Monterey Zombie Walk 2011

Two posts in one week?!?  You're kidding right!!  I know it's amazing, but I have more goodies to share with you guys!!  Today I had this AWESOMELY fun opportunity to volunteer as a makeup artist with the Monterey Zombie Walk.  I did makeup on a few people, but only had my phone to snap a couple pictures, so they don't do it too much justice but you can still get the picture!

This is the makeup I did really quickly on myself after work, before I headed to the zombie walk location!

Here are a few of the looks I did on the people who came out to have their makeup done before the zombie walk and fest.  I really haven't done too much special effects makeup, only a couple wanted special effects, and the rest wanted just basic zombie makeup.  It was really fun and a great experience, I haven't done anything like it before, and it was great.

Halloween

Hey guys, how is everyone?  So halloween is basically here, and it is probably my favorite holiday.  I love decorating, dressing up, fall, pumpkins, EVERYTHING about halloween is amazing!  It is also my husbands favorite holiday, and this year I decided to have a party for his birthday, my daughters birthday, and halloween all combined into one.  So I had to do some epic makeup for the party on my family, here is the looks I came up with.  I got some of my inspiration from photos online, and made them my own.  I recently purchased the Basic and Pastel Mehron pallets so most of the looks are done using those pallets.  I'm not sure how much I like the Mehron pallets, and think for the most party I prefer the cheaper face paint I bought from Michaels.

My daughter Skye was Daphne from Scooby Doo for halloween, so I just gave her some basic face paint/makeup to go with the theme of Daphne's clothes coloring.

These are the looks I did on my family and myself for our halloween party.   

I also did a few other halloween inspired looks on my family over the past couple weeks, so I will post those for you to see as well.

Hope you enjoyed my halloween looks so far, there will probably be more to come as halloween isn't over yet!

Face Painting

Man I am really sucking at this lately you guys, I am really sorry!  I meant to make a post on my birchbox this month but I haven't even gotten to taking pictures of it yet, and I have been using some of the stuff.  I am going to give birchbox one more month and I may cancel it, because honestly I haven't been that impressed with my first two boxes, I am holding off to see if the next one will be amazing since these two were a miss.

So I have been working a lot lately and thats why I have really been slacking, but I wanted to make a post to show you guys what I have been up to the past few days, it is a new hobby of mine and I am having SO much fun with it.  It started with a trip to the halloween store and I saw face paint, and thought I would give it a go on my daughter, and it turned into an obsession.  I didn't like the paint I got at the halloween store so I went and bought some better sets at Michaels and have been playing around with them, they are a lot better than the halloween store kind.

So my first attempt was this butterfly, I really like the way it came out, especially for my first attempt at face painting.

Then I decided I would try practicing a pirate look.  Arrrrr Matey!

Those were all with my original grease paint makeup, that I didn't like and she rubbed off in two minutes.  The next stuff I bought at Michael's dries almost immediately and stays put, much better!  She went to bed last night and I really wanted to try out the new paints, so I just started going to town on my hand and arm, I ended up with a half sleeve pretty much.

Today we decided to try a princess look.  I am not as happy with the way this one came out, she wasn't in a very sit still patient kind of mood so I messed up a few times and just had to go with the flow, but it was still fun!

So anyway, I am totally sorry for being a terrible blogger lately, I am trying to balance this new schedule with working, and kindergarten, it's difficult.  But, I hope you enjoyed the face painting, I am really enjoying having fun with it!

New Website and Recent Work

Hey guys!!!  Recently I had an opportunity to do work for a couple of different events.  One was for the Sexy Bitch Cosmetics Launch Party and the other was for an OpLove photo shoot.

Sexy Bitch Cosmetics asked me to help do makeup for promo girls and also for doing makeovers at their makeup line launch party.  The launch party was so much fun and it was a great experience.  I did makeovers on quite a few ladies, but it was crazy busy so it was too hard to get a lot of photos.  I really love their makeup line they have created and had so much fun getting to work with them!  Their cream foundation is absolutely amazing, it creates a flawless finish without feeling heavy on the skin.  Here are a couple photos from the event.

Promo Girl

Giving a makeover

Did a makeover on the woman on the left

I also had a chance to do makeup for a lovely lady whose husband will soon be deploying.  The photo's were done for an OpLove photo shoot.  Jessica was so much fun to work with.  She was so beautiful and had the most gorgeous eyes I have ever seen!

I also recently created a business website and would love for you guys to check it out and let me know what you think!!

http://jenyjackson.webs.com/index.htm

Review: ELF products

I know I know, it's been a while since I posted.  I am SO sorry, life has been super busy over the past two weeks, with my daughter starting kindergarten, me trying to find a job, 4 interviews, it's been hectic.  I am so sorry to have neglected you all.  I have to learn to balance my time better now that it's not me and my daughter home all day with no set schedule.

I wanted to do a review for you today of a few ELF products that I have.  ELF is available online at www.eyeslipsface.com or most Targets also now carry ELF products.  However there is way more product on their website.  They also run a lot of good sales online where you can get stuff half off, and all sorts of other sales.  Their prices range from $1-$3 on their single items, then they also have some bigger makeup sets that cost from $5-$100+.  I have tried quite a few of their products and for the most part you really can't beat it for the price.  Some things obviously aren't going to be perfect but you really can't go wrong at $1.  So I have lots of products by them that I want to review for you guys but for today I am going to just review three of them.

So the first one is the blushing and contour duo, now this is supposed to be a dupe for NARS orgasm/laguna duo.  However since I have never used the NARS one I can't really compare.  I do however know that for $3, I absolutely LOVE this product!  It is my everyday go to bronzer and blush when I don't feel like going through all my blushes to pick one out.  Both colors have great pay off.  The bronzer is the perfect shade, not too dark, for my skin tone.  The blush can either be a sheer wash of color on the cheeks, or you can build it up to be more intense, it also has a bit of shimmer in it.  The color lasts on your face for hours, so you don't have to worry about it fading either.

The next product I have, is the eyebrow kit in medium.  It comes with a gel eyebrow color on the left, and a powder on the right, it also comes with a crappy little brush but I threw that away.  When I first bought it I thought that the left would be way too dark and the right way too light, but thought why not try it for a couple bucks.  So I tried it and fell in love.  They are both the perfect shades when added together, and the powder is a lot darker than what it appears to be.  I first fill in my brows with the gel side and then I always set it with the powder, using an angled brush like shown in the picture.  This is better than any brow pencil or eyeshadow I have ever used to fill in my brows.  It gives them the perfect color, fullness, and it lasts all day!  I really recommend this if you have dark brown brows.

The last product that I have to review for you is the makeup mist and set.  Makeup setting sprays can be really expensive, although they are very worth it to me.  They give your skin a dewy finish, take away any powdery mess you have going on, and make your foundation set all day long.  So when I saw ELF's version I just had to try it.  Unfortunately I didn't love this one.  The sprayer on the bottle is TERRIBLE.  It sprays out fast, hard, and in a huge concentration.  In no way is it even thinking about being a mist.  It just sprays a huge wet spot on your face, in one area.  Your face ends up way to wet and it defeats the purpose of a "setting mist".  It does give you a dewy finish, but way too wet and I didn't really notice that my makeup lasted longer with this one.

So out of these products two are a hit and one is a miss, really not too bad at all for the price.  I will have more reviews on ELF products coming up for you guys, there are more I love and a few not so much!!  :)

Birch Box

Today was a rough day.  My only daughter...only child....started kindergarten today.  I keep looking at her and thinking she looks bigger than she did yesterday.  I can't believe she is in kindergarten.  It warms and breaks my heart all at the same time.  After dropping her off and watching her at the door for 20 minutes this morning I retreated to my car, and the minute I closed the car door the tears came.  I drove home crying.  It was hard.  When I got home I decided to check the mail, and a surprise awaited me!  It was just the pick me up I needed.  It couldn't have came at a better time.  So what was waiting for me in the mail box?

The little pink box called Birchbox that is. Birchbox is a program that for $10 a month they send you this cute little box filled with about 4 or 5 beauty product samples, sometimes they even send full size products.  A lot of the full size products retail for just under or even over $10 which makes this program really worth it.  Another positive to this is that you can try out all kinds of products to see if you like them before shelling out a lot of money on some of them.  The site also sells the full size of the products that they send out each month.  This month was the first box that I received.  I am very excited about a couple of the products in here, and one I have used before and talked about in my last post.

So the Products I got are:

June Jacobs Papaya purifying enzyme masque .5 oz  Retails for $64 for 3.7 oz (yikes!) 

Ouidad Climate Control Heat and Humidity Gel .6 oz  retails for $16 for 6 oz 

Not sure if I will get much use of this since there is no heat or humidity here and my hair isn't frizzy.

Smashbox photo primer .25oz Retails for $36 for 1 oz

I think this is a great primer, but there are cheaper alternatives.  See previous blog post.

The Cool Fix Targeted Gel lotion 1 oz Retails for $11 for 2 oz

This claims to treat ingrown hairs, razor bumps, razor burn, and redness

It also came with one of these hair ties but I didn't take a picture. I really like the idea of these hair ties though!  They also aren't breakable because they tie together at the end which I think is awesome because I am always stretching out and breaking my hair ties!

Out of all these products I am most excited to try the June Jacobs mask and The cool fix targeted gel lotion.  I will let you all know how I feel about these products after I have used them!

www.birchbox.com

Review: Monistat Chaffing Gel

I know I know!  Just finish reading before you disgustedly turn away!  I promise you won't feel the same after reading!  I know you are thinking what the heck does Monistat Chaffing Gel have to do with a beauty blog...it does believe me.  Trust me when I say I felt the same way you do reading this right now, as I did when I kept seeing this product all over beauty blogs, forums, and youtube.  So here goes, this is why Monistat Chaffing Gel is a must have beauty product and what it is used for other than its original purpose......

Face primer.  Yes you are reading it right.  FACE primer.  Now keep in mind this product has NOTHING to do with monistat yeast infection products (gross).  If you read the ingredients on this product and then compare it to the ingredients of Smashbox Photo Finish Primer, which is a very popular primer, you will find that they are virtually the same!

Monistat Chaffing Gel Ingredients 1.5 ounces roughly $7
Ingredients : Dimethicone, Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Silica, Tocopheryl Acetate, Trisiloxane


Smashbox Photo Finish Primer 1 ounce $36
Ingredients: Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Dimethicone, Trisiloxane, Silica, Dimethicone/ Vinyldimethicone Crosspolymer, Ethylhexyl Salicylate, Retinyl Palmitate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Extract, Propylene Glycol, Water (Aqua, Eau), Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Extract, Cola Acuminata Seed Extract, Camellia Oleifera Leaf Extract




With the monistat you are getting the same product without added extracts for a 1/5 of the price.  I use the monistat after my moisturizer and before my foundation.  It not only helps to keep your foundation lasting all day but helps to fill in large pores and fine lines.  The monistat will also not cause breakouts on your skin unless you have allergies to products with silicone in them.  Another thing I love about the monistat is it dries to a powder finish which really aids in smoothing out and blending your foundation.  Keep in mind when you use it you only need a TINY bit to cover your entire face, about the size of a pea.   Even this picture below is a bit too much for the entire face.

I honestly really love this product.  I was VERY wary at first, I have been hearing of it for years while shelling out way too much money for other primers.  I was a little turned off by the general idea of using monistat anything on my face and was worried it would break me out.  It has not made me break out, and has done an even better job at keeping my makeup put all day and filling in my fine lines and pores, then smashbox did.

Do you feel different then you did before reading this whole post?  Hopefully you aren't too turned and try it before waiting years like I did!  Let me know if you try it and how you feel after using it.