Looks to Love: Valentine’s Day Pink Lip Tutorial

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MNYLooksToLove #CollectiveBias

It’s crazy to think that this Valentine’s day will mark the 10-year anniversary of finishing my first round of chemotherapy. I’m honestly floored; there are days where my cancer was a far off nightmare and other days where I feel like I’m still living in it. Regardless, Valentine’s Day holds a very special meaning to me: I get to celebrate all kinds of love in my life and I get to celebrate my love FOR my life!

I’ve had a crazy January with some weird health issues (more on that later this week) and that’s put me back a few steps in my journey to loving my body. So, I’m super excited that I got to work with Maybelline to put together this fun Valentine’s Day tutorial because it forced me to sit down, play with my makeup and love on myself. I can’t express how much better I felt after putting on my makeup after ignoring it for a few days, and I am so grateful for the push to invest some care into my body. So, if you are having a rough day, remember to take the time to love yourself and use this makeup tutorial to try something new!

ANYWAY! I feel like Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse to rock a bold lip, but I wanted to stray away from the typical cliche red, so I opted for a hot fuschia instead! If you follow me on snapchat, you know that I’ve been wearing this color ALL dang week on my lips and I have been loving it! I know it can be super nerve-wracking to rock such a bold color in public, but it’s also super empowering. Never underestimate a woman in bright lipstick!

Prep your lips first thing in the morning!

  1. It’s super important to prepare your lips before you do ANYTHING! I recommend using a good lip scrub to take off any of the dead skin and even out the surface. This will help your lipstick apply smoothly and not look cakey on your mouth! I usually do a lip scrub first thing in the morning after my shower and then slap on some chapstick right after to help add some moisture right back in.
  2. Apply another round of chapstick when you sit down to do your makeup before applying anything else. That adds some more moisture into your lips and helps prevent your foundation and powder from caking up on your lips as you apply everything else.

Continue Reading

Looks to Love: Contouring 101

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MNYLooksToLove #CollectiveBias

When I started getting more into makeup (collecting it, trying it out, creating new looks with it) there was one trend that terrified me and that trend was contouring. I’m sure you all have seen the pictures on Pinterest with the diagrams of faces with brown and white drawn all over them, like some war paint. I know I would look at those diagrams and feel like I should just paint a big fat question mark over my face because they rendered me clueless. How was using all of that product and placing it all over my face like that diagram going to make me look like Kim K? I tried a couple times and failed, so miserably and promptly gave up on ever being able to master a contour.

A few months ago, I decided I was going to give it a go again because, as a self-proclaimed beauty blogger and a makeup lover, I wasn’t going to admit defeat to the contour! I watched countless beauty gurus on youtube, and practiced a couple times and I realized this: contouring doesn’t have to be super hard! Those diagrams make it look so complicated, but at the end of the day, you only have to follow a few simple steps to have a great contour!

So, what even is contouring? Contouring and highlighting is a makeup technique that allows you to give shape and enhance your facial bone structure. When you add a contour to your face, you are essentially adding shadows to your cheeks that will help give more definition to your bone structure and elongate your face!

Contouring isn’t a technique that you need to use every day (let’s be real, I do it every day because I love making my face look a little skinnier). However, for those who might not have the time, contouring is perfect for those who want to step up their makeup for a hot date night (hint, hint: Valentine’s Day is coming up!) In my humble opinion, adding a contour and highlight to a face adds great drama in such a subtle way, if that’s even possible.

Continue Reading

The 2016 Makeup Spending-Freeze Challenge

Everybody should know by now that I have a minor obsession with makeup. Some people might be disgusted by the sheer amount that I own (and let’s be real, sometimes I am, too). Here’s the thing about my relationship with makeup: it brings me joy.

It brings me joy to experiment with it and to create looks with it. Some people find their creativity with paints, others with poetry, and I have found mine through makeup! I love trying out new products and help others know what ones to avoid and what ones to buy and bringing out that information to my blog. I LOVE seeing what a good foundation can do for someone’s confidence or how a bold lipstick can bring out a sassy side of someone’s personality. And at the top of the list of why makeup is important to me is this: the time I take to put my makeup on is my way of saying “self, you are worth this time and care.” By routinely making sure I put myself first every morning, I’ve found more peace with my body and its flaws. Plus, I always feel more kick-a when I’ve got some killer lipstick and lashes on, and that does wonders for my productivity.

The time I take to put my makeup on is my way of saying: “self, you are worth this time and care”

Click To Tweet

Anyway. I’ll get off my soap box about why I love makeup so much and get to the point of all this:

I have too much makeup right now as a result of all my love for it and I’ve been spending too much on it recently (see here). Then, I read this post from my fellow beauty addict, Jaelan from Making Mrs. M. At first, I though she was a bit crazy for committing to no makeup purchases for an entire year. But I just couldn’t shake her idea or words from my head, because I knew I was in a similar boat as her. I own a bunch of awesome makeup and 3/4s of it barely gets used because I keep buying more!

I have some big fat goals for my blog and biz this year, and none of them are going to get off the ground if I can’t put my money towards investing in some equipment and programs other than makeup! So, I decided that one of my personal resolutions for this year is to have my own makeup spending-freeze experiment. I took Jaelan’s plan and made the following adjustments to make it more “Chelsie friendly” because let’s be real: I can’t not buy makeup for an entire year.

Continue Reading

Sephora VIB, Black Friday + Cyber Monday Haul & Reviews

Affiliate Links are used in this post which may result in a small commission for me at no cost to you and go to help to run this site.

As you may have guessed, my wallet may have had some significant damage done to it over these last few weeks with all of the crazy sales in the beauty world. It first started with the Sephora VIB sale, which was then quickly followed by Black Friday and Cyber Monday and other holiday promotions. The list goes on and since I love high-end makeup (but try hard to never pay full price for it) I decided to take full advantage of all the deals and haul a ton of new makeup to play with and try out. I’ve had most of these items for almost a month now and have used them almost every day, so I wanted to review them for anyone who may end up with some extra Christmas cash and wants to get some new pretty things!

Continue Reading

Gift Guide for the Makeup Lover (Drugstore Edition)

affiliate links may be used in this post, which will result in a small commission for me at no additional cost to you. thanks for helping me run Life with Rosie!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME SO MUCH! And, if it was socially acceptable, my tree would be up for at least 3 months and Christmas music would be played year round. Alas, it is not, so my Christmas-loving soul must squeeze in all the Christmas themed things in two months.

I’ve had a couple people ask me what I would recommend in the makeup world for gifts, so I decided this would be the perfect time to put together a gift guide for the makeup lover. And, because we all love making our money stretch during the Holiday season, this guide is specifically drugstore makeup (or drugstore prices), and most of these babies are perfect for stocking stuffers for your friends, family OR for you. (wink, wink)

Continue Reading