tips Archives - Irish Beauty Blog Beautynook

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, Makeup Tutorial, Youtube Video

Everyday Summer Makeup Tutorial

This is my honest everyday Summer Makeup look! I tried to keep it as real as possible and just edited out my ‘ums’ and any long winded techniques. My brows take forever 🙂

It’s nothing fancy or ground breaking, but this is generally what I do on a daily basis if I’m wearing makeup. The eye look might change a bit if I’m feeling fancier or lazier. The lip colour might change if I’m feeling a bold or bright lip, but the base tends to not really. I’ve found what works for my skin in the heat, so I don’t want to jinx it too much if I’m going out and about. If I know I’m staying close to home, then I can experiment and trial new products 🙂

It all depends on what you feel most comfortable with. For me, brows and a bit of eyeshadow definition is a must. Eyeliner is not necessary so it’s not something I do day to day. Once I have a wash of colour on my lids I am happy enough. The main components of my everyday Summer makeup look, I’ve spoken about a lot before. I think this is an important aspect of this video though. You know I like these products and above all, you know I trust them.

I won’t get into everything, but some of the main products I used are in my June Favourites here. I have a review the Urban Decay Primer here, and of both the foundations I used here and here. Mac Springsheen blush has been a favourite for literally years and the highlighter from Pixi is a new, but very loved favourite.

And that is my ‘errand running’ everyday Summer makeup. If you watched the video, you’ll get the joke 🙂

Thanks for tuning it. Tell me, what are some of your Summer makeup essentials?

xxx

PR SAMPLES INCLUDED*

July 11, 2018/1 Comment/by Gem

Skincare, Youtube Video

Daytime Skincare Routine

I love skincare, but I’m always a bit hesitant to talk about it too in depth. Just because I think it’s such a personal, specific thing. I do review products, but generally it’s because I really really love them or I really really hate them 🙂 I’m definitely no expert either, so that comes into play too. But, I figured I would just go through another updated daytime skincare routine. It’s less committal and just shows you what I am using right now and why.

My daytime skincare routine is quite basic. I like to keep it pretty simple. I have oily skin overall, but the older I get the more dehydration I get too. The two ailments are conflicting completely, luckily nowadays there’s products out there that will help with both skin concerns at the same time.

I am obviously chatting about what I use and why I use it in video form. You can watch above or click here to go directly to my YouTube channel here.

Blogging and having to research products and of course being sent product to trial has for sure helped me on my skincare journey. I have to learn what works for me and why so I can talk about and hopefully point readers in the right skincare direction. What I am using right now is my summer daytime skincare routine, things would vary a bit in the colder weather.

For toner I am using the Pixi Rose Tonic.

It’s gentle, minimises redness and also helps balance the skin’s PH balance.

Eye cream is the Exuviance Age Reverse Eye Contour.

This is a brand I wouldn’t have gotten to try if I didn’t blog, but I really enjoy this eye cream. Exuviance is created by the people at Neostrata. They say it reduces puffiness and smoothes wrinkles. I like it because it’s a thin formula that absorbs quickly, but still leaves my under eyes hydrated and smooth. A lot of eye creams can be too rich for me, this one does the job perfectly.

For moisturiser, I use the Vichy Minéral 89 Serum.

It’s created with mineral water and hyaluronic acid. A lot of people would use just as a serum as it’s more a gel formula. For me it works brilliantly as a daytime moisturiser. It plumps my skin and skins in really quickly without leaving a residue that might interfere with makeup application.

As it is Summer, I am using a hefty SPF. This one is new to me, but it’s literally been love at first application. This is the Eucerin SPF 50+ Oil Control. Yep oil control.

This is the first Summer I think that I’ve been confident enough to use a stand alone SPF on my face. Usually the formula is oily and would have me a shiny mess within the hour. Not this though, and it actually feels really nice going on too. I apply this in the morning and then I’ll use a spray something like the Ambre Solaire Sensitive Mist over my makeup if I’m outdoors throughout the day.

Last but not least I always apply a lip balm before I do my makeup. What one it is does vary, but as the weather is so darn nice I’m using one with a high SPF at the minute. I am really liking the Shiseido UV Lip Color Splash with SPF 30.

The tinted ones are nice too, but I use the clear one on most days. It’s not sticky and lip colour applies nicely over top of it.

And there you have my current daytime skincare routine. Have you tried any of the products?

xxx

*PR SAMPLES INCLUDED****

July 1, 2018/1 Comment/by Gem

Beautynook Tips, Makeup

Fuller Lips Makeup Technique

I think the theme of this post is pretty self explanatory from the title. This is my three step process to getting fuller lips.

Now I do mention this in the video as well. I love Instagram as much as the next blogger. But, I very much try to live in the real makeup wearing world for the most part. So there’ll be no drag queen over drawing here, (as much as I love what they do.) This is my guide to natural, but fuller lips.

I use three products here, but all three lend themselves to a more poutier look in their own right really. A slick of liner, lipstick or gloss tends to make your lips stand out more, so on their own can make your lips look a little bigger.

This run through is for the time when you want to take a bit of time, even out your lip line, make it a little bigger and also make everything last as long as possible throughout the day. The products I used aren’t necessarily important, but the tones are, I think.

This is my go to nude, fuller lip look. My skin tone doesn’t lend itself to super nude lips, so I settle for a more brown nude colour spectrum.

I use Mac Whirl lip liner to even out and over draw my lip line slightly. My top lip is smaller than my bottom so I like to make them look a bit more symmetrical. I used Laura Geller’s High Line Honey lipstick to lighten the inside of my lips a little. And then finally, right in the centre of my lips I used the new Urban Decay Hi-Fi Shine lipgloss in Fuel to add some extra dimension. Gloss is obviously shiny so allows the light to bounce off it, letting us fake fuller lips.

If you want to see me talk through the process, just click on the video above. Or, you can of course head straight to my YouTube channel here.

Let me know what you think and if you have any fuller lip hacks! 🙂

xxx

*PR SAMPLES USED

April 25, 2018/by Gem

Beautynook Tips, Makeup

Primer For Oily Skin – Mixing Primers!

I wanted to talk a bit about primer for oily skin types.

Chip pan skin is my jam, with some dehydration in certain areas too. Although, I think this little discussion will help other skin types aswell. I wanted the title to be ‘primer for oily skin’, because that’s what I know about best.

I spoke briefly on social media about mixing primers and I got some questions about it. Also, a couple of people said they would never think to use more than one.

This is me just talking about personal opinion. I just wanted to put that out there. I am a makeup lover, not a beauty expert by any means.

I think of mixing primers like mixing any other makeup or skincare products. One of my favourite things to do is mix foundation. Different finishes, different tones. I think primer falls into that bracket too.

I’ll use the two examples I put up on Instagram.

These are two of my favourite primer (s) for oily skin.

The Ordinary High Adherence Silicone Primer. (You can buy it here).

And Benefit’s The Porefessional. (Buy online here).

With applying primer, I do find less it more. Too much can undo the barrier you are trying to create with it.

I love both of these in their own right as a primer for oilier, more combination skin. But, I’ve been really enjoying using both of these together in the warmer weather. I use the silicone primer all over, just a really light layer. Not all silicone based primers cut the mustard for me. I spoke about the L’Oréal one here a while ago that I only find OK.

After The Ordinary Primer settles into the skin, I pat some of Porefessional into my T Zone. I have really big pores and Porefessional works like putty to fill them in, again using the patting method. It works great on scars and fine lines too!

Both together gives me a nice flat base for my makeup, and of course helps everything last longer on my skin too.

This is just my go to cocktail of the minute. It will work with all different primers. It’s just fun to play around with them and find what works for your skin. There is no need to use two different products whatsoever, one is just fine, I just like to experiment.

That’s the great thing about makeup, right? 🙂

xxx

****CONTAINS PR SAMPLE****

June 28, 2017/by Gem

Makeup

Maybelline Master Precise Skinny Liner

I had seen the Maybelline Master Precise Skinny Eye Liner being used in a few American Youtuber’s videos. A couple of them compared it to the Kevyn Aucoin 1.5mm Mechanical Liners which you can see on the Sephora website here.

The Maybelline Master Precise Skinny liner is 1.8mm so not too dissimilar from a size point of view. Basically it’s a skinny ass liner as the name would suggest 🙂

For me, this is genius for tight lining the waterline. It’s something I find really uncomfortable so using a smaller tool is less invasive on the eyeball. You can see the difference in size here compared to a standard eye liner.

As always America got it way before we did, but I did stumble across it a couple of months ago in the new in section on the Maybelline stand in Boots. I paid €4.99 for it which I don’t think is too bad. I have seen it in store since but it isn’t on the Boots website, so I can’t link it like usual.

It comes in hot pink plastic mechanical packaging. When you first buy it the liner and has a rounded nib, that doesn’t last long though. So off the bat I will say, this is not the liner for you if you want something for more detailed liner work, which is how Maybelline are marketing it. The mechanical aspect is good however, if you twist up too much product, you can’t get it back in to the pencil, I have broken it a couple of times as a result. When it breaks you’re left with a blunt nib. And obviously wasting product as a result.

The liner itself is soft, really dark and pigmented. In America they have three colours to choose from, here we just have the black. It is super easy to use and works really well on the waterline. It is waterproof and lasts better than some of the other pencil liners I have used in the past. It does fade on the waterline after a few hours, but not completely. I do notice it gathers in the corners of the eyes and the tear ducts after a while, so that is something to be conscious of. I can get all day out of it on the top lash line though. It doesn’t transfer onto the lid and I do have oily eye lids. If you want to use it to smoke out the lash line, you have to work fast because it does set. I suggest doing one eye at a time and using a dense synthetic brush to blend it out.

Overall, I am a fan of the Maybelline Master Precise Skinny Liiner. It isn’t perfect, but it is a good liner and the size of it is really nifty. If you don’t like using gel liner in your waterline this could be a good alternative. It is also really handy to throw in your handbag for touch ups. Or, if you’re heading out after work and want to add some smokiness to your eye makeup.

xxx

December 14, 2016/by Gem

Posts

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.