New Summer Hair Cut and Color!

I went from this back in April...

To Clairol's Textures and Tones Flaming Desire

To this! Can you see the difference?

I colored my locs, then went to a 'professional' stylist who retwisted my hair and gave me a 'trim'. As soon as I walked in her salon, she told me I needed a trim. Uh, scissors near my locs? No ma'am! Shawnta taught me that, hehe. I decided to go ahead and get them trimmed, since I never really come to a shop for maintenance. After all, it would be a 1 time thing right? :s

All in all, I was pleased as she cut a lot of weight and bulk out of my hair (literally with scissors she went up and down the sides, cutting down buds, frizz and cut down my thick swollen ends or completely cut them off). I at first felt sad because my ends held the start of my loc journey...dyed and comb coiled. Then I felt relieved because I began to be intimidated by curl styles with my thick locs. But now at a more manageable size, I'm excited about trying curls again!

I'm still having a love affair with my MAC Gray Utility eyeliner pencil, that I used on my bottom lids. *heart*

Do you cut or color your locs? Why or why not?

Orly Viva Summer Collection 2010

Great! New shades from Orly!! Four new fun, festive, spicy colors are offered in Orly's Viva Summer 2010 Collection that celebrates the sexiness of Latin American culture!

Have a hot summer Fiesta in Hot Pink shimmer

Bailamos to the music in Turquoise shimmer

Ole – set the night on fire in Coral Orange crème

Take a dip in La Playa with Blue crème

Two cremes and two shimmer polishes... best of both worlds! The Orly Viva collection is available now at retailers near you; $7.50 retail price. I'll definitely have to get my fingers on Ole!

Did NYX Girls lacquer get a makeover?

(Click to enlarge)

Or am I late noticing?
There were quite a few colors that I was interested in, but I figured I should just enjoy the sparkly acrylic I'm currently rocking (and got a refill of!) and contemplate using the many unused bottles of polish I already own!

Local beauty supply; retail $1.99- $2.99.
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Chrome Yellow at Work

Yes, I wore this at work. Defying all kinds of work place rules! I hadn't worn makeup and I had plans for the night on U Street. I guess I was jumping back in to the game with some color!

EYES
MAC chrome yellow on the lid
MAC lalala in the crease
MAC birds and berries in the outer v
MAC carbon to deepen the outer v
Maybelline black gel liner on top lid and waterline
MAC industrial liner on bottom lid
MAC soft white color from a palette on inner corner
MAC fleshy nude beige to tone down the chrome yellow!
Maybelline's falsies mascara ... LOVE

12 Question Tag and more!

Thanks to the awesome Makeup Majesty for this tag!

The pic above isn't the 8th pic out of the 8th folder (as the rules ask for), but I kinda lost count after the different branches it took to get to this photo. This is a pic of the kid that he took of himself with my Blackberry. After not hearing my phone beep or ring for a bit, I'm sure to find a silly slide show of the kid's photography!.. but hehe, I enjoy them most times.

On to the questions!

1.What shoe size are you?
11- there i said it! I used to be 10 borderline 11. I guess a few cupcakes later, I'm a complete 11.. no exceptions... except with some Nine West shoes and I love them ;)


2.Where do you work?
In DC's judicial system :s

3.Favorite piece of clothing you own
Hmmm, I'm enamoured with my two purple dresses...one is pretty and soft, the other is a bit more night on the town.. ow!

4.Your favorite blog?
Really? When I subscribe to fifty eleven hunnid?? iCan't. It's like picking a favorite family member or friend. You like them and love them for different reasons, all unique to them.

5.Do you have any pets?
I unofficially disown my tortuga... Don't tell the kid!

6.How many siblings do you have?
I have 3 siblings.. all sisters. How could a girl be so lucky?

7.If you could live anywhere where would it be?
In a house with a wrap around porch in a mid size town, with easy traffic and moderate temps and a great school system! :D


8.What were you doing before this?
Making sure the car wasn't getting towed, feeding the kid dinner and helping my dad with his online banking.. I multi task!

9.Your favorite food?
Icecream or Tangysweet frozen yogurt


10.Do you have a middle name?
Yes. Most of my dad's siblings don't have middle names, but I was named after one of them that actually has a middle name. It's a mash-up of my grandmother's name and her dad's name. I like carrying on the history even if it is a weird name!

11.Your favorite websites?
Specktra will always be a fave, but this again is a difficult question since my internet time is consumed with blogs and not actual sites.


12.Who do you tag?
Anyone who wants to play along. I love reading answers and getting to know people so feel free and let me know you've done the tag!

Sunshine Award!

Thanks Brea! You are a ball of Sunshine!

My other sunny spots on a cloudy day:

Zoffe

Mocha Mish Mash

Em @ Too Much Blush

Thank you to the Poor College Student at Maquilagem Masstige for this Sweet Blog Award!!

I'm supposed to tag so many people, but I'll give a Sweet Blog award to the sweetest of them all in the blogosphere, Amina!

Special Link: Ohhhhh can't wait to get my hands on this! Come to the US!!!

Mos Def and friends for Gulf Aid

Visit Gulfaid.org to help! By the way, this is my jam on my iPod ;D

The most underrated MAC To The Beach product

On the count of 3, help me to boo Comcast for bad service and making me wait a week for a cable guy to come and repair the problem... 1, 2, 3 BOOOOOO!

Now with that out of the way... Hi guys!!! How have you been?

Confession: I haven't worn makeup all week. I'm not a Summer girl at all. (My favorite season is Fall.) While not wearing makeup, I've been trying to at least appreciate my tanning/glowing skin and just embrace the heat and uh oh yeh,... let it hold me over as I eagerly await MAC's In the Groove Collection, :D


Something else that's holding me over? Appreciating a few things I've picked up from the last collection, To the Beach. I haven't been wearing them recently, but I can tell you I've satisfied my makeup jones! I picked up: Get Away Bronze blush, Flurry of Fun lipglass and Float on By eye kohl. I absolutely love all three items!

That brings me to the point that one item I might love the most is totally overlooked and underrated! Get Away Bronze blush is love! It falls in between Sweet as Cocoa blush and a limited edition mineralized skinfinish bronzer, Sunny by Nature, that was released around this time last year. I love both of those too!


Pics please!

l-r: Sunny By Nature, Get Away Bronze, Sweet as Cocoa

Please excuse the alligator hands... any whoo! Does anyone love this blush as much as me? What about the other items?

What eye shadow color best suits you?

What Eyeshadow Shade Will Enhance Your Eye Color?

This quiz has the answer

This is a TotalBeauty.com make up article Celeb makeup guru Carol Shaw helped us create this quiz so that you can find the sexiest eyeshadow to compliment your peepers. Take the quiz

Never Say Never, Inc.'s: The Reveal

Hey guys,
I'm participating in a shopping and network event called The Reveal hosted by Never Say Never, Inc. by doing some makeovers! It's an event where you can shop boutique trends in an intimate setting and a bit of makeup fun is thrown in (Minx nails, lashes and makeup!) Awesome right? Don't you love when a night of fun can benefit so many? Please come out, show your support and shop 'til you drop!

About Never Say Never, Inc.:
"Never Say Never, Inc is an organization established to create exposure for youth in small towns. We are committed to seeking out rural area youth who possibly have never been on a train, never been to a museum, never been to a musical, or perhaps have never been to another state. We fully intend to make sure they NEVER SAY NEVER again!"

Additional information and tickets: http://thereveal.eventbrite.com/ **There's a special early bird ticket price listed!!

Fan/Like Never Say Never, Inc. on Facebook!: Never Say Never, Inc.'s Facebook page

Will I see you there? I hope so!!

Sparkling Nails

Glitter (huge shards, flakes) acrylic with gel overlay. Interesting, but I wish the nail tech could have found the desired lavender glitter acrylic I initially wanted :p
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

May Pretty Committee Meetup!

I've missed meeting up with the ladies of The Pretty Committee (TPC, our monthly makeup meetup group) so much! We planned for a big tea party shindig at a local mansion with foreign themed gardens, but we cancelled due to the weather and didn't have a proper rain date in place. I lived and learned!


However, a few of us didn't want to let the day go to waste and decided to do light shopping around Georgetown. Due to prior engagements, I met up with the girls a bit later for the sweetest part of all... cupcakes at the now infamous, Georgetown Cupcake shop.


Delicious, designer cupcakes were just what we needed. After standing in line, in the rain nonetheless, we we able to get in, get our treats and score a table in the intimate space. We chatted, caught up on our ideas, aspirations and more. A great time was had by all.

(Sheryl, me, Nikkia and Shana)

(Thanks Sheryl for the pics!)

Georgetown Cupcake had cute cupcakes, but Red Velvet Cupcakery is just as good if you aren't in the Georgetown or Bethesda area. The advantage of GC is that they have a dine-in space, even if limited. Both will have fierce competition as New York's Crumb cupcakes are moving to town! The huge personal cake size cupcakes are a great bang for your buck! (I haven't heard word of when they will be set to open.)

Stila Jewel Eye Shadow Palette

Hey family!
Remember this post? I said I would add details later... well yes, it's much later, but uh.. here are the details, ha! I wanted to review the Stila Jewel Eye Shadow Palette. This was a new product that I used on my eyes and was pretty impressed with!

Check it out below:

(click to enlarge)

Four dreamy, jewel, creme, metallic shades! It has a consistency of a cream, but it's not your usual cream. There are some slight properties of a gel or silicone I'm guessing to keep that shimmer and sparkle moving around like a cream. This interesting texture allowed me to move the shadow around as I needed! I loved that the cream's metallic shine was also a bit iridescent. It's hard for me to speak on this product being crease resistant, but I used my regular primer MAC Paint pot and the shadow held up well all night! The FOTD I did with this palette was one of the last few that I've done that I really liked!

Soooo, that was the main detail I wanted to share! Lol!

I used the deep purple amythest shade in my crease from the Stila palette. I know I used a teal liner on my top lid and lower, I used Instant Chic blush from MAC's Liberty of London collection as well as English Accents lipglass. :D

Do you have this palette? What do you think of it? Find Stila's Jewel Eye Shadow Palette here!

*Product provided as a PR sample.

Indique Hair International presents: INDIQUE AND THE CITY Contest!

Indique Hair International, the premiere virgin Indian hair company is holding a contest for Twitter and Facebook fans. Show Indique your hottest Sex and the City outfit and win grand prizes in their new contest. Check out the details below!




Show us your best Sex and the City outfit, inspired by Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, or Miranda for your chance to be featured in the “Indique and the City” photo shoot!
Twitter (@iloveindique) or post a picture on our Facebook Fan Page (Indique Hair) of your SATC-character inspired style for your chance to win:
• Two (2) free tubes of hair
• free hair extension service
• a spot in the “Indique and the City” photo shoot, taking place in New York City Summer 2010, complete with professional photographer, make-up, hair, and wardrobe stylists!

Four lucky winners will be chosen!

Entering is easy!
• TwitPic or post on our Fan Page a recent picture of yourself wearing your best SATC-inspired outfit
• Must include: one (1) head shot and one (1) full body shot

Start posting today! Contest ends June 9, 2010!

Rules:
• No purchase necessary
• One submission per person
• Contest ends 11:59PM EST on Wednesday, June 9, 2010
• Transportation and accommodations to New York City for photo shoot is not included
• Must be 18 years of age and over to enter