My current Makeup Routine / Makeup in a hurry

My go-to Makeup!

Inspired by the fact that I just don’t have as much time as I used to for applying makeup, I decided to share my makeup routine with you and the products I am using a lot lately 🙂  This is a great look for if you want to look bright and glowing or just presentable for work and you don’t have much time.

Also, because the real trick to applying makeup is the tools you use – your brushes – I’ve listed just a few of my faves and why I love them for super quick but precise makeup application.

It might seem like a lot of products and steps but I promise you I have this down to literally, 5 minutes so with practice and the right tools, it can be done!  Of course you can swap some products for ones you already have or leave some out that you definitely wouldn’t use but here’s what I use and how I apply it:

Using these products together will give you a lovely glow and hide any dark circles or signs of tiredness!

1. Apply a thin layer of Boots Botanics Radiance Balm to your face using your fingers, this gives a lovely glow to your skin.

2. Right now I’m loving BB creams because when the weather is a bit warmer they also double up as sunscreen and this Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector is my favourite since it is an oil free formula (I have oily/combo skin but they also do a hydrating one for dry skin) & it has an SPF of 20 which is great.  Of course you can use your regular foundation too if you’d prefer and mix it with the radiance balm for a dewy finish.  Just apply with your fingers for a quick application or a foundation brush if you have a bit more time.

3. Dab some Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer in a semi-circle under your eyes and using your ring finger, pat it in gently and evenly from the corner of your nose to the outside of your cheekbone.  This one is great for reflecting light and brightening up your under eye area.

4. Lightly load your powder brush with Catrice All Matt Plus Powder and dust gently down your T-Zone only as you don’t want the skin to have a matte finish, it needs to have a glow but ensure your base lasts the day.  Give a quick swipe under each eye to set your concealer too.

5. This is optional, but if you want you can use a bronzer lightly all over the face or on your neck to blend the foundation to your skin.  Also if you like a bit of contouring this Bourjois Mat Illusion bronzer is perfect for that and looks really natural, this one is a definite favourite of mine 🙂

1. This Smashbox Full Exposure Palette is a great one to have for doing your makeup in a hurry.  It has every neutral brown colour you could possibly need and the brush that comes with it is just fantastic, you will get great use from it which is a bonus!  I mostly use the first 3 colours on the bottom and I add the top middle colour to my lids for a bit of shimmer!  Also, when applied with an angle brush (like the one in the Real Techniques kit below) you can use the matte black shade as an eyeliner, you just literally press it along the lashline with the angle brush and it’s much easier than using a pencil I find.  You can also wet the brush for more intensity and staying power.  I love, love LOVE this versatile palette 🙂

2. If you’re not too confident with eyeshadow or just want something super quick, you can’t go wrong with a MAC Paintpot.  There is a good range of colours and you can literally pop them on with your finger and blend away the edges, job done!  I know they are pricey, but they’re worth it cos they last and don’t crease like some others.

3.  Eyebrows are really important to your overall makeup so if you don’t usually make time to enhance and define your eyebrows, try it and it will transform  your face, I promise!  The GOSH Eyebrow Kit is perfect because it comes with 4 powder shades and a small angle brush, just pop a bit on the brush and run through your brows following your natural shape.

4. Obviously mascara is a must-have and this Bourjois 1 Seconde Volume one is great it really does give your lashes volume and 1 application is enough.  This is one I always repurchase every time I run out!

1.  This Stila Convertable Colour is a great 2 in 1 product.  You can apply it on your cheeks (just pop on the colour and pat, don’t rub, gently with your finger to blend) and also to your lips and I love the range of colours!

2. I really rate the Topshop range of makeup and their Highlighters are to die for!  This Topshop Glow Stick highligher crayon is amazing and it blends really well.  Just swipe it lightly from the top of your cheekbones up to your browbone (in a C shape) and tap with your index finger to blend.  You can also take some on your ring finger and pop it on your inner tear duct area to give you a lovely wide awake look (perfect for busy Mammies!)

1. As I said, no makeup look will be perfected without the right tools so for eyes, I love the Inglot 4ss for blending everything out after you’ve applied your eyeshadow, this is the secret to a  professional look in a hurry!

2. I use the NIMA BRUSH “Nichola” brush when I want to apply colour to my crease as its tapered end is perfect and applies the colour exactly where you want it to go.

3. If you’re looking for a basic brush kit, you can’t go wrong with this Real Techniques Basics Kit it has a great angle brush as well as eyeshadow brushes that can be used on powder or cream products.

4. The Blank Canvas G25 powder brush is perfect for dusting setting powder or bronzer all over.  If you’re really in a hurry and prefer to use powder blush, you can apply just using the tip as it’s quite a big brush.

So there you go, I hope this was helpful 🙂 If you try it out please let me know here or on any of my social media pages, I’d love to see it.

Best of Beauty – Makeup Must-Haves

So here we are at week 3 of the #BOBBlogChallenge and we are moving onto a subject that’s very close to my heart, my Makeup Must-Haves!

I love every type of makeup so it was hard to narrow them down but I’ve broken them  into my favourites – the ones I reach for time and time again for each stage of makeup application and just can’t do without.

Foundation: Chanel Vitalumiere

This is a foundation I use a lot, particularly on clients when I’m doing bridal makeup.  It suits people with dry or mature skin best and it gives the most perfect coverage while still managing to look dewy and healthy looking and it lasts all day on that type of skin.  Sure, it is expensive but well worth it and no makeup artist should be without this in their kit in my opinion 🙂

MAC Studio Fix Powder

This is my favourite powder foundation.  Used very lightly over liquid foundation it gives the most flawless finish to your skin as well as a gorgeous airbrushed look.  If you are using it by itself, you need to use a cream concealer underneath to hide any blemishes or dark circles but it has fantastic coverage for a powder product.  Loving it!

MAC Eyeshadow in Satin Taupe

This is one of the first MAC Shadows I owned so it has a special place in my heart! It’s a satin finish and is a taupey brown with a purple/grey metalic fleck to it.  It just looks gorgeous on any colour eyes, but is particularly nice on Blue eyed girls.  If I’m in a hurry I apply this on my lid and in my crease, throw on some black liner and it looks amazing.

Maybelline Lasting Drama Black Gel Liner

This liner is fantastic, it lasts really well and comes with the best little liner brush ever so as long as you are confident and practice, you really can’t go wrong with it.  It comes in lots of different colours as well which is great.

Lancome Hypnose Drama

This is my favourite mascara, it gives lots of volume as well as length to the lashes and I’ve often been asked if I’m wearing false lashes when I have this on.

MAC 217 Blending Brush

If I had no other eyeshadow brush but this, I could get by and create gorgeous, well blended eye makeup!  It really is the best brush I’ve used.  You can use it to apply eyeshadow all over the lid and blended in the crease.  It also works to soften and blend colour in the crease.  It is amazing as a concealer brush for under the eyes too and really blends everything in seamlessly.  My must-have makeup brush for sure.

MeMeMe Arch Angel Brow Mascara/Browbone highlighter

Since I think that well defined eyebrows are an absolute must, I am in love with this!  On one end you have a brow colour and the wand is just the right size to apply without it going everywhere.  It really gives your brows definition and fills them in for a natural look.  And on the other side there’s a gorgeous highlighter for your browbone to really highlight the area and make your eyebrows look even more defined and polished.  Genius!

MAC Mineralize Blush in Dainty

I have recently used this blush up totally and need to buy another one so I thought it deserved to be included here as one of my faves.  It’s the most perfect corally pink and I find it looks good on all skintones.  You can really make it sheer or build up the colour slightly and it has a gentle shimmer to it so it highlights your cheekbones too.

No7 Stay Perfect Lipstick in Love Red 

Everyone needs a good red lipstick and if you find the right one for you it will just make you look fantastic!  For me it’s this lipstick from N07.  I’d never be without it, it’s AMAZING!!

MAC Lipglass in Nymphette

This is without a doubt, my favourite lipgloss.  It’s a gorgeous rose gold/pink colour and is shot through with gold shimmer particles that really show up on your lips.  You can wear it alone or over a similar coloured lipstick.

Ardell Demi Wispies False Lashes & Duo Adhesive

Finally, no makeup look is complete without a fab set of lashes and these are my favourites.  They give just the right amount of volume and look really natural but glam without being over the top!  I also love my Duo Lash Adhesive and couldn’t be without it.  I always throw away the glue I get with boxes of false lashes and use this instead.  It doesn’t smell very nice now, but it does a brilliant job and I just wouldn’t use anything else 🙂

So they are my absolute faves 🙂 I know some are quite expensive but for some makeup I really believe it’s worth forking out the extra for the quality and effect you get from the product whereas, there is some pharmacy branded makeup that really gives the higher end brands a run for their money, it’s just a matter of finding what works for you and maybe signing up to my blog so I can tell you all about them 😉

Don’t forget to check out the Twitter hashtag #BOBBlogChallenge to see what other bloggers are loving and also check out Samantha’s blog on All The Buzz

Madison Brush Set Review

Creator of Madison Makeup and owner of the Cosmetic Outlet Paul, had been telling me about this fab brush set he was bringing out for a while so I was delighted when I finally got my hands on a set just before Christmas.  I tested them out all over the festive season and was impressed with the quality I have to say.

There are 7 brushes, made with natural & synthetic hair, which come in a handy leather case so they are easy to store and carry with you for travelling.

The brushes included are:

1. Large Powder Brush – This is my fave brush, it’s so soft and applies powder perfectly to set your makeup without irritating your skin.

2. Flat Foundation Brush – This one applies foundation  well and gives a nice even coverage.

3. Duo Fiber Buffing Brush – This brush is comparable to the MAC 188 brush as it is made of natural and synthetic fiber which helps to really buff foundation into the skin and give an airbrushed finish.  I also love this for applying cream or powder blush.  You can even use it to set your makeup with powder.  I love this fantastic multi-functional brush and think it’s an absolute must-have.

4. Large Eye Shader Brush – This applies a wash of powder shadow all over the lid and is an essential brush for applying eye makeup.

5. Small Eye Shader Brush – This one gives a more precise application of shadow and helps concentrate and build up the colour on one part of the eyelid.

6. Angle Eyeshadow Brush – This brush is used for applying colour in the outer part of the eye and into the crease.  It does a good job of placing the colour but since it’s angled, it can’t really blend it too much, you would need a more rounded fluffy brush but it’s still a good one to have.

7. Lip Brush – This is a nice firm brush that applies lipstick or lipgloss well.

Overall Verdict:

I really like this brush set and think it would be great for someone starting out using makeup.  The price of this set is a very reasonable €29.99 which is well worth it for a 7 piece brush set.  I would definitely add some of these brushes to my own kit and I really like how slick they look with the plain black colour 🙂

Also, if you’re stuck for a gift idea, these would make a great present.

You can buy the Madison Brush Set at The Cosmetic Outlet in Dublin (check out their Facebook Page here for details)

Will you be picking up a set?

Royal & Langnickel Travel Brush set

I recently picked up this Royal & Langnickel Travel brush set when I was looking for a mini brush set to keep in my handbag for touch ups during the day.  It’s just perfect for that, so I couldn’t pass it.

It comes with each of the following:

• Foundation brush
• Blush/powder brush
• Double ended eye shader/lip brush
• Double ended slanted eye blender/pencil brush
• Double ended smudger/angled brush

So, there’s almost everything you need to do your whole makeup all in one little compact leather pouch!

I was blown away by the quality of these little brushes.  I’ve seen similar sets and the quality has been really bad in comparison with full sized brushes but that’s not the case here, they may be small, but they are perfectly formed!  They’re made with natural hair and I have to say, really do a great job.

I love the fact that the brushes are all of the ones that you should actually have, but in miniture!

To celebrate reaching 1000 followers on my blog (& almost the same on my Facebook page!) I am going to be giving one of these sets away as well as a goodie pack of cosmetics to the value of €100 so go to my Facebook page www.facebook.com/kandiglossMU  for details! 🙂

NIMA Brush – Review

This fab brush set comes from Irish company NIMA Brush which was set up by Makeup Artist Niamh Martin.  Niamh used her expertise in makeup artistry thorough years of teaching and doing makeup to bring out these amazing sets which come in a brilliant little leather cylinder and can be compared to the hugely popular Sigma brush sets, but at a much better price, as well as quality!

I recently picked up this stunning Elite Eye Detail brush set at the Pro Beauty show.  You can also get this on the website as well as other collections such as the Kabuki set or the Duo Fibre set.  All sets come with the cool little leather holder which separates to hold your brushes as you work.  You can add in your other brushes also and carry them easily when travelling.  If you’re a makeup artist, this is a godsend and saves space on your work area, plus, you’ll be more organised as, if you’re anything like me, you won’t suddenly have heart failure when you can’t find the brush you just put down 2 seconds ago among the piles of makeup in front of you!

Now, down to the brushes themselves.  In this set you get 5 brushes:

• A bent liner brush (Synthetic Fibre)
• An Angled Brow Brush (Synthetic Fibre)
• A large shader brush (Sable Hair)
• A crease smudge Brush (Pony Hair)
• A Pencil Brush (Synthetic fibre)

These brushes are all the ones that I would actually use and I found them to be really easy to use and excellent quality.  Plus they look really slick and professional with their white wooden handles and rose gold ferules so would be perfect for professional use.  The bent eyeliner brush is one of the best I’ve used for applying Gel liner!  They cost €45 on the website and come with the leather holder which comes in a range of bright colours from baby pink to Teal.

These would make great presents for any makeup lover and with Christmas coming up I know I’ll be stocking up on a few of them for friends and family!

The website is www.nimabrush.com

What do you think of these?  Are they on your Christmas Wishlist? 🙂

Classic Black Winged Liner & Red Lip Look

I recently went to a wedding and decided to do a kind of Hollywood glamour look with winged liner teamed with my favourite red lippy at the moment which is  No7’s “Love Red”,  but more on that later 🙂

For the eyeshadow, I went for a shimmery beige on the lid with a contour of mid to dark brown on my socket line and then a classic black winged gel liner topped with my favourite Ardell Demi Wispie lashes.

Perfect Winged Liner in 6 easy steps:

Winged liner can be a tricky one but here are a few tips to master it:

1. Use a smooth gel liner such as Maybelline black gel liner and a good liner brush or angle brush.  The Inglot liner brush is my favourite.
2. Trace the line on three quarters of your lashline, don’t worry if it’s not even, you can tidy it up later.
3. With your eyes open, draw your line on the inner part of the eye.
4. Outline your flick at the end, extending up from your lower lashline and pointing towards the end of your eyebrow. Open your eyes to see where you placed the flick on one side then looking straight into a mirror follow on the other side.  If you make a mistake, use a pointed cotton bud dipped in non-oily eye makeup remover to clean up the lines on each side.
5. Bring the line from the edge of the flick back in to meet the thickest part of your liner and smooth out the line with black eyeshadow on an angle brush if you want it looking nice and even.
6. Apply Mascara and false lashes to really elongate the eyes and add the “cat eye” effect.

Top Tip:  If you find it really hard to get the placement of the liner matching on each side, use a flesh coloured eye pencil (Rimmel now do a great one) to trace the lines until you’re confident that they’re lined up perfectly on each side then trace over with black liner for even flicks on both sides!

No7 Stay Perfect Lipstick in “Love Red”

This is the colour I am wearing above. It’s a gorgeous true red colour that looks really well on either pale or darker complexions.  It’s also a blue based red so it really makes your teeth look whiter too!  I found this extremely long lasting as well, I only had to top up a couple of times during the night despite eating, drinking and chatting 🙂  It is definitely one of my favourites at the moment.  The cost is €12 and it’s available from all Boots stores.

Do you like this look?  Let me know in the comments below 🙂  Also let me know if there is any particular makeup you would like to perfect and I’ll do a post on it to help you out!

Sneek Peek at MAC’s Holiday Collection 2012

Being a major makeup and beauty junkie, my heart skipped a few beats when I caught a sneek peek of MAC’s makeup collection for the holiday season 2012.  The theme on this one is glamour & sophistication with the most beautiful packaging and great makeup combinations that are perfect for nights out over the festive season.  Or, well…. for any time really, who needs an excuse?!

These are some of my favourites:

Making Pretty Collection: Gorgeous compacts, lipsticks, brushes and powder that are great for carrying around with you for quick touch ups.  The girliness of the pink faux leather packaging with rose gold metal trimming is just too much, I want it now!

Fabulousness Eyeshadow Pallets:  These elegant satin tufted compacts come in 3 different versions; Smoky, Neutral or Warm eyes with 5 different eyeshadows in one palette and a mini brush to apply them with. Fabulousness is right!

Fabulousness – All for Glamour Touch up Kit:  This includes a lipstick and a blot powder for quick touch-ups and comes in Medium, Medium Dark & Dark – another one on my wishlist!

Fabulousness – Eye Look bag: 3 different sets to choose from that come again, in the fantastic leopard print purse with 2 coordinating eyeshadows, eyeliner, mascara and a brush.

Fabulousness  – Lip Look bag: 3 different sets to choose from  that come in a fabulously cute leopard print purse with a coordinating lip pencil, lipstick and lipglosses. But, if you buy the eye look bag, wouldn’t it be pretty pointless not to get the lip look bag as well?!  Great justification for maxing out the old credit card. Yes, you can thank me when your bill comes! 😉

Perfectly Plush Brush Kit: 3 different sets in Mineralize, Essential and Advanced.  You get 4/5 mini brushes in the sets depending on which one you get.  These are must haves and MAC brings them out in every holiday collection and they just fly off the shelves but they really are fab and a great way to start with a good brush collection if the regular MAC ones are a bit out of your price range.  Oh AND they come in a leopard print pouch – what’s not to love?! 🙂

Guilty Passions Lipgloss & Pigment sets: 3 different sets of each M∙A∙C mini kits for eyes and lips, Guilty Passions Crushed Metallic Pigment kits feature four stackable jars of Pigment in rich molten metallic colour which are great for makeup artists.  They come in three tempting shade sets: Brilliantly Cool, Tenderly Warm and Sweetly Smoky.

Guilty Passions Lip Gloss kits illuminate lips in Lavish Rose, Cocktail Coral and Nicely Nude; each one includes Dazzleglass, Dazzleglass Creme and two Cremesheen Glass.

Seriously, how amazing are they?  And how much do you want all of them?  You can have a closer look with more detail on Temptalia’s blog so you can drool at their fabulousness and casually show to your other half while dropping major hints for these as a Christmas pressie!

They will be out in the States on 23^rd October but the rest of us internationally will have to wait until November**.  Prices haven’t been released for those outside the States yet but I will update when they are.   These will make great presents & stocking fillers this Christmas, if you can bear to hand them over that is!

I reckon they are the nicest holiday collection that MAC have brought out yet, what do you think?

**UPDATE: If you live in Ireland, they will be out in MAC in Brown Thomas on Thursday 1st November!!!  I’ll be first in line 😉

3 for 2 Makeup Bargains – Real Techniques Buffing Brush & Boots No7 Moisture Drench Lipstick Review

When it comes to Makeup, I always love picking up a bargain, who doesn’t in fairness?!  So I was in my element when, while browsing around Boots, I realised they currently have 3 for 2 on all makeup and makeup accessories so I took full advantage of that to try out some things that I had wanted for a while.

First up, I got this Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman – Expert Face Brush.  This is a foundation buffing brush and I had heard great things about it so wanted to try it out.

The bristles are really dense and it’s great for working the foundation right into your skin and making it look flawless.  However the brush is so dense that it doesn’t spread the product along your face as well.  So you need to use quite a bit of foundation, concentrating on one spot at a time, but it is worth it for the results you get.  I always like to use a buffing brush rather than a regular foundation brush when applying my foundation anyway, so this is perfect for me.

I would recommend this to anyone starting out who doesn’t have good makeup brushes.  They also have a box of face brushes and eye brushes that come as two separate sets and are great value.  This brush alone was €11.95 which is really good value.

Next up, I wanted a couple of nice Cranberry/Berry shades of lipstick so I decided to pick up a couple from No7 makeup as part of my 3 for 2.  I got two very similar shades from their “Moisture Drench” lipstick range called, Raisin Shimmer and Cranberry. They were €11.75 each.

Raisin Shimmer is a lovely winey-pink colour with a hint of gold shimmer – lovely for night time and Cranberry, which is a plain berry shade with no shimmer to it, is great for the daytime or for work if you want to wear a more bold lip colour.  Both colours are right on trend for this Autumn.

The shade on the left above is Raisin Shimmer and right is Cranberry

The formula is super moisturising and has a bit of a sheen to it when applied.  Despite that, I wore the Cranberry shade on a shopping trip at the weekend and it really lasted most of the day.  I only had to reapply after I had something to eat, so I am very impressed with these I have to say.

All three of those items cost me less than €20 on the 3 for 2, plus I had a No7 voucher for €4 off, so according to my receipt, I saved €15.75 – woo hoo!  That helped to make me feel a lot less guilty about buying yet MORE makeup when I could open a shop with what I already have. 😀

Have you bought any new shades of lippie lately?  Or tried the Real Techniques brushes? Let me know in the comments below 🙂

Brown/Gold Eyeshadow Look for Daytime

My last blog post was all about my favourite MAC brown colours and palettes.  Here’s a look I did on myself recently with some goldy brown colours that are really wearable for work.   Here’s what I used:

First you need 3 brushes,

The first (bottom) is a flat shader brush for applying the base colour all over the lid – I got this one in Sephora but you can pick one of these up in Hairspray in Dublin or on Crownbrush.co.uk 

The second (middle) is a fluffy brush for applying the colour in the crease of your eyelid and blending – This is a MAC 217, one of my favourite eyeshadow brushes

And the Third brush (top) is another fluffy blending brush but it does a great job of blending all edges for a smooth blended look – This is a MAC 224

MAC Woodwinked Eyeshadow – apply this base colour all over the lid with the first brush and also bring it underneath the lower lashline

MAC Handwritten Eyeshadow – apply this colour with the fluffy tip of the second brush concentrating on the outer third of the eye and the crease to build a depth of dark colour

MAC Dazzlelight  Eyeshadow – apply this to the browbone with the third brush and use it to blend the outer edges of the dark shadow

Finally line your eye with black eyeliner and smudge slightly with the edge of the shader brush and apply a volumising mascara on your top and bottom lashes.

This is what it looks like when it’s all done!

 

You can use this technique for applying any three colours of eyeshadow but they should generally be a light, medium and dark shade in a similar or complimentary colour family i.e. beige/browns pinks/purples etc.  Having the right brushes can be half the battle so it’s a good idea to invest in a good set.  These are the three staple brushes you should have, once you have these you can create looks like this easily enough with practice!

Let me know how you get on with it!

How to Clean your Makeup Brushes!

Deep cleaning your foundation brushes

Hands up if you’re guilty of leaving your foundation brushes a few weeks before cleaning them??!  Tut tut…. 😉 we’ve all done it but it’s just not worth it in the long run and using a dirty brush can cause continuous spot breakouts as well as the fact that your foundation will not apply the same way if the brush is not clean.

Because a lot of foundations are oil based, the product can really stay in your synthetic foundation brush, making it hard to remove no matter how much you wash it. A top Makeup Artist’s tip is to get some olive oil and pour a couple of drops on a some folded sheets of kitchen towel and work the bristles of your brush gently into it to loosen the product, you should see a lot of foundation on the paper towel!

You should then wash with lukewarm water and Fairy Liquid to really clean off all residue.  Fairy liquid is great to use on foundation brushes.  It cuts right through the grease and removes all oil and other residue, and if you can use an anti-bacterial one, even better.  When I’m washing my brushes, what I do is, squirt a small amount into the palm of my hand and gently swirl the brush into my palm working up a lather. Then I rinse thoroughly in the water taking care to only wet the brisles and not the wooden part of the handle as this will loosen the glue holding your brush together and make it fall apart, not a good idea if you’ve forked out for a good MAC brush!  When you’re done, dry the brush off on a tea towel before reshaping and laying your brushes flat off the edge of a window sill to dry overnight.

I am meticulous when it comes to washing my brushes after every makeup job I do, just to ensure they are always clean.  The skin can harbour some nasty bacteria and it’s not something you want to be contaminating other people with!  I also spray with a gentle disinfectant especially for brushes which makes them smell gorgeous 🙂  As for my personal brushes I wash my foundation and other brushes once a week and spot clean with anti-bac spray if they just need a light going over or to remove light eyeshadow residue.  MAC do a great brush cleaner that dries instantly or some of the spray ones you get at beauty supply shops are good too.

Non synthetic brushes (for eyeshadows etc.) should be washed gently with baby shampoo – they are real animal hair after all! 🙂 Look after your brushes and you’ll notice a big difference in your makeup applications – you simply can’t apply good makeup if your brushes are dirty!  If you follow the steps above, your makeup brushes will last you a lifetime!