Let's talk about Little Black Bag... and my mission trip!

Well, I will start by saying that my recent mission trip to Nicaragua was an amazing, scary, sad, happy, painful (physically and mentally,) AWESOME experience. My husband and I went to work on the children of a small town called San Marcos, and fixed some teeth. We had to unfortunately extract quite a few teeth from these poor children, but it was all for the best. In the end, the children were really grateful, and even gave me a gift!

 

A group of the older girls came over to me on our last day there to give me these totally cute earrings. I wear them quite a bit!

Here are some more images from the trip with me and the kids: (WARNING. You're going to see me bare faced! EEK!)

Being a brat.

Managua, Nicaragua

It's rainy season in Nicaragua, and boy did it rain! We were SOAKED here!

Beautiful church we passed on our way to La Granada

My husband and a patient

This was one of my husband's biggest challenge. He was very successful! :)

This sweetheart's name is Angelica. She followed me around the whole time we were there :) I really miss her!

Presents for our awesome patients!

  

I was distracting her while her mom got work done! :)



Touring Lake Nicaragua



FREAKIN MONKEYS! YAY!



The Colegio Bautista group. AMAZING people. 5 of them are 1st year dental students, including my husband!

Anyway, on to other things. While on my most favorite Style and Beauty forum yesterday, the topic of littleblackbag.com came up.

I am totally addicted. Here's what you do:

Pick out your favorite item. Pay $49.99 for it (I paid $49.99 for a $80 bag.)

Then, the "stylist" picks out 2 more items for you, totally up to $150, for $49.99 out of pocket.

Awesome, right? WAIT... there's more!

You can trade with other members for better liked items! Your bag stays "open" for 7 days,

and it that time, you make offers to trade, or accept current offers, until you are completely satisfied with what you've got.

I started with 4 items (I had a code to get an additional item.)

This bag:

Nila Anthony, $80

plus a nail polish, a colorful bangle, and a kabuki brush. Total retail value was $109.

I got rid of the polish, brush and bangle for the following items:

All The Rage Wire Earrings, $12

and

RJ Graziano, $45

So far, if this is what I end up with, I will be happy. I went from a retail value of $109, to $137, for $49.99! YAY!

I plan on keeping this subscription for a few months, since I have a lot of birthdays coming up! Can't wait to see how this ends up! I have 6 more days left to try and trade anything, and I really only want to trade my necklace for a matching clutch to my new purse.

Check it out! And use my code while doing so, would ya?

LBB REFERRAL LINK

Thanks, you're a doll.

Daddy's Eyes video (Makeup by ME :) )

Hey guys!

So a few weeks ago I got the privilage to work on a music video cover for The Killers song, titled Daddy's Eyes. Well, here it is! Enjoy!



Directed/Written/Produced: Carlos A. Hurtado

Producer & Sound Designer: Charles Sedghi

Lead Actress: Mary-Kate Fitzpatrick

Lead Actor: Ky Mahone

Supporting Actor: Ruben Chavez

Makeup for Mary-Kate Fitzpatrick, Ky Mahone and Ruben Chavez by Me

Shout out to Beauty & Charm Artistry, & Owner Clarissa Martinez.

Additional credits at the end of the video ;)

Highlight of this shoot was making my pretty subject a dead girl. That was really fun!

Cover up that battle wound! (Bruise/Black eye/hickey... whatever. I won't judge.

On the Style and Beauty forum I frequent, a question came up about how to cover up a fat lip due to a fall. I found this to be the perfect opportunity to create a simple tutorial on how to cover bruises, and even tattoos. Okay, hickeys, too. But, come on... don't get hickeys, K?

So, here we go.

I stained my hand to a bright red. Obviously your battle wound won't be as red as this (at least I hope not,) and if it isn't well, that's a good thing :)

"Wound" brought to you by Maybelline Color Sensational lipstain in Cranberry Crush. Super long lasting stuff, here.

Now, I used this:

Color Tattoo in Tough as Taupe (Maybelline)

to neutralize the "wound". Taupe colors have always been my personal go-to color for tattoo/black eye/bruise cover ups. Green corrective concealer will also help, but this works as well. Taupe eyeliners are a cheap alternative. Although, these are pretty cheap as well, and long lasting.

Here is the "wound", with the Tough as Taupe dabbed on, focused on the center of the wound. Not blended yet.

Here, I've blended it from the inside out.

Foundation used: MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC 25

Add the foundation, again focusing on the center, and blending outward. Dabbing every step of the way, BTW. Fingers in all of this works just fine (I used no brushes at all)

Dabbing the foundation all the way around...

Here it is blended.

Now I've set it with powder. It's not covered as much as I'd like it to be, yet.

Powder used: Bare Minerals foundation in Golden Medium

So I added a tiny bit more taupe, then foundation, then powder, until I got the right coverage.

Repeated the process 2 additional times for desired cover-up

That's it! Like I said, it's a lot of work, but it's the only way to get a decent coverage. Foundation won't do it alone.

Oh, and just so you're convinced that the red stayed on the whole time:

That stain is strongggg, it wasn't going anywhere.

So, there you have it. Hopefully, if you're in a bind, and need to do some kind of cover up, you'll have the 3 cosmetic items required for a quick cover up. Practice makes perfect, so I'd try it hours before you need it done, just to make sure you got the steps down.

Remember, this also works for tattoo cover ups.