Friday, February 27, 2015

Smoulder!

Let's celebrate this winter Friday with a super easy makeup look!



How I achieved this look:

Step 1.
Choose a dark colour of your choice. I used a gray-brown colour, not like I could tell you what it's called because it's been in my kit forever and the label has worn off but it's from Estee Lauder.
Apply this colour with a brush or your finger —you can usually achieve a slightly more pigmented coverage with your finger, from your lash line to your crease.

Step 2.
Take a clean crease brush and blend away from your crease in a back and forth motion. Blend until you can blend no more!

Step 3.
Take an eyeshadow colour close to your skin tone and use this to seamlessly blend your shadow into your brow bone. I've used the colour "Foxy" from Urban Decay's Naked Basics palette.

Step 4.
Take your favourite highlighting shade, I used "Venus" also from Urban Decay's Naked Basics palette and highlight your browbone and the inner corners of your eyes just the brighten the look up and to add some depth.

Step 5.
Apply your favourite mascara and lashes if you wish. (I did not add lashes)

AND THAT'S IT!

Bonus:
Keep your lip colour lighter — you don't want your smokey eyes competing with a dark lip.



See, I told you it was super easy! It's also a great look to practice your blending.
Now, go get 'em tiger!

Love & Sass,


Thursday, February 26, 2015

Let's Catch Up

In the spirit of "Throwback Thursday", I thought I would write about that time I was my sisters Maid of Honour.

Almost a year ago, I had the privilege of being my sister's MOH. For two years, I helped plan the wedding, planned the engagement party, bridal shower and bachelorette. I created & designed invitations, thank you cards, posters and anything else I could. I was very busy but I loved every moment of it.

Nothing had me more nervous or excited than delivering my MOH speech at the reception though. I decided very early that I wanted to do something unexpected. Although, if you really know me — it actually seems very expected, but I digress...
I wanted to "WOW" my sister. I have always been somewhat of a closet ham but on the flip side I get paralyzingly nervous when I have to speak in front of more than 5 people at a time.

So the struggle is real.

Ten months before the wedding I started writing. I wrote down all the nice things I wanted to say knowing it needed to be REALLY nice because after having seen a MOH somewhere in the States perform her speech to the beat of "Without Me" by Eminem, I had found my performance inspiration. I knew my sister LOVED that song, as did I, and I decided I would do my own version. Keep in mind I used her chorus and a few of her lyrics but I promise at least 80% of the verses are all me.

So for the final 6 months before the big day, I practiced and practiced my rap. On the way to work, for my colleagues (those who would let me), on the way home from work, in the car, in the shower - EVERYWHERE.

As a comfort, I created a video of the lyrics to play behind me. It was intended to help me as back up so the audience didn't miss any words in case I did.

I had the wedding party in kahoots with me, along with the day-of coordinators, photographers, audio/visual guys and the MCs. A LOT of prep and planning went into this delivery.

SO the big day finally came and aside from the time I was doing everyone's makeup (yes, I did that too), my mind was on my upcoming speech. Dinner came and I couldn't even eat. I told the staff to keep bringing it but don't take it away because I was just so nervous I would eat AFTER my speech. They laughed at me.

My name was called to come up and ten months of preparing, planning and practicing was about to be summarized into 7 minutes.


Before you watch, if you haven't seen it before, here is my disclaimer;

For 3 minutes prior to where the video starts I had been delivering all those nice things I had previously mentioned I wanted to say. It went flawlessly. However, rapping fast while you're nervous makes it REAL easy to get out of breath. At one point during my rap I started sounding more and more like a goat because of how shaky my voice was and how hard I was pushing to get my breath in/out. You can't notice it too hard in the video but it's the one splinter I have left over from my performance. Either than that — I am proud and satisfied. I also give "cred" to the MOH who was the original genius to use this song.

So, as I say in the video, without further ado...



After I performed, I walked straight to the bar to catch my breath and forget about my goat-esk voice.

The bar has been set for her speech at my wedding.

Love & Guts,


Wednesday, February 25, 2015

I'm Back!

Hello World!



After a long hiatus I am finally back in action here!

So keep checking back to read about makeup and design tutorials, tips and trends!

Love & Warmth,