Avoiding Flashback!

Recently the UK press have been having a field day over a photo of Angelina Jolie at The Normal Heart premier with a white substance on her face and neck.

This is the photo

The press have been commenting about how her makeup artist should be sacked for not blending correctly and that Brad was mean for not telling her she had white powder on her face … neither of which are accurate.

The powder that was used is likely to be a HD (silica based) powder, these are amazing and flawless in natural light and with HD cameras but flash photography will cause a white appearance.

I’ve been caught out by this myself …

Yep, I learnt the hard way about HD powders under flash photography!

To the naked eye, these powders create a flawless appearance. They are usually very finely milled and so are perfect for setting concealer in problematic areas. Just don’t use them if you’re going to be photographed with a flash!

Whilst HD (silica based) powders will cause this extreme white effect, it isn’t the only makeup that can problems under a flash. Foundations with high levels of SPF, zinc oxide, titanium dioxide or with ‘light reflecting’ qualities can also cause flashback, it won’t be as intense as the photos above but it will cause a bright appearance to your face in pictures.

Some excellent foundations which don’t cause flashback

Illamasqua Skin Base – Full Coverage
M.A.C Face and Body – Build-able coverage
Chanel Perfection Lumier – Full Coverage
Rimmel Lasting Finish 25hr – medium coverage

I hope you’ve found that helpful in assisting to avoid white face photo syndrome!

Kisses
Alyssa xx

Urban Decay Electric Pressed Pigment Palette

Well, they’ve done it again.

Urban Decay bash it out of the park on a regular basis with their palettes and this is no exception.

The Electric palette is everything I wanted it to be and more. The colours are the bright, vibrant, smooth formula that you would expect from Urban Decay but with an added Jooosh that I wasn’t expecting.

I’ve swatched the colours below for you to see, the top row is with no primer, 2nd row on Urban Decay Primer Potion and the bottom row has been put over the NYX jumbo pencil in Milk. I photographed with and without flash to give you the best representation possible.

I was brought this as a gift from a very good friend yesterday and have spent all morning playing with it and creating looks on face charts.

Due to the very nature of the fact that they are pressed pigments, you can expect fallout from this palette. I combat this by using a sticky base, packing the colour rather than sweeping it and completing my eye makeup before my base to allow any fallout to be removed.

That said, the formula is incredibly soft which makes blending them very easy and the colours all compliment each other very well.

I currently have this look on my face

Created using Slowburn, Savage, Jilted and Urban. I’m also wearing 24/7 liquid liner in Perversion on my lid and 24/7 Zero in my waterline and under eye.

I love this colourful look and will be creating many more with this palette. At £38 for 10 eyeshadows and a double ended brush, I think this is a must have for any makeup lover!!

You can buy yours here! where for a limited time you get a 10% discount!!

How are you wearing yours?

Kisses
Alyssa xx

January sales & birthday presents … Part One

I had a little splurge in the January sales. I’ve justified this by telling myself that I’ve been really good at not buying new clothes for a while now …

Anyway, I’m going to break down what I brought by brand so this first one will cover what I brought from Asos curve as I only brought one thing.

Can you guess what it was? Yep! Got it in one, I brought the psbloggers favourite swing dress of the year in Red Leopard print!

This is how I styled it today for breakfast with my gorgeous friends and shopping with Mummy.

(Please excuse my crappy photos, I live alone and am single so finding people to photograph me is a struggle)

I love this dress, it’s so vibrant and floaty and the short sleeves make it perfect for summer. If you like this dress then you can buy it here the ASOS curve sale has up to 70% off, so is well worth a visit!!

I went shopping with my Mum to pick up my birthday present as her and my Dad brought me a new coat from Evans.

I am in LOVE with this coat. I struggle to find winter coats I like and since Evans started only doing dual sizing in coats, I’ve avoided them like the plague, this coat however is a dream!

It’s a very thick woven texture with a detachable light brown fur collar. The fasteners are little clasps and give a more luxurious feel to the coat. I brought a size 30/32, as my breasts are somewhat on the large size, which fits me with room so if you are smaller chested you may wish to size down.

It has now sold out on the website but I brought mine at the Bluewater store and they did have more. The other coats Evans have on sale are here and are actually worth a look!

I’ll be doing a Yours Clothing and Simply be sales shopping post too so stay tuned.

Much love
Lyss xx

Living the Dream

Makeup is my passion. I never leave my house without it, spend spare time practicing it and even spent some of 2013 trying to make a career from it.

I have come to the realisation that normal make up isn’t what makes me happy, my true passion lies in special fx makeup and body painting.

I was fortunate enough to spend some time studying face/body painting and special fx makeup during 2012/2013 so have mastered some techniques and styles but am hungry to learn more and expand my repertoire.

I am very lucky that some of the members of the plus size blogging community believe in my art and have volunteered to model for me so I can bring some of my ideas to life! I’m currently in talks with a very talented photographer to make this a reality … So exciting times to come in 2014!

Finally, I am hoping to start a YouTube channel when I get my lighting set up right of makeup tutorials for more ‘outrageous’ and fantasy styles so please stay tuned for more info on that!

In the meantime, I’d like to show you some of the designs I’ve done so far (the ones I’m allowed to post as are not on clients) to give you an idea of what I’m hoping to develop on.

Much love
Lyss xxx

January Sales and GIVEAWAY!!

Just a quick blog post to show you all the bargains that I got myself in the January sales!

 First and foremost, my beautiful new Leopard Print Dr Marten boots

 Leopard Print DM boots £60.00 (Was £120.00)

I fell in lust when I saw these and at such a bargain price, HAD to have them. As with all Dr Marten boots they are hard and uncomfortable at the moment, but I know that with patience (not something I am blessed with) and perseverance they will be like slippers after a few wears.

Evans was my next stop and I couldn’t resist treating myself to some of the Clements Ribiero dresses.

First I brought the ‘Grace’ dress; this design is similar to the dress that Adele wore at the BRIT awards in 2012. It really is very nice to wear and the cut is flattering as Clements Ribiero always is in my experience as they are generous in the bust.

 This dress has now sold out! (I have no idea why it won’t let me turn this photo around!!)

Last week I decided to have another mooch around the sale and picked up the following two items.

Clements Ribiero Peplum £25.00 (Was: £75.00)

 Lace Skirt £12.00 (Was: £25.00)

I have not tried either of these on yet as they were delivered to the office and haven’t made it home with me yet! I am very pleased with the quality of material of both of them though and can’t wait to wear them.

 Evans have an extra 10% off all sale prices now, just use the code NYEXTRA10 at checkout!

 I always hit up the Debenhams sale for makeup bargains after Christmas. I love some of the sets that they do and never seem to get makeup for Xmas … I think my family think I have enough already.

 My love affair with Illamasqua was further cemented with the 2 mystery boxes that I brought from them …

 illamasqua Nails & Eyes £23.33 (Was: £35.00)

Illamasqua Alter Ego £25.33 (Was: £38.00)

 The products that I got in these gift boxes are in the picture below …

They are …

Lipstick           Tramp

Eyeshadows    Lestat, Fame and Imagine

Nail Varnish    Velocity, Veridion and Collide

Lip Gloss         Fierce

Liquid Metal   Electrum (2 of these)

Precision Ink   Glister

I also brought

 Illamasqua Liquid Metal in Resolute £10 (Was: £17.50)

The MOST amazing bronzy red coloured cream eyeshadow – if you have blue eyes then this is a must have colour, it makes them look SO bright!

 Illamasqua has a sale on at the moment, some items are as low as £5 … buy the Liquid Metal eyeshadows – you won’t regret it, they are AMAZING!

 Finally, I brought a Benefit set reduced in the sale.

Benefit Cabana Glama £19.00 (Was: £28.50)

 This will be utilised more in the summer, when I have a bit of colour … who am I kidding? When I am trying to make it look like a have a bit of colour by using bronzer!

I love the neat packaging and cuteness of the Benefits sets, they also always have really helpful instruction booklets in them too to help you recreate looks.

I have decided that as I have a ‘spare’ Illamasqua Liquid Metal eyeshadow in Electrum (a bronzy gold tone) that I will give one away!!

To win, all you need to do is, be following my blog and comment below and tell me what your favourite January Sale bargain you brought yourself was!!

I will choose a winner at random from everyone that comments and follows on Wednesday 16 January 2013.

Good Luck!
Lyss xx

£20 Makeup Haul!

I had a somewhat disastrous commute yesterday morning. Whilst deeply engrossed in Twitter, I totally missed my train stop and ended up having to get off at the end of the line and getting a train back to my office – What a doofus!

The bus that I had to get goes along The Strand, as it went past the huge Superdrug I noticed that they had a sale on. I’m a bit of a sucker for makeup and pamper gift sets, so I decided to go back this morning and have a mooch through the bargains.

I looked through the sale stuff and was disappointed by what was left so decided not to buy any of the sets. This Superdrug however, has ALL of the lower priced or ‘drug store’ makeup brands that I love in there so I decided to have a splurge on some new makeup instead.

When shopping for makeup, I HAVE to set myself a budget. I have been known to wander into Chanel for a new lipstick and emerge 40 minutes later and £200 worse off, so budgets are essential for this kind of shopping. Being that these are the cheaper ranges of makeup I decided to set a budget of £20 and see what I could find!

So, this is what I brought ….

Sleek MakeUp

I love this brand!

Today I brought the i-Devine Ultra Mattes Darks Palette v2  for £7.99. If you have never used a Sleek eyeshadow palette before then I really urge you to try them. I personally find that the matte texture eyeshadows have more of a colour pay off than their shimmers, but if you use a good base then you can really create some dramatic looks.

I have swatched all of the eyeshadows on to my arm and have taken a picture for you, so you can see just how pigmented they are – this is ONE swipe of each shadow so you can really see how intense the colour is!

 

The lighter colours definitely need a base and the purple was not as bright as I was expecting, but with an eyeshadow base and some blending they’ll be fab.

My favourite Sleek palettes are;

Ultra Matte V1           – Perfect if you like bright colours

Supreme                      – A limited edition palette of every day essential colours

Acid                               – For the 80s pop star in you

Primer Palette           – Cream colour bases to enhance the colour of your eyeshadow

The other product that I brought from Sleek today is a Blush in ‘Life’s a Peach’  for £4.49

Sleek Blushes are amazing. I have pretty much every colour that they do now and am ever so slightly addicted to them. They are very pigmented (as with most things in the range) and go on the skin perfectly without looking too ‘over the top’ or powdery as some blushers can.

I have to admit that I go to my Sleek blushes over my high end brands time after time. I cannot recommend these enough and when combined with the Sleek Contour Kits which are £6.49 you really can’t go wrong!

MUA – Makeup Academy Professional

This is another brand that I really like.

I am trying some new products from them today, so have decided that I will just talk you through what I’ve brought, how much they cost and then blog again later about what they are like!

MUA Pro Brow Ultimate Eyebrow Kit  for £3.50

 

Included in this kit are;

2 brow colours, a highlighter, a brow gel, mini tweasers and a double ended angled brush. Which for £3.50 is an absolute bargain!!

 MUA Lip Liner in Softly Lined  for £1 – I needed a pale pink liner and picked this up as it seemed to be the perfect colour for what I wanted. I cannot believe that they can make this product for £1! It even has a pencil sharpener built into the lid!

MUA Pearl Eyeshadow in colour 27 for £1.

The colour intensity is awesome in this shimmery bronzy gold tone eyeshadow. I really do think that this will look amazing on! It is an absolute steal at £1 and having tested the consistency on my hand, I don’t even think it will need a base!

MUA Fur_Effect Nails in Fluffy Bobbin for £2 a deep purple colour fluffy coating for nails! The Link to the website includes an instruction video – I shall see how it goes!

So there you go, my entire haul came to £19.98 but I brought myself a Crème Egg too so I finished off with a £20.63 bill … not bad I thought!!

What is your favourite ‘drug store’ brand or product?

Much Love

Lyss xxx

Skin Saviours

Let’s face it, our skin takes a bit of a battering during the colder months. If you’re anything like me, you will be making sure that you are giving it some extra love and attention during these winter months, to make sure you don’t end up looking like a shriveled up prune!

I have very dry skin, so when it is cold I have to religiously stick to my skincare regime to keep it in tippity top condition and stop me getting cracked horrid crocodile skin!

Cleansing

I have been cursed with all of the worst skin conditions possible on my face, as well as having really dry skin, it is also very sensitive and I have really intense redness on my cheeks.

The best cleanser that I have found to help with all of these conditions is Clinique Redness Solution Soothing Cleanser which is £17.00 for 100ml

This is a really delicate cleanser which is excellent for both removing make up and cleansing skin. I love this product as it does everything I need, to be honest, I don’t think that it has helped my redness to reduce – but it hasn’t made it worse so that’s a bonus for me!

The texture is hard to describe, it is a combination between a cream and a gel and it always feels cool on your skin when you first apply it.

Clinique recommend massaging into dry skin, I don’t like to do this. I spray my face with water and then massage a pea sized amount into my face using my fingertips. You do not need a lot of this product; I wear quite a heavy amount of makeup and find that a pea sized amount is adequate to remove even the most stubborn of waterproof mascaras. Once massaged in rinse off with warm water, I then follow this with my exfoliator while my skin is still wet.

Clinique do have a whole range of Redness solutions problems which have had amazing reviews, I used to be a massive fan of the redness solution foundation until they discontinued my colour. You can see the entire range here

Exfoliating

The one thing that will never change in my skincare regime are the exfoliators that I use. Having dry skin can mean that finding an exfoliator that works for you can be a bit of a challenge.

The two exfoliators that I alternate between for my face are;

Dermalogica – Daily Microfoliant

and

Kiehls – Pineapple and Papaya Facial Scrub

Demalogica Daily Microfoliant

£38.50 for 75g

I love this product, it is gentle enough to be used daily, but strong enough to really give your skin a good buff and polish and get rid of all of the dead stuff.

To use, dispense a small amount of the powder into your hand and add a small amount of water to form a paste. Apply the paste to your skin in whichever manner is best for you and let it work its magic. I find that massaging this product in with your fingers has the best results for me; I apply it with my fingertips using circular motions and make sure that I take it down my neck too.

I even keep a small jar of this in my desk in case of face washing emergencies!

Kiehls Pineapple and Papaya Facial Scrub

£24.00 for 100ml

The first thing that you will love about this product is the amazing tropical smell, that alone makes it the best thing to use on your skin first thing in the morning to give you a zingy happy buzzy start to the day.

I tend to use this exfoliator when I am cleaning my face in the shower. The instructions from Kiehls are to apply this to slightly damp skin, but I find it works better for me on really very wet skin. That is just my personal preference though and may be due to the very dry nature of my skin just needing that bit more water to get it to work effectively. As before, I massage this product in to my skin with my fingertips in circular motions, taking care to avoid the eye area.

I really do think this is a fabulous exfoliator, the texture of it is light and delicate and yet it does a really good job of getting into those pores and getting rid of dead skin without drying it out. Plus, the smell is phenomenal!

Toning

I personally don’t use toner, I find that it really does dry my skin and make it totally and utterly unmanageable no matter what moisturiser I follow it with. So, this is not a step that is included in my skin regime.

Moisturising

THE most important part of any skincare regime! I really notice the difference if I don’t moisturise and I have two products that I really cannot live without when it comes to hydrating my skin.

The two moisturisers that I use are

Clinique Moisture Surge Intense Skin Fortifying Hydrator

and

Lush’s Skin Shangri La

Clinique Moisture Surge Intense Skin Fortifying Hydrator

£32.00 for 50ml

This product was made by the skin gods. I CANNOT live without it. It is the best thing that I have ever put on my face and is perfect for use all year round.

The texture is of a smooth gel, which again always feels cool when you apply, it to your skin and soaks straight in for immediate results. You do not need a lot of this product and as someone who is used to slathering on moisturiser on a regular basis; this took some time to adjust to. I literally dip my finger in to the pot and that does my entire face.

I use this daily underneath my foundation, I do not find that I need to leave it time to soak in as it does this almost immediately. If I have run out of this product (which I did for 2 days at the beginning of the month) then I really notice the difference in how my makeup goes on. I also find that without moisture surge under my skin base, my foundation looks cracked and uneven during the course of the day.

I really cannot praise this product highly enough, it has been a lifesaver for my skin and I will always promote it to anyone that is looking for a new foundation. Clinique also do a Moisture Surge Face Spray  £19.50 for 125ml which is perfect for applying over your foundation for a moisture boost during the day. I always make sure that I have one of these handy when I am flying or on holiday when my skin dries out the most.

Lush’s Skin Shangri La £27.50 for 45ml

I really do like Lush products and for me this is the best intensive moisturiser on the market. I use this luxurious cream before I go to bed to give my skin a really good dose of moisture while I sleep.

There are so many good things crammed into this moisturiser, in Lush’s own words

” Takes your skin to a happy land, where it is isolated from the outside world

The ultimate blend for dry skin.

A rich, thick but silky-textured cream based on almond oil, jojoba oil, cocoa butter, evening primrose oil, coconut oil, wheatgerm oil and beeswax to be deeply moisturising.

We have also added Queen of Hungary Water (rosemary steeped in vodka), fresh wheatgrass juice, seaweed and aloe vera gel for their antioxidant abilities and to help soften the skin.“

I couldn’t agree more Lush!

I feel like I am spoiling my skin when I put this on. It has a really dense luxurious texture which feels really decadent when you apply it. This is one of the best heavy moisturisers that I have used and I would recommend it to anyone with dry skin.

All of the Lush range are natural, approved by the Vegan society and cruelty free – if that’s not reason alone to buy their products then I don’t know what is!

So, they are the products that my face simply cannot live without.

What products do you use to keep your skin in the best of health?

Much Love

Lyss xx

Sensational Stackers!!

As you know, I have a jewellery company called Arcobaleno Jewellery Design and sell sparkly glitzy one of a kind designs.

My latest obsession is stacked bracelets, layering loads up together to make bespoke arm candy!

I am offering the readers of my blog the chance to buy any of the following bracelets at the special price of £6 each until the 18th December 2012!!

Email arcobalenojewellerydesign@hotmail.co.uk to order your stackers!!

Ready to see what you can buy??

Medusa

Halloween is nearly here!!

I noticed that the most hits on my blog are coming from people searching for Medusa makeup, so I thought i’d post up a few pictures of my attempt and explain how I created it!

This is my version of Medusa …

The makeup that I used to create this look is as follows

Base

Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation

Benefit ‘Hello Flawless’ Powder Coverage

Benefit Hoola Bronzing Powder

Eyes

Urban Decay Eyeshadows in Mildew, Kush and Bender

Urban Decay Stardust in Griffiths

Urban Decay 24/7 Liner in Perversion

Stargazer Eyelashes in 13

Stick on green crystals from craft store

To create this makeup, I placed a pair of fishnet stockings over my head and used the various green eyeshadows to make a winged out shape out over my temples. I didn’t do this in any particular colour way, I just made sure that I matched each side by doing the same colours in the same places.

I went over the entire area with Urban Decay Stardust to make it all glittery and applied lashings of black eyeliner to the upper and lower lashes and both the waterline and the tightline, bringing the liner to a point on the inside of my eye.

I used green stick on gems from a craft store to go around the outside of the design and add extra sparkle.

I made my head-dress from a Tiara band, pipe cleaners, paper mache, green paint, green glitter spray and red stick on gems for the snakes eyes!!

I hope you have fun creating your Halloween look for 2012!

Love and Kisses

Lyss xx

Sparkles and Spooks

I haven’t updated you with any of my recent jewellery purchases for a while so thought i’d do a little update on the items that I am wearing the most at the moment!

As regular readers of my blog/facebook/twitter will know, I am a HUGE fan of Tatty Devine jewellery and recently I have made a few purchases that I love …

White Sugar Skull Ring & Earrings (not pictured)

You can still buy the Black Version of this ring on the Tatty Devine website here and the White earrings are in the sale here!

Before I went to V Festival I brought myself a gorgeous LARGE name necklace in Silver Glitter which read ” Smile” I loved it, sadly, it did not survive the festival and is currently in 4 pieces … I will get another one before the 2013 festival season though!

Yesterday Tatty Devine posted up pictures of their Halloween necklaces on their Facebook page, as a HUGE fan of Halloween and when I saw the ‘Bones’ necklace with the new amazing skull charm, it had to be mine!

How AWESOME is that?!

I’m now planning my Halloween makeup around this necklace and highly recommend that you visit the website or pop in to one of the stores to get your perfect Halloween accessories!

If you are as much of a fan of skull jewellery as I am then you might want to consider going to the Tatty Devine Sugar Skull workshop and make your own! You can book a place Here

Another big passion of mine is the wonderful hand made jewellery by Hayley at Diamonds and Daggers and I rarely leave the house without my wonderful one of a kind Unicorn brooch

In the 2nd picture you can also see my fabulous Blighty Love Shines necklace which is also from Diamonds and Daggers.

Hayley has recently restocked her Etsy store and you can buy her stunning sparkly delights here

With Love

Alyssa x