Glamour Check!

I instagrammed this look ages ago and promised to do a blogpost letting you know what I used.

Tardy, much?

Anyway, i'll cut to the chase ...

It was to be an evening of bar hopping and a quick pub quiz (which we won, hell yeah! Team GB).  I was going for casual attire so I usually go for something a little more glam on the eyes.

Excuse the half stripped walls in the background ...

... and excuse the monkey eyebrows!

EYES: Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in Ebloui as a base. MAC Woodwinked all over lid with Glamour Check! and Twinks defining outer v and under the eye.  Glamour Check! and Twinks are such similar colours you could easily just use one.  Mac Blacktrack fluidline to add a flick and line the waterline and MUFE Smokey lash to finish off.

CHEEKS:  Benefit Hula to bronze and contour.  Mac Springsheen and Illamasqua unrequited mixed together on cheeks. 

LIPS: Hmm, i'm sorry I actually have no idea - I can't remember.  How rubbish am i?! 

A special shout out to skin.  I used Smashbox Studio Skin which has been likened to Mac studio fix fluid.  I don't find the consistency quite as thick and find the colour range a little better in terms of the lighter foundations. (I sometimes find Mac SFF shades too pink or too yellow).  

A little goes a long way with this foundation and piling it on will leave your face hanging by your knees by the end of the day, it's so heavy!  However, a light application gives just the right medium coverage and is easy to blend.  It looks fresh, flawlwess and lasts all day and night.  The only judgement I have yet to make on it is whether or not it photographs well.  This is always the clincher for me.

Now I am off to work out how to make the best of this blog and possibly come up with a better look and name for it.  I feel like I have grown out of Saskia the Style Fairy ... girl feels like a numpty! Any suggestions, you can let me know :) 

x

Nicola Roberts Purple Eyes EOTD (picture heavy)

A few weeks ago I was asked to try and recreate the dramatic smokey purple eyes that Nicola Roberts sported on her documentary: The Truth about Tanning. Did you see it? It was an eye opener into how damaging sunbeds can be - a must see!

Anyway, back to Nicola's eyes ... here are a couple of very dodgy pics of the look. Sorry, I literally took a photo of the screen with my iphone. I'm sure there is a better way but ... ah, here you go ..
I decided to tone down the look ever so slightly as it is quite dramatic and dark on Nicola's eyes and could be overwhelming if you're not used to wearing your eye make up so dark. I'm actually so disappointed at how my camera has picked up the colour as it was much more intense and very similar to what we see in Nicola's pics in real life.
Enough already with the cringeworthy photos!!! Okay okay, so onto how I created the eye. I hate anything too complicated, it's just laborious, time consuming and requires far too much precision when using too many different colours so I stuck to 3 shades to create the look.
I used Bourjois Bleu Lavande and 2 shades from the Sleek Graphite palette. First up was the Bourjois Bleu Lavande, all over the lid. Then I used the dark purple from the Sleek palette (bottom row, last colour) in the outer v, socket and blended right along the crease, I also sweeped this underneath the eye. I then used the shade next to this (bottom row, second last shade) which is slightly darker with a hint of navy to add some depth, again this was blended along the crease, outer v and underneath the eye.

Finally, I used MAC Blacktrack to line the eyes and UD 24/7 liner in zero for the waterline. I added some of the white from the graphite palette to highlight the browbone and added lashings and lashings of mascara.

For the rest of the face, I used Revlon Colourstay in Buff, Bobbi Brown concealer in warm ivory, Nars Laguna to contour, MAC Springsheen blush, MAC Redhead MSF as highlight and Rimmel Foxy lipstick with MACs ample pink as a gloss. In hindsight I would have gone for a peachier look on the lips.

How does this look? Was I close?

x

EOTD - Purple Rain

A night or 2 ago, I was feeling a bit rubbish with having a cold (yet again) and in my pitiful state of boredom I decided to have a play about with my new Sleek Graphite Palette. For as much make up as I own, I rarely have time to just play or mess about with it so it was nice to do so.
For this look, I used my new Sleek Graphite palette (LE) and the Urban Decay Book of Shadows Volume 2.
I started off using Mac Paint in Untitled as a base the applied the purple shade from the Sleek Palette (it's the bottom right corner purple). I applied this all over my lid. I had to really build up the colour with this so it was a case of applying then blending then repeat until I was happy with the colour pay off. In the end I took the colour higher on the lid than normal to add some drama and I also applied the colour under the lower lashline to create a smokey effect.
I then applied the darkest shade from the UD Book of Shadows - Perversion. I only applied a quarter to half way into the eye and really concentrated the colour on the outer v. I then applied the pink shade - Sphynx from this palette to the inner half of the lid and worked out toward the outer v. I then used UD 24/7 liner in zero on my waterline and lightly lined the lid with Mac Fluidline in Blacktrack. Also to highlight the brow bone I added some Mac shadow in Vanilla. I finished the look with YSL Singulier mascara.

I would definitely wear this look with flawless skin and light pink glossy lips for a night out. The overall look was a lot more matte than what I expected from both UD and Sleek shadows but I'd rather there was less shimmer with a look that is dramatic like this.

What dramatic eyes are you favouring? Any tips how I can make this better?

x