Neat Eyeshadow and Some Fabulous Filter Practice

As you may have seen from my last makeup post, I've been having a recent addiction to following makeup accounts on instagram, and it's been inspiring me to give a few of their tips and tricks a go to see if someone who isn't an makeup artist can achieve similar results. 

My latest play-around session with all of my makeup involved some dodgily cut plasters, so you can probably guess that I was trying out a winged-eyeshadow look. And when I say try, I mean try. Particularly as it took a lot of repositioning to get them even on both sides - whoops!

If there is anything that I suck at with makeup, it's eyeshadow. I have multiple different brushes that do different things - blending brushes, crease brushes - but I just can't seem to get them all to work together to blend perfectly and get a graduated and fabulous finish! Hence the practice I suppose. 

For once I did my eyeshadow first, using my Sleek i-Divine Eyeshadow Palette in Au Naturel 601. I felt like a bit of a fool, but to keep a straight edge I chopped up some plasters and stuck them on my eyes, creating a straight line from the outer corner of my eye diagonally towards the end of my eyebrow. This was the whole 'trick' part that I learnt from my insta-stalking you see. 

I started by covering my eyelid in 'Nougat', working some 'Cappuccino' on top for a more natural look (even though I am stark-white!). Because I was feeling a bit of a warmer eye and was experimenting, I blended a really light bit of 'Toast' into my crease, just to add some warm tones to it. I then ran some 'Bark' through the crease too, blending it in and then topping it up with 'Regal' towards the outer corner. I made sure that I went onto the plaster slightly to give a proper straight edge finish, although I did wimp out and perhaps not go as dark and smokey as planned. I get scared - what can I say!

To finish it off I put some 'Taupe' on the inner-mid part of my lid, just to lighten it up and add some glitter, before putting a teeny bit of 'Regal' underneath my eyes, curling my eyelashes and putting on some Benefit Roller Lash mascara. It's absolutely amazing, and although I use the tester I'm desperate for the full size - it's just at £19.50 I can't bring myself to do it just yet.

For my face I did the usual, Benefit Porefessional as a base, with MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NW10, MAC Pro-Longwear Concealer in NW15, and MAC Prep+Prime Transparent Finishing Powder in the pressed version. To contour I used the Benefit Hoola Bronzer on my cheeks, nose, under my chin, and on my forehead. Then highlighting my cheekbones and nose with the Sleek Face Contour Kit. 

(A post containing all of this, how I do it, AND links to the products can be found here)

The only thing that I did differently is using the Benefit Sugarbomb blush, as although it may not look it, it's slightly softer in colour that my MUA blush. But the eyebrows were still the MUA Pro-Brow kit, just graduated slightly more down my eye than I would usually do so that it matched up with the wing. 

I felt like it wasn't enough, so I curled my eyelashes again, whacked on some waterproof liquid liner, and put on another layer of Rollerlash - putting it on my lower eyelashes too, which is dangerous as for some reason they always leave a bit of residue underneath no matter what mascara I use. 

For my lips, I lined with MAC Nice'N'Spicy lip liner, and then filled them in with Viva Glam II. This is 100% my favourite lip combo right now, and it looks so different on different people. I tried it on one of my bezzie pals Sophie on the weekend, and even though she's got really lovely tanned skin, it suited her complexion so well too and looked super fab. Really versatile!

So that's my completed makeup look. Up close, you would have been able to tell that it really really needed some more skills in the blending department. Slightly blotchy, a bit uneven, and definitely amateur if you ask me. But practice makes perfect right?

The other thing I wanted to mention was the new editing app I have - VSCO. After reading a post on Lauren's Looks about her top 5 photography apps, I downloaded all of them, and this is definitely my fave! The 3 selfies in this post have all been edited using it, and it's so amazing! You can change the level of filter used, and alter everything from sharpness to how much shadow is in the picture. I would 100% recommend it to all of you! It's possibly the best iphone app I've had...other than the obvious ones of course. 

I hope you like the post and the makeup look. I'm tempted to do maybe a step-by-step or a video about how I do my base, so keep your eyes peeled for that if I ever grow the balls to do it! 

Alice x

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