Makeup 101: Highlight and Contour!

Hello folks!

Sorry I've been MIA again. Who decided to be a jeweller at Christmas? Jeezo. I've been rushed off my feet trying to get everything sorted before I finish college for the Christmas holidays so I'm sorry I (once again) haven't been able to post!

I'm back with another makeup tutorial today, this time for a highlight and contour.

Behold! My starting face! Now, because I use powder products to highlight and contour I always apply my primer, foundation, and concealer first, this allows for easy blending. If you want to use cream products then I would definitely advise contouring before powder.

I start off by applying a concealer just a shade or 2 lighter than my skin to the high points of my face (forehead, nose, chin, sometimes cupid's bow) and under my eyes and buff this in using a flat top brush. This will create the illusion of light on your face once your contour has been applied.

Sah pretty.

Buffin' Buffin' Buffin'

I then apply a dark brown to the hollows of my face which are under my cheekbones, under my jaw and the temples of my forehead. Now, I don't usually contour my temples as I have a really small forehead, I don't need to, but I've done it in this photo so you can see where this would be applied. Also, if you struggle to find your cheekbones, suck your cheeks in through your teeth to make a fishy face and draw a line towards the corners of your mouth and stop at least three fingers' width away. When you're satisfied with your placement, blend upwards. Think you've blended enough? You haven't. Keep going.

I use a nude coloured blush to contour as I'm so pale, but a good idea is to get a powder foundation a few shades darker than your skintone. I hate using bronzer to contour as it can look so orange but if that's what you like then you can use that too. I'd say bronzer works better if you have a darker skintone. Ghosts like me need not apply,

Then, if you like, take a shimmery highlighter and apply this to the very tops of your cheekbones just under your eyes to catch the light when you move your head.

To complete the look, apply your blush of choice just in between your highlight and contour and blend together. 

MINION!

Please let me know if you try this for yourself! 

N x

First Impressions : Poundland Makeup Range!

Okay, so I was really skeptical about trying this, but then my mum pointed out that I had been waxing lyrical about a Makeup Revolution lipstick that only cost £1 so I figured I might as well give it a go!

The range is called Makeup Gallery and it has everything from foundations to nail polishes. The items I selected to try were : a nail polish in Silver Treasure, a Colour Moisture lipstick in Plum Pout, a blusher in Candyfloss, an eyeshadow in Galaxy Grey and an Intense Colour and Shine Gloss in Pixie Pink.

First impressions are...mixed. 

The nail polish has a great brush, flat and thick with tiny particles of rainbow glitter and larger silver glitter pieces, but as with most glitter polishes you don't get much of them. 

The lipgloss is a beautiful neon pink colour that goes opaque with one swipe but the consistency is kind of sticky. I don't mind that so much but I know some people don't like that.

The blush is really pretty neutral pink, the swatch doesn't show up much so I think I'll need to try this one out on my face to see what happens. 

What made me want to try all of this in the first place was the lipstick in Plum Pout, look at that duochrome! I don't have anything like it in my (rather excessive) collection. It is very moisturising but quite sheer, so again a face trial is probably needed!

Lastly I decided to try one of the eyeshadows and my first impressions aren't massively positive. It seems quite chalky and crumbly but hopefully I can work with it over a primer. 

These are obviously just first impressions so I'll be trialling these over the next few weeks and I'll be back to let you know what I think!

Will you be trying anything from this range?

N x

Makeup 101: Ombre Lip

Hi guys,

I'm back with another makeup tutorial, and today's look is a super wearable take on the ombre lip. I use this to mix shades of lipstick that I don't always necessarily think I suit or to add a little something extra to my daytime lip looks.

Step 1:

Apologies for the ridiculous picture, it was the only way I could show what I meant! Start by outlining your lips in a pinky nude colour (either with a lipliner, or a lipstick on a brush) and fill in the corners.

Next, fill in the centre of your lips with a peachy nude tone and blend into the lipliner, finish with a gloss if you like and you're done!

Let me know if you try this look!

N x

Makeup 101 : Smokey Eye

Hi folks! 

Extreme apologies for not posting the last week or so, I had a competition to prepare for with only 5 days notice so I have been the busiest guy ever! So, I thought I'd make it up to you guys with my first ever makeup tutorial!

One of the things I get asked about most is a smokey eye, so I thought I would show you how to do a really wearable, not too dark or complicated eye with a pop of shimmer.

One of my first tips when choosing what colours to wear is to go for a palette or a quad if you're not sure, this means you'll have colours that will definitely match and most quads now have little instructions on the back to help!

The quad I've chosen is the Maleficent palette from MAC but this contains all permanent shades if you like the look of them! 

Step 1 :

Apply your chosen primer (I use TooFaced Shadow Insurance) and buff a medium matte brown shade over your crease, using a fluffy brush here I've used Brown Down from the Maleficent palette with a MAC 217 brush. 

Step 2: 

Next, take a slightly different matte brown, I've used Concrete here as it's a little darker and more grey toned than Brown Down, and using the same brush, lightly blend that into the outer corner of your eye and crease, covering approx 1/3rd of your outer eyelid.

Step 3:

This is the part most people are scared of : black. Take a matte black shadow, and with a super light hand, blend that into the very outer corner of your eye. Keep blending until you have a nice gradient of colour but make sure you keep to the outer corner as this will create the most dimension. 

Step 4:

Now take a flat, dense eyeshadow brush, I used the double-ended eyeshadow brush from Urban Decay and press a shimmery gold shadow on the eyelid up to the crease. I've used Goldmine from MAC here, but Half Baked from Urban Decay is also a nice one. If you're not into shimmer then a pale matte shade would also work for this step. 

Step 5:

This step is entirely optional, but I like it for adding a little bit of grunginess. Take the same matte black eyeshadow on an angled liner brush and run this along your bottom lashline, then smudge with your blending brush. 

Add some mascara and you're done!

I hope you liked this tutorial and if there's any you'd like me to do then please let me know and I'll give it a shot! 

N x

The Search For The Perfect Eyeliner : B. Dramatic

In the makeup and beauty world, everyone is looking for that Holy Grail product, that product that you put on your face (or hair, or body!) and just think..."This is it." For me, as I feel a bit naked without it, it's eyeliner. Gel, pencil, liquid, whatevs. So here lies the beginning of a new quest for Nikki Rocks, the search for the perfect eyeliner.

Spoiler. This isn't it...otherwise this would be a really short quest. Like Lord of The Rings condensed into 2 minutes. (Actually, if someone had condensed LOTR into 2 minutes for me I could have 327 hours made to watch it of my life back. Anyway, I digress.)

This claims to be a "long wearing felt pen eyeliner which provides bold precise strokes in a single sweep."

No.

Just...no.

I have so many issues with this eyeliner it's not even real, mostly because when I swatched it in my local Superdrug it appeared to be the blackest black eyeliner of all black eyeliners. Then I actually put it on my eyelids. (Not the tester, cause that would be gross, I obviously bought it to try!)

Please excuse the fact I look about 80.

First of all, it is so so so patchy and you CANNOT fill in the gaps. It's not even the way of a cheap eyeliner that it flakes off if you try and go over it, it just doesn't fill in! So that rubbishes the claim of a "single sweep" and it isn't precise in the slightest due to the fact that nothing comes out of the tip, you have to try and hold the tip parallel with your eye but it means that if you're trying to get a really precise cat-eye flick, it's just not going to work.

To give Superdrug's advertising some semblance of credit, it is long wearing. I have oily eyelids and this doesn't transfer at all which is great as I find this really hard to combat, so this might be suitable if you just like a little definition along the lashline, but if you're like me, and bolder is better - this ain't the one for you.

Recommendations of what to try next would be much appreciated!

1 Month Today!

It's the 15th today which means my little blog is officially 1 month old! Yay!

My first Topshop makeup purchase!

Okay, so I know Topshop makeup has been around pretty much longer than I have, but as it's not somewhere I go in very often, the makeup's just kind of passed me by. Until today. I say that with a sigh as now, now I'm an addict.

How Armour appears on the lips

I was in with my friend, and as the clothes don't really interest me (no size 18's. Really?) I wandered over to the makeup to check it out and stumbled upon this little beauty. This is one of their regular lipsticks in the shade Armour, priced at a reasonable £8. It's described on the website as being rose gold in colour and I'd agree. I usually avoid frost/metallic finish lipsticks like the plague but something about this one just sang to me when I swatched it on the back of my hand so I bought it.

I usually associate frost finish lipsticks with the 80's and that horrible gritty feeling on your lips but this glides on so smoothly. It's so soft and creamy, so on the other hand, you'd think it would wear off quickly? Nope. Had it on for 3 hours and it's not moved. I've not eaten mind you, and I think after that, reapplication would be required but I wouldn't mind that.

More Topshop lippies required? Hell yeah. ANOTHER makeup brand addiction? Need it like a hole in the head, but I'm doing it for you guys! Or that's what I keep telling myself!

What's your favourite Topshop lipstick shade? Any recommendations?

N x

You can purchase Armour on the Topshop website