Thursday, 4 July 2013

Work Look! Parfait Amour Eyes and Candy Yum-Yum Lips

Time for werk! Doing what I do, I get to wear some shades that most people def. wouldn't usually wear to work haha! I this look I went for a vibrant purple slightly smoky eye with a vibrant pink lip.



Products:
Too Faced Primed & Poreless
MAC Face & Body Foundation- C3
MAC Studio Fix Fluid NC20- (where I needed fuller coverage)
Smashbox Concealer- Fair
MAC Prep & Prime Highlight pen- Light Boost
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural- Medium
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish- Soft & Gentle with Smashbox Fan brush
Smashbox Paradise Blusher
MAC- Temperature Rising Bronzer- Soft Sand
Espresso & Mystery in brows with Mac #266
Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer
MAC- Parfait Amour eyeshadow
Make Up Geek- Unexpected eyeshadow
MAC- Violet Pigment
Random dark purple eyeshadow I found!
17 Eyeliner- Black
Smashbox Eye Brightening Mascara
MAC- Magenta Lipliner
MAC-Candy Yum Yum with Pink Novaeu in centre

x

How to do a M.A.C face chart! MAC Face Chart tutorial in 5 easy steps!




In the past I have had questions about how to do a MAC Face Chart! There are tons of ways to do them, a lot probably better than mine, but I'll briefly explain how I do mine, just in case anyone wants to have a go! You can google the image of the face chart and print it out, either one per page, but I like to do two per page.


Step 1: Find a blank chart (like this one!):

First of all you need to download (or you could use this one) a face chart. You can print these out onto normal paper, but I'd suggest using artist/watercolour paper, as you can use different mediums such as cream or liquid and the paper will be thick enough for you to blend and play with different textures.

You can use any product you like, have a practice on a chart with some of your make-up and see what you feel most comfortable with! I like to use eyeshadows for a lot of my work, with liquid eyeliner and lipstick. I also love the NYX jumbo eye pencil in Milk for making eyecolours pop, and Too Faced Lip Insurance primer for lips.

Step 2: Create the skin:

(This was done on photoshop, not with charts and make-up, I will redo with charts another time!) Start to create the skin for your face. You can use a liquid all over like Studio Fix fluid or Studio Sculpt, but I just like to use powders as that's what I'm most comfortable with! To start I take a MAC #224 brush and either Mineralize Skinfinish in Medium, or Brule (light nude) eye shadow and apply all over the face to make a base skin colour. I then take Wedge eye shadow by MAC (light brown) and shade around the edges of the face, building up colour with Texture by Mac (Orange-y/brick colour). Texture is a great skin colour on paper! I like to take a Bent angled liner brush (I just use an E.l.f one) and draw a line/crescent shape from the high planes of the cheekbone all the way down to create a cheekbone (as you can see in the picture) I like to start doing this with Espresso eyeshadow (you can use any rich brown) then intensify it with Mystery (a very dark, cool brown). For a very defined look you can leave it like this, but I like to blend it out with the #224 brush and some more of Texture. Draw two crescents from the brow to nose to create the top of the nose, then with pencil draw on the outer part of the nostrils, and shade with Texture and Espresso to make a nose. Go in with a few different browns and play around until you get a good looking nose!

Step 3: Eyes!
Once you've built a nice base with your 'skin' products, you can start on the eyes! There is no set order to what products you use when, but I like to do eyes next. If you have a way that you personally like to use eye shadow, try that out, but I always like to do it a certain way with face charts as obviously they are different to faces! You can apply straight to the paper (like I did in the photos of my face charts up there) or use a base (NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil, MAC Paint Pot etc) I like to do both, depending on the look!

Once your base is applied (or not) take a blending or pencil brush (#217 or #219 are good) and blend a light colour inbetween the brow bone and the crease. For example in this look I could use a very light lilac, light pink or light purple. Once you've blended it, pat your medium colour all over the lid, I used the medium purple here. Also take a pencil brush and swoop it all over the under eye area. Take a slightly darker purple and run it through the crease with a small brush (angle, pencil or liner would work) then intensify the outer 'V' with a really dark colour, in this case a dark, intense purple. You can add more colours, a pop of colour in the inner corner or whatever you like from this point on!

Step 4: Liner, Lashes and Brows!:

(Sorry about the awful brows- it's very hard to do eyebrows on a computer haha!)

Colour in the eye of your chart- it will really bring it to life! I love to do electric blue eyes! Take any pencil or liquid liner and line the eye, less is more! Do it as you would your own eye. Then take the liner place it at the lash line, then gently flick out to create lots of little eyelashes. Start with one at the edge, one in the middle facing upward, and one close to the inner corner facing the opposite way to the first one, then build up.

For brows use medium brown or dark brown shadows with an angled brush, liner brush or pencil brush. You can use pencil or liquid liner for a more definer look. Again, apply this as you would to your own brow, but have a light hand and be careful!

Step 5: Lips and Finishing Touches:

For the lips feel free to get creative- pick fun colours and if you like, draw a pencil line and create a new shape! This is what I did with the photo of my chart abouve, you don't have to stick to the original design you can play around!
Start with a lip primer, like Too Faced Lip Insurance, then apply your lipliner or lipstick with a brush. You can add any finishing touches like a bit of blusher, or touch up any parts you feel need a bit of extra colour. Cover up the blank side of the chart abouve, then the coloured side and you can see the huge impact make-up makes!

I love doing face charts! Almost as fun as the real thing!

My favourite/The best MAC Lipsticks- in my opinion! With Swatches



I was having a look at some of my lipsticks the other day and randomly decided to have a think about which were my faves, and swatch them all! These are just a few, other close contenders were Pure Zen and Up The Amp.

Rebel- Described by MAC as "midtonal cream plum". I'd say this is pretty accurate, it's a lovely reddish, purpley plum! This lipstick is really interesting on, and I get a lot of people asking me which one I'm wearing when it's on!

Diva- Described by MAC as "intense reddish burgandy" I had actually never heard of this lipstick until I got it, my sister went into MAC with me to try out a new foundation, had a lipstick on, but of course it rubbed off, so the artist gave her Diva to top it up. I loved the colour! It's the ultimate deep burgandy lip, and looks so nice with neutral or grey eye make-up.

So Chaud- Described by MAC as "intense reddish orange" this was an impulse buy for me around Christmas a year or so ago, I love this lipstick! Orange toned lipsticks like Morange seem to work on me, on a day that I'm stuck on what lipstick I want to wear I love this one, it's so bright, but wearable at the same time.

Riri Woo- Described by MAC as "matte cool red" This lipstick needs no introduction! I jumped to buy it as soon as I recieved the email from MAC saying it was released, and it was such a good buy! It looks great on everyone, it's a true red, and I got lots of compliments when I wore it to work!

Candy Yum Yum- Described by MAC as "neon pink" Which is a very accurate description! This is a recent addition to my lipstick collection, I got it when I did a back to MAC recently. This is such a gorgeous, fun colour. I love wearing this on a night out, it looks great with a tan and is such a fun colour!

Pink Noveau- Described by MAC as "bright pink" This is a really pretty colour reccomended to me by a MAC artist, who had it on at the time! I wear this with Magenta lip liner which is a match made in heaven! Love!

Impassioned- Described by MAC as "amped-up fuschia" This was my first, and all time favourite lipstick. Not MAC lipstick- lipstick in general! I love this shade so much, and I love the amplified finish too, it's like a thick creme and the pigmentation is just perfect. 

Viva Glam Nicki- Described by MAC as "bright yellow pink" I think this is such an underrated shade, it's gorgeous and looks different on everyone! On me it's a very bright pink, almost comparable to a slightly lighter Candy Yum Yum, on others it's a light, coraly pink, some a very dark pink. And all the money going to charity is a great part of this lipstick.

Costa Chic- Described by MAC as "light coral" This is such a perfect shade for summer. It's not for everyone, but I personally love it!

Angel- Described by MAC as "soft pink" The perfect baby-pink lip. Loved by Kim Kardashian, ignore the 'frost finish' label, it's a creamy, moisturizing finish that I would not compare to a frost at all! This literally goes with anything.

Shy Girl- Described by MAC as "creamy neutral coral beige" The ultimate, ultimate nude lip for anyone. This looks good on me as I have olive toned skin, but it's gorgeous on everyone I've seen it on! Whenever I do a look and am not sure what lipstick would go with the colours, I pick this one. When I'm in a rush and need a quick sweep of lipstick, I pick this one. Smokey eye? Colourful eye? Natural look? Shy Girl! One of my all time faves.

Hope you enjoyed looking at some of my favourite MAC lipsticks, and ones I consider the best! If you get stuck on buying a new lipstick, look at these and see which one to buy! Leave a comment with your fave :)  

Dior Addict Lip Gloss Review- Spring Ball


Recently when I was making some purchases in work, as I was paying I spotted some gorgeous Dior Addict lip glosses by the checkout, they were so pretty I just had to buy one! I was looking for a pink toned nude for ages, but hadn't found the right one, seeing Spring Ball Dior Addict gloss, I knew I had to try it! This is one of the nicest lipglosses I've used in a while, gorgeous, simple colour and it feels amazing to put on. It is a little sheer, so those looking for a pop of colour wouldn't really like this gloss, but anyone looking  to complete the ultimate, gloss pink-toned nude lip with a little sparkle, this is a life-saver.

Pigmentation- 3.5/5
Feel- 5/5
Price- $$$$
Overall- 4/5

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Last Month's Favourite Makeovers

As part of my job, and in my spare time I love to do makeovers on people! I am lucky working where I am that I get to do make-up on people from all walks of life, all different skin types, shades and face shapes etc! Sometimes there are people who come into my work who are just gorgeous and make my job easy for me! Here are some fun looks I did on clients and friends from the last month:




Double discount haul! ❤

Okay so twice a year at my work (Boots), we have a double discount, where staff discount is twice what it usually is! I used this as an example to stock up on some things I've had my eye on for a while...the bits and bobs in this photo don't include everything I got, like shampoo, wipes etc, just the fun stuff! Here is a list of some of my faves:

Smashbox- Melondrama lipstick
Smashbox- Eye Trio in Vignette
Smashbox- Blush Rush in Paradise 
YSL- Peach lipstick
Dior- Addict spring gloss
Bumble & Bumble- Surf and Thickening spray!

I also came home to a package from NYX, with 2 Round Lipsticks, a Black Label Lipstick, 3 Lip Pencils and a Milk Jumbo Eye Pencil! I've been so naughty haha! I will swatch some of my faves soon...


Monday, 10 June 2013

So this past month I've bought and been given (it was my birthday!) so many great products, so I wanted to do a post to go over them and give my opinions of the amazing, and the not so amazing products! 

The first product I'm going to review is Smashbox lipstick in Posy Pink:
Oh my god....can I just say I love this lipstick! I would say the finish is similar to the MAC cremesheen lipsticks, very moisturising, still a great colour payoff. It is the ultimate pink-toned nude, goes with literally any look I do and makes my lips feel really nice! The only downside to this lipstick I would say is that I looked recently and the lipstick had actually snapped within the packaging, meaning if I wind it up too much...it snaps off! This was probably down to a drunken accident by one of my friends when we were out, but it's still amazing regardless!

The next product is Smashbox Eyeshadow Trio in Screen Shot:
I love the brown and gold colours in this trio, they go great with my brown eyes! The lighter colour, I could live without, but is still a nice colour, good for transitions or a brow highlight. The gold is more of an antique style old gold, so I tend to put a brighter gold in my inner corner when using this. I used this trio in my gold smokey eye YouTube tutorial, that you can find in my last post! They are really pigmented colours, and you really do only need to use a small amount to get a great result. I would seriously reccomend this trio it is to dieeee for!

Another eye product I got that i loved was the Too Faced Natural Eye Palette:



As I currently work for Too Faced I'll try not to be too biased...but OMG I am in love with this palette!! It's one of our bestsellers and I can really see why! The colours suit everyone, I've used this palette on customers in work of all types, from an eighty year old woman, to a young girl with darker skin, to a middle aged woman who never wears make-up, and they all love it! My favourite colours are the last three, Nude Beach, which is a shimmery, high frost nude, Honey Pot, a true, bright gold and Cocoa Puff, a brown with gold pearl. They all look so great on, but I would really reccomend using the Too Faced Shadow Insurance for the mattes/Candlelight for the shimmers as they really pop, and you need something to grab the glitter! Heaven is the ultimate brow highlight, which I love, and Velvet Revolver is a great transition colour, similar to MAC Wedge/Urban Decay Tease. Again, I used this in my tutorial!

One of my new favourite products is now Too Faced Candlelight Shadow Insurance:


This is one of those products that made me think how have I survived without this! It really is amazing, my eyeshadows look 10x brighter, more vibrant, it grabs all the glitter, shimmer and pigment and makes it stay there for hours and hours. This honestly changed the way my eyeshadow looks are, and lots of people have commented! I love it! One downside I would say, is that it is advertised as 24h wear, but I would say this isn't quite accurate, as I've experienced it coming off after a long day, but it does help it stay on for HOURS longer than my shadow usually would, as I have oily eyelids.

My next product is MAC #266 Angled Brush:

This brush is really amazing! It completely changed the way I do my brows! I used to use some random angled liner brush to do my brows, but it was pretty flimsy, this brush allows me to get a really straight, precise line which makes my brows look so much better! I haven't used it for liner yet, although I intend to when I get the chance! Its a great little brush and anyone looking for an eyebrow brush- get this one!!

Finally, the last product I'm going to mention is the E.L.F Brush Belt:


I got this belt for work, as I hate having my brushes all over the place, it looks really unprofessional when I have a customer and have to rummage through drawers when doing their make up! This is the first ever brush belt I've purchased and I love it! It's easy to adjust, fits all my brushes in and seems to be a great piece for my kit. I don't know too much about brush belts, so over time if I find any problems I'll be sure to mention them, but for now I think this is a great piece that really helps me out!

So overall that's some of my favourite new products! Some other great ones I didn't mention are MAC Diva Lipstick- a great, gorgeous deep, dark red lipstick. MAC Soft and Gentle- my new go-to highlight, I love it and can't believe I waited so long to get it! E.L.F Natural Nymph Lipstick- A true nude shade, I use this to neutralise my lips before applying a lipstick, finally Too Faced Perfect Lips Liner in Perfect Nude- as the tube says "The only lip liner you'll ever need", this is so true! Love <3

Follow me on Instagram!

Although I don't post a lot of looks on here, I post looks and products used on Instagram almost everyday! So if you like, follow me at @melanieeetaylor :-)



Saturday, 30 March 2013

Rihanna for M.A.C

I love M.A.C and recently found out Rihanna is doing a collection for them for 2013! One of the products I am most excited for is RiRi Woo, a red lipstick similar to Ruby Woo (apparently one of R's favourite lipsticks). Here is Rihanna previewing the lipstick:


This is such a great colour! Everyone loves a bright red lip and this one is so pretty. The lipstick is 1 of 3 launching this summer along with a range of other products. M.A.C previewed some of the other products in this range too, I think the packaging is so cute!

Rihanna's make up is always really striking and gorgeous, so I can't wait for these products to come out!

Green and Blue Smokey Eye

Green and Blue Smokey Eye






Here is a recent look I did- it's a smokey eye look with blues and greens! For this I used an 80 colour eyeshadow palette and played around with lots of different blue and green shades to create this, would be nice on a night out or something similar! This was challenging for me to do- I'm not usually a big wearer of brights, but it was actually really fun!

I started with a MAC Paint Pot in Painterly, then applied a white eye shadow from lid to brow as a base, and to make the colours really pop. I started in the crease with a MAC #224 brush with a light green colour, then applied a bright blue slightly below this in the crease too. I put a light, baby blue all over the lid and inner corner, then applied electric blue all over the lid and blended outwards and upwards. I blended with more green and used navy and a bit of black in the outer v to add the 'smokey' effect to the eye.
I finished with lashes, eyeliner and mascara! This was a fun look to do.

Saturday, 23 March 2013

Neutral Smokey Eye Look

Neutral Smokey Eye Look


Here is a neutral smokey eye look I created on my sister (girl in the pictures, please excuse her eyebrows haha) with some steps on how you could get a similar sort of look! I used MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC25 with a MAC #187 with a little of MAC's Select Moisturecover under the eyes. I set with a small amount of MAC Blot Powder in Medium. For the eyes I used MAC's Painterly Paint Pot, a MAC #239 and applied Naked Lunch all over the lid, and slightly on the inner v/tear duct. I used Espresso in the crease, Wedge to blend out (with #217 and #224), and defined the outer v with Black Tied. I also took a little of Black Tied into the lower lashline with a #219. I went over the brows with MAC Eye Brows in Lingering, a great, versatile eyepencil, but sadly runs out very fast :( .I finished the look with E.L.F mascara, only needed a small amount as her lashes are already really long!


Here is the finished look!

Friday, 22 March 2013

MAC Mineralize Eyeshadow Review

MAC Mineralize Eyeshadows


Hi everyone!
I bought the MAC Mineralize eyeshadows in Gilt by Association and Young Punk a while back, wanted to review them, but just never got round to it! Here are the shadows:

Mineralize eyeshadows are baked and can be applied wet or dry, both giving different results. These colours look so great in the pot! I chose these hoping I could create some smoky eyes with them and was really impressed at how they looked in the packaging. Swatched on my finger they look like this:
I would describe Gilt by Association as a kind of antique/old gold, with slight olive tones in it, occasionally with streaks of very dark gold or black. Young punk I would describe as a very vibrant purple with very dark tones. Both have a slight glitter in them, which I love. However, these are the two colours swatched on my arm with a MAC #239 brush:

As you can see the colours don't come out as great as they look in the packaging! This colour payoff was achieved after only a few sweeps though, so I guess layering it on would give you a great look! My fave is easily Gilt by Association, just because I can see myself wearing it in so many ways, and it's a much more versatile colour. I do love purple smokey eyes though so Young Punk does come in handy for those looks. One of my favourite looks to do with G.B.A is a bronze/gold smokey eye with G.B.A swept across the crease to intensify the look- the black goes really cool with it!

Sadly, I think I've used Gilt by Association about 5/6 times and Young Punk about once! I usually just reach for my MAC Pro Pallette and completely forget about the loose eyeshadows I have...so overall only buy these products if you know you're going to be using them a lot because for £16.50 they're not the cheapest about!