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

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!

Kiko Haul & First Impressions

Kiko FINALLY has a store at my local shopping centre, I was so excited when it opened today and went to pay a visit. I wasn’t hugely impressed with the store-a little garish, weird smell and odd layout of products but I was impressed by the price tags of the products.

I have been on the hunt for some different coloured eyeliners recently so I picked up all sixteen of the colours that they have to offer. All of them have a shimmer that runs through the colour so I knew that they may not have the best colour payoff when worn on the waterline. However, the website does say that this can be used on the inner and outer eye so I would expect it to live up to these claims!
Unfortunately this is where the good points end. I have tried these in every way that you can try an eyeliner... waterline, tight lined, lash line-upper and lower, and it sucks at all of them. It does not show up at all on the waterline at all and the hard nib drags across the lash line so much that it becomes sore and just looks like a mess. Whilst the colours are pretty I have found these to be completely unwearable. Luckily the products were "buy 3 get 3 free" so i dont feel like i have wasted a stupid amount of money. Although they arent wearable for everyday im sure i will be able to find a use for them!

I also picked up three of their eyeshadows. At £2.90 each i wasnt expecting much, but the colour payoff is actually pretty impressive. They are nicely pigmented and give intense color payoff over primer aswell. What i love the most about these shadows is that they're very buildable and lovely to blend. Great value for money!
I hope you enjoyed this post!
XX

Makeup Transformations

Graphic Eyeshadow

This graphic eyeshadow look is inspired by a girl that i follow on instagram. her account name is 'dausell'  (check her out) and she is by far the most creative makeup artist that i follow. Her work is so edgy, bright and always looks perfect. i know for a fact that my attempt looks nowhere near as good as hers does, but i thoroughly enjoyed trying out something completely different. To get a blunt clean edge i used tape on my face with a matte black eyeshadow on a brush with fix+ to intensify the colour. I used a clean fluffy brush to keep the edges blended nicely. clean up and fallout with concealer. its easy!
Its safe to say that this look is no way 'wearable' but its always fun to play around with your makeup and test your abilities. I have seen similar work in the past from Dior when they did A/W2015. Makeup artist Peter Philips created an intense graphic eye, which was shown in blue, green, prune and burgundy red versions during the runway show. (below)

xx

No7 Airbrush Away Foundation Review

Airbrush away foundation which retails at £16.50, claims to give you a "flawless, smooth appearance from every angle."   The Airbrush Away foundation is said to be suitable for all skin types and has a medium coverage. It is meant to blur lines and imperfections for a flawless, airbrushed finish whilst still looking natural and skin like.The texture of this foundation is super smooth and silky. It blends over the skin beautifully. I used a flat top buffing brush from ebay to blend it out which i feel works better that using my beauty blender. With just one layer my skin already looked great. It had evened out my complexion, covering redness and adding a smooth finish, whilst still allowing my skin to show through. I added a second layer for some more coverage and it builds so well. A little goes a long way and you can really buff and blend for a super natural finish but also build up easily for a fuller coverage.
Two layers provides a light/medium coverage that still looks so natural, as the foundation really blends with the skin. It covered everything I wanted, so any redness and uneven tone on my skin, it helped to cover any blemishes and over all, just gave a really flawless look.
The Airbrush Away foundation also wears really well throughout the day, it stays smooth and even. The finish is quite dewy, so I did find that right at the end of the day it did make me look a little bit oily but nothing a touch of powder can't fix.

Have you tried this foundation yet? What do you think of it? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

xx

My Evening Skincare Routine

Today I thought I would talk about my evening skincare routine, one i’m particularly happy with and has had massive changes on the overall look of my skin. Everyone’s skin is different, but personally, these items work really well for me as I’m actively trying to reduce the amount of blemishes I get as well as clearing up my spots and redness.If I’ve been wearing makeup throughout the day, the first step in my evening skincare is to remove the masses using micellar water of some kind. I’m working my way through the different options that the UK ‘Drug Stores’ offer, so far I’ve tried L’oreal’s, Garnier’s & Simple’s offerings. My favourite has been Garnier's, but personally i feel that they all do the same thing.




Once the mask has been removed i use my Ultrabland cleanser from lush. Ultrabland is a lot like a cream; you simply apply it to your face in the evenings, massaging gently, and then remove it with either a cotton pad and micellar water, or a dry flannel. I will admit, the smell isn't necessarily the most appealing. It also feels very lightly exfoliating as it's applied, which was a pleasant surprise. I will admit, I was a little concerned about Ultrabland when I first started using it. it leaves a fairly heavy residue on your skin, even when wiped off (although I will do use a different cleanser to afterwards to remove the oily feeling), but it hasn't caused a breakout on my relatively sensitive and acne-prone skin, so far, so I think it really would be fine for all skin types. My skin also feels much softer in the morning after I've used Ultrabland, and I've actually had quite a few compliments on my skin since having incorporated it into my routine!

To remove the oily residue left over from the Ultrabland i like to use this NAOBAY calming face toner on a cotton pad. This toner helps remove any make up from the face that I may have missed, I particularly like using this product around my hair line because i ALWAYS manage to miss bits of makeup there. I feel comfortable applying this toner all over my face because it isnt scented, which wont irritate the eye area and is generally a very gentle product. it doesn't leave the skin looking greasy either, which is a bonus for me. Instead you just get a very clean and refreshed feeling.

I know this product is meant to be used as a base, but i like to use it before applying my repair serum. (APPARENTLY this product is meant to repair damage done by toxins around us or inside us) I just apply it all over my face and wait for it to soak into my skin. I havent been using this product long enough to really explain much about it, so if it really makes a difference to my skin i will do a more in depth review!




Lastly i use Clinique's custom-repair serum all over my face and neck, and once again allow to soak into the skin completely before jumping into bed!

I hope you enjoyed this post!
xx

From Day To Night...

If you are like me and work late on saturday afternoons (pure hell) this cheats makeup will be perfect for you. There's nothing i hate more than coming home from work and having to rush to get ready for my night out. By just touching up your foundation slightly, changing your lipstick and adding a bold lip colour you can quickly go from a basic bitch to glam AF in seconds (literally) Today i was feeling daring and paired a shockingly pink eye liner with a purple lip, and im kinda obsessed with it. 

Below are pictures of the makeup i wore today...

Adding a bright colour along the lower lash line and changing your lip colour really does make a huge difference...

Glam in seconds!
xx

Tanya Burr Lashes!!

After Tanya released her nail polish and lipsticks earlier last year, I was SO excited to see what she would do to widen her range. It was of course lashes! I have many friends who love to wear false lashes on a daily basis, and i always get jealous of how amazing they look, so im trying these out for a change. These lashes are SO lovely for every day use, and i cant wait to see what they look like. Tanya created six incredibly beautiful different styles, a pair to suit everyone! They are all so lovely, and HUGE bonus that they are so affordable too, picking up each pair for £5.49.  I was only able to find three pairs, but will definitely be on the hunt for the other three in my local superdrug! (I can see these becoming a slight obsession of mine)...

Below are the three pairs that i picked up, I LOVE THEM!!!

If anyone has any recommendations for natural daily lashes for me to try out, please leave a comment!

xx