amyopoly

Groovy! Konad Plate M85

Amy — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:39:50 +0000

Konad m85

I love nail art, and stamping is fantastic for those nail designs with super thin lines and shapes that I could never create by hand. If you haven’t tried stamping yet, I highly recommend Konad for some great designs. It took me a few tries to get used to the process of stamping, but it’s a breeze to do once you’ve got it down. Thanks to NailPolishCanada.com (which–clearly–will ship to the US) for sending along one of Konad’s new plates, m85!

These are the tools I use for stamping. I also have a plate holder from Konad, but I honestly don’t like using it. I just rest the plate on my leg.

These are all the designs on plate m85. I used Orly Iron Butterfly as a base and stamped with China Glaze Harmony.

Then, I did a full manicure with one of the designs. I’m not sure if this design is supposed to waves of some sort, flames, or groovy 70s lines, but I went with the latter interpretation and used Love & Beauty Light Green and MAC Blue India. (Love & Beauty by Forever 21 are really bad about reusing names for colors, I actually think I have 2 bottles labeled “Light Green.” Kind of annoying…)

Per FTC regulations I must disclose that product(s) in this post were sent to me by a brand or PR firm for consideration for review on my website. I guarantee honesty above all. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Butter London Victoriana

Amy — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:23:04 +0000

I bought my first Butter London polish a few months ago as a birthday present for myself. $14 is something I can only justify rarely right now. But it’s a BEAUTIFUL color and I love the formula, so it’s worth it.

First, the way Butter London describes this color: “A textured twinkling vintage blue pale and slightly smoky. Things reminiscent of the Victorian era, such as corsets, top hats and Syphilis.”

I laughed pretty hard at that last descriptor!

I’d describe it as a dusty teal base with very fine silver specks of glitter.

The formula was fantastically smooth. I only did 2 coats out of habit, but it was opaque in one. Really perfect application. The bottle is pretty too! If Butter London polishes weren’t so expensive, I’d have the ENTIRE collection by now.

Bought in-store at ULTA. $14 for 11ml/.4 fl oz. Big 3 Free.

China Glaze Haunting Halloween Collection

Amy — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 05:30:57 +0000

While at Cosmoprof 2011 I got a nice look at some future collections, including “Haunting,” the upcoming Halloween collection from China Glaze.

Here we have a 2 glitters, 2 creams, and one very awesome glow in the dark top coat! Check out swatches below! :)

My descriptions of the colors:

Haunting: black base with bright silver round micro-glitter
It’s Alive: sheer olive green base loaded with chunky round glitter and small round micro-glitter
Crimson: deep eggplant-purple cream (looks mostly black)
Near Dark: murky deep olive green cream (looks mostly black)
Ghoulish Glow: transparent glow-in-the-dark top coat (!!)

edit: Scrangie just posted swatches of the Nars Fall 2011 collection, and Haunting looks pretty similar to Night Breed. The only thing, it seems, is that Haunting was comprised of all the same sized round glitter, and Scrangie says that Night Breed has irregular sizes/shapes. Will wait for comparison shots of the two!

Beacon Winner 2011

Amy — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 04:56:02 +0000

This year I was lucky enough to attend PBA Beauty Week in Las Vegas, Nevada. Here’s a little bit about why I was there:

As an esthiology student at Aveda Institute Charlotte, I applied to become a Beacon winner, which is an annual nationwide contest for cosmetology and esthiology students focused on the business and marketing side of the industry. Though Beacon, NAHA, and Cosmoprof have much more to do with hair than make-up, I applied anyway. I had to do 3 before and after pictures and create a marketing piece for myself, in addition to submitting a professional resume. I was thrilled to find out in May that I was one of 100 winners nationwide, and the amazing company that owns my school, Beauty Basics, paid for my flight and hotel in Las Vegas for the weekend of July 30 so I could attend! I’m hugely grateful to them for sending me over to get a taste of Beauty Week. Thank you BB!

As Beacon winners we were set up with a unique schedule of seminars and parties that allowed us to hear from motivational speakers, manufacturers, distributors, stylists, and salon owners, including some of the industry legends. As I said, most of this was directed toward hair stylists, but I still took a lot away from all the speakers and their advice. We got to attend exclusive parties and mingle with tons of people, and we also got to attend the North American Hairstyling Awards. If you didn’t know, NAHA is like the Oscars of hair. It was a fun night hosted by Miss Tabatha Coffey herself.. I’ll post pictures of that soon!

I stayed in the Luxor, which is connected to Mandalay Bay, where all of the Beacon, NAHA, and Cosmoprof events were held. I got to meet a bunch of other Beacon winners from schools that Beauty Basics owns; my roommate for the weekend had just graduated from Aveda Institute Dallas.

I met a lot of great people and took away a lot of really solid advice from the various speakers we heard from. Stedman Graham (yep, Oprah’s boyfriend!) was the opening speaker, just to give you an idea! He’s actually a great entrepreneur and motivational speaker in addition to his famous relationship. ;)

For now, here are the before and after pictures I sent in which won me a place in Vegas. I will list some of the products I used if I can remember what I used… it was done way back in March!

Katelyn’s wearing a custom-mixed lip color, Sable and Twinks eyeshadows, and Stud for her brows.

Amber’s wearing MAC Faux lipstick, Macroviolet fluidline, and Top Hat eyeshadow in the crease.

Nicole’s wearing MAC Hollywood Nights lipstick, Coygirl blush, and Feline eye kohl.

Short Film Shoot: Fork

Amy — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 00:12:12 +0000

A few months back, I did the make-up for several actors in an overnight short film shoot at a local diner here in Charlotte. I was really lucky to participate and be surrounded by lots of young talent. We shot in a very small, 50s-style diner from about 8pm to 7am the next morning(!!). It was a long “day,” and by the end I was almost delusional with exhaustion, but we had a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see the finished product (I may even make a small cameo appearance!). I know next to nothing about shooting video and was really impressed with all of the girls and guys behind and in front of the camera. Here’s a behind-the-scenes video from that shoot, followed by the trailer for “Fork.” The behind-the-scenes video was shot by the awesome Enid Valu, whose photography (and videography!) I super-love. As soon as “Fork” is released, I’ll be sure to post a link here!

(I spy a…. me!)

(Yup, I did his make-up, too! Mmmm, foundation in the beard…)

Backlog of Manicures!

Amy — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 00:37:47 +0000

I have a little treat for you today, several manicures.. mostly nail art I’ve done over the past month or so that I’ve been meaning to share. Hopefully I’ll be able to upload some higher quality pictures another time, but for now cell phone pictures will have to do!

China Glaze Crushed Candy Crackle layered over China Glaze Swing Baby

What I call a “preppy” manicure, it made me feel very tennis-club-in-the-Hamptons. Used Essie Cute As A Button, Essie Mint Candy Apple, Essie Tart Deco and (unfortunately) an unknown Essie (the bright pink).

!!Toes alert!! Essie Mint Candy Apple bows outlined in Art Club black nail art polish, layered over Essie Cute As A Button!

I can’t find the nail art inspiration picture I interpreted for this manicure–but I used Justin Bieber for NOPI I’m A Belieber with white and black Art Club nail art polishes for the design.

I am so utterly obsessed with jelly polishes, and this color especially: OPI Big Hair, Big Nails from the Texas 2011 collection!

I can’t tell you how ecstatic I was when I found OPI Sparkle-icious at a salon nearby. I didn’t jump on them when they first came out because I was poorly, and I couldn’t pass it up again!

Nail art with Zoya Dove and some Art Club studs! Loved this one, so chic, so… Rihanna.

I recently bought wall shelves from Target to organize my polish collection. This is a shot of all my polishes as of May 23, not including my MAC polishes (which are stored on a MAC polish display next to my make-up).

The Makeup Show NYC 2011

Amy — Sun, 15 May 2011 03:14:28 +0000

I am so excited about The Makeup Show NYC happening this weekend, and more excited that for the first time in 3 years I’ll be there! (See my posts about the 2008 Show here & here.) NARS Cosmetics will be exhibiting for the first time ever, and are joining some of the best brands in the make-up industry like MAC, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, Make Up For Ever, stila, and Anastasia Beverly Hills (among others) at this year’s Show.

When I went to The Makeup Show in 2008, I was a fairly new make-up artist, still working at MAC and totally enthralled with the industry. It sounds corny, but going to this show introduced me to Anastasia Beverly Hills, a brand I’d only ever heard about because it wasn’t yet in Nordstrom’s around the country, and it totally gave my interest in make-up a new direction. Now I’ve graduated from esthiology school, left MAC and continued freelancing on my own, and I’m just as bright-eyed & bushy-tailed as ever about The Show. It combines some of the greatest make-up artists in the industry with the best brands in the industry and goes even a step further by offering (free and by-reservation) hands-on workshops, seminars and keynotes on make-up products, applications & techniques. It’s a fantastic opportunity to learn and experience more.

I will be there all day on Monday, browsing, shopping, and catching some of the keynotes on the floor. I hope you’ll say hi if you see me there!

PS. Don’t quote me on it, but I have a sneaking suspicion MAC will begin selling their Surf Baby collection at The Show this weekend… we’ll see!

Spa Ritual Circle of Life

Amy — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 22:50:20 +0000

A super bright blue cream.. yum!! Spa Ritual is a vegan nail polish line sold in AVEDA salons and spas. I’ve become much more familiar with their line since I started my esthiology course at Aveda Institute Charlotte (which, by the way, I graduated from last Friday!!!). Enjoy this new Spa Ritual color from their Truth collection, and look forward to more from Truth soon!

Without flash you get a much more accurate idea of the color of this polish.

With flash, it appears much brighter and lighter, when in fact it is a bright royal blue.

This was photographed with a base coat and no top coat. What you see is two thick coats. The formula is okay, drying quicker than average, but there seems to be a settling problem with the Spa Rituals line (probably has something to do with the vegan ingredients)–basically, the settling is either very slow or simply doesn’t happen before drying. If you don’t know what I mean, it basically manifests in sloppy, uneven-looking applications of polish. In these pictures, a good example would be at the base of my ring finger, the little clump that is there. I went back in with the brush to fill in a very small unevenness in the line, and it never settled with the rest of the polish, basically clumped up and dried that way. Not cute, but probably also not impossible to fix with a nice self-settling top coat like Seche Vite (I’m out and need to restock, hence no top coat!).

Shabby Chic Nail Art

Amy — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 04:50:07 +0000

Yay, I had a lot of fun doing this manicure! I was inspired by a picture of someone’s manicure that I found on tumblr. The “roses” are very easy to make, just lots of semi-circles in varying tints and shades of a couple colors. I chose to do roses only on my ring and thumb nails for this manicure, while the rest just had the striped pattern.

Before I post the pictures, an apology for the state of my nails in these photos. My nails (and hands) take a lot of abuse from me right now, as I am giving 2-3 facials a day, and constantly washing my hands to keep sanitary. I get thirsty just looking at my poor dehydrated skin!

USED:
Color Club High Society
Color Club Who Are You Wearing?
Color Club Ms. Socialite
Color Club She’s Sooo Glam
OPI Who the Shrek Are You?
Seche Vite Top Coat

Make-up Audition

Amy — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 05:29:59 +0000

So, I’m not sure if I announced here that I was going to be attending Aveda Institute Charlotte to begin studying to get my esthetician’s license. I started back at the end of October, and I am actually more than 4/5ths through my program already! Time flies and all that.

Anyway, back in December, my school held try-outs for their first ever Artistic Team, and I knew that I had to try out as the make-up artist. The team has four hair stylists and only one make-up artist, so I was a bit nervous. I knew that I wanted to do a few trial runs because on the day of the try-outs, we only had 1 hour to prepare our model for judging. My friend Katelyn volunteered to be my model, and she did a fantastic job!

This was the picture I was largely inspired by. I thought the blending of the red shadow with the slight gold tones was gorgeous.

Even though I wanted to do make-up that was edgy, I also wanted it to be beautiful and technically well done. I’m not super into crazy/fantasy make-up with loads of swirls and glitter and rhinestones just because I think it’s very easy for it to look messy and… amateur. So, this is what I decided to do!

First make-up trial run:

USEDStudio Fix Fluid
Blushbaby Blush
Blunt Blush
Bare Canvas Paint
Blurburry Shadestick
Blanc Type Eyeshadow
Ruby Red Pigment
Rose Pigment
Reflects Gold Glitter
Rapidblack Penultimate Liner
Stud Eyebrows
Brick Lipliner
Party Line Lipstick
Amorous Dazzleglass Cream

While I was really happy with how the eyes turned out in this one, I knew I had to change my lip combination before the try-out. Even though Party Line is much more plum in real life, the combination of Brick lip liner and the red undertones in the lipstick made it turn REALLY red in pictures. I wanted it to be red, but a deeper, darker red, so I tweaked the combination a little.

Make-up done for try-outs, in a little less than an hour: (I have a picture of her looking straight at the camera, but the color in the picture is verrrry wrong, making everything look more purple than it really is, so I won’t post it.)

USED
Studio Fix Fluid
Blushbaby Blush
Dainty Mineralize Blush
Blunt Blush
Pink Rebel Lustre Drops
Bare Canvas Paint
Blurburry Shadestick
Blanc Type Eyeshadow
Ruby Red Pigment
Rose Pigment
Reflects Gold Glitter
Rapidblack Penultimate Liner
#7 lashes
Stud Eyebrows
NC25/NW30 Chromagraphic Pencil
(can’t remember) Lipstick
Vino Lip Liner
Amorous Dazzleglass Cream

Sooo, long story short, I won the make-up artist’s spot! :) I am currently a member of AIC’s first Artistic Team, and as such, I got to participate in an amazing photoshoot, the results of which are being entered into NAHA, a huge hair-styling competition… the hair industry equivalent of the Oscars. I really hope that the stylist I worked with is nominated in the Student category, because she is suuuper talented, and we all worked really hard to put the photoshoot together from scratch. I got the opportunity to do great make-up on 3 great models, and I will be posting pictures from that after NAHA announces its nominees in May. Until then, here’s one of the models I did a run-through on a few days before the shoot (we didn’t use this make-up, so it’s okay to show!). Liza is so beautiful and super talented!!

USED
Studio Fix Fluid
Stud Eyebrows
Quite Natural Paint Pot
Carbon Eyeshadow
Espresso Eyeshadow
Sable Eyeshadow
Smolder Eye Kohl
X-Rocks Blush
Pure White Chromacake

And a random shot on location at the photoshoot. I look forward to posting pictures of my make-up from the shoot as soon as possible.. and hopefully the images will be nominated for NAHA!!! Keep an eye out! :)