Defense of the Dark Arts

(In british voice): Harry Potter reference

Hulllllooooo my lovelies.

Yep, I've been sniffing pink nail polish, how did you guess?? Lool.

It is close to Easter and you know what that means: Party time! Now I know you've gotten all your funky ankara styles sewn, you've done all your shopping (well done on NOT buying those clear stripper 6" heels, your mother would be so proud of you!), and you've perfected your dance steps, but there's one little thing you may have just forgotten.

Have you mastered your dark, smouldering, smokey eye?

Meet our Dark Arts model,Chioma!

I decided to give her a wearable smokey eye, something not too dramatic. I added a dash of unexpected lime-green to the inner corners of her eyes, to make her look awake. Here are some products I used:

MAC eyeliner, Paula Dorf primer, Maybelline brow pencil, Ben Nye loose powder, Revlon Matte lipstick, NYX lipgloss, MAC eyeshadow, Bobbi Brown eyeshadows 

The smokey was made of a black eyeshadow (Bobbi Brown), a matte gray eyeshadow (Bobbi Brown) and the lime-green eyeshadow from MAC (it was a limited edition shadow called Sweet and Punchy).

Hope you likey.

Christmas Makeover special

Hello, and merry, merry christmas.

Happy holidays, seasons greetings, spare a thought for the cow, goats and chickens that are not going to see the New Year. I decided to grab a willing model and plaster her face. Meet Kachy:

Face prep: Embroylisse Lait-creme concentrate, Vichy Thermale Purete, The Body Shop Vitamin E toner, Aquaphor

Brands used: Black Opal cream stick foundation, Estee Lauder Sugar Honey lipstick, MAC blush, NYX lipgloss, Bobbi Brown eyeshadows, Face Atelier eyepencil, Maybelline Colossal Volume mascara, Nixie cream blush.

Sorry for the poor picture quality. I do hope you like this, and feel free to rock this for the holidays.

Merry Christmas.

Lipstick Pencils

Hello everyone. 

Today's post is about lipstick pencils . There are totally different from lipsticks. I feel the need to say this because my sister reads my blog, and her understanding is "not superior".

 Yabs aside, these are a quick, convenient way to do lipstick on the go. If I see a teenager whipping out a tube of lipstick to use, I'll smack her, and ask her to go study for JAMB. But chubby lip pencils feel less grown-up (so I'm fine with my teen using it) and not so serious, though they work just as well as lipsticks and are easier to use, you can apply them without worrying about using lipliner. The only major problem with them, is, well, they can be inconvenient. I'll explain:  you have to sharpen them, and most of them don't come with in-built sharpeners and require that big sharpener, harder to find than regular size. Which is a pain. 

 

I've tried a few: Black Up 2-in-1 Jumbo pencil, NYX Jumbo pencil and Nars Jumbo pencil, and here are my humble thoughts:

• NYX doesn't seem to have matte textures (I may be wrong), but do have some lovely shades, all creamy, nice and affordable.
• Nars invented the matte lip pencil, so these are gorgeous, but pricey.
• Black Up is in-between: the shade I have displayed in the pic above looks pink with a hint of blue but dried down to a lovely matte texture. Even better, Black Up has an in-built pencil sharpener in its cover, so no worries about that! Major points to them for that clever bit of design. Price point is close to Nars.

Do you need theses babies? Maybe not, if you're a pro with your lipstick, infact if you use Ruby Woo without a mirror, you don't need these, your hand don' strong. If you're a gal on the go, who doesn't really want to feel like she's wearing a lot of makeup, or if you're a makeup artist who does jobs that require high speed makeup changes (our editorial, runway and television people), yeah, this is a good idea. Try all the brands, lemme know what you think. 

Take care and till next time!