Today's up and coming Spring/Summer color is a tawny, trendy tan color called Starfish.

Starfish is one of those subtle shades that never goes out of style and is so easy to work into any wardrobe from bohemian beauty to classy conservative. Neutral tones like Starfish also provide the perfect base for all kinds of vibrant, colorful accessories, so you don't have to sacrifice color to wear this tan tone. Pantone's palette suggests pairing Starfish with a teal or tangerine orange accent. I fully support this suggestion, but who says you have to stop there? Try all kinds of awesome accent colors until you settle on one that's just right for you.

For those of you who have been following my blog for a while now, you might remember a series I did this past summer inspired by upcoming Fall/Winter fashion. Well, Pantone (the leading authority on all things color) has once again released their research revealing the top ten colors gracing couture catwalks this season and I want you to be the first to see a sneak preview of what everyone will be wearing once the sun comes out. So out with the dark drama of Fall/Winter and in with the bright and bubbly beauty for Spring and Summer 2012!

First things first. I recently found out I have a ton of readers from Poland so I want to shout out to them: Dziękuję za przeczytanie mojego bloga. Kocham was wszystkich! (I hope that's right! Blame Google Translate if I accidentally said something offensive) That's so cool that I have such an international following. The internet is a wonderful thing!

Anyways, today's post is in collaboration with Natalie from UrbanelyDecayed and it's a beast of a post. Natalie is someone who I truly admire and respect as an artist so I was incredibly flattered to have been asked to participate in her Alter-ego series. If you've never been to her blog I want you to stop reading immediately and head over there right now ....... okay. You went, right? Is she not one of the most talented bloggers you've ever come across? YES! YES! YES! you are probably saying. Well, that's also what I said when she asked me to create a look for her series. Then, after I said yes, I went into full-blown panic mode: Oh god. Inspiration brain freeze. NOT. GOOD. I had no idea what to do. I had no clue what or who my alter-ego even was. I racked my brain and poured over endless images searching for my inner-other-me but I kept coming up empty.

Eventually, I decided that my alter-ego wasn't necessarily a different persona. I started to think of it as the fiery force you feel when you're at your most confident, your most unshakably awesome. I knew it had to be bold and bright, because that's how I feel when I'm at my best. That's it, I thought. My best me. My beast me! My inner beauty beast! Behold! Pull back the skin and reveal the beast within a.k.a. "The Beauty is A Beast" ...

For fear of over-explaining it and coming across as cliche, I'm going to try and let the images speak for themselves. There isn't a lot of explanation for what I did anyways, I just did what felt right. It's an allusion to my inner animal, my rainbow of personalities, etc. But if you want to get literal, my alter ego is a really gay zebra. Brilliant.

My sincerest apologies that these are the best shots I could get. My camera's auto-focus took the day off so everything turned out fuzzy when I uploaded them to my computer. Unfortunately the makeup took 4 hours to do and an hour to get off so I couldn't re-do for another shoot. I hope you guys still like the final product. This was my first time working with Liquid Latex which proved quite tricky, so there is definitely room for improvement if I ever redid it. But all in all I'd say I'm satisfied with what I created. I want to redo something like this for Halloween this year.

Here are some other looks in the series so far, click the pictures to visit these talented beauties' blogs for more pictures of their alter-egos.

If you want to see the rest of the looks coming up in the series, please subscribe to Natalie's blog for the stunning conclusion. You won't want to miss what Natalie has come up with, TRUST me.

Well, as many of you already know - last night was the 69th annual Golden Globe Awards. I didn't watch because I don't actually have a T.V. but you can bet I was all over the web looking up what the ladies wore on the red-carpet. There were some definite style standouts for me, especially fierce incarnate: SWINTON. But dresses aside, my favorite makeup look of the evening belongs to miss Emma Stone. Emma has been killing it on the red carpet all season and last night was no exception. Her gorgeous gunmetal eyeshadow was the perfect compliment to her gorgeous eggplant colored Lanvin dress. I knew the moment I saw it that I had to try it for myself. I couldn't find any super high quality pictures of it so I did my best to guess at what she wore. Here's what I came up with:

Lashes: Chloe from Faux Lashes

Here's Emma rocking her look on the red carpet:

Now, back to me:

We're basically twins, amirite? Totally. Anyways, all joking aside I did manage to find the product breakdown for what Emma's Makeup Artist used to create this flawless face and stunning smokey feline eye:

Face:

• REVLON PhotoReady Perfecting Primer, REVLON PhotoReady Airbrush Mousse Makeup in Nude, CHANEL Powder Blush in Orchid Rose.

Eyes:

• CHANEL Intense Eye Pencil in Noir, REVLON ColorStay 16H Eyeshadow Quad in Precocious, CHANEL Inimitable Intense Mascara in Noir.

Lips:

• REVLON ColorBurst Lip Butter in Lollipop.

I also came up with my own inspired version of this look and I've got the tutorial for you guys here if you want to try it out for yourself. This would be lovely for Valentines day or Prom, or even just a night out with friends. Enjoy!!

What other red-carpet looks did you love (or hate)? Let me know!

Today's post is a review of all the products in my $400.00 Anastasia Giveaway sent to me by a company called Anastasia Beverley Hills. 

"For years, Anastasia has shaped the brows of Hollywood's elite in her Beverly Hills Salon. Now she brings her brow products to you. She's created her signature line to help you achieve beautiful Anastasia brows at home." - ABH

The company obviously specializes in brow products, but they sell all kinds of cosmetics, kits, tools and brushes. The company was incredibly generous and sent me four themed beauty boxes so I could sample a little bit of everything their site offers. Each box contained three of their products and I'm pleased to be reviewing these for you today. I'd never heard of Anastasia Beverley Hills before they contacted me but now that I've had a taste of their luxury products, my goodness, was I ever missing out! Read on to find out more about these products and how you can win everything you see here!

I'm SO thrilled to be bringing this post to you guys today. I'm partnering with Anastasia Beverly Hills, a high class luxury beauty company, to host this incredible giveaway. We will be giving away FOUR (yes, you read that correctly) prize packs, each worth a retail value of about $100.00. That's $400.00 in giveaway prizes to be won by you, and four chances to win! I will be reviewing all of the products you see here as well, and doing looks inspired by and with the products in the coming weeks as I promote the giveaway. So, now on to the good stuff - click the jump to see what you could win!

BIG POST ALERT! I have some REALLY exciting stuff for you guys today. Swatches, reviews, a look AND a tutorial. This post has got it ALL! But before we get to the goods, a little back story. In early December I was contacted by Makeupbee.com and asked if I would like to receive and review some Lime Crime products. So, naturally, when offered free things I take about .001 seconds to respond ... HELL YEAH! I've never owned any Lime Crime so I was eager to try out a new brand. 

Lime Crime was generous enough to let me pick two eyeshadows, a lipstick, and a gloss from their brand new Carousel collection - and they thew in some of their eye shadow helper as well. After a long and anxious wait over the holidays I was ferociously excited when my stuff came in the mail this week. I tore into that package like a rabid beast and proceeded to cover my body in swatches of the stuff. Click the jump to see what I got.

Welcome to the January 2012 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. For this monthly feature I have included an interview as well as a gallery of their best work. And, as a special treat, I have commissioned an exclusive look for the monthly 'Pigments & Palettes Challenge'. The next blogger I've decided to feature is:

Sahily of Pretty In Pigment

I contacted Sahily a while back after seeing her stunning avian inspired macaw look. Besides her incredible avian series, I also love her more recent Sanrio series which you should definitely check out if you grew up with those awesome anime characters like I did. Sahily does everything from day looks to full SFX makeup and she's always hosting generous giveaways and contests. I hope you enjoy the interview and will love Sahily's work as much as I do.

Happy 2012 everybody! I hope you all had an incredible New Years, looked fabulous and had fun (I probably had a bit TOO much fun, if you know what I mean!). I'm starting 2012 off with a look that was recently requested by one of my previous Bloggers of the Month - Marla (of http://marlaandmakeup.blogspot.com/). I'll admit I was hesitant to take on Adele's signature look because I've never been great at mastering the art of simple, neutral looks but I gave it my best shot.

Adele's looks are always so simple, but so stunning. I would say the three things that come to mind when I think of Adele's makeup are: elongated liner, neutral tones and luxurious lashes. Her look is very consistent, and she seems to pull a lot of influence from the late 50's, early 60's - but with a modern update. 

I made sure to have thick liner, big lashes and tried my best to match her flawless alabaster complexion. I think I succeeded on the first two but having eaten WAYYYYY too many sweets over the past three weeks of vacation, no amout of makeup can fix my angry dermis at the moment. So, I apologize for some of the unsightly blemishes in the video. Moving on though - let's check out some of the pictures:

I went ahead and filmed a tutorial for this look as well in case you guys would like to try it for yourself. It's incredibly easy - it only uses a few different colors of eyeshadow and they are shades that most people probably have. The trick to Adele's looks is that they are supposed to be very natural - so you should make the look work with (not against) your natural skin tone. For someone with darker skin than me (i.e. pretty much everyone, wahhhh so pasty) you'll probably have to edit your color selection a bit. The video also has tips for hiding blemishes, powdering your face and making dramatic eyeliner work best for you.

Hope you guys enjoyed it and thank you to Marla for the request - it was a lot of fun! If you have your own request feel free to leave it in the comment section or e-mail me at pigmentsandpalettes (@) gmail.com anytime! Adele thanks you for reading this post. :)