A Mascara Must

Mascara is probably the most worn makeup product by all women. If you have woken up late, run out of time, or need to leave the house in a hurry without putting on your war paint, a little lick of mascara is known to open up the eyes and give that extra lift to the face when you have no time for a full makeover. Even going to the gym. A full face of makeup isn't exactly the most practical when your breaking a sweat on the treadmill, but a sweep of luscious lashes can keep you looking fresh when your not exactly in your Sunday finest.

A mascara's job is to thicken, lengthen and darken the lashes, to give the illusion that our natural lashes are the length of our legs and as black as the nights sky. We wish! 

There is nothing better than a fresh, new mascara that licks our lashes with a smooth layer of product to each individual lash, fanning out the hairs to frame our eyes and to achieve anything from a natural beauty to a glamourous evening look.

After a couple of weeks though, we tend to notice that instead of fanning out our lashes individually, we achieve the three lash, spider-leg, not so desirable thick product that couldn't do a Disney Princess any justice (and that's hard to do).

Each brand of makeup is different but generally a mascara should be thrown out after six months of first opening it. Each individual makeup product will have a little picture of what looks like an open container with a number inside or beside it. This number will state how many months that product should be used within once opened.

So we have six months to use our beloved mascaras, but they tend to go thick in texture and become unwearable after only a couple of weeks. Sometimes this is unpreventable, but some key tricks can definitely help you get more for your money.

Tip one:

When you first buy your mascara, scrape the excess product from the brush off of the edge of the bottle opening. You do not need the amount of product that is on the brush, on your lashes. The excess will just cause the lashes to stick together and look clumpy. By removing it, you are allowing the bristles of the brush to work their magic without having too much product blocking the bristles seperating the hairs and making them longer and thicker looking.

Tip two:

Always keep your mascara firmly closed. I hold my hands up, I am guilty of leaving my mascara open on my desk when doing my makeup, but this allows oxygen into the product and this oxidises the contents of the mascara causing it to thicken. Simply keep the lid turned tight and it will help keep your mascara fresh and like new.

Tip three:

People tend to pump their mascara wand into the bottle like they're blowing up a punctured bicycle tyre. Again this allows oxygen into the product and it doesn't actually get any more product onto the wand. The actual mascara is hugging the sides of the container and that is where you want to direct the brush.

Tip four:

When you are literally at the end of the bottle, and pay day is just around the corner but not yet reachable, us girls need to go to extreme measures to get our desired look. Simply run the tap at luke warm and run the wand under the running water for a split second. Insert the wand into the bottle again and use the handle to mix the remainder in the bottle with the one drop of water. It will thin out the product slightly but you will get to your paycheck with lashes galore!

Tip five:

If you can, try to change your mascara every 6-8 weeks. It really does make a difference. After all, mascara is used on the eye area so you want to be extra careful when it comes to products used. 

Hope this helps guys!

Love Jen xx

See Stars in Her Eyes

In the summer months, our makeup doesn't tend to stay on our face as well as other months of the year, so we need a little helping hand when it comes to staying put all day long. I've put together some of my favourite eye products I've been using the past couple of months to keep those eyes looking fresh till dawn.

An eyeshadow primer is vital in these summer months to keep your eyemakeup lasting all day. The lids of the eyes can get naturally oily,  no matter what skin type you have, so to control these oils a primer must be used. I love MAC Paint Pot in the shade Painterly for my skin, however this is a very light shade so it won't suit all skin tones. There are primers specifically made for the eyes which are good such as the Urban Decay Primer Potion or Inglot Eye Primer amongst others but I find the Paint Pots work wonders with soaking up any excess oils. Concealers can be used also but I would avoid using them if you have very oily lids.

If you know me at all, you know that eyebrows are, in my opinion, the most important part of your makeup. They lift the eyes, frame the face and really finish a look, if done right. I love using MAC Gel Eyeliner in the shade Dipdown to give my brows a defined, sharp look without being too much. I firstly define the arch and extend it into the tail. I then fill in the top of the brow, lifting it at the arch slightly to brighten the eye area. Using the excess on the brush I lightly fill in the outer half of the brow. Next, i use a spoolie brush to even out the colour and disperse some of that product into the inner part of the brow giving you a beautiful, natural ombré brow.

Using a gel liner through the brows in the heat is best as it is generally more water resistant than your average brow pencil or eyeshadow. This is perfect for if your out in the sun, in the pool on your holliers or just want your makeup to last that extra stretch.

Lastly for the brows, I am addicted to Catrice Eyebrow Filler. Like a mascara for your brows, this product has a small amount of pigment in it so when brushed through the brow hairs it adds a bit of colour as well as a beautiful texture. It also helps the brow hairs to stay in place keeping them perfect and sharp all day long.

These days I am loving a simple eye with a colour pop on the lip, but we all need a little bit of colour on those lids, just to keep it interesting. Under the brows I love using MAC Pigment in Pink Opal, a soft pearlescent shade that can be applied sheer or packed on for a more intense colour! 

On the lid, to add an extra bit of glow and sparkle, I love the MAC Pressed Pigments. My favourite shade is Warming Heart, a perfect soft gold shade with an infusion of fine glitter. I bring this colour up to the crease of the eye with a dense synthetic brush to get the best colour payoff. A little bit of a matte brown, around two shades darker than your skin tone, into the crease with a fluffy brush works wonders. It will break up the sheen of your lid and highlight colour aswel as giving definition to the shape of your eye.

Most days I like to wear my eyes quite bare, but if I'm looking to put in a little extra effort I love to add a classic 50's flick to give extra definition and to shspe the eyes. To do this, I use Inglot Gel Liner in the shade 77. This is by far my favourite eyeliner to use as it is jet black and it is 100% waterproof so it can be used on the lid or waterline and it will last all night long! 

This product has one downfall. It does tend to dry out quite quickly in the pot. When this happens I use a droplet of Inglot Duraline and mix it in with a small section of the liner to cream everything back up again. Good as new!! 

Duraline can also be used as a primer, to pack on pigment or glitters and to add moisture into dried out products such as gel liners, matte lipsticks, mascaras ect.

And last but not least is my all time favourite mascara, the Inglot False Lash Effect Mascara. The brush in this mascara is probably the best I've come across. I'm not a fan of Inglot mascaras in general, but this one really lengthens your lashes, adds volume and is jet black. I also found this mascara to last very well. I have gas mine around four months and it has only dried out now. Usually, I find myself changing mine every few weeks but this one lasts amazingly!!

Any questions just ask

Jx

Get the Look

I kind of did this look a bit backwards. I would usually do the eyes first so if there is any fall out, it can be easily wiped away without effecting your foundation, but due to this look having very natural colours on the eyes, I decided to do the face first.

The face:

I started by using the F55 small duo fibre foundation brush from Sigma and Revlon Photoready Airbrush Mousse Makeup in the colour Shell to the cheekbones, forehead, chin and underneath the eyes. I then used the same foundation in the colour Natural Beige on the rest of the face as this shade matches with the tone of my neck. This means any areas of the face covered with the shade Shell are naturally highlighted giving the face a more airbrushed look.
Using the same brush, I stippled a small amount of MAC NW15 Studio Finish Concealer underneath the eye area, around the nose and a small amount through the cheeks just to add a bit more coverage as these areas can tend to get a bit red throughout the day.
To set the foundation and to mattify the skin I used Inglot AMC Powder in the number 55 all over the face and contoured the forehead, nose, lip and cheekbones with Inglot Pressed Powder in the number 31 and a Sigma F35 tapered brush.
I applied a mixture of MAC Pinkswoon and MAC Fleur Power blusher to the apples of the cheeks using a Sigma F15 duo fibre blush brush to give the cheeks a more rounded appearance.

The eyes:

You want to achieve the 'no makeup' makeup look with the shadows on the eyes. Similar to contouring you want to create seamless shadows and highlights, so blending is key.

I firstly filled in the brows using an Inglot 17TL brow brush and Inglot 329 chocolate matte brown eyeshadow. I paid extra attention to the arch and extension of the tail and used very little product on the inside of the brow. This makes the brow appear more natural. To achieve a clean, sharp brow I carved out the underneath of the brow line using a flat concealer brush and Studio Finish Concealer in NW15. This colour is a few shades lighter than my skin tone so it will act as a natural highlight to the brow bone.

Using my ring finger, I applied MAC Painterly Paintpot and blended it from the lash line into the concealer underneath the brow. This will act as a base/primer to the eyeshadow and brighten the lid, yet still giving coverage to any blue undertones on the lid.

Using a large fluffy brush, I used an Inglot 4SS blender brush, and I applied Inglot 352 matte pale pink eyeshadow on the full eyelid. Using the same brush (because it's tapered) I applied a shade 2-3 shades darker than the lid colour to create a shadow effect and give definition to the crease. I used Inglot 357, a wam matte neutral tone to do this.

I used my favourite liner, Inglot 77 black gel liner, to create the classic 50's flick eyeliner look, making sure it was a thin line on the inside, getting thicker at the outside corner of the eye and extended out into a tapered flick towards the tail of the brow.

Lashes:

I removed the Inglot 16N lashes from the box carefully from the outside corner of the lash using a tweezers. I was extra careful doing this a I didn't want to distort the shape of the lash because this would effect how the lash sits on your eye making them unwearable. I then took some Inglot 22S long individual lashes and I attached these to the lashband of the 16N lashes at the outside corner using clear DUO Glue. I did this about a third of the way into the lash from the outside to achieve that winged, cat-eye lash look. I used the same clear DUO Glue to apply the lashes to the eye. Once set, I went over the lash band with the gel liner again.
I then applied Inglot False Lash Mascara and I wiggled the product through my own natural lashes. This application technique will weave your natural lashes into the false ones so the two sets of lashes appear as one and sit on top of each other comfortably.

The Lips:

I firstly applied a small amount of MAC Diva matte lipstick to the lips, not going too close to the natural outline of the lip. I then used Kryolan lip liner in the colour 910 to line the lip on the very outside of the natural lip line to give the appearance of a fuller lip. This is personal preference if you want your lips to appear fuller or not.

Thre ya have it guys!! Try it out yourselves

J xxx