Hey Everyone!!
In my bid to at least try and produce some shorter videos on my channel, I show here how to achieve a quick smokey eye with minimal products, and with little to no effort or skill needed!!
Products used:
BH Cosmetics Eye & Lip Primer.
Mac's "Feline" Kohl Pencil (Or use "Smoulder")
Mac's Mega Metal Shadows (From Peacocky Collection)
"Sex-Pectations" (Or use "Star Violet")
"Peek-at-you" (Or use "Shroom")
Mac's Haught & Naughty Lash Mascara
Collection 2000 Color Lash in "Brown"
And for the Lips.....
MakeUpForever Aqua Lip LipLiner 10C
Mac's Lip Gelée "Luxuré" (From "Champale" Collection)
So, I'll start with the back story of my discovery of this liquid gold!! I recently started watching "JuicyTuesday" on Youtube (A little late to the party I know!). And after watching a few videos I noticed that the lovely Theresa kept raving about the Vichy "Dermablend" corrective foundation and I was interested to try it out as I have the Dermablend concealer and LOVE it!!
So I made the trip to my local Boots and went looking to test out the colours but there were no testers:(
The only tester I could find that was in any way pale was for the "Aera Teint Pure" Foundation in the colour #12 "Trés Clair, Opal" and this colour happened to be the palest, and seemed perfect from first blend, though on the back of my hand!
But as I really wanted to try the "Dermablend" one and had this stuck in my head, I decided to go away and check back in a few days time to see if they would get the tester in.
Anyhow, next day I happened to take a gander into a local pharmacy near my house, "McLoughlins", and they had the entire range as well as nice full testers! So I immediately squeezed out a little of the lightest "Dermablend" colour which is #15 "Opal" and it was too dark. I had another look at the "Aera Teint Pure" colour in #12 and again it seemed the perfect shade. Then I noticed that the foundation came in 2 formulations, a creamy one for day/sensitive skin and a fluid one for normal/combination skin which I thought was cool.
But when I saw that it cost only €18.00 I was sold!!
It's a 30ml bottle, same as most other foundations like Mac's bottled foundations etc but compared to Mac's Studio Fix Fluid, €13.00 cheaper!!!
And the rest is history!!
I got it home, have worn it every day since (On day 4 so far) and though I know it's early days yet, I just don't see a down side to this product!!
I've been testing it without any primer underneath to see how well it performs alone, and I have to say, I'm just blown away by how well it lasts and how lovely it looks on the skin.
So, mine is the Normal/Combination formulation.
It comes in a 30ml Glass bottle.... with a pump ^_^
It is supposed to be 12 hours wear, it's a light fluid formula and gives medium coverage.
Vichy says:
Even with make-up, the skin breathes as naked skin
Action :
First range of foundations using the micro-aerated and non-occlusive technology which evens out the complexion without blocking the pores and lets the skin breath.
AERA TEINT Ideal for… :
Women of all ages with dry or normal skin.
It contains minerals, has a day friendly SPF of 20 and an anti-pollution action.
According to what I've read on the internet, there should be 5 shades
*15 Opal
*23 Ivory
*35 Sand
*46 Honey
*58 Bronze
.....But I have shade #12 Trés Clair, Opal, so clearly there is at least 6 shades. So not sure if that is a newly brought out shade or what but either way, I'm just glad I have it and that it exists!!
You could definitely say that having only 5/6 shades is a negative and there seems to be a fair jump in colour between each shade but the palest one is very pale and the darkest one is quite dark so from a makeup artists point of view, it's good enough for my kit.
I only need one pump and it blends so smoothly over my skin! In fact, there's a little left over from just the one pump so I will have to see if I can do a "Half pump" so as not to waste any of it.
It has a natural satin-like finish that's not too matte nor is it to sheeny. I've set it with both Mac's Mineralize Skin Finish Natural and ELF's Invisible HD loose powder, and have noticed minimal shine showing through after several hours of wearing it, especially around my problem nose area.
The shade I have, #12, is quite a nice neutral shade. On the back of my hand it looks perhaps the tiniest bit pink but once blended in it just disappears and completely fades away. It lightens my face up just enough to match my paler neck and chest but doesn't look ghostly like other paler shades tend to look.
Anyhow, that's all she wrote for now, but I will come back with an update in a month or so to see if it stays up to standard.
As I get told so much from Youtube viewers that it's great seeing an Irish person sticking themselves on Youtube for the world to see, I thought I'd share some of my favourite Irish Youtube peeps with ye all!! I'm subscribed to them because they are all lovely and have great talents and great channels, and I think ye'll all agree!! So check them out and go listen to more Irish babble!!
Mastering well blended eyeshadow seems to be up there with mastering liquid liner for many of you, well those who contact me through my Youtube channel at least. To get a nice blend does require a little practice as well as a few techniques, and very importantly, the right tools!!
*I would first advise doing your eye makeup before your foundation, this will allow for any fall out from blending eyeshadows to be cleaned away easily without you having to re-do your base!
*Next, remember that powder eyeshadows will blend much easier over a smooth, dry base. This is achieved by applying a powder base to the lids before applying the colour shadow.
Translucent face powder or a nude coloured eyeshadow will work best.
If you want to apply a cream eyeshadow or tacky base of some sort first, for the shadow to adhere to (to make it more vibrant or intense), then just apply your base powder down from the brow to where the cream base ends. This will allow you to still have a smooth blend above your crease line.
*Spend as long as you need when blending the eyeshadow. Adding a little shadow at a time and blending as you go will make life much easier on yourself. And so as to not compromise the colour intensity of your shadow, only blend around the edges of the shadow shape that you are trying to achieve!
*Having a blending or crease brush is extremely important when working on a seemless blend. A dense & fluffy, dome shaped brush will work best for this. Check out my video & post on my favourite blending brushes HERE
One more thing to remember when it comes to brushes, it that natural haired bristles will blend powder products much better than synthetic fibre brushes.
*The best example of a perfect blended eyeshadow is the "Smokey Eye". Most people seem to think that this means a black or gray coloured eye but it just means any eyeshadow colour that is applied to the lids and blended out to almost nothing, as if faded into your skin.
Anyhow, out with your brushes, whatever colours you like, and remember to BLEND BLEND BLEND ^_^
(So again, this post was moved from my old blog to this one so it's a little dated but I wanted it up before I make my video on my favourite foundations of the minute. I still love these foundations but a couple of new foundations that I have discovered since writing this blog may have crept into my top 5 and pushed others out!! Either way, ye'll find out shortly in my upcoming videos!!)
(Some of you may have read this post before as I've just moved it from my old blog to this one!! However I plan on making a video on my favourite foundations of the moment soon so I thought it'd be a good time to add this to this blog rather than re-typing it all out again!!)
As I’ve said before, my skin type is very changeable and I often find myself with dry/dehydrated skin mostly during the cold winter months. Because of this I have tried my fair share of moisturising foundations and also have had many clients who have drier skin. I very much believe that it’s extremely important to treat dry skin as this skin type ages much quicker than it’s oilier counterpart!
So the best foundations I’ve tried & tested are.......
Wanna see the makeup that I wore out on New Years Eve this year?
I wasn't going to post this yet as I'm not sure if I will upload the accompanying video or not.
BH Cosmetics sent me 3 palettes along with a brush set and eye/lip primer for review or tutorial, but they will be sponsoring my video so since the lighting on the tutorial that I have filmed for it turned out awful, I may have to film another one. I want it to be perfect before I upload it but I'll leave that 'til during the week, so for now I'll show some photo's and the product list, and if I do upload, it'll appear here in a couple of days time!!
(Mon 3rd Jan; It's a go :) Here's the video!! Enjoy, and again sorry about the poor lighting!!)
I went for a pink eyeshadow look, with classic liner, lashes and under-eye glitter to add a party element to the look. I used colours from the 120 BH Cosmetics Palette, 3rd edition. (See pics below of palette)
