Christmas Party Look

Happy Christmas everyone!!!  Hope you're all well.  Well, the saga of my broken camera continues, I've still not got a new one, but I'm also on the look out for one.  Still not decided on whether to get a compact or SLR... decisions, decisions.

Anyway, I've found some photographs I took on my old camera that were already on my computer of me trialling a Christmas party look I was going to wear back in November, so I thought I'd show you all.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to wear the makeup (or my amazing white gold dress that I'd spent two months dieting to make sure I fitted into) as I didn't make it to my Christmas Party.  The party was in Birmingham last Saturday, and if you live anywhere in the Worcestershire area you'll know that the snow caused horrendous problems on the M5 motorway and people were stuck for hours.  We made it about half way up the motorway from Bristol, before turning round and coming straight home.  So I ended up spending my Christmas party evening at home, wearing half of my glamorous makeup and with curled, but not styled hair, sitting on my sofa watching the Strictly final. Hmmmph!

I don't think I'm going to get another opportunity to rock my gold dress over Christmas or New Year.  I've only got a couple of trips to the pub planned, and New Year is usually quite low key for me, so it's back in the wardrobe for another year.

Anyway, here is my trial of my Christmas Party makeup.  I used the Coastal Scents Warm 88 palette to do a silver/gunmetal lid with a gold crease extending upwards.  I also added some Barry M Dazzle Dust (No. 44) on top of the gold, which I think was a bit too much actually, and I would've skipped it for the actual eye look.  For my eyeliner I used a Rimmel Pencil, but I was planning to use Mac gel liner for the actual party look, and I used Chanel Inimitable Intense Mascara, but would've rocked some falsies for the party.

My skin looks horrible in these pictures - I can't remember what foundation I used, but obviously not a great one, and I used Posey by Mac on my cheeks.  For a highlighter, I used Powderflage by Benefit.  This is supposed to be a concealer, but it doesn't conceal anything.  It's a sort of shimmery powder, but not quite shimmery enough for a highlight.  In fact, it's a completely useless product, and I would recommend that you never buy it!

On my lips I used Cream Cup by Mac (which I won from Julie's fab giveaway) with some gloss over the top (I can't remember which one).

I did half of this look on Saturday before we headed out - it took me ages, what a waste of time!

By the way, I took these pictures on the third day after my Brazilian blow dry, so I was itching to wash my hair.  You can just about see some of the highlights I'd had put in my hair in the pictures as well.  The Brazilian blow dry didn't really work on my hair.  It isn't any straighter, and it's still really big and volumnous, and I can't just blow dry it and go.  It does seem to be a bit softer and shinier and less frizzy, but I'm not sure if that is because I bought some Moroccan Oil when I had the blow dry and I've been using that ever since as well.  I am able to leave my hair to dry naturally and wear it as a natural curl, which is great, but I wouldn't do it again!

I've found a few more pictures on my computer, so I'll try and get a few posts up over the Christmas holidays, and hopefully, get a new camera soon (yeah)!

Thanks for reading xx

Halloween Look

Just thought I'd do a quick post showing you my Halloween look I wore last night.  I went on a ghost walk around Bristol and then for a drink.  I didn't dress up and I wasn't in character, but I decided that as Halloween is one of the few times of the year that you can really go wild with hair and makeup, I'd experiment with a creative look.  As ever, my camera washes out the colours - it was much more dramatic in real life, honest!

I'd had my false eyelashes applied earlier from Shu Uemura, so I had to work around them.  First of all I primed my eyes with UDPP.  Then I used a silver base from my Revlon Precious Metals eye quad, and put No. 7 Perfect Eye Mouse in Pewter on top.  For my crease colour, which I extended upwards way beyond my crease, I used Psychodelic Sister from the Urban Decay Book of Shadows III.  In the inner V and to define my crease, I used a black sparkly colour from the Coastal Scents Warm 88 Palette, and a tiny bit of pure black in the very inner V just to add final definition.  I used a white colour from this palette for a highlighter.  Underneath the eye I smudged Rockstar from the UD BOS III.

For my brows, I used a No. 7 pencil.  I thickened and extended my Shu Uemura liner using Mac Blacktrack, used Mac Smoulder on my waterline and put on more mascara (Chanel Inimitable Intense).

Whoops - wonky lip liner!  I did sort it out later!

I used a No. 7 lipstick, but I can't remember the name, with my Illamasqua liner.  I think I used Prestige blusher.

I didn't dress up, but I did wear a leather-look top I bought in the Next sale for £8 - bargain!  I thought I'd rock up my look a bit!

Did you do any special hair and makeup for Halloween?

Thanks for reading! xx

Eye of the Day

Yesterday, I went to my friend’s Cuban-themed party as a revolutionary, wearing a military style outfit, with a camouflage hat.  For my makeup, I thought I’d try out a version of this gunmetal, smoky eyed look that the fabulous Carahamelie03 posted on YouTube this week.  I had to substitute some of the products and adapted it slightly to try to get a more military toned look, whilst introducing some bronzy colours to the rest of my face.  I wasn’t very pleased with how it turned out initially, as I found it difficult to stop the colours getting too muddy, but actually after looking at my photos, I think it looks quite good – let me know if you agree!

I first of all primed my eyes with Urban Decay Primer Potion.  I then used the lightest colour from the Revlon Illuminence Creme Shadow palette in Wild Orchids as a base, all over my lids.  I followed this with Shale by MAC, again all over my lids and into the crease, bringing it up at the outer corner, as Carah suggests.  For a highlighter, I used a yellowy, sparkly colour from the Coastal Scents Warm 88 palette under my brow bone and in the inner corner.

Lightest shade of Revlon Illuminance Creme Shadow on the left

I used Smoulder by Mac as a thick messy liner on my top lash line, waterline and under my lower lashes, which I smudged using a pencil brush both under and over my lashes.  Using the same pencil brush, I used a sparkly olive green colour from the Coastal Scents palette over the top of the smudged black liner, bringing it up towards the crease at the outer third of my eye, as well as just under my lower lashes.  This was the bit I had a lot of trouble with – I thought that it looked quite muddy, and found the shadow quite difficult to blend.

L - R, Revlon Creme Shadow, Shale, Coastal Scent Highlighter, CS Green

For a liner, I used the MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack, applied with the 210 MAC brush.  I decided not to go for falsies, but used Prestige My Biggest Lashes as mascara.  I used the 17 eyebrow pencil in natural brow for my brows.

On my face I used Elf bronzer in Warm and Elf blusher in Mellow Mauve.  I opted for Thrills from MAC’s To The Beach collection on my lips.  This is a fantastic orange toned red shot through with shimmer and I love it!  It’s still available on the MAC website under goodbyes, and I thoroughly recommend it!

Warm Bronzer and Mellow Mauve Blush

Thrills by MAC

Thanks for reading x