Q&A

       Hi. Sorry for my little hiatus. Since the weather has been getting nicer I have been trying to spend my time out of the house during the days. Also I have made some friends, it's great. Last week I spent 3 of my afternoons having lunch or shopping with different friends. Who knew I would have a better social life in a foreign country in 4 months than I did in 6 months in Atlanta.

     Through Andi's Eyes is my connection to the Fashion and Beauty world right now so it's really special to me. I am trying to thing of ways to revamp it. Maybe with daily themes and or a new layout. Yesterday it was suggested to me that I take questions from readers, either by email or in the comments and have one day a week to answer peoples questions. I think that is a great idea. If you want to participate, please email your questions to andiseyes at gmail dot com.

Thank you all for reading. As I close in to 100 readers I am trying to think of a giveaway to do. Maybe next week.

43 days until I see the ocean again...

Get more for your money

       Recently there was a discussion about the amount of money one has invested in their makeup bag. My number was huge. Of course this is because I am a non working MUA, and my entire kit has now become my own products. I estimated about $800 dollars would be down the drain if I lost my makeup bag. It might be more. That is a scary thought.

      Although that is a large amount of money for an average person to spend on their makeup, for a professional makeup artist it is actually a low number. I do have a MAC discount which helps but I also have a few for using a minimal amount of products to achieve a large variety of looks.

Here are a couple of things that might help you save some money in your own makeup bag.

• Have only two color eye liners, black and brown. If you want a colored liner you can set either of these colors with a colored shadow for the same effect. 
• Why buy 5 different shades of the same color? Instead buy a medium shade and use it with different techniques. You can do several layers of a color to make it darker. Try using it with a shadow primer for richer pigment, and without for a softer color. 
• The shadow that you use as a highlight color can double as the highlighter for the rest of the face, applied to the top of the cheekbones and the nose. 
• Use an eyeshadow to fill in your brows instead of using a separate brow pencil/powder.
• Always apply moisturizer to your face before applying foundation. Your skin is like a sponge, when dry it will suck up anything you rub on it, therefore using more product. A moisturizer is not just good for the skin, but it will fill the skin, and just like a wet sponge can't pick up more water, your foundation will stay in place. 
• Instead of having a lot of different lipsticks (I don't own one), try using a combination of lip pencils (I have 3, one flesh toned, one pink and one red) and glosses. You can create totally different colors using different mixtures here. 

Do you have any money saving tips? 

Just because there were no pictures in this whole post and I hate that. My poor cat. He loves me though. 

Why is it so fun to annoy cats?

Tea for two

      
 I drink tea a lot. I love it. It is a perfect cold weather pick me up. Now that the weather is getting nicer though, I don't always want to drink a hot beverage. Instead I have modified one of my favorite tea recipes for warmer weather. You can find the original recipe in this post. To make it more summery, instead of adding a squeeze of lemon I add the juice from a whole lemon or lime. Then after it's done steeping, I add some organic honey to cut the tartness, add it to your own taste. Then I stick it in the fridge to cool. Then I drink it later over some ice. It's really refreshing. This is also a detoxifying tea.

Even though I have stopped posting my healthy meals (let's face it, I eat the same things over and over, and that isn't interesting), I am still eating healthy as much as I can.

Also, JP and I have started the P90X program. One week in, I am loving it! I will probably do a post on it soon, but I want to get a few weeks under my belt first so I can give a better opinion.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Opps I forgot...

    I forgot to include the makeup colors that I used in my last post.

I used Bobbi Brown Shadow in Champagne from lash line to lid.

Then I used a MAC Shadow, Show Stopper, which I am not sure is available in the US. This color I put lightly in the crease and along the lash line. It is a warm grey color

Then I lined my eyes with my usual MAC Technikohl Liner in Photogravure (a dark brown) and went over that line with MAC Shadow, Typographic, and dark (almost black) smokey grey. 

I also want to thank Mere and Taylor for their Sunshine Award that they gave me.

I know I am supposed to nominate my favorite blogs now but I think all of them have already been nominated. I love them all. If you want to see my favorites check out my blog roll. I have just added five new ones there!

Oh, man! I am so sore. It's actually hurting to type. JP and I started P90X last night. Let me tell you, it is a good work out. Round two tonight!

Natural looking foil pattern and LOTD

         A fellow blogger, Steph of Not Just Another Blonde, emailed me a question last night asking about natural highlights. I felt that the best way to describe the foil placement was to try to draw it. Notice I said try. I don't have a great program on my computer to draw pictures so I had to work with what I have and, well, you'll see.

     I did two drawings, the first is to show you a basic foil pattern that a lot of people follow. This pattern is what creates highlights like this...

Ok this is an extreme example, but I just used this picture to illustrate the point. 

A telltale Characteristic of this pattern is that you can see where the line crosses the part in the hair.

The lines represent the direction of the foil placement. 

See how bad the drawings are? But you still get the idea.

The next drawing shows the most natural way to place the foils. It creates highlights more like this...

Where there are no definite lines in the hair. 

In this pattern the foils should fall in the direction that the hair falls on the head. The top section is the most important. The foils in this section should lay perpendicular to the front and back sections and lay across the top of the head like a book.

     On Friday night JP and I had a date night. We went to the best steak house in town, just the two of us and then came home and watched a couple of South Park episodes (one of the only English shows we can watch online). It was a great night. 

Blazer: Banana Republic

Ruffle tank top: F21

Jeans: H&M

Shoes: Steve Madden

I did a look I don't normally do. I know this is shocking, I used a black eye liner. LOL

          I hope you had a great weekend!

xoxo Andi

Are you looking for a new hair style?

          If you are in the market for a new style I have the perfect site for you. UKHairdresssers.com is a Brittish based site. They have thousands of pictures there that range from funky cut and color to more classic looks. When you get to the site just click on Style Gallery and it will take you to the different looks. I hope you find some inspiration.

Company: The Colour Room
Elite Collection
Hair: Sean and James Tetlow
Stylist: Peter Breen
Make-up: Chase Ashton
Photography: Trevor Leighton

Disclaimer: I am not being paid to promote this site. I just get a lot of questions about good sites to find styles and I thought I would share my favorite one with everyone.

Do you have any places that you look to find new styles? Please share if you do.

Bare faced and Fancy Free.

          From Tuesday of last week until Sunday morning (Easter), one of my best friends came to stay with us here in Germany. She and her beautiful family live in Copenhagen, only a 9 hour drive away. We spent the time with them just relaxing and doing whatever we felt like doing. This included chasing around a 15 month old around my non-childproof house, drinking beer and walking around the city. What it did not include was putting on makeup or blow drying my hair even once. It was very nice, but at the same time I can see where some mothers start to feel like they have lose their style. It is important to feel beautiful, and makeup helps us do that.

          To tell you the truth, as a stay at home wife, one of the reasons that I blog is to give myself a reason to put on some makeup. Even wearing makeup once in a while can boost your self esteem. When you look good you feel good. Tomorrow I will definitely be back at it.