The votes are in...

And it seems Bare Minerals is the crowd favorite! Affordable and natural, this brand is pretty rad. I purchased "Lead the Way" Marvelous Moxie Lipstick this weekend and all I can say is WOW! The pigmentation is fabulous. I can't wait to use it more! Thanks for your input, everyone. I was influenced by the audience and am pleased with the outcome.

Makeup Ranking

Hello, all!

Since most of my tutorials have been makeup-based, I want to give you guys a piece of my mind on the subject. I have tried many products, and am stoked to be a member of Birchbox soon to try even more. I've definitely developed opinions on products and brands, so I present to you my top 5 favorite makeup companies!

5. Stila - The pigmentation (while still being practical)of everything I've tried from Stila has made me a huge fan. The Magnificent Metals eye shadows have my heart and soul.
4. Colour Pop - WOW! So reasonably priced with a huge selection. I want to test more of their products, so the uncertainty leaves them lower on this list.
3. Bare Minerals - I've been well acquainted with Bare Minerals for a while. While every product makes me feel secure in the ingredients, I've often had to take a lot of time to get used to whatever the product may be. The individuality of this brand sets it apart.
2. Tarte - I love Tarte products because they are simple, eco-friendly, and are adamant against animal testing.
1. Nyx - This brand is awesome. The makeup is affordable and comparable to expensive products in quality. Most of my makeup is Nyx.

Think these are fair ratings? I try and buy products that do not test on animals, so if you believe there are any brands I'm missing because I have not tried them, lemme know!

A Clockwork Orange makeup

Hello my droogs! Happy almost Halloween. Today I will be reviewing a pin that links to this video.  Obviously, I am planning on dressing up as Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange. If you haven't read the book, I'd definitely recommend it. The movie is available on Netflix, and check it out if you have the chance! I will be outlining the steps taken in the video I linked above, but watch it for further clarification.

STEP 1: 
Prime your eyes.

What I did: Nothing. I did not prime my eyes because I cannot keep this on for the rest of the evening. In any other situation (aka tonight when I will be wearing this makeup), prime your eyes.

STEP 2: 
Pick out false lashes.

What I did: Again, nothing. I am broke and will be drawing on lashes later!

STEP 3: 
Line your waterline and cover your lid with a white pencil.

What I did/thoughts: 

Finally, I'm doing something. I'm using Milk by Nyx to do this step. Make sure it comes out to a cat wing on the end, and extend to the inner corner of your eye.

STEP 4: Line the white with an orange-red eyeshadow and blend upwards. Highlight your brow with white, and then pat the white on the white eyeliner on the lid to help it stay.

What I did/thoughts: I used a reddish color and a white found in a Beauty Gems palette. BEWARE OF FALLOUT!

STEP 5: 

Add a black powder between the red-orange and the white on the lid. Blend upward. Outline with a liquid liner, then fill in with a pencil.

What I did/thoughts: 

I used a black shadow found in the same Beauty Gems palette. Then, I outlined the crease of my eye (the lower part of this black shadow) with a Nyx Collection Noir liquid eyeliner. Finally, I filled in with a black gel liner by ELF. Precision is key here. I had to touch up with the white pencil a little bit.

LOL at how sad I look here. Just trying to help you see where I was at this point.

STEP 6: Add more definition to the highlighted brow with more white shadow. Add a lighter orange above the darker red.

What I did/thoughts: Ruh-roh. I don't have an orange eyeshadow. I blended Goldmine by MAC and a red in my BG palette together to try and make  a light orange. For all intents and purposes, it was fine. I used the same white to highlight as I did before.

STEP 7:

Outline the top of your eye with a liquid eyeliner, running parallel to the cut crease you made before. 

What I did/thoughts: 

Did exactly that! I should have made my cut crease shorter, but oh well.

STEP 8: 

Apply false lashes to the top of your eye.

What I did/thoughts:
Nope. I don't have false lashes, so I applied mascara here. I used Make Up Forever Smoky Extravagant.

Sorry for this facial expression. 

STEP 9: Line your lower lash line on the outside and pat with white eyeshadow to give the appearance of bigger eyes. Line below that with a light orange and blend outward and down.

What I did/thoughts: I used a white eyeliner by Wet'n'wild for this step and the same ol' white I've been using this whole time for eyeshadow. I tried recreating the color combo for the light orange I did in an earlier step to line below this part. Again, worked fine. I also extended the white between my lower lashline and the black on my top lash line to make things connect a little better. I also didn't blend as far down as she does in the video. I don't have the same false lashes she will be using in an upcoming step, so didn't feel it necessary to make it as extravagant. 

STEP 10: Line between the orange and white below your bottom lashline with a black pencil and then a black liquid liner. Extend your top lashline with the liquid, too. Apply false lashes to the black line below your lower lash line.

What I did/thoughts: Ahh. Here is where I have to make my own fake lashes. I did not use a liquid liner to line the top of the gel I used (the same ELF gel I used in an earlier step, again instead of a pencil.) This is because I wouldn't be covering this line with false lashes and felt the liquid would be too harsh. Instead, I stuck with just the gel, and using the gel I made tiny, thin and long triangles to mimic eyelashes. I decided to do the same to my cut crease on my lid to give the appearance of longer, fake eyelashes on both lashlines. I then went in between these lashes with a thin brush with black eyeshadow to make them appear more feathery and realistic. Yikes. I should have looked up how to do this before. The top don't look terrible, but the bottom look real crappy. I should not have used such thick application. Notes for later. 

Don't judge me. I'm hoping this looks better with the hat. 

STEP 11:Do the other eye almost exactly the same, but with no orange and no false lashes.

What I did/thoughts:Meh. Over it at this point. 

STEP 12:

Use an orange lipstick to finish the look.

What I did/thoughts:I literally look like a clown. People will think I'm a clown. I put my hat on and used Purty Permisson by Wet'n'wild and now want to ditch the whole costume.

WINNER/LOSER?

Winner. the only faults in this process were my own. I'll be sure to post an updated photo of my final costume and makeup when I learn from my mistakes and do something about the lashes.

UPDATE: 
I tried again. Here it is with slightly altered eyelashes!

What are you being for Halloween? Lemme know in the comments, and be sure to post any pins you may have used to help you out!

NEED YOUR HELP!

Hi guys!

As Halloween is quickly approaching, I'm thinking of costumes. Right now, I'm considering the Queen of Hearts or Alex from A Clockwork Orange.

So, I need your help! What should I be for halloween? Whatever gets the most votes, I will not only be dressing up as but will also be reviewing a pin.

For Alex, I will be reviewing this pin (which links to this Youtube video.)

For the Queen of Hearts, I will be reviewing this (which links to this site.)

Place your votes! 

How to Draw Realistic Eyes

Hello! I picked a tutorial this week to improve my doodles during lectures. The tutorial, made by Barakiel or Juhani (the source here is unclear... the photo has an author on it, but clicking the photo suggests another author contributed), can be found here, and the pin can be found here. I will be using a pen to raise the stakes and also because this is what I normally take notes with in class.

THE TUTORIAL
Since I can't really copy and paste this step-by-step, here is the entire photo with my steps below it.

Source

STEP 1: 

My thoughts: Sure. Seems easy enough.

STEP 2 & 3: 

My thoughts: My hamaratia is that I don't read ahead. I went by the photo reference instead of just the text, and drew in that bottom line in the second step.

STEP 4: 

My thoughts: I went by just the text this time and drew in all the lashes at this step. They look pretty weird.

STEP 5:

My thoughts: Let's see how well I can draw a circle...

STEP 6:

My thoughts: My new circle isn't really parallel with the other but I'll get over it.

STEP 7:

My thoughts: Ahhhh this is kinda coming together!

STEP 8:

My thoughts: Rude... the artist on the site said that they used pencil, but it was never clearly stated I must use one. Therefore, my "white blob" is a little screwy. To counter this, I made my iris have a darker outline/limbal ring. Additionally, shading is really tough with a pen to an untrained hand (maybe it's tough if you're trained too, but I can't speak from experience.)

STEP 9:

My thoughts: Totally. I added some lashes here and the tear duct thing that eyes have.

 

STEP 10: 

My thoughts: Where?! It's hard to tell in the tutorial where this should be, so I put shading around the corners of the eye.

WINNER OR LOSER?
Winner. This pin makes it pretty easy to draw an eye. I wish that the shading steps were explained a little clearer (I have no idea how to shade), but I'm relatively happy with the finished product.

HOW TO ACTUALLY PULL IT OFF: 
USE A PENCIL! Pens make this a little tricky for shading, mistakes, and the "white blob" part.

Thanks for reading!
Jaclyn 

First Review

yo yo

So this weekend I jumped on Pinterest to try and find makeup to wear out to the bars while doing homework. There's this British show I used to watch called Skins, and one of the characters had sweet eye makeup in this one scene.

[source]

I thought that this was going to go well. I was hopeful. I was wrong.

Truth be told, it was no fault by the tutorial... Probably. I had very little time to spare this weekend, and used one of the first pins I could find. The link to the pin is right here and the website it links to is here. Notice anything? If you saw that the entire website is NOT English, I noticed that too. But, lucky for me, so did Google Chrome and translated it for me. Unfortunately, some things were lost in translation but I ran with it.

I don't really know how plagiarism laws go, so here's a disclaimer: this is NOT my tutorial. I copy and pasted the tutorial here, for reference. I did not create it, and all credit for creation goes to the author of the page I linked above and below.

THE TUTORIAL: 

Like I just said, I've copy/pasted the tutorial and Google's translation here. 

STEP 1: 

Coat the entire eyelid with a light shadow.

My thoughts: Cool I can do this. I used "Strange" in Urban Decay's Naked 3 palette. 

The shade I used

STEP 2: 

On the upper lash line paint eyeliner dash; best of all is the gel has an intense shade and you can then rub.

My thoughts: Aight I can do this too. I used a black gel liner by Elf, and then went over it with a black shadow to make it a little smudgier. 

STEP 3: 

Black, matte shadow rub notch and start to mark hollow eyes.Triturate and the exact shade until you reach the desired intensity.

My thoughts: Alright let's use the picture for guidance since that was nonsensical. I used Urban Decay's "Moonspoon" for this grey outline thing and then it was too light so I added a little black and blended a little bit. I think this was my first mistake. I believe I should have shaped this better/in the shape of Effy's eyes in the show instead of just going with my crease.

I should have just stopped here...

STEP 4:

The lower eyelid paint the same dark shadow and connect the outer corner of the shadows of the upper eyelid.

My thoughts: Yep definitely missed something in this translation. I again used the picture for reference. I used the black/grey combo I was talking about above on the edge of my lower lashline and also added a little on the outer corner of my eyelid, since this photo looks a little different. 

STEP 5: 

In the inner corner, apply blue or turquoise shade, I I mixed the two.

My thoughts: Sweet perfect time to use all the blue shadows and liners I have but never use. Instead of using a shadow in fear of fallout, I used a Makeup Forever waterproof pencil in "12L." Oh boy. Mistake. Clearly it's supposed to be smudgy, but this eyeliner is waterproof and is pretty precise. USE A SHADOW! 

The eyeliner was a TERRIBLE IDEA

STEP 6:

Wytuszuj the upper and lower lashes.

My thoughts: Ah yes, Wytuszuj time. I decided to instead use mascara. I used something by Lancome and "Smoky Extravagant" mascara from Makeup Forever. 

Post-Wytuszuj application

STEP 7: 

The bottom line of water gently lighten the white crayon.

My thoughts: I never do this step because it's supposed to make your eyes look bigger. I don't want that. 

FINISHED PRODUCT: 

Mouth paint a neutral lip gloss or lipstick.

My thoughts: :(

Not quite...

WINNER OR LOSER? 

Tough call! I'm gonna mark this pin as a winner, because I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt since it was translated poorly. However, I think that even if it were in English, better explanations could have been given. 

HOW TO ACTUALLY PULL IT OFF: 
Follow the pictures, not the words. Make sure to outline your eye/create a faux crease in grey sort of like Effy's eyes, because this look is hard to pull off with my eye shape, and probably other shapes too. Finally, don't use a liner for the blue/teal part. My bad for sure, but just don't try it. 

If you've read this whole thing, you rock. If you're pickin' up what I'm puttin' down, feel free to comment with any pins you might want me to test out for you!

later,
Jaclyn

INTRO

Hi, internet. Welcome to Pinners & Losers! Thanks for stopping by. Since this is the first post, you might be a little confused where this whole operation is heading. The idea is simple: I've created this blog to play around on Pinterest and help others succeed when things go awry. I've often looked to Pinterest in times of superficial need-- makeup and nail tricks, crafts, lifehacks, etc. -- only to deplete my time and energy to yield a finished product that looks no better than a pre-school art project.

On Pinners & Losers, I will be finding pins that pique my interest and test them out. I'll be posting step-by-step what I'm doing and how I'm doing it, as well as the final results. If things go well, great success! Pin's a winner. If not, I'll explain the directional misstep and how to fix it to get things lookin' great. Next post coming soon!