FOTD- Bronzed

Seeing as the sun has been coming out I thought id do a more bronzy look! This is what I have on,

Face - Smashbox Hybrid Primer

Nars Balanced foundation in Barcelona

Illamasqua bronzer duo in glint and burnish to highlight and contour (i used burnish heavily to contour the cheeks)

Nars multiple in Maldives on cheeks and cheek bones

Eyes - Nars India song duo (pale yellow side all over the eye then contoured with the brown)

Ardell demi whispies lashes

Make up Forever Smokey Lash Mascara

Anastasia pencil in soft brown to define brows

Lips - Mac Close to Real

p.s. Its my birhday a week on saturday and me and my boyfriend i think are going to go to london shopping!! Im pretty desperate to go inglot so any suggestions what to try would be great! xx

Xen Tan

Hey guys, I love all the Xen Tan range so i thought id do a review for you. Also i thought it would be fun to do a little experiment to test them all out to see the difference colour wise side by side.I now have a stripy leg!

Night before freshly applyed - L-R dark lotion, deep bronze, mist intense, face tanner luxe, transform luxe (apologies my moose decided to do a walk about so missed out!)

Next morning developed -

My favs of the range are -

Transform Luxe - Gradual tanner that smells like vanilla, I find it really moisturising, it has shea butter and vitamin E within it. It also dries quickly and i never feel sticky which is great for quick application in the morning. I try and put this on as much as I can remember, really good to use as a top up colour. The colour is really nice and natural and i never feel orange.

Facial Tanner Luxe - Love this, its really olive toned and feels great on my face and even feels fine under my make up. Wear this one quite alot as i find my tan fades so quick on my face. I use cleansing oils so this may be the problem. Again this smells like vanilla, such a change from horrid smelling tans that you cant wait to wash off! You can actually go straight out wearing any of these they smell so nice!

Dark Lotion - I like my tans nice a dark (not too dark thou!!) so this is a really good one for me. The guide colour is reallt dark which is good as you can tell exactly wear its going, i never get streaks because of this. It lasts me a good week usually and comes off nice an even. Sometimes i feel its just not dark enough once i wash off guide colour so in that case ill just use it every night until im the colour i want then just use transform to top up. This i swear smells of cherry cola! Yummy!

Bronzer - Ok sometimes i love this sometimes i hate this! I really wished it would be more olive toned than it is, it sometimes feels slightly orange, but sometimes it blends perfectly with my tan. Sometimes struggle with my make up when wearing this tan as my face can be warmer toned than my body! Ill stick to my illamasqua bronzer day to day i think!

Bronzer swatch

I do sometimes use the others, Mouse, Spray and deep bronze just depends on my mood and how dark i feel i need to be! After seeing the swatches i may use the spray mist a little more as it seems to be more olive toned than the rest, not that any of them look orange in the slightest. Only downside id say of them all is when you first put them on you look slightly green, some more than others, but this does go away but is a bit scary thinking you are going to turn green!!!

x

Ethereal Look

I was having a mess about today with my make up and came up with this fairy/ethereal like look. You have to excuse the red eyes and the swollen jaw ive had really swollen glands and felt really poorly past couple of days! Wasn't going to post this at first but thought oh well ill do it anyway!!

What i used to create this look -

Face - I started by priming the skin with Nars primer then followed with Nars firming foundation in Punjab. Using Make up forever concealer no2 palette i covered up dark circles around the eyes and redness around the nose and chin. Under the eyes i also used a little Bobbi Brown under eye brightener in medium. I then used Nars multiple in Copacabana on the cheek bones, nose and top of the forehead. Then set with Nars powder foundation in Santa Fe.

Cheeks - I used illamasqua tremble layered with Katie mainly on the apples of the cheeks. I then reapplied copacabana on the cheek bones and blended down onto the cheek.

Eyes - I applied the pale blue colour of Nars duo South pacific all over eye and slightly extended outwards and under the eye. I used Nars Tibet in the corners of the eye and to blend the blue up and out, i used this all the way up to the brows. Using Mac fascinating eye liner I lined the inner rims and slightly penciled the upper and lower corners and blended in. I used Ardell Whispies lashes and Fresh supernova mascara. The brows were penciled in with Anastasia pencil in soft brown.

Lips - Ysl no7 pink lingerie

Hair - I clipped in my extensions and slightly curled them with a big barrel curler then brushed out for soft waves. I clipped part of it back and used butterflies (from hobby craft, i have so many love these for my hair they do different sizes too!) to clip in the front to create that fairy like look!

x

FOTD

Hey guys thought id do a little face of the day today! here it is,

Thought id keep it quite natural today, this is what i used

Face - Smashbox hybrid primer (love this for a glowy finish!

Nars Balanced foundation in barcelona

Illamasqua concealer (colour has rubbed off!)

Make up Forever HD powder

Illamasqua bronzing duo in Glint and burnish (to contour and hightlight)

Cheeks - illamasqua cream blush in rude

Nars multiable in luxor (used over blush and onto cheek bones)

Eyes - Bed head eyeshadow in peach (corners of eyes)

Bed head eyeshadow in natural (eye contours)

Illamasqua glint to highlight under brow

Ardell demi wispies (i wear lashes daily!!)

Fresh supernova mascara

Lips - Shu uemura matte lipstick in 990M

Nars turkish delight lipstick

x

p.s. am eager to get my hands on some of the new illamasqua Body Electrics collection. Really want both body products and really really want both the bronzers! but gutted when i went online before and the bronzers arent in stock yet :(! Oh man!! Will wait till they come in stock to order i think ..........

Freshly fudged!!

Just a little post to show my freshly dyed hair! I get it done at the salon every 4-6 weeks and i put a semi permanent on every 2 weeks or so, pain in the arse to keep the red! This time i used fudge paints with an equal mix of pretty flamingo and cherry bomb. Last time i only used cherry bomb but to be honest the pink hasnt made much difference! Maybe next time ill only use a pink and see how it turns out!

x

Bare Minerals

I love Bare minerals it really fab! I worked for them for a while and loved the products but when i left working there i decided to boycott it for a while butttt i came crawling back to using it every day! Heres some of my fav products from the range,

Spf 15 Foundation - I love the finish you get from this, not too mat not too shiny, just a nice healthy glow. Its like your own skin but only better! Its really buildable so i can have a quick brush sweep for daytime look or use a foundation brush for full coverage for an evening look. Also you feel like you have nothing on which is a major plus! Your skin can breathe wearing and ive found ive hardly got any breakouts at all when i wear it.

top-bottom- faux tan, clear radiance, pure radiance

Clear Radiance - Soooooo pretty! its like a pinky beigy kinda hard to describe shade! You can use it all over for that angelic glowing look or use on ure cheek bones to highlight or even use on top of a mat blusher for extra pizazz!

Pure Radiance- Love this one too! It can be used in the same way as clear but i tend to just use it on my cheek bones to highlight and on my brow bone! its a really pretty nude champagne sort of colour.

Faux Tan Bronzer - My ultimate love!! i always come back to this time after time, such a perfect bronzer. Its not at all orange more of a natural brown. It has a slight sheen to it, not shimmer, more glowing which is really really flattering. I use it alot to contour my cheeks as well as all over. Only bad side is you have to be very careful not to get too much on your brush as ive found out on a few occasions that an extremely brown shiny forehead is not a good look!!!

Buxom babes lip gloss - I have these in pretty much all the shades but the one i use the most is the clear to layer with lipsticks. I actually use under the lippie because you get all the plumping effects and i find the lipstick goes on really nice and smooth on top!It really plumps up the lips and has a tingly feeling but its not unbearable its almost minty and cold if that makes sense?? Anyways heres a pic of clear buxom under Mac speed dial,


I could probs write about a few more products but those really are my favs. Another good product is the eyeshadows if you like pretty sparkly colours! I use them more to layer as a finishing touch.

Anyone recommend any other mineral brands? I really wanted to try prescriptives mineral foundation but i cant get it anywhere now!!!!

x

Hey!!!

Hey im Liz and welcome to my blog! Im new to this but i love love love reading blogs as i find you find out the real truth about a product so i thought id share my thoughts and knowledge with you too!! Ill share a few little facts about myself to get this going!

1. I trained as a make up artist 6 years ago.
2. I am a mummy to a gorgeous little boy named Luca.
3. I have my own little beauty business within a hairdressers offering make up,nails,hd brows,false lashes and spray tanning.
4. My mum is American and i lived there (Chicago and San Francisco) until i was 7.
5. I have worked for numerous cosmetics brands in the past but love working for myself now as i hate being stuck and loyal to just one brand!
6. im addicted to make up!!!!!
7. hmmmm i thought i was more interesting than that but thats all i can think of for now!!

xx