Hair Cuts, Makeup Looks, and More!

Wow, it's been awhile! Unfortunately grad school has left less time for posting but the need to look professional while still being myself has created more time for actual style. I haven't been taking many pictures except of make up looks I do have a makeup haul to review from Ulta, including the Naked 3 Palette AND orders from both Shiro and Fyrinnae Cosmetics coming in, so I will be doing reviews on that.

I'm still exploring makeup so I might or might not make a video (I don't know how much of my blunders I want to make public, lol) and I'm still figuring out how to work with my face without resorting to copious amounts of contouring (more on my beef against contouring later). I will also be continuing my Year in Retrospect series. So that's what's coming up for the rest of the year! Here are a few looks I've been rocking:

You may have noticed that my hair is gone! I needed a change BADLY so I decided to do another big chop and start all over
I will be growing my hair out until it's a reasonably sized fro (by which I mean "an obnoxiously and unreasonably large fro") And then i'll lock it again. I also plan on experimenting with color, more on that later.

Here I am rocking the Naked 3 palette for the first time as well as some other items from Ulta. I've really been loving shopping at Ulta as they are less expensive than Sephora. They are always having a sale and I use a lot of the Ulta brand cosmetics.
My only complaint is that their face line has a severely limited color range, but fortunately I've found liquid foundation that works for me. IsaDora Sheer to Cover Foundation in Hot Chocolate 65 and Espresso 66 (depending on the season) have worked really well for me and even though they are discontinued I've been able to find them online less than $6 including shipping.

These last three pictures show the process of perfecting the black lip, which I've fallen in love with (again) this season. This spring/summer, I was doing a more matte lip just using lip balm and chunky black eyeliner because I don't like the sheer and shiny look that a lot of cheap black lipsticks have. This Fall I decided to use the same process as a perfect red lip and let me tell you it paid off! Exfoliate, moisturize, line and fill with black eyeliner, put on black lipstick and blot. Repeat the lipstick blotting process until you've gotten the texture and depth you want then seal with black eye shadow. I don'r know if using eyeliner and eye shadow is lip-safe but I haven't found a black lip liner yet so... *shrug* use at your own risk. I like that the end result looks moisturized but opaque and not overly shiny.