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Catching up

November 21, 2009

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The other option for the title? “Procrastination”. I really don’t need to be doing this, and there’s no special occasion, but I don’t want to work!!

My favourite looks over the past two years: (Man, my blog feels old!! Which makes me old! OH GOD!!!)

Can you tell I can’t collage for crap?
Yah. I thought so.

Violet eyes. This was the first time I really put MUFE 92 to a good use, and I loved it. ~~Maybe~~ It’s just because I love purples so much, but I always feel a little bit proud when I look at these photos.
This cranberry-gold eye was really easy, and I loved how wearable it was. (Speaking of which, I totally need to add MAC Cranberry to my wishlist! It looks so gorgeous in everyone else’s FOTDs.)
I took full-face shots of my dark lip look for a friend, and actually ended up really liking it on myself. Which was strange. Because generally, dark lips = bold, and bold and Rae don’t mix.
Avant-garde is always the most fun to do… I dare you to replicate this stripe-lipped doll!
And my first true sex-kitten smokey eye (haha, thanks for naming it, Arianne!) just had to make the list.

The products that I’ll never have to search for again: (Which is saying a LOT… most of the time, even if I love something, I keep hunting anyways. There’s always that allure of a product that just that little bit more, you know?)

Lip balm — I now have one to fulfil my moisturising and SPF needs, and one to fulfil my crazy-lip-balm-addict needs!
White eye bases, because this pencil’s cheap, effective, and blends like a dream!
A MLBB+glitter gloss. I can’t find a single bad thing to say about this gloss, and trust me — I can usually talk shit about anything.
Spot treatment, as long as we’re not referring to “spot treatment” as in “general zone treatment,” because I haven’t found the perfect general acne lotion. Yet.
A va-va-vroom red! Some ladies spend their whole lives trying to find the perfect one; I managed to find it before my 20th. If that isn’t fate, I don’t know what is.
Wax strips. I did my brows yesterday… plus the rest of my forehead, because I got carried away. But that’s currently not relevant so I’m just going to stop talking now.

Other stuff:

Just a couple artsy-fartsy pieces that I liked enough to post: the constant work in progress shots, Alberta, but everyone loves a melanoma!, and tell me a story.

Tags: /About theNotice

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Making shadows POP using milk

November 20, 2009

Rae Chen

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What it is: NYX‘s Milk jumbo pencil.Basically: it’s a cream shadow, and the whiteness acts as a great base to make shadows appear super-vibrant. There really isn’t much more to say! Yes, you still need a primer under this if you tend to crease, and yes, this makes shadows more vibrant that UDPP/TFSI alone (in my opinion, that is.) It’s super-easy to blend, you only need a bit, and at $3.50 each, it’s a total steal!
Ingredients:
Ceresin Wax, Candelilla Wax, Bees Wax, Squalane, Hydrogenated Styrene, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Mineral Oils, Polyisobutene, Butylated Hydroxy Anisole, Propyl Paraben, Mica, Talc, C.I.77499, Pearl Powder.Here are some swatches for your reference — the shadows are Lancome Floralesque and MAC Humid. I think it’s obvious which side is layered over Milk! (And yah, I know the colouring sucks. I had to take these in artificial lighting because the sun has beeen MIA since October!! *pouts)

The verdict? Dude, I’m not even going to bother announcing one. I can’t think of a single bad thing to say about it… there is no downside. I mean, aside from like, loving it too much. But that’s not really a problem in my eyes.

Tags: /Eyes, Product Photos, Product Review, Product Swatches

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More mindless photos

November 19, 2009

Rae Chen

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These are from last June, during finals. I know — epic fail. I should have had these up ages ago!!

But alas, here they are! This is what I look like when it’s unbearably hot outside and I don’t have time for makeup aside from concealer… I was going for “hopelessly chic,” but I’m pretty sure I only got to the “hopeless” part of it. Even my hair looks like crap! (I got fed up with it a few days later and re-framed my face… ended up cutting off about an inch. Or three. It went pretty well if I may say so myself.)So ahhhhmmm, yah. Excuse the fact that the photos are unreasonably grainy and the fact that I look like crap.

I don’t really wear colour, or whites, but I couldn’t pass up this shirt. I just love it! Everything worked ~~against it~~ ~~away from~~ whatever is the opposite of “in its favour” (it’s from American Eagle, which I do NOT shop at, it’s white, there’s colour, and a friend of mine has it though I totally bought it first) but it’s just… pretty. Not to mention, soft.Wearing: AE tee, Jacob shorts, and an American Apparel tank.

And on the topic of that tank, which you can sorta see in the first pic: I adore it! I have four of them; two black, this one (eggplant) and a red one (burgundy). They’re the “boybeater,” and though they’re not made as well as they were when I bought my first one*, they’re still great. At $17/each** they’re more expensive than I would normally spend for a tank. However, they stretch to fit you absolutely perfectly, and go right back to off-the-shelf brand spankin’ new condition once you wash them.

*the seams used to be stretchy, which makes for a SUPER comfey layering shirt. Not anymore, though :(
**arrrgh nevermind, they’re now $19 each. Which makes them a little less of a great buy, because they’re less awesome and more expensive. Boo.

Tags: /Fashion

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Mindless photos for a tired Thursday morning

November 19, 2009

Rae Chen

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Aura Science “define” eye pencils, in Char Grey and Cypress Green. I like them quite a lot (they sit well on the waterline and the packaging is wonderful!) so I’m disappointed that they no longer exist =( These swatches are rather blue, but you should still be able to tell how effing gorgeous these are.

Tags: /Aura Science, Eyes, Product Photos, Product Swatches

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The five most expensive… colour items at Bergdorf’s

November 18, 2009

Rae Chen

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Eyeliner
I have way too many eyeliners. I know this. I do, I really do — but none of them, thankfully, are as expensive as this Cle de Peau Intensifying Cream Eyeliner, which at $60 a pop would soon amount to… a lot of money. It does come with a liner brush, though, so points for that.
Eyeshadow
Guerlain‘s Mineral Eye Shadow powders may not be the most expensive thing on the eyeshadow page, but at $35 a pop they’re the priciest per colour. (ie. I counted a $40 quad as $10/shade.)If you wanted to go the traditional route, though, I’m sure Guerlain’s Ombre Eclat mono would satisfy your colour craving. There’s just one thing — why does this $34 shadow come in only three rather unattractive shades? I would want the one in the product photo! What a brown, eh?Mascara
I’m going to assume you all know by now that mascara has a three-month expiry date, right? (And if you didn’t, take note! This one’s important!) So I can’t understand paying $62 for something you’ll use for three months… sorry, Sisely. I just can’t! Your Phyto-Mascara Ultra Facil won’t be getting any love from over here. (you nutters.)Lipstick (includes stains and liquids)
It’s a tie between the $55 Cle de Peau Lipstick (guys. Boring name.) and the La Prarie Cellular Luxe Lip Colour. Now, I don’t know about the product, but I’m feeling the La Prarie way more — a super-intense name and gorgeous packaging? Sign me up!Lip gloss (includes gloss sticks or pots)
The best part of this $55 Sisely Phyto-Lip Star Extreme Shine isn’t even the fact that the name refuses to make sense. It’s the fact that, in the description, they boast four shades… but have seven listed. Way to be able to count, Bergdorf’s.Blush and bronzers
For $85, you could buy a) a new pair of jeans, b) le Metier de Beaute‘s Bella Bronzer, or c) Sisely Paris‘ Phyto Blush. Though, those with severe allergies have only two choices, because Bella comes with a warning that it contains peanut oil.

Sets
We knew the answer to this one even before it was asked — the Bobbi Brown Exclusive Black Plum Beauty Trunk, obviously! We mentioned the $1000 trunk last year, though it was differently packaged back then.

Tags: /New This Week (& etc), Other, Things that scare me

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SMILE, Alison!

November 18, 2009

Rae Chen

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For our end-of-term party, Alison wanted something more dramatic (yes!!) than what we had done before — but still not too obvious. I settled on using shadows only and brown mascara: check out the photos below to see what I mean. The upper line was done solely with shadow (used wet) to achieve a much softer look than the usual black liquid liner.

For a no-makeup girl, this was pretty dramatic… but as you all know, I still consider this to be a natural daytime eye :P

-“Smile, Alison!”

“I am smiling.” [stops smiling]
-“KEEP SMILING!”
[result: this photo.]

Tags: /Eyes, Other faces

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Guess I’m just a downtown girl

November 17, 2009

Rae Chen

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What it is: Quo‘s Minerals Matter eyeshadow quad, in Downtown Brown. Just as a heads-up, keep in mind that the shadows on the SDM/Quo site are way off.

The shadows: Soft and pigmented, just as they should be! I actually picked this out with a friend in Quebec so I could do a couple neutral looks on her (and some of our other friends,) and told her that if she didn’t want to take it home at the end, I would. I no longer have this, so I guess that says something, right? :P

In comparison to the rest of the drugstore neutrals that we swatched, these shadows are stellar. A lot of people love the Maybelline quads, so I swatched their neutral to compare this one to — in short, the Quo palette blew the Maybelline one right out of the water! No, they don’t swatch very true to colour, but they do swatch very nicely.

A good way to describe the shadows may be this: they’re better than most drugstore shadows, and on par with some mid-range ones, but not quite the calibre of high-end ones. And, I mean, the quad is priced accordingly, so I can’t complain!

Macro shots of the shadows. These correspond to the swatches later on in the post.

Ingredients:

Mica, ethylhexyl palmate, zinc stearate, kaolin, phenoxyethanol, sodium dehydroacetate, tocopherol, ascorbyl palmitate. May contain mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxides, CI 75470, CI 77288, CI 77007, CI 77742, CI77510.

The shades:

Hey, do we find these swatch boxes helpful? It’s the same image as below, but… in boxes.

A touch warmer/more bronze than I wanted them to be, but overall it’s a great daytime neutrals quad. Starting in the top left and moving clockwise, there’s a nice hilight colour (it’s like an apricot-champage,) a bronzey medium brown, a darker brown with reddish undertones, and another (more sheer) medium brown.The verdict? If you’re looking for a neturals quad, you’re in Canada, and you’re happy with netural-warm shadows, this is a great buy at $16 per quad (if I remember correctly.) Quo goes on sale often, too! You can’t create anything super-dramatic with this, obviously, but it’s gorgeous and definitely suitable for office wear.

Tags: /Canadian beauty, Eyes, Paraben-free, Product Photos, Product Review, Product Swatches, Quo

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You just can’t make this shit up

November 17, 2009

Rae Chen

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This is what EPSB has put out (Edmonton Public School Boards) in regards to the seasonal flu and H1N1.Way to go, guys.

Tags: /Things that scare me

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Comment system

November 16, 2009

Rae Chen

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theNotice has finally switched off the default blogger commenting system :) I really hope you guys like it, but please let me know if you don’t!! I needed something to filter out an IP that’s been spamming a few of my posts, and it was time anyways *shrugs*

The main impacts:

If a comment made by you has been approved before, your comments shouldn’t need to be moderated ever again!
Old posts will have the old comment system, new ones will have the IntenseDebate system.
Comments can now include links and photos.
You can comment as a guest, or via an account at IntenseDebate, Twitter, or OpenID. You can’t post via your Blogger or WordPress account anymore, as far as I know, but fret not! Instead of having your profile linked to your name, the comment will link directly to your blog/website. Handy, right?
I hate how the “Google Followers” box looks, but you can now subscribe to theNotice at the same time as you make a comment — I know some of you had asked for an easier way to subscribe when you filled out your surveys! I’ll have a how-to diagram up in a few minutes.
The most important one for me? Comments can be threaded!!! I’ve always wanted to do this, so I’m super-excited =D

Go ahead, give it a try… you know you want to!

Edit: just found out that CommentLuv and IntenseDebate can be used together… yes!! For those of you that don’t have either and do have a blog, I definitely recommend getting at least one of them. CommentLuv adds a link to one of your recent posts to your comments, which is pretty awesome, right? Clearly, I had to add on CommentLuv! Not sure if it will work on this post, but it certainly will for future ones.

Tags: /About theNotice

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Violet FOTD: still waiting to see the sun

November 16, 2009

Rae Chen

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Man, it feels like I haven’t posted a FOTD in ages!! There hasn’t even been a point to trying to do makeup over the past few weeks, because it photographs like crap — it’s dark when I wake up and dim when I get home, boo :( As a result, my macro shots are blurry and my full-face shots have to be taken with flash and colour-corrected to no end.

But you’re not here to hear me bitch about how hard it was to get these photos to you guys! Nope, you’re here to see ’em. So: onwards!

A couple awful macro shots:How-to (I know it’s long, but I promise the look is actually quite easy! Plus, once you’ve mastered the technique, you can use it to create a fast smokey eye of any colour.)

I started by creating a basic black and white smokey eye. Fill the inner 1/3 of your upper lid with a white cream base and blend out. Then, pat on a black base on the outer 2/3, and intensify the outer V with a black shadow. (All products used so far have been matte.)

Following this I went over the look with a vivid violet — still matte — and blended well, pulling the colour slightly out off the black base. I took it down underneath the lower lashline as well, about 2/3 of the way in. To complete this stage, I blended out the edges one more time with a shimmery low-pigment violet shadow, also popping a bit of this in the middle of the lid.

Finally, I patted shimmery pigments overtop, using a lighter one for the inner portion and a darker one on the outer portion. (Don’t forget to do this on the bottom as well as the top!) Line upper lashline and both waterlines, fill brows lightly if needed, add mascara, and keep the cheeks light. (I contoured my cheeks that morning, about nine hours prior, and wore pink blush — so, all I had to do was leave it on!)

With a nude lip: (Besamé Vanilla)
These images were taken with flash, so I have no idea how in the hell they turned out alright.Aaaand then I was bored, and wanted to keep showing you guys the difference between a look with a nude lip and the same look with a statement lip. So I did the following with some liners to give it depth (MAC Currant, Vino, and Mauve) and topped with a dark red-burgendy balm to blend it all together (MAC’s Tinted Lip Conditioner in Plum Perfect).

Here’s the look with burgundy lips! Mother calls it the “hooker look.” (Well, that’s a lie. She cringed and said “it, um… looks like you’re going to go clubbing, Rae.” I called it the whore look, and she laughed. Not to say that it is! It’s just WAY bolder than I usually go.)

These shots were taken with flash as well, but for whatever reason look WAY WEIRDER than the others.

(nnrrgh I look funny in flash.)

(and stoned. Very stoned.)

Stuff used for the black smokey eye:

MAC Blacktrack (black base)
NYX Milk (jumbo pencil)
Smashbox Midnight Black (black shadow)

Stuff used for to turn it into a violet smokey eye:

MUFE 92 (matte violet shadow)
Lancome Angora (shimmery, sheer lavender shadow)
MAC Vanilla and Mauvement pigments (the lighter and darker ones, respectively)

And, finally, the extremities:

Rimmel Lycra Lash Extender (mascara)
UD 24/7 in Zero (black liner for the waterline)
MAC Blacktrack (to line the upper lashline)
NARS Mata Hari (pink blush)
MAC Harmony (to contour cheeks)

Hope you liked it! I was really happy with how it turned out in real life (seeing as violet is pretty much my favourite colour!) The worst part was having to take it off eventually =(

Tags: /4. Makeup looks, Eyes, Lancome, MAC, Make Up For Ever / MUFE, Makeup looks: colour, Smashbox, Tutorials

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