FOTD | Make Up By Katy

Face of the Day 31/08

September 1, 2010 By Katy Messer 6 Comments

Hi Girls,

I don’t do a FOTD very often, and there’s good reason for it. I stand and snap away with my camera for a good half hour, end up running late for my day and then get depressed when I realise I have to delete 90% of the pictures straight away because no-one wants to see me looking tres uncomfortable with a panicky wonky-eyed look on my face.
That being said ( love that phrase) I did manage to salvage some from the most recent batch of self portraits.
I started off going down my usual route of the same old and I decided, somewhat on a whim to get a bit hot and heavy with a black kohl pencil. Now, I do realise that in comparison to a MAC make-up girl, this is nothing. Those chicks can rock 10 times more eyeliner than I can, but this still had to be work appropriate and I just don’t have the balls to wear it wilder this that on a day to day basis anymore. Old age? Most probably.

See, because my brow bone is quite prominent, it hides the majority of the wing I created. You’ll be able to see it better here…

And the obligatory half a face shot? Oh go on then…

Why so serious woman?

This FOTD was bought to you with the help of Laura Mercier (base, concealer, blush powder, brows), Edward Bess (Bronzer, Lipstick), Prestige (Intense Eyeliner Pencil), Une (cream Blush) and Rimmel (Mascara).

Have a lovely day my friends

Filed Under: Edward Bess, Eyeliner, FOTD, Laura Mercier, Prestige, Rimmel, Une Tagged With: Edward Bess, Eyeliner, FOTD, Laura Mercier, Prestige, Rimmel, Une

Bourjois Sweet Kiss Naturel Lipstick – Review and FOTD

July 7, 2010 By Katy Messer 5 Comments

Hi Girls,

I was recently surprised by a parcel through my letterbox from the lovely ladies at Bourjois. Inside my little padded envelope were 2 lipsticks from the Sweet Kiss Naturel Lipstick range. Sadly, one listick didn’t make it and the bullet had become dislodged in transit and took a dive out onto the floor. I have ‘sort of’ rescued it and may have to de-pot it but I doubt I can put it back in the tube. Oh well.

This range comes in 10 shades that they have divided up into 2 categories- Lively and Discreet.

The surviving colour was shade 03, Rose Sensual, part of the ‘Lively’ category.

Now I am one for sticking within my peachy/pinky/corally lipstick comfort zone so this was a different look for me. And guess what, I love it!

Where-as my usual look on a day to day basis is a thick blue/black line along my top lashes, plenty of mascara, peach cheeks and a pale peach lip, I tried something new with this. Maybe it’s because I’m tanned at the moment? But I really enjoyed a softer eye, pinker cheek and a swipe of this on my lips, slightly muted by pressing it in with my finger. I also found that it made my teeth look a tad whiter, helped by the tan too I expect.

The texture is a semi-matte, which I prefer and it has a creaminess to it that stays for a good 2 hours. It has 100% natural ingredients, created using pure mineral and plant pigments, magnolia oil and shea butter. For this reason, I don’t take it to the very edge of my lips as oils and butters tend to leave me with blackheads around my lip-line. Not attractive.

Because of it’s natural ingredients list, it does have a noticeable ‘vegetarian’ scent. This isn’t bad, it’s a change from the usual fruity scent often infused through lip products. It has a ‘leafy’ scent, if that makes sense?

I’m really enjoying my Une Creme Blusher with this look too.

(The base is Laura Mercier Mineral Foundation in Rich Vanilla, He-Shi Bronzer, Laura Mercier Brow Pencil Blonde, Mac Fluidline Blacktrack, Rimmel Volume Flash Mascara Extreme Black. )

This retails at £7.99, go have a look!

Yours,

Filed Under: Bourjois, FOTD, Lipstick, Review Tagged With: Bourjois, FOTD, Lipstick, Review

Une – FOTD and a mini review

May 16, 2010 By Katy Messer 11 Comments

Hi Girls,
I was lucky enough to be invited to see the fab new make-up range, Une at the Bourjois offices in London yesterday. It isn’t actually Bourjois, think of it more as the offspring of the brand. It has a very different feel about it, very innovative and chic. Here is what they had to say, the introduction in their words-

“..introducing a New Make-up Brand, a brand that respects the skin and the planet!… A new definition of beauty which aims for 100% natural formulas where possible and organic ingredients to create healthy, more environmentally-friendly products.”

This is really central in the design of the brand, not only are their formulas 98-100% natural, Free of GMO’s and parabens, free of silicones, artificial fragrance and colourings, the packaging is also designed to have minimum impact on the environment. Most products carry the Ecocert label, check the link for more info on that.
Having taken a few of the products home, I can sum up in one thought this brand. I wish this had been around when I was experimenting with make-up as a teenager! Back when all I really needed was make-up that would enhance my skin and colouring without overloading it, when I needed shades that were super easy to blend together, when I should really have just looked like an improved version of myself with make-up on. Instead I battled through my teenage years racking up mistake after mistake.
What do I love about this brand already? The fact that the designer, Christophe Durrand, a dashing half Czech/Argentinean chap who is apparently a jack of all trades when it comes to make-up, hairstyling and fashion, really understands skin tones. I was overjoyed that there is a decent high street brand out there now that is offering bases for not only warm tones but cool tones too! Hurrah!
They have 25 products in 148 shades. The theory is that you follow the guidelines they give you as to which shades work best for you. So you start with your base and go from there. From what I saw, it does work. I picked the shades for me with out following it and in fact, they were my recommended ‘family’ anyway. MyFace have tried something similar but I definitely think this is better thought out.
The products that I took home with me I’ve used in today’s FOTD, I’m still waiting for a Mineral Powder, a Powder Foundation compact and a Mascara.

Excuse the awkward face I seem to be pulling. This is the best of a very bad bunch.

These are the Crème Blushers, I used the lightest shade from the range, B02. Please note how extremely poor my camera is, both shades look identical. I can assure you however that shade B03 is slightly redder, warmer and darker. B02 is actually the only one from the range that doesn’t have slightly red undertones, this is because all the cheek colours are based on lip tones. RRP £8.99 8 shades.

This is the colour on my cheek slightly closer. The texture is almost more powdery than creamy, I like the fact that it’s silicon free as I’m prone to congestion and for that reason I stay away from creams usually. This blended nicely, even on top of my mineral powder base.

They recommend using a small flat topped natural hair brush to apply this, I prefer to use my fingers as it gave a slightly patchy finish with the brush. I will however use the brush as a touch up brush with my mineral powder.

I also took home with me one of the Sfumato Eye Pencils. Sfumato means elusive, c

oming from the Italian ‘fumo’ meaning smoke. This is a painting technique used by da Vinci, described as ‘without lines or contours, like smoke’. Cultural! For this reason I kept the line very soft edged and really worked the pencil in, even forgoing my usual Black tight line to keep the effect soft. I loved the colour, the texture is a bit on the hard side, however,it was one of the softer shades from the collection. All the colours are beautifully muted. RRP £4.99 12 shades.

Another pencil I have is one of the Skin Glow pencils in the lightest shade which is a lovely pink/peach tone. I used this along the inner rim to widen and brighten and also around the edge of my lips before lipstick to give my lip edge a cleaner finish. Great texture, nice and soft. I like it alot. One for me, the rest for my kit please! RRP £6.99 4 shades

The Lipstick I bought back with me was again, the lightest shade and I love it! I have had a full and thorough search on my perfect lip toned lip pencil here. Well this is the exact shade as my lips! It’s great for those days when I want to wear something natural. It has a slightly matte/creamy feel yet has a slightly powdery finish. This is shade L02. RRP £7.99 15 shades

I’m really looking forward to trying the rest of my bits and pieces. As soon as I get them I’ll post them up here. I’m dying to show you the packaging of the Powder Foundation. Exactly the same size as an I-phone, I can see me frantically trying to answer it in a mad handbag scramble!

I am looking forward to seeing this in store and think it will do really well. Those of you that love the bright acid shades and funky textures will probably find this a little bit bland. I can really see the appeal of the skin toned shades and how they all work together.

Yours,

Filed Under: creme cheel, Eyeliner, FOTD, Lipstick, Make-Up, Make-Up Artist, natural, Review, smoky eye, Une

FOTD – Simple Liner and Lipgloss Look

March 9, 2010 By Katy Messer 1 Comment

Hi Girls,

I have had a very relaxing day today, I nice lie in followed by a leisurely lunch with my mum, sister and a family friend. Now, I didn’t have to wear any make-up today, these people love me anyway and have seen me at my very worst! I will always make the effort though, because I really enjoy the ritual of putting my make-up on. It gives me that little bit of focus time in the mornings to just centre in on me.

I also did a little kit swap with a good friend last night and fancied trying out a few new bits and bobs. This is also a trial run for a new lip pencil I was sent a few weeks back from Korres. I’ll do swatches and a full review on that seperately.

I really wanted to open my eyes up this morning, so I kept the liner to the top lashes only and I kept the shape nice and round, not too sleek, I didn’t want a flick.

Products I used;
Laura Mericer Oil free Primer
Nars Oil Free Liquid Foundation Mont Blanc
Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Powder
By Terry Touche Advance Fair
He-Shi Multi Fusion Bronzer
Laura Mercier Cheek Colour Barely Pink
Laura Mercier Eye Basic Linen
RMK Brow Pencil Grey Brown
Kryolan Cake Eye Liner Black
Prestige Intense Kohl Pencil Purple
Bourjois Volume Clubbing Mascara Black
Korres Lip Pencil Neutral Light
Nars lip Gloss Sweet Revenge

I hope you like it!

Yours, as always

Filed Under: Bourjois, By Terry, FOTD, He-shi, Korres, Kryolan, Nars, Prestige, RMK

FOTD – J-Lo inspired Smoky Grey Matte Look

March 6, 2010 By Katy Messer 1 Comment

Hi Girls,

Following on from my celeb inspiration post where I looked at make-ups that I wanted to wear, I threw together my version of the Smoky Grey look, modelled so well by the ever sultry Jennifer Lopez.

Now, I want to be clear, I didn’t set out to look exactly like her, that just isn’t going to happen! Nor did I want to copy it to the last shade and shimmer. I have taken inspiration from this and adapted it to suit my look and also my mood!

I have filmed this as a tutorial, which will hopefully go up within the next few days.

For now, I’m going to post a few pictures of what I created and I’ll list the colours used at the end.

One for the album!

Here’s a list of the colours I used;

Laura Mercier Eyeshadow Blue Suede

Laura Mercier Eyeshadow Haze

Yaby (no name, a mid plum grey)

George of Asda Velvet Shadow 9

Rimmel Volume Flash Extreme Black

Laura Mercier Mocha Spice Quad (for contouring)

Laura Mercier Nectar Blush (discontinued)

OCC Lip Tar Hush

I’ll be rocking this tonight, might even add some lashes on too.Why not eh?!

Yours, shmoky eyed

Filed Under: celeb inspired, FOTD, J-Lo, smoky eye, tutorial

FOTD inspired by Dita von Teese

March 3, 2010 By Katy Messer 4 Comments

Hi Girls!

I posted on Monday that I was inspired by a few celebrities and fancied having a play around with my make-up to create some new looks. One lady who I’ve always admired is Dita, for many reasons. She just always looks flawless and groomed. I love her old school glamour! Dita would never leave her hair unwashed, her mascara smudged or, heaven forbid, slum it in a Maxi Dress! Plus, she can do awesome things in a giant Martini glass. She’s the stuff of legends.

She’s also a fabulous make-up artist. I read something a few years back that really ran true with me and even further endeared her to me. She explained that she felt from a young age that she wasn’t happy with her face, so she taught herself how to change it using make-up. She’s a very clever contourer and really makes her features work for her. It’s a shining example of how a well defined, slightly tweaked pair of brows can balance out and counteract a slightly wide jaw.

So I started off getting my base as flawless as possible. I used a bronzer but kept it really sheer, just enough to take the edge off the blue tinge… I used my blusher slightly lower and sheerer than usual. My interpretation of this was slightly softer, so instead of having the line hard and severe using a liquid, I used a black kohl and slightly blurred the edge. The lipstick I just swiped on straight from the bullet, no pencil, again to keep it softer. Here is how it looked…

For this look I used a new lipstick I was given yesterday. All for Eve Lipstick, created by Daniel Sandler. The shade is called Eve Red. It felt amazing. Really creamy, great pigment. I didn’t get a chance to test out it’s longevity because I took it off to wear another softer shade. I decided it was a bit too much, I was only taking my car for it’s MOT. Which, by the way, it failed.

In hindsight, maybe I should have kept it on? I doubt Dita has ever had her car fail an MOT!

I decided to still rock the thick line but go for a softer lip. My new favourite, Lipstick Queen in Pink Sinner.

If this was more of an evening look, I’d definitely pop in a few individual lashes on the outer corner. Also, because I wanted that ‘sleek’ eye, I didn’t curl my lashes.

And yes, that’s my dressing gown. Classy.

Tomorrow I think I’m going to try the smoky J-lo look. I’m back to the garage to repair my car, so maybe if I step it up a notch, they may pass it!

Yours, forever hopeful

Filed Under: All for Eve, Dita von Teese, Eyeliner, FOTD, Inspiration, Lipstick Queen

Upcoming New Eye Looks and Tutorials.

March 2, 2010 By Katy Messer 4 Comments

Hi Girls!

Now I’m not one to fawn over celebs too much. I almost never buy heat magazine and genuinely couldn’t give a hoot about most of what’s going on with glamour models and pop stars most of the time. However, there are times when I’m mesmerized by the make-up.

These are a few ladies I have decided to try and use as my inspiration for some looks over the next week or so.

I fancy rocking a really retro 60′s look, fake lashes top and maybe bottom too!

No-one does sultry smoky like this chick, it’s been a while since I wore greys.

If I could look like one other person, it’d be JLH. I love her smoky bronze eyes she wears in Ghost Whisperer.

Maybe not the red lips, but I love the thick liner and dark brows. Her skin is incredible!

I really like the colours used here. I’ll try not to pull such a silly face though.

Keep reading and I’ll post a few FOTD/EOTD’s soon.

Yours, inspired

Katy xx

Filed Under: 60's, Eyebrows, Eyeliner, Fake Lashes, FOTD, Inspiration, smoky eye

Face of the (other) Day

February 25, 2010 By Katy Messer 1 Comment

Hi Girls!

A few days ago I tweeted that I was wearing an odd combo of Purple eyes, Orange Cheeks and Pink Lips, I don’t know what possessed me to put them together but I’m glad I did. I liked it!

A few people requested to see the end result so I’m popping a few pictures on. As usual, the lighting washed out alot of the density of the colour, but the general idea is there. One day, I might have a clue about photography (my Photography AS level clearly doesn’t help…) and actually produce some decent shots. Until then, here they are…

Products used;

Eyes-

Laura Mericer Eye Basic in Linen

Kryolan Cake Eyeliner in Black

Laura Mericer Satinee Creme Colour in Ecru Silk

Bourjois Ombre Stretch in Violette Profond

Prestige Black Intense Kohl Pencil

Rimmel Volume Flash Mascara in Black Extreme

Cheeks-

He-shi Fusion Multi Bronze as Bronzer*

Korres Powder Blush in 44 Orange*

Lips-

Lipstick Queen in Pink Sinner

(Products marked with an * were sent to me by PR companies to try and I will publish reviews on them in the near future once I feel I have given them a thorough testing.)

I liked this look as I felt it wasn’t too pink/purple/orange because I often find that matching eyes lips and cheeks together can be an overload. Great for fashion make-up, but not for everyday like I was going for.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my creation!

Yours, as always

Katy xx