Camouflage Inspired Make up

Recently throughout the shops I've definitely been spotting a lot of camouflage print on so many clothing items and accessories, so I thought why not try and transfer these colours into a make up look?

I really love the colour khaki, especially with my brown eyes. A toned down version of this look (if you're too shy) would look great for daytime, while this deeper smokey version would transfer great for the night time with lashings of mascara!

Feel free to experiment with these colours, this is my take on the camouflage trend, so continue reading to find out how you can achieve it! :D

Step 1: Apply your favourite moisturiser, followed by foundation, concealer and a matching eyeshadow to fill in your brows. This creates a plain canvas ready for your camouflage creativity!

Step 2: Using my MUA Heaven and Earth Palette I selected a light shimmery brown eyeshadow and placed this in the inner half of my eye.

Step 3: Using my Sleek "Divine - The Original 594" palette I selected a shimmery khaki green and packed this onto the remaining outer half of my lid. Feel free to carefully add more of the other colour where the two colours meet, in order to help them blend properly. 

Step 4: Using the "Sea Green" from the Sleek palette, I defined the outer edges of the make up look in order to create a greater dimension. This also makes the look a lot more dramatic.

Step 5: Using the brown from the pallete, I lined my upper and lower lashline with a small smudge brush. I also decided to apply a slightly darker brown from my MUA palette to the outer edges on my lashlines for a more intense effect! A pearly shimmery shade in the inner corners is great as it opens up the eyes!

Finishing touches: Apply a matte cream shade to your brow bone for a subtle highlight as well as a quick blend. Put on your favourite mascara and conclude the look with a dusting of light pink blush and apply a natural/pink matte lip colour. (My favourite is still my Loreal Rouge Caresse in "Mauve Cherie.") 

Hope you enjoyed, leave a quick comment if you like it! It would be greatly appreciated :D 

Rachel xxx

 

 

London Trip & Purple Ombre Nails

The month of August remains on a high after my recent trip to watch Rock of Ages the musical in Londaan! 

It was immense, amazing, incredible! I went with my boyfriend, his sister, her boyfriend and also his mum and dad. We traveled up by train on the 24th and as soon as we found our hotel, we went exploring around Covent Garden at the different sites. We also went around Leicester Square, Westminister and had a nice walk in Hyde Park, where we were able to get very close and personal with some squirrels and had a little sight of Buckingham Palace. After that we then had to dash quickly to the theater to watch the musical!

After such an amazing night, we had a lovely fry up in Cafe Rouge, Covent Garden to kick start our last day! Soon afterwards we decided to catch a city cruise across The Thames in order to see most of the London sights :} From Big Ben and the London eye at the beginning, to London Bridge, The Shard, The Tower of London, Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf ;) 

After our cruise it decided to absolutely piss down (with additional thunder), so I was there in my khaki jacket, hood up with my umbrella flapping away back and forth with the wind as we scrambled up to the entrance of Harrods. After a quick look through the absolute MADNESS we decided to check out the food court and I ended up buying a very posh sandwich! (parma ham and mozzarella ;D)

Simple Purple Ombre Nails 

Once you have clean, dry nails, apply a base coat.

Apply grey purple shade all over your nails. (I chose "Dusky Mauve by Barry M.)

To create a lovely metallic effect I layered the white shimmery colour from my Andrea Fulerton duo on all nails.

To get the interesting ombre effect, I used a make up sponge to lightly apply the colour "Foxglove" by No7 onto the top half of each nail.

Hope you enjoyed :)

Any of you know of any interesting nail colours out there for me to check out? 

Rachel xxx

Update: Life, Make Up & Favourites

August has been a rollercoaster of a month so far, but it's been absolutely incredible! 

At the start of the month I went away to Paris for 5 days with my boyfriend, his sister and her boyfriend. It was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed, seeing the sights, having an immense time at Disneyland and of course shopping! Going on top of the Eiffel Tower was a great experience (except the 2 hour queue before it) but I'm glad I did it. Lots of baguettes, crepes, croissants and macaroons were consumed! :)

With roughly two days to spare after I got home from Paris I needed to get ready and pack for Gran Canaria with my Dad, sister and brother (it was crazy, but I couldn't wait!)

The overall week went by quite fast, but I enjoyed and it was nice to spend time with my family :) The weather was great, reaching 34 degrees one day when I noticed a nearby thermometer... a lot hotter and sunnier than little ol' Wales! The Maspolamas area was lovely and we had a chance to go on two trips during the week, one being a boat ride on the Supercat where we traveled around the island, had the chance to see dolphins(!) and swim outside the boat! The other trip allowed us to go to Las Palmas city area to see the sights including a Christopher Columbus Museum and we also got to do shopping ;)

Today's Make-up Look

(Shimmery peachy pink eye look with bronzed cheeks and a pink lip.)

Favourites

(The raved about Bioderma and a Loreal Caresse Lipstick in 102 Mauve Cherie.)

I bought the Bioderma whilst in Paris due to lots of great reviews, and after using it over this short period of time I really do love it. It's great at taking your make up off, it feels lovely on the skin and feels very refreshing! I found it very useful whilst on holiday especially, for a nice skin refreshment :) 

I bought the lipstick on my way home at the airport after eying them back at home, and with a spare 20 euros waiting to be spent I thought, why not! I really love the colour, consistency and the smell! It has a lovely sweet scent, glides lovely onto the lips and feels very moisurising, love it! ;)

Hope you enjoyed this post,

Rachel xxx

Simple Pastel Makeup Look

Hello everyone! Recently I created a makeup look based around a few of my favourite pastel colours and thought that it would interesting to share. Pastel colours are great for summer and for those who enjoy colour, so what better way than to incorporate these into a makeup look! 

For this look I used minimal products and focused on the Mediterranean eyeshadow palette by Sleek.

1.) After applying foundation, concealer & powder as your base, select your eyeshadow to begin the eyes (my main pastel colours include a mint green and lilac.)

2.) Begin by applying the mint green to the inner half of the eye up until the eye crease.

3.) Select a shimmery lilac and place the eyeshadow onto the outer half of the lid, making sure you carefully blend the two colours with a fluffy brush. Also use the fluffy brush to blend the edges of the eyeshadow to soften the edges of colour.

4.) In order to create greater depth, apply more of the lilac colour into the eye crease as this will provide the illusion of deeper sockets and a more interesting look. After that apply your favourite black eye liner to neaten the look and create contrast.

5.) Next apply your favourite mascara, select a rosy pink blush and add a pink lip. You can also fill in your brows to neaten up the overall look and frame your face.

I hope that you enjoyed this simple tutorial :) What pastel colours are your favourite? 

Rachel

xxx

 

 

DIY Purple Ombre Shorts

Hey everyone! I've recently become very interested in the ombre dip dye trend and once I came across a few images on the internet of some ombre shorts, I had to have a go creating my own! I've also seen dip dye shorts in many shops such as Miss Selfridge and Topshop at a price averaging £30, so this DIY will certainly save you some money!

 

What you need for this DIY:- 

• An old pair of jeans which you are willing to cut up.
• Scissors
• A pen/chalk (to mark where you wish to cut - optional.)
• Tongs (these help with the fraying of the shorts and creates fraying quicker.)
• Bleach (cheap standard bleach.)
• Bucket
• Fabric dye in colour of choice.
• Old toothbrush (which will be used to help create that graduation of colour.
• Rubber gloves
• Salt (roughly 250g.)

 Step 1

First of all, try on your jeans and decide how short you would like them. With a pen/chalk mark out a rough guideline (at the front of the jeans mark out where you would like at a slight diagonal going up towards the outer edge of the jeans, mark the back with a slight rounded edge, lower than the front.) Begin cutting with a pair of strong scissors, always cut a bit lower than what you want exactly as this gives you a chance to try on the jeans again and make amendments!

Step 2

After you are happy with the length of your shorts, begin the fraying! I decided to use some BBQ tongs as it's a lot quicker than using your hands/tweezers. Basically clamp onto the material and pull quite hard (not too hard - you don't want to rip the material... unless you want to.) Carry on fraying the edges until you are satisfied with your distressed look.

 

If you want to increase the distressed effect, you can create holes in your shorts by carefully pinching the material and snipping using the scissors. When creating a hole near the pocket area, make sure not to cut into the pocket! Fray the holes using the previous technique.

Step 3

Bleach, Bleach, Bleach! For my shorts I soaked them in an old bucket with a mixture of bleach and about a litre or two of water. As I had never done this before, it was a bit of trial and error, but I left them overnight and rinsed them in cold water at around 5pm the following day.

Step 4

Now time for the dye! For my DIY I chose to use "Dylon Fabric Dye" in the colour "Intense Violet." Once your recently bleached shorts are rinsed, lay them out on a flat surface whilst you prepare the dye in your bucket. 

At this point, follow the instructions according to your dye. I had to add 500ml of warm water to my bucket, along with salt. (To be honest I estimated the salt proportions, but I think the general idea of the salt is to help make the colour sink into the fabric and make the colour more vibrant.  

 

To begin the ombre effect, pour a small amount of dye into the salt, water combo and mix. Once mixed place your entire shorts into the solution for a short period of time (keep looking and pull them out once you are satisfied - mine were a very pale lilac.) 

 

Step 5 

 To create a deeper purple, add a greater amount of powder dye to the bucket, along with some salt. Place your shorts into the solution making sure to hold onto your shorts tight in the bucket. To help soften the graduation of colour get your old toothbrush and brush along where the shorts are entering the solution (this will prevent a harsh line.) Keep shorts in for a longer period than before, but always keep checking!

 

Step 6    

Keep repeating this process further down the shorts, by increasing the amount of dye and adding more salt. 

  

Step 7

Once you're happy with the ombre effect, hang them outside to dry completely. Within the first few weeks, when you need to wash them I recommend washing them separately in case of the dye coming out of the fabric and onto your other clothes. 

 

Hope you enjoyed this DIY tutorial, I would appreciate any comments or criticism and would love to see your outcomes if you try this! :D 

 

Rachel xxx  

 

 

Ombre Sparkle Nails

As my nails were in desperate need to be painted, I took the opportunity to experiment with a different technique, in comparison to my usual bog-standard one colour coat.

As the ombre "dip-dye" effect is very popular at the moment, I thought I would try creating this look on my nails!

For this particular nail look I combined three colours which were different shades within a colour group. I chose to keep the brighter shade at the bottom of the nail and decided to gradually get darker towards the top! 

 

In order to add more drama, I added a glitter top to the very ends of the nails.

 

 Products used:- Base coat; Sally Hansen Double Duty Base & Top Coat, Lightest shade; Cheeky Chops 240 by N07, Middle shade; OMP! by Nails Inc, Darkest shade; (random nail polish,) Glitter colour; Excuse Moi! OPI Muppets Collection.

You will also need a small sponge, or an old make up applicator that you have lying around (what I used.)

• Step 1 - Apply base coat to protect nails from staining.
• Step 2 - Apply an even opaque coat of the lightest polish.
• Step 3 - Once nails are completely dry, use your mini sponge to lightly dab on the middle colour to the top half of your nails.
• Step 4 - Once nails are completely dry again, dab on the darkest shade to the very tops of your nails, making sure there's a gradual ombre effect.
• Step 5 (optional) - If you want to add extra drama to your nails apply a glitter polish in the same way previously to the very tips of your nails.
• Step 6 - Tidy up where necessary by applying more polish to improve the effect.
• Final step - Apply a top coat in order to seal in your design to prevent it from chipping and to create a shiny finish. 

Hope you enjoyed! Here's a few snaps of when I went out the other night to celebrate my friends birthday! Make up wise I chose to create a teal smokey look.

(Fab night out, excuse the weirdo in the pic haha!)

Tropical Colour Pop!

Hey everyone! 

As the sun has started to peak out amongst the clouds, I chose to experiment with some bright colourful eye shadows inspired solely from one of my summer tops.

 (The top I was inspired from)

(For this look all colours used were from the "Sleek - Mediterranean Palette.") 

• Begin by applying your chosen moisturiser, primer (optional), foundation and concealer as your base.

• Eyes - I started by applying a lime green eyeshadow to the first third of the lid.

• I then blended into the eye crease lightly an orange eye shadow, making sure the edges appeared soft.

• To add dramatic definition I then applied a hot pink eyeshadow to outer corners of the eye, and blended well into the orange and parts of the green.

• To darken the lower lash line slightly I added a purple eyeshadow and also blended some of this into the pink on the outer corner to create even more depth. 

• To finish the eye look I added a matte cream colour to my brow bone, to help brighten the area and also neaten the eyeshadow edges.

• Next I chose to line my top lash line with a liquid eyeliner and darkened the bottom lash line slightly with an eyeliner pencil.

• To help frame my face I then filled in my brows with "Benefits - Brow Zings."

• To finish off I applied mascara, patted on a pink cream blusher and added some coral gloss to the lips.

  Hope you enjoyed :}

xxx