1950's

I have to say I was very excited for last week's college class as the 50's is one of my favourite era's of makeup. I've always found it to be an relatively easy to achieve look that simultaneously always manages to look elegant. As part of our assessment in college, we had to choose two period looks (from the 20's to the 90's) to create two makeup looks, one from each era. I, of course, chose the 50's and also the 90's (I will do another post on this look). We do have a professional photographer who comes in to our class and takes pictures of our looks for us but since I won't receive his photos until the course is finished, I only have my own to post here.
So without futher ado, here is the look I came up with:


As I said, very simple but still very pretty (even if I do say so myself)


Product list (hover over item for link):


As I'm sure everyone knows, the classic must-have to a 1950's makeup is the dramatic winged liner. False lashes usually always go hand-in-hand with this just to keep the dramatics going. I considered adding no colour to the eyelids (the eyeshadow wasn't ever really the main focus in the 50's) but instead settled on going for a very light dusting of Mac's 'Da Bling' eyeshadow. Eyebrows were strong and very arched in the 50's and women's faces were always full coverage and flawless in appearance, something I tried to recreate with this look. 
I chose to mix two lip colours together as my first choice (Mac Ruby Woo) was looking a little dry on my client's lips (am I the only one who thinks this is the world's driest lipstick?) so I added a topping of Clinique cherry pop just for my client's comfort more than anything else. 

Makeup Haul


So, I bought some makeup. Not that I really needed any more but when is that ever enough of a reason to stop a makeup lover. A couple of these things I did buy for my makeup kit but, admittedly most of it is for myself.


I purchased the Morphe 9C Highlight & Contour Palette after I saw one of my favourite YouTubers KathleenLights showing it on her snapchat. When I saw it, I looked it up straight away as I had been looking for something exactly like that for my makeup kit and, while contour kits aren't exactly hard to come by lately, I wanted an affordable one from a brand that I already knew and trusted. I haven't had a chance to use the palette on myself or anyone else just yet but I have swatched it a couple of times and I have high hopes for it.

[TOP L-R] LUCID,  LYRIC, LEVITATION. [BOTTOM L-R] SOMBRE, SHADOWPLAY, SUBCONSCIOUS
Speaking of contour kits, the next palette I got was for myself. I have heard many great things about the Kat Von D Shade and Light Palette and so, of course, I wanted to try it out for myself and got to work looking around for a UK seller that wasn't too expensive. As I have a very fair complexion, not all of these colours work for me, as is the case with a lot of contour kits, but even those colours that are too dark for me are still beautiful to use for eyeshadows. Whilst I do love 'sombre' I still find myself reaching for my Benefit Hoola bronzer a little more often however, 'lucid' has now become my new favourite powder for setting my under eye concealer.


After hearing a lot about the Anastasia Glow Kits, I knew I had to have one and after much consideration, I chose to get the 'That Glow' palette (that's not to say I won't get the other one in the future, especially considering how much I love this one). The shades are so beautiful and have just the right amount of pigment you would want from a highlight. My favourite shade is 'Bubbly' as it has more of a subtle tone to it but for days when I want a standout highlight, I tend to go for 'Sunburst'.


I first heard about the Sleek Solstice Highlighting Palette from a makeup tutorial on Pixiwoo's YouTube channel and the colours looked so gorgeous that I decided to pick it up the next time I went to Superdrug, The palette has four highlights, three powders and one cream which are all highly pigmented and the cream also doubles as a great illuminating eyeshadow base.



I placed an order on Feelunique for some Nyx goodies that I had been dying to get my hands on. The first was the Nyx eyebrow gel. I have been interested in this ever since I saw Shaaanxo on YouTube comparing it to the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow, a product that I had been debating with myself over whether to buy or not. I first tried it out with my Anastasia Brow Wiz, using the pencil on top to draw in a few hairs towards the front of my brows and I have to say, I love love this product. I have been using it pretty much everyday since. Then, I saw KathleenLights talking about how the Nyx Micro Brow was incredibly similar to the Brow Wiz and considering that it is half the price, I wanted to test that out for myself. The pencil is a little bit harder than the Brow Wiz but I definitely think the end result is the same and would buy the cheaper Nyx version over the more expensive Brow Wiz in the future. Then I wanted to test out the Nyx Tres Jolie black gel eyeliner pencil as, again, I have heard a lot about this product on the internet and I was pleased with how long lasting it was. Lastly, I wanted to try the Nyx Angel Veil as this product has received many comparisons to the Hourglass primer and whilst I have only used this a couple of times, I have found that it's extremely hydrating and can keep my makeup on for long periods of time.

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with all of my purchases and have introduced a lot of them into my daily routine. One thing I tend to do with my makeup, is get stuck in a rut of wearing the same products everyday, especially when I don't have a lot of time due to work. But now that I have recently re-organised my makeup, I am making a conscious effort to switch up my daily products as often as I can.

Ellie xx

MAC Pro Student kit


When we were first told about the Mac Pro Student kit's in college, there was no doubt in my mind that I was getting one. Of course, there was a pretty hefty price tag attached to the bundle but, as I often do with makeup, I decided to ignore that part. In a nutshell, a student kit is basically a selection of products chosen to cater to the courses needs and offered to the student at a discounted price.


[L-R] Face and Body C3, Face and Body C1, Face and Body N9, Studio Sculpt NC15, Studio Sculpt NW25
Face and Body is described by Mac as a sheer coverage, natural finish and hydrating foundation. After using this foundation many times, I have to say it's one of my favourites to use on clients as it's formula makes it incredible easy to mix with other foundations or colours and the coverage is buildable allowing you to taper to the clients needs. 
I couldn't actually find Studio Sculpt on the Mac website to find their description of the foundation but I would say it is a medium-full coverage foundation with a gel-like formula that gives a satin finish to the skin. The foundation is long-wearing and is supposed to be hydrating but I would definitely say this depends on the nature of your skin. If I am having a particularly dry skin day, I wouldn't reach for this foundation. I do, however, like mixing Studio Sculpt and Face and Body together to create a foundation with a really nice finish and coverage. 

PRO CONCEAL AND CORRECT PALETTE IN MEDIUM. [L-R] NC30, NW25, NC35, NW35, MID-YELLOW, MID-PEACH
[TOP] SHROOM, DA BLING, PLUM DRESSING. [MIDDLE] AMBER LIGHTS, BRUN, DEEP TRUTH, SATIN TAUPE. [BOTTOM] EMBARK, CARBON, OMEGA.

Mac eyeshadows have been one of my favourite formulas for a while now. They are creamy, blendable, pigmented and for the most part, pretty much exactly what you would want from a good eyeshadow. The kit provided us with not only the eyeshadows but a double sided Mac palette with inserts.

[TOP-BOTTOM] EYE PENCIL IN FELINE, EYE BROW PENCIL IN LINGERING AND STUD
[L-R] FLUIDLINE IN BLACKTRACK, MASCARA IN HAUTE & NAUGHTY
[TOP-BOTTOM] LIP PENCIL IN SPICE, CHERRY.
PRO LIP PALETTES. REDS [L-R] LADY DANGER, ON HOLD, RUSSIAN RED, MAC RED, RUBY WOO, DARE YOU. PINKS [L-R] PRETTY PLEASE, PLEASE ME, LOVELORN, CREME DE LA FEMME, SHOW ORCHID, VIOLETTA
[L-R] BLUSH IN MELBA, BLUSHBERRY

As well as all of the products, the student kit came with a Complimentary Mac Pro Student card. This gives you 15% off Mac makeup while training as a makeup artist and can be upgraded to a full pro card on completion of your course. 


Overall, I was pretty pleased with the student kit we were given. The kit cost £327.93 which sounds crazy expensive but when you break down the price of each of the products, I ended up saving just under £200. The only complaints I would have is the lack of variety in the concealer shades and the fact that the kit didn't include a bronzer or a brown eyeliner. It would have been nice to have a bronzer and highlight included in the kit, especially considering the popularity of contouring and highlighting at the moment but I do understand these additions would have increased the price of the kit considerably. The lip palettes are probably my favourite part of the kit because they are incredibly handy compared to carrying around lots of individual lipsticks. 

There was also an option for us to purchase a Mac brush kit as well as the makeup kit but, after scraping together just enough money for the makeup I sadly couldn't afford the discounted brush kit as well. This included; 129 Powder brush, 224 tapered blending, 266 small angle, 20 lash, 211, pointed liner, 217 blending, 242 shader, 252 large shader, 188 small duo fibre, 218 retractable lip.

I think that's pretty much everything I have to say on this kit so I will just end by saying thank you to anyone who has took the time to read my blog and I hope you stick around for the next post.
Ellie xx

My first post & becoming a MUA.

For a good few years now, my life has revolved around makeup.

.... that's possibly a little extreme, but it's safe to say it's been a big part of my life. I started off as a girl who would never stray from her two shades too dark Maybelline dream matte mousse until, one day, I decided to broaden my horizons a little. Discovering YouTube videos definitely played a huge part in my discovery into the world of makeup. I started off small, buying a few things here and there from the drugstore, as who can really afford the big names when you're still at school? It was only when I got my first job that my collection really started to grow. I found myself itching to get my payslip just so I could log onto beautybay and buy whatever it was that had been catching my eye all month. Before I knew it, I had a pretty substantial collection, one that I am sure I will share with you at some point in the near future.

I've always struggled with wanting to know what to do with my life. I've had visions of myself in many careers but none of those ideas ever seemed to work out for me. After deciding to postpone going to university (possibly forever), I instead just applied for any job I could, certain that I would soon realise what I wanted from life. That's what I thought would happen. I thought I'd just wake up one day and say "I want to be..." but sadly, it's not that simple. It was only when my sister and various friends would say "Why don't you do something with makeup?" that something clicked in me. Why not build yourself a career around your main passion? So, back in September, I enrolled onto a Fashion and Photographic makeup course and I can honestly say I haven't looked back since. For the first time in a really long time, I've found myself excited for the future and for the journey that my new career choice might lead me on. Yes, I still have no idea where life is going to take me but I'm finally at least trying to steer it in the direction that I want it to go.

I guess now would be as good a time as any to introduce myself? My name is Eleanor but pretty much everyone calls me Ellie. I'm twenty-one years old and I am currently studying Fashion and Photographic Makeup Level 3. For a couple of years now, I have wanted to start a blog but I never knew what to say or where to begin. As someone who worries far too much about what people think of me, I always cringed at the idea of having my voice out there to be judged and ridiculed but recently, I've decided to stop letting my fears control me. So, here it is, my first ever blog post. I hope to post here as often as I can, sharing my makeup likes, dislikes, purchases and snippets of my journey to becoming a fully qualified makeup artist. I want to finish off by saying thank you if you're reading this and that I hope that you stick around for my next post (which I'm pretty sure will be showing you what I got in my MAC Pro Student Kit).

xoxo
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