AN EYELINER CHEAT

It's a sad fact of life that I'm not very good with liquid eyeliner. The saying always goes that practise makes perfect, and I am practising, but I've blinded myself more times than I can count. In the meantime, I've come up with my own easy cheat way to achieve the 'eyeliner-on-the-top-lid-look' (I can't think of a name for it) that I am very proud of figuring out. 

My secret is eyeshadow and those cheap sponge brushes that come with eyeshadow palettes. I use the shade 'Noir' (the black shade, obviously) from my Sleek 'Oh So Special' palette, and all I do is pick up a bit of colour with the very tip of the sponge and drag it straight across my eyelid right on the lash line. It goes without saying that a brush is so much easier to control than a pencil or felt tip liner, it's so much easier to create a nice straight line without blinding yourself or making any huge messes or mistakes. The tip of the sponge also creates a slightly thicker line than an eyeliner would, so there's no need to keep having to build up until you get the thickness you want; it's also so easy to build up colour if you want your eyeshadow to look darker. 

I don't know how well I've explained this, in my mind it's simple, but I know what I'm talking about. So to summarise, black eyeshadow, tip of the sponge eyeshadow brush, straight cross the lash line, keeping almost on top of the lashes to avoid any gaps. Simples. 

I'm going to keep practising with liquid liner at home, but for the time being, out in public, this suits me well. 

EYE EYE

Happy 101st post to me!
(Really annoyed that I forgot to acknowledge it on the last post)

I decided recently that I'd like to be a bit more adventurous with my eye makeup as the only thing I was ever wearing was pencil eyeliner on my water line and just below my eye, and it's good, but slightly boring. I'm not going to lie here, I do have a fear of all things eye makeup (i.e. liquid liner, eyeshadow, eyebrows), purely because I do not know how to work them properly. But I'm trying. And I'm branching out. And it's rather fun.
This post is a kind of eye-themed haul of recent eye product purchases in the past couple of months.

Sleek i-Divine 'Oh So Special' Palette
It was either this or the Sleek 'Au Naturel' palette, but I opted for this one as I already have a more browny-nudey-natural palette (MUA 'Heaven and Earth' palette). I chose this one as, being pale and blonde, I think pinks and lighter browns work really well on me; my favourite from this palette is actually the shade 'Organza', as it is a more copper shimmery colour, and oranges/bronzes/coppers are meant to look really good with blue eyes as they make them stand out more. This palette is so beautiful, with it's mix of shimmers and mattes, even though it is the hardest thing in the world to open.
Thought I'd add in here that I definitely have my eye on the Naked 3 palette (hint hint for Christmas) as it has got to be one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen- you will soon learn that I really love pale pink eyeshadows.
Anyone else found that eyeshadow palettes are the hardest thing ever to photograph?

Maybelline 24 Hour Colour Tattos in 'Pink Gold' and 'Metallic Pomegranate' 
Most people seem to use these as eyeshadow bases, but I personally think they look good enough, and that they stand out enough, to wear successfully on their own. They're a tricky thing to apply, having spoken to people, most just seem to apply using their fingers which works well enough for 'Pink Gold' but not so much for 'Metallic Pomegranate'.
'Pink Gold' is, without a doubt, one of my favourite eye products ever, it's more of a subtle shimmer and so I find can be built up quite a lot without looking over the top. The pink is so beautiful and I have had many complements on it.
'Metallic Pomegranate' is a really gorgeous colour, but it has to be applied in moderation as it can give the impression of being punched in the eye if you're not careful. I think I am going to have to apply 'Metallic Pomegranate' with a hard brush, especially as it's a slightly harder and more solid product, as I think that will give an overall better look than with a finger. 'Metallic Pomegranate' may also be the one to use as a base, I'm thinking potentially with mattes or dark colours.
I also have my eye on two other Colour Tattoos- 'On and On Bronze', and 'Permanent Taupe'.
These are also very difficult to photograph: 'Pink Gold' is pale pink, and 'Metallic Pomegranate' is a beautiful plum-ish colour.

Liquid Eyeliners
I decided that I wanted to experiment with liquid eyeliner, even though it scares the hell out of me (don't even know where to begin with trying to use it).
I bought the Natural Collection liquid eyeliner (from Boots) which I personally think is one of the best places to start with liquid liner as it only costs £2. Not going to lie, I've barely used either of these products, there was a tragic accident of black blobs everywhere when I tried to use the Natural Collection one for the first time. I am, however, feeling good about this next product.
I actually got this eyeliner pen free in the September issue of Company magazine, which I was really pleased about as I was wanting to try an eyeliner felt-tip, without having to splash out on the Soap and Glory Super Cat liner one. Yet again, I've barely used this, but it's a good product for beginners as a felt-tip is much easier to use that any other brush-type.

Aims:
I thought I'd end this with my future eye aims, apart from to get better with eyeliner and to be able to wear eye products (looking at you eye shadow) without looking like an absolute prat.
My main eye aim is to get my eyebrows sorted properly and to perfect the art of doing them myself. My eyebrow sorting is a must-do.

THINGS I HAVE LEARNT

I have learnt some things recently. I am both shocked and thrilled by them. It's confusing.

The Truth Behind Bobby Pins- My Whole Life is a Lie:

The other day while browsing the bloggersphere, I discovered the 'true' way to use bobby pins/hair grips depending on what you call them; luckily I'm not the only one who didn't know about this, my mother and friends were equally as shocked. For my whole life I have been using hair grips with the bumpy side facing upwards, as everyone does, the bumpy side faces upwards in the packet. But apparently there is somewhere a secret rule that only the select few know that claims that hair grips are supposed to be used with the bumpy side facing downwards as that helps them to grip better. What. It makes so much sense. How don't we all know this? Having road tested hair grips with the bumpy side facing downwards for a whole day I think they might actually grip your head better as my hair has slipped out of position less but I am still very distressed by this. My whole life is a lie.

The previous way of wearing hair grips, with the bumpy side facing upwards, the obvious way

The apparently correct way we should be wearing hair grips, with the flat side facing upwards

A Different Type of Glove:

Recently I have been quite self conscious of my legs as they were covered in small spots that I assumed were some type of weird leg acne (lacne?). While discussing this with my friends, I discovered that:
1) I am not the only one who gets this; and
2) It's not actually spots but ingrown hair from shaving.
The answer to this problem is so simple that it cleared my legs up in about two days. Exfoliation. During every shower/bath or after every time you shave your legs all you need to do is exfoliate yourself and the ingrown hairs will clear right up; (you can also exfoliate your face to get rid of blackheads). I use body wash and then rub it in with an exfoliating glove as I find that they work best but you can also get special exfoliating body scrubs; the exfolaiting glove can also be used on your face but as it is quite rough I prefer to use a tea tree face scrub. Exfolation is my new favourite thing and is now a key part of my weekly routine.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This is only going to be a very brief post but this is my final thoughts after using only one lip product- Burt's Bees- for a whole month.

Whilst Burt's Bees is undoubtedly a very good lip balm, I hate to say that it's no better than other, cheaper brands and a few times during the month I found myself longing for my Body Shop Shea Lip Butter or the Nivea Hydrocare Stick.

That being said, my lips are super, duper, duper smooth and soft right now and, while I will go back to using multiple different brands and products at the same time, I think I can safely say that Burt's Bees will always be a permanent staple in my life.

SIMMER DOWN AND PUCKER UP

When life hands you exams it is essential (in my view) to buy yourself rewards for all the work and stress you are put through (and I promise that is not an excuse to go shopping). Last summer I went to Florida where I bought some Burt's Bees Lip Balms as they are much cheaper over there than they are here in the UK.

(Cheeky reuse of old photos here)

The main point of this post is not solely to review this product, but to talk about a new thing I'm doing this month. This June I have decided to only use one lip balm for the whole of the month just because I can really, I have no other reasoning apart from that.

I did make a post on Burt's Bees waaaay back in September 2013 so I'm not going to spend too long writing about it again. But I will say that it smells minty and fresh and brings back good memories of last summer; I also use this as a base before applying lipstick as it is quite a hard product so it isn't greasy, it doesn't leave a residue and you can barely feel it on your lips so your lipstick doesn't go sliding straight off as it might with a thinner, greasier balm.

I'd like to end this post by saying that, as of tomorrow, I will be free from exams and that is more exciting than anything right now.

THE ALIEN EXPERIMENT

When I was in my local large shopping centre in February half term I came across a Model's Own makeup pop-up store. After I purchased a beautiful pastel mint nail varnish called 'Apple Pie' (£5 in Boots or Superdrug) I was also given a free eyeliner. Now I'm not normally one for using free eyeliners etc. as I have very sensitive eyes but I couldn't resist this one...

I guarantee at some stage in everybody's life they have owned some form of blue eye makeup to heighten the idea that they are 'cool' and 'so very very random'. For me, it was the year 9 (age 13-14) cheap blue mascara that clumped your eyelashes together and made me the butt of my Uncle's jokes when I wore it to Pizza Express (but it was okay because I was confident in my 'randomness' and I also only wore it about twice because it was horrible). BUT NOW it is time to go back to my blue eyeshadow roots (who didn't own blue eyeshadow that they slapped thickly across their eyelids like a hooker when they were younger?) but this time trade it in for a metallic blue eyeliner. Bye bye black, it is time for blue (please, black, no, obviously I will still be wearing you most of the time).

Basically my experiment here is will I look like an alien/twat when I wear blue metallic eyeliner or will I actually be able to pull it off? Watch this space*.

Comes with a smudger thingy and the lid has a sharpener

*I can confirm that, while I haven't worn it out to see if I look like a twat, the eyeliner is actually not that noticeable from a far distance and it looks like I'm not wearing any unless you go up close.

Models Own Shimmer Eyeliner Pencil in Azure Blue- £4 in Boots