Chuck out Your Black Liner

Or if chucking out your black liner seems a bit dramatic, at least consider packing it away until the autumn! I love coloured and light eyeliners in the spring and summer.

Today I’ve got some shots of a pink eyeshadow teamed with an antique gold liner. I think it’s a great colour combo for the lighter, brighter days we’re enjoying now that it’s spring.

The eyeshadow that I’m wearing is Magic from the Urban Decay Glinda palette. I like to apply it over a creamy base for maximum colour payoff.

The liner that I used was Waterproof Gel Eyeliner by BarryM in No. 3. I actually picked up this product a couple of weeks back because I thought the colour was interesting but not expecting anything spectacular but I have to say, I think this product is fantastic and I’m really glad I picked it up. It is very long lasting and I just love the colour. I just wish that they had more colours in the range as I would snap up any more slightly unusual colours they came out with. I’ve done another post with more pics here.

BarryM Waterproof Gel Eyeliner No. 3

This is quite a new offering from BarryM and although I’m not the world’s biggest fan of gel eyeliners the unusual colour caught my eye. The RRP is £5.49, which seems quite standard for a Superdrug-stocked kind of gel eyeliner – not so cheap and not so expensive.

The packaging is that common brush-in-lid style of pot that many different brands now use. Personally I find it very useful – not only because you don’t have to go out and buy a separate brush for doing your gel liner with, but also because this is a very nifty way of keeping your brush and product together and also keeping your brush clean.

The product itself is quite thick and creamy and I find it very easy to apply. Just one word of warning – try not to apply more than one layer, and don’t lay it on too thick and it will crack and potentially fall into your eye at some point during the day – ouch! If you manage to apply a nice thin even layer though you’ll have no worries about it coming off during the day. This is a very long lasting product.

The colour pay off is quite excellent which I hope you can see clearly in the swatch on my hand below. It comes up as a lovely and unusual antique gold.

The first time I wore it it did immediately put me in mind of another one of my gel liners, my MAC fluidline in Catch My Eye which I picked up from their holiday collection this Christmas just past (Dec 2012). As I mentioned, I’m not the biggest fan of gel liners but I was drawn to the unusual colour.

A quick comparison shows that while these products are no dupes, it would be fair to consider them as sisters, and both add a lovely subtle metallic gleam to the lashline.

Above: MAC fluidline in Catch My Eye

Left: MAC fluidline, Right: BarryM Waterproof Gel Liner

Left: BarryM Waterproof Gel Liner in No. 3; Right MAC Fluidline in Catch My Eye

Warmth Added

I’ve been wearing mostly cool toned, white based shimmery eyeshadows all winter long so far, so last weekend I decided to wear some gold-based eye make-up for a change. I also added some orangey red lipstick which I think complimented my eyeshadow really nicely.

The eyeliner that I used which is a 24/7 liquid eyeliner in Smog by Urban Decay is one of my favourite colours – it’s an olive toned dark gold that is the perfect complement to warm/brown based looks that you don’t want to overwhelm by using a black eyeliner. I skipped mascara as my eyes have been watering so much lately that it’s a guaranteed path to panda eyes for me at the moment, and in the dim light of winter evenings I don’t think the lack of mascara makes too much difference to the overall effect of my eye make-up. I do think it would look more balanced with mascara but it’s just too much maintenance for me so I’d rather skip it and save myself the hassle.

Incidentally I have been growing my eyebrows out and I’m really glad that I managed to resist plucking them until they got to this stage, as I’m now happy that they look a good shape from a distance and require absolutely no maintenance whatsoever, for the first time in fifteen years! I know they look rather straggly and wild in the close up above but there is no way anybody looks at my eyebrows that closely in everyday life so the close-up isn’t really a good reflection of how they really look. OK so it’s a minor achievement but an achievement none the less I feel!

Great Lips by MUA

Do you love British sweets from the ‘80s and ‘90s? Tinted lip balms? Bargain make-up? Nude lip shades? If you answered yes to any of the above then hooray! I have something to show you that might just be right up your street!

This is Great Lips tinted lip balm by the brand MUA, which is available online and in selected Superdrugs as part of the MUA/Love Hearts (British sweets that my fellow 30-something friends will no doubt have fond memories of from their childhoods…) make-up range which contains a selection of sweet-inspired nail varnish and lip balm shades. Great Lips is the name of this shade incidentally, not the range. I think the range is just called Love Hearts lip balm. These retail at £2 each.

The balms have the consistency of Vaseline, which seems to be the main ingredient (paraffinum liquidum) so they’re very soft to the touch, and also feel very moisturising once on the lips. It’s just a bit too soft for my liking and I don’t like applying it with my fingers as I end up smushing a big hole in the product and picking up too much whenever I dip my finger in. I use a lip brush to apply the product instead. That’s just my personal preference though. It does mean that despite the handy handbag sized packaging this isn’t an on-the-go product for me. It’s a shame as the colour doesn’t last that long and I would like to take it with me to top up while I’m out as they do feel lovely on the lips. As it is I just apply it before I go out and leave the colour to fade gracefully. The balm is quite pigmented, which I wasn’t actually expecting. Here’s a shot of my lips with a generous swipe of product.

For me it’s the perfect accompaniment to a smoky eye. Here’s the look I wore it with at the weekend– a golden yellow and black softly smoky look.

I thought I’d include a few more close-ups of my eye make-up as I hardly ever wear black eyeshadow (I think that last time I wore black eyeshadow out was actually to a Christmas party two years ago) and this look turned out better than I was expecting.

I blended for a long time because I wanted the black to be really diffused. I used the shades Honey (1) and Zero (2) from my Urban Decay Deluxe palette pictured below (which I am slowly but surely managing to use up!)

Green + Gold

I think this colour combo is going to become one of my Autumn staples – especially since it only takes about 3 min to apply.

I wore a cream blush in the photo below which is a great product to use when you want to add/maintain a glow to the skin, but the shade I picked was a tad too light for the eyeshadow I think. Next time I would go for a rosier shade to avoid looking washed out.

Above: green eyeshadow to the crease, light golden brown blended across the crease and lower lash line.

Above: I used the shades Graffiti (1) and Shag (2) from the Urban Decay Deluxe Palette over a creamy eyeshadow base.

Smoky Brown with Marché aux Puces

Today my new Marché aux Puces MAC eyeshadow duo and Supercontinental blush (more photos here) got their first outing and I came up with this intense golden brown smoky look. I used a pinkish eyeshadow stick as a base then blended a dark brown on the inner and outer third, popped an orange gold in the centre, then blended everything out at the crease.  I did use some eyeliner, but ony on my lower lashline, and I skipped mascara to create a slightly toned-down smoky look that wasn’t too overpowering for daytime. And incidentally, 12h later the colours are still all going strong – brilliant.

I used my favourite brown eyeliner which is a gel liner by Essence. Unfortunately this brand isn’t readily available in the UK so I’ll most likely end up having to buy a much much more expensive alternative when I run out – this cost just 3 euros and I think it’s a great product. I definitely recommend checking this range out if you ever come across a stand. Fortunately I still have plenty left as I don’t use it that often so I should be OK for a while yet.

30th Birthday Make-up

Here’s a shot of me in my birthday make-up earlier this month, for some reason looking rather coy.  I’m not sure why!

I love how this look turned out.  I used plenty of gold highlighter on my cheeks, temples and nose which translated into a lovely glow, and since it was my birthday I went for colour on both my eyes and lips, which I think worked together really nicely in the finished look.

Here’s a quick run-down of how I created this look:

1. My current favoured foundation for dewy-finishes is Rimmel Wake Me Up which I apply with a flat topped foundation brush for quick, even application.
2. I applied an eyeshadow primer across my eyelids up to my brows and while I waited for it to dry I swept a gold powder highlighter across my cheeks, cheekbones, temples and down the bridge of my nose with a duo-fibre brush.
3. I patted a light shimmering gold across my eyelids up to the crease, then blended a bright violet eyeshadow across and above my crease in a winged arc from the inner corner of my eyes to the end of my brows.  I then added a quick slick of mascara.
4. I had a lot of colour on my eye lids at this point so to balance the look I filled my brows in lightly with a black eyeshadow (to match my natural brow colour).
5. I filled my lips in with a matte red lipstick then patted an antique gold pigment on the inside of my lips with an eyeshadow brush.

I like wearing make-up that’s slightly “theatrical” for nights out - I have so much make-up that I like to use a lot of products for special occassions otherwise most of it would feel really neglected!