SHE SAID - Gameday Makeup

Let's Go!  Hokies!  Let's Go!  Hokies! 

If you're a Virginia Tech fan like me, then you can easily hear that chant roaring in your head, see the excitement in the stadium grow as "Enter Sandman" beings, and view a sea of orange and maroon bobbing up and down as the crowd stars jumping.  There's truly nothing like Tech's entrance if you're a Tech fan.  

But you don't have to be a Tech fan to appreciate this gameday makeup tutorial - switch it out for any team colors you choose!  Just watch and learn the strategy!

SHE SAID - Brighten Your Eyes Girlllll

Want your eyes to look brighter and more alert?  Let me show ya howwwww.

SHE SAID - My Daily Makeup Routine

So it's 5:08AM on a week day - where are you?  Well, hopefully most of you are lucky enough to be sleeping.  But not Derek and I - that's our wake up time!  It's really not so bad once you get used to it, and I'm honestly a morning person, so it's pretty easy for me to wake up that early.  But what's not so easy is making myself look presentable at that time of morning!  So I stick to the basics makeup-wise throughout the week. 

Let me start off by saying the job I currently have is definitely not a job I need to look fancy for.  Most of my day is spent crawling/climbing/contorting around in a lab/office/hallway/closet floor looking for serial numbers on equipment.  Seriously.  Obviously I would look out of place in this line of work if I had makeup/hair to the nines every day since it would get disheveled very quickly.  So I don't.  I keep it pretty simple:

• Bare Minerals face powder (been using it since 2005 and am still a fan)
• Blush of choice
• Concealer
• Fill in my brows (most days)
• Eyeliner
• Mascara
• White highlight for inner corner

Now, I do add a little flare almost every day....I make my eyeliner winged.  Sounds fancy right?  That's my little bit of extra primping I allow myself in this position.  It's super quick and easy to do, so it doesn't add much time to my morning routine.  And honestly, I feel most confident when I have on winged eyeliner.  (The italics and bold font are totally necessary). 

I know I could wake up a few minutes earlier and do nicer eyeshadow or attempt to contour daily...but I like to save that up to do on the weekends when I feel I actually have time to 'play' in makeup, because Lord knows I'm NOT waking up any earlier that 5:08 on the week days.  

The video below explains exactly how I wing my liner!  It's easy!

SHE SAID - Makeup Brushes

For some reason when I was little I was reeealllyyy into lipstick brushes.  I was such a little diva! - an elementary school kid obsessing over lipstick brushes?!  Ok, ok, do you remember the cheap-o brushes you get with waterpaint sets...well, that was my "lipstick brush".  I would NEVER use it in paint - it was used solely for applying lipstick/chapstick.  I remember this one pot of coconut chapstick that I loved to apply at bedtime using my lipstick brush.  It went on so smoothly!  One day, I couldn't find my lipstick brush.  Ends up, my brother had taken it...and used it....and used it....and used it...in PAINT!  (the horror! didn't he know that was NOT a paint brush?!)  I remember crying to my mom "HE RUINED IT! HE RUINED IT!"...seems so silly now, but it paints (pun intended) perfectly how my makeup addiction started early on.  So speaking of brushes...let me show you a few of my current favorites!

SHE SAID - Makeup Journey

Take a journey with me down memory lane...a makeup journey.  It's probably one of the worst best memory lane strolls many of us could make!  

White Eyeliner - Many of my fellow makeup lovers probably know that white eyeliner can be extremely useful!  I use it almost daily to brighten my inner corner or rim my waterline.  However, in 8th grade, I hadn't learned those nifty lil' tricks yet.  I just used it as normal top-of-the-lash-line eyeliner.  As you can imagine, it looked a bit...odd.  

Not-Exactly-A-Wing-Eyeliner - Yes, yes, another eyeliner mistake.  Years before I comprehended what winged eyeliner was, I was apparently attempting to do it.  Kind of.  All I would do is take a black eyeliner and draw it out past the end of my lash line--just straight out--there was no triangle/wing shape, it was literally just a singular line.  In 10th grade, a boy said to me "Why do you draw those lines on your face?"  I think that was the last day I ever did that.

Black Eyeshadow Blobs - In high school, I remember thinking if I added a bit of black to any makeup look it would make it more dramatic.  I'd do a lighter color on my lid, then just pop some black in the outer corner with my finger.  Looking back, this would have been fine if I'd just blended out the black into a gradient instead of a blob.  But who knew eye makeup brushes existed?!?!  Not this girl!

There, I've told you some of my embarrassing stories...anyone else willing to spill?