Two Toned & Glossy Eye'd!

Today I wanted a two tone lip (again) and glossy eyed look.

To keep the focus on these I went for matte skin which is never easy with my oil slick of a face.
After using Illamasqua's Matt Primer I blotted any extra moisture away, applied concealer then dusted my face with MAC's Studio Fix powder foundation.

To create the two toned lip, I used my favourite red lip pencil. It's called Poppy but it's so faded I can't see the brand anymore - it's the perfect brick red/orange colour though. I filled my lips with the pencil but left out the middle where I wanted to pat the different colour. I went over the red pencil with Estee Lauder's Fire red lipstick and then, using a MAC 219 blending brush I patted Barry M's 129 light purple lipstick into the middle of my lips. I went over that with a sparkly pink lippy I brought a while ago called Crystal Gloss by Collection and blended the edges into the red.

To create a glossy eye I washed Illamasqua's Furore pigment all over my lids and blended Heroine into the socket. I also washed Fervent, a shimmery reddish brown eyeshadow, lightly over my brow bone and under my eyes, lined my top lashes with my MAC Smolder black kohl pencil, curled my lashes and coated them with two coats of black mascara.

I've started using dark brown mascara on my bottom lashes when I'm doing a more natural look on my eyes. It's a tip I read in Kevin Aucoin's brilliant book, Face Forward.

To finish my eyes I dipped my eyeshadow brush into Vaseline then into the Furore pigment and ran it over my lids to make them more glossy. This has to be the last thing you do as it creases very quickly but i think it looks cool. I used to use just Vaseline on my eyes sometimes when I was younger, then you don't have to worry about the creasing and you get a nice healthy shine.

And that's it for me in #TheRedLippyWeek. I've had a blast and learnt a lot about my products an how they work with each other - which is one of the main reasons I love creating looks for this blog.

Image courtesy of Image courtesy of http://www.kiransingh.co.uk/charity/New_Picture_2.png

Liner look of the day...

This season saw loads of fun coloured eye shadow and liners on the catwalks from blue to neon pink.

Image courtesy of http://cocosteaparty.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/coloured-eyeliner.png

Image courtesy of https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLBfdJ1FU8Mlplzq7Xi6Uy35kKfUMX7dCY3H7bRuLcEFy5LdxdIpQmMusfyKTnlYh8ezjBzSFeJUFqlDaM25NKi5h8ff3Vf54NV0t7RjOzhQQbxOY6ZMmepAVPMAqFzceiuxUuWze26VEV/s640/moschino+cheap+and+chic+spring+summer+2013+make+up.jpg 

For my look of the day, I decided to create a look using Havoc eyeliner from Illamasqua. It's a dark, plummy, aubergine colour perfect for brown/ hazel/green eye'd girls and very wearable. Keeping the rest of the make up natural keeps the focus on the eyes.

I think this is a great way of wearing a different coloured eyeliner and updating your look without screaming 'look at me, I'm wearing bright colours on my face!!'. 

Here's an easy way to buy into the coloured eyeliner trend, without actually buying a new coloured eyeliner - wet a fine/ angled brush and dip it into a coloured eyeshadow that you already have for a homemade liquid liner.

Alternatively, if you already have coloured pencils why not try using one of those and then smudge a similar or even more vibrant colour over the top. This will set the pencil line, holding it in place and make the colour pop.

I did a blue eyeliner look using eyeshadow & a wet brush a few weeks ago, click here to take a look.

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Speckled Eyeliner

As promised, yesterday I gave Illamasqua's speckled eyeliner a go...

I used Illamasqua's liquid eyeliner in Abyss to create a thick eyeliner flick.  I absolutely love this eyeliner and the brush is so easy to work with.  To create the speckles, I added a drop of Sealing Gel to my Intrigue blusher and dotted it onto the black liner.  For the version I have posted here I varied the size of the speckles per Alex Box's gorgeous version.  Mine obviously doesn't compare but with a bit more practice I could certainly have it looking a lot better.

As the day went on I decided to redo the speckles and add white dots over the liner which looked really cool and i'm definitely going to do again.  I got loads of compliments and it was a great conversation starter. I didn't get any pictures of my dotty eyeliner unfortunately but will post a pic as and when I do it again.

On my lips I used Illamasqua's medium pencil in Manic.  It's a matte finish but SO creamy and very highly pigmented so I didn't need to apply anything over the top.  Great staying power too - I had dinner and it had barely budged at all!

I love the look of the black and white eyeliner and it's so easy to do.  If you're unhappy with the white dots you can gover over with black eyeliner and redo them very quickly.  I would definitely recommend this as an easy and fun alternative to classic black liner. 

Blimey, how time flies when you're a professional make-up artist!

Yes that's right folks, I passed my course and am now an MUA - hell yeah!  Need to get loads of practice in before I head out into the world making up the great British public though so if you're in the Croydon area and fancy a free make-over look me up!

The entire course was such a journey for me.  I made some great friends and learnt SO much!  Not just about application but products, brands, loads of phenomenal artists and photographers and about the industry in general.

I had a fabulous time, though I had a couple of tearful wobbles along the way.  I struggled mostly with timing annoyingly, as we were always given time limits but this meant a lot of the time I didn't get to finish the make-up, hence why I want to practice-practice-practice before launching myself professionally.

Here are a few more of my favourite pics from the course and a couple since.  If you have any questions about the products used, feel free to get in touch. 

Pigment day!  On this day Aga did a great tutorial in the AM, showing us a natural look on one side of Festina's gorgeous face and an explosion of colourful pigments on the other.  

She looked so awesome, and got a few stares on her lunch break too!  We then had a go with the pigments ourselves in the afternoon and at the bottom you'll see my look on Maria-Carmen.  I ran out of time (as usual) but I think she looked great.

How cool are the below images?!  Nicci wanted to show us two different glowing skin applications.  If you click into the images you'll see how gorgeous Maira (top pic) & Hannah's (bottom pic) skin looks.

Below are a few more of my favourite looks that I created on the  course though I never managed to get round to finishing Hannah's (top and bottom) looks.  Both obviously need some blush and mascara but I think the colours look really pretty on her.

Some practice on my sisters before our photoshoot day.  Clio (on the left) was made up with a fresh, dewy application for my beauty look and Perdy (on the right) got the fashion look.  Finally i managed to get the looks done in the 45mins, hurrah!

And here are a couple looks I've done since the course.  Mostly i've been concentrating on perfecting my eyeliner technique (please excuse my dark circles, I didn't bother with a base but probably should have!).  There is also a pretty, green smokey eye look and Manuela was my model for the orange lips which i think look perfect on her warm, Italian skin.