{Makeup Monday} INGLOT Cream Blush

This is my Blush Beloved at the moment. The AMC Cream blush by INGLOT is warming up my wintery cheeks something lovely these days! I really like the consistency - it's dewy without being oily so therefore is fantastic for all skins including those with oily/combination skins who have felt they have had to avoid this category of blushers before for fear of looking too shiny. These little beauts have a slightly 'cream to powder' feel without a powdery finish and lot's of pigment so a little goes a very long way. I have been applying mine with my fingers but they are also wonderful when swept over the cheek with a foundation brush or MAC's 130 brush is ideal for buffing it out seamlessly. I am wearing number 82 which is a deep, warm rose tone. Have a look at their full shade range here...there is a great choice and they are fantastic value at €14.

{Makeup Monday} Smashbox Studio Skin

I've tested the Studio Skin foundation from Smashbox out over the past few weeks and I like it a lot. I am normally so wary of the 'longlasting' category of foundations as they can look so artificial on the skin. So it was with a degree of trepidation that I applied this to my own skin, figuring that I would have to actually wear it myself to test it's claims... and it was fine! It was more than fine - it was good in fact!
It has a much dewier finish and feel than MAC's Studio Finish Fluid which I would see as this product's main competitor. It has a medium to full coverage and manages to retain the soft dewy finish for hours and although I don't think I actually wore it for the entire 15 hours, I can vouch for it's good staying power. It's a winner for normal to dry or combination skins. I wouldn't use it on a very dry skin as it may look a bit heavy. They do a good range of shades too. I wear the palest 1.1 and it is suitably pale with no yellowy hue. It's €39 and I think it's worth it.

Makeup Days

Good Morning my lovelies, how was your weekend? I've had a hectic few makeup days with lot's more to come; it's a bit exhausting hauling this bump around with my giant makeup kit but fun nonetheless.
I was making up some lovely ladies at The Great Rail Sale in Dublin yesterday and got to meet so many nice makeup fans (including some readers of Ellie Loves!) Here I am applying a beautiful burgundy lip shade to Nicola. I am crazy about this shade on someone with her colouring - it's a strong statement lip that feels a bit more fashion forward than the classic reds...

In case you are wondering, I kept her eyes very clean and bright with an oyster toned shadow. I shaded into the socket with a pale grey and lined with a black gel liner. The cheeks are warmed slightly with a pale matte peach tone and on the lips I lined with a Stila lip liner in no 12, I then added the Revlon matte lipstick in Wine Not and Lancome's Raisin Juicy Tube on top to give it a lift.

What do you think?

{Makeup Monday} Max Factor Liquid Effect Pencil

Oh, I love a good quality pencil! Thankfully, the majority of brands are upping their game when it comes to pencils and they are ticking the boxes of requirements. For the record, what you need from a pencil is a buttery texture so it glides on to the skin without dragging or indeed, poking. A deep level of pigment so the colour is strong and lasts long rather than an insipid colour that tends to disappear in a few blinks. 

Max Factor's Liquid Effect Pencils are good examples of pencils in the 'better' end of the scale. They perfom as they should and they leave a lovely, long lasting effect on the eye. (Not sure about the 'liquid effect' though as to me they are just a great kohl pencil)

I am addicted to the Violet Voltage shade which is deep aubergine shade. I use it both as a liner and as an eyeshadow base. It is smooth enough to sketch all over the lid and blend out with the attached smudger at the end of it. Apply a complementary shadow or metallic pigment on top for a gorgeous and easy effect. I think that these pencils can certainly hold their own against top brands and they definitely rival Armani's pencils in my view (and I have been pretty un-swayable when it comes to Armani before now!)

{Makeup Monday} Smashbox Primer

Do you ever find that sometimes your skin fluctuates and becomes a bit de-hydrated due to environmental factors? Or just being a bit lax on downing those 2 vital litres of water? Mine certainly does and I find it frustrating as it makes my foundation look more matte and patchy as my skin tries to take extra moisture from the oil content in my foundation.

Well, help is at hand from those experts in primers - Smashbox. Seriously, they take priming to a whole new level with something like eight in their arsenal at this stage. For the record, I rate the original one and the new luminizing one very highly too but this is the hydrating primer and it is very, very good indeed.

It adds a touch more moisture and slip to the skin without adding a layer of oil, so foundations glide on well and I have found it very useful both on myself and on clients with dry/combination skin. It is great under a semi-matte foundation too as it makes it a bit more dewy but not so much as to slide off. 

This hydrating primer is definitely the best way to give a moisture hit to the skin that leaves your base looking right. Adding more layers of your moisturiser to ramp up hydration levels is never good for makeup application; it's a one way ticket to Shinesville!

{Makeup Monday} MAC Paint Pot

I thought I'd wax lyrical about one of my favourite products today. This is the MAC paint pot in Groundwork and it is a right little treasure! It is a cream-to-powder eye shadow with fantastic staying power on the skin. I use it alone and also as a base for other, more strongly pigmented shadows. It is what I call a 'skin toned shadow' - a champagne/taupe tone that suits everyone so therefore is worthy of constant makeup bag usage. (see swatches here )They last really well without creasing which is one of the main issues for the cream category of shadows. I apply it over the eye using my ring finger and then blend out the edges with a 217 brush, also from MAC and also in my list of can't-live-without tools. This brush is firm enough to move creams and deeply pigmented colours whilst being soft enough to create a beautifully diffused edge to shadows.