Makeup Menu | Rose Gold Glitter

I'm definitely one of those still clinging on to the 'Rose Gold Everything' trend, and I don't think I'll ever back down. It's crept so far in my life that it's now on my face. 

For the base of this eye look I used MAC's Paint Pot in Painterly (it's a huge cult product, but for a reason- It's a creamy texture that thickens a little once you've applied it to the eye, and it does a good job of cancelling out veins and whatever else goes on ontop of an eyelid that you don't want in your smokey eye). All of my eyeshadows and including my brow colour came from one of Smashbox's new Cover Shot palettes, Ablaze, which I bought with the intention of using it for travel since it's so teeny and has a great little mirror, but I haven't put the thing down since I got it. For my brows I used Dark Horse, and for the brow bone and inner corners I used Moccasin and Relaxed mixed together. For the inner third of my eye I used Siesta, a shimmery rosy-pink shade, and for the centre my lid I used Nirvana, which is a matte burgundy colour. I copied all of these shades in the respective places beneath my eye, and then applied more Dark Horse on the outer third of the eyelid and beneath, joined together. Blended together this created a more-than-your-everyday smoky look. 


For mascara I used Maxfactor's False Lash Effect, my current favourite, in Black. The lashes I applied are from Eyelure's new Luxe Mink Effect Lash collection. The type I used are Solitaire, a gorgeous, wispy set. I'm a complete noob with applying lashes and I manage to apply these fine every time - so they're great if you feel like you can't hack the application of strip lashes too.

To complete the look, and my favourite part, I used Kryolan's Multi Gel in Copper. Kryolan is unfortunately a professional makeup brand and their main store, the only one I've ever seen, is located in Covent Garden. Otherwise, it's quite hard to get hold of without ordering online here where the postage costs more than the product. If you weren't looking to buy a few more colours to make the postage worth it, I've found a very similar one here.

What do you think? Would you try this look?

Alice

Lemon Drizzle Traybake

If you've watched this year's Great British Bake Off kick off then you've seen some weird and wonderful variations of the classic Lemon Drizzle cake, and are probably still drooling over the thought of them. This encouraged me to whip up my own lemon drizzle, a recipe from Mary Berry herself. I'll be honest, this is a regular occurrence in my household but at least this time there was an excuse. It's the basic recipe, which has been so good to me that I've never thought to change it as the contestants did. Maybe one day! 

The recipe makes 16 slices, of decent size. You'll need a 30x23cm (12x9in) tin that's 4cm (1 1/2in) deep (I found mine at sainsburys).

• Preheat your oven to 180 celsius, (fan 160C, 350F or Gas4). Grease your tin and line the base with baking parchment.
• Place 225g butter, 225g caster sugar, 275g self-raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 4 large eggs, 4 tbsp milk, and the grated zest of 2 lemons in a large bowl and beat until smooth. The butter should be room temperature. If not, cut into cubes and microwave for 10-20 seconds. Be careful not to melt it. The mixing should take 2-ish minutes with an electric mixer or 3-4 with a wooden spoon.
• Turn the mixture into your lined tin, and use a spatula to smooth it out.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until risen and springy to touch.
• Once removed from the oven, loosen the edges from the tin with a knife and transfer the cake onto a wire rack.
• Mix the juice of 2 lemons with 175g sugar and spoon over the cake whilst it's still warm, this will ensure the lemon sinks into the mixture and keeps the cake moist. 
• Once the cake has cooled, cut into 16 rectangular slices. 

It is really that simple! The prep takes 10-15 minutes before cooking, and a few minutes after. If your family are like mine, the 16 slices will turn into 1 within a day or two.

Top tip: To get the most juice out of the lemon, either roll them on a chopping board to loosen the insides, or cut them in half widthways and pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds. Be careful - they'll be hot after, but you'll be shocked at how much more juice will come from them. To juice them, press half of a lemon over a lemon squeezer (these are cheap and can be found in any supermarket, or stores with kitchen departments. Think Lakeland and Tiger). Twist and turn until the lemon looks empty, and then drain the pith and pips before adding to the recipe for the glaze. If you're doing this slightly in advance, pop the juice in the fridge in an airtight container to keep it fresh. 

Let me know if you try this recipe!

Alice.

Bean Burst*

Bean Burst is a company built on a personal story about a natural product to help a child's skin condition. The product's aims are to be completely natural and benefit the skin in multiple ways, such as reducing acne, cellulite, dry skin, scarring, stretch marks and psoriasis (severe dryness). As the name suggests, the products are coffee-bean scrubs that come in brown-paper sachets with reusable seals. You can order travel or full size versions of different ranges, for example orange, peppermint or grapefruit. I received the 100g Peppermint Blend and can already see that a little goes a long way- you don't need much of the scrub at all to cover your entire body including the face. I focused mainly on my legs and face, leaving the scrub to work with it's oils for 15 minutes before removal. Instantly I was shocked at how soft my skin felt- it's the type of time where you run around the house and demand that each family member touches your face to experience the baby-face softness. It's not as messy as I thought it'd be and washes right off with water on your skin and on any surface, it has a pleasant smell and feels amazing in application, during the waiting periods and of course after. I'm excited to use it again!

OK Bouquet & Miss Piggy Roses*

OK Bouquet is a family-run business overflowing with experience, expertise and attention to detail. They offer 'fresh-cut' style bouquets, which come across a lot more personal than many other flower delivery sites. The bouquets are extremely generously sized, with length definitely taken into consideration. You can pick your foliage and bouquet size, really adding to the personal touches in this service. You receive a bunch like those you'd expect from a high-quality market stall, delivered with the flowers partly bloomed, but still with a lot of growing to do. The flowers blossom a surprising amount after delivery. The bouquet that I received could easily have been split and generously fill two standard vases, however I enjoyed the showcase-ingly full look and kept them in one vase. 
The delivery service is very quick and OK Bouquet keep you up to date often with emails. The flowers arrived in a large box, well-packaged with a box at the base to keep some moisture with them. So far my flowers are on day 5 and still look incredible - I'd give them as a gift at this point still. Overall I can highly recommend the service for a gift, treat to your self, or a regular decoration to add to your home! They really do add a lot to a space. 

I received a Premium bouquet of Coral Pink 'Miss Piggy' Long Stem Roses, 2 dozen, with eucalyptus. See here.

Sliced Finger SFX

Halloween may be over, but my interest in gore-y makeup is definitely not. To create this look I started off by using some clear DUO eyelash adhesive on the areas that I'd be applying 'extra skin' to, preparing it for the wax. Spirit gum or Pros-aide would work well here, but eyelash adhesive is all I had.

Next, I went in with some Ben Nye nose & scar wax on a metal spatula dipped in petroleum jelly to prevent it from sticking to the tool. To create the 'sliced' effect, you need to apply wax to below the bottom crease and above the top on one side of the finger, and to between the two creases on the opposite side. Place a somewhat flat disc of wax onto the corner you're working on, and then use the tool to smooth out and take away the wax on the centre of the finger, trying to create a seamless edge. 

I then used a sharper metal tool on its side, dipped again in petroleum jelly, and 'cut off'/ neatened up the sliced edges, following my natural crease lines in the finger. 

After that, I dabbed a dry makeup sponge over the wax to remove the shine from the petroleum jelly, then I used a stipple sponge to try and recreate the skin's porous texture onto the wax. 

Here, I used some of the Benefit Benetint applied with my fingers to try and colour match the wax to the redness of my skin. Alcohol activated paints would work much better here, but this is all I had. 

To finish, I used some of the Ben Nye thick blood along the insides of the wax and then the Ben Nye stage blood along the crease lines of my finger to create the 'cut' effect. Less is definitely more in this area. 

Final notes: If I were to recreate this look I'd hopefully have something like the Skin Illustrator flesh tone palette to hand to enable a better colour match from the wax, and I'd definitely use some Ben Nye neutral set powder to mattify the whole look a bit more. For a first attempt at 'real' SFX, I'm quite pleased!

Would you ever try SFX makeup?

Alice.