Colorsplosion!

Who doesn't like colorful things? (okay, there probably are a few people out there haha) ....today's look is a multitude of colors! Cobalt blue, grass green, aqua, teal, fuchsia, and purple..finished off with a little sooty black. For this look I used the Nicka K. Perfect Eighteen Colors palette (I'm going to review this for you in the next few days (already got the swatches, just need to post). Using just the sponge tip applicator that came with it, I dotted each color I chose all over the lid until there was no exposed bare skin.... I then took a fluffy brush and gently blended the top edge to clean it up, and finished it off with the black in the crease to give the look more depth. I think this is a fun look that I'm definitely going to wear out. If you're unsure about wearing it, don't worry, it's pretty hidden until you blink or are looking down...that's when the magic happens :)

Second time around...

Ughhh I'm so annoyed right now! I just typed out my longest blog ever and lost it all! :( I didn't notice until near the end that it kept telling me there was an error saving my content, when I finally noticed, I just ignored it since I was about to publish it anyway, then I clicked on the "insert image" icon and some bog came up and said FILE NOT FOUND error 404 ...and I couldn't get that box to go away and atleast be able to copy and paste what I had written. So now, because I'm lazy at the moment, I'm going to give you the condensed version of my attempted post.

- My apology for not being here for an entire week without warning. I took vacation time from work to go back home to East Texas to visit my family. I had so much fun but the time flew by way too fast!
- I did makeup on 4 people: Beetlejuice & Lydia for my sis and her boyfriend, Ms. Lovett from Sweeny Todd, and a Pin-up girl. Yay for my first baldcap ever on Beetlejuice! I barely had time for myself though and took the easy way out and wore one of those kitty cat masks  for kids haha.
- I loved spending time with my sister, going thrifting, getting my hair done (by my sis, she's a hairdresser), and having a thrown together photoshoot at 1am in the spare bedroom at my parent's house. I especially loved laughing so hard at her transformation into the cartoon version of Lydia from Beetlejuice!

So yeah, that's the SUPER-DUPER shortened version of what I wanted to say :(
I also wanted to tell you guys to stay tuned for Makeupbee.com collab with Nars & Lancome and myself! I get to review 2 products and I can't wait to share it with you!
Here are some pics from all the fun I had this week :)

My sis with attitude from our thrown together photoshoot. She wanted to use those gloves she got for her Lady Gaga costume from last year and forgot to wear haha.... wasted $$.

Another one of my sis being her silly self- her name is Candi by the way (nope, that's not short for anything).

After her transformation into Lydia from Beetlejuice (the cartoon version)- this is before I drew on the spiderweb design and ironed it... lol so hilarious! She kept saying "I can't believe I'm going out like this!!"

Beetljuice & Lydia @ the club haha

Jessica as Ms. Lovett from Sweeny Todd

Me as a black kitty cat and ms. lovett on our way out :)

I feel like a kid in a candy store!

Hey lovies! 
As you may have seen on makeupbee.com I was announced today as the current QueenMakeupBee! I feel so incredibly honored to have been chosen! I couldn't have done it without all of you who followed me on there and liked my looks...as much as I've loved makeup before the existence of makeupbee.com, being able to so easily share with you all, and hear the kind compliments, well, that all made it even more exciting for me and keeps me motivated to squeeze in a look even on nights when I'm just worn out and wanna go to bed. To celebrate this honor (yeah, I'm celebrating, so what? lol) I decided to wear my pride on my nails. I love the site's adorable logo...you know, the cute little lipstick tube, with pink and black bumble bee stripes... so I did this simple little mani. I used Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in Fuchsia Power, and KISS nail art paint for the stripes, and completed the look by topping with Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat. Thanks again to all of you for following me here AND there, and for supporting my looks :) 
XOXOX,
Smashley <-----this is what my friends call me...don't ask lol 

Where all the cool kids go | My favorite makeup site

I just wanted to make sure that all my dolls are aware of this awesome site! Makeupbee.com is really cool in how interactive and streamlined it is. There's thousands of people who adore makeup just like we do and makeupbee makes it super easy to share your looks, videos, product reviews, and meet other beauty aficionados. Other users can "like" your looks and leave you comments which always makes things more fun! Who doesn't love a little feedback on all their hard work? Also, you can strive to become a QUEENMAKEUPBEE, and in case you didn't know, that's pretty much the highest honor ever ;). So head on over to the site and start getting inspired or inspiring others. <3 Share your beauty with the world!  Don't forget to also add them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter! <3

Nailed it! | Matte & Gloss

There's been some fuss raised over a stolen photo posted over on makeupbee.com from a certain user. If you frequent the site (which I highly recommend), then you probably saw the awesome nail art. It was a matte black polish with glossy black tips...in a word, it was amazing! I'm gonna give a shout-out and major props to Chloe over at Chloesnails.blogspot.com for the inspiration for this (the true owner of the above mentioned photo). For the look, I used a dark shimmery purple. The color is Starry Night by Nina Ultra Pro (available at Sally's). I painted on my base coat, then a layer of starry night, and once that dried, I went over it with Essie's Matte About You. Once that dried, I just did a freehand french tip with the starry night and topped it with Seche Vite top coat for that super glossy look. I think it's pretty cool because it's not something you usually see on nails.... 2 different finishes rocks in my book! 

Holy blackheads Batman!

Hey Dollypops! I know there are tons of people with my problem out there: super oily skin, a little bit larger than you'd like pores, and those pesky blackheads. I've used just about everything it seems to banish blackheads, all to no avail...until now. I'm soooo stoked I finally decided to break down and buy the Neutrogena Sonic Wave. I never really had too much interest because I've bought so many things that don't live up to the hype....but with this I'm definitely pleasantly surprised. I bought it on Friday and have used it twice a day since then, and I really noticed the blackheads clearing up last night. I was checking them out in my magnified mirror and I was happy with the results but, they were still there. However, I just finished using it again tonight and they are like literally pretty much totally cleaned out! I'm seriously like on cloud 9 right now lol. I just wanted to jump on and tell you guys to definitely check it out. It's the newer version that actually spins... it claims to clean your face 50x's better than regular cleansing... and I have to say, I think it's pretty acurate! Ahhh I'm just so excited lol! Let me know what your experiences with it were if you've tried it. :)
Hugs to you all!
-Ash

Make Up For Ever, Fancy Hotel, Artists, and a Celebrity, OH MY!

Hey dolls! Sorry it's taken me this long to post about my awesome experience at the Make Up For Ever Pro Roadshow in Austin, TX. I almost didn't go simply because I'm not a morning person, and it required getting up at 8 am after going to bed at 5am then driving an hour and half away- not to mention being there the ENTIRE DAY, and also discovering that after months of drought, it was pouring rain outside! However, I told myself "You don't get this kind of opportunity very often and you'll regret not going!" So I drove through the pouring rain and met up with the other Ashley (another MUA from here that I recently met). The first class was set to start at 10:30am and we made it just in the nick of time! The hotel was the fabulous W Hotel. So swanky and situated right in the heart of downtown Austin. As we got upstairs to the event, we were greeted by some sweet MUFE employees who helped get us signed in and apply for the Backstage Pass (MUFE's Pro Discount Program- my fingers are crossed that I'll get this!). At about 10:35 we were waiting for the class to start, and thankfully we had pretty great seats! Then in walks this flamboyant guy with gauged ears, hair standing tall with a bit of a curve to it, wearing black tuxedo style shorts, a black tux jacket, and a purple checkered bowtie! His name: David Hernandez. He's one of MUFE's TOP MUAs and has been with the company for over 15 years! This class was basically talking about being creative and thinking outside the box. Just because something is labeled as a blush, doesn't mean that's all you can use it for (I agree!). The next 1.5 hours was spent watching him transform a beautiful girl into something amazing inspired by horses. (I'm seriously kicking myself again right now for not taking my camera- I didn't think anyone else would have big cameras there so relied on my crappy cell phone camera- boo hoo). After it was over, we had an hour and a half to kill before the next one so we browsed the products set up in another room like a little MUFE boutique. Everything was 40% off and some things were even 50% off. Unfortunately, this event fell on the weekend between pay periods for me so I was strapped for cash. I suppose that was a good thing though because if I DID have about $300 on me I would have spent every penny lol! I limited myself to one bottle of the HD Foundation which I'll review later. The next class was led by celebrity MUA James Vincent. He's worked on tons of celebs such as, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Fifi Dobson, Jillian Michaels, and soooo many more. He was sooo funny! He let a few celeb secrets slip but I'll show him respect and not repeat them, although they seriously had us cracking up! His class was about creating textures and colors. We learned lots of great stuff in this one which I'll be sharing tips from these classes here and there. He really emphasized being resourceful and working with what you have. Sharing his story of starting out thinking he needed a HUGE kit and 1 of every product, then realizing with all the traveling he does, it's just not efficient and it's unnecessary. After this class, me and the other Ashley walked downtown across the street to Which Wich. A fun little sandwich shop where you get to write on a brown bag with a Sharpie marker, what all you want on your sandwhich. I'm not even kidding when I say it was the BEST sub I've ever had! The last class was headed by William Edge. A very successful salon chain owner (William Edge Salons) who spoke to us about making a business plan for ourselves. He really made us think about a lot of things that many of us in the class hadn't really put much thought into. He was also somewhat of a motivational speaker, and just a really nice guy! So the last class had ended and we figured we'd head back home since we had a little bit of a drive. We walked around downtown for a bit, and Austin is so cute! It's like a baby New York except cleaner, and less people lol. We checked out Urban Outfitters for a while then decided we wanted to go back to the hotel to partake in the cocktail/networking even after the classes. We are seriously so glad we decided to go back. It was an amazing experience. All the MUA's that led the classes were there and so nice, and just hung out with us like we've known each other for years. They just kept handing us drink tickets so as the night went on, we all became more and more free of any inhibitions that we might have had lol. The lounge in the hotel was so nice! ...and those drinks, wow, I'm glad they were free because they ranged from $12-$16 each! That's expensive to me, especially something served in martini glass! Just when I thought things couldn't get any more fun, Ashley walks closer to me, and says, "Um, do you know that's Jesse James standing right in front of you?" "What??!!" Sure enough, there he was standing in front of me (close enough to put my hand in his back pocket lol) at the bar ordering a drink. He was too close for me to get a pic with my phone without being totally obvious so I waited til he sat at the bar a little farther down. I managed to finally sneak a pic although, I was still only using my iPhone and it was super dark in the lounge with red lights. After about 15-20 minutes me and the other Ashley approach him tell him hi, and what we're doing there, blah blah blah...to which he replies "Oh that's cool, I know Bobbi Brown! Is she still popular?" lol Ashley says, "Yeah, I was just on her website last week." Jesse says, "I was just wondering because I know how you girls are fickle." lol we just laughed and told him to have fun and he told us the same. He was a nice guy even though he may have done some not so nice things to certain celebrities. We were so psyched that he was there and that we talked to him. I've never talked to a celeb before that I can remember lol. We had such a LONG, awesome day and we hope so much that they'll return next year, or that we'll be living in Cali, or NY by then. If you have the chance to attend something like this, I highly recommend it!
Hugs and stuff!
Ash
To see video of the event check out my friend Dee, who got some footage!
MUFE Pro Roadshow even Part 1
and here's Part 2

So excited | Make Up For Ever Pro Road Show!

I can't wait for tomorrow! The Make Up For Ever Pro Road show is here and I'm attending! I'm attending a seminar and OMG I'm excited for the 50% off discount they'll have on some of there iconic products! I know some of you may think this event is no big deal, but living in Texas, it's pretty big! We don't get all the cool stuff like this you guys in Cali & NY get :P. I'm taking my camera so I can post some pics for you dolls!
XOXO,
Ash

What I'm LOVING right now!

I've noticed I've been reaching for a lot of the same products recently and just wanted to share some of them. I'll get more in depth with them later on, but for now, I'm going to list them for you.
1.) Urban Decay's 15 year anniversary palette - all NEW colors- <3
2.) L'Oreal Studio Secrets Magic Perfecting Base - I LOVE this primer!
3.) Cargo Blu Ray HD powder - This is amazing!
4.) Black Dog eyeshadow from the UD Black Palette - THE blackest black I've ever tried! 

I'll talk a little more about these products later but for now, why don't you share with me your current faves!

First Impression | Medusa's Makeup

So, today while out shopping at a fun little boutique in the mall, I came across some of Medusa's Makeup. I had heard of it here and there, but have never tried it out so I went ahead and picked one up. Of course I went with purple since it's one of my favorite colors right now.  This color is called Electro Purple and it a magentaish (yes, I did just make that word up lol) purple. The guy there told me it doesn't need primer, but I have to disagree. For a lover of bright colors such as myself, I do indeed need primer. Without it, this shade seems to be somewhat sheer, and if I wanted a sheer shadow, well, I'd buy some cheap eyeshadow. However, with a white based primer- I used a NYX jumbo pencil in milk- it's pretty vibrant. These pressed shadows are only $8 which isn't too bad, and I looked up the website a few minutes ago and they actually have a great deal going on! You can get all 12 shades of pressed shadows for only $49, so that makes them like $4 each! There are a few other deals that are actually even better but I'm not going to get that in-depth here. You can check them out for yourself at www.medusasmakeup.com ---Oh, and before I forget to mention it, these are CRUELTY FREE! Yay for our furry friends! :) Would I recommend this product? Yes. Is it my favorite product? No, but I will definitely be picking up some more colors! Let me know what you think of Medusa's Makeup.
Overall Rating: 7/10

Packaging: 6/10 - The black & white box was hard to open without tearing it to bits, but the shadow container is easy to open, and has the cute Medusa's Makeup logo with the little eye. It's cute but nothing too special- then again, who cares more about the packaging than the product inside?
Pigmentation: 7/10 - Without a primer it's a little sheer, but some may like that. With primer though, it's totally amped up!
Blendabilty: 8/10 - It's a very smooth shadow that seems to blend out very easily
Price: 7/10 - at $8 per 2 gram eyeshadow, it's not as expensive as some of the more popular high end brands, but not as cheap as drug store. The quality is pretty good for the price.

Profusion Eyeshadows

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. I've mentioned using this brand on a few of my looks posted on makeupbee.com and I just wanted to show what they were. I really don't know where to get this other than i've seen larger palettes of the same brand at Ross. I bought these at a Traders Village flea market, they have all types of products not just eyeshadows, and they were super cheap! Choose any 5 items for $20..so I have a lot of it lol. I have to say, for the price, it's a nice consistency and has good pigmentation and some pretty colors. I just wanted to share with you guys :)

Upcycled Vintage Train Case

So, I was telling you guys about my little project and I wanted to share it with you! It took a little while but I absolutely love it! You can't really tell but the leopard spots are baby pink- not white. I did do a little tutorial on it so check out my page on cutoutandkeep.com to see how you can do it too! I hope you like it too!
DIY Vintage Train Case Makeover!

Oh Hayyyyy!

Hey dolls, I just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about my little bloggie pie :P. The weekends can be kind of busy for me since most of the time my boyfriend and I are both off work. This is the time we go go out shopping, and out to eat, and all that other fun stuff. We pretty much do the same thing every weekend lol. We go to the flea market to get the most delicious tacos my tastebuds have ever met, shop around a little bit while there (I mainly find really blinged out jewelry and headbands and that's what I love). Then we go buy some groceries for the week, and either go home and cook something for lunch, or just go out to eat, then we go thrifting! I love it! I have found so many great vintage things. This weekend I picked up a vintage samsonite train case that was pretty much in perfect condition for only $.99 - it was navy blue and last night I gave it a makeover :) ...who doesn't love a makeover right? It is now smokey gray, with baby pink leopard print. I only have a few more minor things to do to it (paint one small section black, then add on all the rhinestones! I'm so excited about this- I'm definitely going to show it off on here once it's done :) I might even post a tutorial? Hopefully I'll have something more beauty related to share in a bit, so as some people think we Texans say "Y'all come back now, ya' hear!" lol- *Disclaimer: I, nor does anyone else I have ever known say things like "Y'all come back now, ya' hear!", nor do we ride horses to work haha - I've seriously gotten this question before!

Tip #371

Ok, so it's actually #1 but that just sounded lame so I embellished it a little bit haha. I'm not sure how many of you are headband lovers but I personally have a ton of them and the blingier the better! However, I do have a house with cats and they kinda like to play with them so they get taken down to the floor and sometimes stepped on and broken. I picked one up earlier and was about to throw it away when I realized that would be a total waste! Yeah the actual headband was no good, but it was covered in little jewels that could be salvaged. So I started with a pair of tweezers plucking the the studs off one by one until I realized it was just as easy to do with my fingernails. It only took maybe 10 minutes and now I have a bunch of little shiny studs to use in makeup looks or for whatever you feel like jazzing up a bit :).  I hope you liked this tip and save lots of little shiny things!


XOXOX,
Ash

Featured!

Hey dolls! Hope you've all had a great week so far- the weekend is just around the corner, finally! I just wanted to share something that I'm pretty excited about, even though some may think it's no big deal. I was featured on the Makeupbee Facebook page! It's always nice to get recognition and it makes you just want to do that much better! I love Makeupbee.com, it's so simple and uncluttered, just straight to the point. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should definitely head over there. You can also follow them on Twitter, and as stated above, on Facebook. On a side note, totally unrelated to beauty, I'm super stoked for tonight's season premiere of The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle! Are any of you watching?

Nonchalant

Today the look is anything but nonchalant. It's actually fairly bold, but don't so in a not so "in yo' face" kinda way. I kept most of the colors neutral and threw in a hint of color on with the eyeliner. It's a really pretty teal green. I wanted to do something different than a regular cut crease so I did this extreme winged cut crease. I'm not sure I'd wear this out other than maybe out for a night at a club....it's pretty sexy for that :)  As far as products, I used the Tokidoki Sodashop palette...(which I love, and I got it on sale at Sephora for only $30 so  I love it even more!). For the dark color I used the shadow called Furbina- it's really a very dark purple with some glitter but it does end up looking almost black. For the lighter one, the color is called sugar skull, which is just a frosty white. On the base of the lid, I just did a very light wash of an sheer olive green color called Ciotolina.  To finish up the look, I used the included eyeliner pen in the color "Sandy". Overall, I really like the sleekness of this look, it's bold but not too much, it's almost an understated sexy. Give it a try and let me know how you like it!

My Classy, Sassy, & Wild Nail Tutorial

This nail look is my take on the traditional zebra print. I wanted to keep it a little more elegant so i Used a soft iridescent pink polish and topped it with some thin black and white lines that can either be seen as zebra print, or just a simple pattern.

Electric Geisha

Ok, first of all, I apologize for my hair- I had no idea what to do with it and I wanted my face to be the focus so i just put it in a very high ponytail with a black bow (looking back I wish I would have done something a little more elaborate but oh well what's done is done). Secondly, when I started off I had no idea what look I was going for, I just knew I wanted lots of pink- BRIGHT pink at that. So I got out my scotch tape and taped off the sides to make the lines super straight. Next, I packed on some Mac pigment in Magenta Madness and then drew on some crazy harsh eyebrows. To finish the look I took a thin liner brush and some Essence gel eyeliner in black ($3.49 at Ulta-works like a charm so it's a great deal) and followed the same shape of the pink coming inward toward my nose to really pull everything together. The lips were done by mixing some of the same MAC pigment with some clear lipgloss then encrusting them with some hot pink sprinkles (so sweet-yum!)- just be sure to resist the temptation to lick your lips!

Meet Autumn

Meet Autumn. She's one of the coolest, nicest people I've met in a long time. She moved to Texas from Canada and is actively pursuing a career in modeling. Her portfolio is amazing to say the least. She has such a unique look and personality and is very down to earth. I just wanted to to introduce her since you will see her quite a bit here. We get together and make some makeup and photography magic happen when we're bored. I'm thankful to have her because I can always use practice and she's down for whatever. This girl is fearless! Here are a few other photos from some of our shoots. 
*All makeup and photography by me*

Victorian Floral Eyes

This is my favorite recent look I've done. I'm especially proud of this look because I've never seen a look like this before. I thought it was gonna be a challenge and almost didn't even attempt it, but as it turns out, it was surprisingly easy! I'll try to post a tutorial in the future. This look was created using the MAKE UP FOR EVER Flash Palette (which I absolutely LOVE). Unfortunately, having created this look with that palette renders it unwearable since it will smear everywhere when you blink. I plan on recreating this look using a more wearable medium. But hey, if you only want to wear it for a few cool photos then you're good to go!

Intergallactic Superstar

For this look, I was really inspired by those beautiful space images you've seen- the black of space but then the pop of color with the swirls of different shades of purples & blues and the sparkling stars. I really love the colors here and I think this is a pretty easily wearable look despite the bright colors. I created this look using a cheap brand of cosmetics called "Profusion". This brand of eyeshadow usually runs at a price of 5 palettes for $20...super cheap  right?? Each little palette has 18 colors and they are suprisingly soft and pigmented so there are definitely no complaints from this gal!

Intro to Dollface

Hi guys! First off, I want to thank you for stopping by my little corner of the online world. It really means a lot to know there are people taking time out of their day to read my words and listen to my thoughts on random things. I've wanted to start a blog for quite a while now but never seemed to have enough time, afterall, I pretty much have 3 jobs. But before I get into that, let me really introduce myself. My name is Ashley (but some of my friends call me "Smashley" lol). I'm 28 years old, and have 2 dogs and 3 cats that are pretty much my babies. I currently work at a national bank to make sure my bills get paid (it seems I have so many these days unfortunately). In my spare time I am a freelance photographer and makeup artist. Those last two are my passion. I was a part of the pageant scene from the time I was only a few months old until it was time to start school, so I was always around photographers and having my makeup done- I think this is where my love of both arts stems from. I love anything that allows me to be creative and no matter what, I think that having a creative outlet to express myself is the driving force in my life. Also, probably just like all of you I am just straight up a makeup junkie! I've rambled on long enough on this intro so I'm gonna stop here before I run you off, but I really hope you come back soon...you wouldn't wanna miss something good now would 'ya?