This is what you're aiming for:
(I know I look a bit surprised here)
Soft and Smokey
Now this isn't a look you can do in five minutes (you can but it'll be more of a daytime look) and I tend to wear this only on nights out as black looks too made up and dramatic and drama has no place in Devon. You want to look like you just spent the day chucking hay barrels about, then got a text asking if you wanted to go for some ciders so you just threw a bit of eyeshadow and mascara on and walked out of your barn. Obviously we girls like to look a little more polished than that and my Northern side won't let me get away with just a bit of brown mascara and lipbalm (and neither will my face).
So to sum up this is a natural-ish look for nighttime to make the most of your peepers using natural colours and tones with shimmers to catch those disco lights. The colours I've used look outstanding on blue-green-grey eyes but brown eyes look amazing with any colours or none at all so I'm pretty damn sure this is a universal eye look.
Here's what you'll need:
- concealer and under eye concealer
- foundation
- blusher
- bronzer
- various cream and brown eyeshadows in shimmer and matte
- black mascara
- eyebrow kit/pencil
- however many brushes you like
For regular blemishes, red areas and anything not quite to standard I use this much raved about 'Collection 2000 concealer' in medium. I usually have to touch up throughtout the day but I don't have too many spots and I don't like that dry cakey look you can get with solid concealers so this does the job for me. If you want something with total coverage all day I suggest either a 'Clinque' liquid concealer or the 'Boing by Benefit' concealer. For under the eyes I use 'Rimmel's Wake Me Up' concealer which has an anti-fatigue effect. I dot this under each eye and blend into the entire eye area and down onto my cheeks with a foundation brush.
My foundation of choice at the mo is 'Clarins Skin Illusion' which contains minerals and plant extracts and has an SPF10. Mine is in the shade 'amber' which is probably a good couple of shades darker than my actual skin tone and I find when I wake up in the morning with skin as pale as snow it can be a bit of a shock when I start applying my foundation because as the word 'amber' suggests it can sometimes have orangey undertones but as my skin warms up it just seems to magicly blend with this shade. The last one I bought from this range was too light so now I tend to mix the two during Winter. When it comes to foundations I've tried plenty in my time from my acne hell teenage years to my now sensitive skin years and anything that gives me a natural glow is a winner for me and this is so creamy it always has me coming back for more.
This is my foundation brush of choice by 'Real Techniques' which was around £10, before this I just used to use a £2 'Primark' one and before that it was my (clean) fingers as the warmth helps the foundation to sink in but I would definitely encourage the use of a proper brush, the softer the better. This one has lasted me about six months and I give it a clean in warm soapy water every month so as not to give myself an outbreak attack.
Once the base is ready to go I let it settle into my skin whilst I do my eyebrows- the curtains of the face! Eyebrows were not something I paid attention to before the past couple of years but now I literally can't leave them alone. This kit is by 'Benefit Browzings' in a medium shade and comes with two brushes, one angled for the wax and one for the powder to fill in the spaces and a tiny pair of 'Tweezerman' tweezers (the lady at the counter left that bit out until after I'd paid, if she'd told me at the start I wouldn't have ummed and ahhed about it!) It stays in place all day but I usually touch it up if I'm going out later.
Some people do all their powder, blusher etc before this step but I like to think of that as the finishing touch and do my eyeshadow first. After getting my 'Naked 2 Urban Decay Eyeshadow Pallette' for Christmas I literally haven't even looked at my old 'Chanel' quad and have used this day in day out ever since. It comes with a double ended brush but the fluffier end is best for lighter all over shades so I use this 'Ecotools eyeshadow brush' to work the darker shades into the crease. 'Ecotools' is great because they use environmentally friendly materials to make their brushes so I was pretty sold on that and they're also really lightweight due to the bamboo wood they're made from.
So let's get on with what this whole post was really about- the EYES! If you have a primer I suggest popping that on first, I've been using 'Benefit's Pore-fressional' but I haven't got the gist of it yet (quite frankly I'm not impressed). I start off with 'Bootycall' over the whole eyelid up to the brow bone (you don't have to but that's just a habit for me because my mum does it, some make up artists say it's pretty old fashioned but I like it) and I pop some in the inner corners as well for extra 'pizazz'.
Then I use my 'Ecotools' brush to work 'Snakebite' into the crease of my eye and out into the corners taking further than you probably would for a daytime look.
If your eyes are super ice blue I'd use colder colours like 'Verve' and 'YDK' but for those with green, brown or hazel in them I'd use 'Busted' because the purple tones really bring out the different shades and is a good alternative to brown and blacks whilst being just as effective in outlining the eye. I use the sharper end of the brush to work this shade into my lashline above and below and finish off with some 'Blackout' in the corners and sweep it out to give you cat eyes.
Once you've got something fairly dark and dramatic with a fair amount of shimmer it's time to get to work on the lashes. 'Badgal Lash by Benefit' is literally the best mascara I have ever used and I will rave about this until I run out of words in posts to come. With one sweep you've got the illusion of beautifully long, separate fluffy lashes that look like your own but a million times better. I think it retails at about £18 and I also have the waterproof version I'm saving for holidays and sleepovers with the boyfriend when I don't want to wake up looking like a baby mouse. The massive brush is easy to use and I very rarely poke myself in the eye with it or get it on the skin around my eye and it never flakes or clumps and can be layered on as many times as you like. For super dramatic eyes I go for three layers to get the biggest, baddest lashes possible on both your upper and lower lashes.
I sweep a bit of bronzer on my cheeks, forehead and nose, wherever the sun would naturally hit my face and I think with brown shimmery eyes a bit of bronzer is a must anyway. I'm not saying 'Hoola by Benefit' is the best bronzer in the world but its the one I've been using for the past few months with very few complains, all I'd say is to ditch the tiny brush it comes with and use a light hand with a fluffy brush. At £23 it's pretty pricey so if you know of a better one that's worth the dolla give me a holla!
I ordered this 'Nars Orgasm Blusher' just before Christmas and it took about a week to get here and at first I wasn't very impressed especially as it was £21 but I'm really not much of a blusher girl and everyone raves about it saying it's one of those blushers that just suits everyone. Well I've been giving it a go and I'm finally friends with it. I swirl it over the apples of my cheeks and just up on my cheek bones on top of my blusher and it instantly brightens my face up and gives me a girly glow which is exactly what I was hoping for. The golden shimmers in it means it's perfect for highlighting but the only downside is that it can be pretty sheer to start with and doesn't have much staying power and I think there are quite a few perfectly good high streets dupes.
I use my 'Real Techniques' blusher brush (the pink one) for blush obviously and a 'Primark' brush for my bronzer because I'm not so fussed about precision with that.
I'm not too big on lipsticks, I tend to stick to the same old nudes or pale pink shades and I don't mind if they're 'Mac' or 'Rimmel' or whatever. For this look I wanted the focus to be on the eyes so I just used this 'Nivea Lip Butter' which gives a nice sheen and patted a bit of concealer on my very red lips to tone them down a tad.
Happy as a spring lamb!
Bella
x
No comments:
Post a Comment