Time away

Hello dear reader,

I've had a bit of time away from this working on work things, but my interest in beauty hasn't waned during this interim. I've been posting on Instagram which you can catch up with here. Highlights include a continuing series of 'Face of the Day' flatlay posts, meeting Lisa Eldridge at a book-signing for her gorgeous Face Paint book, some stunning Wayne Goss brush purchases, and a big ol' hair chop.

Hope to be back soon,

DB x

re.create: Day 4, Step 4 - Liner - Shaping up!

The fourth and final day of liner week is upon us! (I know, a four-day week....if only!)

Today is less of a tutorial and more of a discussion about the different ways that you can adapt your eyeliner. You might want to do this in order to exaggerate your eye shape in particular ways, for example to make them appear larger or longer, or just for fun to create different effects! There are no hard and fast rules for how to shape your eyeliner, and the best way to find out what you like is to experiment!

re.create: Day 3, Step 3 - Liner - Perfect gel

Day 3 of liner week begins now! Today we have the holy grail of eyeliner - gel or liquid.

Now opinions are divided as to which medium is longer lasting or allows you to achieve that sought after dark dark black colour. For me, I like both! And I will show you both options today. Gel liners tend to come in a small pot and there are decent options available from at lower and higher prices. Some of the most popular include:

• Maybelline gel eyeliner 
• MAC gel in Blacktrack
• Inglot gel eyeliner, Black
• Urban Decay eyeliner in Perversion

 I have yet to try is the Inglot one, but I've heard rave reviews of a matte black finish, see for example Jinglehart's review here. Urban Decay is newer to the market but has also received good reviews. MAC Blacktrack is not the blackest black ever, but it is very smooth and I find the texture easier to work with than the Maybelline one that I owned previously.

re.create: Day 2, Step 2 - Liner - Pencil thin

Welcome to Day 2 of liner week!

Yesterday I guided you through using an eyeshadow to create a soft winged eyeliner and today we are moving on to pencil.

Pencil is my method of choice for an 'everyday' eyeliner as it's quick and mistakes are more easily corrected than gel. It is however, not quite as long lasting as gel or liquid so if you have somewhere to go in the evening and want it to last all day - practice with this and hang tight for the tutorial on gel/liquid eyeliner tomorrow!

I used a black pencil today but of course you can use another colour if you have a lighter skintone/haircolour or if you want to make an impact with a brighter colour. Here is what I used:

re.create: Day 1, Step 1 - Liner - Powdered smoke

Welcome to Day 1, Step 1 of liner week!

The first step that I took when learning to do liner was a) to use a forgiving medium, and b) find myself a crutch to create the wing.

It's for this reason that I suggest, if you are new to lining your eyes, that you get practising with a dark eyeshadow. It doesn't necessarily have to be black or brown, it could be a deep maroon, plum, or khaki for the autumnal-look.

Here is what I used:

• Naked Basics palette, Urban Decay
• Paint pot in Bare Study, MAC
• Fluffy eyeshadow brush
• Angled eyeshadow brush (or paintbrush)

So here we go! Start with your nude eyelids. Then apply some sort of primer, I used a MAC paint pot in Bare Study which is slightly shimmery. I applied matte eyeshadows from the Naked basics palette on top of this though, with a little of Naked 2 and a spot of Faint in the crease then a soft sweep of W.O.S on top of the lid and nearer the eyebrow. It is perfectly fine to line your eyes without any sort of base colour, particularly when using gel or pencil, but it does help to have some sort of primer on your lid to help the eyeshadow hold.

[Sorry about that stray wispy hair to the right!]

Back to Blog!

After nine months off blogging I am back with some more beauty chat.

It's been a tough few months with studying and I've been doing a lot of writing on other things. But I've still been experimenting with lovely beauty goodies and I even went for a couple of DIY dramatic hair changes! I'm very pleased with them both, but more on this soon.

Moreover, I'm back with a special week of posts too! This week is eyeliner week. After reading some comments on YouTube I thought I'd pull together what I've learnt having struggled through learning to line my eyes this year and offer a plan of attack to those on the same road. So, everyday for the rest of this week there will be some ace eyeliner action going down on this blog with tips and tricks to get that oh-so-sought-after dark wing.

So, see you soon!

DB x

re.commed: SALE at Illamasqua!

Just a quick post to alert or remind you of a great sale going on at Illamasqua.com at the moment. It's a great brand and they've added a few new lines to the sale here  including some pigments that I've been waiting to try out for a while now in 'Ore' and 'Furore'. I've also just placed an order for some of the powder and cream blushes.

Expect reviews soon (I also have a long line of recently bought products to write up about :s sorry!) but I would grab these pigments while you can! Vivianna Does Makeup has done a review of 'Ore' in a makeup look which you can check out here  and a charming birthday look here . Beautiful!

DB xx