Good afternoon, it's Monday again (already) and today I thought I'd go through what is pretty much my everyday makeup in the summer. I wore this yesterday to go out and I wear pretty much the same for work most days when I need to look neat but have my makeup done in less than 20 minutes!

In summer I don't want to wear a tonne of foundation, so I prefer to go for a light foundation, like my Gosh CC Cream (CV) that you knows I love, or the No 7 Superlight Foundation (CV). Yesterday I went for a BB Cream, this one is from superdrug in shade light (V) and the BB Concealer that goes along with it, also in light (V).
Although these are the lightest shades, they're really a bit too dark for me right now, because I'm pretty pale. So I probably won't wear them again until after I've been on holiday and got a bit of a tan (fingers crossed!).

The concealer doesn't really give much coverage, certainly not enough to cover my under-eye bags! So I generally just use it to highlight a bit, like this...
 

So for under the eyes and to cover the redness on my cheeks I used ELF's Maximum Coverage Concealer in the shade Sand. (V)  I wouldn't say this is full coverage - light to medium more like.

For the rest of the skin I used ELF's HD liquid blush in Superstar (V), SEVENTEEN Skin Wow! Highlighter (CV) and Barry M's Natural Dazzle Bronzer (V).

 Brows I just used a little bit of the GOSH brow pencil in Grey/Brown (CV) to fill in the gaps and then GOSH's clear brow gel to keep them in place (CV).

 I also kept the eyes really simple, I used the lightest matte shade from the MUA Undress Me Too palette (AV) all over the lid and up to the brow. I added a bit of dimension in the crease with the same bronzer I used on my cheeks. I added a quick sick of black liquid liner (Limecrime's Uniliner in Quill- V) and then my favourit Barry M Lash Vegas Fibres mascara (V).


 At the last minute I decided to add some gold on the waterline and used GOSH's Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Antinque Gold (CV).

Lips were a quick dab of Barry M's Loudmouth Gloss in Chatterbox.

 

And that's that!

I quite often change it up a wee bit by using a colour pencil instead of black liquid liner, but aside from that, my makeup is like this most days.

What's your go to products?

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx
13:18
A little quickie for humpday, oo er!

My wore it Wednesday was OCC's Harlot Lip Tar. I'm wearing it in my picture to the right and I wore it to salsa on Monday and got a tonne of compliments on it.

So yeah I jinxed myself posting that eyeliner tutorial because my eyeliner was a hot mess Monday night! Hence no eye close up hahaha.  So I thought I'd distract from that with a bright lip.

Sorry bout the lighting, it was almost 9pm when I took this so the sun light was almost gone!


<3


Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

21:01
Helloooo, how was everyone's weekend? Outstanding. Swiftly moving on.

The PPK challenged me to try out confetti liner from a picture tutorial that was posted on the forum, so thought I'd have a play with it and a few similar looks to see how easy it was and if I'd actually wear it. It was pretty easy and I would definitely wear something like this as a fun way to jazz up some simple makeup.

For all looks I put the GOSH brow pencil in Grey/Brown (CV) on my brows, put a bit of Collection Lasting Perfection concealer (CV) over the entire lid and set it with loose powder. I put a bit of Barry M bronzer (V) in the crease as well, just lightly.  Then Barry M Lash Vegas with Fibres mascara (V).

I used a Real Techniques silicon liner brush for all the dots you see. I used a Louise Young Synthetic Fine Liner Brush for the gel liner tutorial below and the angle brush I used to clean up with was by Barry M.

Starting with pretty much the look that was on the tutorial. The liners I used were all Limecrime Uniliners (V), shades I used were 6th Element (orange), Citreuse (green), Blue Milk (light blue) and Orchidaceous (purple)

Then I tried putting down a white winged liner first and just using blues/greens.  This is Barry M white kohl pencil eyeliner (V), set with Sugarpill's Tako eyeshadow (V). The colours are Makeup Geek Gel Liners in Fame, Electric & Mystic (CV).

For something a little different I did the same white wing as above, then mixed Sugarpill's Goldilux pigment (V) with Neve's mixing medium (V)

I dotted this on in random splodges

Then turned it into animal print with some Limecrime Quill Uniliner (V)

Lastly I reversed this and did a wing with Limecrime's Quill Uniliner and dotted some white spots on with Illamasqua's Precision Liquid Liner in Scribe.


I also thought I'd do a little pic tutorial for anyone who struggles with eyeliner.  It really is just practice and you'll always have crap days and great days / uneven wings ... blah blah, but in case you need a few tips, here's how I do mine.

This is the same whether I'm doing gel liner with a brush or liquid liner.  If gel, I scrape some of the liner out of the pot with a clean brush tip or spatula and pop it on a palette if it's a client or the back of my hand if it's just for me.  Then load up the brush and kind of twirl it on the back of my hand (or against the neck of the tube if liquid) to get the brush to a point again.

I always start in the middle of my eye with the brush on it's side, short strokes, resting my fingers on my face.


The turn the brush and use the point to get the inner corner and join up to the other line, while you have less product on the brush.

As you can see it doesn't haven't be perfect at this point.

Then draw on the wing, while you still have less product on the brush

And then draw another line to make a triangle and join up with the liner.

Then just fill in the triangle and go backwards, perfecting and smoothing out the top line.  Any wobbles in the wing fixed up with some makeup remover (non oil based works best) and an angle brush.  You can use concealer too, if you prefer.

Eh voila

So there we go, I'm not the world's best liner of eyes but I do ok on the days the eyeliner gods deem me worthy! So hopefully this will help start you off if you struggle a bit with liner.

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx


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12:16
Korres Lip Butter (AV).

My friend Tabitha bought me this and gave me it last week and I'm loving it!  It's a very soft lip balm, with a tint to it. Not crazy coloured but enough that you wouldn't need a lippy on top for a subtle look. I have the shade/flavour Mango, which is a lovely coral colour.

You can buy these in larger tesco stores now; I will definitely be picking up some more colours.
do you like my sexy A4 refil pad background?? hehehe

Have an awesome weekend everyone.

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx
14:09
Wearable orange eyeshadow.

Orange looks totally awesome on blue eyes, so I wanted to do a look with orange shadow that was bright but still wearable. I think I did ok and in real life it looked good, but I was having a total camera fail day (and a bad eyeliner day, but let's not go there), so my pics pretty much suck.  My hair was also pretty hilariously high, I have no idea what was going on so I cropped it out! hahaha.



I used the bright neon orange from the Revolution Redemption Matte Brights Palette. It's an awesome shade but being matte it does need a sticky light base. I used OCC RO concealer for this.  I really couldn't get a good pic of it though, because it was too late for daylight when I took these. So it looks a bit muddy, it's way brighter in real life.


I also patted a bit of ELF glitter glue over the top of it and added some Sugarpill Supercharged pigment from the Elektrocute collection over the top, for some spangle!

Lips are OCC Zhora lip tar that I'm maybe just a little bit in love with!

Hopefully next time my pics will suck less! Happy humpday all.

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx
18:43
Random mix & match nails!

My nails were a hot mess and as I want them to grow for my holiday in a couple of months, I went with something fun with Nubar's Gelicure gel polish.


Happy humpday all!

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx


If you're in the Surrey/North Hants area and want a funky Gelicure mani or pedi, check out my salon's Facebook Page! or Website :)
09:43
Today's post is some info about some of my favourite makeup brushes. It's much easier now to get vegan brushes, with brands like Real Techniques, Eco Tools and Barry M (all being synthetic or having synthetic options) now widely available in Superdrug/Boots.  Also there's loads of options online; we no longer have to pay over the odds for brushes that are not even animal friendly.

So here's just a few of mine; I have tonnes of brushes so this doesn't cover every  brush I love, or we'd be here all freakin day.

EYES

Makeup Geek Small Crease Brush
This is a great little brush for precise crease work but I mainly use if for highlighting under the brow, the inner corner and for blending out the lower lash line.  MUG brushes are all vegan and very reasonably priced.  The only downside for us on this side of the pond is customs charges.



So because of the customs charges, I thought I'd show you a very similar brush. This is the Deluxe Crease brush from the Crown Brush Syntho range.  A tiny bit bigger bristles, but very very similar in fluffiness and size, only with a shorter handle.


Again, Furless are not a UK company, you have to order from Australia. However, I've ordered from them lots of times and they are really quick to ship and I don't think there are customs charges from Aus. I could be wrong on that though.  Furless brushes are fantastic quality and they usually chuck a freeby in with your order. More on that in a minute!  They do vegan mineral makeup too!

I use this for more precise work and for smudging liner etc. Sometimes for blending out small areas of concealer.

A good flat brush is necessary for packing on colour to the lid, especially matte colours which tend to not be so pigmented, or for loose pigments and glitters. I never use this for concealer, but I love it for the lid.  I have loads of flat brushes but I like the size of this one, as it's nice and small.



I'm excited about this one. I've been searching for a synthetic dupe for the MAC 217 ever since I went vegan and so far, this is the closest I've found!  I know that other brands like Sigma and I think Coastal Scents have dupes of this brush but neither are synthetic.

Here it is side by side with the 217.  You can see that size and shape wise, they're very very similar!  The 217 is fluffier than the bdellium which is a wee bit firmer. But it's a great brush and a brilliant alternative for those looking for a cruelty free dupe of the 217.


This is a lovely fluffy blending brush that I use for laying down my transition colour and blending all my other crease colours into it.  I have about 4 of these, I like it so much!


I got sent this as a freeby with another order from Furless and I ended up ordering 2 more for my kit. It's such a lovely brush. It's make a smokey eye a breeze, great for picking up colour and blending. Also, because of the pinched ferrule, it's good for a wash of colour on the lid.


Everyone needs a small angle brush and I was going to mention my Furless ones. But actually this brush is as good, if not better. It's lovely and thin and is great for brows or for that lovely cat-eye liner! Plus it's cheap and it's available in your local superdrug - win!


Louise Young LY25 Fine Liner Brush
There's a few finer liner brushes in Louise Young's range, the LY25 is the synthetic one. Can you see how battered my brush is?  I have 2 of these and I LOVE it.  It's super fine and keeps it's shape really well. So it makes eyeliner as easy as is possible!

Props also go to the Real Techniques fine liner brush, which is my very close second favourite!

Does what is says on the tin and does it very well. Nice dense but fluffy brush, doesn't apply too much product and is good for blending out too.  I also like this brush for powder.


I use this for bronzer mainly. I like a bit fat fluffy brush for that and this is perfect. It's also good for powder.


I like this for it's intended purpose but also I love it for highlighting with cream or powder. It's a lovely brush and just the right size for a contour or highlight! The only downside to this brush is that you can't buy it alone, it's part of the Core Collection; however, that set is brilliant because it also has a tiny detailer brush and the buffing brush, which is excellent. The little foundation brush you get with the set is a bit of a waste of space, but ok for concealer etc.


I love this for blending cream shadow on the lids or for blending out concealer. It's a mini version of the F80 face brush, which I also love dearly.

a

It's clean I swear it! It's just a bit stained because it's well loved!  I use this every day pretty much to apply my GOSH CC Cream Foundation. I find this works the best with that foundation.  I also love this brush for other foundations and for applying and working in primers like the GOSH one that is in a tub.


This is my absolute favourite powder brush.  If like me you don't like to be overly matte, then this is the brush for you. It doesn't pick up too much product so it gives you a lovely light dusting. This is also part of a set but it's a brilliant set - a set I have 3 of as I love it so much! :)



This is a fabulous brush for foundation; it really buffs it into the skin and gives you that flawless finish.  I also love the Real Techniques Buffing Brush for this, which is a bit softer. But this one just pips it!


I use this brush for precision powdering, so basically small areas like under my eyes and around my nose etc.  I've also seen people use it for blending out concealer, but I really use it just for powder.



Another one from the Duo Fibre collection. This is my absolute favourite brush for blending out cream/liquid concealer. It just makes such and easy job of it. It's also great for highlighting.


I'm not that fussy when it comes to lip brushes but I do hate when they're teeny. I like this one because it's a bit bigger and gets the product on quicker.


For cleaning my brushes, I am currently using Parian Spirit to spot clean, which I've been googling like crazy to check it's cruelty free and finding nothing (I've had it ages and have only just used up my pre-china supply of MAC's brush cleanser, so I've gone back to this - I'll update this when I find out!)

But anyway I like it. It dries quick and it smells of oranges.

For a full deep clean I use baby shampoo; the one I'm using right now is this one from Superdrug.

And because I'm too cheap to pay £25 or whatever for the Sigma brush cleaning mitt, I bought this one instead. It's basically a silicone oven mitt that I got off ebay for about a fiver and it works a treat, for a fraction of the price of the Sigma one! Win.


So that's it for my favourite brushes.  Let me know what some of your favourites are!

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

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13:15
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