The easiest way to turn eyeshadow into eyeliner: A tutorial!

I have an Indian function to attend soon and I want to wear a pop of blue on my lids.  There's no point kidding myself that I'd have enough time to blend any shadows on my lids so I've decided to go for something easier.

Someone mentioned that mixing butter and peanuts does really give you peanut butter.  For some reason, my mind equated mixing peanuts and butter to get peanut butter with mixing eyeshadow and liquid to get eyeliner.  This is where the idea was born..

What you will need:

• An eyeshadow colour that you want to wear as a liner
• A facial mist/setting spray (you could just use water in a spray bottle)
• A angled/non angled eyeliner brush (the cheaper the better because you don't want to be buying a NARS one that falls apart because you've gotten liquid into the ferrule and the glue has weakened).  All the brushes I have used will not break the bank and I can say that as I paid for two of them, one (the Revlon one) was a PR sample.
• A small bowl (if you're Indian, a standard koli will do)

I used the following:

Regarding the differences between an angled and non angled eyeliner brush, this is what I mean..

The Ruby and Millie and Models Own ones are angled brushes and the Revlon one isn't.  It's also naturally two toned, it's a bamboo shade.  The only reason it's a bit black is because I've been using it to apply colour to my waterline.  I've reviewed the Revlon one here and the Models Own one here if you want to take a look.

How to turn eyeshadow into eyeliner:

Practice this a few times before you wear it out just to ascertain how much colour you need.  You don't need to coat the whole brush in colour, it's enough to just coat the tip and a tiny bit of the sides.  I find it easy to do a thinner line first and then build it up but that's just me. 

The result:

I'm so pleased this worked out as well as I saw it in my mind.  You know how sometimes you have an idea in your head and then it doesn't work out in reality? I had a worry that this might be the case here but it worked out well.

I can't say I'd do this before work because I'm always rushing but I'm definitely going to be wearing these as liners when I'm on my own time.

If you want to go one step further and have two/three angled eyeliner brushes then you can be a bit more creative.

I could have worked it in a bit more on my inner eye area but it was dark, this was a practice run, the dog ate it, it was like

For this, I decided to utitlise my other eyeliner brushes.  You could do this look with just one brush but because I go back over and build colour up, I found it easier to use two. 

If you only have one angled brush then doing this kind of look might take you some extra time but it's easy to remove the colour from the brush.  I spray the brush with the ELF spray and wipe it on a tissue.  The faff is worth it because it does get people asking questions as to how you did it.

By the time I've finished, my eyeshadows are wet so I just dab at them with a tissue to take some of the moisture away.  I leave the palette open for about 10 minutes in a vain attempt to air dry it a bit.

This just goes to show that you don't need to fork out for coloured liquid liners (as these are easier to apply if you're new to liner) and that you don't need to spend a fortune buying products that specifically turn eyeshadows into liners.  For my eventual look, I've decided to mix the pink with the purple and that's given me a pretty good shade.

The colours in the Sleek palette when used dry are notorious for producing a lot of fallout but when you use them in this way, you don't get any fallout.  The ELF spray (which has been featured here before) is £3.50.  I did say that it smelt of cheese farts when you applied it to your face but in this context, you smell nothing. The Ruby and Millie i-Define brush (also featured here before) cost me about £1 with the Boots vouchers.  It might have even been free actually, I can't remember..  You can use any angled brush for this but if you really want the Ruby and Millie one, I'd suggest you get to Boots sharpish because Ruby and Millie is soon to be pulled from their shelves and the brush is currently on for £1.66.

Adventures with a bent eyeliner brush..

The brushes that came with all my gel liners have not been very good at lining my eyes, mainly because I feel that they don't give me enough control and the liner doesn't sit close enough to the root of the lashes for my liking.

Thus, I went on the hunt for a bent eyeliner brush as I'd heard they were really good.  The two of choice were the Benefit Get Bent brush and the Sonia Kashuk one.  SK isn't readily available here so I have the Benefit one.

When you take that plastic "protector" off, the brush is quite stiff and me being me had to bend the bristles to loosen it up a bit..then the panic hit me..what if I've ruined the brush?! Well, I hadn't so don't panic if you're compelled to do the same.

Lush Toner Tabs: ETC ETC

I saw these in many Lush stores before I finally picked them up from the one in Westfields.  The reason for this is simple..the Lush in Westfields is pretty big..you're not cramped and worried you're going to knock something over and you're not overwhelmed by smells either.

Now that I write this, I'm sure I wrote about my experience in this Lush branch before..with the SA who was stingier than Ebenezer Scrooge on a bad day.  I asked for a sample of the 9-5 cleanser and the amount he gave me barely skimmed the bottom of the sample jar.

These made the move from bedroom to kitchen (the plan was to watch TV and steam at the same time and we don't have a TV in the bathroom anymore because I like to douse myself in "boiling water" and it kept getting steamed up..but that's by the by), anyway, these made the move last week and I decided that a few nights ago, enough was enough.

I got out the biggest bowl we have and whacked some boiling water into it.  The instructions clearly say 40 degrees celcius is the best temperature to use and this was the original plan but I got waylaid on the phone and the kettle came to a full boil..

You take out one tab and whack it into the warm water.  I wanted the one which calms troubled skin (the Tea Tree one) because I was in outbreak city at the time.  I thought they would be same thickness as paracetemol tabs but they're a lot thicker.  Drop it in and watch it fizz away, the smell is released when it fizzes and I found that putting your face over the bowl at that time doesn't do you any harm..

I sat with the towel over my head for a fair while..it warmed my skin up and I could feel it getting cleaner and smoother.  It also opens your nose up too so it would be good if you've got a cold/are getting over one..

I sat like that for about 20 minutes.  I managed to remove about three blackheads which was three more than I thought I had.  It wasn't hard to remove them, I just ran my fingers over my nose (to get some water off) and they came off.

You can save the liquid and use it as a toner for your skin or as a nice wash for your hair.  I managed to fill two toner bottles with mine..well, I could have filled two more but as I had none left, it went down the sink.

The next day my skin did look a LOT better.  I find that if you don't extract whiteheads and blackheads, they will look more prominent the day after so make sure you get them all.  Plus, they're easier to get out whilst your skin is a bit steamy/slimy.

I feel my skin getting softer and cleaner as it takes the heat in and the next day it looks a lot nicer than it did before.  I used to use a steamer before this but the bowl method works a lot better so I'd say if you want a steamer, just get a big bowl and use that.

These retail for £4.25 and can be bought here.  When I finish my current packet, I am definitely going to buy some more.  The toner you get afterwards is a nice grime remover..although I don't feel it did much to my hair.

How I made my own toner

I decided to make my own toner after I couldn't find my current favourite in any Boots' store.

This is the story of what happened.

First, the characters..

What became of them..

 
The happy ending.

A little bit less than half of the Tesco toner, a little more than half of the rosewater and a about a capful of the citric acid powder.  I only used more rosewater than toner because after originally doing half and half, I felt my skin was a bit tight and dry so I amended it.  If you have combo skin, I'd suggest doing that but if you've got normal skin then keep it at half and half.

Works just as well my old Skin Tonic and worked out a lot cheaper!

ETA: I've had some comments asking me where I got the items from so I'll tell you.  I got the toner from Tescos (duh) but any alcoholic, bog standard toner will do.  The citric acid is from the Indian shop but I'm sure you can find it in any supermarket.  Likewise, the rosewater is from the Indian shop too but I've seen it in supermarkets.