ILLAMASQUA'S PARANORMAL PALETTE

This palette retails at £34.00, and I can see why.

First off, I'm not sure how to describe the texture of these eye shadows. They flit between cream and powder: you can squash them in the pan, but they appear powdery on the skin. Somehow Illamasqua have managed to gather the best of both worlds, ensuring high pigmentation and incredible staying power.

I've swatched each shadow on my arm, to show the intensity that you can get from just one swipe. Paranormal is a vivid pink/red, Aura is a beautiful iridescent copper, Trance is a lovely deep purple, and finally Possession is a green that's almost like a glittery Fledgling!

Every shadow has a gorgeous satiny look, and a wash of glitter running through. I'm normally a matte shadow kinda girl, but this has won me over. It's so versatile, and each shadow works perfectly on its own, as well as part of a colourful eye look. They're also water resistant, so great if you're an artist creating a wet face or doing a water shoot.


Here's some looks I created with the palette alone. No primers, no other shadows, just the palette, mascara and liner on the eyes. Each look took less than ten minutes to do, due to the pigmentation of the shadows, which are really easy to blend.

Above: I've used every single shadow in the palette, to show how they work together. The green really brings out the three warmer colours, and I especially like Paranormal & Possession alongside each other. 

Here's a copper look, created using Aura in the inner eye, and Paranormal over the lid, with a hint of Trance in the socket line.

All of this is the green shadow: Possession. It makes my eyes look bluer than they are, and looks great against black lashes. I know this colour would look incredible on black skin, too.

CON(S)
It may be due to the formula, but it does feel like you don't get much product in this palette. The other Illamasqua palettes seem to last me a lot longer.
As an MUA, the palette isn't perfect: pans often fall out of the casing, so I'm scared to travel with it. However, I've superglued every pan back down, and there's been no movement since.

You can buy the palette here.

ENGLISH ROSE

Today I made my own false eyelashes for the first time. I went shopping at The Range this weekend, and found a lovely set of pink paper roses for £1. I swear I wasn't thinking soppy Valentine's day thoughts at the time! I started off with a cheap pair of plain black false eyelashes, ripped off individual petals from the roses, and stuck them one-by-one onto the lash line. For an extra pop of colour, I attached a couple of paper leaves to the outer corners.

While waiting for the lashes to dry, I applied a simple base, with no powders. I used Illamasqua's Skin Base. This is the only foundation I've found that works as well for my oily skin as it does for other people's dry skin. It's truly versatile and they actually cater for olive & black skin, which is a must. I wanted the overall look to be young, pretty and girly, but with a bit of an edge. The skin is not going to be the focus here, so I played it down.

Eye make-up wise, I wanted a 'watercolour' effect, so I used MAC Miss Piggy Pink (unfortunately a limited edition) as an all-over wash, then used a shocking pink from the Crownbrush Pro88 Palette 01 (which is an absolutely amazing palette if you love make-up) to darken the socket line, creating more depth. I subtly mimicked the lash layout by working a forest green from the same palette into the 'V' in the outer corners of my eyes.

Lips are courtesy of Collection 2000's Cream Puff in 'Cotton Candy'. I can't sing enough praises for these matte lip creams. They're worth so much more than their £2.99 price tag. Cotton Candy is a lovely pink, but I love Fairy Cake almost as much- it has a slight pop of coral to it. Ignore the sickly-sweet innocent names, and they'll be a staple in your make-up bag.

Once I was happy with the rest of my make-up, I applied the lashes. They were pretty heavy, but there's something lovely about creating a breeze when you blink! I used the Miss Piggy Pink as a blush. Yes, it's strictly an eye-shadow, but who cares? It was the colour I needed, and on top of Illamasqua's powder blush in Nymph (a lovely, very pigmented, matte blusher), it made my cheeks look exactly the right shade of pink.

I clipped the left over paper roses into my hair, for a bit of embellishment and to tie the look together.

It was at this point that I decided to line my bottom waterline with black- Nars' longwear liner is perfect for this, and has incredible staying power. My reasons were that the face looked too innocent with nothing dark next to the pink, and that I needed something to balance out the height of the lashes, without dwarfing the eye. So you can decide for yourself, here's the face without the liner:

And with: 

Bonus shallow 'arty' shot:

Eye open, then closed:

Thank you for reading! Please let me know in the comments section if you liked today's look, or if you would've done anything differently.

NARS & SELFRIDGES' BRIGHT YOUNG THING

I’ve got some amazing news! If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my entries for #narsbyt, a social media competition for aspiring make-up artists. The prize? An artistry day with NARS’ international lead stylist, make-up artist Jane Richardson. Each week a colour was given as a theme, and the task was to create a make-up look featuring said colour.

I only found out about this on the penultimate week, and the two themed weeks I entered were Blue & Violet. Nars are known for their amazingly pigmented, dense products, with beautiful depth and a hint of sparkle. I decided to take the brief of ‘blue’ to the extreme, and this is what I came up with:



Next, violet. I have to say that I absolutely love using purples around the eyes. I have blue/green eyes and it never fails to bring out the green. So, using eyeshadow in Daphne & Lulu, I created a heavy smoky eye. I decided to go for a purple lip as well.


And that’s the image that crowned me Nars’ Bright Young Thing! Not only did I win the Violet week, I won the overall competition, and got to spend a day with Jane Richardson in London.

I’m a small town girl, so London was, well, overwhelming. We met in the Ampersand hotel on the seventeenth of December, in a beautiful room filled with art & books. A beautiful model joined us, and I was basically let loose! I’ll show you some of the things we practised: masculine brows, natural foundation, contouring, lipstick and, finally, a black & gold eye look.









Oh, and this is a photo of me on the day, a result of many hours of stressing and finally settling on a beehive and flicky eye!


I had an amazing time. It was so inspiring, and Jane taught me more than I could’ve imagined. It’s only strengthened my desire to make make-up my job. I went home beaming, with a massive bag of products and a head full of ideas.



A few days later, I couldn’t help but recreate the look on myself.



So, that’s what I’ve been up to! A bit of a whirlwind: I never expected all of this. I’m so grateful.

MY SKINCARE & ACNE

These are before & after photos of my acne. I haven’t got photos of my skin at its worst, but this comparison shows the difference skincare made to me.

I believe good skincare is essential if you’re passionate about make-up. Think of you the canvas, and skincare as the preparation of that canvas. It’s true that foundation will look much better on a smooth, moisturised face, and after a few weeks of improving your skincare routine, the results should be promising.

Personally, I suffer from spot-prone skin, with bouts of acne. I’ve managed to control the breakouts and I now feel comfortable without foundation and concealer. When I started breaking out with acne I didn’t have any clue what caused it, how to treat it, or even how to cover it effectively.

What might surprise you about acne is:

• It hurts. Worrying about acne isn’t vain and pointless. Spots hurt. They bleed and weep, and lurk under the skin for days.
• It scars. It’s pretty easy to be left with very visible scars from an acne breakout.
• It’s not just teenagers. Many adults suffer from acne too. Your skin doesn’t magically transform as you hit twenty years old.

I’m going to outline just how I keep my skin under control. Of course this is not a fix-all guide: everybody’s different, and your treatment has to suit your skin.

1. STOP. Stop buying lotions and potions that promise you the world. If there was a cream that stopped acne, you’d know about it. If there was real science behind it, it’d be a miracle product. Stop wasting money and hope on these products.
2. STICK. Switching between products is not going to solve your problems. If you do this, you have no idea what is causing your flare-ups, solving them, or soothing them. Similarly, using many products with the same aim (ie. three different acne-treating moisturisers) is going to do much the same.
3. SIMPLE. Forget exfoliating, tough, strong gels, and creams that sting when you apply them. I wasted months on Clearasil and Clean & Clear. I just found that all these managed to do was strip my skin of whatever was left, aggravate the acne, and leave it sore.
4. SENSITIVE. The trick is to treat your skin like VERY sensitive skin- this is essentially what it is. Think of the acne as a response to the products with alcohol as their first ingredient, scrubby gels and harsh moisturisers.
   
   Always take your make-up off. I like to take mine off as soon as I get home, so that I know I won’t be lazy or forget. I use No7′s cream cleanser, but any simple cream cleanser works. Supermarkets often sell Vitamin E cleanser, or moisturising cleanser. It’s essential that it’s creamy and not foamy. Remember, you need to tread on eggshells with your skin. I use a face cloth, and warm (NOT hot) water, and cleanse until my face is clear. I then let it dry. Before bed, I apply Boots’ Botanic oil. This is the only thing I’ve been able to use that doesn’t cause spots. I have oily skin, and applying oil does seem counter-intuitive, but it definitely works. When I wake, I don’t cleanse again- that would be too harsh- but if my skin is dry, I’ll apply some more oil.
   
   This routine has to be stuck to. Don’t expect immediate results, but stick with it, persevere, and if it doesn’t work then try another technique. I can’t stress how much being gentle with my skin has helped it.