Nightmoth.

MAC 'Nightmoth' Lip Pencil, £12 for 4.5g

I had a shoot coming up where I was told I would be creating a 'burlesque' look. I had visions of bronze and gold eyelids with deep purple lips and diamond details. When I was actually at the shoot the spec changed slightly. I had bought 'Nightmoth' especially, but as I had been eyeing it up for a while I needed any excuse to make the purchase. 

I ran with dark plum lips as a theme, as a recent trip to the cinema left me mesmorised by the hair, makeup and costume in The Great Gatsby. I lined the lips with Nightmoth and filled the lips in the centre with Illamasqua's 'Drench' (a raspberry red) and blended them together with a lip brush to create an ombre effect. I've included a photo to show the result. I know this pencil will come in handy, it's important to have a suitable matching lip liner for dark colours and I love creating a graduated effect with brighter lipsticks in the centre too. 

Nightmoth is a very deep plum purple with brown undertones. Similarly to other MAC Lip Liners- while there is great and long lasting colour pay off, the consistency can be a little dry at times and does pull at the lips if you press hard (which sometimes you need to.) However that aside, they sharpen and perform really well.

Thanks for reading,

E.

Rebel, Rebel.

MAC 'Rebel' lipstick, £14 for 3.5g. 

Thanks to the gorgeous Catrine over at Unnaked Nails I finally convinced myself that yes, another MAC lipstick was in order. 'Rebel' dropped on my doorstep earlier this week (well the Yodel man handed my box of goodies over, we're firm friends) and I whipped it on straight away. It is a deep blackberry purple shade and is of 'satin' finish. While I always find the MAC satin lipsticks drying (more so than the other finishes) I can overlook that point because I luuurrrve this shade. It's deep, but sophisticated without being too gothic. Though if you are a goth, this could totally work for you too.
As ever, unless you're going on a big night out or have a fancy do to attend, keep the eye makeup minimal. I used NARS 'Abysinia' as a base with MAC's 'Haux' in the crease and added lashings of mascara. See below for the rest of the products I used.

Please excuse the 'MySpace pose' above.

Face:

Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation in 02

Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer in 'Fair'

Bobbi Brown Brightening Face Powder in 'Brightening Nudes'

Illamasqua blusher 'Lover'

Eyes & Brows

Benefit 'Stay Don't Stray' eye primer

NARS 'Abyssinia' eyeshadow

MAC 'Haux' eyeshadow

YSL 'Shocking' mascara

Benefit Brow Pencil 'Medium'

Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner 'Sepia Ink'

Lips:

MAC lipliners in 'Brick' and 'Magenta'

MAC 'Rebel'

Would you dare to wear Rebel?

Midweek Post: "Halloween Makeup"

I don't really do dressing up, especially at the moment when I am trying to be as sensible as I can with money, forking out on a Halloween costume is not top of my agenda. However, last night we had tickets for a ghostly walk around St Fagans in Cardiff so I thought I may aswell join in the spirit of Halloween. I chose a purple gradient lip with matching purple nails. Any excuse for me to wear some purple makeup, eh?

I lined my lips with MAC Magenta lipliner and filled it in with Rimmel's Kate Moss lipstick in 04, making sure it was completely opaque at the edges to add depth. I added MAC 'Up The Amp' lipstick and blended it out with a lip brush. To add a bit more depth I dabbed Illamasqua 'Plunge', but only in the centre of the lips. It took me about ten minutes and it was worth the effort- I loved the outcome! I paired this daring lip with a soft, subtle taupe smokey eye and small brown eyeliner flicks. I contoured fairly heavily using MAC's 'Harmony' and used MAC 'Soft and Gentle' Mineralize Skin Finish to highlight my cheekbones with- I missed out blusher completely!
I also popped No.7's 'Blackberry' nail polish on my nails then added some depth with Dior's 'Rock Coat'- this is a topcoat that makes nail varnish look 'smokey'. I love it. Sorry I didn't get a picture, but you can view it's effects here if you want to.

What are your plans for Halloween? Do you embrace it with full on costume or does it pass you by?

Midweek post: What A Blast!

MAC Pro Longwear Lip Liner in 'What A Blast!', £14 for 1.2g.

It's no secret that I love bright lip colours. Whether it be coral, pink or red I feel most comfortable with a pop of colour on my lips, nudes just aren't for me.

I bought this Pro Longwear lip liner in 'What A Blast!' hoping that I could use it as an all over lip colour due to it's unashamedly vivid neon colour.

The Pro Longwear pencil promises to be longwearing, with smooth application and high pigment. The pencil does tick two of these three boxes; the pencil is so creamy and buttery soft in comparison to the regular MAC lip liners, there's no dragging or discomfort. Secondly, the pigmentation is so fantastic that it'll make you wince. This shade is one of the most vivid, bright neon colours I have ever seen or experienced in lip colour and for that reason I don't want to write a totally negative review...

The one issue I have is that it isn't longwearing on me. The texture is so creamy yet when it sets on the lips it does that typical thing that so many 'longwearing' products end up doing, and that is it becomes dry and crumbly. As soon as I take a sip of a drink, let alone eat, the colour is gone and I'm left with a delightful ring around my lips along with flakes and crumbs of orange residue...now how attractive does that sound? I find this issue really frustrating as I absolutely hate being paranoid when I'm wearing a makeup product, it takes all the fun out of it when you're constantly checking if it's still in place- and in this case, it never is!
As a lipliner on it's own it is ok, and I find I can pair it with my 17 listick in 'Hot Chilli' fairly well, so unfortunately for me it'll have to remain solely as a lip liner.

Sadly my opinion on What A Blast! is a split one. I adore how vivid the shade is with it's high end edge, yet the dry consistency and it's embarassingly poor lasting power put me off picking it up as often as I'd like. Sad face.

Investing in lip liners

MAC lip Pencil in 'Spice', £11.50 for 1.45g.

MAC lip Pencil in 'Magenta', £11.50 for 1.45g.

I'd become tired and quite frankly unfufilled with my current few lip liners! Having never particularly embraced the importance until fairly recently, my cheap ones just weren't living up to any long lasting standards, and were available in a pretty dire colour range.

I knew that MAC would probably offer some good quality lip liners in some exciting colours and so I puchased three there. I'm showing two regular lip pencils in this post and will talk about the prolongwear lip pencil at another time!

'Spice' is an Amy Child's favourite, though this isn't the reason I bought it I can assure you! I wanted a nude lipliner but I'll be honest and say that I am disappointed with how brown this actually is. The pencil is so pigmented that it's actually hard to even apply it lightly to achieve that nude 'barely there' look. In terms of formular it's perfect; it glides on well and has excellent lasting power, but the colour just isn't for me, it feels a bit 90's and old fashioned. In the photograph I've applied it all over the lip to demonstrate the colour.

'Magenta' is a gorgeous purpley fuschia colour. It is absolutely divine and works with purple, bright pink, and mid tone pink lipsticks (as long as it is blended out). It is pretty much a perfect match to one of my oldest standing MAC lipsticks, which is 'Gladiola' from the Dame Edna collection- a colour I lived and died in for about 6 months of my life! If worn on it's own for a length of time, as to be expected, it is drying however this can be avoided with a lipgloss on top and doesn't matter too much as this isn't it's purpose.

Beet and Brick are next on the list as I know they're colours I'll get a lot of use out of. Do you own any MAC lip liners or can you recommend another brand to me?