I am waiting on some either very good or very bad news this week, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t trying to self medicate with makeup. You know, in the distract-at-all-costs sense. So I may have woken up before the sun rose this morning, but instead of pacing around like a mad person, I hupped to doing my makeup right away and actually had time to do proper wings for work. Channel all of that anxiety into productivity!

It’s no secret that I absolutely love Femme Fatale’s Candied Apple shadow. Let me rephrase. Loooooooove it. It finally occurred to me today that Candied Apple also pairs PERFECTLY with my other shadow love, Fyrinnae Jade Ghost. A match made in heaven! The green duochrome of Candied Apple blends beautifully with the luminous wizardry of Jade Ghost.

I’m apparently never going to get over the nervous giggling stage of loving indies. Did anybody watch The Sing Off? It’s an a capella group competition, a la Glee, and in the first season one of the judges Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussy Cat Dolls. She was my FAVORITE judge because of the ridiculous things she would say– “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it, it sounds JUST like there is an orchestra up there!”, “You make it sound like there are so many of you!”. A capella choir singing wasn’t just a skill, it was damned WIZARDRY. That’s how I feel about indies right now. “WOW I can’t believe there are two colors!”, “This duochrome thing, can you believe it?”, “How do they fit so many colors in there?”

Witchcraft, I tells you! Candied Apple across the lid.

I also used Fyrinnae Knickers in a Twist in the outer V, and MAC Fluidine in Dipdown for the liner. I’ve started to use the Mac 208 angled brow brush with the gel liner and I love it so far. The bristles are dense enough for me, and it’s soooo tiny, I think it helps with my precision. Then Shiro 1-Up blush was my perfect work day choice, and my beloved Anastasia dip brow is forcing me to leave my brow wiz pencil love of a year in the dust.

Another neat surprise– this is another custom Shiro gloss in a BEAUTIFUL orangey tone (I have a coral problem, OK?!). It is very similar to Fyrinnae’s Meloncholy, but I think Meloncholy is slightly more pink, whereas this is more orange in real life, or at least when swatched. I don’t know, my skin tone seems to turn every color pink, unless it’s literally a traffic cone orange like OCC Beta. More on this gloss later (I’ll give it its own comparison post), but for now, I’m as in love with it as with my Dolce Shiro!

Take that, work day, I’ll have flashy eyes if I want to, even IF it’s 100 degrees out! By the end of the day my makeup looked far from perfect, but I was really surprised at how well everything lasted (sadly I opted for no photos, yes, disappointing). I’ve been using the Palladio herbal foundation primer for about 6 or 7 months now, and it works super well with my MUFE HD foundation, doesn’t break me out, and actually seems to make a great difference in lasting power. I’m giving up on applying foundation the Wayne Goss style, though (powder under foundation)– I end up looking pretty cakey and I honestly don’t think it increases the wear time for me enough to really make a difference. I applied foundation regular style here (primer, foundation, powder) and I think it’s more natural looking, overall. I’ll just have to be envious of those people who it creates the perfect finish for!

Stay cool, everybody!

Products

• MUFE HD foundation in 110
• NARS smudge-proof eye primer
• Laura Mercier Secret Concealer in 01 and Secret Brightening Powder
• Palladio herbal foundation primer
• Fyrinnae Hollywood Sorcery finishing powder (patted on top with powder puff)
• Femme Fatale Candied Apple, Fyrinnae Knickers in a Twist
• MAC fluidline in Dipdown
• Covergirl clumpcrushers mascara in black
• Shiro 1-Up blush
• Anastasia dip brow in Auburn
• Shiro custom gloss in Orange Dolce