Bailaoragaditana's Aventuras

This is the makeup I wore for New Year's Eve - we had a low-key party at home with just the family and some friends, which was nice because I'm really not a big party person. I decided to try out the new Smashbox products I got for Christmas, which resulted in a very soft, almost romantic (or is that Romantic?) look, which really doesn't seem to photograph much differently than my previous natural-ish looks. Need to work on my camera skills, I think...

I had some help putting the look together, though:

This is Cocoa. She is a spoiled-rotten sneak-thief of a cat who likes to steal my makeup brushes (the fluffier and more expensive, the better!) and carry them around the house, yowling like she just killed an antelope. (She also does this to my mom's expensive yarn, so she's an equal-opportunity feline terrorist. It's not just the makeup brushes.) Here, you see her pretending to relax while she plots how best to run off with my new kabuki brush.

The starting point: blush and SoftLights duo in Super/Model, eyeshadow trio in Glow On, lipgloss in Couture, and Browtech/cream liner palette

Base: MAC Oil Control Lotion, and MAC Prep+Prime SPF50

Face: Bare Escentuals Mineral Veil and Foundation SPF15 in Fair

Cheeks: Model blush (pink rose) on cheekbones and lightly on apples of cheeks; Super Soft Lights (light pink shimmer) on apples of cheeks and lightly over cheekbones. The blush is a softer pink than it looks in the pan, but I'm not complaining - it was definitely a good thing in this case. I was very impressed by the light-diffusing abilities of SoftLights, even though I have a complicated history with shimmery face products. (I was attacked by a glitter fairy once, and subsequently scarred for life...) The powder itself is very soft and easily blendable.

Brows: Browtech powder in Brunette

Lashes: two coats of Fresh Firebird mascara (black)

Lids: UD Primer Potion first, as always. Then I applied the mauve shade all over the lid, stopping just above the crease; tnext I applied the light brown shade to the lashline and blended upwards, and also placed some of the brown in the crease; I used the champagne shade to highlight the browbone and blend, and lightly brushed it into the inner corner and over the lower lashline. I have a very mixed opinion of the shadows in this trio - the colors are very nice, the formula is very smooth, but it's really hard to get the color "true" - it's very soft, color-wise, and I think it would actually be impossible to make a bold look out of these shades. Also, the powder itself is very soft - it "sheds" more than I would like, both when dipping the brush into the powder and when applying the shadow to the lid. I think I got more shadow on my cheeks than on my eyelids! My fan brush was kept very busy, in any case.

Liner: I used the Bobbi Brown Ultra Fine Eyeliner brush to make a very fine line under the lower lashes (not the inner 1/4 of the lashline, though) with Smashbox Cream Liner in Putty, a medium brown/taupe shade.

Lips: one coat of Couture lipgloss. It looks really coral-pink and bright in the tube, but it's really a very sheer and subtle rose-pink, and it's also one of the least-sticky glosses I can recall using - my hair barely even sticks in it, which is kind of amazing, and has only ever happened with Urban Decay Ultraglide before. (For a sense of comparison, my hair generally breaks off if it gets stuck in MAC Lipglass unless I'm very careful about pulling it out. Ick.)

Yeah, okay, so I'm a total camera whore. But the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, right?

Anyway, I should be getting my Bobbi Brights shadow palette sometime this afternoon (I will be about ready to pounce! on the UPS man by the time he gets here, I'm sure), and I will swatch and post pictures as soon as I open it, then add my opinions as I develop them.

Enjoy, and thanks for reading!