So, I already admitted that I put a good deal of obsessing time into planning what to wear to the Lippie wedding. Would you believe me if I said I didn't invest a similar amount of time into deciding what makeup to wear? No, I didn't think so.
I decided I wanted to go down the matchy, matchy route and wear a pink lipstick to match my accessories. These are a couple that I auditioned for the part.
The swatches aren't an exact match for the group above. I didn't included swatch of the OCC Lip Tars but you can find swatches of Pretty Boy and Strumpet here. I decided that the Lip Tars were probably inadvisable as they do feather on me and I need to purchase something like the Lipstick Queen invisible liner to feel confident wearing them. The Kevyn Aucoin Liquid Lipstick in Aquarouge on the far left is a bit of a rogue as it's not a pink, but I love the colour.
I thought this might be a useful follow up to the Chantecaille Tiger in the Wild post, not least because this eyeshadow is permanent whereas I suspect the Tiger palette is much harder to find. A few people commented that the texture of the Chantecaille singles is different to those in the palette. Bois is the only single Chantecaille eyeshadow that I own (despite swatching and lusting after many more) but I would have to agree that it is much smoother and less dusty than any of the eyeshadows in the Tiger or Turtles palettes.
Bois is one of the Shine formulas and it offers sheer rather than opaque colour. The swatch above is a couple of passes over the skin. The colour is a light sandy brown with golden sheen and I feel it's too warm to be described as a taupe. As much as I love neutrals, I'm always slightly nervous about wearing golden hues as I'm not convinced they suit my colouring. In the pictures below I am wearing Bois on the mobile lid with Rouge Bunny Rouge Abyssinian Catbird on the outer corner.
I chopped and changed my lipsticks as I was undecided about a complementary pairing. In the first picture I'm wearing my old favourite Guerlain Beige Nude and in the second picture, I'd applied Ellis Faas L303. I also started the day wearing BECCA gloss in Hummingbird but didn't get a photograph with it on. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on whether this eye look is a hit or miss and which, if any, of the lipsticks look ok.
The Chantecaille Shine eyeshadows cost £23 and are available from SpaceNK and Chantecaille counters. Bois was a gift from a very kind blogger who knows how much I love eyeshadows!
Almost two years ago now, I considered the Chantecaille Tiger in the Wild palette to be something I had missed out on. So, when I spotted it half price in the SpaceNK, I decided to treat myself to the one that (nearly) got away.
Overspray on..
Overspray off..
After all that waiting and wanting, I've not used this palette as much as I expected to. The colours are pretty, the grey taupe is my favourite, followed
by the slightly plummy tinged navy. The base colour is a touch too dark
and shimmery for me to use it as an alternative to my much loved MAC Brule.
I'm not convinced that the blusher really works for me either and I prefer the blusher from the Chantecaille Turtles palette.
Without doubt, the colours look less multi-dimensional once the overspray has gone. I find the eyeshadows are quite powdery and they're not as creamy or pigmented as my favourite brands. I know I could probably have created a similar look using eyeshadows of a superior quality, however I am pleased with how this particular look turned out.
I applied the taupe from lash to crease using a MAC 217 and then applied the base colour from the edge of the taupe to the brow. I pushed the navy along the outer 2/3rds of the lashline using the tip of a MAC 239 brush, pulling it out slightly at the outer corner.
This close up tells me it's probably time to discard my mascara! On the rest of my face I'm wearing RBR Time-Defying Foundation in Quinoa Cream down the centre of my face, Clinique Even Better Eyes Dark Circle Corrector and Perricone MD No Concealer Concealer on my undereyes and Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage SC-3 on the beast of a spot I stupidly fiddled with. I'm also wearing the blusher from the palette and a tonne of lip balm.
It's London MakeUp Girl's turn to visit the Beauty Spotlight Desert Island, and she thought this would be easy peasy lemon squeezy as she likes a minimalist routine.
It actually turned out to be difficult difficult lemon difficult. Read on to find out what made the trip...
The Kevyn Aucoin base products are very popular within the beauty community and although I've tried quite a few of the colour products, this is my first experience of a base product from the line. I had read Visionary Beauty's review a little while ago and what initially struck by the ingredients list. It is a rather silicone heavy formulation and talc features high on the INCI, and I guess I was a little surprised by this from what I consider to be a premium brand.
Considering my reservations about the formula, you may wonder why I accepted a sample for review. Well, I will admit to being curious as I've been impressed with all the other Kevyn Aucoin products I've tried so far and I do have a penchant for tinted moisturiser type bases. I also thought it would be good to challenge my silicone snootiness for once.
I have surprised myself by really liking this tinted moisturiser and I have worn if almost constantly for the last three weeks. It offers good coverage (it's similar to the NARS Pure Radiant tinted moisturiser) and it evens out my skin tone without looking like I'm wearing foundation. It has a cream rather than fluid texture but feels very light on my skin. It provides a more satin finish than either the BECCA or NARS, but as with all tinted moisurisers, I do get a bit of breakthrough on my T-zone by mid-afternoon.
One thing I don't love so much about it is that it seems to accentuate the sebaceous filaments on the sides of my nose as it leaves an 'empty hole' over them. I have a feeling this is something to do with the silicone base.
Blended
I have been using the Sensual Tinted Balm in the shade SB02. There are a total of four shades and although I hesitated between the SB01 and SB02, the SB02 is a good match for me. You can see swatches of all four shades side by side on the Beauty Professor. From these swatches, I would suggest the range is currently suitable for only fair to medium skintones.
As I've mentioned the BECCA Luminous Skin and NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturisers, I thought it would be useful to include some comparison swatches. The BECCA Luminous Skin I have is in the shade Sand and the NARS tinted moisturiser is in the shade Finland.
Left to right: NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturiser in Finland, Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Tinted Balm in SB02 and BECCA Luminous Skin Colour in Sand.
One final word of caution about the packaging. Don't be a heavy handed klutz like me. I broke the plastic casing on my first use, mistakenly assuming this to be a twist off cap. It's not, it's a pull off cap. Oops!
The Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Tinted Balm costs £35 for and is available from Mise Beauty.
I have been really keen to share this purchase with you but thought it was important to wait until after I'd worn it to a certain person's wedding reception (congratulations Mr and Mrs Lippie!). It's not often that I get an opportunity to dress up, so I will admit to spending many several weeks in the lead up to it obsessing over what to wear. I bought a black dress by Gróa in the Coggles sale and thought that some colourful accessories would be just the thing to dress it up.
I'm not entirely sure how I happened on the site Once Upon A Belt but they have a fantastic selection of belt styles and colours. I opted for this wide obi-style belt by Poltsa as I thought the soft leather would work well with the soft jersey of my dress. Although hot pinks can be tricky to capture accurately in photographs, the pink is pretty close to what I was expecting from their images. Trying to pick out matching pink opaque tights from online swatches was another matter entirely!
Because I am fairly wide around the middle, I am somewhat limited as to how I can tie the belt. I do suspect that the other style of Obi belt that they offer might have been a better option for me as it looks to be slightly longer and the leather is also lined. However, I preferred the pink of this particular belt. It did get a little frustrated trying to tie it so that the red backing of the belt didn't show to avoid the obvious colour clash. I realise this probably makes me sound like a complete fuss pot!!
The belt has a side slit to allow you to wrap the belt around neatly. Because the leather is so soft, I discovered that you do have to be very careful about using the side slit as it can easily tear through the stitches, as mine did. No doubt I did this whilst practicing tying the belt to hide the red! Because I was nervous about causing any further damage, I opted to tie it around myself without bothering to use the slit. I also took care not to fasten it too tight.
Here's a quick look at the belt with the other accessories I wore on the day. The pink bag is the Wei Hai shopper from Oasis, which I previously had my eye on in the tan. The shoes are from New Look and are the comfiest pair of ballet flats I've worn in a long time. Needless to say they are the wide fit version.
The Poltsa belt cost £28.99 and postage was £3.49. From memory, it arrived the day after I placed the order. I will definitely be buying from Once Upon A Belt again and have my eye on one of the wide waist/hip belts in a dark colour and possibly another obi belt in black.
As it's nice and sunny outside today, I thought it would be appropriate to share a little colour. I've had Rouge Bunny Rouge Mysterious Tinamou for a while now and have previously shown it applied as an accent colour. I also really like to wear it over a dark base which really accentuates the intensity of this shade.
As with my other RBR eyeshadows, the texture is excellent but I find the
application to be a bit more sheer than say Abyssinian Catbird or
Bejewelled Skylark. The swatches below are a couple of swipes of colour
applied to bare skin.
In bright, outdoor light
Overcast lighting
Under flash
The Rouge Bunny Rouge eyeshadow pots cost £20.50/€24, unfortunately I don't think this colour is available in refill form. I purchased Mysterious Tinamou from Zuneta.
Pammy from Pammy Blogs Beauty puts Le Metier de Beaute's Ultra Hydration Eye Masks to the ultimate test as she tries them while in the midst of a bad cold. If these amazing eye masks can soothe Pammy's eyes in this condition, imagine what they could do for you!
Prime Beauty sifted through all the new Spring Makeup Collections to bring you the Four Prettiest Spring Blushes. You're welcome.
Forever on the quest for the perfect pink pout, Helen from Lola's Secret Beauty Blog is speechless in the face of the gorgeous combination of Rouge D'Armani No. 501 & Gloss D'Armani Pink No. 507! It is the quintessential pink partnership!
Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed takes a bite out of the new Bite Beauty Matte Pastille Lipstick collection - well actually, she doesn't bite them, just swatches them, less chance of lipstick on your teeth that way - so come admire the pretty colours!
Rouge Bunny Rouge Gracilis is one of three cheek products that I have been rotating for the past couple of months. The other two are Hourglass Aura Cheek Stain in Rouge and Daniel Sandler Watercolour blush in Pop, and I quite often layer Gracilis over Pop. All three of these are very easy for me to wear and have a nice face brightening effect but Gracilis is probably my favourite for speed.
Gracilis has a very nice, soft (but not powdery) texture and gives a delicate wash of colour. I find the colour melds with my skin in a similar sort of way to the Watercolour and the Hourglass Cheek Stain, which is unusual for a powder.
I mentioned in my favourites post a couple of weeks ago that I had some comparison swatches to share. I'm not 100% happy with the pictures because of the lighting but I decided to post what I have with the intention of updating them when I finally get some good daylight. I do hope the pictures are useful, even if they're not perfect.
The pink blushers in the picture above are, working from the top left clockwise: Suqqu Nuancing Cheeks in EX-01 Botaniro, Illamasqua Unrequited, Gracilis, MAC Pink Cult and MAC Dame.
Left - Gracilis, Right - Sweet Dust Seriema
Swatches, from left to right: Suqqu Botaniro left side, Suqqu Botaniro right side, Gracilis, Illamasqua Unrequited, MAC Pink Cult and MAC Dame.
This blusher came from the Rouge Bunny Rouge Online Boutique and I purchased it using a voucher sent to me by the brand. I notice that they have quite a nice offer for Valentine's Day, you can choose any of their Sheer Lipsticks free with orders over €50. As you probably already know, my favourite sheer is Murmurings. Rouge Bunny Rouge products are also available from Zuneta.
Disclosure: I ordered Gracilis using a voucher sent to me by Rouge Bunny Rouge. The links are included for information only and are not affiliate links.
Christine from 15 Minute Beauty is not the outdoorsy type. At all. The thought of being in any sort of wilderness for more than a few hours fills her with dread! What would she have with her on a desert island... or, maybe is her island not so deserted after all?
Well, it's probably more like the last week and a half but let's not argue over a technicality. I know I've been rather quiet on the blogging front lately. Although theoretically I have more time to myself these days, with the constant round of viruses attacking the MB household, it's been hard to find the time or impetus to write. So, here's a little glimpse at what has been keeping me busy.
It was Miss MB's 3rd birthday just over a week ago and as you can see, she celebrated in style. I still can't get over the fact that she's a little girl now and not a baby. When I first started blogging, Miss MB was only seven weeks old and I still remember my old Twitter avatar with her very fondly.
I'm not very good at baking but I think that cake is an absolute must for birthdays. I made this chocolate sponge cake following Mary Berry's recipe from the BBC website. It was actually very straightforward to make (easier still if you use a food processer, I imagine) and it tasted delicious.
I bleached a section of my hair weeks ago with the intention of adding some colour to it. I've only just got around to adding the colour and you can see the end result below.
I used Crazy Color in Hot Purple and this is the result of two applications. The first time I applied it, I was quite nervous so I diluted the colour with conditioner and applied for the time indicated on the bottle (15-30 mins). The colour didn't really take on this first try, instead it acted more like a toner on the bleached hair. The second time round, I added the colour neat and left it on for a couple of hours, wrapping the section of hair in clingfilm to prevent the dye from drying out. I was very pleased with the end result and may well brave adding another slice of colour in a more obvious position.
New shoes! I bought these boots from Dune to wear to hen do I went to over the weekend. I'm absolutely thrilled with them and I'm also surprised by how comfy they are to walk in. I expected my feet to be sore after walking around London in them on their first wear but there wasn't a blister in site. I suspect I will be rather precious about avoiding scuffing them for the next month or so.
Son1's class have been studying Viking's as their topic this term, and today they had to go in dressed in costume. So, once again my creative skills have been put to the test. I like to try and avoid buying new things when it comes to these sorts of costumes as I always feels it's a bit wasteful, particularly if they are items that that won't be worn again. I had a rummage around in the local charity shops and managed to find a beige top men's that I cut up to make an over-shirt and makeshift leg bindings, but unfortunately I couldn't find anything that would work as a cloak.
Whilst looking through my stash of bedding for something suitable, I came across an old cot-sized white flannel sheet and had a light bulb moment. I thought it would be interesting to have a go at dyeing it and discovered via Google that coffee can be used to dye fabric. It turned out to be a rather effective way of getting rid of some ancient coffee grounds and a minging jar of Nescafe too! You can cut up a pair of tights to make a filter for coffee grounds and I wish I had discovered this before I made the first batch of dye above.
If you have access to a fixative like alum or you are able to pre-treat the material with vinegar or washing soda beforehand, you would be able to achieve a darker shade than I was able to. I'm still happy with my handiwork though and I rather like the random darker patches as it adds character.
Here's my son modelling the finished outfit. I used an old plaited leather belt of mine to tie around his waist. He's wearing a maroon undershirt (read old pillowcase with head and arm holes) and the black trousers from his Dracula outfit. I also used some brown laces to hold up the 'leg bindings'. I am extremely pleased that I opted for a budget outfit as multiple items have disappeared during the day.
And finally...
After years of saying I would never watch the films, I finally succumbed to the Twilight series. I have also developed a new crush. And, before you ask, yes I am ashamed of myself. Hoooowwwllllll!
15 Minute Beauty shares how her at home laser hair removal has been going. Is it worth the cost of the unit?
Pink Sith says the Limited Edition Dove Winter Care Body Wash is not only a super moisturizing body wash that can help your winter dry skin ails, it can also allow you to communicate with new species!
Burberry Fans rejoice! Their new Lip Glow in Pink Sweet Pea (LE) exceeds the hype, and Lola's Secret Beauty Blog thinks it is worthy of a backup before they disappear!
The only Mariah Carey CD Jessika from polish insomniac will listen to is her Christmas one, so will she be able to bring herself to wear the Mariah Carey by OPI polishes? Find out!
Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed tries on lips from across the pond with Sleek MakeUP's True Colour Lipsticks shade extension! Check out her swatches and see if they have you craving some tea and crumpets!
Pammy Blogs Beauty is making good on her 2013 Beauty Resolutions! Her first step? Building Strong & Healthy Nails with a new 2-step treatment from Julep!
