Halloween Youtube Mix

So yeah, as I've said, I'm into theatre and theatrical makeup. So it follows that I should be posting some Halloween tutorials. Unfortunately I haven't had the time to prepare; if I'm gonna do Halloween, I'm gonna do Halloween right, damnit.

Instead, I've gathered a list of YouTube favourites I think you should try out. Enjoy!

 Playlists from year round costume/theatrical enthusiasts:

Julia Graf does mostly makeup with a passion for editorial style looks:



Kandee Johnson is a makeup artist who does lots of costuming and editorial looks:



Pixiwoo are makeup artists (Sam and Nic Chapman) who, besides being amazing, also love their editorials and costume makeup looks:



I had to make this playlist of Klair DeLys myself (She has two channels: KlairdeLysArt and KlairdeLysdotcom); she should really have one on her channel. She is an artist who does a variety of things including DIY props, editorials, every day makeup, and full costume looks. This is by no means a comprehensive playlist:


Threadbanger are a long time favourite of mine. They are amazeballs at DIY fashion and costuming:



Here are some special effects tutorials:

Miss Budget Beauty invited a guest vlogger for this one:



The Prince of Vanity stuck a pencil up his nose:



Pollyanne B zombifies her nails:



Some more costumes

Vintage or Tacky as Rosie the Riveter:



Miss Budget Beauty's Comic Book look:



Secret Life of a Bio Nerd's Mermaid costume:



And her fox costume (very timely):



And her Harley Quinn Costume (goes will with Julia Graf's Harley Quinn look):



Pollyanne B's Creepy Doll:



Mr. Kate's futuristic fairy:



Aaaand for those of you, like me, who never plan Halloween early enough, here are some last minute costumes:

MacBarbie07's Red Riding Hood with no-sew cape:



Andrea's Choice easy/last minute ideas:



Last, but not least, Daily Grace's cheap/dumb costumes:



I hope you have a fantastic Halloween! <3

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Tippety-top Tips: Handwash Your Facecloth

Everybody washes the washcloth/flannel they use on their faces every day, right? Right? Uh huh. Can't keep a straight face, can you?

The good news is with this Tippety-top Tip, you'll be less inclined to 'forget'.

Grab the nearest small bottle for storing liquid soap. You might use an empty sample bottle like I have, or a travel bottle you bought in a shop/store, whatever. Fill it up with your liquid laundry detergent. Et Voilà!

Set it next to your cleansers, and next time you wash your face, dab a little detergent on your cloth and handwash it. I wouldn't recommend using that cloth forever, but now you don't have to put it in the laundry for at least a week. Hooray!

<3

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Headline Colours

So I just subscribed to Love Me Beauty box (used to be Beauteco Box) last month using a voucher code from Miss Budget Beauty (heart), and got two extra products with my first box. 

Btw, I'm totally proud of myself for the way I convinced my hubby getting the box would be a good idea. It went something like, "But honey, I'm going to want to buy new stuff all the time anyway, see, but this way it's guaranteed to only cost £10 per month plus shipping! And I'll get loads of full sized stuff, not just samples, and easy cool high end stuff I wouldn't otherwise get my hands on. Yeah, it'll save even more money because I will get to try lots of stuff and not have to buy things I won't like. And... AND, if I sign up for a whole year, it'll cost LESS than £10 with shipping! Isn't that awesome?"

Anyway, one of the extras was a full sized bottle of the newly international nail polish/varnish brand, Headline Colors, in the colour Glamour. Although I find the premise of the brand appealing, my overall feelings are mixed.

Glamour is the gold shade in the spring/summer 2013 collection (the brand differentiates itself by only releasing new colours in small limited edition collections inspired by runway trends), and I think I'm in love. 

Pick some up!

This is the best representation of a metallic I've ever seen. The yellow hue is the closest to real gold, and they don't use a glitter, it's a pearl! Probably due to my typically contrary nature, I'm not a huge fan of sparkly things. Look at my wedding ring to see what I mean.

If you don't understand why I think this is so special, ponder this: when was the last time you saw gold sparkle? Probably never, unless it was cut worth facets to resemble jewels, but that's another thing. Last time I looked, my gold pieces shined, glowed, maybe even shimmered. The pearl finish of this polish absolutely shines without the gaudy sparkle, and with a good coat of Seche Vite the stuff really looks like molten gold poured on my nails Game of Thrones style, without all the tacky screaming and death. 

It lasts an average amount of time on my nails without chipping badly. (I don't like to say exactly how long because I never seem to get as much wear out of polishes that other people claim, not even in the best ones) I just wish they would do something about their packaging and the UK pricing. I think they source their packaging from the same place Hello Kitty does, and at £9 this brand costs more than both Essie and Sally Hanson. I'm just not sure it's worth it. 

My judgement? Pounce if you can get a deal or you have the money to burn. Otherwise I think Butter London is just as fashion forward and 3 free, but without the gimmicky runway thing. I think there's a reason why nail colours have their own trends; One of the other colours in this collection is a gunmetal grey. For spring and summer. Really?

The Hunt: Clinique Anti-Blemish Solution

Formulation: liquid
Shade: 04 Fresh Vanilla
Coverage: light to medium
Special features: contains Salicylic acid for treatment of blemishes

Initial impressions: It does the job without breaking me out more, has a demi-matte texture and looks fairly natural. I was, however, disappointed by the lack of lighter warm toned shades. Shade 04 is the darkest shade I could go with but leaves me looking somewhat ashey.

Wear: Overall the wear is average but oils may soak through after a few hours, so you'll want to have something around to blot with.

Other products used: Soap & Glory One Heck of a Blot, Collection Pressed Powder, Seventeen Miracle Matte Concealer Crayon, Collection Illuminating Touch, MUA Correct & Prime, Clinique Redness Solutions Daily Protective Base

Favourite method of application: I prefer a stippling or duo-fibre brush. Applying it too heavily can lead to cakiness and finger or sponge application can be hard to blend evenly. Sponges (because you always dampen your sponge, right?) also have the tendency to dilute it quite seriously.

Final opinion: This foundation accentuates dryness, so I think it's formulated with oily skin in mind. It doesn't build very well; if you have a lot of redness, you'll want to use additional products to achieve a more even skin tone. It also tends to make powders look cakey, especially when you first apply it in the morning. Avoid heavy-handedness, and don't apply your makeup just before you walk out the door.

Length of use: 5 months


Who should use this: Definitely oily girls with spot/acne problems. Us combination and dry skin girls should probably avoid.

<3

Love Me Beauty - October 2013

There's still a little bit left in the month, so despite my camera and time issues, I wanted to show you this month's Love Me Beauty box. I went with menu 2 even though I wasn't really sold on this month's offering.

Before I go on, however, I should mention the letter subscribers received recently. In it, Love Me Beauty responded to customer complaints saying, "It has come to our attention that some products dispatched in our October box from our long term partner's Lord & Berry have not met the high standards set by Lord & Berry and ourselves." As "a gesture of goodwill and apology", they've promised a full sized Lord & Berry lipstick in next month's box. 

Now this is only my third box from Love Me Beauty, but I can say that I've always liked the majority of their products, and I've been reading reviews on them for some time and it's nearly always positive. It's unfortunate they didn't notice the problem before shipping, but I admire them for responding so quickly, publicly, and personally.

I'm also new to Lord & Berry, having been introduced to them in my first box. Sadly, I don't have high praise for what I know of their products, so I wasn't surprised by my own reception of the pencil and mascara. However, I did a little googling and I found that aside from the obvious manufacturing fault that many (but not myself) found, the reviews were mixed, even contradictory. 

So I still don't think we should all condemn Lord & Berry at this point. Aside from the fact they are giving us a free product in return, the problem could simply be an easy to remediate supplier issue; these things happen. Let's just wait and see.

Lord & Berry Smudge Proof Eyeliner in Smoke: I couldn't recommend this product to anyone in good conscience. No, I didn't find the manufacturing fault, but I did find the quality of the pencil to be rather inferior. It was streaky and dragged even on the back of my hand. I also found it nearly impossible to get a decent colour payoff on my eyelid. That said, I've read at least one review in which is was described as "creamy", so it's entirely probable that more than one manufacturing fault was present in what went out in the boxes.

Lord & Berry Scuba Mascara in Black: I've only tried a couple waterproof mascaras, but this is the only one that felt like rubbing waxy chalk into my eyelids. It was absolutely dry as a bone, and I don't think I could bring myself to try it more than the once.

Balm Balm Detox Bath & Shower: What a lovely combination of essential oils! Just sniffing it brings a smile to my face. I'm saving this one for a Grumpy bath day.

Weleda Millet Nourishing Shampoo: Now, I don't normally shampoo my hair, but I put it up with a lot of hairspray recently, and my cleansing conditioner didn't remove it, so I was willing to try this out. It left me very confused. There was no lather, even when I added more, and no indication on the packaging that it shouldn't, and I didn't feel like it cleaned my hair much at all. Ouch.

Amie Morning Dew Matte-Finish Moisturiser: This is a very light moisturiser, with a very delicate fragrance. I absorbs quickly, and does leave the skin looking matte, but I felt like it left a kind of film on my skin. I'll be trying it more than just the once, though.

 

Have you tried any of these products before? What do you think of them?

<3

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DIY tabletop lighted vanity mirror

I live in a shared house with a friend from uni. It's one of those old one bathroom Victorian terraces in which the architect didn't really have mirror placement in mind. Also, the lighting is awful for makeup application. I've been lusting after a lighted vanity mirror since discovering the modest dressing room accomodation at our local theatre last year; so when I was oggling mirrors on Amazon recently, I had a brainwave. There was this perfect table-top dressing mirror made of real Oak and it was only £35, it just needed me to slap some fairy lights on it! Fairy lights rule the world.

Originally I tried a string of warm white LEDs we use at christmas, but found them way too dim, so I picked up 3 sets of 30 superbright LEDs from Amazon. The gold one is for adding some warmth, rather than luminousity; nobody looks good in flat white light.

Materials:

• Large vanity mirror of some kind (the price has gone up since I bought it)
• enough fairy lights to light up your face from 2 feet
• Velcro squares
• Command hooks for fairy lights
• tape measure
• food clips or wire ties (anything that will serve as a marker and hold light strings in place)
• decorative bits and bobs (optional)

To start off, I measured the mirror on three sides, where I wanted the lights to be. I figured lighting from the bottom would be undesireable. I layed my tape measure out on the kitchen counter, making sure I had access to the 54 inches of space for putting the light strings together. Obviously one longer surface would be better, but my office is taking up a large portion of the dining table at the mo'.

Then I marked where the light strings would wrap around from the back, giving the battery packs enough room to be placed comfortably on the back side of the mirror. I used a food clip to keep the strings in place for when I started wrapping.

Because the mirror swivels, the battery packs need to be in line with the swivel point so they don't influence how smoothly the mirror swings back and forth. If you don't do this, the mirror may not want to stay in the position you put it in. I measured from where the string would wrap around to the bottom then placed the clips at that far in from both ends of the tape measure.

You'll notice I split up the strings and put one on the left. This is because I didn't want to put the battery packs on one side and end up with any of the lights on the back side of the mirror because the lightless part of the string wasn't long enough. If you've got lights with a lot of space between the battery pack and the first bulb, you don't have to do this and it might make the twisting easier. You can also get one string instead of three, if you can find a long set that is bright enough.

I twisted the strings together toward the closest end of the tape, bent them back at the end, then started wrapping the rest of the two light strings back around what was already twisted together. When I reached the clip again, I started twisting the two free strings together again toward the other end of the measuring tape.

All this twisting and wrapping is necessary because otherwise the light strings wont hold together and you'll have to attach each one to the mirror seperately. This way I only had to hook one string to the mirror and everything stays put. Of course, if you find one longer light string, all of this will be easier as you'll just be wrapping back and forth from end to end.

When I got to the third battery pack I clipped the other two strings to it where it wraps around from the back side of the mirror, then incorporated the third string into the twisting.

Like at the other end, when I got to the far point on the tape I bent the light strings back, wrapping the loose ends back around the already twisted bits. At this point it becomes necessary to start feeding the bulbs through the middle of the other strings. This helps to bond the whole thing together better and keep the twisting  and wrapping in place. You'll notice that each light string is made up of more than one wire; just stick your finger through the middle of the wires, where you want to connect two light strings,  and pull the LED bulb through.

For the rest, I just kept wrapping the loose ends back and forth, feeding the bulbs through other strings occasionally until the end of the last string.

Now to fix the twisted light strings to the mirror:

How many velcro squares and in what position they need to be depends on the size of the battery packs on your fairy lights. Mine fit 3 AAA batteries, so I pressed the two opposite sheets together as they were, then cut through the backing sheet width-wise, leaving two squares on the same backing sheet. The spacing was just right for securing my battery packs.

Take the backing sheet off one side then stick them appropriately on the back side of your mirror. I just eyeballed it, but if you're worried, you can use a level and/or ruler and a pencil to draw a line if you want. But I'm sure if it's not perfect, on this small a scale it won't make that much of a difference.

Be sure to leave both sides of the velcro stuck together as this will make it easier to place the opposite side in the right place on the battery packs. Then leave them alone for a bit to adhere.

Now you can place your fairy light command hooks on the front side. The great thing about these is that if I don't like the placement, which I didn't at first, you can remove them and put them somewhere else. I also ended up adding more later to support the lights where they needed it. The right side was particularly disobedient and I now have three by the swivel point. I also discovered that purchasing clear hooks is pointless as the command strips always come in white, as you can see in the pics.

The direction the hook is pointing is important as otherwise they will not hold your lights in place. The end hooks are placed pointing downward.

The swivel point hooks are pointing outward here, but I discovered they should be pointing inward in order to hold the bit coming from the battery packs in place.

The ones in the upper corners just need to be pointing upward. I put them on the diagonal because I thought the lights would hide them better that way. I also eventually added two more to the top edge, at equal intervals.

On the back side again, I removed the covers from the battery packs, made sure I had the orientation correct (otherwise the weight of the batteries could be enough to make them slide off!), then peeled the last backing papers off the Velcro and pressed the covers on. Try to make sure they're centered well.

After a few minutes, you can put the battery packs in place onto the covers. I suggest putting the light string at the front of the mirror, from underneath, then sliding the battery packs upward to lock them in place.

Now hook your light string in place. Sometimes only one wire strand is needed, but I suggest picking a couple strands from seperate light strings just to make sure it all holds together well.

Et Voilà!

You can do what I did and place a scarf over it, either for decoration or as below, to cover it up so I don't have to look at myself all day. But if you like looking at yourself in the mirror, don't worry about it!

I also had some pearl-headed floral pins from the centrepieces at my wedding party which I stuck into the strings for decoration, along with one perfect little dried rose and a couple bow-headed pins. Since LEDs don't give off much head, you can decorate these in all sorts of ways.

Now this did cost me a weighty £70 all told, but when you compare it to the purchaseable options from Amazon, you'll soon find it's a bargain just on square footage. Lit vanity mirrors  seem to go for way over half the cost at a small fraction of the mirror size. And if you're lucky enough to already have a tabletop vanity mirror, you're only looking at £30ish.

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Avon & Balance Me Haul

I've done maybe a little too much shopping recently, but I feel like I'm playing catch-up with the Avon products. It's also A/W offers season, and I have very little self control. Don't forget, if you're interested in any of the Avon products I mention, you can by them by clicking on the brochure link above. Without further ado...

Besides the highlighter I bought these to try out as demos, but they're all available for you to purchase in the current campaign 16. The whole bottom row of items are a giftset and I got the Antler bag on a discount with purchase. The palettes are also one set.

• Mega Mix 'N' Go Palette (pp. 22-23) - This is awesome, but I keep forgetting to use it because I keep in in the Antler bag for showing off to clients.
• Antler Cabin Bag (pp. 12-13) - Very simply and elegant bag and I love the mix of patent and matte finishes. Lots of room for stuff! I would actually consider using this as my Carry-on bag instead of my eons old backpack.
• Ideal Luminous Highlighter (not currently available) - The glitter is minimal, but sadly any glitter is too much for me :(
• Prepare to Party giftset (pp. 140-141) - love the clutch, I keep all my brushes in it these days. The lipstick comes in the colour Red 2000, which is on the scarlet side, but not too much so.

This is the Balance Me discovery box everyone has been all excited about. I'm reserving judgment until I can try these for a bit longer, but I'll admit I have high hopes for the hand cream and the face balm.

• Radiance Facial OIl
• Cleanse and Smooth Face Balm
• Super Moisterising Hand Cream
• Wonder Eye Cream
• Moisture-Rich Face Cream
• Rose Otto Body Wash
• Facial Expression Filler

One of the nice things about being an Avon rep is that I can buy from clearance every campaign; the bag and two of the lipsticks are such items. The eye makeup remover, eye brush, concealer and eye primer are gifts with purchase of the mascara in campaign 15, so the offer isn't available now.

• Conditioning Eye Makeup Remover (p. 34) - fairly good remover, but I don't think I'll get to it in ages, so I will probably give it away.
• Eyeshadow Primer (p. 34) - This is really good, it makes my MUA eyeshadow sticks really pop!
• Eyeshadow Brush with Smudger (not available in 16, ask me to order)
• Ideal Flawless Concealer Stick in Medium (p. 49) - has a really natural finish that I like, and decent coverage.
• Shine Attract Lipstick in Guava (not available in 16, ask me to order) - love love love this! Has a balmy finish, and the colour is divine. Think Bourjois Color Blast.
• Plump Pout Lipstick in Chilli (no longer available) - Now this is my kind of red! It's deep shade and has no blue in it! Yay! Can't comment on the formula yet.
• Ultra Colour Rich Matte Lipstick in Pink Cuddle (no longer available) - This is a middling to cooler nude pink shade. Sadly, I prefer a warmer one, though it's nice and I can see wearing it again.
• Cosmetic Bag with Pendant (no longer available) - ooh, isn't that an exciting description?!  It has a lovely teal interior and basketweave satin-type outside
• Mega Effects Mascara in Blackest Black (pp. 20-21)  - This reminds me exactly of Benefit's Bad Gal, only cheaper. Definitely dupe potential, and the brush is awesome. It's similar to a wand where the brush is bent 90 degrees.

Have you tried any of these products? What do you think?

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