'Inspired By' Make-up #3 and a Blog Sale Pondering.

Hey ladies,

You'd think I was allergic to consistency the amount of time I spend not blogging when I say I will. Frankly, I'm willing to explore that as an option for non 'I'm really just a bit crap' excuses.

I have had a right pain in the arse of a week. I'm not going to bang on about it because it could reach novel quantity. Basically, £130 has just disappeared out my bank account. And £54 of that is a hotel (The Ibis in Manchester, Charles Street - name and shame) that's decided that me paying for the hotel once just wasn't enough. Anyway, I've been busy dwelling on/trying to sort out that.

Also I've been mulling over my finances, which I'd say are now at a level of 'pooping myself'. I was thinking about doing a blog sale. Would anyone be interested in that? I've got some unloved Nars and Revlon products. I'm also planning on a foray in to the world of eBay. I'm really worried I won't be able to work it and will end up with an angry person demanding I give them loads of money. Haha.

Anyway, this post WAS supposed to be an Emma Watson 'Inspired By'. Basically, I had all the make-up I used in a pile for almost literally a week ready to be photographed. Friday came and I was going out for my friend's birthday. You may remember me mentioning before my incredible lack of forward preparation when it comes to nights out. Let's just say the neat pile covered most of my floor by the time I'd left, fifteen minutes late. I'd also lost a shoe. Let's not even go there. Naturally upon arriving home slightly tipsy, I just about got away with not breaking anything. To summarise, the make-up never got photo'd. (BAD blogger).

I thought I'd show you the finished look anyway, mainly because I straightened my hair for it and I am not going to waste heat-on-hair. ;)

As we all know Emma (I'm talking about Hermione for those who aren't familiar) has pixie short hair... And beautiful petite features which help her pull it off.

I don't. Big eyebrows, big nose, big lips, big eyes = big hair. Basically I'm not so dedicated that I hacked off my hair. Nu-uh. What I did do to recreate the look is straighten my hair so it was 00's poker straight, then slick back the front and sides with some macadamia oil and hair grips. I originally tied it up as well but also tried it in a side pony tail and down. These were my finished looks:

Hair all scraped back. Let's face it, I couldn't pull off a crop cut!

Hair in visible ponytail.

Hair down. Sexyfine bathroom pic. LOL at me! (The lighting in my bedroom was atrocious, hence the unusual relocation.)

Needless to say I look nothing like Emma, this is just using her make-up as inspiration. I'm not sure about that orangey red on my skin tone. And false eyelashes are just not my friend. Nor is liquid eyeliner. But hey, I gave it a go ;) I'm not an eyelash convert. I think my eyes are perhaps a bit too hooded and they just get lost. And they make me feel like I'm carrying a pair of pigeons on my face. I quite like the Essex lad style parting though. It looks sophisticated without being over the top. Plus I like that she went for full brows, minimal effort for me. ;)

We've come to the end of this giant pile of potatoey latice goodness (waffle ;)). Ta for reading if you have.

My aim is to try a bit of Scar Jo next. If only I could actually transform in to her. Girl crush alert. Which celebrity would you love to transform in to?  I'm going to try my absolute hardest to at least make a list of the make-up I use, but hey - don't hold your breath.

Love Livvy x

'Inspired By' Make-Up #2 - Adriana Lima

Hey ladies, hope you're all having a relaxing weekend.

First off let me apologise, I said I'd post this 'tomorrow' about 4 days ago. Oops. Time flies. Anyway, here it is.

I thought for my next 'inspired by' look I'd try my ultimate girl crush, why start small ;) Adriana Lima is a Victoria's Secret model, i.e. the hottest of all hotness. Basically, if someone said I could look however I liked, I'd just show them a pic of her. I chose a sultry, smokey brown eye look because I thought if it looks good it'll be amazing for a night out. I always leave myself about 3 minutes to get ready when I go out, not that I'm disorganised ;), so this post can also work as a 'go to' look for all us ladies who want to look sexyfine without having left any time to think about it. Because we can all look sexyfine, even if we aren't of VS stock. :)

This is the pic I worked from:




Oh to look like this!

As with all scientific experiments, as this clearly is, I thought I'd better show the raw materials I was working with:



An unnecessarily large picture of my face without make-up.

This is to show a) I don't sit around with a face full of make-up all day and to b) make up for the seriously pouty pictures that follow.

The products I used for my transformation were:

 

For the eyes I used Stila Twig (I got it from Cheapsmells.com, it's no longer there but some other Stila shadows are for seriously cheap. I have Illimani and it's beautiful.) and I used Virgin, Half Baked and Smog from the naked palette. Under the eye I used Twig and the golden brown 17 eye pencil which I got in a set.



I used Half Baked all over the lid, Virgin on the inner corner and Twig on the outter V and lightly on the crease. For lips I used Mac's Hue with a coating of the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in shade 02 over the top. Oh my gosh, discovery of the century. We all know you shouldn't do heavy make-up on your eyes and lips, but this gives the perfect combination of sexy and neutral to the lips. I might have used my Jemma Kidd Dewy Glow highlighter in Iced Gold but I can't remember. Lesson to Liv, take pictures of make-up immediately after using it.

Ramble over, here's the finished look:

I've just remembered I also used a tiny bit of black eyeliner pencil. Photo in advance! Other lessons I've learnt are, do my eyebrows before close ups (I also used my elf eyebrow kit, I'm such a failure! Haha), don't let my mascars clump (I need to through away my YSL Faux Cils but I'm in denial) and fix my proper camera so I'm actually in focus ;)

However in terms of the colour combinations I'm really pleased. What are your thoughts on a brown smokey eye and peachy lip? Is there anything better than the classic? I reckon in summer with a tan and beachy hair this look will be 'da bomb'.

Who's your fav celebrity make-up inspiration? Any recommendations for me? All comments are welcome, even if it's just 'sort your eyebrows out Liv' ;) So that's this week's inspitration, me and my plucked eyebrows will see you next weekend (or variations there upon ;)).

Livvy xo





First Attempt at 'Inspired By' Make-Up - Lily Collins

Hello, hope you're having a relaxing Weekend.

For anyone with a beady eye, you may have noticed today is supposed to be a 'Thighs of Thunder' post day. However being the bimbo that I am, I thought it was Saturday today and spent the morning doing my make-up, so we're rolling with it ;)

I was just Googling away the other day, as I often do to waste some time, and came across some pictures of Lily Collins (who's in the new Mirror, Mirror film - which my friend won't come with me to see because appratenly she's heard it's rubbish ;)). Anyway, I found this beautiful picture of her...

How stunning is she! P.s. This isn't my picture, Google image her if you want to find the link it's from :)

And I thought I might have a cheeky go at a similar make-up/hair look. Let's all take a moment to appreciate how beautiful Lily is and therefore not raise our expectaions for my own face. ;) I chose her because I have big eyebrows too. That is genuinely the main reason. Bless my cottons.

I started off by centre parting my hair (ew, it looks SO bad on me. as hard as I try to work it it's just never going to happen), then I pinned one side of my hair back and used my Babyliss Curling Wand to curl the other side. I need more practice with the wand. My hair ended up a sort of crimpy, wavy, curl. Then I did the make-up and...


Here's my finished look, I didn't throw on a beautiful dress because I couldn't be arsed. It is Sunday lunch time after all. Haha, anyway here we go:

So that's my attempt. Got a bit excited playing around with my camera so I thought I'd show you my nails too, which are the 2 polishes I mentioned the other day. I was actually really impressed with how the eyeshadow turned out, as I don't use it that often and I'm not a pro with blending yet. I used Virgin in the inner corners and just underneath, Sin (both from the Naked palette) all over the lid, a pale lilac in the 17 Smokey Eyes palette in the centre of my eye then Rebel from the Sleek Bad Girl palette on the outter corner and crease, mixed with a touch of Dark Horse from the Naked palette. Woah, look at me getting all technical. Can I just point out as well that I know my eyebrows are bushy, but you're going to have to trust me that they look HORRENDOUS over-plucked. Ha.

Here are the products I used:

Do you enjoy re-creating celebrity looks? Or do you prefer to make up your own? I've never done it before but I actually think it's a good idea for inspiration. Even if we can't all look like Lily. Sigh.

Livvy xo