MY FAVORITE BEAUTY YOUTUBERS

I started watching "beauty gurus" on YouTube when I was about 11. I would stay up until two in the morning with my dimly lit iPod propped up against my bedsheets, subscribing to YouTubers like Michelle Phan, Megan Parken, and jlovesmac1. The first major beauty guru that I became obsessed with was Canadian youtuber CityAndMakeup. I loved watching her hauls and hair tutorials; there was something so neat and organized about the way that she made her videos. Then I followed letsmakeitup1 (aka Kayley Melissa) back when she had less than 10,000 subscribers-now she's almost at a million! It's interesting to watch not only trends grow and change but also the people that create and develop those trends grow and change as well.

These are a few of my favorite YouTube gurus, along with a couple of my favorite videos from them:

Chloe Morello

I love Chloe Morello, because she's one of the best makeup artists on YouTube. Not only that, but she's charismatic and not afraid to voice her honest opinion on products. Often times, as well, she will openly state that she has been sponsored by a product to speak about it, which is incredibly rare in the beauty guru community. She actually talks to her viewers like they are her genuine friends, and not in that kiddish way that most other gurus do. Her tutorials are always different from one another and she never stays complacent or repetitive when it comes to her videos. 

Favorite Videos: 

Kendall Jenner Inspired Smokey Wing & Powder Contour Tips!

Get UN-Ready With Me: I Chat While Removing My Makeup!

And I, of course, love watching her makeup haul videos, although I do get insanely jealous by the amount of products she gets for free! Each haul video tends to have dozens of high end products from Sephora.

boxes of foxes

I was originally subscribed to Emma Blackery's original YouTube channel, where she does comedic skits and vlogs, so when she came out with a beauty channel, I was instantly interested in what a comedic youtuber could create in such a different platform. I actually love watching her beauty related videos a lot more than her main channel, simply because the videos seem more like an actual chat you're having with her. It's a lot more personal, which some people may not like, but I actually love. She has recently been promoting Vegan and Cruelty-Free makeup products-something I am 1000000000% behind. Although I am still in the learning process of what it actually means for a beauty product to be vegan, because of Emma, I feel like I have learned a lot more about it. She always gives her honest opinion about brands, even if it means saying that a product that tests on animals did work well for her. Her quirky personality is also adorably charming and makes me laugh every time I watch her videos.

Favorite Videos:

My Favorite Vegan Makeup Products

Foundation Review: Boots No. 7 Stay Perfect

IAMKARENO

I recently found Karen Yeung when I was searching, in desperate need, for videos that were both organized and visually satisfying to see. Her videos are eclectic, 90s retro, and edited to complete perfection. The first video of hers that I watched was her apartment tour, which made me super envious of her but also enamored by her. 

MY APARTMENT TOUR!

You can absolutely tell that she puts so much effort into making sure that her videos are works of art, each one different than the last.

Favorite Videos:

Back to School Lookbook | College OOTW 2015

Following Karen to Hong Kong

Lisa Eldridge

When I'm in need of a good makeup tutorial for any occasion, I go to Lisa Eldridge. She is a professional makeup artist who has done looks for Kate Winslet (she did her 2015 Golden Globes look this past weekend), Kendall Jenner, Cindy Crawford and more. Here are some of the looks she has created:

My go to makeup look is this one:

Universally Chic Makeup Look

Brittany Balyn

Each of Brittany Balyn's videos have these ethereal coolness to them, from her grunge makeup tutorials to her L.A. lookbooks. She is constantly reinventing her look, dying her hair blue, pink, and even green. Each of her lookbooks have these fascinating settings in the background of them and her makeup tutorials are always clean and super satisfying to watch.

Favorite Videos:

Apartment Tour

How To: BIG VOLUMINOUS Hair

I hope you guys enjoyed these recommendations. I truly love watching each of these YouTubers and I hope you do too!

xx

Liz

Holiday Gift Makeup Sets / / 2015

Hello! Happy Holidays, I hope everyone is doing great and just as excited for the Christmas season as I am! There have been a couple of things that I've been looking at since the holidays began, and a lot of them were makeup and beauty related, so I decided to make a short post featuring each one. Hope you enjoy!

Tarte Stroke of Midnight Brush Set ($44)

If I could have anything in this list, it would be this beautifully extravagant brush set from Tarte. The set comes in a beautiful sequin zip up bag that matches the details in the other holiday sets from this brand. I personally only own a couple of brushes and none of them are high end. The reason I never just go out and get good brushes is because I always figure my cheap ones will do the trick, but I've been missing a blush/contouring brush for forever. I did visit my local Sephora today to pick up this set, but, unfortunately, they had been sold out for weeks. 

Too Faced 

You can't mention 2015 holiday makeup set without bringing up Too Faced. They went above and beyond this year with their holiday sets, creating elaborate 3D pop up designs that feature some of the most beautiful eyeshadows, blushes, and bronzers. Le Grand Chateau ($49) is a set that not only includes three separate eyeshadow palettes, but a Better Than Sex mascara as well.

Le Petit Tresor ($29) includes three full sized lipsticks in popular shades (one that's brand new) in an adorable mini sequined blue bag. 

Benefit

This San Francisco brand always seems to kill it with their packaging from eclectic pop art to neon graphics. This year, their holiday sets feature a very pop art kind of design with bold colors and polka dot/stripe patterns. 

The party poppers makeup set ($32) (shown above) comes with 12 different "doors" where a different mini product is hidden. Each product is a popular item that Benefit tends to have as best sellers, such as the Porefessional face primer and the they're real! mascara.

The REAL cheeky party blush palette ($30) contains three face powders (in different colored finishes), a blush, a highlighter, Benefit's award winning bronzer, their mascara, and an eyeliner. The set contains everything you need to create a beautifully glowing face. The only real problem I can see with the palette is that it doesn't have a mirror. 

The life of the party! makeup palette ($36) comes with lots of similar products as the first set, but features larger sizes of the products. This set focusses more on keeping your makeup in place, but also provides tester for each item that you might not have bought the full sized version of. The fun packaging has a beautiful look to the palette, but again, could have been better with a mirror.

Another super cool thing Benefit is doing is allowing YOU to create your own holiday set! If you go here or simply visit their website and find the "Choose your kit" section, you can pick from two options: the Best of Benefit ($75) or All About Eyes ($50). Although these prices seem hefty, each item in the set comes full sized, meaning you're getting around $30 off if you were to buy them all separately. Both kits even come with a makeup bag to hold all of your goodies and a full sized free sample.

Colourpop

This brand blew up this past year with their Ultra matte lip pens. This holiday season they've even included small sets that have popular and brand new lip pens as stocking stuffers.

The mini kit Kitty ($20) has five brand new shades shown on skin shades below.

Even though Kitty comes with new shades, the set that I'm mostly hoping to receive this year is Foxy ($20).

This is mostly because I feel like there's more of a variety of colors, and the nudes are a lot more darker and browner than the peachy ones in Kitty. I tend to look very very pale and a little sickly when I wear peachy nudes.

That's it for the products that I was most interested in for 2015 holiday sets! I only included brands that are cruelty-free (although Benefit's cruelty-free policy is a bit iffy) because it's an important thing to me that makeup companies prohibit themselves from testing their products on animals.

Anyways, I hope you guys managed to snatch up some of these goodies before they sell out where you live too! Hope you guys have a happy holidays!

xx

Liz

Dream Christmas Wishlist

Although it's still a while until Christmas decorations seem even plausible and socially acceptable, it's always exciting to start compiling a wishlist of christmas presents early on. I'm actually a December baby with my brother, so Christmas has always been a hectic time for my parents. Because of this, they tend to ask us early on what we want for the holidays, so I've always planned ahead of time for the festivities. 

I've compiled an aspirational wishlist so as to tide me over until the season begins, and this is it:

Thigh high faux suede boots in black

This is a fashion staple that I've seen all over the place recently. I was actually on instagram when I decided to create this list because of this photo that Gigi Hadid had posted after the H&M Balmain party:

The boots feel like a modern twist on the classic Pretty Woman look that Julie Roberts portrays as Vivian. I've seen suede all over the place: in runway shows, on celebrities, as skirts, pants, crop tops, etc., and I think the fabric is amazingly comfortable and chic. The only thing is that I'm against wearing fur or leather of any kind, and suede is basically leather with a different finish. This is my personal preference, but I do think that even when individuals wear real suede, it still looks fantastic.

Artwork

I still haven't gotten any real artwork for my apartment, but some pieces that I have been looking at are the Badly Drawn ones. I'm not sure who the artist for these are, but if I figure it out, I will post it here.

These are from an etsy shop called BadlyDrawnArt:

Another artist that I love is Leah Goren. She did a cover for frankie magazine, and one of her pieces I especially love is the alphabet girl one:

Lastly, for artwork, I love these simplistic film posters from etsy shop MinusculeMotion:

The shop includes a bunch of different posters including a handful of Wes Anderson films as well as cult classics like Juno, Grease, and Back To the Future. 

I imagine hanging up the BadlyDrawn drawings on one wall, maybe above the couch across, and then having the film poster(s) around the entertainment center. The Leah Goren piece I can imagine placing in my bathroom or even beside my closet.

Onesie

I had a phase where all I watched was Miranda Sings youtube videos, and became a little obsessed with getting a onesie. The thing is, they're kind of really sort of expensive (some are more than $50!), and I wouldn't really be down to spend that much on myself. Christmas is a perfect time though!

I love the animal onesies that have lots of parts to them and aren't just one color.

Face Primer

I bought myself that super famous POREfessional Face Primer from Benefit Cosmetics, because so many Youtubers had promoted it and featured it in their tutorials. What I didn't realize when I got it, though, was that my pores weren't what I was most insecure about. I'm most insecure about my redness when it comes to getting coverage on my face. I want to get a new face primer: I just don't have the budget right now. I was looking into either getting the Smashbox Color Correcting Primer in green for redness or the Touche Eclat Blur primer from YSL. Both correct color while still enhancing your face's natural brightness.

Victoria's Secret bombshell bra

I know I mention Kylie Jenner a lot, but it's true: her boobs look amazing. She revealed in one of her app videos that she wears Victoria's Secret bombshell bras to create a more hourglass figure in proportion to her waist. I personally don't have a bra that really fits me that well, so I might just go out and treat myself by picking up one that actually fits my body. 

Netbook

I'm not entirely sure this is still the correct name for what I'm looking for, but basically, I just want a smaller laptop that I can do some homework on and take to my boyfriends place when I'm sleeping over. Every time I go in between places, I'm carrying around my backpack, filled with my homework, makeup, extra set of clothes, and my laptop. Even my boyfriend was beginning to say it was way too heavy. It sounds like a stupid thing to complain about (trust me I know) but it'd feel so much better to just carry around a tiny little laptop. I'm in between just getting a cheap, possibly refurbished tablet with a keyboard attached or a cheap, small laptop.

Puppy

I've been searching Craigslist, Petango, and the humane society for the perfect little puppy to take home. I don't know if it's the independence of being able to get myself my own pet or possibly the motherly nature in me that wants to take care of something or (most likely) the fun possibility of having a little puppy around, but I've been begging my boyfriend to come with me to get a dog from the shelter for so long now. Ideally, I would get a dog for Christmas, but, with my budget, I don't exactly see it happening. I want a small pet, that I can carry with one hand, just because, from previous experience, it's too difficult for me to earn larger dogs respect. They'll run away from me no matter what.

As far out as some of these items are, I do hope I can get at least the onesie and bra (even if I just have to splurge on myself for them). I'll post another blog soon hopefully about Halloween!

xx

Liz

July Favorites

A lot happened in the month of July. From my boyfriend visiting for the 4th of July to my visiting Austin, Texas to my best friends 18th birthday party. And each major event, or even casual encounter, had it's moments that made this month as great as it was. July is the middle of summer, the Saturday before August's end of the weekend, and I tried to live this month as exciting as I could. Here are a couple of things that I enjoyed most these past 30 days.

Beauty Products

Wet n Wild "I'm getting sunburned" eyeshadow palette-I had an impulsive decision to buy a bunch of drugstore makeup one day at my local Albertson's, and this is one of the only products I didn't regret buying. The colors in this palette really brought out the light in my brown eyes and made the natural honey hues pop. Sometimes I would just swipe on the gold eyelid color and leave it like that or I would just swipe the pink browbone all over my eye for a natural 70's vibe. All of the colors look like this when applied together (please pretend I did tweeze my eyebrows; I know I need to get them done, they're starting to look crazy)

For longer lasting color, you can use an eyeshadow primer and a nude base color so that your eye veins are covered and you have a blank canvas to work on. I tend to like the way my natural lid color is, so I usually just quickly pat on some shadow and messily swipe eyeliner. I love the way people's natural dark eyes look, under eye bags, veins, and everything. (A couple of weeks ago I actually tweeted how much I loved Kim Kardashian's haunting look she has when she isn't wearing any makeup. Then a few days later, she premiered her Vogue Spain cover and spread that featured her with no makeup. I'm still insanely proud of my random clairvoyentness.)

Clinique Moisture Surge Intense Skin Fortifying Hydrator-I have actually been using this product since I got it from a promotional giveaway that Clinique was having when you spent more than a certain amount of money. The giveaway came with a tiny eyeshadow palette, lip balm, this cream, some BB cream, etc. Now that the heat has settled where I live, my skin tends to get a bit dry. I actually have oily skin naturally, so I tend to stray away from using moisturizer even though you're supposed to use it regardless. This one however doesn't make my skin more oily and it also doesn't need reapplication or cause my makeup to fade.

Wet n Wild natural blend lip shimmer-This tinted balm has been my lifesaver this past month. I have naturally very pale lips that are sometimes almost white. I always need a pop of color in my lips just to add a little color on my face and prevent me from looking sickly. I believe this is the color "Berry", however, the color I thought it was is not the color it comes out as. It is a bit lighter than the color I thought it would be and comes out more like a dark pink than the kirsch red I thought it would be. 

Entertainment

The Mist by Stephen King-I actually borrowed this novella from my boyfriend and read it while I was on my way home from Austin. It was completely entrancing, though it started off a bit dull. I hate that I love open endings. I think it adds more to the novel when it has an end that is uncertain, even though I end up reading a bunch of other peoples opinion online on it.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde-I haven't finished this book yet, so maybe it doesn't count for this month. But so far I have been thoroughly enjoying it. The first page of the book actually has a photo of Wilde before his trials. I had never known that the playwright had been imprisoned, so I ended up doing a Google search and came across articles about how he had a sexual relationship with another man that he went to prison for. It's an interesting fact to know when reading the book and hearing Basil speak so lovingly and obsessively over his friend Dorian Gray.

Monika Blunder-I love watching makeup tutorials with professional makeup artists creating the look. (Don't get me wrong I love any good makeup look, but there's something professional and clean about seeing the inspiration for the makeup actually sitting right there getting it put on their face.) I've been watching a lot of Blunder's makeup tutorials where she shows the exact products that she uses for celebrities and models in both magazines and premieres.

Don't Trust the B**** in Apt. 23-I always used to see the commercials for this show on my TV whenever I was watching something else. I thought it looked stupid and had a stupid name and stupid looking characters. After giving into the recommendations on Netflix, however, I realized that it was a lighthearted, adventurous show that brought light about important topics in a joking manner but still managed to never take itself too seriously. Not to mention, I am obsessed with Chloe (Krysten Ritter) in this show and her cool, "It Girl" persona.

Almost Famous-I thought this movie had a boring tagline on Netflix and even though there are dozens of high critical reviews on it, I didn't care to watch. That was until I saw a tweet about David Bowie being a pedophile, and I became interested in Lori Maddox and the "Baby Groupies" that several rock stars had apparently had sexual relationships with. One article from bitchtopia.com mentioned the theme of underage fans in the film Almost Famous. When I skimmed this particular page, I became even more interested in the concept of groupies and decided to watch the film. I was a bit disappointed that it didn't really go into more details about the ethical issues of Russell Hammond having sex with an underage girl, but I understand that that wasn't what the film was supposed to be about. It was an interesting inside look to the 70s and the pop culture involved in maintaing rock stars image.

Miscellaneous

Makeup Genius app-I was watching Good Morning America when one of the features on the show introduced this app, created by  L'Oréal, where your camera scans your face so you can test different makeup products without actually having to buy them or put them on your face. The camera follows the features of your face and still keeps the makeup look on, even when you're widening your eyes, closing them, pursing your lips, or opening them wide.

I hope that I didn't forget anything that I've really been enjoying this month, but if I have, I'll be sure to edit it back in. Hopefully the month of August is even greater!

xx

Liz

Kylie Jenner Paper Towns Premiere // Style Inspiration

Love her or hate her, everyone's talking about Kylie Jenner. Her scandalous snapchats, mature photo shoots, and sexual clothing is what everyone is raving about. As part of the Kardashian tradition, her style is impeccable and her clothes are expensively enviable.


Kylie's look from the Paper Towns premiere is both mature and fresh. Her brown suede Topshop jacket ($360) gives the look an older feel but is instantly made younger by her La Perla bra ($308) and Moda Operandi sheer skirt ($2,995), displaying her incredible body.

A much cheaper version of the suede jacket that Kylie is wearing comes from Forever21 for only $54.90.

There's also a darker version from BooHoo for $52. However, both are a bit lighter than the one that Kylie is wearing.

The bra that Kylie is wearing can be easily copied. I found this strapless one from Aerie for only $36.95. And right now Aerie actually has a deal where you buy one and get one 50% off!

The closest skirt I could find was this one from Amazon ($18.90) that comes in different colors. The one that I would recommend to get that would be closest to Kylie's is the white.

I found this pair of Modcloth heels ($39.99) that are super similar to her Gianvito Rossi sandals ($770).

Now for her accesories:

This choker from the etsy shop acanthusjd is selling for about $8 and looks close to the one that she's wearing.

One of her other layering necklaces is a stone pendant. This one from Forever 21 is only $5.90 and the same length as hers.

Her hand jewelry:

This Michael Kors watch comes out to $250.

A cheaper version of this watch can be found at Forever 21 for $22.90!

If you want a watch that's in between both of these, there is this Fossil one that is selling for $155.

She is wearing two of the same ring to create that rhombus shape. It is this ring from jewelcut that is currently selling for $20.

Her purse is from Givenchy. This one from Topshop is super close and is selling for only $65!

Now, finally, her makeup:

One of Kylie Jenner's biggest identifiers is her big, sultry eyes and her bold lips.

Her typically filled in brows were left untouched while her eyes played the center of attention on her look. She wore false eyelashes on the top, individuals that were mostly glued to the ends of her eyes. She used shimmery white, brown, and dark pink (almost muave) eyeshadow colors. The white was used in the corner of her eyes and on her browbone, right underneath the arch. Then it was spread across her lid, with the brown and pink mixed together in the crease, and the brown gently laid on the outer lid of her eye. Underneath her eyes there is a light brown used to create a mild smokey effect.

The blush she used seems to be a darker pink, the same shade as Super Orgasm by Nars. She has an overall bronzey look that seems to be a couple shades darker than her actual skintone. She has highlighter on her forehead, the apples of her cheeks, and on her chin. Her lip color is a natural light nude pink. It can be obtained by combining Macs Brave with a nude lipstick.

As for her hair, noone is entirely sure how she's achieving the light, pastel teal so frequently. I'm assuming she's wearing a wig that is part of her Bellami hair extension line.

I hope this helped you achieve Kylie's effortless, flowy look!

xx

Liz