Vintage Inspired Makeup with Berry lips - Makeup Tutorial

Hello lovelies and welcome to my Realm of Beauty.
This post is gonna be a makeup tutorial and review of products used to achieve this look. First have a look at the photo and if you like the look, carry on reading.

Before I get started, I should declare my love for vintage fashion and beauty. I love the eyeliner, the lips, the eyebrows, the neckline, the tiny waist accentuated by the big skirt and tight waist, polka dots and so on. My makeup and fashion goals are always drawn from the likes of Dita Von Teese and her burlesque style. So if you like my blog and want to follow my blogging journey, expect a lot of vintage inspired looks.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I will divide the look into 2 sections: eyes and face.
Here is a picture of the products I used to achieve this look.

Eyes: 

As I have mentioned in my preview makeup tutorial, I like to always do my eyes first then move on to my face. The reason being that if I get any products on my face while doing my eyeshadow I can safely remove them without messing up my makeup, and I can rest my hand on my face if I have to, without worrying that I'm sliding my foundation.

First start with putting NARS pro primer all over your eyelids (or any other eye primer that you have). This amazing product helps prevent your eyeshadow from smudging and provides a gorgeous and smooth base for the eyeshadow to go on. It is on the pricy side (£19.50), but it's totally worth the money (don't be put off by the word "pro" in the title) and it's gonna last you a very long time, unless you're planning on wearing proper eyeshadow on a daily basis.

For the eyeshadow I used the Maybelline Nude Palette. I absolutely adore this palette, it's cheap (£9.99) and high quality, it blends beautifully and the colours are just fantastic. Once the primer is on, start with a neutral tone with a slight shimmer, which is the number 1 shade in the photo above. Use a flat brush to put this on. Then proceed with the crease colour. Any darker shade would do, so you can get creative with it. I used the number 2 shade shown in the picture. Blend that with a crease brush and make sure you take all the edges off. The purpose is to make it look darker in the outer corners and blend it completely with your base shadow about half way on your eyelids. Once that's blended, go above your crease and under your eyebrows with a light, highlighting shade like the number 3 shadow in the palette. This will give you a lovely shimmer under your eyebrows. Proceed with blending this in with the crease shadow, but make sure you blend downwards since you don't want the dark shadow to get under your eyebrows and mess it up.

When you're happy with the result move on to the eyeliner. Map the shape out with a liquid first. For this you need to be looking down into a mirror until you get to the outer corner of your eyes. Then you need to look straight ahead and draw your line right below the crease. This will make sure that you eyeliner doesn't go into the crease and get cut off, because that will look a bit odd. Go aw far as you like with the flick, but be aware of your eyeshape. Once you've got the outline, go in with a gel liner. I love Maybelline Eyes Studio Lasting Drama Gel Liner. It's long lasting, smudge proof, has intense colour and is easy to apply with a fine eyeliner brush. It also comes with a brush of its own, which is fantastic especially considering the price (£7.99).
Now you just need a little highlighting shadow in the inner corner of your eyes.

For mascara I used Maybelline Lash Sensational. This mascara is truly a holy grail of drugstore makeup and I'm sure you've heard a lot about it so I won't bore you with the details.
You also need a light brown eye pencil for your water line. I used L'Oréal Paris Infallible Eye Liner-Chocolate Addiction, just to give my eyes more depth and definition. Avoid this step if you have small eyes.
Lastly, you need a little bit of the crease shadow for under your eyes in the outer corner. This should be next to invisible so don't draw it too much.

If you have short eyebrows, your eyeliner flick will most likely go past your eyebrows. To remedy this, you need to draw in you brows. I'm not really an expert in this because I've never had the need to draw my eyebrows in. But I did have to draw them to the level of my flick, which is simple enough. For this I used the brilliant Rimmel London Professional Eyebrow Pencil. It's such a simple product and super easy to use.
I'll leave you with a picture that shows my eyebrows more clearly.

Face:

For foundation I used Lancôme Miracle Cushion Foundation. I absolutely adore this foundation. It sits beautifully on your face and I love the idea behind it. Do I think it's worth £29.50? Probably not. I use it occasionally because the pot is very small and I'm afraid that it's gonna run out quickly.

For under eye concealer and concealing little imperfections, I used Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer, which I talked about in my previous post. I blended that with the sharper edge of Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge. I LOVE this product. It's good for blending concealers, cream blushers and foundations. Just one of the best products you can add to your makeup routine.

To highlight my cheek bones, nose, cupid's bow and around lips I used Lancome Teint Miracle Concealer Pen, which again I've talked about in my previous post. I'm not a fan of contouring mostly because I love vintage beauty, but also because I love my round face and don't really see the appeal in the whole contouring practice. That being said, you can achieve wonderful results by just highlighting certain areas of your face. These areas include: under the eyes, on your cheek bones, down the centre of your nose and around the lips. It's minimal effort with maximum effortless effect.

For cheeks I used my lipstick. I'm such a fan of using lipsticks as blushers because you get a perfect match between your lips and cheeks and it just looks so effortless and divine. The lipstick I used was Burberry-Oxblood, and to use as blusher I put some on my cheeks then blended it with the sponge. It takes effort to blend it in perfectly but I think it's worth it. The lipstick itself is wonderfully creamy and moisturising, but I don't think it's pigmented enough. Sometimes that's a good thing though, so no complaints.
To finish the look I used Mac Lipliner-Burgendy. I don't think Mac lipliners need any introduction. They are truly worthy of any praise that's given to them.
If you have oily skin like me, you can add loose powder as well. I use Clinique's Blended Face Powder, which I dedicated an entire post to. So you can check it out if you're interested http://parizbeauty.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/review-cliniques-blended-face-powder.html

So that's the complete look. I hope you enjoyed this makeup tutorial.
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See you next time x

Review: Clinique's Blended Face Powder & Brush

Hello and welcome to my Realm of Beauty. 
For today's post I'm going to review Clinique's Blended Face Powder. Before I start the review, I should start by mentioning that I have a very oily skin. I use all the right products and still come home everyday with an oily skin. At least that used to be the case before I met this wonderful product.

So what is the Blended Face Powder and where does it fit into your makeup routine?
Powders come in 2 different forms: loose and compact. Compact powders are more modern whereas loose powders have more of a vintage feel to them. If you're after a product that can potentially replace your foundation, or be used in your handbag for touchups, then compact powders are the way to go. However, if you just want something that sets your foundation in place, absorbs the oil on your skin throughout the day and gives the face a matt finish, then loose powders should be an essential in your makeup bag.
As you can probably guess from the picture, 'The Blended Powder' fits into the second category. To review it I'm going to consider some important characteristics that I think a loose power should have.

Texture: this product is wonderfully light weight. It does not create another layer on top of your foundation, nor does it add any colour. The reason for why I purchased it was because I was struggling to keep my skin free of shine throughout the day. I wanted a product that could absorb the oil and keep my skin flawless and I would say I hit the jackpot. It keeps your foundation in place, especially on warm days, and it reduces the appearance of your pores and gives a photo-ready feel to your skin.

Application: the powder is very simple to use. You just tip it over a little bit so that enough product is dispensed through the holes. It needs to be applied after you've done the rest of your makeup, i.e. on top of your foundation/BBcream. For brush you should use the largest brush in your collection. And this is one of the things I love about applying it. It just gives it a vintage feel (and I'm all for anything vintage), sort of like a flash back to old hollywood glamour.

I use the largest brush in the Estée Lauder collection that I've had for almost 10 years! It was the first thing related to makeup that my mom gave me. I don't know if they've been discontinued or still sold, but if you can get your hands on them I'd recommend you do so.

Colour: now I don't know much about the different colours that are offered with this product. There are 5 shades, starting from Invisible Blend, Transparency 2, Transparency Neutral, Transparency 3 and 4. From what I understand, there should not be a massive difference between these shades. However, if you have a fair skin it is best to go with the Invisible Blend or Transparency 2 if you have pink undertones to your skin. If you're unsure, I'd recommend going for Transparency Neutral. I personally use number 3, but that's because I wanted it to match my slightly tanned foundation over the summer. You can always go to a Clinique counter and ask them to match you with one if you want to be more safe.

Price: this is a bit of a tricky one. The product costs £23.50, which can be considered a bit expensive. But I'd argue that it's worth it because it's gonna last you a very long time. From the pictures you can see that the container is quite big, and I'm not lying when I say it's full to its limit. So you definitely do get your money's worth. Plus, you get a cute little retractable brush with it that you can fit in your handbag and use for all sorts of different purposes.

In the end, It comes down to your preference. If you think your foundation is doing its job perfectly, then there's probably no need to invest in a loose powder. But for those who struggle with oily skin such as myself, it is a wonderful addition to your makeup routine.

I hope you enjoy this post. I'm planning on dedicating a post to routines and products for oily skin, so if your'e interested make sure you come back.
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See you soon x