Parrot Inspired Eye using Sugarpill and Fyrinnae

Just a bit of silly fun really! I’ve been watching a lot of face painting videos and at the moment am obsessed with doing detail on my creased lids. If I can do it on my lids I can do it on anyone's! I didn’t really put much time into this at all – this took me about 15 minutes give or take, but I’d like to come back to it and do it properly. It’s vaguely parrot inspired (actually, it’s inspired by a miniature I’m painting which is kind of like an Amazonian harpy, but uh, less of that…) but I think it looks a bit more, um, phallic. 

Products used: Sugarpill Love+, Mochi, Velocity. Fyrinnae Bifrost (thanks Joey! x), NYZ Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Milk. Boots No 7 Vital Enlightening Highlighter.

I wish I’d laid a colour down in the crease, and actually sat down and thought about it before I drew up into my eyebrow! I think I need to think larger with this the second time around… ;)

LOTD with Inglot and Darling Girl

Okay, I know I just did a post with Darling Girl’s LE ‘Don’t Teal Me You Love Me,’ but it’s my blog so you’re gonna have to deal!

Eyes: All Inglot (I don’t remember all of them but I can check if you need!) except liner, which is Darling Girl DTMYLM.
Lips: Illamasqua Sheer Lipgloss in Provoke
Cheeks: MAC Blushbaby, Boots No 7 Vital Enlightening Highlighter

I haven’t used Blushbaby for ages, so I apologise in advance if you see a massive influx of it on the blog lately, because it’s such a great cheek colour for me. I wish I’d added lashes to this look – I fully intended to and then time just got away from me!

I’m using a new cream foundation at the moment and I have to say, I’m really liking it! I’ve also been going a little thicker of brow lately – I blame the lovely brow goddess, Cara Delevigne!

In which I try lip art I don’t think will catch on.

I quite enjoy doing lip art – lips are a less versatile canvas than your eyes, in my opinion, and having to do them on an open mouth presents all sorts of challenges. I’ve been doing a lot of it recently and uh, here are a couple of attempts that don’t look so good!

Furry Lips:

Furry nails are all the rage, apparently, so naturally I picked up some of the flocking powder to try. Having used nail materials successfully on my lips in the past, I thought this might work out nicely. As you can see, it did not.

Weird Lip Liner:

I have very mixed views on this one. Artistically, I really like it. As a small photograph, it looks good. It’s copied from the makeup from the recent Vivienne Westwood Red Label show at LFW, where Val Garland was the makeup artist. This lip look specifically was only on one of the models – some lips were half painted, some were outlined in white, some were fully outlined, but only half coloured in. I loved that whole aesthetic but yes, it’s not a look I’m going to be wearing out on the town anytime soon!

Tried anything that didn’t work quite so well recently?

Quickie Review: Collection Cover and Go Foundation and Concealer Duo

An intriguing little duo today from Collection (I still want to call you Collection2000, Collection. Soz.)

 

Daniel Sandler and Lancome, amongst others, have foundations with a matching concealer in the lid in thier ranges, and I did wonder when I first saw them if we’d ever see a high street dupes. I was pleasantly surprised with this offering from Collection when I tested it out in store, and that combined with the fact that I’ve seen many a rave about Collection face products in the blogosphere lately, and that it was on for the trial price of £3.99, I decided to give it a whirl.

 

As you can see, this a handy little set up! The cap screws off so you can squeeze out your foundation, and a flip top reveals the concealer and a (tiny) mirror. Unfortunately the testers in store are only for the foundation and not the concealer, but for my shade at least, they’re a good match. I picked up shade 2, and there are 6 shades in the line, which for a budget foundation range is actually pretty good (way better than light, medium and dark, at least!)

 

So how does it perform? Cue scary no-makeup-ish photo:

On your left, foundation and concealer. On your right, no makeup.

My boyfriend couldn’t tell which side had no makeup on. I’m not sure if that was a compliment?! I'm just wearing the concealer around my nose and under the eyes, and foundation everywhere else.

 

Here I am wearing just the foundation, powdered with Illamasqua transluscent powders, which is very light. This is my favourite way to wear this foundation, I love how it makes my skin look. I'm not wearing the concealer here.


I’d say this was a light coverage foundation and a relatively light coverage concealer - if you have a humdinger of a spot, it won't do the job but for minor blemishes and common redness round the nose or outside edge of the eyes like I have, it does the job.


The foundation is very light feeling on the skin and leaves a slightly dewy finish. It wears well when powdered, which I would really recommend as the consistency is somewhat like a heavier tinted moisturizer, and I start to see shine within a few hours. It’s certainly not one for oily skin. I find the concealer too dry for my undereye area sadly, and it migrates into my eye creases even with powdering, but it’s nice for other things. I’m not overwhelmed with the concealer part to be honest, but I do prefer liquid concealers to creams and I will admit it’s handy to have more options for coverage in one tube. If you personally like cream concealers I don’t see you having any complaints.


  The real miracle of this for me at least is that it’s a cheap foundation that doesn’t turn orange, or look orange to start with! Hooray! A lot of cheap foundations seem to oxidise on me which is obviously less than ideal. I also really like the squeeze tube packaging – I’m totally over annoying glass bottles and so on.


Whether I’d repurchase this or not depends on whether or not my skin behaves, but right now I think I would despite not being in love with the concealer. If you’ve got dry to normal skin and you’re not prone to heavy blemishes or acne, you might really like this duo.

Review: Floral Eye Tattoo from Born Pretty Store

A funny little review you today, lovelies! Born Pretty Store very kindly sent me some goodies and I admit I was intrigued by these eye tattoos! In the last year or so, applique makeup items have popped up everywhere and in so many different forms! Nail stickers, transfers and foils are really popular and applique eyeliners, eye crystals, lip tattoos and things like Face Lace also seem to be really popular as well. I’ve seen a lot of bloggers talk about nail items and lip tattoos, but I think a lot of bloggers, who tend to be pretty good at makeup after all, probably wouldn’t look twice at something for their eyes. But I have read a lot of contrasting reviews about the lip tattoos and wanted to see if these eye versions would be a kerfuffle!

Here’s what I eventually ended up with, and here’s the package…




The first thing I noticed about the instructions were that you can’t have any product on your skin at all before applying, which made me a little upset as I wasn’t sure how good it would look alone. I decided to plough on though.

The instructions aren’t super clear, but it seems to say not to cut the transfer at all so I didn’t even try. ! I do think it would be difficult to trim these down, actually. I don’t think these would fit every single eye shape, but I don’t think many people would have a problem with them as they are quite large and there’s a big space on the inside of the shape which gives you a lot of leeway. As you can see, it *was* a little awkward to place on the eye, but once you wet it, it sticks to the skin and there’s no harsh edges on the backing card because they’re now, wet so it’s not uncomfortable while you leave them to soak. These work just like the tattoos you got in sweets when you were a kid – soak them with water using a sponge, wait for 40 seconds or so and them the backing paper will slide off. Wait for it to dry, and don’t dab the water off with tissue or cotton wool or you’ll get bits stuck to the design. You can use a little extra water to smooth down and edges that might not have stuck.

These ones are actually kind of handy to line up as there are little marks where the transfers pop out of the packaging, so you can use these as a reference marker to line up the tattoos evenly on both eyes.

And here’s what it looks like after you’ve done it. I didn’t find that powdering over it took the shine away at all, which was a shame as it makes it look more obviously like a tattoo and less like you’re amazing with the ol’ eyeliner!

I then decided to see if you could draw over it and had no problems with that at all. I was worried that perhaps a liquid product over it wouldn’t take. I really, really didn’t like that I had no product on underneath it and found it a pain in the arse working around the tattoo once I had it on.  I figured if I used long wearing products, that putting water on top of them for 40 seconds wouldn’t do anything at all, so I tried it on the other eye:

I used my usual MUA primer and some long wearing cream eyeshadows and had absolutely no problem  applying the tattoo at all! I added the gems on top using Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy and a very fine brush to place them.

Where these are just a thin film, they’re pretty comfortable to wear, but for a while you will find they restrict the movements of your lids very slightly, and if you make an exaggerated expression, you’ll be able to feel that they’re there. I have fairly wrinkly skin on my eyes, and I think perhaps they’d look slightly better on someone with a smoother eye area –  obviously, where this sits on my creases, the pattern can look a bit skewwhiff in some places. I wore the tattoos on for about 5 hours (yes, I left different eyes on all day, ha ha!) and I  had no issues with creasing or with the pattern fading, either on the eye with or without primer, so I think these are hardy enough to survive going out dancing or something. As for removal, that’s a little more tricky. If you don’t have an oil-based remover in the house, steer clear!

 

All in all, I was actually pleasantly surprised with these. I thought they’d be a nightmare to put on, line up and wear but I had no issues at all.  I’d definitely wear something like this again. I think for something like a festival (where I only wear minimal makeup and would choose long wearing products anyway) these would be dead easy to take with you (and apply in a tent, with no tools!) and they’re pretty cheap as well at a less than three bucks a pop. Admittedly I’d be worried you’d get less room for error with the more solidly coloured tattoos and I’m not sure they’ll fit everyone… yeah, these are pretty cool. You can check them out at Born Pretty.

The products in this post were provided for review. All opinions are, and always will be my own.

Quickie Review: Make Up Store High Tech Lighter in

Make Up Store have been a brand I’ve been aware of for a long time but only recently started to explore, which I really regret as they have some beautiful products! Make Up Store is a Swedish brand and they have two stores in London, one in Soho and one in Westfield London. The price point is pretty similar to MAC, so not cheap, but not high end.

The packaging for MUS products is gorgeous – this is a screw-top matte black casing with a transparent M showing your the product inside. The container is sturdy and doesn’t feel cheap.

Make Up Store says:

This creamy product can be used for many things. Either to light up and accentuate certain features of the face or be directly applied on your lips or combined with lipstick or lipgloss. You can fixate glitter with High Tech Lighter or use it as a primer to your Eyedust. You can also mix the product with your foundation for a lustrous effect.

 

The product itself is a thick cream and you only need to use a tiny amount.  This particular shade is one we probably all have something similar to in our stash – it’s a light, pearlescent pink, the finish looks quite similar to MAC Strobe Cream, but more obviously pink. For my first High Tech Lighter I wanted to get a shade I knew I would use often! this shade would be amazing mixed in with foundation for a pearly glow. I’ve not tried it yet, but the consistency makes me think that this would indeed be quite good for an eyeshadow base – the bronzes and blues in the range make me think that they’re used for this purpose a fair bit.

I’m wearing it as an inner corner highligher here (click to embiggen!). I like how it’s a different texture from the rest of my eye products.

I have it as a cheek highlight here. It blends out really subtly considering it looks almost white in the packaging and it’s a lovely glow.

Basically… I really love this product and will certainly be getting more! At £14 it’s not that cheap, but it’s not breaking the bank either as it will last you forever! I’d certainly pay a lot more for a product this nice.

Have you tried anything from the Make Up Store?

Rounded Cut Crease and Glitter Tutorial

First of all, sorry for the terrible photo quality! I did this on a very dark, rainy Sunday afternoon and… well, with this English weather at the moment you kinda have to take what you can get photo-wise or you’d never blog at all! Anyway, not really sure what inspired me to do this look, but I really like this rounded cut-crease shape. It’s a little fiddly to do on my lids which are full of creases, but where my eyes are ever so slightly hooded, I find this shape much easier to do than a traditional cut crease look as I find it easier to make it look good on the outside corners  of my eyes, and keep the look cohesive. If you’ve got creasy lids or struggle with blending eyeshadow in cut crease looks, this might be worth a try as you only  need to blend the eyeshadow on the outside of your eye – there’s not really any belnding on the lid at all.

Here’s the look we’re trying to achieve:

1: Get your base down! I’m using Maybelline Color Tattoo in Pink Gold, as I’ll be adding a pink-ish glitter later. Choose a base that’s the same colour as your glitter, but keep it relatively light.

2: Take a dark matte brown eyeshadow – I’m using one from Sleek Storm - and softly define your crease, keeping it quite high. It doesn’t have to be super neat as this is really serving as a guideline for the cut crease, and it will aid the blending of the black eyeshadow we’ll be using later on,

3: Start to line your lid, and go about 3/4 of the way across. I’m using a pen liner from Collection2000 as I find I can do detail much better with a pen! If not, use the thinnest brush you have. I recommend trying a loose eyeshadow mixed with something like Duraline as you can get a really fluid consistency which will make it much easier.

4: To make your curve, extend the line up toward your brow slightly, as if you were beginning drawing a very thick winged liner. Then draw a curve from the top of this line, and extend it across your lid, tapering down slightly on the inside. This is the hardest part as the line can’t be thick at the end of the curve. You can see where it curve doesn’t go above the brown eyeshadow at all.

5: Now your curve is done, colour outwards slightly from the line. Don’t take it past the end of your eye socket, or too far above the top curve as we’re going to need to blend it out.

6: Ok, so now it’s time to make it look smoky! Blend some black shadow all around where you drew your liner – the brown shade you added earlier will help you blend the black out. You can see here that you’ll be able to tell where your liner has stopped. When you’ve finished blending it out and you’re happy with that, take your blackest black on a small paddle brush, make it so the ‘c’ shape on the brush matches up with the corner of your eye and sweep the black in toward the liner and the join should disappear.

7: Glitter! Easy peasy, take your adhesive and apply it to the non-black half of your eye. I used a small fine flat brush to make sure I got around the curves of the liner and then simply patted the glitter on. I used Darling Girl Stardust glitter in Prometheus.
I then took a little of the brown shadow again and just ran it along my lower lid.

Well, you’re pretty much done! I filled in my brows, added highlights (MAC Gesso, MUS Stardust) and lashes (Perfect 10’s) and a quick swoosh of cream liner on the waterline to finish the look.

On my cheeks I’m wearing a touch of Benefit Dallas and Make Up Store High Tech Lighter in Stardust, with MUA Juicy and Jordana ASAP on my lips.

Hope you enjoyed and that my step-by-steps are making sense!

Party Sunset LOTD with 120 palette

I wanted to do a sunset-themed look after seeing Susan, the owner of Darling Girl post a pretty one in a Facebook group, but I think it turned out more tropical looking! All the eyeshadows in this look are using the 120 palette, which I haven’t actually pulled out for a while. Having had the palette for nearly three years now, it’s done me very well and I forgot how pretty some of the colours are!

Eyes: Maybelline Color Tattoo in Barely Beige, 120 eyeshadow palette (matte red, several matte oranges, two matte yellows, cream shimmer, matte pink, shimmery purple, matte navy), Darling Girl Pixie Sprinkles in Golden Child
Cheeks: Benefit Dallas, Make Up Store Stardust.
Lips: 66 lip palette.

I decided to go the whole hog with the cheapness and used a 66 lip palette from eBay as well. The textures aren’t exactly varied or particularly beautiful, but the colour choice and pigmentation is certainly there so if you like playing with really bright or unusual colours I’d definitely recommend checking it out. I also tried to use a cheap eBay cheek palette, but it was too awful and I gave up – there’ll be a bigger rant on this product in an upcoming video – and switched back to higher end cheek products. Dallas is actually my oldest makeup product (I won’t say how long!)

 

Have you all been wearing brights lately?

LOTD: Don’t Teal Me You Love Me

Just a simple look showcasing a new pretty from Darling Girl Cosmetics! Don’t Teal Me You Love Me was a limited edition duo chrome colour, and even though I’ve cut down a lot on my indie purchases, I simply had to have this shade and snapped it straight up!

 

Eyes: Darling Girl Don’t Teal Me You Love Me (lid, lower lashline), Sugarpill Poison Plum (outer V), MAC Gesso (highlight.)
Face: Darling Girl Kiss You Off Color Rich Lip Balm in Honey Love (as a blush), Make Up Store High Tech Lighter in Stardust
Lips: Maybelline Colour Sensational Lipstick in 255 Mauve Diamonds

I really, really love this colour. It’s so hard to capture but it’s got a purple shift in some lights, it’s really beautiful. If you click to embiggen that full face photo, you can see how vibrant it really is! I’m just wearing it here over an eye primer, I can’t imagine how zingy it would be over a sticky base! While my favourite products from Darling Girl are the lip and cheek colours, if you’re into indie makeup and haven’t tried DG’s eyeshadows, you’re really missing out.

What’s been your favourite indie makeup purchase lately?

Bargain of the week: LA Colors Lipstick in Matte Amethyst

My favourite budget buy for a long time…

 

Ooooh, isn’t that bloody gorgeous? If you disagree, we can’t play together any more. I spotted this out of the corner of my eye in Beauty Base and I thought in the store lighting it might be a dupe for MAC Up The Amp, which it very much isn’t. Horrifcally cheap looking as the packaging is – and at 99p, what did you expect, woman? – the product itself is actually rather nice. A creamy satin formula, it’s pigmented and unlike some other very cheap lipsticks, stays put without the need for a lip liner. I think “matte” is slightly misleading, but it’s not exactly a glossy formula. Sometimes buying such cheap product is a real gamble as you may well end up just wasting product, which isn’t nice, but I’m very pleased with this colour!

If you can face the horror of looking through a display utterly ravaged by rabid teenagers with pocket money to spend, this is well worth checking out.