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.