Sidebar Links

Tonight I'm going to go through and put links to all of my reviews in the sidebar so they're easy to find!  Tomorrow I post giveaway details AND a new review!  Yay!

Ottlite!

This probably won't be as exciting for you as it is for me, but this morning I picked up an Ottlite.  It's an HD fluorescent lamp that provides bright, true color lighting, especially useful for detailed hobbies.  In our home, it will serve multiple purposes, and one of them is better pictures for my blog.  Here are some samples...


Left to right: Bombastico from Linnaeus Cosmetics, Metamorphosis from Scaredy Cat Cosmetics, and Petal from The Starshine Company.  Top row swatched with My Beauty Addiction's, Shadow Poxy, Bottom row over Urban Decay's Primer Potion in Eden.  I wanted to show you a pale color, a bright color, and a saturated color for variety.

 

Without Ottlite.  Notice the colors don't look particularly sparkly, and they're kind of flat.

 

With Ottlite.  Click to enlarge and you will really see the difference in the sparkle and depth of color.  Yay!

FOTD: My Face But Better

I see a lot of people talking about a shade of lipstick or gloss that's supposed to be "your lips but better," so I decided I should take that one step further and do a whole look based on the "_____ but better" philosophy: natural-looking and simple, not cakey or obvious.  The first thing I did was curl my lashes and apply mascara.  I use black since my brows and lashes are quite dark already, but if you have lighter brows and lashes, you may want to use brown for this look instead.  The next thing I did was use a white pencil on the inner corners of my eyes to highlight them.  If you have darker skin, you can opt for gold as a highlighter instead to keep your look tame.  I lined my eyes top and bottom with a dry neutral mineral shadow, Amber Dust from TSC.  I lined my lips with an NYX Peekaboo Neutral lipliner pencil, filled them in with NYX Diamond Sparkle Lipstick in Sparkling Beige, and put a clear gloss over the top.  I finished by applying mineral eyeshadow to my the apples of my cheeks and the bridge of my nose as blush; I used TSC's Petal.  Again with the lips and cheeks, if you have a darker or lighter skintone, these colors may not work as a neutral for you, so choose your colors accordingly.  I did not use any foundation, or primer, or concealer for this look, so my freckles show through, the darkness under my eyes is more apparent than if I had a full "face" on, etc. but it's supposed to look natural, right?

Pictures today from my new camera!  I decided on the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W530 based on reviews, price point, and a perusal of images on Flickr.  I'm pretty happy with the quality I've seen from my shots so far, and I'd say that it's well worth the money for $100 on sale at Best Buy.  You can click on any image to enlarge; the only editing that has been done to these photos is cropping.

Lip Stuff

 

 

 

Whole look

 

 

Close-up Eyes

 Close-up Lips

Getting a New Camera!

If you were wondering why I didn't end up posting anything last week, it's because I can't seem to find my camera.  My camera is/was a Kodak Z1275, which I purchased around three years ago.  I used it to take this photo and this photo.  I had previously owned Kodak KZ760 Zoom (which I used to take this photo and this photo) that still worked well for me, but I wanted to upgrade.  I've had that desire to upgrade again recently, and losing my camera has made the decision clear for me: it's time for another upgrade.  I've been researching cameras all morning looking for another point-and-shoot for not a lot of money to take crisp pictures on family outings and for my blog.  I intend to get a DSLR soon, but that will be for specific, planned uses and I want a compact camera for on-the-fly use.  So my apologies, readers, for keeping you hanging last week.  Keep your eyes peeled for a picture-heavy post sometime later today!

New Layout

I just added The Urban Critique to Networkedblogs, and consequently messed with the layout a little to better fit the widget.  I also changed the background, color scheme, and made a header (please ignore my mediocre clipping skillz.)  We'll see how long it stays this way; I'm not sure how much I like it.