DIY Pressed Powder: Wallet Friendly Wednesday

Today, I was inspired by the following two things I found on Pinterest. 

Source

Source

I decided to combine them, and see how things turned out. No so well, actually.

.I won't do a full step by step, as I'm not that thrilled with the results, but both original sites have complete instructions should you wish to try it out. To be fair, I think the problem was in combining the two, rather than issues with either process.

First things first, I gathered my ingredients. Cornstarch, baby powder*, too-dark powder (see note below)**, mixing bowl, measuring spoon.

* The original site says that she used baby powder. It's not until later in the post that she explains that her baby powder is 100% cornstarch with aloe and vitamin E. I could have used all cornstarch, and avoided the nasty baby powder smell that mine now has. 

** The original site used cocoa powder as a colorant. I was a bit squicked out about using cocoa powder on my face: I have very sensitive skin and didn't know how it would react. Plus: chocolate on your face? So I bought the darkest face powder that ELF had to offer and ground it up to add a bit of color to the otherwise white powder. I maintain that it doesn't break the DIY rules too much as I'm still mixing, and it was only a buck. I used less than half of it. 

Mixed them all together. Once the container on the left gets shaken up, it will be the powder that the site claimed to create. And it works just fine. I'm not a fan of loose powder (outside of theatrical makeup applications, for which its necessary), so I don't use it that often, but it does do the job. Also, it smells like baby powder, which I hate, but you really only smell it while using it, then it fades. 

Here I mixed about half of the dry loose powder with enough rubbing alcohol to create a paste. 

Then I smeared it into two empty compacts with a butter knife and let them dry for about 24 hours. 

The finished product. Not too shabby. A bit uneven, but that's only cosmetic, who cares? 

Well, I don't know if it was just that the two processes weren't meant to be meshed or an number of other things that could be wrong, but my powder lasted about 4 days before completely disintegrating again. It was crumbly as all get out, and absolutely useless as a pressed powder. I ended up grinding it up again and adding it back into the loose powder jar. 

Overall, I can't call it a complete loss, as I do occasionally use the loose powder, but it's not something I'll ever try again. The ELF powder is only $1 and comes in a pretty decent range of shades, so if I'm that hard up for powder, I'll just grab one of those. Also, I prefer loose eyeshadow, so I can't see trying the "fix your broken makeup" trick again either. 

What about you? Have you tried anything similar to either of these? What were your results? 

Crumpet's 33DC: Art With Your Favorite Brand

I wouldn't actually say I have a favorite brand, as I think every brand (most!) have things that they do well, and things that they do less well. Every brand I own has at least one color that completely hits it out of the park. But the brand with the largest showing in my stash is definitely Sinful Colors. I probably have around 50 in my approximately 300 strong stash, and they do cremes (my favorite finish) incredibly well. 

I started with a base of Over It (my newest acquisition, thanks to a .99c sale at Walgreens!) with an accent nail of Candy Coated. I've had Candy Coated since it came out last Spring, and haven't used it for anything other than nail art, and was surprised at how gorgeous it was! It has an amazing hidden shimmer (so does Over It) that I never knew was there, and it's just stunning! Anyway, I tore up a makeup sponge and used it to randomly sponge on White on White, Amethyst, and more Over It and Candy Coated. There is a touch of Exotic Green on my accent nail, but I wasn't really feeling it, so I covered it up as well as I could. 

I absolutely adore the finished look here, and wish I didn't have to take it off! I reminds me of marble :)

Be sure to check out the rest of the challengers' favorite brands in the InLinkz below!

Comparison Post: Black Creme Polishes

With Halloween coming, I've been using a TON of black polish. My favorite is Sinful Colors Black on Black, and it's the one I use most often. I typically don't even bother to put it away. But I do have several other bargain black polishes, so I thought I'd do a quick run down to see how they compare. 

In all photos, polishes shown are, L-R: Sinful Colors Black on Black, Wet N Wild Black Creme, Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers Black and a Fright Night Claw Polish mini I picked up on clearance after Halloween last year. 

This is one coat of each. The Sinful Colors comes closest to opaque in one coat. I was pretty sure the Wet N Wild and Fantasy Makers would be the same polish in different bottles, but the Fantasy Makers was more opaque and less streaky in one coat than the standard Wet N Wild. I have no idea why the claw polish is so matte on one pass, because it shinies up nicely with subsequent coats. 

Two coats. The Sinful Colors is good to go, the Wet N Wild is still a bit streaky, the Fantasy Makers is probably good enough (especially as a base for nail art or a layering color), and I think the Claw Polish is good to go as well. 

Three coats: The Sinful Colors and Claw Polish didn't need it, but I added it for consistency. The Wet N Wild and Fantasy Makers are good to go at three coats. 

For fewest coats and smoothest application, Sinful Colors Black on Black is still my favorite. The Claw Polish surprised me, as it was in the costume makeup section, in a two pack, for something like $2 to begin with. Too bad it's only a mini. The Wet N Wild and Fantasy Makers required an extra coat, but I don't think that one coat is going to make or break me. I will definitely always go back to Sinful Colors, but maybe I'll use up these two before I repurchase it. 

Hope this helped you out a bit!

CNT Halloween Challenge: Skulls

I don't know if you know this about me, but I am a big fan of the Dark Side. Goth, punk, call it whatever you want: either way, I love skulls. Especially cute little girly ones :) So I had fun with today's challenge. 

I started out with 3 coats of Digital Nails Viserion, then used some Fing'rs Edge nail art decals. How cute is that kitty skull!? I then used the end of a pen cap (wanted longer dashes rather than dots) to dot on Sinful Colors 24/7 and Black on Black. 

Be sure to check out more skull manis in the InLinkz below!

Crumpet's 33DC: South America

South America offers up a ton of great cultural inspiration, but I knew where I wanted to go right away: Brazilian Carnaval! Check out some of the amazing costumes that inspired me:

 

  

(Sources 1, 2, 3, 4)

Polishes used: Sally Hansen Insta Dri Presto Pink and Lightning, Pure Ice Drive Me Crazy, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Golden-I, Sinful Colors Snow Me White and Nirvana. All designs were drawn with a dotting tool.

Check out all the other South American manis in the InLinkz below!

China Glaze Halloween Polishes: Friday and Halloween Favorites!

Hey lovelies, more of my favorite Halloween polishes are up today! I'm not too impressed with China Glaze's Halloween offering, Monster's Ball, this year. Glitter topcoats are usually my favorite, and I HATE textured polish, so I passed on the whole thing. However, three of my favorite Halloween polishes, and indeed my favorite polishes in general, are from past China Glaze Halloween collections, so I'll be racapping those!

First up is Near Dark, from the 2011 Haunting Collection. I managed to grab this one in a clearance bin at Sally last year, luckily, as the Haunting collection came out before I started hoarding! Near Dark is a super-blackened mossy green jelly. I absolutely adore almost-black polishes, and this one is no exception. 

You can see the murky greenness, especially around the cuticles where my coats are uneven :/ Three coats shown.

Next up is Cast A Spell from the 2012 Wicked Collection. It's a black base packed with green and gold shimmer/microglitter. Two coats shown, but it's thisclose from being a one coater. 

Ooh, ahh . . . the shimmer! It almost looks like a color shifting shimmer, but there really are two different colors in there. 

I took a lot of photos of this one. I can't get enough of it!

Finally, we have Immortal, again from the Wicked Collection. This is one of my all time favorite polishes! Three coats shown.

Immortal is a medium grey creme base with pink and blue shimmer! 

I had a hell of a time getting the pink and blue to show through, but this polish is absolutely stunning! If you don't have this one, I absolutely recommend tracking it down!

All three polishes are currently still available on Amazon on the cheap (Near Dark is under $2), and I have an extra bottle of Cast A Spell available in my blog sale! 

What are your favorite Halloween polishes? Do you prefer Halloween specific ones, or ones that you can pull out all year? 

CNT 33DC: Animals

Can you believe I've never actually done standard animal print nails? It's not even that I don't like animal print, because I do! My living room actually has a safari theme. It's just not one I've ever gotten around to trying out- until now!

I started out with Revlon Spirit, then sponged on a gradient using Sinful Colors Pink Forever, Sally Hansen Hard As Nails No Hard Feelings, Wet N Wild Teal Slowly and See, and NYC High Line Green. I did my stamping with Spirit and Red Angel plates 113 (zebra and cow/giraffe?) and 107 (cheetah and leopard). I love the look of the white on pastels- definitely revisit this in the spring!

Check out more fun animal print manis in the InLinks below!

CNT Halloween Challenge: Zombies!

Ahh, zombies :) Who doesn't love a good zombie mani? I sure do, and I've been wanting to do this one for a while!

There's not a whole lot of technique to this one. Hell, the cleanup is zero, and the messier the better!

I started with bare nail, and used a cosmetic sponge to dab on my polish. I wanted the rough, textured look, so I made sure to press hard into the polish to create some gritty looking spots. Also, no topcoat, though I kind of wish I had used a matte, as it's still a bit shiny. Polishes used:

Sinful Colors Nirvana, In The Mist, Beau Khaki, Essie Smokin Hot and a touch of Sally Hansen Hard As Nail Ton of Bricks for the "bloody" cuticles. 

Check out more way fun zombie manis in the InLInkz below!

Wonder Beauty Products Sorceress: Throwback Thursday

As the magical day approaches, I've been going back through some of my favorite Halloween polishes, to keep the spirit going on days when I don't have a Halloween challenge prompt. Today I'm re-showing a polish from last year's Halloween stash, Sorceress by Wonder Beauty Products. You can see my review of it last year (almost exactly 1 year ago!) here. This color is no longer available, but you can see what lovelies Wonder Beauty Products (now SuperChic Lacquer) is currently offering here. 

My first pairing is a retread of last year's mani: 1 coat over Sinful Colors Nirvana. Far better lighting make the combo stand out a bit more :)

Love the blue pops over the nude!

The blue and gold glitter combo made me think of Cleopatra, which was actually my mother's costume last year, so I decided to try Sorceress over a gold. 

I think it loses something with the foil-y base, however. Onto something else . . .

Lastly, sticking with the blue and gold, I layered it over Pure Ice Party Hard. Much better!

I love the tiny micro glitter glints that show up over the dark base. This may be my new go-to base for this polish! 

My review from last year still holds up: the polish applied extremely well, and the shard glitters gave me no trouble whatsoever! The smell seems to have diminshed slightly over time, but the color is just as gorgeous as on day 1. 

*Polish was sent for review purposes. All opinions are my own.