Unfading [beauty]

Sweater: New York and Company Jeggings: New York and Company Vest: Old Navy

beautyblender

I was so hesitant to buy this product. I'd read amazing reviews about it but the cost ($19.95) was terrifying. Who pays $19.95 for a sponge? The sponge itself was created and patented by the amazing Rea Ann Silva, a professional makeup artist and beauty expert. Essentially, she's living my dream life.

Anyway, I finally decided to go for it and buy this famed product after seeing positive review after positive review about it through Sephora, Pinterest, and other beauty bloggers.
The instructions on the beautyblender are to thoroughly wet the sponge, towel dry it and dip it into your foundation of choice.

Wow. Let me tell you--this sponge is wonderful. I barely use any of my BB cream and I look like I have even, beautiful skin. The stippling motion suggested by the beautyblender, coupled with its design, make it the best tool I've ever used for foundation application. I legitimately look like I photoshopped my face.





I'm not lying to you when I say I've been breaking out all week and I have not retouched this picture in any way!

This product is well worth the splurge and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a flawless foundation application!

Love abundantly,
Juliana

I've been dying my hair since high school--the first time I dyed it, it was bright Ariel red. Then I covered that with black for my high school graduation. Eventually I settled on auburn and have been dying my hair with L'Oreal Preference 4R since I was a sophomore in college.

I love doing hair and makeup as a form of artistic expression. So, two days ago, I decided to make my hair my art form of the semester.

Sunshine yellow and cotton candy pink

 So, I took myself to my good friend Amazon and bought the three things I was going to need to go through with this adventure: two jars of Manic Panic semi-permanent hair dye and the Manic Panic FlashLightning kit.

I bought Sunshine Yellow and Cotton Candy Pink (which glows under UV light). My *glitzperation* for this hairstyle is the fabulous Kerrie Roberts and her ombre hair on her My Heart's Lifted album cover. I knew when I started that I didn't want my pink to be as bright as Kerrie's so I chose the paler color of CCP.

This was by far the most intense thing I've ever done to my hair and the moment I put the bleach into my hair, I knew there was no going back.





I honestly couldn't be happier with the way
my hair turned out. I especially have loved seeing people's faces as I walk by with my
sunshiney hair!

Remember, keep your face to the sun and you
will never see the shadows. (Thanks Helen
Keller!)


Love abundantly,
Juliana




"But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings" ~Malachi 4:2

Welcome to my first *glitterpost*! Essentially a *glitterpost* contains a haul, a tutorial and some musings from your friendly coffee addict, moi! Enjoy!

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I did an almost two-week stint with no makeup. It was harder than I expected, and my confidence and my own opinions of myself were challenged almost daily. I'd been feeling quite self-actualized before this challenge, but afterwards, I realized there had been a lot of things in me that I hadn't been challenging.

 Day One

It sat there mocking me.

I don't think I'd fully accepted the reality of the challenge I had just accepted. I kept looking wistfully at my makeup stand, hoping against all hope that somehow staring at it would make it magically transfer to my face.

Protip: it doesn't actually work that way.

All in all, day one wasn't too terrible, as my hair actually looked pretty good. So I felt naked and exposed, but I didn't feel ugly.
Maybe this wasn't going to be hard after all!



Day Two
I woke up. I made the mistake of glancing in the mirror. To my dismay, pimples that had not been there before had popped up all over my chin and cheek area. Immediate reaction was to reach for the cover-up but I stopped myself.

I think I saw hell flash before my eyes. It looked a lot like a makeup-less wasteland.





Day Three
I found that I had begun to care less and less about my appearance in general. So I rocked the hobo look. Yes that is a blanket--I was freezing.

At this point, I really honestly felt like crap and I didn't know how I was going to make it through the next eight days. People had already begun to ask me if I was sick or if something was wrong. I was ridiculously annoyed--this is just my natural face, people! Then I remembered that very few people had ever seen me without makeup on and I had to remind myself to be a little kinder to them.

But I still couldn't find it in me to be kind to myself.

Days Four-Six and a half

Honestly nothing too eventful happened on these days. I still felt like crap, but my skin was starting to look tremendously better. Kay told me it was because I didn't have any chemicals crowding my pores to make me break out and suggested I do it for Lent as well. I debated slapping her.

At the end of day six, I went to a meeting, where someone I'd been working with for over a year sat down, looked at me and hastily apologized that he thought I was Juliana. He was thoroughly embarrassed when I informed him that I was, in fact, Juliana.

Day Eightish 
It's a blur of makeup-less torture. But I've figured out how to still look cute and not completely be a bum.


Day Nine
Almost there. Freaking thank you, God. The retreat is tonight. Only a few more days and I can be pretty again.




Day Eleven


The retreat is over and I can wear makeup again. But this weekend was pretty great--I clearly can see the deep self-hatred I have if I don't fit an arbitrary standard of perfection. I can see that my worth isn't tied to my physical beauty, but my heart and soul. My worth is in the Lord, who made me beautiful in His Image.

Lessons Learned: my worth is inherent. I am beautiful because of my soul. I am loved.

Now all I have to do is start believing it. Yikes!  Wish me luck!

Love abundantly,
Juliana

It's been a while! Life suddenly decided to throw all its punches at me in a short little span of time. It's definitely been stressful but I'm powering through. My cousin got married which was beautiful, but I had to fly halfway across the country! Nothin like a little trans-continental travel for the middle of your semester.

The skies of Baltimore

So I'm starting a self challenge today...about 11 days without makeup. I'm really really bad at going more than about an hour without makeup on. And when I say nothing, I literally mean that I can't have anything (including foundation). *insert cries here*

Anyway, I'm offering this challenge as a sacrifice for the success of my upcoming retreat. God grant me the ability to see unfading beauty and dignity in myself.


So in 11 days, you'll see me again and I'm going to tell you all about what I learn about myself through this 11 day process.

Love abundantly,
Juliana

Oh here we go...

So here's a story: there was this guy. This guy was convinced he knew everything. Guy always thought girls shouldn't wear makeup. But if one didn't wear makeup, he would wonder why they looked so bad. Guy did not know the difference between natural and neutral.

 This lovely picture to your right is natural. As you can see, I'm not wearing a stitch of makeup. My naturally multi-toned skin, my freckles, my obvious dark circles. It's not 'put together'.
Some days, I'm totally okay looking like this. Other days, I have majorly low self-confidence and I can't stand to walk outside without looking somewhat decent. That's the way it is.  If I wear makeup or don't wear makeup--it doesn't matter. I like myself; there are just some days I  need a boost!

The Neutral makeup look is really easy to achieve if that's the kind of effortlessness you are looking for! And that's what I'm gonna show you today.

Juliana's Effortless Neutral

• Products needed
• Concealer
• Foundation
• Powder
• Brown or Copper Eyeliner
• Pink Eyeshadow
• Mascara 
• Blush
• a nude or light pink lipstick

• Steps
• If you use Foundation Primer, this is the time to use it. I used MakeUp For Ever's HD Primer.
• Now, taking concealer, conceal your under eye circles and your splotches. For this step, I used two products: Kat Von D's Tattoo Concealer Pencil and benefit's Watt's Up concealer. 
• For my under eye circles, I used the benefit concealer--> I draw a downwards pointing triangle. The "bottom" of the triangle is under my eye and the point is on my cheek. This allows for more even blending.
• I use the concealer pencil on my acne spots and blend.
• Next step is the foundation. Mine is TooFaced BB cream in Snow Glow. I put a small dot on my finger and blend blend blend! Then I use a kabuki brush to blend even more!
• If you contour, this is the place to do it.
• Okie--powder. I use Revlon's Nearly Naked powder. 
• Take a powder brush and lightly apply the powder to your whole gorgeous face. This keeps shine down :)
• Eyebrows. Fill in. Fix.
• Eyeshadow
• I used Urban Decay Magic for this look. It is a gorgeous pink that has amazing pigment! I applied it to the whole of my eyelid and a little bit under my eye to help widen it.
• Then I took the pale pearl pink side of the Urban Decay Aura shadow and applied that to the arch under my eyebrow. 
• Eyeliner--I tightlined my eye with a copper eye pencil.
• Apply mascara! 
• Blush up those beautiful cheeks. I used E.L.F for this. It's got great pigment and is blessedly cheap.
• Lipstick. Kiss kiss :)

The Completed Look