As some of you may already know, I was recently crowned Queen Makeupbee for Makeupbee.com. Yeahhhh, bow down to Queen Meredith!

Just kidding, mostly wanted an excuse to post that. Anyways, as part of the privilege of being Queen Makeupbee I was interviewed by Ti who is one of the co-founders of the site so I wanted to share the interview with you guys!

"Our Second featured QueenMakeupbee of August is Meredith, the owner of Pigments & Palettes blog. Her blog is full of beautiful makeup looks and tutorials, from Makeup to hair, and even step by step Photoshop photo editing tutorials.  Learn not only how to apply makeup beautifully from her, you can also learn how she captures that makeup look into a beautifully composed image. " We interviewed her to find out more about her and her blog..."

1. Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging after I entered my first online makeup contest in March. That contest exposed me to all kinds of incredible talent, both professional and amateur. It was so inspiring it made me want to do what they did, maybe someday inspire people like those bloggers inspired me. I never dreamed I'd have so many followers in such a short amount of time though, it's truly incredible and humbling. 

2. How do you find inspiration for your blog posts?

I'm really inspired by literature and film primarily, as the majority of my looks are character based. I love the idea of interpreting and embodying a persona. I guess that's the part of me that never got over dress-up games. I'm also heavily inspired by the work of other bloggers. I see incredible looks and I want to mimic them or put my own spin on them, which is one of the reasons I love MakeupBee so much, it's great for exposing myself to new ideas and talent.

3. What are your must have beauty items and why?

I'd say the things that I reach for the most in my kit are: My Coastal Scents Palettes, mostly the original and shimmer palettes. I use those in just about every look I do. I can't survive without my Quo Ultra flare lashes, I'm obsessed with them and use them all the time. And my Sephora Sculpting Disk, it helped me to discover the art of contouring and honestly, I don't know how I survived without it, I'll never go back.

4. Why should another makeup lover join Makeupbee?

Well, the reason I love MakeupBee is for the inspiration, the incredible talent and the beautiful pictures. But I also really like the sense of community there. I've met some of my favourite bloggers through the site and continue to stay in contact with them. So I'd say, join for the pictures and stay for the friends! :)

HERE'S MY MAKEUPBEE PROFILE

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Just a short interview. I also reviewed products sent to me as part of my prize which you can check out here. If you haven't joined Makeupbee.com you should definitely check it out. I've met tons of talented artists on that site and made some great friends. Here are some of the friendly faces I've come to know and love from Makeupbee.

(From Top Left - Clockwise)

Maryam | Dawnielle | Ronnie | Ailah | Marla | Kassie | Michelle | Sonja

That's it for me today. Unfortunately as all my makeup is packed away in boxes right now (ugh, moving) I'm unable to do any looks for a few days but bear with me. I will also be without internet for an undisclosed period of time as I get settled but never fear, I'll be back with a vengeance before you have time to say 'winged liner'. I have some great stuff planned for September that I'm really excited to share with you guys.

And don't forget, there are only 

TWO MORE DAYS

until my giveaway closes!

Greetings, Palette Pals & Gals! For my second Fall Fashion color I decided to experiment with the sultry, sepia toned color Coffee Liqueur because everyone loves coffee and everyone loves liqueur! Right!? I actually hate coffee (blasphemy!) and coffee liqueur (gasp!) but I love this color. 

Sketch & Palette by Elie Tahari

Designer Elie Tahari says of his inspiration: "We are having a cinematic moment inspired by the old Hollywood cinema and Black and White films. Old movie colors: Sepia, Black and White washed with Cool Brown tones; Black and White washed with Rich Reds, Deep Greens, Teals and Blue – all tonal, as if colored light is coming through old films."

Much like Elie says this color reminds me of all things vintage, so the inspiration for this look was a blast from the past. After a few failed attempts at some sexy cat-eye looks inspired by old Hollywood movie stars I decided to stop trying to fight the shape of my naturally saucer round eyes and do something totally doe-eyed and doll-like instead. I like to think of it as Twiggy with a twist because while I stole her trademark wide-eyed stare I softened the cut-crease considerably and didn't overdraw the bottom lashes.

The brown tones of this look are perfection for my fellow blue eyed babes, but never fear if you were blessed with hazel, brown, or green peepers! Because this look plays off an entirely neutral palette it's flattering and wearable no matter what your eye or skin color. I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't look good in browns. It's a fact. It's like, science.

The coffee liqueur color makes an appearance beneath my lower waterline and all throughout my brows. By curving the color away from, not into, my tearduct I've opened up the eyes considerably making the eyes look bigger and more alert. To amp this effect up another notch, I've put bright white all through the water line and under my upper eye liner. If you have darker skin, use a champagne color instead, or a shimmery taupe.  Put warm browns and burgundy colors in the outer-v to define but leave your lids in a light neutral.

Brown shadows work beautifully paired with a soft pink-brown lip color, especially one with subtle warm undertones. For my lips I used a combination of Elizabeth Arden's Mauve in the middle of my lip and Carmel Glaze for the outer corners of my lips.

Marie Antionette says: "Have your coffee and wear it too!"

Hairband | Clutch | Dress | Bangles | Boots

If you want to experiment with different color combinations, try pairing Coffee Liqueur with these gorgeous complimentary colors!

I hope you guys liked this post and are as addicted to this caffeine inspired color as I am! 

Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet, on the right side of my blog there's a poll for whether or not I should start doing tutorials, if you're interested in that type of thing. Till next time!

Every year as August comes to a close I get this bittersweet feeling. I'm bitter because I know that summer is over and soon I'll be knee-deep in snowbanks and slush, but the sweet part is getting to celebrate all things fall! The return of sexy boots, chic coats, colorful leaves and my favorite holiday - Halloween!! So I'd like to put my Disney looks on hold for a while and focus on the up and coming colors of the Fall 2011 season, what to expect and how to wear them. So (drumroll please) I present to you my "Fall in Love with Color" series. Here's a preview of what's to come!

Source: Pantone.com

Pantone is the #1 company for all things color and they've surveyed the hottest catwalks in the world to bring you the colors that are inspiring designers this season. These are the top ten shades: Bamboo, Emberglow, Honeysuckle, Phlox, Cedar, Deep Teal, Coffee Liqueur, Nougat, Orchid Hush, and Quarry.

The first color in the series is Bamboo. Take a look!

 

Sketch & Palette by Designer Chris Benz, who says ...

"I have been traveling to Savannah, Georgia over the latter part of 2010 and have become enamoured with the scenery and laissez-faire attitude of the South — the gorgeous cypress trees covered in Spanish moss, weather-worn masonry, filtered sunlight and a tension between old- and new-fashioned ideals. We love the idea of the Old South and swampy colors in the moonlight." - Chris Benz

I took Chris' design inspiration and interpreted it into a look. I did a bamboo and sage smokey eye with navy highlights to emulate the idea of a swamp in the moonlight and saved his honeysuckle color suggestion for my lips and cheeks to brighten up this heavy look.

 

The bamboo color is just a peek-a-boo pop in the inner corner, fading out to a rich sage green and then a dark navy, with black defining the crease and navy liner to keep the look from being too heavy. I used reflective, shimmery colors to mimic the way moonlight would play against the water. A full product breakdown will be available at the end of the post.

While this yellow-green may not suit all skintones makeup-wise, remember that you can incorporate this color in your wardrobe and accessories too. 

 Scarf | Bag | Dress | Necklace | Shoes

Don't be afraid to experiment with color! Here are some other colors that compliment bamboo beautifully.

I hope you found this post helpful. Will any of you be rocking bamboo this fall?

I decided today I was going to tackle the Blue Fairy from Disney's Pinocchio. In order to represent her beautiful sparkly dress, and to challenge myself, I wanted to do a whole eye-look out of glitter. You can see her dress in action here. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, especially since I wasn't working with cosmetic glitter just cheap dollar store craft stuff - but I managed to finish after a few hours. I didn't want there to be discernable colors to this look, just a kaliedescope of brilliant blues in all shades mixing in to one another and I think I achieved that. Have a look for yourself, but first here's some info on The Blue Fairy:

"The Blue Fairy is a character in Disney's 1940 film Pinocchio. She is a magical being who, fulfilling Gepetto's wish, transforms Pinocchio into a living creature, and later into a real boy. She also aids Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket throughout the heroes adventure, both directly and from afar. One of only two female characters in the film (the other being Cleo), she is nevertheless one of the most powerful characters in the cast; it is the Blue Fairy who initially grants Pinocchio life, and who ultimately decides whether or not the puppet should become a real boy. The character was inspired by the glamorous actress Jean Harlow, despite Disney's initial reservations."

I didn't get a lot of good shots of this look so there won't be many pictures today unfortunately. Here's what I did manage to capture though.

I added some glitter effects on the rhinestones to give it some extra glimmer. Bling bling!

 

And there's the close up of all my hours of hard work painstakingly applying glitter, rhinestones, stickers and beads to my eyes for the final effect. Next time I'm definitely investing in some actual cosmetic glitter though - this was such a pain in the ass. But beauty is pain, as they say.

I'm not going to go into detail about the product breakdown. I just used a silver creme base from Revlon's Quad Palette in Twilight and then got to work with the glittering, added some lashes and frosted my lips. Sorry if this wasn't a terribly exciting post., I'm exhausted from spending all week apartment hunting. Now just wish me luck getting all of this off!!!

Hi everyone. Today I'm doing something I haven't had the guts to do ever since starting this blog, but we'll get to that in a second. First off, Ti, one of the co-founders of MakeupBee.com gave me the exciting news last week that I've been selected to represent the site as one of the Queens of Makeupbee for the month of August! I was of course incredibly flattered, but when she told me that part of my 'coronation' would include getting products to review I was more than a little excited. In fact, to put it accurately I was like AWWW YEAHHHHHH FREE SHIT IN THE MAIIIILLLLLL!

 

I received my package yesterday and in it was: Mascara Lash Plumper by Sephora, Urban Decay's Afterglow Cheek Tint, and an Aloe face mask. KaCHING! Your total today comes to AWESOME!!! So, I'm going to review these products at the end of the post but I figure pictures speak louder than words so here's me with NO makeup AT ALL followed by me wearing the products sent to me for review. Be nice.

You guys are pretty smart, I'm sure you can figure out which one is the Before and which one is the After without labels. Alright, now that the shock and awe has settled in, let's get on with the reviews...

 

SEPHORA LASH PLUMPER MASCARA ($16.00) : Sephora says ... "Fatten your flutter with this lash-plumping formula. The larger brush, with slightly tapered edges, reaches from root to tip, for truly bat-worthy volume and glamour."

MEREDITH'S REVIEW : Well, does this product do what the name suggests? Does it plump? Does it fatten your flutter? Hmm, let's look at our before and after. Uh .... YUP! I went from eyelash alopecia (not actually, I just have super light, thin eyelashes that don't show up in pictures) to an eyelash explosion in just two coats. Also, to be as honest as possible to the abilities of the product I did NOT prime or curl my lashes before applying. This stuff is like steroids for your eyelashes. I put on a total of three coats and I didn't experience any clumping or flaking which was fantastic. Honestly, I just bought some super cheap Rimmel mascara and it's going in the trash to make way for this stuff.

SCORE : 9.5/10. I'm poor as fuck so this is a bit above my price point  for mascara but if you have a big budget I'd highly recommend this product. 

URBAN DECAY AFTERGLOW GLINE-ON CHEEK TINT IN 'CRUSH' ($24.00): Sephora says ... "A sheer, buildable cheek tint that glides on effortlessly and feels truly weightless. This cheek tint can be applied on top of foundation or bare skin without that powdery, cakey effect that can result from use of powder blush."

MEREDITH'S REVIEW: As someone who always wears a finishing powder over my foundation, this isn't the most practical product for me but if you wanted to opt for a natural, dewy look sans powder (and not lose out on any pigment) this is a fantastic product. As you can see from the picture, this shade is quite pink but it is buildable so you do have control over color saturation. All in all a good quality product, just not something that fits well into my powder based makeup regime.

SCORE: 8.5/10 - Does what it says, highly pigmented, easy to apply (without powder) isn't sticky after drying but it did stain my hands a bit and I prefer powder blushes if I'm being totally honest.

I haven't used my aloe masks yet, I'm saving them for tonight after I take my makeup off but I'm definitely excited to use them so I'll let you guys know how they are. I want to say thanks again to Ti & Makeupbee for sending me these lovely products to share with you guys and look for my coronation interview to be coming in the next month. 

Hi everyone! Welcome to the first installment of my blogger of the month series. Each month I will be recognizing and featuring someone who I believe to be a true talent in the beauty blogging world and displaying their work for you guys to see. I have included an interview as well as a gallery of their best work and commissioned an exclusive look for the monthly 'Pigments & Palettes Challenge'. The first blogger I've decided to feature is:

Ronnie of Bows & Curtseys

Ronnie's eye looks are some of the best that I've seen and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little envious of her incredible skill. I had a really difficult time selecting my favorite looks of hers because there were so many phenomenal looks to choose from. Her work has been recognized on Makeupbee.com and Beautylish and I imagine that you will continue to see her handiwork all over the web for a long time to come, and probably on some famous faces in the future, she's that good.  If you're already following her, congrats on your impeccable taste and if you're not a follower then I imagine you will be by the end of this post. Keep reading to check it all out!

Hi guys, I'm back with another look for my Anti-Princess series and this time we're doing Tinkerbell! I wanted to capture the fantastical nature of fairies in this look so I got a little crafty with my eyebrows, don't be alarmed! This look is a monochromatic green palette with hints of gold shimmer. I used a ton of glitter in this look to emulate her fairy dust but (as always) it didn't show up on camera so use your imagination. Now, before we get to the look, say it with me: I do believe in fairies! I do believe in fairies! I do believe in fairies!

"Tinker Bell (or Tink for short) is a character in Peter Pan. Tinker Bell is described as a common fairy who is small, slender, hand-sized, and fair-skinned. She is feisty and hot-tempered, but also very cute. She has blue eyes, blond hair worn in a bun, and pointy ears. Though she can sometimes be ill-behaved and vindictive, at other times she is helpful and kind to Peter, for whom she apparently has romantic feelings. The extremes in her personality are explained by the fact that a fairy’s size prevents her from holding more than one feeling at a time."

Tink says 'Look below for the makeup"

THE LOOK: The eyes on this look are an analogic scheme of warm greens and golden yellows. I used Coastal Scents 88 Palette as the base and did a tri-color fade from the inner-third to the outer-third of the eye (my signature look). After that I went over the colors with glitter liners (NYX & Annabelle make great ones!) as well as loose mineral shimmer powders (Coastal Scents in Green & Annabelle in Solarbeam) to give everything the appearance of shimmery fairy dust. It looks a lot more effective in real life, very reflective and pretty. The face is my standard routine with gold highlighting & NARS Desire (my current go to blush). The lips (as always) are from my Sephora Holiday Palette - sorry I never have names for anything! The eyebrows are made out of tiny glittery leaves I bought from Michaels because I thought they looked like tiny fairy wings

THE HAIR: So, the hair is a tutorial from Makeup Geek that I've done once before for my Modern Audrey Hepburn look. It's a great, easy hairstyle which is perfect for me. Throw your hair up in a high pony, tease, wrap around the elastic and bobby pin. I added green ribbon and some fun adornments just for effect but you can use any kinds of hair accessories to compliment this super wearable hairstyle.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you guys like the look. Don't forget to check out my giveaway!

Wow, I'm in COMPLETE shock. Today I was the featured photo on the Beautylish Homepage for the THIRD TIME IN UNDER A MONTH!? What the what?? Jaw, meet floor. Of all the incredibly talented, beautiful, cosmetic goddesses on that site they have picked me three times now. I don't know what to say. I'm incredibly flattered but also floored to have my work deemed good enough to be on the homepage. Anyways, this post is to say thank you to Beautylish for their continued support.

 (L-R: July 13th, July 23rd, August 5th)

If you have a Beautylish account and want to add me my profile is HERE, and if you don't have an account you should definitely sign up. They have incredible advice and articles from experts, user tutorials, an inspiration gallery to die for and so much more. You're going to want to check it out.

On a similar note - I'd also like to start doing a Featured Blogger of the Month to expose my amazing followers to some of my favorite blogging beauties. It will consist of a short 'interview' and some featured photos of their work. I have a few people in mind already but if you'd like to be considered for the feature drop me an e-mail at pigmentsandpalettes@gmail.com. It will be a great way to gain some exposure and allow me and my followers to get to know the beauty behind the blog!

And don't forget to check out my GIVEAWAY! 

 

Love you guys, have a fantastic weekend.

So for my next look in the No Princess Club Series I did Esmerelda, as I had a request for her a few posts back. I was inspired by the colors of her gypsy street wear, a mix of teals, pinks, purples, and golds and I have to say that while the look turned out a lot more feminine and bright than I originally intended, I quite like the look and I'm very pleased with it. I also wanted to curl my hair to look more like her, as she has beautiful wavy hair so I found an incredibly easy and very effective method of turning limp, lame, stick straight hair into sexy, boucy waves - stay tuned for it, that's at the end of the post. For now, here are some pictures of the look:

"Esmeralda is the heroine of Disney's 1996 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame and its sequel. She is voiced by Demi Moore. She is a fearless and streetwise gypsy with a heart of gold. She's also able to look beyond physical appearances and is one of the first -- and only -- people in both films to befriend the deformed yet lovable hunchback Quasimodo. Esmeralda is a wonderful heroine whose greatest wish is to see outcasts like Quasimodo and her fellow gypsies be accepted into society and be treated as people."

 

THE LOOK: Please excuse the devastatingly awful fake eyelash application, other than that, I'm very pleased with how this turned out. I used all shades from the Coastal Scents 88P on the lid/crease and then used Annabelle's Gold Shimmer in Solarbeam under the eye and into the tear duct. To line I used Lise Watier Aqua Liner in Violet (gorgeous!) and faded it into black liquid liner. I added lots of gold glitter under my eye as well but my shabby ass camera doesn't pick up glitter. The lips are a mix of  a bright pink and mauve shades from my Sephora Holiday Palette with gold shimmer overlay and the cheeks are a mix of Rimmel Sunkissed Bronzer and NARS Desire. I heavily contoured and bronzed my face as well to get closer to Esmerelda's olive complexion. 

THE HAIR: Now! On to the hair. I am one of those girls with stick straight hair that curly girls always envy, so, naturally I envy their voluminous bouncy hair. Unfortunately, my hair is very resistant to curling and styling. I've wasted hours on Youtube Tutorials and different products trying to get the perfect curl/waves but nothing has ever worked until now. And guess what, this curl method requires only a headband and some hairspray. NO HEAT! And that means, NO DAMAGE! I was skeptical at first - it was almost too easy (only takes 5-10 mins), but it worked! Look how curly and pretty my hair turned out. The tutorial is HERE and I highly suggest you try it out. It's pretty much fool proof, because, well I pulled it off! This style lasted about 10 hours with light hairspray.

Before & After (SOURCE)

Hope you guys enjoyed this look and find the tutorial useful. Don't forget to check out my giveaway HERE if you haven't already and share the love with your followers <3

 Well guys, I can finally make good on my promise to do a giveaway to celebrate and thank my 200+ followers. I'll spare you the sappy details and just say this. Thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you to everyone who has followed, commented, and made me feel like I have a blog worth reading and a talent worth sharing. To show my appreciation I've put together a $200.00 giveaway to commemorate my 200+ followers.

Please read carefully as I reserve the right to disqualify any incomplete/invalid entries!

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