Mineral Foundation Transformer

Happy Ano Nuevo y'all!

I hope that the new year ushers in new goals and challenges and memorable moments for you all. My new year was spent quietly with my family. While the baby slept me and the hubby and my daughter who woke up to the sound of fireworks, had glasses of sparkling cider.  It was quiet and wonderful as she watched the vivid colors of the fireworks illuminate the night. 

Today I'm reviewing, a God send of a liquid that I purchased on Etsy via AceNaturals that makes any powder mineral foundation into a liquid foundation.  I recently have noticed that even with exfoliating the apples of my cheeks were getting dry patches and it was very revealing when i used my powder mineral foundation.  Even though i do moisturize with Argan oil and prime using mark. Primed for Perfection, my cheeks were still drying out. This was quite disturbing that despite all my efforts my skin still was not receiving enough moisture.  So the search for a liquid mineral foundation began...much to my dismay.  I abhor looking for foundation. It's a lot of testing and disappointment and frustration..not to mention a lot of monetary investment , even if it is samples. One and two dollars here and there really adds up. 

However, I pressed on, looking at sellers on Etsy who made liquid foundation, established indie companies that had their own line of LMF (liquid Mineral Foundation) and much to my dismay were the ingredients. I love PMF (Powder Mineral Foundation) because of the lack of ingredients. I in my current foundation there are 5 ingredients, all safe and lovely. In the light formulation of it there are 6 but again all stuff i trust and know won't harm my skin.  when liquid is added to PMF the issue of preservation becomes strongly apparent. Keeping the soft creamy feel of the foundation also is another issue and blending and not settling in fine lines etc..all the hassles of traditional liquid makeup comes back (of which i heartily tossed when making the switch to MMU year ago).

Ingredient lists get longer and more complex. Not the route I wanted to go. So i looked to see if there was a mist or a liquid by itself i could add to my PMF that would help.  Lots of sites suggest a mist of filtered water to set the makeup, but i hate misting my face.  Not a feeling i want everyday, plus it would ruin my hair in the process. Curly hair gals have enough to deal with. There were a couple of mixing mediums but the paraben preservatives immediately disqualified them.

Enter AceNaturals. Founder and owner of Organic Mobile Tanning, Erik Ace in Miami Florida, is an esthetician student and  handmakes all his products.  He has this liquid that is a mixture of oils which, when combined with PMF, creates a creamy luscious liquid foundation. The bottle of oils sells for $5.99. So, a small investment and oils, which work with my skin such as avocado, carrot and chamomile seed oils- all of which are great for the skin no matter your condition- how could i be dissapointed?

When it arrived in the mail I was so excited! Here is this small bottle of liquid gold that will help my face. The bottle was shrink wrapped and  came with a paper of detailed instructions and a small .15cc measuring scoop for my PMF.  The mixture of oils is silky smooth. When you follow the directions and incorporate with the PMF the result is a creamy, luxe combination of MMU. I didn't think this small scoop of PMF would cover my face but it does! The LMF glides on and sets to a powder finish that is light and barely detectable. My face felt soft, moisturized and lines were not visible. Remember, I do moisturize and prime before.  I also put on a very light dusting of finishing powder. Still had my glow from my foundation and the bennies of a liquid..yay! Great day in the Nation!

Test run was a girls nite with a friend and it was a great test run. My makeup didn't itch, my friend said I had good coverage and it looked great. Wasn't shiny and i didn't feel like i had a layer of stuff on my face!

So this Powder to Liquid Transformer (yes my name for it) gets 5 stars from me!
Check out AceNaturals on Etsy!

Nutella..an addiction and now a new jewelry project!

Welcome to 2011! I hope everyone's New Year was blissful and surrounded by family and friends. At home, ours was quiet and my daughter fell asleep 15 min before midnight. The infant stayed up though. My hubby and I kissed in the new year with sparkling grape juice (i'm nursing so bubbly will have to wait another year or so). New Year's is always special for the hubby and I because it's the anniversary of our first date. So it's always a romantic and special night for us when we kiss in the new year.

If you haven't had Nutella, a rich chocolaty hazelnut spread of uber goodness, then you are missing out on one of the best tastes of the world! I cannot tell you how wonderful this stuff is! It has caused a sensation in our house and has litterally spread throughout the rest of my family as a wonderful treat turned addiction. My husband equates it to that of a drug addiction and claims I'm his Nutella dealer. Whatever my darling you need  to say in order to come clean about being a Nutella-holic. That being said, my sister in-law is a nutella nut as well. In fact she's worse than i am she has the little 1/2 oz. packages in her purse! OMG and i thought my hubby was bad. Well to that end the addicition has provided me with a way to make her Bling that will go along with her love for the wonderful hazelnut spread that is Nutella.

I have found a wonderful seller on Etsy that has Nutella jar beads! Yes you read right Nutella Jar beads! I plan to make her a bracelet to celebrate her love of Nutella. This will be so cool and give me the opportunity to use some chocolate pearls and shades of Topaz and brown Swarovski crystals. My pearls are just wonderful and will look great with the theme of  chocolate.

 

The shade of Swarovski crystals I plan to use are the following: 

Smoked Topaz

 Crystal Golden Shadow

 Light Smoked Topaz

 Mocca

I think that mix will be a nice accent to the jar beads. I still need to find a clasp that will do though. Antiqued Copper would be nice and coordinating head and eyepins. This is going to be great.

Vintage Santa Gift Tags bling with gold ink

With the holiday season upon us i have decided to make items that are Christmas themed. To that end I thought of something that i would enjoy and that could be done easily. Gift tags were the answer. I love vintage Christmas cards and images. Found some Free images and this is what I came up with, a set of three tags with a vintage feel on heavy cardstock.

They all have a red grosgrain ribbon about 5" long and they are quite large making them stand out among regular gift tags. I printed them out on Bazzil white card stock. Then proceeded to hank ink the border to give it a worn and antique feel. The ink color was simply called Gold by Stampabilities. The font I found on DaFont.com call Penshurst Shadow. It's a very classic font and I love how it fits in with the vintage cards.


I love this one. Bells for Christmas just make me happy and remind me of It's a Wonderful Life.
Found this information on Holidayinsights.com

Why Bells??
Bells announce the coming or arrival of an event, activity, or occasion. They toll for good times. They toll for bad times. They ring out warnings. Bells herald in the New Year. Bells are rung to announce the union of a man and a woman. They are rung during Christmas to announce the arrival of the season, to proclaim the birth of Christ.
Ringing of bells can be traced back to pagan winter celebrations. During those times, noisemakers were used to scare away evil spirits in the night. Among those early noisemakers were bells. People had fun ringing the bells and making noise. It was too much fun to just use bells to scare demons away. So over time, bell ringing was incorporated into other events and activities. Bells are rung at churches to call people to gather, as warnings, and to bring people together to make announcements.
From these ancient roots, the ringing of bells began to be used in the Christian Christmas season. The soft, cheerful tones blended well and enhanced the sounds of the season. Today, they play an important, traditional role during the holiday.

I love this tag with the mistletoe toe. It's just stunning and timeless.


My thrid and final tag:

What is Christmas without children. This cherubic pair fit the bill for happy Christmas carolers or children on the way to Grandma's house to celebrate. Bearing holly and misteltoe they are just too cute for words.

They are listed as a set in my Artfire store. I hope they make someone's gifts extra special or add great art to a scrapbook page. More to come soon keep checking back.

New bracelet!

Creativity continues to flow. I have a new bracelet i made ( actually had materials to make 2 of them). I call is Alma de Tierra because it has these beautiful faceted turquoise beads and these cool Capri Gold Czech glass beads to compliment them.

I just put them up in my Artfire store. Even thought he beads say they are gold in color it looks more like a high shine copper...almost like copper foil. Delicate against the strong turquoise beads which look great faceted. I hav a thing for faceted beads they just have such great dimesnion and i LOVE the way they catch light.

Still Trying to close up the necklace in progress and i need to get some suede cord for the turqouise pendant i have. If it seems like i'm a bit turqouise obsessed..yes i am. I do plan on moving on eventually out of my Turquoise Phase if you will.

The turqouise is more blue because of copper present in the vien wher eit was extracted. when turqouise is more green the more Iron is present in the rock surrounding it. I happen to love Turqouise in all it's forms and colors. which is why I create with it so much. Being inthe southwest there is a definete market for it and I just love how it looks on all skin types. Will post more jewelry when it's created. Until next time!

Creating new items

Very much on a turquoise and copper feel this week.

I'm calling the earrings and bracelet: Good Earth
I've got copper potato pearls and chocolate flat pearls with turquoise chunky beads. I have order the toggle claps and the beadalon copper wire to string it along with crimp tubes and all that jazz to finish it out.

Simple matching earrings with a turquoise bead and copper pearl. Simple but stunning. (will post earrings later)


Also made some gorgeous drop earrings I call them: Take the Plunge

They sit on silver chain 2.5 inches long and the faceted glass cubes are delicate, yet striking. This can be customized as well to any color. It looks like beautiful ice.

I also have a few ribbon bookmarks that are pretty.

Gilded Age
I love the dark copper beads and the gold tone carved bead. Great for any guy who wants to add some masculine bling to their book.

This one is called: Feelin' 80's. The shocking turquoise of the 80's is lovingly reflected here with pink ribbon and black beads. This would be great for any child of the 80's or any little girl with a good book. It's one of my daughter's favorites.

happiness!