When Christmas time comes calling you can get away with a statement red lip if you're not usually the one to be brave and try it out. A bright glossy red is such a perfect Christmas colour in my opinion and I'll definitely be wearing this look to any Christmas parties this year. 

The trick with a bright lip is to make sure your face doesn't look bottom heavy. By this I mean you need to balance the look out with something strong along the top half of your face as well as just the bright lip, otherwise you can tend to look a little strange and out of proportion. Usually I go with a strong brow when I'm wearing a statement lip because my brow's are quite strong and defined already so I just add to what I've already got, but this is totally up to you you could do a winged liner or anything that takes your fancy as long as it will balance out your face when paired with the red lip.

As for the rest of the look I went for a pale foundation and a warm toned blush as well as a lot of highlighter along the cheek bones and down the nose to give off a happy glowing look that everyone seems to develop come this time of year.

As for the eyes because of the strong brow and lip I wanted to keep them really nice and simple so I used very natural sheer but pearlescent colour all over the lid and used a lot of highlighter in the inner corners of my eye to focus the light on my eyes and give me a bright eyed look. I applied some lengthening non clumpy mascara because I wanted the eyes quite simple but classy.

Overall, I really love this look, I think it's really classy and with a nice dress and glossy hair it absolutely perfect for this time of year.

I hope you enjoyed this post and try out the look! If you did let me know in the comments along with any other requests you have for me.

P.S. If you don't want to wear a bright pillar box red then a dark berry lip still makes a nice statement. 

xxx

Make-up Tutorial: Ice Queen:

I have no idea why but ever since I first got interested in make up this has been a look I've wanted to create. So I thought I'd take advantage of my first winter while blogging and make all the ideas I've had over the past years come together in one evil ice queen make up look.

The first thing I think of when I used to picture this look is a very pale matte base, so that's exactly what I did, I'm already very pale in winter so I used my palest foundation and went over it with a powder to remove any shine and matte down everything. 

That's the boring bit out of the way now we can get more creative. Using a damp slanted brush and a dark grey eyeshadow I started creating icicle like flicks coming from the top of my eyeshadow and upwards and outwards. I then went in with a really thin small brush and a dark blue shimmer just to add some more detail and definition to the bottom of the icicles.

Then using a really dark grey I contoured my cheeks and temple...A LOT. I went over the contouring hundreds of times and really pushed it into my skin so there was no missing it. I went for a grey over a brown as I thought it went with the look much more and really helped the look become more of a gaunt cold look. I also got a light purple colour and added bags under my eyes and contoured my nose because I thought that my ice queen would look almost dead and cold.

To keep the look within the blue and grey themed I added lots and lots of slightly silver shimmer all over my lid, the used a dark blue along the upper and lash line. The last thing eyeshadow wise was to use a matte white colour in the inner corners of my eye and under the brow bone, just to bring a bit of light into the look. Make sure it's a very pure white colour that you use though, you don't want to be adding any colours with warmth in them. I didn't want the lashes to be too visible and detract from the look, but I didn't want them to be totally bare so I just put on some cheap mascara that doesn't volumise and left it there, i aonly applied one thin layer.

Last but not least came the lips, again I wanted this look to be almost dead, so I used a really pale nude colour lipstick and covered my lips in it totally, then using a darker "my lips but better" colour and a detailing brush in the natural cracks in my lips to make them look sore and chapped. I also added a few more along the bottom of my lips just to make them look worse than they are.

That's everything for this look, I have to say I really enjoyed putting it all together and having more of an experiment with very out there looks so I'm thinking of doing more in the future. If that's something you'd like to see then please let me know in the comments below.

xxx

NOTD: Simple & Festive:

This really is going to be a quick and simple post, but I still wanted to do it because I'm really in the Christmas spirit lately and these are such a cute little look that's fast and festive.

All I did was use a really rich, glossy pillar box red on all my nails, except for my ring finger, which I created an accent nail out of with a shimmery opalescent green colour. I went over the top with a top coat to really make it shine because if you can't have bright shiny red and green nails at Christmas then when can you?!  

I hope you all give this a try or if you're more skilled than I am then I'm sure you got much more arty than I did and added some little holly leaves to the red nails or something along those lines. I'm definitely going to be sporting this look on my nails all throughout the Christmas season or at least on Christmas day. I'm thinking about switching it up a little and making the green the main colour and the red the accent nail but I don't know whether I'd like it as much or not. I suppose I could alternate the two and have one hand with the main colour red and the other with the main colour green.

I hope you all enjoyed this post guys, I'm sorry it was a little on the shorter side but I've been writing up a fair few really long ones lately so I thought I'd make a shorter one and make more of a mix.

xxx

Makeup Your Lookalike: Kourtney Kardashian Inspired Makeup:

I've been told an awful lot over the  past years that I look a lot like Kourtney Kardashian, so I thought I'd take advantage of that fact and do an inspired post. Just to clarify though, this is just something inspired by her makeup looks I'm not trying to look exactly like her I just had a look through Google images and put my own spin on a few looks I liked.

The fist thing I did was foundation and concealer but I didn't really alter this from my usual routine so I'll start off here with eyebrows. In most of the pictures I saw Kourtney's eyebrows were brushed up at the front and left really natural throughout. So I just brushed mine through pulling the front parts up and quickly and naturally ran through them with a dark pencil.

Next came the rest of the face work. I contoured my face through the cheekbones, on the temple and down the sides of my nose. Kourtney contours a lot, as do all of the Kardashian's but it doesn't seem like she does as much as Kim so I  didn't go too overboard. In a lot of the pictures she wore an orange or peach toned blush all over the tops of her cheekbones, so I did the same using a lot more blush than normal which doesn't seem to have shown up too well in the picture. Last but by no means least for the face came the highlighting, and lots of it. If you're creating this type of look at home then your'e going to want to take a gold toned highlight all over the tops of your cheeks, down the nose a little in the centre of your forehead and a small amount on the cupid's bow of the lip. 

Eyes were next a lot of Kourtney's looks don't go past the crease and are usually really warm toned. So I used a warm shimmery bronzer and just ran it all over the lid being careful not to go too high with it as I usually would be tempted to do. Your'e also going to want to take this quite far under the eye too. Then to give my lashes a much thicker look I added and smudged out some black eye shadow and some black eye liner, which I also put through the tight line and water line. The lots ( and I really mean lots) of mascara, I was tempted to add some false lashes too but I wanted this to be a wearable look.

Lastly comes the lips, quite simply I grabbed an orange toned lip stick and left it at that. My favourite make up look of Kourtney's has to be her orange toned lip, so when I decided on doing this look I just had to use it!

That's all for this look, I really hoped you enjoyed this post, do you have any celebrity lookalikes? Also If you'd like me to create any more looks (be they Kardashian inspired or not) then please leave your requests in the comments.

xxx

Empties #2

Superdrug Provitamin Shampoo & Conditioner:

I have to admit I can be a real snob when it comes to shampoo and conditioner and I'm very much in the mindset that the more expensive and high end the brand the better, but this shampoo and conditioner is absolutely amazing. You've probably noticed that the packaging of this is very similar to that of the Pantene Pro V shampoo and conditioner, and that's not when the similarity ends. The consistency and results of the products are amazingly similar. I have the Thermal Protect versions here and they're amazing they leave my hair feeling smooth and looking shiny. I honestly don't have anything bad to say about this product, it's only ever done my hair a world of good and I would whole heartedly recommend it to all of you especially considering it's just over a pound in most stores and is often on offer in stores!

The Body Shop Born Lippy Balm:

This was a gift from my birthday (in May) and I was pleased to get it but I have to admit my expectations weren't too high for it, but I was so wrong. This is the strawberry flavoured one and it smelled so so nice, like strawberry sweets. It was a really thick and creamy texture so I instantly knew that it was doing my lips good. I used this at the very beginning of putting my make up on and by the time I got to the end of my routine to put my lipstick on it had sank in nicely smoothing out any dry skin and keeping my lips nice and smooth. Sadly I couldn't use all of this before it completely broke out of it's packaging and as much as I tried to fix it because I really loved it, I had to say goodbye because it was just beyond fixing.

The Body Shop Coconut Body Butter:

Another Body Shop product, which I'm sure will be no surprise to most of you considering how much I love the smell of coconut products as well as the Body Shop. It's easily one of my all time favourite shops. This was a very thick and moisturising body butter that, I've loved for many a year (this is probably my fourth tub of this product), as expected with Body Shop products it does wonders for you and is a product that really works and leaves your skin, looking, feeling and smelling fantastic. I really can't say much more about it in all honesty I just really love it and hope to try out lots more of the Body Shop body butters in the future.

Original Source Mint and Tea Tree shower gel:

I have to start with the packaging here, don't ask me why because I know there's nothing particularly special about it but I've always been really drawn into Original Source's packaging I think it looks so good. But on to the actual product itself, it was such a minty smell perfect for having a nice refreshing shower in the morning to get you up and ready for the day. When you scrubbed it into your skin you really felt and smelled clean as well as leaving you with a cool and slightly tingling feeling which really adds to the fresh and clean feeling. I'd maybe say that this is more of a summer shower gel though because it's more of a smell that I personally associate with summer than any other season but it's totally up to you of course. 

Aussie 3 Minute Miracle:

You've got to love Aussie, their products are always brilliant quality, and smell so good! I chose the conditioner for long hair because I was using this before I got my hair cut and I'm growing it out again. It's essentially an extra nourishing conditioner as longer hair is much more likely to get split ends than shorter hair. It really did nourish my hair and do it a lot of good, I always felt really pampered and looked after when I used this. I was always left with soft feeling and shiny hair so if you have hair that needs that little bit more of a treat then I would definitely suggest picking this or something similar up next time your'e shopping.

Clarins Wonder Perfect Mascara:

Last product now, and this ones a make up one. As I'm sure you can tell this is just the sample size but I used up every last scrap of it because it was just so damn good! I know it's got a bigger price tag than some lower end mascara's but I really do think it's worth it. I'd love the full size version. It thickens and lengthens your lashes so well but without it looking like you've got a crazy amount of make up on to the point where you look fake. In my opinion this mascara makes me look like I'm wearing false lashes, and long thick lashes is a look I love.

Well, that's the end of my empties I hope you enjoyed this post. Have you finished up any products lately? Do you have any recommendations to fill in the gaps the loss of these bits have left? Let me know in the comments.

xxx