Garden Eyes

Today’s a Bank Holiday and it’s sunny – double bonus! I took the chance to sit out in my garden and do a bit of reading earlier, though I didn’t sit out for too long as I didn’t want to get sunburnt. Still, it was nice to feel some sun on my skin and the buds, shoots and flowers in the garden gave me the inspiration for this simple bright look.

Above: one of my fruit trees has flowers on it for the first time, hurray! I have forgotten what kind of tree it actually is but that just makes the anticipation of possibly having fruit in the autumn even more exciting!

I used the same pink on my eyes as my cheeks; it’s actually the blush from the recent Sleek aqua collection in Mirrored Pink. It’s very heavily pigmented and as the name would suggest very shiny. I think I prefer it as an eyeshadow in fact. Which works for me as that means I now have an absolutely massive (8g) pink eyeshadow that I love!

Clog Planters

Today I have a quick picture post for some spring colour inspiration.

Aren’t these wall-mounted clog planters fun? I took this picture at the Klompenmakerij Marken – Clog Workshop in Marken, near Amsterdam, last summer. I love not only the innovative use that they’ve put the old clogs to but the wonderful bursts of colour.

Kew Gardens

Hi all, and happy spring! The weather has finally decided to catch up with the time of year and it was actually sunny and feeling a bit warm this afternoon in London – hurray!

I thought it would be nice to create another photo post with some bright images for inspiration now that the seasons are changing and people probably finally feel like playing around with all the bright and colourful colours that have been hibernating in their make-up bags over the long, extended winter.

I visited Kew Gardens with my boyfriend last month which is always a great day out with lots of different sights to take in each time, depending on the time of year and which plants are in season. On this visit we concentrated on the hot houses (of course – too cold to wander about outside all day long!) so there are plenty of cacti and orchid photos to enjoy – plus lots more!

Grass Eyes

I went to the flower market on Columbia Road near Old Street with a friend today so to mark the occassion I created an eye make-up look inspired by grass blowing in the wind.

I used Urban Decay primer potion as a base then applied a light yellow eyeshadow all over my eyelids up to the brows.  I then patted on a light green on the outer corners of my lids and along the outside of my lower lash line.  I applied the green in a very approximate fashion as I just wanted to get some colour on without worrying too much about the shape.  I wanted to use a green liquid liner for the next step but to be honest I couldn’t remember where I’d put mine (oops!) so I had to use a green eyepencil instead.  I would say that this has to be done with a very smooth eyepencil, as you really don’t want to be tugging away at your poor eyelids as you create the “blades of grass” effect – ouch.  I used a No. 7 metallic eyepencil which is lovely and creamy and applies with practically no pressure.  I just applied strokes of green outward across the outer 2/3 of my eyelids in a triangular shape and lined along my upper lash line.  I then finished the look with a generous helping of black mascara, and that was it – simple.  (I’m also wearing foundation, radiance powder on my cheeks and lipgloss in the photos above).

The flower market was amazing and I definitely recommend a visit if you live in London.  We did get caught in the rain but on the plus side that meant that we got even more bargains as the flower sellers tried to encourage people to keep spending instead of just rushing off home.  Here’s a quick collage of some of the flowers I currently have adorning my home – the bottom row shows two of my new chilli plants, which have the double benefits of being both colourful and edible, yum!

August Bank Holiday Shopping

What’s a girl to do when a bank holiday weekend creeps up at the end of August and gifts her with an extra day off work?  Erm, spot of shopping anyone??  Here’s are some of the goodies that I picked up last weekend and this week.

New pot plant from Tesco, £2.50.  That makes my sixth pot plant in two months…it’s becoming a bit of an addiction!  I just love their pretty colours though.  This one’s a begonia.

(The swatches below were both done with shadow used dry, there are two just to show how the colour looks applied heavily compared with blended out.)

Blingtone eyeshadow in Raspberry Beret by Myface Cosmetics, £7.99 (usually £9.99) from Boots. 

I was so impressed by the first Blingtone eyeshadow that I bought in Morococo that I picked up another one the next time I passed a Myface stand in Boots.  I’ve only owned this for a week and am absolutely in love with it already.  The consistency is very smooth so it takes about three minutes to whack some on and blend out with the same domed eyeshadow blending brush, then I’m good to go with a fresh daytime look (pictured a little further below).  The colour is…well, I think the name says it all.  It’s a gorgeous flattering shimmery pink and even though it’s packed full of glitter it actually stays on my eyes and doesn’t fall all over my face unlike other glitter eyeshadows I’ve tried.  On me it lasts all day over Urban Decay primer potion and I’ve only experienced minimal creasing by the end of the day even when I’ve just worn it alone.

Pixi Lumi Lux Radiance Powder, £16.50 from Boots

I’d lusted over this from a distance for a while (it’s just soooo pretty, right?) but I’d been put off by the price tag until I finally just cracked and had to buy it.  I thought it would be more of a blusher but actually the pigmentation is very subtle so I like to swirl a fluffy blusher brush all over the product and dust it over my cheekbones, temples and the bridge of my nose.  It’s really easy to apply because you don’t have to worry about blending any harsh lines as the effect is rather subtle.  In fact the first time I wore it I did think, “Is that it?!” but actually I do think it does what it says on the tin and adds radiance to the whole face – photographic evidence below.

Me wearing Raspberry Beret eyeshadow and Lumi Lux Radiance Powder and nothing else on my skin (I am wearing lipgloss though but haven’t included that in this post).  I think that I do look more shiny and happy than my bare-faced self.  I took these photos after I’d been out for five hours today and it was quite warm, so you can see that both products seem to have quite admirable staying power.

I bought another eyeshadow that I haven’t tried out yet but I can still show you the pretty colours.

Natural Collection Duo Eyeshadow in Vanilla/Plum, £1.99 from Boots.

Yes folks, you read that right, only £1.99 for a duo eyeshadow weighing 5g – what a bargain!  Well, I am yet to wear it so maybe I should reserve judgement on just how much of a bargain it is just yet ha.  Anyhow first indications with my swatches were all promising; nice smooth consistency with good colour payoff.  I think the shades are a great combination too and although they’re called vanilla and plum the yellow made me think of bananas which is why I just had to buy it!

I also bought a new Bourjois mascara completely on impulse as there  was a special offer.  I got this rather weird and wonderful looking contraption:

Volumizer mascara, Bourjois, £5.99 from Boots (special offer).

It’s a mascara with two lids so basically you can use step 1, which pulls the brush through two stoppers and clears off most of the mascara for a light and natural daytime look, or you can use step 1 then follow that up with step 2 which only pulls the wand through one stopper which leaves a lot of mascara on the wand which you can use to create a huge, voluminous night time lash look with.  To be honest it’s a bit difficult to describe and my pictures really don’t do it justice, but I quite like this mascara so far and when I’ve used steps 1 and 2 (I have such sparse lashes that I would really never bother to go for a mascara that was just promising a “daytime” look though) I have been left with quite noticeably pumped up lashes.  My only complaint is that I find Bourjois mascaras quite difficult to remove so it doesn’t quite beat my current favourite Collagen Mascara by Accessorize.

The last pics I have to show today are of my latest Blingtone eyeshadow which I picked up today.  This shade is Black Ice and it’s the perfect eyeshadow for creating a smokey eye with.  Check out my post here if you don’t believe me or would like to see further photographic evidence to back up that claim!

(The swatches below were both done with shadow used dry, there are two just to show how the colour looks applied heavily compared with blended out.)

Inspired by Orchids

I’ve gone crazy for pot plants this week (I bought four!) and this gently colourful look was inspired by my lovely double stemmed moth orchid whom I have named Charlie.  (I like giving things names).



Charlie is mostly white with some gentle pink flushes and more vibrant and stark purply markings inside the flower.  Here’s the look I came up with.

Both eyes are actually slightly different which I hope you can see more clearly in the comparison below.

Bit of a weird set-up for my photo there, but I found it was the best way to illustrate the subtle differences in each eye’s make-up.

Here are the main products I used to create the look.

I applied quite a thick layer of the pink cream from the Sleek primer palette (above, top right) all over my lids and on the lower inner corner because I wanted some of the colour to show in the finished look, though in hindsight this wasn’t the best primer to choose as it’s already begun creasing after a couple of hours – I guess it works best when you apply a very thin layer

Next up I used a smallish eyeshadow brush to pat on a sparkly white powder eyeshadow.  The one I used was exceptionally glittery and did have a lot of fall out, but I find that using a creamy base can help to “catch” the glitter as you work it out and reduces fall out.

Next up I loaded the tip of a slanted eyeliner brush with a bright pink powder eyeshadow.  Today I used a bright pink but I actually think that any bright colour would look great.

I looked down and held my eyelid taut with one finger then applied a few bold lines, each in just a couple of decisive strokes because I felt that helped create a more ad hoc feel.  I created slightly different lines on each eye.  I then went back to the large fluffy blending brush that I’d used earlier to blend the pink lines into the white on the eyelid using a circular motion.  The result was a hazy pink-white on the outer corner of my eyelids.  I then finished the eyes with a couple of coats of mascara.  I only have black mascara as that’s the natural colour of my lashes anyway but I think this look would work well with brown mascara as it was inspired by flowers and brown is a more organic colour.

I then added a pink blush (pictured in collage above, bottom right) and shiny pink lipbalm which I think pulled the whole look together nicely.  Now I think I’m ready to go out…to buy some plant food!