My First Bridal Makeup Experience...

So this weekend has been so busy, I haven't had a chance to blog about makeup or beauty at all!

On Friday (22nd August) I went to my friend's wedding. The Bride's makeup artist said she couldn't do her makeup last minute due to timing, so she asked me to do it. I've never done Bridal makeup, and I had no time to practice on her for a trial run (she asked me on 21st in the evening when we were super busy doing last minute running around), so you can imagine I was under a lot of pressure to get it right first time. 

I can't even begin to tell you how nervous I was. To make things even harder, she'd gotten a spray tan done two days before the wedding, which means that none of her foundations were the right colour anymore. 

So I turned up armed with all of my foundations, half of my makeup stash and most of my eyeshadow and blending brushes, plus face & concealer brushes. 

Above is the makeup & palettes I used on the Bride. I ended up using my own foundation that I use every day (Estée Lauder Double Wear Light, Intensity 3.0) on her as it is light but super hard-wearing. 

I tell you, it was so stressful, trying to make a bride look perfect for her special day; my hands shook and I was sweating buckets. Plus, she blinked her eyes insessantly when I applied all of her eye makeup; doing her eyeliner and mascara was a real challenge.

Then to top it off, with only 40 minutes to go until she was due down the aisle, she suddenly asked me if it would be ok if I did her maid of honour's makeup too. I was shocked and dumbfounded, to say the least. Good makeup takes care and time to apply; 40 minutes was only enough for a hasty, half-done job! So I prayed for a miracle and rushed (carefully) through her maid of honour's makeup too, then I ran out of the house, ran to the car and sped to the church ahead of them. 

As it turns out I never even managed to get a close up of her (or her maid of honour's) face the entire day! But I'll show you some pics of the day... 

The last picture ^ is the bride and her MoH (plus her gorgeous flower girls, who were adorably cute).

Although doing bridal makeup for the first time was scary, it has only deepened my love for cosmetics and made me appreciate makeup and makeup artistry even more. I know that all I want to do is follow this path of beauty and cosmetics until the bitter end!  

Benefit Stay Don't Stray Primer

I love eyeshadow primers, my favourites being Urban Decay, Too Faced and MAC's paint pots (Painterly and Utterly Becoming), so I decided to get this two-in-one primer using my Birchbox points, so this beauty item was completely free. 

As you can see I got it in the shade Light/Medium, it comes in a nice large tube, with a doe foot applicator for precision primer-application. 

I like how the lid has "Stay" and the bottom of the tube says "Don't Stray". Cute. 

It says put three dots on the eyes (both on the lid and three under the eye) and blend, then apply eyeshadow (and concealer under the eyes). This dries down pretty fast, so once it's on your skin you have to work with it quickly. I put a fair amount of primer on my upper lid (I always do, I find it prevents creasing) but less on my undereye area, as I don't have trouble with my concealer moving or straying, especially once it's set with a powder.  

Picture taken at 4pm

I used MAC's Mineralism & Showstopper and Feather (from Little Mix loves All About The Eyes Palette) for the highlight. I used Bourjois Healthy Mix concealer and set with Bourjois Healthy Balance Unifying Powder to set it. 

Pictures taken at 3am

After eleven hours, my eyeshadow still looked pretty good. There was less eyeshadow in the crease, but it hadn't become so oily that a crease had formed, so thumbs up there. As for my concealer, that was still there, but as I've already stated, that's never been an issue, so I can't say with any certainty that it works. I think I'll stick with my MAC Paint Pots as a primer for the time being but this one would do for me in a pinch. 

Any eyeshadow primer suggestions? Love/hate? I'd love to hear xx

Maybelline Baby Skin Instant Fatigue Blur *cool rose*

I don't know why I bought this, but I liked the idea of it. I'm not a massive fan of primers (except for Milk of Magnesia), but I bought it anyway... 

It's basically a water-based-silicone primer that helps smooth out very fine lines and blurs the skin's imperfections. 

It is a creamy white-pink, but when it's applied and smoothed out it becomes clear. It feels much more refreshing when it's first applied due to the water content, and dries down to a matte finish, leaving my skin feeling light and comfortable. 

Above: my bare face, freshly cleansed before and after application.

My skin looks fractionally more smooth, but it doesn't make me look more awake or any less fatigued. This is a nice little product for people that don't like to wear foundation but like their skin to look smoother without weighing it down with heavy silicone primers. I'm a foundation/CC cream fan myself, but for makeup free days I might be reaching for this little beauty to help perk me up without covering my imperfections. 

I think I'd like to try the apricot colour one next just to use something a little closer to my fakely tanned skin, but my local drugstore doesn't stock it, so next time I go into town it'll be on my shopping list.

Review: Seventeen Miracle MATTE skin primer

I have a super oily T-Zone, so mattifying primers are always welcome in my life. My skin becomes so oily so quickly that around 98% of the time I wear Milk of Magnesia underneath a primer on my face so my foundation will last over a few hours without becoming an oily mess. So when I saw this little tube in my local Boots, claiming a very bold 22hr shine free face, I picked it up and took it home to try. 

So this is what the tube looks like. See the 22hr Shine Control claim? I had to test this! 

It's a small 15ml tube but I love the tiny nozzle so you won't squeeze out too much - so no waste. Thumbs up!

This is what the primer looks like fresh out of the tube. 

Here the primer partially rubbed in. It's gone clear and slightly glossy. 

And here it's dried down to a solidly matte finish. Promising... 

So this promises to keep my skin shine free for 22 hours. This is a bold claim. To keep this test as fair as possible, I took some steps to help the primer along as much as I could. 

1: I used a light moisturiser for oily skin.

2: Then I put this primer on my T-Zone & cheeks closest to my nose.

3: I used L'Oreal Infallible 24hr stay fresh foundation.

4: Lastly I set my makeup with Rimmel Translucent Stay Matte powder. 

This is my face, at 7pm, makeup freshly applied and set. 

Ok this photo was taken at 1am, 6hrs later. As you can see my T-Zone has become slightly shiny, but not so much that I feel the need to blot or add more powder. 

Another picture taken at 4am, 9hrs after initial application. 

A close up of my nose at 4am. Oily alert! 

A close up of my inner cheek. Yikes! Fried eggs, anyone? Haha! 

After 9hrs I need to blot/add powder, for sure. This primer definitely did not hold up on my oily T-Zone, even though I took steps to help it as much as I could. 22hrs? More like 5. Despite this, my foundation actually held up surprisingly well considering how oily my face became.  

My thoughts: Considering it couldn't stand up to my crazy oily face, it actually isn't bad, and it's pretty affordable at just £4.99. I really like the texture and I reckon that when it's put over a thin layer of Milk of Magnesia, my foundation will last for at least 10hrs without any meltdown. If I'm wrong I'll let you know. Definitely looking forward to using this in the near future. 4/5