Recent Mani's

Hey guys! I'm here with a little update for you all. I wanted to post my recent mani's since I haven't been showing my blog much love. My main reason for this blog was to focus mostly on tutorials, and I haven't made any lately so that's why I've been M.I.A.

Onto the mani's!!

Here is a golden leopard print mani. If you'd like to see how I create leopard prints, click here. The base color is Orly- Kiss the Bride, the gold is O.P.I.- Glitzerland and the black is O.P.I.- Black Onyx. I used a dotting tool for the dots.

The top and bottom picture are of the same mani which is an ombre one. If you'd like to see how I create my ombre mani's click here. Obviously the bottom picture is a little different. All I did was I added a topcoat&color water marble over top. The top coat allows the ombre to show through, giving it a cool effect. The colors used for the ombre are China Glaze- Purple Panic, China Glaze- Rich & Famous, Pure Ice- Love, and Orly- Kiss the Bride. For my watermarble I used N.Y.C.- Matte Me Crazy and Orly- Kiss the Bride.

Here is my most recent mani that I'm still wearing. It's just a basic mani, nothing too fancy. I have on Sinful Colors- Mint Apple as my base and a couple coats of Revlon- Whimsical overtop. I've also mattified this manicure since the picture was taken and I love it 10x more. I don't know what it is with me and matte polish lately but it's getting out of hand :)

I hope you guys liked this little catch up. If you'd like to be caught up faster, follow my Instagram at aubreyhannah. I post much more frequently on my IG than I do here. Also, I have a really fun manicure planned out for this weekend, I'm hoping that it goes as planned *fingers crossed*

Happy Friday!!

Aubrey

Favorite Nude Lip Products

Let me start off by saying that it's taken me FOREVER to start this blog today! Why? Shark week of course! haha. Talk about addicting television. Anyway....

I decided to show you guys what my favorite nude lip products are. I have some high-end favorites and some low-end favorites. I'll post a link below the pictures in case any of you are interested in buying these products or just want to scope them out.

Here are the products as a whole, (with a fancy filter). If you'd like to know more about each specific product in detail, keep reading!

I'm going to start off with my all-time favorite lipstick. This is MAC- Creme D'Nude. It's a cremesheen finish, so it's a little on the sheer side. This allows you to wear it throughout the day without it looking like you have a heavy night time lipstick on.

Here is a swatch of CD'N. As you can see it has enough pigmentation to nude out your lips, but is very sheer at the same time. You can check out this lipstick here - MAC Cosmetics- Creme D'Nude.

This is Revlon- Soft Nude (070) and it's my second favorite nude shade. It's very similar to CD'N but has a bit of a thicker formula. Besides the fact that the lipstick is nice, the packaging is so cute. As you can see it has a quilted pattern.

Here is a swatch of SN and you can see the comparison between it and CD'N. Very similar. Both have more of a brown/peachy undertone. You can check out this lipstick here - Revlon - Soft Nude (070).

This lipstick is MAC- Viva Glam Gaga 2. It has an amplified finish, a.k.a. this lipstick is so pigmented that you have to be careful using it. If you swipe this lipstick on like any other lipstick, you could very possibly look sickly. I apply it by dabbing it onto my lips (not swiping) and gradually getting the color I desire.

Here is a swatch of VGG2. You can see that the color is much deeper than the first two swatches. They all have brown/peachy undertones. Unfortunately, this specific Viva Glam lipstick isn't sold at MAC anymore. They are no longer selling the Gaga version. They have the new Viva Glams for sale, which is Nicki Minaj/Ricky Martin's version. If this is a shade that you are extremely interested in, I'm sure you can find the shade on eBay.

I will still post a link to MAC's Viva Glam lip products because each product sold helps a great cause. "Every cent of the selling price of VIVA GLAM Lipstick and Lipglass is donated to the M·A·C AIDS Fund to support men, women, and children living with HIV and AIDS."

Here is the link to check it out - MAC Cosmetics- Viva Glam.

This is my least-favorite nude (but it's still a favorite!) It's E.L.F.- Nicely Nude. It's my least favorite for 2 reasons. When I bought this shade offline, it was described as a lighter color than what I received, so right off the bat I was disappointed. It's also my least favorite because I tend to want to wear more of a peachy/brown nude and this definitely has pink undertones.

You can see here how much more pink NN is compared to the other swatches. You can check out this lipstick here - E.L.F. Cosmetics - Nicely Nude.

Onto the lip glosses! This is NARS- Sweet Dreams and it's my absolute favorite. My brother got this for me for my birthday. (he went into Sephora and bought me a $24 lip gloss, if that's not love I don't know what is.) As you can see it has a doe foot applicator which I love.

Here is a swatch of SD. It's perfectly pigmented with a pink undertone and fine gold shimmer. You can check out this lip gloss here - NARS Lip Gloss- Sweet Dreams.

This is Beauty Rush - Slice of Heaven by Victoria's Secret. This gloss is on she sheer side but has beautiful pink/gold shimmers.

This is my go-to nude gloss if I don't want such a pigmented shimmer. You can see how much more sheer it is compared to SD. You can check out this lip gloss here - Beauty Rush - Slice of Heaven.

Last, but certainly not least, my lip underwear a.k.a. lip liner. This is Maybelline - Toast (25). A lot of people are nervous of lip liner because they don't want that ridiculous Pamela Anderson look. What a lot of people don't know is how beneficial lip liner is with your lip stick. Lip liner will give your lips a crisper line, along with longer wear of your lipstick.

Here is a swatch of Toast (T) and it looks a little harsh but I pressed down pretty hard to make sure that the color would show. Not only do I use this underneath my nude lipsticks but sometimes I wear it on its own. It has a beautiful color and its mattifying. So if you're looking for a matte colored lipstick and you can't find one, try looking for your color in a lip liner. It'll last long and it'll look great. You can check out this lip liner here - Maybelline Lip Liner- Toast 25.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post! I know it was long but I really wanted to go into detail for you guys. I hope that the swatches/info was beneficial. As always, feel free to leave any comments/questions below.

Aubrey

Pink Glitter Gradient

Lately I've been getting asked a lot on Instagram if I could create a glitter gradient tutorial. I haven't made one yet because it's really so simple. But if you guys want one, then there's no reason why I can't snap a few pictures along the way.

This is my glitter gradient manicure today. If you'd like to see how I achieved this look then continue reading!

Step 1: Grab a base color and some glitters! The look I did has a nude base color, this is something that can be switched up. The nude base allows the glitter to show up a little better, but if you want to use a bright purple base or a dark colored base, you totally can. From left to right: OPI- Sweet Heart, Orly- Tiara and Revlon- Sparkling.

Step 2: Paint on however many coats of your base color that it takes to get a nice finish. This is 2 coats of OPI- Sweet Heart.

Step 3: Out of all of the glitters that you would like to use, apply the finest glitter first. This is all about a gradual gradient look. If you apply your chunky glitter first, it may not look as gradient as you would like. This is Orly- Tiara. What I did was as I removed the brush from the bottle of glitter, I swiped off most of the polish. You only want a tiny bit of glitter on your brush. Be sure to leave the bottom 4th of your nail glitter free. This will also help with the gradient effect.

Step 4: You can continue to build up your finer glitter if you prefer, but this is where I start to bring in my chunkier glitter. This is Revlon- Sparkling. Again, make sure that your brush isn't loaded with glitter. You can always go back and add more. This is where you want to place most of your second coat of glitter. Once your brush has hardly any glitter on it, you can go ahead and blend a bit.

Step 5: This is another coat of Revlon- Sparkling. I also did some glitter placement with the bigger chunks. You want to focus this coat mostly on the very tip of your nail. When there is hardly any polish left on your brush, again blend it into the rest.

Step 6: Apply a fast drying top coat to protect your polish and you're finished!


I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial! I love this manicure so much. Glitter + pink is always a great thing in my book :) If you have any questions, feel free to ask them below.


Happy polishing!
Aubrey