Back To Basics!

Hey Ladies,

In today's blog post I want to share with you my secret to a flawless smokey eye. MAC Painterly Paint Pot is a staple that you will find in every MUA's kit and to the unsuspecting eye you wouldn't think much of this little thingamabob!

In simple terms its a cream eye shadow with a pink undertone. It can be worn on its own to even out the eye for example, on my days off I pop a little bit on with my ring finger to make my eyes look less tired and prevent my mascara from running. But when it is paired with eye shadow it helps products last twice as long especially if you have oily peepers and it also helps shadows to pop! There is nothing worse that buying a gorgeous deep purple eye shadow and loosing half the colour when its put on an unprepared eye. Eye primers are so essential to a flawless eye look without them it will be no time before your eye shadow has creased and faded away.

 

MAC do a whole shade range of these paint pots but painterly is the most talked about in the YouTube/blog world. Another firm favourite of mine is Groundwork, its a taupe-y shade that you can use to create a simple smokey eye in seconds! Im hoping in the coming month to do more tutorial style posts/videos so you can see these paint pots in action.

Until next time!

De-Potting Lipsticks

Hey Ladies,
If you are a budding make-up artist student or do freelance artist this tip may be of great help to you. If like me you bring all your make-up to a job/shoot/class it gets very very heavy and you have a bazillion things in your bag. So, to cut down on some of the un-necessary packaging and to create less of a weight I have de-potted my lipsticks. I bought this little plastic palette from Muji and it only cost around 4euro. I keep two of these in my collection, one for MAC lipsticks and one for other lipsticks like Rimmel, Barry M etc.

 To depot your lipsticks you will need either a butter knife or a spatula, that has been disinfected. You will also need your container that has also been disinfected.

  Begin by cutting into the lipstick with the knife/spatula to remove the top. Once it has come away from the tube, drop the bullet into the container as you will need your spatula.

 Then, if you know MAC lipsticks they always have a load of product in the end of the tube that goes to waste if you don't know its there. So taking your spatula, dig the spatula down a side of the tube, then turn the spatula a little bit to the left to scoop out the product, it should just slide out. Then put it in the container with the rest of the bullet and smooth it down with the spatula.

 If there is any more lipstick left in the tube just scoop it out with your spatula.

 Then once that is done, take a label and write the name of the lipstick under neath the container so you know what it is. My sister is going to get me nice labels printed in work so I just use a piece of masking tape for now until the palette is full.

I find this tip really useful because your lipsticks are kept hygienically in a container that is easily transportable and super easy to clean. I am thinking about melting all of the lipsticks down so they don't move around, if I do I'll do a post on it!

Look out for an up coming post on what to do with those empty MAC containers.

Love,
S

Bridal Look

Hey Ladies,
I'm just back from my course and in today's class we were given time to catch up on looks we need to do. As I was sick when they did a bridal photo shoot, today I had a chance to re-do it. The model that I was given was lovely and super duper tall! But, I didn't get a before photo as I was in a bit of a rush. I chose a normal make-up look, with emphasis on good skin and a nice glow. As you can see I have given the face places of highlight to accentuation the features and give a bridal glow. Such as under the brow bone, the inner corners of the eye and the top of the cheek bones. I also chose a more neutral and glossy lipstick for this look, it puts more emphasis on the eyes with a neutral lip.

It looks like the model is naked... I assure you she is not.

 The hair for the photographs...

Once, we had done the bridal. We were told to darken the look up to create a black and white look, so I added a darker shadow to the crease, a stronger contour and a dark purple lipstick.

Hope you enjoyed.
Love,
S

Twiggy Inspired

Hey Ladies,
Here's a look I did in my course a couple of weeks ago. The model is my friend Amanda who is also attending the course. This look is inspired by Twiggy and Edie Sedgwick, in class we had to do an era look on each other and I love this look. I toned it down quite a bit on Amanda as she has hooded eye lids and it is quite had to she detailed shadows. I will also include a before picture to show you the difference the look gives, I suited this look to her face by giving her more of a shape to her brows and added enough liner in the correct direction to open her eyes up and elongate them more. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
Love,
S

Purple Smoke

Hey Ladies,
Today I want to share with you a look I did for college last week for one of my exams, I thought this was a great look and can be easily be re created. My model is my friend Alison who has gorgeous big eyes, but if your eye shape is different it will still look great. I chose purples for my look as it was a coloured smoky eye look for my exam, but you can apply this to any colour (post coming soon of this look in browns).

The key feature in this look is the range of purples used and the sharp shape. You can re create this look but using 3 eye shadows, a light, a medium and a dark. I know I used more than three in this look but I could redo it with just the three. To create the sharp line from the outer corner, all you have to do is taking a slightly damp cotton bud, pull upwards towards the brow from the outer corner and clean away some of the shadow. It is super easy and makes such an eye catching effect. I also love this look on the blue eyes Alison has, makes them really pop.

Check back on the blog for a more neutral version of this look!
Love,
S