Formalities

Hi lovelies,

If you guys don't already know, I'm currently studying abroad at Occidental College (Oxy Tigers!) in Los Angeles. Fraternities and sororities constantly put on parties and tonight there was a winter formal for 'Alpha Lambda Phi Alpha' - mouthful! So anyway, my buddy Lucia is a member of Alpha and asked me to come shopping with her to pick her out something smart to wear, and to do her hair and make-up for the night.

Here's a picture of Lucia before I put any make-up on her or did her hair - although I did ask her to blow dry her hair with a deeper side part than usual. Can we please just appreciate the perfectness of her skin for a minute?

NB: Lucia never wears make-up. She doesn't even own any! Because of this, I wanted to give her a natural look, focusing on her skin as the main feature. Lucia wanted her hair down for the night so I decided to create some soft curls to give it some shape and pin back a section to make her cheekbones stand out. The idea was to make her look like normal Lucia, just a little more polished ;)

Have a look at Lucia with her hair and face done. I have such pretty friends! (Kind of scared for when she reads this as I don't think I've ever openly complimented her before...merp)

Hair: Quickly rough-straighten large patches, eliminating any creases from blow-drying, hair-ties etc. Make sure you always use a heat protector before straightening your hair - I love this one from Aussie. Then, seperate your hair into 3 layers - working from bottom (around the nape of your neck), to middle and finally to the top (nearest to your hairline). Put a section of hair from the bottom layer onto the straightener plate so that it lies as flatly and as evenly as possible. Slowly drag from root to tip but about half-way down twist your straighteners over and continue to drag the hair through, looped, around the closed straighteners. This is an easy way of achieving loose, beachy waves without the use of a curler.

Skin: For the natural but luminous finish on Lucia's skin, I used MAC Strobe Cream on cheeks and t-zone (a really great moisturiser/highlighter - invest!) and buffed in two pumps of MAC Studio Sculpt Fluid foundation using the e.l.f. Powder Brush (here). I used bronzer to lightly contour and set the look with powder.

Eyes: Urban Decay; Eyeshadow Primer Potion, Half Baked (All over lid), Smog (In crease, outer V and below lash line) and Virgin (To blend and highlight)

No7; Intense Volume Mascara

Dress and Earrings; Forever 21, Shoes from a boutique in L.A.

So there you have it! I think she looks amazing - still naturally pretty but now her features stand out. What do you think? What kind of make-up and hair do you like to do for special events? How fab are Lucia's shoes!

xx

Lip colour that lasts forever and ever

...or comes close at least!

Nothing is more annoying than putting on your lipstick, walking out of the house, grabbing a coffee  and then finding you lost half of your lip colour in transit and the other half is stuck to the side of your latte. Seriously, there should be some kind of unwritten law in which the waiter who picks up your stained wine glass at the end of a meal is forbidden to smirk. However, gone are the days of shamelessly reapplying every few hours - I've found that incorporating a few extra steps into your lip care routine will help colour stay on much longer.

So! Here are the lip products I used today;

Clockwise from top to left; YSL Golden Gloss in Simply Gold, Lipcote Lipstick Sealer, MAC Prep + Prime Lip, Angled Lip brush from Forever 21, YSL Rouge Pur Couture lipstick in Fuschia Innocent

I decided to use my lovely new YSL lipstick which I adore - it's literally like rubbing your lips in silk. Heaven. Its heavily pigmented, so you can build up colour with a brush or go all out and apply it directly from the bullet. I also should point out that certain lipstick formulas will be more long-lasting than others; I find YSL and NARS to be the most long lasting luxury brands but there are really gorgeous lipsticks from high-street brands like Rimmel and e.l.f with great longevity. MAC lipsticks I find are actually pretty hit-and-miss in their formulas, but for lengthy wear I swear by shades like Ravishing or Rebel. Here's a couple of pictures and a swatch of this little beauty worn on its own:

1. First things first; balm balm balm. Both the night before and just before I put anything on my lips I smother them in Vaseline to soften and moisturise.
2. Blot off any excess with a tissue and apply MAC Prep + Prime for lips. A lip primer might seem like the ultimate in unessential cosmetics but I've found this really smooths my lips before making them a little tacky to helps keep lipstick in place.
3. I'd usually use a lip-pencil around the edges of the lip and all over as a base next but I totally forgot today. Oopsy. I prefer using nude lip-pencils for whatever shade and usually use a MAC pencil in the shade 'Subculture'.
4. Apply your lipstick - today I used this brush from Forever 21 (Couldn't resist the cute little pattern and its actually not a bad brush, result!) then blot using more tissue and reapply. 
5. Once you're happy, apply a coat of Lipcote. Lipstick sealers are a great way of setting your lip colour but this stuff dries your lips out a little so make sure you've balmed your life away before you start.

Once that's dry, you're done! If you've followed all of those steps your lipstick should last for aeons. I put on a coat of lipgloss afterwards but that's totally up to you. Although I appreciate its pretty difficult to tell in this awful quality picture (11 days until I get home and can cast aside this Fujifilm monstrosity), this was taken 10 hours after initial application and the colour is still looking as vibrant as ever.

Other products used:

Face: MAC; Studio Fix Fluid NW25

MAC; Powder Blush in Sincere

Make Up For Ever; HD Microfinish Powder

Eyes:Urban Decay; Half Baked (All over lid), Darkhorse (In

crease) Virgin (To blend) and Sin (To highlight)

MAC; Kohl Powder Eye Pencil in Feline

Josie Maran; GOGO Argan Mascara in Pitch Black

Have you got any other steps you use to make lip colour last longer? If you have a YSL Rouge Pur Couture stick, how heavily have you fallen in love with it?

xx

Initial daydreams

The first time I put on kohl I was 11 years old. It was one night when I was at boarding school, loitering around  my sister's dorm whining for a calling card so I could phone home - this little slice of nostalgia is set a while ago, when you would own a Nokia 3210 if you were lucky and you would spend all day playing Snake on it. As I was stomping around, my then 13 year old sister Vicky emerged dressed up for a girl school-boy school social (oh yes, we've gone back that far in time). I think if I looked at a picture of this scenario now I'd probably attempt to photocopy it and inevitably use it for future blackmail, but I remember really vividly noticing that her eyes just stood right out. To my awkward little self she looked amazing. Eventually I asked what she had done to make herself look so brilliant. The answer? She chucked me a little black pencil and said; "Just put some of that in your eye". And that's when this minor obsession began...

I've been an avid reader of beauty and lifestyle blogs for a while now, following friends' reviews, swatches and banter as well as those posted by established bloggers. I spend hours on Youtube and Temptalia. I can't walk into a MAC, Sephora, tiny pharmacy with a small Milani stand, you name it, without running out ten minutes later with something else I can't afford. Since moving to Los Angeles this year for four months this interest in make-up has stereotypically spiralled into a happy sense of chaos. After taking a little inspiration from all of the blogs I read, I've decided to start one of my own, simply to talk about the things that I think make people look better and feel better - primarily cosmetics, although I can't promise a lack of musings on travel, puppies or why the girls in Pretty Little Liars never just texted the number back. Daydreams, really.