Rainbow Ombre Effect

You might (or might not!) be happy to hear that I have handed in all of my MA work, except my dissertation. Therefore I will have a little more time to blog in the evenings as I plan to spend 9-5pm researching and writing my dissertation until it is due in September. So, without further ado, on to today's post!

The picture above shows my first attempt at rainbow gradient nails. Yes, my 'ring finger' nail broke right down the other day as I caught it whilst going to reach for uni books on my shelf! Tore the thing off, which hurt badly. As a result, this nail is tiny to compare with the rest. I don't have fake nails to put on it and I'd rather not risk wrecking my natural nails. Here is a brief run through the steps I took to achieve this look, in case you want to replicate it!

1. Apply a base coat to protect your nails.
2. Place a make up sponge in a bowl of water whilst you carry out step three. An optional step would be to put tape around your nails to avoid having to use a cotton bud / Q-Tip to remove the excess polish on your fingers at the end.
3. Apply a white polish to act as a base. I tried it without this step but my natural nail just showed through, so it is an essential step to get the colours looking opaque.
4. Wait for your white base to dry. Now your sponge should have soaked up a good amount of water. We carry out this step as otherwise the sponge will merely suck up your polish and waste it! Squeeze it out and paint the colours of your choice directly onto the sponge in lines. Don't worry about blending them as the sponge will naturally do this for you! Just stripe them on, leaving no gaps.
5. Then use the sponge to essentially 'stamp' the colour onto your nails. You might not get an even finish the first time, so leave the first layer to dry. Then simply repeat the process - don't panic about it spoiling the gradient, if anything it actually helps to blend the colours if they aren't placed over each other exactly.
6. Once you're happy with the opacity of the colours, apply your favourite top coat and you're done! If you didn't put tape on your nails, now is the time to take a cotton bud / Q-Tip and remove any polish that strayed onto your fingers. 

Enjoy! I applied this to my nails, then decided to try and replicate the look on my eyes. This is how it came out:

I did a Bride's Make up!

Last Friday (the 17th of February) my boyfriend's step-sister got married and I was tasked with doing her wedding make up. I was incredibly nervous about doing it as I've only ever once done another person's make up from scratch (I have done eye make up for others several times). I only got to practice the day before the wedding at 11pm as the bride lives around 2 hours from me and I'm too poor to travel at the moment (as it was my first attempt at wedding make up and she's a member for the boyfriend's family, I was doing it for free). I just thought I would share with you how I went about it and the results of my work (bearing in mind I am self-taught and not a professional!).

I did the make up to the brides brief; it was her day and I complied to her wishes, as best I could. I started with a primer to keep the make up in place for as long as possible and kept the foundation light by mixing it with moisturiser as the bride wanted her skin to look like her own, just more evened-out. I applied it using my beauty blender at first, then switched to a buffing brush to really work it into the skin. A pearly-pink highlighter (Benefit's High Beam) was added to the high points of the face - cheekbones, nose bridge and cupid's bow. I filled in the brows very lightly with powder to keep a soft and more natural look. A cream blush (MAC's Lady Blush) was applied primarily to the apples of the cheeks and blended back slightly to create a nice shape on the cheekbones. I applied a pressed powder with a fluffy brush and a light hand to matte any shiny areas, but keeping a nice healthy glow at the same time. I applied a primer to the eye, then a warm, subtle brown to the crease (not seen in the photos as she has her eyes open), before adding fairly natural-looking fake lashes as the bride requested some. The bride originally wanted black eyeliner on the top lid to hide the lash-band, but when I showed her the softer method of blending a charcoal grey shadow along the lash line she preferred it, and that's what you can see in the photo's below. That's it! She looked gorgeous, and not because of my make up application - nothing can fake the glow a bride has on her wedding day. I hope you enjoyed this run-down! The picture at the end is how I looked on the day for anyone that is interested. I had a 40s style shift dress on with nude tights that had the black seam up the back so as to be in keeping. I had my cloche hat on originally that's the same colour as my dress, but I took it off after the ceremony. There are no other photographs of me as no one took any (I'm not really a family member, I suppose) and I was busy taking them of everyone else!

Emma Stone Golden Globes Look

I attempted to film a tutorial on the make up that Emma Stone wore to this years Golden Globes, however the video had a lot of technical faults - like the sound being muffled for some reason and bad lighting - and on reflection I feel that I didn't get the eye make up right as hers was a slightly darker, more feline shape (it looked the same on camera but the lighting of the photo's is different and so I wasn't pleased once I saw the footage and photo's side by side!). As a result I decided it wasn't good enough to upload to my channel. I did however decide to show you a picture here so that it wasn't a complete waste of time.

This look was done using the Sleek Bad Girl palette mostly. Very simple to do and gives a lovely sultry smokey eye. Enjoy! Emma's make up can be seen below...yes, as I said, I'm aware they are nothing alike but in the lighting I was working with they did look the same, until I used the flash for the photo's! Hence why good lighting is important.

Hearts are for breaking

 Hello lovely reader!

It would appear as though everyone on YouTube has done a Valentine's makeup look and I sort of hate myself for jumping on the bandwagon. However, in my defence, I didn't do any for Christmas or New Year's. I am by no means a professional and I'm sure some of you think I have a cheek to do tutorials at all, which is why I haven't done one in a little while. I like seeing professionals and hobbyists looks and how they created them, so that is the only reason I make tutorials for others. Some might also think I have no right having a make up and fashion related blog as I'm not exactly super-model shaped, but as I've said before, I feel variety is important and by looking at my blog you can see that big-busted and jelly-bellied women can still be into fashion and try to look their best. Either way, I really hope you get something out of my YouTube channel and my blog, even if it's only a laugh because I have one ear that sticks out more than the other.

Without further ado, the point of this post! I shall be uploading a Valentine's tutorial to my YouTube channel tomorrow and here is a sneak-peak at the look I came up with: Black winged eyeliner, red crystal hearts and red lips. Simple but does the trick and doesn't involve red eyeshadows on the eyelids - I know some people faint at the mere thought of putting that shade anywhere near their eyes! It certainly isn't the most flattering of eyeshadow shades as pictures of my formerly emo/goth self prove (no, I don't think I'll post them here!). For those of you without a Valentine this year, I hope you will accept my sincere Valentine wishes! I love you just for reading this post and if you want to make my Valentine's day (as I fear the bf may forget!), then please leave me a lovely comment below. What is your most memorable Valentine's day? Mine is probably last year when the bf bought me a Tiffany necklace!

Happy Valentine's Day for the 14th! :)

Fire makeup

This is the make-up I created for a competition being run by beckysblog on you tube. You had to create a look inspired by one of the four elements. Quite obviously, this is a fire inspired look! This was the first ever dramatic make up look I attempted.

Update: Three years later and I still think I did an alright job considering I was a complete novice. As you may be able to tell from the photograph I hadn't perfected base make up application by this point. I still haven't perfected it, but my base tends to look a heck of a lot better now than it did back then!

Products used:

NYX jumbo pencils in milk and cherry

A38 'Rocket Yellow', AA6 Ruby Red pigments from Love Makeup

Manic Panic Blush in Vampire Red

Orange shadow from the Beauty UK palette

Avon Supershock Gel Eyeliner

Eyelure Girls Aloud collection lashes (Sarah)

The red diamanté are from a local craft store