Depotting Eyeshadows: Urban Decay Vice Palette Edition

I've been holding onto a Z Palette that wasn't full for some time now and decided that I wanted de-pot some of my palettes to fill it up. I really love the Urban Decay Vice Palette but I wasn't using it very often for some reason so I figured putting it in a palette would spark my interest in the shades again. I googled how to depot the Vice palette and I actually came up with nothing! There were lots of posts about other palettes with a cardboard surrounding but the Vice Palette is made of a sturdy plastic which made it more difficult. I managed to get the job done with this method, though the process wasn't perfect and I did almost ruin a few shadows I'm still happy with the end result. And don't worry, if you do crack a few shadows like I did, my next post will tell you how to fix this problem.

Products You'll Need:
1. Thin spatula, I used one by Cinema Secrets. It needs to be very thin to fit on the sides of the shadow.
2. Blow Dryer
3. Magnet palette, I used the Z Palette (If you do not have a magnetic palette you can purchase a roll of magnetic tape from Michael's and stick those to the back. I did that with a Makeup Forever Palette that I will also show you).

How To: Deal with Oily Hair

I have never really been the type of woman who washes her hair every single day in order for it to feel clean. I think this has a lot to do with me having naturally wavy/curly hair and the fact this style tends to lack moisture.

How To: Maintain Your Spa Pedicure

 It's Spring time and I'm sure you're all as excited as I am to put away your boots and bust out the sandals! Even in the winter I find myself getting pedicures because I just can't handle not having them done, but I pay particular attention to maintaining them when it's sandal weather. When I was working in high school and had no real bills to pay I was getting a pedicure every two weeks, so there was little need for maintenance but now that I prioritize other things over getting one (or sometimes I just don't have the time) I'm more interested in making them last. I started to notice that after I shower my feet are really dry and if I don't moisturize right after they lose their glow after a little while.Also, with it being summer soon I'll be hitting the beach and exposing my feet to the elements with the wearing of sandals and I want to make sure they stay pretty for as long as possible. I do this particular upkeep routine about every other day and I've found that it really makes a difference in how long my pedicure lasts. DISCLAIMER: Below I've posted pics of my actual toes/feet so if you're grossed out by feet, look away now!

How To: Get a Pro Discount

I'm sure as beauty bloggers many of you are aware of the Pro Makeup discounts that many companies are offering for working makeup artists/cosmetologists to give us a break on product purchases for our kits. If you're not, you should know that there are cosmetic companies out there that are willing to give working makeup artists a discount ranging from about 20%-50% depending on the brand. When going through the application process for these programs you may find that if you live in a State/Country that does not require you to obtain a beauty license to be a Makeup Artist (like where I live in California),  it's difficult to obtain proof of your employment if you're doing mainly freelance work. I found myself in this very situation when I was looking to develop my bridal kit and looked a bit more into the pro programs and found that there are ways to get the discount without actually being on the payroll of a profession production. And there's how I did it!

First, I googled companies that offer the program and found the one's I was most interested in, the first being the most common, MAC. The MAC pro discount program was my introduction to the process of applying to other brands, and once I had my documents for this the rest of them were a breeze to apply to. Here is a list of accepted required documents to apply to the program from the MAC website

"Provide two current pieces from the following that indicate your selected category/profession: 
Composite Card, Business Card with name and specific profession, Editorial Page with name credit, Union Card, Professional License, Diploma/Certificate, Publication Masthead, Program/press Materials with name, Contract on Production Company Letterhead, Crew/Call List on Prod. Co. Letterhead, Professional Letter of Reference of Employment." 

The first, easiest and most necessary item on this list and one that you should already have as a working makeup artist is the business card. You can order some cute cheap ones at Vistaprint.com, which is where I ordered mine. After I went through those though, I decided to try zazzle.com and they have a WAY better selection, however they are more expensive. 

The second item from the list proved to be the most difficult for me because all I really had as proof of my work were the pictures I had taken and testimonials from my clients. However I had been working closely with my friend who is a hair stylist, and this is where I came up with my professional letter of reference. I had her write me a letter about the work I had completed with her and because she was a licensed cosmetologist I had her write her licence number on the bottom of the letter as well as list the salon she worked out of so there would be no questions about legitimacy.
Once I had these 2 pieces the rest of the work was easy, I just sent a copy of my photo ID and filled out the application form and sent a check ($35.00) for the amount of the annual fee. Keep in mind that MAC takes a VERY long time with this process. It was well over a month before I heard back from them via email that my application was received and was under review, I think it was a few more weeks after that, then I got my approval application that said I should see my card in the mail within a couple of weeks.

After I succeeded at getting the MAC pro I decided to investigate more into other brands that I love and found that the process was almost identical for a few companies and I now have pro cards for MAC, Urban Decay and Bobbi Brown. 
Urban Decay's was the easiest by far, you can submit basically the same documents but they prefer it to be done via email, I was approved for my pro-discount literally the very next day. The discount amount is 40% and the only bad thing about this program is you are only allowed to use your discount online and it restricts MANY items (like no NAKED Palettes!). So it's definitely worth your time because it takes almost no time, but it still is kind of a bummer that it's so limiting. Especially since so many artists have the naked palette in their kits...
Bobbi Brown was also the same process and the discount of 40% can only be used when purchasing items online. But to my knowledge it applies to all products, which is great because their pro-palettes are in the $250.00 range with is incredibly expensive, so the discount sort of brings it down to normal range.

Currently, I am working on getting the Makeup Forever Pro card, but they do not accept the letter of reference so I'm going to look through their required documents and see what I can do to apply.

So that's my experience! Kind of drawn out but I just wanted to make you all aware that you do not have to pay full price if you are a working artist and looking to expand your kit! If you have any stories, questions or comments about this, please share.

How To: Ombre Your Hair Pink

Ok I'm finally getting around to posting this and now that I see how sort of difficult it is to explain in text, I think I'm going to make a tutorial video about it. But for now I'm just going to do my best to explain it. So if you want your hair to look like this, read on!

Just a disclaimer before I get started with explaining this, I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL! I'm just a broke woman who wanted to change her hair, and because I tend to make these decisions on a whim it's easier for me to just do them myself, and much more cost effective. However this is the first time I've used bleach on my own head and though I like the way it turned out, it was a learning experience. 

Process One: Bleaching The Tips

I began this process with hair that had not been washed in a day or 2. I've been told this helps the color stick, and I would say that's accurate. I mixed equal parts of the bleach powder and developer in 30 volume. From what I've read you should not go above a 30 volume because it will seriously damage your hair. I've even heard using 20 volume, however this slow but steady way of bleaching is more for those who want to bleach their whole head, or in really large portions. Once I mixed the bleach I parted my hair down the middle and divided it into about 2-3 inch sections.

With the ombre technique it's really important that both sides of your head be even, so if I applied the lightener on one side of my head, I IMMEDIATELY did the same to the other side.I applied the bleach first to the bottom 3-4 inches of my hair, then wrapped the ends in foil. For this first process it stated to let it sit for about 30 minutes, but after I checked my hair at that time I saw that it wasn't nearly enough, so for the first round I left it on for about 45 minutes, then rinsed it out. 

Now some people say to apply the second layer of bleach after the hair is still damp, but I personally was more comfortable with rinsing it, drying it completely, then bleaching again. However, this time I took the color about 3 inches higher. I still incorporated all of the hair, even the previously bleached ends, to be bleached again. I then wrapped the ends in foil and let it sit for about another half hour. I also forgot to mention this for the first step of bleaching, but for both sessions I placed a plastic bag over my head to lock in the heat. I also took a blow dryer and inserted it in the bag for my heat to activate the bleach. 

I then rinsed my hair and towel dried it. Because my hair was black when I began, the color was not a true blonde, it came out quite brassy. I anticipated this problem so I purchased a toner in a grey color because I was told grey takes out the brassiness. I placed the toner in a bottle and just applied it directly to my damp hair and left it in for about 15 minutes which turned out to be the perfect amount of time. Because I mistakenly did this a second time and left the toner in longer and it turned a darker color that I did not want. So for future reference, if you are toning with grey, use a lite amount on damp hair and don't leave it very long if you want to take the brassiness out. Here is what my hair looked like after this round... 

Process 2: Adding the Pink (Or any other color you want)

I purchased the Color Jamz Semi Permanent colors in Bubble Head Pink and Candy Apple Red. I did this because originally I wanted to do just the red, but I thought to be a little more daring I'd start with Pink then let that fade and add the red after. So I took the Bubble Head Pink, put on some gloves and just went to town. I squeezed it straight from the bottle onto the blonde tips of my hair and just worked it with my hands. Once every inch of blonde was covered I wrapped my hair in a bun and put a plastic bag over it. I recommend letting it sit for a VERY long time because it takes a while to grab onto your hair. Also this product is vegan so there are no harsh chemicals that will damage your hair if you leave it in too long, and it smells really great. After my first round of hair coloring it turned out looking like the first picture I posted. 

One thing I noticed is that the color does not last as long the first time around, so after about a week I decided to color it once more, this time using the Candy Apple Red. But instead of getting this true red color I actually got a really hot pink, and I ended up really loving it. This is how the color was the second round with the Candy Apple Red...

I like how vibrant and deep the color is and it has lasted much longer than the color did my first time applying. So from now on when I apply the color I'm going to alternate between the Bubble Head Pink and the Candy Apple Red to keep this vibrant hot pink color going. Also I posted the picture of the Dove Conditioner because it is SOOOO IMPORTANT to deep treat your hair when you do something like this. Especially if you're like me and you're going from black to blonde, damage is to be expected, but it can be much less if you take care of your hair. 

And that's really all I did! I'm sorry I know this post is really long, thank you so much for taking the time to go over it. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them as best I can, but as I stated before I'm not a pro. 

How To: Keep Your Lipstick from Bleeding/ Fading

In case anyone was looking for a solution to lipstick bleeding but did not want to spend the money on a product to prevent it from doing that, here are some tips I've picked up on how to prevent that, and can be done with any product...

Step 1. Apply Lipliner- I personally almost never wear a lipstick without a liner because A. I usually like the liner to be a bit darker to create a contrast, and also because it sets a good foundation on the lips for the color to stay.
Step 2. Apply Color with a Lip Brush- This step might sound tedious but it makes a huge difference, gives you more control and wastes less color.
Step 3. Blot- After your first layer of lipstick, blot it with a tissue
Step 4. Add Translucent Powder (Optional) - This helps set the first layer of lipstick and sets a good foundation for the second layer and will really lock in the color
Step 5. Add a Second Layer of color - With your lips brush put on that final top coat
Step 6. Blot Once More- Blot one last time and your are good to go with color that will last all night!