CANDY YUM YUM LIPSTICK REVIEW

I have been wanting this lipstick ever since I saw it on the US M.A.C Website a few months ago! Its gorgeous and I was so happy that it was in the "Back 2 MAC" scheme .. If you love bright, girly, in your face colours then this is the lipstick for you!!! 

Candy Yum Yum is a Matte finish, so has a long lasting effect on your lips. I wore this all day for work and it really does not smudge at all. I would say it last's on the lips a good 6-8 hours without flaking or making your lips look dry! This is actually the longest lasting colour from all of the matte M.A.C shades that I have. I think because of its bright colour pigmentation it stains the lips for longer. 

When I first saw this lipstick online I knew  it was going to be bright, and I was not disappointed when I saw it in store. It really is one of the brightest pink shades from M.A.C and definitely stands out from all of the other pink lipsticks. I would wear this colour lip with minimal makeup; just a simple black flicked eyeliner and your favourite pair of lashes!

Video link - http://instagram.com/p/dW_s4-pHsa/

Candy Yum Yum has now been added to  M.A.C's permanent lipstick line YAY! and retails at £15.00. It's also part of the back 2 mac makeup scheme which means if you bring back six empty M.A.C containers to the store you will receive a free lipstick of your choice, excluding the Viva Glam Lipstick line.

Disclaimer:  None of the makeup companies I'm talking about are paying me to write about their products. All opinions are my own and All pictures are taken by me unless stated otherwise.

M.A.C MUST HAVES!!

In my daily makeup routine there are six MAC products that I can't live without!! I have to use them personally everyday for my day to day makeup! They are amazing. 

1. Is the gorgeous Strobe liquid. I love this product and prefer it to the strobe cream as its more dewy and lighter on the skin. I love to apply this to my face to give a radiant glow and it also reduces any skin imperfections. I just apply this to my face as I would moisturiser. 

           Photo taken on iphone

2. Studio Fix Fluid foundation is my favourite foundation from MAC. I love how you can create whatever type of coverage you want, unlike a lot of foundations. They're either too thick or too sheer. For flawless coverage, I always use a MAC 187 duo fibre brush to apply the product to my face. This type of foundation also contains SPF 15 to protect your skin from the sun.

           Photo taken with iPhone 

3. Eyeliner is what I love the most when doing my makeup so i've tried a lot of different liners & MAC's gel liner in black track is by far the best one i've used!! I use this everyday, its so creamy yet never smudges or comes off...Amazing! Apply with a small angle brush or bent liner brush for a smooth line.

            Photo taken from google

4. Mineralise Skin-finish in deep dark is what I use as my bronzer, or sometimes for contour.this product is one of the best I've used out of all the skin finishes by Mac. If you have a darker skin tone this is gorgeous, or Sun-power skin-finish is also another fabulous colour.

5. Studio Finish concealer in Nw15 is what I use to conceal underneath my eyes or on top of any skin imperfections I might have. It just gives the perfect coverage. If you wanted to use this type of concealer to contour I would recommend NC15 as its more of a cooler tone in colour.

6. Finally it's Mac Vanilla Pigment. This is something that I cannot leave out of my makeup routine if I'm going on a night out as I use this to highlight my brow bone, down the centre of my nose & cheekbones! Gives off a gorgeous colour in the light, just apply with your favourite fluffy brush! I use Mac's 227 large fluff brush. 

         Photo taken from google

Disclaimer:  None of the makeup companies I'm talking about are paying me to write about their products. All opinions are my own and All pictures are taken by me unless stated otherwise.

CHAMPAGNE SMOKES!!

Lately I have been loving soft brown & nude smokey eyes, with a simple flicked liner and a natural style strip lash. All you need for gorgeous smokey eyes are, Urban Decay Naked palette, two of your favourite brown eyeshadow shades, mine are Swiss Chocolate and Embark by M.A.C. a nude shimmery pigment, I like to use one called Champagne by Naked Cosmetics, a liquid liner, & your most loved highlighter for the brow bone, I prefer to use Vanilla Pigment also by M.A.C.

            Photo taken on iphone5 

First you need to prep & prime your eye so that your shadow stays in place and lasts you all day, next use some of your vanilla pigment an place into the inner corner of the eye (tear-duct) this will make the eyes appear bigger, also apply this to your brow bone. Then take a blending crease brush & use your lighter brown shade to buff this into the crease line and out to wear your vanilla highlighter ends, using the colour virgin from the naked palette place onto eye until the crease line.

I would then take my darker brown shadow (embark) an start to apply this to the outer v of the eye in a winged shape. Keep doing this until you have got the colour you want, I like to do mine so its more deeper in colour on the outer corners. Then go back over with a blending brush & BLEND BLEND BLEND! Once you have done this take a small about of your shimmery pigment (champagne) and place on top of the virgin colour (urban decay), making sure u don't take it any further than just before your brown smoke. 

Finally apply your liquid liner (always starting from the inner part of the eye) & mascara, I've been using Maybelline Falsies flared which is amazing!! Then apply your lashes using duo glue. Photo's are makeup I have applied onto a client.

IMATS LONDON 2013

On the 22nd & 23rd of June this year i attended IMATS London which stands for the International makeup Artist trade show! This exhibition also takes place in Sydney, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York & Vancouver once every year. This year it was in the Kensington Olympia National Hall. IMATS is a weekend long event were lots of different makeup brands attend to sell their products mostly at a discounted price! There are popular brands there such as Mac Pro, Nars, Make Up Forever, Inglot & Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics just to name a few. 

You don't have to be Makeup Artist to attend or to receive discount on products. Although there are lots of beauty & makeup seminars throughout the day that are aimed at professional makeup artists. There were also lots makeup demonstrations going on around different booths, my favourite was by altelier paris airbrush makeup, link below is to one that was amazing.

http://instagram.com/p/a3BaDZJHmR/

I travelled down with my mum on the train from Liverpool on Friday 21st June & we stayed at the gorgeous Shaftesbury Hotel - Best Western premier on Hogarth road kensington, which was only about 10 minutes away from IMATS. 

            Photo taken from google

            Photo taken with iphone

When we arrived at IMATS everyone was given a large bag by the sponsor's of the event "Royal & Langnickel" brush company who also had a stand there. The whole day is just amazing I could go on about it all day, if you are slightly interested in makeup I would suggest you take a trip there next year & go, its honestly one of the best days! I had saved all year so that I could buy lots of new goodies for myself & for my kit. 

Below are lots of pictures from IMATS weekend and a few photos of what I bought  :-)

Below are photos of the products I bought that weekend at IMATS...

I done a Hugh haul while I was there, picking up some of my favourite things and also trying out some new products, such as Makeup forever HD foundation HD Concealer & their HD Primer, all for just £50 in a makeup forever clear case from the PAM booth. Next was a Freedom 10 square eyeshadow palette from Inglot that I had been wanting to get for a while, the discount was 35% that day at the Inglot booth. I also purchased some gorgeous new glitters from LA Splash & EyeKandy Cosmetics.

http://www.imats.net/index.php

THE PERFECT EYELINER

Eyeliner is the Favourite part of doing my makeup & one of the very first things I learned to do. There are loads of different ways to apply eyeliner but the perfect one to me is a winged liner with a "Marilyn Monroe" Flick. I also love how Lana Del Ray wears her makeup, fresh face & a statement liner.

            Photos taken from google

 All's you will need for the perfect winged liner are, a gel eyeliner (I use Mac Black-track) eyeliner brush (I use Mac 209 liner brush) & last a bent liner brush. My fave is the C217 bent liner brush from Crownbrush which is only £2.79. (Will link their website at the bottom)

At first eyeliner can be tricky, especially liquid liner but like most things Practise makes perfect, I've listed a few tips on how to achieve a winged eyeliner also adding a how to video link & a few images of how I do my own. 

http://instagram.com/p/a8AYQYJHtU/ 

EYELINER TIPS....

♡ Start by slowly dragging your brush from the top inner corner of your eye towards the outer corner of your eye.

♡ The harder your press down with your brush the thicker your liner will be.

♡ In slow brush strokes draw the outside of your wing at a angle with your bent liner brush. Then fill in the corners creating a smooth line.

♡ Make Sure to follow the natural shape of  your eye, keeping as close to the lash line as you can.

♡ For a more dramatic look also apply gel liner to the upper waterline of your eyelid

          Photos taken with iphone5

http://www.crownbrush.co.uk/

BROWS TO GO!!

My Favourite new product for my brows are illamasqua's Brow Cake, Sealing gel & inglot freedom palette & concealer.

First I like to define my brow by using a crownbrush flat eye liner brush to conceal underneath my brow & above, then just add a drop of sealing gel to your brow cake mix in & apply with a Mac 208 angle brush for the quickest brow ever! So simple.. Below are two links for a quick video clip of how I do my Brows..

http://instagram.com/p/a-pv_rpHlJ/ 

http://instagram.com/p/cEB5iLJHgk/

Illamasqua brow cake (thunder) is available in Six different shades at £15.50 each.

♡ Thunder

♡ Gaze

♡ Peak

♡ Motto

♡ Stark

♡ Vehement

This is My Inglot freedom palette which I bought from IMATS (international makeup artist trade show) in june 2013. 

I use the Colour on the left to highlight my brow shape... Link at bottom ofpage 

to Inglot UK site. If you dont have any Inglot concealer then Mac Studio finish concealer in Nc15 is another Amazing concealer to highlight.

           Photo taken from Google

Disclaimer:  None of the makeup companies I'm talking about are paying me to write about their products. All opinions are my own and All pictures are taken by me unless stated otherwise

http://m.inglotuk.com/content.cgi

NICKI MINAJ INSPIRED LOOK

In October 2012, I went to see Nicki Minaj at the Liverpool Echo Arena. For the concert, I knew I wanted my makeup to standout so I decided to do something based on one of Nicki's looks. I used the images below for my inspiration.....

        Photo taken from google images

As Always I start by priming my Eyes with  Urban Decay primer potion..then i took just a matte pastel pink colour from manly palette & applied this all over my life up until my crease line. I then added to the outer V of my Eye a purple eyeshadow by Mac called Parfait Amour & a deeper purple by Urban Decay called  Vice. Blending the 3 shadows together using Mac's 217 brush. 

Once this is done I used one of my chunky glitters in the Colour Marshmallow for my lids, i applied this with Stargazer Fixing Gel carefully into the lid. Then going back to the outer V adding Carbon by Mac & blending this in, taking the product more out into a defined line giving a winged effect! After blending all of those colour together neatly, for the inner corner of the eye I used a pigment called bubblegum (pink) and pressed this into the corner bringing it up slightly over the glitter into the crease.

For Liquid Liner I used NYC (New york colour) glossy black liner (available from superdrug) Mac's gel liner in black track for the lower lash line & a thick pair of double lashes from Eylure Style #204 which look very similar to the style lash nicki wears. (Will link lash website at bottom)

 

For my Face Makeup I use illamasqua Satin Primer for my base, I then use a real techniques stippling brush to apply my Foundation (Mac Studio Fix Fluid Nw22). I use MakeupForever HD concealer pen (pink beige) to highlight underneath my eyes, & down then centre of my nose. Setting this with Ben Nye banana powder!! For this look I use Mac Mineralise skin finish (give me Sun) for my bronzer, illamasqua powder blush (tweak)

& TheBalms highlighter MaryLou Manizer for top of my cheek bones!! Lips products are Mac Viva Glam Nicki & magenta lip liner.

Below are a Few Pictures from Nicki Minaj Concert in 2012 :-) 

http://www.eylure.co.uk/