BSB: Beauty news, makeup swatches and pictures, nail polish articles, makeup tutorials, product reviews, and how-to's from a MAC-trained makeup artist.

Hope you're not sick of vampires, yet. Especially if you love BPAL!

We know I loves me some BPAL. Here's some great news from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab creator Elizabeth Barrial:

As some of you may know, I co-authored a book with Del Howison last winter, "Vampires Don't Sleep Alone"*. This is a bit about the book that I posted elsewhere on the forum earlier this evening...

Last year, Del and I were hired to write a guide to dating vampires. The idea of vampire romance has been intriguing to people since Bram Stoker popularized the genre and added a tangible complex sexuality to the lore. Nowadays, you're the odd man out if you don't have vampire fantasies.

Essentially, the premise of the book assumes that vampires are real and that they have recently come out of the crypt, so to speak. It explores the potential challenges found in actually dating vampires. I wrote the deadpan pseudoscience and false history, Del added warmth, contemporary advice, and wit. The project went through many iterations. It was initially supposed to be geared towards teen readers, and then the concept morphed to appeal to a more mature audience. It became both more serious and more tongue-in-cheek as it fleshed out. I'm really, really happy with the way that we tweaked the vampire mythos.

In the end, after months of research, innumerable conversations, eleventybillion rewrites, and much love and tears, the book went to the editor... and here we are.

Beth and Dell will be signing their book, "Vampires Don't Sleep Alone"*, at Dark Delicacies this Sunday, July 11, at 2pm. V. M. K. Fewings* and Maggie MacKeever* will also be signing their books that afternoon!

At the signing event you can be amongst the first to grab one of 10 new scents inspired by "Vampires Don't Sleep Alone"*. You can also get an imp of another scent, Bocal de Sang, if you purchase the book (and any further purchases of the book at Dark Delicacies).

After the signing, the scents will be on the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab website, so Hooray!!!!

The scents are on the next page, so jump if you wanna read about  'em...

Get Away with Three Custom Color

I adore Three Custom Color Specialists. Sadly, I was not one of the bloggers who received samples from their new lipstick collection, Get Away. I didn't even know about it until I got my email from the Three Custom Color Specialists website. Bummer.

The formula is a new one, and these are the introductory shades (each one is $21.50). You'll find the lipsticks super-color saturated and packed with moisturizing ingredients like fortified Vitamin E, Grapeseed Oil, Jojoba Oil, Shea Butter, and Avocado Oil. That does sound moisturizing, doesn't it?! I wonder how long-lasting the formula is, since moist lippies often don't wear long. The website implies that this is a long-lasting formula, but offers no details. Wish I knew the answer...

Inspired by some places I'd love to visit:

BORA BORA  Cool, vivid fuchsia with a subtle blue opalescence
SANTORINI  Rich raspberry with silver shimmer
COPACABANA Bold coral with gold shimmer
MAJORCA  Warm paprika with a soft bronze shimmer
ST. TROPEZ  Sandy peach-beige with champagne shimmer

It will come as no shock that I'm most interested in the fuchsia and the raspberry! ;)
Which ones do you want to try?

Chantecaille Lip Contour Fill, Holy Grail lip lover. I love you. Please don't leave me.

I'm getting old. I used to smoke. These two things don't work well together in the lip area if you want lipsticks and glosses that stay and don't stray. Tiny little lines around the margins of my lips mean an unattractive creeping and crawling sprawl of lip product in tiny little stripes. Tiny, but quite apparent in that Crazy Cat Lady way.

Since I consider myself infinitely more sexy that nutty Aunt Louise and her slapped-on lipstick, a solution needed to be found. My beloved MAC Prep + Prime Lip holds lipstick in place (let it set before topping- that's the trick) but wasn't the solution for the creepy bleeding issue.

Did Gaia, The Non-Blonde, hold the answer to my prayers in her ever-capable hands?

Surely you can't be in suspense if you read the headline,
but in case you're confused or interested in hearing more, keep reading...

MAC Venomous Villains collection details

Let me preface this by saying that this collection has my favorite Pigment, Melon; a 'magically cool liquid powder" in bronze and sheer with silver and pink reflects; two greasepaint sticks; nail polishes including one with "multichanging pigments"; burgundy, wine, red, coral and fuchsia lippies, and my favorite bright lipglass of all times, Hothouse; not to mention the Disney special packaging.

I am seriously saving every penny I have for this collection, not only just to stock up on Hothouse! ;)

The details...

Cruella

Lipstick
Innocence, Beware! - light yellow pink (Cremesheen)
Heartless- Cherry Red (Amplified)

Lipglass
Wicked Ways- Light nude with gold pearl
Devilishly Stylish- Deep fuchsia with pink pearl

Eyeshadow
De-vil- rich copper (VP)
Sweet joy (repromote)- creamy pale gold (Frost)
Carbon

Rapidblack Eye Liner

Beauty Powder
Her own devices -cool nude

Powder Blush
Darkly my dear- mid-tone brown plum (Matte)

Evil Queen
Lipstick
Toxic Tale- Bright coral (Satin)
Sinister- soft brown plum (lustre)

Lipglass
Strange Potion- soft coral pink
Hot house- Deep raspberry with pink pearl

Eyeshadow
Her Alter Image- Light violet (VP)
Vainglorious- Bronze burgundy (Frost)
Vile Violet- Deep blue purple (Matte)

Penultimate Brow Universal

Beauty Powder
Oh so fair -mid-tone pink with gold pearl

Powder Blush
Bite of an apple- soft coral pink (Matte)


Maleficent
Lipstick
Violetta (Repromote)- Violet Purple (Amplified)
Dark Deed- Burgundy plum (Amplified)

Lipglass
Revenge is sweet- light yellow purple
Wrong spell- Deep plum with pink purple

Mineralize Eyeshadow
My Dark Magic- Deep pink with pink pearl/ Deep plum with purple pearl
She who Dares- Deep navy with blue pearl/ Deep forest green with lime pearl

Beauty Powder
Briar Rose- Soft violet pink with pearl

Nail Lacquer
Bad Fairy- Red with multichanging pigments
Formidable!- Teal green with pink pigment
Mean & Green- Purple with teal pigment

Dr. Facilier
Lipgelee
Resort Life (repromote)- off white with pink pearl

Greasepaint
Slick black- true carbon black
French Quarter- Black green with multi colour pearl

Pigment
Melon- bright golden peach
Brash and Bold- bright magenta
Push the Edge- deep bright purple with pearl

Magically Cool Liquid Powder
Truth and Light- sheer shimmer reflects silver and pink
Cajun- Sheer bronze reflects gold

Mirror
I'm so vain - Round special decoration compact mirror

_{Via Spectra's Specky Becky}

In which The Ninja sees a Ghost (China Glaze: Ingrid from Vintage Vixen)

What more need be said? Ingrid, a gorgeous mushroomy shade that leans brown compared to many of the other taupe-stone-mushroom-greiges in recent history, is one of the stunners of the China Glaze Vintage Vixen collection. That is, if you like the whole taupe-stone-mushroom-greige thing. If you don't, you won't like this.

The Ninja is especially enamored with the stunning coppery shimmer that is coy in indirect light but really becomes apparent when seen in stronger light. 

This reminds The Ninja of the clay spinning on a potter's wheel, but with eensey glimmer bits. C'mon now!

Read more about the Vintage Vixen collection here!

It applied like buttah, with no pooling or clumpy behavior. Stunning from bottle to nail!

Take a look at the swatches, some of which look a little milky but that's a trick of the eye or maybe the camera. It's by no means a milky color.

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_{This polish was provided by the company for consideration for review.
Please feel free to read about my review policies by clicking the About tab at the top of the page.}

Dear Christina

No.

Don't make me speak to you about this again, please.

xoxo,

Me

_via

The Nail Ninja says "Lindsay, you pulled it off!"

 

Ah, Lindsay... The Ninja sees you have a pretty pastel manicure. Still young and fun, but court-appropriate (always a nice choice for you). But what's that? What!? Look at the middle finger, you say? Ah... I'm sure the judge just loved that. How adorable and classy. Maybe that's why you got 90 days in the clink!

_via

State of the Union

Good morning (or afternoon or evening for my international readers!). I'm getting ready to go on vacation in a few days, and I can't wait to hit the beach! Any of you headed out of town soon?

I wanted to briefly mention some blog business and let you know about some of the things that are going on around here. I'll try to be quick. ;)

• I'm going to start referring to the blog as BSB. It's just easier that way. (And maybe I'll stop getting spam emails about sketchy beauty schools!) The URL will not change, though.
  
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• Welcome to The Nail Ninja! Her blog has been absorbed into this blog, so you'll see nail posts here now. That change was made a few weeks ago and all previous Ninja posts have been moved here already. As you know, I edit the blog for The Nail Ninja, and I needed to consolidate because of a new project I'm working on (details coming soon!). She was kind enough to allow her posts to be published with BSB, which was very generous of her.
  
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• If you are a Nail Ninja reader and you don't want to read the rest of the goings-on here, click on the link in the navigation bar that says "Just Nail Polish, Please!". You can subscribe to just those nail polish posts by clicking the little RSS feed button at the top of that page.
  
  
  
  
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• Thanks to all of you who have taken my survey! I wanted to assure you that the results are completely anonymous. I noticed that I'm getting a bunch of people filling it in, but only a few of you have posted your name in the Comments of this post (remember: I'm randomly drawing a name and sending some goodies!). It's fine, though, if you want to just give input without entering the drawing. Input is always welcome!
  
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• Speaking of the survey, some things are already crystal clear! I'm no dummy, so when almost 100% of the respondents tell me they prefer that I start noting product prices in my articles, then so I will! Also, most of you seem to prefer some sort of summary area to the reviews and a rating system. You can see here that I've implemented those changes. The new system will be for reviews going forward (and I'll pass that along to The Nail Ninja) but I doubt I'll have time to go update reviews that have previously published. I'm going to post a link on the navigation bar to explain how I approach reviews, so look for that later today.
  
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• About the pink bar at the bottom of the screen: I'm getting mixed reviews on it, so I'm going to leave it up for a little while longer and see how it goes. If you find it annoying, please click the little arrows in the extreme right corner of the bar and it will minimize the whole thing. Click it again to get it back.
  
  My hope was that some of you might feel interested in sharing some of the BSB posts with your social networks, and that bar makes it super easy to do. Sharing the posts helps me build my audience and our community, which is a good thing! I don't need to be the biggest blog on the block, but the honest truth is that the more traffic I get here the more respected BSB is by the brands. The more notice I get from them, the more press releases I get, the more items I receive to review, and the better access I get to insider info that I can then share with you! Some brands don't even acknowledge BSB because it's "too small" and I think that's a mistake,  but we can rectify that if you guys are so kind as to pass posts along when you find them worthy!
  
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• I hate talking about money, but I'm going to. I'm trying to make writing my business, and as part of that my blogs will now have advertisements and I have signed-up with some affiliates. I'd love for the bogs to at least pay for their own upkeep (I have to pay for quite a few things affiliated with keeping the blogs live) and maybe even for some items to review or give away. Right now I have stopped doing give-aways because I can't even swing the shipping fees! At any rate...
  
  Ads are ads - you know how those works. If you're interested in a product, click the ad. Otherwise don't. :)
  
  Basically, working with affiliates means that if you click one of the links and make a purchase, I will get a small percentage of the amount you spend. I get nothing for you simply clicking to investigate the product, so please don't let that deter you from just browsing and seeing what's going on!
  
  If you are interested in helping me out I really appreciate it. By clicking my affiliate links on the right side bar or in my posts you can shop NARS*, Amazon.com* (anything at all there not just beauty- think of me when you buy a tv or do massive holiday shopping! lol), and Fragrance.net*. I will probably be adding one or two more affiliates shortly. They will be listed with small logos on the sidebar and also on this page (the link is at the top of every page: "Meet Our Affiliates"), so you can access them easily. The trick is using my links to get into the sites-- that's how it benefits me and therefore our little community of beauty lovers.
  
  I will only link to companies and products that I think are of high quality and value. If I link to a specific product, it is one that I have tried at some point in my beauty career and one I think is a good way for you to spend your money.
  
  The money I make will be funneled back into blog upkeep and improvements and into products for reviews and give-aways.
  
  Anyway, if you have purchases to make from one of my affiliate partners, I'd be thrilled if you'd think of me and shop though my links!
  
  
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• I hope these changes don't slow down the page load time, since I know that's an issue for some of you. If it's a real hassle, please let me know!

Please let me know if any of these changes annoy you or bother you or upset you in some way! Also, please feel free at any time to contact me with input, questions, request or suggestions. I can always be reached at [email protected]!

Wax on, Wax Off with Nad's strips

Hey, ya'll. Is it hot where you are? It's triple digits here, and I'm hiding inside. I don't know how she did it, but my one year old, Lulu, just got the remote control for the ceiling fan and turned it on - guess she's feeling the burn, too, huh?

Anyway, Summer calls for smooth skin, right? Well, luckily I got to try some hair removal goodies from Nad's and I can tell you about them!

I remember when Nad's first came to the States. I remember Sue Ismiel talking so pleasantly on screen about this lovely goop and how it would pull all of your tiny hairs out by the root. She seemed so earnest that I believed her when she said it wasn't painful.

I remember trying that goop and thinking "that woman is a damn liar!"*

*At the time, I'd never had any kind of waxing done, so pulling my own hair out by the root seemed extra dramatically ouchy!

I also remember feeling sorry for her daughter, for whom Ms. Ismiel created the product. The story went a little like this: her daughter had embarrassing hair on her forearm and they wanted a natural, no-heat product to help get rid of the problem. Then, right there on the commercial, Ms. Ismiel put the goop on her daughter and yanked it off. To her credit, the daughter didn't wince, nor did she seem embarrassed by the fact that she was now on television all over the world talking about her "embarrassing issue". Way to keep it on the down-low, Mom!

Oh, and I remember my brother laughing like Beavis and Butthead whenever they said "nads".

Want to hear about how my most recent experience with Nad's went? Keep reading...

Articles

A list of popular BSB Articles that may be of interest to you...

Colors / Skintones:

• Skintone: Am I "Warm" or "Cool"?
• Finding the right shade of foundation
• What are the best colors for me?

Skincare:

• Skincare 101: Masks

Tools / Basics:

• Anatomy of a makeup brush
• Anatomy of the eye
• Depotting Lipsticks
  
• My "Holy Grail" Items
  

Addressing Specific Makeup Concerns:

• Hot Weather Beauty
• How to have less ugly feet for Summer (or anytime!)
• Fighting Dark Circles
• Fighting Stained Nails
• Fighting "The Uglies"
• Fighting Heavy-Handed Eye Makeup
  

Reader Survey

Hi, everyone. Happy 4th of July (almost) to the Americans and Happy Weekend to all!

I have a fairly quick survey that I was hoping you could fill out. It is sort of a "state of the union" for BSB and will help us assess what we're doing well and what we could improve. It shouldn't take long to do, and I really appreciate your time.

If you do fill it out, please post a comment below and you will be entered to win a prize! I'll make it worth your while. ;)

To take the poll click on the banner on the top left corner of our site.

Thanks for your time!

xoxo

*jen

Peep some pics fom MAC's Venomous Villains (Disney bad guys) collection

I know, right? :)

_via

In which The Ninja pictured herself as a statue (China Glaze: Goin’ My Way from Vintage Vixen)

Sexy molten bronze. Just a hint of shimmer from the copper within. That's how The Ninja needs to be immortalized! Marble is for chumps. Ninjas are warriors and warriors are made of molten sexiness.

China Glaze's Goin' My Way looked like a really good brown in the bottle.

The second it hit The Ninja's nails, she realized it was something more. Something special!

Granted, The Ninja has been feeling the browns lately, but even if that weren't the case she'd still realize that this shade is her destiny.

 Read more about the Vintage Vixen collection here!

The Ninja doesn't want to take this one off. Ever.

Opaque in two even coats, this was easy to apply with no issues to speak of. No glitter here, unless the shimmer is actually eensey copper reflects glitters.

CG describes this shade as "brown frost with copper shimmer." Accurate. What they don't tell you, though, is that inside, out of direct light, this polish looks like a metallic bronze. And then when you take it outside, step back! "Lit from within" has nothing on the burning embers of shimmer!

Take a look:

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_{This polish was provided for consideration by the company's pr firm.
Please feel free to read about my review policies by clicking the About tab at the top of the page}

In which The Ninja is a tiny little bit disappointed. (China Glaze: Riveter Rouge from Vintage Vixen)

The Ninja wanted to love Riveter Rouge. Instead, she just likes it. Considering the surprising reaction she has had to the rest of the China Glaze Vintage Vixen collection, she really expected that this would be a hit. While the reflects glitters - the teensey, tiny shimmery goodness that is in the other colors - is here, it's not enough to really make this a sparkling red, and that's what The Ninja had wanted. Instead, this color is a bit like a deep red velvet (but with the aforementioned teensey tiny shimmer).

Definitely a pretty color, and worth checking out if you are new to red, want a bit new red that has some depth, or are a huge red collector... but still not the most special color in the collection. In fact, as far as the colors swatched so far go, this shade is in the last position in regards to "WOW Factor". 

Application was lovely, though. Swatches below are two coats, which were nice and smooth. There was a slight tendency to pool in the cuticles, but that may have been The Ninja's hands and the late hour. 

Again, The Ninja wants to stress that this is a lovely color. It just falls a bit short of her expectations after seeing the rest of the collection. That said, it will still be worn by her fairly frequently!

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_{This polish was provided for consideration by the company's pr firm.
Please feel free to read about my review policies by clicking the About tab at the top of the page}

In which The Ninja was not correct (China Glaze: Jitterbug from Vintage Vixen)

The Ninja is never wrong. I'm sure that's not surprising. However, sometimes she is not correct. This is one of those times.

She has already told you that she prioritizes the colors in a collection and swatches the least interesting and the clearly "wrong for her" shades first. She also eats the good stuff on her plate last, pushing lima beans and carrots down first to get it over with. It's a technique that works well for her.

The Little Ninjas are always around, so The Ninja can't swatch a whole collection in an afternoon, like other bloggers. She'd love to lose herself in a collection for that long but, alas, the pesky Little Ninjas are always needing attention of some sort.

So, while working her way through China Glaze's Fall collection, Vintage Vixen, she worked from least to most as best she could (with a few surprises along the way). But then she made her first miscalculation. She missed Jitterbug. She had meant to swatch it early on, in the "least" portion of the program.

 Read more about the Vintage Vixen collection here!

It's not that Jitterbug is not cute. Of course it is! It's grey (gray) which is one of The Ninja's favorites. It's just that when she looked at Jitterbug, The Ninja thought it looked familiar. Done before. Not too original. That was miscalculation #2.

CG calls Jitterbug "grey chrome with silver micro glitter". That's an apt description. But it's more than that, too. Where The Ninja expected it to be like Zoya's Freja or MAC's Studded (if it had a topcoat on it), it wasn't. It was darker than other shades of this nature, and the round glitter bits weren't quite as large as in Studded, if memory serves. Tomorrow The Ninja will post a comparison of this shade to those two, so look for that, ok?

Two coats weren't enough - this was The Ninja's first 3-coater of the collection. While the shade is dark and sultry, VNL ensued until the third coat. Weird. Also, she didn't notice a light spot on the ring finger until editing the photos and is unsure if that was an application error (likely) or if a 4th coat was required.

This isn't a shimmer, by the way. It's a deep chrome grey with small, round silver glitter evenly distributed throughout. Nor is this a metallic, even though it's almost silver. However you classify it, it's very pretty.
 

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Please excuse the sloppy swatching. The Ninja was feeling dizzy and the polish smell was enough to make her want to toss her ninja cookies. Cleaning up with acetone was not an option.

_{This polish was provided for consideration by the company's pr firm.
Please feel free to read about my review policies by clicking the About tab at the top of the page}

How to have less ugly feet for Summer

All righty, ya'll. It's time to talk about the elephant in the room: busted feet.

It's summer. You shouldn't be wearing boots or kneesocks on the regular. It's time to be brave and bare your soles.

For the purpose of this post, I've qualified Feet into four categories according to Their Level of Busted-ness^TM.

Level 1: Princess Feet (as smooth as the day you were born)
Level 2: Just Feet (maybe a tad rough in the heel area, but not too bad)
Level 3: Jacked Up (pretty damn bad, but potentially salvageable)
Level 4: Wrecked (most of the people in this category think they can't be helped and just skipped to another blog, shaking in fear and self-loathing)

A quick note to Level 1's: Maybe you're blessed with those baby soft feet that never look bad. Maybe you've got a standing appointment with a fabulous pedicure-ist. If you are one of these types, you're excused. Go on and read some of the pithy and genius things I've previously written. This post is for the rest of us.

To read about how to fix your situation, keep reading.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a podiatrist, so none of this should be considered medical advice. If you are in the "Wrecked" category of Feet, you may want to consider seeing a podiatrist or dermatologist or exorcist or some other kind of professional who can better advise you.

Open Letter to Victoria Beckham

Vicky,

It's been awhile since we last spoke. I'm sorry it has to be in these circumstances that we must reconnect, but I needed to contact you about the recent pictures of you and the fam in Cannes.

Darling, what the hell?

You know you can't do this kind of shit on the cheap, luvvie. If ya'll are having a financial "downtime" I completely understand (my husband's soccer career has certainly not brought in the money I had hope it would). But when you go to the lady in the strip mall for your extensions and color, you're going to get what you paid for. I mean honestly, Poshie! She's only got one good eye, after all. You can't hold that against her, but I can hold this look against you. You're supposedly a style icon. A trendsetter. A freakin' fashion hero!

This hairdo is for the birds.

Fix it. If you can't afford the good shit, go to Great Clips and ask for "The Posh". They'll give you a great angled bob that will probably look good on you.

Air kisses!

*jen