Septemberry 2: Sparkling Berry

Today’s make-up: sparkling berry toned eyeshadow worn in the crease paired with shiny shiny lips.

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a good close up shot of my eye make-up but you can see in the photo below that the berry eyeshadow is very subtle, which makes this an accessible way to wear a berry tone on the eyes. I applied a wash of pale pink cream eyeshadow over my lids to my crease then worked some shimmering berry eyeshadow along my crease from outer to inner corner.

The shadow that I used was Glitter Rock from the Urban Decay Moondust range. They’re basically pressed micro-glitters which have some pros and cons: the fall out is nowhere near as horrific as with Urban Decay’s somewhat old-fashioned chunky glitter shadows but you still get the same sparkly effect, and they’re very sheer which is either an advantage or a disadvantage depending on what you’re looking for. If you hope to achieve the colour in the pan then basically your best bet is to pack the colour on over a (preferably slightly sticky) base and press it on with your finger tips though even then I don’t know if it’s really going to be as opaque. However, if you like the sound of a subtle sheen over your eyelids then you can easily achieve that with these shadows.

I found it difficult to capture the sparkle I was trying to describe in my photos today but I hope you can appreciate some of the effect from the photos below. The pic on the left is a single swipe from my fingertip, while the pic on the right is the same swipe (no extra product applied) blended out across my arm.

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.

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.

Pink & Silver Glitter Stack from Claire’s

Well, in my previous post I did mention that I am a bit of a glitter fan…

Unlike my previous post though I have a product to share that I actually like quite a lot this time. I bought this stack of 10 pink and silver glitters from Claire’s Accessories for about a fiver - I can’t remember the exact price but it was part of a 3-for-2 offer so worked out about a fiver anyway. Unfortunately these state not for use on the eyes but if you use your imagination you can still get a lot of use out of them on cheekbones, lips, collarbones, nails and maybe even hair (although just watch out how you apply it so it doesn’t end up looking like dandruff!)

I would suggest using them in conjunction with a mixing medium, depending on where you want to wear them. I would go for hair gel for hair, vaseline for skin, and on top of vaseline, lipstick or gloss on the lips. You can also sprinkle it over wet nail polish or mix it in with nail polish in a palette to create a glittery nail varnish or top coat.

I’ve taken close-up pics of each glitter for this collage below, which you can click on for a larger picture. There’s a nice selection of colours, with a mixture of matte and holographic finishes. The glitter itself is also fine and flat, so it sits well on the skin. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of glitter and are looking for something a bit more substantial than individual glitter pots to dip your toes into.

Glitter Disappointment from Claire’s Accessories

Most people consider glitter to be more appropriate as an arts and crafts material for small children than as make-up, but y’know what? I love to incorporate glitter in my look whenever I feel like wearing something colourful, shiny and metallic and don’t care that it’s generally considered inappropriate on ladies aged over 18. Yes, I’m happy to admit that I’m a 30 year old glitter fan.

I thought that this eye glitter palette from Claire’s (£7), with its selection of 10 varied colours, would be perfect for weekends or jazzing up my eyelids and temples during the week for mid-week nights out. Unfortunately having used this a few times now I have to say that I’m less than impressed.

Each colour merely contains a dusting of glitter over a layer of vaseline-like cream, and the pans are very thin. I didn’t do any swatches for the blog because swatching alone would probably have used up about half of the glitter in the product! I’d used this palette about three times before taking the photos below. You can clearly see how I’ve already hit pan on the dark pink. The glitter itself is fine – very fine and flat so it sits well on the skin, but I was really disappointed by this as I feel the product is presented very deceptively. I also don’t understand why the glitter is not simply mixed with the cream all the way through instead of just finely layered on top.

Glitterized for Chinese New Year

Well I am a bit late posting this as the New Year was almost two weeks ago already but Gong Hei Fat Choi for the year of the snake 2013! (linguistic titbit of the day: Gong Hei Fat Choi is Cantonese and a standard greeting for Chinese New Year. You may also see it written as “Gong Xi Fa Cai” which is exactly the same phrase, just in Mandarin. A good translation is “Wishing you a prosperous new year!”)

I met up with some friends near Soho on the day – we weren’t actually going  to China Town, as it gets awfully crowded there, but we managed to get absolutely caught up in the crowds anyway. I guess next year I should just give in and go to China Town on the day!

I did go heavy on the glitter to ring in the occassion though. I used some eyeshadows from Urban Decay as my base colour and a combination of glitters from Claire’s Accessories on top.

The colours did crease as I used a creamy base to help the glitter stick with, but I don’t think it looked bad. I have quite narrow eyelids anyway so I can get away with a lot of creasing on my lids before it actually becomes noticeable from any distance.

I love glitter and although I know it is viewed by many as a very teenage form of make-up, I like to think I’ll be rocking glittery looks for at least the next thirty years too!

Some Bargain O.P.I and Butter London

I popped into TKMaxx last week and picked up two things that I really didn’t need – more nail varnish and more lip gloss! They looked pretty and sparkly though so I decided to treat myself. I haven’t worn the nail varnishes yet but I thought I would posts some pics of the products anyway in case anybody is interested in checking out their local TKMaxx to see if they have them in stock.

I picked up an OPI duo with full sized bottles of the shades Pirouette My Whistle (silver glitter) and Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous (multi-shimmer charcoal), with a diamante encrusted pen thrown in for good measure. I have to admit that the pen is quite fetching if you like your bling!

According to TKMaxx’s price sticker the RRP of this set is £17.50 but I picked it up for £12.99. I was just thinking that the last (and only) time I bought a full priced OPI nail polish it cost me around £11 so since I really like both these shades this was certainly a bargain.

They also had quite a few nail varnish and lipgloss sets by Butter London. It’s a brand that I’d heard of but never tried before. I know that they are primarily known for their nail varnishes but I thought I’d branch out and pick up this gloss trio, which at £9.99 (RRP £21 according to the price sticker) worked out at £3.33 per gloss which I thought was OK.

The colours are quite sheer but are nice and shimmery. They’re quite sticky but I don’t mind sticky gloss as I find it tends to last a wee bit longer on my lips. The colours offer a lovely selection for daytime wear – I think they’re a bit too sheer and subtle for evening. I wouldn’t pay £21 for this set but at £9.99 it’s OK.

Here are a couple of shots of swatches on my arm so you can appreciate the sparkle a bit.

Left to right: Frilly Knickers (white-blue shimmer), West End Wonderland, Rosie Lee

Orange + Blue Glitter Crackle Nails

I wasn’t actually going to feature these nails on my blog as I painted them mid-way through the week and never thought they’d survive in a fit state until the weekend (now that we’ve turned the clocks back the only time I have enough day light to take any nice photos is at weekends) but who would have thought it – Saturday came and they were still looking pretty good. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – China Glaze No Chip Top Coat, I salute you!

Both the nail varnishes I used are by MUA; the orange is MUA Love Hearts I WANT U (around £2) and the blue glitter crackle topcoat is Glitter Nail Quake Blue (around £3). I WANT U is a great bright colour, almost neon in fact, but it did apply slightly unevenly. After 2 coats I thought I might as well bung some glitter on top to disguise the uneven finish.

I’ve featured this blue glitter crackle polish on the blog previously here when I wore it over another Love Hearts nail varnish, but that time in purple. I have to say that I much prefer it here. I think it works so much better on slightly longer nails and with a contrasting colour. When I wore it over a purple the colours were just that bit too close to each other and the effect was slightly underwhelming. I think it looks great teamed with this orange though. This is definitely a manicure that I’ll be repeating – especially on days when I fancy some bright colours or a shot of glitter to lift my mood!

Funky Nails by MUA

So I finally got round to painting my nails with the fantastic colour Love U 24/7 by MUA, which is a creamy opaque purple that I bought back in the spring. The pic below is of two coats, no top coat. I think it’s a great little nail varnish for £2 and really recommend it if you like the colour. I can get 4 days wear out of this no problem in conjunction with my China Glaze topcoat.

I also had an MUA glitter crackle top-coat that I was eager to try out so I popped some on top.

Now, this product does crackle as promised but I’m not sure if I really like the final effect. I think the glitter needed to be a teeny bit more pigmented, as it wasn’t that obvious that it was anything other than a normal glitter topcoat from a distance. I do think that it worked better on my other hand where my nails are longer (see very top photo), so perhaps I’ll wait until all my nails are a bit longer before trying this out again. I also think I didn’t quite get the colour combination right, as the blue got a bit lost within the purple, so next time I’ll go for a contrasting undercoat in a gold, orange or brown.

Gold Glitter Gradient Nails

Hello again!  I’ve been away on a couple of trips the past couple of weeks visiting people and places so I haven’t updated my blog for a while.  I have loads of exciting new things to show on my blog over the next few days but to start off with I’ve just got a quick post to show the nail design I’m wearing at the moment.

This was super easy to create because the glitter top coat hides a multitude of sins.  I managed to smudged about half of my nails before I applied the top coat but after a couple of coats of glitter and a top coat they were looking perfect again!

I love how fiery and warm the design is – a bit of warmth is definitely welcome at the moment as the weather has really failed to deliver so far this summer!  I used a bright orange Barry M Nail Paint and a Color Club gold glitter top coat.  The Barry M paint was still quite translucent after two coats so the white of my nail tips was still visible, which was an interesting effect (a bit like having orange jelly nails) but this colour is best avoided if you’re after opaque coverage.  However the gold glitter was quite thick so my tips were covered totally by the time the design was completed.

For tips on how to create a glitter gradient manicure like this I recommend this Youtube video tutorial by Illamasqua which creates the design using black and silver.  Have fun if you decide to give it a go!

Silver Bling Nails

It’s been the wettest summer so far that I can remember since having moved to London but the sun’s finally managed to peek out from behind the grey clouds for a few hours these past few days so I decided to embrace the sunshine while it lasted and paint my nails with a mega-bling chunky glitter polish.

This is Techno by China Glaze which I got in a 2-for-£10 offer in Sally’s Hair and Beauty.  The price (mid) to quality (high) ratio of China Glaze means that it’s my favourite make of nail varnish at the moment.

I really like this nail varnish.  It can be worn as a top coat or on its own for some unadulterated glittery bling.  There’s a mixture of fine silver glitter and larger hexagonal chunks and you get a decent amount out on the brush each time without having to resort to scooping.  Here I’m wearing 3 coats as I wanted really dense coverage but it also looked good with one and two coats.  As with any glitter it was difficult to capture a good representation of the sparkle in just one photo so I put together a small collage with a few snaps from different angles.

Hot Pink Glitter Nails

I love this colour/texture combination, it just feels so perfect for summer.  I love how the glitter adds a bit of “fizz”, too.

The pink I used was from Boots 17; a high gloss nail polish in the shade Framboise (though I prefer to just call it raspberry.)  I actually bought this about three years ago so I’m not sure if it’s available anymore but there are surely a good number of raspberry nail polishes by numerous brands on the market at any given time.  Anyway it’s a shade that just seems to go well with sunny weather I think.  I applied a base coat then one coat of Framboise which dried in a few minutes, then I “patted” on this chunky glitter top coat by an American brand called Colour Club.  As you can see the brush doesn’t pick up lots of glitter so you can’t really paint it on normally if you want quite thick glitter coverage.  I don’t actually know where you can get your hands on this in the UK; I got this in a set from TKMaxx but their stock is quite high turnover and varies greatly between stores.  I like the fact that the glitter is in “shards” which is a bit of an unusual texture.

BarryM Body Glitter Gels and Some Fun Jewellery from Brighton

Just in case you haven’t noticed yet I looooove glitter so when I saw these little sparkly pots for just £2.99 each in Topshop the other week I couldn’t resist.  I usually buy BarryM products in Superdrug but I don’t recall having seen these in any of my local stores which I why I bought them in Topshop instead (the huge Topshop flagship store on Oxford Street sells several different brands of cosmetics and accessories on the ground floor in addition to its own Topshop ranges).

The product is called Body Glitter and it comes in various shades and designs.  They’re available in a range of shades and I picked the two that contained tiny shapes – one with silver stars and one with red hearts, both suspended in an iridescent glitter gel.  I know that you can also buy these tiny glittery shapes loose but I like this glitter gel as it makes them super easy to apply.

I took a few photos from different angles to try to capture some of the effect of the glitter .  The gels are quite concentrated so you do get a lot of shapes even when you pick up just a small amount of gel, and it’s also quite buildable so it’s easy to keep adding more product until you get the effect you desire.

My eyes were a bit sore today so I decided not to wear any eye make-up and just glam my cheeks up with a bit of glitter instead.  I think this is such a fun product as you just need a tiny amount to create a high impact party look - I simply took a bit of product on a finger tip and dabbed it across one of my cheekbones and temple.

Above: dewy foundation, shimmery blush, and BarryM Glitter Gel – 5 minutes to a fun glitzy spring time look!

Admittedly the effect can look like a strange spotty skin condition and dandruff (if you get glitter in your hair) from a distance, but I promise that it’s very pretty when it catches the light!  I enjoyed wearing this today anyway and I’ll definitely be wearing it again.  It was easy to apply and didn’t really flake off, although it would if you touched your face a lot.  It washes off easily with warm water.  I would also just add to be careful not to get any in your eyes as the edges of the stars and hearts would definitely poke a bit – ouch!

In the photos above I’m wearing one of the new pairs of earrings I picked up yesterday.  I went with a couple of friends for a day trip to Brighton which is full of quirky clothes and jewellery shops and I picked up some earrings from a fair trade shop.  I really like fair trade jewellery as it’s often made from natural or recycled materials, it’s creative and it’s usually very well hand made.

I got a pair of bicycles made from wire and a pair of dragonflies made from  tin cans.  There was also some information on the packaging about the community of artists who had made the jewellery.  These were £4 each – which is really good value considering the quality and detail of the designs.  If you like costume jewellery then it’s definitely worth having a scout around a Fair Trade store as there are some lovely designs out there and the stock is constantly rotating too so there’s always something new to pick up.

I also bought this rather sparkly butterfly cuff from a small jewellery store as it was only £12 which I thought was a good price for all the detailing.  It’s inlaid with a ton of glitzy stones in an array of bright colours.

I am so easily suckered in to buying new costume jewellery, even though I know that I have so much already.  I really have to get better at remembering to wear it every day so that I can enjoy what I have more!

Barry M Fine Glitter Dust in Crimson/Pink

Originally I was going to post a look of me wearing this as my eyeshadow today but when I went to take some photos of the product itself for the blog I discovered that it said on the bottom “Not for around the eyes” – whoops!  So please don’t make the same mistake that I did if you have this product as it could cause major problems if it gets into your eyes (the glitter particles could be sharp and scratch your eyes bascially, ouch ouch ouch!)

Anyway I bought this product last weekend when I was feeling in a glitzy mood and the first time I wore it was on my cheeks anyway so I will still get some use out of it on my cheeks and lips.  I only have a couple of boring arm swatches of the product for you today but I’m sure to be using it again this spring so I will update this post when I have more pictures.

NOT for use around the eyes!!

Left: swatched with no base; right: swatched over a creamy base

I’m slightly disappointed with this product for two reasons: one that it can’t be used around the eyes (and also related to that the fact that this fact wasn’t clearly labelled on the stand when I bought it) and two because with a name like “fine glitter dust” I would have hoped for the product to have been pure pink glitter, but in fact as can clearly be seen above it is a silver glitter simply mixed with pink dazzle dust.  Although the effect is pretty it’s really not the effect I was hoping for – I wanted a coloured glitter, not a glitter suspended in pigment that will colour my skin.  I probably wouldn’t mind so much if I were primarily going to use it as an eyeshadow but really why would I want to for example dust my shoulders with this when it will leave them a blotchy pink shade instead of just with a fine dusting of glitter?  I don’t feel like I’m explaining myself very well but I hope you can see my point!

Barry M fine glitter dusts cost under £5 each and are often on special offer so at least they never break the bank even if you are disappointed in a particular shade.