What I Got For Christmas: Makeup & Skincare

Happy Boxing day everybody!  I hope you have all had a fabulous christmas!

I think its safe to say that i have had more than enough lip products to last me a lifetime. If you are as nosy as i am im sure you will enjoy this post...

How To: Silver/Lilac Hair

If like me you have spent literally FOREVERRRR trying to get your hair this colour, fear no more. I found a way!! To get your hair the same as mine (below) keep on reading!!

Now, everybody knows that bleaching hair can be a risky one. But after trying so many different hair dyes and never bleaching my hair, I had a "fuck it" moment and decided to go for it. My hair is naturally a dark/dirty blonde, which has been coloured with box dyes OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN! so my only option to get it this light was to hit the bleach. Before bleaching my hair, It was an all over yellow toned blonde. My hairdresser bleached it for me, concentrating mainly on my roots, and brushing the bleach through to the ends of my hair. (The ends of my hair was a lot lighter, so no need to bleach all over) But if you are a dark hair colour, whack it on all over!

Once bleached a blue/purple toner was put on my hair immediately after rinsing off the bleach, this was then left on for about 20minutes to half an hour. If you have thin hair, at this stage your hair WILL go blue, but after a few washes this will disappear. You now have the perfect white blonde base to start adding the lilac. For this i use three different products, all avaliable at Boots.

Bleach London silver shampoo - £5
Lee Stafford bleach blondes shampoo - £6.99
Lee Stafford bleach blondes hot shots - £7.49

- Every time i wash my hair i use the 'Bleach London silver shampoo' to maintain the grey. 
- The Lee Stafford purple shampoo adds a pinky/purple tone to the hair, so i use this once a week, after shampooing with the silver shampoo and leave it to soak on my hair for 10-15minutes.
- Finally, once a week i also like to use the Lee Stafford Hot Shots, these are best used after shampooing your hair. It says on the box to leave for 2 minutes, but i leave it up to half an hour to get a full effect. (BEWARE: This is a self heating hair treatment and you will have a cold tingling sensation for the duration)
- Use a load of conditioner every time you wash your hair also, keep that hair hydrated.

There you have it, its pretty easy once you get used to the crazy hair washing routine.
If you have any other questions, dont hesitate to leave a comment!

XX

Party Season - All Purple Everything!

I’ve created a festive, glittery purple eye, for the party season, absolutely perfect for the christmas and new year period! It’s a wearable evening look (if you are as daring as i am)

Basic black and brown eyeliners are fine, but sometimes we crave a little more colour. The hint of purple works on all eye colours, especially brown and hazel, and is the perfect liner colour for blondes!

For the liner, i used a liquid lipstick, from MakeUpAcademy in 'Kooky' and a liner brush to get a precise flick. 
The glitter on the lower lash line is just a cheap loose glitter that i got from ebay! (check my previous post for details)
And as always, the inner corner... Vanilla pigment from Mac!! 
This look is SOOOO incredible easy to do and looks like it took so much time and effort. 

I hope you enjoyed this post!
XX

Winter Lipstick Favourites

Transition your beauty look into winter with moody purples and reds, punchy, party-ready brights and rich, warm nudes.  Winter is the perfect opportunity to experiment with different lipsticks you'd never normally wear, especially the reds. I thought I'd give you a quick run down of my go to lipsticks so hopefully it will give you some ideas!!

Here we go...

'Captive' by Mac.

'Russian Red" by Mac

"Hang Up" by Mac

"Double Shot" by Mac

"Chili" by Mac

Chanel No109

xx

Loose Glitters Are My New Fav Thing!

Hello everybody, 

Sorry its been such a long time since i last did a post. My hours at work on the lead up to christmas have taken over my entire life. Finally, i have got some time to sit and concentrate on keeping you guys entertained! So here we go...
Loose Glitters & Pigments:
Loose glitters are ultimately my new obsession! If you LOVE glittery makeup looks and dont mind getting glitter EVERYYWHEREEE, these will be perfect for you! At just 99p each (BARGAIN) from ebay i couldnt resist these beauties.
Im going to be trying out a few different looks with these to wear over christmas and new year. New year's eve is all about making a statement! Glitter is the perfect way to add "bling" to your look, but getting that bling just where you want it can be tricky. 

There are many different ways to wear and apply glitters. My favourite way is to use them as a slight accent of colour, and really pretty when used on the inner corner of the eye. To keep the glitters in place, use either a cream eyeshadow base or a glitter adhesive!
Below is a link to the gel adhesive that i use, i think its great!

 https://www.stargazer-products.com/glitter-fix-gel.html
XX

Bold Black & Copper Cut Crease

Popularized by super fabulous drag queens, a cut crease is a sharply-defined, exaggerated eye crease shape, mostly commonly done with eyeliner and blended out. Although it looks complicated, and definitely takes a little practice, when broken down, this cut crease tutorial makes it quite simple and can make a small eye actually look larger.

To create this look, you'll need the following products:

Pale, shimmery vanilla eye shadow.
Black cream or gel eyeliner
Black eye shadow

brown and orange matte eye shadows
Black liquid eyeliner
Black Mascara
Copper loose glitter

Set of false lashes

Also, the following tools will make the process much easier for you:

Flat shader brush for applying lid colour

Fluffy shadow brush

Synthetic, angled liner brush

Small crease brush

Pencil brush

Lets get started:

Begin with primed eyelids and pat the shimmery vanilla shade all over the lid with your flat shader brush.

1. Take your angled liner brush and draw a thin line of gel or cream liner just above your natural crease, winging it out at the end slightly.
2. Immediately smudge and blend the line upwards with a dense smudge brush dipped in black shadow.
3. Follow with a brown shadow on a small crease brush, blending upwards toward the brow.
4. Using your orange eyeshadow apply a small amount to the crease to blend the black toward the brow bone and add the same colour to the inner corner of your eye.
5. Reinforce your original crease line by going back over with the gel or cream liner.
6. Create a dramatic winged cat eye line with liquid liner.
7. Apply a black shade to the lower lash line and follow with mascara.
8. Coat your top and bottom lashes with mascara.
9. Using a glitter adhesive, apply your glitter to the inner corner of your eye for that pop of colour.
10. Apply a set of false lashes if desired.
    
    I hope you enjoyed this post! xx

Sexy, Sultry, Smokey Eye

This makeup look is kinda inspired by Kristen Stewart’s, (although i dont really like her so im not going to give her much credit) SORRY! im not sorry.

This burgundy smokey eye look happens to be one of the more popular ones and is my favourite look of hers because she rarely goes out in anything pink or girly, so a cranberry/burgundy smokey eye look is a great way to make her grunge-y style appear more feminine. 

Face: 

The eyes are the main focus, so keep the rest of the face looking natural. Apply something sheer like the MAC Face and Body Foundation, and buff it in to achieve your desired coverage. Conceal any dark circles or blemishes as well. To set the foundation, apply a translucent powder very lightly over the sides of the forehead, jaw line and chin. Leave a bit of shine on the T-zone.

A light pink blush may be applied to the cheeks, but is not entirely necessary as the overall finish is very subtle and natural. Ladies with naturally rosy cheeks may skip this step.

Lips: 

Go for something that’s close to your natural lip color so it doesn’t overpower the eye makeup. I used dior collagen plumping gloss which has a subtle shimmer.

Eyes:

1 Prime your lids with your primer of choice. I’m using the Nars Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base. 
2. I’m using a black eyeliner as a base for my eyeshadow. This will help create a deeper black later on. There’s no need to be overly neat about it just yet. 
3. Blend this out into a slight wing, with the deepest black near the lash line. Keep adding eyeliner and continue blending until you have a nice black smokey eye.
4. Take a warm brown eyeshadow like Mulch by MAC and apply that to the eye socket with a tapered blending brush. 
5. Then take a matte black eyeshadow and pat it over the lid to set the eyeliner. Use a blending brush to blend the shadow upwards over the rest of the eyeliner base. I used Kiko eyeshadow in No178.
6. You’ll need a berry colored eyeshadow for this step. I’m using No137 from Kiko also. Pack the color onto the lid, making sure to cover the inner corners until you are almost to the outer corners of the lid. Don’t forget to put a little bit along the lower lashline as well. 
7. Take the same matte black eyeshadow as earlier and apply it on the outer corners of the lid in a V shape. Make sure this color is blended into the berry-toned eyeshadow. I also used No207 from Kiko to add a warmer tone to the look.8. Line the top and bottom waterlines with black pencil liner.

Now for the glitter!!
I used a clean glitter fixing gel that i bought from ebay to help the glitter stay in place. The glitter i chose for this look is a charcoal/grey, from ebay also. (99p each, BARGAIN) I applied it along the whole of my lower lash line, using a small eyeshadow brush to really pack it on.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

xx

Its Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Quick, Easy & Affordable Makeup Tutorial

It's December! I can officially get very excited about Christmas without people telling me it's too early! Happy December to everyone who is excited as me.
Here i will be showing you how to create a glamorous makeup look using affordable products. Its SO easy to do. Lets get started!

First of all, you will need:

I start with a clean face and apply moisturizer before I begin.
My skin is very uneven at the moment and breaks out several times a month, so I like to apply a full coverage foundation before I start highlighting and contouring. This isn't necessary for everyone. I use my Beauty Blender to apply my Rimmel wake me up foundation to my entire face. To ensure a perfect application make sure you damped your beauty blender before using it. I apply the foundation right to the blender and it takes one pump of foundation or less to cover my face.

Next the contouring. I use a Contour Brush from Real Techniques with my sleek contour kit. This bronzer is the best I've found for contouring. It only has a very slight shimmer and it is not orange at all. This helps it create shadows on your face rather than sparkly or tanned spots. I've tried other brands that are less expensive and they are all orange or have a load of shimmer, which im not a huge fan of.

I use the bronzer to make an angled line right under my cheekbones all the way back to my ears. This is where the shadows naturally fall so I'm just enhancing them with the bronzer. I use the brush to blend the line so that it is still there, but looks natural. Blend down toward your jawline- not up toward your eye.

I then apply a little bronzer to my jawline and up around the edge of my face toward my forehead. It ends up making a capital 'E' around the edge of my face with the bottom line being my jawline, the middle line going along my cheekbone and the top line curving up on my forehead. The key is to really blend in the lines so that they don't look like lines, but so that there is still definition there. This takes some practice. I've had years of art and painting experience so blending is second nature to me, but if you aren't careful you could end up with just flat bronzer over half of your face. Be sure to keep that E shape! Next, do the other side of your face.

And now for the nose. I've never liked my nose, But contouring it really helps. I use a small brush and the same bronzer for this. Carefully I draw two lines down each side of my nose. This lines need to be straight and I then connect them at the bottom by angling both lines into a point.

Concealer... I apply it liberally under my eyes, down the center line of my nose, up between my eyebrows and part of my forehead, and onto my chin.  Then I use my finger and/or my beauty blender to start blending. I blend the concealer under my eye quite a ways down my cheeks. For my nose I'll blend the bronzer down the size of my nose better and make the concealer line blend in with it. The idea of contouring it is to make what would in in light appear brighter and what would be in the shadows appear darker. So you are shading and highlighting more defined cheekbones and a straighter and thinner nose.

After I blend it all in , I use a powder to set it all. And that is it. You are ready for blush, eyebrows and eye makeup. My favourite blush is "style" from Mac, I apply it with a big blush brush to the apples of my cheeks.  Sometimes if I am going out I'll also use a highlighter, for this look i used a baked highlighter from MakeupAcademy. I apply this everywhere i applied the concealer for an all over glow.

For the eyes:

As my transition shade i used a Kiko eyeshadow (No140) all over the lid, this adds a nice subtle shimmer to the lid. Using a angled shadow brush i marked out the double wing with another kiko eyeshadow in No116. To draw the top wing i followed the crease of my eye and continued the line up and out of the corner of my eye. The second wing was done as normal, leaving a gap between both of them. To intensify the lines i used a white eyeliner from MakeupAcademy (Avaliable at superdrug) and smudged the line to make it softer. Using the same angled brush i go over both wings with the eyeshadow to make the colours more intense and to soften the edges i use a clean fluffy brust to blend.
Along the bottom lash line i used the Kiko 116 shadow with Mac Fix+ and lined the lower lash line and waterline to bring all the colours together.

And, There you have it!

Beauty On A Budget

Hello everybody! Below are some of my favourite drugstore makeup products. With all of these products being £8 and under its impossible not to love them. Check out my next blog post where i will be showing you how to create a glamorous makeup look using all of these products!

xx