New Video: Summer Makeup Tutorial for Acne

It has been longer than I'd care to admit but a new video has just landed freshly from the bakery of my imagination!

It's a very simple makeup tutorial for the summertime, here I'm using a BB cream which I never really got on board with until now. This one has salicylic acid which was the primary reason that I got it. I can't say that I've noticed it helping my skin, but similarly, I haven't noticed it breaking me out either.

 The standard before shot, the main problematic areas are uneven texture and redness around the chin, by the temples and the forehead.

 As a BB cream it hasn't done a bad job of concealing most of the problems, but I of course had some help from my best friend concealer! I use the heavy stuff by Kryolan that comes in a colour wheel.

Eyeshadow courtesy of the Naked 3 palette by Urban Decay!
For step by step, keep watching:

Bridesmaid and Bridal Lip Colours for Summer Weddings

I have just been one of three bridesmaids for my sisters beautiful wedding, a hot topic among us different coloured bridesmaids was an appropriate lip colour for the occasion that would suit us all. My coloring is fair, bridesmaid #2 is also fair but with even paler skin than my own and slightly darker hair, whereas bridesmaid #3 has very dark hair, chocolate button eyes and fair skin.

We decided that it wasn't necessary to look like complete clones of each other when it came to lip colour and it would be better that we tailored our colours to ourselves to look good, rather than a 'one size fits all' that would look 'okay'

For us, red lips and dark lips were a straight up no no...
This is the products we chose from instead, like a lucky dip for lips!

 Here is my artistic angle of the lip products in their tubes, which to be frank is a bit misleading to the colours inside, so I've done a little swatch down here for you too so that you can follow.

The swatches are in the same order as the lip colours in their tubes above
From left to right:
Revlon Just Bitten Balm stain in Honey
MAC lipstick in Lovelorn (what I wore on the day)
Maybelline lipstick in Ultimate Blush
Bare Escentuals Buxom gloss in Kanini
Estee Lauder Pure Colour Lipstick in Crystal Baby
Estee Lauder Pure Colour Lipstick in Pinkberry

The favorites were the Estee Lauders which are truly creamy beautiful colours that are perfect to layer under a gloss. I hand chose these lip colours for their 'Your lips but better' properties that didn't make the lips striking, but made them a wonderful compliment to the rest of the face. The image of 'you but better' is exactly what a bride wants, not to look like a totally different person, but to look like a better version of themselves!

Cheers to kissable lip colours!

Maid of Honour Makeup - Summer Wedding!

I did a few 'practices' of makeup for my sisters wedding this month, which I think is a good idea. I recommend taking a picture too to check that you like how it looks under flash photography. After all, pictures will be the only reminder left of the day so you want to look hawt!

My first trial looked something like this:

I knew that I wanted a very neutral eye and a pinky lip, I ended up using just two eyeshadows, Shroom all over the eyelid and up to the brow bone, and then Folie very gently added to the crease. Then I used a brown eyeliner on the water line for the outer half, and a white eyeliner on the inner half of the waterline. Of course mascara too. On my lips I'm wearing Revlon Lip balm pencil in shade Honey. At this point blusher etc was miscellaneous, and I can see here that my foundation is too light under photography flashes in comparison to my neck.

Here I've made a few revisions! I've got highlighting powder on, eye products are virtually the same and the lipstick I changed to Lovelorn by Mac which I prefer! I think that it gave a more 'pretty' look and made my eyes pop a little more!

The end result is something I'll create a makeup tutorial for you guys to follow, I was wearing a hell of a lot of makeup, but it stayed all day and disguised my blemished skin.
For now, I present to you the pdf that I created for the bridesmaids to follow:

New Video: Bad to the Bronze Makeup Tutorial

I've had both good and bad things to say about the beloved Color Tattoos, however Bad to the Bronze or 'On and on Bronze' as it was bizarrely renamed in the UK is one shade that I simply cannot get enough of, Is there anything it doesn't look good with? Please tell me. My belief at this point is no!
This is my current 'every day' makeup look that I drool all over. The creamy texture of the base is delightful. Then I use Stila 'Kitten' over the top which hurt my pocket a little bit as it is essentially just a higher end drug store brand for a little pan about the size of a coin. Nonetheless, I take it all back Stila, as this is an equally essential part of the makeup look, although I have no doubt you can find a wonderful Dupe in the Naked or Naked 2 palette, or probably even in the Undress Me palette by MUA

Cue the highly vain close ups:

Enjoy!
I will see you next week for a new video, and in the meantime I will be blogging here daily

New Video: Summer Pink POP! Makeup Tutorial

Todays video is just perfect for Summer when you want to wear natural, mostly light products but a bit bright lip POW to jazz it all up a little and makek it look like you have made a real effort when actually it's taken you all of five minutes

I'm wearing eyeshadow colours all from the Urban Decay Vice palette but all you really need is a matte skin tone colour, a lighter gold and a darker gold colour!
For the lips you can wear any bright colour you want, I show a few swatches in the video, the Maybelline Colour stay in shade Pink or Peach Cocktail, I can't remember it's name and I don't think it says on it, a generic pink from a big makeup kit I got given ages ago, and a Revlon Lip butter because well we all love them!

Be brave and add a little pop to your makeup this summer!

Summertime Sadness OOTD

Yes I am still without a shadow of a doubt still obsessed with Lana Del Rey's 'Born to Die' Album, with my favorite song still being Summertime Sadness. Since my summer holiday away has already been and gone, and I'm away from my friends and university I'm feeling in a bit of a limbo place and definitely getting waves of 'Summertime Sadness' which is tragic really, since I love being at home and near my home friends, my mum and my sister and having lots of extra time to write on here and think of and create more videos too.

In the mean time, let me share with you a little snapshot of my day. I'm wearing a dark brown colour in the crease and a pale lid colour, thick black winged eyeliner and a pale lip. I'm wearing white eyeliner on my lower waterline, which I like to do in the summertime!
I applied highlighter to my face, MACs Soft and Gentle, to give me a kind of dewy (or sweaty?) hue to the skin.
My hair is just natural and swept to the side.

I'm wearing candy striped shorts from New Look last year that my lovely sister bought as a present for me. My top is from H&M, and is just a white mid sleeve top, tucked into my shorts!
I have a polka dot bag from Primark about a year ago which I forgot I even owned.
Polda dots and stripes may not be everyones cup of tea but I didn't have much choice bag-wise!

Wave hello to the creepy body peeking in the background!
Just kidding it's the mannequin I use to sell my old clothes on ebay!

New video: Tropical Merrmaid Makeup Tutorial

Fresh from the tropical sea... I present to you my newest makeup tutorial. It's tropical, summery and reminds me of mermaids!

I used the W7 palette for the first time in ages, and to tell you truth I had forgotten why I'd hidden that palette away for quite some time. The colours are very talcy and crumbly, there's a hell of a lot of fall out on the cheeks, not good unless you like blue blusher. But on the other hand the colours do blend very easy as they're not particularly stable even with pigment. Nonetheless the result is still mighty pretty.

 

What's in my Summer Makeup Bag?

Summer is upon us here on the little island of England, I won't bore you with the temperature breakdown but it has been too hot to sleep if that gives you an idea.
So it's always best to switch out your winter shades and switch in your summer essentials. and if you're staring into the dark abyss of your makeup bag not knowing where to start then here is my Summer makeup bag switch out!
(Also, little side note, now is a great time to wash makeup bags, they get a super build up of bacteria)

My summer essentials in order of use:
MAC Studio Moisture Fix - Acts as a great base and has SPF 15 which you should wear all year around but is especially important when the rays are at their strongest!

Laura Mercier Tintet Moisturiser in Ivory with SPF 30 (it doesn't add to the moisturiser to make a SPF 45) It's much lighter than a regular foundation, even my beloved Revlon Colorstay and it's oil free!

My bareMinerals portable Kabuki brush with in built vessel to hold some finishing powder!
Bobby Brown shimmer brick in Bronze, in summer I feel like I can lay off the matte bronzers and go for the shimmers!

MAC blusher in Well Dressed, it's a soft baby pink and is just perfect for a very gentle pink tint

MAC mineralized skin finish in Soft and Gentle, it's a warmer highlighter than my favourite ol' faithful 'Snowglobe' by MAC

on my lips I like to use the lip liner by Maybelline in East End Snob all over my lips with Blistex Lip Splash over the top with SPF in it!

On my eyes I often do a very simple look with MAC Painterly as a base and a Maybelline Color tattoo in bad to the bronze in the crease, sometimes just blended out with my fingers!
I often leave it there if I don't want to heavy up my look with mascara and eyeliner, but I'll carry around a mascara just in case, I haven't found one I love at the moment, I'm just using Maxfactor, but I really want to try Benefits 'They're real'

Hooray for Summer makeup, and SPF!

What's coming your way? A Summer Smokey eye!

I just finished editing and doing my first makeup video and it's my first one with a voice over in a while, but they're not as difficult as I thought to do although I do tend to get side tracked and ramble about things not completely relevant to the content of the video, anyway, let me know your thoughts on that 'creative decision' when it uploads on Saturday.

I hope you enjoy this Summer smokey eye!

Tangerine Dream - Mini MAC Haul!

I picked up some fabulous new treats for the 'hopefully' warmer months to come.
I can't get enough of nudes at the moment, so everyhting is heavily 'nude' based.

What do we have here?
Lipstick in shade Pretty Please
Lipglass in shade Myth ( I love the lipstick so now I have the Myth gloss to match
Mineralize skin finish powder in shade Soft and Gentle
Powder Blush in shade Style

 

The swatches are as follows:
Far left is Myth Gloss which is a warm, nude based colour. The colour is thick and payoff is great on the lips too

Next along going left is Pretty Please lipstick which is a nude sheer lipstick with a frosty look, it's in the lustre category

Then the golden swatch is the Mineralized skinfinish, it's great for adding an all over glow to the face or just to highlight the high points on the face.

Finally, on the far right is the bright coral blush Style with a frost finish

Summer makeup essentials:

Sorted!

Gypsy weddings, Tokyo and The Help - Brief Book Reviews

So far I've surprised myself with the amount of reading that I have done since June- I thought I'd share with you my summer reads so far because some have been great and some others... not so great!

 Firstly I read Tales of the Gypsy Dressmaker which is essentially the autobiography of the big star of one of my favorite shows ever 'Gypsy Weddings' It was a brilliantly easy and entertaining read from start to finish. Sometimes my jaw was literally on the floor at the hilarity and outrageousness that Thelma comes across in her line of work, but equally it was very insightful and quite a fair representation, I thought, of traveler culture too. This is going to sound really immature, but it had photo pages too- and I just love books with pictures in! It really added to the whole story and I have a new appreciation for how much work goes into one of those insane dresses.

The next book that I read was Tokyo which I must say, was the worst of the bunch. I thoroughly enjoyed that for the most part it was set in Tokyo which is somewhere that I'm desperate to go! But the actual story was hugely anticlimactic, and a little unrealistic, about a girl who goes missing on her travels. I'm still glad I read it for the fact that it felt like I was taking a guided tour around Tokyo but besides that the actual story was on the dull side.

The final book I read was The Help and it was absolutely brilliant! I read it in about 4 days even though it was the thickest book of the bunch. It's a non-fiction book but it's one of those stories that 'could' be real, it's set in the 1960s South America, Post-Rosa Parks but Pre-Martin Luther Kings death. It's written from the perspective of two black maids and one white female writer. At times it really had me laughing out loud as well as making me feel outright ashamed of the segregation that existed not so long ago. While definately having it's sad moments, by the end I felt uplifted. I bought two copies for friends as soon as I'd finished because I want everyone to read this!

A little addition to this list is that last night around 6pm I picked up 'Mummy Knew' by Lisa James, I stopped to eat dinner but then couldn't put it down until 2am when I'd turned the last page, it has over 200 pages. Without wanting to end this post on a downer it's without a doubt the most horrific account of child abuse I've read about in the UK, afterwards I had to watch funny videos on YouTube before I could fall asleep, my head was just swimming!

Storenvy Summer Purchases

Storenvy is just great, it's a collection of just really really good, fun products. It's better than eBay in the sense that you don't have 'tat' to filter through but cheaper than lots of products on Etsy. The problem is that there are hardly any UK sellers that I have come across so packages always take their sweet time arriving. Usually that's okay but this time next week I will be on the coast of Italy for two weeks! I was hoping to bring these with me but they are all a 'no show' as of yet, but I thought I'd share them with you anyway.

Firstly I ordered the Orange Anime Backpack. I like the chunky black outline because it looks like I should be in a cartoon!

 

Unfortunately, it's sold out but here's the ink incase they get it back in stock and I believe that they have a pink version too!

http://monkeybunnyshop.storenvy.com/products/1377233-sideway-anime-backpack-orange

Then, I got myself some saweeeeeet heart print denim shorts, Denim shorts are always essential but I wanted something a little more cutesy and though that this was the perfect alternative

 

The great bit is that they are still in stock, you can grab your own here: http://syndromestore.com/products/1350363-heart-jean-shorts

Finally, I just couldn't resist the adorable little tail and fluffiness, I know that they are a bit odd, and maybe not something we'd see on the streets in England but my goodness I just love them!

 

You can grab your own here: http://kawaiiclothing.storenvy.com/products/652233-pantalones-conejito-bunny-rabbit-shorts-2wh146

That's your little peek into my summer wardrobe!

Summer Days Daze

Today is the first time in a long time that it has been really wonderfully sunny, I evern got to wear shorts, I forgot about wearing makeup and I let my hair air dry!

The best part was christening my newest and favourite top of the moment

It's from Threadless but they have a quick turnover for designs so it might not be for sale anymore, but I love it because it has a zombie geisha, and you may or may not know that I love geishas and I love The Walking Dead so it's like a little combination of my favourite things and perfect for days like this!

I went outside after lunch and lay on the grass for a couple hours, the sun was not at its hottest since it was after 3pm so I got away with laying int he sun without sun cream on.
I'll show you what I saw

This might not be exciting for you but it feels so so so long since I saw blue skies! It was wonderful to lie doing nothing and not feeling guily about not studying or neglecting anything else!

This is what happens when I go out for milk and bread...

I went with my friend just to nip to the local supermarket, I decided to pick up some essentials, milk bread and maybe some fruit for a smoothie.

We ended up heading into New Look so that I could give my creative opinion on a shirt to go with a blouse that she already owned.
It all started when I saw some slouchy jeans on sale for £15, I love this fit of jean and have been looking for a great pair!
(Try as I might to get the picture to go the right way, it's just not happening for this so I'l show you how it failed and I'll show you a picture from the website)

Okay, lets pretend that didn't happen and now look at the nice fancy photo from the website:

The I saw the most magical fun playsuit that I decided I may aswell try on.
(And the picture didn't work out... So I'll have to show you the nice stock photo aswell)

Then some white shoes, that I decided would be super comfy and go with 'everything' plus they were only £10

Until we ended up in the jewellery section and I couldn't hold any more so had to go back to the entrance to grab a basket.
I came away with two rings that just look like a party on my hands, and then a more elegant ring too.

Even though it was unexpected I feel as though I have filled some large gaps in my wardrobe so I'm happy! And I haven't taken the bow rings off since I purchased them!

Italia shopping-a

This summer I'm heading off to Italy- Yippee!
I am so so so excited to go abroad, I haven't been on a plane in two years and I got my passport renewed last year so I'm glad to finally be exercising it!

I've begun the shopping process which is strongly fueled by Pinterest since I've been pinning outfits I'm dreaming of wearing while walking along the street with an Italian sunset... -sigh-
Unfortunately I don't have nearly the budget to fulfill my Pinterest fantasy so I thought that a charity shop or 'thrift store' if you're fancy,  would be a good place to start building a dreamy Italian wardrobe.
Within 5 minutes of walking into a charity shop I found two gems:
A skirt still with the tags, that was £9 that I got for £3
I love the ruffle at the bottom, it's so pretty and girly!

A floaty white blouse that would look so pretty as a way to cover my arms in the evening and would look striking with bright, maybe even neon shorts and a (fake) tan.

This concludes the beginning of building up a cheap summer wardrobe, because I feel confident that the weather in England will never be warm enough to wear any of this again- It's approaching Easter and we have fresh snow on the ground, it's driving me loopy loo

Climbing a castle, cathedral and boat

It was a beautiful, sunny day so we decided to make the most of it and visit some tourist 'hot spots'. We visited a castle which was impressive, but also a little bit scary as it was tall and crumbling. I took these pictures because the arches were still in tact and I loved them! If I really imagined, I felt like I was in the place where A Game of Thrones was set ( I really love that tv show) it was wodnerful and majestical and I think would be so perfect on a warm evening if the top part was lined in candles and lanterns!

Then we headed to a museum that had this kind of 'immitation boat' I thought it was really funny because it looked like real water behind me! I assure you if it was I would not have been so brave as to sit on the edge!

Then there was a part where you could 'drive' the boat, but of course whatever way you turned the steering wheel, the screen projecting the water in front did not change, so you couldn't have a crash-tastrophe

To finish off, we had a peaceful visit to the cathedral, here you can see I'm making a wish and a prayer with the candles!

It's a nice day for a white wedding

Today I went to a family friends wedding, I've had a music note dress on standby for a very long time for this special day and I found a keyboard purse in the ASOS sale to coordinate plus shoes I got from ebay a very long time ago
My outfit breakdown goes like this:
Dress Topshop was £75 but I got it from ebay for £6
Purse ASOS sale was £25 but int he sale it was £12.50
Shoes ebay, not branded and £10

Makeup went a little something like this...
Laura Mercier Moisturising foundation
Bobbi Brown Bronzing brick for abit of shimmer and a MAC matte bronzer to carve out those cheekbones and slim the face
Blusher by MAC in shade Well Dressed
Highlighting powder by MAC in Snowglobe (from the christmas range)
Lipstick by MAC in shade Lovelorn
Lipgloss by MAC in shade Pretty Plush
Eyebrows filled in with Folie eyeshadow by MAC
Eyes went a little like this:
Eye Primer by Bare Escentuals
Eyeshadow all over the eyelid in shade Shroom by MAC
Champagne golden eyeshadow from this fun Bed Head pallette over Shroom
Eyeshadow in shade Folie by Mac in the crease and blended to keep it fresh and pretty
The bottom eyeshadow in the bedhead pallette which is like a paler version of MAC's Mulch goes over the top of Folie to make it a little more shimmery
Use an eyeliner brush and take Folie along the top lashline
Shroom by MAC on the browbone as a highlight
White eyeliner along the waterline I used Fascinating by MAC
Black Mascara mine was from Bare Escentuals

Then finally, a spritz of MAC Fix plus all over the face to keep it on all day!

And all that remainds of the day!

I love keeping my name place settings of the weddings that I go to, just looking at it will reminds me of the colour scheme, theme, setting and the day so I think it deserves a place in the magical scrapbook which is a hobby I am determined to keep!

Innocent Garden Lunches

I've been lapping up the lovely weather and decided to make use of the garden furniture and ate lunch outside!
I didn't make it myself, I just put it in the microwave but the fun people at Innocent Towers did and it was de-licious

I thought I'd share the packaging with you as I think it's great and so positive!

How fun to hand someone a random rosette just to tell them that they are lovely! In the small print around the rosette it says lots of cute things that the person does to make them brilliant such as calling their mum often haha

 If you can't read the writing on the packagaing, click on the picture to make it bigger! If you're too tired to read it's all about telling you to imagine you are in the beautiful water looking up at the candy floss sky!

And this was my delicious lunch, the sweet chilli flavour is my absolute favourite as it's not too spicy like the others and it has baby corn in it and potato, i love baby corn especially

 I took a picture of the side of the pot to try and demonstrate the 'trifle effect' as it has lots of different layers, but by the time I had mixed it all up the layers were a little ruined and didn't look so pretty

And what lunch is complete without dessert?

Crunchie ice cream because Summer is too short to skip out on bowls of ice cream!


And here I am showing off my aysymetric bikini top that I just love! I look like I have taken a holiday all the way to my back garden!
I am such a globe trotter...