I hadn’t worked on an eye makeup for a very long time, so the arrival of the beautiful new eye colours from the Lola Makeup Spirited Away collection was the right excuse to get me going!
For this look, which was inspired in one created to promote the collection, I used the Lola satin eyeshadows 034 – a shimmery gold – 035 – a shimmery baby blue and 045 – a shimmery terracota.
Ho ho ho. It is December and I feel I am officially allowed to say the C word without attracting some dirty looks (and the “already?!” expression n their faces). Obviously, I am talking about CHRISTMAS, silly.
Most people know someone who is a beauty fanatic and if you are not one yourself, choosing the right thing can be quite difficult. But fear not, So Many Lovely Things will give you an easy solution that is certain to cause a good impression.
I went through my favourite places for beauty buys and here are my picks:
A good all rounder for a great price. Studio products are great value for money. This Smokey eye kit, for £6, is certain to please. New Years eve eyes, sorted!
I love the Eyeko Skinny liner – it is my favourite and I use everyday. This double pack from QVC is excellent value for £14 and after trying you will certainly need a second (and a third – you won’t live without it, ever!)
Classic skin care brand Nivea pulled together a lovely pampering selection with Honey Face Masks, Body lotion, Pearly Shine Lip, Cleansing Wipes, Moisturising Day Cream, amongst others. For £15, this gift goes a long way. Available at Boots.
Post Chirstmas excesses will show on your face. Pull yourself together with this L’Oréal Port-Party Beauty SOS and be ready for the next one in no time! £10 from Boots.
A pretty bauble from Rodial, with its lovely Glam Balm inside. A tiny bit of luxury to plump those lips for that all important unde the mistletoe action! £14 from Harrods.
I love this book. Rae Morris’ classic Makeup: The Ultimate Guide will help you get the grips with makeup and look even more fabulous! Only £12.50 from Amazon.
The Sanctuary’s Best Sellers Collection is a great body indulgence kit with their classic scent. £15 from Debenhams.
Clinique’s Chubby stick Whole Lotta Candy collection means you will have three beautiful shades to choose from for the New Year’s party! £20 from House of Fraser.
Pretty doll eyes with YSL Baby Doll Mascara Set – to put it on and remove later! Find it at Boots for £24.50.
Must Have minis from Nails Inc – lots of shades to start well the year – fro nudes to neons – this will keep your talons colour going for a while! Great value of £23.52 from QVC!
Festive talons courtesy of Clinique’s Party Tips nail polish set.. Three pretty shades for sensitive skin for £20 from House of Fraser.
Discover Elemis’ great Tri-enzime kit with this 4 piece set, for only £24.12 from QVC.
OPI’s Fit to be Tied #2 has two beautiful nail shades and delivers glitter in the right amount. £18.55 from QVC.
Clinique’s classic 3 step kit is one of my favourites cleanse, tone and moisturise sets. Have a go with this intro collection and see for yourself. £20 from Debenhams.
The Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser is a classic – and is has a special edition for Christmas – £26.25 for 200ml cleaner and 2 muslim cloths!
I couldn’t leave out the Naked 3 palette from Urban Decay, coming out on the 12 December for £37. Hurry!!!
Beautifully packaged MAC’s Stroke of Midnight eye kit in Smoky got me hooked. Smokey eyes paradise with Chillproof, Retrospeck, Gaelic Gold, Well Put Together and Carbon (my fave matte black eyeshadow). At £32, exceptional value for money.
Benefit’s Groovy Kinda Love gift set has their best sellers to keep you pretty – and all for £29.50 from Boots.
Sparkle! The Urban Decay Starlight Glitter set can help with that! £30 from House of Fraser.
Guinot has brought some lovely gift boxes this year, each one looking to fix a “problem” in a girl’s life.
Ready Set Glow will deliver complexion brightening tools; Damsel in De-Stress will pamper and help relief stress; Supercharged Youth Boost delivers a boost for ageing skin. They also have a male grooming gift set called Tied up, with a face wash, after shave and shaving brush! They are priced between £46 and £64 and can be found at your nearest salon using Guinot products or at the Salon Skincare website, amongst others. website
Reveal a younger you with YSL Forever Youth Liberator Serum set, £64 from Boots.
Lancôme’s Visionnaire is of my favourite serums – and this set has lots of amazing goodies to accompany it! It costs £82 from Boots.
This classic selection of half size MAC brushes is amazing – and a fantastic value too at £42.
And finally, a girl can dream…. fro £300 you can get the WHOLE Alber Elbaz collection for Lancôme at Harrods. Sigh…
It is no secret I absolutely LOVE dressing up. Halloween is just another opportunity for me to get drawing, cutting, sewing and hot gun gluing.
Maleficent is my favourite Disney character. It has always been, since my mum bought me the Sleeping Beauty book from the book circle people (it was so long ago, they used to come to your door, hahahahaha) and then later on, the VHS, which I watched repeatedly, as any good child obsessed with their favourite story. However, even though I love Aurora, Maleficent was for me, the highlight of the story and even though she deserved to die (as these stories go), I just loved watching her turn into a huge, scary dragon.
So this year, I decided to turn into the Mistress of All Evil. I interpreted her three times when younger at school, and although I perfected the evil cackle after the “prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die” line, my costume making and makeup resources and abilities weren’t even close to what they are today.
With high expectations, I started to gather the bits: a cheap vampire cloak, twisted devil horns, an amazing raven (or crow, not quite sure!) and purple satin from eBay. I painted the horns black (with acrylic paint from Tiger, they originally had some red in them) and using a hot glue gun, attached them to a wide alice band. I wrapped a satin ribbon around the joints and headband to give it a better finish.
For the sceptre, I bought a cheap devils trident and a tacky oversized Christmas bauble, which was red. I removed the colour with nail polish remover to rveal the silver and glued (hot glue) to the trident stick. I then hot glued my raven on to it.
I then cut the sizes of the cloak, added a lining layer of purple to the back and added the shredded purple details to the from opening. Underneath, I wore a New Look black velvelt bodycon, tights and black court shoes.
For the make up, I created my usual base with Hourglass Veil primer, MAC Fortified skin enhancer in adjust, foundation, concealer and powder. I then started the eyes. I used Urban Decay purple Vice and MAC Bitter for the eyes, as well as Eyeko Skinny liner and Black Magic mascara and a set of exaggerated, cheap false lashes.
I painted my raised eyebrows and my widow’s peak with MAC gel liner in Blacktrack. I then applied eyeshadow Bitter all over my face, to exhaustion, until I became green-ish and contoured the cheeks quite blatantly with MAC’s Carbon eyeshadow and my usual contouring shade from Inglot (a muted almost grey brown).
I finished off with MAC’s Russian Red and a huge black ring.
And as a bonus, here is a pic of my better half Frankenstein monster, which I put together pretty quickly! Make up took five minutes with green face paint, MAC gel liner in Blacktrack and Carbon eyeshadow. Bolts were made of grey foam, painted unevenly with Barry M Foil effect polish and glued on with Duo lash glue.
I think I looked quite scary. I was very pleased with my Maleficent – I was so worried I wouldn’t make her justice, but in the end, I think I pulled it off!
What did you dress up as for Halloween this year?
As this eye make-up was requested by the lovely Eilidh, I am naming it Eye-lidh! She asked me to use the Urban Decay vice palettes colours Provocateur and Unhinged, which are quite contrasting. Provocateur is a very light pink, quite cold and extremely shimmery. Unhinged is a deep metallic teal, with enough green and blue in it.
This look was very easy to achieve! After priming, I applied the light pink all over the lid, until a little bit above the crease. Using the pencil brush, I drew above the crease with the teal shadow, creating the cat eye shape. I then blended upwards only using a blending brush. I then saturated the colour a bit more.
I applied black eyeshadow with a shader brush to my lower waterline and then teal to the lower lash line. I applied the pink to the corner of the eye blending in the lower lash line.
After that, I applied the liquid liner in a lovely metallic charcoal colour (very pretty – a shame it didn’t photograph very well), creating a flick and then added some light eyeshadow, pigment and crushed pigment on the brow bone, just below the brow arch. To finish off, I put fake lashes on.
Tropical cocktail. This was my inspiration for this look, so I am naming it Tequila Sunrise, taken from the drink, of course, but also from the liquid liner name!
I primed my eyes and applied a shimmery golden peach shade on my brow bone, blending towards the crease. I then swept the orange all across my lid and blended upwards. Using a blending brush, I applied the raspberry on the outer corner and blended around the crease.
I then applied the black liner, creating a long-ish flick on the outer corner. I then used the liquid eyeliner in metallic orange/copper above the black eyeliner and then from the outer corner of my eye, just below the black, following the same shape. Black eye shadow was applied across the water line using a liner brush, then I applied black eyeliner to the lash line, smoking it just a little bit.
After that, I cleaned the fall-offs and applied a concealer under my eyes. I then created the line below my eye, from the inner corner, following the black liner just past half the eye and flicked downwards.
I made the raspberry colour more intense using the pencil brush on the crease and applied the shimmery peach to the inner corner of my eye, bringing it up slightly on the inside of my nose bridge towards my eyebrow.
To finish it off, I applied mascara and then false lashes. Very happy with this look, it is different, colourful and very pretty!
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his post goes to fulfill a request on how to create wearable smokey eyes. Actually, I owed this to a couple people before the request, so it has been a long time coming! I use smokey eyes all the time, what changes is the intensity and, of course, colour palette. Most of my eye make up challenge looks are smokey.
These two looks are very simple, easy smokey eye looks. The brown and gold is great for paler complexions and day wear, as black can sometimes be a bit harsh, although, in my opinion, nothing beats black for smokey.
If you are paler, make sure you sweep a lighter colour on the lid before start smoking the black, or use grey or matte brown, building up to an almost black colour!
When I go out with smokey black eyes, I usually go much bigger and intenser than this. 
But if you never wore smokey eyes, this is a good start – maybe with the golden brown then into the black, to perhaps a much deeper coloured look.
On the right are the finished results, go down for the step by step.
For a basic look, three shades will suffice – a lighter for highlighting, a medium for base and a dark one for smoking – it is very important they complement each other.
This is very warm and suitable to most skin and eye colours. GOld is a great ally when drawing attention to your peepers!
1. Use a primer. This will help intensify the colour and fix the eye shadow. I apply mine with my fingers, over the whole lid all the way to the brow bone.
2. Using an eye shader brush, apply the lighter colour close to the eyebrows and all across the brow bone.
3. Also apply lighter shade to the inner corner of the sweeping towards the middle, but not too much, still with the eye shader brush
4. With the same brush, apply the medium colour across the whole eye lid. I like getting in the crease, but not above, with this shade too.
5. Apply the darker shade in the outer corner of the eye using a blending brush. This brush is a great investment, as it is makes blending much easier.
6 and 7. Then press lightly in into the crease, following its natural hollow to around halfway of the eye, repeat the movement, adding more eyeshadow until you reach the desired colour – more for more intense. When you get in the crease, this creates the smoking on the inner part, but also above the crease. Keep blending, adding some colour closer to the lash line, always pulling from the outside in, so the colour fades towards the inner corner.
8. Line the bottom waterline with a black eye liner and with a small shader brush (shown), add the dark brown eye shadow to the bottom lash line, blending with the eye liner.
9. Still using the small shader, line the outer corner of the upper lash line with black, and blend up to 1/3 of it. Then continue with the dark brown.
10.Using a pencil brush, add the dark brown to the crease, to intensify the colour.
Apply mascara generously and you are ready to go. After you get more practice doing this, it usually doesn’t take more than 10 minutes!
This is a colder, and very light black smokey eye; I blended enough to make it a bit less harsh and quite grey, especially with flash.
1. Always use a primer. Then, using an eye shader brush, apply the lighter colour close to the eyebrows and all across the brow bone. With the same brush, apply the medium colour across the whole eye lid, from the inner corner. When you get to the outer corner, it should be much less intense.
2. Get smoking! With the blending brush, apply the darker shade in the outer corner of the eye. Blend towards the inner corner, as in this case, you want the black to be across the whole eye lid, looking greyer in the middle and with less intensity on the inner corner.
3. Then press it lightly into the crease, following its natural hollow to around halfway of the eye, repeat the movement, adding more eyeshadow until you reach the desired colour – more for more intense, always blending to avoid harsh lines. Keep blending, adding some colour closer to the lash line, always pulling from the outside in, so the colour fades towards the inner corner.
4. Line the bottom waterline with a black eye liner and using the small shader brush, apply black eye shadow to the lower lash line, blending well.
5. and 6. Apply a liquid, gel with brush or pen (which is the easiest to work with!) to the upper lash line, creating a flick at the outer corner. The flick should always follow the natural line from the bottom lashes, creating and imaginary line at 90 degrees in the corner of your eyes, as if it was going to your temples.
I also used the pencil brush to intensify the black at the crease, then smoothing with the blending brush. I finalised it with lashings of mascara – if you want more dramatic, you can also smoke above the crease, in the outer corner towards the eyebrow, but not too much – always apply more of the lighter colour to the brow bone and blend downwards if you go too far. False eyelashes go very well with smokey eyes, and are great for glamming out the look!
Also, black eye shadow tends to drop when applying, so if going for the look, do the eyes first, then do the foundation afterwards. I also use a good concealer under the eyes after doing my black smokey eyes, to guarantee it wont look like dark circles!
Eye shadow – Both looks were created using the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette. It may seem costly, but you get a great selection fo colours that are for everyday use, but you can build up for a night look. And it comes with a double ended brush – eye shader and blending in one! For the brown look I used Bootycall, Half Baked and Busted. For the black, I used Verve, Pistol and Blackout. I find that almost any eyeshadow is alright if used with a good primer – but high pigmentation is very important.
Primer – Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion, the best eye primer I ever used. Check review here.
Brushes – all good investments:
Black eye liner – MAC eye kohl in Smoulder and Collection 2000 Extreme 24 hour felt tip liner.
Mascara – any you have. At the moment I am trying Hourglass’s Film Noir in Onyx. Apply more to the outer corner, to give it a flutter! Curl and if you want, apply false eyelashes to be more dramatic!
After the super indulgent green witch eyes, I went for something a bit “simpler”. Still, I love the impact of the under the eye liner. It doesn’t pop out as much as I thought it would, so is more wearable then I expected…and simpler to achieve!
After priming, I swept a metallic beige all over my lid up to my brow bone. I then applied a metallic light brown from the inner corner following the crease, just up to where my eyebrows start, blending with the lighter colour.
Using a felt tip eye liner, I lined my upper lash line, pulling it from outside the inner corner, and finished with a flick. On the lower lash line, I used a white eye liner, from about 2/3 of the way towards the outer corner. I then created a white flick, slightly smaller than the black one from the upper lash line.
I followed with crushed pigment from about 1/3 from the inner corner to the outer corner.
Finally, I drew the line parallel to my lower lash line, following my eye shape and flicking it downwards towards the inner corner. I blended some crushed pigment in the centre of the upper lid and finished it off with false eyelashes.
Green witches (yes, Elphaba, I am talking about you!) inspired me for this challenge. I wanted to do something big, bold, a bit evil and of course, green. I love using green eyeshadow, it photographs really well, it is so vivid.
Here is what I did: I applied a primer, and attempted to erase half of my eyebrow (without much success). Then swept the whole lid with green pigment.
After that, using a darker green, I drew the cat-eye shape with a pencil brush, from the beginning of my crease to close to my eyebrow edge.
Then I applied a lighter darker green to the upper lash line and met the higher dark green line, closing the shape. To add dimension, I applied very light green crushed pigment to the center of the eye lid, as a swoop that went from close to the inner corner, upwards, meeting the darker line at the top. I then blended all the lines using all the colours and some other shades of green until I was satisfied with the amount of definition of some lines and blending.
I lined the lower lash line with the lime green, closer to the inner corner, blending into dark green towards the outer corner and applied black eyeliner to the water line.
Finally, I added the lime green to the tops, a little bit of black to define some of the lines (close to the crease and from outer corner), applied black eyeliner, making a huge flick, and dabbed more light green crushed pigment close to the brow bone and inner corner of the eye. I finished the look with false eye lashes.
1. I tried to “erase” the end of my eyebrow, it turns out mine are too dark and thick to do with concealer and foundation only. I did it in the past to re-create Boy George eye make up, but I suppose the person had fairer and thinner eyebrows than me, so it worked alright!
2. Drawing the shape was hard. Very hard. I had to clean everything up and start again.
3. My first combination of greens didn’t give me oomph. This is another reason I started again. Next time, I will swatch them in my hand before applying!
Image credit: Urban Decay @ House of Fraser
Anything that has “all nighter” on the label is bound to catch my attention, and it was no different with this product. On another one of my regular wanderings around House of Fraser, I came across this product. At the time, they had the XL 177ml tub, for the very good price of £23.
I sprayed it on my face and a few days after I decided to purchase, so I got it and started using it regularly. I use a couple sprays before leaving the house every day, and I can certainly notice make up looks fresh all day.
What I find interesting is that the product claims to keep you cool (“…boasts a patent pending Temperature Control Technology that makes this weightless mist so powerful and sets it far above the competition. Your makeup won’t melt when it’s warm and humid or become dehydrated when it’s cold and windy. Yes, it actually lowers the temperature of your makeup to hold foundation, eyeshadow, blush and concealer in place”) and I noticed that, in the morning, on the tube, where tend to overheat, my face was cooler. Amazing.
But the real difference is on situations you would definitely melt; that’s where it really matters and you can see how great the product is. I put some in an atomiser, so I can carry it on my handbag during a night out, it is great to refresh yourself after vigorous dancing!
When I attended an open air wedding, under a ruthless sun, I really thanked UD for the goodness. My hayfever was at an all time high, it was hot, I could see sweat dripping from some people’s faces. But my make up lasted, till the end of the party. All my pics look good.
A male friend of mine was sweating a lot on his face, and I offered to spray some on him; he actually came back to me saying he “wasn’t sure what I sprayed, but he was actually feeling more comfortable”. He was not glistening with sweat anymore!
So, I am in love with this product. When used with UD’s eyeshadow primer potion, it is infallible!
Urban Decay make up is available from House of Fraser and Debenham’s in the UK, and the All Nighter make up setting spray is £19 for 118ml.
Click to enlarge
The highlight of a make up show I attended (which was so rubbish it doesn’t even deserve a review or mention) was the Paperself stand, where they were doing free applications of their gorgeous lashes, and I chose to try the gorgeous “Deer& butterfly” small.
Now, I don’t think they are everyday lashes, but they are so pretty, but so pretty, that I actually feel like using them everyday. Their London skyline one is gorgeous, and their “smalls”, shorter versions of a full design, just for the fluttery outer corner, is actually wearable, on occasions. For a fashion shoot, they are just splendid! I love the peacock ones!!!
Inspired but the delicated butterly lashes I had applied, I decided to create a Blue Morpho butterfly wings look.
I started with the primer, followed by a generous sweep of a light blue powder pigment. I then applied dark blue crushed pigment from the outer corner in, blending towards the middle of the lid. Using a brush pen, I drew the oval shape of a wing, and blended into the darker blue.
I applied white eye liner on my lower water line, and then the blue eye liner followed by a little bit of lighter blue pigment to 2/3 of my bottom lash line from the inner corner. After that, I put a lot of black eyeliner on the outer lash line and topped up with a little bit of the dark blue pigment.
I added white crushed pigment to the brow bone and the inner corner of the eye blending into the lower lash line and also as a half moon to the curve of my “wing” shape, go give it a bit of a glow.
After that, I re-enforced my wing-shape drawing, with black eye liner, and blended a bit to make the line less harsh, but still visible.
Black eyeliner and mascara followed and then I applied a set of lashes to finish off the look. Of course, the jewel of the crown, the butterly lashes, were applied to the outer corner of my eye, on top of the other lashes.
I love this look. It is different but very pretty!
Products I used:
Difficulty level:
So Many Lovely Things 