The Case of the Vanishing Overspray

Well hello there limited edition blush in Sakura from MAC’s spring 2011 Quite Cute Collection.  How are you doing these days?  What’s that?  You’re not the blush you once were?  You’ve been feeling much paler lately?  Hmm, this calls for further investigation…

Sakura is not one of my favourite blushes but I quite like the colour and I want to get my money’s worth so I’ve been using it quite regularly lately.  This week the pink heart design started fading away in the middle and now there’s a gaping hole in it as it’s actually only an overspray that goes down just a couple of millimeters in the design.  This means that when the heart runs out the colour of the blush is going to change completely – which I find really, really annoying!

Above: 1 – central heart; 2 – surrounding colour; 3 – both shades mixed

I currently use this product by swirling a big fluffy kabuki brush over the entire surface, so I end up with a shade like 3 above which I lightly buff across my cheeks, but once the heart has been used up I’ll be left with a much lighter, more lilac pink shade. I find it almost “insincere” that this product is changing colour after I’ve already used it so much and grown fond of the shade I’ve grown used to.  Does anyone else get annoyed by fading oversprays, or is it just me??

Body Shop Summer Sale 2011 Make-Up

I haven’t bought anything from The Body Shop for ages but I happened to be wandering around Euston train station the other night and popped into the tiny store on the concourse and ended up picking up a couple of pieces of make-up that were reduced in their summer sale.

Their Spring 2011 eyeshadow palette 01 Boho Beauty is currently reduced from £15 to £7.50.  I don’t usually go in for nude shades but I have to admit that I think this palette is just so beautiful I had to succumb.

The cover was designed by students at the University of the Arts London College of Fashion, but actually I’m not that interested in the design – it’s the make-up inside that caught my eye!  The eyeshadows are buttery soft and super blendable, with three matte shades and one shimmer (the nude in the top left).  The darkest brown in the bottom right-hand corner is also a great colour for me to use for defining as it has plum undertones and offsets the lilacs and purples that I like wearing perfectly.

The palette is made of sturdy plastic and also houses a large mirror in the lid, and the kit also contains a mini eye definer in 02 Rich Brown and a mini eyeshadow brush.  The brush is actually pretty good quality – I can see myself getting some good use out of it.  The eye pencil is quite hard and takes a bit of warming up before it delivers good colour pay off, but once it was actually on my skin it did stay put well.

left to right:

eye definer 02 rich brown; eye colour New Nude; eye colour Vintage Apricot; eye colour boho brown; eye colour haute chocolate.

The palette contains 2.5g of each shadow which is very generous.  That’s similar or more than many brands’ single eyeshadows, so overall I think that £7.50 is an excellent price to get this palette for.

I also bought a somewhat more impractical tiny pot of pink Star Dust which is basically 1.5g of glitter.  I have to admit that I’m a bit of a glitter bug and at £3 I thought why not.

The colour is a dark fuschia that I actually think looks quite sophisticated.  The glitter particles are flat and round and therefore sit well on the skin.  Just be careful when you tip some out of the container though, as my first attempt ended in this:

I only wanted to tip out a tiny sprinkling - whoops!  Anyway while I had a big heaped pile of glitter on my hand I thought I might as well take a nice close up shot.

You can see the way the particles sit more clearly on my finger tip which I used to spread the glitter on my hand out a bit.

I love how sparkly the glitter looks in these photos – usually it’s difficult to convey the real texture of glitters and shimmers in photos.  This is how the glitter spread out just on my bare skin, but normally I’d wearing it on top of a creamy primer from my Sleek Primer Palette or a creamy eyeshadow stick to get it to stick exactly where I want and hopefully last all night.

My First Taste of MAC

Generally my beauty shopping philosophy is to go for medium quantity at a good price over high end products and MAC has always seemed to be just that bit over my budget.  However, I just couldn’t ignore all the hype and gushing about MAC products that I’ve been seeing on YouTube and other beauty blogs any longer and I had a bit of spare cash in my pocket so this month I finally capitulated and bought my first ever tiny collection of MAC.

I’d been so indecisive over what to get though that by the time I finally decided to order a couple of products from their limited edition Spring 2011 collection “Quite Cute” it had already been withdrawn from most retail outlets – silly me!  So I ended up having to order from Selfridges and pay an extra £5 for postage – grrr.  I bought the eye quad from the collection, one of the mineralize blushers in Sakura, and the finishing spray Fix+ from their permanent line.  Altogether these little beauties cost me £68 (incl. P&P):




They come in individual cardboard boxed with the names of the shades stuck onto the side.  The packaging of the products themselves is sleek black and transparent plastic.

OK so now onto the products themselves.  I’ll start with the Fix+.  I do think the name Fix+ is a bit deceptive - you would surely be forgiven for thinking that it was promising to fix your make-up in place all day with a name like that, but I don't really think that's what this product is designed for.  I in fact bought this to try as an alternative to my beloved Body Shop Vitamin C Energizing Face Spritz.  The prices aren't actually that different when compared weight for weight and the products themselves are pretty similar – they’re weightless, fragrant face sprays that refresh the skin both with and without make-up.  I discovered face sprays when my aunt bought me one as a gift one year and at first I didn’t quite know what to do with it and would reserve it for taking with me on holiday when I could spray it onto my face at the end of a long hot day.  Nowadays though I'm never without one and I use them every day – a quick spritz all over my face when I’m just out of the shower; after I’ve applied my make-up; when I’m feeling tired, hot, or before I go to bed…anytime when I want to freshen up really.  So I’m already a fan of Fix+ and I’ll probably buy it again, alternating it with the Body Shop face spritz.

I chose the make-up primarily for the colours.  If you take a look at the make-up looks I’ve posted on this blog you can see that I hardly ever wear black eyeshadow or eyeliner because I have quite small eyes and I just feel that black is usually too harsh on me and makes my eyes look so tiny they can almost seem to disappear into my head!  I love wearing light, bright colours during the day because I feel that they not only flatter my eyes but also light my whole face up.  When I saw the eyeshadow quad in the Quite Cute collection I thought the colours would be perfect for me, and I’m always especially eager to try out new lilac and purple eyeshadows because I have convinced myself that they’re the most flattering shades against my brown eyes.




This palette really is quite cute – well done to whoever came up with the name for the collection!  The shadows clockwise from top left are: Moshi Moshi! (light shimmery green); Goody Goody Gumdrop (light pink); Boycrazy (shimmery lilac) and Azuki Bean (bruised purple/aubergine).  The shadows are all shimmery, with Moshi Moshi! and Boycrazy being so shimmery and shiny they're practically holographic.  I would say that Goody Goody Gumdrop and Boycrazy in particular are very sheer which I believe they are intended to be.  On the one hand it does mean that you can build the colour up starting from a sheer wash, but on the other it can be quite frustrating when you’re trying to achieve the same colour on your eyelids as in the pan.  Boycrazy is my favourite shade in the quad though and I’ve worn it a few times already.  I’ve found that I can achieve a good colour by using a dense eyeshadow brush to apply it over a cream base – I just use a creamy eyeshadow in a light shade smudged all over my eyelid.  I think it looks great paired up with Moshi Moshi! as a highlight on the inner corner of the eye.

I actually prefer the blush to the eyeshadow quad.  It’s a 2-shade mineral blush with a bright pink heart baked into a lilac base colour.  I was quite intrigued at the prospect of a lilac blush because I thought it might go well with my cool complexion, but when you swirl a blusher brush over the product it actually picks up a lot of the highly pigmented pink heart and the result is quite different to either of the individual shades.  I like it because, well, I just think it looks quite cute.



Here are a couple of shots of me wearing Boycrazy and Moshi Moshi! from the eyeshadow quad and Sakura blusher.  (Unfortunately the lighting was terrible – sorry about that). I like the net effect – I think I look like a little dolly, especially with my pink pink cheeks!


 

Overall although I do quite like the make-up I’ve not been wowed by it which is slightly disappointing given how much money I spent on it.  I like the blush a lot but to be honest I can’t say that I think it was worth the £18 that I paid for it.  That’s a lot of money for a little bit (just 4g!) of product.  I think I probably will dabble in MAC make-up again because so many people love it I’m sure they make some fantastic products - so hopefully I will discover some of them next time I buy.

Peachy Lids & Green Brows

Today I'd just like to show the super-quick look I wore on my eyes and share a few thoughts on the Sleek Primer Palette.

I paired a really light and sparkly peachy colour on my lids with some light green eyebrows.  I don’t usually do anything to my eyebrows on a daily basis but the colour on my lids was so subtle I thought I could get away with adding a bit of colour today.  I have a light green eyepencil that’s a got quite a hard consistency which makes it very difficult to use on my eyelids but which make it perfect for drawing in brows so I thought I might as well get some use out of it as throw it away, and as you can see from my pics it’s a really subtle effect.

Creating the Look

The colour in this look is concentrated just above the crease.  I used the light orange cream colour from the Sleek Primer Palette as a base, patting out a thin layer over my crease and just above with my ring finger.

I then blended a peachy eyeshadow on top with a big fluffy eyeshadow brush, blending the colour right out at the edges to leave a soft cloud of colour, followed by a couple of coats of black mascara, and shaded my brows in with a light green eyepencil, and that was it – simple.

Sleek Primer Palette

I bought my Sleek Primer palette pretty much when it was released back in Feb so I’ve had it for a few months now.  I haven’t actually tried all the colours yet so instead of doing a full review I thought I’d pop some of my observations in at the end of this post.

So first things first here's a huge pic of the palette to allow you to have a good look at the colours.  There's a mix of brights and lights. 

I don’t like the brush that was included with the palette because it’s quite tiny and sheds terribly, so I always apply these with my fingers (as you can see from the paw prints all over the colours in the pic above) and I find that the warmth from my fingers helps blend the colours out into a nice thin layer.  Is a palette of 12 different coloured cream bases necessary?  In all honesty I don’t think so as I tend to use either a nude coloured primer or simply a matching eyepencil as bases, but these colours are actually quite highly pigmented themselves so it’s a good buy if you like cream shadows as they can all be worn on their own to produce gentle to intense washes of colour (depending on the shade), and it does contain some nice colours.

The colours that I’ve tried have helped to make my eyeshadows more vibrant and longer lasting, and while they will crease after some hours, as all cream products will, one of the advantages of cream products over silicone based ones is that they’re far less drying on the skin, which is why I actually prefer them.  They’re also good if you want to wear glitter or pigments, as I find that their creamy texture grips onto glitter better and increases the intensity and colour payoff that can be achieved.

So all in all – it’s not a necessary product, so I would only recommend it if you think you could get some use out of a palette of cream colours.

Violet Arches

I’m back to work tomorrow after my Easter holidays but I still had today off to play around with my make-up, hooray.  I find it a nice and relaxing way to spend a chilled out morning in my flat.  In keeping with the rest of the week I thought I’d go for a different colour again today and I came up with this look which involves the exact opposite of blending, though I can’t think what the word is!  I basically drew in some brightly coloured arches above my crease using just an eye pencil and one shade of eyeshadow.  It’s a little bit of a tricky look just because the lines are quite sharp and it takes a while to get them even, but I think it’s a really nice way to create a striking look with just a small amount of make up, and it is pretty quick.  Plus it’s perfect if like me you’re not the best at blending!

Here’s the finished look, with me looking more than a little smug for no reason – I was having trouble getting my camera to focus and this was one of the best photos I could get.

Creating the Look


Firstly I applied a nude finish silicon based primer all over my eyelids to just above the crease.  You could also apply an eyepencil or creamy base and pat a nude eyeshadow on top, put a teeny bit of foundation on your lids, or leave them bare depending on your skin type – the reason I did this was because although I was only going to wear colour above my crease I do have oily lids and I didn’t want the colour to smudge onto my eyelids as the day went on and my lids got oilier.

I drew the arches in using a purple eye pencil.  This is the step that actually takes the longest because although the colour doesn’t need to be even this is when you create the shape that you want.  When I wear my eye make-up like this I have to keep opening and closing my eyelids and checking the lines from various angles to make sure that they’re approximately even.  It’s also made trickier by the fact that nobody’s eyes are completely symmetrical in the first place, and certainly in my case this line doesn't quite follow the natural line of my socket bone so I have to get a bit freehand with my drawing.

You can use any kind of eye pencil, this is just the one that I happened to use.

Was getting snap happy…he he

Then you just need to pack eyeshadow on top of the lines you’ve drawn.  I like to use a small eyeshadow brush which can be turned on its side and used to create lines with its tip.  I just stroked it back and forth over the eyepencil and stretched it out slightly at the ends.

I chose was a shimmering violet eyeshadow which is really versatile - you can see in the swatches below some of the different finishes that can be achieved with this shade over different bases – I personally like the colour best when applied over a purple eyepencil because it gives a wonderfully intense, shimmery finish.




I then tidied up the ends with a cotton wool bud dipped in eye make-up remover to create an angular edge at the outer corner (you can see this more clearly in the pics below), applied a volumising mascara to my upper lashes, and, erm…that was it!  I love the fact that this kind of look is so high-impact given how little make-up it actually involves.  Oh yes and I popped some pink shimmer all over my cheekbones and temples, which is how I finish every look I wear at the moment.

Finally here are a couple more shots of the finished make-up.

Feelin’ Green

Ah, another beautiful Spring morning in London, another perfect day for bright eyeshadow!


I’ve been wearing quite a lot of blue recently but today I was in the mood for some green – and lots of it!  I decided to just go for a rounded block of colour across my whole eyelid with just the tiniest bit of definition.



Creating the Look

I applied light green eye pencil as a base across my eyelid up to the crease and smoothed it out with my ring finger to leave a very thin layer.  I do like using eye pencils as bases as glitters stick to them well and they are less drying to my skin than silicon based primers.
 
I patted a bright green eyeshadow over my eyelid and blended out in a round shape above my crease.  I did this twice to get the colour intensity that I was after. I then applied a teeny bit of a silvery green on the inner corner of my eye and blended up and out in an arch above my crease.

For some added definition I used a metallic green eyeliner along my upper lash line.  It adds a really striking contrast as it's metallic and lighter than the main colour on my lids, and as a result opens up my eyes rather than making them appear smaller which black eyeliner tends to do.

I was thinking about using purple mascara but just went for black for the extra definition it offers in the end.  I then tidied up my lower lash line and the outer edges of the shadow to leave the look with a modern, crisp feel using a cotton wool pad soaked in some eye make up remover – it’s the absolute easiest way to create crisp lines with your eyeshadow.  No need to muck about with fiddly masking tape around your eyes to create straight lines.

I also wore my favourite pink blush which is the Accessorize merged blusher in Starlet and dusted some pink shimmer along my cheekbones and temples.  I’m loving shiny pink cheeks this year and have decided they go with everything!

First step & last step: The green eye pencil that I used as a base for my eyeshadow and black mascara to finish.
I used the green from the Glam Metallics range of eyeliners by Collection 2000.  There’s so much to recommend these eyeliners – great colours, huge tubes, good brushes, long wearing formula AND super cheap on top of all that.  I just have two tips when using them: try not to blink until they are dry on your eyelid as they are a bit runny and can transfer to your upper eyelid if you accidentally blink too vigourously before they’re dry, and use a spot of oil to remove them at the end of the day if you’re having trouble getting them off with just your normal cleanser.
	My favourite blush + a shimmer brick to add some pink shine to my complexion.

Gold and Turquoise look

Five years ago gold was my absolute favourite make-up colour.  I wore gold eyeshadow, gold nail varnish, gold lipstick - I even had a gold mascara at one point.

Nowadays I prefer bright colours and haven’t actually worn gold for a long time.  However I wanted to use a splash of my No. 7 turquoise eyeliner again today and I had a bright gold eyeshadow that I felt would go really well with it.  Here’s the look that I came up with, which I’m just about to go to Tescos to pick up some last minute Easter Eggs in!

I used a small eyeshadow brush to apply the gold over the inner 1/2 of my eyelid and took it slightly above my crease by following the line of my socket bone with my brush. 
I then applied turquoise gel eyeliner in a thin triangular shape to the outer corner of my eyelid.  It’s a bit tricky to create a shape that looks good when your eyes are open because the shape of the eyelid changes dramatically from the shape you hold it at as you apply the liner.  The trick that I use it to hold my makeup brush at an angle from the outer corner of my nose to the outer corner of my eye and try to follow the angle of that line.  It’s still not easy though and I think I need more practise myself!

Finally I just popped a tiny bit of green eyeshadow along my lower lash line.  No mascara today again as it’s still so hot outside it would probably just smudge as soon as I step into the sun and start sweating.

I use a small angled brush to apply the No. 7 gel eyeliner.  I’ve not used it that many times although the top of it is so mushed up now it looks like I’ve used loads, but that’s just because it has such a soft, creamy consistency.

I think the pot contains plenty of product and should be enough to keep me in turquoise until I get bored of the colour and move on to a new favourite.  Whenever I’ve worn it it’s lasted all day (on really long days it does smudge but there is still plenty of noticeable colour left by the end of the day) and it’s very easy to remove with some creamy make-up remover, so it’s definitely one of my spring 2011 favourites.

Peking Opera with an ‘80s twist

It’s the Easter weekend – which means loads of bank holidays off work for us lucky office workers, hooray!
The weather here in London has been absolutely gorgeous so far this week which put me in the mood for wearing some really bright make-up colours today.  I had a friend staying over and didn’t want to spend too long doing my make-up and keeping my friend waiting so I came up with this super-easy fun look that I like to think is a bit ‘80s but that my friend also said made her think of Peking Opera.

Although it's quite bright I think it's still quite wearable as most of the bright colour is just concentrated on the outside of the eye and it's balanced by matte neutrals.


I’ve written posts about all the products I used for this look which I've linked to below.  Here’s a quick run-through of how I created it:

Sleek Paraguaya palette: I used Cameo as a base colour across the eyelid up to the crease and blended out just above, and Sandstone as a highlight under the brow.
Sleek Good Girl palette: the bright pink that I used was Pink Punch which is in the top row of the palette. I applied the bright pink in about 2 min, just dabbing it on in a triangular shape on the outside of my eyelids with a smallish shading brush and not bothering to blend it in too well which I think created an interesting shape that wasn’t too defined.
No. 7 Gel Eyeliner in Turquoise: I ran this along the outer 3/4 of my upper lash line for some bright, contrasting definition.

I don’t have anything on my lips in the photos above, they’re just naturally really pale.  I did put some lip gloss on just to add a bit of colour before I went out, but nothing too bright because I felt my eyes were bright enough already.
I didn’t bother with any foundation or mascara because it was so warm today I thought it would just smudge if I got too hot when I was walking about outside.  I used Urban Decay primer potion and my eye makeup was all in place after I got home after being out and about for about four hours including walking in the sun for about an hour.

No. 7 Spring 2011 Eye Look

As well as the turquoise gel eyeliner which I wrote about here, I also picked up the eyeshadow palette from the recent limited edition range from No. 7 for Spring 2011.

I really like this palette – the packaging is cute with a large, usable mirror in the lid, and the eyeshadows are smooth, pigmented and easy to apply.

The range was inspired by ‘50s St. Tropez and the palette contains an interesting mix of colours which make me think of fun and sunshine: aqua blue, emerald green, baby pink and nude gold.  My favourite so far has been the blue which I like to wear on its own as a wash of colour across my entire lid for a simple, playful everyday look.  The colours go on sheer so you can start with a light touch and build colour up.  The gold is very similar to my actual skin tone but it works nicely as a neutral contrast to the other colours.

I wore a look from this palette teamed with the turquoise cream eyeliner and loads of pink blush for a dinner event on Saturday night.  I think it captured the spring feeling that’s been in the air this week very nicely.

Eyes: Urban Decay Primer Potion as a base over the entire lid; gold across lid up to brow; aqua blue blended into and just above the crease; emerald green blended close to the lash line; turquoise cream liner under lower lash line; black mascara on top lashes.

I used Accessorize merged blush in pretty pink applied on my cheeks with a damp sponge to get a really light and shiny finish on my skin.

I like wearing colourful eyeliner on the lower rather than upper lash line sometimes because it’s a bit unexpected and creates quite a different eye shape.  Sometimes I get really heavy-handed with my eyeliner for a really ‘80s feel…but that’s a look for a different blog post I think.