Festive and Fiery - A Christmas Colour Explosion!

First off, I don't think it's any secret that I'm a drama queen, so I don't think that it's going to come as a surprise that it didn't take me long to create a video tutorial for this dramafest:

I LOVE how this turned out (full face pic at the end of the post), so I really hope you like it too :) It goes without saying that The Electric Palette is the focal point of this look - but the other absolute stars are the e.l.f. HD cream blush and the e.l.f. cream eyeliner. I love these products and they have permanent places in my 'makeup essentials' (and my heart).

As I mention in the video, I really feel like this season is the ultimate in terms of being able to experiment with colour, and more daring looks. If you're typically a 'neutrals & nudes' sort of gal - this is your time to mix it up! If you're a colour-junkie like me, then you're probably already in your element :)

So the product breakdown is as follows:

Eyes:

Urban Decay Primer Potion (anti-ageing)

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil (milk)

UD Naked 3 Palette - 'Limit' on crease

UD Smoked Palette -  'Kinky'  & 'Freestyle' as blending/transition shades

UD Electric Palette - 'Slowburn' (inner), 'Jilted' (outer) & 'Urban' (outer V & above crease)

e.l.f cream eyeliner - Black - mahoosive winged liner on upper lashline

UD 24/7 Liquid Liner - 'Perversion' (lower lashline)

UD 24/7 Glide-On Pencil - 'Empire' (waterline and a little on outer top lashline)

Eyelure Volume 100 Lashes

UD Naked Flushed Palette: Highlighter (inner corner highlight and mixed with Naked3 'Strange' for brow highlight.

Face:

Smashbox Colour Correcting Primer - Green

UD Naked Skin Beauty Balm applied with Urban Decay's Good Karma Optical Blurring brush

Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation Stick applied with Urban Decay's Optical Blurring brush

UD De-Slick Mattifying Powder (using giant fluffy powder brush from Barry M)

e.l.f. HD cream blush - 'Headliner' applied with e.l.f. small stipple brush

Lips:

Maybelline Baby Lips (applied before makeup started)

Revlon Colorburst Balm Stain - '001 - Honey' - a beautiful nude to complement any bold eye look.

I really hope you liked the look and the video - if you have any comments, questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you! You can tweet me at @CharleyShadow or just comment on this post or the YouTube tutorial!

Have a beautful day, lovelies!

Char xx

Festive Gold with a Berry Lip

Howdy!

I have finally done it - I've made and uploaded my very first YouTube tutorial, where I show you how to get the below eye look.

I'll be honest with you- I know my photos aren't amazing. I'm aware that the camera I filmed the tutorial on isn't the best, but personally, to me the person in the video/photo is more important than the quality of the picture. I've seen YouTubers and Bloggers alike who have amazing super sharp HD cameras, but it's done nothing to improve either patchy makeup or a poor explanation. I don't mean to be mean - my point is I've always thought that if your content is sub-par, no amount of fancy technology is going to help you.

Anyway, I created a fun, festive look that I think would look great against lots of different skin tones and eye colours! I've shown this with a berry lip, but of course you could pair this with a nude or a rosy, more natural pink :)

Here's a very quick breakdown of the products used.

-Urban Decay Primer Potion (Anti Ageing)

-NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil (Milk) as base on lid and browbone

-Urban Decay Original Vice Palette - 'Laced'  (crease/transition),  'Penny Lane' (outer half of lid),  'Blitz' (inner half of lid), 'Anonymous' and 'Laced' mixed (to blend out dark colour above crease)

-Urban Decay Vice 2 Palette - 'Toxic' and 'Coax' mixed (very outer corners of lids)

-Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette - 'Blackheart' (outer V & blended above crease)

-ELF Cream Eyeliner (Black)

-Urban Decay 24/7 Liquid Liner in 'Perversion' (Applied over cream liner)

-Eyelure Volume Lashes (No. 100)

-LAQA & Co Lip Lube (No name on product, but I believe it's 'Menatour')

-Naked Flushed Palette Highlighter (Brow and Cheekbone highlight)

I'd love it if you'd like to pop over to my little corner of YouTube and have a nosey at my tutorial, and any shares, likes or feedback will be hugely appreciated!

Have a beautiful day lovelies!

Charley xxx

Bobbi Brown foundation routine!

Well, well, well. I don't know what to say. Even if I did, my mouth is currently full as it is eating my words and a teensy slice of humble pie. A few posts ago, I came out of my foundation-hating closet. Since then, I've discovered something wonderful and life/face-changing. The Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation Stick. I went to a wedding a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to just even out my skin tone a little, as my face was looking a bit blotchy. I crept into John Lewis (I can't stride in with confidence. Deep down I feel that I'm not posh enough to be in there, and I'm afraid they already know) and quickly spotted my target- Bobbi Brown. I'd read a few reviews of the new 'Skin' formula Foundation Stick, so I definitely wanted to have a cheeky tester. One colour-match session later, I was walking out with No.3- 'Beige'.

My issues with cream foundations previously were:

a) potentially thick, cakey-looking makeup
b) fear of my skin breaking out into turbo-acne

My terror has been quashed; the texture of the Skin Foundation Stick is pure, silky, buttery, smoothness. Both lightweight and natural, my skin FEELS naked but looks flawless.

So let's get to it!

Moisturiser: Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream - LOVE IT. If you have dry skin, GET IT!
Primer: Smashbox Photo Finish Colour Correcting Adjust (green) Primer -Life-changing wonderment.
Foundation: Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation Stick in Beige, drawn on in stripes and buffed out with the Urban Decay Optical Blurring Brush.
Contour: Urban Decay Naked "Flushed" palette (bronzer only) on temples, hairline and hollows of cheeks, using a Sephora Kabuki brush.
Blush: e.l.f. HD Blush in 'Headliner' using the e.l.f. Studio small stipple brush. If you haven't used used this before, you really need the TINIEST little blob (the size of a grain of rice) on the back of your hand, work it into the brush fibres, then stipple and buff onto your cheeks. This product has a lovely soft sheen to it, so you may not need a highlighter.

That's pretty much it for the face! For the photos below, I've added mascara (Rimmel ScandalEyes Rockin' Curves in Extreme Black), tightlined with my UD 24/7 pencil in 'Perversion' and applied e.l.f.'s SPF15 lipbalm in 'Pink'.

Step 1: Moisturised

Step 2: Primer (I know, sexy green slime on my face)

Step 3: Bobbi Brown tiger-stripes!

Step 4: Buffed, blushed and contoured! Mascara time with this crazy-looking wand.

Step 5: That gust of wind was actually me batting my Rimmel-tastic super long lashes.

YAY! Flawless photo-finish skin!

Electric shock: Urban Decay's new masterpiece!

On Good Friday I had the pleasure of attending Urban Decay's Electric "Secret Launch" party in Cardiff. Lots of other beauty bloggers have already covered the event itself, such as Rachel and the gals at CSI Beauty Blog, but what I wanted to talk about was the product itself. Since learning of its imminent launch a couple of months ago- I had been frantic with anticipation. When I THEN learned that my local Urban Decay stockists would be holding the "secret" (not so much of a secret for anyone who follows @UDCardiff on Twitter) launch party, I was like a child waiting for Christmas. So let's not hang about, we all know that I raced straight from the event to Debenhams, to buy my palette, and here it is (apologies for its appearance, I literally couldn't wait to get my mitts on/into it.

From the unmissable outer casing to each of the buttery soft, pigment explosions inside, there is nothing cautious about this palette. Everything about it screams "LOOK AT ME" and you can't help but stick your fingers into the pans (clearly - sorry again about that) to see if the colour payoff is as unbelievable as it looks - the answer is yes.

At this point, there are a couple of things to remember. The first - and maybe most important - is that NOBODY needs to look at this and try to figure out where they would wear a fuschia, cyan and acid-green eye look (everywhere, obviously). If you like a neutral eye, this could be the teensy pop of brightness you were looking for, to spice things up. If your day-to-day is a straightforward winged liner, why not use these? Applied alone with a wet brush, or to boost the impact of a colourful pencil liner, you could really stir up your go-to look!

The second biggie to remember: these are NOT eyeshadows, or should I say not JUST eyeshadows. These are pressed pigments. Do not feel restricted to using these on your lids! Why not put the beautiful orange-red 'Slowburn' or gorgeous hot pink 'Savage' through their paces as blusher? Why stop there? If you're feeling really adventurous, go for one of the other colours! Better yet, do what I did and make yourself some custom lip colours? Mix and match different amounts of different colours to create some bold lip looks! I have a blog post in the pipeline regarding that, as it happens.

I think I'm going to walk away now before I destroy what's left of my furiously-typing fingers!

Watch. This. Space.

Have a beautiful day, Lovelies!

Char xx

Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner

Hello there!

Wow, so it's been quite a few days since my last little blog adventure.

Well anyway, I'm back now, and I'm doing a sort of on-the-fly review of the Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner that I received in my February Birchbox.

As some of you will already know, my greatest makeup love is eye makeup, but more than anything, I am a FIEND for a good eyeliner. That goes double for liquid eyeliner, so as you can imagine, I was pretty excited to see this little treasure in my Birchbox. 

Historically, I've not been an enormous fan of liquid eyeliners with a sort of felt-pen nib. I often find them too chunky, and the product itself too inconsistent and streaky. BUT I always maintain that it's worth trying everything once, because you'll never know what might turn out to be a keeper!

I've been using the pen to line my eyes for work for the last couple of days, with no primer/setting spray, or indeed, any other makeup. I have to say, it holds up pretty well. It's not as waterproof/smudgeproof as my beloved Urban Decay 24/7 liquid eyeliner, but actually, because of that, it gives a less stark overall look, softening up what might otherwise be quite a harsh cat-eye/winged liner. Also, due to having a pen-like nib, rather than a brush, it's much easier to apply quickly, while I'm on the move, which I LOVE. 

The staying power is obviously much better on the top lashline than it is on the bottom, as my eyes are on par with Niagara Falls in terms of general wateriness, but at the end of the working day, there's always a hint of a smokey line under my lashes, so all is not lost. The liquid liner itself isn't totally opaque, and does apply a tiny bit unevenly, but I feel that you wouldn't notice this unless you were standing inches from my face, and specifically scrutinising my eyeliner! Also, bonus points for the fact that the nib isn't chunky and awkward, and applies a smooth, precise line.

I think if I had to score it, I'd rate the Eyeko Skinner Liquid Eyeliner at around 8/10, if only for the convenience of the product!

I would LOVE to show you photos of this in action, but unfortunately, my eyebrows look a hot mess right now as I'm trying to grow them back a bit thicker. I am not willing to subject you to the horror of an up-close and personal shot of my general eye area just yet!

I hope you enjoyed my little review! If you're interested in my non-makeup life, I am currently participating in a head-to-head challenge with my friend Scott on my other blog, the progress of which can be followed on our Facebook page! The current challenge (as surprisingly chosen by Scott) is candle-making! I'd love to build up some more support for Team Charley, so I will love you forever if you'd pledge your allegiance over on Facebook!

Have yourself a beautiful day, Lovelies :)

Charley xx

Goody Bun Spiral

Hi there, Lovelies!

I actually already gave this the very briefest of overviews in my 'Payday Beauty Gifts' post, but it's such a great product, I felt like I needed to share the love a little more.

The Goody Bun Spiral looks like this...

So you're basically looking at a pretty sturdy coil of metal with a diameter of around 2-3 inches, this one is a sort of dark, gunmetal colour, but it also comes in a lighter gold-ish colour that's better for blonde hair. The base of the coil has two little purple-ish nobbles on the ends.

You can do a basic bun in one of two ways:

You can sweep all your hair back as if you're doing a ponytail (high, low, middle, side- whatever takes your fancy), but just twist it all into a bun, then twist the bun spiral into it, in a clockwise direction and with the purple nobbles facing your scalp. That's fairly straightforward!

The way that I choose to do it is to actually secure my hair into a ponytail first, using a hair elastic, THEN sweep it around itself to make the bun and add the bun spiral in the same way as before. I also muss the bun up a little, for a dishevelled look, but use a couple of little hair pins to control any chunks of misbehaving hair.

The only reason that I do choose to style in the second way is because my hair is quite fine, flyaway and is cut in layers, so for me, the bun itself isn't quite dense enough to make me confident that the spiral would stay in. That said, I do usually use this right after I've washed and dried my hair, so my hair is obviously quite shiny at that point and provides a lot less resistance.

After this, all I do is ad a quick couple of spritzes of hairspray - I favour TRESemmé 'Freeze Hold' spray to tame my crazy flyaways and I'm good to go! This is a great way to quickly- and I really do mean 'quickly' -  style your hair for work or play, and it's equally at home as part of a more formal look!

I'm going to a wedding in a couple of months, and I'm thinking of going for a full head of tight-ish curls, then using the bun spiral to create a soft, messy updo. I will definitely be road-testing this look before then, so I'll keep you posted on how that goes, and perhaps do a quick photo-tutorial if you're interested? If you are, or you'd like to see a variety of looks done with this, let me know! You can comment below, or tweet me at @CharleyShadow - I'd love to hear from you!

Have a beautiful day!

Charley xx

Beautiful Nude Nails

Happy Saturday!

Today, I thought I'd share my latest favourite nail look. First of all though, I'm going to give you a quick explanation for a couple of things.

If you've been reading my posts, and/or have subscribed to Charley Shadow, first of all THANK YOU! I really appreciate your support. I'm so new to this particular world of blogging, and it means so much to me that you've chosen to be part of my little journey :) Secondly, you've probably noticed that I've been quite inconsistent. I don't yet have any regular features, and I don't post at the same time every week. I really don't want any of you to think that it's because I can't be bothered. Some of you may know that I run two blogs, and my other one- 'Charley Says', which is a general/lifestyle blog - has been suffering too.

On top of trying to keep up my commitment to both blogs, I have been going through a fairly stressful time at work. The last few weeks especially, I seem to have been doing nothing but going in and out of various meetings, where I get told I 'might' be made redundant but 'nothing's set in stone, business as usual' e.t.c. It's fairly unsettling. On one hand, I don't want to lose focus and drop the ball at work, but on the other, I've definitely been preparing myself for having to find a new job. With this in my mind constantly, I've been updating my wardrobe to include more 'interview-appropriate' options. I've also been experimenting with my day-to-day style, just trying to polish up my image a bit. When the weekend comes around, I'm spending so much time trying to update my CV, trim any fat from my online presence and keep an eye on possible employers' websites, that I've just let my blogging slip.

They say that the first step is admitting you have a problem. So I AM going to try to be more consistent in posting, but as I've put myself on a no-buy until the end of March, there are unlikely to be any hauls, aside from Birchbox (writing up my February Birchbox breakdown later today, for anyone who's interested). Now that THAT is all out of the way, I'm going to crack on with what was supposed to be a 'short and sweet' blog post!

The first and most important thing is that I am addicted to Barry M nail varnishes. For any nail varnish/polish junkie, they are an absolute must. I follow no trends with my nails, I just paint the colour or design that appeals to me that day! So a couple of months ago, I was in Boots, raiding the Barry M stand, and saw a beautiful pinkish-beige nude (If you want to pick it up after reading this, it's called MNP4 - 'Nude Vanilla'). I'm such a fiend for brights, that it's never occurred to me to have a nude nail. Anyway, I was pretty taken with this one, so I grabbed it. When applying it later, I realised that it was from the Matte Nail Paint collection, which I hadn't noticed when I grabbed it, which is silly because it's written on the bottle fairly clearly. I was a tad disappointed. I LOVE a matte bright colour, because it definitely adds some interest. However, I felt that with a nude, it might look -from a distance- as if I have no fingernails!

This fear turned out to be unfounded, it looks lovely, but I feel like I hit the jackpot when I paired it with my SUPER GLOSSY SHINY WONDER that is my Nails Inc. Caviar Topcoat (which featured in my 'New Year Favourites' post. The pictures below aren't great (sorry, I'm currently sat in Starbucks, writing this, and realised I'd failed to take decent photos beforehand, what a silly sausage!) but I think you can see what a gorgeous - and interview-friendly ;) - look you get with these little wonder-paints! I used the corresponding Nail Caviar basecoat underneath, two coats of the Nude Vanilla, then two coats of the topcoat.

Please excuse the state of the Caviar Topcoat bottle. I recently had a bit of a handbag-nail-varnish-breakage situation, and poor old Topcoat got covered in turquoise glitter polish (I almost cried, it was my favourite nail varnish, which is why I was carrying it around with me), so I've tried to clean her up the best I can!

ANYWAY, that somewhat long-winded post is just about done I think!

Thank you for sticking with me through that saga, and have yourself a beautiful day, Lovelies!

Much love!

Charley xx