Tag: BBA Musings

Cubicle Makeup.

On By Blossom Beautiful AestheticsIn BBA MusingsLeave a comment

Or the frustration of wearing eyeshadows with them not being noticed. 

At one point or another, you’ve heard about it or noticed that every brand’s got that one palette with safe colors. 
Cubicle makeup. Sometimes called “professional setting makeup, “office makeup,” “work-safe,” or something along that line. There’s always a new term used to describe the same thing. And Shapeskeare is an underrated genius. 

They are mainly neutral – shades of brown and black, matte or shimmer but never bold or daring like a rainbow. Unless the workplace is that chillax, the most you can pull off is either smoky or no-makeup. 

It can be frustrating. Even more so if you like wearing eyeshadows and you wanna showcase your handiwork because:

A. You work in a cubicle. Your computer is your main audience. 

B. The eyeshadow blends right into your skin. Which is usually the case for me. 

C. You wanna be colorful but you can’t. Unless you don’t mind washing your whole face and going the whole nine yards of making your face. Again.

My workplace puts me in a cubicle corner. That’s it. I have to spin my chair around to interact with my coworkers and when I do step outside to walk off the hours that I have to spend sitting down, I wear my sunglasses. Which hide my handiwork. 

I don’t know if that’s for better or worse. Considering my handiwork from Day 3 with the Vice 4, it’s probably better that way. But shit, it would be nice to wear makeup that doesn’t fade into my skin color. 

Advertisements

Arm Swatches: Good for Pigmentation.

On By Blossom Beautiful AestheticsIn BBA Musings, Beauty Advice for ThoughtLeave a comment

That’s it.

That’s all they’re good for. They’re not an accurate representation of what the product is going to look like on its designated body part. So when people do those arm swatches of lip products? Yeah, they look nice and swanky, but you won’t really know if they’ll end up in every crack or crevice of your lips when you wear that baby for the first time.

I learned this lesson when I took a chance on the new e.l.f. High Shine Liquid Lipstick in Naked Nude. That shit went straight into the cracks in my lips and stayed there. The fact that the shade is actually lighter on my skin than in the container does not help.

Or you won’t know if it’ll highlight the craters or bumps on your face if it’s a highlighter. And no, this isn’t negativity: this is being realistic. Just look at how many guys can’t tell a woman is wearing makeup and cite women who have a “natural” appearance, but are really rolling with the “no makeup makeup” look.

I can’t tell you how many swatches I’ve done on my arm with product testers, thinking they’re gonna be hot shit when I wear them. Only to find out that they weren’t so hot when I wore them as they were supposed to.

I’m looking at you, swatches-in-true-color-on-my-arm-but-not-on-my-lips red lipsticl.

Happy Birthday… to me.

On By Blossom Beautiful AestheticsIn BBA Musings, Frank on Depression5 Comments

I sang those words once, in front of my cheating ex and in tears. The clock had just gone past midnight.

I can still remember that night a year ago. I fully believed that my life was over. Yet, here I am. Still able to wish myself a happy birthday, my first one without him. 

All I got going for me since then is a planned beauty birthday haul. And that’s pretty much how the rest of my birthdays will be – just doing a yearly makeup haul in my moments alone, when I’m not in the company of others. 

Whether I’ll still cry like I did last time is up in the air. 

I’m Over Matte Lips. 

On By Blossom Beautiful AestheticsIn BBA MusingsLeave a comment

Yep. I’m over it. I tried it because it was a trend that seemed interesting, but I couldn’t deal with the dry lips that came with it. Lip balm is a temporary fix but it also makes the stuff bleed faster, even with a lip liner.

But I’m not over the moon with the glossy lip look (I’m looking at you, Revlon Ultra Lip Lacquer!) either. Isn’t that the point of lip gloss? Shiny lips without the full lipstick coverage?

I’ll still wear my matte liquid lipsticks – paid a pretty penny for them after all. And I like the colors. I just wish they were a little more forgiving when the time to retouch them comes up. 

Peeps can still rock the matte lip. I’m cool with it. But it’s just something that I need to get off my chest.

It is September Already. Holy Shit.

On By Blossom Beautiful AestheticsIn BBA MusingsLeave a comment

August flew by real quick. But then again, when you have a cubicle job, every day feels like it drags. It’s the birth month already and I haven’t even met my lifetime goal of stepping up my game and start blogging away endlessly like almost every beauty blogger/vlogger out there like I’m supposed to. I honestly don’t know how you folks do it and I’m pretty sure you have busier schedules than me.

You would think that I would have had an end-of-the-month entry. Or my weekly Currently Obsessed (which I shifted over to YouTube because I feel more animated vlogging about products that I really like). But nope. The last day of August came and went and holy shit, September came in and steamrolled me over with a trip down to the South by bus and spotty internet connection at my cousin’s.

So what does September look like for BBA? Good question. During some brief moments of pondering that I got (in-between the chaos of a silver wedding anniversary celebration), I realized that half of my makeup stash has already been reviewed to the moon and back. I don’t really see any point in  review blogging/vlogging them anymore because who the hell wants another frickin’ opinion on something that has been raved and/or revolted many times over?

Even worse is the fact that half of that half is limited edition. So I can rave about it to the ends of the Earth but you’d never be able to buy it the same way I did. Or if you do find the product, you’re either going to run in to a fake one or a legit one that’s been overpriced.

I think the hardest thing about beauty blogging is figuring out what you want it to be in the end. Do you make a mad-dash to the end of the Yellow Brick Road and into Emerald City, or do you take the time to stop and smell the roses?