I'm so excited to start my beauty blog, finally! I've been thinking about it for quite a while and posted a few nail polish reviews/pictures last year, but I got a new google account (I got married and changed my name) so I thought it was a perfect time to start from scratch. I've been working on the name/logo and layout for a week or so with the help of my hubby (who handles anything code-y - thanks hun!) and I thought it was time to get cracking on my first post.
I've been a follower of the beauty/nail blog community for a couple of years now (mostly as a silent lurker!), and some of my favourite blogs are Vampy Varnish, Nouveau Cheap, The PolishAholic, Samarium's Swatches and Musings of a Muse (and lots more!). I really wanted to get more involved in the beauty blogger community and actually share some of my opinions instead of just being a creeper, so what you can expect from my blog are makeup and nail polish reviews, hauls, and other beauty-related things. Especially with being a beauty junkie in Australia, we have access to a number of brands that are pretty much unheard of elsewhere and so it's hard to find reviews and swatches. Makeup and nail polish are a big hobby of mine and this blog is just an extension of that passion, so I'm not too worried if I'm the only person who ever reads it (although hubby said he would, for solidarity), but if I can help just one person with my finds and reviews then I'd consider it a job well done.
Anyway, on to the makeup...
A few weeks back hubby and I went to a Mexicana-themed night and, although it wasn't exactly a dress-up event, we thought we'd have some fun. Hubby wore a sombrero, a fake moustache and a blanket with a hole cut in it for a poncho, while I came up with this look after browsing through photos of sugar skull makeup on google.
To start with, I covered my entire face with white face and body makeup that I got from my local costume shop for $8 - not too bad you might think, but this stuff was terrible. I'm not sure if maybe I went about it all wrong, having never worked with costume makeup before, but it went on patchy so I had to apply multiple layers to get the opaque white that I wanted and even then some areas just wouldn't build up coverage! I tried using my fingers and beauty blender to apply it, as well as two different kinds of brushes (my Optical Blurring Brush from Urban Decay and a flat-top kabuki from Coastal Scents), but nothing seemed to help, and it was hell on my brushes. Even after a good spot cleaning they still have white stuff caked all over them and the bristles are very stiff, and my poor beauty blender has gone from black to grey and is as hard as a rock. Nothing a good deep clean shouldn't be able to fix, but it was just so messy! The worst thing about this makeup, however, was that soon after it dried it started to crack - I had fine lines running all over my face, especially around my mouth, and flakes of makeup were falling off during the evening. Hubby said it added to the skull effect, but it was still annoying (you can see in the picture where a flake had already come off on my forehead, and this was in the car on the way there!).
The other products I used for the look worked really well however. I used the Jordana Made to Last Eyeshadow Pencil in 02-Stay on Black for the eye and nose sockets, mouth and parts of the spiderweb and flower outlines around the eyes and chin. The Jordana Made to Last Eyeshadow Pencil in 07-Prolong Purple I used for some of the flower petals, and I used a Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in 240 Striking for the red petals, as I didn't have a red eyeshadow pencil. The Covergirl Liquiline Blast Eyeliner in Blackfire did the detail work on the petal outlines and spiderweb, but any smudgeproof black eyeliner pencil would have done just fine - I chose this one because it's not one of my favourites so I hardly ever use it for regular makeup. I used the Milani Shadow Eyez in Snowy White, a matte white from their 2013 Holiday Romance collection, to fix up any mistakes and also to add coverage to parts of my face where the white makeup wasn't staying put. The Elf HD Powder was to try to set and add a bit more coverage to the white makeup as well. I patted a matte black eyeshadow on top of the eye and nose sockets to give more depth and added some silver detailing to the petals with another jumbo eye pencil. A pair of crazy big false eyelashes finished off the look.
For the floral headband I used different flower clips and hair accessories that I'd accumulated over the years and clipped or tied them to a black plastic headband. This was actually where I started the whole look, as I then matched my makeup to the flowers. For my first foray into a costume makeup look, I was really pleased with how it all turned out and it was so much fun to do.
So from me and hubby, welcome to my blog, and I promise I usually don't look this scary in real life. (Well, unless it's really early in the morning perhaps - haha!) And sorry for the super-long first post - I promise the next one will be shorter!
Have any of you ever tried an out-there makeup look? Do you have any tips for working with costume makeup so that it doesn't get so patchy and flaky? I'd love to hear your thoughts so please don't hesitate to leave a comment (but be nice, it's only my first post!)
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