TeacupOfMakeup: October 2014

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My Halloween/Fantasy Look for 2014 inspired by The Last Unicorn

Hi Lovelies! Sorry that I have been AWOL for a while. At the very last moment, my husband and I decided to take a vacation and that's why I haven't been uploading videos or writing blog posts for a while. I did bring my laptop with me, but that was a total waste of space as I never used it while we were on holidays :P

For Halloween 2014, I decided to do a few fantasy looks. The first one, as you can see, is a Unicorn look. It is inspired by the fairy tale written by Peter S. Beagle and published in 1968. There is also a cartoon film - The Last Unicorn (film) . I loved both the story book and the film so much. If you get a chance, I highly recommend the cartoon film. It is filled with such beautiful music/songs and the animation is so so pretty and I understand it was done by the predecessor to Studio Ghibli (which made such films as Spirited Away & My Friend Totoro).

DVD of the Last Unicorn

In the story, the Unicorn goes on an epic quest to find where all of the other unicorns in the World are, after having been told that she is the Last unicorn. Along the way, she gets magically transformed into a woman and starts to fall in love with a prince, slowly losing her identity as a unicorn.

I thought it would be fun to do an inspired look for Halloween, of a character that is half woman, half unicorn.

It was a bit hard to pull the whole idea together as all ready made unicorn head dresses / costumes just didn't cut it for me.

So what I did was to purchase a pink wig from Amazon (Link) and a separate unicorn head piece and combined them by sewing on the wig, the parts I wanted.

Combined wig and unicorn ears

For the makeup, I really wanted to use the cute pastel colours from my new Sugarpill Sparkle Baby palette. So the eyes were the main focus. I also wanted to do a coloured brow inspired by Amy @Shrinkle of Sugarpill.

I wanted to incorporate some paper butterfly cake toppers I bought last year for a look that I never did. These butterflies are just so BEAUTIFUL and I thought it would fit in with the idea of the Unicorn being the guardian of her forest. I got them from here.

I hope you enjoy my transformation into the Last Unicorn! Video just right below.

Thanks sugar muffins! I'll be sure to see you all soon.

Hi there Lovelies! I've just recently discovered Concrete Minerals!! OMG WHERE. HAVE. I. BEEN? At the recent IMATS in Sydney, I was able to test out some of Concrete Minerals pigments at the Lipstick Republic stand and boy o' boy was I blown away by the pigmentation. I'm not sure what I was thinking or maybe at that point I had run out of cash, but I didn't pick it up that day.

I found their webstore, and I purchased two of their pigment kits: Sugar Skull and Zombie Girl. I think I must have had Halloween on my mind cause looking at the cover of the kits kinda scares me a little :P

They ship Worldwide and have free Worldwide Shipping for orders of US$50 and above.

Each of the kits come with 6 pots of pigments (1.5 grams each). The brand prides itself on being 100% vegan and cruelty free. The makeup is made in USA. Concrete Minerals also sells nail polishes and lip tints.

The Sugar Skull Set

I think I am obsessed with anything that comes in a set. I liked the idea of the tin box and the cartoon on the lid was rather attractive. This set retails for US$36 and you can find it here.

The tin box is pretty big. It's hard to tell from the photos, but the box is filled with a lot of shredded paper (about 2/3), so it can hold a lot more pots of pigment.

As you can see from the swatches (without primer) on my arm, the pigments are super duper intense. Except for the bright aquamarine colour (swatched closest to my wrist), the colours are very wearable for every day purposes. I really like companies that take the time to name their products (from top (nearest wrist) to bottom):

Los Angelitos (bright aquamarine)
Altar of Roses (crimson red)
Saint (navy blue-purple)
Sweet Catrina (pinky-neutral)
Calavera (marigold-yellow)
¡Viva los Muertos! (electric pink w/ purple shift)

For every day wear, I think the neutral pink all over the lid with a bit of the dark navy as an eye liner would look lovely.

I found the pigments to be creamy and easy to blend.

Here are how they look on the eye.

Photo from http://www.concreteminerals.com/

The Zombie Girl Set

I think it is so nice when makeup brands take that extra step and gift wrap your orders for you.

It''s kinda weird. I'm both attracted to and equally repulsed by the illustration on the lid. What is that French expression? Une jolie-laide?

I really liked the colours in this one. Except for the (vomit) green, the rest are perfectly wearable for the day. This set retails for US$36 and you can find it here.

As per the Sugar Skull kit, the pigments in this kit was also very pigmented, creamy and easy to blend. I found that after wiping the swatches off with a makeup cleansing wipe, there was still some colour left on my arm and I had to bust out my heavy duty makeup remover to remove the remnants.

Again, the names of the colours was super cute (on my arm top to bottom):

The Vaccine (steel blue-grey w/ bright green duochrome)

Nightmare (electric purple w/ pink sparkle)

Graveyard (deep taupe w/ pink shimmer)

Quarantine (medium pink w/ purple undertones)

Blood and Guts (rusty red w/ bright aqua shift)

Living Dead (moss green w/ brilliant copper undertones)

The Vaccine, Blood and Guts (the rusty red) and Living Dead (moss green) did not have the duo chrome finish I was expecting, as these three were described as having contrasting undertones/shifts.

Photo from http://www.concreteminerals.com/

All in all I quite enjoyed the Concrete Minerals pigments. I can see myself using them in a variety of ways, like on the lips, and maybe mixing up a nail polish. I would like to try more.

On the Concrete Minerals website, they have a special deal for beauty bloggers. It's a pretty good deal, as you can purchase 4 pigments for $15. Sweet!

They have also come out with more cute sets, which I will be saving up for (see photos below from Concrete Minerals' website).

That's all folks and I'll be seeing you all real soon! :)