EOTD: I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse

This look was the result me having too long to get ready.  I was dressed before I knew it and then I faffed around with eye makeup, using three shadows to create this very standard look.  But you know what happens to me, I practice in my own time but when it comes to wearing it out, I fall back onto looks I know I can pull off, just in case something goes wrong.

The liner here is not an angled wing as I feel that looks harsh on me sometimes..and I have finally managed it to look even on both eyes..

I like the way this manages to make my eyes look brighter..not not too stark, and how the eyeliner vamps it up a bit.

You'll probably have to really stare to see the three colours I've used but they are there, one for the inner corner, one for the lid and one over the crease coming inwards.

These are the products I used..

As per usual, I used my "go to" brushes which are from Models Own and ELF.

I used my second base as I call it (the No7 shadow) all over the lid, the Wet n Wild shadow was from Tesco for about £2 and it formed the lid cover and the Urban Decay shadow is Sin which I find is similar to the glitterbomb that is Midnight Cowboy but applies easier.

I concentrated the glitter on the middle and inner part of the eye because I wanted a bit of the crease to be defined.

The final shadow touch was adding my second base to darker the crease, i.e. take away some of the glitter.

Collection 2000 pencil in the waterline and the Active liquid liner on the upper lid.  I am going to find that Active liner again as it was one of the best ones I've ever used.  It's trumped any that I've used since it finished.  The mascara is Maybelline's Falsies which I didn't like at first as it clumped like hell.  I finished the tube the other day and it only started applying without clumps when it was near the end.  Not a repurchase!

The title of this post is in homage to these Godfather socks that Simon got..

I honestly thought that "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse" meant that you'd be an idiot to turn the offer down as it was too good.  The analogy I always use is ten pairs of shoes for £100 which would be a bloody bargain.  I didn't realise it meant "accept the offer or I will kill you".  They say the Mafia are all about subtlety but that isn't subtle..it's confusing if anything.   And plus, you could just whisper that you're going to kill them if they don't agree, that's subtle.  Simon loves telling people that I misunderstood this, as if he's never gotten anything wrong in his life.

Also, I've only noticed this now but if you look at my eye from the left hand side lower lashline counter clockwise around to the left hand side of the upper lashline, my eye looks positively fishy in shape.  Is that a desired eye shape?  Fishy?  I wonder if that'd ever take off..they've got feline, why not diversify into fish?

EOTD: It's not that easy being green..

Saturday nights in my house used to be X Factor nights.  However, the ridiculous amount of ads they cram in, the fake groups they keep making and the the fake arguments between the judges have made me turn off.  I know that it's more about entertainment than the talent but they waste so much time.  It doesn't take ten minutes to introduce the acts.  As if that isn't bad enough, they go to an ad practically straight after.  And the voiceover guy is getting realllly annoying.

The main point of this post is that I had an engagement party to attend on Satuday evening for a girl I went to school with.  I wore a gorgeous sea green outfit and an eye to match.  I know they always say you shouldn't match your makeup to your outfit but when it comes to Indian outfits, I strongly feel that you should.  As the colour of the thread/sequins/stones used on the kadai (embellishment) is alway multicoloured, you're nearly always wearing a colour that is on your outfit.

I went for a feline look as it always makes me eye shape look different in photographs.  This is just a shimmery black shadow blended into the lid with a dark green shimmery shadow over the top.  You'll see soon enough which brands I've used.

As this was too dark, I decided to add a lighter green to the middle portion of the eye..that reluctantly blended out to the whole shadow area I ended up with this..

I LOVE this.  It matched my outfit perfectly and a lot of people asked me the name of the eyeshadow I used to create this look.  I didn't let my dirty little secret out to anyone...

I use this palette for a lot of my Indian outfit looks, even though the fallout is really bad.  I just put a tissue under my eye and blend away..once I'me done, I sweep the colour off with a fluffy blusher brush.

How I got this look..

• Prime your eyelids with a primer, I swear by Urban Decay's Primer Potion.  As the shadows I'm using are shimmery, you can just use the standard primer.
• Use a flat shader brush to lay down the black eyeshadow "1".  I used the MAC 239 (you can also use ELF's Mineral Bamboo All Over Eyeshadow brush).  You just want to blend it over the eyelid as it will be the base for the green.
• Your eyelid should actually look black, not black with your skin colour poking through.  Keep blending more black eyeshadow in until you have this.
• Do not panic if you haven't got the feline angle down, concentrate on putting the colour down.
• Use a blending brush to add the Smashbox green "2".  I don't know the name of this shadow but it is from the Eclectic quad.
• As you're adding it to black, the colour will be darker than in the pan.  Blend it in but not so much that it disappears. It should look like the first photo..
• Now add the green which is labelled as "3" above.  Blend this in as before, you still want it to show over the other green "2".
• Get a cotton wool pad, bend it in half, add some cream cleanser and swipe upwards (with the the straight edge on your skin) from the outer corner of your eye to your brow.  This gives you the feline look. 
• Use the edge of your brush to soften the edge out a bit because you don't want it looking too false..
• Get a lashline brush (I use the No7 one but I am going to buy the MAC 214 as that will get the job done quicker) and apply shadow "3" to your lower lashline.
• Add mascara and you're done!  You may notice that I'm not wearing mascara..I tend to touch my eyes once I've finished my makeup so I have started applying my mascara once we get to the party!

Ta da!

By the way, do the "how to" parts of these posts help? And should Sophie have gone this week? 

EOTD: Tastes so good, make you wanna smack yo mamma

Me and Simon, (Simon and I?..You'd think someone who's so hot on her grammatical errors would know which was correct) we went out to eat somewhere nice on Saturday night.  Somewhere nice? As if you'd go somewhere that wasn't nice..

Anyway, we went to Piccolini in Egham.  Well, the official line is Virginia Water but I still call it Egham, but then I also still class Hanwell as Ealing so what does that tell you?

I love this place. The food is really nice and the staff actually explain things to you.  I'm an annoying customer in that I want to know everything about the dish and the more I hear, the more I'm likely to change my mind.  The best thing is, they have quite a few of them.  I would never have guessed that until we came across another one in Exchange Square. 

I should really remember that this post is about makeup and not food but their food is HANDSOME.  Simon has this annoying habit where he will choose something and if he likes it, he'll order that until the end of time.  I don't mind that, that's his choice.  However, what does annoy me is that I always choose something different and he's more than happy to scarf half of that down.  He knows it winds me up so I'm sure he does it more and more on purpose.  I don't help myself though by proclaiming how nice it is, maybe I should start saying it's disgusting.

Back to the makeup!!

I didn't really want a flicked look, I was after a liner presence and I like it,  As you can tell, I still haven't been able to tame the beast that is that Stila pencil and I am on the lookout for one to replace it.  BUT, I'm glad that Stila is coming back to the UK so I can finally pick up the black version of this pencil without spending more than I should.  The eyeliner isn't waterproof at all but it does make eyeliner application easy.  It starts to flake off about 4 p.m when I've put it on at 7 a.m.  Since wearing my blue pencil like this, I have found a way to really smudge it in under my waterline.

What I used..

You'll notice that yet again, there's no mascara.  The answer to this is simple.  We were in a rush and I couldn't find any.

The lips..

Am I the only one who can see a dent in the lower lip?  I got the gloss in question as a GWP when I bought the Boots No7 mirror in the Christmas sales.

Ps, the title of this post comes from one of my favourite film franchises, the Friday films.  If you haven't seen these films then you really should, they're hilarious.

EOTD: Living in sin with a shady character..

Now that I'm in the habit of using a muslin cloth cleanser everyday, I don't really have time to experiment with my eye makeup looks in the evening.  This is mainly because life is too short to double cleanse.

However, the urge to experiment overtook my resistance the other day and I tried to recreate something I'd seen online.  Now, if I was smart, I'd have kept a copy of the photo that I copied but that's now how we roll around here.

How odd that when I close my eyes, it looks angular yet when my eyes are open, it looks more circular.. I used the brush that is fast becoming my favourite to do the outline of the darker shadow and the MAC 239 for the blending of the lighter shade.

The jobbies (word of the week) I used..

I'm really liking Urban Decay's Sin as an everyday shadow, it manages to pep my eyes up but it also works well as a colour to rub through the lower lashes.  The best thing is that it stays put all day and you don't even up with sparkly bits down your face.  The shadow on the left is a MUA one and I can't rate it highly enough.  I've used the hell out of it and you can't even tell, it's pigmented, smooth and you get change from a £2 coin.

Maybelline's Falsies was a bit of a letdown for me, not as good as the Colossal which I LOVE.  In other mascara related news, I'm finally down to my final four which is big news considering I used to have about a million.

EOTD: Curiosity conserved this cat..

I recently went to two pre-wedding parties during one week.  The first party had a dress code which I think is very odd; not only for a pre-wedding party but also for desis.  How long has that been going on? The dress code was mute, nude colours which angered me. 

As the outfits were to be simple, I went all out on the eyes and came out with this.

This alone would be fine for a standard night out on the piss but as it was a desi affair, I wanted something a bit more wow-y and so I did what most desis do and added some sona (gold!)

This one was taken at the end of the night, hence some smudges and what have you. 

I applied Benefit's Gilded to my ELF smudge brush and stroked it across my lash line.  It took a fair while but I think it was worth it.  Left an impression on my hand though..

The products I used were simple..

A lot has been made of the MUA range from Superdrug but I definitely have no complaints about it.  My mum loves their face powder (it's the only one she has repurchased which is saying something) and I am more than impressed than the range of colours they have for both eyeshadows and eyeliners.  I can't remember the name or number of the shade I have but you can recognise it straight away when you see it, it's the black with a verrrrrry slight shimmer.  It's very pigmented and blending is a dream.  You can't ask for much more when you're only parting with £1. 

Re. the mascara, I'm lying about using it.  You can clearly tell I've not got any mascara on but for some reason I thought I did wear it? Anyway, it's brilliant, buy it!

And the dress code backfired on the bride to be.  She wanted all eyes to be on her and her turquoise outfit.  She should have known better than to tell desis what to do.  Half the aunties there wore what the hell they wanted to and she wasn't happy!

My journey in liquid eyeliner: 2009-2011

About two years ago, I decided that I'd start to learn how to use liquid liner properly.  It wasn't going well until I started blogging about it and other bloggers (namely Amina!) told me that it would come to me with a bit of practice. 

I look back at this photo and laugh now, wondering what I was so proud of.  The liner is about five metres away from my lash line and the flick is practically by my ear..

Then I graduated onto this.. I managed to get it near the lashline enough so that it looks decent out in public yet the winged liner was still a distant dream.  I was quite chuffed with this and I wore this look a fair few times.  I used the Collection 2000 liquid liner for this.  It applies like a dream but I wouldn't buy again as it goes off quickly.  If you can't breathe without putting your liquid liner on, then this is a good budget buy as it dries quickly and literally glides along your eyelid and doesn't get caught in your lashes.  The eyeshadow is a layered affair, taken from Bobbi Brown's Basic Eye palette..

This formed part of a post I had about taking my makeup from day to night..you can see that I've learnt how to blend two shades on my eyelid and the importance of having come colour in the lower lashline.  I find that wearing my liner like this only works well when I've got glasses on as otherwise, it drags my eye down.  This type of fluid line was a rare achievement by the way, it's seldom graced my blog since.

I did say the liner in the photo above was a rare occurence back then..and that's evidenced by this photo right here.  However, check me out managing to blend three colours on my lid when before I couldn't even manage one.  The liner is the Collection 2000 one again, notice what I mean about it going manky after a while?

Then we have the last one to feature on here.  Yes, the winged liner isn't its best but I was in a rush and compare it to photo 1.

I remember when I first started learning how to apply liquid liner properly and every was telling me how it would take time but you would get it in the end.  I always thought either you could line your eyes or you couldn't.

Then I found gel/cream liner and thought my prayers were answered.  Although that does give you more control in getting it closer to the lashline, getting decent flicks with gel is harder than with liquid as you really need to find a good brush..something which is easier said than done.  The best brush I've found for gel liner so far is Benefit's Get Bent brush.

This post clearly shows that with enough practice (I practiced very rarely) you can start to line your eyes properly and then in time, move onto a winged liner...

EOTD: Work safe, summer friendly, winged eyeliner.

I'd been looking online for ways to make your makeup more spring-y and I was left a bit disappointed as most of the "tutorials" I came across were full of stock images and didn't show HOW to do it.  Seriously, what's the point?! If you're going to call it a tutorial, TEACH the gyaldem.

Anyway, the main things I wanted to do were used liner that wasn't black and cut down on eyeshadow usage.

Products used: Gosh eyeliner, 17 Maximum Volume mascara, MUA black eyeshadow on waterline.

Blue was either so dark it looked black or so bright I'd have to go work in the 80's and brown didn't show so I decided to try my GOSH liner and I am glad I did.

In honour of me being able to successfully wear this to work, I've named it "corporate purple".  It has a shine which is welcomed by me but not a sparkle that makes it look out of place at work.

However, this product is not really noob friendly.  The brush sometimes pulls the eyeliner out in a gloopy manner so you have to wipe and then use it.  If you're still getting used to getting your liner close to the lash line then be careful with this as it has a habit of going on the lashes and then not budging..making you take all your other makeup off and start from scratch.

I use it by dragging the tip across my lash line and thus getting a thin line.  This is better than laying it on its side as by doing that, you run the risk of getting liner in the lashes which is a serious case of the donotwants.  I smudged it a bit towards the outer edge of the eye but you can't see it when you open your eyes and as I tend to spend most of the day with my eyes open, it's no biggie.  I took this photograph at half nine (in the evening) and I'd had this on since half six in the morning and I'm one of those annoying people who touches her eyes all the time.  It removes easily with most cream based makeup removers.

You'll also notice that it's a thick liner but not a typical cat's eye.  This is because I look like a twat wearing a cat's eye to work and it also looks distorted behind glasses.

PS, for those who want on the arm swatches..

EOTD: Homage to Johnny Allen

The EOTD without direction.  I usually do these either for work or for some out of work, desi thing.  This one was created simply because I felt like using purple.

I used my standard Models Own brush for the lid and then the ELF brush that I raved about for the crease work.

I used only two colours but see how the ELF brush deposits the perfect amount of colour in the perfect place so you can just blend it out and make it look like you've used more?

The fuzzy bits you see by the inner corner of my eye are where the primer ventured a bit too far on my lid.  If I had been paying proper attention and not trying to catch the end of Khloe and Kourtney Take Miami, this wouldn't have happened.

I never really believed the whole "certain colours make your eyes stand out" theory but as I've been doing more and more practice eyes, I realise it is actually true.  Maybe that's the key..you can't see it properly in every day life but in photographs you can really tell the difference.  Ignoring the over saturated photo on the right, the ones on the left show that pruple works well with brown eyes.

PS.. re. the title, have a look here for your answer.

EOTD: The two brush, two eyeshadow smokey eye

The one thing I've wanted to be able to manage is a smokey silver/grey eye.  This has eluded me for many reasons, the first was that I didn't have a decent grey eyeshadow and the second was that I had no clue how to go about blending grey to get it into two different tones.

I can't remember why I bought the MUA shadow, I can only think that it was because it was next to something else I bought and impulse buying is a mother..  The two brushes are from the ELF Bamboo range and the hairs are actually a pale yellow (er..bamboo, you dunce!) colour, they're tinged darker because I couldn't wait to use them.

I hate the way any makeup looks so unimpressive when you close your eyes but I really like how this looks in the open eye shots and I keep my eyes open more than I do closed so that's a winner.  There is indeed a bit missing but there's a reason for that, it works really well with my eyes open, you can see the "missing bit" effect in my eyes open shots, I wanted that little bit of clearance there.  I've lined my eye with the MUA shadow, it really is very pigmented and well behaved as a liner, not like the other pesky ones that end up in the eye, this baby stays where you put it.  And...the shadow by 17 is grey with little blue-y glitter bits in it which is something new for me, I've only ever seen silver with golden bits in it.  Last point, I swear! You can see that it is creasing a bit, I've tried this with a primer underneath it and stays true to colour, I just didn't have the mind to photograph it.

The best part of all is that I wore this work and got away with it! Thus, I'm declaring it worksafe.

There's a review coming up on these brushes (and the two face ones I have) very soon!

EOTD: Silver Fox? More like a purple rinse fox..

I wasn't sure the direction to take with this one..it didn't feel summery/springy enough for pastel green and purple wasn't going to take centre stage again so that's how I ended up with this look.

I'm glad my boss wasn't at work because there's no way I would have been allowed this on if he was there but thems the perils of working in the buttoned up corporate world..

It was mean to be silver/grey on the lid with purple in the crease but I ran out of time due to having to straighten my hair so I kind of mixed the two together.  I still think it looks OK.

 It looks dodgy on closed eyes but I really like how it looks on opened eyes and I'm going to apply all my two toned/non crease looks like this..

It stayed on pretty well all day and as we were going to an Indian function after work, I had to conform to stereotype and bang out the old eyeliner..

The flick isn't the best in the world but it sufficed!

And here's what I used:

Overall, I'm quite happy with how brown the grey and purple mix makes my eyes look.  I know that individually they're colours that make brown eyes pop but I didn't think the effect would be so obvious when I tag-teamed them.  I'm also really impressed with the staying power of the Revlon shadows.  I had a primer on underneath but I thought the colours would fade during the day but they really didn't.

PS..a purple rinsed fox!

EOTD: Blue eyeshadow is so 80's..

My eyes haven't graced this blog for quite some time but now they are back!

I wore this look to the Lohri party I said I had (worst party I've ever been to by the way) and I really like the way the blues brought out the brown colour of my eyes.  I didn't go over the top with the crease blending and I think that works out better because I think the blending is OK..

I used the two blues from the Sleek Original palette.  Both are applied on a black pencil base.  The lighter blue is on the eyelid and the dark is on the edge of the crease.  I didn't use any mascara on purpose because the fallout had made my lashes look shimmery which is something I quite liked.  Also, it's not very clear from the pics but I've carried the colour under the eye in the same form that it is done above it.  By that I mean both colours are mirrored on the lower lashline.

PS, I don't think this looks too dated..I'm quite impressed that I managed to make blue work on my skintone.

EOTD: Go Crease-d Lightning!

Many moons ago there was a girl..a girl with a mouth that wouldn't rest and eyes that (despite her internal protests) were definitely hooded.

For months she agonised over cutting the crease, how could such a thing be possible when the crease was something she needed a team of explorers to find?  Then, one day, she had an idea..

Why not use a pencil to mark out where the crease is and take it from there! 

This is the story of what happened..

(A story which is equally heavy in photos as it is in words)

It was a Monday evening, around about half 10 in cold, cold Southwark.  Due to the girl missing Eastenders at its usual time, she decided to watch it at 10 on BBC3.  Nothing decent was on afterwards so she decided to play around with her makeup..which was something she hadn't done for a while.

So, she dug out these items and got to working..

And this is what she got..

The first and fourth photographs show the colours in the most accurate real to life way.

The aforementiond girl is quite impressed with how this came out and thinks she may wear it to her work Xmas party..what say you?

EOTD: I got love for you if you were born in the 80's..

I've always read that blue eyeshadow belongs in the 80's and that you have to work very hard with pink eyeshadow to ensure that you don't look like you've been crying or have conjunctivitis.

I was convinced that this wouldn't happen to me when I tried this look.  I wanted to see if I could make pink and blue eyeshadow work with my minimal skills and on my skintone..and I think I did OK.

This duo is my blogger profile pic.  It was one of the first pics I ever took when I was learning how to use my camera and figure out depth of field.  My mum had it way before I was born (1984) and I'm both pleased and a bit shocked that it still works now, more than 26 years on.  The colours are smooth and not at all chalky.

I used to love the Stila shimmer as a highlight back when I was uneducated on what a proper highlight should do, now I can't think why I ever loved it.  It's chalky and a nightmare to blend.

Now that I think I've understood how to blend, I'm going to start being more adventurous and start using more than two colours.

I've also learnt that because my eyelids are semi hooded, I don't need to take the crease colour onto the lid, I just blend it along the crease and it works best that way. As this look took a bit more "prep" that the others I've recently done, I'll tell you how I did it.

• Get a MAC 239 brush and cover the brush in the pink eyeshadow.  My brush looked like the hairs were pink, not white.
• Take the Stila highlight and apply it under the arch of your brow and blend with fingers or a brush.
• Pad the pink colour all over the lid but concentrate colour towards the inner corner and middle lid.
• Blend it out with a standard blender.
• Get a crease brush (Models Own works best for my lids) and apply the blue in the crease and towards the inner eye.
• Carry on blending that in until there are no harsh lines.
• Clean the standard blender brush on a tissue and then blend the outer corner shades together so the blue is mixed with the pink and gives you a purpley colour.
• Take another contour brush (I find Revlon's one works well for this) and dab it into the highlighter.  Dab this on the inner corner of your eye and blend upwards and around your eye shape with your finger.
• Take a pencil brush and move the colour around under your lower lashline.
• Apply a black eyeliner pencil to the lower waterline.
• Apply mascara.
• DONE!

EOTD: Quality Street

I was adamant to get the best pigmentation from this look so I took a belt and braces approach by doing the following:

This is what I used to creat the look:

This is the final look:

I love how vibrant the purple and green came out, I was spoilt for choice re. which colours to use as they are all really nice but this colour combo was my favourite.  I've only really seen EOTD's where people use a dark colour in the crease and a lighter/brighter colour on the lid..I wanted to try it the other way and I think it went ok.

For those of you don't know why I called this look what I did, this is why.

EOTD: Neutral-eyes

This is what I've been wearing to work for the past couple of weeks, it's easy but still looks like I've made somewhat of an effort.

It's easy to blend, just blend the lighter shade into the lid and then smatter the darker shade in the middle of the lid.

The Jemma Kidd pencil is getting some serious love from me, I've been using it as if it's going out of fashion and have only had to sharpen it twice so far.

The baked eyeshadow is my favourite of the bunch from The Body Shop.  I have to work quite hard to get colour from some of them but this one seems to like me and can take a lot of layering and it looks a bit foily.  I also think that this might be my new "my lids but better shade" and IT'S NOT IN A PALETTE!! The Body Shop best not discontinue this or there will be trouble..for me, mainly.

This photo of my eyeball reminds me just how much I love my Maybelline Colossal and that I should really buy it again and give away all the other mascaras I own..