The Day After the Day Before

So, it was my 27th Birthday yesterday. Getting closer to 30 every day. For the moment, I'm still ok - perhaps I'll panic about being 30 when I turn 29... I'll let you know...

So I drove down into Cornwall to see my family yesterday, and I was treated like a princess and was spoiled rotten, I even had lunch made for me and everything - it was a fabulous day! I was bought a lovely bracelet by my hubby:

Blue is my favourite colour and he chose all of the beads himself; I am a very proud wife indeed :) xx

I was given a red packet from my Poh-Poh (Grandma) with money for my birthday:

I was given a bottle of Lancome Hypnose eau de parfum by my little sister. It is one of my favourite perfumes ever, and I was so chuffed that she forked out that kind of money for it, as it is quite expensive :)

I was also given money by my mother and father in-law, which was very generous of them, and here's what I bought with their money:

This is some curl creme for hair. I'm always on the lookout for something that'll define my thick, wavy-almost-curly hair. I'll let you know how it goes.

This is the Bamboo buffing brush from Boots. Apparently it's for loose or compressed powders and it should be buffed into the skin, but I was going to see what happened if I used it with liquid foundation, which has always been my foundation of choice.

This is my first ever stippling brush. It's by Samantha Chapman. I have always wanted one, because so many makeup guru's on YouTube go on and on about how flawless a stippling brush can make your skin look. I mainly use my fingers to blend foundation, so this will hopefully be a nice change :)

My eyes are starting to look dull and tired at the moment, which shows a lot when I am doing my makeup tutorials on YouTube, so I want my eyes to be brighter and whiter, and this seems like a pretty good way to go. Of course I shan't be using this everyday as it's very bad for eyes with long term use.

Ok, so this last one has NOTHING to do with beauty, but I have recently lost 14lbs and I thought I'd treat myself to something delicious. I can't find decent Turkish Delight anywhere where I live, so it's a treat I buy when I visit Truro. I have been in the Weight Watchers programme for the past 5 weeks, and have discovered to my dismay that Turkish Delight is high in points, so I will only eat a square a day to make it last and to make sure I don't use up too many points.

So there you have it my lovelies; a list of products that I bought and was given for my birthday. I hope you're all having fun and taking good care of yourselves

It's been a long time...

It has been a long time since my last Blog - just over 6 months, in fact. Without trying to be negative, no one reads my blog, so I stopped adding to it, but then I thought "Hell, why not just carry on?", so here I am...

My last blog was about my first ever YouTube video. Since then I have uploaded another 16 videos, so I have 17 all in all and I think they're getting better. They're definitely much better quality than the first one and I've learned to edit a bit better now, but my laptop can't deal with the video editor that came with it (thanks for nothing Windows Live Movie Maker), so I do my best.

The picture above was the finished look of a how to wear red liptsick like a pro video...

This one was a gothic style makeup tutorial that my friend's fiancé asked me to do and this was the end look...

This was a cute, kitch and glittery look, so retro and cute. It's one of my fave looks because it's so easy and bright...

This was a picture of a green eyeshadow tutorial I did. It was the first time I tried to do a voice over and failed miserably, but we live and learn...

And this one was a simple vampire makeup tutorial.

I haven't been slacking; editing videos for YouTube is a much harder job than blogging. It requires hours of painstaking editing, saving, captioning, saving again and then uploading to YouTube. But on YouTube, some of my videos have been watched hundreds of times, people have commented and asked me questions. I never recieved that kind of praise or was even acknowledged as a lowly Blogger... I don't expect to be seen or heard even as I type these letters to anyone that cares to read them, but know this: My makeup addiction is still going strong. I love makeup, I have done all my life, with no real end in sight. But that's ok.

                                                   I'm Still Here...

My first ever YouTube video :D

I have always wanted to buy a camcorder, and I finally did it :). Today I made a makeup tutorial for people that wear blue contact lenses. As ya'll know, I love blue contact lenses, so it's kind of befitting that that video is my first.
It took only 20 minutes to film myself putting on the makeup, and the best part of 6hrs to edit the video, add music, narrate, only to find that the music I had chosen and saved on the video was simply too loud to be narrated over *sigh*. It took hours to save and hours to upload to YouTube, but I finally did it. I can't upload it from YouTube, as I cannot find it on YouTube haha! But here is the link if anone wants to check it out:

                                             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zgju9EE7y4

The camcorder has no auto focus and no optical zoom so it's a bit limited as to what it can do, hence my blurry face when I sit more than a foot away from the camcorder. I hope you enjoy it.

Have fun guys x


 

Coloured Contact Lenses Part Two

It's been a while since my last blog and I've been feeling a bit down recently, so I thought I'd cheer myself up by blogging about some more contact lenses. The lovely Kate from  www.eyesbright.com (please click link to go straight to the website) very graciously sent me a pair of lenses of my own choosing to review on my blog. I chose Big Eyes 15mm in Beautiful Blue.
When they first turned up I was blown away by not only the colour, but by the size - they're larger than the normal contact lenses I normally purchase so I was a bit worried that they would be hard to put in or be uncomfortable once they were in. Well, I needn't have worried, they were just as easy to pop into my eyes and they are actually more comfortable than normal lenses to wear.  Here is a closeup of my eyes with them in:

As you can see here, these are large lenses (again I cannot stress how comfy they are to wear). The pupil hole is also quite large so some of my iris and my pupils can be seen, but I don't really care. Isn't the colour quite striking? I have been wearing coloured contact lenses for just over a year now and I actually got comments from people on my eyes wearing these. Most people loved them, and one guy said my eyes looked like Doll's eyes and it freaked him out, but that's the look I was going for anyway haha!


I decided to wear a small amount of foundation to even out my skin and set it with powder and applied a generous amount of blusher on my cheeks to give myself a Doll-like look. I am wearing Urban Decay's eyeshadow in Midnight Cowboy, because it is a nude colour with sparkles which I love, and two coats of mascara to make my lashes thicker. I tried to flick my eyelashes outwards to give an innocent, wide-eyed look. I decided not to colour in my eyebrows as I normally do, but I did use a Lancome lipstick to set the whole look off. Here are the resulting photos:

                                            Ta-daaahhhh! Big Eyes 15mm in Beautiful Blue!

The makeup I used for this blog is as follows:
Contact Lenses were Big Eyes 15mm in Beautiful Blue from www.eyesbright.com
Foundation used was Clinique Anti-Blemish Solutions in Fresh Alabaster
Powder to set was Revlon PhotoReady compact powder in shade 010 Fair/Light
Blusher was Lily Lolo's Mineral Blusher in Cherry Blossom
Macara was Revlon Double Twist in shade 01 Blackest Black
Lipstick used was Lancome's L'absolu Nu in shade 202 Ojab

I just want to give a Special Thank You to Kate from Eyesbright for letting me review these lenses on my blog, you have been wonderful, kind and generous x

Makeup Remover

I blog about putting makeup on but as of yet have to say what I use to take it all off again. Up until the last year I have been fairly fond of face wipes as my go-to remover, but let's face it, not all of them are up to the task of taking off your makeup, even if they claim on the packet that they can. I have used many different brands of makeup wipes, ranging from £6 per packet to just 28p, and to be completely honest they all do the same job. I also find that makeup wipes dry quickly once taken out of the packet, which means sometimes you have to scrub your skin a bit harder than you should.
After using different types of makeup remover wipes, creams, etc, I discovered  Garnier Skin Naturals Simply Essentials 2 in 1 Makeup Remover a few months ago and it looks like this:

It's contains and blue and clear liquid (as you can well see). The blue liquid is an oil and the clear stuff is (I think) basically water. Here's a closeup of the bottom of the bottle:

I like the fact that it has no perfume and no alcohol, and that it is suitable for sensitive skin. I personally don't think I have sensitive skin, but I like to treat my skin like it is. This makeup remover reminds me of a cheap version of Lancome's Bi Facil makeup remover, which also has and oil/water combination, which is amazing at removing makeup but I can't afford the £18-22 price tag it carries:

I have used the above makeup remover, and I can definitely recommend it if you have the money - Lancome's products are top-notch, and I have been in love with their stuff since I got my grubby mitts on my first Hypnose mascara but I'm on a budget so can only buy their makeup etc as a rare treat. Anyway, back to my product:

 You can click on this picture so you should be able to read what most of the bottle says up close. All I can say is that it dissolves makeup really quickly and smooths it off your face without harsh rubbing or pulling. It is safe to use over your eyes too, so there's no real need to buy/use a separate eye makeup remover. You just shake the bottle 'til the whole contents of the bottle has turned light blue, quickly squeeze some onto a cotton pad and them smooth over your face and eyes - done! It leaves a very slight oily feel to your face, but a little toner will get rid of that. It only costs about £3, so well worth the money. Try it, I reckon you won't be disappointed. What kind of makeup remover do you use? Would you recommend it too? Let me know! Have fun x

Back to Black

It came as a very sad surprise to me to find out that the incredible, amazingly talented British singer, Amy Winehouse was found dead in her apartment on Saturday 23rd July 2011 at the age of just 27. I am absolutely devastated, and I would just like to say, Amy, you rocked our world. You had a sublime voice, you shared your short life with us in the only way you knew how, you really were an amazing person.

 Amy was very well known for her beehive hairdo, tattoos and very striking black eyeliner. She had wonderful, clear skin, full lips - basically she was naturally very beautiful. I wanted to do a very quick makeup look to celebrate her life, although I had to use foundation and powder to achieve her pale, clear skin. I have absolutely no idea how to make a beehive hairdo so I just kept my hair back for this picture:

Ok, so I know I look nothing like her, but I hope you can see that she inspires me greatly. Big Love to y'all out there xxxxxx

                             Amy Jade Winehouse, Born 14th September 1983 - Died 23rd July 2011
                                                                      Rest In Peace

Coloured Contact Lenses

I may never have gotten round to telling y'all, but I have been a lover of coloured contact lenses for about a year. I have murky green eyes with brown around the pupils, so most people tend to think I have brown eyes. In fact you can only tell I have green eyes out in direct sunlight *sigh*
I have always wanted to know what I would look like with blue eyes, and I sort of found out when I tried Freshlook Colorblends. The colour was a bit too natural for me, and wasn't striking enough, so my search continued... Well, I need not search any more... I found...

                                                www.eyesbright.com

This website is the bomb for coloured contact lenses! I mean they have so many colours, designs, crazy, funny, bright, dark lenses, there must be a pair of lenses for all tastes no matter what person you are, no matter what look you want - they probably have it! They also sell face jewels, false eyelashes, glitter dust, contact lens solution, the list goes on...
Anyway, I do blather on... I bought two pairs; Vivid Blue and Blue Batik. The first pair lasts for 90 days and only cost £13.99, a very reasonable price indeed :). The second pair lasts for a year (yay!) and they cost £17.99. That's incredible value for a pair that last for an entire year! I paid for next day delivery (like I'm the type to wait!) and couldn't wait to try them!
This pair below is Vivid Blue (my eyes are green/brown mix):

                                                               Ooo, aren't I the poser!

The above picture is a close up (sort of). I really like how they make my eyes look (can you tell by my smile?). Ok, so the next ones are Blue Batik, they are solid colour (not solid lens) sky blue contacts with an intricate white pattern in the middle, making them super bright. Here are the results...

I love these, they made me feel all vampire-y like Selene from Underworld (although much plumper and not as pretty)

Oh, to look like Kate Beckinsale... *sigh*. Anyway, I was feeling so inspired I thought I'd pop my petite Scarecrow fangs in and took a quick picture:

Ok, if you squint very hard you'll see a hint of fangs. I was going for a subtle look, seeing as how my eyes were already doing all the work for me.
I have to say that I am very impressed with the range of contact lenses that Eyesbright have, I absolutely adore their blue range (I want them all!!!) and I will definitely be buying more from them in the future. I think next on my list will be Big Eyes in Beautiful Blue and perhaps a pair of normal Blue ones, just to see how much they'd change my eye colour. That's it for now, have fun guys x