Current Favourite Cream Contour: Contouring Routine

My current favourite way to contour my cheekbones

Recently I have been loving using this product to cream contour... And it may not be what you expect. Because, well it's technically a cream eyeshadow base. But bear with me, it works amazingly!

It's the Maybelline 24 Hour Colour Tattoo in Permanent Taupe.

I stumbled across this and tried it for contouring on a complete whim. It's something I have had in my collection for over a year or maybe two since they first came out and I bought like every initial shade. But most of them I really don't get a lot of use out of, despite them being amazing products- they're amazingly longwearing and are a great primer for any eyeshadow look or to wear alone just blended out. 

But crazy dark eyeshadow looks isn't something I go for that much, so I never really found myself reaching for it as a base.

So one day on a clear-out I saw this again and thought to myself that it might be a good cream contour product. And it is, for a few reasons.

1. It's highly pigmented, but it's super easy to blend. I apply with the Real Techniques limited edition duo fibre Contour Brush, sticking the brush into the pot and swirling it around, it fits perfectly where most brushes would be too big. I then use the ELF Small Stipple Brush, another amazing duo-fibre brush to blend it all out. This combo blends the product seamlessly.
2. The colour is great. It's what I assume the NYX blush in Taupe (a cult favourite) is like, but in cream form. It's taupe, as the name suggests, so because it doesn't have brown, orange or red undertones it looks really natural as a contour shade, instead of just bronzing your face it actually emphasises the cheekbones and makes you look like you have a natural shadow, therefore making your cheekbones look more pronounced. For someone as pale as me, most of the bronzers or contour powders available are much too orangey/browney for my skin, so this is a perfect alternative for me, and even those lighter than me (although that might be difficult to achieve!) I still think this method and product would work for darker skin tones though.
3. Further, it is completely matte and has no shimmer in it, therefore it looks more natural.

I sometimes set it with a taupe bronzer/blush or even eyeshadow, but it doesn't need to be set. I wouldn't say it's a cream to powder finish, but it's not shiny in any way, or glistening like a lot of cream blushes I have tried are.

I'm so happy with this contouring routine right now!

The only problem is, I think it might be slightly breaking me out. I've been getting little bumps on my cheeks recently, reminding me of acne which is something I've never had any problem with. But I can't say if this has been caused by using this on my cheeks, as I have been for the past few weeks now. I can keep you updated.

But as with the use of any skin product it's very personal, you never really know how things will react to your own skin. So just try it out a bit first and see if it's good for you, as you would with any skin product.

Anyway, I've managed to keep these skin problems under control with my use of tea tree oil on my face, which I did a whole blog post on because I've been loving it so much.

Dirty brushes- sorry! Thought it might better show you how I use the product and what it looks like on the brushes

So yeah, I've just been loving this recently and I thought it would be nice to share this product and this method with you, because I haven't seen anyone using this for contouring before and I think people should!

If you also have this product and you never use it on your eyes, give it a go on your cheekbones! Or even if you don't have it, go out and buy it for this purpose! The Colour Tattoos are £5.99 each from the 'drugstore'- in the UK Superdrug or Boots. Some of the colour names are different in the UK to the US, so bear that in mind if you can't find 'Permanent Taupe', but I think this one is the same.

The Eyestudio Colour Tattoo 24 Hour cream eyeshadow by Maybelline in number 40- Permanent Taupe

As you can see, I really have been loving this and using it a lot recently. The texture is like that because of the stippling brush I use to pick the product up from the pot. I'll be running out of this soon, something I never thought I'd do with this product! Amazing! 

Super blendable so you can make of it what you will, and have it either strong and defined or slightly more sheer and natural. This is why I think it would work for darker skintones too, to an extent. Obviously due to my pale skin I like to make sure I blend the product to a light seamless perfection.

Do you have any products that you use for a completely different thing than its intended purpose? Are you going to try this out as a cream contour shade? Let me know in the comments below.

Eye Makeup: Gold and Blue Smokey Eye

Friday 20th June Eye Makeup Look

As I mentioned in the last eye makeup look I posted, which was very similar to this just using purple and silver, I know I'm going to be going out quite a lot in the coming months so I've decided to document each funky eye makeup look I do and give a quick description of what I did. It all stems from the conscious decision I've made to branch out with my eye looks and add pops of colour to make them more artistic and adventurous.

So for this party on friday I did something I've done once before, using a gold shadow all over the lid and a bright blue in the corners and under the eye for a pop of colour.

I hope the picture quality is okay, I know it's not as good as last time because I was getting ready at a friends and didn't have my huge Canon camera.

I know this look may not seem that adventurous, and it's not pretending to be, I just have recently liked doing a tiny addition of colour to amp up the drama in my eye makeup for a night out.

For anyone interested, now I'm going to describe what I did.

I used a matte white as a browbone highlight and then a medium cool-toned brown just above the crease and into it as a transition colour. I then used a pigmented gold shadow from the innermost part of the eye even using it as a highlight there also, and carrying it across 3//4 of the eyelid, but not dragging it much into the crease. I mirrored this placement under the lower lash line too. Then I placed a bright blue shade on the remaining part of the eye and blended it into the gold to make a smooth even transition from gold to blue. Again I mirrored this on the lashline by placing blue 1/4 of the way across and blending it into the gold underneath. I finished it off with black eyeliner into a wing on the upper lashline, and a few coats of mascara.

I just love the gold-blue eyeshaodow colour combination! I really didn't think I would be able to wear gold shadow because I'm so so pale, and it generally looks better if its not a stark darker contrast to your skin colour! But I really like wearing it in this look and I'm going to branch out and maybe try some gold-based smokey eyes in the future.

Here are the products I used:

I used the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk for the eyeshadow base/primer. As you can see, it's my favourite one and I've used it loads.

For the lid colours, the gold and blue, I used two colours from the Urban Decay sustainable Palette which is really old now- it was my first palette! And I'm trying to use it again as the colours are amazing (just a bit chunky on glitter, and not as smooth in texture as their more recent eyeshadow additions). The colours were Half Baked (a huge favourite of many, and in many Urban Decay palettes, and Kiddie Pool (which I just think is the best name ever, especially for this shade). They're next to each other in the bottom right of the palette.

For the browbone highlight and matte brown transition shade I used the Soap and Glory Lid Stuff quad in the shade What's Nude, (for the browbone I used the lightest shade, and for the transition a mixture of the two other matte colours (so the only one I did not use was the 4th colour, the sheeny dark brown)).

For mascara I used the Maybelline One By One and Clinique bottom lash mascara.

And for eyeliner I used the L'Oreal Linear Intense eyeliner in Carbon black which is my favourite eyeliner by far and lasts for ages- I will never find an eyeliner I love this much.

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That's it! I hope you enjoyed reading about this look, it's so simple but looks amazing. I'll be posting another one of these looks very shortly so hope you guys love reading that one too!

Would you wear this eyeshadow look? What's your go-to slightly different eye look? Let me know in the comments below.

Eye Makeup: Silver and Purple Smokey Eye

Thursday 19th June Eye Makeup Look

Recently I've made the conscious decision to amp up my eye makeup looks. I always do a standard silver eye with a brown crease when I go out, but I decided to branch out and start doing some different looks. I realised I have so many beautiful colourful eyeshadows, and I love experimenting so am really trying to wear some different and interesting eyeshadow looks out- the best time to try something a little bit crazy is when going out at night! 

I'm going to post pictures of these eye looks when I do them. Some might not necessarily be looks suitable for daytime, but hopefully will give you guys some nighttime inspiration, an insight into what products I use when I go out, and inspire me too to keep up the "branching out" style. 

I'm going to be going out quite a lot in the coming months as exams are over- woooo! So these posts might become a regular thing. Let me know if you like them!

I used mainly the colours from the Lime Crime Palette d'antoinette (at the end there will be a picture of the products used and a full list), which I featured in a haul and did some up close swatches of each colour, so check that out if you're interested.

Basically I love this palette, and I plan on doing a green-orange look with it soon. The colours are creamy and apply beautifully, easy to blend and super pigmented. And surprisingly, there really isn't much fall out at all.

As you can see, the look is quite subtle and super wearable! But the pop of colour slightly adds to your usual eye look and gives it a little bit of something extra. You could definitely put the purple into the crease below the brown if you wanted even more drama, I might try that out next time.

I used a matte white as a browbone highlight (under the brow), then brushed a matte brown shade into the crease as a transition colour to really pull the look together. I then placed the silver from the palette from the very inner part of the eye from an inner corner highlight right to about 3/4 of the way across the lid. Then I placed the pink, overlapping it slightly and adding a few layers to intensify the colour, and right at outer edge of the eye I placed the purple, again blending them all together. I repeated the silver-pink-purple structure under the eye, as well as smudging a bit of brown on the outer 1/4 of the lower lash line.

Here are the products I used.

For the lid colours, the silver, pink and purple, I used the Lime Crime Palette d'antoinette (top left).

For the transition crease shade I used the top right shade from the Soap and Glory Lid Stuff quad in 'What's Nude' (the middle product).

For the browbone highlight I used the white (bottom row, three from right and well loved, as you can see, I've hit pan) from the Coastal Scents Smokey Eyes palette you'll see on the right of the picture, which is really great for colourful looks.

For eyeliner I used the L'Oreal super liner slim, and the normal super liner, both in black, and my mascara was The Rocket by Maybelline.

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This is a new thing for me to try so I would really love to hear your feedback, let me know in the comments below if you like this format and also of course if you like this look!