Match Your Skin Tone.

As you will know there are millions of different shades of lipstick, gloss and tint out there. You will also know, not every shade out their will suit you. Therefore this is a guide to what shades you should think about looking at, depending on your skin tone.

Super Pale

What to try: If you have super pale skin try going nude. Think peachy lipsticks and nude coloured glosses. If your wanting a really glam look with major impact, try a pure red lipstick.

What to avoid: Dark chocolate and burgundy shades, they're too contrasting with your pale skin.

Super Dark

What to try: Anything goes with darker complexions…lucky girls. Try orange or coral shades for a fun pop of colour and don't forget to load up on the gloss to showcase your full lips. Yes, everyone will be jealous, but that's kind of the point, right?

What to avoid: Stay away from milky or chalky colors with a lot of white in them because they're too contrasting, unless you're going for a mod 60s look.

Olive Toned Skin

What to try: If you have olive-toned skin (think Hispanic, Italian, Greek) then pretty much anything will look absolutely lovely on you. For a really amazing look, try coral lipstick…so hot right now.

What to avoid: There are some shades you should steer clear of. First of all, purple, it'll accentuate the yellow undertones in your skin and give you a sallow look. Secondly, brown, it can look too monochromatic. 


Yellow Undertones

What to try: Blue-based reds are perfect when you want to really dress up. Flesh tones with gloss are gorgeous for this skin tone. You can also try bronze shades for a somewhat monochromatic look.

What to avoid: Stay away from purple, it'll bring out the yellow in your skin and can make you look sickly. It also goes for anyone with yellowish teeth.

Pink undertones

What to try: Try peach tones for a softer look or orange based or brick reds for a classic pin-up girl look.

What to avoid: Blue-based reds will clash with your skin tone.

Tip: If possible always try a lipstick before buying, and also look at it in natural light, rather then in artificial lights. Trust me…the artificial lights around most make up counters make a lot of difference to the colour of products, specifically lipstick and foundation.

Tip: Brush lips with a toothbrush, this will gently exfoliate and promote circulation in the lips, causing temporary plumping. The enhance this effect apply lip balm such as vaseline, to your toothbrush before hand. 

Tip: If your wanting to make your lips look fuller, then avoid dark lipsticks or glosses. They can make your lips looks smaller. Instead, choose a lighter shade to give the illusion of fullness. Also, pick lipsticks with shinier finishes or apply gloss over the top. Shine reflects light, making lips look even bigger.

Tip: Applying a highlighter, white pencil, or a line of concealer a shade or two lighter then your skin tone to your cupids bow only, will give the illusion of fuller lips. Remember to blend in lightly.

Know Your True Colours.

The easiest way to make your eyes stand out is to use complementary shades of eye shadow that work best with your specific colour. It may come as a surprise, but you should not wear the exact same colour eye shadow as your eye colour, for example; bight blue eyes and a bright blue eyeshadow.

Here are some general guidelines:

For brown eyes, try pale greens or blues. This helps bring out the warm tones in your brown eyes and makes them appear richer. Use darker jewel tones, like dark plum, for a smoky and sultry look.

TRY THESE COLOUR COMBOS:

- Brown, beige, tan 


(make sure non of these brown colours are the same exact colour to your eyes)

- Gray, charcoal 


- Khaki, olive green, mocha 


- Bronze, gold 


- Violet, lavender, blue

For green eyes, use pink tones and reddish-berry shades for daytime wear and shimmering bronze and ruby shades for evening. The contrast of the reddish shades against the green of the eyes will make the colour of your eyes sparkle.

TRY THESE COLOUR COMBOS:

- Gold, bronze, copper 


- Brown, chocolate, mustard yellow 


- Peach, beige, champagne, taupe, apricot 


- Plum, mauve, purple, violet, pink

- 
Deep and mossy green shades 

(make sure non of theses green colours are the same exact colour to your eyes)

For blue eyes, try peach and orange shades for daytime wear and copper tones and burnt orange shades for evening shimmer. These complementary shades will make the blue of your eyes radiant.

TRY THESE COLOUR COMBOS:

- Pink, rose, violet, lavender 


- Gray, silver, copper 


- Dark blue, light blue, turquoise 

(make sure non of these blue colours are the same exact colour to your eyes)

- 
Charcoal, black, brown

TIP: Everyone's eye colour is different; a good idea is to shop where you can try out a few different shades of colours in the same families, allowing you to find the perfect match for you.

Accentuating Your Best Features.

The key to creating any amazing makeup look is to really focus on those features you really love. Whether that’s your lip, eyes or cheekbones, there are different ways to help you make these areas really stand out, allowing you to look and feel incredible. Therefore, I thought over the next couple of posts I would write about just how you can highlight these areas perfectly, giving little hints and tips that I have learnt myself, been showed, or read about.

Here are a few basic makeup tips...

Eyes; If you have great eyes, I’d say half the war has already been decided in your favour. However, you need to do your bit to draw attention to your lovely eyes. Begin by choosing a nice shade of eye shadow – one that compliments the colour of your eyes. Define your eyes by giving shape to your eyebrows and as a final touch use a mascara to give your eyelashes a sharper look.

Lips; Plump, pouty, inviting, Angelina-Jolie kinds of lips are oh-so-desirable! To keep them looking forever luscious invest in a lip balm with sunscreen. Keep your lips constantly moisturised. If you aren’t too much into lipstick, use gloss. For those that have no such inhibitions, there’s a virtually endless range of lip colours out there. Although you might think the bold, Las-Vegas showgirl lips are what turn guys on; I have it on authority those subtle shades of pinks and glossy peaches that are also considered very sexy.

Rosy Cheeks; Rosy cheeks aren’t just adorable in kids. Guys really like a well-defined jawbone, provided you’ve highlighted them with a blusher. For best results, don’t use the brushes that come with the blusher kits. Opt for the big brush instead. Now smile and rub the blusher onto the apples of your cheeks using upward strokes. Add a little shimmer over the blusher to go from beautiful to gorgeous – an unbeatable way to accentuate your best features.

Skin; If you’ve got lovely, soft, healthy, pink, clear and supple skin, you’re going to save a lot of money on all the cosmetics you would have had to buy. What most people are trying to achieve with makeup you have naturally. Which means you don’t have to worry about concealer or foundation - a freedom that very few us can claim to have. If you’ve got great skin, use makeup sparingly, probably for the eye if you have to, but let the beauty speak for itself.

And here are a few non makeup tips...

Hair; Women with lovely hair feel that leaving it open is the only way to show it off to its best advantage. While I won’t argue that it is one of the better ways, there are a variety of tricks you could use to highlight it. For instance, you could try experimenting with simple, yet interesting hairstyles and updos, tutorials for which are freely available on Youtube. If you’d like to keep it a little simple, you could also use hair accessories, clips, bands, beads, and scarves to draw attention to your crowning glory.

Legs; If you’ve got the kind of legs that would put a stilt-walker to shame, use it to your advantage. Guys go ga-ga over legs. Draw their eyes to yours by wearing a mini-skirt or a pair of shorts with sexy heels or mid-calf boots. For those on a slightly more conservative side, you could use skinny jeans and leggings. They are great ways to accentuate your best features.

Cleavage; Remember the episode where Phoebe describes Monica as having “breasts of a Greek goddess”? Well, if you have an amazing bust line and cleavage, you are already desirable to the opposite sex. And to pull them in like magnets, emphasize your cleavage with V-shaped necks. The more plunging they are the better, except you would want to stop where they make you look obscene. Use a good push up bra to perk up those assets and to make those boys go even wilder pick a silk or satin top.

False Lash Effect.

L'Oréal Paris -

Telescopic False Lash Effect Mascara

I think I have just found my Holy Grail mascara!!!

L’Oreal’s Telescopic False Lash Effect mascara is basically an improved version of their original Telescopic mascara, promising to make it look like you're wearing falsies by 'elongating lashes as if beyond their tips'.  Stretching every lash for an intense look, this sounded like the perfect mascara for me, as I prefer to have very bold, fluttery eyelashes!

This mascara comes packaged as a slim, mirrored silver tube that resembles a telescope: pretty cool, but a nightmare to photograph!  It comes in Magnetic Black or Hypnotic Brown and of course I went for the black version, due it begin in my opinion more dramatic. The wand is quite skinny and flexible with little bristles designed to catch every single lash.  I tend to prefer these types of wands, as I find really big oversized wands just end up putting more products on my eyelid then on my eyelashes.

This mascara is just amazing! It makes my eyelashes unbelivably long and luscious. I have had so many commenting on my eyelashes whilst wearing this, and some people have even asked what false lashes I’m using because they look so dramatic, but so natural at the same time. They were truly stunned when I explained I was only wearing L’Oreal mascara. Another bonus of this mascara is that it doesn’t smudge, nor is it a pain to wash off. It also doesn’t irritate my very sensitive eyes.

Overall, I love this mascara. In my opinion it gives any high-end mascara a good run for its money!!!