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Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts

Sunday, 1 May 2011

My Makeup Timeline.

I was talking with Lily from Beauty's Bad Habit about makeup crimes on Twitter recently, and she said I should write a make-up timeline (You can see hers here.) Read on for the shame - it's pretty long, so grab a  cuppa.

School and college:

Oh dear. Well, let's just say I had a goth phase. I certainly still lean towards the (and I hate this phrase with a passion) 'rock chick' side of things but I'm too fickle to commit to a 'look' these days.

I am *that* old that I was at school before digital cameras/phone cameras, so I don't have many pictures, but the first makeup I can remember doing on myself looked like this:


Seriously, just like that - Cleopatra liner! I guess I thought it was winged liner. Eeeew. I also remember putting a grey-green shadow ALL THE WAY from lid to brow with over-filled purple lipstick.

I also remember a picture of me and my two best friends, who all did our eye make-up like this, except horribly with (probably) blunt khol pencil:


GOD. Bear in mind we were all probably just wearing jeans and hoodies, too. Day to day makeup was just a LOT of black liner, mascara and nail polish - that's it! When I did wear eyeshadow, my dad used to stop me before I left the house to blend the edges in! I sometimes wore foundation, but no blush or lipstick/gloss. And I am afraid to say I did not wash my makeup off, either!



Around this time, I also remember buying this Stargazer shadow from a goth shop. Fuck knows what it looked liked on - these shadows are chalky as.... er, chalk, and you bet your butt I didn't know anything about eyeshadow bases!


This is my prom photo - my aunt who did a make-up course (she introduced me to Konad a looong time ago!) did my foundation, blush and lippy, which to this day I am thankful for, and I did my eye make-up. Not too bad - this was probably the most presentable I looked from the ages 13-18!

Uni:

Start of uni was little better. This is a pretty prime example:

Sooo... less eyeliner than my teenage years and that's it?! This was at a formal event, people! What the hell? Also: NO EYEBROWS. I wore black liner and/or Collection 2000 glitter liner in Emerald and Bourjois Little Round Pot eyeshadow in Beige Rose every single day for about two years (I only recently threw that motherfucker out!) and my going out look was... er, this?



Right... bad eyeliner again. Nice. At some point during uni my hair went from blonde to this:

I much prefer my hair red but... you gaiz.... this is my makeup for my 21st birthday. I cannot tell you how embarrassed I am when I look at the photos from that night. I was dressed as a fucking mermaid, I should have made more bloody effort with my makeup! As you can see, it hadn't clicked yet that my eyebrows should match my hair somewhat...


Ahhh, that's better! While I didn't discover blush as such, I did discover this:


Benefit 10! I used to wear this religiously, and I still dig it out fairly often in the summer. I didn't own "much" make-up at uni, but I did have some Barry M shadows, a fair amount of Benefit (this was before I knew that a high price doesn't necessarily mean it's good!), a red lippy or two, Chanel/Dior mascara, and of course that bloody Bourjois shadow! Everything fit with room to spare in this:




Canada:

When I was living in Canada for a year was when I really got interested in makeup. I broke my arm and spent 6 weeks watching YouTube videos because when you break your arm in January in B.C, there is NOTHING else to do if you can't snowboard. I didn't really wear makeup much that year, because I was very outdoorsy, but here's a look from when I went out one night in Vancouver with my friend Sara.


A bit draggy, no? I hate my hair this colour - and how much bronzer do I need to wear? Clearly had a lot to learn, still!

1 year ago:

About a year ago, I started blogging. This was my first 'creative' look, just before I started blogging.

I'd just bought a 120 palette, I think, and I decided to copy this My Eyeshadow Is Odd tutorial. Can you tell I didn't own any makeup brushes at this point? I did this with q-tips and sponge applicators.

This is my first 'normal' look I posted on my blog:


Not the worst make-up in the world, especially as I wasn't using primers/bases. I think I had a couple of brushes at this point, but probably no blending brushes. As you can see, I wasn't really sure what my crease was, I guess! I always used to do 'half and half' eyeshadow when I used two colours! At this point, I still didn't wear blush regularly, and I only plucked a tiny portion of my outer brows.


At this point I had was using primer, but my brows were still... not the best. But now:






My brows are a lot better, even though they're probably a bit short in the last photo. But I know what my crease is, how to blend much better, the benefits of blush and lip colour and EYEBROW PENCIL.

I also own a bit too much makeup now:



And I even do it on some other people! I still have a looong way to go to get to where I'd like to be, but lets face it, there's a lot of improvement here. I'd love to see 'timelines' if you have the photos so I'm tagging you all!

Friday, 14 January 2011

New "Diet" Blog

Hey girls, just a quick one. One of my bestest friends, Sara, has just started a weight-loss blog, Bollocks-to-Lettuce! Sara has an amazing attitude towards the female body and she has done fantastically well. I love her to pieces, so even if you don't feel the need to read a blog along these lines, please check her out, I know you'll all love her.




<3 x

Sunday, 7 November 2010

Window Shopping... and blog awards!



Black TUK boots from Scorpio Shoes. Omnomnom.




Makeup Whore necklace from cbtscloset.




Eva Franco Lindy Hop dress from Modcloth.




Real Bat Skull Ring from DeathGlamCouture. (All her taxidermy is scavenged from roadkill, etc, fyi. I like the idea of making 'waste' beautiful.)





Evil Shades Deviant Lipstick
in Cursed Beauty (and, you know, all the others) - bubblegum pink with metallic sheen! Cute!




If only!



Right, now on to some blog awards!


Makeup Zombie and Aoife from LipsTitsTeethHips both bestowed me with this cutie of an award!





And recentley, the gorgeous Bri from Prima Diva gave me the Sunshine Award!

Hurrah! I love the feeling that someone enjoys reading my blog. It makes me happy, and to get some love back is really awesome. Anyway, I'm going to follow the rules of the first award because they're more fun.

1. Say who gave you the award
2. List ten things you like
3. Pass the award on to ten other bloggers


1- Dunnit!

2- Haruki Murakami, jellybeans, Manic Street Preachers, my enormous cuddly tiger, motorbikes, my sushi earrings, chips, big black boots, sparkles and snowboarding.

3- This was damn hard! kathyeffingjacobs, Painted, Painted Moogle, The Peach, Kitschy Surburbia, Silhouette Screams, Pretty Bottles.... You all got tagged, and you're all blogs I adore, but I think that new people should be tagged, no? If not, feel free to send me a punch in the nose.

-Cydonian of Turtle Beauty (Pretty sure we are secretly related)
-Caro from MUA (It feels like she's been with me from the beginning - go check out her gorgeous outfits)
-Kat O from Click and Make Up! (Just as gorgeous and sweet in real life)
-Lily from Beauty's Bad Habit (Exceptionally talented, I adore her blog)
-Caz from Methadone Pretty (Girl's got style and excellent taste in music :P)
-Jonna fron Nukleopatra (A true individual, I love her style!)
-Rae from Red Lipstick and Black Liner (The cutest EOTDs - keep your eyes peeled for her teacups too!)
-Heather from Eyeconic Makeup (It's fucking Heather. Duh!)
-Minou from Cosmetics and Cats (I just started following Minou - check out her LOTDs, she has some beautiful colour combos
- Kimberley of KimmieKarmaLove (A genuine sweetie with a good eye for a gorgeous colour combo. Reviews from teeny companies too, which I love.)
-Anna from annamax. (Anna makes some darn cute jewellery which I am lusting after and great indie EOTDs.)

Oh shit, that's 11. Meh.

Genuinely love you all you ladies listed and mentioned above. You kick ass and I wish I could buy you all a pint or six :)

Saturday, 25 September 2010

Where the magic happens...

...Sort of.

I'm always in awe whenever people write collection posts, or show their set up. Most people's look so beautiful and professional, and their collections are huge! My 'station' is none of these things, however, I am fond of it. Seeing as this week has been a massive fail blog-wise, due to my being pretty sick (big red nose, puffy eyes, the lot, so no LOTDs), having no batteries for my camera and great big massive cuts on my fingers (so no nail posts), I thought I'd show you guys my little 'station!'





Aaaaaw. When we moved into our flat, we had to adopt a lot of furniture. Eventually we bought more, and I adopted this computer desk for all my pretties :D It was only meant to be temporary, but it's working pretty well for me. On top I have my palettes, tools, beauty essentials, liners, etc. On the sliding drawer I have compartments for (L-R) my blushes, highlighters etc, my indie eyeshadow, my Barry M eyeshadow, miscellaneous eye crap, lipglosses and balms and lipsticks. Underneath on the right I have a box with my straighteners, curling tongs, etc, my makeup books, a box with my false lashes, cotton buds/balls/baby wipes. On the other side is my spare stuff, travel bags, etc.



This looks like a 'Spot The Geekery' game - Hello Kitty, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Little Mermaid, Star Wars! I really am a child - and a possibly gender confused one at that. Under my mirror are my Sleek Palettes, a box of eBay glitter, my 120 palette, my 66 lip palette, my Aqua Colors and Greasepaints, and a pill organiser that I depot my samples into. (Oh, and yes, that is a boot reflected in my mirror. We've got damp in our shoe cupboard and my lovely boyfriend had to clean about a million pairs of shoes.)




Though I love the elegant brush holders people make from beads and vases, it just isn't me. What is me is a Darth Vader mug and a Mickey Mouse organiser. I really need something bigger than both of these as finding the right brush can be a pain in the arse and I don't have room to keep all my cream eyeshadow pencils, Gosh art liners, etc, in the Mickey holder. The Jessica Rabbit shotglass was a present a week or so ago from my mum and dad who grabbed it for me along with loads of other cool stuff from Disney World. Now I have loads of Aqua Colors, I have something pretty to put water in when I used them.

The light isn't the best here, but seeing as I can't find decent lighting in my price range at the moment (or more realistically, my boyfriend won't take me to Ikea which I think is entirely sensible) it does me pretty well. The windowsill gives me lots of room for my pretty shiny things, too!



All my funky jewellery lives here, my fancy stuff gets hidden away...




...my million and one hairbows live in a heart-shaped basket...



...Ariel and Jessica Rabbit pins adorn my mirror, and much more crap besides.


So yeah, not the biggest collection in the world, but not bad seeing as I started from scratch, almost, a little more than a year ago. I left a lot of stuff in the UK with my sister when I went to Canada for a year, where I didn't really wear much make-up because I was snowboarding almost every day for about eight months. When I got back I recovered some of what I'd left and had to start again! Seeing as I still have conceivably more than I will ever use, I can't really complain.

I'd love to see where you girls work, and if you haven't posted a collection post, that too. I really think it's interesting to see how much/what make-up people have when you see what they do with it all the time.

Anyway, have a lovely weekend ladies. I'm off to have a Lemsip and then I'm making me and the man a salmon and couscous nom to eat infront of the Inbetweeners... Yea, I'm rock and roll :P xxx

Wednesday, 11 August 2010

Spamspamspam (Milani review, LOTD, blog theme...)

Sorry to throw two posts at you in one day, but my last one was a contest entry which deserved to be posted on its own, and I wanted to get a couple of looks off my memory card before they got deleted and forgotten and do a quick review of the Milani liquid liner I got too.

So a couple of posts ago I asked you guys what theme I should do, and typically, Pin Up/Retro, Comic Book and Hogwarts all got three votes each :| Hogwarts is only going to be four, perhaps five looks, so I'm going to save those for when I have a couple of days off. Comic books I'm waiting to see if another blogger is going to do a collab with me, which will get that out of the way, so there's going to be a Pin-Up/Retro theme! Yaaaaay! I'm really excited about it. I'm going to try and dedicate a post a week to it for a while, but in all likelihood its probably going to be more. I'm thinking a basic pin-up look, a twenties look, a sixties look, a couple of psychobilly looks, a Dita Von Teese look, a Patricia Day look and maybe some retro hair and nails looks too! Dead excited - I love, love, love pin-up looks, I just am rubbish at them, so hopefully this will be a nice project for me.


Anyway, I really wanted to use my Milani Infinite liner, but to be honest I've been scared shitless. Pixie_a_la_mode lovingly warned me that it never comes off ever, and I'm all out of make-up remover.... Oh well. Here it is in its lovely blue glory:






Eyes:
Evil Shades Whooo R U (green in crease)
Pout gold shade from Miss Barbados duo
Hi-Fi Mornings of Gold (Lid)
Milani Infinite Liner in Infinite


Face:
Almay Blush in Peach

Lips:
Wet N Wild lippy in 903C (blotted)

I really liked this look, and I looove this lipstick, too! The liner itself is a really thick consistency, which is both a blessing and a curse. I find thinner liners can bleed on the inner corner of my eye where my skin is quite wrinkled, and obviously this won't, but it does take ages to dry and it did get all over my lashes. The brush is lovely and thin and I made a nice little wing with it, which made me happy :). Now, as for the longevity = it rocks. It didn't budge at all during a ten hour shift at work, where normally I would have to touch up such a thin wing. When I got home, I carefully washed off all my make-up except the liner, and went to bed. (Save your scolding, this is science, yeah?) I woke up in the morning to see it had some slight creasing and flaking, mostly on the outer wing. This stuff would survive an A-bomb, I swear. However, it came off really easily with olive oil! So hooray and kudos to Milani.

And secondly, because I'd never done one before and I think its a really pretty colour combination, a brown blue look. Oooooh! It was a lot more vibrant in real life, but if you're in the UK you will know that we have been denied any sunshine whatsoever so I couldn't get the best snaps.





I don't remember what I used for this apart from that it was all 120 shadows and UD 24/7 pencil in Bourbon.


Cheers if you stuck with me through two posts today, girls. Get your poodle skirts out and give me some retro ideas!

Wednesday, 28 July 2010

The girl who ate the peach and forgot everything...

Or, Hi-Fi Cosmetics reviews, swatches and LOTD!

Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I fought my way downstairs bright and early to see if the postman had brought me my Hi-Fi order. Disappointed to see he hadn't, I turned away and then I heard a plop on my doormat! Yippee!

I took advantage of Veronica's amazing buy 5, get 5 free shadows which I just think was too good a deal to pass up! Obviously I had to get some stuff from the Labyrinth collection. Like every girl born in the 80s, this is my favourite movie. If you haven't seen it, or disagree, I think I may have to have stern words with you. Seriously, its hard being friends with people who don't know why I call the toilet the Bog of Eternal Stench. This is what I got from the Labyrinth Collection (click to see swatches/descriptions on Etsy)

-Mornings of Gold (x2 accidentally, d'oh! Future giveaway it is!)
-Valentine Evenings
-Down in the Underground
-Slime and Snails
-Between the Stars (top left, for some reason its not listed on the store atm.)

And then I also got:

-Final Act (can't find it on Etsy)
-Morbid Faith
-Sweet Dreams (Marilyn Manson shadows FTW!)
-Another Day Another Drama (1st Anniversary collection.)

And I got FOUR free samples! Four!!! WTF?!

-Angel of Death Paparazi Flash Powder
-#1 Hit Single Rock Star eyeshadow
-Aphrodisiac shadow
-Sad Love Spotlight Lip Glaze (Also Labyrinth collection.)

And now some swatchy goodness:



Final Act is a beautiful silver with a hint of lavender to it. #1 Hit single is more the opposite, a soft silvered lavender. They go really well together and I'm sure Veronica must choose her samples carefully, because Another Day Another drama, an awesome Cadburys type purple with holo and pink glitter in goes excellently with my sample Aphrodisiac, which is more of a plummy colour with gold sparkles. Morbid Faith is a beautiful soft blue with a slight purple shift and Sweet Dreams is a minty green with what I see as a slightly aqua shift to it. I was hurting for a green like this, I can't wait to use it with some sexy chocolate browns! Angel of Death, which my picture does not show at ALL, is an amazeballs black based glitter with holographic sparkles! Awesomeness.






Sad Love lip Glaze is a beautiful rosy gloss with a slight gold shift to it, with green/red duo glitter in. Its so pretty, you guys! And my sample was really generous, AND in a pot, not a baggie. Mornings of Gold looks a little pink here, and really its a lot more of a white gold, though it does have a slight pinkyness to it. Its really quite unique, imo. Valentine Evenings is a reddish copper which is going to looks badass applied wet! Slime and Snails looks bluer on the shop swatch, but I find it to be a light green with a slight blue shift and aqua glitter. Down in the Underground... omg, its the fist proper duochromatic colour I have. In my swatch it looks a slightly blackened foresty/emerald green, but it shifts to a blue-greyish lavender colour somewhat similar to Barry M's Oyster grey. I am so stoked with this colour. Between the Stars is a pale, slightly pink lavender, which I adore. I was really missing something like this in my collection.

I don't think this collection is a pastels collection, as some people have said. There are more pastel-y shades, but these babys are super pigmented. Slime and snails, for example, is too bright to be a true pastel I applied them quite lightly in my LOTD below, but I think these would all pop like a motherfucker if y. ou applied them wet or over PE.


Overall, I'm in love, love, love. Superdrug, Boots et al, you have no power over me. I don't want to buy another drugstore product ever again at the moment! Indie company-wise, I've only bought from Hi-Fi and Evil Shades but I am so impressed. All my Hi-Fi shades are beautiful and unique, and I'll certainly be purchasing from Veronica again soon! (Her shop is closing briefly soon, click here to find out why :D)

So, after rambling on and on, here's a LOTD using all my Labyrinth shadows. It was a piece of cake to do. I know I got a bit of Valentine Evenings on my lid, but you can't take anything for granted...







-Eyes:
Hi-Fi Cosmetics Between the Stars (lid, middle of lower lashline)
Hi-Fi Cosmetics Slime and Snails (inner crease)
Hi-Fi Cosmetics Down in the Underground (outer crease, outer lower lashline)
Hi-Fi Cosmetics Valentine Evenings (liner)
Hi-Fi Cosmetics Mornings of Gold (inner corner and brow higlight)
Borjouis Pump up the Volume waterproof mascara
Sleek dark brown shadow from Storm palette (brows)
Rimmel Loveable Lilac kohl pencil (waterline)

-Face:
Almay blush in 130 Peach
Hi-Fi Cosmetics Mornings of Gold to highlight
Revlon Colorstay in Buff
Mememe green concealer

-Lips:
Revlon/Vital Radiance lipstick in Raspberry (blotted)
Hi-Fi Cosmetics Spotlights Lip Glaze in Sad Love


And one last thing, I LOVE that a lot of the Labyrinth shadows are named for 'As The World Falls Down,' which is my favourite song/scene from the song. So here it is:




Now I'm going to go inside and have a nice cuppa tea :P

Robyn x

Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Gorgeous Goths (and me :S)

First off, Happy 4th and a belated Happy Canada Day :D I hit 100 followers today so I'm pretty stoked! I know I've been tagged in a couple of blog awards and I will get round to tagging and properly thanking people soon.


A Small Warning... there is a bit of tit in this post, but fear not, it ain't mine. Its not just to titillate (ahahahahaha! Ha!) its because the boobs are attatched to some awesome make-up.


At risk of sounding like a dorky kid on an MTV show, I wish I was a goth. My mum and dad are bikers and while they look pretty darn ordinary minus all the tattoos, I was brought up surrounded by gorgeous goths, beautiful bikers and pretty Pagans and ever since I can remember I've been in love. In the dark depths of my wardrobe there are big black platform shoes, publicly indecent kilts, pvc, fishnet, coffin-shaped things, skull-y wullys... Sigh. My boyfriend sort of talked me out of it - unknowingly - when I was a teenager in case I pissed off his nan and I tamed it way, way, way down. I amped it up a bit at uni, mostly when I went clubbing and I dressed more goth, rockabilly, punk, blah. Why don't I do it so much anymore? I don't know, I kind of feel phony when I do dress up and am back in my Breakfast Club t-shirt and jeans the next day.

I totally love gothic make-up. The classic pale skin and dark, heavy lined eyes are what most people think of, but there is so much more pretty than that...


















Sigh. Anyway...enough of that. Even though I'm in lust with the elegant eyeliner and amazing brows of the ladies shown above, I wanted to do a real dark smokey red-and-black combo:










I think it looks more Kabuki than goth... Ah well, it was fun to do and I'm going to do some better looks soon. I think I should have done a black or nude lip, but I wanted to try out my new OCC lip tar! Its awesome!

Eyes:

Evil Shades Heartless Queen (lid)
Pout Miss Barbados Duo (dark side -in crease)
Evil Shades Zombie (crease)
Nyx White Pearl (Highlight)
Sleek Black (outer V, waterline)
UD 24/7 Liner in Zero (waterline)
Sleek light brown from Storm palette (brows)
Kryolan Aqual Color in Black (liner on upper lid)
Lancome Hypnose


Lips:

OCC Lip Tar in NSFW
Sleek Black lipstick (inner corners)

Face:

Revlon Colourstay
Sleek Contour palette in Light
MAC Gesso
NYX Mosaic Highlighter


Have a nice day kids! xxx