Labyrinth Mini Series Part 1: Sarah

Ohhhhh yes, kids! I’m going to do a little Labyrinth mini-series for you! Labyrinth is my favourite film and if you’re an even-slighty-geeky girl around my age, I bet it’s one of yours as well.

 

I’m going to kick it off with a really simple, pretty look inspired by Sarah, and then hopefully they’ll get a bit more exciting!

Eyes: Hi Fi Cosmetics Mornings of Gold, Sleek Eau La La Liner in Cocoa, dark brown from Sleek Storm Palette, MAC Gesso, Darling Girl Vicar in a Tutu,
Cheeks: Almay blush in 130 Peach, NYX Mosaic Highlighter, ELF Studio Radiance Enhancer
Lips: Wet and Wild MegaLast Lipstick in 909D, MAC Viva Glam Ricky lip balm.

Really really simple look for Sarah as she doesn’t wear much makeup, even in the ballroom scene. I didn’t think doing something fussy would work for her. I went much thicker on my brows that I normally would, a la Jennifer Connelly, and kept the eyes really subtle and shimmer. The lid is more of a white-gold, more like her waistcoat she wears throughout the film and then the inner corner has more of a green shift, more like her ballgown dress. I could have used things with less of a pink shift to them, but Mornings of Gold is from Hi-Fi’s old Labyrinth collection so pretty appropriate!

I went for coral lips, like the lipstick she uses to draw her marks when she’s in the Labyrinth and a coral flush to match even though Jennifer is pretty pale. (Would you not be blushing around David Bowies “bump”? You totes would.)

Stay tuned for some funkier Labyrinth looks, folks!

“Wanna know how I got these scars?”

Scars – Kryolan Collodion, Kryolan  Supracolor (greasepaint), Ben Nye Fresh Scab
Non-zombie eye: Sleek Storm palette
Lips: Accessorize gloss, LA Girl lip pencil in “Natural.”

Just a quick look today! I  wanted to have a play with collodion today (It’s normally called rigid collodion but the Kryolan one isn’t? No idea) which is really awesome stuff. It freaking stinks but it’s really easy to use – you paint it on your skin and as it dries it contacts, puckering your skin just like a real scar! It’s pretty cool but I’m having trouble with getting the seam where the product stops to not show. I also started to put blood under my eye and then gave up, so that’s why that look shitty, but I thought I’d slap it up anyway.

Quickie Review: Marks and Spencer Limited Collection Foundation

Marks and Sparks have had makeup for a long time and recently they’ve introduced the ‘Limited Collection’ range. Nic from Pixiwoo mentioned the foundation in a recent video as being fabulous, so I skipped down to M&S and checked it out.  Sadly the rest of the collection either wasn’t out or was ransacked, so nothing else from the range to show you! The foundation comes in five shades, and I have four to show you (I was going to pick up the 5th, but a crazy lady came up to me and told me the foundation would give me cancer, and then she followed me around the shop. True story.)

L-R: Ivory, Buff, Vanilla, Honey.

M&S claim: “Creamy natural foundation that gives a satin finish. Contains moisturizing ingredients to keen skin supple and smooth. Specially treated pigments mean longer lasting wear. Hypoallergenic.” It’s also BUAV approved, so a cruelty free product. Not gonna lie, that all sounds pretty good! Satin, long lasting AND won’t mess with my dry skin? I’d heard this was a good sheer matte foundation, which is pretty rare on this end of the price scale, but when I read the above I got pretty excited that this would be good for my dry skin.

The packaging is simple, clean looking with no-frills and sturdy. I like that it’s a squeeze tube and that you can stand it up.

No foundation or primer.

Foundation.

Well, well, well. I was surprised at the coverage! It’s very light feeling on the face, but I’d say that’s medium coverage. It’s slightly buildable, but does start to cake after a couple of layers. I’d still conceal that blemish on my nose and under my eyes if I were going somewhere fancy but day-to-day this is pretty great! It does have a great satin finish. I love matte foundation but if my skin is looking a little dull, they can be a bit too much so this is perfect. I wouldn’t say it was moisturizing as such, but it doesn’t dry it out further or cling to dry patches if I wear it alone in a rush. (I normally wear it with Mac Prep and Prime Moisture Infusion.)

The wear actually is pretty good! Not as long as Revlon Colorstay – I do have to touch up around my T-Zone mid afternoon (yeah, I’m dry AND slightly oily, what of it?) but I find that with most foundations. I wouldn’t recommend this for particularly oily skin, though.

My only gripe is, of course, the small colour range, and it *would* be better if it had SPF.

Limited Foundation is available from Marks and Spencer stores, online and costs £6 for 30ml.

Recent Shoots

What it says on the tin… a few shots for you guys.

Photographer, Andrew Forey. Model, Kate.

Photographer, Darren Flynn. Model, Paige Brookyln Cooke.

These photos were so much fun! The photographers wanted to re-create some characters (The Joker, Padme Amidala, The Black Swan and Alice Cooper) with a few twists and everyone got really into it. The Joker was actually wearing a full-length purple ballgown which was pretty funny! Paige is a friend of mine, a fab singer and dancer and it was really fun to work with her.

 

Photographer, Amir Dotan. Model, Kayleigh Thadani.

I’ve worked with this photographer a few times and always get great shoots. This one was really fun as we got three really different looks from one girl!

Photographer, Ellen Hau. Model, Louise Dobing.


Photographer, Michalis Petros. Models, Louise Dobing and Aida Aaholm.

These two shots were from a shoot with dancers in Richmond Park. Gorgeous girls – and bloody bendy! Alright, so these aren’t the most exciting photos for makeup, but hey, gorgeous ladies are gorgeous ladies!



Photographer, Karolina Marek Photography. Models, Emma Haylen Hall  and Danel Amazine. 



Photographer, JENRIKS. Model, Emma Haylen Hall.

Yay, Red Riding Hood! I really liked the makeup I did on Haylen – cherry red lips and pin-up eyes never fails to please me! Danel Amazine is a fantastic male model who honestly has the best skin I have ever seen. Just like, wow. Really fun shoot and I can’t wait to see more snaps from it.

Hope you guys enjoyed!

Bit o’ Green LOTD

Just a quick one today, busting out my favourite glitter liner and neutral shadow…

Eyes: Kiki Long Lasting Stick Eyeshadow in shade 10. Crease, Fyrinnae Damn Paladins and dark brown from Sleek Storm palette. Lower lashline, Fyrinnae Damn Paladins. Brow highlight, sheer green from MUA Pretty Pastels palette. Liner, Collection2000 Extreme 24/7 pen liner in Black and Glam Crystals
Cheeks: Illamasqua Lover
Lips: Illamasqua Test

Oh, I do love Damn Paladins, I really do! I also love my freaking bad-ass skeleton hand earrings. Yeaaaaah boi.

What’s your favourite neutral eyeshadow?

Cryin’

For those kind-hearted souls who are worried about me, you don’t need to be! I’ve wanted to make a look with fake tears for a while, so I thought I’d give it a go. 

Eyes: Lid, Inglot AMC 70 over Kiko Long Lasting Eyeshadow Stick in 11. Crease, Inglot Pearl 428 and black from Sleek Circus. Lower lashline, Inglot Pearl 428 and Sugarpill Lumi. Browbone, Inglot DS 478.
Face: Benefit Porefessional, Marks and Spencer Limited Foundation in Ivory, Hardy Candy Glamouflage in Light.
Cheeks: Darling Girl Bronze Goddess, Accessorize Baked Blusher Pretty Pink.
Lips: MAC Viva Glam Ricky Lip Conditioner, Accessorize Baked Blusher in Pretty Pink.
Tears: Inglot Sleeks Gloss and Barry M Dazzle Dust in 66 (matte black.)

They see me posin’, they hatin’…. Ah, sorry about the posing but it sort of went with the look, no?  I had some gross eyelashes that needed to be thrown away and I sort of stuck the hairs together so they looked like they were wet with tears. The tears themselves were really easy to do – the Inglot gloss is very wet looking so it was perfect, and dotting in dry pigment and messing up the lower lashine with the gloss/pigment mix helped finish the look.  I think it looks pretty realistic but I wish I’d gone a bit more dramatic with the makeup overall and done much more bronzer and a more defined nude lip.

What do you think – feeling sorry for me? :P

Super Quick Long-Lasting Face!

Got ten minutes to get out of the door but still need to look fresh and wide awake and like you’ve washed and all the rest of these things that other humans expect of us? Here’s my 10 (ish) minute, long-lasting face!

 

Eyes: Maybelline Color Tattoo in Permanent Taupe, MAC Paint Pot in Blackground. Gold highlight from e.l.f Day2Night, Active Lashes falsies.
Face: MAC Prep and Prime Moisture Infusion, Revlon Colorstay, Illamasqua Lover
Cheeks

For my eyes, I used paint pot-type products as they’re really quick to use – I used the Maybelline colour just with my fingers and then the MAC one with a small brush. I always go netural on the eyes if I have less time as I feel much less likely to fuck it up!   I’m fairly quick at putting falsies on and these ones have a really thin lash band so I find them pretty easy - filling in my brows actually took the most time out of the whole look! If I had to get up super early everyday I’d get them dyed for sure.
If you have time, a gold highlight is always lovely and if I were really strapped I’d do this instead of lashes

Normally, I have to wait ages for my face cream to sink in as I’ve switched to using richer ones in the daytime to keep the flakies away. It works well, but when I have less time I just slap on a wee bit of MAC Prep and Prime Moisture Infusion as it’s a cross between a serum and a primer, so it gives me some moisture but dried right away. I applied that and then used Revlon Colorstay with my fingers, just where I need it.

I used just one colour on my cheeks – I’d normally highlight - and a coordinating, long-wearing bright lippy for impact. And I was done!

 

This is still quite a lot of makeup, of course, and I could certainly do a quicker face (no falsies!). But normally I’d apply colour to my crease, use several colours and bases on my eyes, do winged liner, apply an inner corner, Cupid’s bow and cheek highlight, wait for my face cream to sink in, blah blah blah.

 

What do you do when you need to look presentable quickly?


NB: Though this really did take me around 10-15 mins, this post is mostly bollocks as we all know when we’re in a rush, we do our makeup on the bus and end up poking ourselves in the eye with a mascara wand. Fact.

Quickie Review: Illamasqua Apocalips

On my birthday a couple of weeks ago, I got a DM on Twitter saying I was a winner of their Lust Have competition and that Apocalips was on it’s way to me! I’d wanted it since it came out but £15 for a blue lipstick is on the wrong side on sensible for me, I’m afraid!

Gorgeous compliment slip and a sample of Freak – at this rate I’m never going to actually have to buy it, ha ha! Thank you Illamasqua, you made me very happy!

Oooh, innit pretty? It’s actually surprisingly flattering as long as you’re really careful with application and have no red/pink tones showing on your lip line, which looks a little strange. I’d also encourage a decent cover-up of any redness or blemishes on your chin area as I feel it might make them stand out a little bit more. I won’t lie to you, it’s dry as shit and does stick to itself a wee bit as you apply it, so it’s not the nicest formula in the world but nothing terrible either; this was two swipes with the bullet and then I tidied up the edges, so no worse than most mattes, it just goes on dry as opposed to drying down, if you get me. I personally don’t mind dry lipsticks if my lips are in good nick but it might not be for everyone. If you have to have it yet dry formulas drive you up the wall, I recommend…

FLAKIES. Srsly enlarge that bad boy. I put a Hard Candy Glossaholic over it on a whim and fell in love. I’m going to have so much fun layering with this!

 

I’ve yet to use it in a look, but I have an idea brewing so keep your eyes peeled. I’d definitely wear this out to the right place, but time will tell whether I’m brave enough to actually go through with it or not!

LOTD and Tutorial: Purple Plushie

Picture tutorial time! It was high time I used Fyrinnae Dinosaur Plushie again as I’d lost it for a long while, and I’m currently obsessed with Sleek Sugarlite from the recent matte brights palette, so I knocked this together for y’all. If you don’t have Fyrinnae Dinosaur Plushie and you like sparkly sparkly things, I really recommend it! It’s pretty rad.

1. Start by priming your eye (MUA Professional Eye Primer)  and putting a sheer wash of a sheer white or cream colour all the way over the lid and up to the brow(Sleek Pow! from Ultra Mattes Bright palette) – this will help the matte crease colour to blend more easily. I’ve already filled my brows in with pencil (Rimmel Professional Eyebrow Pencil) for the purposes of this tutorial so I don’t look like Marilyn Manson, but you can do this later so you can more easily clean up  any powder you might get in them.

2.Apply a dark, long-lasting base in the deepest your crease and lower lashline for your colour to go over (MAC Paintpot in Blackground). This is going to give it more depth and mean less blending – if you have trouble blending mattes it’s much easier and quicker to do this rather than try and apply a darker colour over the top – but try and get it fairly near. A long-lasting base will also set and won’t move around too much as you blend over it.

3.Now start applying your crease colour over the black base (Sleek Sugarlite from the same palette). Keep blending and reapplying until you’re happy with the depth and shape – I like to keep mine quite rounded and fade the colour inwards toward the nose. I used the Crown version of a MAC 217 for this step

4,Use the same colour on your lower lashline with a pencil brush, and then add black gel liner (Maybelline Eye Studio…something something drama something) to the lower waterline. If you want to apply it to your top lashline as well, blink fairly hard before it sets and it should transfer to the top. Then reapply to the lower lashline.

5. Add a matte black to the lower lashline, really close to the waterline – basically you want to stop any purple gaps from showing between your lashes. This will help keep the look nice and smoky as opposed to a harsh “edge” from your gel liner. You can use the gel liner and smudge that along the edge of your waterline instead, but I do find it a bit messy and harder to clean up if I do that. If you want to do that, I’d do the liner first and the purple colour last.

6. First apply a sticky base all over your lid (Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy)– basically anywhere where you didn’t apply the purple colour, and then pat your sparkliest shadow on top (Fyrinnae Damn Paladins.) You could also use a loose glitter for this step if you wanted more sparkle.

7.Using a damp brush (ELF Mist and Set), apply a light, bright silver to your inner corner (Darling Girl Live Wire from the Only One Can Win collection). Blend it up into the lid colour and take it about half way along the lower lashline.

8. Now apply cat liner (Collection2000 24/7 Extreme liner – felt-tip style.) I apply mine from outer-to-inner lid, and then go back and draw a triangle on the outer corner and fill it in.

9. Blend out any harsh edges around your crease colour with the base colour you applied in step one and add more under the brow if you need to. If you want more sparkle for a brow highlight, you can use the silver from step 7 and blend it out really well. Add mascara and lashes if you want and your eyes are done!

10. I cleaned up any fallout using Bioderma Crealine and applied my base makeup (MAC Prep and Prime Moisture Infusion, Dr Jaarts BB Cream, e.l.f HD powder). Then I applied a peach blush to the back of my cheeks (Illamasqua Lover). If a peach blush is too much colour for you with all the purple, I’d use something more neutral like MAC Mocha or Sleek Suede, or MAC Blushbaby if you want it a little more pink.

11 For the lips, I used Darling Girl Wicked Game and used the same colour I used on my inner corner of my eye on the cupid’s bow. I take some on my little finger, swipe it in a downward motion across the cupids bow and then pat it out with my finger so it’s blended. It’s subtle but it makes your lips look bigger and ties the eyes and lips together really well. And that’s your look done!

Got mah bitch face on real good.

Hope you guys enjoyed – I really like making tutorials but do you prefer video or photo? If there’s anything you’d like me to cack-handedly attempt, let me know!