The Wonder of Sugar Skulls - A Totally Late, Somewhat Irrelevant Make Up Look

A couple of years ago I discovered the wonders of the sugar skulls. These amazing full face make up looks with a simple base look - that of a skull - and various designs and embellishments. All you need to do is google the term 'sugar skull make up' to get a plethora of incredible looks. Needless to say I was instantly inspired. So now, every Halloween - or Día de Muertos - I paint my face like a bright, beautiful skull.

This Blue Skull was the first I ever did. Blue is one of my favourite colours, and seemed suitably dark for a skull, so I chose to use it as my main theme. I started very simply, with only a little sparkle, and a very simple forehead design. This look was heavily inspired by the first google image I saw. I've branched out a little since then.

I believe I did this look a week after the Blue Skull. This incredibly creatively named Red Skull was my first try at branching out a little. I chose a different main colour and decided the design of hearts would give a cool effect. I promise you the little red sparkles surrounding my eyes were supposed to be hearts. Rather than having the petals surrounding the deep pits posing as my eyes, I decided to blend out the black with the red, creating an all around softer (more romantic?) look.

I did this look a year ago and am rather fond of it. Halloween is irrevocably tied up with Autumn and I felt that would be a rather lovely theme for a Sugar Skull. Autumn in a picture for me would be a golden leaved tree, so I used this in my look. Rather than the traditional petals surrounding the eyes, I decided to use Autumn leaves. And then I couldn't resist but to add some rhinestones, because, well, I really love rhinestones. The rest of this look is rather minimalist, which I feel works well (I could have been lazy, however).

And lastly we have the Jewelled Skull that I currently have on my face. I just wanted something utterly opulent. In the past I've done skulls with fairly natural themes, this year I wanted something utterly artificial. I also felt like playing around with doing full fledged teeth, rather than the simpler plain lines that look like stitches. For the actual skull features, I put in a little more effort, actually following the look of a skull, with the more prominent cheekbones and deeper temples. And more rhinestones, of course.

 As a little touch of advice for doing a look like this, an eye-liner pen is a massive help. I generally dislike eye-liner pens, they tend to be more grey than black, I can never get the sharp point I want, they dry out so quickly and in my experience, they really don't hug the lash line (I've tried three different brands and been heavily disappointed with all of them). Regardless, they're really great for this kind of look. You don't need too precise lines, but you want something a little more precise than a pencil (I realise a pencil can be precise, but it's a massive friggen pain). I've found liquid liner and gel liner a bit awkward too. Pen liners just make it so easy. I use the pen to sketch out the lines, I then fill it in with a pencil liner (typically a Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil, I use Black Bean), I then set this with a black eye shadow. Parfait.

Reworking Cheap False Lashes - For When The Student Loan Is Dwindling (Or You Feel Like Being Money Savvy)

So, cheap stuff is great, right? I mean, yeah it is. Being a student, money is always a problem, so being thrifty is important. I don't know that buying false lashes constitutes as thrifty, but I'll leave that up to you. I just can't not buy a pair of lashes that cost £1 (of which the Sultry and the black and purple lashes are), or in the case of the spotty lashes, not buy lashes that are that cool looking (hot damn). Lashes are typically around £5, which is fine, as, if you take care of them, they can last a good long while. And you do get what you pay for (in most cases). Mac lashes are £10 because they tend to be real hair, have light, almost invisible bands that are comfortable and look darn good. Now, you're not going to get this with £1 lashes, it's not gonna happen. The likelihood is that they will be synthetic, the band tough and uncomfortable and the shape just all wrong. And this is where this blog post comes in. Let me guide you sweet children.

 The Sultry Lashes are £1 at Primark, the Festival Lashes are £2 at Primark and the Black Eyelashes are £1 at Sainsbury's (Halloween is my darling).

 For these little improvements, you will simply needed some nail scissors (not the curved ones, that will only bring you pain) and a spooly to comb the lashes through at the end.

Also I recommend something to catch all the waste. As you can see, it is more than a little bit messy.

Firstly we have the Sultry Lashes, these are simple, light, but sort of really dull. And the edges are pokey, like, it hurt to wear these initially.

They add a little length and a little thickness, nothing dramatic.

My main issue is that they are a consistent length throughout, I prefer variation.

Start with trimming the lashes to fit your eyes. I always like going a little shorter than needed, as I prefer the inner edge to start a little way back from the inner corner - sort of just before the iris starts. Always cut from the outer edge - it's like false lashes 101 - mainly because you want the inner corner to be short and cutting it away will only leave longer strands.

I cut away two sprigs, as it were, of the lashes, leaving a more comfortable fit for my eyes.

I started by trimming the inner corners down, cutting the hairs into a v shape pointing upwards (as the picture shows, as I'm feeling my description is not all that helpful).

I then cut these same upward facing v's into the rest of the lashes, aiming to have it longer at the outer edge. This didn't really go to plan, so I made it more or a curved shape, just with added texture. To add the texture, I used the scissors perpendicular to the band, snipping swiftly and moderately randomly across the length. Sort of how a hair dresser stops the ends of your hair looking like a straight line. Be careful with this, less is more, as these lashes ended shorter than I initially intended. Alternative advice would be just to trim down the inner corner, to make it fit more easily with your own lashes.

To finish, comb through the lashes with a spooly to dislodge all the excess little hairs that have been chopped off.

The finished result.

 An all together more natural look. Although I wish I'd kept the outer edges a little longer.

These lashes would be great for everyday because they are so light and so subtle.

 Next up are these wonders from Sainsbury's. They're part of the Halloween stock, so they'll not be around for ever. It also means they are not the best.

 The band is thick, so to wear them effectively it's best to bend the lashes into a curve before applying them.

 Now, whilst these lashes are great, they are altogether too long for me to ever wear them. To the trimming!

 Again, start with trimming the outer edge to make the lashes fit you eyes. I cut off two bars of colour. (I promise this is the outer corner, the other lash did not have that skinny bit of black at the end).

 I forgot to take a photo of how much was cut off before I did the trimming. Sneak peak.

 Now, this is going to look waaaayyyy to short, I promise you it is not. These lashes are really long, so I needed to cut off a lot to make them wearable. Do the same action of cutting perpendicular to the band to create the v shape (I'm a fan of spiky lashes).

I wanted to keep the look of the original lashes by keeping the black bands shorter than the purple. I cut each section into a v, leaving the purple sections longer, but still having a graduation of length along the lashes.

 And the final result.

 The hairs are a lot thicker than the typical lashes (being cheap and synthetic and all), so these will never look natural, but I have a feeling that's not the look you would be going for anyway.

 I rather like how these lashes came out, I might even wear them on Halloween.

 And finally these beauties from Primark. They're a little pricier at £2, but I can manage because of all the pretty. Being feathers, they're soft, but delicate, so no tugging! I pulled a feather out, but lash glue repaired it swiftly and easily.

 Stupendous.

 The difficulties with these lashes is that they are so long I couldn't see the band to place it in the right place. The band is soft, however.

 To make the job of applying a little easier I trimmed a little off each end. Because of feathers being what they are, I could trim off quite a lot and not change the look of the lashes.

 See?

And these lashes are so pretty they need no other change.

And now to bed with me, it's 2:40 in the morning.

Teeny Tiny Illamasqua Haul - My Friends Are Great At Gift Giving

So, a couple of days ago it was my 20th Birthday. Despite lamenting the fact that I can no longer revel in my own teenage angst, I had a wonderful day. I had lunch with my friends in my favourite pub in London (The Alice House in West Hampstead), and then had incredible cocktails in Freud Bar, which is just so goddamned hip (one tasted like an alcoholic chocolate milkshake. So. On. Board.)

Now, what is a Birthday without presents? Disappointing, is what it is. Anyway, I got some damn fine make up from my amazing lady friends and here it is.

The Nail Polish is called Melange and the Cream Eye Shadow is called Bibelot.

 The formula of this nail polish makes my heat soar. It's well pigmented, so one coat can be enough, I just prefer to have two (there are two coats in the photo). The glitter in the polish means that, despite the texture of my nails, it still looks hella good. I've had one coat on for a couple of days and there have been no chips, so I'm feeling real good about this polish. It's quite low maintenance as nail polishes go, and that's the fastest way to my heart. Also, the colour, I'm all about this colour.

Next up is this pretty little pot of deliciousness (not that I'm suggesting you eat it, that would be gross). The lid is a rose gold and is just so damn stylish and the packaging has some weight to it, which is nice. This lady is not going to break. The colour is gorgeous, and very autumnal, which is great. The texture is much like other cream products I own, where it's quite firm until you move your finger across the surface, where you can pick up product. It's not too liquid-y, which is nice. I hate it when you stick your finger in a product and it's creamier than you think and your whole finger just plunges into the product. Not cool.

On the left the colour if blended (not very well, sorry), on the right is a single swipe from a finger. The pigmentation is good, the glitter shows really nicely, even when blended and it has good wearing power (getting the swatch off my hand was a bitch). I wore this product (set with an eye shadow) on a night out where I was dancing for hours in a hot, sweaty room and not even a crease was found. Beauty.

Bird Makeup - Utilising Crazy False Lashes With Even Crazier Makeup

So I recently wrote a blog post about a Nyx haul I did, and in that haul was this handsome pair of lashes with red feathers sprouting from their outer corners. Thus, this look was born.

I recently saw a showing of a performance of The Tempest at The Globe (the original performance being at the Globe, I saw a recording of it at a cinema, where it was so nice not to have to stand throughout the entire three hours). In this performance the actor who played Ariel had this really cool makeup on, which was a wash of red extending from his eyes towards his temples. I was inspired. So with this in mind and these beautiful lashes, I came up with this look.

 All the shadows I used are Inglot. The red is shade 382, the yellow is 343, the white is 373, the peach on the lid is 612 and the dark purple in the crease is 452. On the lips I used No 7 Lip Pencil in Fire, with Rimmel Kate Moss Lipstick in 01 over that, followed by Barry M Lip Gloss in Valentines. On my skin I used a mix of Bourjois 123 Perfect Foundation in Light Vanilla and Stargazer White Foundation. I blended the red eye shadow into my cheeks as a blush, used Sleek Contouring and Blush Palette to contour and used MUA Pink Shimmer Highlighter on my cheekbones, nose, cupids bow, chin and forehead. 

 For my brows I put Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk on to a spooley and pulled it through the hairs. I also used Milk on my waterline and inner corner. I used Bourjois Liquid Liner for a Cat eye to better blend in the lashes. The lashes are, of course, Nyx Super Power. I also used Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in Yellow as a base for the yellow shadow.

Et Voila!

Haul Of All Sorts - Literally No Excuse For This One, I Have A Problem

I've been popping up and down to London like nobody's business these past few weeks house hunting (which is a soul sucking experience). This has given me the excuse to be around well stocked Boots and Superdrug stores (I shop to forget). And, well, you get the idea. I bought some things and thus far I'm loving all of them.

From Left: Real Techniques Stippling Brush; Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge; MUA Lipstick in Shade 1; Seventeen Rock Hard Nail Effects in Blue; Seventeen Rock Hard Couture Nail Effects in Charm Bracelet; MUA Undress Your Skin Shimmer Highlighter in Pink Shimmer.

 Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge: 

This sponge is just so God damned brilliant. It just makes foundation and concealer look like I've always wanted it to look. Smooth. No unfortunate thick patches of colour, or streaks. This just blends it all away, baby. I wish I'd bought this sooner. The shape is great for doing different areas of the face, like I use the point for under my eyes and around the nose and the flat section for the rest of my face. I use this to blend in concealer and to blend foundation after it has been applied.

Real Techniques Stippling Brush: 

Again, I love this brush. I've a few Real Techniques brushes already in my collection and not a one has disappointed me. The bristles are wonderfully soft, the handles nice to hold and I'm rather in love with the different colours. I have a friend who needs all her brushes to be black with a silver ferrule - like Mac brushes. I, on the other hand, rather like the hodge podge of colours that my collection is. 

 The sparse bristles at the top allow a nice light, even coverage, and boy does it deliver. My face is looking pristine with this brush coupled with the sponge.

 MUA Undress Your Skin Shimmer Highlighter in Pink Shimmer: 

I'm an avid watcher of Nikkie Tutorials on YouTube and she has recently been recommending this highlighter. Now, seeing as this is MUA and therefore hella cheap, I made it a goal to purchase this.

 Seeing as I own a total of two highlighters, this seemed like a good investment to me. I have a liquid highlighter that is very gold toned, and a powder highlighter that is also gold toned, but to a lesser degree. So having a colder, pink based highlighter seemed like a good idea. The packaging isn't the best quality, but I think it looks good and it will hold together.

On the left is the highlighter blended out and on the right it is a single swipe of my finger. So it has good pigmentation, and the shimmer is just darn pretty. Which is all I really want out of a highlighter.

 MUA Lipstick in Shade 1:

This is another product recommended by Nikkie Tutorials. She recently did a review on her blog of MUA lipsticks, two were disappointing, this one was not. And she's right, cos this Lipstick is great. The best bit? It cost £1. The packaging isn't the prettiest I have, but it's functional, and I like the colour being at the bottom (it's actually functioning lipstick too!).

The colour applied like a dream boat. Smooth and pigmented in one swipe. The colour's also just great. Because who doesn't like a nice, rich red? The wearability is also pretty great, considering I wore it on a night out and I only had to reapply once. If your lipstick's still intact at four in the morning, it's a keeper.

 Seventeen Rock Hard Couture Nail Effects in Charm Bracelet and Seventeen Rock Hard Nail Effects in Blue:

 Now a friend of mine has been wearing Charm Bracelet for about two months now and every time I see it, I want it. I mean, just look at it. So I finally found it in a Boots and snapped it up. The colour does not disappoint (for both of them). I have been doing two coats, but one is perfectly acceptable, especially for Charm Bracelet. Also, being the formula that it is, it dries in no time and doesn't smudge, which makes me so happy.

These have both had two coats of colour.

Now here's the crux, these chip like little bitches. Like, I will have at least three nails chipped at the end of each day. I tried applying top coat, no dice. The only consolation is that it dries so quickly that fixing the manicure is a breeze. Also, the texture enables that even with many patch ups, the nails still look nice. So, this has been the longest manicure I have in a while, and that says something.

Emmeline out.