MOTD: Nude smokey and winged eyeliner

Today I decided to have a little play around with my new Sleek Storm palette that I picked up the other day. I'm a huge fan of Sleek - the eyeshadows in particular. They're mineral based, super pigmented and blend really well. And at a price of £7.99, what's not to love?

This is what the storm palette looks like. It has a mix of matte and shimmer shadows, with nudes and neutrals and the odd pop of colour. They all work so well together, and I even think that you could create a look using every single shadow together without looking like a hot mess. Funnily enough, the shadows are all named after types of storms. Personally I find it a little bit boring, but we're not here to judge now. 

 TOP ROW L-R Sand Storm, Snow Storm, Calm Before The Storm, Thunder Storm, Perfect Storm, Firestorm.

BOTTOM ROW L-R Dust Storm, Gathering Storm, Storm Cloud, Electric Storm, Eye Of The Storm, Blackout.

My favourite from the palette is probably Snow Storm. It's a really pretty white pearly shimmer with pink/peach undertones and it's just oh so pretty. I use it as a soft highlight in the corner of my eyes, and even a little bit under the brow bone. 

Had to do a little bit of editing to try and disguise some nasties on my face

Here is my finished look. From the Storm palette I used Snow Storm as a base, Calm Before The Storm in my crease and darkened with Eye Of The Storm round the edge. I used Thunder Storm to fill in my lid and a tiny amount of Perfect Storm to blend it out. It was all looking very pretty and gentle until I whipped out the eyeliner and threw a copious amount of that onto my eyeballs. And that's how we ended up at this.

A full list of products used: Illamasqua matte primer

Illamasqua Rich Liquid foundation

Avon Perfect Brow kit in dark brown

Sleek Storm palette

Ted Baker illuminator in Pearly Pink

Illamasqua bronzing duo

Shu Uemura gel eyeliner

Soap and Glory Thick and Fast mascara

Technic false lashes

Mac lipstick in Blankety

Avon Glimmerstick lipliner in Nude

And that's that! This is a much heavier look than I'm used to but I must say I'm really loving it. I always felt my eyes were too small for thick eyeliner but I'm going to wear it anyway because honestly, it looks awesome.

Thankyou for reading!

Mini Illamasqua haul

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I've written anything on here - nearly a year! A lot has happened, some good, some bad, many life changing. But right now I'm not going to talk about that. I'm going to talk about going shopping and getting new make up yay!!

So the other day I got some good news in the form of a new job, and felt it was therefore appropriate to spend obscene amounts of money on new make up that I didn't really need but definitely wanted.

Naturally the first place I went to was Illamasqua, my favourite make up brand of all time. I still remember my first encounter with them at IMATS in London a few years back and ever since I've just been intrigued by them. Not to mention the products are incredible. They're sort of higher end I guess - I've only ever seen counters in Selfridges - but you certainly get what you pay for. Or at least I think you do.

The first thing on my list to buy was a bronzer. I'm very nervous when it comes to wearing bronzer, or anything of colour for that matter, simply because I'm naturally pretty damn pale. BUT it was time to take a leap into the unknown world of sun-kissed and glowing skin. Best, decision, ever. The bronzing duo comes in 2 gorgeous colours, glint and burnish. I tend to used glint (I'm assuming that's the lighter, pinker colour) on day to day basis, as a very light contour over my foundation. I feel burnish is better suited to evening make up, or for those who just prefer a heavier contour. Like I said, colour to me is scary so I'm still practising on a way to make it work for me. That being said, I've worn it everyday since I bought it and have received lots of compliments, so maybe I'm doing something right!


The next product I wanted was a lipstick from the new Glamore collection. I chose Buff, a beautiful fudge brown colour. On myself, it seems to have an almost greyish undertone to it. It's super creamy, which makes a difference from the usual matte lipsticks I go for, and opaque. This is a pretty unusual colour, and certainly something I would not ever go for but I was feeling adventurous. I can't wait to wear this colour out.

Now initially I thought I was done, that I had go what I wanted and was ready to cash up. However the counter lady asking 'is that everything?' caused me to blurt out 'how much is the matte lip liquid? Is it good?!' to which she replied 'yes' and boom, just like that she'd sold me another product. It wasn't hard. I was just trying to find an excuse to buy it. So I ended up purchasing the lip liquid in Exotic, a neon orange colour which is just - there are no words. Amazing, is one. Incredible, is another. You get it.

It took me a while to figure out how to use this product, though. It's certainly got a knack to it, and it is to layer. Start out with a tiny amount on the brush, allow to dry and build the colour. If you layer it on too thick, it goes clumpy and generally pretty gross. Layer, and you will have long lasting, non drying colour all day. Seriously, all day. It won't budge even when you want to take it off.

So that's it! I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. Thankyou for reading ☆