Snowy with MUA

Today the snow finally arrived in London and so it seemed approprate to do a very wintery, snowy look. Or two :) So basically what I did was to create something fun on the right side of my face and then a more wearable version of it on the left side using the exact same products.
I used mostly MUA (Makeup Academy) products for this look, it seemed a great way to roadtest them :) MUA is quite a new brand here in the UK and can be found in Superdrug and online.
They sell very affordable but really good quality makeup, brushes, and nail products, so if you are on a budget, it is definitely worth checking them out. They also run promotions on their facebook page and will have a huge offer on their website once they hit 50,000 likes, so if you haven't tried their products, this would be the perfect opportunity to do so :) Anyways, I very much hope you like this look, it really is just about fun :)


MUA products used:
BB cream in Light Shade 1
Pressed Powder in Shade 3
Eyeshadow Palette in Going for Gold (used Shades 2, 4, 10)
Single Eyeshadow in Shade 8 - Pearl
Blusher Shade 1
Pro-Brow Ultimate Eyebrown Kit
Eyelashes - Vixen
Eyeliner in Snow White
Lip Gloss in a really pretty pink, I lost the shade number off it and I can't find it on the website, maybe discontinued or out of stock :(

Other products:
Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer
Max Factor 2000 Calorie Mascara

Fuji Pop

OK, so I said I would be more regular with posts, and see, here I am again :)
This time it's a look inspired by the MakeupGeek eyeshadow, Fuji (can you tell I love this brand?), which is a beautiful, matte, vibrant, cool, light green. I wanted this to be the focal point of the face and so kept everything else a very neutral, warm, matte brown, apart from a very light shimmer in the inner part of the eyes just to brighten them up a little bit. I didn't even use much mascara or falsies, because I didn't want the lashes to distract from the under-eye pop of green. The counterpoint to Fuji is the brows, which I filled in quite strongly compared to how I usually have them, and together they kind of frame the eyes. As usual, I am not happy with the photo quality, it takes away from how beautiful a colour Fuji is, but I promise I will stop complaining about this from now on :)
Other products used are: Cocoa Bear, Vanilla Bean and Shimma Shimma from Makeup Geek, a brown gel liner from Collection 2000, Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse foundation in the colour Sand, Maybelline lip liner in Caramel and a Bourjois lipstick in I-forget-what-colour-but-will-check-later. The beautiful silk scarf I got from my Mum, she brought it back for me from a silk factory in China and I thought it looked fabulous with Fuji, thank you Mum! :) I hope you like this look as much as I do, I had lots of fun doing it. See you soon!

Cinderella Corrupted

After another little break I am back. I have been sick a lot throughout December (2 colds and a norovirus) and wasn't really doing anything but reading... But today I took my time in the afternoon and created this look. It's obviously not one you would wear to the supermarket but would be fantastic for a night out.

It got its name from two of the MakeupGeek eyeshadows I used, one of them is Cinderella, the other is Corrupt, probably the blackest black matte eyeshadow you will ever find. It's amazing.
 

Also in this  look is White Lies from MakeupGeek, Thunder from Sleek Makeup and I used Maybelline 24hr Color Tattoo in Pink Gold as a base for the eyeshadows.

As I was doing this on my humble self, I didn't have a photographer with me, so I had to use our family camera. As usual, the photos didn't turn out the best. Just try and imagine the colours are a bit more intense, would you? :) I hope you like it anyway.

I am planning to be more regular with posts from now on, so watch this space!

Deb

As promised, here comes Deb, Beatrice's friend, who kindly agreed to model for Beatrice's jewellery line. Deb has beautiful, full lips, so I really wanted to do a classic, pin-up-like-red-lip look on her. Here is a before picture, with her hair up.

As you would expect with people who have light hair, Deb's eyebrows weren't very visible, so I gave them some definition. I used an eyebrow powder rather than a pencil, to keep them soft and natural looking. Then her eyes got some contouring for extra dimension and black eyeliner, a really classy look.

I then created quite a sharp edge to the eyeshadow, almost like a cat-eye shape, to give the eyes a little extra 'lift'. Then onto my favourite part, the bright, bright red lips!

A little bronzer for contour, a blush and some mascara, and Deb was ready for photos, with her hair up and with her hair down, sporting Beatrice's canned necklaces.

Here is a before/after just so you can better see. Photos done by talented Christina Parker.

Beatrice

After a long summer break, I am back! Today I am going to share with you a photoshoot I did with Christina Parker. Our model was Beatrice who needed the photos for her new website. Beatrice creates exciting pieces of jewellery by 'upcycling' cans and other materials. You can have a look at her work if you visit Beatrice's Bazaar.

Here is a before picture of Beatrice, you can see she has a beautiful, even skintone and just a couple of problem areas to cover up.

Because she was going to wear silver as well as gold coloured jewellery during the photoshoot, I decided to use an elegant champagne colour on her lids that would complement both and also show off her brown eyes. 

I chose a soft, quite natural colour for her lips and ever so slightly filled in her brows. You can see below in these two photos how the makeup worked with gold and silver accessories alike.

 And finally here is a before/after with the same clothes, background and angle.

I'll see you soon again in my next post when I introduce you Deb, Beatrice's friend who also modelled with her jewellery.

Spring inspired look

I have been wanting to do a spring inspired look for a while and when Makeupgeek announced that their Weekly challenge was going to be exactly that, I just couldn't wait any longer. :)

Spring to me is the almond blossom. I think that's because we used to have two almond trees in our garden when I was a child and when they started to bloom and their scent filled the air, I always knew it was finally spring. And so my inspiration for the look I finally came up with was the almond blossom. I hope you like the pictures, although the colours seemed more vibrant in real life. I think it must be the camera as my dearest husband was trying very hard :) You can find a list of all the products I have used at the bottom of the post.

Products used

Face:
Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse foundation in Sand
Bourjois lipstick in shade 20 (as a blush)

Lips:
Bourjois lipstick in shade 23
Claire's lipgloss in a bright pink, no shade number or name that I could find

Eyes:
Frauleine 38 gel eyeliners (white, peachy pink and pink from a set of eight, used these as bases)
MUG eyeshadow in Cinderella
MUG eyeshadow in Shimma Shimma
MAC eyeshadow in Maira's Mood
MAC eyeshadow in Antiqued
Claire's  Eye glitter palette, dark pink glitter
MUA eyeshadow in Matte (for brows)
Avon SuperFull Mascara

How to make your lips look fuller

Apart from the lucky few who have perfectly pouty, full, sexy lips, we all want to make our lips look fuller, plumper. As we get older, our lips get thinner and a little wrinkly too, they loose that nicely rounded, kissable look they had when we were 20. One sure way to look youger is to make your lips plump. It's not even difficult if you know some basic rules.

One great rule of makeup (and arts, fashion, etc) is the rule of light and shade. I think I will write more extensively on this, but for now, just remember: dark colours and matte finnish make things look smaller and more distant while light colours and shiny finnishes make things 'come closer' and appear bigger. Let's see what this means in terms of your lips. I have taken some pictures to help you see the difference.

Now in this one my lips are completely bare. My lower lips are OK I think but my upper lips are much thinner and also asymmetric (/sighs/). 

When I put a dark shade of lipstick on, you can see my lips instantly appeared smaller. I didn't use a matte lipstick (I don't really have one as I don't find them very flattering really, plus they can make your lips go dry and because mine are almost constantly chipped... well, you understand) but that would have made them look even thinner. Another thing dark lipsticks do is, they command attention. This can be a good or a bad thing, it depends. If your lips are really thin or not very nicely formed, putting a dark lipstick on them will jut emphasize what they lack, so try very neutral lips instead. But if your lips are really pretty, why not draw attention to them? I also have read an article once that said that if you have a strong colour on your lips, it will draw the eye and so people will be looking at your mouth, a really good thing if you are giving a presentation for example, as this way people will pay more attention to what you are saying.

A lighter shade of lipstick will make your lips appear bigger, which you can further emphasize by highlighting the cupid's bow and the middle of your lower lip with a white pencil. A little added shine of a lipgloss just in the middle of the lips and there you go: fuller, plumper, rounder. These kind of lips will nicely complement a neutral eye for a barely there makeup look, or will be perfect with a drammatic eye makeup.


Don't go over the top with lightness, though! Anything too light will just make you look sick and you don't want that. Anything the same shade or lighter than your skin you want to avoid. Apart from making you look sick it also looks like you do not have any lips at all. Definitely not pretty.







If you like dark lipsticks but you also want the plumpness, you can play around a little bit more. Do the highlighting with the white pencil and put the dark lipstick just in the corner of your lips and on the edges. (See first picture below, it looks crazy at this point) Then add a light shade of lipstick in the middle, blend them together and apply a bit of shiny lipgloss just where you put the lighter shade. Instant plumpness :)











I hope you find this usefull, any questions, let me know, plus comments are very welcome :)

Oh, and don't forget to have fun with it! :D

The 'I-am-not-wearing-makeup' makeup

Today I just wanted to do a natural look that can be worn every day and it almost looks like you are not wearing any makeup. But you are of course, it's just the kind that's only there to even out your skintone and to give some dimension to your face. Excuse the crap hairstyle please, I just wanted to get the hair off my face so that it doesn't get in the way.

Before

Scary, eh? :D So this is the before picture, you can see my eyebrows and eyelashes are pretty much invisible, there is a little bit of redness going on in places and having a kid is certainly not the best against dark under-eye circles. 

After

Well, a smile could have made the after picture look a lot better, but you see how the brows and lashes make a lot of difference? I used dark brown eyeshadow on the brows, and on the lashes brown mascara as this gives a much softer look than black. A light layer of foundation (fortunately my skin is OK, I don't have blemishes or scars to hide), subtle contouring, some corrector under the eyes, just a touch of blusher and a natural coloured lipstick, and there you go. Looks like I just had a relaxing holiday. My lips are a bit assymetrical, which can be improved a lot with lipliner but I wanted to keep this very natural looking.

Just one thing. I was using Rimmel Stay Matte foundation for this one, and I have to say I am not a huge fan. It felt very watery somehow when I was applying it and was a bit difficult to blend into the skin. Its coverage was OK for me because I don't really have much to cover but if you do, it is not going to be for you. Also, I didn't find it to have a matte finnish at all despite the name, it really needed the powder on top. Yes, it is very reasonably priced but you could do better with Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse. It's the same price range but it feels really light, blends like a dream and it is matte. Better coverage, too, although still not full, but for every day use I think it works really well for combination skin like mine.

Have a lovely weekend!

What should come next? Let me know! Questions are welcome as always :)

How to remove your eye-makeup

I have asked my friends to send me their makeup dilemmas and one that all of them mentioned was removing their makeup, especially eye-makeup. The problem seems to be that no matter how hard you try, a little bit of mascara always seems to remain as if it was too happy living between your lashes to ever leave. This is especially the case if you use waterproof mascara. And then all that rubbing just leaves your eyes red and sore and makes your lashes fall out. There must be a better way, right? Of course there is.


What to use

There are a number of ways to remove your eye-makeup. You can use special makeup removing wipes that are soaked in makeup remover. Always read the ingredients list. I would advise to avoid any that contains alcohol, and if you have sensitive skin, forget about parfumes as well. Another way is using a cotton pad or cotton ball with makeup remover (again, check for ingredients). And some people even use extra virgin olive oil or other natural oils. This latter one may sound crazy but natural oils are often used in cosmetics, they moisturize and contain a lot of vitamins and nutrients that help make skin and hair soft and shiny. Oil works really well on waterproof makeup, often better than a makeup remover designed for it, and it's also a lot cheaper.

How to remove makeup
 
The most importan thing first: forget about rubbing altogether! It makes your skin go red with irritation and pulls it all around, streching it. The skin of your eyelids is very, very sensitive and delicate and as such, it wrinkles easily. Now tell me who wants to make their eyes go wrinkly before time? I don't. Also, rubbing can and will make your lashes shed. Oh, I know the temptation of trying to get rid of that makeup quickly when you are tired and all you want is your bed, but seriously, it's just not worth it.

Instead of rubbing, place whatever makeup remover you are using onto the makeup and press it on gently. Leave it like that for a few seconds to give it time to dissolve the makeup and then gently wipe the makeup away. Use a generous amount of product (this is something you cannot really manage with the prepared wipes unfortunately) and repeat this step as many times as necessary. If you are having difficulty getting the mascara off from between the lashes, just take a cotton bud (q tip) for precision and use that with your makeup remover product. Once you have your makeup off, wash the makeup remover off your face with clean water or use your face cleanser product. If you are not using waterproof makeup you can make removing it even easier if you gently wash your face with clean water first (if you have a shower or a bath anyway, why not just run some water down your face for a few seconds?). This will start dissolving your makeup preparing it for the remover. Granted, you will not look pretty with dark streaks of makeup on your face but believe me, this simple step works wonders.

I hope this helps, please let me know :)