Behind the Blogger: Shooting!

Hey guys! Something a little different today! I’m starting a “behind the blogger” series, in which once a month I will update you all on my life, photography adventures, travels ect. This months feature is about my busy month shooting beauty and editorial!
So here's the reason I have been a little slack over the past week with posting.

[Model: Pixiee, Makeup Artist: Harriett Rose Cooper]

I’ve had a lot of photo-shoots in the past 3 weeks, last week being my busiest! As I've said before, I am a photography student at university who aspires to be a fashion and beauty photographer in the future. Over the past few weeks, and upcoming weeks I am working with Makeup and Styling students to update our portfolios and help them out with their Final Major projects.

I will probably be posting around twice a week until my schedule frees up a little bit, as I have a lot of editing to do. Would you guys be interested in seeing some of my finished work? Its mostly makeup orientated, so i can show you the looks I've shot. Some are pretty darn cool!

I’m going to be uploading this all to Flickr eventually as well as updating all my online “portfolio” presences as I don't seem to really show my work much, that will change! Make sure to let me know if you would like to see my work once its up, and I’ll make a post directing you to where you can find me online.

xox

The Makeup Files: Storage!

Hello lovelies! Here's part 2 of “The Makeup Files”! This post is just going to show you where I keep most of my makeup/brushes. Its pretty screw-de-whizz to be honest, but it will do for now as I'm only in this room until June.

T-B, L-R:
Draw One - Misc Samples.
Draw Two - Eye Primers.
Draw Three - Eyebrow Products.
Draw Four – Foundation, Concealers, Face Primers, Powders.
Draw Five – Blushers, Bronzers, Highlighters, Tints.
Draw Six - Favourite Eyeshadow Palettes, Sugarpill Eyeshadows, Indie Eyeshadows, Glitters, Mixing Mediums, Glitter Glue.

These Multi-Drawers I got from WHS about a month ago for £12.99 I believe. I really love these for storage, as they’re spacey but pretty, letting me sort my products into sections.
On top of these I keep most of my brushes, in this little 3 section holder I got from TK Maxx. I keep face brushes in the back larger section, eye brushes on the left and eye brushes I have used on the right.

Next too the Multi Drawers are some plastic ones I got from ASDA last year for £3 below a vanity case I’ve had forever, which has my nail polish in.

[T-B]
Draw One – Small Palettes, Gel Eyeliners, Single Eyeshadows.
Draw Two – Lipsticks, Lip Tars.
Draw Three – Lipglosses, Lip Liners, Lip Balms.
Draw Four – Eyelashes, Eyelash Glue.
Draw Five – Misc, Cotton Buds ect.

Sure its not the prettiest, but It works for now until I find something more permanent after university.

I have a chest of drawers on the other side of my room where I keep random bits such as my Kabuki’s, Sigma Brushes, Perfume, Lotions and Potions I’m currently using, Eyeliners ect.

My eyeliners and mascaras are kept in this stationary holder I got from TK Maxx, a light blue colour to match my bedding and rug. I’m probably going to have to find an alternative place for these, as its a pain going backwards and forwards to grab what I want to use, and also they’re overflowing haha!

Lastly, a drawer is dedicated to random bits and bobs. Beauty Boxes full of samples, makeup bags, brushes and palettes I never use, false nails, some skincare items to name a few. I don't really use this drawer to be honest, so its just there for things I don't have a proper place for.
There's more of my makeup I have left at my parents house, mostly Urban Decay Palettes as I don't like to take too much home when I travel, so they’re there so most of my eye shadows can stay here during holidays.

So, there it is! How I store my makeup when I’m at uni! I love seeing storage posts, so thought I would give you all an insight to mine.
Let me know how you store your makeup in the comments and if you have any ideas for how I can improve my own feel free to let me know!
And remember you can read part one of The Makeup Files Here!

xox

That’s What She Said: Sigma Synthetic Face Kabuki’s!

Now as most of you may know, Sigma have a petty good reputation in the makeup and blogging world. Their affordable, high quality range of brushes cater for practically anything. A few months ago Sigma had a free shipping deal on, which I instantly jumped on. Usually shipping is about £10, a bit steep which has always put me off as I only intended to try a few brushes at first.

I ended up ordering 3 face brushes and one eye brush (which I will kind of touch on in this review), plus a free travel size E25.
I got the Synthetic Sigmax Duo Deal, featuring the F84 Angled Top Kabuki and the F82 Round Top Kabuki as well as the raved about F80 Flat Top Kabuki, all of which are synthetic. Apologies for the slightly miss matched brush colours, I’ve used the F80 for foundation and apparently haven't got all the product off when I washed it.

The brushes arrived in cute little bags with plastic brush guards protecting them. I have to say the first thing I noticed was the handles. I actually love the feel of these brushes in my hands. They feel heavier than I imagined and very sturdy. The F84 and the F82 has matte handles and the F80 a varnished one.
Another thing I really like about the handles is the numbers are alongside the description of the brush. I don't really like when brushes have just numbers, there is no association there if your new to the brand or unfamiliar with it.

The brushes themselves are incredibly soft and dense, maybe too dense for my liking. I’ve been using the F80 Flat Top for foundation, and I have to say I personally prefer my stippling brush. I think it just puts my foundation on too heavy for what I’m liking at the moment. On a bad skin day I will go to this brush for a heavier application, but on a day to day basis I will use the a stipple brush. It really is a personal preference though, as I know my friend Katie swears by this brush for her foundation application.

The F84 Angled Top Brush I was using for a highlighter for a while, but again I think it’s too dense for a powder highlight at least. I may actually try this with a cream product as I think it would work much better!

Finally the F82 Round Top. I’ve actually not found a use for this! It’s not really worked on anything I've tried, so if any of you have a use for this one, or any of the brushes actually, leave me a comment below!

I’m not going to to into too much detail about the eye brushes, as one is coming up in post containing my Top 5 Eye Brushes! As I said earlier, I did order one eye brush which was the E45 Small Tapered Blending Brush. I have to say, I love it! Its my go too blending brush for an everyday natural look.

The E25 which came free with my order, is so cute! I use this when I travel home, as I’ve been trying to cut back on how many brushes I take with me, so have actually been looking into travel sets. It did have a scratch on the handle, but whatever it was free right?

I would love to hear your guys opinions on sigma, especially what you think of the F50 Duo Fibre Brush, as I think that will be my next purchase and the other eye brushes.
Remember to let me know if you’ve used the 3 face kabuki’s and what you used them for!

xox

FOTD: Valentines with Sugarpill

Hello m’dears! I’m on the ball with all these FOTD posts aren’t i? I’ve been playing with bright makeup quite alot, hoping to prefect my technique and discover the right shape and look for me.
So anyway! Here’s the look I wore on Valentine’s day! I thought I’d do a kind of “pro Valentines” look, which mirrors my “anti-valentines” look I did a few days ago which you can view here! I opted for the same pink, but using white as well as no lashes.

I should really “groom” my eyebrows more huh? I also seem to be sticking with the same face products a lot, even blush of which I have plenty. Also note that in the closeup eye pictures, the colour might be abit washed out, i'm not sure. Stupid colour colaboration on my pc -pout-.

Face
Inglot Under Makeup Base, Illamasqua Skin Base in 02, Mac Studio Finish Concealer in NC15, MAC Mineralized Skin finish Natural in Light, Nars Laguna, Benefit Thrrob, ELF Gotta Glow.

Eyes
UDPP, NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk, Sugarpill Dollipop, Sugarpill Tako, Inglot AMC Shine 35, Illamasqua Medium Pencil in Errant, Makeup Forever Smoky Lash Mascara.

Lips
ELF Matte Lip Colour in Tea Rose, ELF Mineral Lipgloss in Fierce.

Shortly after I did this look I actually went to get a new Piercing! I’ve been wanting this for quite a long time, so finally plucked up the courage to get it. Sorry for the crappy webcam quality.

Tongue! I psyched myself up for nothing. It didn’t hurt half as much as I thought, though being on a liquid diet for the next week is going to be a pain.
I didn’t really so much on valentines day other than that though. My boyfriend is back home and we don't celebrate it really.

How did you spend your valentines day? Did you do your makeup to match the occasion?

xox

The Makeup Files: Aftermath!

Hello dears! I was looking through a few snapshots and came across some from my last look, of the aftermath of my creative endeavours. Basically, the state of the area I do my makeup in! I thought I would start a mini series, where I will show you where I do my makeup, how i store it, where i do my blogging ect.
Now I'm currently living in my student house in Southampton, but will be going back home to the North West during summer. This causes storage problems as I’m not really anywhere permanent for the next year and a half at least. During this series though, I will show you where I keep all my makeup and products when I’m back home and at uni amongst other things.

I'm going to kick this off with the aftermath of me applying makeup. I usually sit in front of my mirror with the products on my computer desk. Now this always gets messy, with bits and bobs all over the show, especially when I'm using a lot of things in the look.

Anything that isn’t for the eyes is usually thrown on top of these multi drawers during application in case I need to touch up foundation or whatever.
The whole area gets pretty messy to be honest, and if I’m in a rush to go somewhere the stuff usually gets left until I return. I’m one of those people who will always leave things last minuet!

So there you are! A little insight to my makeup filled adventures. I’ll have better images for future posts, as this really was a spur of the moment idea!

What do you think of this series? I’d also love to see where you do your makeup, how you store it and the aftermath of applying it!
I’ve also realised I use a lot of exclamation marks!!!!!! =]

xox

FOTD: Blue and Gold Cut Crease!

Hiya! With me lately, it’s all about the bright colours. I don’t bother with eye makeup unless its all things bright and wonderful. Through that I'm getting bolder in my attempts, creating fun dramatic looks which i actually really enjoy applying! Todays FOTD is no different. This is my first attempt at a colourful cut crease. Granted, there's still a lot to be improved on, time for one thing! By the time I finished this look it was dark outside, making it so I had to use flash which always makes my skin look reddish –pout-!

Another frustrating thing. As soon as I finished, grin on my face at the successful attempt, my eyes started watering. I swear i got glue in them or something. So that's why the eyes aren't as perfect on the photos as they were when I first did the look. Ah well, onwards and upwards!

Face
Inglot Under Makeup Base, Illamasqua Rich Liquid Foundation in LF120, Mac Studio Finish Concealer in NC15, MAC Mineralized Skin finish Natural in Light, Nars Laguna, Benefit Thrrob, ELF Gotta Glow.

Eyes
UDPP, Urban Decay Virgin, Victorian Disco Do The Jabba Jabba, Inglot Matte 371, Sugarpill Afterparty, Urban Decay Creep, Sugarpill Goldilux, Sugarpill Tako, Inglot AMC Shine 35, Illamasqua Medium Pencil in Errant, Rimmel Exaggerate Liquid Liner, Makeup Forever Smoky Lash Mascara, HD Brow Kit in Foxy, ELF Natural Lash Kit.

Lips
ELF Lip Pencil in Natural Blush, MUA Lipstick Shade 2.

I'm so impressed by the “blendabiliy” of the Inglot shadow. Love love love!

What's your favourite “dramatic” look? What do you think are the best bright colour combinations?

xox

Inglot 10 Pan Freedom Palette Review

Hello Muffins! I’m going to show you some photos and swatches of my first Inglot palette! I’m sure everyone knows what and who Inglot are by now and if not, where have you been for the past year or so! Basically, they’re happiness in makeup form. The brand literally has everything you could ever want product wise in hundreds of different colours!
When picking my 10 shadows for my palette, I chose to opt for bright colours I didn't really have (in pressed powder form)! Okay, that’s a lie, I do have other brands of most of these colours but I never use them (apart from my Sugarpill <3). As most of you know I'm a massive fan of bright, bold makeup so really couldn't resist.

The first thing I must rave about is the packaging! I cant stop playing with it. For anyone who loves to fidget and play around with things, they’re hours of fun. On a more serious note, as well as being aesthetically pleasing the case is sturdy with no danger of the magnetic lid breaking off. Its pretty compact and practical, prefect for makeup artists and makeup enthusiasts alike.

The shadows pop in magnetically with no danger of them falling out. The only downside is that it can be pretty tough to remove them. A friend has managed to get hers out by using the lid magnets and waving them over the corners, but that's not worked for me yet. I guess its not too much of a problem though unless you want to swap and change shades, or see what the name is (I’ve wrote down mine so I know what's what).

[L-R, T-B Pearl 441, AMC 74, AMC 51, AMC 60, AMC Shine 35, Matte 331, Matte 372, Matte 371, Matte 369, Matte 382]

I got 5 matte shadows (Bottom Row), 1 pearl, 3 AMC and 1 AMC Shine. It is kind of “meh” having numbers instead of names, as there's not really any association there, but such is life!
From what I've seen, there is more of an even application with the Matte shades, them also being more pigmented. The glitter/shine on the AMC colours has hardly shown up on the images, especially for the white! That’s going to make a gorgeous inner corner highlight! These swatches are done pretty quickly, as i wanted to catch the natural light, so the AMC colours look a little streaky, oops!

The problem with Inglot in the past has been availability! But now, they have a UK website yey! I have a spare unique 20% off code for their website, so if any of you will be ordering before March tweet me (@Hippymeow) and its yours (first come first served).

Price wise, I got my palette & 10 shadows for £41 at IMATS! I think they’re a little more expensive than that, but not too much more. Considering one MAC shadow can cost £12, I think these are totally worth it at £4.50 per shadow.

Have you ever shopped at Inglot? What's your favourite product from there?

xox

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FOTD: Anti-Valentines

Hai! So this is my first challenge for the “Never too much Sparkle” Facebook page! The idea is, that every week there is a new theme which people create looks for, which are then all displayed upon completion. This week theme is “Valentines Galore – Pro or Anti-Valentines”.
I chose to do an Anti-Valentines look, as its something I've never really been too fussed about, nor have ever celebrated.

I opted for a bright, bold look using bright pinks to oppose the light pastel shades I always imagine Valentines Day to be associated with. Of course, now having glitter glue, I couldn't resist adding some of Victorian Disco’s ACR!
Ignore the fail half “wet” red shadow on the bottom haha! I seem to have forgotten half of it =/ Also the band on those lashes are really visible in images! Not so much in real life.

Face
Inglot Under Makeup Base, Illamasqua Skin Base in 02, Mac Studio Finish Concealer in NC15, MAC Mineralized Skin finish Natural in Light, Nars Laguna, Benefit Thrrob, ELF Gotta Glow.

Eyes
UDPP, MAC Paintpot in Blackground, Sugarpill Asylum, Sugarpill Dollipop, Sugarpill Tako, Urban Decay Creep, Victorian Disco ACR Glitter, Ben Nye Glitter Glue, Graftobian Mixing Medium, Rimel Exaggerate, Makeup Forever Aqua Eyes in Matte Black, BarryM White Pencil Eyeliner, Makeup Forever Smoky Lash, HD Brow Ki in Foxy, MUA Eyeshadow Shade 2, ELF Natural Lash Kit.

Lips
OCC Lip Tar in Anime.

As always, me trying to take a serious picture never ends up working.

Have you got anything special planned for Valentines day? What is your favourite look for the day?

xox

IMATS 2012: The Haul!

So here's the haul I promised from this years IMATS! I don’t usually do hauls, but this is an exception! I’ve already done a post on my experience of the event which you can read here!
Overall I believe I spent around £200. I saved up, set a budget and didn’t surpass it which I'm pretty proud of. The aim was to try brands I’ve not really tried before, to get some new products that i can experiment with.

I shall try and note down prices as best I can ^_^

Inglot
Freedom System 10 Palette - £41
(Pearl 441, AMC 74, AMC 51, AMC 60, AMC Shine 35, Matte 331, Matte 372, Matte 371, Matte 369, Matte 382)
Under Makeup Base - £9

Illamasqua
Light Liquid Foundation in LF120 - £7.50 i think?
Cream Blusher in Sob - £5
Lipstick in Fetish - £5
Medium Pencil in Feisty - £2
Medium Pencil in Errant - £2
Medium Pencil in Paint - £2

Paris Berlin
Glitters – 5 for £10

Ben Nye
Glitter Glue – £6

Graftobian
Mixing Medium - £3

Crown Brush
C212 Detail Mini Chisel, C200 Deluxe Crease, C222 Round Contour & there are three which have no names. A tapered one, angled one and flat top angled one.
- Around £17 overall

Bdellium
Foundation 4pc Brush set - £20
(957B Precision Kabuki, 955B Finishing, 953B Duet Fibre Foundation, 948B Foundation)

Fero Beauty
Individual Lashes, Topaz Black, Crystal Black, Short Black x2 – 5 for £10

Royal and Langnickel
Flat Top Kabuki - £6

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics
Lip Tars – 3 for £20
(Anime, Hoochie, Cha Cha)

Makeup Forever
Wild and Chic Aqua Eyes - £17.50
Aqua Smoky Lash Mascara - £9.87

NYX
Jumbo Pencil in Milk – Around £3

Duo Eyelash Adhesive - £5 from Inglot

Let me know if you would like to see reviews on any of the products!
Did any of you guys go to IMATS? What did you buy?

xox