How To: The Fake Undercut

Hi everyone,

The undercut is a style that's become popular in the last while, but if, like me, you're too scared or too lazy (imagine trying to grow it out!) or a combination of both to shave half your head, never fear! Here is a quick and easy way to fake it :)

For this hairstyle, you will need:

• A hairbrush
• A fine-toothed comb (not really necessary, but it does make parting your hair that bit easier)
• Bobby pins
• Hair bobbins

• Started by brushing through your hair and getting rid of any tangles. This will make it much easier when it comes time to start plaiting.

• Next, you need to give yourself an extreme side parting, pulling most of your hair over to one side of your head

• If you want to, you can section off your hair on the the side with more hair and put it in a ponytail for the sake of convenience, you won't be needing it for awhile.

• On the other side (the one you will be using) section off your hair using your ear as a guide, like so.

• You can tie back any hair that falls behind your ear, as its the section in front (see below) that you'll be using.

• Further divide this section horizontally into two even sections, using your comb if you have one (there's a lot of dividing in this tutorial, I'm sorry)
• If your hair is on the thinner side, you can skip this step and just do one plait, but if you have a lot of hair like me, you're probably better off doing two

• Pin the top section out of the way for the moment, leaving the bottom section out

• From the section, take a small piece from the front

• Divide this section into three

• Start plaiting, grabbing section from the top and bottom (the smaller the better) and adding them to the plasit as you go

• When you run out of hair, secure it with a bobby pin, like so...

• Now take the top side section...

•  Section off the front and repeated the process

• The result should look something like this...

• Take the back and other side out of their ponytails

• And here is the finished look...

Taylor Swift Inspired Tutorial

Hi everyone, 

I don't know if I've mentioned this on here before, but as you can probably guess, I'm a big fan of Taylor Swift. Aside from her music, I also really like her fashion sense and makeup; she's got that red lip classic thing that I like (I'm sorry, I had to!) and so today I tried to recreate her one of her makeup looks, inspired by the photo above.

For this look, you will need:

• Base makeup (foundation, concealer, powder)
• Bronzer or something else you can use as contour
• Gold eyeshadow
• Black eyeshadow
• Black liquid eyeliner
• Black pencil eyeliner
• Mascara
• Red lipstick

• Apply your base makeup; foundation, concealer, powder. I used a lot of concealer to try and create a flawless base, as Taylor skin seems to be pretty much perfect.

• And once again I try to contour. I don't know if I'll ever get the hang of this, but I tried, by applying some bronzer just underneath my cheekbones.

• For eyes; start by applying gold eyeshadow all over the lid. You can also add some under your eye.

• Next apply the black eyeshadow to the outer third of your eyelid, as well as the crease and  blend it out into a more rounded shape. Try to go easy on the eyeshadow, you don't want to end up looking like a panda!

• Using your pencil eyeliner, line your lower lashline (just below your waterline) in as far as your pupil. Try to blend it as much as you can to avoid creating a harsh line.

• Use your liquid eyeliner to line your  upper lashline, winging it out at the edge. 

Let's all just take a moment to appreciate this flick, because it will probably never happen again.

• Apply a liberal amount of mascara

• And this is the finished eye look...

• And of course, you can't forget the red lipstick

• And that is the completed look! Go forth, my friends and never go out of style.

Lipstick Dupe |Elizabeth Arden & Wet 'n' Wild

Hi everyone,
For those of you that mightn't know, a dupe is short for a duplicate; basically a cheap version of a high-end makeup product that looks almost exactly the same.
Because a lot of my makeup comes from the 'drugstore', I don't come across dupes very often, but I did recently, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

The Wet 'n' Wild lipstick 'Sugar Plum Fairy' is well-known for being a dupe for MAC's Rebel, but I've discovered it's also very similar to the Elizabeth Arden in lipstick in 'Ultraviolet'

The formula of the two lipsticks (as you might be able to see from the pictures) is quite different, the Wet 'n' Wild lipstick is definitely matte, whereas the Elizabeth Arden is definitely more glossy and moisturising.

Wet 'n' Wild Lipstick in 'Sugar Plum Fairy' (top) Elizabeth Arden in Ultraviolet (bottom)

But as you can see, the colours are pretty much identical.

Sugar Plum Fairy

Ultraviolet

January Favourites

Hi everyone,
And welcome to my first Favourites post of 2015. January, like December ended up being a bit of a mad month for me and there were a lot of mornings where I was literally running out the door, so I didn't change up my makeup routine or try a lot of new makeup last month. I did however manage to find a few non-makeup favourites, so I thought I'd show those to you.

Kiko Luscious Cream Lipstick in 511

My one solitary makeup item for the month. I wore this lipstick almost every day last month, and it's fast becoming one of my all time favourites. It's really moisturising, really pigmented and the colour is just amazing. As you probably know, I'm a huge fan of red lipsticks and this is just the perfect classic red.
And also the packaging. Can we just take a moment to appreciate the packaging? It looks like a lipstick from the future!

EcoTools Powder Brush

I've been using this brush to apply my blusher all month and it's really good. Mine is slightly flat (there is a distinct possibility it did just get squashed in it's packaging, but whatever, it works) which makes it really easy to apply blusher or contour and gives you a very precise application.

Boots Cocoa Butter Body Butter

I think I showed a miniature version of this in a past very posts, but I finally went out and bought a full sized one. It was a good choice. This Body Butter is really moisturising and also smells amazing.

Parfois Purse

I'd been on the hunt for a new purse for about a year (I'm very picky) when I eventually stumbled across this one in Parfois in Decemeber. It's really sturdy and well-made, has lots of space for cards and cash (I'm that person that has loyalty cards for everything) and it's red (in case you hadn't noticed), so it doesn't get lost in the bottom of my bag.

Penneys Grey Jumper

I love jumpers and out of the many, many jumpers that I own, this may be my new favourite. It's warm, its oversized, it's comfy,what more could you ask for? I lived in it all month.

Penneys Scarf

All this stuff was in my sales haul actually. As anyone in Ireland knows, it got cold in January. Like really cold. But thankfully, I had my trusty new scarf to keep me warm. And it is a very warm scarf. And soft. And comfortable. It made the cold morning slightly less miserable. But only slightly.

Penneys Hat

It keeps my head warm. What more can I say?