As if we don't have enough blogging, myspace, youtube, facebook and all that other fun stuff to do - I've opened up a twitter account.

I think this is the best way for me to do quick updates without a full out blog entry.

You can check out my twitter by going to:

http://twitter.com/beautybyhoney

So - this is a rare, but absolutely fantastic occasion. MAC cosmetics is having a sale on most of their Holiday collection.

They are also offering the following online when ordering from maccosmetics.com:

FREE SHIPPING (see details on website)

and...

HOLIDAY SHIPPING
For delivery by 12/25, place your order on or before:

12/23 by 10am EST for Overnight
12/22 by 11am EST for 2 Day

Take a look at maccosmetics.com to take advantage of shipping stated above or to purchase the items they have on sale. Or you can visit your local Freestanding MAC store or MAC counter.

I get asked this question very often... and many times I am asked it by clients, customers or friendlies on the street wondering about my eye makeup. I always advise that it is great to be open to color - whether it is on your lips or on your eyes... and once you find a color you love to use and can easily work with... there's no harm in sticking with it.

What is your favorite eyeshadow color and why?

I absolutely love every color of the rainbow, especially when it comes to eyeshadows and narrowing it down to one is pretty much impossible... however, I could narrow it down to two. I think Bronze (no matter what brand) is a must have eyeshadow color for all makeup collections. This color is easily mixed and blended with other colors to create a number of looks from subtle to vibrant. And, besides that I would have to choose a Medium Purple as a great eyeshadow color. Purple is one of those bright colors that can easily go with any skin type and color. It can be played up to be a bright, vibrant look or blended to be a toned down, natural look. A Medium Purple... one similar to MAC's Satellite Dreams or the purple in Loreal HIP eyeshadow duo in Flamboyant are great additions and must haves for all collections.

Are you an Avon customer? You can find these 2 eyeshadow color duplicates in the following shades:

- A Bronze color for Avon would be Classic Mocha (singles) or the Bronze color on the Earth Tones Quad.
- A Medium Purple color for Avon would be Lavender (singles) or the Medium Purple color on the Vintage Violets Quad.

This look was showcased as "The Look of the Week" during the week of 12/1/08 - 12/7/08 on the BeautybyHoney website. Here are a few pictures of the look and what was used.





A soft purple with a little bit of gold shimmer in the tear duct area... using a beige cream color for a highlight. Black liner and a soft neutral pink lip under a clear gloss.






Products used:

EYES:
- Berry Blissful Dual-ended shadow stick by Avon for the base on eyelids.
- Loreal HIP eyeshadow duo in Flamboyant on lid and crease.
- Cream White color from Profusion Neutral Palette for highlight below brow.




- Blackest Black Glimmersticks Pencil Eyeliner by Avon on upper lash line, tight line, waterline and lower lash line.

- Uplifting Mascara by Avon in Black on upper lashes and bottom lashes.

LIPS:
- Pale Rose Ultra Color Rich Mousse Lipstick by Avon
- Dazzling Diamond Lipgloss by Avon over lipstick.

FACE:
- Peach/brown Blush from Profusion Neutral Palette on cheeks.
- Magix Face Perfector from Avon all over face.
*no foundation used.

I am so.... excited. I have been hearing the rants and raves from many youtubers about Pure Luxe cosmetics. There have been a few swatches of the products on youtube - but still... there were no real experiments done in comparison to another pigment or mineral type product (none to my knowledge - so if you know of one... please point me in that direction.) The other day - after watching a youtube makeup haul video by Boosexymama (Natalie) and seeing the colors she chose and received... I decided that I just couldn't beat the price and that I better jump on that opportunity real soon. So - after much consideration, I decided to go ahead and order some of their mineral shadows. Luck would have it - that as soon as I got to their website, they were advertising a 25% off December sale on orders placed between 12/1/08 - 12/7/08. All items were included with exception of creme erasers. Yippee! This was my chance to get a bunch of these raved about shadows...

So - I placed an order to include about 40 different shadows. These shadows ranged from regular vibrant pigment colors to even some cool ones like color changing shadows called the Kaleidoscope Collection (color changes depending on how light is reflected on it) and Black Light/ Glow in the dark responsive shadows. I am VERY EXCITED!!!

I have not received my order yet - but am very very excited to be bringing you a number of posts regarding the product once I receive it, including product comparison to the higher priced brands and swatches.

Those of you that are interested in trying out these wonderful products - visit Pure Luxe cosmetics online. Most of their shadows are sold for about $1.00 USD and it includes 1/8 tsp. in a jar (sample). Though this may not sound like a lot of product... those of you that use makeup know that minerals and pigments can go a long way and this will last you quite long. You can't beat the product colors that they have available. Also on their website you can find: Foundations, Blush/Bronzer Correct, Lipcolor, skincare, brushes, primers and other fun and exciting makeup and beauty lover finds. Again, the price absolutely can't be beat.

I will be bringing you a video review as well as pictures soon. ;-)

Many of my clients and customers know that I am a huge fan of Bare Escentuals and the Bare Minerals makeup/cosmetic line. I have been a supporter of their product line for over 5 years and have used their products in my makeovers, tutorials, freelance work and other makeup stuff for just as long. This specific Review is my opinion only and does not reflect the opinion of my clients, customers or models. I am always open to an additional review(s) in the future to open my mind to new and outstanding things. Please note that my opinion is unbiased and is based on my tried and true testing and review criteria.

Now to the review:

I love Cosmetic Brushes - my eye makeup brushes (especially) are my most essential tools and I take pride in providing great tools not only for use on my clients but on myself as well. About 6 months ago - I was very lucky to find myself purchasing my 2nd Bare Escentuals brush... the contour shadow brush. About a year ago... I got the angled eye defining brush in a Bare Escentuals kit I received for a gift and have really enjoyed using it. I was so excited to try out my new brush and started using it right after washing and disinfecting it. Much to my amazement... after using it the first time - my eye lids felt like they were on fire and very sensitive. This had not happened when I used my first i.d. B.E. brush. I assumed that I may have been going through a sensitive time and that my eyes just couldn't handle makeup - however that was not the case with my MAC 239 or any of my eye brushes after using it. So - I just assumed that I would not use the brush for a few weeks and see what happened.

A few weeks later - I tried using the 2nd i.d.B.E. brush again (the contour shadow brush) and found that the same problem occured. My eyelid was once again irritated, burning, sensitive and even had redness. I wondered if the bristles had been so harsh that it was causing irritation. I continued to try the brush out over the course of about a 6 month time frame... leaving approximately 2-3 weeks between each time I used the brush and found that the same problem was occuring.

Finally - yesterday, I decided to wear mineral makeup and wanted try the brush out for the last time. My angled eye defining brush did not give me these problems... so I could not figure out what was going on. Again - I used the contour shadow brush (pictured below) and this time - as I applied the mineral eyeshadow (without a base - just the shadow), I could feel a harsh, scratching feeling on my eyelids and then it started to burn. I just knew that I couldn't use the brush again.

Now - here is some information on this contour shadow brush (taken directly from the Bare Escentuals website):

This flexible tool blends smoothly along the crease, creating soft, smoky looks. The Contour Shadow Brush is also great for providing detail highlights along the brow bone. The tightly tapered and textured semi-dome-shaped brush head provides medium color intensity to multiple eye areas.

Our professional brushes are designed to buff on the perfect amount of bareMinerals for the most natural, flawless application. Only the finest quality of hairs are used to make buffing bareMinerals feel like second nature.

The brush sells for $14.00 on the Bare Escentuals website. I could not find any information located on the website with regard to the specific type of hair used in the i.d.B.E. brushes. I have not experienced any of the same problems or similarities in the two brushes I purchased - but I do know that no matter how much I have cleaned and disinfected, conditioned and cared for my Contour Shadow brush - it has still resulted in the same effect.

Again - this is my own experimenting and opinion with this in regard. I am open to any feedback from my readers if they have similar or different experiences with the same brush. If someone did have a similar experience but found a way to work around it or fix it - please message me and let me know. It is always possible that I may have very sensitive eyelids - but after trying several brushes on the market - this is the only one that caused this type of reaction.

I hope this information will help you in future purchasing or other. ;-)

I'm so excited to be bringing all of my viewers this great information. I have had several requests for different looks and makeup tips from my youtube channel. Apparently Prom season is right around the corner... and I have been getting requests from Teens looking for a stunning look to use for prom. I've also been getting requests to do looks utilizing some of my Pigments, Mineral Pigments/Powders and Avon cosmetics. In the next few weeks - here are some of the looks/requests you can see up on Youtube and posted on the blog.

Prom Looks:

Purple Smokey Eye with glitter and silvers
Blue and Silver look
Pink and Brown smokey eye look
Yellow smokey eye look
green smokey eye look with glitter and silvers

Pigment, Mineral and Avon Looks:

Bold, bright and different looks for night time and for the Vibrant Makeup Lovers
Soft, Neutral and Everyday looks for everyday wear.

If you have any ideas or requests for upcoming tutorials - please be sure to send me and email and let me know.

Aloha for now - Have a great weekend!
Honey

So - I finally got my 2 - 88 eyeshadow palettes and my neutral palette from Coastal Scents. It came in about 10 days (shipping was free and it was Fedex Ground). I had the original palette when it first came out... it was only about $19.00 USD then and now is $24.95 - but I think it is worth that and more. The colors are as vibrant as ever and I am so excited to do some new looks with the neutral 28 color palette. I also got 5 different brushes, a duo fiber stippling brush (pink), a face powder brush (small pink), a crease brush, a pencil type brush and an eyeshadow brush... I have washed them all and I am very pleased with it so far. I haven't used them yet... waiting for them to dry - but the face brushes shed a little bit... and those were the only ones. They had a slight smell to it... but I wash my brushes with MAC brush cleaner and with my biolage shampoo (mixed together) and the smell is now gone.

Check out http://www.coastalscents.com to see all of their cool and affordable products. I promise you will enjoy it and the prices just can't be beat.

Once I have some time... I will go ahead and start doing more tutorials. But for now... check out my youtube channel for reviews, tutorials and other fun beauty stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/destne146

Hello to all...
I have been a Youtube member for about a year now - and decided that I should start doing my own tutorials... and all kinds of beauty related things.

I have several blogs - my personal blog which is http://www.honeygirlk.blogspot.com which I do not keep updated as often as I would like. And, my business blog which is http://www.alwaysmeansforever.blogspot.com for my photography business. I decided to keep all of it separate and go ahead and open this new blog with all of my beauty tips and other fun stuff in relation to my youtube broadcasting.

Check out my Youtube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/destne146 and check out some of my makeup application tutorials, reviews, etc. Like I mentioned before - I am new to the whole video broadcasting thing - so I'm slowly uploading vids as I do them.

Let me know what you think.