FOTD Red Toned Smokey Eye

So who over indulgded in pancakes last night? Until last year I was never a fan. Then I started making pancakes american style!!! MMMMMmmm so much better. I'm planning to have my pancake day next week. What's your best topping?

Anyway on to today's post. I've decided to do another step by step FOTD. You can see my first one here. That one was my go to every day make up. A few people said they preferred the step by step way so here is another post.

Here are the products I used.

I started by applying a base of  Revlon PhotoReady Perfecting Primer (here £11.99) mixed with Stila One Step Correct Primer (here £24). I love the combination of both of these and regularly mix products. Especially foundation. When I want a flawless finish I always grab my Revlon ColorStay Foundation (here £12.99). I find this foundation perfect. It applies well doesn't look cakey and really lasts. I use my Real Techniques Expert Face brush (here £9.99). This is by far my favourite foundation brush. It's soft but dense.

To conceal under my eyes and my spots using Benefit Erase paste (here £19.50). I love this concealer. It's thick, covers everything, lasts but doesn't settle. To set my make up I'm absolutely love the Natural Collection Loose Powder (here £1.99). I love this powder. It's really soft, fine and looks natural on the face. I use my Real Techniques Setting Brush (here £8.99) for under the eyes and around the nose. I find using a smaller brush makes such a difference to how my make up looks by the end of the day. Then I use the Real Techniques Powder Brush (here £12.99). I love how soft and big this brush is.

On my brows I used my Benefit Browzings (here £22.50) I really like this but even though it's the light shade I do find it a bit dark some days. I'd love to find a product with a lighter coloured wax.

On the lids I used my mini Urban Decay Primer Potion (here full size £15.50). I do like this but I feel like there are other ones just as good for a lot cheaper so I'm just trying to use it up. I've been waiting ages to try out my Illamasqua Pure Pigment in the Shade Fervent (here £15.50) I love this shade. It's the first pigment I own. It's red/brown in some lights with a green/turquoise shimmer running though. I'm impressed with how these apply. Not at all messy as I expected. I really want more now. How do the Barry M dazzle dusts compare? Have you tried either?

I blended Mac Cranberry Eye shadow (here £12) I seriously love this eye shadow. I never thought I'd use a red eye shadow so much but I actually use this most days. It's surprisingly wearable. This was my first mac eye shadow and now I want more. I'm turning into such a brand girl. Believe it or not until last march I didn't own a high end make up item. L changed all that for me!

To smoke it out a bit more I applied Blackout  from my Naked 2 Palette (here £36). This is a perfect Matte Black, Natural Collection have a really good matte black shade too. I'm so excited to see MUA bringing out a version of this palettes. I will definitely be picking that up once the spending ban is over. I applied it the outer third of my eye and blended it. I also applied it under the eye.

To finish the eyes I applied a slick of black gel liner. Of course the Maybelline one (here £7.99) This is the best gel liner in my opinion. It's so smooth and lasts amazing. Mines getting low so I'm trying to use up normal eye liners and save it for when I'm going out. Stick eye liners just don't compare. I can't wait till the spending ban is over to pick up the other black shades of this. Especially the purple. I added 2 coats of  Lancome Hypnose Doll Eyes Mascara (here £21) I really do love this mascara but I don't honestly know if it's worth the extra £13 over my beloved Maybelline Colossal Volume.

I won a twitter competition before with Bourjois and was lucky enough to win some of there lashes. These are the Faux & Fabulous Lady in Black (here £7.99)

I've never used a half lash before. I love how these add subtle volume to the outer corner. I was worried you'd really be able to tell but they nicely thickened the outer lashes. I'll be picking up more half lashes to try. They also have black crystals on so are great for special occasions.

For cheeks I used my favourite duo Benefit Dandelion (here £23.50) and Liz Earle Healthy Glow Bronzer (here £19.50). I have reviewed both of these recently so won't say much about them. If you missed those posts you can read them again on this link.

I finished with Mac Angel Lipstick (here £14) with a smokey eye this is a perfect pinkey nude lip. It's subtle but still looks done. I feel strange without a lipstick now.

I really love a red smokey eye. I think it's a little different to the normal grey's and blacks. I want to try more colours from my collection and smoke them out. I want to get back to being brace with eyeshadow.

I really like the lashes on. I can't wait for a night out so I can wear this. 

Wow long post. Hope you liked it. I included links and prices to all the products this time. Let me know if you prefer posts to have links to all the products. I'd love to know what you think of posts like this as I'm enjoying doing make up looks but they make for long reading.

I love playing with my make up, I need to do it more and experiment. What's your favourite eye look for a night out? Do you stick with what you know? I think I need to buy a big palette after the spending ban.

Love M

xxx

Review: Real Techniques Setting Brush

For Christmas I asked for quite a few of the Real Techniques brushes. As they were on 3 for 2 I found 5 I wanted and couldn't decide on the 6th to make the most of the deal. I saw the setting brush and thought I'd try it.

The setting brush has a pink handle as it's classed as one of the finishing brushes. I love that Real Techniques brushes are colour coded. As this is one of the smaller brushes it doesn't stand on it's own as well as the others.

As with all of the Real Techniques brushes I've tried so far this brush is super soft. It washes amazingly and feels as soft after and it doesn't shed hairs. There is nothing more annoying than finishing your make up and being left with black bristles on your face. The brush is 100% cruetly free. Another big plus for Real Techniques, nobody wants animals to suffer! The synthetic bristles are hand cut. The tips are white and super soft, similar to the foundation brushes.

Here it is next to the stipling brush for size comparison. This brush can be used for a variety of different things. It's the perfect size for blending highlighter or using with powdered highlighters. I use it for setting my concealer.

I know this may seem like a pointless brush when you have a powder brush but my under eyes stay perfect all day when I use this. I use this to set my erase paste ( review here). This allows the powder to be applied so finely and perfectly sets my concealer. It leaves my make up looking so much more flawless. 

This was a brush I never thought I'd need but now couldn't be without. Do you have brushes like this? Would you ever think to use a smaller brush for your powder? I certainly didn't.

I really love all the Real Techniques brushes. They are such good quality and can be found in most Boots stores regularly on offer. The setting brush can be picked up for £8.99.

Love M

 xxx

Review: Liz Earle Natural Glow Bronzer

This product has been on my wishlist for a while. I'd heard it was great for paler skin tones and from what I could see online gave a gorgeous natural effect. This was something my other half got me for Christmas. From L giving him a list.

It did come boxed but I was a bad blogger and used it before I photographed it. I like items that come boxed. It feels more luxurious. Though a waste as the box just goes in the bin.

The compact itself is navy with a slight shimmer. It's wipe clean and has stayed looking surprisingly clean. Even after I've got my mucky foundation covered hands on it. It's got a solid closure which is good for putting in your handbag and a good size mirror.

It has Liz Earle embossed into the product and as you can tell I've used quite a bit of mine. For around 6 weeks usage to be only down to the embossed layer is good in my book. The product is a gorgeous matte product. It's not super pigmented but this is why I love it. As if you are like me and pale it can easily be applied to the skin and built up if needed and you don't have to worry about having brown stripes.

Swatched on the skin it does look slightly orange but when on the face this doesn't translate. A word of warning don't be put off if you swatch in store and it doesn't really show up on your skin as this product comes across on the face a lot better. I'd recommend asking to have it applied.

Here it is on just foundation. As you can see it just gives my face natural shape back after foundation and makes me look like I have cheekbones.

This photo shows it's contouring off better. I have used this almost everyday since I got it in combination with Benefit Dandelion (reviewed here). For me these two are the perfect cheek combination. They are easy to apply without having to worry about over doing it.

You can pick it up for £19.50 in John Lewis (here) which I think is reasonable. It will last a long time. Lately I find myself swaying towards more high end brands. Which is probably what has put me on a spending ban. A great alternative for a contour shade is No7 blush in honey. I used it on a FOTD here so you can see the effect. This was my everyday go to before the Liz Earle.

Have you tried the Liz Earle make up? What do you use to contour?

Love M

xxx

NOTD: Valentine's Day

With Valentine's day on Thursday we thought we'd post some ideas for cute nail art. Any excuse for us to play around with our nail polishes collections as we are both huge nail polish addicts.

L had picked up a cute Nicole by OPI polish called Have a Heart which is just perfect for Valentine's nail. It's a pretty fine clear glitter that has pink foil hearts suspended through it. 

Over the top of a Essie Lovie Dovie which is a gorgeous medium pink nail polish the hearts really stand out.

As with a chunky glitter and other polishes similar to this to achieve the even effect with the hearts it works best to more dab them on from the brush.

It gives a really cute effect and is perfect for Valentine's day! 

From looking online this polish now seems a rare one! It may be different in the US but if you want this ladies I could only find 3 bottles of it on eBay.

Lately I have been back to biting my nails. I'm so annoyed at myself but just can't seem to stop. Back to the bad tasty polish and stuff I think. Any tips let me know.

For now I tend to keep false nails on as much as possible as it means I can't bite them. I stuck some on Tuesday and was playing around with some designs. After those come off I have bit my nails so low I can't put false ones on at the moment so I only have my playing around ones to show you all.

Image from Get Nailed Facebook.

I had to share this with you. I've recently found this on Facebook. You can like her page here. She hand paints the most amazing nail art designs for reasonable prices and does amazing phone cases too. Once the spending ban is over I'm going to be ordering from her. If you're quick she has a competition to win these ones going on till tomorrow (Monday 11th)

Anyway when I saw these nails I was totally inspired. Especially by the heart tips. I love the simplicity of it.

I started off with a base coat of OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress. I got this in the best of the best collection a few years ago from my other half (who told me the other day he wanted to be referred to as A if I have to blog about him) I tossed this colour aside. It was one of those I didn't swatch and decided from the bottle I wouldn't like it. Something about it in the bottle made me think of a colour for my mum more. I mean a shimmery metallic darker red didn't scream put me on your nails.

I missed judged it. On the nails I love it. It comes out as such a gorgeous shade of red. Bad M judging nail polish on it's colour in the bottle. I was impressed with the quality. After one coat it was perfect but I went with two out of habit.

I tried to use my white Model's Own nail art pen to draw heart tips. Who knew that would be so hard. I didn't like the way it looked so I tried to cover it with glitter. I still didn't think it looked that good. I love the way it looks on Get Nailed's nails but on mine I couldn't get the shape right.

So I tried something different, a little simpler and it worked a lot better. I think this would look cute on just the thumb and ring finger. I used the Nail Art pen again. You could use a dotting tool or kirby grip just as easily. I used three dots to get the heart shape. Sometimes simple is best.

Something I may have to try for my nails though is this design from Polish You Pretty.

I really love how cute this looks.

Hope you like our ideas.

Love M

xxx