Favourites roundup!

WAY too late for August but time for some favourites nonetheless! I’ve changed jobs recently and have to be pretty conservative with my makeup. I love *all* makeup and polish colours so wearing neutrals doesn’t really bother me, but does mean I feel I have to make sure my skin is looking reeeeeeal pretty, hence a couple of items in this post.

 

Clockwise from top left:

Kiko Colour Explosion Multi Tone Blush in  03 Active Mauve

I got this beauty on sale from Kiko for around £6. The four swatches on the right below show the blush tones, with the far right one being all the colours mixed together. I just love how this looks lightly applied – a really soft, slightly cool-toned rose that just looks *so* pretty. I love how each part of the pan is large enough to wear alone, too.



Illamasqua Nail Varnish in Hemlock

I’ve raved long and hard about this, so just let me say that a strong duochrome that is work appropriate and long wearing is amazing.



Impulse Cosmetics Opaque Matte Lipstick in Smoking Gun

You can read my full review of this bad boy here, but I’m loving this beautiful bold, bargain priced blue!



Weleda Skin Food

This stuff really is wondrous! I’d seen a lot of makeup artists rave about this stuff, and when my boyfriend had a nastly flare-up of dry skin I bought it to see if it helped at all – and it did! Being a dry-skinned babe myself, I had to try it out and while I’ve been using it for less than a month I have to say I’ve seen a difference. I apply it at night as it take a while to sink in, but when I wake up my face feels wonderful and after a cleanse I just slap on some Illamasqua Hydraveil as opposed to a thicker day cream, so it saves me time in the morning too! It’s very thick and to me smells like Campari, which I don’t particularly like. If it’s good enough for Posh (apparently), it’s good enough for me and at arond £8 for 75ml it really is a bargain. I know I’ll repurchase!

Silk Naturals Eyeshadow in Fusion

I dug this baby out when rooting through my work-safe colours and it’s a pleasant rediscovery! Well known for MAC and Urban Decay dupes, there’s no arguing Silk Naturals makes a banging neutral and this is no exception. They describe it as a ‘dirty copper plum…with golden highlights’ and that it’s one of the colours that’s ‘too cool for the cubicle.’ It’s a pretty, interesting taupe and it’s made me rekindle my fondness for this brand, so expect to see more from them soon!

Silk Naturals eyeshadows in Heat, Glory, Fusion and Hairpin.

Maybelline Baby Lips

I’ve only shown the mint one here and that’s actually my least favourite, but it’s the only one that I had to hand, the pink and peach tints are living in my drawer at work! I wasn’t sure what all the hype was about I first heard of these, and yeah, they’re just lip balms. They’re not the most exciting of beauty products, but I really like the garish packaging and they do moisturise while providing a subtle, non-staining hint of colour that actually shows up. For three quid I can’t not love that!

What have you been loving at the moment? Tried anything here?

How Not To Take Photos For Your Blog (Or: FUUUUUUUUU…)

Last week I did what I thought was a really pretty look for a night out so naturally, I went to snap a few photos. Of course, in blogging land, “a few photos” is at least fifty. Loading up my memory card today, I was expected to be greeted with a couple of decent pictures at least to share with you all! Er, no:

I can’t be the ONLY one that this happens to. Please tell me I’m not the only one!

Anyway, this is the ONE even half decent picture I managed to take, and I don’t know what’s going on with my massive hair, and my lipstick looks all skewwhiff.  I even edited out my spot in rage, which I don’t normally bother to do. Ah, well. *I* know it was a pretty look!

Eyes: Maybelline Color Tattoos in Pomegranate Punk and Pink Gold, OCC Loose Colour Concentrate in Triptych, Inglot neutral shadows  (can’t remember which, but matte chocolate browns), Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Perversion.
Cheeks: Beauty UK Peaches and Cream, Illamasqua Emerge
Lips: Silk Naturals Nectar

Lucky Dip 2!

Time for instalment number two of my Lucky Dip experiments – four indie shadows, one glitter and one pencil liner plucked at random, and then hopefully some magic/epic fail occurs.

Clockwise from top left we have: Silk Naturals Heat, Darling Girl The Final Gift, BeautyUk Glitter (no name/number), Darling Girl Death & Redemption, Sugarpill Lumi, Rimmel Soft Kohl pencil in “Lovely Lilac.”

Oh, balls. I didn’t like this one so much! Two FIERY metallics and a bunch of icy, cool colours…. ugh.





First I patted “Death & Redemption” all over the lid, trying to knock out the pink sparks as I thought it’d bee too much with all the other colours going on. I then went in with “Lovely Lilac” on the outer corners of my lashlines. Next, I took Lumi and used that to highlight my browbone and crease, taking more of “Death & Redemption” into my crease afterward. I then took “The Final Gift” on a damp brush and used this to line both outer halves of my lashlines, joining them up to create a wing. With a mixing medium I then used “Heat” close to my lashes on both lashlines. Finally, I dabbed the BeautyUk glitter in the centre of my lid.

Oooh, I’m not sure about this one. “Lumi” and “Death & Redemption” look great together and I liked the glitter in the centre of the lid, but there’s no way I’d normally put the gold/coppers with the lilacs and I think “Heat” and “The Final Gift” were much too similar. Ah well, can’t win ‘em all!

Lucky Dip!

Lauren Luke of YouTube (and I’m sure other YouTubers as well) has been doing a series of Lucky Dip posts – rummage in your storage, pull out something at random and make a look with it! I thought it looked fun, so I’ve done a few Lucky Dip looks for you. I decided to use my indie eyeshadow and keep them to an eye look rather than a full face look – mainly because all my indie shadows are stored together and the jars are really similar, so I wouldn’t be able to tell what I was picking by touch! I’m going to use four shadows for each look, and pick a glitter and a pencil eyeliner for each look as well. Again, these items are easy for me to rummage for! Because I don’t have a ton of bases and brow products, I’ve allowed myself to chose whatever I normally would use for my brows if I need to, and use regular bases like my MUA primer and NYX Milk (but not coloured primers or paintpots.)

Let’s see what I pulled out for Lucky Dip number 1:

Clockwise from top left: glitter from eBay, Silk Naturals Kingfisher, Living Dead Grrl That’s A Fact, Darling Girl Wisteria Cloud, Darling Girl Peacemaker, Rimmel Cool Blue.

Well, this could have turned out a lot worse! The eyeliner and the chartreuse shade worried me, but I really like what I came up with…





First I applied “It’s a Fact!” to the outer half of my lid. I then applied “Kingfisher” to the outer half, and then went back in with “It’s a Fact!” and blended in the middle. Next I went in with “Peacemaker” and blended that through the crease.Then, I took Rimmel “Cool Blue” kohl pencil and lined my waterline and lower lashline, taking it up past my waterline to join the shadow on the upper lid. I then took “Peacemaker” again and blended that over the pencil on the outer half of my lashline, again joining it up with the top. Then I took “Wisteria Cloud” and use it as a highlight on my inner corner and browbone. Mixing “Peacemaker” with some mixing medium, I then used it as a liner and winged it out to join up with the “Peacemaker”/”Cool Blue” combo on the lower lashline. Lastly, I tapped a little of the glitter over Pixie epoxy to give my lower lashline some sparkle.

I think I got quite lucky with this one, no?

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!

 

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!



The Stadium with our mascot Mandeville photobombing!



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





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!

Disney Collaboration with Fierce Nerditude: Rolie Polie Olie

*sings* He’s Rolie Polie Olie, he’s small and smart and roooound…. Aw, what a cute show! I’m so happy to be kicking up the Disney series again, even though it’s getting to be a challenge thinking up characters now. I’ve given Vijaya Remy from Ratatouille to do.

 

Eyes: Lid, yellow from Sleek Circus/Silk Naturals Chequered. Crease/brows, Sleek Storm Palette. Lower lashline, Darling Girl Boy With The Bread. Liner, Inglot matte liner in 79.
Cheeks: MAC Pinch O’ Peach
Lips: MAC Viva Glam V (my lips are a little stained, it’s less pink normally)

 

I was really stumped with what to do for this look. I know I wanted to keep it quite round, but without a colour in the crease it just looked a bit blah. I put wee little gems on, for his little purple blob on his antennae, but I wish I’d had something larger. I still think they look cute though! I’m still testing out a new foundation, which is why I look so dewy -

 

Stay tuned for more Disney goodness!

Neutral Lovin’

Some of the products in this post you’re going to be seeing a lot of as I’m doing a Project 10 Pan, so, sorry! I did a couple of neutral looks this week and I really liked them so I thought I’d share.

Eyes: All Sleek Bohemian
Cheeks: Inglot AMC Cream Blush in 88
Lips: Gosh Darling mixed with Silk Naturals Black Honey

I really liked this look and thought it came across quite striking in real life for a boring neutral look. Really annoyed that my skin didn’t photograph as nicely as it look in real life – absolutely loving the L’Oreal Studio Secrets primer.

Eyes: Shadows all Sleek Bohemian, FashionistA gel liner in Dressed Down Cool.
Cheeks: Darling Girl Sweet Cheeks blush in Sweet Coron
Lips: MUA lipstick in shade 9.

I very rarely wear anything this soft, but I do like it. I wish that MUA would get on and rename all their products so I don’t have to try to describe shade 9 lipstick!

What are your favourite neutral products?

 

Look Dump!

Last week, I tried to make sure I wore a different style of makeup every day as I’ve been in a bit of a rut, and very lazy in the mornings. The photo-taking part didn’t work out so well, but hey!

 

Monday:Colourful.

 

Eyes: Darling Girl Wisteria Cloud on lid, purple from Sleek Bohemian in crease.
Cheeks: Probably Darling Girl Fuji. Lips, probably Silk Natural Pretty Please.

Tuesday: Neutral.

Eyes: FashionistA Gel Liner in Dressed Down Cool. Cheeks, Darling Girl boardwalk. Lips, MUA Nectar.

Wednesday: Smoky.

Eyes: Sleek Sparkle Palette. Cheeks, Beauty Uk Baked Blush in Peaches and Cream. Lips, Inglot Sleeks Cream in.

 

Alright, it’s not that smokey, but hey, it’s dark, that’ll do.

Thursday: Retro

Cheeks: MAC Stereo Rose. Lips, Silk Naturals Bombshell.

Note to self: Silica powder does NOT photograph well, or like my dry skin! Fail.

Friday:Funky.

 

Liner: From Sleek Sparkle, and Collection2000 VaVaVoom. Teal mascara also Collection 2000.

Fail of a look, I couldn’t get a single good photo of my make-up but it looked SO cool in real life!

Saturday I am doing a seperate post on, and Sunday was my Kiara look. So maybe Thursday and Tuesday were a bit too similar, but it felt nice to give myself a challenge!

Lots of liner

Some days I just can’t really be bothered to faff around with primers and bases and blending in the morning, plus I have new eyeshadows that I don’t want to try out until I have the time to do them justice!

 

 

Eyes: Collection 2000 Extreme pen liner in Purple, Sleek Dip It! Glitter Liner in Diablo, MUA Intense Glitter Pencil in Pink Sparkle.
Cheeks: Stila Custom Color blush
Lips: Darling Girl Audrey

Ooooh, hello Grandma face!

 

Eyes: Collection2000 Extreme Liner Pen in Teal, Fyrinnae Electric Stardust, MUA Intense Colour liner in Forest Green.
Cheeks: Stila Custom Colour in Coral
Lip: Evil Shades Deviant Lipstick in Primrose Path

The Collection2000 and the MUA liner are two of my favourite green liners!

 

Eyes: Kiko Shadestick in 10, Ulta gel liner in Ink. MUA Intense Glitter Pencil in Silver Sparkle
Cheeks: Stila Custom Color in Coral
Lips: Silk Naturals Kisser Slick in Nectar

From granny face to ‘slept in a coffin’ face. Sigh.

What are some of your favourite liners? Do you ever skip shadows in favour of funky liner?