With Eyeshadow Like This, Who Needs Eyeliner?

I used my current favourite, Urban Decay’s Glinda palette, to create this messy smoky eye with a huge aubergine flick. I didn’t blend the eyeshadows together at all as I wanted to keep the stark, graphic contrast at the point where the shadows met. I thought the eyeshadows looked pretty good on their own so I skipped the eyeliner and just added some mascara and a translucent lipgloss and I was good to go.

I wouldn’t wear this to the office but I would definitely wear this as a weekend day look. For evening I would probably smudge a bit of khol pencil along my outer upper lash line for some added intensity.

 

 

 

The shades I used from the Glinda palette were: Tornado (top left) and South (bottom right).

Accessorize Leopard Moth

Above: In the bottle

Below: On the nails

 

This is a great glitter effect nail polish from Accessorize that you can pick up for just a few quid. I bought it when the entire range of polishes was 2-for-£5 in Superdrug; individually they normally retail for £3.45.

The consistency is good and smooth and I’m wearing three coats in the photo above although the coverage is almost opaque after two – I just wanted to load my nails with glitter. This type of polish can be problematic when it comes to chipping (glitter nail polishes always seem to start chipping off in chunks on me after a few days) so I do recommend wearing this with a top coat. So far I’m on day 2 with only minor chips on one nail.

Two Tone Lips with Illamasqua

Here’s a bright, fun look to rock when you feel like wearing a bold lip. It was chucking it down with rain the day I wore this look and these bright colours definitely helped cheer me up a bit!

My tip for creating very precise lip shapes like this is to use a slanted eyeliner brush to apply the lipstick for extra precision.

I used the dark purple Kontrol and bright red Drench lipsticks by Illamasqua. I concentrated the red as a dot in the centre of my lips, but Illamasqua have done a whole Youtube video showcasing their take on the two-toned “lip ombre” trend where they create a slightly different shape. Anyway, it’s definitely a look designed to be played with!

Fun Daytime look for Autumn 2013

Hellooooo again! So the explanation for my three month blogging hiatus is that I actually moved across the country from London to Edinburgh a month ago and have been very busy organising the move and setting into my new home.

If you’d like any more info on my life in London and/or Edinburgh in general then there will be more updates coming soon to my “life” blog at http://ahteem.wordpress.com/

But back to make-up which is mainly the point of this blog. Today I’m easing myself back into blogging with a simple daytime look featuring metallic earth tones on the eyes and a lovely subtle matt peachy lip.

Above: I used the shades “Oz” (the olive shade) and “South” from my Urban Decay Glinda palette (pictured below – these are the two shadows in the bottom right)

The result on the eyes is quite subtle and perfect for a lazy (this took me about five min to apply) but fun daytime look. A word of warning though – there is bad glitter fallout from both of these shades, so have a glitter busting solution on hand (such as some gentle sticky tape to lift the glitter off the skin with, or some loose face powder to try to brush the glitter off with) when you apply these to clean up all the glitter that will land on your face from these shadows!

I did a “triple flick” eyeliner shape or as I prefer to think of it – drawn on lashes! It’s just a fun way to shake up your eyeliner routine if you’ve gotten into a winged-out rut like me and always wear your eyeliner in the same way but fancy trying something a bit different. The liner I used was 24/7 liquid liner in Smog by Urban Decay which is a lovely deep khaki green shade which complements these particular shadows perfectly.

Finally I patted on a matt peach lipstick – I used Accessoize matt lipstick in Smitten. As you can see from the pic it’s a gorgeous colour but it’s a bit difficult to work with as the dry texture tends to settle into the fine lines of the lips. My solution is to pat it on from the bullet then work it into the lips with a lipbrush, mixing with another creamier orange lipstick if necessary. I think the end result is worth the effort though and it’s the shade that I’ve been reaching for time and again the past few weeks.

MUA Sheer Finish Lipgloss Swatches

MUA is one of my favourite brands for their great value for money selection. In one of their recent sales they were selling their Sheer Finish Lipgloss for just 50p each – what’s not to love about a shiny candy scented lipgloss with a hint of colour for just 50p?? I went a bit crazy and bought another three which, although it only cost me £1.50, means I now have a ridculous amount of lipgloss to use up ha ha. Since I have so many now I thought I would just do a quick post to show you swatches on my arm.

The swatches are the same order as the glosses in the top picture.

Left to right: Cute Talk, Lets Meet, Happy Days, Too Much Fun, Can’t Stop

As you can see, they’re just quite basic, sheer, shiny glosses. I’d recommend them if you like your glosses simple (these won’t add much colour to lips, mainly shine) or if you’re looking to stock up on some cheap products to take travelling/on holiday. They can be bought in selected Superdrugs or ordered online from the MUA store.

MAC in Extra Dimension Summer 2013

This collection came out in the UK last month and featured a ton of products in MAC’s special “Extra Dimension” finish, which is meant to be a hybrid cream/powder product. I’ve got a few Extra Dimension products from previous launches and I quite like them so I picked up just a few pieces from this collection.

I got eyeshadows (£16.50) in Zestful (light, shiny golden white green) and Smokey Mauve (metallic plum) and a blush (£19) in Flaming Cheek (fuschia).

I’m not sure how clear it is from the photo above but I hope that you can see that the blush developed a weird waxy “crust” the first few times I swatched the surface, and I basically had to jab it off with a slightly stiff blusher brush before I could get any decent colour pay off from the product. For £19, you can bet I wasn’t impressed! Once the crust was gone the colour payoff was fine.

The eyeshadows apply slightly differently to how they appear in the pan as they are slightly sheer – but I quite like this as I find it lends them an ethereal quality. Zestful looks great as an all over wash of colour or highlighter on the inner corner of the eye, and Smokey Mauve is just a nice, easy everyday metallic to wear all over the lid.

Flaming Cheek, despite looking a bit scarily bright in the pan, is actually very easy to wear as it goes on quite sheer but can be built up. However, check out how my product looked after just one week of use – it looks like I’ve used a massive amount of product already! I think I’ll stick to MAC’s normal powder blush formula from now on.

Sleek Candy Collection

Sleek Makeup have just released a limited edition summer collection called the Candy Collection which consists of a 12-shade eyeshadow palette (i-Candy, £7.99), pout paint (Lol-Lip-Pop, £4.99) and blush-by-three blush trio (Sweet Cheeks).

I did hesitate for a while over whether to buy the entire collection or not. The products aren’t exactly expensive, but they’re not really what you could call cheap either. What I would say though is that Sleek are a great value-for-money brand when you consider the price-to-quality ratio. In the end, I decided to buy them all instead of any other make-up this month.

The products come in cardboard packaging featuring a mouth-watering cupcake and sweets design. I wish they could print these designs onto the make-up packaging itself which is the same slick black packaging as normal.

I have to say that while the blushes and pout paint definitely remind me of candy floss and iced cakes, the eyeshadow shades don’t exactly scream “candy” to me. I think this might have been more suitable as the palette in the Aqua Collection while the Lagoon palette would have been more suitable as a candy palette. Here are the two side by side for a quick comparison (Lagoon palette on top):

First up, here are swatches of the blushes and Pout Paint.

From left to right: Cupcake (creme), Dolly Mix (matte), Candy Floss (satin); Lol-Lip-Pop pout paint.

I was super-excited about this blush-trio and originally this was the only product from the collection that I was going to buy. However, I wasn’t too impressed when the creme blush left staining on my arm when I removed it with my normal make-up remover so it does make me think that these might be just a bit too pigmented for blushes. I’m not too keen on the formula of these.

I have been enjoying the Pout Paint more than I thought that I would though. There’s a whole range of different Pout Paint shades available and they’re designed to be easy to mix up to allow you to create your own custom colours. This one is no different to the others in the range - it offers fantastic pigmentation and opacity, the texture is creamy and very comfortable on the lips, and the product lasts a respectable 3-4h on me. The main disadvantage for me is the packaging, which I find a bit difficult to work with. Pout Paints aren’t the easiest to top up on the go due to the fine nozzle and I always apply them with a lip brush to get a sharp line.

Below, the eyeshadows swatched.

Left to right: Strawberry Sherbet, Bon Bon, Parma Violet, Apple Sour, Pear Drop, Flump, Liquorice, Blue Fizzle, Aniseed, Bubble Gum, Mint Cream, Cream Soda

The quality of this palette is excellent. I think this is one of the best quality Sleek palettes that I own. The pigmentation of Parma Violet in particular is unbelievable – it’s definitely the most intense violet eyeshadow I own. While I think that the colour scheme is a bit incoherent, you can definitely mix-and-match up some fun bright looks with this palette.

To conclude, this collection is brilliant if you love bright colours, but definitely one to steer clear of if you prefer your neutrals. In the pic below I’m wearing Apple Sour, Pear Drop and Flump eyeshadows (along with some purple eyeliner and mascara too), a mixture of the two powder blushes and Lol-Lip-Pop pout paint.