LLIA Favorites: Eye Shadow

It's no secret that I love makeup. I remember when Sephora first opened,  I was in college, and it was an online website only at that time. (I'm aging myself, I realize this) My dad would see my debit card statements and ask, "Lindsay…what is Se….phor….a?" GULP. I love it all! A few weeks ago, I shared my favorite blushes. I got some requests to do a post on my favorite eye shadows, and this post is one that I am SO excited about! Besides lipsticks, eye shadows are my favorite thing to buy experiment with! Read below to see my all-time favorites, and please share your favorites with me in the comment section!

 MAC's All That Glitters Shadow - Let me start be saying this: This shadow DOES NOT have any glitter in it. I have no idea why they named the shadow that, but I can assure you, this is not some glittery eye shadow you used circa 1985. It is the most beautiful peachy-nude shade with a bit of a sheen to it, which gives the eyes/skin this incredible glow! It is my ALL.TIME.FAVORITE! I get SO many compliments when I wear this eye shadow! It's the perfect nude for any skin type, and it looks good all year long, whether I have a tan or not. All That Glitters is one of my holy-grail products, for sure! This is the shadow I use pretty much on a daily basis, along with black liner and mascara. I tend to run late a lot all the time, and this shadow is so easy to swipe on and go! I do use an eye shadow base/primer to ensure the color stays on all day. Another reason I love using a primer is to make sure the color goes on the eye exactly how it looks in the pot. 

Top to Bottom: Maybelline Color Tattoo Pot in Barely Branded; MAC Rubenesque; MAC Painterly

My favorite eye shadow bases/primers are MAC's Paint Pot in Painterly, Bare Study, and Rubenesque. I've recently discovered a cheaper alternative for MAC's Bare Study: Maybelline Color Tattoo Pot in Barely Branded. It's the one I use the most now. Looks great under any eye shadow! I also love Urban Decay's Eye Shadow Primer Potion.

MAC's Amber Lights Shadow - This is another must-have eye shadow for me! I love the beautiful coppery/bronze color alone or mixed with MAC's Coppering shadow for a more bold metallic eye! This shadow is pretty on anyone, but it looks especially good on blue eyes. Orange is opposite blue on the color wheel, so it makes blue eyes pop! {Tip: If you want to find colors to compliment your eyes, look at the color wheel and see what is directly across from your eye color!}

{My Woodwinked is almost gone, so I found this picture online here.}

MAC's Woodwinked Shadow - Besides All That Glitters shadow, this shadow is the one I use the most. I loooooove it! The makeup artist that did my wedding makeup used this on me, and I fell in love with the soft bronze color! It's so easy to wear! It looks like a nude bronze shadow, if that makes sense. It's not overwhelming or hard to wear at all. I love putting Maybelline Color Tattoo pot in "Bad to the Bronze" on first, then putting Woodwinked over it and lining my eyes with MAC Teddy Eye Liner. So pretty and easy... and lasts all day! That paint pot is another must-have for me. It looks good all alone, too, for days you want to have a little color on the eyes. This is another eye shadow look that I throw on when I'm running late because it requires no thought, and you don't have to be precise when putting on the eye liner! 

{I couldn't get a good picture of the actual color, so I found this one online here. There's also a great swatch of Tan next to MAC's Woodwinked and All That Glitters on that site, if you want to see them next to each other!}

MAC "Tan" Pigment: I use this beautiful rose gold pigment all year long, but it looks especially good during the summer when I have a tan! I love this color all over the lid, worn alone, with just mascara! I also wear it a lot with Bobbi Brown's shadows in "Toast" and "Camel" in the crease. When doing this look, I put the Tan pigment all over, then put "Toast" in the crease, then layer "Camel" on top of it. (see colors below) 

{Bobbi Brown eye shadows. L to R: Bone, Toast, Camel}

{These are great everyday colors, too! Use "Bone" as a brow highlight!}

{MAC Shadows L to R: Folie, Saddle, and Antiqued}

These shadows are proof I use colors other than nude and bronze! I love these all on their own or mixed! My favorite look to do with these 3 shadows:

1. Put an eye shadow base down. (I use MAC's Constructivist or Maybelline's Bad to the Bronze)

2. With a flat eye shadow brush, pat Folie all over the lid, up to the crease. But no higher than that!

3. Take a fluffy eye shadow brush and put Saddle in the crease and buff it out really well.

4. With the same flat eye shadow brush as before, gently tap Folie just in the center of the eye lid.

5. Line your eyes with any liner in brown and black! Add mascara!

{Left: MAC's Coppering; Right: MAC's Mythology}

I just had to include these two. I don't wear them alone, but mixed with other things, they look great! For example, as I mentioned above, I love mixing "Coppering" with "Amber Lights" all over the lid with no eye liner! (Looks good with black liner, too, but I like to keep it simple..ish… haha) I've recently been loving to layer "Mythology" over my "All That Glitters."It is SO pretty and just takes the nude color to the next level. 

{Coastal Scents Fall Festival Palette}

This $12 beauty has become a new favorite for me! I saw a girl with cool eye shadow one day at the mall, over Christmas. So naturally, I tracked her down and asked her what she had on. She told me about this amazing palette she got on Amazon! The colors are beautiful and richly pigmented! You can create so many different eye looks with this single palette. Instead of going on out buying individual colors, try this instead! You won't be disappointed!  

MY FAVORITE EYELINERS: 

BROWNS:

MAC's "Teddy"
MAC's "Coffee"
MAC's "Costa Riche"

BLACKS:
My fave: L'Oreal Extra Intense eye liner in Carbon Black (super black, stays all day, blends easily!)
Urban Decay's 24/7 eyeliner in "Perversion" (I used to use this one but the above L'Oreal one is even better and cheaper!)
MAC's Fluidline in Blacktrack (This used to be my go-to gel eyeliner, until I found the Maybelline one. Both are great…Maybelline is just cheaper!)
Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner in Blackest Black

BRONZE:
Makeup Forever Aqua Eyes in 10L Bronze (my favorite eye liner! I use this mostly on my bottom lid and rims for a pop of bronze. I use this a lot when I'm wearing the "All That Glitters" eye shadow with black liner.)


If you want to see better/other pictures of the colors I mentioned in this post, just google the names. There are TONS of pictures and tutorials using these colors and many more. Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it! Have a great weekend!

Coconut Bliss Balls

I cannot, for the life of me, remember where I got the recipe for these yummy Coconut Bliss Balls! I am always emailing myself recipes and screen shots of things I want to make. I usually add the source of the recipe on the emails, but evidently I was too excited about making these bad boys to include that info. So to whoever made this recipe… THANK YOU! Well-done! I have a serious sweet tooth, and these are the perfect thing for after dinner or a mid-afternoon snack. If you make these, let me know how you like them!

COCONUT BLISS BALLS

Yields 13-16 balls

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup raw organic almonds

1 cup fresh Medjool dates (8 dates), pitted

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Dark)

2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut

pinch of sea salt

Optional: chia seeds, cinnamon, dark chocolate chips, diced dried cherries 

(I used 1-2 tbs of chia seeds)

Place almonds, cacao and shredded coconut into a high-speed blender or food processor. Process on high until ingredients are similar to a flour consistency. Add the remaining ingredients and blend on medium to high until fully messed into the dry ingredients. Pour mixture into a bowl. Spoon a tablespoon worth of the mixture in between your hands and roll to form a ball. Mixture will stick together, just keep squeezing and rolling! Repeat until all the mix is used. Roll the balls in extra coconut flakes. Place in the freezer for 1 hour and serve.

Store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

The Gratitude Project.

{Outdoor lunch in Vegas last week}

What a crazy and fun week this has been! Turning 32…Valentines Day double date with my parents at a winery in West TN…flying to Vegas a day early so we could beat the snow…a snow-filled week in Nashville… Glad to see the snow LEAVE! As a TN native, I can say with complete confidence: snow  isn't something we can deal with  for longer than a day. If it comes and stays, it's a madhouse here. Luckily I missed a lot of that by being in Vegas! Here are the things I am grateful for this week…

1. VEGAS SUNSHINE: When I walked off the plane in Vegas last Sunday, I acted like I hadn't seen sunshine in months. Well, it's probably because I hadn't….  

During my whole trip, I was in a constant state of gratitude for sunshine and the 70 degree weather! The picture above was a day that we enjoyed a 2-hour lunch outside just because it was so beautiful! We couldn't bring ourselves to leave, even though we were done eating. Due to the baseball lifestyle, we were usually gone to FL or AZ by the beginning of February. So I kind of "forgot" how long and cold these couple of months can be. Being here in TN this whole winter,  I was reminded that it's just down-right COLD here during January and February. I was so happy and grateful for sunshine and flip-flops last week! It made such a difference in my mood! Needless to say, I am very ready for spring! 

2. Baseball Friends - I was never the "new kid" in school. I started school in the same town - and with the same people - that I graduated. So the concept of "new kid" was foreign to me… Until I married a baseball player. I hadn't thought too much about that part of my life lately, until a friend from our baseball days posted a picture with me in it for #throwbackthursday. The picture captured 4 friends, smiling widely, at a baseball game. Friends that were complete strangers just weeks before that picture was taken. If you put the baseball world under a microscope, you will find that it's bizarre, hard, and trying. You will also find that it's extremely fun and rewarding. That is because of the people we meet and the friends we make. Each season (and sometimes multiple times during a season), there's a new team and new people to meet. Everyone at some point is "the new kid." I am incredibly thankful for all of the amazing friends I met during that time. Girls that I still keep in contact with today, be it through phone calls, texts, emails, Christmas cards, or even getting together in person when possible! I love each of them for reasons tough to convey on a little ol' blog. God put such amazing women in my life during each baseball season, and even when I was "the new kid," I didn't feel like it for long because of those amazing women from all over this great country.

3. Men & Women Who Serve Our Country: Last night when watching the Oscars, I was really hoping American Snipper would win for Best Picture. Not because the other movies weren't great. Not because the actors in the other movies didn't give incredibly moving performances. But because American Snipper shows the reality of what it's like to truly serve our country (over and over and over again) and the horrors & sacrifices that go along with doing so. I saw the movie and was extremely moved by the bravery of Chris Kyle and ALL the military men and women who serve. I cannot begin to image leaving your spouse, your family, and your home to go to war. It takes bravery beyond belief to serve our country, and last night I was so grateful we have men and women who are doing that right now for YOU and for ME.

{The picture my friend posted of our baseball days in Seattle.}

The Gratitude Project.

{via}

1. Another Birthday - I am so incredibly grateful, thankful, blessed.... you name it!..... that I am here another year on this earth to celebrate turning 32 years old! Birthdays are a true blessing, even though some of us jokingly dread getting older and all that it comes with it. HA! I'm grateful this birthday finds me healthy and able to celebrate with the ones I love. Here's to many more!

2. My In-Laws - There are MANY times throughout my week that I stop and think "My husband is amazing!" A lot of that is because of such wonderful guidance from his parents. Having played baseball in the major leagues, one would have to know that A LOT of time and energy went into helping him get there. Countless hours in the car driving him to and from practice & games....even more hours in the stands watching him play (hello, that's a sacrifice in itself because games last FOR-EV-ER in my opinion!)...constantly encouraging him....instilling in him that dreams DO come true, and anything is possible with hard work and dedication. I love that my husband believes he can do anything he sets is mind to, even the seemingly impossible. I love that he is a good, faithful, generous, goofy man that loves me like crazy and helps me in every way possible. I am grateful he had parents that made him that way because I get to reap the amazing benefits.

3. AAA - Before marrying my husband, I never had AAA. My parents didn't either. I thought it was a waste of money, and when the bill came every year, I would wonder why we pay for this service year after year and never use it.. Recently, after driving back from West TN and getting in late one night, I heard a rush of air coming from one of my tires. I reached my hand down to possibly feel where the air was coming from and felt a huge gash in one of my tires! Of course, Chris wasn't home so I had to deal with it all by myself. (Gasp!) I quickly remember we had AAA, and within an hour my spare tire was put on and all was well. In that moment, late at night, I was grateful for AAA...and grateful we continued to pay that "useless" bill year after year. Trust me, I will be jumping at the chance to get that bill every year from now on! I'm grateful for services like that and people who come to my house late at night to find a helpless woman in need of a tire change!

The Gratitude Project.

1. Girl Time - This past weekend one of my best friends came to town to visit. She needed a little getaway. I don't have 2 children like she does, but I think I was looking forward to her visiting just as much as she was! Maybe for different reasons, haha! I'm thankful for her and our friendship that has lasted close to 15 years! She is super busy, like most women with children and a job, but she still makes the time for herself and for the people she loves. She's one of the kindest people I've ever met, and I am thankful to have met her years ago on a small pageant stage in West Tennessee.

2. My Business, Sidney Clark Designs - About a year ago, I started a business with my mother and aunt. I had been wanting to do it for a long time, but the baseball lifestyle and all the traveling didn't bode well for an online clothing business. Once Chris retired, we promptly started the business and haven't looked back. As all of the spring clothes start to arrive, my entryway is filled with boxes, papers, and pretty clothing. It gets me so excited to see it all, but mostly I am grateful for this opportunity because it has been a bright spot in my everyday life this past year. I really love doing this and helping women dress and feel good about themselves. This business and its timing has been an amazing blessing to me, this past year and every day since.

3. Grandparents - On February 5th, it will have been one year since I lost my grandfather. There has not been one single day this whole year that has gone by that I have not thought about him. And missed him. Thinking about that fact, though, I am incredibly grateful that I got to have 30 years with all 4 of my grandparents! What a blessing! I don't know many people my age that can say that, and it's not something I take lightly. I'm grateful I can still enjoy them in my adult years, and I really enjoy learning about the people they were before they had kids. I encourage you to spend time with your grandparents because as we all know, they will not always be here with you. I cherish those times and memories!