Bold brows - My personal obsession, and how to achieve them. Updated.

Audrey. Queen of brow. 

Sorry for my lack of posts. I have been extremely busy beyond belief. I am back now with a bumper brow post as way of apology.

I love brows, I love them so much, they frame a face, change the whole mood of the make up you have on your chops. Done correctly that can visually recall an era. I mean, Siouxsie Sioux's squared severe brow shape added to a look and suddenly it's 1970's punk. A thick bushy brow such as Audrey Hepburns, and you're swanning around like you're in Breakfast and Tiffany's. Brows are powerful. 

Siouxsie Sioux. Severe. 

Given my obsession, I've been through a lot of brow products. Here's a few of my recommendations for you to peruse....

Mac Brow Pencil in Stud

This pencil is awesome. It's a proper dark brown, unlike many pencils you buy which give you a feint mucky brown shade, this means business. It's slim, leaves opaque coverage, and is extremely easy to use. You can either just use it to fill in those few extra hairs you need to balance your brow, or go for a full on brow assault. I would say out of all the brow pencils i've used, this is, by far, the very very best.

This can be purchased direct from the Mac website for £12.50

Mac Fluidline Brow Gelcreme

You know, Mac really get on my tits sometimes, as i've mentioned in posts before, they release something INCREDIBLE, something you've yearned for, and you get hold of it, and then suddenly, it's sold out in three days and you can never have it again despite it having become part of your daily routine and thus, essential, you're not allowed to own it again. Oh no. Why on earth would they want you to buy more of their products that you adore? 

Regardless of this, this product is AMAZING and the ultimate brow product I own, and as I said before, I own a lot. I use this when I want to create a sharp dramatic brow, using a Mac 266 Small Angle Brush which is dense and stiff enough to make it easy as lovely pie. 

If you can find this instore, snap it up, as it's sold out online, but cost £14.00 and is worth every penny

Sleek Brow Kit in Extra Dark

This kit is amazing. I promise you. Sleek is a brand I adore anyway, I have lots of high end products, but daily I keep going for their products over the more expensive ones. Why? They are bloody good thats why! Highly pigmented, long lasting and they perform, what more could you want? This brow kit consists of a wax to fill and fix your brows in place, as well as priming them for the next step, which is a very pigmented, dense powder to fully fill them in, which sticks to the wax, leaving you free to do what you're doing and not worry about fading or smudging. Pretty nifty no? 

Whats also amazing is the price. SO CHEAP! If you want to indulge you can order this direct from the website here or pop into your local Superdrug and pick it up for a stunning £8.50. It lasts forever too!

Illamasqua Brow Cake

Good old Illamasqua. I love this brand so much. They basically create anything that you couldn't imagine any other brand having the guts to put on general sale. If you want to create a Siouxsie Sioux brow like above, these are the brow products you want to get your hands on. Just mix some water with this powder above and create a paste to paint on a brilliantly extreme brow. The world is your brow shaped oyster! If you want a brow that is industrial strength, just mix the cake with their famous sealing gel £12.50, and you'll be rain, sweat and weatherproof until you remove it. Ace no?

You can pick this up direct from the website or from Debenhams for £15.

Awesome. 

Now, how to do it. Well, I don't think anything I could ramble could ever beat the genius of my make up hero, Gossmakeupartist, giving us two amazing tips. This first video changed my make up life!!!

Gossmakeupartist - How to use brows to make your nose look slimmer.

Gossmakeupartist - How to get the perfect brow.

Dive in, enjoy, honestly I couldn't vouch for a better make up artist to explain techniques than Goss, he's incredible. 

Pixiwoo - How to fill in brows

The above video is fantastic, and for the girl that loves a signature iconic brow, so Nik from Pixiwoo, my other favourite you tube MUA, takes you through how to achieve the aforementioned Audrey Hepburn as well as Elizabeth Taylor, Linda Evangelista and more natural shaped brows. Also, because Nik is awesome, she also explains how to achieve a natural looking brow for when you're suffering from alopecia or hair loss through cancer treatments. I personally love doing the Audrey brow. Give it a go if you fancy, whats to lose?? If you think you look like a twat, take it off. Thats the great thing about make up, if you look a twat, which I frequently do, you can just whip out a washcloth! 

Happy forehead scrawling girls! 

Being Pale - objects that save our souls Pt 1

I think i've mentioned it a few times, yes, I know I have, but for the uninitiated, I am very very pale. I have freckles, so whenever I go to buy a foundation (foundation is my version of heroin, I just can't get enough and the more I buy the more I want) I seem to have this exchange with the MUA.

Me: Hi there, I wanted to try your new foundation but i'm not sure it'll come pale enough for me
MUA: I wouldn't say you're that pale, I would put you at a shade 03 or 04
Me: I promise you, lots of people say that but it's just because my skin is red and I have freckles
MUA: Trust me, I know what I'm talking about, I think you'll be surprised.
Me: 'sighing' okay....surprise me....

10 wasted minutes later....

MUA: How weird! Do you not want to warm up your complexion a little though? No one wants to be pale do they?
Me: I do. It's the colour I am. I want foundation the colour of my skin ideally.
MUA: Oh, well I can't help you then.
Me: Thought not....

And thus, my frustration, and search continues. Fortunately, more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon of different levels of paleness, and tones of paleness. Yellow based, pink based, neutral. It happens! However, what do you do when you've wasted a ton of your money on a foundation that is far too dark for you? Or the wrong tone? Well, I have wasted money, and I haven't really got much of it to waste sadly, so these objects have saved me again and again when it comes to my foundation.

Illamasqua Skin Base in Shade 01

If you're thinking 'that's ruddy pale, it's basically white', you'd be right, thats exactly what it is. Illamasqua skin base is a much loved version of a BB Cream by the fantastic Illamasqua, a brand that, as far as I'm concerned, can do no wrong. 

Now, given the massive shade range of this product, you may think 'why not just buy it in your shade?'. Well sadly this product isn't long wearing enough for me, and it tends to slide off/cake up around my stupid red nose. Fortunately, when mixed in small quantities with other foundation formulations that DO work, but are too dark for me, the problems don't surface. Bonza! 

I used to use Mac Face and Body foundation in White, but the shelf life of that product is ridiculously short, and it becomes a clotted, stinking filthy mess in four months, and the product is SO sheer that if you need any coverage, you're just sheering it out too much and lose the effectiveness. I also have used Face Atelier in Zero Minus, which is a very siliconey white foundation favoured by make up artists, but it's darn expensive at £34 for such a small quantity, so Illamasqua turned out a happy solution for me. 

If you'd like to give this product a go, it's available from the Illamasqua website HERE for £27.

BUDGET QUEENS BEWARE THOUGH. If you are struggling to find the money to treat yourself, there is a much cheaper pure white alternative available from trusty old Barry M called Foundation Creme White. Okay, not quite the same quality, but does the same job for next to nothing. You can purchase Barry M online, or in store at Boots or Superdrug for £6.19.

Barry M Foundation Creme in White

Of course, there is also the issue of 'what if the foundation is now too yellow, or too pink'. Well, I tend to go pretty basic here, and look for the pinkest/yellowest foundation I can even out the tone with, ideally with the same finish qualities, so long wearing/sweatproof/dewy/matte etc. 

For example, I have a big love for Smashbox Studio Skin 15hr Wear Foundation but it's so darn DARK it's like fake tan on me! When I add white, it turns pale yellow, and I am neutral in tone, leaning to pinky, so what I do is add another favourite of mine, Make Up For Ever Face and Body foundation in shade 38 Pink Porcerlain into the mix. It's not only a pink based foundation, but it's also water resistant and oil free like the first, so they work together well. Never mix an oil base with a water base, they will repel each other like hateful ex's, and separate as far as they can get from each other, on your face, leaving you red faced and blotchy. Again, like a hateful ex. 

I hope this post has been somewhat useful to the pallid of tone out there. I have written this from my poorly sickbed, so I hope I make some sense in all this ramble. Thank you for reading me girls! 

Insomnia = Illamasqua ltd ed rubber nailpolish review (bad manicure pics within!)

Hey ladies!!! (dingdingdingdingdingdingding!)

I can't sleep, and as well as having 'Hey Ladies!' by the Beastie Boys in my head (so good when the bass synth kicks in!),  I have decided to ward of the night time frustrations by posting my new nail polish joys. As mentioned before, I am TERRIBLE at doing my nails, I rip them off when they get too long, and I don't clean up mistakes. The reason for this is I don't really care, I just don't, it's a bonus i'm not still filling in my nails with permanent market and tippex, so frankly, y'know, whatever.

Anyway, I bought myself these beauties.

Illamasqua rubber finish nail polish in Prosperity

Illamasqua rubber finish nail polish in Nurture

I don't really go for traditional nail polish finish unless it's a silly colour, and I had a BIG love for the matt finish trend that happened a couple of years back. Rubber finish is just the next step up to AMAZE though frankly! The only downside with this stuff is you need at least three coats, otherwise there is a slight hint of opacity that you don't really want. Also, obviously you can't do a top coat, so you may be chipping by day two or three. It's pretty darn hardwearing though, and the colours are to DIE for. I couldn't afford more than two, but I would really love to get my hands on this colour too...

Illamasqua rubber finish nail polish in Serenity (bright turquoise)

Anyway, have a look at my badly done manicure below and enjoy the rubbery joys of this nailpolish.

My hand, ten minutes ago. Click to enlarge my bad photo.

I purchased this polish from the trusty Illamasqua website for £13.50 each. Click here to go to there.