Nail tips.. literally.

Alright so the week is over, weekend here we come, a lot of you probably have plans to go out and get all prettied up. (Wow I can’t believe prettied is a word I was expecting spell check to come in there.)

But one of the things I like to do when I’m out for the weekend, is to do my nails. Nail polish is that one product where you just can’t go wrong or regret like a bad haircut or a fake tan gone so wrong you look like an orange m&m. If you don’t like the colour you chose, just wipe it off and start again and what’s even better sometimes nail polishes are on sale. Chemist bargain bins anyone?

It’s so important and a lot of ladies out there don’t do it, even nail salons.

Stained finger nails is something we all do not want and it happens because you don’t apply a base coat to your fingernails, the pigment of the colour is too strong and penetrates through your nails if left on too long.

Just a tip for you all about your nails this weekend or whenever you’re wearing some nail polish,

-         Always put a base coat on, this will help prevent the colour staining your nails and it even helps your polish last a bit longer too.

-        Change the colour of your nail polish on your fingernails every week and every two weeks for your toenails.

-        Apply your top coat to the very tips of your fingernails to avoid them chipping. (Calling all compulsive texters like me, this works a treat!)

FEEL: Shiseido bio performance super eye contour cream review and some quick tips

Let’s say you’ve had a really long day of doing whatever, be it housework, or work and if you’re anything like me, your eyes just get super tired after a long day.

I love the days where I can just stay at home and clean the house (it relaxes me for some reason, I like when things are clean, it makes everything feel fresh), it’s also the time where I don’t wear any makeup at all! I don’t know about the rest of you but sometimes I need that pop of mascara just to make me look awake and not like I’m about to fall asleep.

I discovered yesterday that sometimes when your eyes look tired and you feel that you need that bit of eye makeup, the skin around your eyes are just dry and they need some moisture to re energise them.

Shiseido bio performance super eye contour cream ,
sample size

I didn’t use my normal face cream but rather an eye contour cream by Shiseido. Shiseido bio-performance super eye contour cream to be exact.

I applied a little bit of this to my eyes as I received a sample after my mum bought a crazy amount of Shiseido products.

I was so surprised with this and how much it just re energized my eyes, the dullness around my eyes just disappeared and it really woke my eyes up.

The benefits of this eye contour cream is that it’s meant to help reduce wrinkles, dark circles and dullness and overall moisturize and re energise the skin.

Shiseido bio performance super eye contour cream 

There have been some reviews out there where people have said that it makes the eyes a lot puffier than before, however I do have naturally puffy eyes especially those bags under my eyes (hello concealer!) but for me personally it didn’t accentuate the puffiness, if anything it just looked healthier. Think of dry skin on your hands and when you apply moisturiser to that dry area, you see the benefits, there’s more moisture and therefore your skin looks healthier and smooth. That’s how it was for my eyes.

Still being a young girl, wrinkles, they haven’t happened just yet but I do have some little lines near the inner corner of my eyes where the bags are (most probably from stretching the skin in that area) and after applying this once at night and just then this morning, the lines have definitely made themselves less prominent and I’m still pretty amazed.

Alright so review over, I just wanted to share some quick tips on applying eye cream.

The way you apply face cream is completely different to applying eye cream. With eye cream, you should always use your ring finger. Place a small amount of eye cream to the tip of your ring finger and first apply to the top lids working from the inner corner out. Then going under the eye working from the outer corner of your eye in.

The reason for doing it this way is you’re less likely to stretch the skin around your eyes, remember skin around the eyes are delicate and the reason for using your ring finger to apply is you’ll find that there is less pressure being applied using your ring finger than any other finger you use. 

Some tips on kohl, liquid and gel eyeliners

Oh eyeliner, I mean come on who doesn’t love it. Eyeliner just puts that finishing touch to your eye makeup.

When I do my eyes, I like to put mascara on both the top and the bottom and with that I apply some eyeliner through the top lashes and the bottom lashes to fill in the tiny gaps and it gives your eyes that more defined look and that extra pop.

The downside, a kohl pencil eyeliner isn’t going to last you all day.

Kohl eyeliner, crayon kohl in the colour mousse

-        Kohl eyeliners, come in a variety of colours and they’re great for lining the bottom lash line with your favourite colour, try some blue on the lower lash line if you have brown eyes.

-        With kohl eyeliner, they are very easy to blend due to their creamy and smooth texture. Doing a smokey eye for the night, apply kohl liner first to the base of your lids and blend it out. Adding that kohl liner first before you apply the shadow, intensifies the colour.

-        Always apply concealer or foundation to your eyes when you’re working with kohl eyeliners and don’t forget to powder them lightly, it’s just easier to blend that way.

If you want some longer lasting eyeliner try:

-        Liquid liners, these are great for the top of your eyelids and drawing that little cat eye flick at the end.

Liquid eyeliner, by Missha The style in black

Never put liquid liner on the bottom lash line, they look best on top.

-        liquid liners as their name suggests, is wet and you need to allow that dry time before you open your eyes as it’ll smudge.

-        Can’t seem to get that exact straight line every time you apply liquid liner to the top, wait until the liner has dried and then use a cotton tip to buff away any mistakes.

-       

Gel eyeliners, these are one of my favourites at the moment. They just last that much longer and like liquid liners they’re quite smudge proof.

Gel eyeliner, by Lilan Vital extreme wear in black

-        Gels are very smooth in texture and glides on well.

-        It has more of a silkier feel to it compared to liquid liners

-        You can apply gel eyeliners to the top AND the bottom of your eyes as it has a softer finish.

With any eyeliner application especially on your top lids, make sure you lift the skin of your eyes so you can get the colour right to the base of your top lash line.

Because we all have eyebrows..

 ..some just more plentiful than others.

Okay so checking the history of my blog, it hasn’t really turned out like what I expected it to be, I originally loved the idea of putting my thoughts out there but more makeup and beauty focused.

Since that idea kind of failed, I just, I get really side tracked okay. Sad face. Life just happens and problems, drama, I’m not going to lie people do some really weird things and I just can’t help but blog about it and things that I find funny or cool or weird it all goes up nowadays. (I mean come on I just introduced a series called the tea diaries, talk about being side tracked)

But it’s okay, I’m happy either way but to try and get some makeup and beauty related stuff back into my blog here’s a little tip I came up with the other day.

So for myself post makeup I like to call it when I didn’t know anything but slapping on foundation for that flawless look, that’s all I would really do. Foundation, some mascara and eyeliner going on and that’s it. No blush, no contouring just whatever was really quick and easy to do. Now that I know a bit more, well A LOT more my makeup application is more structured.

I don’t know how many of you out there fill in your eyebrows, I for one never use to do it because I didn’t think I needed to, my eyebrows held out a pretty good shape.

Okay so there are the brow pencils that people use or you can just use some eye shadow.  I prefer using eye shadow the only downside is it doesn’t last all day, we’re all about foundation needing to last a good while but what about your eyebrows especially if you’ve applied something there already.

So when you’re brushing some shadow through your brows, here are some tips:

-        After you put on your foundation be it with a brush or wedge, brush some of that foundation over your eyebrows. This will help the shadow to stick onto something and for you to get that stronger, fuller brow look that is so in right now.

The Body Shop brow & lash gel

-        Or, brush over your brows with your foundation and apply some clear brow gel, (I use The Body Shop brow & lash gel) over the hairs of your brows. This helps to comb your brows through and sets them in place. You’ll find that the gel is a little bit sticky, so brush through some shadow through your brows to fill in any gaps or extend them that little bit more. You’ll find that the shadow lasts that much longer than it would if you didn’t apply any foundation or brow gel there.

-        Or you can always get yourself a brow mascara, they come in heaps of colours, but I like doing it the other ways, it makes makeup more fun.

Brow comb they come in smaller lengths,
talk about convenience at your fingertips

And PLEASE remember, if you’re brushing shadow through your brows, comb it out! It helps to spread that shadow through your brows evenly and looks a lot more natural without people looking at you like what is going on with your overdrawn eyebrows.

A tip for all you mascara lovers out there

I love being the makeup guru around my group of friends, they ask me the funniest questions and do the funniest things when it comes to makeup.

This post is dedicated to my good friend who is a makeup purist you could say, so no makeup worn hardly ever, only on super super special occasions and of course when she lets me practice makeup looks on her.

I love mascara, one of my favourite makeup products out there and I could never understand why some girls wouldn’t wear JUST mascara because to me sometimes that’s just all you need. So I put on mascara for my friend whilst I was doing a makeup look and she told me she doesn’t like wearing mascara and to that I replied, WHY????? and WHAT??? She said that she didn’t like taking it off because it was such a chore and it got everywhere and left black marks around her eyes and I laughed because it was so cute and funny.

So here’s how I take off my mascara and if you’re anything like my friend try it this way.

• Take a makeup removal cotton pad and put your eye makeup remover on it.
• If you have eye shadow on wipe from the inner corner out and then when you get to your lashes, eyes closed and roll downwards on your lashes, this helps to break the seal of the mascara and it won’t go everywhere.

Hope this helps makeup purists everywhere and if you didn’t know, well there you go. That’s another way to do it.


Another quick tip: Sometimes your eye makeup remover can substitute for lipstick removal too.