Hello SHiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! It’s that time again and that is the Faves and this time it’s November and December! Where has the year gone by? Well, new faves and let’s hop to it!

Convention Faves:

Fave Purchase: The Cat Ears and Tail in Latte! First is a fave purchase at Holiday Matsuri and that is the cat ears and tail that I got from the maker I always go to known as Micki LA Course. I started buying my cat ears from her in 2013 when I found her stand at Florida Anime Experience when it was in Orlando, apparently it will be in Vero Beach now, and I went for a day to get a signature from Mahle Flannigan since no one else wanted to help out with that. At least I went for a day and went around in the dealer room which was kind of small and found her stand on the outer perimeter of the room and the first ears were in vanilla fudge calico pattern and still have to this day! I forgot to get the tail from her for the longest time even when I found her again at Holiday Matsuri! She had a new fur and it is the color of lattes when they have their cream and you know me and coffee and couldn’t resist and got the tail too! I highly recommend her ears and now tails because they are very fluffy, they clip on, and you don’t always have to use for just cats, a girl came to her stand to ask for wolf ears for her wolf fondness cosplay for a RWBY thing that evening and she handed her the ears. I remembered that you could use her red ears for Flareon too. If you see her stand I recommend her ears s and she does have other things too.

Fave Panel: The J. Michael Tatum 18+ Panel! Do I need to say more? That’s it! Highly recommend if you are at a con with him as a guest and if you are 18 and over. I also did love his panel with Brandon McInnis which is also the “It Gets Better” panel which we will get the videos up soon of that and know how he feels because I was picked on too as a younger person and I did have a speech impediment which you do not hear as much today but if you knew me in high school that was back when it was really bad. I know how you feel <r. Tatum, if you are reading this, I had problems sounding my S’s and Sh’s when I was younger.

Fave Cosplay Moment: The InuYasha During the Holiday Cosplay Runway! Even though my Ageslash was complimented on Friday but this moment goes to the InuYasha cosplayer during the Cosplay Runway and hoping they are okay after being told to “Sit!” Which that takes a lot of dedication. I think nowadays if you try to tell any InuYasha cosplayer to “Sit!” They probably won’t do it due to how much it hurts and you have to face plant for it. Hope they are okay!

Fave Food to Eat: The Bourbon Burger at Denny’! After the con, we headed for Denny’s because we needed a meal after eating sandwiches and snacks all weekend! I had the Bourbon Burger and OMG it was delicious! Even the onion rings were delicious! If we have another Denny’s After Con thing I am ordering it again.

Makeup Stuff:

Fave Ulta Set: The Be Gorgeous Set! This year Ulta was killing it with their sets! I remembered having three of them when they started doing their own makeup brand but the only one I really still have is one that is in a Caboodle style train case and I did try de-potting things and didn’t go well. Not a good idea guys! So, this year they released a lot of sets but the ones I got were the Love MakeUp, the Beauty Treasures, and the Be Gorgeous which is my all-time fave out of the three! I do love jewelry boxes but the Be Gorgeous has my heart at the moment because I have been using it like crazy for November and December even if I got it in October. This comes with a 42 eye shadow pallet at very bottom, face items such as concealers, blushes, bronzers, and two powder highlights with one cream one, and you also get the gel liners, brow powders, and glitter top coats. I would say the eye shadow primers in this set weren’t the greatest because it was hard to get out of the little plastic part where they were in and not as creamy, very stiff mind you but everything else was amazing! I did use this set when I did my RWBY main cast looks with Nora, Ruby, and Cinder which they came out really great. I did use this set to re-create Kathleen Lights; teal smoky eye despite the teal being shimmery along with the other shades but I did have fun re-creating it. You can find the pics over on my Instagram at Mari Blue Cat! I am hoping Ulta keeps up with these sets because they are a major step up and it’s been a while since I have gotten anything Ulta brand.

Lip Oil: Ulta Brand Lip Oil! All thanks to the Love MakeUp set I got two lip oils and I like one more than the other. The set came with the Soft Rose and the Coconut one which they are a part of a line that Ulta sells and I never tried any out since Too Faced was the only real brand that did them and they are tinted. These don’t have tint which is great because with lip oils you really don’t need it since you need the extra nourishment after wearing lip colors all day, especially liquid lipsticks which can be very drying. I prefer the rose one over the coconut one because I feel like when putting on the coconut one is too sticky and I feel like not enough product goes on my lips and have to dip in twice. I think this happens due to how tiny of a size they give you in the Love MakeUp set but I do want to try the Black Raspberry one since they do have other flavors in the line. I can’t wait to go to Ulta!

Brow Powders: Ulta Brand! I know it’s weird to mention Ulta again but I have been loving the brow powders in their sets since I decided why not try it out. These powders do have a bit of fall out but they do go on the brows very well and you don’t know you have anything. I did use the taupe ones for Yang and Weiss’ looks to match the white and blonde hair they have, I did mention I did de-pot the powders from their older set I still have but a good portion of the powder came out but the taupe one was handy during my Link cosplay and the dark brown during my Itachi cosplay. I am going to explore more in the brow powder department!

Bronzer: The Physician’s Formula Butter Bronzer! I know I said I would probably won’t use bronzer but I started using it now for contouring and started doing it when I tried out the Morphe Vegan Set to see how I feel about it and it is great. The bronzer I do like at the moment is the Butter Bronzer from Physician’s Formula and I can see why so many people love this thing! Even though the smell is the biggest love but this one is not heavy, it is just light and easy to blend and build up too. I had this with me for Holiday Matsuri to contour my cheeks for Link and my chin and under the lip for Itachi and that is really my contouring. I do do the nose time to time but I really stick to the cheeks, the jaw, and the chin and lip areas. I may have to try other bronzers but this one is a fave!

Liquid Lip: NYX’s Lip Lingerie! Next is my fave liquid lipstick and I give it to the Lip Lingerie’s from NYX Cosmetics. Not sure if I mentioned them but they are way better than the Liquid Suede ones in my opinion. I like how the lipstick stays on my lips even on top of the E. L. F. lip primer and they feel light even throughout the day. I took French Maid with me which is a purple color to Holiday Matsuri and it did not vanish at all since it stayed all day even while talking! These are also inexpensive and around holiday time they do have sets which I got two of them when Ulta did a $10 off $25 NYX purchases during the end of November and I think it ended on Christmas Eve. I got the sets with French Maid, Lace Detail, and something else and the other with Teddy, Push Up, which is one I wanted the longest time ever since Jessica Braun, and there was one more but they are worth it for the set but you can get them individually if you don’t want the colors in the set itself. I am thinking of getting Beauty Mark and Baby Doll because the other set came with Embellishment which I already have and they have a great color range to choose from!

Fave Eye/Face Pallet: Ofra Holiday Glow Pallet! Next is the Ofra Holiday Glow Pallet which was an Ulta only thing for the holidays since you can only get on their website for anything Ofra. Ofra is a very good brand and I remembered getting items from them in my Ipsy and Boxy Charm when I used to get them both and still have the pallet I got on the Ipsy Offers page years back but this pallet is a mix of face and eye stuff where you get eight shadows which one of them is an Ulta exclusive shade while the rest are regular Ofra shades, a bronzer, a highlight, and four blushes. Most awesome thing is that you can take the pans out to customize a pallet with them or if you run out of an item you can get the refill except Winter Berry which I think that is a Christmas shade only. These things are very pigmented, especially the bronzer! I would say with the Americano bronzer is to go in light handed since this can go out of hand and should blend it in with a brush afterwards because I had major blending issues once and did give it an air brushed look with a powder brush since I was using my oval contour brush from Ulta and wanted to try it on the hollows of my cheeks and didn’t work out that way. I also like how you can use two of the shadows as liners but I use them as eye shadow shades like the others. The good thing was that this was half off when I got it and hoping you guys got your paws on it like I had.

Fave Eye Base: NYX White Eye Base! I have been testing out the white eye base from NYX for the past couple of months and I would say it is a fave despite how crazily creamy it is! This does make your shadows pop and does give a nice base to it but there are some shadows you need to build up since there are times where people do have trouble with certain shadows, one good example happened to be the Maybelline Rock Nudes pallet which those shadows need to be built up while with other shadows when I clean them off you do see them on the cotton round later. I did admit I had a hard time removing my makeup on Christmas when I did a red, green, and gold eye look where I used Ruby Red from Maybelline, Golden Sage from L’Oréal, and Treasure from Pacifica which was an Ipsy sample before I got the full pallet and then used the NYX Jumbo Pencil in Rust and the Wet N Wild Midnight Mermaid Liner in Sea Symmetry and knew that the Maybelline shadow stuck like glue with this base! I think I like this eye base as much as the MAC Paint Pot in Painterly since it works very well and does go on very smoothly and I do prefer a potted eye base over a tube because I can control the amount I put on and I can be more sanitary with a brush. Plus, it has lasted me this long too when most eye primers last me a month which were the Maybelline one, the E. L. F. one which was less than a month every time, and better than using a B. B. Cream and foundation in my book. Plus, this does work better than using a pencil which I keep hearing the Milk pencil from the Jumbo Pencil line is the best for shadows but this is just as good.

Fave Christmas Special: Doctor Who 2017 Special! This year’s Christmas Special of Doctor Who was pretty good but last year’s was better than this one but with this year’s special it does show what had happened after the Doctor yelling out, “I don’t want to re-generate! I want to stay!” That was when the First Doctor appears and they got someone that is like William Hartnel for this special and did the same when they re-told the re-generation scene for Hartnel into the Second Doctor. This was basically showing the Doctor kind of going through a crisis since in Season 9 it shown that too where he even had his last moments with Clara but this kind of did that better since Season 9 was a bit of a weak season when 10 was the stronger of the three with Capaldi. I am going to miss him but now with the Thirteenth Doctor coming in and this time being a woman, I can’t wait what is in store for her and her adventures in time and space since the new season will be starting in spring which works out well for me! What I did like the best about this special though is where they show the Brigadier’s Father in World War 1 with the Christmas Truce which is an important part of history and it is a good way of doing that and showing this where the guy who headed Unit for the longest time came from and of course led down to his daughter in Season 8. Sorry for spoilers but Phathom Events did do a theater showing of this yesterday if I remembered and if you wanted to see it in the theater it was another good way of seeing it too but it is in select cities. I can’t wait for April when the new season of Doctor Who starts with the new Doctor!

Fave Books: The Cavannah Legends Series! Next is the Cavannah Legends series which I have read leading up to the book Chasing A Legend which was the one book I got on NetGalley to review from and was told I can read as a standalone but I did read the first three to get the idea of what I got into. I did love the books and how Sarah Robinson created the family of brothers who are into Mixed Martial Arts and their dad used to be a Mafioso before they were born and that is how he met their mother and she is so cute because she really wants grand babies! The book I loved the most was Saving a Legend with Kieron meeting Fiona because it shows how much Fiona sacrificed her own adult life to take care of her autistic sister Shea ever since their parents died. I am hoping this series continues since the youngest brother ended up with someone and I want to see how that relationship started since Robinson did spark that relationship in Chasing a Legend.

Songs: Can’t be a faves without my favorite five songs!

1. “Fire” by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown: I know what you’re thinking, “What!?” Okay, I blame this on Todd in the Shadows’ Halloween episode and it was talking about this guy by the name of Arthur Brown who had a music career in the 1960’s and he came out with this song called “Fire” and it was a hit and it was even #2 in 1968 after “Hey Jude” by the Beatles. Yeah, this guy had a very trippy song and it was even trippier with the song. Back then, he couldn’t tour because the costume he had on had a flaming torch on his head and clubs back then had a lot of cloth walls, rugs, and even paint that can catch fire very fast. He has been touring right now from what I have seen on YouTube since venues have changed over time. I did find it interesting that Alice Cooper did perform this song and I think with Arthur Brown once since the title said Arthur Brown and Alice Cooper doing it together. Great, now it’s in my head because the song’s keyboards and beat are catchy, very catchy that is!
2. “Out Loud” by. The Gabby Show: I know it’s not her actual name but she not only does videos on YouTube but she does music as well. I love this song the most because it not only has a great beat but the lyrics even with the chorus deals with saying things you actually mean out loud. I do struggle with this because I tend to bottle things up and it’s not healthy. I also sometimes get this song stuck in my head.
3. “Team Rocket” Metal Cover by. Jonathan Young: Another metal cover by Jonathan Young and apparently he did a metal cover album for the “2Ba Master” Album which I have to take a look at since that has been my fave Pokémon soundtrack. This version of the song “Team Rocket” is way too awesome since they did get someone in to be Jessie but wishing they got someone else do Meowth’s parts and actually sound like Meowth. I can’t wait to see what other metal covers Jonathan did with his crew for this album!
4. “Bang Bang” by. Ariana Grande, Jessie J. and Nicky Minage: I know mentioning Nicki Minage is a first here but I do like this song since it is catchy and of course I do love Ariana and her vocals match up with Jessie J.’s! Nicki does a pretty good rap solo for this one too. I couldn’t help listening to this song after getting Nicki’s MAC lipstick in Pink Print and enjoy the color a lot since it is like Cream Cup after all.
5. “Chandelier” by Sia: Not sure if this was on a list but I kept on hearing this song after finding out that Sia will be the new face in the Viva Glam series at MAC or shall I say “face” since she doesn’t show it in pics and will go the same with the posters and advertisements and the tube for the lipstick she will be releasing next year. I may have to get this one since I do love this song and it is something different to listen to besides all the metal I tend to listen to and I have a softness for any song that has an operatic or symphonic sound and her voice in this song is “Damn!” I can imagine karaoke with this song will be a challenge even though someone did sing it on The Voice.
Well guys, that is it for this bi-monthly favorites! 2017 introduced me to a lot of new music and a lot of new makeup products. I am hoping 2018 will do the same thing because I have new convention experiences, new products I catch on my local shelves at the drugstore or at Ulta, and so much more! Let’s see how it goes!

Next will be the Voice Actor’s Panel from Holiday Matsuri which we have up on YouTube! Stay tuned guys!