The Goody Spin Pin

I really like gadgets that make my life easier; so when I saw this little doodad that said it did the work of 20 bobby pins, my ears perked up. I bought the cute little pair of pins that looked like a DNA strand and started working...

The directions say to put your hair in a pony tail, twist your hair around in a bun and twist both pins into the bun (you screw it in basically). I would give it a "pretty good" rating and let me tell you why:

1. If you want the hair that won't be in the bun to be voluminous, messy, textured or anything other than plastered to your head then you still have to do that work outside the spin pin- it really is only a way to secure the hair in the bun

2. You girls with thin, straight, fine or no-texture hair will struggle with this tool. It is really ideal for women with medium to thick hair that has some texture in it. So, if you hair is straight you will need to curl and put some product in your hair to get this to work.

3. My hair did stay secure all night- very helpful (once I figured out the right places to screw in my pins- that you'll just have to work with)

So- that's my conclusion- its ideal of the messy bun, just like its advertised for. Girls with wavy, curly or thick hair this may be a great buy but if you have slick, thin or fine hair, this probably is not the product for you. It struggled a bit to keep straight hair together in a smooth bun.

So, think messy like this:


But keep in mind, the spin pin can't make all that amazing volume up top...

Heck, its just about $3 so just get some and try it.

My first official weddings

The four weeks of June have been the busiest of our whole summer- so it should be all down hill from here. Included in my steamy-hot June were 2 weddings: the first, my good friend Kelly Ramsey (now Kelly Couch) and my cousin-in-law (is that what I would call her?) Skylar Davis (now Skylar Sinkey). Kelly's face has already graced the pages of my blog multiple times but I am waiting on some photos from her photographer before I post her but I have a sneak peak of Skylar:



More photos of both brides will follow.

I was excited about these weddings because I faced two unique challenges: natural looking makeup and dramatic (but not too dramatic) eyes.

Kelly's fiance said "most makeup for girls on their wedding day looks like such sh#$@!" So, clearly the goal was to get Kelly's face to look natural but also even and not too shiny. Not an easy task because the above mentioned fiance said he didn't want to kiss her face and get a mouth full of foundation (good point). So, here's how I solved the problem and here's how you can too. I used two face prep products you may want to have in your makeup kit: mattifying moisturizer and makeup primer. I used a DDF mattifying moisturizer that while moisturizing the face also draws oil away from the face to take away shine. I followed that up with a Smashbox gel primer whose main job is to take away shine, fill in pores and fill in fine lines so whatever makeup is added to the face goes on smoothly.

I let those soak in and followed it up with a light application of liquid foundation (using my Beauty Blender of course). I would recommend a "sheer" coverage foundation if you are really wanting a natural look like this. Next I used a combination of foundation and concealer and applied it to any spots like pimples, scars, freckles or sunspots and blended in. I used the same thing under her eyes. Its important to note, if you use concealer on your face it must be the same color as your face- sometimes people buy a lighter concealer for under the eyes so don't use that lighter shade on your face. I finished Kelly with a light dusting of powder only in her T-Zone (forehead, nose, inner cheeks and chin). Remember, the most powder, the more the skin ages.

So, I think I pulled off the look but you can be the jury once you see pictures.

Now, to North Dakota for Skylar's wedding...

First, I was not originally the makeup artist for her, it just sort of happened and I'm really glad it did. When I showed up to the salon, Skylar was getting false lashes applied by her cousin Mandie (who is an eyelash master and btw recommends Dior mascara as the best she's ever used and this girl has used a lot of mascara so I believe her). Skylar started our session by telling me she wanted to go a little dramatic that she usually does (I love to hear that!) I knew I could get the most amount of drama out of her brown eyes. I figured a subtle smokey eye, a sparkling natural eye or a color eye. She seemed to like the idea of a sparkling natural eye. So, using all metallics, I highlighted her brow, filled the lid with a sparkling peach and accented her crease with my favorite shiny brown from Urban Decay called "Twice Baked". Now, we went on a limb and did a slight cat eye (woo hoo) and this was the "out of the comfort zone" moment. I am really proud of Skylar because she stuck with it and she told me later she was so glad she did.

So- all in all Skylar still looked like herself with just a little more pizazz (and I LOVE pizazz). More photos will follow as I get them but as for my first round of weddings- not too shabby.