Face Of The Day Using Mac Dalliance and Centre Stage

It was my boyfriends Dad's birthday on Thursday and I thought that was a perfect chance to try out the new additions I picked up from Mac's Peacocky collection. I really do love these eyeshadows and they work really well together.

 

Products Used:
Face:
Bobbi Brown Corrector Light Bisque
Illamasqua Concealer
Make Up Forever HD Foundation
Mac Studio Fix Powder
Mac Fleur Power Blush
Mac Taupe Contour
Mac Moon River as Highlight
Eyes:
UDPP
Mac Dalliance all over lid and under lower lashes
Mac Centre Stage on outer corners and crease
Mac Blanc Type as highlight
Mac Blitz & Glitz Fluidline on upper lashline
Stilla Topaz liner on waterline
Covergirl Lashblast Mascara
Lips:
Mac So Vain Kissable Lipcolour

Beauty Blog Link Love - Saturday 12th February

Do you want a lip product that's both long-lasting and hydrating? Get the best of both worlds with MAC Kissable Lipcolour, as reviewed by My Lips But Better.



Madame B Fatale trials some Cellnique products,with some lovely results!


Physician's Formula Happy Booster Glow and Mood Boosting Powder and Blush is making Tracy at Beauty Reflections smile!


Fabulous eyeshadows for a bargain price? Claire reckons she's found some from Collection 2000.



Socialite Dreams is celebrating Black History Month with the 28 Days of Black Beauty: a series showing a black female celebrity each day and recreating her famous look with makeup!


Valentine's Day is almost here! Check out Musicalhouses' funky Valentine's Day eye and funky Valentine's Day nails!


Makeup Morsels finds a spot-on dupe for her favorite Asian gel eyeshadow.



Over at Queen of Turquoise Rachel shows off some of ELF's lovely lippies!


Retrodiva was asked how to do a cat eye, so she explains how in a new tutorial video.


Gouldylox desperately wants longer hair but doesn't want the damage and hates how clip-in locks feel. These look like a gimmick, but actually deliver.


Phyrra raves about a new indie company, Brazen Cosmetics. She shares a 20% off coupon code, too!



Jellyminx embraces her inner rock chick and share a super easy smokey eye look.



A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away the Pink Sith tells of her experience with Guerlain Meteorites Illuminating and Mattifying Pressed Powder in 01 Teint Rose.


Are you ready for your Valentine? .. Why not check out Sleek MakeUP's Stiletto Collection, It's Limited Edition, and especially for Valentines!



Jo at Music and Makeup talks about her experience at the Academy Of Freelance Makeup.



The Lip Print combines two of her favourite things: celebrity makeup and red lipstick.



Beautywoome shares the things she dropped from her beauty routine in 2010 and why they've been given the boot!



Anita gets excited about the details and promo pictures of MAC’s gorgeous, girly, "Quite Cute" collection over at Pleasureflush!


Amy Antoinette showcases her perfume collection


Fabulous eyeshadows for a bargain price? Claire reckons she's found some from Collection 2000.



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To celebrate her 2 year blog anniversary, Audrey Dao is giving away Urban Decay’s Naked Palette, 15 year 24/7 Eye Pencils and much more!



Want a chance to check out some of theNotice's favourite products? You're in luck - Rae's giving away five of her favourite products!


Krasey Beauty is celebrating her two year anniversary with a huge giveaway ! Naturally, it's packed with her favorites from Make Up For Ever, Zoya, Hourglass, and more!



Will Mr. Postman bring YOU a package from the Cargo Spring 2011 Voyages collection? Enter the giveaway at Prime Beauty but hurry, the giveaway ends Monday, Feb. 14th!


Beautifully Addicted To are saying thank you to their beautifull followerswith a host of goodies include OPI, Bliss, and MAC as a giveaway!

Nails Of The Week - Accessorize Electric Blue

This is the last of the Accessorize polishes I picked up and it was the hardest to photograph. Its a blue/purple duochrome. In low level lighting it looks predominantly purple but under brighter light it looks blue with a shift to purple when you move your hands. It really is a gorgeous colour and definately needs to be seen in person.

Face of the day, another smokey look

I have been having a bit of an obsession with greens lately and so I finally got round to using the two Shu Uemura eyeshadows I picked up a couple of months ago. I was really pleased with the finished look. I also used two new Mac products, I got Studio Fix powder last week and so far I am really liking it. As much as I like the Make Up Forever HD powder in the flesh I hate the way it photographs. The other product was the Kissable Lipcolour in Flaunting It, this is such a gorgeous colour and I found that it lasted really well, the shine faded pretty quickly but the colour stayed for a good while. I am thinking about getting a back up!
Anyway onto the photos

 

Products Used

Face:

Bobbi Brown Corrector Light Bisque

Illamasqua Concealer

Make Up Forever HD Foundation

Mac Studio Fix Powder

Make Up Forever HD Blush 4

Mac Moon River Highlight

Mac Taupe Contour

Eyes:

UDPP

Shu Uemura ME Olive 471 on lid, crease and under lower lashes

Shu Uemura P Green 595 in outer corners and crease

Mac Blanc Type as highlight

Mac Blitz and Glitz on upper lashline and waterline

Covergirl Lashblast

Lips:

Mac Kissable Lipcolour Flaunting it

Mac Peacocky Haul and Swatches

I was really looking forward to the Peacocky collection and actually expected to want a lot more than I did. I went into Selfridges last week and picked up 3 of the Mega Metal Eyeshadows and 2 of the Kissable Lipcolours.

 

I picked the more neutral eyeshadows as I always tend to go for the purples or blues and they just don't get as much use. Dalliance is such a gorgeous unique colour, it looks more golden in the picture whereas in reality it looks slightly more green. I love the texture of these eyeshadows, expect a face of the day using these at some point this week.

I am also really impressed with the lipcolours, Flaunting It is such a gorgeous colour, they feel really lightweight on the lips and I actually find them long lasting. The sheen seems to fade but the colour lasts on the lips a lot longer than a lipgloss.

What did you pick up from this collection?

Academy Of Freelance Makeup Foundation Course

Back in October last year I attend the Foundation course at the Academy Of Freelance Makeup, I chose to do the part time course so that it didn't interfere with work. The course was held over 3 weekends on Saturday and Sunday from about 9am till 5ish. The AOFM studio is in the heart of London's Soho, it was a lot smaller than I expected it to be but that is a good thing really as it means that the classes are kept small. When you start the course you are given the AOFM brush belt and brush set which comes included in the price of the course, the quality of the brushes is pretty good, there are a few that I don't really like but the majority are ones that I reach for regularly.
Each day a different working makeup artist came in and worked with the class. In the mornings we had the chance to talk to them about the realities of working in the beauty industry and got a chance to look at their portfolios. There was then a demonstration of the look we were working on that day. After lunch we got into pairs and got to work re-creating the look.
Over the 6 days we covered a wide range of looks and skills, from skin preparation and concealing to dramatic smokey eyes and catwalk looks. We also got to go on a shopping day where we got discounts on loads of brands to help us build our kits.
Everyday I meant to take photos of the finished looks I created but constantly forgot my camera. On the last day we had to do a catwalk look, I was really happy with the look I came up with and so I had to take pictures on my blackberry!
We were told to concentrate on the eyes and had to use both cream and powder eyeshadows. I can't remember the exact colours I used but I know they were purple and black Illamasqua cream eyeshadows and then Mac Carbon and some purple Naked Pigments. On the face I used Mac face and body foundation, full coverage concealer and transparent setting powder. I contoured quite heavily using a mac contour powder

I really enjoyed the course and  hopefully I will be going back and doing the advanced course later this year. Once you complete a course at AOFM you can go back for free masterclasses, I am going to a Bare Escentuals one next week which I am really looking forward to.

Face Of The Day - A Classic Bridal Look

This is a look that I was taught when I went on the Academy Of Freelance Makeup's foundation course as a classic bridal look, it was one of the days I was most looking forward to as bridal makeup is something I would love to do professionally. It uses mostly Matte shadows, we were told that high shimmer eyeshadow doesn't always photograph well and that its better to use matte colours and then add a shimmery highlight were appropriate. I think this is a great look for when you want to look polished but not over the top.

Products Used

Face:

Bobbi Brown Corrector Light Bisque

Mac Studio Fix Powder NC20

Mac Fleur Power Blush

Mac Taupe Blush as Contour on cheeks and jawline

Mac Vanilla Pigment to Highlight cheekbones

Eyes:

Smashbox Brow Powder and Clear Mascara on Brows

UDPP

Mac Blanc Type all over lid

Mac Omega in outer corner and crease

Mac Cork in outer V and under lower lashes

Mac Charcoal Brown as liner on upper lashline

Mac Vanilla Pigment on centre of the lid, inner corners and under arch of brow

Stila Topaz Liner on waterline

Covergirl Lashblast Mascara

Lips:

No7 Lipliner in Nude to line and fill in lips

No17 Lipstick in Beehive

Mac Vanilla Pigment to highlight cupids bow

Nails Of The Week - Accessorize Notorious

I am officially in love with the Accessorize nail polish range, this is the second colour I have tried and I think its my favourite so far. It's not in the Illusion range but it is still a duochrome. In the bottle it looks predominantly dark purple and grey but has flashes of green. On the nail in normal light it comes out as very dark purple verging on black with a slight green shimmer but under brighter artificial light or sunlight the green takes over! It was incredibly difficult to photograph, the effect shows more in the bottle shot than it does on the nail. All photos with flash.

What do you think? Any other colours I should pick up?

Nails Of The Week OPI Not Like The Movies & Barry M Instant Nail Effects

I picked up OPI's Not Like The Movies from the Katy Perry collection, it looks absolutely gorgeous in the bottle, its a pink, purple, green, gray duochrome with tiny silver sparkles but I have to say on the nails I really wasn't that impressed. It took 3 coats to be opaque and the colour just really didn't look great on my skin tone, I didn't even take any pictures! In the same collection OPI have released a crackle top coat, I have the Barry M version already so put that on top and I actually really like the way it turned out. I think if you have a darker skin tone than me (which isn't hard as I'm the palest of the pale) then the colour on its own will probably look gorgeous.

With Flash

Without Flash

So what do you think? Will you be picking anything up from this collection?

Illamasqua Sangers & Box Lipstick Comparison

My friend was curious about how similar Box and Sangers were and since I have both thought I would do a quick comparison.

They are not hugely different but I think Sangers has slightly more orange and Box is slightly darker. Box can be a bit drying as its matte whereas Sangers is slightly glossier, neither lipsticks are moisturising so I would always recommend using lip balm first. I think its worth owning both but then I have a slight obsessions with red lips! Do you have a preference?