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!

Olympic Flame

I spent about three hours this morning watching the Olympic men’s road race and it was soooo exciting! Honestly, I’ve never really watched cycling before but I think I might start now. I’ve been totally sucked in to the Olympic atmosphere here in London – in fact I’m also watching men’s gymnastics as I type! Olympic fever of course had to spread to my make-up too, so today I created a look inspired by the Olympic flame.  It’s actually pretty subtle I think and it’s a lovely fiery colour theme for an every day look.  This was also the first time this year that I decided to add some bronzer to my look as I actually got a tan this week for the first time in literally years (a decade, perhaps??) from all the sun we’ve been having in London so I thought I’d make my face match my arms and neck.  Generally I just try to avoid the sun as whenever I’m caught in it I’m sure to end up burnt, yuk.

Oops…smudged my mascara in that top pic!  Never mind.  I also forgot to add my gold lipgloss in Stranger to symbolise lots of gold medals for team GB and all the other fantastic athletes competing in London – I’ll have to remember to include that in my next Olympic look.  Anyway here’s a clearer shot of the colours I used on my eyes.  I used an antique gold pigment on the inner corners, a bright orange on the centre of my lids, and a bright red to create some wings in the outer corners.

As you can see, I’m still growing my eyebrows out. I decided to stop plucking them frequently in order to grow some fuller eyebrows and I have to say it’s been an interesting experiment so far. After 15 years of plucking I have bald patches in my brows and stray hairs underneath for the first time but I think they look really nice and strong from a distance so I’m going to keep up my brow routine of basically doing nothing with them except plucking the stray hairs from underneath my brows once every two or three months.  I’m toying with the idea of beginning to fill them in but to be honest I’m not keen on making my make-up routine even more high maintenance, I favour the somewhat lazier fling-it-on-and-go school of make-up!

My Illamasqua transformation

My friend took me to the Illamasqua store on Beak Street yesterday for a “transformation” as one of my birthday presents.  I suppose the fact that they call their make-overs “transformations” is the clue that you can ask for something as dramatic as you like!  I told the make-up artist that I liked bright eyeshadow and ‘80s make-up and this is what he came up with on me:

I think it was a really fun look that reminded me of so many things – new romantics, Starlight Express, early sci-fi movies, and even Peking Opera somewhat. It was also a good experience to wear a look outside of my comfort zone – usually I never wear liquid eyeliner on the lower lash line and I’m actually a bit scared of red eyeshadow but it gave me some ideas on how I could pull them off.

I wasn’t actually going out in the evening though as it was the opening ceremony of the Olympic games and I had made plans to stay home and watch it with my boyf with some Chinese take-away so I toned the look down somewhat when I got home by removing the eyeliner on my lower lash line and the blush. This is a shot taken after I’d eaten my dinner so the lipstick was mostly gone but I think the eye make-up like this is something I’d probably wear for a night out.

Incidentally I really enjoyed the opening ceremony of the games and now I’m in full Olympic fever mood so I have an Olympic inspired look coming up shortly!

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!

Everyday Look for Work Spring 2012

This is a look that I’ve worn quite a lot this spring and summer so far.  I like it because although it’s super quick to put together (5-10 min for the full face) it looks really colourful and polished.

Here’s what I used to create the look.  As you can see there aren’t that many products to it.

I used a MAC quad from the Spring limited edition collection Shop MAC called Shop and Drop.  I find that these shadows work best over a non-creamy/sticky primer so I like to use my MUA Professional Eye Primer for this look.  It’s a really great budget primer that currently retails for £2.50 and is available from selected Superdrug stores or their website.

 

I have a few MAC eyeshadow quads from various limited edition collections now but I’m not sure that I’d buy any more. While they may seem at first glance to be good value – four eyeshadows plus a palette for less than the normal cost of four shadows without a palette, there have been issues with the quality of the products in recent MAC limited editions and also it’s only good value if you’re actually going to use all the shades. This is my current favourite MAC quad but I still only use two of the shadows – so not such good value after all really!

I tend to use a flat eyeshadow brush to place Hypnotizing over my eyelids then blend Power Boosted into my crease with a rounded blending brush before adding a couple of coats of black mascara, and that’s it.  I don’t bother with any eyeliner or eyepencil or shadow under my eyes for definition…I think the combination of these colours create a lovely effect just by themselves.

Below: Hypnotizing is a shimmery lilac tinted silvery taupe

Below: Power Boosted is a bright shimmery violet

Above: The finished eye look – colourful and polished, and only takes about five minutes to apply.

I used a light peachy blush with golden shimmer over my cheeks and temples.  One of my current favourites is the central colour from my Sleek Blush by Three trio in Lace.  I mixed it with a tiny amount on the bright coral on the right as well.

Finally I finished off with a slick of light pink lipstick. My everyday lippie at the moment is my H&M lipstick in pink seashell which I’ve posted some more details photos of here.

And that’s it!  Hope you like this look.  I’m always running late in the mornings so I love 5-minute make-up and I’ll be posting some more everyday eyeshadow looks soon!

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.

Hello, Stranger!

I was browsing the Illamasqua counter in Selfridges on Oxford Street with a couple of friends and happened to try on their new golden lipgloss and well, what can I say.  It was a case of love at first sight.  So without further ado allow me to introduce you to Illamasqua’s new Intense lipgloss in Stranger.

You get 7ml for £13 (UK RRP), although I’m actually not convinced that you get 7ml in this tube.  Illamasqua’s standard lipgloss packaging is a cyclindrical squeezy tube with a hard plastic applicator tip but in their Summer 2012 collection Naked Strangers, of which Stranger is one of two lipglosses, the packaging has been changed to a solid rectangular tube with a brush applicator.  The brush applies the gloss pretty well but it’s actually pretty big and surely takes up a lot of space in the tube that could have contained more lipgloss instead…anyway it’s really a matter of personal preference as far as lipgloss packaging is concerned.  Personally I do like brushes as they allow more precise application but it does generally mean that some product has to be sacrificed in the tube.

The consistency of the gloss is very thick and quite sticky and to me it smells a bit like strawberry jam (although I’m sure that’s not the actual fragrance!).  I actually wiped a lot of the product off the brush in the above photo in order to show the shape of the brush more clearly.  It’s very pigmented and very long lasting for a gloss, which is also helped by the fact that it fades away so beautifully, leaving a gentle golden sheen as it goes.

When I tried the gloss on in the shop I was wearing the same make-up as above – just a simple flick of black eyeliner (I went over it with an iridescent pigment which is why my eyeliner has a slightly blue tinge).  I think the fact that I have quite strong yellow undertones in my skin does help make this colour more wearable for me as it is a very yellowy gold, although it’s definitely not a typical colour for a lipgloss.  I don’t have any problems wearing this as a daytime colour at weekends though, and it’s such a quick way of creating a statement look – just a quick slick of lipgloss and you can set out and impress the world in 30s!  I personally love the way it makes me look like a bit like a statue in the sunlight, especially paired with a golden highlighter on my cheekbones!