A FOTD & how I take my DSLR selfies

Hello earthlings!

I was looking back through last month's make up photos when I realised I hadn't posted these photos of a look I did with the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette. I can't remember exactly what I used on my eyes. I *think* I'm using Liar over the main part of my lid, Buzz on my lower eyelid and Darkside in the outer corners and blended out.

Brows - Fashionista
Eyes - Urban Decay Naked 3 palette
Liquid eyeliner - VIVO Plum
Mascara - Soap & Glory Thick & Fast
Foundation - Fashionista Luminous foundation in Nude - this foundation is amazing and is £3!
Contour/blusher - Dainty Doll Money Talks blusher - old product, might turn up in discount stores
Lippie - MUA Luxe lip velvet in Criminal

You can see the green in my eyes in this one

Necklace, Black Heart Creatives
Hat, Primark (old.)

I take my make up selfies with flash 90% of the time because we lack complexion-flattering sunlight in the UK for most of the year. I have quite rosy cheeks and I like the lightening effect that using flash close up gives. That's why they use a shitfucktonne of bright lights on professional photography shoots. It's all about the light, daaaahlink! It masks minor imperfections and gives skin a bit of 'oomph' that it might otherwise lack in the dismal grey light we get here most of the time. Flash can wash out the intensity of my make up sometimes, but I'm a vain bitch so I'll take that over looking ragged (and I usually slap on extra make up to account for that.) I usually use the AV setting on my camera (aperture value) and set it to a low aperture like 4.5 so anything in the background is very blurry and my face is the main focus. Vain fo lyfe! Of course, on a sunny day I'll be searching out the real stuff, but we don't get too much of that. ;)

Do you use flash or natural light for your make up selfies?

Thanks for reading.

Naked 3 and face spam

Hiya!

I've mentioned a couple of times recently I'm coming/have come out of a Fibromyalgia flare up. I've gone from getting out of bed a couple of hours after I wake up because I just can't face the day, starving myself until tea time and doing the very bare minimum around the house to being almost human. IT'S FANTASTIC!

The only downside is I now want to do all the things at once and have taken about 27000 photos this week of outfits and my face. ;)

LOOK 1
Demure make up and freshly henna'd hair. I showed eye close ups from this look here alongside Naked 3 palette swatches. I used Strange under my brows, Dust in my inner corners and along the bottom lash line, Buzz on the main part of my lid and Blackheart in the corners and smoked out. I also used:

Eyes
Primer - Too Faced Shadow Insurance Lemon Drop
Urban Decay Strange, Dust, Buzz and Blackheart from the Naked 3 palette
Liquid eyeliner - VIVO plum
Mascara - Soap & Glory Thick & Fast
Brows - Fashionista brow kit

Face
Fashionista Luminous foundation in Nude
Illamasqua concealer in CC115
Dainty Doll blusher 003 as contour
Famous Make up shimmer brick in Pink as blush/highlight

Lips
MUA Intense Kisses lip gloss in Kiss & Tell

The Fashionista foundation is the best colour foundation for my pale skin I've ever found. I'm going to stockpile it. The lip gloss by MUA is a pink based red which shows up pink with flash.

Here, have a bonus shot of my newly henna'd head, along with a stained scalp. The redder parts you see are the henna over grey hair. The greyer I get, the fiercer my hair will look. Awesome! The henna is really conditioning and makes my hair thicker and shinier for a week or so after application.

LOOK 2
Neutral eyes and a dark lip

This time I used Strange under my brows - it's a 'my skin but better' colour - and Factory with Trick over the top to make a browny gold shade but I don't think it shows up too well. I used Darkhorse in the crease and blended out. I actually think the bold lips need a vampier eye but there's always next time.

Hooded eyes and eyelashes that refuse to curl!

Eyes
Strange, Factory, Trick, Darkhorse from Urban Decay Naked 3 palette
Mascara - Soap & Glory Thick & Fast
Brows - Fashionista brow kit

Face
Fashionista Luminous foundation in Nude
Illamasqua concealer in CC115
Dainty Doll blusher 003 as contour
Famous Make up shimmer brick in Pink as blush/highlight

Lips
MUA Luxe velvet lip in Kooky

That's enough of my face for now, I'm sure!

Thanks for peeking.

Naked 3 palette swatches and look

Hello pickles!

I've had a bit of a play around with the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette now and have done a couple of looks, one of which I'll post here alongside some swatches. It's the rose-colour themed neutral palette.

I also did fingertip swatches and thought I'd include them to show how fragile some of the shadows are - particularly Dust (apt name) and Factory.

Here are some blurry shots to show the sparkles.

I don't remember the Naked 1 palette shadows being as soft as a couple of these are. Nevertheless they're pretty shades. I used Strange under my brows, Dust in my inner corners and along the bottom lash line, Buzz on the main part of my lid and Blackheart in the corners and smoked out.

A little fun fact about that scar near my eye. When I was a toddler, our back garden was accessed by a step up out of the kitchen. The outside of our house had been newly pebble-dashed and there were lots of stones everywhere. I toppled over and hit my head on the step, where a piece of broken stone was, and it went in my face. Ow. It's one of my earliest memories.

As to the palette, I haven't had enough time to play with it to form a concrete opinion yet. Once I've used all the colours I'll be able to tell. I think it's going to grow on me. I did expect a bit more pinkness for a palette touted as being rose-based one but the pinkest tones like Dust and Buzz are very flattering for my skin tone and eye colour.

I have more photos of this day's make up look but I'm going to post them separately with a run down of items used or else this'll be such a long post.

It's £37 when you can find one - keep trying House of Fraser and Debenhams to see if they get stock back in. It comes with a double ended brush and 4 resealable Primer Potion samples.

Thanks for reading.

Quick look at the Naked 3 palette

Hello pickles!

Husband face bought me the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette for Christmas. OK, back up a bit. I bought it using his card because otherwise all I'd get from him is belly button fluff.

Anyhow, I've had it in my possession for 3 weeks now and have resisted swatching it all this time. I'm obviously slacking. In case you haven't heard, the Naked palette 3 is all rose-tinged shades. Naked 1 was warm coloured neutrals, and Naked 2 (which I don't have yet) is all cool shades.

The photos aren't the best - they were taken way after dark using the torch on my phone to aid the illumination of my camera flash. Hopefully they're clear enough to convey the prettiness.

I'll have a proper post up soon with some daylight photos and swatches, and then I will have at it and introduce these twinkly goodies to my visage. Dust, Buzz and Blackheart look particularly gorgeous.

Are you a fan of muted shades? I was all over the multi coloured eyeshadow look about 5 years ago when I had bright hair to match, but I love neutrals these days.

Thanks for peeping.

Matte Naked FOTD

Hello lovelies,

I did some matte make up today, a kind of 'no make up' make up look. I saw a video by Lisa Eldridge yesterday from which I took my inspiration. I didn't follow her tutorial entirely, as I was in a hurry for my hospital appointment.

Click on photos for larger images. List of make up used at the end, plus Lisa Eldridge's tutorial video.

I really like this look on me. I look pretty but not overdone. I can see myself doing this look often.

On my skin I used Olay Firm & Lift day cream mixed with Avon Ideal Flawless Invisible Coverage foundation to give me a dewy look.

For my eyes I used Virgin, Naked, Buck and Creep from the Naked Palette 1 which are the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 11th shades in the palette (L-R.)

I used Virgin under the brows, Naked on my upper eyelid, Buck in my crease, and Creep pushed into my upper lashline from underneath and on top of my lashes.

On my lips I used Lanolips 101 Ointment.

I used MUA shade 2 bronzer lightly on my cheeks, Body Shop brow powder in shade 02 and Benefit Sun Beam as a highlight used sparingly on top of my cheekbones.

Do you like 'naked' make up?

Thanks for reading!

Red hair, a FOTD and boobs!

Hello doll faces!

This is a bit of a hodge-podge post with a bit of everything. Last week I re-did the henna on my hair. I'm allergic to traditional hair dye in a scary way, so it's henna or au natural for me. I have quite a lot of grey, so henna it is! Although going grey is crap, the good news is when using henna, the grey hairs always show up a more vibrant shade of red, so they're natural highlights. You can see this particularly in the last photo in this post.

All photos can be clicked for larger images.

I bought two new bras last week from Evans. The polka dot one below and a teal lacy number. There is a glimpse here of the bra and some boobage. Would you like me to do a proper review of the bras? If so I'll take some better photos of this one and do photos of the teal one.

Red!

I'm using eyeshadows from the Urban Decay Naked palette here with Barry M bronze eyeliner on my bottom lash line. It's great for giving a subtle bit of oomph without screaming 'I'm as sparkly as a Christmas tree!' The lippie is actually an old Clinique lip liner in Bamboo which is donkey's years old and was hanging around in my lippie drawer all unloved. It's still available to buy, I checked yesterday.

Do you dye your hair? Have you got any grey?

I found my first white hair when I was 22. It wasn't even grey, just straight in with the white. It's an outrage! :)
Thanks for reading!

Witchy Halloween look

Hi loves!

Here's a little late Halloween look I did tonight for fun.

You'll notice in all photos there is wig hair all over my face because the wig had a mind of its own. It was a relief to take it off, that's for sure!

What I used:

Eyes/facial shading
Barry M Cherry Red dazzle dust shade DD84
Urban Decay black shade from Naked palette 1 (also used to fill brows in.)
(I mixed the red and black to make a purplish bruise shade.)
Avon Supershock Max mascara in black

Lips
MUA Red Drama lipliner
Barry M black lipstick shade 37
No name pink gloss in centre of bottom lip

Face
elf Flawless Finish Foundation in Porcelain

Wig
ebay

What did you do for Halloween?

LOTD using Darling Girl Cosmetics

Hiya!

I decided to have a play with my Darling Girl Cosmetics eyeshadows and this is what I came up with. All photos can be clicked for larger images.

I used:

The Seam on my lower lid

Persuasion under my bottom eyelashes

Survival Instinct in my crease area and above

Lucky as highlight under my brows (all by Darling Girl Cosmetics)

Avon Ideal Flawless Invisible Coverage Foundation

Urban Decay Buck matte shadow to fill in my brows

Avon Supershock Max mascara in black

Avon Supershock gel eyeliner in black (on waterline)

MUA bronzer shade 2 as contour

Sleek MakeUP Rose Gold blusher

MUA shade 2 gold glitter eyeliner

Sue Moxley Famous lipgloss in Pink Sherbet

The MUA gold glitter eyeliner really picked out the gold in Persuasion and topped everything off nicely. 4 shadows is probably as many as I've used in a look. I'm usually pretty simplistic with my make up.

EDIT - Be careful if you have the MUA glitter eyeliner - when you take it off, do it gently. I did it in my usual hurry with a make up remover wipe and it made my eyes water. It's a wee bit gritty when you take it off. Ouch! Be gentle and you'll be fine.

Thanks for looking!

Hair cut time and my hair history

I had my hair cut a couple of days ago and I'm really happy with it.

Like most women, my hair is a big deal to me. If my hair looks bad or if I have split ends, it affects my confidence. My mum cut my hair for the first 15 years of my life. My first 'proper' hair cut was saved up for not long before I left school. Once I started work I could afford a fancy hair dresser, and my hair was great (well, great for the 90s!) When I left my home town, I didn't find a new hair dresser for a couple of years so I cut my own hair.

When I finally did go to a posh salon in my new home I was talked into having a really short bob by a slightly overenthusiastic stylist. It was so short the back of my head was shaved up level with my ears and the bob part at the front reached just above my ear lobes and that was it. That was the shortest I've ever had my hair. I didn't go back again. I found another salon when I moved to a town a few miles away. I went there for many years, as my hairdresser was friendly and did a great job.

When I moved into the county I live in now (in a different town) I went back to cutting my own hair for a few years between hairdressers. It was only after I moved to my adopted home town (where I am now) some years ago that I started to make enquiries with my workmates about who was good at hair . A lady at my work always had lovely hair, so when she recommended I call her hairdresser, I was confident things would be OK. That was 5 or 6 years ago now and I'm so relaxed with Helen I just let her do her thing. She could close her eyes and still give me an awesome hair cut. Before I had my hair dye allergy Helen used to dye my hair all kinds of funky colours too.

I'll be going to Helen as long as I live here and as long as she's cutting hair. It's not just that she's good at hair, she's hilarious and we always have a good old natter over a cuppa every time. I always look forward to getting my hair cut, and my hair always looks good even with no styling. I'm a lazy beeyotch and a hair cut has to be low maintenance!

Enough waffle - on to the pics!