Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Hope you enjoy whatever you're doing tonight. I don't celebrate Halloween but wanted to do some Halloween makeup. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this and I don't have any products such as liquid latex or spirit gum etc to do anything really creative so had to make do with what I had in my makeup collection. As per usual, I leave everything to the last minute and ended up doing this last night. I didn't know what I wanted to turn myself into and ended up making it up as I went along. I think it looks a little bit zombish although could have done with some more cuts and veins and rot haha - maybe next year.

I already had my makeup on from the day, my eyeshadow was very neutral in skin tones with a tiny bit of shimmer. This was mostly covered up. Because I didn't want it to look perfect, I just added more on top of what I already had on.

What I used:

• White eyeshadow (MAC Gesso) applied all over with a small foundation brush, packed onto my skin and 'scrubbed' in to get it to look a little patchy. I couldn't find a very light foundation to use cheaply yesterday so made do with eyeshadow but you could use a light foundation instead.

• Taupe-grey eyeshadow as a contour on a round eyeshadow brush to sketch out the shape and then blend downwards. Soften with a fluffy contouring brush. I used MAC Copperplate through my cheekbones, around the top of the nose to add shadow and depth to the eyes and along the jaw bone.

• Brown-red eyeshadow under the eyes to make them look sore, I used MAC Folie. I also used this colour in areas where I wanted my skin to look bruised.

• Grey eyeshadow under the eyes and on the lids to make them appear deeper set. I used MAC Scene.

• Matte black eyeshadow all over the lid and underneath for a dead and smudged makeup appearance.

• Reddish plum purple eyeshadow, I used the one from Sleek's PPQ palette to use around the bruised areas to darken and deepen the look of the bruises, I also used it in areas around the mouth and also smudged the excess on the brush around the nose to make my skin look blotchy.

• MAC Cream O Spice lipliner all over lips, use something brownish.

• For the blood I used MAC's Kissable Lip Colours in Love Peck and Strut Your Stuff. Fake blood would be ideal, liquid and gel based would give the best effect.

I also did a Halloween nail design.

I already had the base colours on for this, they are one of the new Nails Inc Gossip Girl kits (the Lily set). It is a deep plum black creme finish with a flake polish on top which flashes red-orange-green. I added China Glaze's Ghoulish Glow (glow in the dark nail polish) over the top of all fingers except the ring fingers. I used Illamasqua Gamma (neon orange) for the pumpkin and OPI Jade is the New Black (medium green creme) for the stalk and swirly leaves. I then added the face in China Glaze Liquid Leather (black creme).

I wasn't able to get a photo of the polish glowing in the dark, my camera just wouldn't pick it up, I probably need to figure out the correct settings. It is subtle but does glow. It needs to be in the light for a while to 'charge', it will eventually fade out and not glow, just like children's glow in the dark stars do. It also mutes the colour down but I like it for this as it makes it a swampy greenish colour.

Enjoy your Halloween!

Jennifer xx

Using Sleek Monaco Palette - Mixing Greens

As you might know, I am a complete green fiend. Green is my favourite colour, especially to wear on my eyes. In Sleek's Monaco Palette, there is only one green and I found myself wanting to create a green look and wanting to add other greens into the look but that would defeat the object of using only this palette. So I decided to mix my own greens using other shades in the palette to darken the existing green.

This is what I came up with...

Read on for more...

Monthy Favourites: July 2011

Hello all! It's that time again so let's get started. These are the products I've been using a lot during July.

First up, my newest perfume, Viktor and Rolf's Flowerbomb. It is a lovely perfume, floral, hence the name but with a good amount of sweetness to it but not so that it is cloying. It is a bit powdery and has a hint of fruit. I've got the EDT version, it is quite a strong perfume so you don't need a lot.

Next, MAC Semi Precious Goldstone MSF. I need to get my reviews up for this collection still. I'm a big fan of mineralize skinfinishes from MAC, I have a few different ones and enjoy using them a lot. I love the glow they give and their ability to highlight, blush and contour all in one (if it is a colour which isn't too light) The MSFs in the Semi Precious collection are quite special because they come with a splodge in the middle of a different colour. Goldstone allows you to use the middle to highlight and the outside to contour or use as a bronzer. Or you can mix them together and get a soft warmth to your skin. I love using this mixed on my cheeks and into my temples. It gives me a little bit more colour and makes me look like I've been on holiday.

Sleek's Monaco iDivine palette is next, if you have seen my Sleek look posts you will know that I have been getting good use out of it. It is a really fun, summery palette and has some gorgeous well pigmented shades in it. It has converted me to Sleek and I'm really looking forward to whatever future releases bring.

In the bottom row, the first product is Crazy Colour in Fire Red. I've had my hair coloured red at my hairdressers a while ago and she recommended using this when I washed my hair to prevent fading. For every other hair wash, I mix some of this with my conditioner and leave it on my hair for 10 minutes then wash out well. It boosts the vibrancy of my hair so that it doesn't look faded. Definitely something to try if you have coloured red hair as it tends to fade quite quickly. There are a large range of colours from Crazy Colour, blues, violets, greens etc so whatever colour your hair has been dyed, you colour probably find a suitable shade to use to 'top it up'. No peroxide is needed so it is easy to use.

Next to that are two L'Occitane products, one is a hand cream - this one is the Cherry Blossom one and the other is the Shea Butter lip balm. I always use L'Occitane hand creams, they are my favourite and work so well. The only one I dislike is the honey version because I don't like the smell of honey. They do have different consistencies but they are all lovely and moisturising. The Shea Butter one is the thickest and the Verbena is the most gel like. If you have dry skin or eczema, like me, try these out because I really find they work. The tube pictured is just a 15ml mini size but they do 30ml and larger sizes. I have a 100ml tube of the Shea Butter one for when my hands are horrendous.

The lipbalm is a really good product, the one I have is a trial size, it only has about 1cm of product in it but it is enough to realise how good this is for my lips. I tend to have dry lips but this deals with them so well, I will be repurchasing this when I'm out of it.

The lipstick is MAC Gem of Roses, another product from the Semi Precious collection. This is my perfect 'my lips but better' shade. It has a lustre finish so I find it quite moisturising although they never last very long on lips. It never looks bad when it fades though because it merges in with my natural lip colour anyway. I like this for days when I either can't be bothered to put much on my face or when I have a lot on my eyes.

Lastly is Benefit Benetint. This is a fantastic product for summer, once it is on, it just does not budge. It gives a perfect healthy flush to cheeks and looks so natural. You can use it on lips as well but I'm not really a fan of it on me because I find it quite runny so takes a while to get it looking even and it does fade unevenly from my lips throughout the day as I'm eating. For my cheeks though, I love it.

So there we go, has anyone else tried these products? What do you think of them?

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Jennifer x

Using Sleek's Monaco Palette - Mermaid Teals

My next look with Sleek's Monaco palette was inspired by mermaids, the blues and greens of the sea and shimmer. Green and teal are also my favourite colours to wear on my eyes, I think they bring out the green tones in them. I decided to put purply pink lips with it to finish off the bright look.

On my eyes I used Kiwi Zest (shimmery lime green) as the base colour, I added Aquamarine (matte turquoise) into the crease and blended upwards and slightly onto the outer part of the lid. I used Humming Bird (shimmery teal) through the crease to add definition and sparkle. Then I used Bamboo to blend all of the colours together nicely under the brow bone and to neutralise the pink in my brow bone. I applied Sunset (shimmery copper) along the lower lashes.

On my lips I wore MAC Rebel lipstick, gently patted on and smooshed together with my lips and then topped it with MAC's Fab Fun lipglass (this was limited edition with one of the lipglass sets from Tartan Tales last Holiday season - it is a sheer pink with iridescent sparkles, really pretty)

More Pics!

Using Sleek's Monaco Palette - Barbie Pink

Number 3 of the looks I have created using the Sleek Monaco palette. This time I wanted to create a look with the bright pink, it ended up looking very girly and a little Barbie-ish so I thought I'd go with it and add some false eyelashes (terrible application I will add, I am really new to attempting these and I've not got the hang on it yet) and a bit of pink lipstick.

I used Lotus Flower (shimmery lilac) over the whole of my lids and then applied Magenta Madness (bright matte magenta) through the crease and blended upwards gently as it is quite a strong colour. I added some Moors Treasure deep in the lower part of the crease and then lined my upper lash line with it. I softened the line so it wasn't as harsh and lined my lower lashes along the outer third with the same shade. I then lined the rest of my lower lashes with Lotus Flower. I put a teeny bit of black liner on the outer part of my upper lashes to add a little flick. The false lashes I used were from Eyelure and were the natural volume ones (not sure if they have a number or proper name), they are subtle and suitable for everyday wear if you wish (and can apply them properly, unlike me lol).

Also used:

Chanel Vitalumier foundation

Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer

Sleek Luminous Pressed Powder

NARS Laguna bronzer

NARS Orgasm blush

MAC Brow Pencil in Spiked

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Bobbi Brown Gel Liner in Black Ink

Chanel Inimitable Intense mascara in Noir

MAC Creme Cup lipstick

I wanted to see what it would look like with a brighter pink lipstick so I switched to MAC Chatterbox, one of my favourite lipsticks. I don't think the tone of the pink works as well as Creme Cup. I should have gone for something more magenta based, or even neon like MAC Candy Yum Yum.



Do you prefer the lighter or brighter pink lips?

I have 2-3 more looks coming up for this palette and then I'm going to move on to the Caribbean palette.

Jennifer xx

Using Sleek's Monaco Palette - Cranberry and Lime

Yesterday I put together another look using Sleek's Monaco Palette. This one took a bit of time to get looking right, it didn't start out very well but I stuckwith it and it worked in the end. I have liked using a contrasting colour along my lower lash line so did that here too. It also worked quite nicely with my hair colour at the moment which is much redder than it appears in the photos, going towards the cranberry shade on my eyes.

Heres what I did. I applied Washed Ashore (matte peach) over my whole lid then applied Sunset (shimmery coppery cranberry) through the crease with a 222 brush to get very soft difused shading as it faded out. I used Moors Treasure (matte plum) with a pencil brush right in the crease to add definition. Then I went back with the 222 to soften and blend into the cranberry. I added some Moors Treasure onto the outer part of my lids too and blended into the peach. I used Bamboo under my brows to sharpen the edges and blend into the other shades. Bamboo doesn't show up much on me but it works very well at neutralising redness and discolouration or blending together colours. Finally I used Kiwi Zest along my lower lash line. I didn't want a highlight colour as I felt I had quite a bit going on with the shimmery cranberry and lime.

Other products used:
UDPP
Philosophy Poreless Flawless Primer
Chanel Vitalumier
Bobbi Brown Corrector and Creamy Concealer
Sleek Luminous Pressed Powder
MAC Semi Precious Goldstone MSF
MAC Spiked Brow Pencil
Bobbi Brown Gel Liner in Black Ink
Chanel Inimitable Intense Mascara
MAC Gem of Roses Lipstick

Jennifer x

Using Sleek's Monaco Palette - Pink and Teal

I am really loving this palette, I have reached for it so much since I won Rachel's from All Things Rachy giveaway. I'm going to be posting some looks that I have created using it starting with this one which I did yesterday.

I used Lotus Flower (shimmery lilac) on my lid and then blended Magenta Madness (matte magenta) into the crease and upwards. I then applied some Moors Treasure (matte plum) into the outer corner and blended through the crease to darken and deepen. Lastly I applied a line of Humming Bird (shimmery teal) along my lower lash line.

Other products used:

Bobbi Brown Gel Liner in Denim Ink

Chanel Inimitable Intense Mascara

Bobbi Brown Corrector and Creamy Concealer

Chanel Vitalumier Foundation

Sleek Luminous Pressed Powder

MAC Semi Precious Goldstone MSF

MAC Spiked Brow Pencil

Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Romance

Like? I will be posting a few more as and when I use the palette so keep a look out for them!

Jennifer x

Sleek One Waterbased Finishing Powder

I was having slight problems with my foundation lasting a full days wear so I wanted to get a setting powder to help it along so that it didn't slip off or fade too much. I mean I don't wear a lot of foundation but for me it needs to last from around 7am when I put it on until about 6pm when I get home so 11 hours wear, that is a tough ask for any foundation and I expect it to fade a bit but I just wanted it to last a bit longer than it was so by the time I got home it still looked half decent. I'm not one to top up my makeup throughout the day, I just can't be bothered. The only thing I will top up is lipstick/gloss. I decided to go for a cheap brand - I can't remember where I saw this or if I just decided to go to sleek for some reason. But something made me go pick this up as I went to Superdrug specifically for it. It was about £7 so quite inexpensive to the MAC or Laura Mercier powders I'd been looking at previously - I mean, it is just powder to set my foundation to last a bit longer. I don't need anything fancy and just wanted to try something out to see if it made the difference.