My First Summer Look of 2011

We’ve been having a bit of a strange time of it weather-wise in London lately - for the past fortnight it's been mostly sunny but blustery and not safe to go out without both a jacket and sunglasses since the air has been full of dust and fluffy seeds from the trees – yuk.  But today the air was warming up nicely and it felt like it might just be the start of summer after all – hooray!

In celebration I created my first summer inspired look of 2011, using amongst other things a whole new batch of make-up goodies that I picked up this week.

I wanted to get the new No. 7 summer 2011 “Sunset Metallic Eye Palette” and I also picked up a new tinted moisturiser that contains lots of UV filters and also offers a hint of dewy, sheer coverage.

Here’s a shot of my skin after having applied the tinted moisturiser (and half-way through my eye makeup!) - I actually think it gives quite good coverage for a tinted moisturiser.  The current price is £12.50 for 50ml which isn’t bad considering that foundations always seem to come in 30ml bottles (but you can always wait until Boots run a special offer on No. 7 – they seem to have one kind of offer or another on most of the time!)

I wanted to get the eye palette because I really like the metallic shades, which are a sophisticated shimmer rather than glittery.  The shades are also perfect for summer and make me think of Greek islands and Sorrento.  The shades are: very dark green, light gold, copper and olive green.  The consistency is smooth and the pigmentation is very good and there was no visible fall out when I applied the product using my normal eyeshadow brushes.  The palette contains 4g of product altogether and normal price is £13.50 but again if you watch out for special offers you can pick it up for much less.

I’ve included swatches from a couple of angles to try to capture the glimmer, and you can see how some of the shades look on my eyes in the pics at the end of this post.

I also bought a new Bourjois lipgloss from their Effect 3D range in the shade 23 Framboise magnific.  It’s super shiny and contains tiny flecks of sparkle and also claims to provide “Balm action moisture 8hrs”.  The consistency is quite thick and sticky and the applicator is a brush which I actually like - you can either use a mirror and apply the product very accurately following your lip line or just pop some in the middle of your lips and smear it out by pressing your lips together.

This product wasn’t cheap at around £6 for 5.7ml and that was on special offer (I think I paid £1 less than the normal price) but I do have to say that due to its thick consistency it is very long lasting and does feel very moisturising.  The sparkle may not be everybody’s cup of tea but I actually like it because I do think it creates the illusion of plumper lips.   The colour in the packaging is also very true to the colour on the lips as it’s qutie opaque.  I also used this in the look below so you can see how it appears on my lips in the pics at the end.

 

So finally here’s the look that I came up with today – lots of golds, browns and oranges that make me think of parched grass on sand dunes in the sunset.  It's actually quite a carefully constructed look for me as I usually prefer to just whack on one or two block colours - but it's not too much of a break from tradition as you can see that my much loved huge flick is still there!

Products Used (for more details on the Essence and P2 products please see my post Goodies From Germany Part 1: Eye make-up):

Face: 

No. 7 Triple Protection Tinted Moisturiser in Fair

Sleek blush in Pan Tao

MeMeMe Shimmy Shimmers in Bronze (as highlight)

Eyes:

BarryM Shimmering Lip & Eye Crayon in Gold all over eyelid as base

Essence eyeshadow in 41…spotted! ( matte yellow) all over lid

No. 7 Sunset Metallic Eye Palette:

light gold as highlight in inner corner and blended above crease

copper blended across inner 1/3 of crease

dark green blended into outer crease and lower lash line

Essence Sun Club Gel Eyeliner in 02 All Night Brown to line upper lash line

P2 Open up your eyes! Eye brightener applied on outer 2/3 of lower waterline
Bourjois Volume Fast & Perfect mascara

Lips

Bourjois Effect 3D gloss in 23 Framboise Magnific