Friday, February 18, 2011

Simple Dark Blue Liner and Morgana Cryptoria Lipgloss Makeup look

I tried a bronzer with this look. I applied it lightly and blended it very well but I don't think it looks right with my skin tone. Maybe I need something lighter...not sure. I wore this look to run errands.
 
 


Eyes:
Chafing Relief Powder-Gel (applied all around the eyes, blending in gently with ring finger)
elf Studio Eye Transformer - blue (applied to upper eye area with MAC 239 by patting)
Urban Decay 24/7 liner - Binge (applied to upper lash line winging out)

Eyebrows: Ardell brow powder in Mink Brown

Lips: Morgana Cryptoria Mystical Gloss in Plumeria (Discontinued)

Face: Skin MD Shielding lotion
Physicians Formula Healthy Wear SPF 50 Powder in Translucent Light (applied using a flocked sponge by patting then blending)
Physicians Formula Healthy Wear SPF 50 Powder Bronzer

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Exercise for 2-17-11 Yoga Meltdown Level 2 with Jillian Michaels

After my last exercise post, I still felt crappy (run down and nauseous) so I did go through with doing Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown, as I mentioned I might do. This time I did level 2.

Video preview:

 

Details:
Jillian introduces a new yoga workout unlike any other. Combining hard-core yoga power poses with her dynamic training techniques, Jillian will get you real weight-loss results fast. YOGA MELTDOWN includes two complete 30-minute workouts that include a warm-up and cooldown. Begin with the Level 1 workout which focuses on quickly flowing yoga sequences to burn mega calories. Then progress to Level 2 which adds twists and balance poses for an even greater burn.

http://jillianmichaels.shop.sportstoday.com/Product.aspx?pc=JIAM55DVD

My thoughts:
This was a little more intense than level 1. Jillian introduced different moves that aren't in the first one. There were some more challenging balance moves that reminded me of how I'm quite wobbly on my left side while my right side is always solid. So weird how the body works. Why can't I be balanced on both sides?! Welp, it's just more of a reason to focus more on the left side to improve on it.
I built a lot of heat doing this workout but didn't sweat. I don't necessarily need to but that's how I usually know if something is challenging enough for me, by how much I sweat.
Even though I'm not too fond of Jillian's overly excited attitude for yoga (I think it's great for other styles but yoga?), I still enjoyed the overall workout and will more than likely do it again for lighter workout days.
Also, Jillian's behavior is some what cute and she lovingly picks on her participants, which makes the experience feel less routine and robotic. We've all done workouts that feel like the instructor isn't a human being...I like that this one isn't that way.

~BLIX

Exercise for 2-15-11 Sharon Mann Yoga/Pilates & Stability Ball

I have become used to not posting my workouts (from not doing my normal stuff due to moving) so I'm forgetful lately. I'm sorry!

On Tuesday we attempted to do a Sharon Mann Yoga/Pilates workout. Even though it's Yoga/Pilates, she still throws in other things. I chose my own combo workout pattern which was a balancing warm up, strength training with weights, stability ball strength training, then a pilates cool down. For some reason my computer went nutso and crapped out half way through the workout and would not play the rest of it.

Regardless, here's the DVD info:
THE WORKS with Sharon Mann
DVD #2  "YOGA & PILATES
One of the industry's hottest new crazes. Yoga & Pilates
is great for all ages and fitness levels.  This fully-interactive DVD offers a huge selection of  workouts including: Yoga,
Tai Chi, Pilates, Flexible Strength & more! Choose from
a number of pre-programmed workouts or design your
own using the fully interactive menu.  There are three
different levels of fitness demonstrated for all exercises.
With all the choices offered on this one disc, you can
create over 1000 different workout combinations!  

Pre programmed workouts include:

Mixed Yoga Workout,   Flexible Strength Workout Pilates Workout,   Pilates & Yoga Workout  +
Yoga For Strength,  Pilates Mat Work,  Body Sculpt, 
Pilates Core Training,  Strength Training,  Total Yoga,
Stability Ball Training, Tone & Strengthen + More!
 



Soooo...we did the balancing warm up which was nice. I love balance training as it helps with every day life and activity. Then went on to strength training with weights. Sharon likes to combine multiple workouts so you get a lot done in a little amount of time. My hubby and I always use heavier weights to make it more challenging so were sweating and breathing heavy. The workout crapped out right when we were laying on the floor doing chest presses and the video just froze. So we layed there for several seconds with the weights held at the top...just waiting...hoping it would kick back in. It did, but it was choppy and not doable. ANNOYING!

We turned it off and watched X-Files on Netflix while doing some more exercises to finish the workout. Most muscle groups were worked to exhaustion with Sharon, so I finished off with over head military presses, push-ups, overhead tricep extensions, dead rows and calf raises.

For abs I used my stability ball. Here's a couple of my fav ab exercises to do with the ball. I don't have names for these. I learned them several years ago from a fitness magazine and have done them regularly ever since. I just don't remember what they are called. So if you know, tell me. :-)
With abs it's hard to separate a particular area, but you can dig in and put more focus onto a specific area you want to work on with the right exercise and form.

To work your upper and lower abs
#1. Lay on your back, hold your knees up so your shins are parallel with the floor. Place the ball on top of your shins and just hold it. Then if you feel you need more, keep holding it and place your hands behind your head for support and do crunches. Just laying there and holding it you should feel your entire abs engaged.

To work mainly lower abs
#2. Depending on the size of your ball, this could be easy or hard to pull off. I have two sizes so I use my smaller one for this. Lay on your back as though you are going to do crunches, take the stability ball and place it under your knees. Dig your heels into the ball and squeeze towards your bum. This should cling to you and not roll out from under you if you have a good hold onto it. Once you have the position down, do reverse crunches focusing on the lower abs by pushing up with the pelvis. If you can't hold onto the ball this way, you can just hold it between your knees and still do reverse crunches.

To work mainly lower abs
#3. This one is hard and I LOVE it. Lay on your back, arms down at your side, keeping your legs straight and knees aimed up, raise one leg up, place the ball between your legs on the lower half of the legs (looks like scissors about to cut a ball in half) holding the ball with the front of the leg on the floor and the back of the leg being held up. Squeeze the ball so it doesn't get away from you. Then raise your legs up together still holding onto the ball. Remember to keep your hands at your side for stability. I will do a few sets of at least 10 on each side. Feel the burn! It's honestly the only exercise I have been able to do that makes my lower abs sore. :-) If this is too difficult, rather than raising your legs over and over, you can lift up so you're only an inch from the floor and just hold for a few seconds.


I hope those made sense! Ha! If you need pictures for better understanding...I'll see if I can do that for ya. :-)

I'm not feeling too great today but I still plan on working out tonight. So I may give my Jillian Michael's Yoga Meltdown another go since it's on the lighter side.

You can get Sharon Mann DVD's here: Sharon Mann
She's not nearly as evil as Cathe, but like I said, she crams a bunch of stuff together on 30 minutes so if you don't have much time, Sharon's "The Works" series is great. She has a few other DVD's but I've never tried them.

Hope you all are having a wonderful week!

~BLIX

Green and Blue Makeup look with Aromaleigh

The shadows from the Mythos collection don't seem to be very pigmented to me. Felt like it took a while to build up the colour to the intensity that I wanted, which was annoying. Out of the latest collections, I think I like the Astronomical one the most.
 
 


Eyes (all applied in this order):
Chafing Relief Powder-Gel (applied all around the eyes, blending in gently with ring finger)
Detrivore Eye Primer (applied all around the eyes, blending in gently with ring finger) 
AL - Snow (applied under brow with MAC 217 by patting, sweeping and blending downward)
AL - Neptune (applied to lower lash line and outer 1/3 of upper eye area with MAC 239 by patting/sweeping)
AL - Hades (applied to outer V with MAC 239 by patting)
AL - Hyperion (applied to inner half of upper lid with MAC 239 by patting)
AL - Pherenice (applied to lower inner V with MAC 228 by patting)
Mehron Paradise Palette - metallic blue (applied to upper lash line winging out)
Urban Decay 24/7 liner - Deviant (applied to water line)
Cover Girl Volume exact mascara in Very Black (upper lashes)

Eyebrows: sparkly brown shadow (applied with MAC 266)

Lips: Avon glazewear lipgloss in Island Glow
Face: Skin MD Shielding lotion
Physicians Formula Healthy Wear SPF 50 Powder in Translucent Light (applied using a flocked sponge by patting then blending)
AL You're a Doll! Gothic Lolita Rouge in Dolly (applied to cheeks with a small angled blush brush)

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

My Vanity, Makeup Collection and Organization

I figured it was time to share with you what my vanity looks like and how I organize my "crack".  I get that some gals see this as showing off, but I LOVE seeing your vanities, collections and how you organize it all. So I am sharing mine with you.


What my vanity looks like currently

In my old apartment, my husband made a sort of vanity for me to make the most of our space. It was really cramped but it was so wonderful and worked well for the space. I HATE standing for an hour trying to do makeup. So my husband put up a shelf at the level of the counter and I sat on the toilet to use as a vanity. :-D
Might seem totally meh but it worked out. So if you have a small place, you might be able to do something similar.

Here's my old vanity from the apartment so you can see what I started with:
This was from July of 2009. I eventually had vanity lights put up on the wall and an additional shelf to make room for more crap I got after this was taken. :-) 

This is what my new vanity looks like in my house as of today February 16, 2011. Such an improvement!!!
 Vanity is now in my room so I don't feel cramped in a crappy bathroom.

 Got this vanity chair from Marshall's and the white/clear plastic organizers from Walmart.

 Mirror, pen holder and spinning office organizer (used for brushes) were purchased from Marshall's. On the left, I have a cup from Japan and a small votive candle holder used for my eyeliners. Everyone HATES my mirror as it magnifies like crazy. But that's why I love it. Helps me create better detailed makeup when I can see it better.

 This is two drawer organizers stacked on top of each other. They were purchased from eBay and they are about $50 each depending on where you get them. I'm going to get at least one more to reorganize the rest of my Aromaleigh and Morgana Cryptoria

 Most drawers are pretty full.

 Glitter

 Fyrinnae shadows

 More office organizers from Marshall's used for holding palettes and my NYX and Collection 2000 glitter liners.

 Lipstick, lipgloss and miscellaneous glitter stuff. I recently ordered a lipstick/lipgloss organizer to get rid of this thing so I'll post about it when I get better organized.

 lipstick

 lipgloss

 miscellaneous glitter stuff and sugarpill.

 I call this my Aromaleigh tower. This isn't even half of my Aromaleigh stuff. I'm in the process of getting more black organizers so I can put everything together and be more organized, since I don't have enough room for it all to fit in here.

 Hair clips/flowers and my sample book.

 my fav drawer

 sample book

 Of course Morgana stuff is in the front. :-D

 Glitter

 Aw...doesn't this make you sad?!

 All my MAC pigments/glitter. Ha!

 Large vanity drawer on the left that holds my supplies for mixing my own lip and eye shadow stuff. I use those baby cloth diapers to clean my brushes. :-)

 This is the middle drawer. Holds my eye primers, lash glue, lotions, mascara, concealer and some lippies I've made. Also holds some other basic beauty stuff in there.

Top drawer on the right: Face stuff

Bottom drawer on the right: Faux lashes

My honey bunny working hard to put it together. This thing is huge, made of real wood and HEAVY.

I hope you enjoyed a peak into my makeup world and I hope the organization may give you some ideas if you are having any trouble with that. Feel free to ask any questions.

~BLIX

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Film Noir Makeup look with Morgana Cryptoria

This is a type of look that I LOVE doing. I always get compliments with this and I hear a lot that it looks very film noir even though that hasn't been my intention. We've all seen the romantic black and white movies where the main actress has dark, dreamy makeup that makes her eyes look HUGE. The way the movies are filmed also gives their face a moonlit glow that is hauntingly beautiful.
So if anyone likes this look and would like me to do a tutorial on how to do it, lemme know and I will try to bang one out this week. :-)


 I used photoshop to create the defused glow. It only effected my skin and whites of my eyes, not the makeup.

 I swear I hate the internet sometimes. This was the best picture I could find to describe the look I'm talking about and it's not quite it. *sigh*

 
 
 
 

 

Eyes (all applied in this order):
Chafing Relief Powder-Gel (applied to upper lid, blending in gently with ring finger) 
Detrivore Eye Primer (applied to upper eye area patting then rubbing in gently with ring finger)
Morgana - Snowsheen (applied under brow with MAC 217 by patting, sweeping and blending downward)
Morgana - Stonekeep (applied to middle of upper lid with MAC 239 by patting, then middle of lower lash line with MAC 228 by patting)
Morgana - Goblet (applied to outer V and crease with MAC 217 by lightly patting/blending, then applied to outer and inner 1/3 of lower lash line with MAC 228 by patting)
Morgana - Charteuse (applied to inner corner with MAC 228 by patting)
NYX Candy Glitter Liner - Lime (swiped onto inner corner) 
Kryolan Aqua Color liner - black (applied wet with water, using MAC 210 on upper lash line winging outward)
NYX Jumbo Pencil in White (applied to water line with MAC 210)
Ardell Lashes #113

Eyebrows: SMH - Cocoa (applied with MAC 266)

Lips: Morgana Vegan Lipstick in Mistress
Clear lipgloss added on top for extra shine

Face: Skin MD Shielding lotion
Physicians Formula Healthy Wear SPF 50 Powder in Translucent Light (applied using a flocked sponge by patting then blending) 
AL you're a doll! gothic lolita rouge in Corset (applied to cheeks with a small blush brush) 
 

My Valentine's Day Makeup Look and Outfit

So I must be honest in saying I don't really care for VD. To me it's just another day, but it's nice to use it as a reason to celebrate your relationships with the people you love. We never go all out for it.
My husband says it's a "chick Holiday" meant for dudes to buy stuff for their gals and treat them a little more than usual. I guess. *shrugs*

So my husband took me out to an Indian place (again, hee hee!), which had bellydancers for entertainment. I didn't know they would have any so it was a nice little surprise. Too bad I didn't take my camera, I'd be able to show you!

Here's what I wore:
 I LOVE this dress, but I hate that it's too tight on my arms. Dang muscles!

 Athan tried to walk by me and I couldn't resist scooping him up to pose with me.

 "Jeez, Mom! You're embarrassing me!"  My cats are my furry children. :-D

 This was my makeup look EVERY day in high school. Black winged liner and dark red or plum lipstick was my signature.

LOVE this flower. :-)

And...in case you didn't notice, I'm wearing nail polish! I just started wearing it recently after about 8 years of not wearing it.
It's a base coat, 2 coats of Avon Golden Wine and a top coat. Love red polish!

Hope you had a great VD!

~BLIX