It nearly seems wrong, writing a post about a night out while I’m in bed with my hot water bottle, a cup of Earl Grey (that’s cold now because I was so busy editing photos that I forgot about it), and all my make up is everywhere on my face except where it should be after my shower. But, I spent this weekend doing sporty, non-girly things, and I got to Sunday night and thought a make up post would make me feel better about my day.
I completely wasted my Sunday off too – I had a really going training session this morning with rowing, but stayed up way too late last night and had the early start this morning. I decided to have a quick, hour-long power nap when I got home at half 11 this morning… and woke up at half 2, feeling grim.
Anyway, enough waffling from me, and let’s go on with the show …
First, I start with the foundation. If you saw my Everyday Winter Make Up Post (see here) you’ll know that I usually put my concealer on first, and then my foundation, however, I’m trying it the other way around at the moment, as that’s the way I’ve seen most people do it on YouTube tutorials that I’ve seen.
The foundation I use is Boujouis Healthy Mix Serum, which is a gel foundation, in Vanilla. I love this foundation, it’s not too shiny and leaves your face looking fresh and bright without looking greasy.
Next, I moved onto my concealer.
I use Collection Lasting Perfection concealer, and I usually use the lighter shade, but I bought the wrong one last time and so I’m just working my way through this one at the moment. For this look it doesn’t matter so much, because there’s bronzer involved, but I’d say for my everyday make up that I’d much rather use a lighter one. At the moment, I’m using Cool Medium.
I use the applicator it comes with to dot it on all the areas that need a bit of hightlighting – under my eyes, my chin, in between my eyebrows…. and I always dab a little bit on my beauty spot, not too sure why particularly.
To rub it in, I just gently dab it in with my fingers. I used to use a brush for this, but I felt like it smeared it around too much, and patting it in gives it a more even coverage.
Too take any shine away, I used my Rimmel Stay Matte Powder. I use it in Silky Beige, and you can see how little I have left. I love this, I’ve used it for years. It so easy to use, it lasts for ages, and it always gives a good coverage without being too powdery.
I use my Cosmopolitan brush to powder it on my face. I pretty much put it all over, but my main areas are my chin, my nose, the tops of my cheeks, my eyes (especially underneath) and across my forehead.
Next, I use my bronzer.
I use Loreal Glam Bronze, in Golden Bronze. It comes with a little square brush inside of the compact, which is fine, but I get on much better with my Cosmopolitan brush again.
Don’t forget to blow on the brush before putting it on your face, just to get rid of the excess bronzer… you don’t want to end up looking like a peach!
I gently powder the bronzer along the underneath of my cheek bones, imagining where there would be a shadow if there were a light shining down on my face.
Next, I use my Soap and Glory Love at First Blush blusher. I fell in love with this blusher last winter, and I use it everyday now to give myself a little wintery rosiness. I just powder it on my cheeks, above the bronzer, and blend the two slightly.
That’s my foundation and cheeks done… next, I move on to my eyes.
To start, I use my eyeshadow. As a base, I use my MAC eyeshadow in Amber Lights. It’s a lovely, warm tan colour with a shimmer. Exactly what you want for a night out.
I pretty much cover my whole eyelids with this eyeshadow, using it like a base. I also spread it slightly outside my lids, and up towards my eyebrows.
I then move on to my new MUA eyeshadow palette. I only bought this this week, and it deserves a post all to itself! It’s amazing, there’s so many neutral shades for daytime looks, but they’ve added in some sparkly, fun shades too. This palette is called Romantic Efflorescence.
First, I use ‘Obsessed’ on the outside corners of my eyelids, to add a little shading. I then use the ‘Corrupt’ shade, which is basically black, to work as eyeliner, just using my make up brush to powder it along the edge of my eyelids, and on the corners and slightly along the bottom of my eyes.
I’ve been a real plonker, and come back to uni from the Christmas holidays without my eyebrow palette. And I am someone who suffers with pretty unruly eyebrows!
So, at the moment (well, starting this week) I’ve been using my eyeshadow palette – and it actually does a pretty bang up job.
I’ve been using the ‘Lavish’ shade from my MUA eyeshadow palette, and just using my eyeshadow brush to spread the powder over my brows.
And last but not least for the eye department… mascara.
Mascara is the one thing that I will NEVER leave the house without wearing. Mascara is a miracle worker, it works so hard and adds so much.
I use Soap and Glory’s Thick and Fast Mascara.
This is where I became indecisive.
I’ve got a bit of a problem with buying lipstick… in that I can’t stop!
So I had a couple that I wanted to try.
The first is a more fun shade. It’s called ‘Seduction’ (oo-er!) and it’s from the Gothic Glam range from Collection. I love this shade, it’s not quite red, not quite pink, but somewhere in between.
My second choice was a more serious shade. It’s also from the Gothic Glam range from Collection, but this one’s called ‘Scorned’, and it’s a very dark purple.
I love these looks, there’s just enough smokey eyes, and it’s really surprising how much of a difference two different shades of lipstick can have.
All I need now is a night out…
xx
