cat Archives - Irish Beauty Blog Beautynook

Bargain Buying, Makeup Tutorial, Youtube Video

Makeup Tutorial New In Products!

I always say, don’t judge me for calling this a ‘makeup tutorial’, so I just want to begin with that statement, because I am well aware of my lack of major skills in the makeup department. It’s just a blanket statement and we understand what it means 🙂 Ok now that’s out of the way….

It’s been a minute since I sat down in front of the camera and just did a face. So I wanted to do just that. I have been lucky enough to receive some products from PR over the last couple of weeks that are really decent too. So how did I incorporate them? By doing a ‘makeup tutorial’ with some new in products, genius.

For the most part I used new products, I did have to throw in some oldies too, just because I didn’t have a full face of makeup to use. I’m not that popular 🙂 The new products are mostly from Catrice and Essence, as their new Spring\Summer ranges have just launched. There is loads more products to check out from the brands, I just have a cross section.

I also had some newbies from L’Oréal, including the Infallible Fresh Wear Foundation, which I am currently obsessed with, no lie! And the Maybelline Made For All Lippies. Oh and the new skinny brow pencil from IT Cosmetics.

For me, the star of the show is the Topshop Chameleon Eyeshadow in Evolve. This kind of defeats the purpose of the makeup tutorial because it’s not new. But they have reinvented their beauty range, so I’m using that as my excuse. I need to get my hands on more colours of these shadows.

I am no makeup artist, so the makeup definitely didn’t go to plan. There was a few hiccups along the way, and my winged liner left a lot to be desired. But we got there and I was fairly happy with the finished result.

Click on the video at the top of this post to see the ‘makeup tutorial’ unfold. Or you can click here to go directly to my YouTube channel. If you like it, don’t forget to subscribe while you’re there.

xxx

PR SAMPLES INCLUDED******

March 1, 2019/1 Comment/by Gem

Beautynook Tips, Makeup

Makeup Tips Beautynook’s Top 5

I know this isn’t a new idea, but I was doing my makeup the other day and started doing something that I thought was worth sharing. I was about to jump onto Instagram stories and share it, but then I had the idea to do it in blogpost form for future reference purposes 🙂 I’m calling it my top 5 makeup tips but I can’t guarantee I’ll keep it to 5 🙂

There’s no real rhyme or reason to these makeup tips. They’re really just things that came to mind and things I’ve learned over the years.

If you’re using a thicker foundation and find it hard to blend. Try spraying your foundation brush with makeup setting spray. It’ll make it easier to blend without compromising the longevity. It works if you’re using a sponge too.
If you have trouble putting gel liner in your water line. This is something I learned from Marlena aka Makeup Geek. I use to attempt to do it with a brush but it just tickles too much! Instead, try using a similar coloured eye pencil to apply it. Dip the pencil into the gel liner pot and use it as the tool. Makes tight lining so much easier. Thanks Marlena 🙂
Don’t directly powder over wet skin ie: oil or sweat, it leaves holes in your foundation. If you need to touch up, always try blot and then pat powder where necessary onto the face.
Filing indexes aka sticky notes or even sellotape works. Just me sure you take the access stickiness off on the back of your hand. (You don’t want to pull your eyes). They make a great eyeliner guide. Apply to the edge of your eyes in the direction you want your flick. Apply your liner or eyeshadow and then slowly pull the sticky notes off away from your face. You should be left with a clean line. It takes practice, but I promise it works.
We know dampening your brush makes metallics shadows and highlights apply more vibrant, right? If you don’t want to do that, you can use your setting spray as normal on your face and before it dries, apply your highlighter on damp skin. This will make it pop a little extra too and help it last longer.
Cheap eyeliners are often hard to use. If you want to soften the pencil and get use out of it. Run the tip through the flame of a lighter for a couple of seconds. Obviously be sure that it’s not hot to the touch when applying it to your eyes. But it will soften it and make it much easier to apply.
If you have an eyeshadow that you don’t get much pigment out of but love the colour. Try applying concealer or a white base (like the NYX Jumbo eye pencil) before it and pat it on with your finger. It will help with the opacity. Dampening your eyeshadow brush with water, setting spray, Duraline or even eye drops before application will help too.

I did a post here yonks ago about keeping your lashes curled all day. I thought that might be helpful to throw into the makeup tips mix too. And here is a demo of the winged liner tip in practice. The pictures and videos are horrendous but the methods still stands 🙂

If even one of these makeup tips helps you, I’ll be very happy, so please let me know. I definitely went over the quota of five ha!

xxx

July 13, 2018/by Gem

Makeup

Rimmel Wonder Wing Eyeliner

The whole eyeliner stamp phenomenon has definitely intrigued me. I have watched countless YouTube videos of people demoing them. However, the price of them has always put me off. Especially when it comes to getting one of them delivered to Ireland. And sure most of them are just made of rubber. You could probably fashion one yourself. I am not that way inclined though. So when I saw the new Rimmel Wonder Wing Eyeliner, I knew I had to pick it up.

So the Rimmel Wonder Wing Eyeliner is a standard felt tip liquid liner with one difference. The felt tip is shaped at wing angle. One side of it also has a flat edge. Why? To use like a stamp of course 🙂

Rimmel say, ‘Draw the line and stamp to flick’. Sounds easy in theory right?

Myself and winged liner have a complicated relationship. Some days it works for me, some days it goes horribly wrong. A lot of the time I’ll use the post-it method. I did a video on this a while back here.

My thoughts on the Rimmel Wonder Wing Eyeliner are, it takes practice, but it can work! You position the flat edge where you want your flick to be and stamp it down to create the shape. It doesn’t always work, but after a few attempts, it definitely gets easier. And then you can create the rest of the line across the lash line with the other side and tip of the applicator.

A couple of issues that I have with it. It’s not the blackest of formulas. It’s not the worst, but I would probably find myself going over it with gel or even powder most of the time. I kind of think the actual stamp would be easier to use if it was the other way around. You could use the pen upright then. I think for me, it would be easier to get a sharper flick that way.

Overall, it definitely gives me a better chance of creating a cat eye I can actually leave the house with. And it definitely gives me a greater chance of getting somewhat even wings on both eyes. Not perfect, but sure what is 🙂

You can get the Rimmel Wonder Wing Eyeliner in stores now. I picked mine up from Boots for €7.99 here. I did see it cheaper in Penneys though.

What do you think? Have you tried it or any of the stamps on the market? Let me know.

xxx

September 25, 2017/by Gem

Beautynook Tips, Makeup

Brown Liquid Liner

This is not the most interesting blog post title I have ever come up with. I do try to keep them simple though because I never want to mislead anyone. I am going through a bit of a winged liner phase. I never in a million years thought I would write those words. Winged liner to me has always been a struggle to do. I also never really thought it suited my eye shape particularly. But, social media has swayed me. I uploaded a couple of pics to my Instagram page of me rocking a winged liner and some lovely people said some lovely things. Thank you by the way! One was me wearing a black liner, and I do love this look, but I think brown liquid liner for me is where it is at!

Black liner is a very specific look. When you choose to rock it is the usually the main focus. Well on me it definitely is. I don’t have extremely big eyes, so it makes them smaller and more almond shaped. I also have more hooded eyes. And, as much as it pains me to say it, the older I get the more apparent it is.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I will still wear black liquid liner when the feeling takes me. But, I have come to the conclusion that brown liquid liner suits me more.

It’s just a softer more wearable way to wear liquid liner and a flick in my humble makeup opinion. I feel less intimidated by it and feel like it’s less of a statement. As I said, creating winged liner is not something I am great with. I overthink it and my left eye seems to know when it’s happening and goes in to twitch overload at the sight of the applicator 🙂

I have two in my stash at the moment. The first one is a Catrice Metallic Liquid Liner in ‘Bronze Lee’ (good name ha).

I feel like the bronzed shade of this suits my eye colour well and the formula is really nice and smooth. It’s something a little different without being too crazy.

The second one I have in rotation is the Maybelline Master Precise in ‘Forest Brown’.

This a matte, deeper brown.

Both of these have a pointed felt tip applicator. For me, this seems to be what I get one with the best. I generally use tape to position where my flick will go. Because my eyes are hooded, I try my best not to go to heavy with the general line and I keep the flick pretty short. But, long enough that you can see it when my eyes are open.

I love coloured eyeliner too! I did a look here a while ago using one of the Nyx Vivid Brights liners. This shows you how I use tape to create my flick aswell.

Are you a brown liquid liner fan? Or is black your go to?

xxx

June 7, 2017/1 Comment/by Gem

Makeup

Catrice Liquid Gel Cushion Eyeliner

The Catrice Spring/Summer collection for this year has some really great products in it. I was going to do a lowdown on the stuff that I was actually sent from it, but there is a couple of stand out things that I think deserve their own limelight. I spoke about their Makeup Transformer Drops here last week. This week is about the Catrice Liquid Gel Cushion Eyeliner.

Now when I first spoke about this I naively thought this was the first cushion liner on the market. My lovely friend Mags rightly corrected me though. She is an encyclopedia on all things Stila, they did it first! The Catrice Liquid Gel Cushion Eye Liner is a hell of a lot cheaper though!

It comes just like a cushion foundation or blush would, except obviously it isn’t in compact form. It’s in a glass jar with an airtight lid, to prevent the product drying out. Inside the jar is a sponge doused in eye liner.

If you press down on the sponge, you can see the liner is very much in liquid form. This is a bit unusual because obviously we are used to seeing gel liner in potted form. Liquid liner usually comes in a pen or tube. I actually really like the format of the Catrice Liquid Gel Cushion Eyeliner. You can use your weapon of choice to apply it rather than a built in applicator.

This is it swatched just once in a downwards motion on my hand with a small liner brush.

You can see it’s really opaque, smooth and it dries down with a bit of a shine to it. It does last pretty well too. I only managed to remove this from my hand with warm soapy water.

Here it is in action on one of my eyes:

Went a bit ham with the flick so I did. I just wanted to show that you can manipulate the liner to your liking 🙂

I actually put the packaging to the test too and turned it upside down while open. The product didn’t escape the cushion!! You get 3ml’s of product within the jar.

Overall, I am a big fan of the Catrice Liquid Gel Cushion Eyeliner. I like that you can have the control over how you apply your liquid liner. It’s available from stockist now for €4.95. It only comes in black at the moment. You can see Catrice talk about it more on their website here.

xxx ****PRESS SAMPLE****

February 22, 2017/by Gem

Makeup

Rimmel Colour Precise Eyeliner

These are the new Rimmel Colour Precise Eyeliner(s).

Well two of them anyways 🙂

I hauled these in my last YouTube video here if you didn’t catch it, along with some other makeup bits and bobs.

From what I can gather there are three colours in the new Rimmel Colour Precise Eyeliner range. A black, blue and a white. All of the white ones had been opened and ruined in the Boots I picked these two up in which is a shame, and I have been in another couple since and they were all the same! So I only have two here to show.

The Rimmel Colour Precise Eyeliner(s) are new liquid liners to hit the Rimmel stand. They have a thin, tapered felt tip nib.

Rimmel say describe them as ‘Bold colours, clean liners, all day wear’.

The nib sold me on these. I am not particularly good with liquid liner especially trying to create a cat eye with one, although I do try my best and buy varied ones that come onto the market to try, in hopes I will find the perfect one for me 🙂

I thought the felt tip applicator on the Rimmel Colour Precise Eyeliner(s) looked like a good match for my easily tickled eyeballs (yes that’s what I suffer from the most when trying to apply liner ha), as I could place the colour on with the length of the nib rather than having to draw it on completely.

The eyeliner itself is nice and opaque and applies without dragging the eyes too much and getting messy. It dries reasonably quickly not completely matte, but not super shiny either.

The black Rimmel Colour Precise Eyeliner swatched

The blue Rimmel Colour Precise Eyeliner swatched

Here is the blue one applied to my eyeballs.

The blue liner at the end of the day, still in place.

It lasted really well throughout the day, there was no transfer onto my upper lid. I didn’t use eyeshadow primer to really test them on my oily eyelids. I just used some concealer and powder over the top.

The nib does dry out a bit if you’re like me and it takes you a while to get the line somewhat even,but a little shake seems to sort it out pretty quickly.

Here’s the black crudely applied to my eyes too. I actually don’t think a strong black line on its own really suits my eyes at all, but all in the name of blogging 🙂

And after a day of wearing.

The black didn’t last as well as the blue on me throughout the day. It did smudge and transfer. Not majorly, but sure you can see for yourself here 🙂

Overall, I really like the blue Rimmel Colour Precise Eyeliner. The colour is super pretty, applies well and lasts throughout the day. I would say the black is just OK. Maybe with eye shadow primer and shadow applied, it will last longer without moving on the lash line. And of course, if you don’t suffer with oily lids like me,it should last longer too. They are €7.99 from Boots here and with Rimmel always on special, they definitely won’t break the bank.

xxx

May 22, 2016/by Gem

Posts

I always say, don’t judge me for calling this a ‘makeup tutorial’, so I just want to begin with that statement, because I am well aware of my lack of major skills in the makeup department. It’s just a blanket statement and we understand what it means 🙂 Ok now that’s out of the way….

Click on the video at the top of this post to see the ‘makeup tutorial’ unfold. Or you can click here to go directly to my YouTube channel. If you like it, don’t forget to subscribe while you’re there.

xxx

**************PR SAMPLES INCLUDED********************

Don’t directly powder over wet skin ie: oil or sweat, it leaves holes in your foundation. If you need to touch up, always try blot and then pat powder where necessary onto the face.

If even one of these makeup tips helps you, I’ll be very happy, so please let me know. I definitely went over the quota of five ha!

xxx

Rimmel say, ‘Draw the line and stamp to flick’. Sounds easy in theory right?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I will still wear black liquid liner when the feeling takes me. But, I have come to the conclusion that brown liquid liner suits me more.

Are you a brown liquid liner fan? Or is black your go to?

This is it swatched just once in a downwards motion on my hand with a small liner brush.

These are the new Rimmel Colour Precise Eyeliner(s).

PR SAMPLES INCLUDED******