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Showing posts with label Sleek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sleek. Show all posts

Friday, 15 March 2013

Lip Maths: S is for ‘Sleek’

I really love the Sleek Eau La La Liners on the lips. They are dry, but some of the colours are so perfect for the lips! Pumpkin in particular gets a lot of use…

Sleek Plus Mac

Sleek Eau La La Liner in Pumpkin + MAC Impassioned =


Sleek and Mac


I wore this combination by accident when I picked up the ‘wrong’ lipstick a week or so ago and I actually really loved it! I don’t know how to describe the colour – it’s a weird coral-y kind of thing. Somehow Impassioned STILL managed to stain my lips, even through the orange liner! I think this is going to be a great combo for summer!

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

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:

Prometheus



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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.


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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,


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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.


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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.


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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.

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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.


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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.


Finished Look 2
Finished Look

Prometheus 2
Prometheus 3

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!

Saturday, 26 January 2013

Juxt Because: LOTD with MAC, Sleek and Illamasqua

A fairly simple, soft look for you guys today! I wore this yesterday to run some errands and go see a couple of people for drinks and then a dinner. I hadn’t done a MAC-heavy look for a long time, and Rachael had sent me some MAC stuff that day (thank you, Fairy Mac Mother!) so it felt right!

Juxt Because
Just Because 2
Juxt because 3
Juxt Because 4

Eyes: Lid, MAC Juxt. Crease, MAC Harmony. Inner corner highlight, MAC Whisper of Gilt. Brow Highlight, MAC Gesso. Liner, Sleek Eau La La Liner in Cocoa, chocolate brown from Sleek Storm palette. Waterline, UNE Skin Glow Pencil in G02.
Cheeks: MAC Harmony, a touch of MAC Mocha and a touch of MAC Whisper of Gilt.
Face: Revlon Colorstay in Ivory, Illamasqua Cream Pigment in Emerge, Illamasqua Loose Powder in P010
Lips: Illamasqua Sheer Lipgloss in Provoke.


I’m trying as hard as I can to use up Gesso as I think it’s a really nasty shadow – I don’t understand why people rave about it. I think I might just give up and Back 2 Mac it anyway. Seeing as I threw together this look pretty quickly, I kind of love how it came out, althought I wouldn’t use Gesso again for sure. I really, really love Illamasqua Provoke – it’s just a sheer caramel gloss, but for some reason I’m really attracted to the neutrals Illamasqua make!

Sunday, 30 December 2012

2012 Roundup: My Favourite Looks

Well, the year is nearly over! I’m still on a turkey comedown and am too lazy to write any new content, so here are my top ten looks of 2012. In no particular order…

 

Purple Plushie Tutorial using Sleek and Fyrinnae

Bat Romance using Sleek and Sugarpill



Heartbreaker Palette look using Sugarpill and LA Colors Jumbo Pencil


Mermaid look using Sugarpill, Inglot and Paperself lashes

Taupe Eyes and Purple Lips Tutorial using elf, Maybelline and Inglot

Rainbow in The Dark using Sugarpill and Sleek



Love+ using Sugarpill, Sleek and MAC

Government Hooker using Sugarpill and Fyrinnae



Mickey Mouse using Sugarpill, Maybelline and Darling Girl

Cryin’ using Inglot, KIKO and MAC

Ok, ok. These are all pretty out-there looks apart from the purple and taupe look, but hey. I guess that goes to show that I prefer the more out-there looks after all – I was worried I’d got boring during 2012! If I had to pick one, I’d pick the Mermaid look – I got really nice comments from the people at Illamasqua on Twitter (although a weird comment or two asking why I’d pierced my eye?! *shrug*)

 

Link me to your favourite looks of the year!

Sunday, 2 December 2012

Quick Orange Look with Sugarpill and Fyrinnae

Nothing overly exciting today folks, but I liked how it turned out. I’ve been seeing a lot of looks lately with the shading on the inner and outer corners of the eye as opposed to through the crease and I hadn’t done it for a while so I thought I’d try it today. It really makes your lid colour pop and makes your eyes look rounder and larger. Obviously you can do it with deeper blacks, dark browns and navies for a more obvious look but I went quite subtle this time.

 


tonal orange 2
tonal orange 3
tonal orange 4
tonal orange 6

Eyes: Sugarpill Flamepoint, Fyrinnae STFU, Moonchild, and Electro Koi, UD 24/7 pencil in Perversion
Lips: Illamasqua Lipstick in Test
Cheeks: Boots No 7 Vital Enlightening Highlighter, MAC Buff, Sleek Contour Kit in Light


Flamepoint is one of my favourite shades to wear with my eye colour and I really like adding a little Electro Koi on the top to give it a little more oomph – I added a touch in the centre of the lid and the glow worked really well with the whole shading concept. Also, Fyrinnae and Sugarpill is just a bitching combination!

How do you normally define your eye looks? Have you tried this method or do you normally stick to the crease/lashline?

Monday, 26 November 2012

Lip Maths

If someone can write a whole bunch of lip and/or maths based puns for me to use for this series, I will pay you in…er, love, because I am out. Done.

DSCF0992

Sleek Eau La La Liner in Melba + Fyrinnae Lip Lustre in Romantique =

Peach Lip Maths
Peach Lip Maths 2

Rather pretty, no? I’m rather scared of wearing pale, peachy shades despite owning a ton of them, and Romantique on it’s own has never really suited me. I think I could just about pull off this combo, though, even if I’m not ecstatic about how it makes my teeth look. Colour aside, I’m really enjoying pairing the Sleek Eau La La Liners in general with other items on the lips, they’re a really nice base and they actually have a lot of colours that work well on the lips!

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

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



Rainbow In the Dark
Rainbow In the Dark 2
Rainbow In the Dark 4
Rainbow In the Dark 3



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!

Saturday, 17 November 2012

Depotting Sleek Blushes–I Wouldn’t Bother If I Were You

I’m well aware I’m quite often a moaning Minnie on my blog and I’m always going on about how I could have done something better and I’m sure it gets rather annoying. I hope this post goes someway to redeeming that because this time I’ve genuinely buggered something right up.

Earlier this week I was seized with a desire to make a palette of my brilliant yet under-used Sleek blushes. “Depot your Sleek blushes,” I said. “It’ll be fun,” I said. I did my research. I had some cash from a shoot, so I bought a Z-palette Pro. I looked at whether I could repress these particular blushes. I knew it would be a pain and I might crack the blushes a little round the edges, but stormed ahead anyway.

 

Don’t bother. Just... don’t.

 

When I depot MAC blushes, I simply pop out the insert, melt a hole in the remaining plastic which then in turn melts the glue and you can pop out the pan with an orange stick or the end of a brush. If it doesn’t give way straight away, you know you’ve not melted the glue and you melt another hole. I’ve never cracked a MAC blush and I’d read of a couple of bloggers cracking blushes using the alcohol method, so I thought, “I shall melt the Sleek blushes.”

depotting sleek blushes 3

 

DO YOU SEE A HOLE? I COULD NOT MELT A HOLE. IT WAS ON FIRE AND IT WOULD NOT MELT THROUGH. Although the heat melted the glue to the point I could prise the pan out easily, I was about to die from plastic fumes (and I had my kitchen extractor on!) so I had to stop. I’d heard of people heating plastic casing in pans over the stove, with flat irons or in the oven, but I didn’t see how that would work with the hefty plastic, plus I don’t have any kitchen utensils I’m willing to sacrifice for a blush that cost less than a fiver, let alone get combine my clumsiness, melting plastic and my GHDs. I also still managed to crack this first blush. Time to switch to the alcohol method, then! If you’re not down with the kids when it comes to depotting, you can drop rubbing alcohol down the gap between the pan and the casing which dissolves the glue, allowing you to pry the pan out.

depotting sleek blushes 5

Insert a knife into the gap and let the alcohol drip underneath the metal pan. Do this all the way around, give the pan a little tip to make sure the alcohol has spread everywhere and give it a few seconds to do it’s thing.  Run your knife carefully around the edge if you can and if all goes well, you can feel that the pan is ready to “move.” Then simply whip your knife underneath and prise the pan out. Easy, right?


depotting sleek blushes 7
depotting sleek blushes 4

NON.

I had SO much trouble doing this. These pans are stuck down with some kind of bloody glue that mere mortals were not meant to cope with, and worse, the pans are very long, so it’s nigh on impossible to get the blushes out without bending the pan and cracking the blush. Once the pan is bent, you can’t really un-bend it! I really don’t know what I could have done with this. The pink blush, Flamingo, was the first one I did as it’s the most dupable Sleek shade I had. Luckily it’s not cracked all the way to the bottom, so that’s fine. The one above, Aruba, I was actually very careful with as it’s such an unusual blush. I could feel it moving in the plastic case when I moved the knife as if the glue had dissolved, and yet it just exploded everywhere! Sad times, although I think I’ve saved it!


I had nine blushes to depot – the perfect amount to fit the palette – but I couldn’t bring myself to damage my favourite, Suede, so I only did eight. I managed two of eight with no cracks whatsoever (Rose Gold and Scandalous, you beauties!), two were badly smashed or cracked as above and the other four had tiny cracks in the edges. What a nightmare!

If all does go well, however, you’ll be rewarded with this:

depotting sleek blushes 6

As you can see, poor Mr Pan Tao is looking a little damp, but he will dry out eventually and be good as new. Then you can pop his sticker and a little magnet on and he can go and join his poor, battered friends:

depotting sleek blushes 8

I’m not faulting Sleek at all for the way this panned (hey!) out – their packaging is both lovely looking and very sturdy and it’s not their problem I want to depot them. In an ideal world, yes, they’d recognise that poor young makeup artists will buy the only good high street range for darker skintones and use it in their kit and put it in more expensive packaging and keep them the same price and and and, but hey ho ;)

If you were thinking of doing this – don’t. If you must do it with long rectangluar blushes, try your Sleek first and not your Nars! I hope this helped someone!

Tuesday, 2 October 2012

Half-arsed Halloween: Pink Skull

Because why the fuck not, that’s why!

pink skull makeup 2
pink skull makeup

Sleek Good Girl Palette, Kryolan Aquacolours (applied with elf Mist and Set on a fine liner brush) in 070 (white) 082 (red) and R21 (pink)

I really should have done a face chart for this one before I sat down, but I couldn’t be arsed. I do need to do it properly (cover my brows, etc etc) as this was only a really quick look, it’s not finished and I wasn’t even going to blog about it, but I’m also lacking on any posts whatsoever, so… this is what you get from me today! I’d also like to say I never blog in my PJ’s normally but we all know that’s a massive bloody lie).  I’m tempted to do a pink skeleton look for my Halloween costume now, but I’ve got a much creepier idea in my head….

Friday, 7 September 2012

Gold Medal LOTD

On Wednesday this week my fiancé and I finally made it to the Olympic Park in Stratford to soak up some Paralympic action! We were both pretty excited and I knew I couldn’t really wear anything other than a gold look!

 

gold medal 2

Gold Medal

Gold Medal 2

Eyes: Lid/Lower lashine, Darling Girl Honey Pot, brown from MUA Glamour Days. Crease, Silk Naturals Chequered. Highlight, No 7 Vital Enlightening Highlighter
Cheeks: Darling Girl Aloha, Boots No 7 Vital Enlightening Highlighter
Lips: Sleek True Colour lipstick in Vixen


The full face shot with flash is much more colour accurate – this was really bright in real life! Sadly there weren’t any gold medals for Team GB that night (although we scored a silver and a bronze!!!) but it was a fantastic evening. It was really awesome to see everyone getting behind the Paralympics – every athlete who did a victory lap after their event, no matter what it was or their nationality, got a standing ovation from the crowd! It was fantastic seeing Oscar Pistorius run and even better that our own Johnny Peacock whipped his butt!

mandeville

The Stadium with our mascot Mandeville photobombing!

stadium

Me in front of the stadium – it changed colour at night! Not pictured: massive bag of Olympic swag.

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And here’s some of the mascots that have been dotted around central London... there were over 80 of these suckers painted with different designs and costumes and we managed to find them all apart from one who got ‘taken to hospital.’ It took about 8 hours, but we’re sad acts and it was free, so we were determined!

Have you been enjoying the Olympics/Paralympics? Link me to your Olympic inspired looks if you’ve done one!