Bridal Make Up with the Urban Decay Urban Bride Box

Hello my beauties ;-)

So yesterday I was out shopping in Westfield with my friends The Samanthas from uni, and I totally got peer-pressured into buying the Urban Bride box from Urban Decay and told I MUST blog about it.

What better way to test, thought I, than to do a bridal make up?

Prime

The bride box doesn't come with a face primer, and it seems UD don't sell their Box Of Potions in these parts, so not having the UD Complexion Primer Potion I substituted for the e.l.f. Mineral Infused Primer (£6) and smoothed it all over my face and neck.

I would have used the original Primer Potion from the box, but the lovely and very beautiful lady who writes Frooti Beauty gave me a sample sized pot of one of the new coloured Primer Potions, I think the shade was Eden, and I already know what the original one looks like so I used the Eden instead. It's a lot thicker and stickier and dries faster so you have to work a bit quicker than with the original, but it evens out skintone and brightens whilst giving nice coverage of dark circles.

Eden Primer Potion

Foundation

Using my firm favourite L'Oreal Infallible foundation in Porcelain and a stippling brush I blended my foundation all over my face and neck. After using the UD Primer Potion in Eden I didn't feel the need for concealer; my under eye circles were pretty well covered (this may have been due to my use of Origins GinZing over the past few days as well) and my skin is actually blemish free right now, enough so anyway that foundation was enough to cover any I might have.

Cheeks

Taking e.l.f. Cool Bronzer on a stippling brush I lightly brushed a little on under my cheekbones and around the edge of my face, and used a little to contour my nose.

Using my Cynthia Rowley for Avon True Colour Blush in Peony Pink and the e.l.f. studio blush brush I applied the colour to the very edge of my cheekbones and up the sides of my face. I wanted to avoid putting too much colour on my cheeks and put more emphasis on the cheekbones, whilst using a very pink flowery colour to add an air of innocence to the look and honour the term "the blushing bride."

I took my Collection 2000 blush in So Pretty and using the same brush added the shimmering peach shade along the line of my cheekbones, blending it with the Peony Pink and pulling the colour down onto my cheeks. The colour is very sheer and just adds a hint of glow. I took what was left on the brush over my forehead, nose and chin to keep the rest of my face from looking flat.

The last thing on my cheeks was a little Eyeko Sparkle Powder (discontinued) and ran it over my cheekbones and temples for a highlight.

Eyes

Taking an old Estee Lauder Eyeshadow Duo that I'm afraid no longer has the name of the colours on it, but they do something that looks similar - their Signature Silky EyeShadow Duo in Mocha, or possibly Cappuccino but I'm pretty sure it's Mocha, retailing at £21.50 but currently out of stock on their website - I swept the pale Irish Cream coloured shadow across my lid and browbone, then used the hot chocolate shade along the crease with the e.l.f. Angled Contour Brush for a wide band of colour, and blended the two colours together. I used a darker cool brown from my Sunkissed palette to  define the outer 'V' and blended some more.


For liner, I used a flat liner brush (e.l.f, £1.50) and Clove, a dark brown by Front Cover, on the upper and lower lash line, and blended away any harsh edges, then went over it very lightly with Bulletproof from Sugarpill. I blended again.

I curled my lashes and gave them a generous coat of UD Supercurl Curling Mascara. It's a nice mascara that doesn't harden too much, making it comfortable, but I don't see that much of a curl even using curlers, and it doesn't volumize or lengthen so it made me want to add some falsies. I didn't though.

I shaped my eyebrows with a very light hand and e.l.f. Eyebrow Lifter and Filler in Ash/Ivory, and set them in place with e.l.f. Eyebrow Treat and Tame in Ash.

I did not line my waterline with anything because I'm doing wedding make up, and wedding days are long and teary affairs that eyeliner on your waterline is unlikely to survive. As a bride to be myself, there is no way in hell I'm going to be touching up my eyeliner on the day, and after a while my eyes get irritated by the feel of a liner on my waterline.

Finish

Using UD Razor Sharp Ultra Definition Finishing Powder I patted the powder on my face and used a powder brush to sweep away the excess. It's really nice to have a loose powder that is easy to carry and apply on the go, with a little mirror on the lid!

It made my face look all glowy!

I patted some UD Marshmallow Sparkling Lickable Body Powder onto my shoulders and decolletage, it smells awesome and tastes yummy! It gives a nice sheen to your skin and helps the rest of you stay in keeping with your face.

Lastly I used UD All Nighter setting spray, which is oil and paraben free and both felt and smelled wonderful. It's cooling and refreshing, and the nozzle has the perfect sized holes to make the spray more of a mist, so it isn't going to be too wet and make your make up run (which would be counter-productive).

Lips

Wanting  to do nude lips but to also have a 'bitten' effect, I used Bourjois Rouge Hi-Tech liptint in Rose Pixel and blended it into my lips with my finger, then took UD Lip Junkie Lipgloss in Midnight Cowboy, which is minty and smells just like Lush's Mint Julips lip scrub, and applied it over the top. It is very sticky which means it stays put, but I wouldn't wear it for that first married kiss, because your man will make a face and that won't look good in the photos!

Fini!

For fun, I put on a white dress and a made a makeshift net curtain veil. Kate Middleton eat your heart out!

I hope you guys enjoyed this, and I'd love to hear your comments. What do you want/did you have for your wedding make up? Did you/would you do it yourself, or hire a professional? Who would be your dream make up artist for your wedding? I think I'd love one of the Pixiwoo girls, myself. Although, for the reception, totally Petrilude.

Thanks for reading!

TTFN

Hell Thirteen 

xoxo

ebay, I love you.

I was on ebay on Sunday and spotted some expensive make up on the cheap. I managed to bag an Estee Lauder lipstick compact for £1, and a Stila illuminating liquid foundation for another £1. With shipping it came up to about £6 total. They arrived about half an hour ago and that Sigma brush still hasn't arrived having been shipped over a week ago!

My first impressions:
The first thing I did was test the foundation to check that I had the right shade. It seems 10 Watts is in fact the perfect shade for me, but my celebrations at finding such an awesome priced foundation that matches my skin tone were cut short when I smelled the back of my foundation covered hand. It smells rank. Like paint that's gone off, I mean, I like the smell of paint but this just doesn't smell right. I realise I don't know how old this foundation is, and when I opened it, it had clearly been used at least once. Has it gone off? Or does it just smell that way?
It holds none of the usual clues to a bad foundation: separation of the ingredients in the bottle, lumpy or strange consistency, and I'm not sure if it just smells like that because it's an oil based foundation. I shall have to try it on my face and see how it goes. I may post about this again later. I am glad I didn't may $38 just to try it. After the conversion rate that's still around £22.

I've just tried out all four of the lipsticks in the Estee Lauder palette. They are Pure Colour Long Lasting Lipsticks, and one of them is a Pure Colour Crystal shade, 303 Crystal Pink.  The others are 166 Candy, 161 Pink Parfait, and 182 Pinkberry.

When I was really young and was just messing about with makeup, I remember my brother Michael giving me an Estee Lauder gift bag. I think I used to think of it as granny makeup because it was all browns and a bit boring for a kid to play with. I had two lipsticks, two trial sized mascaras and a small duo colour eye palette, and as I grew up I used those lipsticks more and more often for daytime looks. The lipsticks eventually went off, as all oil based things eventually do, but those eyeshadows are still in my make up drawers, still wearable, still beautiful, still smelling new. Michael died around this time eight years ago, but his gift is still here, usable. One of the best things he ever got me. I never bought another product by Estee Lauder until that turbo lash vibrating mascara came out, the most ridiculously expensive mascara I've ever bought. I always remembered those lipsticks for their amazing quality, something that is apparently still there today. The thing I notice is that the difference between colours is a subtle one, in most cases.

Here are my lipsticks:

161 Pink Parfait

182 Pinkberry

303 Crystal Pink

116 Candy

Like I said, the difference is subtle on the lips. They look different in the compact.

They are very lovely lipsticks, they feel really creamy and moisturising, they look beautiful and if I had bought each of these to try as full sized individual lipsticks at £18 a pop it would have cost me £72, and I wouldn't have had a lipbrush or a mirror. I think it highly unlikely that I will use these up all that quickly, as I prefer brighter colours or just a balm on my lips most of the time, but I will use them. I feel happy with this £1 purchase. Actually, I'm ecstatic.

Less than 24 hours left to enter my Eyeko giveaway. Subscribe and comment "enter me" and I pick the winner tomorrow afternoon. 

TTFN

Hell Thirteen xoxo