"Challenge Calendar: Bronzed Goddess" Wet n Wild Gilded Age

Nymphette from "I am Nymphette" is having a challenge calendar. Basically every day this month is assigned a theme to inspire you to do something interesting with your makeup. A couple of days ago the theme was bronzed goddess so I decided to try out my new "Gilded Age and Everything Under the Sun" palettes. Now for a little background info on this elusive "Go for the Gold" set. I searched high and low for this set and couldn't find it anywhere! Luck for me I found the eyeshadow and bronzer on eBay for $12. That's a steal, I'm not sure how I got this so cheap, all the other listings for the eyeshadow by itself were around $25... Unfortunately the browbone shade was broken when I got it in the mail :( So I fixed it!

I tapped all the little pieces onto a smooth surface, I used a piece of glass from an empty picture frame. You can use foil or plastic wrap or anything that alows you to smush and stir the powder around.

I used a mini spatula to break up the chunks into powder, then slowly drop by drop add rubbing alcohol until it is paste like and mushy.
 

Press back into the pan! You're done! Let it dry over night so the alcohol can evaporate. If you want a pattern you can press stamps or anything really into the eyeshadow while it wet. That's how the wrote "eyelid" and such on the eyeshadow.

I forgot to do swatches, but the middle of my lid is the eyelid shade (gold) outer V is the crease shade (bronze) and browbone is obviously on my browbone (shimmery dusty pinkish color). You can kinda see the individual colors...

For this look I followed the instructions on the palette.

It's probably a bit too dark and smokey for a daytime look for most people, but I love it! I've never used bronzer before but this is to die for, so beyond gorgeous! It totally makes the look.

The completed the look with bronzer and concealer on my lips. It's a perfect set for summer.

Rimmel Vinyl Bronze in Golden Goddess. Smells and tastes like orange cough syrup... Really nasty, but fades in 5 to 10 minutes. I layered this on top of the concealer
.

Shimmery gold and light bronze lipgloss.

ANA

Up coming projects

     I have soooo many projects planned. It's unbelievable, I doubt I'll get them all done before fall sets in lol. I ordered new fabric a while ago from Trendy fabrics and now I have two more dresses to add to the growing list of projects.

     The fabric was in the $1.00 sale bin, in total I paid $6 for three yards of both fabric and $6 for shipping. Trendy Fabrics has the cheapest shipping prices for fabric I've found online. I really like the styling of the pattern pictures, so I wanted to stick fairly close to what they did. First up is Simplicity 0518, it's a 1950's retro Simplicity reprint. I've actually seen the original pattern for sale cheap on eBay. The green plaid is very basic and only has the two colors, dark green and white. (The green is much darker in person than in the pictures.)

     Second is a vintage Butterick 0689. Vogue has a new reprint of a vintage pattern very similar to 0689 but the collar is positioned slightly different. Here's a comparison, I personally like the Butterick 0689 better. That's just me though.

     Oh my God. This fabric is so awesome, I can hardly stand it! I was so lucky to find a fabric close enough to view A that it didn't look exactly the same, but close enough that the dress will still have the same feel as the picture of view A. I've never seen a plaid like this before, it looks like a cross between a gingham and plaid. Yet, like the green plaid above, this plaid is also very simple.

     If I remember right they are stretch poplin. Now that I just read what poplin is I think the green plaid is a polyester stretch poplin and the black plaid is a thick cotton stretch poplin. Be prepared for much more project updates!



                              -Ana

shoesss

Angie at youlookfab wrote a post on two new shoe companies that caught her attention, and naturally, they've caught my attention too. Now I feel the urge to obsessively troll Ebay looking for them! I've also added some other summer shoes that I adore. And best of all, they all have a vintage flare!

 Born "Jocelyn"

Clarks "Diamond Heart" pump

Seychelles "Eyeliner" pumps

Clarks "Revel Hop" sandal

Seychelles "Thank You Note"

 Sorry for the random placement of the photos. I couldn't for the life of me get them to cooperate!


                         -Ana

Lipstick Review

I'm sorry that it took this long to get the lipstick review posted. Between waiting for the lipstick to arrive in the mail and running errands, it got put off for a bit! The first lipstick is Avon Ultra Color Rich Mega Impact lipstick in "Charged Cherry" (Bear with me while I get the hang of taking my own pictures!) The main areas I want to focus on in this review are: color, texture,  how well it wears, and smell (cuz who likes there lips smelling like old lady?).

Avon's "Charged Cherry" (pictured above) has a really pretty, bright, pink-ish, red color with dark pink flecks of sparkles in it. The sparkles are hardly noticeable, they barely add a bit of shimmer. (It also has a very neat geometric shape!) "Charged Cherry" was just slick enough that it had shine to it, yet not overly glossy. I was disappointed though, the pigments are not very saturated, and the lipstick goes on as somewhat sheer dark pink. But, along with that sheerness, is a smooth, light, non-cakey lipstick. It is one of the nicer lipstick I have tried in that respect. The smell was not bad, a slightly sweet floral scent, not overwhelming like some lipstick can be. I'm afraid I was very let down with the lack of lasting wear. After only a couple of hours there was hardly anything left.

Next is Arbonne "Flame-on". The picture doesn't do the lipstick justice. It's a vibrant, classic, red with orange hues in it. "Flame-on" is the thickest and heaviest of the three lipstick, and has the worst smell (reminds me of old lady lipstick in that regard). However, "Flame-on" wears exceptionally well! I can wear it all day long and even after eating and drinking the color is still bright and vibrant! The old down side that might keep me from buying Arbonne                                                                     next time is the texture.

And lastly is Rimmel London "Red Hot".  The color is more subdued than the rest while still having major impact in that its a dark, sultry red. "Red Hot" applies light and smooth, unfortunately it doesn't last all day like Arbonne lipstick (but much longer than Avon's "Charged Cherry". The smell was very light though, after the initial application the smell is undetectable the rest of the day.

Over all the three of them are very chic lipstick. I will definitely be using them again and again! If I had to choose a favorite though, Arbonne "Flame-on"  would definitely be it. It certainly is the one I've used the most!

Yet again, I apologize for how long this took to get posted!


             -Ana

New patterns!

This week I got lots of new patterns in the mail! All from lovely eBay sellers! Unfortunately, I don't remember the sellers names...

1. Butterick 9304 (I'm guessing from the mid fifties?) Still in factory folds. Printed.
2. Butterick 5286 (Late forties? Early fifties?) Already cut. Unprinted.
3. Butterick 9689 (Mid to late fifties?) Factory folds. Printed.
4. Simplicity 3558 (Late fifties?) Already cut. Printed. And comes with transfer design!
5. McCalls 4538 (1958) Factory folds. Printed.
6. Butterick 9407 (Mid to late fifties) Factory folds. Printed.

I didn't realize how many Butterick I bought haha. Has anyone else noticed that Butterick had a really cute variety of dresses back then? I've personally found that Butterick and Simplicity are much more bountiful than Vogue patterns, especially McCalls! I've only found a handful of McCalls over the past couple months. Or is that just here in the U.S. possibly?


-Ana

The 7 step eBay addicts guide

Hi, my name is Ana, and I am an eBay addict...

Or so says my fiance! But I am constantly trolling around eBay for things I can't live without. Many of those things are (but not limited to): shoes, make-up, blouses, shoes, sewing pattens, shoes, vintage accessories, shoes and shoes. (Hahaha! Can you tell I really like shoes a lot?) Most of the time I'm just browsing through my "coveted" item searches seeing if that special pair of shoes or the perfect blouse pattern have finally shown up. With all that time spent on eBay I have learned a few tricks that every good bidder should know.

1. First and foremost, never EVER bid early on the auction! Save it to your watched items. Someone will always bid on it later, unless it's a very bizarre or unique item. Then all you will have accomplished is raising the price, especially if you bid much higher than the starting amount. That leads me to number two...

2. Bid as low as you can. For instance, if the starting price is 0.99 cents don't bid ten dollars for it. The lower you start your bids at, the smaller the minimum biding amount will go up.

3. Try different names and terms. Example: Sometimes I look for "sailor pants", since this is the most common term for this item, it is the most looked at and most bid on. Therefore, I will change it up and also search "nautical pants" - thus getting more results for essentially the same type of pants. You might want to look up different terms online. There are many names for the same thing depending on where you live and what culture you're influenced by.

4. Being very specific about what you are searching for can have it's advantages, but only if the person listing the item knows it by that name or even know that's what it's called! (A lot of sellers have found the item they have listed, or inherited it. Don't assume they have much knowledge on the item.) So, it's a good idea to be somewhat vague. Instead of searching "1940's simplicity collared blouse pattern size 18", try "vintage blouse pattern." As I mentioned, most sellers won't know much about the item, such as the time period its from, the brand, the size, etc.

5. Be patient! In relation to my last post, I was searching "red lipstick" (which I thought was pretty darn vague). Then, I realized lipstick have all kinds of crazy names. In order to have access to all of those crazy named lipstick shades, I would have to be even more vague, changing my search to "lipstick". Naturally, my search contained 1,239 pages of lipstick. Don't be discouraged - this is where the patience comes in! Yes, I will have to look through each page to find the perfect shade. But since I'm not going to pay more than 3 dollars on eBay for lipstick, that narrows it down to 17 pages. That's much easier!

6. A simple way to make the browsing go by faster, is to set search results to show in list format. That way they are all in a line going down the left hand side. You can give each one a quick glance and move on.

7. If you have the time to wait and watch your item in the last minutes, odds are you have a good chance of sneaking up and snatching it away from previous bidders. Make sure you give yourself enough time to bid, just in case the bidder before you has a maximum bid set. (A maximum bid means eBay will bid on behalf of you if you are unable.) I recently found out about "sniping" from another blog. A snipe is basically the same thing as a maximum bid, except the computer doesn't bid until the last few seconds of the auction, making it nearly impossible for someone to out bid you before the auction ends! In order to snipe you have to join a site outside of eBay. I currently use Bidnapper, I'm trying out their 15 day trial and am very satisfied with the simplicity of it. Keep in mind if the price goes beyond the highest amount you set the program to bid, then there's nothing you can do unless you're on the computer and manually raise the bid amount.

Well, there you have it! An eBay addict's 7 step guide to winning (almost) every auction for less. I hope my neurotic and compulsive fixation will help you find your perfect pair of shoes (or whatever you're looking for! Haha)


-Ana