Over-Pluckers Anonymous

Trends come and go, but the bad, super skinny eyebrows of the late 90s-early 2000s sure stayed with us! Had I known that the over tweezing I did in high school would haunt me forever, I would have laid off of everything except my unibrow. That's (hopefully?) never going to be the look to achieve! 

Here are my naked brows. As you can see, They've been taken in way too far on the inside.

I use one of these two products to fill in the gaps:

GloMinerals comes in 4 shades and has a stiff brush at the end that is completely necessary for blending.  I use Brunette and it's a perfect match.

Ipsy sent me this Chella brow pencil in Dazzling Dark Brown and I love that it's so tiny! You can be very precise with it, which would work wonderfully for those who draw every hair on individually.

I used both this morning just to show how identical the colors are.

I draw the inner corner in very square

Then fill

I also add a little 'oomph' to the top of my arch

Then blend it all with the brush on the end of the Glo pencil

 

See the difference between my full and wimpy brow?

Wondering how to know how much filling you need? I learned this trick from Lauren Conrad YEARS ago and it still applies! To know where your brow should naturally fall on the inside, line a pencil up with the outer corner of your mouth (at rest; no smiling!) then follow to the outside of your nostril.  Where it lands is where you should start.  Mine are way off when not filled in, proving that I've taken about a centimeter too much off over the years.  I wish I'd taken these pics before, but you get the gist.

To find where the tail of your brow should stop, line the same pencil up with the OTHER corner of your lip, outside of the same nostril, and roll towards your temple.

After taking these pictures I realized I needed to fill mine out a little better on the outside!

Happy Filling, friends!

xoxo

February GlamBag!

February Ipsy Bag

I'm digging my GlamBag this month!  The Pop lip plumper in Peony Petal is a beautiful hot pink

The eye palette will compose the perfect smokey eye

I've found that Ipsy loves to send me hair oil, which works well for our curly household of girls

This is the second month they've sent me a silver eye pencil though.  How does everyone else use this? I've lined the bow in my top lip to make my red stain pop, and use it in the corner of my eye and water line as a highlighter, shown below.  This is Mally in 'Starshine'.

Last but not least, I turned my nose up at this Zoya polish in Odette, but ended up loving it, which really goes to show that Ipsy sends you things you never would have picked up on your own, but end up becoming staples!

Thanks again, GlamSquad!

To get your own GlamBag, click here!

http://www.ipsy.com/r/2o4p

How to construct a Barbie cake

Pinterest has a way of making you feel invincible.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who looks at a project lined out on there and says "Oh that's so SIMPLE!'  Then truth sets in and you feel like a big fat failure.  This is how my initial stab at The Barbie Cake went.  After two failed attempts at baking two identical round cakes with the perfectly sized center missing, I scrapped the idea and baked two bunt cakes.  (Strawberry Sour Cream Pound cake, to be specific because I made them the day prior to the party JUST IN CASE we had flop #3 and I needed them to be perfectly moist and dense, and how better to ensure that than a pound cake?)

I placed the two cakes together, top to top.

Trim the edge off of the top to make a rounded "skirt".  Being as hindsight is 20/20, in the future I'll shave the sides down as well, so that the top cake is more narrow than the bottom.

Cover with icing, leaving or filling in the gap, however you'd prefer.  I left mine to give the effect of a ruffled dress. This step calls for 2 batches of icing and a cold beer of your choice.  I paired mine with a Michelob Ultra Lime Cactus.

I added a chevron stripe with metallic silver rock crystals after drawing the zig zag line into the frosting with a fork, giving me a guideline,

Finally, stuff your Barbie into the center, then fill the empty space with strawberries, lining the top, and wait for the endless oohs and aahhs from every little girl you encounter!

xoxo,

Lauren

Layla Kyle Turns 2

My little Layla Kyle turns two today! We celebrated yesterday by hosting her Second Annual Birthday Brunch, which is my FAVORITE time to plan a party because everyone is freshly made up for the day and HELLOOOO...Mimosa, anyone?

We had a house FULL of family by 10 a.m.

Although not the prettiest Barbie Cake in the land of Pinterest, it was DELICIOUS and the Birthday Girl placed her stamp of approval on it, so all was right in the world.

Happy Birthday to the smallest Woodard!

November Ipsy Glam Bag

It's Ipsy time! It's Ipsy time!
If you're wondering what Ipsy's all about, check out my post Here

I absolutely LOVE the gold snake skin bag they sent this month. It'll be getting a lot of use!

I'm not too sure about the megenta colored eye shadow. It's a huge amount, which is great! I'll give it a shot but can't promise it'll be on heavy rotaion.

Ipsy seems to be a fan of Nailtini polish, which means that *I* have become a big Nailtini fan! I think this is my 3rd polish of theirs and even though I'm jealous of the gold color some of my ipster friends received, I'm still loving the silver.

Nude is the color chosen for me in the em lipstick, but my friend Melissa received a bright red/coral color so we're going to trade. I'll give a good review on that one once I get it on my lips, but the pigment and creaminess look great and I love the packaging!

I used the silver eye pencil to line my inner rims today and love the way it reflects light really brightens my eyes up!

Pixi is another brand Ipsy has introduced me to and this bronzer is GREAT. It's hard to find a bronzer these days that doesn't have a boat load of 80s shimmer, so Pizi nailed it, and I'm happy they supplied such a large amount! Who doesnt need bronzer?

Lastly, the Bombshell lip crayon in Red Hot. I LOVE IT! I put it on straight out of the mailbox! So smooth! My favorite thing about lip crayons is that they're not sticky like a gloss but not cakey and dry like a lipstick. Crayons and tinted balms will be in my beauty arsenal until the day I die!

Thanks Again, IPSY!

To get your own GlamBag, click here:

http://www.ipsy.com/r/2o4p

Ipsy

Everyone loves monthly mail-order beauty samples, but of all the ones out there, I believe I've found my favorite in the Ipsy Glam Bag!

Unlike some of the other ones, Ipsy isn't a one-for-all service where everyone gets the same thing; after filling out a questionaire about your skin tone, hair texture, eye color and style preference, you're sent items that are hand picked for you, and most of them are full sized! At a flat $10 a month, you cant beat it! I love that they send me things I would NEVER pick up or even try, and I usually love them!

Go to www.ipsy.com to sign up! You wont be disappointed!