Smokey eye Tutorial

I have been asked numerous times to do a tutorial of a smokey eye.  I decided to do a simple but effective brown smokey eye. It can be done in about 5 minutes once you get the hang of it. 

Hope you find this helpful.

The Products I have used are Urban Decays Naked palette, Barry M jumbo eye crayon in black and Rimmels Scandaleyes blackest black mascara.

The brushes from left to right are a soft fully blending brush, flat eyeshadow brush, and a small stiff domed blending brush. 

Apply your black eyeliner over your lid up to the socket. As you can see it doesn't need to be neat at all. Any black eyeliner will do.

Using your ring finger smudge the eyeliner up your lid, past the socket. The smudged liner was much darker in real life. However you can use as much or as little eyeliner as you choose.

Using a fluffy blending brush apply a shade close to your skin tone above the crease.
Blend from the inner eye to the outer edge.
This will help blend out the edges of the darker colour on the lid.

Apply a dark brown of your choice all over the lid using your flat shader brush. I used darkhorse from the naked palette. It is up to you how far past your crease (socket) you go.

Next using your domed blending brush, blend the edge of the shadow upward. You can sweep the brush back and forth over the edge gently moving upwards or I like to do small circular motions upward. I feel it blends the harsh edge out better. As said before feel free to blend up as far as you feel comfortable.

Use your eyeliner to line your bottom lash line.

Smudge it out with your finger.

Apply the same brown shade along your lower lash line.

Curl your eyelashes and apply your mascara.

 This is a much darker look in real life but for some reason the lighting I have has washed it out a lot.

If you feel you want a little bit darker then try smudging some black eyeshadow along the lash line.

This is a really easy look to achieve, it's all about blending. Tailor it to your eye shape and what you feel comfortable with. Happy blending 

Brows, brows, brows

My eyebrow routine

I have super pale eyebrows, which until a few years ago never used to bother me, then I saw the photos of me on nights out with a full face of makeup and what looked like forehead that went on for miles. This was all due to my invisible brow hairs. My makeup didn't look completely finished and so I quickly decided to start filling them in.

Hope you find this helpful

 

 

This is my au natural eyebrow

I used a stiff angles brush and a small concealer brush


 

Using my angled brush I outline my eyebrow in a matte brown shadow

 

Using the same brush and shadow, fill in the gap
 



Next using my concealer brush, I line under my brow with concealer (to neaten it up)

Blend the concealer down to get rid of the harsh line

 

Next use a brow gel to set the eyebrow. This can be clear or the same colour as you have filled your brows in with.

The finished brow above.
as you can probably tell there is a dramatic difference in both. This isn't something I do everyday but I love it for a night out. I feel it makes my makeup look finished and frames my face. If you're blessed with shapely well defined brows ignore this. However for us brow less beauties it is a necessity to master.
Please bear in mind that there are many ways to do your eyebrows, with many different gels, cream, wax, powder and pencils to use. This is just the way I do mine, so do whatever makes you comfortable.
Happy Reading

Pale Foundation

When it comes to foundation, I really struggle to find one that is even close to pale enough for my skin. I'm pretty sure I spend most of my time trawling through reviews online and obsessing over what may be the best one for me. High end (or what I consider to be high end) brands seem to have the biggest shade selection. However when there is no where that stocks it in my area for me to test I feel like I am buying blind based on another online swatch. So I decided to give a review on the ones I find have tested and the ones I use.

Ok so it's probably best to start with a picture of my bare face. As you can see I have freckles, red patches and a rather less than perfect nose (not that it makes a difference to foundation). I also have combination skin, oily T-zone and normal to dryish cheek and nostril area. Oh and my biggest bugbear is that my dark circles seem to take a whole lot of product to cover up due to having a pasty complexion.

In each picture below I have foundation on the right half of my face.

Urban Decay Naked liquid Foundation in 0.5

I went to the urban decay counter in debenhams to try this out. It was applied to my face using their kabuki brush. I'd heard mixed reviews but was reassured by the staff at UD that this was oil free and perfect for my skin type. The colour matched perfectly too which was what I was after. I was given a tester pot to take home and try which has lasted me 2 weeks.

Pros

• Perfect match to my skin
• Felt weightless on 
• Buildable coverage
• Once set with powder, looked perfect for about 10 hours

Cons

• Stuck to any bit of dry skin and accentuated it
• Floral smell

Clinique Superbalanced liquid Foundation in Alabaster

I went to the clinique counter in debenhams and  asked for a sample and colour match. This is an oil free foundation that is supposed to moisturise the dry bits and dry the oily bits of your skin. It is also meant to look more natural. I loved this foundation as soon as it was on. I looked naturally flawless, which is what I like. However the problem started as soon as I left the counter, it looked a shade too dark for me in natural light and then about 20 minutes later it oxidised on my skin, leaving me looking an orange streaky mess.

Pros

• Lightweight
• Easy to use and blend
• Balanced my skin perfectly

Cons

• Oxidised making me look orange
• Not a close enough match to my skin tone

Clinique even better liquid foundation in alabaster
I have used this foundation for years and love the fact that it evens out my complexion beautifully. However recently I noticed that I am much paler than I was a few years back (avoiding the sun, I burn like a crisp) so the shade hasn't suited me as well as it used to. It looks good on the face but doesn't quite match up to my neck in natural light.

Pros

• Evens out all redness and patchy skin tone I have
• Blends really well, buildable coverage
• A little goes a very long way
• Looks Natural
• Lasting power is about 8 hours when set with powder

Cons

• Not light enough for really pale skin
• Can make your t-zone look a little oily if not set with powder

Revlon Colorstay liquid foundation in ivory for combination/oily skin

This is my go to foundation for when I need serious coverage and staying power on a night out. It's one of the lightest shades of foundation I have been able to find on the high street. It's only about £13 for a bottle and it covers everything.

Pros

• It has medium to full coverage
• I rarely ever need to use concealer with this foundation.
• Good range of shades
• Lasts for over 12 hours even through sweating

Cons

• Smells like paint 
• sets really quickly so not something you can easily blend out
• Can take a few washes to get off your face

Graftobian HD Glamour creme in bombshell

I have the graftobian glamour creme super palette in my kit for clients. It is really pigmented and looks fantastic in photos. It glides onto the skin and looks flawless. It can be pricey if you don't know which shade to get but you can buy samplers online. They have an amazing range of shades for neutral, cool and warm toned skin. this is a cream foundation.

Pros

• Super creamy and blendable
• A tiny bit goes a long way
• Large range of shades
• Can mix shades together to make the perfect colour for you
• Looks flawless in photos
• Can be sheered down with a damp sponge to look more natural
• Buildable coverage
• Great staying power once set with powder, 10 hours

Cons

• Can be a little unsuitable to really oily skin
• No-where to get colour matched locally
• Have to buy your sample online

These are just some of a handful of foundations that I have reviewed. There are many more out there with a great range of shades for everyone. Out of all of them though I think I would chose the graftobian for day to day and when I know I'm going to be in photos, purely because of the way I can build it or sheer it down depending on how my skin is. I would choose the revlon for a night out time and time again because it covers everything and has serious saying power. For all the liquid foundations I used my real techniques buffing brush and for the graftobian I used my real techniques expert face brush. No primers were used under any of the foundations, just washed and moisturised skin.

If you are in doubt just go to one of the makeup counters in your local department store and ask to be colour matched and for a sample. I do it a lot because when I am spending about £30 on a foundation I want to make sure it meets all my needs, which requires day to day wear. Not a 5 minute trial.

Happy reading

Lacura Beauty Eyeliner review

I tend to do all of my food shopping in Aldi and every now and again I come across their Lacura Beauty Range. I've never been particularly interested before as I had so many eyeliners I forget to use half of them. However I was spurred on by my husband to buy the eyeliners they had so i could do a review and seeing as they were only £1.99 and they only had 2 colours I thought why not.

The picture on the left is what they look like in the original packaging. It was sealed with a plastic wrap (which I took off) and comes with a sharpener too, which is pretty handy for me seeing as I misplace mine pretty much all the time.

The picture on the right is of both unboxed. The colours I bought are smoke and emerald.










I swatched the pencils on my hand which you can see in the picture on the right, the greeny one is emerald which is more of a shimmery moss colour. The other is smoke and that is a shimmery dark grey. The texture of the eyeliners is similar to Urban Decays 24/7 liners. They are really creamy and easy to work with. I used them to do a winged liner a few days ago and both looked the same after 8 hours with no touch up. They didn't look as crisp as with a liquid or gel but overall pretty good going as I have quite oily lids.

As you can Probably tell from the pictures above, the liners are double ended. The pencil part is one side and they have a smudger sponge on the other which is shown in the picture. I really didn't like the smudger, it felt stiff and didn't really smudge all that well. It felt like i was trying to scrape my eyelids off if anything. However that said the liners smoked out really well with a small precision brush. It did take a lot of layering and smoking out and layering again of the liners to get the intensity i wanted but that isn't something that bothered me.



Overall I was really impressed with the quality of the pencils, really creamy texture, easy to use and £1.99 each. They are definitely a must have for any budget shopper or any makeup fan that is just starting out with liners that wants to experiment with a new look.

Makeup brushes and their uses

As this is my first ever blog post. I thought it best to start at the beginning with the tools I use for the looks I create. I'm going to do an overview of the brushes I use and what I use them for. Whilst some brushes are better at doing certain jobs than others, they are all multi-use so don't be afraid to experiment.....

Real Techniques stippling brush
I really like the real techniques brushes, they are affordable and great value. I use this brush when applying liquid or cream foundation. It's really soft and great at buffing the foundation into the skin by using circular motions. It spreads the foundation evenly and so a little goes a long way. But be careful, if you use too much product it can cause it to streak.

 Real Techniques expert face brush
 This is another staple in my collection, it can be used with most foundations but I find it works best for me when using cream. The brush fibers are really densely packed together, however it's still very soft on the skin. This brush also buffs foundation in beautifully. I use it like a flat foundation brush by sweeping foundation across the face and then buffing it in with the top.

 Makeup Geek stippling brush
 This used to be my go to brush for foundation until the real techniques ones came about. It is a much more densely packed stippling brush, it moves foundation around the face better by using circular stippling motions. It's great at building coverage because of the flat top and the size.

 Blush cosmetics large powder brush
 This is from a 30 piece set I had a few years ago. It's really big, super soft and fluffy. I mainly use it for a light dusting of powder to set my foundation, or to give a glow with bronzer. It works well with the bronzing powder because it doesn't pick up too much and has a large surface. 

 Real Techniques contour brush
 This brush is a domed fluffy blending brush, it is the right size for applying a powder contour shade. It picks up product well and makes it easy to blend out harsh lines. I also like to use it (once clean, obviously!) to apply powder highlight.

 Real Techniques setting brush
 When I bought this brush I was surprised at how small it is, however once I used it I realised why this was the case. It's perfect for under the eye when setting concealer.

Real Techniques pointed foundation brush
This brush is tiny! I didn't have the patience to use this as a foundation brush, didn't work well at all. It's quite stiff, however it's great for putting my concealer on under my eyes, which for my dark under eye circles is pretty handy. It packs on product really well.

E.l.f flat top powder brush
I was expecting this one to be like my makeup geek brush, it looked the same on the site when I bought it. Same densely packed bristles, same size and shape. How wrong I was, it's probably more similar to my large powder brush by blush cosmetics. The only difference apart from the flat top is that it can really pack on the powder when you need to seriously set foundation. You can use circular motions for a lighter touch, or for heavier application use it to push the powder onto the skin/foundation.

Obviously I have many more brushes than this but this is a good go to guide for anyone wanting to start their collection. Thanks for reading, please feel free to share this blog with your friends. Be back soon