Tag Archives: Nicka K

What’s On My Face – Volume 26

October 27, 2014Makeup, TutorialsBoots No7, Dermacol, essence, Hard Candy, Hourglass, INGLOT, L'Oreal, MAC, Makeup Geek, Nicka K, NYC, NYX, Revlon, Sephora, Tarte, Too Faced, Urban DecayChelle

I’ve been having “blah” kind of makeup days lately. A lot of neutrals, with brighter lip shades (tis the season?) but it’s actually starting to make me feel a bit depressed. With the darkness in the morning, I have far less desire to get out of bed. And because of that, I spend a lot less time on my makeup, which means not only boring looks (to me), but it also means sometimes I don’t even have enough time to take pictures of my makeup before I dart out the door to work. Sigh. Beauty blogger problems? I don’t know. I’m looking forward to DST ending so I can get an extra hour of that sun in the mornings (uhhh that is how that works right? I think I mess this up every year…), because right now, the only relatively suitable light I have to take pictures is at 7:55-8:05 a.m., which is when I’m supposed to be out the door!

So I tried to spice it up and do some interesting things every now and then. This is a mix of “meh” and “oooo”. I hope you find something you like!

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Let’s start out with my favourite! Themed after one of my favourite candies of the Halloween season: candy corn!

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Eyes

I first applied NYX‘s Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Milk all over the lid, blended it out, then:

Makeup Geek White Lies on the inner third of the lid and pulled around the tearduct.
Inglot Matte 370 on the middle third of the lid.
Inglot Matte 383 on the outer third of the lid and on the outer corner of the lower lash line.

Tarte‘s black gel liner to create the wing with Urban Decay Perversion mascara on my lashes.

Rest of the Face

Foundation: Boots No7 Instant Radiance in Cool Vanilla
Bronzer: NYC Fire Island Tan
Blush: Hard Candy Skinny Dipping
Lips: NYX Butter Gloss in Cherry Cheesecake

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While I love this shadow, this is what I mean when I say I’m too damn lazy to get out of bed in the morning. This is basically a one eyeshadow look with no liner. Not something I’m fond of, but this colour certainly gets the job done!

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Eyes

L’Oreal Infallible in Golden Mahogany all over the lid and blended up through the crease.
MAC Blanc Type to highlight the brow.

On my lashes is Estee Lauder‘s Sumptuous Infinite Daring Length + Volume Mascara.

Rest of the Face

Bronzer: NYC Fire Island Tan
Blush: MAC Gingerly
Highlighter: Too Faced Candlelight
Lips: Sephora Color Reveal Balm in Unique Pink

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I actually did this in 2012, but never got around to posting it. I believe I wore it to work on Halloween that year.

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MAC Coppering all over the lid.
I then used a piece of tape to create the sharp outer edge, and then blended appliedUrban Decay Blackout to the outer corner.
MAC Brule was used to highlight the brow.

L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara is on my lashes.

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These are the kinds of looks I just don’t gravitate towards, but they’re a heck of a lot simpler to put together in the morning!

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Eyes

L’Oreal Infallible in Tender Caramel all over the lid.
MAC Copperplate on the outer corner and through the crease.
MAC Shroom on my brow bone.

On my lashes is Urban Decay‘s Perversion mascara.

Rest of the Face

Bronzer: Hard Candy Hula Hula
Cheeks: Hourglass Mood Exposure
Lips: NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Istanbul

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Another easy one. Whack on boring eyeshadows, a super bright liner and tada!

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Eyes

MAC Blanc Type on the lid and on the brow bone.
MAC Copperplate in the outer corner and crease.

Nicka K Shimmer Eyeliner in Green to create the wing with Dermacol Party Time mascara on my lashes.

Rest of the Face

Bronzer: NYC Fire Island Tan
Blush: essence Pinky Flow
Lips: Revlon Pink Velvet

July 2014 Favourites

August 2, 2014Favourites, MiscellaneousJulep, MAC, Nicka K, Sleek, Too FacedChelle

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ALRIGHT PEOPLE! It is 1:07 a.m. Friday night (aka Saturday morning), this blog post was supposed to get posted at 8 a.m. this morning, but clearly that did not happen. I’m a few glasses *cough*bottle*cough* of wine down, my photos are edited, I have episodes of Supernatural playing in the background should I require immediate distraction, and I just need to provide you with insightful data on what I loved this month.

Shall we proceed?

WE SHALL.

HNNGGGGGG. Call this my lipstick of summer. (Really, call it whatever you want, I’ll just be over in the corner calling it pretty.) This is Too Faced‘s Coral Fire and it apparently fits into their “red” category of lipsticks. Uh… okay. On ME it’s (oh god, am I really saying this?) it’s a fiery coral. Derp.

It’s deeper than most corals, but I can’t get away from the fact that I do feel it’s actually *coral* in nature. I don’t think it’s red (like Too Faced does), but anyway. It’s beautiful. It’s a colour that just suits me – I’m always shocked by my appearance when I see myself in the mirror while wearing this. It’s slightly pink, slightly “red”, slightly coral, creamy, luminous and it just *works* on me. It’s the kind of shade that makes you want the entire collection because you figure that one colour must make the ENTIRE LINE be as beautiful on yourself as this one shade is. Not to mention the luscious sweet lemon scent of the product which is TO DIE FOR, just so we’re clear, and totally unique as far as I’m aware!

Even if you don’t like this shade, I encourage you to try something from Too Faced‘s La Creme line. All of the lip shades I have from this line are glorious on a level I didn’t even know existed. Plus the name appeals to me. Aside from the colour, we all need to acknowledge the fact that packaging and the naming conventions of products do inspire us to like products more. If this was called “pink-red”, I’d probably like “meh”. But it’s not. It’s called Coral Fire, and it makes me swoon.

Sleek does gorgeous makeup through and through. Their 12 pan eyeshadow palettes are my absolute favourite product by them. I used the Sunset palette extensively throughout an entire week this past month! (upcoming Challenge Week coming this following week with this very palette) and could not believe I had used this palette so little before then. The colours are phenomenally pigmented. The only downfall is a lack of matte colours. But let’s get real here – you’ve got mattes in your collection somewhere, and you can definitely break them out to use in conjunction with this palette.

Like Sarah, I’ve also been loving this liquid eyeliner this month. Nicka K‘s Shimmer Eyeliner in Green (uhhh *sorta* green) arrived in my June 2014 Ipsy Glam Bag. I loved it at the time, but used it a few times and kind of disregarded it.

I’ll say the bad right off the bat: the brush is fucking weird. It’s not felt, foam or brush tip. It’s some weird plastic contraption that actually causes some patchiness when you apply it. The other downside is that it stains.

The upsides? IT STAINS, WHICH MEANS IT STAYS PUT FOREVER. The colour is incredible. The vibrancy and shimmer is completely unparalleled in anything I own. And it retails for $6 freaking dollars. My MUFE Aqualiner (read: is expensive) doesn’t even perform this well. I don’t mind staining when it means I can wear a product forever. And that colour… good lord. This is worth buying. And I want every shade.

I’m writing too many paragraphs, which generally means you’ve skipped over to the next picture and given up on me. But I love this, and it’s been my only eye makeup of choice when I’m visiting nearby friends or on a hot day when I really can’t be bothered to wear multiple eyeshadows.

Kalyn sent me this when I won a giveaway on her blog and I could kiss her for it. This is Julep‘s Paris nail polish. I don’t know much about Julep, but I know I love this. This is a chunky holographic glitter with a gold sheen. As I’ve mentioned before, I wear glitter on my toenails 24/7. When she sent me this, I had just run out of my current glitter polish and needed a replacement. I’ve worn this on my toes for the entire month of July and I only have about a third of the bottle left. I *love* this stuff!

When I bought MAC‘s Sea Me, Hear Me blush I kind of made fun of it in my head. I mean it… to me, it was a fall colour being promoted in the summer. “The heck am I going to do with this thing throughout the summer? It’s too damn dark!” is what I told myself.

Lies. All lies.

I wore the pants out of this blush this month. Despite the swatch, it goes on my cheeks slightly more orange, which means I’ve kind of paired it with some odd combinations this month… but really, I don’t care. Because it’s an extra dimension blush (which has always meant “harder than normal” texture to me), I need to use a stiff duo-fiber brush to dig into the product. Buff it on, blend it out and pray for the best. It’s beautiful. To me it’s a more vibrant, showy Tarte Exposed. Which is perfect for the summer!

And really, I bought it because the packaging was pretty. (Show of hands, you know you did it too!)

And this was a blurry Nemo. Because you know he wasn’t going to miss out on on showing off some cat butt for this post!

And now, my favourite gif, because this entire WORK MONTH has felt like this. My boss sent it to me today and I was reminded of how much I love this gif. Grumpy cat, I <3 u4lyf.

Ipsy – June 2014 Glam Bag

June 16, 2014Hauls, Makeup, ReviewsBe A Bombshell, Ipsy, Laneige, Marc Anthony, Nicka K, NYXChelle

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This month’s bag had its ups and downs for me. Let’s dig in and see what I got sent in my bag this month.

Laneige – BB Cushion SPF in three foundation shades

This was a really interesting product. I’ve never heard of anything like Laneige‘s BB Cushion. The package itself comes with three shades of foundation (Light, Medium and Dark) as well as a sponge pad (that I only realized was a puff after I had applied this stuff to my face with one of my brushes). The product is essentially a bb foundation with SPF pre-soaked into a sponge. I wasn’t really sure how to use it, so I ended up stabbing my brush into the sponge to pick up the product. This worked, but it also pushed a lot of the product to the bottom of the little sample. (Which isn’t a problem, I just pulled the sponge out and swiped at the bottom to get more product.) I got two uses out of this sample (I used the Light shade, which was a hair or two too pale for me right now but it wasn’t super obvious). I used it, and it was pleasant to apply, but I don’t really feel like it did a whole heck of a lot. It seems to have evened out my freckles a bit, but the coverage isn’t spectacular so I’d honestly just prefer no foundation to wearing something so light. Worth noting though… this stuff smells really, really good!

Left – no foundation. Right – Laneige BB Cushion in Light

So this is basically a salt spray for your hair to encourage beachy waves/curls to stay in your hair. My hair has a bit of body to it if it’s left to air dry, so I had hoped this would hold some of the waves in place. Marc Anthony‘s Dream Waves Beach Spray smells like coconuts, so basically it smells like every other beach-y hair product out there. It sort of worked to make my hair piece-y (see below), but despite my hand scrunching while my hair dried, it really never held in full on waves. In fact, the ends of my hair look especially ratty and when my hair had dried, the ends felt completely crunchy and stiff. Not a huge fan of that. It might be fine to actually use on the beach after getting out of the water (or at the pool), but for someone who had just gotten out of the shower, this was a very quick way to make my hair feel dirty again. So I wasn’t overly pleased about that!

Left – Damp hair with the spray in. Right – air dried hair with the spray in.

This product is amazing! Nicka K is a brand I’m completely unfamiliar with, but this liquid eyeliner was simply stunning. I received their shimmer eyeliner in Green and this was budge proof and waterproof. Even moreso than the MUFE Aqualiner I have. I couldn’t believe how much I had to rub at this to even remove any kind of colour off my hand. It also held up all throughout a workday. Highly, HIGHLY recommend this liner.

I have nothing good to say about this one so I’ll just be specific with my negativity. Be A Bombshell’s mascara is garbage. I hate the brush – it makes it hard to deposit product onto my lashes. My brush was bent oddly which didn’t help either. It clumped up awkwardly on my lashes, particularly in the outer corners making it look patchy. And the products actually smells really, really bad. This is going straight in the garbage.

NYX‘s butter glosses are my absolute favourite glosses, so I love that they sent these out in the bags. They’re creamy, non-tacky, and come in some absolutely wonderful colours. Unfortunately, I already own this particular shade (Apple Strudel) so I’ve really got no use for this one. So for that reason I’m giving this one away! It’s completely unused and unopened (the shots above were done using my own one) and I will mail it to you anywhere in the world if you win. Contest open till June 30th @ 8:00 a.m..

Ipsy June 2014 Breakdown (all prices in USD)

Laneige BB Cushion SPF 50 (full size is $34 for 0.5 oz, it was really hard to judge the size of this product, but I got two uses out of the one small packet and there are two additional shades, so I’m going to go with $5 overall value since I have no real idea as to how long a full size of this product would last)

Marc Anthony Dream Waves Beach Spray (1.52 oz @ $3.18, full size is $8.79 for 4.2 oz)

Nicka K Shimmer Eyeliner in Green ($4.99, full size)

Be A Bombshell Lash Out mascara in Intense Black ($15, full size)

NYX Butter Gloss in Apple Strudel ($5, full size)

BAG TOTAL = $33.17

My Thoughts

This bag was kind of a bust for me. The BB Cushion product was interesting, but in the end kind of useless. The Beach Spray really didn’t do much other than make my hair kind of crunchy, although I’ve only tried it once and will definitely try using it in different ways. The mascara is just flat out awful and going straight into the garbage (I can’t even begin to believe that it’s worth the $15 full price they charge on their site). The NYX butter gloss is excellent, but of course I already own it. The real winner out of this group is the shimmery green eyeliner. For such an inexpensive product I cannot believe how well this one works.