Old gold..

Hello!

Today in class we covered evening make up, which consisted mainly of a dark smokey eye with black coal liner and false lashes. There was no theory in this class we just went straight into the practical work. My model was blonde so I went for a dark brown lid smoked out with a charcoal grey colour in the crease. I also applied individual lashes flared on the edge of the eye to add some drama to the look. I didn’t use black shades as it would have been too severe on fair hair. I was happy with how my look turned out and so was my model :)

Today I am going to talk about my first pigment I ever got from MAC

M.A.C - Old Gold

The first time I got my make-up done in MAC this is the colour the mua used on me and I loved it so much I bought it. Whenever I show this pigment to anyone they always ask for me to use it on them.

It is so unique, gold is a great shade for majority of people but this particular shade has a variety of different colours in it. When you first look at it, it has the obvious gold hue off it but when the light shines on it or your when you foil it on the lid it has a greeny hue off it too! It is so gorgeous!

Top swatch - Applied wet
Bottom swatch - Applied dry

When applied dry it can be applied all over the lid and in the crease as I find that when it is put in the crease I don’t know why but it turns brown in the crease. It almost creates its own shadow.

I noticed this in a video Lauren luke [love her! :)] has when she used this particular pigment in on her youtube channel! I shall link the video here so you can see what I mean! A good example of this is 1:40 seconds in, pause it and have a quick look!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JcIWKg_8bY

When applying pigment as it is loose shadow it always needs a base of some kind for it to adhere to on the skin. When applying pigment I always start off with a standard eye primer.  (such as UD Primer potion)

When using the pigment wet I just apply it straight over the UDPP. When using it dry I tend to first apply the UDPP, then a black eyeliner all over the area I will be applying the pigment too, blend it out with a brush and then pat the pigment on top.

I find when applying pigments the best brush to use is a synthetic fibre brush as these tend to absorb less of the pigment when the pigment is in a damp state. But whatever you wish to use is up to you!

Old Gold is part of the permanent pigment line in MAC and is available in all MAC store. Pigments cost approx €22 which is expensive but they last forever as they contain so much product also they have a variety of different uses. So you are getting value for your money! :)

-Buttons x

I am not affiliated with MAC in any way. This product was purchased with my own money and these are my honest thoughts on the product :)

Managing my mop of hair..

Hello!

My internet was on the blink last night so excuse the lateness of this post!

So to fill in on today class, we covered trend make up. This consists of the current trends for the current season i.e Autumn/Winter 2010. Current big trends at present include the dark structured brow and strong lips in red and plum shades. We had to choose an image from A/W and recreate it. I chose to do Lady Gaga’s cover look for the September issue of Vanity Fair. I was really happy with how it turned out :)

Now to move onto my post of the day!

I have curly hair so I tend to use my hairdryer and ghd quite frequently to keep my naturally frizzy mop under control! All this heat from styling tools such as the ghd and blow drying can be really damaging to the hair so I like to use a heat protector when styling to protect my hair. My favourite product is the ghd heat protectant

The packaging is super cute, it is Barbie pink! It is usually a gold colour I think but this particular bottle is in aid of the Maire Keating Foundation for Breast Cancer so the bottle is pink. This product has a light scent which is not overpowering and fades pretty quickly.

I tend to apply this product to my hair when damp before I blowdry with my hair with the dryer. If straightening or curling my hair when dry I then apply this product misting each section, allowing each section to dry before applying the hair tool.

I like this heat protectant as it doesn’t make my hair sticky or take away from the natural texture of the hair when styled. It lasts a long time and does a super job protecting my hair. I think this is my forth or fifth bottle so far and I love it! Two thumbs up for me!

It can be purchased in salons only I believe. My local Peter Marks salon stocks it but I am sure anywhere that sells ghd’s will sell it too! I can’t remember how much it costs as i have this bottle quite a while but I will check it out! :)

-Buttons x 

I am not affiliated with this company in any way. I purchased this product with my own money and these are my honest thoughts on the product :)

Naked!... pallet of course! ;)

Hello!

So I finally got my mits on the Urban Decay Naked pallet :)

I have been using it every day since I got it and I absolutely love it! If you are mainly a neutrals girl like myself, this is right up your alley!

The pallet comes with 12 different shadows ranging between matts and shimmers. It also contains a dual ended eyeliner in the infamous black liner 'zero' and 'whiskey' a chocolate brown liner. To top it all off it also comes with a mini primer potion.

The colours range from a pale flesh tone colour to a dark black with varying shades of gold, silver, brown and pink inbetween.

I really love this pallet, the colours are super pigmented even without using the primer potion and they all blend really easily between eachother no matter what shade you use.

[L>R] Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Halfbaked.

[L>R] Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal.

My favourite look so far has been wearing 'half baked' on the lid, 'naked' and 'buck' in the crease, 'Darkhorse' in the outer corner of the crease and 'virgin' as a highlight on the browbone and on the tearduct. Also lining my waterline with 'whiskey' - Love it!

Here are some swatches of the colours in the same order as they are in the pallet below:

[L>R] Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half-baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep & Gunmetal.
Eyeliner [L>R] Zero, Whiskey

Really have nothing bad to say about this pallet at all! It gets the full two thumbs up from me. The packaging is gorgeous (there has been a lot of issues with UD packaging in the past but they got this one bang on) really luxurious and neat. Make up artists all over the world will appriciate this pallet. I can see it being used as a nice bridal pallet maybe?

The pallet costs €37 and is available from all Urban decay counters now. (For all those students out there, if you purchase it from a boots store you can use your student travelcard and get 10% off! Reducing the cost to €32 = nice discount!) It has been selling out but I believe it is going to be a permanent addition to the range (I could be wrong I will try to find this out officially!) So everyone should be able to get a hold of this baby at some point in the near future without having to fork out $75 on ebay (its been sighted on there for that much..shocking I know!)

Happy Hunting everyone! :)

-Buttons x

I am not affiliated with Urban Decay in any way. This post was written by my own will and the pallet discussed above was purchased by me with my own money. These are my honest thoughts and opinions on the product :)

Hairdryer love!

Hello!

The weather has been shocking here the last few days with monsoon like rain, its not quite working out with my straightened hair :(

Oh well despite this I have been enjoying my new hair dryer which has cut down my blowdry from like 20mins to 13mins long :o Fyi I have long curly hair which I always blow dry straight when I wash it as it it unmanageable otherwise and 13mins is record time for me!

So with that I introduce you all to the 'Turbo Stratos 3800"

It comes with a super long lead and plug (obviously haha) It also contains two different nozzles, a small one and a larger wider one.

The lengthy lead is a brilliant addition as I find most hair tools leads are wayy too short which can make styling different, however that is not the case with this one! The box doesn't come with that many instructions or details (such as the exact length of the lead or smaller details like that) but I suppose a hair dryers function is pretty self explanatory right?

The dryer itself has three different buttons on the handle;

• A black power button which has three different levels - off, medium pressure and full pressure
• A red heat button which also has three different levels - off, warm and hot.
• Finally it also has a cool air button which is the blue one. This clicks on and off.

-

I really like the additional feature of having the cool air button with a click button as with my last hair dryer, when using the cool air feature you just had to hold down the button when using it. With this dryer you can click it on and off. Fab! 

I have always bought my hairdryers from my hairdressers as they have always lasted years and worked the best. This one is no exception, I had my last hairdryer ten years and I expect I will get that long out of this one too!

This dryer was available in a rainbow of colours but I chose the black as I felt it looked sleek and I am not a huge fan of coloured tools as they can look very cheap!

Overall I really like this dryer it dried my hair super fast, it gave my hair a lovely shine and it handled really well when I used it! I would totally recommend it to anyone! :)

I bought mine from my local Peter Marks salon and I think it cost €47 :)

-Buttons x

I am not affiliated with this product in any way. I purchased this product with my own money and these are my honest thoughts on the product :)

MAC Venomous Villains Collection for Disney :D

Hello!


So I don't know about anyone else but I am SUPER excited for this collection! It's combining two of my favourite things.. MAC and Disney! :D



The collection looks brilliant they have taken four great villains; Cruella De Vil, The Evil Queen from Snow White, Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty and Dr Facilier from The Princess and the Frog. Although I personally would have included Ursula from TLM they are still great choices! :)



I have my eye on eyeshadows mostly but there is also some gorgeous lip colours! The packaging looks great too I really won't wish to depot anything haha!



The Temptalia website has been my MAC bible for a long time and they provided all the information for this collection online (I will link further down to their synopsis of the collection because it is fabulous!) 



The main products I am lusting after for this collection is....well basically all of it!


But to be more realistic the products I intend on purchasing (if they are nice colours in person!) are:


Most of the eyeshadows from the Cruella De Vil line, Evil Queen line and Maleficent line, The light pink lipstick from the Cruella line and the purple pigment from the Dr Facilier line :)

My poor laser card is in for a beating...good thing I have been saving up for this for a while, I knew I would love this collection when it was announced!

The collection is due for release in late september! I have found from past collections that MAC tend to release collections in BT Grafton on a Thursday. Also that it tends to be released a few days before America! Hope this helps any anxious shoppers! :)

-Buttons x

The information above came from the Temptalia website. I do not own or claim to composed the information myself. I have just quoted the website. Full credit for the information above goes to  http://www.temptalia.com/mac-venomous-villains-collection-for-fall-2010 :)

Bronze bronze bronzer!

Hello!

So today in class we covered contemporary bridal looks. Our tutor did two demos, one of a dramatic dark smokey eye with a nude lip and then 20s pin up bridal look with winged black liner and a bold red lip. There was no theory in todays class just practical which was a nice change. My partner did the smokey eyed look on me with a red lip, she chose aspects from both looks to practice on me while I chose to practice my winged liner and statement red lip. I was very happy with how it turned out! :)

Since starting my make-up course I have become a little obsessed with contouring. Now that I know how to do it correctly and where to place it on the face, I havnt stopped! haha!

Both my sister and my mother love bronzer and their favourite is MAC's bronzer in 'Golden'

This is what I have been using on my face and I love it! The packaging is nice and simple with a compact mirror in the lid. This is super handy! I wish the natural msf's came with a mirror as, I use this as my facepowder and always have to go root out a mirror when I am not at home with the mirror on the wall on front of me.

I like to use an angled blush brush such as the MAC 168 (I believe it is) or the Sigma equivalent to apply with, as I find they fit in the hollows of the cheek with their sharp angle fabulously!

The colour is dark enough to give a bronzed shadow effect but without being orange! It has become a staple in my make up bag now!


MAC usually release this shade as part of collections which means you can usually pick one up with some funky packaging, if the black is a little boring for you! My sister picked this packaging up maybe a year or two ago I cannot remember when exactly it was released but I believe it was part of the neo sci-fi collection! I kept the empty compact because I just love the packaging! Isn't it cool?

If you looking for a bronzer to experiment with contouring or even just a new bronzer I would recommend giving this one a try! :)

-Buttons x

I am not affiliated with MAC in any way, I bought this product with my own money and these are my honest thoughts and opinions on the above product! :)

Pretty Petticoat!

Hello!

To start off I thought I would fill you in on what we covered in my make up course today.


First our tutor introduced us to all the different face shapes and how to achieve the desired 'oval' face shapewith contouring no matter what shape your face is! We then looked at different eye shapes and how to achieve the best shaped look for any eye shape, for example how to make a mature eye shape look its best! Our tutor then did a demo on an asian girl in our class to demonstrate how to create a socket with an oriental eye shape. It was super interesting and informative! We then paired off and worked on eachother practicing contouring and eye shapes! Tomorrow night is a contempory look with a red lip I believe so I will keep you posted on how that turns out :)

Now onto tonights post!

I know this post is a little late coming but I love this product so much I really didnt want to neglect it just because I am late haha!

I have been a long time lurker in the beauty community both here on blogs, livejournal and on youtube and because of this I was very familiar with the hype surrounding MSF's (or Mineralise skinfinish to you and me) I got sucked into the craze that was for the infamous 'Stereo Rose' msf. I wanted it. hail. rain. or snow!

When I discovered it was going to be re-released Iwas estatic! I noted the day of release here in Ireland and flew into MAC with my mum who was curious about these infamous msf's too after listening to me ramble on about them and from reading about them in magazines.

When I got into MAC I ran straight to the counter and thankfully they had them all in stock so I started swatching away and to my surprise 'Stereo Rose' when I swatched it on my skin wasnt my cup of tea at all. It looked too orange against my skin tone (ghostly white haha)

I was super disappointed for only a monent as, as soon as I saw petticoat I fell in love! (I fall in love with products wayyy too often I know..stay with me haha)

It was more pinky based and suited my skin gorgeously, I also really liked 'by candlelight' but only wanted to buy one as I  had convinced myself I didnt need two :( so I chose Petticoat and love it!

My only qualm with msf's, is that you must apply them with a light hand as they are tricky to blend out but aside from that they are gorgeous! They leave a lovely flush of colour on the skin with a hint of shimmer matched to the shade of the msf itself (not just a shiny effect if you get me). I have found Petticoat is even more gorgeous with a tan as it shows up the shade with more vibrancy.

All in all if you can track these babys down, they are worth the hype. Hopefully MAC will repromote them soon as I believe they sold out especially in the states within the day of launching! :)

-Buttons x