Men’s and little girl’s designs are now available too.)

You’ll want to toss that moldy, old plastic cap you grabbed from your last hotel stay once you get your hands on a Retro Revival shower cap. Unforgettably charming and chic, waterproof and washable, they provide a stylish and comfortable way to keep your tresses dry and frizz-free while you bathe. They are oversized to accommodate even long locks, lined with rip-proof, non-pvc nylon and covered in delightfully fun cotton that has been pre-washed to avoid shrinkage.

In business for just two years, Retro Revival has sold countless retro aprons and shower caps to individual women all over the world through her online boutique, and her Etsy shop, and to retailers in Atlanta, GA; Orlando, Florida; Los Angeles, CA; Ontario and Toronto, Canada; and numerous arts and crafts shows in the southeast.

Cindy’s studio is nestled within her home she shares with her husband on a six acre farm in the country outside Orlando, Florida. Designing and sewing since childhood, she remains a fierce fashionista (when not working the farm of course!) with a major lust for all things retro, especially vintage and kitschy linens, and passionately sews away her days, creating lovingly-made treasures.

Cindy makes so many wonderful products, from retro aprons to flat iron travel cases. I think her mission to rid the world of ugly, plastic shower caps is a valiant one! The caps she makes are super adorable and really affordable. Just take a look at a few of her many shower cap designs!

“Dotsie” Shower Cap

“Animal Instinct Pink” Shower Cap

“Hot Dots” Shower Cap

Check out Cindy’s Blog: retrorevivalbiz.blogspot.com/
Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/retrorevivalbiz
Facebook: www.facebook.com/retrorevivalbiz

 

Gabrielle Union vs. Jessica Alba