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Make up artist, In love, and mother to a beautiful baby boy.

Thursday 28 February 2013

Chocolate dipped strawberries

I made these for valentines day, the perfect dessert after a heavy meal...although I wouldn't exactly say they were low calorie by any means! There is a lot of ways you can decorate these but i just did the stripes. I wanted to put them in little cupcake cases but the strawberries I bought were like beasts so they didn't fit. These were really easy to make and they look really pretty.

Recipe ingredients

* 1 pack of strawberries (room temperature)
* 200g of milk chocolate
* 100g of white chocolate

Instructions
*Wash the strawberries and dry them. (Be sure you dry them properly or the chocolate won't stick.)

* melt the milk chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute checking and stirring half way through

*Roll the strawberries in the chocolate and put on a plate or foil covered baking tray.

* Melt the white chocolate the same way as the milk chocolate and stir.

* dip fork in the white chocolate and run across each strawberry

*Leave to set for an hour then transfer to whatever you would like to present them on.

I didn't put them in the fridge at any point they are much more tasty at room temperature.

Enjoy xxx


Getting naked with Urban decays Basic and Flushed palettes




I was so excited at the last meeting i attended to see the naked foundations and naked basics and even more excited when i received them from work, so now I'm on maternity leave i like to go and visit my counter every now and again. On my last visit i saw the flushed palette and fell in love, i did also see the oz palettes but i have so many eyeshadows it would almost be hoarding if i purchased another eyeshadow palette (even though i really had to talk myself out of getting both) the gold and silver shadows are truly breath taking...but soon my son will be in 6-9month clothes, he is getting big so quickly next time i go out shopping it will be all for him, he looks so cute in his jeans :)



Naked flushed is a blusher bronzer and highlighter all in one palette it has such a beautiful tone and effect mixed together so i bought it, plus i love that its all 3 in a palette which is a perfect size for my makeup bag, i have a similar color blusher is a victoria's secret case but with all three mixed together this is something different and very pretty.

The basics has a few similar colors that i have in other palettes but its convenient to have all the mattes and a highlighter all in one. Perfect to mix with other colors but also amazing to own if your work in an office or do freelance makeup i get a lot of older ladies asking for matte shadows at work and this is that exactly! it is the new formula of shadows so extremely soft and highly pigmented this costs 20.00.



Naked skin foundation, this is amazing! adjustable coverage and a range of colors that suit the palest to darkest skin tones whether yellow or neutral ( .0 is yellow .5 is neutral) i wear a 4 when i'm tanned but mix with my mac studio sculpt foundation in nc 20 when i'm not.  Naked skin has a demi matte finish which is lovely if you don't apply heavy coverage but since i do, i always use a setting powder. The price is 27.00 but compared to lancombe or esteelauder the colors are more realistic, this could defiantly come up against more pricey foundations and win any day! If you would like to try this on just go the any urban decay counter and they will match you up.
Just foundation 


Wednesday 27 February 2013

Sigma essential brush kit review

I needed new make up brushes but didn't want to spend the money on mac, because to be honest I don't like the quality of their brushes they shed and they're expensive. So boo you mac brushes, i bought sigma!. For the price the quality is very good mine haven't shed and I have cleaned them twice now. I was tempted to order them straight from the sigma website but after reading a woman's blog on her ordeal of them getting her address wrong, being given the wrong information, then after she got them after months one was broken I was like um no! Instead I got them from www.lovemakeup.com the set was around £80.00 it comes with 12 brushes
E05 eyeliner- for liquid or gel liners
E30 pencil-I would describe this as a very precise shading brush good for smudging eyeliner and applying eyeshadow to the inner corners of the eye
E65 small angle- you can use this for eyeliner or eyebrows because it is angled it's probably a little better if you don't have such a steady hand.
E40 tapered blending- pretty much just a crease brush just used for blending the eyeshadow but I have used it to sweep the fall out from under my eyes and also set in my under eye concealer, I do find it quite big compared to my urban decay crease brush but I like it all the same.
E55 eye shading- this is a dense eyeshadow brush it gives good color pay off and picks up a lot of product, perfect for loose pigment or glitter I use it to blend above my crease and highlight under my eyebrow.
E60 large shader- good for cream shadow, eye primer, or just a powder shadow.
E70 medium angled shading- I use this for for more precise crease blending and softer lid color.
F70 concealer- self explanatory really I just use this to conceal.
F60 foundation- I prefer my urban decay foundation brush but I still use it when I don't have a clean foundation brush.
F40 large angled contour- good for blush and contouring.
F50-duo fibre- this is really nice to use with a liquid high lighter or to achieve a light coverage finish or apply a powder for an airbrushed finish.
F30 large powder- I love this it's big, soft, and applies powder evenly and quickly.

This next brush wasn't a part of the set but I bought it on the same website for about £19.00
F25 tapered face- great for applying powder in the corners of the nose and around the mouth because of its dome shape you can get the product exactly where you want it.







MAC cremesheen glass in private screening

I adore this color! the perfect mix between a light pink and a nude, no shimmer... kind of like a lacquer. Gorgeous over lipsticks my perfect everyday gloss I wear this with dark smokey eyes or just eye liner. This will always be in my handbag although at £17.00 it's not exactly cheap but until i find something I love more I will keep on buying this!







Tuesday 26 February 2013

Makeup order from boots SmashBox, Soap and Glory, Revlon..


Smashbox contour kit

my favourite part of my make up routine is contouring...
i would love anything that instantly gave me cheek bones and a slimmer face, especially when it comes in such a sleek and light compact, it comes with a brush and a step by step how to guide on how to contour so its perfect if you want to learn too! i just think for the price they could have hooked it up with a bit more product.... but overall it's worth it.

The first powder is a dark shade to create the shadows under the chin, in the hollows of the cheeks, and the sides of the nose.
The second powder is a bronzer to add color to the face and make your cheeks stand out.
The third powder is a highlighter to reflect the light on the parts you want the world to see.







Soap and Glory Kick Ass Concealer

Ive always loved Soap a Glory's bath products but never tried anything from their make up line to be honest id always viewed it as a knock off from Benefit but this concealer is pretty awesome, especially if you have dry skin or a particularly scabby spot (sorry gross i know) its great for touch ups too.

The first step an eye concealer with an ingredient that reduces puffiness under the eyes it is quite creamy which i like because sometimes through lack of sleep from having a baby i rub my eyes and i get dry skin underneath them as well as dark circles so this has really been put to the test.

The second step is a complexion concealer that covers up any redness and it is amazing, what i like to do is apply this on top of the eye concealer for even more coverage but it works on imperfections  and doesn't cling to any dry patches (to set it in i use my loose cover fx setting powder after applying my foundation instead of the one it comes with though)

the third step is a pressed powder which is transparent i tend to use this to touch up any oiliness during the day with the little sponge it comes with and i find this a better way to use it.





Revlon Color Burst lipstick in plum 

A dark lip has been everywhere recently. After i saw James Bond and that girl was wearing that super vampy lipstick it looked so hot i just went ahead and ordered one. I didn't want to spend a lot because in spring that color is not going to be any good to me. This is such a gorgeous deep color and in no way looks to dark or halloweeny, the color comes off strong as well. Its not extremely long lasting but for £5.00 i think i can stand to reapply it. I'm going to buy the baby pink one next.


Revlon colorburst in plum