Gift Packets =D

Yes, I am very happy about this; it's one of those projects that's just burning a creative hole in my brain, and I can't think about anything until I bring my vision to life!! And it was awesome. These are so cute!



I actually made 3 of these, the other has a silver present ribbon decoration on it. They are for my dance instructors =) They each include a body butter, 2 eyeshadows, and a lip balm.



The small ones were so much fun that I made a big one just for kicks, I can't really imagine anyone wanting it lol. But it is so pretty. And has little chocolates in it. Things that went into this: 3 eyeshadows, 1 blush, 1 bronzer, 1 shimmer dust, 1 dual ended eyeshadow/crease brush, 1 body butter, 1 lip balm. So like... pretty much some of everything I've made so far. Too bad I don't have any veil or foundation powder to add, but I'm getting there.

In future projects, I'm really aching to make some holiday scented lip balms and butters, but I lack a couple necessary supplies =P

A few new creations..

The first new color on here today looks white, and it is, but it is designed to be a highlighting/underlying base color for looks using pinks and purples. Pretty and shiny, maybe you can see a bit on the spoon there..



Our second new creation is a blush that looks like a brick wall...lol. It's much less orangey in real light, not the crummy dining room light I'm stuck with until we get some longer days and real sunlight! These pictures just aren't doing any of my pretty colors any justice! I will be pressing a blush palette in addition to making a couple sample Christmas baskets, so look for that!



Next, I have a color that I ended up with completely by accident, trying to make something very different from this. It so happened that I thought this color was just amazing, and left it at that. I will try that other color again sometime though. Ended up with a gorgeous shimmery plum that looks fantastic wet or dry, with lots of metallic color payoff. I was worried that it would look too much like Purple Haze, but it is much pinker and less dark. I think it looks great with my green eyes ;)



Lastly, a gorgeous rich antique gold, complete with what I like to call "rainbow effect", where you can see a beautiful pearly rainbow when it's applied. I first noticed this on Aztec Gold, and I had to check to see if the two were TOO similar. Not even close. This color has a touch of bronze, and some green to make it a bit earthier, but Aztec Gold definitely looks a lot greener than this does. This is a great color to just wear alone, like I'm doing today, because of the subtlety and the drama it has at the same time.



Hoping to introduce some more projects later today!

Loose counterparts and the Holiday Season

Of course, everything I press is made from a loose mineral cosmetic I have already created, so all of the eyeshadows in the palette are available loose...



DSK Steph has also removed all of her blog posts because she is SOLD OUT! I'm sure I had some hand in that =P But I promise that the inspiration necklace is gorgeous.

Also, now that the holiday season is coming up, I would be happy to make gift baskets, and the little 5 gram eyeshadows make really cute stocking stuffers. I'm thrilled to be getting into the Christmas spirit, and hoping to get started on the holiday eyeshadows!!

The "DSK" Palette and Every Butters

I have been thinking about what 4 colors I wanted to press into a palette for about 5 months, and all of a sudden I saw something pretty that inspired me =) Firstly, I am a total DSK Jewelry addict. Steph makes the most awesome crystal pieces, and most of hers are one-of-a-kind, so I always feel unique and special when I have something of hers on. It is such a pick me up to receive a package from her because of the personal touches she puts on everything she sends (I love that grape marshmallow candy..). So a great big THANKS to DSK Steph for being my inspiration for my first pressed quad palette!



I am pleased to introduce 3 new colors inspired by DSK Steph's Triple Hearts necklace (and also one original color made by myself, since there are 4 slots in the case!). The first color, in the top left is Moonlight, a gorgeous white shadow with a hint of blue and purple shine just like the Moonlight crystal. I love the moonlight crystal, it gives off kind of a frosted look, and that was what I was also going for.

Next on the top right is created after the Purple Haze crystal. Purple Haze is a beautiful crystal color that I'm having a hard time using English words to describe. It has sort of a mauvey-blueish in it, and I think I did a good job capturing that in the eyeshadow.

The color on the bottom right is Teal, the third heart in DSK Steph's Triple Hearts necklace. Bluish-green with medium sparkle and bright color!

Lastly is my original Flora, on the bottom left. Of course, purple was the natural choice to fill in the blank since Steph's proclaimed color of preference is the same. A lovely light lilac with lots of silver sparkle. If you would like to see the inspiration piece for my palette (or to possibly make one of these beauties your own) please click here for DSK Steph's Triple Hearts necklace! I know you will love her work just as much as I do!

This was my first attempt at making a pressed palette out of the loose mineral eyeshadow I usually make. Since they take a day to cure, I'll see just how well I did and hope they don't flake apart or anything. So far so good, and the pressing medium does add some vibrancy to the color.

Now I have another Thanks to send out, to the awesome guy who made a good many of my projects possible, Sam. I had really not thought about just how much space 50 of these suckers would take up when they were empty, and ended up having to send them to him in the US because the supplied didn't ship to Canada. After a biiiiig painstaking little while, they were shipped, cleared, and I had received a million empty jars. I remember Chantelle was there and looked weirded out by how happy I was about them. Without him, I never would have been able to make these...



My homemade body butter, in all the scents I have produced it in so far: Island Pineapple, Irresistible Apple, Creamy Vanilla Citrus, Double Chocolate, and Chocolate Orange. I had a shipment of raw cocoa butter come in, so I was extra excited to try that out. Recently, my mom had acquired one of those electric stand mixers I needed for the expansion of my hobby. I'm pretty sure I overbeat the first batch, but really, it does all end up the same in the end, and melts at body temperature. Today after mixing, I used all the leftover Chocolate Orange butter on myself, and ladies at the gym commented on how I smelled like one of those Christmas oranges XD Orange is supposedly the most antidepressant of all the citrus fruits, so maybe that's why I love it so much =)

Label!

My first labels that were not written out by me. The template I got from the label site is a bit off, which is annoying because MS Word is a hard program for me to design in, but you can read it and it COULD be worse. I even have that nice clipart picture in there!



That one is actually the last container I have left, so it looks like I'll be making another batch tonight.

I'm heavily inspired to create a palette, so look out for that soon too!

Funner than oven mitts?

Yes, you heard right. I was a little worried about trying this, but it did turn out quite well. This is whipped shea butter cream I made using unrefined African shea butter, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, and ingredients I use to make mineral cosmetics, rice powder, boron nitride, silica powder, and satin pearl mica powder. There is a fragrance oil added to make it pineapple scented =)



This was another one of those days where I made something that smelled like food, and didn't get to eat any at the end. The butter is feather light, it barely feels like there's anything in the container. It was really hard to get into the container though.. XD Probably will be making another batch tomorrow.

Just for Ash...

Because she sounded so excited about the Christmas eyeshadows I will be making, I decided to post the first in the collection, even though it wasn't my main project today. I think it's about the right time to start being a little festive anyways!




On skin, this ends up being a nutmeggy gold with a slight hint of green, which sounds weird, but isn't as weird as it could be.

I hope to be posting more festive colors soon, but stay tuned for today's flagship project!

The Halloween Collection

FINALLY. Could I work any slower? Probably, but not much. But I worked hard and late to finally finish a festive grouping of colors. Alliteration aside, here they are =)



Top left, Black Cherry. A dark black colored eyeshadow which gives off a red shine and sparkle. Part of the group of epic mixing horrors, so the next formulation will look blacker, and not with that...brown that's not supposed to be in it. A color formulated for Ari.

Middle left, Mystery Brew. Same idea, except with a green shine.

Top right, Trick or Treat. A strong, powerfully pigmented black with a shiny rainbow sparkle. So far the deepest black that has been created by me.

Bottom left, Spooky. A bright white with a soft lovely sparkle.

Bottom right, Pumpkin Patch. Who knew you could mix orange and purple?

After having a lot of fun with this, I'm excited to get started on a Christmas set =)

Little something new..

So this must be the crowning moment so far, I LOVE my lip balm. SO much. That I may never share any with anyone else~



So far I have the pilot prototype, a plain colored, coconut cream scented balm that my brother apparently likes a lot, and a barely pink balm with a slight shimmer. I'm really excited to do more of these =)

I've eaten a lot of lip gloss to get to where I am today.

So this has to be one of the best colors I've made so far. It doesn't even look like this. It looks like what color the pillars of Aztec ruins would look like. It's kind of silvery grey like stone, little green, little gold. Pearly and prismatic~ You can't even see the gold in it! I was so excited about this color that I wore it to bed..



"Aztec Gold"


This is my first crack at lip gloss. I must say, they LOOK pretty good. By the time I made it to the white gloss, I had gotten the sweetener and taste enhance right, and it was really hard to forget that I wasn't stirring a dish of icing. But it so does, and the pink one is strawberry flavored, albeit kind of weakly, and isn't stirred well so it's a bit purpler in some spots. But now that I've gotten the mechanics down with it, lip gloss is extremely versatile and easy to work with. It would be like...a cute thing to do at a birthday party or something.

Shining stars~

So this is the mini beside the large size eyeshadow. The 10g square base jar holds 2.5 times as much as the small one, you can really pack them full =) I'm not sure why some things have clear lids, and some have black, but I will try to keep them as consistent as I can.



"Silver Lining" In both major and minor~

I LIVE

So it would seem that I had a very long weekend...but time well spent and much was done. Lots of necessary supplies are here, like flavors for lip gloss, and the last ingredients I need to make some body butter. Created a lot of new colors last week, here are two of them =)Both are very big on sparkle, Lucky uses a pigment that has very fine particles and is quite expensive, but definitely worth it.



"Tsunami"



"Lucky"

Under the sea~

I really like this cute coral color, and I've used the same color formula as a blush with less sparkle suitable to wear on the face.



"Starfish"

Another brown picture! What makes these two unique, is that while they apply brown and tan, they will shine/sparkle blue, without adding any actual blue color. Very nice for a subtle surprise =)



"Pandora" and "Truffle"

=)

Hooray, the sifter seals finally came! I'm totally thrilled that everything is all sealed up for wherever it's going to go =) I also got a free gift, which is awesome XD New post later with an eyeshadow.

Finally...a shade that goes with my car

This is going to be so fantastic to wear, it has a brilliant violet-blue shine and looks incredible applied wet~



"Princess"

Lush~ But with a B

Blush has to be one of the more fun things to make, and took 1/15th the time it took to make that first batch of shimmer powder, which must be reformulated. I eventually got what I wanted, but in a roundabout and wasteful way =P I have a better way to get the same results.

But I digress. I somehow seem to keep making these blushes that fall into the "dusty rose" category, but this one is an uber cute bubblegum pink blush, hence why I'm going to call it bubblegum. Mission: To expand farther into blush and finally wind up with that cute peach I've been hoping for =D



The Bubblegum blush in both the regular and miniblush size, even though the picture looks like that brown everything else looks like XD

Not for your inner vampire...

Today I made my first blush, using a base I made myself. It is so sheer, and leaves the cutest amount of pink sheen, it's fantastic. Very suitable for everyday wear; work, going out..and other stuff, that people do. Even though this picture looks brown, like they all do, here is the miniblush...



It also comes in a larger size for those who tend to stick with one color.

My favorite creation of the day HAS to be this bronze shimmer powder in a shade called "Cocoa", which is the first in a collection of different shimmery body powders I'm working on. I have to say that I LOVE my powder tan, I get that bronze boost with a touch of golden shimmer, and no one can even tell I've barely gotten any sun for 3 years! For those of us who plan to wear this all winter, a nice wide jar with a sifter; for all you people with your "sun", the minibronzer. Isn't small everything cute? Warning: This shade may be too dark for you if you are a vampire.

A bit of sun before bed~

So this surprised me when I put it on, it lightens up to a lovely peachy gold as opposed to the pinky-beige that it looks like it would be, and is so subtle that it works for every day use without being overpowering. I wish I had more eyes ^^v

You can't make this stuff up

Except for I can, and finally did. You have no idea how thrilled I am that these perform like any eyeshadow I've bought from whatever source. After hoarding a larger container of each for me, here are the first colors I've made so far...

The light blue, I've called it "Snowflake", is so nice and sparkly, kind of prismatic, very light and shines =) A beautiful highlighter for a more intense blue.

I also made a shimmery, coppery brown color that I've called "Chai", cause I'm working on something called Vanilla Chai. I like chai <3 I liked this color so much that I couldn't bear washing it off to test other colors and I'm still wearing it now! In the sun it has a hint of rosy sparkle.



This color almost looks exactly the same as the Chai, but it's so different it's not even funny. Applied, you get a really nice rosy sheen that gets stronger the more it's blended in, with a nice golden shimmer. My mom was showing off this color for me while she was at work today =) I actually don't have a name for this color yet...



With them all together in natural sunlight, it's really easy to see the differences between the colors, and to get a better idea of what they actually look like.



I would love to hear what you think about these!

of course it needs a title...

So all minerals are in cute stacker jars that I hope are easy to work out of. I'm currently waiting on a shipment of sifter seals so the eyeshadows can be packaged properly, and all the lip safe fragrance oils I scrounged up on the internet! Since the place I have my working desk in is being renovated, I've had to take up temporary residence in the living room until all the repairs are done! I've been negotiating the installment of that fridge I've been wanting for quite some time in the lab =) which will make things very convenient for me. Something tells me that I'm going to need more space!

The rest of my day was spent taking the last of my photos for Stephanie's DSK Jewelry Model Contest! It being one of my higher priorities this month, I'm really glad to finally have my submission in and just wait for the fun to start!

A HUUUGE shout out to Justina, for once again doing a fabulous job on my makeup and taking the photos for me on such short notice with no real reward =P It's special to find such a great friend, and I'm so glad you got that totally awesome PLACE!!!

Finally, since I'd be a tool if I didn't post a photo, the improved powder pigment storage system~

She did it to me again, and why is the day only 24 hours?

So if there's one thing that can make me poor in the blink of an eye, it is DSK Jewelry. And I torment pretty much constantly by camping her blog and admiring all the wonderful treasures I cannot yet obtain. But I'm weak, and love things that sparkle, and I give in occasionally. Tonight I took her moonlight female Pegasus with the light sapphire moon. To see the latest thing she's released, check out her blog.. <3

http://www.dskjewelry.blogspot.com

In other news, I spent at least 3 hours on the grueling task of putting all the powders that came in tiny plastic bags into cute stackable containers. Which..saves a lot of space and actually looks great. As soon as I get something my parents consider work done, I'll actually be able to mix my first color. Take a look at what I started with....

So...I put it off long enough..

Let the flagship post begin. Is this the font I'm using?

The master shipment has arrived. In all of it's boxed and delivered glory. I knew it would be good since they sent a truck this time. And everything was totally better than it looked in the internet pictures, just like my DSK jewelry I keep ordering. And as I'm thinking that, she put out more things I want.. look at them. Prepare to hear about her modeling contest constantly.

http://www.dskjewelry.blogspot.com/

I received in the glory box, over 30 1 oz containers of mica powders, iron oxide powders, and glitter. Who doesn't love glitter? In addition to that, everything I need including base powders and other tools, with about half a billion little jars, tomorrow looks like a great day to create my first...creation. As soon as I figure out how to put a photo on this thing, I'll do that.