Models Own nail varnish competition winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered by following me via blogger, or blog lovin, and also those who followed my Facebook page!

The winner of the nail varnish is Barbs leCupcake!  The nail varnish will soon be on it's way to you.  I hope you like it as much as I do!

Halloween FOTD

My Halloween is particularly dull this year.  I'm staying in, probably playing the new Assassins Creed all evening, so didn't really have the desire to do any crazy Halloween makeup.  I did however take it as the chance to go a little bit goth, and pull out my green Illamasqua lipgloss again.  The checkout lady in Tesco said that she liked my costume, and that it was 'very scary'.  Didn't have the heart to tell her I wasn't actually dressed up as anything!  I was wearing jeans and a Stargate t-shirt, so I'm not quite sure what she thought I was dressed up as!  Maybe I'm just a scary goth this year!

Face

Illamasqua Skin Base Lift (White and Light 1)

MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural (Light)

Illamasqua powder blush in Rumor

Sugarpill eyeshadow in Tako

Eyes

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Sleek Bad Girl palette

Sugarpill Sweetheart palette

Illamasqua black gel liner

Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Zero

Lancome Hypnose Star mascara

Random falsies

Lips

Illamasqua lipstick in Pristine

Illamasqua sheer lipgloss in Violate

Fly By Blue FOTD

It's not often these days that I do an all MAC eyeshadow look, but I'm making an effort to use them a little more often.  I did spend an awful lot of money on MAC shadows when I first started getting into makeup, and bar a couple (*cough*-Cabon-*cough*) they're good shadows.

Face

Illamasqua Skin Base Lift (White and Light 1)

MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural (Light)

Benefit Dandelion Blush

Eyes

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

MAC eyeshadows - Yogurt, Shale, Plumage, Contrast, and White Frost

MAC Pearlglide Liner in Fly By Blue

Illamasqua Sophie pencil

L'Oreal Volume Million Lashes Purple mascara

Lips

Armani Rouge D'Armani in shade 507

Halloween Inspiration

A slightly longer inspiration post today, as there are just so many amazing halloween makeups out there.  It was hard to narrow it down to just these!

Show Me Makeup has a great tutorial for this look (and others) on her youtube channel 

Paperself Lashes FOTD

I picked up some Bourjois Paperself lashes from Boots for £1. 

I thought they'd look good with quite a simple eyeshadow design, so I decided to copy this look from Illamasqua.

The lashes are a little over the top for every day use, so I didn't wear them out, but they'd be great for a photoshoot!

Products Used

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Sugarpill Sweetheart palette (Tako, Dollipop, and Afterparty)

Illamasqua black gel liner

Urban Decay Yeyo 24/7 eyeliner

Lancome mascara

Bourjois Paperself Couture lashes

Alex Box inspired FOTD

I'm a big Alex Box fan, and I was inspired by one of her looks today.  I used the Illamasqua Reflection palette (yes, I know how badly this creases on me, but it's so pretty that some days I just don't care!) to create a softer, more wearable version.  

Here's the original look:

And here's my take on it:

Products Used

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Illamasqua Reflection palette

Urban Decay 24/7 pencils in Demolition and Yeyo

Illamasqua Skin Base lift in white (as highlight)

Illamasqua liquid liner in Scribe

Sugarpill Tako eyeshadow

Random Lancome mascara (it's a mini tube that came with a palette, but the name had rubbed off)

Active Cosmetics eyelashes

Illamasqua Hermetic Intense Lipgloss review

I've had this lipgloss a while now, and thought I'd do a quick review of it as part of my deep reds series.  I know it's not a lipstick, and that's why it doesn't fit the bill for me, but it's still a beautiful gloss that would be great for the winter and fall.

I'm a big fan of Illamasqua's Intense lipglosses.  They're wonderfully pigmented, and comfortable to wear, and for glosses, they have great staying power.  
Hermetic is a deep burgundy red with a metallic finish, and it is absolutely stunning, especially when it catches the light, and you get that metallic red shine.  

Like most darker lip glosses, it can be quite difficult to get the colour to look even.  Below, I've layered the gloss over a black lipstick (Illamasqua Pristine).  This turns the lips a very deep cherry red, and makes it apply far more evenly.  I'm sure you could also layer it over a red lipstick for a brighter colour, but this is my favourite way to wear it.

Overall I love the colour and the formula.  But dark glosses just don't seem practical for me.  The slightest bit of wind and my hair is on my lips, dragging lipgloss over my cheeks!  But if you are a lover of dark glosses, this is definitely one you need in your collection!

Blue and black cat eye

Winkle from MAC is such a pretty colour, but I really don't love it's matte texture.  I decided to pop a little bit of sparkle on top of the eyeshadows using Illamasqua's Beguile pigment, but it doesn't really show up in these pictures.

Products Used

Face

Illamasqua Skin Base Lift (white and light 1)

MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural (light)

MAC Azalea Blossom blush

Eyes

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Sugarpill Tako eyeshadow

MAC Winkle eyeshadow

Urban Decay Blackout eyeshadow

Illamasqua Beguile pure pigment

Illamasqua black gel liner

Illamasqua Sophie pencil 

Urban Decay Yeyo 24/7 eye pencil

Benefit They're Real mascara

Random false lashes

Lips

Lime Crime Poisonberry lipstick

Inspiration 21/10

Models Own Velvet Goth review and competition

I'm a big fan of Models Own nail varnishes.  They have a great range of colours and finishes, and when I spotted their new collection in Boots I knew I just had to have them all!

The Velvet Goth polishes are essentially matte glitters.  I love putting a matte top coat on top of glitter polishes, so these just skip out that extra step.  The consistency of these is a little thicker than normal polishes, but I still found it easy to work with.  It wasn't at all gloopy or difficult to apply.  They also dry really quickly.  This is great if you're like me and hate sitting around waiting for you nails to dry.  However, due to this, and the slightly thicker texture, you need to work quite quickly on your second coat.  I found that it's best not to try and apply thin coats.  The polish tends to stick where you put it down, so doesn't spread in thin layers very easily.

It's fairly easy to get the hang of the application method, and once you've got them painted they'll last 3 or 4 days with only minor tip wear (which for me is about as good as it gets!).  I was a bit concerned that taking them off was going to be a nightmare because of all the glitter, but it wasn't too bad.  I used the tin foil method, and they actually came off easier than most glitter polishes!

Obsidian

Valerian

Amethyst

Sardonyx

Absinthe

All but Obsidian were pretty much opaque in 2 coats, although I added a third coat just to be sure.  The black was also opaque in 3.  The glitter stands out the most on the black one, as it's silver glitter, unlike the others where the glitter matches the base coat.  I think Absinthe is my favourite, as it has small, densely packed glitter.  Amethyst gives the most velvety effect.

I'm giving away one bottle of my favourite, Absinthe.  

To enter the competition all you have to do is the following:

1.  Follow this blog, either on Blogger or Blog Lovin.

2.  Leave a comment on this post telling me how you'd rock the goth look this autumn.

For an extra vote:

3.  Share this competition on your blog.  Leave a note on your comment here, telling me that you've shared it!

A winner will be chosen at random on the 31st November (Halloween!).  Due to post restrictions, this is just open to people in the UK.  However, if I get enough followers that aren't in the UK I'll choose something to give away that I can mail abroad next time (I'm thinking some Illamasqua goodies!)

Good Luck!

Berry lips FOTD

A really simple look today, I used Urban Decay's Theodora palette, which has some of my favourite brown shadows, and OCC lip tar in Black Dahlia.  The lips are really the focus of this look.  Very much in an autumn mood!

Products Used

Face

YSL Touche E'clat foundation (BR10)

MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural (light)

Illamasqua Skin Base Lift (white and light 1)
Illamasqua Naked Rose blush

Eyes
Urban Decay Theodora palette (Broken, Beware, and Bewitch)
Illamasqua Sophie pencil
Benefit They're Real mascara

Lips
MAC Currant lip liner
OCC Lip Tar in Black Dahlia

Green and purple FOTD

I was totally not loving this look today.  I don't think I built up the depth that I would have liked in the purple.   If I did it again, I'd add more black shadow. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.  Here's the look anyways!

Products Used

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Sleek Circus palette (lilac, light green, purple, black and white)

Illamasqua Sophie pencil

Illamasqua black gel liner

Benefit They're Real mascara

MUFE Aqua Brow

Blue lipped shoot

You know when you do a look that looks pretty good in real life, but then you take photographs and it looks awful?  And by the time you look at the pictures at the end of the day, you've already taken your makeup off? Yeah, well, the FOTD I was going to share with you today was just like that, so instead I'm going to share with you a look from a shoot I did a while ago.  

I'd been wanting an excuse to use Illamasqua's Gender Intense Lipgloss, so jumped at the chance to have creative reign on a shoot.  I did two looks; one more natural look where the model wore a wig, and the more dramatic look with blue lips, where the model used her natural hair.  It's amazing how hair and makeup can change someone so much!

I don't remember much of what I used for this.  I know I used Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation for both looks, and in the blue lipped look I used Illamasqua Gender gloss, and Sleek's Bad Girl palette.