Subtle Winged Eye

Hello lovely people!

Long time, no blog. I've been pretty busy the last few weeks so just haven't really felt like blogging. I hit a bit of a wall I guess - not much motivation and my ideas ran a bit dry. But I'm hoping I've come up with some ideas for some good posts that will keep the blog moving nicely for a while.

I tried experimenting a bit with eye liner wings. I love them, but they do tend to have a stronger look, which is great if that's what you're going for. Recently though, I've wanted to make them look a bit more subtle and soft.

Here's what I came up with:

I decided to try using a kohl pencil liner instead of gel or liquid. Kohl is great because it's very versatile. You can create solid and highly pigmented lines but you can also smudge it easily. It's perfect if you're practising with liner as it comes off quite easily so if you make a mistake you can just wipe it off and start again. 

Using Bourjois Kohl and Contour in Noir, I lined my upper lash line with a thick line, and then winged it out.

Initially, I was going to do a much thinner line, but I actually made a slight mistake. It actually turned out ok, because I just decided to thicken the line - see, sometimes going wrong makes for something much better!

I used a subtle gold/brown shadow from an MUA palette (unfortunately, it doesn't have a name, but something like Half Baked from Urban Decay would work just as well). I simply patted it all over the lid and liner and you can see how much it softened the look. I applied a tiny bit of a matte brown (again, no name, but Buck or Naked from Urban Decay are good for this) to deepen the crease and voila - all done!

This is a really simple, quick look that's great if you're in a rush, but still want something pretty and bit sparkly.

Hope you liked it!

IOTD - Kourtney Kardashian

SOTD - Crave You by Giselle

Purple Eye Make-Up

Hello there!

Today I had a play around with purple eyeshadow. As you can probably tell from my recent posts, I'm trying out some new things and trying to steer away from just wearing brown eyeshadow.

This isn't a difficult look, clearly, but it is in quite a lot of steps, so stick with me if you want to try something similar.

So, I used MUA eyeshadows, however, I'm not going to talk about specific shades from that particular brand. I'm just going to talk about colours so that you can recreate this look using whatever brand you have - just to make it more accessible.

To begin with, use a concealer all over your lid and up to the brow bone, as well as underneath your eye. This will even out the skintone and cover any dark circles (I get them really bad!).

Next you want to take a pale colour - a white or beige, mine was a beige with hues of gold in it - and apply this to the entire lid, up to the brown bone and into the inner corner of the eye as a highlight.

Then, take a fairly light pink/purple shadow and apply this to the entire lid.

Apply a bright purple to the outer corner of the lid and slightly into the crease.

Blend these two colours together using a clean blending brush.

Then, you want to take a medium brown and apply just above the purple that you applied to the crease, taking it all the way along the crease. Over this, you want to apply a dark brown. Repeat this entire step along the lower lash line, very softly.

Blend the brown with the purple using your clean brush.

Add a small amount of black shadow to the crease, but remember to blend this really well. Just use the black half way along the crease - leave the inner third of the crease. Blend, blend, blend!

Then, mixing a browny purple and the dark brown from before, apply this to the lid. This is the point where you can decide how much purply shading you want in your look. If you want it more purple, use more of the purple shadow and vice versa.

Finish off with a final blend, line your lashes with a gel eye liner, line your tight and water lines with a kohl eyepencil and finish off with lashings of mascara on your top and bottom lashes.

Done!

Hope you liked this look!

IOTD - Diane Kruger. I watched Inglourios Basterds last night and although I actually didn't like the film (I thought it was a bit slow. DON'T watch it if you don't like gore! There's lots of blood!), I think she is beautiful! I'm hoping to do a hair tutorial based on hers during the film fairly soon - so keep your eyes peeled for that!

SOTD - Rebel, Rebel by David Bowie

Wearable Green Eye

Hello everyone!

Today I thought I'd show you a wearable eye look that injects a bit of colour into your make-up. I'm normally a bit scared of using colour, I'll admit it. I'll go reasonably bright for my lips, but that's as far as my experimenting goes. However, I'd like to become a bit more colourful and since watching the YouTube videos of make-up artists such as Pixiwoo and Tanya Burr , I've realised that you can use coloured shadows without looking like a pre-teen experimenting with make-up for the first time (90's bright blue eyeshadow, anyone?).

So, here's what I came up with:

(I am aware that my eyebrows need a little attention - it's on my list, don't worry!)

(Also, my camera isn't wonky, it's just my face)

It's very subtly green, I did that on purpose in order to ease myself into using brighter shades, and I think it would work for daytime or nighttime.

I used fairly old make-up, so I don't know if it would still be available, but eyeshadow is eyeshadow, you'll always be able to find suitable dupes for any shade. It’s all drugstore make-up (apart from my mascara), so if you find you can still buy it, you’ll be pleased to know it’s not expensive.

I used the Borjois Smokey Eye Kit in 02/Baroque. I used the darkest colour in the crease of my eye and on the outer third. I then used the medium colour over the inner two thirds on the lid and then used the lightest colour above the crease to illuminate.

I then used the green, which is by 17 and in the shade Ivy Leaf, over the medium colour of the smokey eye skit and blended it with that browny-gold shade. Finally I went back over the crease with the original dark shade to deepen the crease and make my eyes look more shapely.

I finished with Borjois Kohl and Contour eye pencil in the tight and waterlines and used Benefit They’re Real mascara on my top and bottom lashes.

That was it! Easy peasy!

IOTD – Tanya Burr. As I said before, Tanya is my inspiration for eyes like this as she made me reconsider my fear of colour.

SOTD – Suit & Tie by Justin Timberlake. I read a Buzzfeed article of 33 reasons why JT is amazing to celebrate his 33^rd birthday and have singing this song ever since. “As long as I’ve got my suit and tie…” *Dances off*

Black/Grey Smokey Eye

Ola!

I was meant to post this on Friday, however I'm forgetful and now it's Sunday. Sorry about that, but it's ok, it's up now!

Thought I'd show you a black smokey eye. It DOES look very grey. The flash on my camera lightened it rather a lot, but it's a bit dark not to use the flash, silly old winter nights!

This is great for parties as it's a little bit sparkly and a little heavier than you might wear in the daytime. I used the MUA Immaculate Collection which is BRILLIANT! 24 shades for about £8 in Superdrug, I love these! This brand of make-up is super affordable and really not bad quality. The eyeshadows are the only thing I've purchased, but they have a very reasonable pigment and lots of shades to choose to from.

I used shade 20, which is white, as a base and took it all over the lid, up to the brow bone and into the inner corner of the eye as an highlight.

I then used shade 16, which is grey, all over the lid.

Then I used shade 4, which is black, in the crease and outer third.

I then used shade 11, which is a sparkly silver, in the inner 2/3 of the lid.

I extended the black slightly above the crease and then added a little of the silver above that.

Then blend, blend, blend - which is crucial with dark colours. I've probably not blended enough, but then again, I'm not sure you CAN blend enough!

Finally, I lined the upper lashline with Maybelline 24 hour lasting drama gel liner, lined the water and tightlines with Borjois Kohl and Contour and used Benefit They're Real on the top and bottom lashes.

C'est fini!

IOTD -  Erin O'Connor

SOTD - Irreplaceable by Beyonce 

Brown Smokey Eye

Hello kind people reading this! Hope you're well.

Today I thought I'd show you a brown smokey eye look, a little heavier than others I've shown you, but I'm quite pleased with it.

Here's how I did it using the Urban Decay Naked Palette:

Virgin on the brow bone,
Sin on the inner third of the lid,
Toasted on the centre third of the lid,
Darkhorse on the outer third of the lid and along the outer third of the crease,
Hustle all the way along the crease,
Buck above the crease,
Half baked on the inner corner.

I used (as usual) They're Real mascara on my top and bottom lashes with Borjois Kohl and Contour on the water and tight lines. I used Maybelline Lasting Drama gel line along the top lash line.

So yeah, that's pretty much it. Hope you like it!

IOTD - Queen of the smokey eye, Cheryl Cole!

SOTD - Merry Go 'Round by Kacey Musgraves - you really should check her album out, it's so good!