Tag Archives: makeup

oh no!

2 May

self-imposed flog-every-other-day deadline is upon me again, but I have been moving house (well, moving business premises) and haven’t even showered today, let alone done anything awesome with makeup.

So, here we have another text-based post that probably no one will read, because let’s face it, you’re here for the pretty pictures.

Speaking of pretty pictures, here are a couple of links to places I go when I want to scroll through loads of pictures going “ooooh”.

First up, the one and only Psycho Sandra.  

She’s the one who did this:

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… and everything she does is amazing and cool and she’s self-taught as well, but so much more ACTUALLY talented than me and I feel a bit jealous and sick when I look at her blog, but she’s so good I can’t stay away.

A new favourite is the community photos page on http://www.beautylish.com – excellent when you want to go on an idea-stealing rampage.  Everything’s on there, entire looks or just ideas for eye, lips, hair, nails… everything.

Enjoy, and see you again in a couple of days when I’ve got some new material!

xX blogs and kisses Xx

 I like shopping on the internet when I’m drunk

28 Apr

…which is why 3/4 of the storage space in my room is full of crazy crap like this.

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take me seriously

Opening packages and parcels is always exciting, especially when you don’t know what’s in them.  So imagine my surprise last week when not one, but two yellow wigs arrived.

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The orange lipstick I’m wearing is So Chaud by MAC with a bit of their eyeshadow in Honeylust in the centre of my bottom lip.  Did you guys know they still do the package recycling incentive, so if you return 6 MAC makeup empties of any kind to them, they’ll give you a free lippy (but not from the Viva Glam range, as that’s sold to raise cash for the MAC AIDS fund).

Anyway.  Gotta go rack my brains to see if I can remember why I would have thought I needed two yellow wigs.  I really do have fantastic ideas when I’m pissed, why don’t I write them down?  Oh yeah, because “amazing shelf bum” written on a gin-soaked receipt still leaves me completely in the dark.

how to be photogenic

24 Apr

People often mistake me for photogenic, which is obviously a nice compliment – but it’s simply not the case.  I look like an elderly man in profile, and I also have to work quite hard at making sure my nose doesn’t look like a penis.

It’s all about angles, really.

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Chloe and I have quite snap-happy mum, who also gives very good advice about not looking like hell in a photo.  Remember, chin DOWN and FORWARD.  A photo taken from slightly above will usually turn out better than one taken from below.  Think MySpace and keep going.  Know your best angle, and work it.  If you never let a hideous photo of yourself be taken or published, then technically that’s all it takes to be photogenic.

Your photographer will be either your best friend or your worst enemy here.  Learn which of your friends are shite at taking photos, and never let those people take your picture.

BE PREPARED.  If you grimace and go “eeeeerrrrggh I HATE having my photo taken!” whenever someone whips out a camera, then you’ll end up with nothing but photos of yourself with your face screwed up, mid-sentence.  No wonder you hate photos of yourself, if that’s what they look like.  Just smile.

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Try to be born to parents who are really attractive, as this will give you the best genetic advantage possible.  Also, if you have your hair and makeup professionally done every day, you’ll look better in photos too.

These photos are from Sunday, when Chloe and I were in Glasgow seeing Jettblack.

Chloe blue herself for the occasion

Chloe blue herself for the occasion

Jon Dow.  A man who understands that if you don't need to wear a shirt, you shouldn't wear a shirt.

Jon Dow. A man who understands that if you don’t need to wear a shirt, you shouldn’t wear a shirt.

me with lead singer Will Stapleton

me with super-lovely lead singer Will Stapleton

me with guitar and vocals Jon Dow

me with guitar and vocals Jon Dow, who had annoyingly put on a hoodie after coming off stage, but had the good grace to keep it unzipped.

It took quite a bit of arm-twisting to get this photo of Chloe giving Jon a piggy-back…

giddy up

giddy up

… he was all like, “my girlfriend’s not going to like this, you’re not going to put it on Facebook are you?” (nope, just my flog which gets zillions of daily hits with its huge international audience) and I was all like “if your girlfriend gives you a hard time about being piggybacked by giant Australian sisters, then you really need to take a good hard look at your relationship and just marry me instead.”

Not really.  I didn’t actually say that.  But we were all thinking it.

nailed it: Zombody to love

22 Apr

Wordplay stolen from Carissa.

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Iron Fist ‘zombie stomper’ nail transfers

These Iron Fist bad-boys came in a neat lil packet with a nail file and wooden stick to poke your cuticles with.

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I’ve used lots of different brands of nail transfers, and I have to say (having only worn these so far for a few hours) that I’m pretty impressed.

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The instructions recommend buffing your nails and applying the transfers to a clean surface, but I also suggest putting on a base coat, whatever you would normally put on your nails if you are so inclined.  For a while I have been using Sally Hansen Miracle Cure Problem Nail Strengthener.

I recommend this for two reasons; partly to give the sticker something to grip, but mostly to protect your natural nail.  So when you peel it off, it doesn’t take bits of your own nail with it.  Stickers are dark horses; wearing them back-to-back for several weeks last summer, I found myself with soft flaky nails, good for nothing.

I suggest putting on a base coat, letting it dry, then applying your transfers.

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All nail stickers are usually designed for long-ish nails; you need to have some length to be able to wrap the transfer over, to file it off.  And the designs are usually for longer nails – some of the zombie eyeballs were kind of cut off, even on my nails which I would say are pretty long right now.

Speaking of.  You might have also noticed that some of my nails are revoltingly long and pointy; this is a nail-shape that seems to work well for me, as in, it resists chips and splits etc, and I can grow my nails disgustingly long if I file them in to a point while I do it.  Also makes me feel like Cat Woman.

Anyway.  These nail stickers went on really well; they are a lot softer and more pliable than many other brands I have used, so they were very easy to stretch-to-fit onto my nails, and being so pliable, fit really easily.  I screwed up on two of my nails and to be honest those two are already (a few hours after applying them) showing signs of poor resilience.

Compared to other brands (including Nail Rock) that have been somewhat more brittle, it looks like these will wear well.  I’ll update this post to let you know for sure.  Other brands I’ve used have been more difficult to apply completely smoothly, and that seems to be the trouble with any nail sticker; as soon as it’s not perfectly applied, any wrinkles will quickly turn into peeling and lifting.  Makes sense I guess.

Anyway – this post is scheduled to go live on Monday, when I will be heading back home to Oban from Glasgow.  I was there to see Jettblack, so it’s possible that by the time you are reading this, I will have run off with Jon Dow and you won’t hear from me again.  If that is the case I’ll give Chloe my flog password so she can let you all down gently.

Do you think he likes zombie nails?  I hope he likes zombie nails.  Screeeeam!

Update: this is what they look like after 48 hours wear.

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The index and pinky finger are the worst; these are the two that I screwed up putting on.  The pinky is ripped in the middle and the index finger just has quite a big chunk missing from the tip.  As the pattern is so busy it’s not actually that noticeable in real life.

The rest of the nails have worn a little on the tips but not too much.  None of them have peeled or lifted, so, they remain the best-wearing nail stickers I have used – hands down!

it’s official

20 Apr

Imagetoday I received the official email, and I officially accepted my spot on the Makeup Artistry HND at Clydebank.  Officially.

Here is a photo of David to keep you going – today, I didn’t put any makeup on.  Hang tight, mad shit coming.

 

MUA Mascara, Shade #7 (pink)

16 Apr

Here it is, no other eye makeup except for the pink mascara.

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And this below is the pink mascara with black eyeliner under my top lashes and on my waterline.

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And last of all, this (below) is pink mascara applied on top of black mascara, with black eyeliner as before.

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I had more luck applying it with my own mascara brush (which is only an old Maybelline one that I cleaned up, from a Colossal Volume tube) as the mascara wand that it came with sucked.  It also took a good few layers to get this colour intensity.  You could be subtle and just put a touch of colour on the tips of your lashes, if you like.

I would say it worked best for me using black eyeliner (the middle picture) – on its own it was a little bit pink-eye, but with the black eyeliner it was a bit more punk.  It worked better using only the pink mascara (as opposed to layering it over black mascara, as it just made my lashes too chunky).

I’ll give it a go some day with some electric blue eyeshadow or liner, for contrast.

Best thing about this mascara?  It was £1 😀

nailed it: Illamasqua i’mperfection bird egg nails

14 Apr

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Here’s Loz modelling the Speckle nail polish (colour: Scarce) from Illamasqua’s newest collection, I’MPERFECTION.

Nice, innit?

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As you can see, Loz is a married woman so to all you hand-fetishists that creep around on here, don’t even think about it.  But wouldn’t you say this makes a classic, yet subtley-different nail look for a bride?

By the way, this is polish applied by me drunk in the pub, with no top or base coat, and it’s been on for 2 days already.  Illamasqua nail polish wears really well and stays shiny, get amongst it!  Review coming soon of the excellent matte top coat I bought at the same time… 😀

guess who got in?

12 Apr
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go on, GUESS

There is a lot to celebrate, this week.  First, a tax return that I wasn’t expecting.  I have been so thorough in my celebration of this ‘free money’ that I’m pretty sure I’ve spent it several times over already.  I pounced on some facepaint and wigs on eBay this morning just in case.

And secondly, I have been offered a place at the Clydebank College to study a Higher National Diploma in Makeup Artistry.  I don’t know what to say here about it, the news is still sinking in but I can’t wipe the smile off my face.  I am so happy and excited and my whole life is about to change and it’s SO EXCITING!!!!!!!

I hope your Friday brings/has brought you something to go ‘wooooo’ about, too.

Tiger-kisses from me xX

brush up against me

10 Apr

“So, what brushes do you use?” said no one ever, to me anyway, but I need to flog about SOMETHING, don’t I?  And makeup brushes are important.  Not as important as saying “I love you” to your mum every chance you get.  More important than … that douche that cut you off in peak-hour traffic this morning?  I dunno.

I’m not actually that much of a tool-tool to be honest, I’m pretty big on sticking my fingers into all the powders and pastes and gettin’ busy that way.

Kevyn himself said something wise about the most important makeup tools being time and your own hands.  And there’s something to be said for feeling what you’re doing when you put makeup on either yourself or someone else, interacting with the planes of the face you’re decorating, manipulating the products you’re using with the pads of your fingers.  Tactile.

Anyway.  Makeup brushes are handy if you’re aiming for a specific effect, like a fine or sharp line on your upper lash-line, or a perfectly blended blush.  The brush I use probably every day is a fluffy eyeshadow brush that I’ve probably had for about 15 years, by Manicare.

this sexy son of a bitch

this sexy son of a bitch

It’s really gone the distance, I’m yet to see it shed even one hair.  It’s all I need for just puttin’ on some eyeshadow.

I think an angled brush is also a handy one to have, and I’ve had a MAC one that I’ve been using for a million years as well, although for the St Patrick’s day facepainting I bought a Barry M one for only a few bucks, not wanting to trash my good one, and I have to say I was well impressed by how it went the distance, too.  I was expecting to bin it after the event, but it’s scrubbed up just fine.  And, dare I say it, sharper than my MAC one.  Shhh.

barry m brush

I also use a MAC blush brush:

MAC blush brush

MAC blush brush

and a MAC stipple brush:

made from the hair of a zebra.  Not really.

made from the hair of a zebra. Not really.

MAC brushes are good, but they’re not cheap, and while I think there are a lot of cases in which one gets what one pays for… I think you can get some damn good brushes without forking out that much.  It’s all a matter of personal preference really.  And it can seem a bit daunting too, for example there are zillions of different brushes you can buy for eyeshadow alone.  No point spending hundreds on a full brush kit only to end up using one or two tools.  Why not get cheaper brushes to experiment with (if you’re not planning on Winehouse’ing, ever, then you might not actually NEED an eyeliner brush, for example).  See if the brush is something that makes it into your regular rotation, then upgrade if you want to.

You can also go mad buying ‘brush cleaner’ and so on, but I’m not convinced of their merits really.  I just use shampoo to clean mine, blot them on a towel to get the water out, pat them into shape and let them air-dry.  I’d use anti-bacterial hand soap to clean them before and after using them on someone else, if I was being all hygiene-conscious.

I have heard good things, very good things in fact, about makeup brand EyesLipsFace (ELF).  In particular about their brushes.  For dirt cheap!  And until today I thought you could only get their stuff in Canada/USA, but lo – here you Aussies can find it, and for us here in Blighty.  Go mad.  I’ll be shopping up a storm on payday so strap yourselves in for some ELF product reviews soon.

Happy brushing!

PS Still haven’t heard from Clydebank 😦

this really stings

6 Apr

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