“Ooooooooh winter… Winter is here”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eegZZTYw_Rg

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Sooooooo who of you used to watch Thumbelina as a child and knows that’s where the title of this blog is… Nope… Just me!?

So it’s official I posted my first fall/Halloween make up tutorial! September came in with a cold wind and I immediately picked up my dark lips snd plum eyeshadows! But not only is autumn here but fashion weeks all over the world are filling our social media feeds! And some of the biggest trends were, harsh contours and beaded faces…

Now as much as Pat McGrath is a genius and as far as MAC is concerned they are a leading icon in make up but I think I’ll stick to false lashes and blending for now. Other more wearable trends were bold red lips seen on the McQueen, Chanel and Victoria Beckham runways.

And whether it’s a warm or cool eyeshadow its big its blown out and it’s gorgeous.

But back to the tutorial… So because it was fall and my first one I literally threw everything at it… Blown out smokes and red lips… But in true me fashion as much as I wanted it to be wearable fall it slowly turned into not so wearable Halloween! But here is a full product list of everything that was used..

Make Up Geek Peach Smoothie

MAC Soba

MAC Texture

MAC Nightmoth

Sleek Flame blusher

Make Up Geek Bitten

Red Cherry lashes in 43 stacked with Kimberely Eyelure lashes

Rimmel Lash accelerator mascara

Anastasia Beverly Hills pomade in Auburn

MAC Prep and Prime highlighting pen in Lightboost

Dior Star foundation in shade 101

Collection2000 Lasting Perfection concealer Fair

Sleek Contour Kit in Fair

MAC Nightmoth lipliner

Rimmel Appocolips Appocoliptic

Top shop Matte Velvet in Ribbon

MAC Warmsoul blusher

So there you have it. A gentle push into Halloween….. Believe me I am just getting started…. You have been warned. If blood and gore is not your thing you might wanna skip the next few tutorials!! But if Halloween is your thing and this full on vampy look quenches your blood thirst make sure to click on the link at the top of the blog and watch the tutorial.

Love you loves. X

 

 

Strike a pose…

Hello hello!!

I had a lovely customer tell me today that they read my blog all the time… So I thought I better write a new one!

To save you some pennies I thought I would tell you more about what I’d been up to rather than what I’ve been buying. I recently had the pleasure of working on such a fun shoot with such a great team. On the camera we had the ace Daniel MacAvoy, working the camera we had the gorgeous Iona MacGowan and giving us the props of the day was the amazingly talented Lorna Kenny from Sakura florist. A florist you say…..

CHECKS THE UBER AWESOME HEADPIECES!!

I had such fun with this. The theme of the shoot was spring. And when I think spring I think fresh, pink, flowers all things bright and beautiful. For the shoot we had 2 make up changes.

For this look I wanted really dewy skin. So to get that real shine I actually used a very fine layer of bepanthan (yup) on the high points of the face, brows, cheeks and bridge of the nose. I then used Chanel vitalumiere in shade 10 and 30 building up the lighter colour to dark from the centre of the face and outwards. When I think of fresh skin I think freckles… And I hate to tell you freckle haters out there that freckles are in!! But unfortunately Iona didn’t have many natural ones so theeeeeeeese are drawn on!! I used Soap and Glory Archery and MAC eyeshadow Wedge and went freckle daft! Obviously if you try and create a look like this… I wouldn’t recommend using bepanthan. But getting fresh skin isn’t difficult. Tips are using all cream products as powders can be clawing on the skin. MAC mineralise highlighters are great though if you prefer a powder. And I love a spray of Urban Decay All nighter spray for that fix and dewy finish.

And here’s a sneak peak at the edited version of Look number two. I was so influenced by the colours of the headpiece. I wanted a really strong contour and the skin to look like cream. For this I used YSL le teint touché éclat and MAC. Studio fix to get a really flawless finish. I used sleek contour kit and Sleek fire palette on the cheeks.

And no shoot is complete with a bit of “behind the scenes”…

Fantastic shot from Daniel! Such a great team and such a great shoot… The images are great but you’ll just have to wait a little longer for the rest of them!

As always thanks for reading, I heard a little story from a bride this weekend that let’s me know the word of StephM.Artistry is spreading and I really am so overwhelmed by it all. I love what I do and that knowing it’s not just all in my head is very satisfying!! Ha!! So thank you.

TTFN… Ta ta for now! x

Leading ladies…

Well it’s been a while…. I have been so busy folks and I apologise! I know so many of you tell me that you love my blogs and I’m so sorry I haven’t been keeping up with them. If an excuse could be tolerable, I will say… StephM.Artistry has been so busy. I don’t know what has happened or who flicked a switch but I have literally been out the door to the point my books are pretty much full until July! So researching blogging materials (or even getting a chance to sit down and write one!!) has been a struggle.

But really it’s not been that difficult recently! With all these award ceremonies my make up envy has been going into overload! Each time I refresh my Instagram news feed it makes me reach for my make up brushes. So I thought I would break down some of the key trends and some of the leading ladies that absolutely rocked them!

This year was all about skin. In every look fresh skin was so big! “The Golden Goddess” was a massive trend and makes fresh skin so much easier to achieve.

From left to right Amber Heard pulls off a much more smokey, blown out version with Reese being a little more subtle, rocking the golden tan while the gorgeous peaches and cream Amy Adams goes with “less is more”.

Some of my favourite products to achieve gorgeous glowing skin are…

10. Chanel Soleil de Tan
9. St. Tropes Dark tanning mouse
8. Estée Lauder Day Wear sheer tint
7. Bourjois chocolate bronzer
6. Garnier summer body lotion
5. MAC eyeshadows in antique and bronze
4. Guerlain bronzing pearls
3. MAC peach Melba blush
2. Sleek blush trio
1. Nars albatross highlighter

“The sultry smokes” are always a big red carpet trend and this year was no exception. However, the trend this year is all about the waterline.

The gorgeous Emma Roberts (left) and Kate Mara (right) both went for the traditional black or grey but Sandra totally rocked the colour pop which is a much better way of wearing a full out lined smokey eye if your not so confident. Go for the same colour as your eye which will make the eyes appear bigger or make your eye colour shine bright by going for its opposite…

Blues= go for golds
Greens= go for warm plums
Browns= go for rich dark blues (just like Sandra)

Another classic look is “The classic” it does as it says on the tin… Loads of lashes and a splash of red!

This year though the reds haven’t quite been screaming just softly humming! Which makes this look much easier for all you red scardies out there to wear! Give the Revlon colour bursts a try, they come in a range of colours and textures so you’re bound to find your perfect red!

And last but certainly not least, my favourite trend is the “Dolce Vita siren” this look is all about the contouring, flawless skin and that cat eye flick…

One full proof way of getting that cat eye flick is with a good set of eyelashes and my absolute go to pair are the Ardell Demi’s or Demi whispies. And perfecting that chiselled contour couldn’t be simpler with Sleek contouring palette… Or if you’re feeling extremely red carpet you could go to the queen of “Dolce Vita” international MUA Charlotte Tilbury and splash out on her version.

So I think I’ve given you guys enough to go and create your red carpet moment.. And if all else fails you know where I am 😉
You guys are awesome and I don’t know how much more I can thank you… I love you all.

These are few of my favourite things…

I get asked all the time what I use and what’s best and being the make up junkie I am, it’s a question I can never answer. I love make up so I use a huge variety, sometimes things that do the exact same thing but because its different its my favourite that day! So… I thought I would start sharing every so often some of the things I’m loving at the moment.

I don’t always wear foundation, I think sometimes just as beautiful a result can be achieved without it and this little beauty makes that possible. (Left picture)

It’s clinique’s pore minimiser. I think it’s fantastic. It works like a “poly filler” and gives the smoothest completion to the skin, filling in lines, pores and smoothing over drier areas which tend to clog make up. It also has a tint through it which helps to diminish any redness or uneven skin tone. If I am however wearing a foundation I am absolutely loving bourjois healthy mix serum and even more so the concealer! It gives a lovely overall coverage which blends easily into the skin. It’s semi matte (which is big for me because I like matte) and when I say semi I mean my skin is matte but still incredibly bright. My next big make up must have at the moment is my lashes! I HATE my lashes, they are really long but incredibly sparse and straight. Everything makes them look spidery and clumpy. So when I went on a mascara mission and found a mascara that claims to be non clumping… I didn’t believe it. But I take it all back, it’s max factor and its amazing and paired with my new vintage eye lash curlers, I say it was mission successful.

So all this make up is great but if my skin isn’t great it’s all for nothing. I’ve worked with many expensive moisturisers and skin products and I can honestly say some work and some work but not any differently than an in expensive moisturiser. However I do love a good serum and none are better than Lancome’s Genifique and now that it has a new advanced formula… It has me squirming! The lovely ladies gave me a wee sample and I must say I love it. It really does make my skin so much brighter. The first sign of ageing is dull and tired skin and its the one thing I would pay money to prevent. Lines and wrinkles will come. If not, you’ve not lived your life (she says at the ripe age of 23 years and 360 days 🙂 ) but dull and tired skin can be rectified and make a huge difference to your makeup. The Genifique comes in a whole skin care range, go see the lovely ladies at Lancôme and let them tell you all about it.

And lastly hair! I’m not big on nails but I do LOVE good hair. I was recently given a sample of matrix exquisite oil by the lovely Julie from JS Hair in Fochabers. It works as a hot oil that you comb through the tips of your hair working your way to the roots. And my hair felt like silk! I do take care of my hair so it wasn’t a necessity for me but I still felt a difference in the condition. I love good hair but I love big hair better and batiste finally have a dry shampoo for dark brown hair! I know they have the brown hairspray it I still felt it was too grey..this goes on brown! It gives a really nice full blown out finish to the roots without having to back comb your hair. For me it’s a must have. They now also have one for red heads too. No more grey roots!

The inspiration for this blog came from the most amazing article I read recently… Click on the link and read it, what a wonderful song and woman!

http://salubrious2.blogsome.com/2009/03/11/julie-andrews-70th-birthday-song/