Find Your Perfect Foundation Shade

Black Up Cosmetics recently sent me some samples of their Full Coverage Cream Foundation, and I wanted to sit down in front of a camera and show you how I would would go about finding my perfect foundation shade in a sea of foundation samples.

It is debatable how you find your colour shade. Some people swatch the cheek while other swatch the neck, neither way is wrong and is completely dependent on the makeup user, the only thing that matters is that your neck and face has to blend seamlessly. Personally I prefer to swatch on my cheek because that is what I am more comfortable doing (and I find the notion of swatching my neck at a makeup counter a bit odd)

Choosing 3 shades that I think have the highest possibility of matching my skintone, I try to find natural light; as dark lighting or coloured lighting might alter the true colour of the foundation, and if that involves me cracking open a window or walking out of Selfridges with a mirror in tow I WILL DO IT!!!! When I think I've found my perfect shade, I then apply it all over my neck and chest to see if it blends in seamlessly or if it looks a bit too pale or copper toned.

In this case, out of the 3 shades, Black Up's Full Coverage Foundation in No.11 (aka the middle swatch) is the best match for me and I think I'm going to go pick this up on my next stop to Oxford Circus. If you want to have a go at finding your perfect foundation shade without leaving the comfort of your chair, Black Up Cosmetics actually offer a foundation samples package which includes a sample of every foundation colour in their range. 

How do you go about find your best foundation shade? 

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FOTN : Coral Vibes at Caspers

Last Saturday night, I defied my usual lazy girl tendencies and actually exchanged my bed and fluffy socks for a bodycon dress and stiletto heels for my friend's 23rd birthday. I haven't been out in what seems like forever so I found myself running around trying to find a dress and an adhesive bar (ASOS & my premier account is my saviour)

I decided to keep my look a lot lighter and coral than my normal "smokey eye uniform" just because I felt it would go better with my electric green Aqua dress. I mean let's face it, how on earth do you colour match your makeup to a bright pastel green dress????

I don't even wear pastel green!

Using my Illamasqua Cream Eyeshadow in Linger; a light brown shadow that works as a natural base, I applied this all over my eye, blending it in with my finger. Using a fluffy eye blending brush I applied MAC Texture just above my crease to act as a transition colour. MAC Woodwinked was then placed on the inner 2/3rds of my eye and transitioned into MAC Twinks. For my crease and outer vee I used a mixture of MAC Folie and MAC Carbon and finished everything off with my favourite liquid eyeliner (which FYI is L'oreal Paris' Super Liner in Black Vinyl) on my lid and Collection 2000 Kohl Pencil in Black on my waterline.

Quite a simple look but I just love how it gave my eyes a lot more definition. I think I might just have made my Bambi eyes a little bit cat-shaped *pats self on back*

I really hope you like this look. If you do please love it on Baobella (so I can win a makeup course *crosses fingers*)

Vote For This Look on Baobella!!!

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My Makeup/Vanity Table Layout

I've been a decent blogger but a pretty crap Youtuber so Im trying to create a bit of balance and will be posting to me youtube channel Beauty By a Disneyvore every week . . . probably on a wednesday or thursday.

Today's video is a view of my makeup collection. I've recently gotten into the habit of giving away products I don't use off my desk to create more space for me to manoeuvre around because my typewriter takes up a LOT of space but enough chatting WATCH THE VIDEO!!!!

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Makeup Look:- Bronzed & Twinkling

I though I'd share a little picture of myself as I'm getting ready to hit up a late night viewing of Batman and I've managed to do my makeup almost 3 hours too early due to sheer boredom.

Eyes:-

Illamasqua Cream Eyeshadow in Linger

MAC Eyeshadow in Ricepaper

MAC Eyeshadow in Bronze

MAC Eyeshadow in Twinks

MAC Eyeshadow in Folie

MAC Studio Fix +

MAC Eyeshadow in Embark

MUA Cosmetics Eyeliner in Jet Black

New Cid Cosmetics Mascara in i-flutter

L'oreal Paris Mega Collagen 24hr Mascara

Face:-

MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NW45

MAC Studio Fix Powder in NW45

MAC Select Cover Up Concealer in NW40

Sleek Blush Trio in Sugar ( Mixture of Muscovado & Turbinado)

Sleek Contour Kit in Dark

Lips:-

MAC Lipstick in Jubilee - 

Revlon Colorburst Lipgloss in Strawberry (006) 

MAC Lipglass in Spite

It's very different for the bright looks that I normally post on my blog (not that I've done so for a while) but as it's just a trip to the cinema and I'm going to be in the dark stuffing my face with popcorn, I thought I should go a bit easy on the greens and blues.

I am really in love with this look, just because it's so warm and neutral and very different from what I normally do as it looks very Kelly Rowland Inspired; and I am soooo in love with Kelly Rowland.

What do you think about this look? Do you see the unintended Kelly Rowland inspiration? I would love some feedback, so please leave a comment below.

I'm off to see Batman: The Dark Knight Rises but click here for a full list of products I used.

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Ybf beauty is back on QVC

I always thought shopping on QVC was an American thing that never crossed over the channel until my last year in uni when I found the QVC channel during a round of insomnia.

I have found some great brands (and learnt a few tricks) from the brands and makeup artists that get featured on the channel and right now there is a big buzz on ybf beauty coming back to QVC UK.

 Founded by former international FORD Model Stacey Schiefflin, ybf beauty has been forging a reputation as a brand for anyone who wants to learn the tips, tricks & trade secrets that Stacey has picked up backstage from the true professionals at runway shows like Dior, YSL and Vogue

 Stacey’s signature style is to start off every hour of her show bare face and her hair in rollers – so it is a lot like watching a youtube tutorial, as you get to go through each product application and transformation step-by-step.

Who can resist the rubies?

ybf beauty is hosting four 1 hour shows to mark its return to the
UK with a major premier on QVC scheduled for
the today (the 3^rd) at 2pm & 9pm, and tomorrow (the 4^th of July) at 1pm & 5pm

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Mermaidness

Today's look is a bit of a random one, as it is the last look I did before I chopped off my hair, so if you are thinking I thought this chick's hair is gone . . it has . .this is look was just done the day before the big chop.

I've really been racking my brains on what to call this look. I really get an exotic fishie look from this, so I thought instead of calling it 'exotic fishie' *my post title puns are really hitting the bottom of the barrel today* or mermaidness *a mixture of mermaid and randomness* . . . I thought I should go for mermaidness. After all who doesn't like mermaids???

Brows

Browliner:- MAC Stud

Brow Powder:- HD Brow Palette in Vamp

Eyes

Highlight:- MAC Eyeshadow in Wedge

Base:- NARS Burnt in Blue (darker shade)

Eyelid (1/3) - MAC Eyeshadow in Steamy

Eyelid (2/3) - MAC Eyeshadow in Blue Calm

Crease:- Mixture of MAC Eyeshadow in Submarine and Helen E Eyeshadow in Dark Blue

Vee:- MAC Eyeshadow in Carbon

Tearduct: - Illamasqua Eyeshadow Pigment in Marvel

Bottom Lashline:- Helen E Eyeshadow in Dark Blue

Eyeline:- Makeup Academy (MUA) eyeliner in Black

Hope you like this look and let me know if you do or don't  . . Remember Feedback is key :)

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Beauty by a Disneyvore: Confessions

Noone ever takes me seriously when I first tell them I'm a disneyvore. I don't know if it is because they don't think the phenomenon actually exists or maybe they believe it just seems like an elaborate excuse for me to explain my fussy eating habits or maybe it just astounds them just how deep the effects of cartoons can play on a child over imaginative psyche, as I'm not a vegetarian and I kinda would eat anything you give me as long as I didn't have to buy or cook it.

Disneyvore is a term coined exclusively for me by a former colleague of mine to explain my eating behaviours. A disneyvore is basically someone who point-blank refuses to eat any animal that has appeared in a Disney movie or cartoon. So no munching on . . . .

Crabs ---> Sebestian

Colour Fish  ---> Flounder/Nemo

Venison ---> Bambi

Rabbit ---> Thumper

You get the idea right??

So yes,  I do know it is a really weird thing to be and I might just possibly be alone in my plight, but I actually have a very good reason behind this.

When I was a kid (I'm talking about 5/6), I was soooo in love with Disney movies! I just couldn't get enough of them. My favourite by far had to be the Little Mermaid. I love the songs, the characters and even slightly wished I was a mermaid. I was super obsessed with this movie and probably watched it day after day, for months on end. One day, my gran was babysitting me and it was lunch time, now there I was being all angelic sitting on the dinning room table, when she put down a crab in front on me. Now I don't know how my little mind made this connection but I was horrified. My grannie wanted me to eat Sebestian . . .that was practically murder!!!!!

How could she murder my favourite Caribbean-singing friend and expect me to eat his boiled and seasoned remains. It just wasn't right! Needless to say I didn't eat it and spend the rest of the evening balling my eyes out and my poor grannie couldn't figure out what set me off, all she could get of me was 'That's Sebestain' and 'I can't eat Sebestian' and she didn't know who the hell Sebestian was until my mum came home and told her. Anyway from that day, I have been super anti-crab and it turns out after the years ran on, I was anti a lot of other food. I know it's super weird but anytime I think of eating anything like Venison or Crab, I see a little cartoon character on my plate, I literally feel that I am causing a cartoon character IMMENSE pain (yes, I am very empathic) and it makes me feel a bit sick.

Now the reason I have gone into this story (apart from educating you on how weird I am) is to introduce the launch of my Youtube channel 'Beauty by a Disneyvore'. I know I have been putting off doing a channel and all but I have finally pushed myself and VOILA!!!! I am still trying to figure out how to edit the first set of videos (it takes sooooo long!!) so hold tight looool

So check it out and please subscribe.

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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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EOTD - Dark and Lovely

This is my version of a dark smokey eye using a combination on my MAC, Illamasqua and Urban Decay eyeshadows. I tried to make this look as soft as possibly by using MAC Black Tied on my lid instead of MAC Carbon, and used Carbon as a outline crease colour. Finally I used the Naked and Virgin eyeshadows from my Naked Palette on my brow bone and tied it all together with MAC Handwritten on my upper crease.

 Base - Illamasqua Malevolent Cream Eyeshadow

Lid - MAC Black Tied

Crease - MAC Carbon

Upper Crease - MAC Handwritten

Brow-bone - Urban Decay Virgin and Naked (Naked Palette) 

Lips - Revlon Colorburst Lipgloss

Blush - MAC Format

Eyebrows - MUA Eyebrow Pencil in Brunette

I think it turned out very well looool what do you think??

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Goodies from a Blog Sale

Early last week, Maria Sparkle had a blog sale and I picked up a few things that I really liked. Apart from the 2 O.P.I Nail polishes in Pearls Night Out and Text me, text you and I also picked up  . . .

URBAN DECAY'S NAKED PALETTE!!!!

 The colours don't really look used, but you can tell sin, sidecare, half baked, virgin have been used a little more than the other palette colours but I really don't mind in the slightest.

Since I have got my sticky fingers on this velvet cased beauty, I will be doing a sanitary post showing you how I sanitize eyeshadows (not that there's anything wrong with Maria of course) but it really is something that is worth making a post about.

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Blushing it up with Topshop . . .

I've never been one for buying retail-store owned beauty products, but I think Topshop's new beauty range might actually reform me. I actually don't know what even inspired me to buy these products as I am normally seriously biased against these products, because most of them are either seriously chalky, have ZERO wearing power or just don't show up on dark skin!! However the blushes I swatched from the Topshop make-up counter all showed up on my skin so I decided to give it a go.

Cheeks in Ray and Crushed Berry Blushes

The blushes ('Cheeks in Ray' and 'Crushed Berry'), I've picked out are both part of the Topshop Core Collection which is designed as a wearable everyday collection and I personally think the products stands by this statement. I absolutely love the Cheeks in Ray and have used it almost every day this week as a highlighter. I love the warm golden glow it brings to my skin, makes me look like I've actually spent sometime in the sun this summer

Cheeks in Ray

Cheeks in Ray with Packaging

Cheeks in Ray - Swatches

I love the colour of this cream blush. When I swatched it on my hand, I could still see the blush swatch almost 5 hours later. I  haven't actually used the Crushed berry yet, simply because I don't have a brush to apply this blush and I'm waiting on an e.l.f stipple brush to come  back in stock

Crushed Berry in Packaging

Crushed Berry

Crushed Berry Swatch - Looks more vibrant in reality

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Searching High and Low for the Perfect Liquid Eyebrow Pen

So there I was, at the library, supposed to be doing my dissertation on the Sexual Harassment of men (Yes, this is my dissertation topic, and Noooo, im not a sociology student, Im a Business Student,  . .but yh moving on) and I suddenly remebered I needed a new eyebrow pen,and read a blog review about liquid eyebrow pens and I thought I might as well try them out as they are supposed to be easier to use that a pencil and better still I don't need to look around for my sharpener every time by pencil gets blunt. But lordy these products are ridiculously hard to find! Despite a 2 hour on-line search, I only found two available in the UK

The first Eyebrow Liquid Eyebrow pen I found was by SUQQO's Liquid Pen R. (rrp £20) Suqqo decribes this eyebrow pen as 'Water and oil resistant' and that it can last a WHOLE day without smudging and also 'helps to define the eyebrows and enhance natural shape'. To be honest I was so set on buying this pen . . until I saw the 2 shade colours that this pen comes in  . .  . green and brown (¬_¬) . . . who the hell wears green on their eyebrows and excuse me but that brown looks fairly green too. *HEARTBREAK*.Now I could buy this pen in brown and pray that it comes out in a usable colour but let's face it . . I'm a student . . . and I don't want to waste what little money I have on a product that might not suit me The second eyebrow pen up for discussion tonight is Mac's Penultimate Eyebrow Marker. MAC promise that this pen-style maker will give 'well-defined,natural looking finish',  provides precision with its 'tapered tip' and it is fast drying so you don't have to fan your eyebrows before you can move on with the rest of your make-up. Now this product only comes in one colour - "Universal", which is a dark brown colour which is great as that is actually the colour I am searching for when it comes to my eyebrows (One shade lighter than your natural hair colour and all that jazz). Now out of the two, it is a little obvious that I am going to get MAC Eyebrow Marker and I will be putting up a mini review on this product very, very soon Kisses for now Epiphannie

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Perfectly Tinted View . . . .

Summer is (finally) here signalling a change of my make-up regime and this year I've decided upgrade my regime and try  something new. Now normally I use a Maybelline's dream matte mousse in the summertime, because its so light and feels quite nice on my skin, unfortunately its not really the right shade for me and often makes me look quite monotone (if I can even use that word in this way), but it is a matte foundation so I guess its doing its job.

Keeping with my foundation theme of light-weight and light-coverage, I have decided to go with a tinted moisturiser this summer, which in my shade (I am Afro-British by the way, NW45) is quite difficult to find in the UK as it still doesn't full cater to its Afro-community in terms of cosmetology,despite this (major hindrance) I am going to do a quick quick quick wishlist of the tinted moisturisers I want to get this summer and I promise to do a review of them, once I get them

1) Elf Tinted Moisturiser in Espresso/Mocha (rrp £3.50)

I have heard mixed reviews about this product, but I can't fully rate this product until I've had the chance to review it myself, and at £3.50, even if I don't like it, I'm not exactly breaking the bank

2) Black-up Complexion Oil Free (rrp £24.50)

I just recently found out about Black up cosmetics, during a random search of the Debenhams' website, so I can't wait to try this product out lool I will probably do a FULL review of this product when (and if) I get this

3) Smash-box Sheer Focus Tinted Moisturiser in Dark (rrp £22.95)

This looks very light on-line so I need to go down to my nearest smash-box counter and see if the colour looks much nicer in person

4) Clinique Moisture Surge Tinted Moisturiser in Shade 6 (I think) (rrp £21)

 I absolutely love Clinique, and this product promises to offer a decent amount of coverage, so lets hope it lives up to its promise

5) Bobbi Brown SPF 15 Tinted Moisturiser in Deep Tint (rrp £27)

What can I say about Bobbi Brown, she definitely know something about Make-up but I don't normally buy her products as I find them high priced and as I'm only using this for a few months, I won't purchase this product unless it trumps the previous moisturisers

Kudos

Epiphannie x x

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