Makeup - Pink Smokey Eye

"Your face is a canvas for a beautiful piece of art."

The Eyes
*Prep them first, normally I use a bit of primer, but if that's not to hand you can dab on a bit of concealer over your lid and under your eye.*
First use a black liner pencil to tightline your eyes, for those who aren't familiar with the term, 'tightlining' means colouring in the waterline of your eye. You have an upper waterline and a lower waterline, if you look up there is a tiny bit of space between your lashes and your eye, that's your upper waterline. Then if you look straight ahead you'll notice just above your bottom lashes there is another tiny bit of space.. the lower waterline. Once you've done this, pick up your chosen pink eye shadow and cover your entire lid, you want to blend this out slightly above your crease line (this is the crease line that you see when you have your eye open). Then using a black shadow you want to deposit the colour at the outer corner of your crease line and blend slightly inwards but not too far, you don't want to reach the middle, just sit it in the outer corner. Then similarly using a white shadow, you want to deposit the colour at the inner corner of your eye and then blend slightly inward.
Next up is the eyeliner along your top lashline, the tricky bit is getting your flicks/wings to look symmetrical, but that comes with practise and a steady hand. I do find it easier using a pen/felt tip style liner though when drawing a winged line on. On this look, which you can't see because my eyes are closed I used the liner pen under my lower lashline as well, just to add an extra bit of drama to the look. Then pop on your false lashes (if you want the dramatic eyes effect, or you can pop on a bit of mascara.)

The Face
This is far simpler, prep your skin and put on a primer (if you use one) and then foundation. Make sure you buff it into your skin and then you can contour and highlight like I've done *make sure you blend it in too* (I contoured using a bronzer round my face and down my neck, either side of my nose and in the hollows of my cheeks/ just under my cheek bones. I ran a highlighter down the bridge of my nose, my cupids bow, which is the V shape of my top lips and ran a bit on the centre of my bottom lip.) Or alternatively if you like a simpler skin base you can just add a touch of blush to the apples of your cheeks.

Then you can brush on a light pink gloss and you're ready to go!

Crown Brush Products

For Christmas I was lucky enough to receive some Crown Brush products! These were the Foundation/ Camouflage/ Corrector Palette and Set 615 - White HD Brush Set.

First off, the palette! Crown Brush have put everything you need for a perfect base into one little palette! If you have bags under your eyes... this will cover them! Angry spots? This will cover them! Small blemishes? THIS will cover them! The palette contains six different cream based concealers, lilac, green and then four different tones of skin colour. Because the palette contains cream based products it means they can be easily applied one on top of the other and blended. Priced at £22.99 on the Crown Brush website I would 100% recommend you get one, as you won't need anything else for your foundation routine! You can conceal your blemishes, correct uneven skin tone and apply your chosen colour of foundation all from this palette and you can even use one of the darker tones to contour. It is a makeup lovers must have!

Next up, the brushes! Set 615 - White HD Brush Set is a 7 piece set, made up of 6 brushes and 1 pair of tweezers; the set comes in a white patent leather case, with a little mirror on the left hand side. The brushes themselves are white with blue tips and are made up of nylon bristles, not only do they look gorgeous, they are of extremely high quality. Even if you use drugstore makeup which isn't of the same quality as high end brands such as MAC or Illamasqua, it is worth investing in a good quality set of brushes like these. Even with the smallest amount of product (such as eye shadow) on one of these brushes, the dense nylon bristles that make up the brush, pick up the colour pigment and transfer it to your eyelid without losing the intensity of the colour/ pigment in the shadow. They are really beautiful brushes which produce strong, pigmented results no matter what brand of makeup you use! Priced at £29.99 on the Crown Brush website, you get a Pro Powder Brush, a Tapered Blush Brush, a Deluxe Contour Brush, a Chisel Shadow Brush, a Crease Blender Brush and a Detail Liner Brush, as well as the case they come in and a little pair of tweezers! 

I used both my Crown Brush brushes and my Crown Brush palette to create the 'Butterfly' makeup look below. As you can see from my eyes and lips, the brushes picked up the pink pigment incredibly and it went onto my eyes and lips smoothly, still keeping the strong pigmented colour of the pink eye shadow and lipstick. I am very impressed with the quality of both products from Crown Brush and I will definitely be purchasing more from them in the future!

               

Foundation/ Camouflage/ Corrector Palette.

Set 615 - White HD Brush Set.

Real Techniques Brushes

The other day my sister was having a rummage in my room and she came across my makeup brushes. Her first comment, "WHY do you need so many brushes, Em?! A brush is a brush... duuuh!" So I pointed out that if I used my massive powder brush to put on eye shadow, I'd probably end up looking like a panda!

I have many different brands of brushes, but my most recent 'brush love affair' is with Real Techniques. This range of brushes is designed by the lovely and well known YouTuber and professional makeup artist, Samantha Chapman! The brushes are of a very high quality at an affordable price, when compared with other high end makeup brands and they also have their own quirky and distinctive little features. The larger brushes, (which you can buy on their own or in certain sets) have a flat base, which means you can sit them on their bottom to stand them up, which is extremely helpful when you're in a rush and foundation is flying everywhere! All the brushes in the Real Techniques range have incredibly soft, synthetic taklon bristles and they also have the name of the brush written on the handle! The first brushes I purchased over a year ago and they were the Stippling Brush and the Powder Brush.

The Stippling Brush has short and tightly packed bristles. I use mine for applying my foundation and because of the density of the bristles, it means you can buff the foundation into your skin, producing a much more even coverage and it doesn't look like it's been caked on. A small amount of foundation goes a long way with this brush!

The Powder Brush is a really nice fat brush! It's the perfect size to dip into a pot of loose powder and it's also the perfect size to swish round a pressed powder pot. Whichever powder you opt for, you can use this brush as it's the perfect size to sweep across your face a couple of times and then your powder is done! I also use it with my bronzer as it's just such a convenient size and because the bristles are long and fan out slightly, it means the bronzer can be put on lightly and not put on so it looks 'cakey' on your face.

The next lot of brushes I actually purchased the other day. I bought them online from Cocktail Cosmetics and their delivery was superb! They arrived after 2 days! The duo fibre range is on sale at the moment on Cocktail Cosmetics and I definitely recommend you purchase them if you are a fan of the Real Techniques brushes!

The Duo-Fiber Collection - Limited Edition!
In this collection you get a Face Brush, a Contour Brush and an Eye Brush. The difference between these brushes and the others in the series is that their bristles are much softer and they also appear to be slightly more spaced out from one another. This made me a bit cautious about using them as I didn't think they'd hold the makeup as well as the others, or transfer it to the face as well, however they do.
If you want a light coverage, so you don't look like you've been attacked by a kid running chaos in a makeup aisle, then these are the brushes for you!
The Face Brush you can use for both foundation and powder. (I find it works better with a liquid foundation) and because the bristles aren't as dense as the other collections, it means the coverage is much lighter and you can then swoosh a bit of powder over your base. Tadaa! Lightweight, non-cakey looking face!
The Contour Brush in the Duo-Fiber collection provides just as lightweight coverage when used with a minimal amount of bronzer... the most common places people contour are just under the cheekbones, the temple, along the hairline, the jawline, the sides of your nose and the tip of your nose. If you are going to contour all of the spots mentioned, you need to make sure that you blend it all in properly. But this brush is the perfect one for doing all of those, as it's just the right size to get into the hollows of your cheeks and you can brush it lightly around your hairline and your jawline.
The final brush in this collection is the Eye Brush, I wouldn't suggest this brush for applying eyeshadow as, (for me) it isn't flat enough to control. It's a circular brush which you would use to add the finishing touches to your eyes, such as a bit of glitter or the highlight in the corners of your eyes.

The other brushes I purchased were the Essential Foundation Brush, the Multi Task Brush and the Domed Shadow Brush. These three brushes you can purchase together in the 'Travel Essentials' set. (In the set there is a '2-in-1 case and stand' which you can either pop your brushes in to transport them, or you can fold the case horizontally and tighten the toggle to create a stand to pop your brushes in.) The final brush I purchased on it's own and that was the Expert Face Brush. The Essential Foundation Brush and the Expert Face Brush do roughly the same job... but there are slight differences with the design of each brush and how it puts the product onto the face. The Essential Foundation Brush slightly tapers towards the end, so it comes to a slight point. This means when you're applying liquid foundation or concealer you can get into the hard to reach places, like under the eye and in the corners under the eyes. You can also use it with your foundation to build up coverage, as it won't buff it on like the Stippling Brush, instead it will lightly layer. The Expert Face Brush on the other hand has slightly shorter bristles as it has a broad, dome shaped head, which allows for application and easier blending of liquid or a cream foundation. (This is personally my preferred foundation brush, as it's smaller and because of it's domed bristles blending foundation into the skin is much easier.)
The Multi Task Brush does exactly what the name suggests... it multi tasks! You can use it for applying powder to your whole face, a bit of blush to the apples of your cheeks, or a dab of bronzer just below your cheekbones, (in the hollows of your cheeks) or to completely contour your face. Personally I prefer to use it for powder or blush, as I prefer a more precise brush for contouring, but it gives a good coverage and consistency for whichever of the three jobs you choose to use it for!
Finally, the Domed Shadow Brush you can use to apply eye shadow because of it's slightly flatter head and because of the dome shaped bristles it follows the same curve as your eye so you can use it to blend in your crease too! Because this brush is smaller you can use it for pretty much every aspect of your eye makeup... applying shadow to your lid, blending in your crease, highlighting in the corner of your eye, and applying glitter!

Overall I LOVE these brushes and I think that Sam has thought really carefully about the design of each and every one. Sam has colour coded her brushes, which makes it a lot easier for people to figure out which brush they want if they haven't bought any before. (Obviously when you begin to use the brushes, sometimes you find that you prefer to use a foundation brush for powder or bronzer instead, so just go with what you feel more comfortable with. It's not set in stone!)

Golden Handle = Base (Liquid Foundation, Cream Foundation.)
Purple Handle = Eyes (Shadow, Liner, Finishing Touches.)
Pink Handle = Perfect Finish (Powder, Blush, Bronzer.)


You can find these brushes in Boots stores, or you can purchase them online!
Cocktail Cosmetics often have discounts or sales on, so you can have a wander over to their site if you want to and purchase them from there. Delivery is quick too!
http://www.cocktailcosmetics.co.uk/