Face of the day: Summer loving

I wish I could remember the ad that inspired this look. I remember seeing it and knowing I wanted to try it because it is wearable compared to a lot of makeup you see in adverts, and it looked simple enough for me to achieve.

In my opinion this look is crying out for summer sun and I suspect I'll be sporting this more than once when the sun does decide to shine. 

I started with the Naked palette on my eyes and a very simple and subtle smokey eye using the shade Sin on the lid and Buck in the crease, finished off with black eyeliner. 

On the lower lash line I used Bourjois Contour Clubbing waterproof eyeliner in the shade blue remix. It is a beautiful bright blue shade and I have loved wearing this recently as an edgy alternative to black eyeliner. The formular is soft and being waterproof I can wear it all day without worrying about it travelling down my face. 

On my lips I used a mix of Diego Dalla Palma’s coral lipstick, which I featured in a sample session a few weeks ago, and the Mirenesse perfect kiss glossy kiss I received in my first Birchbox. I'm still not convinced the DDP lipstick suits my skin tone but by adding the glossy kiss I was able to warm the colour up a bit and I really liked the result.

On the rest of my face I kept it fairly natural, I used Hello Flawless foundation by Benefit and lightly attempted to contour with Sleeks contour and highlight kit and finally added some bronzer. 

Can you tell which ad I was inspired by? If so, please let me know!

Maleficent inspired look (using Sleek dark matte palette)

Have I told you all how much I love matte shades? I’m sure everyone is aware by now that Sleek have released two matte palettes. I picked up version 2, which is a perfect mix of dark shades, which can create subtle day or smoky night looks.

I decided not to do a review of the palette, since there are so many good reviews and swatches out there. But briefly, most of the colours are very pigmented and all are soft and easy to blend. So far it is my favourite palette by Sleek and unlike some of their other palettes, I don’t see myself not loving it as much in a few months time.

On to the look I created. Whenever I see deep, dark purple I think of Maleficent, the villain from Sleeping Beauty, she was my favourite Disney villain so I took my inspiration from her.

I used the shades thunder (as a base), highness (all over the lid), villan (in the crease) and flesh (to blend out and as a highlight). I used a grey eyeliner on my water line and on my upper lashes and finished off with Benefit’s They’re Real mascara. I think the look could be improved by using some false lashes to really dramatise the eyes.

On the rest of my face I used No7 BB cream and ELF concealer. On my cheeks I used MUA blush (shade 4), which is a beautiful plum colour and helps to bring out the plum tones in the lighter purple eyeshadow. I also added some highlighter (from the Sleek contour palette) and rather than go for a red lipstick to really emulate Maleficent I chose to wear Rimmel nude delight lipstick. 

I’m hoping to put together a blog post containing lots of different looks, which can be achieved using the matte palette. In the mean time, tell me, who was your favourite Disney villain?

Sleek berry Christmas look

I chose to do a berry Christmas look using the Sleek collection. I love that Sleek decided to mix up the limited edition collections by adding a lipstick and kohl pencil, and I hope they do more of these in the future.

I originally brought this with my mum who instantly loved the lipstick saying it reminded her of something she used to own and she swiped it before I got the chance to take a photograph, I did manage to get it back briefly for this look though!

All the colours are matte, and have deep red/plum tones. The kohl, mossberry, is more of a burgundy, and the fenberry blush has more red/brown tones. The blush is my favourite item in the collection. The deep colour is very flattering and adds contour to the cheek bones. I would have liked the kohl to be a bit more creamy than it is to make it easier to apply and blend.

This is the look I came up with.

Eyes:
Sleek mossberry kohl pencil in the outcorner and crease.
Urban Decay half-baked on the lid.
Urban Decay sin to highlight
ELF black cream liner
Benefit They’re Real mascara

Face:
Neutrogena foundation
Sleek contour palette (highlight only)
Sleek fenberry blush
Sleek cranberry lipstick
Clear gloss

I added these two photographs taken with flash, which show the colours better I hope. These winter months don’t make it very easy for me to take FOTD photographs! 

I generally stay away from red lipsticks, I find it really hard to find the right tone to suit me and because my lips are quite large I don’t like colours, which accentuate that. That being said I really like this tone, but I did add a clear gloss on top since the matte formulation is drying and highlighted my already dry lips. The colour lasted really well (over 4 hours) and that included tucking into dinner and desert. 

I am not sure when the collection will be taken off the shelves but if you are interested I would recommend this. The colours are ideal for the winter months and I think most skin tones can find a way to pull these off by using a light touch to control the intensity.

100 follower giveaway CLOSED

WOW! When I first started my blog I was never sure how well it would go, if anyone would want to read and comment on my posts and more than that if people would want to come back for more. So it makes me really happy to see that I have reached over 100 GFC followers!

I wanted to give a HUGE THANK YOU to all who have followed and continue to support my blog, and in return I want to give back a small token of my appreciation to two lucky followers, which means there are two prizes up for grabs!

The first is the complete Sleek nude collection which I have reviewed previously and is my everyday makeup at the moment. I wanted to pick something that can suit everyone so this seemed perfect, is there anyone who doesn’t love nudes?

The second prize is a set of nail products from OPI including Nail Envy, cuticle oil and a selection of mini polishes from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection.

I want to make the process as simple as possible but also fun. To enter all you need to do is state which prize you would like and give me your favourite beauty tip or fact (which must be true!). For example:

GFC follower: Discovering Beauty 
Prize entry: OPI nails
Fact: Your lips are red because there are many blood vessels around the lip area and because the skin on your top and bottom lip is very thin the color from these blood vessels is seen through to the surface of the lips, making them appear red.

The rules are simple, you must be a public GFC follower (I will be checking) so anyone who is shy should come out now! Leave your entry below this post. I will allow two entries per person, one for each prize.

I will keep the giveaway open for three weeks making the final closing date Sunday October 30th 2011 at midnight (GMT) and I will choose the winners soon after. This giveaway will be open internationally. I look forward to reading your entries!

Sleek Nude collection

I know there are already lots of posts with reviews and swatches of this palette and this is my take. When I first saw it both on blogs and in store I didn’t have a ‘got to have it’ moment the way I have with previous collections released this year.

I have too many nudes if anything so I didn’t really need to add this to the collection. What eventually swayed me was the number of matte shades there are available. Those of you who have read my blog for a while will know that for a period my go to palette was the NYX One night in Morocco, which contains matte smoky shades. I like to use a mix of matte and shimmer shades, particularly for daytime/work looks which are more subtle.

First Row:
L-R: Nougat (matte beige), Nubuck (light matte grey), Cappucino (matte cream), Honeycomb (matte yellow-beige), Toast (matte peach-beige), Taupe (light shimmery beige-brown-pink)

Second Row:
L-R: Conker (shimmery purple), Moss (shimmery olive green), Bark (matte dark grey-brown), Mineral Earth (deep shimmery brown), Regal (matte deep purple), Noir (matte black)

Lets get the Urban Decay Naked comparison out of the way since I remember seeing posts suggesting this may be a dupe. It's not! The Naked palette contains fewer nudes and the colours are much more pigmented.

The lighter shades in this palette aren’t very pigmented which is a shame considering the pigmentation in the other palettes has been flawless. That being said I predominantly use the top two shades on the right hand side and although they are subtle they are great for work and day looks since they are so natural.

The selection of dark colours means that it is really easy to turn a day look into a night time look really quickly if you are in a hurry. I took this with me for a business trip recently and it was perfect for exactly that reason. My only criticism is some shades translate very similarly on the eye as can see in the swatches.

I think the colours in the palette will lend themselves well to all skin tones, I think it is always good to have a selection of naturals, even to aid with looks containing brighter colours for blending purposes.


The suede blush of the collection has quickly become my favourite. It is a warm taupe matte shade which translates onto the cheeks to give a nice glow. The blush is not very pigmented, but being my first Sleek blush I am not sure if this is an exception since I seem to remember on swatching the last two collection colours, that they were very pigmented.

Completing the collection is a pout polish in the shade ‘bare minimum’. I feel it is very redundant to do reviews of these pout polishes since they are always the same: sheer colour, great moisturising feel. I do think this particular colour will work well on top of other nude/pink lipsticks. 

I will be posting some looks with this soon. What do you think of the collection? If you are still undecided weather to pick it up, keep an eye out on my blog this week and might have something special for you ;-)

Sleek in the Mediterranean

If there was ever a time to make the perfect use of my Sleek Mediterranean palette it was in the Mediterranean sunshine. I challenged myself to try and create new looks to the ones I have featured previously which I found a bit of a struggle if I’m honest!

I apologise now for the poor quality of pictures and use of flash, the lighting in the room was less than ideal and didn’t give justice to the brightness of the colours, I also don’t know what was going on with my facial expressions!

Look 1. Using the pinks and purples of the palette I placed ‘lotus flower’ all over the lid and ‘magenta madness' into the crease. To deepen the colour I placed ‘moors treasure’ into the outer corner very lightly and blended.

Look 2. I don’t really like this look but I thought I would include it anyway as it demonstrates the limitation of the palette for me. I wanted to make the use of the green just underneath the lower lashes, but the lack of neutrals in the palette meant I couldn’t do a neutral eye to pair it with which is my default look when I pick a bright colour for the lash line. Instead I opted for ’sand walker’ and ‘moors treasure’ in the crease.  

Look 3. Quite easily my most daring look to date. Not satisfied with my attempt at using the green I went for this peacock/ocean inspired eye. I started with ‘aquamarine’ in on the inner third, followed by ‘hummingbird’ on the remainder of the lid. I then placed ‘midnight garden’ into the crease and the green into the inner corner also working it lightly across the two blue colours. On the lower lash line I followed the colours as they were on the lid.

For each of the looks I used Urban Decay zero eyeliner (note to self must remember to pack a sharpener next time!) and mascara. 

With all looks on the rest of the face I used; Garnier BB cream (light), Benefit Coralista blush (with the exception of look 3 which was a mix of coralista blush and magenta madness eyeshadow, ELF eyebrow kit, and Sleek pout polish in monte carlo.

With the exception of 'summer breeze’ I believe I have used all the colours in the palette which is a first for me since I tend to go back to the same looks again and again.

My previous two looks are here and here. Which one is your favourite? If you have any requests for particular colour combinations let me know and I’ll see what I can come up with.