31/08/2012

Small Haul - 31/08/12

Today is just a small haul, been a bit low on money so yea  just got a few things :P

If you follow me on twitter you would know that I've been on nursing placement for the past two weeks. The shifts were 7am - 2pm and 1pm - 9pm, they were very long hours. My mum got up at 5.30 with me every time I needed to get to work at 7am, she always had enough food for me and always made sure I had enough money, and was warm enough and was safe when she picked me up at night. So to show my gratitude I bought her some flowers which were about $7, some Forrero Rocher's and a card :)


So for myself I got black shorts from Valleygirl ($10 AUD). They're the same style as the dark blue shorts I bought the other week :)


A black singlet from Valleygirl with detail on the front ($10 AUD)

I got a fluro pink nail polish because I think it will look flawless in the summer! From The Face Shop for $4. Colour is PK109. 


And last but not least Born Lippy lip balm pot from The Body Shop. This is the best lipbalm I have ever had, and I  have tried a fair few brands. This one is also made from beeswax so it's alot better for you than normal lipbalm. It goes on your lips very easily and spreads very easily. Because I have been on placement I have been so tired that I have forgotten to moisturize my lips but after using this just once, my lips feel so much better. Another plus is that it looks like a lip stain + balm when its on. It has a slight colour tinge to it that lightly tints your lips, but not as much as an actual lip tint. I am really happy with this balm!
$8.00 AUD


- Beth :)



27/08/2012

Serah Farron Cosplay Tutorial (Manifest 2012)

For Manifest this year I cosplayed as Serah Farron from Final Fantasy XIII


See the rest of my photos here!



When I was searching for a blog post or Youtube video to help me create the costume, I couldn't find a complete video/post on how to do it. I found bits and pieces but I had to search for each thing separately, so what I hope to do is help anyone who wants to cosplay as Serah with a complete guide, or even just give some inspiration :)




Picture from the day:

The first thing I did was print out a full picture of Serah and the inspiration for each part of her costume and create a plan to follow when deciding how to create each part of the costume.




Wig


I bought my wig from ebay, it didn't take too long to be shipped to me and was a reasonable price ($29 AUD). The colour is pink and looks pale pink in sunlight but because it has orangey-pink highlights in it, it can look orangey inside with a flash.
Bought from here~
I changed the hair tie from a white one to a black one and tied on some beads with cotton. The only problem with this wig is I had to trim the fringe and back, but apart from that it was great.

Contacts



I bought my contacts online from Shoppingnspree, they arrived pretty quickly and are at a really good price ($6.50 USD per contact) and only cost about $2.50 to ship to Australia.
The ones I bought were CM904 Magic 3 Tone Blue, link here~

This was the first time I had ever bought and worn contacts so if you're like me please read this:
I didn't look after my contacts properly and on the day they burned my eyes so badly, they kept making my eyes water like crazy and they hurt so bad I couldn't wear them for the rest of the day. (I had them on for 2 hrs max). It felt like my costume was ruined.. but IN NO WAY DO I BLAME THE SITE!
 I was stupid and I didn't change the solution every day and I'm nearly 100% sure I went past the expiry date  of the contact solution. So if you haven't used contacts before learn from my mistakes, because unfortunately I had to learn the hard way.



Contact case I used; link here~ ($1.75AUD)



Make-Up



For make-up I followed Michelle Phan's 'Serah Final Fantasy XIII-2 Makeup Inspired Tutorial' 
I didn't follow it 100% I used it more of a close guide and tweaked it in a way that suited me, so I'll go through how I achieved Serah's look inspired by Michelle Phan.

Face
1. Put contacts in
2. BB cream (I used Garnier)
3. Concealer (I used Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse)
4. Powder to set (I used Nude By Nature mix of medium and light)
5. Use BB cream, concealer and powder to lighten your eyebrows

Eyebrows
6. Use a pink blush on your eyebrows to make them the same colour as the wig (I used Australias)

Eyeshadow
7. Use a primer on your eyelids (I used Australias)
8. Chic by Chelle pallette (CBCP): shimmery peach all over lids
9. CBCP: taupe above lids/in crease and bring out to sides, also line lower lash line
10. Use a vanilla colour to highlight inner corners and brow bone


Eyeliner
11. Use a black liquid or gel liner ( I used lancome Artliner) to line thin inner to thick outer with a slight wing
12. Use a black pencil or crayon eyeliner to line the other 3rd of your lower lash line (I used a Maybelline 
one)

Eyelashes
13. Curl lashes and apply mascara (I used Lancome Hypnose Dolly Eyes)
14. Apply fake eyelashes - I only applied top lashes, but apply bottom ones if you want to (I used The Face Shop #09 on the day, (picture below) but in these photos I used a thick criss-cross eyelash like this 
15. Fix your eyeliner and put mascara on lower lashes



Highlight and Contour
16. Use a silver eyeliner in the inner corners of the eye ( I used and Essence one)
17. Contour sides of nose and cheeks if you want to
18. Apply a pink blush to your cheeks
19. Highlight cheekbones, nose bridge and cupids bow with a shimmery white eyeshadow

Lips
20. Apply a pink lipstick to your lips (I used Rimmel no.12 'Guest List')
21. Apply a lipgloss (I used Rimmel Royal Gloss in 121 'Yummy')


Jewelry 

Earrings: Bought from here, these ones are out of stock now but if you search sliver cat earrings on Ebay or  Amazon, you can easily find a cheap pair. The reason I got earrings different to Serah's is because replicas are so expensive and I'm only going to wear them once. But if you search Serah Farron earrings on ebay or Etsy, you can find some. And the reason they look different to the ones in the link is because they broke before posting so the seller sent me this pair as well.



Necklace: I actually made this one and it wasn't that difficult, I'm not a good jewelry maker at all so this is actually all secured with cotton and it wasn't expensive. For the swirly bit I used an earring. If you want to buy a replica, Etsy has some nice ones.


Bracelet: I also made this one myself, and it was also inexpensive. I would explain how to do it, but I don't remember.. what I do remember is that there was alot of knots tied and the beads were tied on with cotton, which is a bad idea btw as my red bead fell off. Tip: if your beads arent the right colour, paint them with nail polish!


Armband: I cut 4 x 60cm pieces of cotton ribbon/string, tied them together at the top and braided a 4-strand braid, then tied it at the end, I then cut off 3 pieces at each end leaving one at each end to tie around my atm. Remember you might need a longer or shorter piece depending on how big your arms are. If you don't know how to 4-strand braid, click here.


Top


For the white shirt I bought a white work shirt, cut the sleeves off, changed the area where the buttons are to diagonal, changed the buttons to black buttons and added the see-through material to the bottom front part. I advise to not hem the edges unless you are pro at sewing, because it's folding from bigger to smaller so there is excess material and it looks messy (same with the diagonal area). Use a zig zag stitch over the raw edge instead. If you think you need to, buy the top in a size bigger than usual for extra material to work with, and if you end up not needing it, you can just take it in like I did. I got the top from a random cheap shop in the city.

For the pink cardigan/vest, I bought 1x1 M of pink sheer material from Spotlight in the dance section. I think it cost $8 per M. I used a cardigan of mine for a guide to get the right size pieces but adding on room for hemming.I hemmed the front side but on the back side I just zig zag stitched the edges and it was fine. It was very difficult to make without a pattern, but I got it done!

Skirt


The skirt I made by myself too. I used Secret Life of a Bio Nerd's video click here to make it as I could not find a red tartan skirt anywhere! After I followed her tutorial, I added the lace to the inside of the skirt. To add the gold detailing, I drew and cut out a piece of gold silk and zig zag stitched around the edges a few times so it wouldn't fray. Then I sewed that on the skirt with another zig zag stitch and hand-sewed on the gold buttons.

Shoes
I bought these shoes from Rivers click here when they were on sale for $22. All I modified was the laces, which I changed to black.


To see my Manifest haul click here~
I really hope I helped you!
If you have any questions or need some help or further explanations, comment below :)

- Beth :)





18/08/2012

Manifest 2012: What I Bought

This is the stuff I got at Manifest!


$54 all up :)


The ticket for Saturday was $40 but for a Friday, Saturday and Sunday ticket it was $60, but seems i have no time or money I just went Saturday


So firstly the most obvious thing in the picture: the monster/bear/cheetah/leopard/clawed slippers! These were $25 and they also came in a white pair (reminded me of polar bears) and a brown cheetah/leopard print and then the character slippers were $30.
They're a little bit big for me unfortunately and slip off my feet, but if I wear bed socks with them, they're fine! 


The mushroom and Yoshi were $7 or 2 for $10, they're a present for my friend :)


The top hat was $6

I got 4 pairs of fake lashes for $10. I bought 2 pairs of dramatic lashes:


and 2 pairs of natural looking lashes:



From the same shop as the hat and lashes I also got these lace lolita gloves, they were only $3 and were so pretty I couldn't resist!

To see my Serah Farron costume tutorial click here!

- Beth :)

05/08/2012

I met Michelle Phan! and bought her Glamour Eyes Set~

On Saturday (4/08/12) I went to the Michelle Phan Masterclass in Melbourne City Myer.


 It wasn't really a class, there was another lady on the stage with Michelle asking her questions and she gave us a few tips and tricks (which most of us knew from her videos) but it was still pretty good.


When she was on stage there was three models and make-up artists behind her doing different looks on the models. She's so nice in person!
After she was on stage, she went into another room while half the people there went to line up to see her, and the other half tried and bought make-up.

I got to meet her and have my photo taken with her!


She had massive platforms on and I only had little heels on, she's short like me :D haha

I bought her Glamour Eyes set!


It comes with 'Chic by Chelle' pallete, full size Artliner and a mini Doll Eyes mascara


The palette colours are really pretty and all glittery/shimmery and I like them because they're very unlimited in what looks you can do with them, only thing is because they're glittery not all of them have the best colour pay off

The Doll Eyes mascara is amazing, it's a shame it's only mini and the Artliner is VERY easy to use and isn't clumpy or sticky, the closest thing I can compare it to would be a felt-tip pen, it's a really nice liner if you're willing to spend the money


At the end of the night when we left we got goodie bags! :D
The goodie bag included a mini Hypnose mascara, anti-stress moisturising cream, youth activating eye cream, scalp and hair masque, mini black khol eyeliner and eye make-up remover.


Overall it was a great night and well worth the money if you're willing to spend it on make-up!

- Beth :)















Valleygirl, Equip, The Face Shop and Kmart Haul

On Friday I went shopping ~ :)



From Valleygirl I got the dress for $10 (was $25), the skirt for $5, the black top for $7 (was $20) and the pink top for $7 (was $20)


Equip had all their winter accessories (hats, gloves etc.) on sale for $5 each! so cheap! so I got a pair of gloves that were $17, the black hat with ears that was $20 and the white hat was $25. I wanted to get these gloves and the black hat for agesss, so I'm glad i put it off xD




From Kmart I got the little sticky note pad for $2 and the panda notebook for $4 



From The Face Shop I got two pairs of fake eyelashes, $4.90 each #09 and XHM



And lastly, three nail polishes! Rimmel 840 - BLue Eyed Girl, BYS purple and blue glitter and Borghese B350 Plumaggio Purple

-Beth :)