Dramatic Ballet Inspired Look

I’m quite into my ballet at the moment – ballet classes (I just started going to classes once a week in Jan and I love it!), fluffy tutu-esque shorts, and of course, ballet-inspired make-up!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no dancer so I don't actually have any idea about real ballet make-up, but I have been known to go the theatre on occasion and I am slightly in love with the romance of ballet so this is just my interpretation of a ballet look.  I thought that the peachy tones in the Sleek Paraguaya palette would be perfect for coming up with a dramatic cats eye look inspired by prima ballerinas that might also work as an evening look too (if you’re quite brave with your make-up!)

my profile shot	me looking rather angry…he he.  I was trying to get a shot of the colours on my eyelids.
I think dancers often wear false lashes, but I usually can’t be bothered with them so I just caked mine with loads of mascara instead.	Look how few eyelashes I have!!  Never mind, who cares now that there are plenty of good volumising mascaras out there!
The key products I used – the Sleek i-divine palette in Paraguaya, a bright pink blush and a bronze coloured lipgloss pencil.

Here’s how I created this look step-by-step:

• I used a cream-based primer on my lid then patted Cameo all over the lid up to the crease then blended it out slightly above the crease.  I also took this colour all the way along my lower lash line.
• I applied Sandstone as a highlight underneath my brow bone and down and around to the inner corner of my eyes.

• I then used applied the darkest shade Stone into the outer 1/3 of my crease and along my lash line and blended well into the Cameo.  I also took the brown 2/3 along my lower lash line.
• I used loads of eyeliner along the outer 2/3 of my upper lash line, extending it out into a huge flick, and whacked on a ton of mascara on my upper lashes.  I have hardly any lower lashes so I never bother with them.
• Continuing in a theatrical vein I then applied loads of bright pink blush along my cheekbones and over my temples.  On the stage the bright lighting tends to bleach out colours so theatrical make-up can be applied with a heavy hand, and since this was a ballet-inspired look I thought, what the heck!  Actually as you can see from the photos it doesn't look like I'm wearing that much blush because I used a flash which can have a similar effect of bleaching colours out.
• I used a glossy bronze lip pencil all over my lips.  I think the colour that I used is quite nice and noticable without being too dramatic.
• I then brushed a teeny bit of concealer under my eyes just to increase the contrast between the colours of the eyeshadow and my skin and finished off with a light dusting of loose powder.

Then all that was left for me to do was to pout for my close-ups!  Hope you like this look.  I actually really like it so I might try out some variations in different colours too.

Daytime Smoky Eye

Firstly, today is Saturday – hooray!  Secondly, that means I finally got round to playing with my new Famous by Sue Moxley eyeshadow palette in Cafe Culture which I wrote about here and I came up with a cute daytime smoky eye look.
As I mentioned in my previous post the colours are all super shimmery so I ended up with a look that reminded me of Tesco’s Cookies and Cream cupcakes – mmm.  (I totally recommend them to fans of cupcakes, they’re yummy).

This is me trying to look demure…	then giving up and deciding this look was best offset with a big grin!

Some close ups:
As you can see I’m a fan of big flicks!
This was really simple and took me about 10 min to do:

• prime eyelid by applying a thin layer of BarryM shimmering eye and lip crayon.  You can use any colour but I have the gold.  I usually rub it over my eyelid up to the crease then tap it out across my lid and above my crease with my ring finger. (2 min).
• apply the light creamy shade from the Cafe Culture palette to the inner 1/3 of the eyelid using the foam applicator to pack the colour on, then blend up to the brow bone and across the lid slightly with a brush.  Concentrate the colour more towards the inner corner. (2 min).
• apply the lightest brown shade from the palette to the outer corner of the eye.  I packed some on in the corner using the foam applicator then blended into the lid with a blending brush. (2 min)
• now create a cool flick: I drew a line along the outer 2/3 of my upper lash line with a brown pencil (the softer the pencil the better for this – you can also soften eyepencils by rubbing them along the back of your hand first) then extended the line slightly beyond the end of my lash line.  I then dipped the tip of a flat eyeshadow brush into the second darkest brown in the palette and stroked the eyeshadow on top of the eye pencil, and at this point I really dragged the colour out into a huge flick.  I find that using a really flat eyeshadow brush or liner brush helps create the sharpest flicks. (2-4 min)
• I finished with Fearne Cotton black mascara (I got this in a Christmas set from Boots so I’m not sure if it’s currently available).  It works really well on my short stumpy lashes!

I really like the finished look although it is really really shiny so I might use a matter gold shade next time instead of the one from the palette for a slightly tamer daytime look.
I do like this palette so far but I have found one teensy problem with it, which is that the colours are just so soft and crumbly.  I’ve only used it a couple of times but I’ve made quite a dent in the first two colours already – maybe you can see from the pics below:

before using today	after using today

Well to be honest I’m not too bothered about making dents in my palette as the shadows are so huge I’m sure they won’t run out quickly, but I did find that the consistency made it a bit difficult to get even coverage and my palette gets a bit messy with blobs of eyeshadow falling out of their pans and mixing with the other colours.  I had to put some effort in to blend the light creamy shade into an even covering and there was quite a bit of fall out from all the shades. 
However, crumbliness and fall-out aside I do like this palette and at £6 I think it was a good buy.

Trendy Cushions

Here's a very quick post to show off my two trendy new cushions that I picked up in a shop on Tottenham Court Road at the weekend.  You can click on any of the pics for a larger view.

 

The robot is by Danish interiors company Ferm and is made from organic cotton.  It wasn't cheap at £35 but I have had my eye on it for a while and I don't exactly buy cushions very often so I decided to go for it.  I think it's good fun and fits in just fine on my eclectic sofa (that's what I like to call my flat because basically nothing matches!)  It's also available to buy online - try the Ferm Living website or Cloudberry Living which is an online boutique specialising in Scandinavian interiors.

I liked the other cushion as it's just a typical looking London street.  I don't know the brand and it was definitely an impulse buy as it just caught my eye on the way to the checkout!

A Spot More Vintage

Seems like it wasn't too long ago that I was writing about buying some vintage-esque accessories from Oasis and a new handbag from a vintage fair, but apparently that just wasn't enough to satiate me and I ended up buying even more jewellery at the Frock Me vintage fair in Chelsea town hall on Sunday.  It was the hugest vintage fair I’ve ever been to and there are several more planned for 2011 so check out the website for further details if you’re partial to a spot of vintage.

 

This necklace is made of green and gold plastic discs threaded onto a gold chain.  I really liked the colour, which reminded me of jade, and the chain is a really nice length too, sitting on the collarbone.  I paid £5 for this one.

I really liked these beads because they reminded me of the patterns on old-fashioned tea cups!   This also cost £5.

The lady that I bought this from told me that it was made in Birmingham when a lot of imitation medieval celtic style jewellery was made.  It’s on a long chain that reaches half-way down my chest.  I paid £7 for this one.

Famous by Sue Moxley Cafe Culture Palette

Famous by Sue Moxley is a brand that I've only really started noticing this year after having seen some positive reviews on YouTube.  I have one of the bronzers, a shimmer brick, a sparkly eyeshadow, and now the latest addition to my collection which is the Cafe Culture eyeshadow palette.

I picked this up when it was on special offer in Superdrug for £6 instead of its normal price of £9.  You get four generously sized eyeshadows which therefore work out at £1.50 each if you manage to get the palette at its special offer price.

The palette is quite cheap looking black plastic, but it's what's inside that counts the most, right?  The lid contains a large mirror and a double-ended sponge applicator is also included.  I know a lot of people aren't fans of these applicators but I actually do use them quite a lot.  I just find that they flick eyeshadow a lot less than brushes so I find them really useful for patting colour onto the eyelid before blending out with a brush.  And also, as they are included in so many palettes, why not use them?  Might as well get some use out of them if possible.

The shadows themselves are super-soft and crumbly - maybe just a bit too crumbly even.  I wouldn't recommend travelling with this palette although it's a very convenient size - small and slim - because I'd worry about the shadows shattering.  They apply with a creamy texture which is due to the mineral oil (paraffinum liquidum) that they contain.  The colours are all super shiny and quite nicely pigmented as you can see in my swatch below, which I applied with the sponge applicator (so you can see that they are good at packing colour on).

The brown on the far right is actually a duochrome shade which is brown but reflects as green as well - this is possibly a dupe for a certain high-end shade but I don't actually own it myself so I can't comment.  My favourites are the light creamy colour which I think will be brilliant for applying in the inner corners of the eyes to reflect light into them and make them look sparklier and bigger and the brown next to it, which just reminds me of chocolate icing - delicious.

I haven't got any photos of me wearing these shadows on my eyes yet but I'm hoping to have a proper play around with this palette at the weekend so I will update this post then with any looks I manage to create and feedback on how it wears on the eyes etc.

Grey and Black Nails by MeMeMe and BarryM

I used to be a big nail polish fan but these days I'm a bit lazy and don't usually get much further than occassional dabbling with one-coat nail polishes.  However I have been on a bit of a mission lately to find a grey nail polish as it seems to be quite a new colour to the nail varnish market and I think it looks both unexpected and sophisticated.

I did buy a grey shade a couple of weeks ago which was the Accessorize nail polish in Dove which I wrote about here, but then on my next visit to Superdrug I spotted another colour that I thought might be even nearer to my ideal grey which is shade 59 Refined by MeMeMe (£4.50).  It's lighter than Dove, being more of a dry-cement grey, and looks much more grey than silver.  While I was in Superdrug I also picked up the BayyM nail effects in 311 (Black) (£3.99) which I know loads of bloggers have already been raving about for months so I thought I'd give it a try.

 I'm actually quite a big fan of some of MeMeMe's other products already such as their eyeshadows and liquid highlighter but I hadn't tried their nail varnish before.  I think they've recently revamped their packaging and this nail varnish has a so-called maxi-brush that means you can almost paint your entire nail in one stroke - very convenient.  The coverage of this shade was excellent and while one coat wasn't quite enough, two coats dried quickly enough to a lovely gently glossy opaque finish as you can see below.  I think this colour looks great on short nails.

 At £4.50 for 12ml this isn't the cheapest nail varnish you can buy but it's also certainly not the most expensive (it acutally works out cheaper per ml than the Accessorize nail polish) and the coverage and speed of application were impressive.  If any of the other colours in the range ever catch my eye I'd definitely consider buying them.

I then applied the BarryM nail effects over the top of the grey.  A word of warning - the first time I did this I don't think I left my first colour to dry enough and when I applied the BarryM on top it did cause my base colour to shrink slightly and go a bit patchy.  However it was second time lucky for me and I got what I felt was a really nice effect the next time.

I think this is a really clever product for creating impressive looking results in next to no time.  You simply paint your nails whatever colour you like, wait for them to dry completely (I'd recommend giving them at least half an hour) then apply one coat of the BarryM nail effects on top, which then begins to contract and crack to create a two-toned shattered effect.  I think this grey-black colour combo looks a bit like animal print or an eggshell pattern.  I'm going to try this with an orange or yellow next time as I think that would look like leopard print.

I think the BarryM nail effects has proven so popular already that they've launched a range of different colours, so if the black isn't quite your cup of tea you may find another shade that's more to your fancy.  You can find out more information about nail effects on the BarryM website.

Vintage Inspired Accessories from Oasis

I went shopping in Covent Garden on Sunday and picked up some cute vintage-inspired accessories from Oasis that were on sale.  Here’s my Babushka cushion helping me to model some of them for this post.  I picked up a necklace with a fabric flower corsage for £8 and matching flowery headband for £4.

I do love a nice string of pearls, and this one’s even more versatile than normal pearls (I like them because I think they’re easy to both dress up and dress down) as the corsage on the flower is actually a removable brooch so you can wear the pieces separately or together.  It’s a nice idea that I might try out with some other necklace/brooch combos.

Here’s a closer look at the headband as modelled by Babushka and me.  It’s an accessory that’s both practical and cute as it’s good for keeping my short hair out of my eyes!

I was feeling the vintage vibe so I picked up this statement ring too which was half-price at £5.  It’s huge, looks like a mini work of art, and I think it goes nicely with my grey nail varnish in this shot – what more could a girl ask for?