Smoky Greens by Gosh

I wasn’t going to write a post today as I’ve been out at work all day and it was already dark by the time I got home so not the best conditions for taking photos, but I just got my hair cut so I thought, what the hey, might as well take some photos while my hair’s still looking freshly styled from the salon!

As it was already dark when I decided to do this post I thought I’d go for an evening look using one of my Gosh eyeshadow quads.  I bought a whole stack of Gosh eyeshadow trios a couple of months ago in Superdrug when they were selling them at half-price to clear some shelf space for their new spring colours but I haven’t posted anything about them on this blog yet.  The colours that I used for this look were actually from an eyeshadow quad that I bought as part of a gift set in the January sales.  Usually this brand sells eyeshadow trios and quads for just over £5 and just under £10 – I think they are around the £7/8 mark.  The gift set that I purchased contained an eyeshadow quad in Q32 Evergreen, an On Stage Cool Lip Jam in 102, and a Velvet Touch  Eyeliner in Black Ink.

artificial lighting; w/o flash	artificial lighting; with flash

These were the first Gosh products that I’d tried and I have to say that I’ve been really impressed by them.  The eyeshadows are lovely to work with and I like the fact that the shades deviate slightly from what you might expect in a standard green quad.

A	Gosh Velvet touch eyepencil in Black Ink
1 – 4	eyeshadows from quad applied over eyepencil
B	green eyepencil used under 2 - 4
5 – 8	eyeshadows from quad applied over bare skin

Here’s my finished eye makeup - I think the colours all go really well together.

	Here’s a pic of my new haircut.  The stylist did a great job of the blow dry.  I’m not very creative with my hair so I doubt I’ll be able to recreate this look!

I tend to create smoky looks using the “gradient” shading method where you simply apply the colours in a gradient of light to dark from brow to lash, which works well with my eye shape as I have quite narrow eyelids.  As I don’t have a very visible crease I don’t tend to spend too much time creating dimension in the crease and instead work with the darkest colour on the lashline to build depth.

	A clear view of my lids - you can see how I've hardly blended this look at all, but it doesn't matter too much as due to the shape of my eyelids.

1. Apply the lightest colour from the crease to the brow.
2. Apply a darker shade over the lid up to the crease.
3. Apply a darker shade in a triangular shape to the outer 1/3 of the lid.
I also used the shades from 2 & 3 under the eye as I don’t like to put very dark shades under my eyes as I just feel that it makes my eyes look so small they practically disappear.
4. Intensify the lash line with the darkest colour or eyeliner or both.
I finished with lots of volumising mascara.  I didn’t use any eyeliner in this look.

I used a brush set that I received as a gift with purchase when I bought a new kind of No. 7 mascara last year.  It has the perfect brushes for this kind of look.

1. A large brush for applying the highlight under the brow and light colour over the lid 2. an angled shading brush for applying the 2nd darkest green in the outer corner of the lid. 3. a smudger brush for applying the darkest colour at the lashline (this is also a great shape for applying colour along the lower lash line).

I don’t wear much black eye pencil these days for a couple of reasons – one is that I have quite oily skin around the eyes so I just find that it smudges very quickly on my skin and makes me look like I have awful shadows under my eyes, and the other is that I have quite narrow eyes (gosh I’m making myself sound like some kind of Disney villain with all this talk of my narrow eyelids and narrow eyes…) and when I apply black eyepencil on my waterline it makes my eyes look even smaller, so I just tend to avoid it these days.  For these reasons I can’t give that much feedback on the eyepencil but it does have a very creamy consistency and draws an opaque line with hardly any drag, so it gets good marks for pigmentation and texture – I just can’t comment too much on longevity because I don’t really use it much at all.

I am however a big fan of lipgloss and I have to say that I really like this one.  The consistency is non-sticky and the product feels more like a gel than a gloss when applied.  This one happens to be a lovely soft peachy semi-opaque colour and just leaves a, well, lovely gleam on the lips, with a subtle bubblegum fragrance and no offensive taste.  I think it does make my lips look more voluptuous and pouty so I would recommend it for the volumising effect also.



So to sum up I really like these Gosh products and as I mentioned before I do have a whole stack of their eyeshadows so I’ll probably be posting some pics of them soon too.  You can buy Gosh products in the UK from Superdrug.