Gradient Smokey Eye

On rare occasions I'll get tutorial requests based on looks I wear out, this was one of those rare cases. I originally did this gradient smokey eye when I headed out to Fashion Valley for a fashion show celebrating the Latino Film Festival back in April. Since I went with quite a casual outfit, I decided to do a darker eye to pull the whole look together. This smokey eye is a bit different to the other ones I've done a tutorial on because it's a monochromatic gradient. I played around with a few of the brown shades in my favorite eyeshadow palette of all time, the Kat Von D Shade + Light Eye Contour Palette. If you're not super comfortable with smokey eyes, then I suggest you give this easy technique a go.

Very Chatty Makeup Tutorial

I've never been someone to shy away from being honest, although I do tend to be quite a private person. I know I haven't gone into much detail about how I've felt and how I've been doing after my break-up, so I have decided to talk about it a bit more in this video. I also wanted to discuss what I've been doing lately in order to work on bettering myself both physically and mentally. I still have a long way to go before I start feeling more like myself, but I'm quite happy with the progress so far.

Playing With New Makeup | Kat Von D, Becca Cosmetics, Wander Beauty, Wet n Wild

The spring makeup launches are finally here! I swear that time of the year almost feel like Christmas for beauty lovers like myself. Everywhere you go from the drugstore, to Sephora there's displays showcasing the latest trends and beauty innovations. I know I told myself that I didn't "need" any makeup, but screw it- I just want to try out new products! What's the point of makeup if you can't have a little fun with it, right? In this latest "Playing With New Makeup" I'll be trying pore blurring powder, a silicone sponge, and a primer that oddly enough smells like a sugary cereal that I love.

Drugstore Holiday Makeup

Holiday Makeup Week continues with this very dramatic smokey that's perfect for any holiday party or New Year's Eve. If you follow me on Instagram, then this look will probably look pretty familiar to you. A few months ago I drove up to Los Angeles to take a class with L'Oréal and we learned how to recreate this smokey eye that Jennifer Lopez wore to a red carpet event. I know, I know... I'm the last person you would think to recreate J.Lo's makeup look, that's why I had to change a few things this time around. I decided to make this look much more grungy by smudging more eyeshadow in the lower lash line and by changing the lip color completely. The result is a hazy smokey eye with glitters that will look equal parts festive and edgy.

Dollar Store Holiday Makeup

Can you believe that we only have 14 more days till Christmas? It's honestly time to buckle down and try to finish all your holiday shopping. I know, I still have a few people to buy gifts for (*cough* my dad and uncle *cough*). This week you'll be seeing three festive holiday looks for three different budgets, so there's bound to be something for everyone. I'm going to kick off Holiday Makeup Week with a very simple look using $1 makeup and brushes! Believe it or not, it is more than possible to achieve a full face of makeup with just products from your local dollar store. The makeup alone was under $20 which is a complete steal!

Top 5 Eyeshadow Palettes

Despite owning a lot of eyeshadow palettes, for some reason I had never dedicated a video to my favorite palettes in my makeup collection. In this post I'm going to be showing you my all-time favorite eyeshadow palettes for every budget and color preference. There're palettes that are a complete steal and others that will be great everyday investments. I even made sure to include options for people who love neutrals and more colorful options, as well as those who prefer matte to shimmer. And as always, you're going to be getting a lot of information in this post and swatches so you know what to expect.

Dollar Store Makeup Challenge + First Impressions

I don't do too many challenges on my channel, but one that really caught my eye recently was the Dollar Store Makeup Challenge. I've seen some people take the challenge seriously but many people have made a complete joke about the premise of the challenge, as well as the products. Let's me be completely real, I may love high-end products but I know that how privileged I am to be able to spend $24 on lipstick or $40 on foundation without having to worry about meeting ends meet. Heck, just the concept of getting PR packages from companies is a huge privilege that not a lot of people have! There's so many people who are not able to spend money on a trip to Sephora or a trip to drugstore to buy makeup, so that's why I told myself that I needed to go the extra mile when it came to the Dollar Store Makeup Challenge. I made sure to show a variety of products from the Dollar Tree, show how each product applies, and also how they wear throughout the day.

100% Drugstore Holiday Makeup

Here's my second holiday look of the season. For today's look I created a green smokey eye for the holidays using nothing but drugstore makeup. Everything from the brow product to the actual brushes used are incredible affordable, and many can be found at your local drugstore. In my regular tutorials I tend to use a combination of drugstore and high-end makeup, so it felt so nice creating something entirely out of drugstore makeup. This more dramatic makeup is perfect for more glam Christmas dinners, or you can wear it with to your family's dinner if you happen to like smokey eyes. I really loved how this look turned out and I really hope that you do as well.

Minimal Makeup

If you follow me on Snapchat, then you've seen me sport this look a few times recently. As much as I love makeup, sometimes I just want to apply as little makeup as possible to my face. Hey, we all have our lazy days! And I know that there's some of you who don't wear a ton of makeup on a daily basis, so this video is for you. In today's video I'm going to show you my very basic minimal makeup routine and show you some of my go-to products. This is a look that requires less 10 products and about 5 minutes of your day. 

Simple Everyday Makeup

Last week when I uploaded the Ipsy bag video, I got so many comments about how nice my makeup looked. Some of you even requested to see a tutorial on this look and also the look I wore in my recent Instagram selfie, so I decided to combine the two look for this tutorial. I've been wearing a variation of this makeup look this whole month and I think it would be a great look for school, work, or a casual day out. This video will be another chatty makeup tutorial, meaning that you'll get to hear more about the products and brushes used to created this look. It's a beauty tutorial and mini reviews rolled up into one chatty video!

Mixed Up Makeup Challenge

I'm sure you were scared by this image, I know I was. Let me introduce you to this weird challenge video that will guarantee a hot mess look everytime. The Mixed Up Makeup Challenge is quite a popular video in the Spanish speaking community, in fact I was tagged by three people- that's how popular it is. The rules are simple, you will have one cup with little strips of paper with the makeup products that you use on your face. The other cup will hold strips of paper with the parts of your face written on them. All you have to do is get a strip of paper from each cup and then apply said product on whatever part of your face that the other strip says. Sometimes you may get lucky, but most times you'll end up getting something extremely weird like the mascara as a lip liner that I had to unfortunately apply. If you want to see me look like a hot mess, then this video is for you!

Marc Jacobs #Instamarc Light Filtering Contour Powder vs. Wet n Wild Color Icon Contouring Palette

Welcome to the very first Beauty Battle! Facing off in this battle is the very luxurious Marc Jacobs #Instamarc Light Filtering Contour Powder and the affordable Wet n Wild Color Icon Contouring Palette. How will they compare? Will they easily blend out? Will they look natural on my skin? What about the texture? There's a lot of thought that goes into comparing a drugstore product to a high-end one, but you can't deny that they look very similar. In this battle you'll see me apply each product on my face, and at the very end I will be crowning the first winner. Do I have anyone who's willing to place a bet?

Get Ready With Me: Casual Summer Afternoon | Collab with Mika Chan Sailor

It's been a while since my last Get Ready With Me video but they're back! This video is in collaboration with my very creative friend across the Atlantic, Mika Chan Sailor. She is an incredible DIY enthusiast, fellow Lord of the Rings fan, and one of my best YouTube friends. I'm always blown away by her creativity, so when she asked me if I wanted to collaborate I said YES! In this video you'll get to see how I did my makeup, hair, nails, and I'll also show you my very casual outfit. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting it together.

Color Scheme | Plum

My first color scheme blog post went so well that I decided to do another one for you. This time around I'm going to be focusing on the color for fall- plum. When it comes to fall trends, plum is a color that comes back in style time and time again. By now it is a color that is attached to the fall season and with good reason, it is universally flattering. Just like the fruit, the colors that fall under plum range from dark to a very warm purple hue. I will be showing you blush, lip colors, eyeshadows, eyeliner, and a nail polish in this blog post. And just like in the peach blog post there's going to be something for everyone's budget. Let's now take a bite out of fall's juiciest color.

Face of the Day | Plum Lips

You might be wondering "where were you last week?" If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter then you would that my MacBook Pro was acting up a lot. The trackpad began having problems on Monday and I couldn't do anything with my laptop because the cursor just wouldn't select anything. To top things off my card reader wouldn't let me import pictures, so as you can tell I had an very off week with technology. But being disconnected from the blogging and YouTube world worked wonders on me. For once, I was finally able to rest and think about some great ideas for upcoming posts and videos which has been really tough for me recently. I am happy to say that everything is back to normal with my laptop (thank you Apple!) and I got a new card reader which seems to be working great, so now I'm going to show you a face of the day which was meant to go up last week.

Face of the Day | Lykke Li Concert

Last night I went to see Lykke Li right here in San Diego and I decided to dedicate a little post to what I was wearing. Since Lykke Li is a fan of dark eye makeup I decided to ditch my soft makeup and embrace a smoky eye. I've been such a huge fan of Lykke Li since 2008 when her debut album Youth Novels was released. That was one of those life changing albums that I will always hold close to my heart. You might not know this but I used to run a Lykke Li tumblr fan page a few years ago so I'm not kidding when I say that I'm a huge fan. I'm hoping to recreate a Lykke Li makeup look very soon as a tutorial, but for now here's what I wore for the concert!

Top 5 Blushes for Fall

It may not feel like fall whatsoever but I'm mentally preparing myself to rock some fall trends. Trying out the fall fashion trends is completely out of the picture due to the heat, but I will be pulling out my dark lipstick and plum eyeshadows very soon. Today I want to share with you my favorite blushes for the fall season. You'll definitely notice a trend when you see the swatches but I just really love rose blushes for the fall! Rose is a very easy color to wear and it's pairs well with dark makeup. If you're interested in hearing about my blush picks then watch the video embedded to the first top 5 post of the fall.

Face of the Day | Off To Work

The past few days have been extremely hot here in San Diego. It's been in the mid 90s (~35ºC), a bit humid, and overall very unpleasant. Because of that I've been making an effort to keep my makeup as light as possible just like I did today. Even though the makeup doesn't look any different from what I normally wear, I did use some new products in today's look because I'm in the middle of testing out a few items. So without further ado let's jump right into this latest "face of the day post."

Top 5 Drugstore Eyeshadow Palettes

I'm back! Well... sort of. I had originally planned for this video to go up on the first day of Outside Lands but I didn't get the time to edit it at the airport and the wifi at the hotel wasn't fast enough to upload a YouTube video. Then when I got back home I got a cold so I decided to take last week off to recover, but now I am back with a new top 5! Drugstore eyeshadow palettes have come a long way, I still remember when the shadows were powdery and very hard to work with. Nowadays drugstore eyeshadow palettes are soft, pigmented, and still very affordable. These are my favorite drugstore eyeshadow palettes that can easily be found at the drugstore. 

The Big Summer Beauty Haul

Guess who's been shopping? This girl right here! My biggest problem with having a job is knowing that I have money to go shopping with. It happens every time I have a job but I felt like getting one last beauty haul up before I go on my makeup ban. Yes, that's going to happen real soon. In this haul you'll get a good mix of drugstore and high end products, and even some very interesting stuff from Mexico.