College #2: Basic Tattoo Covering

In college we had to a tattoo covering project as part of our basic makeup unit.  Unfortunately it is only a very small section whereas it could easily be a while unit in itself!  So this is just a very basic demonstration of how to cover a plain black tattoo.

You will need:

- Cleanser
- Heavy duty concealer: I used a mini Dermacolor palette in Fair
- Fine translucent powder
- A small brush i.e. eyeliner or lip
- Powder puff
- A big fluffy brush
- Cotton pads

I don't have any tattoos so I used my friend Laura to model for me as she has a black butterfly on her back.

• I started off by cleansing the area.
• Using a small brush I went over the black using D32.
• This is the first layer of D32 on the tattoo.  I have left the smaller wing bare for comparison.
• I then pressed a translucent powder onto it with a puff and removed any excess with a fluffy brush.
• I repeated the last two steps to build up D32 into two layers.

As you can see D32 is a reddish colour, this puts that tone back into the black which means using skin colours over the top will hide the tattoo much more easily.

• Next I moved onto concealing the whole thing. I matched Laura’s skin tone using a combination of D406 and D1W and applied it over D32.
• I powdered this layer to set it.
• Finally I touched up any areas which needed extra coverage.
• One last layer of powder to set it all into place.

The final effect

Before and after

This was only the 3rd time I had tried tattoo covering as I didn't have anyone to practice on in between college and doing this one for the project!  However, I am pleased with the outcome but next time I will try to blend the edges of each layer in more as I am doing it.  Dermacolor is quite fast drying and makes blending later on very difficult.

Being able to do this perfectly would be a fantastic skill, there are probably quite a lot of woman out there who would want visible tattoos covered up for their wedding!

<3

Louise Loves #8

I have had quite a busy week.  I had my tattoo covering project to hand in for Monday but couldn't actually do the work for it until the Friday before (my concealers didn't arrive!), was babysitting 3 kids on Saturday, then on Monday I had a singing rehearsal - my friends and I are singing at the last Christmas concert in my old high school before it gets pulled down!  Anyway, I passed my tattoo project - yay! - and I am going to do a basic tattoo covering guide on here too which should be up tomorrow.  I mentioned last week that we are now onto Fashion Makeup at college, so we started with a smokey eye, and I'm pleased to say my model did not end up looking like she'd been punched!

I'm afraid this week's favourites are fairly boring but never mind, enjoy!

River Cottage Veg Everyday! Cookbook

I bought this book from The Works a couple of months ago as someone (maybe my auntie?) had said it was really good.  So far we have made quite a few things from it.  Last night we made a spinach spoufflé (soufflé with pasta in it!) which was really tasty and you can also replace the spinach with courgette for a different flavour.  The night before that we had tomato and mozzarella risotto.  I noticed that beside some titles there is a V and it took me a minute to realise that that must mean vegan, so it will be interesting to try out some vegan dishes (my dad will be disgusted!).
[£12.50 from Amazon]

Lush Northern Lights Soap

I did a short post on this along with my Lush soap storage a while ago, but I think I will do a review of it quite soon by itself.  This is probably my favourite soap full stop, I just love the smell and the colour of it, it's so bright!  Oh and apologies for the stock photo, I tend to avoid them but my one is not looking attractive right now haha!
[£3.25/100g from Lush]

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Christmas Wishlist

Like most other people recently I have been playing around with BeautySets - it's so fun!  I thought I would make a little Christmas wishlist just to get used to using the system.

DKNY French Grain Large Flapover Purse - £65

I really need a new purse and I am so fussy when it comes to the layout of the inside, it needs to be very specific!  This one is perfect and it is also synthetic not leather - yay!  Unfortunately it comes with a rather hefty price tag... However House of Fraser have a brand event next Thursday and Friday so along with my staff discount I might get it for a bit cheaper then pass it onto the parents ha!

Nars Misfit eyeshadow - £24

I only have one Nars eyeshadow which I bought from a blog sale.  The pigmentation isn't the best especially for the price however I do really like them otherwise!  I have green eyes and I like wearing green eyeshadow, this one looks really pretty.

Nars Kuala Lumpur eyeshadow - £24

Purples are also really nice on green eyes and I liked the look of these two after swatching them at the counter.  In reality I probably wouldn't ask for both of these as presents as they are so expensive, £48 is far too much for 4 eyeshadows in the one go in my opinion!

~

There is a perfume I want but I had trouble making it look good in the collage hahah so maybe I will make another one at a later date once I've got more to grips using BeautySets!

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Empties #4

I usually do 5 empty products but as I have two minis in this one so I decided to do 6 instead.  I actually love doing these posts, it really makes me get a move on and use up those things that have been lying around for ages!

Asda Firm Hold Hairspray

Thoughts: I really liked the smell of this, so good!  I'm not really sure how good the hold was though to be honest - my hair stylist auntie seemed disgusted by it ha! 

Cruelty-free?: No.

Repurchase?: No.

Well Silvikrin Maximum Hold Hairspray

Thoughts: It was fine, pretty good hold - as you would expect with maximum! 

Cruelty-free?: No.

Repurchase?: No.

Avon U by Ungara Shower Gel

Thoughts: I bought this in the cheap section of the Hello Tomorrow book when I was a rep because I wanted the perfume but was too cheap to buy it!  It did smell quite nice but there was one time I used it when it literally smelled like bleach and I was quite worried!  I think it's just because the scent is so chemically and artificial.   

Cruelty-free?: No.

Repurchase?: No.

Dove Intensive Care Repairing Shampoo

Thoughts: I actually used this for cleaning my makeup brushes!  It came out in sort of globules which was rather gross but it was fine for doing my brushes. 

Cruelty-free?: No.

Repurchase?: No.

E.L.F. Eyebrow Kit in Light

Thoughts: I liked this for the most part but in the end I just got fed up with using the separate brush to apply it.  Sometimes it would go on a bit thick as well and didn't cover my baldy patch (chicken pox...) sufficiently!  It is pretty dark considering it is called Light, however they do one called Ash which would be good for blondes.

Cruelty-free?: Yes.

Repurchase?: I probably would eventually, just not straight away.

Avon Glimmersticks Brow Definer in Dark Brown

Thoughts: I bought this years ago and god knows why I picked dark brown because it was far too dark for me!  However, my eyebrows have got gradually darker and darker so now it worked really well on me.  It is nice and soft which I prefer.

Cruelty-free?: No.

Repurchase?: I definitely would if it was cruelty free! Boooo Avon!

Only one of these products were cruelty free, how bad is that??  On the other hand I am glad to be getting rid of all my bad company's items :)

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WishyWashy Soaps | Vegan, SLS & Paraben Free

Just a quick wee post to share a company with you.  WishyWashy are a handmade soap company who are cruelty free and all the items they sell are vegan and also don't contain SLS or parabens which is fantastic!

Alex, who runs WishyWashy, and I had been following each other on twitter for a while and then not long ago she kindly offered to send me some bits to try and and review on here.  I told her my skin type and let her choose the items.  Shortly after I received a very generous parcel full of goodies!  She not only sells soaps, but bath bombs, scrubs, facial washes and hair products.  They are very reasonably priced, the soaps starting at about £2.

I haven't tried anything yet as the majority of them are soaps which I will use when I'm finished my current one.  However, I wanted to show you the items anyway, have a look at the website and maybe even make a purchase if you like the sound of anything!  Then in due course I will put up reviews of all the bits.

All of these are soaps apart from the open green one on the top left which is a complexion care soap, and the white skull on the bottom left which is a sugar scrub.  Although I've not tried them yet I have had a good sniff and some of my favourites so far are the Love Spell (based on a Victoria's Secret fragrance - the mustard coloured one above the sugar scrub) and the Strawberry Sparkling Santa (the small red Santa... self-explanatory!).

I am looking forward to trying these!

Website: www.wishywashy.org.uk

Follow them on Twitter

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Louise Loves #7

I had this week off and I'm so glad, the weather in my area was horrendous on Monday and Tuesday, I would've hated the 40 minute journey driving to college!  Next week we start fashion makeup so that should be pretty good, although I'm glad we started with basic it was starting to get rather tedious!

Neve Cosmetics Mineral Blush in Noblesse

You may have seen this in my Neve Cosmetics swatches post here.  I only got this a few days ago but I really like Noblesse and I've been wearing it quite often (although I'm still trying to finish up a crappy Covergirl one which just seems to last forever!!!).  I am going out for lunch today - Wagamama, soo excited! - and I'll be wearing it for that :)
[£10.50 from cutECOsmetics]

New Look Ankle Boots

I actually bought these off my friend Ashleigh for £7 (bargain) as she bought herself "proper" ones and wanted these to go to new home where they would be worn!  They are from New Look a good wee while ago.  At first they weren't very comfy and the zips were playing up but now I've broken them in and they are pretty much my everyday boots (for when minimal driving is required!).  The heel is fine as it is really thick so it's not uncomfortable.  I think these were about £20 full price, however as it was age ago they're not available online but I did find these similar ones reduced to the same sort of price.

Face Off

In case you haven't heard of it, Face Off is a programme on Syfy which takes a group of prosthetic and special effect makeup artists and gives them various challenges to compete against each other.  I didn't love it to start with but now I am really enjoying it.  Although that is not a side I could see myself doing (it's far too creative and they are all amazing at art!), I do find it really interesting and it might even give me some tips for if I ever need to do anything like that.  Face Off is on Syfy on Mondays at 9pm.

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Collection: Lipsticks & Storage

I wasn't happy with my lipstick storage which was basically them all just shoved in a box in a drawer and not very easy to reach for!  However I got a beautiful mirrored jewellery box for my birthday but as I have loads of jewellery boxes already, I decided to use it for my lipsticks!

This is where it sits usually as I keep all my makeup in my bathroom (weird? normal?), but for ease of taking clear photos I moved it to my hall!

In the top I have my purples.  Sadly I only have 3 - plenty of room for more!!  Also because there is space, my Lipcote is in here as well.

In the middle drawer are my pinks.

And in the last drawer are my orange/reds.

So that is my lipstick collection!  Pretty small but growing, I've only recently got into lipsticks and even then I only wear them on nights out/special occasions!  I am going to do a 'most used lip products' post too as I keep those in a separate, more accessible place.

Out of these, the following are not cruelty free: Avon, Lipcote (unknown), MAC and Revlon.

 <3

NOTD: With Envy...

I've not painted my nails in so long!  They were really nice but then they all split and broke and became a mess!  Never mind, they will grow back.  They're still not very good and I've been quite lazy with them but I decided to paint them anyway.  I was so lucky and won Rebekah at It's A Kind Of Lovely's giveaway and got Topshop Hidden Treasure nail varnish, then I used Hat Trick as an accent.  In real life Hat Trick does not look that bright the flash seems to have really brought it out!  It shows up much more of a similar colour to Hidden Treasure and just gives it a bit of sparkle.

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Neve Cosmetics: French Royalty Collection Swatches

Neve Cosmetics are an Italian, cruelty free brand.  All the products are vegetarian and the majority are vegan.  They have a really nice collection of loose and pressed mineral eyeshadows and blushers which can be used wet and dry.

Their most recent collection is called French Royalty and is inspired by the ostentatious pomp of the French courts of the 1700s with a realm of precious stones and metals.  All of the products in this collection are vegan and it is made up of 4 eyeshadows, 2 blushers and 2 eye pencils.

You can buy Neve Cosmetics from cutECOsmetics and they have very kindly sent me the eyeshadows and blushers to try out and share with you!

Before we go onto the swatches I just feel I need to warn you about my gross, veiny hands hahah so enjoy that...

Mineral Blush

Noblesse is "pink brick with lilac satin".  I really love this one and have been wearing it quite a lot recently!

Boudoir is a "light peach pink with delicate mauve satin".  I haven't tried this one on my face yet as I tend to avoid pinks for some reason but I think the blue/purple duo chrome gives it a really unusual edge.

These are safe for use on lips and the full size (4g) costs £10.50.  [link]

Chateau Mineral Eyeshadow

Chateau is a "duo chrome brown with hints of mauve and pistachio green".  Swatched, this one looks quite similar to Mac Club or Urban Decay Lounge - see here.

Sang Bleu Mineral Eyeshadow

Sang Bleu is a "duo chrome with purple and blue highlights".  This is a really pretty colour both wet and dry, but wet it is so bold!

Versailles Mineral Eyeshadow

Versailles is a "bright and shiny gold with amber undertones".  This one applied like a dream!  There is not much difference between wet and dry except I think that the wet brings out the yellow/gold colours more.

Collier Mineral Eyeshadow

Collier is "silver with a light grey base, with slight blue satin sheet and glitter".  This one really comes alive when wet, all the colours are hugely magnified!

The full size pot (2g) costs £6.50. [link]

I will do a couple of eye makeup looks using these shadows later on, so look out for those :)

<3

Louise Loves #6

This week has been rather stressful as my first two portfolios were to be handed in on Tuesday!  We had a bit of a panic as the printer broke, and then ran out of ink the night before it was due and I hadn't printed it out yet... yes very disorganised, I know haha!

Pritt Stick Glue in Pink

This was the only one they had, I swear!!  I've not used glue since about 5th year when I did Higher Art!  This thing has been very handy especially on Tuesday morning when I was cutting and gluing about 45 minutes before I needed to leave for college!  I also used this to cover my eyebrows when I did a Hallowe'en makeup practice, but I didn't bother doing it on the actual night.

Rory the Kitten!

A week ago this little bundle of fluff (and claws and teeth!) moved in with us.  Although he is very bitey and scratchy, and isn't quite litter trained yet, there is nothing cuter than a tiny little kitten cuddling up to you and purring away!

Gym Class Membership

Last week my friend and I decided to join our local gym as they do unlimited classes for £25/month and it covers 3 of the leisure centres in our area.  So far we have been to Hips, Bums & Tums, Boxercise and Kettlercise!  My favourite was definitely Boxercise, it was so fun!  I also want to go to yoga as I've not done it since the 8 week block I did a while ago.  Ideally I'd like to go to three classes a week, one being yoga, but life gets in the way!  This week we only managed one, never mind!

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Introducing My Cats: Rory

This is Rory, our newest addition to the family!  If you follow me on twitter you will know that sadly Hugo went missing a few months ago so we were back to 3 cats.  So we decided now would be a good time to get a kitten.

Years ago we had a ginger cat called Oscar who was a stray that had been caught in some sort of trap; we managed to lure him in and got him to the vet to get him all fixed up.  He was in such a bad way, missing toes and he had somehow lost the ability to purr which was really sad!  However he soon healed up and was such a lovely cat.  He happily spent the rest of his life with us!

Oscar!

Ever since my mum has really wanted a ginger cat.  We needed to get a kitten as an adult cat would be too difficult to integrate with the other 3 cats (like the troubles we had with Hugo!).  Last week my dad saw an advert in our local pet shop for a woman selling kittens - one of which was ginger!  That night we went up to see them, and then the following night we took him home!

Currently he is about 8 and a half weeks old, awwww!  Although we have had lots of kittens in the past, you forget what they are like.  We are all covered in bites and scratches; and he wasn't litter trained - so that caused some messes!  He sleeps in bed with us otherwise he gets lonely and cries, so we alternate, one night with me, then the next with my parents haha!

If you would be interested I could do a post on him every month or so to show him growing up :)

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My Hair Since 2010!

Warning: A lot of these photos will have been captured 'under the influence' :P

As my auntie is a hair stylist she had always done my hair since I was little!  However she decided to stop doing friends and family as it was getting too much for her out with her full time job as a lecturer!  I felt a new sense of freedom and went a bit crazy with it...  My hair was blonde as a child but it got darker and darker so now it is just a very boring light brown colour!

Here is a photo of me with my natural hair colour (I think!)!  Taken in London shortly after I got chickenpox - hence the marks on my face!  And no, that is not a real tattoo!

So at the end of 2010 I went to a hairdressers and got my hair dyed auburn.  I was a bit nervous about it so I went for a very natural colour to begin with.

I think this is the only photo I have (other than a few more from the wedding) of my hair this colour.  This was taken at my cousin's wedding, and I am with my other cousin Neil, his wife Melanie and their son Ethan!

The next photos I have are from a night out in March 2011, where my hair seems to be a sort of brown colour, not sure if I did this or it had just faded from the hairdressers!

Then I dyed it to this more of a dark red colour which I really liked!

Which faded to this...

So far so good!  Until for some reason around June 2011 I decided that I wanted to go blonde.... red + bleach = orange!  It doesn't actually look as bad in photos I have to say...

Because my roots were fresh undyed hair, they took on the blonde and bleached it but it took two packs of dye to get the ends lighter - they were still a lot darker than the top.  I liked to call it reverse ombré.

In the end I decided I'd need to go to a hairdressers to try and get it fixed!  I hadn't had it cut since the previous November.  She chopped probably about half of it off and tried to get the colour a bit more even...

At the time I did like it, and it did feel a lot healthier however as soon as roots started to show I hated it.  It was too much up keep and I didn't like how short it was!  I went back to that hairdresser to get my roots redone but after that I gave up.

I went back to my auntie in desperation!  I don't think I actually have any photos of it sadly.  She made it a light brown with lots of different highlights in it and it was really nice, lot more natural!  The only photo I do have is of it up at my friend's wedding in February 2012, but the roots have come through quite a lot!

I let it grow out a little bit more then dyed it with a semi-permanent colour which was pretty much my natural colour.

Don't even ask!

I was happy with this so when it faded I was going to do it again but I saw a slightly darker one and went for that - however it made my hair purple!  I don't have a decent picture of this but you can kind of see it in this one!  Bad times...

Again, it faded and that brings us up to date!  My hair is now almost back to normal except the ends are lighter and there's still traces of red and purple throughout!  Here is a recent photo from my trip to Harry Potter Studios last month:

My plan is to try and get it back to its natural colour and start with a clean slate!  I think I'd like to go slightly lighter, a sort of caramel-y colour but no doubt I'll change my mind!

What do you think, have you got any hair disaster stories?
What colour do you think I suit best??

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