Happy Christmas!

Hope that you all have a wonderful winter season, whether you celebrate Christmas or not.

Despite the festivities, I shall still be blogging as per usual, don't you worry! =]

 Love B xxxxx

3 Girls, 1 Theme.

So my two blogger/real life friends and I have decided that due to our mutual love for makeup, we would pick a theme every 2 weeks and create makeup looks to fit the theme.
We're doing it bi-weekly because we're all so busy that it may be too much to do one per week.

Anyone can join (don't feel turned off by the name, numbers are easy to change!), just let me know and send me photos/details through by the next date.

Introducing this week's bloggers.

Elle from Good Morning Angel.
Charley from Glitters Like Snow.
Bekki from The Ghost of Dragons Past (me!).


This time, CHRISTMAS THEME!

Christmas only comes once a year, so how can we possibly pass up an opportunity to use this theme?

Here are the looks:

Elle

Charley

And lastly, me! (mine's based around The Grinch who stole Christmas, if you were wondering)

 

And there you have our first joint makeup theme!

What do you think?

Our next one is going to be due Sunday 6th Jan and the theme will be "Fire and Ice".
If you want to weigh in on this, then comment and I shall get back to you!

Love B xxxxx

Weekly Makeup Tag: Butterflies

This week in the lovely Aqeela's makeup tag, the theme was Butterflies.
It was a theme that sounded easy, but actually was harder to create a design than I would've expected.
I suppose where I didn't want to just draw a butterfly on my face, I had to come up with something a little less literal.

And this was what I ended up with:

Yes, okay so it's slightly literal. I did upper and lower wings with some adhesive gem things. I think if I had a tad more time I would've delved deeper into a design and come up with something more unique. But I'll be honest, I'm actually a bit pleased with how this turned out.

So here's how I created this look:

 Start with the darker colour on the outer part of your lid. I chose a mixture "Picadilly" and "Northern" from my Sleek 2012 Glory pallette. Extend your colour out in a bit of a point, and bring it further inwards on the top and bottom of the lid.

 Add your second, lighter, colour to the inner corner of the eye and blend it into the darker colour. I chose a pink colour from MUA's Immaculate pallette. If the darker colour fades a little during the blending (it happens, it sucks), then you can always go over it. Don't panic!! =]

 Outline the colour in a sharp black eyeliner pencil. I do this because I hate using liquid eyeliner and am not confident enough to go in straight away without it. I can sketch but not paint. It would seem this transfers to my makeup skills also. Bring both the inner and outer corners to points.

 Draw in the bottoms of the wing under the eye with the pencil eyeliner.

 Colour in the bottom wing and then go over the pencil lines with a stronger liner. I used one of Rimmel's liguid liners. I have to admit, it was a fairly old liner, so was drying up and starting to crack which was annoying. When doing this, remember to line above the lashes.

 Add decoration. I used Sleek's Dip It liner in gold to create the dots, then stuck on some craft gems (you can use eyelash glue to stick things down without the fear of them being unable to come off.)

 Add some false lashes/mascara. For the lashes I bought a regular pair and stuck some gems to them. Word of advice, don't buy the cheapest of cheap lashes from poundland. Sure cheap lashes can be good, but theirs totally aren't. Go take a lookie on ebay for some good deals (if you're willing to wait a little while for delivery!)

 Make the lips glossy and if possible use colours that correspond with the eyes. As much as I thought the idea of these lips was good, having the dark blue (Sleek blue pout paint mixed with one of Manic Panic's blacks) on the insides of the mouth made it look a little like I had a disease...

...So I put it on the outside corners. Followed by MUA's Lip Boom in "Doin' Good" and then MaxFactor flipstick in "Gipsy red"(but the gold end). This looked a lot nicer and really plumped out my lips.

And there you have it! Butterfly makeup.

If you want to see all the other looks the girls created, head over here. (They're seriously good!)

I hope you all liked this look, and I look foward to posting more makeup looks. If there's anything you want to see/would like me to try, then holla (love that word!) and I shall see what I can do!

Love B xxxxx

More Makeup (Whoopsie!)

I had a dream that I had 15 followers. So when I woke up and saw that I still had 9, I was a little put out. 

But then I remembered, that's 9 people who read my blog.

9 people who cared enough about what I was posting to want to read more.

9 people that took time to follow me.

So to those 9, Thank You.

You make my (few and far between) posts worthwhile, and I hope you still enjoy reading my blog in years time when I (hopfully) post bigger, better and more often.

And now onto the real topic of my post: I bought more makeup.
I shouldn't have! I know that, but I did, and now I can show it to you all!

Sleek i-Divine Pallette: Sparkle 2 (Limited Edition) £7.99

As soon as I saw this, I had to have it. Last time I didn't buy their limited edition pallettes when I saw them because I wanted to give myself time to think if I really wanted them, they were gone. Forever.
So I bought it. There and then.
Do I regret it? No. Not at all. In fact, now I just want all of their pallettes because they're just so good (and pretty cheap!)

 Top to Bottom: Illusion, Mistletoe, Truffle, Mulled Wine, Blue Sprice, Chocolate Penny.

 Left to Right: Festive, Gold Ribbon, Glitz & Glamour, Tinsel, Twinkle, Starry Night.

With the exception of Gold Ribbon, Tinsel and Chocolate Penny, all of the shades are a perfect mix of colour and glitter. It's a shame that the glitter doesnt pick up too well in the photos. What is my favourite colour? Possibly Mistletoe. It's so pretty and it is full of light green glitter. Lovely.

Kryolan Discontinued Eye Pencils £10 for 3, £4 each

I ventured down to the Charles Fox shop to get some more much needed (hah!) makeup. But on the one chance I got to go, they were closed for a private function. Agh! There are no words for how bad my luck was that day. But fortunately yesterday I was given a half day at work, so I managed to go again. And this time, it was open!

When I stepped foot in there, I just wanted to buy everything. I wandered around the shop so many times, just looking at everything and covering my hands in various swatches. There were glitters and shimmers and pigments and unusual lip glosses and liquid eyeliner and walls of Illamasqua. (expensive) Makeup Heaven.
In the end, I settled for some sale items. Discontinued eye pencils.
They were being sold off for cheap, so naturally I bought some (I really am a sucker for a bargain). Besides, I was never going to get the chance to buy them again, what with them not being made anymore.

Gold, silver and bronze.

Personally the Bronze is my favourite. It's a shame that they've discontinued these, because they're so pretty and metallic. But then again, if they hadn't, I probably would never have bought them.

And there you have it. My latest makeup haul (I should probably stop now...way too many pennies have been spent on makeup over the past couple of months).
Have you all bought any new makeup recently?

Love B xxxxx

Weekly Makeup Tag: Disney

So this week I joined a makeup tag run by the lovely Aqeela. Each week she gives a theme, and the bloggers who wish to join create a makeup look based on that theme. I had been watching the weekly makeups for a while now, but never had the guts to join and let my makeup be on show.
This week the theme was Disney, and I have to say it sounded just to fun to pass.

I was thinking what I wanted to do. At first I thought "THE AVENGERS"!!! (because I'm so obsessed with Loki at the moment, even drawing a chibi fanpic of him and Thor). But then I thought that it's been overdone lately and even though officially the films are Disney, the actual credit of the characters goes to Marvel. So bye-bye that idea.
Then I turned my mind to more...Disney-y Disney films. My two faves: Aladdin and Hercules (possibly because of the rocking feisty heroins. Awesome!) And then I decided to go with a bad guy makeup, because those two films have the best (Jafar and Hades!!).

And then I picked Jafar. To be frank, I love him. Best villain ever.

I'll be honest; I'm not amazingly happy with this makeup. The yellow tinges to lips and eyes do not suit my pallor. And the hair....don't even get me started on the hair. I was rocking the grunge look it would appear.
But for anyone (dunno who) would like to see a tutorial, here it is:

 Apply yellow (from Sleek's "Glory" i Divine pallette) to the whole lid, and a little bit further if you want.

 Apply red eyeshadow (Sugarpill Love +) in the inner and outer corners of the eye and connect them on the top and bottom.

 Blend the red both inwards and outwards. Add some more red if needbe to make the colour stronger.

(If you want) Apply yellow from the lid to the eyebrow and blendoutwards into the skin. Add a line of liquid eyeliner (Sleek Dip It). At the end, squiggle it a little and finish with a curl (to represent Jafar's curly beard).

Add black eyeliner to the bottom eyeline and flick it out at the corners. I didn't join it to the upper line, but you can if you want. Then darken the eyebrow (Bourjois Intense Black Eyeshadow).

 Put on a flick of mascara and, if you have them, a set of false lashes. I didn't have any lashes that were cheap enough for me to justify putting them on for only a few minutes (yes, they may be reusable, but they do wear).

Finally the lips. For them I used gold (MaxFactor Flipstick - Gipsy Red) with a thin layer of black (Manic Panic - Lethal. Given to me by my good friend Elle)

And voila! It's an incredibly easy look to achieve. The hardest part is probably getting the lines straight. But that comes with time and practise.

So there you have it. My Jafar look. To see all the other girls' looks, head over to Aqeela's blog. There are some amazingly talented girls on there, so I would seriously suggest that you go check it out.

What do you think of my Jafar inspired look? Have you done any "Disney" makeups at all? If so, lemme see!

Love B xxxxx

MUA Package = A Very Happy Girlie

Today I was going to put up a post about foundations, but this morning something happened which can make that one wait.
My MUA package arrived!
It was a brilliant start to a day that I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about being awake for.

The Immaculate Collection Pallette, The Artiste Collection, Eye Dust in Shade 3, Gel Eyeliner in Tribe, Nail Constellation in Leo, and Lip BOOM in It's A Situation!

I bought them while MUA were having a 35% off sale, with free shipping which made what would be a cheap haul anyway, even cheaper. Most of the time they have offers online and in Superdrug. I think currently, their products are 3 for 2 which is not bad at all.

Lip BOOM - It's A Situation! (£3.00)

This was the first item that I decided to try. If I'm honest, I wasn't all that enthusiastic to get this - I only bought it because people had been raving about it. I thought it would be like any cheap lipstick: quick to fade and bleed, low pigmentation, etc. Boy was I wrong!
It's comprised of two sides. On one side, a matte lipstick, and on the other a glittery gloss.

You can wear it with just the matte side. The lipstick glides on like a dream and has a brilliantly high pigmentation. I've never worn a matte lipstick before, and if this is anything to go by, I will be wearing them more often!

You can also wear it with the gloss on top. The gloss is really glittery. Not something that I would normally wear, but I actually love it! It has an unusual scent to it - kind of coconutty - which is really quite nice.

 

As far as long lasting goes, this lippy exceeds my expectations by far. This photo was taken after about 6 hours of wear, in which time I had 4 cups of tea, 2 glasses of juice, one meal, and was constantly chattering. Surprisingly, it was still acceptable.

Eye Dust - Shade 3 (£1.00)

 I was curious about this. For such a small price I was wondering how good this pot of eye dust would be (especially since, unlike most of MUA products, I hadn't even heard of it). But I thought that I might as well try it out, because even if it was a tad shoddy, I wouldn't have lost much. After trying it, I'm so glad I purchased this!

 It is shimmery. Very shimmery. But the pigment is low. That's not a bad thing though. When I looked at these, I wanted something shimmery and never expected much pigment. They are called "Eye Dusts". I don't think that name would work if they were super pigmented.

That said, there's enough pigment for it to look like a nice green. I really do love this, even if it seems a tad messy to use. But I get that with all powder eye shadows to be honest. Perhaps that's just me!
The only complaint I have about the eye dusts, is that as yet there are not all that many colours to choose from. I'm just hoping that if more people show an interest in them, that they will bring out more shades!

Gel Eyeliner - Tribe (£3.00)

 I was so excited to try this. I was not dissappointed. It's so cute, in a little pot with a brush concealed in the lid. And the colour! Oh gosh, the colour! I chose "Tribe" which is a bright blue colour. It's so nice. And it all looks so professional.

 Look at that colour! -sigh- It's dreamy.... And long lasting! After it dries (really quickly) it does not budge. No smudging, no fading. I had to scrub my arm to get it off. That was with soap and water anyway, so a makeup wipe should get it off with ease. But I'd say it's pretty strong, and shouldn't get damaged by general day-to-day life.

Nail Constellation - Leo (£3.00)

This is something I've wanted for ages, but Superdrug is always sold out! I suppose that speaks for how good it is. I haven't had chance to try it out yet. Mainly because I would have to take it off straight away (no nail polish in college) which I see as a waste. But in the Christmas holidays I shall be sure to try it and show you all. It does look amazing though, so I'm really looking forward to using it!

The Artiste Collection (£6.00)

 Oh how long I have wished for this pallette. It's just so beautiful. Look at those eyeshadow colours! Amazing. And the fact it also has blushers, a shader and a highlighter makes it even more enticing.

 These are the colours, and they're oh so pretty. Sorry about the small swatches - I hate making my eyeshadows look less than new, so I use as little product as possible. But I think it's enough to see how nice the colours are!

 Then the two blushers, the shader and the highlighter. It's quite nice to have these in a pallette, because my makeup kit is lacking in the face-makeup department. And the colours are quite lovely. I'm incredibly impressed.

The Immaculate Collecttion Palette (£8.00)

So, wow. I have the undressed palette and I was so impressed by it that I knew I wanted more. And this was my first choice. There are 24 eyeshadows, a mixture of shimmery and matte colours. I haven't swatched these because there are so many of them and I cannot bare to violate all of them. Instead, I shall leave you with this picture. I think it shows you enough of how gorgeous the colours are. And if the Undressed palette is anything to go by, the quality of these should be fantastic.

The Verdict:
I am so impressed by Make Up Academy. I need to search for a thesaurus because I cannot think of any words in my vocabulary to describe how much I love this company and their products.
As a major cheapskate, it's difficult to get good quality makeup without me feeling really distressed at the amount I'm spending. Thanks to MUA that is no longer the case. Their products are cheap and good quality and easily accessible (although the Superdrug in my hometown doesn't stock them). I will definitely be purchasing more of their products in the future.
If you want to buy any of their makeup online, their website is here.

Do you have any MUA products? What do you think of them? Any reccomendations?

Love B xxxxx