What I got up to last weekend part 2...

So I've still not picked up the cd from my friend yet, but here's another little selection I found on facebook. Enjoy. (Also, please remember that I really don't think of myself as a make up artist, although it's definitely something I'm considering - this was just a very lucky opportunity in which some friends wanted make up doing and another friend wanted to build her photography portfolio)

(All photos copyright Becca Wilkinson)

FOTD: Fyrinnae Carnival Girl

Okey an entirely unoriginal title but hey, nevermind. I got a  little bored during my day off today so I decided to play around with some make up and came up with this. Obviously, this is not an everyday look, but more a high fashion/facepainting inspired look that came out of playing around.

And here's what I used (if you really want to know what a particular colour in this look is ask me and I'll try to work it out, but as most of it's blended and mized up, I'm not going to bother telling you what's where!)

Base:
Lily Lolo Mineral Foundation in Porcelain

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Superdrug Mua Eyedust in 4 (just as a general base to give some depth - I did another layer of Pixie Epoxy and then layered everything over this so you probably won't actually be able to see this colour at all!
No 17 Va Va Voom Mascara in Black
Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner in Zero


Fyrinnae Greens/Golds/Oranges:
Arcane Magic: Leopord Print Galaxy
Aztec Gold
Dressed to Kill
Dragonskin
Polar Bear
We're All Mad Here
Arcane Magic: Pyromantic Erotica

Fyrinnae Blues/Purples:
Arcane Magic: Futuristic Glam Rock
Sleepy Hollow
Android Angel
Arcane Magic: Sequined Master
Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat

Lips:
Fyrinnae Lip Lustre - Ultra Phantom
Fyrinnae Lip Lustre - Ghostly Voice

July Favourites

I know this is coming a little early, but I'm on the husbands computer which means I can't hook up my camera. However, make sure you look out for tonights/tomorrrows (haven't decided when I'll put in the effort to sort my laptop) post on what I'm taking on holiday. Anyyyway, my current favourites are (in no particular order):

1.Benefit Benetint

Oh. My. Goodness. How did I not have this in my kit before? I love it. For a start, I love the fact that it has a gorgeous rose scent not the alcoholy scent that you can sometimes get with stains (I'm looking at you Body Shop). Also, it's just brilliant. The combination of this and either tinted moisturiser (yup, still loving the Lush Colour Supplement) or The Bosy Shop Natures Minerals means I can look half decent for work in under 3 minutes. I'm also finding that the new Lush Lip Tint (It Started with a Kiss - the red one) is a perfect pairing for this. All you need to add is a bit of mascara and maybe a flick of eyeliner if you're feeling fancy and tada - you're good to go!

2. The Body Shop Nature's Minerals Foundation in 03

I think I've mentioned this foundation before, but I probably didn't love it quite as much then as I do now. When it was a little colder, I was wearing this over tinted moisturiser, however, in the crazy humidity/heat that we have at the moment, I'm choose to just us this on it's own and it's lovely. It's a light to medium coverage, very matte, and great for when you've got fairly clear and sunkissed skin. It adds that little bit of evenness and coverage, without feeling heavy or clogging up your pores. Excellent!

3. Boots 17 Va Va Voom Mascara

I have a horrible, horrible feeling I've mentioned this tonnes before, but tough. I love this mascara. It's cheap (£5.99 I think) and more importantly, it's excellent. Buildable volume, excellent formula, intense colour, never flakes, fairly smudge proof, not over the top..... argggh, I could talk to you about this mascara all day. I honestly love it, hence why I've already convinced 3 people that they need this in their life. I'd like to advise you all to head to your nearest Boots, pick up this mascara and take it to the checkout. I think you'll thank me.

4. Tigi Hard to Get Texturizing Paste

Since I got my hair cut all short and choppy again (ok, not that short and choppy, but still...), I've started using this. It smells incredible (like watermelon) and it's not too heavy or sticky. The texture on your hands when you melt it is a cross between a serum and a wax and it's great for giving your hair extra texture and a bit of matteness without making it look like you've shoved tonnes of product on it.

5. Cloud Nine Iron

I was given these when I went the a Cloud Nine Photo Shoot a little while ago, and I'll be honest, I hadn't given them much use. I had a good play around when I first got them, and tried to curl my hair a couple of times (which apparently I'm utterly rubbish at *sigh*) but since getting my hair cut, these are making my life happy indeed. I love the fact that you don't have to completely fry your hair to get it to be nice and straight and shiny, and I really love the fact that you have more options than just poker straight (which makes me look utterly ridiculous). Love these. Will try to do a bit of a longer post on them soon because they're fab and if you're looking for new straighteners, these are definitely what I'd recommend!

What are your July favourites?

What I got up to last weekend...

So last weekend I got to play at being a make-up artist and you know what, it was amazing fun! I know I'm not very good and I would never call myself a make-up artist, but I thought I'd share a couple of the pictures from the shoot with you. I haven't got my full cd of photos yet, so I can only show you one of the looks that I did, but I'll be sharing more in a couple of weeks.

Basically, a friend of mine is in a band and they wanted some photos taking for promotional use. She also knows that I'm considering training as a make up artist and was willing to let me use her face to practice on (mwahaha). The girl who took the photos is a)brilliant and b) considering going into wedding photography, so it was excellent practise all round. A bit later up, our friend turned up and decided she fancied playing at being a model too, so I got to work on her as well hehe. I have to say, I was flipping shattered by the end of the day - I did 4 different looks (3 on Kate and 1 on Pip) and it was exhausting!

I'd direct you to somewhere to hear their beautiful songs, but I can't seem to find anything :/

(All photos copyright Becca Wilkinson)

FOTD: Relaxed gypsy goes on holiday

Hello :) Just thought I'd post a quick little FOTD. It's a combination of a visit to the Benefit counter and trying to decide what to take with me on holiday (we're sort of backpacking to Amsterdam so I want to travel light!) I couldn't find my camera. so these are just from my camera phone hence the slightly dodgy colour and blurriness.

Face:
bareMinerals Foundation in Medium Beige (I still have a bit of a sample pot left and was seeing if I like it or not, however, my skin is already itching so I think it's a no - stupid bismuth)
Benefit benetint (cheeks and lips)
Lush It Started with a Kiss Lip Tint (over the benetint)

Eyes:
Shiro Cosmetics Lance the Dragon Tamer (all over)
Superdrug MUA in 13 (all over)
The Body Shop Big and Curvy Mascara

Nothing groundbreaking, but I definiately think I'm going to take benetint on holiday with me - 2 birds with one stone :D

Mac Rodarte Collection - a few of my thoughts.

I'm going to be honest, I don't have the most information about this in the world,but I just wanted to add my voice to the masses.

The new Mac Autumn 2010 collaboration with Rodarte is "inspired" by a trip that Laura and Kate Mulleavy took from El Paso to Marfa and the etheral landscape and impoverished factory workers floating to work at dawn in a sleepy, dreamlike state (quote from here)

The collection includes names such as Ghost Town, Sleepless, Pale, Sleepwalker, Whitegold, Badlands, Factory and Juarez. Even vaguely knowing the inspiration of this collection makes the names seem a little well, awful, to be honest. However, once you start to look in a bit more detail it gets worse.

The collection itself features a very pale colour palette - it's certainly not aimed at women of colour (who primarily dominate the places that inspired the very collection).

The worst bit? The Juarez nail polish - Juarez is a factory town which is notorious of the rapes (and murders) of girls and women from 12-22 which saw very little and in some cases, no police involvement at all.

Now of course, there'll be the people who point out that MAC are donating a portion of their profits to charity. However, I have 2 issues with that - firstly, it's only a portion. For a collection based around such exploitation and appalling circumstances, all of the profits should be going to charity. Secondly, the donation only came about as a result of a big league blogger posting their disgust.

Personally I think that 100% of the proceeds should be going to charity and that MAC should be seriously thinking about how they design and collaboration in the future.Personally, I'll be boycotting the whole thing.


Links:
Temptalia
Oh Industry
Ny Mag
Threadbared
The Frisky
ontd_feminism
Amnesty International 

 Blogs:

 

bangsandabun 

The Beauty Button

The Beauty Mouth

Beauty Blog Roll

Big Fashionista

British Beauty Blogger

Ditzy Makeup

 The Fashion Freak

Get Lippie

Healing Beauty

Just Nice Things

Katie Chutzpah

Le Salon De Beauty

Lady of the Lane

Le Petit Jardin De Liloo
London Beauty Queen
London Makeup Girl

Makeupsavvy

Makeuploveer

Mizz Worthy

Miss Ellie

Of Faces and Fingers

Perectly Polished

Reallyree

So Far So Chic
Sparkle and Shade
Vex In The City
Wande's World


(I didn't get an email with the links, so this list was taken from Lillian Lows blog - hope you don't mind lovely Lillian)

Keep on running

Hello :)

I'm back... sort of. I've decided to broaden things out so as well as posts on make up and beauty, you'll be seeing a bit more about my running/training for my 10k, my love of organisation (hello planner p*rn) and a few of the other things that pop into my head.

Today, something utterly terrifying arrived....

I am now nothing but a number! A terrified, quaking in her boots sort of number. I'll admit that I've not been the most disciplined person in the world with my training (partially my own fault and partially because I've been plauged with injury and illness over the last couple of months) so the thought of running 10k in a little over 2 weeks fills me with fear.

However, there is hope in this dark, dark tunnel. What is this hope? Today I ran a personal best. Not only did I run a personal best, I ran a negative split (for a easy to understand explaination of negative splits see this post by the most excellent Oh She Glows - also, if you don't already read her blog, go and do it! It'll change your life)

What was this personal best, I hear you cry! Well, it looks something like this:

Distance: 4km
Time: 25:56

Km 1: 5:51
Km 2: 6:35
Km 3: 6:35
Km 4: 5:30


I have never run 4km - the closest I've come is 3.58km and that took me 25:57 - today I was 1 second faster but ran 0.42km more :D


Finally, I'll leave you with a little list of what's spurring me on in my running at the moment:

• Oh She Glows
• My Nike+ Sportsband - the nifty little gadget that tells me how far I've run and how fast!
• The mantra "You are stronger than you think"
• The extremely generous and lovely people who've sponsored me (which you can do here if you feel that way inclined!)
• Being reminded how awesome the medical advancements are in Cystic Fibrosis treatment at the moment - it's awesome to see my husband and sister in law getting such excellent treatment
• The terrifying prospect of not completing the run in under 2 hours and therefore not getting an official chip time!

Are any of you runners? What tips do you have? Who or what is inspiring you in your running at the moment?