It's been forever in Makeupland...

There's no other way to say it, I've been TERRIBLE at blogging. So many things have happened in my life and with Lost in Makeupland that it'd take forever to write them and you'd get bored almost instantly.

Many of you know I've been through really tough times but here I am fighting and strong and trying to make things right and to do new stuff that's exciting for me (and hopefully for you too) :)

I have a lot of posts scheduled and hope I can slowly and finally can go back to blogging and have a real interaction with you people in here.

To start I'm going to do a little wrap-up so you know the most important stuff that happened while I neglected the blog.

The much anticipated Rock My Look v2.0 was FINALLY released on January 31th. Containing twelve eyeshadows and a bonus track, this collection is larger than its first part and I've tried to make it easy to match most of the colors to the previous RML. While I had material and formulated stuff to make it bigger, I've saved the rest of products for the future.

Something new in this collection is that I've been playing with neutrals with a twist and I've also formulated some sheerer colors, which is something I'm loving, formulating different textures and trying to achieve different finishes. I always formulate everything from scratch, and you really learn a lot whenever you try something different than your usual.

I owe you another post with all the swatches and where the inspiration for them comes from (and another one for the Nostalgia collection too!) and some looks.

This brings up another topic.

Better now?

As you may have noticed (or if you have read my twitter lately) I'm changing my swatching method because some people don't use primers or don't use their eyeshadows foiled and I'm aware that may make them feel disappointed when they receive them and they don't look like my swatches. To give the most accurate possible info I've decided to change the way I do my swatches. I'll swatch everything dry without primer, over a primer (TFSI unless stated otherwise) and foiled (over Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy unless stated otherwise), like in this picture so you can see the different results you'll achieve depending on the way you apply them.

I'm working on bringing that back and making it a permanent and monthly thing on the blog and the shop. I know I still have to draw a winner from Volta's month and I will asap and write a post about it and contact the winner so they get their prize. After that, I'll get everything ready to start in March with the next.

I've been hinting that I have another project I'm working on lately, and didn't really give out more info about it other that I've been posting some little pieces of jewelry at my LiM shop.

They're a little preview of what will come whenever I'm ready for it, I have to be honest and I don't know when I'll be able to do all the branding and packaging for this new project and I want a REALLY extensive stock before opening its separate shop, so far I have 20 designs ready but only 6 on the shop. This project doesn't have a final name yet either.

What do you think of the pieces I've released so far?

Would you like to contribute to this blog with looks? I'll be happy to post them if you use at least two Lost In Makeupland products in your look. I'll need good quality pictures and a little info about you and a list of the products used sent to lostinmakeupland@gmail.com. I'll be glad to feature you!

Do you have a blog and posted reviews, swatches or looks using LiM? Send me your links please! I want to put everything together so people can access reviews and all easily. I'm not censoring anyone so even if your review is less than stellar I want to know about it, I'll post it too and will also try to work together with you to see if I can help your experience with LiM be better.

You can send them via lostinmakeupland@gmail.com or post them here in the comments section.


I really miss you girls, do you also find it hard to blog when life is crazy?

Releases, FINALLY!!

After months and months of keeping you waiting for this collection, showing out some swatches from time to time and postponing the date time after time, I've released A BUNCH of new products.

The much awaited Nostalgia: When I Was Young collection, four new Whipped highlighters, three finishing veils and the finishing powder for oily skin are finally available in my Etsy shop!

Let's break them down a bit!

This collection was troublesome for me even to chose its name! I doubted between two until the last minute almost, and some of you may have received free samples with the name Nostalgia: Once Upon a Time. I settled for When I Was Young, but there'll be a Once Upon a Time collection too ;)

On to the shades!! Click on them to fully appreciate the colors <3

 

Deep smokey brown with a gold shift.  

 Highlighter, light creamy gold with subtle red shimmer.

 Light aquamarine blue with violet duochrome and glitter.

 Beautiful cold toned pastel pink with blue shimmer.

 Bright teal with golden shimmer.

 Amazing yellowed grass green with red glitter. Designed by Ana of Lipsticks and Lightsabers.

 Light, semi matte grey.

Low shimmer highlighter, cool toned cream. 

Reddish eggplant with blue iridescence and glitter.

   Dark purplish blue with pink iridescence and gold glitter.

Deep red with green duochrome and glitter.

Bright yellow with red iridescence and red glitter.

I love Whipped and use it quite often, but sometimes I felt like I needed an extra "something" on it but keeping the same formula and texture it had. And so the Whipped Reflects were born!

This is the original Whipped. 

It's taken forever hasn't it? My finishing powders have always had a good acceptation and the testing done by Stephanie and later by Jade (lovely girls with great blogs!) went so well that I've had a hard time not selling it.

 

Until I can get a hold of a shipment of 10 gram jars (if you follow me on Twitter you've probably seen me complain about a completely crazy ripoff shipping cost that's keeping me from buying them) it'll only be available in sample size at $2. I hope this gets solved asasp, I'm currently waiting on TKB's answer to my email regarding this issue and getting angrier by the day.

Do you love Lost in Makeupland's finishing powders but want to add a little touch of light to your skin? The Finishing Veils are just perfect for it!

They're available in three different shades: English Rose, Faerie and Glow, and same as the regular finishing powders, they're also available for normal to dry, normal to combination and oily skin.

They won't make you shimmery or look oily, they just have the barest hint of light for them to look natural and make your complexion glow.


And that's all for the September releases... Next time will be for Halloween, but there won't be a Halloween themed collection, though I can I can assure you it'll be AMAZING. I'll post swatches in the following weeks because you know I'm a tease!

What do you think of the new products? Which ones appeal to you the most? Which are your musts? Your less favorite ones? You know I love knowing what you think!

<3<3<3<3<3<3

It's Saturday in Makeupland

Things have been suuuuuuupah busy here in Makeupland lately.A lot has been going on and I've been terrible and haven't updated the blog in like forever, sorry about that!

I have so much to tell you I don't even know where to start! So many things are happening right now! After a terrible summer and a chaotic month of August, things are coming back to its place and I'm feeling great, happy and full of positive energy.And I want to share all the good things coming from me with you :)

One thing I want to state is that this week my Paypal account was hacked and emptied and the limitation hasn't been taken off yet (not funny at all when you need that money and need supplies) so I'm very low in 10 gram jars and have no actual way to pay for more. Hope to fix that during this next week. When I run out of them, 10 gr jars will be put out of stock to avoid delays in my turnaround time.

A few weeks ago, there was a huge scandal in ArtFire. Due to a security branch information from customers was revealed to others. After that, ArtFire dealed (or should I say didn't deal with) that situation and had a quite nasty response.

I find this unacceptable and won't continue selling there, and I'm not the only one who has decided to move out from there, other shops like OHWTO (go buy some Black Magic Soap and amazing solid scents!!). From now on I'm only selling on my Etsy shop and hope to also open my own web shop really soon.

If you want to know more about this, go over to read this super complete post on what happened. There's a ton of info and screencaps so you can see the whole mess created.

Next Monday, September 5, will be an important day for Lost in Makeupland. Why? Because it's the final launch date of the Nostalgia collection, the new Whipped highlighters, the Finishing Powder for oily skin and the finishing veils in English Rose, Faerie and Glow.

If you want to try them asap, you can get a pre-release sample pack with the Nostalgia collection and the new Whipped highlighters for only $10 (you save $9) . As soon as the collection is released, it won't be available anymore.

I've said earlier in this post that I'm very low on 10 gram jars at the moment, so none of the new products will be available in that size until I get them restocked. Highlighters will be available in sample size and 5 gram size while the finishing powder and finishing veils will remain in sample size until then.

Click on the picture to see the swatches better!

 

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook have already seen the final swatches of the upcoming stuff, but I'll be posting (hopefully tomorrow or Monday) a more in depth blog post about them with bigger pictures and detailed descriptions and the story behind all these products.

If you have a blog and want to share the pictures or any kind of info on the new collection, feel free to do so and let me know!! It always makes me happy to see Lost in Makeupland around the net. <3

Volta is the Product of the Month of September. A looooot is going on around it so make sure to check this post because there's also a giveaway!

If you want to contribute to this POTM with looks or guest posts using it please email me at lostinmakeupland@gmail.com, I'll love to hear from you!!!!

I went trekking this afternoon to an amazing place, on my own, lost myself into the woods enjoying nature and the beautiful surroundings. Doesn't this make you feel paceful?

What do you think of the new stuff? Which are your favorites? 

How was your summer? I REALLY missed posting!

<3 

I'm alive, I swear! An update on Makeupland

I must be the biggest slacker ever, because it's been two months since I last updated my blog. Bad, bad Belén! I've started to write blog posts lots of times, but they didn't seem to fit in when they were finished so they got deleted and forgotten. I have lots of things to tell, but will try to keep everything as short and sweet as possible.

I haven't been very active on Twitter either, because I didn't want too many distractions.

I've been extremely busy with my personal life lately, I've taken important decisions about my education (I've signed to do a course to do an exam and access a superior education), it's also been taxes time, the local festival and my birthday which also happened in the middle of an order rush (because that's how life is!). I'm also searching for a job very actively which is also consuming a lot of my time. Sadly, unemployment salaries don't last forever :(

Besides that, I've also been working a lot on my company. The upcoming collection and new products should have been released by June 27th, but I've decided to hold everything back until I receive some supplies (sample labels and some micas I need for some of my most popular products). I think that's the wisest thing to do. Product pictures will be up next week though with color descriptions and a nice presentation of the upcoming releases and as soon as I'm ready they'll be released.

It'd be much easier to release everything when I meant to and try to sort it out, but I honestly try to do things the right way and I want this release to be as amazing as I know it can be. It's so hard to keep everything so secret!

One of the big releases will be the Finishing Powder for Oily Skin. The lovely Stephanie from The Raven And The Rose offered to test it and the results couldn't be better! She followed through the whole process on her blog and you can read her conclusions and review on this post. It makes me super happy to see that she keeps on using it daily on her LOTDs :) By the way, take a look at her blog for lots of indie swatches and her lovely looks and also her writing blog, which I find super interesting.

The amazing Phyrra featured me on her June's Independent Spotlight. It was super fun answering her questions.

You know her blog is one of my favorites so I'm super happy she offered to feature me. If you want to know me a little better and hear some fun facts about my life and company, don't hesitate to read it :)

I've announced it on Twitter before, but it's going to be a reality. From now on, I'll start a little reward program on my ArtFire shop. What does this mean? It means that when you buy from my shop, you'll accumulate points you'll be able to change for products. I need to write a more exhaustive post on that so everything is clear, but just so you have an idea, if you spend $10 dollars on my shop (shipping not included), you'll get 1 point, if you spend +$20 you'll get two. They'll be converted into dollars later, which means that when you have 6 points you can chose a free full size eyeshadow or a sample pack in your next order for example.

I have to give it a try and figure out the best way to make it work, but I think for the moment it's a nice addition to my service and hope you appreciate it as much as I appreciate your support. THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING THERE!

Starting in August, every month will be dedicated to one product. It will be any of my products, ranging from eyeshadows to highlighters without forgetting about blushes. I'll pick a shade every month and will post weekly about it. I'll post pics, the story behind the shade, EOTD's and will give away a full size of that product to one of you. In addition, that shade will be 20% off during the whole month.

That's it for today, I'll leave you with a (bad quality) picture from last weekend, I went camping on the beach to somehow celebrate my birthday (which was last Wednesday) and had this nice fire (which doubled as a BBQ when we added these big wooden pieces) I couldn't help but photograph with my iPhone. Looking at fire is so relaxing...

How have you been? I really missed you all!

It's Monday at Makeupland (Weekly Lost in Makeupland post)

I'm very excited this week and it hasn't almost started! First of all, as you may know already, I released the Alice's Chains collection, I'm working on a nostalgic collection (I've posted a few pictures on Twitter today) that will be released by the end of May/start of June. It has been in the works for a long time, but I've been holding up on it for outer reasons I won't go into.

I'm also working on new blush and face powder shades, lipbalms (which I'm going to start shipping to my volunteer testers) and will soon ask you all out for help on a beautiful project I already talked about on Twitter. If you follow my tweets, you've already seen when I asked you out for your stories on cat adoption. I'll talk more openly about the whole project and how it's going to be done, but in a few words, I want to put all your stories and mine together into a little ebook that would be donated to an animal shelter (I've contemplated selling it and donating the benefits but I want no shadow of doubt over myself and my honesty) and besides that I'll make an eyeshadow collection as a tribute to these cats. I'll give you more details in a while, but hope everybody is as excited about it as I am. :)

Now for the news!

Bye, bye sifters!!

I've already started to replace sifters in 5gram jars with shrink bands. This means that jars will be full and closed. Price will stay the same for them $5.99. I still have to update all my listings and include this info so there aren't any unhappy clients.

Doesn't it look cute? 

Weekly Sale

I already posted about it (typo included lol!), until May 8th all orders over $15 (before shipping) get a free surprise gift!! ;) It's valid on both my ArtFire and Etsy shops.

Doesn't look like it, but it's spring! Giveaway time!

Usually here in Spain when April comes weather becomes super sunny and we have nice temperatures. This year it hasn't been like that. It's been raining, dark, quite cold a lot of days.. not what spring is supposed to be at the south of Spain.

Still, I'm stubborn and want to wear bright colors and cheer myself through makeup. During this month I'll be uploading looks using colors I like for spring. For me, it's time for yellows (am I the only sucker for yellow eyeshadow out there?), neons, oranges and strong lips (bold pink and ooooh I SO want to get my hands o a Morgana Cryptoria's orange lippie!).

Which leads me to the following... do you want to win an Alice's Chains collection sample pack? Just leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite colors for spring on your eyes and lips.

-You must be a follower to enter.
-Giveaway it's open worldwide.
-For an extra entry, you can tweet " Let's celebrate spring with a gift from @lostmakeupland "

A winner will be drawn at random on Monday May 9th. It can't be easier!

Alice's Chains collection swatches

So, how's spring treating you so far? Are a lot of you experiencing allergies too? Do they affect the way you put on your makeup? For example I try not to line my waterline and avoid mascara on my bottom lashes when my eyes are all allergic and watery.  

Alice's got chains...

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally, I released the Alice's Chains collection! I've been posting swatches on Twitter during the day (I can't deny it, I love teasing you!) and announced it'd be released tonight, but now it's for REAL.

Six gorgeous, deep eyeshadows which are perfect for a soft yet fun look if you don't want to go overboard but at the same time, they're highly pigmented and will help you achieve a bold look if that's what you're looking for.

I tried to make the collection fun and suitable for everyone and find these colors will flatter most eye colors and will work great on most skin tones.

I'm really excited about it since I've been holding it like forever but it's finally here!

It'll be available in samples and full sizes. If there is a demand for it, I'll also list a pack with the whole collection at a reduced price.

From now on (samples tonight and I'll add full sizes tomorrow, it's a bit hard to stay awake atm) it's available on both my ArtFire and Etsy shops.

I'd love to know your early thoughts about this mini collection <3

Makeupland's Weekly Post

It's very late in the week, but here it is my little resume of what's going on here at Makeupland these days.

Alice's Chains

I've decided to release the collection next Wednesday, April 20. I'll give you more details at the start of the week. Remember about it? I reformulated it some time ago, but never released it.

Here you have my old swatches as a reminder :D

Suppliers

I blogged last week about the TKB Pops being discontinued and the trouble that brought to my business because of the need to reformulate and the ingredients on the possible replacements.

Well, I asked around the net and was told about other companies with possible replacements. At the end I've decided to stick to really similar micas carried by Coastal Scents. I can't be thankful enough to Melissa, the wonderful woman behind Morgana Cryptoria, because she sent me the links and gave me some useful info on suppliers. You already know I'm a Morgana fan and about my obsession with her lippies, well, I can't recommend you enough this shop, they offer great quality products (my favourite lipsticks!) and you also get a wonderful customer service and honesty. I think all of us indie sellers should be like Melissa when it comes to professionality :)

It will take me some time to be able to order these micas and formulate my products like they originally were. The great thing about these micas is that they have the same basic ingredients than the Pops.

Weekly Offer

Until next Sunday 24, you can get a 10% off every order over $15 (doesn't include shipping) at my ArtFire shop! Just write the coupon APRIL10 at checkout for the discount :D


I'll keep this post short, so it ends here, but I can't help but point you towards Lisa Eldridge's site. She's currently doing a special on make up through the eras, and the different trends and products on the different decades from Victorian up to nowadays. It's DELIGHTFUL hearing her talk about what was used and how woman used it through the years, the incredible packaging and pigmentation of some products... Aaaaah! I've watched the three videos up so far a few times and squeeee every time! Tell me they aren't delightful and awesome IF YOU DARE!

It's Tuesday at Makeupland (laaate Weekly Post)

I know it's been forever since I last posted here, I'm not even going to give any excuses, just say I'm sorry and really hope I could sit down and write the MILLION ideas on my schedule.

I don't want the post to be Bible-long, so I'm going to try to be concise and clear.

Weekly Offer

This week I've gone crazy, BUY ONE GET ONE FREE at my ArtFire shop!! (not on Etsy, sorry!). Everything applies except palettes and pressed palette refills.
This leads me to...

ArtFire

Lost in Makeupland is now on ArtFire too! For those of you who don't know ArtFire, it's an Etsy-like place but better.
Why? I'll give you the simplest reason. NO FEES for me. As my shop slowly grows, I also have to pay more Etsy fees and have to buy more supplies. I just can't put up with that.
Shipping costs have gone crazy, I'm still unemployed and have to pay my car, bills and eat and I just can't. I also want to study and just can't pay for it all. I don't want to raise my shipping charges and want to keep LiM affordable for everybody and that's the only way to do it I can come up with.

So, from now on, all my offers, discounts and a little reward system for returning customers I want to put up before summer are going to be on my ArtFire shop only.
Registering there is free for you and pricing will be the same for my products.

Navigation is easy and hey, the shop looks lovely! Another plus is that I can add more product pictures, keep a blog there... Really, it's amazing the tools they give us sellers to make the experience so much nicer and easier for you.

I'm not going to close my Etsy shop, but I'd like my customers to use the ArtFire one instead. Obviously, it's up to you whether you prefer to buy there or not, but it's a nice way to help support companies you like.

If you have any doubts or questions as to how to use ArtFire, just let me know and I'll try to put together a mini tutorial or something :)

Contest winners

I know, I know! I haven't forgotten about this! So, before you get bored of my ramblings and go away, I'll announce the winners of my 100 sales celebration contest! 

And, the lucky winners are:

-My favourite look (this was really hard to chose! I loved them all!) who'll receive 10 samples of her choice...

 Rach!!

-For the 50% off coupons

Aaaaaand, the big winner of $50 in Lost in Makeupland products of her choice is....

Congratulations ladies!!! I hope you're happy with your prices :D I'll contact all of you during this week with all the info.

I want to thank all the people who joined the contest, it was fun and I loved it. Next one will be when I reach 500! ;D

 
What's going on?
 
I'm working on a LOT of things. Those of you who follow me on Twitter and know me a bit know that I'm not going through good times. It affects me in a weird way, I find it very hard to sit down and "produce" stuff but I'm incredibly creative, I've been making a lot of new products, some of them have been tested already, some are being tested and others I haven't found the time to try yet.

As a new, important note, I'm trying out lip balm formulas, they're so fun! I can't give a launch date yet since it's still in the earliest phase of testing. I'll be sending a few volunteers samples so they can try them and I can also check how they behave in different weathers. My idea is to sell them in cute little tins, tinted and not. I haven't decided on a price yet. I'll tell you more about this as soon as I can.

The Alice's Chains collection is definitely going to be released this month.I want to add a couple of new blush shades to it, one of them will be very neutral going in the line of the collection, and the other will be EXTRA bold. The jar design will be super cute, it was designed by the lovely Sakura and I love it. <3

I also have a bunch of new highlighters ready to be released but don't see that happening anytime soon. I'm quite low on some supplies and until I find a new jar supplier with REASONABLE shipping costs I can't spend a fortune on big jars. Really, it's insane the way prices have gone up, I can't put up with that.

Something beautiful

I want to finish this post with something beautiful. I'm always angry at my neighbour because he's got a lot of trees on his patio and they go into my patio, fruits fall down and ruin mine, tree leaves fall down too, I just fucking hate it and have thought about ruining his trees more than once.

But I have to admit that I love this tree and don't mind it going into my patio (just while it's this beautiful lol). It bloomed a couple of days ago and looks stunning.

So, how are things going on lately? Have you ever used ArtFire? What's your opinion on it? I've only been there for a little time so I'd love to check out other people's opinions. 

Any blogs worth discovering? I'd love to get to know new food, fashion and hair related places on the net :D