Jewelled Manicure

Illamasqua Charisma topped with nail gems from the pound shop.

Naked and Dramatic (+Tutorial!)

I love this look: this eye forms the basis of my 'everyday' wear but yesterday I ramped things up with an amazing Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Temper. I've always struggled with this one - it's very sticky and almost -too- pigmented! But yesterday I thought I might be applying too much so used about half of what I would usually and applied with a lipbrush. It's not very long-wearing but my God it's pretty. It has an almost stain-like effect when applied like this and is definitely a better choice now.

This is a basic brown smokey eye using neutrals from the Urban Decay Naked Palette. This, like all of my Urban Decay Palettes, gets used SO much. It took a while to learn to love it because I am so not a neutrals girl; however, it's brilliant for smokey eyes and the softer and pale shades are brilliant for blending. 

This is how you create my standard brown smokey eye - really easy and can be daytime or evening depending on how dramatic your make up usually is. 

1) Apply Urban Decay Eye Primer Potion all over the lid and up to the brow
2) Using any brush you like - I prefer a small domed fluff brush (like the MAC 239) - apply Urban Decay Smog all over the lid up to the crease, using a reasonable amount of product and buffing it in, which I find makes the colour truer and longer-lasting.
3) Using a fluffy crease brush (I'm using Sephora's Rounded Crease Brush to excellent effect in pretty much every eye look) to apply Darkhorse through the crease, and winging it up toward the brow.
4) Using that same brush, blend any harsh lines into each other.
5) Take a clean brush and apply brow highlight. For a shimmery brow highlight, I like Virgin and Sin mixed together, whilst Virgin alone is more of a satiny sheen shade.

Hope you enjoyed this!

Alison xxx

I Am Generation Q

Illamasqua's new collection, Generation Q, is absolutely beautiful. My favourite look is on the model Georgia. The strong highlighting and contouring mixed with the insane colours. I tried to recreate it today, using some Illamasqua products and lots of others.

I don't know how well you can see from this photo, but I've mostly used Georgia's eye make-up as a starting point. The strong highlights down the nose I definitely toned down - but for the first time ever I got busy with a lip brush and a pale foundation to highlight. It worked a lot better than I was expecting to be honest - you can to some extent see it on the pictures but in person the effect was definitely impressive! Lots more light thrown on my face and an overall more contoured, almost 'slimmed down' effect. To achieve this I darkened my usual base somewhat by mixing Revlon ColorStay in Ivory and Bourjois Healthy Mix in 51. I then used the Revlon alone to create the highlights. For blush, I used Illamasqua Ambition, a beautiful rosy coloured shimmer blush, which I placed along my cheekbones and blended down into my contour, which was actually an eyeshadow today! I use Nars Laguna a lot but I wanted something a little more brown and so used Urban Decay Naked eyeshadow as a contour, underneath the hollow of my cheekbones. 

I've been really wanky here and shut my eyes so you can see the way I've used Georgia's look as inspiration. I really liked the way there was iridescent purples and brown tones used in her look and I used that as a starting point to create something that's pretty heavy for daytime but actually turned out to be a really flattering smokey eye with an edge. The colour shift (and blending!) was a lot more obvious in person but this picture is useful because you can clearly see where I've used each colour. I used Illamasqua Cream Shadow in Debauch as a base for this look, all over the lid, over my usual Urban Decay Primer Potion in Greed. I then loaded Urban Decay Half Truth from the 15 palette onto the lid, patting some Urban Decay in Omen onto the centre part of the lid. This is a gorgeous blue-violet duochromatic shimmer and placed in the centre of the really caught the light and lifted the look. In the crease - and winged out - I used MAC Blue Brown pigment. I really packed it on so that it was mostly born and the blue was mostly visible from extreme angels or in direct light. I blended like a mo'fo but didn't feel it was quite defined enough at the edge of the 'wings'. I dived back into my UD 15 palette and mixed MIA and Deeper to create a deep, shimmering brown to line around the wings. I used a wet brush to really give some strong definition. I then used Urban Decay Virgin to put a highlight on the browbone and down towards my tearduct and then on top of the brow to mimic Georgia's bright highlighting. Eyes are lined with Illamasqua Glister.

On the lips is Versace V2010C, an iridescent plum, and NYC Big Apple Spice, a copper gloss. 

Tuesday Tumblr Round-Up!

It's that time again guys... I'm picking out anything that's inspired me or tickled me this week.

GB-themed and so so cute: WAH Nails are always my favourite.

Illamasqua's nail art looks are always super-beautiful and Leanne from Do Not Refreeze has recreated the nails from their gorgeous new collection Generation Q. Not from Tumblr, but they're SO pretty.

Nail Nerd does possibly the best thing I've ever seen on nails.

Putting a fashion twist on the gorgeous galaxy manicure.

Polish You Pretty gives us some Pineapple Express nail art.

Another classy Essie manicure: I'm getting simple and sophisticated in my old age.

Bazinga! I still loves ALL THE GLITTER

Enjoy!

Alison xxx

Twinkle, Twinkle - NOTD

Excuse how jacked-up and abused this mani looks, packing and unpacking are NOT on my top tips for nail care...

This is two coats of Illamasqua's Boosh topped with two coats of Sephora's gorgeous blue flaky topcoat Twinkle, Twinkle. The beautiful Sarah (@sazmerelda) bought me this from France and it's lovely. It shifts from an electric neon blue to a royal indigo and looks stunning over this black polish. 

LOVE THIS.

Again, excuse how awful this looks... I will be resuming totally normal service shortly. 

Alison xxx  

Minnie Minaj

This is three coats of OPI's If You Moust, You Moust from the Minnie Mouse collection, topped with a coat of the supermegafoxyawesomehot holographic bar glitter from the OPI Nicki Minaj collection called Save Me. I love this combination. Like all holographic manicures it's at its best in the sunshine but because there are silver and blue glitters in the Nicki Minaj so it's still pretty awesome otherwise. Enjoy!

Alison xxx

Drugstore Lip Product Favourites

While going through my stash as I was packing, I thought it would be good to do a little collection of some of my favourite drugstore products and swatch and review them. These are all under £5 and beautiful pigmented products that act like they are much more expensive than that. These are my six favourites and I'm going to run through some swatches and a quick review of each. The six products are:

• Sleek True Colour Lipstick in Papaya Punch
• Boots 17 Lasting Fix Lipstick in Showbiz
• Boots 17 Supreme Shine Lipstick in Pink Posey
• Collection 2000 Cream Puff in Angel Delight
• NYC "SmoochProof" (ugh) 16Hr Lipstain in Champagne Stain
• NYC Liquid Lipshine in Big Apple Spice 

I've tried to make sure these products are pretty evenly divided in terms of texture, from my favourite ultra-dry mattes to a full-on high-pigment gloss. Sleek's True Colour Lipstick is a brilliant product, retailing at £4.99 and available in 20 different shades from Superdrug. Researching this post I found that Sleek shows swatches of all their products on fair, medium and dark skin, which I have never seen before but think is absolutely wonderful and such an important thing. I have a post brewing in the back of my head about racism in the beauty industry which I'm sure will pop up at some point. The shade I've featured is Papaya Punch, a coral pink that leans slightly orange without being TOO daring. However, it's pigmented like WHOA and is very bright and intense even at one swipe. If you're prone to dry lips I would use some lip balm (or Lanolips!) with this as it does tend to be quite drying. For me that's no bad thing but I know it would put some people off. Next up (product pics and swatch pic are all in the same order) we have Boots 17 Lasting Fix Lipstick, which kind of bridges the gap between a creamy lipstick that doesn't dry up your lips and a very intense matte shade. It's not a flat and 'powdery' matte but would not pass muster as a gloss. It's got enough slip to apply and wear comfortably but the pigment ensures a smooth application of a true colour that lasts like nobody's business. You can see in the swatch picture that it has a little sheen to it but nothing so dramatic as a gloss or shimmer effect. Gorgeous budget red lipstick and would happily use this as my only red lipstick! I don't.... but I would. AND...it's only £4.29 at Boots and also comes in 20 shades. Another Boots 17 product is next - I love these as they often have 3 for 2 or gifts with purchase - and who doesn't love that! This sheer shade is Supreme Shine Pink Posey, which is a frankly bizarre name for a purple lipstick. And they spelt 'posy' wrong, not me. Just to clarify. I'm not usually big on sheers but this turns into the most awesome berry coloured lipstick when mixed with Illamasqua Violate, which I swatched here and is a crazy dark green shimmery lipgloss. It's actually also really cute as a daytime lip which is not at all too purple when worn and can often just pull a warm look back to neutral. When there's 13 shades all for £4.99 each, I really don't believe in arguing too much, and I can imagine this to be a great starter lipstick for someone who wants to try a few crazier colours without having to commit TOO much. The next product is pretty much a matte dupe of Viva Glam Gaga II, which I do NOT endorse duping - it is a charity product and 100% of the RRP goes straight to the MAC AIDS charitable concerns. However, I own it and it's sometimes a little too glossy for me due to its amplified creme finish and its awe-inspiring amount of slip. So I anchor it over this: Collection 2000 Cream Puff Moisturising Lip Colour. A few words to start with: this is NOT moisturising. It is, on the other hand, matte like you won't believe. It only comes in four shades, which is a shame as I'd love to see this in red, orange or bright pink, though it tends to be a neutral line. It's £2.99, which is just crazy cheap, and it lasts a long time and doesn't have that tendency to run or smudge that a lot of products do. It will just stick. Doesn't even come off on cigarettes. The final two swatches are both by NYC Cosmetics, who I just LOVE. Their foundation isn't worth the bottle it's housed in, but for nail polishes and lip products for less than THREE QUID, you really cannot go wrong here. Like, seriously. Second from the right we have the 16 Hour "SmoochProof" Lipstain (scare quotes mine, I can't say that word seriously). This is a felt pen that lots of people will detest due to its drying properties, lack of balm on the other end and the fact that felt tip lip products often dry out in the tube pretty quickly. This shade is Champagne Stain, which just sounds horrid. However, the fact that this is a felt tip pen lip stain that actually has some pigment is not lost on me, and I love it under Lanolips or any sheer and glittery gloss - particularly MAC Evolution Revolution. OR I also love the next product, NYC Liquid Lipshine in Big Apple Spice, painted over aforementioned stain, which gives a multilayed effect that I really like. Big Apple Spice is not a colour I would normally choose: these kind of coppery-neutral glosses aren't usually massively flattering on me but I do love the fact that it's quite Autumnal - and almost a bit festive. I'm not saying the C word though. 

Phewf, I'm knackered from typing that and must refuel with cake. 

Alison. xxx