Day make-up vs. Night make-up

So I thought I'd share an everyday look and a glam night time look with you all.

Day Look

So, for my day time look, I've done a purple/pink smokey eye with winged eyeliner, I subtly highlighted, contoured and blushed (although it's a lot more visible in person, but the lighting in my house isn't great) and I finished with a nude/pink lip. The perfect look for a sunny Winter's day :)

Products

Face:

No.7 Beautifully Matte Make up Base
Sleek Makeup New Skin Revive Foundation in 'Henna'
Fashion Fair Pressed Powder in 'Walnut Noisette'
Sleek Makeup Face Contour Kit in 'Medium'
MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in 'Gold Deposit'
Sleek Makeup Blush by 3 in 'Sugar' (Turbinado & Demerara)

Eyes:

Sleek Makeup iDivine Eye Shadow Palette (Purple)
Scandaleyes Eye Shadow Stick in '008 Blackmail'
MAC Eye Kohl in 'Smolder'
MAC Eye Shadow in Swiss Chocolate (in the crease of my eye)
YSL Mascara in 'Baby Doll'

Lips:

Lush Cosmetics Lipstick in 'Perspective'
No.7 Lip Gloss in 'Plum blush'


Night Look

For my night look, I wanted to make things a bit more dramatic, so I did a glittery Black Smokey eye, first using a glittery Black eye shadow and then I put glitter dust on top. I highlighted underneath my brows with concealer and used Eyelure lashes for the dramatic effect. I made my contouring, highlighting and blush a lot more prominent than I did in my daytime look and I finished with a bright Red lip!! This would be the perfect look to go with a little black dress!

 Products

Face:

No.7 Beautifully Matte Make up Base
Sleek Makeup New skin Revive Foundation in 'Henna'
Fashion Fair Pressed Powder in 'Walnut Noisette'
Sleek Makeup Corrector and concealer Palette
Sleek Makeup Face Contour Kit in 'Medium'
MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in 'Gold Deposit'
Sleek Makeup Blush by 3 in 'Sugar' (Turbinado & Demerara)

Eyes:

Sleek Makeup iDivine Eye Shadow Palette (Black)
Scandaleyes Eye Shadow Stick in '008 Blackmail'
MAC Eye Kohl in 'Smolder'
MAC Eye Shadow in Swiss Chocolate (in the crease of my eye)
Eyelure False Lashes
Barry M Fine Glitter Dust in '22' (Black and Gold)
Typically I would've used a liquid Eyeliner, but I couldn't find it.

Lips:

I lined and coloured my lips in with Red lip liner, it's by 'Beauty Forever' and it's just called 'Red'
I used Rimmel Lipstick in 'Tantrum'

Hope this is useful, especially for you darker skinned lovelies :)
Thanks for reading, feel free to ask any questions in the comments box
Love, you
Jennifer

Cleansing, Toning, Moisturising and Oil Cleansing | Skin Care for Normal to Oily Skin

I have oily skin, with HUGE pores, so Cleansing, Toning & Moisturising are very important ESPECIALLY after wearing make-up. On a normal, no make-up wearing day, I (try) to C,T&M morning and night.

Cleansing

In addition to being oily, I've got quite sensitive skin and my current favourite Cleansing product is
'9-5' by Lush Cosmetics. It really works for me, it's full of natural goodness, including Almond Oil, Orchid Extract and Ylang Ylang; it's very easy to use, I put it on a cotton pad and cleanse in downward circular motions and it visibly lifts away all the dirt.

Toning

After Cleansing, toning is essential!!  About 8 years ago, I did some part-time work on a beauty counter and whilst training for this position I learnt how important cleansing is, and it's stuck with me since then. The job of a cleanser is to remove dirt & oil from your skin and from inside your pores, from the moment the cleanser touches your skin, it's already started cleansing, now, this is all good, however, even when your make-up and dirt have been removed from your skin the cleanser is still working! So, essentially if you don't remove the cleanser residue from your skin, it will continue to cleanse and subsequently, it'll keep removing the natural oils in your skin which could cause skin irritation and/or blemishes. Additionally cleansing has a warming effect on the skin, and anything warming on the skin, increases elasticity and opens the pores.

SO, the point of a toner is to 1. remove the excess cleanser that is no longer needed and 2. Cool your skin down to restore firmness and close the pores. My favourite cleanser at the moment is
'Eau Roma Water' again, by Lush Cosmetics, it's main ingredients are Lavender Water and Rose Water, both are very gentle and very cooling.

Although I love this as a Toner, another (free) alternative is cold water! Simply rinse your face with cold water or run a cotton pad under a cold tap and gently rub it on your face, this does the exact same job! It removes residue and cools your face down.

Moisturising

Because my skin is oily, I often struggle with moisturisers; however I don't place too much emphasis on moisturisers, I kind of just use whatever I have to hand at that moment, whether it's coco butter or 'Simple' face moisturiser or any Lush face and body moisturiser. In my experience, WHAT you moisturise with isn't too important, you just need to make sure that you DO moisturise. Of course this statement is relative, but the point is, once you remove moisture with a cleanser (and toner) you need to restore it and as long as your chosen moisturiser doesn't dry out your skin or make it too oily, then you're fine, just make sure that you DO moisturise. Moisture is actually good for the skin, just not too much.

Oil Cleansing

Now, in my personal experience, oil cleansing works wonders!! If you don't know what it is, it's simply using oil to cleanse and remove make-up. Personally, I only do this form of cleansing, if I've been wearing make-up. If I haven't been wearing make-up, I just do the routine I mentioned above (C,T,M).

I usually remove my make-up with face wipes but from my experience, although face wipes APPEAR to remove make-up they don't seem to lift all make-up out of my pores, so I like to give my skin a DEEP cleanse to make sure all make-up is removed and my pores are fully clean, hence, I Oil Cleanse.

So, to Oil cleanse, I use a face wipe or two to remove the majority of make-up, then, I massage pure Almond Oil (or Olive Oil if I run out of Almond Oil)  into my skin, run a face towel under hot water, squeeze the water out and then wipe away the oil, I do this 3-4 times, and it really works, better than any other make- up remover I've used before; after this, I usually use a very light moisturiser (but not everyone needs to moisturise depending on how the oil feels on your skin), I don't tone because pure oil is good for the skin so it's fine to just leave it on the skin overnight.

In the morning, my skin is visibly brighter and smoother and I find that this form of cleansing soothes breakouts. It sounds illogical to use oil on oily skin, however, oil attracts oil, I don't really know the science behind it, but it works for me, the Almond Oil attracts and pulls out the oils from my make-up (most make-up contains different types of oils). You don't have to use Almond Oil, I've also used Olive Oil and Avocado Oil, they're all just as effective as each other

Finally ... Face Masks

I LOVE face masks, they definitely help to reduce break outs and they keep my skin bright. I must say I'm a fan of most Lush Cosmetics Fresh Face Masks, particularly 'Cosmetic Warrior'; however, for the sake of variation I'm currently using 'Blue Corn 3in1 Deep Cleansing Face Mask' from The Body Shop, I like it a lot, it's a mask, cleanser and a scrub, it leaves my skin very soft and bright after leaving it on for about 20 minutes. However I must say that it doesn't feel as gentle as the Lush ones, it feels a bit chemically, but it definitely works. I usually use it once or twice a week or after a long bout of wearing make-up.

Thanks for reading
I hope this is useful :)
Love, you
Jennifer

Basic Contouring & Highlighting for darker skinned beauties

If you're reading this, I'm sure you're quite familiar with what contouring and highlighting are, if not, in simple terms, 'contour' means to give something shape. If you wear foundation you might have noticed that after you've applied it, your face looks very one dimensional; if you typically have high cheek bones, you might notice that they don't look quite as high when your foundation is on. SO, the way to get around this is to 'contour' i.e. add the shape and shadows back to your face. You can contour with anything darker than your skin tone, preferably something matte like an eye shadow or a matte powder foundation; the reason why your choice of contour has to be darker than your skin is because, darker colours make things look slimmer and lighter colours make things look more prominent (or in other words, bigger), so the key is to highlight the areas that you want to look more prominent and contour/darken the areas you want to make less prominent i.e. cheeks, nose and forehead

I've been contouring & highlighting for quite a long time, however I've only recently discovered how key concealer is in the whole process. So, I decided to post this to show how and where I do it:

Step 1) Using (clean!) fingers, I prime my face with No7 ' Beautifully Matte - Make up Base ' I really like this base/primer, it works for me and my oily skin (I'll elaborate more on Primers for oily skin in another post)  I try not to use Primers too often because they block your pores and using them everyday could cause breakouts

Step 2) Apply my foundation. In this picture, I'm wearing Mac Studio Fix Powder Foundation in NW50 (since this picture, I've started using Sleek Makeup New Skin Revive in 'Henna' which I  prefer and I personally think it works better for my oily skin)

Step 3) Using a concealer brush, I apply Sleek's Correct and Concealer Palette (couldn't find a link for this) to my under eye, down the bridge of my nose, on my Cupid's bow (the little bit above my lip) and my chin - you'll see this in Pic 1 - the purpose of this is to highlight the places that I want to accentuate/draw the light to and these are also the places with the most bone structure i.e. you wouldn't highlight your nostrils or your cheeks, instead you'd highlight where the bone is i.e. the bridge of the nose and the cheek bones

Step 3) I rub it all in with my (clean) fingers, then I contour using Sleek Face Form Contour Kit in Medium which I love (I'll do a Why I love Sleek Make Up Post soon) !! To do this I simply make a fish face (suck my cheeks in) and put a brown line just on/under my cheek bones using my C454 Contouring Brush from Crown Brush that I referred to in my previous blog post. You should be able to see this subtle line in pic 2. I also contour my forehead (along my hair line) to add a slight shade to it to make it appear less prominent (this isn't necessary for everyone), my temples and my nostrils and the sides of my nose

Step 4) I then apply a pressed powder on my whole face with my KB8 Angle Kabuki Brush from Crown Brush (In this picture I used a powder by Fashion Fair but I think this is now discontinued) and use Mac Mineralize Skin Finish in 'Gold Deposit' over the areas where I put the concealer. I enhance the contoured effect by enhancing my cheek bones even more with  Sleek Makeup Blush by 3 in 'Sugar' which I LOVE!! it's subtle but very warming and adds a glow, it's perfect for women of colour or women with a tan, I blend all 3 shades and sweep just above the contour line on my cheeks and blend it subtly in the highlighted area. the point here is that from the contour line the colour should go from dark to light to lighter (you should see what I mean in pic 2) I then finish the rest of my make up with eyeliner (Sleek Make Up) mascara (YSL Baby Doll) and a nude lipstick (Perspective by Lush Cosmetics) with a bit of clear lip-gloss on top and VOILA done! (pic 3)

Hope this is useful :)
Thanks for reading
Love, you
Jennifer

Affordable Make-up Brushes

So, I recently went to a make-up master class and the Make-up Artist running the class advised on where to go for cheap (but quality) brushes and one of the places she suggested was Crown Brush and I must say, I'm impressed.

I bought 6 brushes for a total of £34.53 incl. vat and postage, they arrived within about 3 days and although I haven't actually used them yet, the quality appears to be just as good as my Mac brushes

Here's what I bought:

BK42 Bullet Crease brush £2.49
C109 Mini Bronzer brush £4.89
C330 Blending Crease brush £4.69
C454 Angle Contouring brush £4.99
IB114 Oval Camouflage brush £3.99
KB8  Angle Kabuki brush £6.49
SS020 Synthetic Precision Crease £3.99

Happy customer :)

The Key to Real Beauty

Hi! and welcome :)

Before getting started on the wonderful world of make-up and beauty, I wanted to make a point of ensuring that my first (ever!) blog post addresses the reasons behind my blog name 'Love, you'. It didn't take a long time for me to come up with the name, reason being, as I've gotten older and been through many life experiences, I've learnt that the key to beauty really is quite simple - loving you.

Yes, loving yourself!!! Not in an arrogant, delusional or conceited way, but in a REAL flaws and all way! So in the context of make-up and beauty, of course there are cases where make-up is used to cover up particular skin issues etc. and I'm not saying this is wrong in any way, but putting these cases to one side, personally, I believe that if you choose to wear make-up it should be used to enhance the beauty you already have, it's not a mask or a trick.

For me, make-up is something I enjoy, I think it's fun! it makes me look more 'polished', but to be honest, I only wear it, hmmmm 40% of the time (don't get me wrong, I'd be saying the exact same thing if I wore it all day everyday) mainly because I don't always have the time, or I can't be bothered but mostly because with or without it, I love myself. Loving myself includes knowing and accepting that I'm far from perfect, embracing the good things and working on the things I'd like to change about myself (note I said 'I'd like to change about myself' and not 'what other people would like me to change') and loving and respecting myself just the way I am.

This is definitely easier said than done, of course, but anything on the inside will definitely surface, and if you truly love who you are from the inside, it'll naturally come to the surface for all to see and this in itself is such a beautiful thing :)

Anyway, with that said
Love, you
Jennifer x