Throwback Thursday: Halloween

I absolutely love to dress in fancy dress, particularly for Halloween. Unfortunately this year I had to work late and have not had the opportunity to go to any Halloween events! As Thursdays are usually an excuse to dig up a 'throwback' picture from the past, I thought I would show you some of my dress ups I have done before.

In all my pictures is my best friend and fellow dress up accomplice, Nicola. This first picture is a throwback from 2010. This was my second year at uni and Halloween was a guaranteed night out with a good dress up compulsory.

Nicola and I went as bats this year and do to this, we went to a fabric shop and picked up some black stretchy material and spent hours sewing it to black dresses. Mine was from American Apparel and had a low swooping back. The wings are still attached to the dress as I don't have the heart to remove them.

For my hair, I furiously back combed it and then clipped it to the back of my head (I was growing out a pixie crop at the time so couldn't do anything to dramatic) The eye makeup was smokey and the red noses were done with lipstick. The fangs were drawn with black eyeliner and filled in with face paint. The ears were bought from Claire's accessories.

 My next throwback is from the following year, 2011 my third and final year of University, where myself and Nicola decided to go out dressed as spiders. This was a simple outfit of a black top and leggings with just some tights stuffed with newspaper pinned to the waist band. The spiders web was just bought from a dress up or decoration shop.

The makeup this year was more natural, but we used liquid eyeliner to draw various spider webs on any flesh showing. Our eye makeup was smokey again, and I used a purple lipstick from Rimmel in the Kate Moss range in colour number 4.

I did these nails last year by just applying a black colour with matte over the top, and then heavily dripping red paint over the tips. It forever to dry but I think it looked really effective.

This year unfortunately I am without my best friend Nicola and without any events to go to this Halloween! As I had to go to work I couldn't do anything too dramatic, but I thought a smokey eye for the day would be acceptable. 

For this look, I used the Benefit Smokin' eyes kit. I have had this kit for years and years (hence the dirtiness) and probably used it for the other two looks as well. It is such a great kit to give you the perfect smokey eye and I swear by it! I also used my Maybelline gel liner for the flicks.

 The kit contains a pink highlighter, a smokey grey base colour, a dark black shadow for the drama, and the brushes needed to create the look. It also has a brown paste to colour eye brows, and also a pink paste for highlighting the inner eyes. The tweezers are also perfect! I love them so much, (should probably love them a bit more though as my eyebrows are pretty out of control in this post!) and they are perfect travel size.

Sorry this hasn't been a usual post, but thought I'd try something a bit different. 

Happy Halloween everyone!

Revlon Moon Candy

Another product I bought absolutely ages ago is the Revlon Moon Candy collection. I saw the lovely Emma Stone modelling their new nail art duos in a magazine and rushed out to buy some. 

picture taken beautyloversnotes.blogspot.com

For £7.99 each, I couldn't afford the whole collection so I just bought my favourite three, (from top to bottom) Galactic, Eclipse and Satellite. Sound like a new Twilight Saga don't they?

On reflection I wish I bought some colours that differed a little more, but oh well! I read some reviews that the top coat with the flakes in, tended to smudge the underneath coat if you applied it too soon. I didn't have this problem at all. I applied two coats of the base coat, and by the time I finished that, I went and put the top coat straight on and had no problems. A lot of reviews have also said that that it looks untidy and messy. I think that if you just do one coat of the top coat, it will look slightly random and untidy. I again, applied two coats of the top coat, and used strategic coats to make sure the flakes were evenly distributed. Personally, I don't think the look is messy. The ultra dark base coats help the flakes shine out more to create a more dramatic contrast.

Galactic

Galactic has a dark blue base coat that is lifted by the light blue flakes. I think this one is my favourite of the three I bought.

Eclipse

The Eclipse duo has a very deep purple which is very pretty. The flakes on this were a little disappointing as they didn't show up very much, but nevertheless, it is a more subtle look which looks good reflecting under lights.

Satellite

This is the most dramatic look of the three I have. The base colour is a very dark red with brown hues. It is a very dark berry colour. The bright gold flakes create a real contrast to the nail colour.

To smooth out the nails after the flakes, I used one clear coat of Leighton Denny 'One for all' and finally used Mavala oil seal drier to make it touch dry, and to moisturise cuticles.

Ombre Lips

Ombre has been the trend of 2012/2013, from hair to nails. A new trend I have noticed emerging, is ombre lips. The first time I saw this,was on the Illamasqua website when researching their duck egg polish I reviewed a while ago. The ombre lip is just as you'd think, dark on the outside, and lighter towards the middle of the lip. It's quite an unusual look so probably wouldn't be something you'd do everyday, but for a special occasion, I would definitely recommend trying it, plus its all good fun!

For this look, I used Rimmel '04' from the Kate Moss collection for the purple colour, and for the pink, 'Stormy Pink' by Revlon which is one of my favourite lip colours ever!

To start, line your lips, and put the darker colour round the edge of your lips. It doesn't have to be to neat.

Using a lip brush, sweep the colour into the middle of your lips.

Lastly, use your lighter colour, brush the colour into the middle of the lips and blend between the two colours.

For a less dramatic look, or a more daytime option, use lighter colours.

For this look, I used Mac's 'Chilli', and the Helen E 'Caribbean', which I recieved in a Glossy Box a while back.

For more information and a video tutorial, click here for the Illamasqua colour chooser and tutorial

http://www.illamasqua.com/shop/products/lips/two-toned-lip