LOTD with Illamasqua Static

The good thing about the Illamasqua sale is that if there’s an item you want, chances are it’ll get reduced even further at the end of the sale. Being a total tightwad, I waited until what I wanted - their gorgeous purple-pink-blue iridescent pigment Static and the white liquid liner, Scribe – went down to peanuts and snapped them up.



 


Eyes: Black from Sleek Acid Palette, browns from MUA Undress Me Too. White liner is Scribe from Illamasqua, purple pigment in inner corners is Illamasqua Static applied wet. Waterline is lined with Kiko Long-lasting eyeshadow stick
Lips: Lord and Berry lipstick in Glazed Pink
Cheeks: Highlighter from Barry M Natural Glow palette (crap eyeshadows, lovely highlighter), Kiko blush in Active Mauve
Face: Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer, L’oreal Eau de Teint.


Nothing overly special look-wide, but you can’t beat a smoky eye in my opinion!

I can’t believe I waited so long to try Scribe – this formula is amazing! Seriously will not budge. I can’t wait to use this in a more full-on look – white eyeliner is cool as hell. Static is pretty cool too – it’s like a pink version of Sugarpill Lumi! If you like strong iridescence, you’ll love this.

How do you like to add a twist to your smokey eye?

Golden Hour

Have you SEEN the amazing crystal brows created by Alex Box for Illamasqua’s The Sacred Hour campaign? They’re stunning. While I have neither the skills or materials to get even close, I wanted to try something similar. I vaguely flirted with the idea of making something with latex and glitter and tissue but I’m an exceedingly lazy individual and ended up using gold leaf instead, a material which I actually hate due to it’s massive overuse and how fiddly it is (and being asked time and time again by photographers to use it. Sorry peeps, ain’t gon’ happen.)

 

Skin: Illamasqua Skinbase shades 3 and 1, MAC Whisper of Gilt, MUA Undress Me Too palette.
Eyes: Maybelline Eternal Gold Colour Tattoo, Barry M Black Dazzle Dust w/ Inglot Duraline, MUA Undress Me Too Palette, Illamasqua Emerge Liquid Metal, ancient Girls Aloud festival lashes from Eyelure, gold leaf applied with Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy.
Lips: Illamasqua Emerge Liquid Metal, MUA Undress Me Too palette.

 

I really like how this came out seeing as I wasn’t really thinking much about what I was doing. I wish I used creams to contour instead of powders and thought about the brows a little more. I think it’s still missing something but overall, not bad. And Illamasqua retweeted my photo of it which made me *really* happy!

Will you be getting anything from Illamasqua’s new collection? I’m eyeing up the beautiful polishes…and the palette…and everything else to be honest!

Instanails!

I have been SO bad with taking photos of my manicures lately, especially as I’ve been making more of an effort lately. I’ve thrown together a quick post with some recent manicures, and they’re all Instagram photos, and they’re all rubbish, and there are SO many missing. Bad blogger!

Orly Honeymoon in Style, sponged over with a grey-blue Zoya and topped with China Glaze Snowglobe. I LOVED this manicure and wished I’d taken a real photo!

My new favourite – Sinful Colors Hottie, a beautiful blue jelly glitter. It takes a few layers to get opaque, but it’s SO pretty. The dark colour is a super-old Collection polish.

Good old L’Oreal Confetti over Barry M Yellow, with Barry M Navy sponged on the ring finger.

The gorgeous Illamasqua Purity, with Zoya Robyn and Barry M Pale Lilac and a white nail art polished  over the top.  I blobbed the colours on randomly and them picked them up with cling film. Possibly I used a touch of a mint polish too, but I can’t remember.

Some cutesy nail art for a shoot – didn’t get used in the end, I’ll have to think of a way to incorporate them into something else! Very fun to do though, it’s a different feel to doing your own manicure. More of a craft project!

Zoya Robyn, Barry M Navy used over the top with cling film again. LOVED this one.

Illamasqua Corrode, a hot neon pink, with some ‘drips"’ using a nail art polish. Topped it all with Maybelline Cosmic Flash, one of my favourite toppers. This is an awful photo, so google it!

 

 

Awful post, soz babes. What have you been wearing on your nails lately? What do you think the next nail craze is going to be?

LOTD with Barry M and OCC

I’ve not really used any loose pigments for quite a while, so I pulled out a couple of my favourite Barry M shades this weekend and had a play. I wanted something neutral with a little pop of interest, so I used my favourite gold pigment by OCC.

 

Eyes: Barry M Dazzle Dusts in 39 Tan (all over) and 102 Burgundy Noir (to define.) OCC Color Concentrate pigment in
Lips: Revlon Red Lacquer, blotted
Cheeks: Inglot AMC Cream Blush in 91, Boots No 7 Vital Enlightening Highlighter

Simple, neutral and yet I like the fun eyeliner. Barry M is another of those brands that people think only carry mad colours – not true! They have some lovely neutrals and work-safe colours as well. Similarly, with OCC people are all about the lip tars, lip tars, lip tars when they have some really fantastic loose pigments that I think get overlooked. Triptych looks MUCH brighter in real life than it does in this LOTD – check it out if you can!

A Little Lip Art!

Playing with some loose pigments, makin’ some lip artz. I really, really don’t have the patience to practice lip art on myself – keeping your mouth open while you do intricate work on it is actually a right pain in the arse! For each look, I blanked my lips out with Urban Decay Primer Potion first.

 

UDPP, MAC Gesso, Barry M Dazzle Dusts in 15 Aqua and 59 Lilac.

Dead simple to do and very cute. I like the soft pastel wash look.



Barry M Dazzle Dusts in 101 Buff, 98 Petrol Black, 72 Emerald and 99 Bright Indigo. Rhinestones from eBay, gloss random clear gloss mixed with 101 Buff.

This one was a royal nightmare to photograph, and it got all over my teeth and gather on the ‘waterline’ of the mouth so I do apologise for the crappy photos and that I had to color correct slightly which I don’t normally do! However, I liked the result!

Do you like practicing lip art?

A Little Bittah Glittah

When I have managed to wear brights lately, my Sugarpill colours have featured a lot and Darling manages to sneak it’s way in quite often! I’d not used it with any of the Heartbreaker palette colours yet and it seemed perfect, so I  teamed ‘em up:

 

Eyes: Sugarpill Darling, 2am and Velocity, Sleek black, highlight from Wet N Wild Petal Pusher, Collection 2000 Glam Crystals liner in Va Va Voom and 24/7 Extreme Liner Pen in Black, Barry M Kohl in Navy.
Lips: Gosh Light N Shine Lip Glaze no 5
Cheeks: Sleek Suede

I’ve had so little time for cute, bright makeup recently that it feels like a treat to wear it! My fiancé said this was pretty and looked like a peacock but he says that whenever I wear blue of any description! I really liked this look but when I came to edit the photos I noticed I had mascara on both my lower lashlines from sneezing and I hadn’t noticed all day! Aargh!

Rainbow In The Dark

No sign of the mornin’ coming
You’ve been left on your own
Like a rainbow in the dark
Just a rainbow in the dark









Sugarpill Love+, Poison Plum, Flamepoint, Buttercupcake, 2am, Mochi, Acidberry, Lumi. Sleek Black, LA Colours Jumbo Eye Pencil in Iridescent Light, Collection2000 Extreme 24/7 pen liner in black, Barry M Glitter Liner in 07 Gold.

Experimenting with mattes on a shimmery base (didn’t go so well, bro – check out that outside edge. Whoopsie. ) and few other things. Also, Dio. Hope you liked!

Quickie Review: Barry M Ultra Moisturizing Lip Paints in 162 Cranberry Red and 158 Coral Blush

I recently started spotting cute pink tubes on the Barry M stand, and, never one to pass up on a 3-for-2 offer, I snapped up a couple of the new colours along with a lovely sparkly polish.

 

162 “Cranberry Red”

An absolutely gorgeous blue-based red – perfect for those who want to dip their toes into the vampy trend that rears it’s head every fall but are perhaps a bit shy when it comes to plums or deep colours. It goes on easily with a nice sheen, but it does dry down after about an hour or so and become more matte.

158 “Coral Blush”

As you can see, this one isn’t as forgiving on application if you have dry lips and it takes a good swipe or two for good coverage, but I will forgive it those minor flaws as it is so SO pretty. Ever-so-slightly brighter in real life, it leans very pink on me (and I have seen it looking much more coral on other bloggers, so I do recommend giving it a good ol’ swatch before you buy) and has a slight neon undertone. Very niiiice.

 

Longevity on both is great and I can detect a slightly sweet scent compared to the regular range which I don’t detect any on. I’m going to take issues with the “ultra moisturizing” claims as I don’t find either of them moisturizing in the slightest. We all know that Barry M’s range can be very inconsistent and that a lot of their formulas can lean quite dry. In light of that it’s a bit annoying that these lippies don’t live up to their names, but they’re fantastic nonetheless and at £4.49 they’re still an absolute bargain.

Experimentin’

A few looks I was just sort of dicking around with that don’t really deserve posts of their own, but are sort of cool anyway…

 

Barry M Dazzle Dust and 120 Palette green with Inglot Duraline.

Okay, this one looks a bit ropey and my brows are all screwed up, but I *had* been wearing it for a long time by the time I’d got home and took pictures. I was bored at a shoot in between takes so I wanted to play with liner.  I was really brave and wore it home with Illamasqua Apocalips! Quite a feat seeing as I was in Essex…




Sleek Storm palette, Illamasqua Powdered Metal in Thalia, Viva Glam Gaga 2, a random Barry M lipliner.

WELL THIS IS FUCKING TERRIFYING. I was watching drag and wanted to do a deep black eye with dark brows, and use my new Illamasqua bronzer, and then I thought I’d do some sort of nasty, over-liner, wrong-lipliner look just for shits and giggles, and I don’t like it. Ah well. Moving on…



MAC Gesso, Sugarpill Lumi, Royal Sugar and Love+, Inglot white gel liner, Barry M Dazzle Dust in Cherry Red, Inglot Duraline.

A not-very-good photo of not-very-good Union flag makeup! It looked better with my eyes more open, and I had my other eye done the same. From a distance it looked cool, but I didn’t have much time to do it so I wasn’t happy with it. I wore this to go to Hyde Park for what’s now being called “Super Saturday” – Team GB smashed it with 3 gold medals in athletics and more in rowing and cycling. It was an amazing day and I’m glad I wore patriotic makeup, even if it wasn’t much good!

What have you been experimenting with?

Labyrinth Mini Series Part 5: Sir Didymus!

LET US BE BROTHERS HENCEFORTH!

Ooooh, I do love Sir Didymus. Every girl needs a gallant knight to protect her and so much the better if he also rides an Old English Sheepdog!

Eyes: Sugarpill Love+, Sugarpill Goldilux, brown from Sleek Storm, Illamasqua Liquid Metal in Superior, blue from Sleek Storm, Barry M Dazzle Dusts in Emerald and Orange, Barry M Fine Glitter in Opal, Inglot Matte Gel Liner in 76, MAC Gesso.

Of all the looks I’ve done for this series, this is probably my least favourite. I really wanted to capture his awesome, OTT cloth-of-gold nobleman outfit, and I don’t think I nailed it..and the red isn’t the right redddd  and also I wanted the brows to represent his foxy-ness, and, and, and… and it just wasn’t really happening! Ah well. It’s not very Didymus-y, but I still kind of like it.

I know this was supposed to be a mini series, but I’ve got at *least* three more looks to do…

Labyrinth Mini Series Part 4: Toby

I knew I wanted to do something stripey to represent Toby, and considering all he does for the whole film is er, wear a stripey onsie, here's what I did!

NYX JEP in Milk, Detrivore Bone, Barry M Dazzle Dust in no 85 Cherry Red, Inglot Duraline, Inglot AMC Matte Gel Liner in 76.

The more I look at this, the more it bugs me! I wish I’d worked out a way to make it not a triple wing and something more round and cute and more like a baby! It was also a nightmare to do on my wrinkly lids, so there’s lots of imperfections which are doing my head in. However, I do like the triple wing and I might try to see if I can incorporate that into a future look without bringing it all the way through the lid. I added the little circles to represent to poppers on his little outfit, as that’s the only non-stripey detail!

This is Toby (real name, for those who aren’t Labyrinth geeks! Toby Froud is the son of Brian Froud, an amazing illustrator who did all the art and character design for the film) as a baby…

D’aww! And here’s Toby as an adult…

Not bad at all!

Colourful, minimal, and smoky…

I realised this morning that lo and behold, I’d actually managed to do different looks every day this week so far! WOAH.

 

Monday was a green look using my new Inglot palette:

 

Eyes: Inglot AMC Shine 44, Matte 333, Matte 240. Highlight from Wet N Wild Cool as Cucumber palette.
Lips: Barry M nameless gloss, Boots No 7 Vital Enlightening Highlighter
Cheeks: MAC Fever (lightly!)

Tuesday I misplaced my eye primer, so I went for the tiniest bit of glitter liner and bright pink lips and cheeks instead of focusing on the eyes, which I normally do.

Eyes: Sleek black eyeshadow, Collection2000 glam crystals in Le Freak.
Lips: MAC Impassioned
Cheeks: MAC Dollymix,
Gotta love Impassioned, right?!

And Wednesday, I figured I hadn’t done a neutral smokey eye in a while:

Eyes: Sleek Bohemian palette.
Cheeks: MAC Coppertone.
Lips: Barry M nameless gloss again.

My lips are stained from wearing Impassioned the day before, argh! I’ve not noticed this happening before! I know this looks really purple toned, but it’s all neutral, promise!

Well, perhaps they’re not as different and exciting as I thought, especially as I used the same gloss twice. Oh well! I have some time this weekend so I’m going to do some fun tutorials, hopefully!