My First Taste of NARS

I’m not usually one for indulging in high end make-up but I have to admit that my curiosity was well and truly piqued by the intense online buzz surrounding this particular eyeshadow.  The more I read about it the more I liked the sound of it, and last week I officially cracked.  I put in an order with ASOS (they are currently offering free standard UK delivery), waved goodbye to £23.50, and today took delivery of this little baby: NARS Dogon, welcome to my life.  I may have gone a little crazy with my photos but it’s so beautiful I couldn’t help myself…

I included my finger swatches because you can see the duochrome effect of the lighter colour when compared with the bottom photo.  The darker colour looks a bit light in these swatches but it is very pigmented – I just swiped it very lightly because it’s so lovely and new looking I hardly dared touch it ha ha.  I also love the fact that you can layer the lighter colour over the darker colour to create a gorgeous shimmery hybrid colour.

I’ll be using this to create more cat’s eyes in a similar vein to my gold and purple one here.  I’m going away for a few days soon and the sleek, hardy packaging will be perfect for slipping into my make-up bag.  This, mascara, a lippie and a lipgloss and I’ll be good to go.

Given that I’ve now managed to spend just under £80 on make-up in under one week (NARS Dogon, a bunch of stuff by Famous by Sue Moxley and the new Urban Decay palette) I’m now officially placing myself on a frivolous-spending ban until September.  I think it’ll actually be a good opportunity for me to better acquaint myself with my current collection and try to focus on what I have rather than constantly thinking about what I can buy next.  That doesn’t mean that I’m going to be on a blogging ban though, I have so much stuff there’ll be plenty for me to write about anyway – including some lovely jewellery that I’ve already bought but haven’t gotten round to posting about yet.  Coming soon!

Gold and Purple Cat’s Eye

Just wanted to post a few photos to show the eyeshadow look I’ve been sporting most of this week in different colours on a similar theme of light and dark.  In these shots I’m wearing two of the shimmer eye dusts that I mentioned in my recent Famous Clearance at Superdrug post in Antique Gold and Party Time:

I really like this look and today in particular I was feeling quite a retro vibe with it because despite blow-drying my hair as normal I somehow managed to achieve Charlie’s Angels style huge waves in my hair (I like) and my skin and lips were so pale.  My eyes were quite made up so I wanted to balance them with a nude lip and wore my Gosh Velvet Touch lipstick in Cappuccino.  I love this lipstick; it has such a creamy consistency and the colour is absolutely beautiful on the lips.  I’m also going to see if they have a slightly darker shade that can bring more colour to my complexion next time I’m in Superdrug.

My skin looks really pale because for one I wore foundation today which I haven’t done for a couple of months because it’s been so hot, and for another I didn’t bother with any blush.  It may be because of the hot humid weather we’ve been having lately, or perhaps for some other reason altogether but my skin’s looking a bit bumpy and red along my jaw line at the moment with a lot of blocked/inflammed pores so I popped several drops of blended tea tree oil onto my sponge before applying my foundation to hopefully give my skin a bit of anti-bacterial treatment during the day and gave powder a miss, which also meant no blush.  Tea tree oil is probably the most effective skin treatment I’ve ever found for myself.  Usually I pop some on my skin at night before going to bed when I get a break out or flare up and my skin has noticeably improved when I wake up.  It seemed to do the trick again today as I went out shopping just after taking these photos and my skin was a lot calmer by the time I got home.

Again this look was really simple to achieve and involved minimal blending.  I used a creamy eyeshadow stick as a base and whacked the gold shimmer dust on top on the inner half of my eyelids, then used a smaller eyeshadow brush to create a winged shape on the outside of my lids with the purple.  I did have to use the purple shimmer dust wet in the end to achieve the intensity that I wanted but I was pretty happy with this look in the end.  I skipped eyeliner as usual and simply finished with two coats of black mascara.

Famous Clearance at Superdrug

When I went to Superdrug today I discovered that they were doing a clearance of the Famous by Sue Moxley range with everything reduced to half price, so I decided to give a few (altogether eight!!) products a try.  Nothing cost more than £2.50 so the little haul you see above was less than £20.

Eyeshadow singles above from top left:

eyeshadow matt shade 4 (light green); eye shadow shimmer shade 7 (emerald); eye shadow shimmer shade 12 (purple); eye shadow shimmer shade 14 (violet)

There was a large range of shadows in both shimmer and matt finishes but when I was swatching the testers in the store I felt that the matt shades were a lot less pigmented than the shimmers so I only picked up one, the light green.  The pigmentation of the shimmer shades is OK to good, but at £2 each for 3.8g I’m not complaining, and I do think that the two purple shades in particular are lovely.

Next up I bought some Shimmer Eye Dusts for £2.50 each.

clockwise from top left: Party Time, Antique Gold, Molten.

The consistency of these eye dusts is fine and smooth and the colours are very pigmented and shimmery.  However just be careful how you store them as you can see how messy they are when you open them in the picture above!  I wore antique gold with the eyeshadow in violet in a lovely golden cat's eye look today.  (It’s a look I’m really enjoying at the moment so I’ll try to post some pics this weekend). The colours lasted quite well but did seem to fade into each other by the end of the day, but I was pretty impressed by the quality given the price.

I’m quite into my gold eyeshadows at the moment because they’re flattering and work well in so many colour combinations.  I think Antique Gold above looks great when paired with both the purple and the brown shades.

Finally I bought a Blusher with Highlighter in Shade 3 – Country Rose for £2.50 because I’ve been in the mood for a dark pink blusher this week.

The packaging is really quite dinky, with a see-through lid (I like it when you can see the product) and lower compartment housing a perfectly useable mirror and little blusher brush, although unfortunately I can’t see them being that useful for me as the brush is a bit too scratchy for my liking and I don’t tend to carry a blush around with me in my bag.

The highlight is so small it’s difficult to pick it up on its own but it can be mixed in with the blush to varying degrees to create different shades.  I’ve swatched the highlight, blush and a mixture of both below.  I do really like this shade though which is just what I was looking for – something noticeable but quite natural looking and not too dark.

So if you have a Famous stand in a Superdrug near you it might be worth checking out as you might be able to pick up a bargain or two, and the products are so cheap at the moment it won’t break the bank if you’d like to experiment with some new colours and textures.

Grass Green Step by Step

This is a rather exciting post for me as I thought I’d attempt to do a step-by-step photo tutorial of my make-up for the first time today.  As I discovered it’s actually pretty tricky to do your make-up whilst attempting to photograph it at the same time, so things might get a bit wonky from here on, but anyway I had fun and that’s the main thing I guess!

I love grass green eye make-up because it feels so fresh, which is perfect for the hot weather we’ve been enjoying here in London this week.  So without further ado, here’s what I got up to today.
Here’s how it all began, with me with just a touch of foundation on.



I started by applying a thin layer of eye pencil all over my lids as a base.  Mine was a lovely lime green by Gosh which has a nice soft consistency that just glides onto the skin.  I happened to pick mine up 1/2 price in the January sales which was an added bonus but if you like eye pencils then I do recommend Gosh’s as they’re a good buy.


I stroked a thin layer of pencil all over my lids up to the crease – no need to worry about being neat at this stage.  I then stroked it out to slightly above the crease using my ring finger to create a thin even base.


I then took a grass green powder eyeshadow on a shading brush and placed the colour on the outer 3/4 of my lid up to the crease.

OK so now you’ll have created something that looks like this.  Hopefully you can see how I’ve left the inner corner of my eye free from shadow.
At this stage I like to blend the colour from the crease up with a fluffy brush.  I don’t blend the colour that’s on the eyelid as that would just blend the colour out to nothing.

I like to add a very light reflective colour to the inner corners of my eyes to waken them up.  I like to use quite a lot of highlighter in this area rather than under my brow, starting at the inner corner on the upper lid and blending in an upwards arc into the crease, then taking the colour along the inner 1/3 of the lower lash line.  My current favourite highlight colour is this shiny shiny light green called “Moshi Moshi” from my recently purchased “Cutie” quad by MAC but any light colour will have the same effect of “opening up” the eyes.  I use a slightly rounded pencil brush to apply the colour.


OK so at this stage my eyes were looking like this.  I really wasn’t joking when I wrote that I liked a lot of highlighter in this area of the eye ha ha:

Definitely nice and wide-awake looking I think you’ll agree!  Best blend those colours out a bit so I don’t look quite so stare-y and scarey…

That’s the main body of the colour taken care of so now I started adding some definition.  I used my lime green eye pencil along the outer 2/3 of the lower lash line, following the line to join it with the colour on my upper lids.

Next, I ran my favourite green liquid eyeliner along the upper lash line (this was a particularly difficult picture to take!) It’s a Glam Metallics liquid eyeliner by Collection 2000, cost about £3, and is basically fantastic.  If you like coloured eyeliners you must check this range out, they are so easy to apply and really do last all day long (they are waterproof, but easy to remove with a good eye make-up remover).

I then added some brown eyepencil along the waterline for some added definition and added a couple of coats of my favourite everyday mascara to finish the look, voila:

I also think that pink cheeks go particularly well with green eye makeup so I like to wear this with a generous dollop of pink blush (shot below with my current favourite mascara, collagen mascara by Accessorize).

The final effect:

That’s all for today folks, hope you enjoyed my first step-by-step look.

Sunday Afternoon at St Pancras

I had afternoon tea in St Pancras train station today, which was looking lovely in the sunshine.

As I was in the station I had a quick browse around some of the shops while I was there.

I got a straw hat from Accessorize which was £9 in the sale.  I think I shall have to make a trip to the countryside as it seems to be the kind of hat to be worn whilst floating about on a small lake in a rowing boat or whilst running barefoot through a meadow…or maybe that’s just me.  Hmm. 

I’m not wearing any foundation in the photos above – could my skin be looking so refined and dewy thanks to my recently purchased perfecting cream by Melvita, or is it just a coincidence?  Who knows, but if my skin’s still looking like this when I run out then I’ll probably be repurchasing it just in case it is thanks to the perfecting cream!

I also got a pair of tea cup earrings (£6) to add to my growing collection of afternoon tea-themed accessories:

and another baked duo eyeshadow in shade 11 Aphrodite. Accessorize give a student discount of 10% on non-sale items so it worked out cheaper buying it there than in Superdrug. I love the fact that not only are Accessorize baked shadows great quality (apply smoothly, have good pigmentation and are long lasting) they also look so beautiful in the pan – the dark half of this one looks like a chunk of precious rock with its sparkly black with copper and white veining.  I don’t really wear black eyeshadow but the veining in this one gives an interesting finish that’s definitely not just black.

 

I also got a couple of loose pigment mineral eyeshadows from Neals Yard Remedies that were on sale at £6 instead of £12. The packaging is quite standard and the pots contain 1g of product each.  They have a sticker on the side saying that they’re 11% organic and 86% minerals, just in case those numbers mean anything to you.  Neal’s Yard also say that these are vegan friendly, they have the leaping bunny from BUAV to show they are not tested on animals, and they’re even Soil Association approved.

I got a light green called Sage and a dark brown called Truffle which I think could be used together to create a nice smoky look.  The shadows have a lovely smooth consistency and a slight shimmer and I’m looking forward to wearing them this week as I’m into my greens at the moment.

Orange Eyeshadow I: Metallic

I saw a pic in a magazine of a model wearing orange eyeshadow blended into white above the crease this week and I thought it was a great colour combination for the summer.  I don’t wear orange eyeshadow that often – I could probably count the number of times I’ve worn orange eyeshadow this year on one hand – but there was a lovely metallic shade in the Sleek Curaçao palette that I thought would be perfect to try out for a similar look.

 

clockwise from top left : apres midori, tequila sunrise, martini, blue lagoon

Here’s what I came up with:

My favoured make-up application method is literally to slap it on as I’m very lazy about blending, so this look is perfect for me.  There’s no complicated blending involved at all.  I used Urban Decay Primer Potion all over the lid (the colours are all still going strong now 10 hours later), blended a shimmery white (the shade Martini also from the Sleek Curaçao palette above) into and just above the crease and inner corner, then applied the orange shade to my lid and blended out.  I blended a medium matte brown shadow along my lower lash line and finished with two coats of mascara for added definition.  If I hadn’t been being so lazy I think some brown eyeliner along my upper lash line would have looked good as some extra definition as well.

You can see how un-blended this look is in the shots below which were taken at a different angle.  I think I managed this make-up in under 10 min.

I have to admit that I have been growing my eyebrows as I think some women look great with slightly untamed brows…but to be honest looking at these photos I don’t think it’s a very flattering look for me!

I did enjoy wearing this shimmery orange today, but even though I wore a tiny bit of bronzer on my face I think I still looked a bit washed out because I didn’t have any colour on my lips.  I think this would go nicely with any of the lovely neutral lip colours I bought from Gosh last week.  I think I’m also going to try this colour combination with matte shades to see which eyeshadow finish I prefer – photos will follow once I’ve tried it out.

Bruised Apple

My new Accessorize blush in Scandal inspired me to create a look based on the colours of a bruised apple.

I really like this look which is something a bit different for me as usually I wear pink or orange blushes or bronzer rather than red on my cheeks.  I wore the blush quite high on my cheekbones and I love the way it gives a wind-swept look, as if I’ve just been for a brisk walk in the country.

I don’t really like this green eyeshadow by Bourjois but as I bought it just recently for £5.99 I’m determined to get some use out of it!  I can’t say that I recommend it though as the colour pay off is really not good at all.  The surface is all scratched up from where I’ve had to score it to get any colour out of it at all.

However I do like the “bruised” colour that I used, which was a violet eyeshadow by Accessorize in shade 15 – Vintage Colour.  Like my other Accessorize eyeshadows this has a creamy consistency and great colour pay-off.  I used the same brush for both eyeshadows in this look and blended the violet a lot so it’s quite sheer in the pics above, but you can see the full intensity of the shadow in the swatch below.