Halloween Make up!

This Hallow's Eve I had a few ideas to dress up as. My boyfriend's little sister was dressing up as a zombie for a thriller dance she was doing for the Guinness book of world records, so I offered to do her face paint, and I was surprisingly happy with the way it turned out!

It was done with normal face paint, nothing too fancy! We didn't have any fake blood, so all I did was wet the paint, quite a lot, on a paint brush and flicked it onto her neck and face. For her eye's I used a mixture of black, brown and grey eye-shadow, attempting to give the 'dead' look!
For her clothes we just ripped up an old white tee shirt, pretty self explanatory. Flicked that with blood, and tore an old pair of tights, and she was set to go! It's such an easy Halloween costume, and it's at a fraction of the price compared to ones in shops!


I was so happy with the way the zombie make-up turned out, I was considering doing it on myself for halloween night, but I figured it's been done, and done, and done! So I opted for a Gene Simmons look, for those who do not know of Gene, he's a guitarist from the band, Kiss.
Here's the picture I used for reference,

If you have ever seen the movie 'Role Models' they all dress up as the guys from Kiss at the end!

Face: I didn't prime my face or anything, because that make's the face paint clump and I wanted to make mine last the night. I used a cream eye-liner to line out the design of the black paint around his eyes. Make sure your liner if paired quite a lot because you need the lines to be sharp and defined. Once the outline was finished, I painted the white face paint first, in order not to smudge it with the black, and then it would turn it into a grey sloppy mess! Once the white dried, I used a smaller brush to get the precision of the black paint on his forehead. Instead of using face paint over my lids, I opted for black shimmer eye-shadow, to add a bit more oomph! I used Urban Decay's 24/7 eye pencil on my water line, and a bit on my top lid to help the eye shadow stick. Last but not least, I filled my lips in with the black paint, obviously it would have made more sense to use black lipstick but hey, I'm a cheapskate!  

Hair: For my hair, I curled it, and back combed the crap out of it! I took a good chunk of my fringe, back combed it and put it into a little bun at the top of my head, like in the pic of Gene (above) 

Attire: As for his clothes, I wore black wet look skinny jeans, black strappy wedges, a black tank top, my leather jacket, and lots of chains! (choker, optional!)

                     I practised on my sister the day before Halloween to make sure I could even do it!

I

As you can see, my sis has not got long hair, so we just hair sprayed it and back combed!

NOTD: Rimmel Pro Finish

Once again I felt like doing something different with my nails, so I just painted my nails normally, with two coats of Rimmel's Pro Finish, in shade 420 Aqua Cool.

After allowing that to dry, I grabbed a bobby pin and bent it back a bit, making a sort of handle, it's pretty straightforward, dip the bobby pin into your choice of colour nail polish, mine was Barry M's 47 Black. Then continue to dot different, or even sized polka dots all over your nails!

NOTD: Barry M and RVB

I went a bit mad with my nail polish this week, but I think it's kinda quirky! I'm afraid I didn't take pictures of the different stages of the design, soz! I'll do it next time. I used an orange stick (the little wooden sticks used to push back your cuticles) to do the polka dots on my nails and also for the zebra inspired design on my thumb!

Sorry about the quality of the pic, it was at night and my camera is woeful!

The polka dots were pretty straight forward, I put two coats of RVB Idroluce on, RVB is a brand that Beauticians used to use, I've had mine for ages, they seem fine but I really should dump them! 

After those two coats dried, I got my orange stick and dipped it into Barry M's 47 Black.

I tested out the Zebra print first to see if it would be easy or not, it wasn't too hard to doing my right thumb was harder because I'm not left handed. So I just left it on the thumbs and simple dotted black in different sizes all over the rest of my nails. Some of the dots turned out quite thick so it was annoying waiting for them to dry, when the finally did I just used a top coat of Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails. 

Taa Daa :) 

Review Essence Collection Part 2

Here's just a look at the products I have from the Essence Collection, in Part 1 I wrote about where you can buy the brand, and also why I like it so much. Let's begin!

This is my collection, as of now, obviously I have dumped products gone out of date and whatnot!

Foundation

This Mousse Foundation is similar to Maybelline's dream Matt Mousse, but at a fraction of the price!

I buy the palest shade, 04 Matt Ivory

                                             

I apologize for the condition of these powders, yes believe it or not they are powders! The one on the left is 04 perfect beige, compressed powder, unforch this poor sucker lost it's life to my kitchen floor! As for the other, 07 translucent, it cracked when it hit pan when I was on my holidays! These two powers are pretty good considering they are both under five euro. I prefer the translucent because perfect beige was a tad dark for me!

Concealer

I had read great reviews on the 3in1 concealer, so obviously I went out and got it. I love the pink concealer for under your eyes, so if you're like me, with dark circles under you're eyes, apply this before your foundation and it's brillaint! As for the Stay natural concealer, i didn't think much of it. It was a bit to watery and didn't hide blemishes very well.

Eyes

At the moment, I have from Essence three of their Mascara's, (top to bottom) Essence Maximum Definition volume mascara. This my favourite out of the three! Next is Lash Mania by Essence, this is also good but i prefer the wand on Volume Mascara. The blue tube is their Water Proof No Limits Mascara 01 Black, I've only used this once, it touched no water so i'm afraid I don't know if it works or not!

Essence are famous in Ireland for the quality of their liquid liners, I adore their old version (the tube in the picture with no writing on it is the old version). Please excuse the shadow, the brush is a perfect width for achieving a cat eye flick. Unforch, their new brush is felt, and is too thick to try and get the precision you can with their older brush. 

As for the Gel Eyeliner, it's pretty amazing for the price. It definitely stays on all day, and is heavily pigmented.  Although it did smudge onto my crease, but i just took it off with my foundation brush. 

Eyebrows 

I'm obsessed with eyebrow shape, and filling in my own brows. I think if your brows are the right shape for your face it really makes a difference to your features. So when I'm out and I see girls with foundation still in their brows, I just wanna attack them with an eyebrow pencil! I picked up all of the brow products in Penny's on Henry St. The eyebrow stylist set at the top of the pic, is kind of for beginners who are filling their brows in, as there are stencils which allow you to fill your brows in and then pluck where there is not product. The Eyebrow Gel from Essence is unusual to me, i feel it kind of wipes off the pencil and make my brows look shiny. Seemingly it has gotten brilliant reviews from other bloggers so maybe i'm not doing something right? 

My over all favourite product to use in my brows is the Eyebrow Designer in shade 02 Brown, it the middle of all the shades, black being the darkest and then a caramel type colour as the lightest shade.

02 Brown

My skin

I only have three products from the My skin range, I like the products but they aren't a part of my daily routine, they are cheap as chips, which makes me sort of apprehensive about using them, because I have bad skin enough as it is, so using cheap products to scrub my face can end badly.

The Essence Mattifying Cream doesn't really do what it says on the tin, it just makes my face all stiff for a few minutes, which feels really weird. It smells good though! 

Overall I really do love Essence, it's a brand that i definitely keep buying! I hope I've inspired someone to go out and buy some products because I really believe it gives some of the top brands a run for their money! I'll be shocked if anyone even reads this post, but leave a comment and follow if you do!:)

thanks, 

Ruthie

x

Review of Essence Cosmetics Part 1

Essence Cosmetics is a Brand that is sold cheaply worldwide, I first discovered Essence when I was in Penny's on Henry Street (or in the UK, Primark). I knew little about the brand, it reminded me of the likes of Miss Sporty which you would find in Boots and other Chemists. I was very intrigued by the prices of Essence!

Selections of nail polish, lip gloss & eye shadows

I began watching different Youtuber's raving about how amazing certain products from their range was, so each time I went into town I was sure to pick up something new from Essence. I couldn't believe how cheap the make up was! This is no exaggeration, every product is under a fiver, and for the quality you get in most of the products I think it's brilliant!

Depending on where you live you'll find Essence stands in Pharmacies (drugstores), the likes of Pennys, Dunnes Stores and your local chemist. The ranges can vary. Penny's have got a wide range of Essence products including their new Skin Care range, also coming in at under €5. Unfortunately Essence do not have an online store (you would probably end up paying more money for the postage and packaging than you do for the actual products!) If you're unlucky and can't find an Essence stand you could always opt for Catrice, a German brand, which is not too different in price range than Essence, the products are really well made, and look dearer than they are. Catrice is like the older sister to Essence Products!

My Skin Products

On Xpose recently, it featured a make over with Essence cosmetics only, so it's recommended by make up artists themselves, not just by teen bloggers like myself! The brand isn't perfect though, I did go out and buy their My Skin care products and I don't love them all to be quite honest. I'll post the products I've bought in Part two of my Essence Review!