Formal! (Makeup at the End)

So a few days ago I had my Year 12 Formal! If anyone is not Australian and doesn't know, the Year 12 Formal is the Australian custom parallel to prom :)

My Year 12 English

Teddy Bear and I

The Ranga Club ;)

My Best Friend :3

Most girls pay artists in town to do their makeup, or have a family member to do it for them. I myself did my own makeup :)


The colour my boyfriend and I were wearing was a gorgeous dark teal! Originally we were going with a beautiful burgundy but a month after I had ordered my dress it still hadn't arrived, so my mum emailed the company. They informed her that they no longer make that dress :( but no fear! The dress I ended up wearing is still absolutely beautiful! It was far too long at the front (odd), so a friend of the family hemmed it, made me a petticoat (isn't she lovely?!) and also made my boyfriend a bow-tie and handkerchief out of the leftover fabric! We matched perfectly!

The car we took was his brother-in-law's limited edition (ooh exciting!) Ford Typhoon.


Anyway, on to the makeup!

I used Inglot makeup purchased specifically for the occasion! The colours are absolutely stunning!

I've been a massive fan of Inglot for a very long time, and this is my second purchase. Along with the palette I also bought a pigment, but it ended up being a little too green to work with the dress. I did many trials with my makeup but none with my hair - I recommend trials!!

**A little tangent for you all**

My hair was a disaster! The first hair dresser destroyed it - it was matted together and a complete mess :( I was devastated! She was so lovely and cuts my hair regularly so I was very disappointed, sadly for hair my mother decided she would not be getting paid. Another gorgeous hair dresser managed to fit me in and saved my hair! They were so lovely and took great care of me! I had three girls doing my hair to make sure it was done on time and they only charged my $50! 

If you want more detail on the Inglot palette I used, please leave a comment below :)

Kisses, Lilly


Would you like me to review a product for you? Or have any questions for me? Email me at: lillyt_mua@live.com

What I Recommend for Beginners

In this post I will be going through what I think beginners should need in their kit, and some helpful YouTube videos :)

So when I started out in makeup, I literally just dove right in. There were no lessons in smokey eyes or natural looks, I purchased the 120 palette from eBay and went from there. This was in 2010. I have since thrown the palette out because it fell apart and I had used up many of the shadows :) 

Lately I’ve been using products and thinking “I wish I had this when I was starting out.” and I’m here today to share those with you.

Unless you’re like me, I’d recommend going with a small neutral palette. I say one small palette so that you don’t overwhelm yourself with all the colours (like I did). I also recommend you have a base and a primer (trust me, I live for primer) and if you’re only starting out, you really only need one or two brushes :) 

****I will only be discussing products that I have used and can personally give credit to, this is 100% honest :)****

There are two neutral palettes in my collection that I would recommend:

1. Designer Brands’ quad in ‘Mother Earth’
2. Sleek’s i-Divine palette in ‘Au Naturel’ 

The great thing about both of these products is the quality and affordability. When you’re just starting out, it can be hard to justify the need for a pricey product, such as the Naked palette from Urban Decay. Also, both of the brands carry many variations of their palettes, with millions of varieties to chose from (I say millions, but I mean about 10-12 ;p). Another plus, is their size - they are easy to store.

You can purchase these from the following sites:

Sleek 

Crush Cosmetics

Designer Brands

Bases aren’t 100% necessary this early in the game, but I find them really useful. While a primer will give longevity, I find that bases give the shadows something to stick to, and because I’m very fair they keep the shadows from staining my skin.

Some possible wallet-friendly bases are:

1. NYX eyeshadow base (these come in about three colours)
2. NYX jumbo eye pencil (these come in a large variety of colours)
3. Maybelline’s 24 Hour Colour Tattoo 

 

This image is from Google (I forgot to take a photo of my own)

This is your best friend!!

I can only purchase NYX online, however depending on where you live you may be able to find a store which stocks them. Their bases in a little jar are essentially the same as their jumbo pencils, they have the same consistency. I made the mistake of thinking that the base in a jar was a primer - it isn’t! It will not provide a large amount of aid in the longevity of your shadows. NYX is an incredibly affordable, popular and high quality brand. Their jumbo pencils are my go-to bases and honestly, should you purchase it, Milk will become your best friend. If you buy the pencil or the base in the white colour it will keep any eyeshadows you apply true to their colour.

You’re likely to be able to find #3 at any department store or pharmacy (drug store), but I’ll provide a link to where you can purchase them online if needed. These are great bases because of the colour variety (bold to neutral), they also do last a really long time and can vouch for their quality. A great Colour Tattoo for a beginner is ‘Tough as Taupe’.

NYX 

Crush Cosmetics 

Maybelline Colour Tattoos (you can buy these from any online department store or online pharmacy)

Remember, a base is not a primer. 

At this stage, you probably only need a shader brush (maybe two, but remember: you can flip the brush over and use both sides. I still do this) and possibly a blending brush. At these sites you can find a variety of brushes at very affordable prices, but remember you may not find a use for all of them just yet. If you’re only beginning I would recommend maybe two shader brushes and a blending brush :)

Price Line

eBay (don’t cringe, these are good brushes, especially if you’re still new to makeup)

eBay 

I find that primers are essential. Some makeup artists don’t use them, but I recommend them. I actually only use one primer because it’s the only I have access to at variety stores and I prefer it over the Glamour Doll Eyes primer (the primer I'm referring to is #1). The rest on the list have been recommended by my favourite YouTubers/Bloggers.

1. Australis Eye Primer (I know that you can buy these in Australia and New Zealand, but that might just be it) 
2. Glamour Doll Eyes
3. Milani Primer (I have not tried this primer, it can be found at crush cosmetics)
4. Concrete Minerals Primer (I have not tried this primer)

These videos are from some of my all time favourite YouTubers :)

goldiestarling - How to Blend Eyeshadow 

Dulce Candy - Eye Makeup for Beginners

Julia Graf - Makeup Essentials

Vintage or Tacky - Beginner Friendly Smokey Eye

This post was a little long, but hopefully it gave you some insight into what you may need as a beginner into the make up world. I hope this has helped :)

Kisses, Lilly

Want me to review a product? Or have questions for me? Email me at lillyt_mua@live.com 

Berserk Haul!!

Hello there fellow enthusiasts! 

Today I should like to share with you my Berserk make up haul! I have bought from Berserk before, but this was my first ‘haul’ - and it was just a little one :) I purchased from two different brands featured on the site, and they are *drum roll* Lime Crime and Sugarpill!! I am a long time lover of Sugarpill Cosmetics and have been wanting to try out Lime Crime for a really long time, so the arrival of the parcel is very exciting for me! :D today they finally arrived!

Let’s begin with the company I’m so very familiar with :)

Sugarpill

I currently own four of their pigments (including Asteria - not going to lie, I do love to brag) Poison Plum, Buttercupcake, Tako and the Heart Breaker palette. I really want to buy the Burning Heart palette but I already own two of the shades and have a spare for Poison Plum. I decided to go with the Sweetheart palette seeing as how I don’t own three of the shades and I use Tako ALL the time! 

I’m sure you’ve all seen this particular palette. How beautiful is it?? It really lives up to it’s name. I’ve been coveting all these pressed shadows since I found Sugarpill, and I’m so thrilled to finally have them in my collection. I can’t wait to share what looks I come up with, especially with Dollipop! 

It was so hard to decide which pigment I would purchase. I wanted to buy all of them. I had managed to condense it to what I really want(/need) right now. It came down to Hysteria, Paperdoll and Junebug. Seeing as two of the shades were purple, I decided to pick Junebug.

I am never ever disappointed with the quality of Sugarpill’s products. Seriously. All the pigments are smooth and easy to work with, none of them are chunky or chalky. They are seriously magic in a jar! Once again, I am so keen to try this one out!!

Moving right along to Lime Crime!

The reason it has taken me two years to take the plunge into Lime Crime’s fantasy world is simply because they are just out of my price range. I don’t believe they are too pricey, just a tad too much for me to spend their regularly. At the time of purchase, Lime Crime itself was selling neither of these Carousel glosses, so I decided to that these would be what I added. I was really tempted by the Velvetines, but they are so popular and I don’t believe they will be discontinued anytime soon. 

I went with Hollygram and Golden Ticket.

How awesome are these colours?! 

They are unbelievable! I mean, green and gold lipgloss! GOLD. So pwetty. 

I think I may have to do a review of these two glosses. None of my go-to bloggers or YouTubers have done a review on Lime Crime, so perhaps I shall write one of my own :) watch this space ;)

There you have it! That was my mini, just-for-fun haul! 

Kisses, Lilly

Want me to review a product? Or have questions for me? Email me at lillyt_mua@live.com 

Going Au Naturel ;)

Well, my eyes are anyway :p

A few weeks ago the highly anticipated release of The Conjuring caused a short stint of no sleep in this particular MUA enthusiast's life! I went on a double date with my sister and brother-in-law (and my boyfriend of course) to see this movie. Knowing that it was going to be a supernatural thriller, I decided that I wanted to sport a dark/shiny smokey eye.

The palette that I reached for to create this look was Sleek's Au Naturel palette. I'd used this palette before in other looks but this was the first time that all the shadows I used were from this tiny collection of neutral shades.

This is look I came up with:

It's bold, it's fun and I adored it. The variety of shades in this palette is fantastic, you can create a smouldering eye (like moi!), or a completely neutral look for some people's everyday ('everyday' means something very different for me ;p). 

This is definitely a brilliant palette for beginners! The pigmentation is soft and they are so easy to blend. Sleek is also a very affordable brand for the quality you receive. Each of their i-Divine palettes contain 12 different colours at a flat rate of 9.99 (British pounds I believe) and shipping to Australia only cost me 6 pounds! Of course if you are living in Australia or New Zealand and are impatient to recieve your goodies, you can the i-Divine palettes at Crush Cosmetics -which is an Australian site- however the pricing does jump up to $19.99 AU.  While my last order from Sleek only cost me approx 25.80 pounds (from memory) buying the same products from Crush Cosmetics would have cost: 49.80 AU. That's a price difference of 24 AU. You could buy at least two more palettes (or whatever other product you wish) from Sleek and pay the same amount. In this case I would highly recommend buying from the source, however if you're pressed for time Crush Cosmetics is always there and the increased cost of a product on their site is not always the case :)

I was so impressed with my first order from Sleek (which I made in July of 2012) that nearly two weeks ago (gee, I think) I made a second purchase. I did want to try their blush out but was too tempted for some more palettes. Get keen for the blog post on them! 

Even though The Conjuring was super scary (trust me, even my very manly man was in bits afterwards) at least I got to cringe in fantastic make up ;) 

Kisses, Lilly 

Would you like me to review a product for you? Or have any questions for me? Email me at: lillyt_mua@live.com

They're coming to take me away...

... to the funny farm? I'd rather they take me to the Asylum.

Many makeup collectors/artists/extraordinaires probably already have a little jar of Sugarpill's Asylum in their kits. If you don't, you should.

This colour is an incredible, shimmering, sent from God above red. I cannot get enough of it.

(image from Sugarpill)

I purchased the colour a little while ago while Sugarpill was having their Phame-expo sale. The item itself was not on sale but I also bought Asteria, their limited edition pigment - also beautiful beyond words. Below I simply applied Asylum all over the lid and blended a black shadow on the outer v and into the crease and used Inglot's silver pigment (#23 I believe) to the inner corner.

This folks, is Asylum applied dry. How amazing does it look? Imagine the effect created when foiled? 

If Asylum has yet to be added to your kit, I highly recommend that you travel to the Sugarpill site right now, and purchase it. If you are living in Australia and cannot wait for the shipping, you can purchase Asylum from berserk.com.au

This was not necessarily a review, simply a 'I love this product oh-so much'.


Kisses, Lilly.


Would you like me to review a product for you? Or have any questions for me? Email me at: lillyt_mua@live.com