A bit of every day bling

This is the look that I've been wearing to work this week which uses a couple of old-favourites from my make-up bag and a couple of the latest additions to my make-up collection.

I wanted a super-quick look (as I’m always running late in the mornings) that I could incorporate my purple glitter eyeliner into, which is a product that I love but don’t use as much as I would like to.  It kind of slips to the bottom of my make-up bag where it usually lies neglected until I dig it out for a sparkly night out, but I don't see why I shouldn't wear glitter more often as part of an everyday look.  I think that glitter eyeliner in particular is noticeable without being overwhelming and at the moment is perfect for catching the early summer sunlight to add a twinkle to the eyes, which hopefully you can just about see in the first pic below.

 


I used a matte yellow shadow all over the lid to provide a contrast and make the purple shades stand out more, and also because I have quite oily eyelids I wanted a base that would prevent my eyeliner from sliding off by mid-afternoon.

Here’s what I used:

• matte yellow eyeshadow all over the lid
  
• super shimmery lilac in the inner corner and blended across inner 1/3 of lid with smaller brush
  
• light purple glitter eyeliner
  
• black mascara
  
• shimmery peach powder blush/highlighter

Now for a bit of gushing from me about all these lovely products...

Both eyeshadows were from budget brands but I'm really happy with their performance for the price I paid.  I picked up the matte yellow when I was in Germany in May and it's by the budget brand Essence.  The texture is quite soft and powdery but as you can see from the pics it still gives good colour payoff.  In fact I quite like the fact that it's not super-pigmented as I find that makes it easier to wear.  The lilac is by the brand MUA which is a Superdrug own brand where each product costs just £1.  The texture of this product is quite strange...although it's a powder shadow, it's very creamy - you can see the difference in the surfaces of these two eyeshadows somewhat in the pics above.  The texture is very similar to my Accessorize eyeshadow singles, and I suspect that they both contain quite high percentages of mineral oil.  However these creamy shadows still apply well with a brush and give a super shimmery and highly pigmented finish.

My glitter eyeliner is by Urban Decay and I received it as a present - I don't know if I'd have bought it myself as they currently retail at £13.50 each which I find pretty expensive, but it's such a great product that now that I've tried it I could be tempted to try more.  The gel is watery so it's easy to apply and the glitter particles themselves are flat and round so that they sit excellently on the skin and don't just fall off randomly during the day as with some other glitter products I've tried.

The shimmery light peachy pink blush that I’m wearing in this look is a merged blush by Accessorize in the shade Pretty Pink.  I think it looks like the surface of the planet Jupiter in the close up below with its swirling veins of light purple and gold.  The colour is very light and shimmery on the skin so it looks great on cheekbones, temples and bridge of the nose as a highlighter.  You can get this in Superdrug stores or online and it's great value for money, currently costing less than £6 for 8g.