Natural Contoured Face

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of posts again lately! I just did a really great photoshoot a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully I'll be able to show you the photos soon. I've also just started college this week, so when I start doing some looks, I can show you those too. Hopefully this new routine will enable me to get more content up for you. Please let me know if there's anything specific you want to see on here.

Onto today's look. At the weekend, I'm doing a make-up for a photoshoot outdoors, with a natural feel. I tested out the look on myself, using cream foundation to contour, focusing on the cheekbones, with a healthy, glowy feel overall.

To begin, I started with moisturised skin, and applied a medium coverage foundation, using a sponge to blend. I used Boots No7 Stay Perfect Foundation, in the shade Calico. I used a cream concealer to cover any blemishes, and to conceal darkness under the eyes. I used Bourjois Healthy Mix Concealer, buffing it in with a fluffy brush.

For my contour, I used cream foundation. I find this the most natural looking and easy to blend product for contouring. I use my foundation palette that came in my college kit. This is a professional product, and not really suitable for everyday use. You could use a light bronzer, particularly if you can find a cream texture product, which will be easier to use. Apply in a line from the hairline, along the cheekbone, going no further in than the centre of your eye. I also blended the darker colour into the socket of the eye to give depth. Make sure to blend well: you don't want a brown line on your face!

On the cheeks, I used a stippling brush to apply a cream blusher high on the cheeks to give a natural flush.

I then powdered lightly, patting the powder on gently, so as not to disturb the foundation. I then highlighted the face using Barbara Daly Light Illusion Powder Highlighter from Tesco. I brushed this onto the top of the cheekbones, browbone, and onto the inner corner of the eye.

I lightly filled in my brows with a light, cool toned brown, and using a flat eyeliner brush, pushed a dark brown shadow against the lashline. I applied a light coat of mascara, and finished with a clear lipgloss.

This is a perfect look for daytime, or as a natural bridal look. In real life, the contour is more dramatic, but it works well for photography. Hope you like it, and found some of it useful!

Geek Chic Cosmetics: All the Rage and The Pointy End - Swatches & Review

Hi guys! I finally have a little bit of time on my hands to do some proper blog posts! Today I've got some swatches of eyeshadows from Geek Chic Cosmetics. I've never tried anything from them before, and I've been pleasantly surprised!

I ordered samples of All the Rage (from the 10 Man Raid collection) and The Pointy End (from the Win or Die collection). I had to try a Game of Thrones shadow! Here they are:

I swatched them over Too Faced Shadow Insurance.


All the Rage

Swatches & Review: Soap & Glory Lid Stuff in What's Nude

I've got some swatches of a really nice palette for you today, Soap & Glory's Lid Stuff quad in What's Nude.

This is a really nice palette for everyday/wearable looks, and one thing I especially like is that 3 out of the 4 shades are matte. This makes them more office appropriate for most people, and won't draw attention to any lines and wrinkles around the eye area.

The four colours are Vanilla; a matte creamy highlight shade, Pink T; a matte pinky beige slightly darker than my skintone, Mudhoney; a matte medium greyish brown, and Aubersheen; a shimmery/sheeny taupey brown.

Swatches from L-R: Vanilla, Pink T, Mudhoney, Aubersheen.

The shadows all have a really nice texture and are very pigmented. The mattes are nice and soft and blend fairly easily, something which you don't often find in cheaper/drugstore brand eyeshadows. Mudhoney would work as a subtle eyeliner, but I would perhaps have preferred a darker brown for this use. However you could use this as an eyebrow powder or in the crease, so you have a few options.

Overall I think this is a really nice product and I would definitely try more Soap & Glory makeup products. Lid Stuff retails at £10 and is available from Boots.

FOTD: Naked Palette

The Urban Decay Naked palette is, admittedly, not something I reach for all that often. I find most of the colours too warm for me, and the textures are a little soft so they drop all over your face. Anyway, I was feeling summery recently so I fancied the golden tones in the palette.

I tried to make my skin look better in the full-face picture, but unfortunately I'm suffering from a bout of acne at the moment, and have a big scar above my lip I couldn't really photoshop out (with my limited skills!) Anyway, here's what I used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Urban Decay Naked Palette - Half Baked (lid), Smog (crease), Virgin (inner corner and brow highlight), Darkhorse (upper lashline)
Sleek Curacao Palette -Blue Hawaiian (lower lashline), Blue Lagoon (waterline), Martini (inner corner)

Cheeks: Fyrinnae Enchant blush, Primark Shimmer Blush Hearts, Accessorize Bronzer in Monaco

My earrings I got for Christmas from my sister and I love them! They're from Tribal Style on etsy I believe. Also, you can just see the ends of my hair where I had a dye-job disaster and they turned green. Derp.

Hope you are all well :)

Eyes of the Day - Everyday Neutral

Hey everyone, this is just a quick simple look I did a few days ago. I noticed a lot of people liked the Mac post so this look incorporates some of the few Mac shadows I own. This is one of my fave combos for when I want to look made-up but quite natural. It's the sort of thing I would wear to an interview or something.

 I tried to edit the colour balance to show the colours as they truly are, but it still turned out more purple than they really are.

I used:

UDPP
MAC Malt - lid
Sue Moxley silvery taupe (sorry I don't know the shade number!)- crease
MAC Embark - along upper lashline
mascara

Hope you like it. I have some of the beauty uk pearl eyeliners and a lipstick from the new range if anyone would like to see a review of those. Let me know.

Makeup Looks: Bright and Neutral

Just thought I'd post a couple of makeup looks since I haven't posted one for a while! I took these pictures for going out last night and Friday night while just about to leave the house, so they aren't the best.

The first one was inspired by a few pictures I'd seen using orange pink and gold, so naturally I used Sugarpill :)

For this look I used:

Urban Decay Primer Potion
Sugarpill Dollipop, Buttercupcake and Flamepoint on the lid.
Goldilux loose eyeshadow wet on the lower lashline.

This one was inspired by Robyn of Stay Beautiful; she did a look using Fyrinnae Damn Paladins with MUA 12 that I had to copy! I think the combo looks super sexy :)

I used:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Damn Paladins
MUA shade 12
MAC Blue Brown pigment to intensify the outer corner.

Hope you like it!

Fyrinnae Swatches Part 1: Neutrals

Let me start by saying I love Fyrinnae. They are a great company, especially for one run by only a couple of people. I've always had great customer service from them, they are really friendly and helpful, and shipping is cheap and reasonably fast for international orders. Everything comes securely packaged in pretty paper and they have always included free samples in my orders.

Hopefully I will eventually swatch all the colours I have from them, but I will start with the neutrals I have and what I think of them.

Taken in sunlight, no flash. All swatches over Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy.

Nijiro is much more sparkly than it looks here: a nice pearly cream/white with multicoloured sparkles. Not chunky glittery though; a nice highlight colour.

Platinum is also more sparkly than it looks here.

Damn Paladins is a taupey grey with a blue shimmer/duochrome. I love this one.

Taken with indoor lighting. Shows Selkie Skin's blue shimmer. Not as strong a duochrome as Damn Paladins though.

Natural light.

Artificial light.

Mirrors isn't brown like it looks here, but slate grey. You can see the colour shift in Feline Familiars well in these, as it's part of the Arcane Magic collection it looks different depending on the light.

My favourite picks: Damn Paladins, Nijiro, Newcastle, Equality. Everything available on http://www.fyrinnae.com/