This Week's Nails #18 - Essence St. Patrick's Day Shatter Nails

Hey guys!

Sorry I've been AWOL again, I've been busy working on some projects. I've been getting some more time for print and unpaid work and I'm so happy! They've been loads of fun and I'm meeting lots of new people and gaining tons of experience.

I've done my nails three times this week. I got some stamping plates, so I've been messing with those. They're a bit tricky to use but I'll keep it up and be pro in no time :D I didn't photograph those manicures, they were cool to me because they were stamped but they were pitifully done!
My latest manicure is another shatter one, I can't get enough of them. I was in town recently and saw the Essence 'Oz the Great and Powerful' collection. There are five shatter colours in it! I got them all..They cost about €12 total and they're really awesome so it was well worth it! I'll do another post soon with swatches from them all so you can have a look.

I've seen some St. Patrick's Day manicure's around. Some of them are pretty cool, but most just don't appeal to me! Paddy's day isn't a big deal to me despite living in Ireland, so while I like the colour theme I'm not so fond of the leprechauns, pots of gold and flag colours. I wanted to do a themed manicure for this holiday but a more understated one, so I topped Essence's 'Walk on the Wild Side' with their 'Master of Illusion' shatter topcoat. I love the result!

'Master of Illusion' is a pretty colour. I'd call it jade green, but I've seen others call it aqua or turquoise. It is a little on the blue toned side. 'Walk on the Wild Side' is a deep green with grass green shimmer. The shimmer isn't that visible in this manicure though. Here's what I used, see you soon!

Products used:

Sally Hansen Double Duty Base/Topcoat
Essence - Walk on the Wild Side, Master of Illusion
Seche Vite Dry Fast Topcoat

Sci-Fi Makeup

Hey!

I'm doing makeup for a remake of a French movie, 'La Jetée'. It's a short film and I believe it will be screened at a local film festival. It's shot using stills which is really interesting. We're shooting tomorrow, so I've spent the last few days doing test runs of looks I wanted to use. There are some people from the future in it, so I get to do fun stuff! This is the one I did today:

I don't know yet if this one will be used at all, but I came up with a few different ideas and tried a lot of stuff out. I did some searching online for inspiration, and I came across a Youtube channel called BeautyARTStudio. This video in particular inspired this look - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvlKnf4hCVc, This lady's looks are really cool. I'm not sure how to describe them, they look like high fashion looks. She uses a great technique for making shapes. It's a lot like when you define for a cut crease look, you drag the kohl and smudge it out. She uses eyeliner brushes for this and it makes the pencil easy to manipulate. You need a soft, smudgy pencil for this. I used Urban Decay Glide-On Pencil in Zero, it was great. I tried my Collection 2000 black kohl too but that didn't move as well as Zero. I used Sigma's E05 and E11. Here are some more pics:

I have some embellishments to add to this look when I do it for real tomorrow. I got some rhinestones and metal bits for decorating cards so I'll stick them on and try to make it really cool. I'll be contouring too and perhaps slightly altering the skin tone. I'm not sure what to do with the lips. I tried black and silver but I had to crop my mouth out of the photos because it looked super bad D: ! I was pretty stuck for time today, and I had to meet my sister not long after completing this. I had to make it 'wearable' because I didn't have time to redo my makeup :( This is the best i could do!

Sorry about my eyebrows again, oh god. I need to see someone about that. I took off some of the makeup around the eye and sort of made a cut crease. Hooray! My sister said it was nice so I guess it wasn't too bad. Here are some more pics and a product list, maybe some of you are feeling adventurous. I hope you enjoyed this slightly different look. See you soon! :D

Products used:

Face:

Maybelline BB Cream - Light
Soap & Glory Kick-Ass Concealer - Light
Maybelline Fit Me Powder - 120

Eyes:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Urban Decay Glide-On Pencil - Zero (great pencil for this dragging technique!)
Urban Decay Shadow - Verve, Blackout
Sugarpill - Tako
The Body Needs - Iced Diamonds
Maybelline Falsies Mascara
Essence Eyebrow Designer - Brown

Lenses:

EOS Ice Violet

Another Face #5 - Niamh

Hey!

I did more practice makeup last night, this time on my friend Niamh :) I did a full face of makeup again with contouring. She wanted something sort of natural which is just as well because I think I'm done with my colourful phase for now! I'd never worked on Niamh before, but she was lovely to work on. She has evenly spaced eyes that are a little on the small side, small/standard eyes. I wanted to try a couple of eye enlarging techniques I saw recently. Curling the lashes and smudging kohl liner on the upper lash line to define and extend the eye, as well as placing more mascara on the outer lashes to open the eyes up more. I didn't use nude liner though, I didn't want it to seem too much like a daytime look.

This was sort of a test run for makeup I'm doing for Jordan today. She's going to a fancy ball and is looking for a nude look. Super sophisticated! I did up a nude cut crease already and I'll show her this one too. I want to use taupe shadow on Jordan to make her blue eyes stand out, so I tried this on Niamh too.

I didn't take before shots again because I forgot. Here are the after shots.

Amazing lower lashes!! :O

I'll be working on Niamh more in the future, hopefully often enough! Here's a product list, I'm off to do more makeup. Busy busy!  See you soon >_^

Products used:

Face:

Revlon Photoready Primer
Stargazer White Foundation (Highlight)
L'Oreal True Match Liquid Foundation - Golden Amber (Contour)
Revlon Colorstay Liquid Foundation - Ivory
Soap & Glory Kick-Ass Concealer - Light
Natural Collection Loose Powder - Neutral Translucent
NYX Blush - Silky Rose

Eyes:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Urban Decay - Buck, Foxy
NYX - Taupe Pearl, Deep Bronze
The Body Needs - Iced Copper
Urban Decay Glide-On Pencil - Zero
Maybelline Falsies Mascara
Essence Eyebrow Designer - Light Brown

Lips:

Rimmel Apocalips - Nova

Another Face #4 - Jordan

Hi! :D

I did makeup on my buddy Jordan today, she was feeling colourful so I did a look using Sugarpill. I did contouring and stuff too, it was a practice session. Look how pretty!

I don't have a before shot, but I'll try to get one another time. I used liquid liner on her, normally I use gel liner on other people because it's easier to control. I think I'll stick with the gel liner for now, although I do want to become more proficient with liquid liner too. Doing it on myself is a lot easier, but then again all makeup application is easier on yourself! I think I'm doing more makeup tomorrow for someone and again Sunday for Jordan. She's going to a ball so she has to get fancy. I want to do something super sophisticated, I'll have to have a think. I'll look into some celebrity looks, red carpet stuff.

I have a film shoot coming up too that I have to prepare for. It's sci-fi so I have to come up with some pretty out there stuff. I have ideas though and I picked up some bits today to mess with. I also have an assignment that will be put off until last minute. I'm so busy lately! I quite badly need to find time to do my nails. Anyway, here's a product list for this look, see you soon!

Products used:

Face:

Revlon Photoready Primer
Stargazer White Foundation (Highlight)
L'Oreal True Match Foundation - Golden Amber (Contour)
Revlon Colorstay Foundation - Ivory
Soap & Glory Kick Ass Concealer - Light
Natural Collection Loose Powder - Translucent Neutral
NYX Blush - Silky Rose

Eyes:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
NYX White Base
Sugarpill - Mochi, Buttercupcake, Acidberry, 2am, Tako
No7 Stay Perfect Liquid Liner - Black
Urban Decay Glide-On Pencil - ZeroMaybelline Falsies MascaraEssence Eyebrow Designer - Brown

Lips:
Essence Marble Mania Lip Gloss - Peach and Mix

Neo Sunflower Aqua Lens Review

Hey!

I love coloured contacts, and I have a good few pairs but I don't wear them often enough. I buy yearly disposable ones so they last a long time, but I think I should start using them a lot more than I do. Today I'm reviewing Neo Sunflower Aqua. I've had them for a while but only worn them a handful of times. This is what they look like on me.

I got them on honeycolor.com for $24. They are 14.2mm diameter so they're only slightly enlarging. They look nice though, I really like how they look in my eyes. They look a little more natural in dimmer lights when my pupils are more dilated. They don't look unnatural in size but this aqua shade is quite bright. I think these lenses in other colours could look quite natural, I'll have to get some more and find out :D

They're yearly disposable and came with a free case. They're quite comfortable! I wear them for long periods of time without needing to remove them. They dry out, but not too often. I use a dry eyes mist to help with that so it's not much of a problem. These lenses are also available in green, blue, violet, grey, brown and hazel! Check them all out here. I'll leave you with a product list in case any of you were wondering about the makeup! See you soon, expect more lens reviews :)

Products used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
NYX White Base
Sugarpill - 2am, Dollipop, Tako
The Body Needs - Play Thing
Urban Decay Glide-On Pencil - Zero
Maybelline Falsies Mascara
Essence Eyebrow Designer - Brown

Lenses:

Neo Sunflower Aqua

Lashes:

Cheap ebay lashes :O

This Week's Nails #17 - Delirio Rosa

Hey!

Nails again. Holographic polish, I think it's incredibly cool. What do you reckon? I picked up this pink holo polish by Jade on Llarowe last week and I love it! The only down side is the super strong smell. Luckily it goes away once it dries but god damn it was potent. Worth it though! I think the name's pretty cool too. I made a pendant with this, looks really nice :) It'll be up on my etsy shop after I get it photographed, along with a good few more. Check out some shots of this awesome polish!

Shot with ring light

Shot in natural light

Shot in natural light

Products used:

Sally Hansen Double Duty Base/Top Coat
Jade - Delirio Rosa
Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

MUA Glitterball Palette Review, Swatches and Look (with Sugarpill too!)

Hey!

Here's the review I threatened you with! I made an order from MUA a couple of weeks ago. Among the items I purchased, I got the Glitterball palette. It was only £4! Definitely check out the site here, your money goes so far it's actually hard to believe. Let's take a look at Glitterball!

Stop giving us these crappy sponge shadow brushes, nobody wants them >:(

For your £4, you get twelve soft, shimmery, well pigmented shadows. After swatching them, I couldn't believe how cheap they are, check it out.

You have to build them up a bit and you would definitely need a primer, but look at them! From these swatches you could easily mistake them for a high end brand. Some of the shades in this palette remind me of some Urban Decay shadows! The quality isn't high end, but it's very good especially considering the price. They perform incredibly well. These shadows apply nicely, they're very buildable and blend easily too. I didn't have much problem with fallout either. There was some, but not a great deal. Here's the look I came up with.

I'm not done with my colourful phase, but definitely excited to use some shimmer for the first time in a little while! I paired a couple of Glitterball's lovely shimmery shades with some matte Sugarpill shadows to create this look. I went light on the liner and kept it looking pretty soft. I filled in my super scruffy brows with shadow instead of pencil so as to not overpower the rest of the eye makeup. I am super impressed with this palette. What you get for your money is unreal, I can't wait until my new spending ban is lifted and I can get some more of their stuff. Here's one more photo and a product list, see you soon!

Products used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Sugarpill - Mochi, Tako
Essence Kajal Pencil - Tu-Tu-Turquoise
Rimmel Scandal Eyes Kohl - Nude
Maybelline Falsies Mascara
Catrice Gel Liner - It's Mambo No. 2
MUA Glitterball shadows used: