Be a Cannes Goddess with Mary Kay

One of the world's largest direct sellers of skin care and colour cosmetics; Mary Kay Cosmetics is setting off to Cannes Film Festival on the 21st May 2012 where they will be a Kep Launch Party Sponsor for Ronan Keating’s very first film, Goddess, starring Laura Michelle Kelly. 

The story features a young English mum, Elspeth Dickens (Laura Michelle Kelly), who is stuck in a remote farmhouse in southern Australia with her energetic twin toddlers whilst her marine scientist husband, James (Ronan Keating), is away saving whales in the Antarctic. Lonely and isolated, she installs a webcam over her kitchen sink and sings her funny little songs about domestic drudgery to the worldwide web. But when she becomes an Internet sensation, Elspeth has to choose between fame and family – or risk losing it all.

Both Ronan Keating and Laura Michelle Kelly are travelling to Cannes to present the film on May 21st – a photo call with the film’s stars will be followed by a unique ‘Yummy Mummy’ parade along Cannes’ most famous boulevard (La Croisette), featuring ladies in vibrant costumes from the film and glamorously groomed with make-up courtesy of Mary Kay, and in true Epiphannie fashion, i am going to try and recreate their looks.

Not because I have to or because I'm getting paid to or sponsored (but hey if they were willing, I'm over here *waves frantically*)

Laura Michelle Kelly will be using Mary Kay’s new Spring colours and classics at all her official events including the photo call, launch party and press interviews at Cannes so it's going to be about vibrant eyes, a fresh face and insanely sultry eyes next week.

You have been warned!!

 Mary Kay will be tweeting the looks, tricks and tips from their top on-site make up artist, as well as offering the chance to win some of their products including Lash Love Mascara and Café au Lait NouriShine Plus™ Lip Gloss in online competitions, so if you are already bored of waiting for my giveaway to end. Then check out their competitions starting on Monday

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Eau du Smoke: Sweet Summer

I really love pulling makeup inspirations from requests. I think it brings about a different pace to the blog and really gets me thinking about what looks I am able to do well and what i need to work on. This weeks makeup looks are all going to be based on the classic makeup look that is the smokey eye and it's all because of Fiona, the blogger behind Love Your Tresses.

Love Your Tresses is a London Based blog all about embracing and nurturing your hair and building a healthy hair routine. Fiona's Blog documents her personal journey to get healthier hair and is rammed full of hair advice, regimes, recipes and easy to do hair styles. Love Your Tresses is a great online stop off if you want to pick up practical hints and tips on how to manage hair; relaxed or natural.

Fiona made me pull a 'First' on Epiphannie A. She originally asked me to do a simple dark smokey eye and then a simple green and gold smokey eye look; both of which I had never really done on my blog, but also to do a step-by-step picture tutorial on how I did the look. Today is the last of Fiona's Eau du Smoke Inspirational looks and it is ending on a brighter and summery vibe compared to Mondays and Wednesdays look.

Eyes

NARS Cream Eyeshadow Duo in Burnt in Blue

Illamasqua Eyeshadow Pigment in Marvel
Barry M Dazzledust in Irridescent Gold 27
MAC Eyeshadow in Texture
MAC Eyeshadow in
MAC Eyeshadow in 

L'oreal Paris Superliner in Carbon gloss

MUA Cosmetics Eyeliner in Black

1. Start off with a clean and primed eye

2. Apply a sparkly teal cream eyeshadow (NARS Burnt in Blue - lighter shade) on the outer two/thirds of your eyelid, leaving the inner third free.

3. Take a flat brush, apply a yellow gold pigment (Illamasqua Eyeshadow Pigment in Marvel ) over the inner third of your eyelid that currently does not have anything on it

4. Taking a White gold or Silver Pigment (Barry M Dazzledust Pigment in Irridescent Gold 27) apply this to the over the gold pigment

5. Now apply a bright blue- teal eyeshadow (MAC Eyeshadow in ) all over your eye lid, making sure to blend into the gold combination pigment in the inner third of your eyelid

6. Taking a slightly darker blue eyeshadow (MAC Eyeshadow in ), work this shade lightly into your crease, blending outwards.

7. Taking another brush, take a teal cream eyeshadow (NARS Burnt in Blue - darker shade) and apply this to your lash line.

8. Go over this cream eyeshadow with a darker blue (MAC Eyeshadow in )

9. Lastly, thinly line your eyes with a black eyeliner and apply lashes and work in your highlight of choice (MAC Eyeshadow in Texture )

And there you have it!

Hope you love the looks and the pictorials I have done. Let me know if you think pictorials should play a permanent feature on my blog and please check out Love your Tresses

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Eau du Smoke: Petrol Black Smokey Eye

I really love pulling makeup inspirations from requests. I think it brings about a different pace to the blog and really gets me thinking about what looks I am able to do well and what i need to work on. This weeks makeup looks are all going to be based on the classic makeup look that is the smokey eye and it's all because of Fiona, the blogger behind Love Your Tresses.

Love Your Tresses is a London Based blog all about embracing and nurturing your hair and building a healthy hair routine. Fiona's Blog documents her personal journey to get healthier hair and is rammed full of hair advice, regimes, recipes and easy to do hair styles. Love Your Tresses is a great online stop off if you want to pick up practical hints and tips on how to manage hair; relaxed or natural.

Fiona has really got me pulling a 'First' on Epiphannie A. She has asked me not only to do dark smokey eyes (which suprisingly I haven't done yet) but also to do a step-by-step picture tutorial on how I do the loo. Fiona's Eau du Smoke Inspiration started on Monday with Smokey yet Simple, and today's look is the next look for the request inspiration.

Eyes

NYX Jumbo Pencil in Black

Barry M Dazzledust in Petrol Black 98

Bourjois Intense Extrait Eyeshadow in 05

MAC Eyeshadow in Wedge
MAC Eyeshadow in Carbon

L'oreal Paris Superliner in Carbon Gloss

MUA Cosmetics Eyeliner in Black

Preparation - I have already done my eyebrows and primed my eyelids with an eyeshadow primer.

1. Start off with a clean and primed eye.

2. Taking a flat shader brush, apply a dark base (NYX Jumbo Pencil in Black) your eyelid and blend the base all over your lid. ( If it looks a bit streaky, add a bit more as we DON'T want a streaky finish)

3. Taking a blending brush, take a dark green eyeshadow (Bourjois Intense Extrait in 05) and blend this into your crease and the outer corners of your eyes, in small circular motions.

4. Holding a flat shader brush horizontally against your outer lower lash line. gently dab the brush against the outermost portion of your lower lash line and carefully move this towards the inside of your eyes

5. Now pat a dark greenish black pigment (Barry M Dazzledust in Petrol Black 98) all over your eyelid. Blend this pigment slightly into your crease and into the corners to avoid any harsh lines.

6. Taking a doomed blending brush, apply a black eyeshadow (MAC eyeshadow in Carbon) to your inner vee to add some defintion to your eye.

7. Lastly, add your highlight colour  (MAC eyeshadow in Wedge)   of choice, line your eyes with a black eyeliner and apply lashes.

And there you have it. A Simple Petrol Black Look.

I think I'm slowly getting into the groove of these pictorials (see what I did there??) but what do you think of my look?? Fierce!!!!

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Eau du Smoke: Smokey yet Simple

I really love pulling makeup inspirations from requests. I think it brings about a different pace to the blog and really gets me thinking about what looks I am able to do well and what i need to work on. This weeks makeup looks are all going to be based on the classic makeup look that is the smokey eye and it's all because of Fiona, the blogger behind Love Your Tresses.


Love Your Tresses is a London Based blog all about embracing and nurturing your hair and building a healthy hair routine. Fiona's Blog documents her personal journey to get healthier hair and is rammed full of hair advice, regimes, recipes and easy to do hair styles. Love Your Tresses is a great online stop off if you want to pick up practical hints and tips on how to manage hair; relaxed or natural.


Fiona has really got me pulling a 'First' on Epiphannie A. She has asked me not only to do dark smokey eyes (which suprisingly I haven't done yet) but also to do a step-by-step picture tutorial on how I do the look *nervous scream*. I have never done a tutorial before so this has been very interesting to do looool but i love it because it gives you a chance to see the madness that goes on behind the looks i do. Fiona's Eau du Smoke Inspiration  is going to be running all week and will comprise of 3 looks; A simple smokey eye today, petrol black look on Wednesday and a summery smokey look on friday, so without further ado . . . Let's get smokey!!!

 Eyes

NYX Jumbo Pencil in Black

MAC Eyeshadow in Carbon

MAC Eyeshadow in Texture

MAC Eyeshadow in Ricepaper
MAC Eyeshadow in Black Tied

Barry M Dazzledust Pigment in Irridescent gold 27

L'oreal Paris Superliner in Carbon gloss

MUA Cosmetics Eyeliner in Black

Preparation - I have already done my eyebrows and primed my eyelids with an eyeshadow primer


1. Starting off with a clean eye,

2. Apply a dark base (NYX Jumbo Pencil in Black) on your eyelid. Taking a flat shader brush, blend the base all over your lid ( Add a bit more if it looks a bit streaky as we DON'T want a streaky finish)

3. Taking a small blending brush, apply a highlight eyeshadow (MAC Eyeshadow in Ricepaper) to the highest part of your brow bone, dragging your brush downwards and outwards.

4. Using the same brush, take a shade close to your skintone (MAC Eyeshadow in Texture) and blend downwards in a sweeping motion, stopping at your crease

5. Taking another blending brush, blend a black eyeshadow (MAC Eyeshadow in Carbon) all over your eye lid and into your crease. When applying the eye-shadow into your crease, it helps if you keep the brush at a 45 or so angle.

6 & 7. Taking a White gold or Silver Pigment (Barry M Dazzledust Pigment in Irridescent Gold 27) apply this to the middle of your lid and blend in

8. Now we are going to take a black eyeshadow with just a little bit of shimmer (MAC Eyeshadow in Black Tied) and blend this over the white gold pigment into the eyelid.

9. Lastly, line your eyes with a black eyeliner and apply lashes.

Et Voila!!

Hope you like my first ever step-by-step-tutorial, do you think this should be a regular feature on my blog?

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Nude it Down, featuring Make Up Academy Cosmetics

I don't ever really do any nude or neutral looks on my blog, because I honestly find them a bit difficult to do . . . . well difficult in comparison to working with colours.

Colour matching darker skin tones is a bit difficult as there is all those brown, red and yellow undertones just hiding under the skin and frankly I just can not be bothered to neutral looks because I never think it comes out right. Nevertheless, I'm going to be  . . . "attempting" . . . to be doing a nude brown smokey eye using a few of the Makeup Academy (MUA) Pearl and Matte Single Eyeshadows.

Makeup Academy is a good quality, low priced cosmetics brand currently based online or in Superdrug stores Nationwide. With their core collection only costing £1 and their pro collection never going over £15, MUA cosmetics is definetly a brand to stock up on, as you will not be breaking the bank. For this look, I am really trying to keep it simple but I just couldn't resist adding a sly pop of colour.

Eyebrows

MUA Eyeshadow Pencil in Brunette

Eyes

Browbone and Eyelid - MUA Eyeshadow in Shade 17, Matt

Crease - MUA Eyeshadow in Shade 11, Pearl

Vee - MUA Eyeshadow in Shade 19, Matt
Eyeliner - MUA Eyeliner in Black

Lips

MUA Lipstick in Shade 1

Who says a pretty face has to cost an arm and a leg????

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Recreation of BeautybyJJ's "Eyes like Candy"

Everyone knows Jennie.

Apart from being an absolute sweetheart, she's one of the few dark skinned British makeup Youtube Guru's posting beauty and makeup reviews on the world wide web . . . and she's a stunner. One of her most recent makeup looks 'Eyes like Candy', is a super pretty pink, wine and gold-bronze look that is quite soft yet very captivating.

Now while I am recreating her look, it will NOT be exactly the same as hers because 1,  we have COMPLETELY different eye shapes; Jennie's eyes are almond shaped while mine are very round, and 2, I won't be using the same products as Jennie used Inglot eyeshadows and I have used a mixture of MAC, Illamasqua and whatever else I managed to dig out.

 Eyebrows

MAC Stud

HD Brow Palette in Vamp

Eyes

Eyelid - Urban Decay Half Baked (Urban Decay Palette)

Crease - MAC Cranberry

Inner VEE - Mixture of Illamasqua Eyeshadow in Savage and MAC Stars 'n' Rockets

Outer VEE - MAC Beauty Marked

Eyeliner - MUA Eyeliner in Black

Liquid Eyeliner - L'oreal Super Liner in Carbon Gloss

Eyelashes - Miss Adoro in #600

Mascara - Rimmel Scandal Eyes Volume Eyes

Cheeks

Illamasqua Cream Blush in Betray

Sleek Contour Kit in Dark

Lips

Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Liner in Epic

MAC Jubilee

Revlon Colorburst Lipgoss in Rosegold

I did this look almost exactly the same way she did hers (taking considerations for our different eye shapes) but I made my cheeks and lips a bit warmer than how she wore hers. I hope you like it and if you do leave me a comment

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Rae of Sunshine: Just a pop of Yellow

This week's looks are all based around a request from Pelumi-Rae, owner, creator and writer for Care For Your Hair.

Care For You Hair is a great Hair blog all about embracing and caring for natural hair, so if any of you are thinking about going natural, already rocking natural hair or just want a few pointers on organic hair products and concoctions, then Pelumi-Rae is a girl you want to schmooze up to.

Now Pelumi-Rae asked me to do a Yellow eye inspired look and I really did have to rack my brains on what to do as I don't actually ever wear yellow *flashback of wearing yellow and chased by bees . . . shudders*. So to hopefully encompass everything about this bright, bubbly colour, I am going to posting three different looks this week.  All yellow yet all slightly different from each other. This is the last look for this inspiration but please do check out the looks for Monday and Wednesday.

For this last and final look, I thought I should do something a little different and play with spicing up a nude eye with just a pop of colour. I think think this is a great way to add just a little bit of oclour to your look without it being overwhelming.

The ground work for this look is just about adding to your everyday neutral eye look. This can be done with neutral eyeshadow on or without. It is your prerogative. I placed Illamasqua's Cream Eyeshadow in Linger all over my eyelid. Keeping it simple, I then added MAC's Bisque to my eyelid and my brow highlight. MAC's Texture went on my browbone and crease with MAC's handwritten lightly blended over my outer vee. Applying a thin strip of fixing gel to my eyes winging out the gel in the corners of my eyes, I then placed Illamasqua's Pigment in Marvel over the fixing gel and Voila!!! An easy pop of colour to a neutral look.

Eyes

Base - Illamasqua Cream Eyeshadow in Linger

Browbone Highlight - MAC Bisque

Browbone - Texture

Crease - MAC Handwritten

Eyelid - MAC Bisque

Eyeliner - Illamasqua Pigment in Marvel

Fixing Gel - Helen E Fixing Gel

Eyelashes - Miss Adoro #600

This is the last look of the Rae of Sunshine and I hope you guys loved the yellow inspiration. I think I actually have a new respect for the shade yellow . . . I'm not saying it is my new favourite colour but I think I've warmed up to it. So tell me, how has this weeks looks been for you?

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Rae of Sunshine: Mellow Yellow

This week's looks are all based around a request from Pelumi-Rae, owner, creator and writer for Care For Your Hair.

Care For You Hair is a great Hair blog all about embracing and caring for natural hair, so if any of you are thinking about going natural, already rocking natural hair or just want a few pointers on organic hair products and concoctions, then Pelumi-Rae is a girl you want to schmooze up to.

Now Pelumi-Rae asked me to do a Yellow eye inspired look and I really did have to rack my brains on what to do as I don't actually ever wear yellow *flashback of wearing yellow and chased by bees . . . shudders*. So to hopefully encompass everything about this bright, bubbly colour, I am going to posting three different looks this week. All yellow yet all slightly different from each other. I posted the first look on Monday, but make sure to check back on Friday for the last look.


After the bright colours in Monday's Rae of Sunshine: Sunset Look, I thought I should tone it down just a tad and do something that can be worn everyday. This look is really, really easy and mixes yellow and brown to make a really flattering, sunny look.

 I started off with Illamasqua's Cream Eyeshadow in Linger as my base covering my eye from lid to browbone and NYX Jumbo Pencil in Yellow was popped onto my lid. With this look I'm starting from the browbone and worked my way downwards. Using MUA's Eyeshadow in 17 Matte Pearl as my brow-highlight, I blended this downwards and then using the same brush, applied MAC's texture in between the browbone and crease to act as a transition. Placing  MAC's Chromeyellow all over my eyelid,  I went into my crease and Vee with MAC's handwritten taking care to make sure that I blended this dark brown into my yellow eyeshadow as well as my Texture eyeshadow transition. MAC's fluidline is Blacktrack and a pair of eyelashes finished off this look.

 

Eyes

Base - Illamasqua Cream Eyeshadow in Linger
Eyelid Base - NYX Jumbo Pencil in Yellow
Eyelid - MAC Chromeyellow

Crease - MAC Handwritten

Transition - MAC Texture

Browbone - Make Up Academy Eyeshadow in 17 Matte Pearl

Eyeliner - MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack

Now if this look isn't yellow enough I really do not know what is! I think this might have been what Pelumi-Rae had in mind when she asked me to do yellow, Is this yellow enough for you?

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