Updated every day makeup routine

Foundation: Normally every day i use No7's Beautifully Matte foundation in the shade 'Calico' and apply it with a Real Techniques Expert Face brush, which gives a natural looking flawless finish to the skin. Somtimes i'll use the Revlon ColorStay foundation in 'Ivory' or the Revlon PhotoReady BB Cream in 'Pale' depending on what kind of finish and coverage i want.

Concealer: For concealing redness or those pesky spots i use the well known Collection Lasting Perfection concealer in 'Fair' and i pat/stipple the R.T Buffing brush on top to blend it in, but not smudge it off.

Under eye concealer: I use the same concealer and dot it under the eyes and blend out with R.T deluxe crease brush.

Powder: Yes, i use the Rimmel stay matte as it really is the best powder at such a low cost, i use the R.T contour brush to apply it round the centre of the face to get rid of shine and set the concealer.

Eyebrows: I brush through my brows with the spoolly (sp?) side of my No7 eyebrow pencil, and then lightly apply a dark brown matte eyeshadow (i'm using the dark brown from a Benefit palette) using an angled brush and with little strokes fill in my brows to make them less sparse but still looking natural, we don't want no scouse brow, am i right?

Priming/eyeshadow base: To start off the eyes i'll either apply a primer such as Urban Decay's Primer Potion (i'm using the one in the shade 'Sin') or the Maybelline ColorTattoo in 'On and On Bronze' which is perfect as a base to really amplify the eyeshadows used on top. 

Eyeshadow: Finally we've made it to eyeshadow! First i take MAC's 'All That Glitters' all over the lid with the RT base shadow brush to set the base, then with the same brush i apply 'Cork' on the outer half of the lid and blend. Then i take 'Tempting' on a MAC 217 brush and apply to the crease and blend out, and then take the same shadow on the E.L.F crease brush and apply to lower lash line. Next to highlight the inner corner of the eye and to brighten my eyes a bit more i take 'Virgin' from the Naked palette in a R.T Accent brush and apply around the inner corner area. Recently i've been loving using black eyeshadow as liner, so i next take the R.T Angled brush and line my top lash line, for a softer look than using liquid liner.

Mascara: Lastly for the eyes, i curl my lashes and apply the ever famous Maybelline 'The Falsies' mascara, and for the lower lashes i use No7's Extreme Length as the wand is the perfect size. If i want more added to the liner, i'll use the Collection Extreme 24 liner but only a really small amount.

Blush: For blush it varies day to day, if i use a cream blush i'll use the R.T Stippling brush, and if i use powder i use the R.T Blush brush. The few blushes i have are: Revlon Cream blush in 'Pinched', Dainty Doll powder blush in 'You Are My Sunshine', Natural Collection 'Sweet Cheeks', Sleek Contour kit 'medium', E.L.F 'Merry Berry'.

Lips: Again my the lip product i'll use will vary day to day, most of the time i go for a pinky-mauve shade that are more on the cool toned side rather than warm. A few that i have are: No7's 'Mulberry', Maxfactor 'Rosewood', Revlon 'Crush', Rimmel Apocalips 'Galaxy', Revlon 'Smoked Peach', Rimmel 'Vintage Pink'.

Sometimes if i want more precision with application i'll use a lip brush, or if i want more of a stain rather than a full on lip colour i'll apply a lip balm and then lightly apply lipstick on top and blend out with a lip brush.

some 'editorial' style shots

A few weeks ago i was assigned the portraiture assignment for my photography degree, i've shot a few shoots already but the other day i randomly had an idea for some more 'editorial' looking images that would maybe advertise the cosmetic side of fashion photography. Here were a few of the shots i took yesterday for it, but i've booked out the studio to experiment with using professional lighting etc. for later this week.

some of the images require a bit more photoshop but overall i'm very happy with them! I wanted to show the feminine aspect of beauty with the floral head band/crown (that i made myself may i add) and the glimpse of the shoulder which, to me, i think is a lovely part of the female figure which adds to the femininity of the images. I also went for fairly natural looking face makeup, but with smokey neutral eyeshadow to highlight the eyes, which is what i wanted the main feature of the images to be.

my recent photography degree photos!

So i currently have 6 assignments on the go, i know it's crazy! I have: Still life assignment (due this week) Colour assignment (due in 2 weeks) Materials, Techniques and Processes (due in april) Portraiture (due may) Professional Practice (due in 3 weeks) and Digital imaging (unknown when due).
And i'm being given another assignment in 2 weeks as well! Crazy! Luckily i can handle the workload, so i find it okay, but i thought i'd show you some of the work i've been getting up to recently!

Still Life Assignment 

Studio shoot - experimenting with different lighting  and editing for an advertisement 

Lighting experiment - back lighting 

Colour Assignment 

Colour 35mm Film - scanned in and edited on Photoshop

digital shoot - outside in natural lighting 

I also used my diana f+ camera with 120 (medium format) film for this project, this was my outcome! 

I have also shot some black and white film for both my colour project and my still life, but unfortunately i haven't scanned them it yet, oops!

Portraiture Assignment 

I have only just been assigned the portraiture project last week, so this is what i have shot so far. I plan to do some studio shoots for the portraiture assignment - and experiment with applying garish makeup on boys. I also plan to experiment more with the idea below, with sleep & dreams, as self portraits but also with other people too!

what's in my bag, uni edition #2

bag #1 

ilfrod b&w multigrade paper // folder - where i store my negatives, prints, and paper // digital printing photo paper // purse // uni ID // 3 sketchbooks & notebook // slide film

I use this bag to store all my books and folders etc. which wouldn't fit inside my other bag, the bag fits everything in perfectly and is great for using to carry my work round.

bag #2

sunglasses // compact heart mirror // pencil case // kindle case // kindle fire hd // keys // headphones

makeup bag includes: real techniques contour brush to apply powder // kate moss lipstick // lip balm // clinique hand cream // rimmel stay matte powder // hair brush // l'occitane hand cream 

I carry all my 'travel essentials' with me in this bag, so i can easily grab them when i'm on the train to uni. My purse is usually in this bag, but for some reason i photographed it in the other bag (why i do not know). Everything fits in really well, and is a great bag to carry everything i need round in. I usually store my lunch in this bag too.

What do you take to college/uni with you? 

Photography degree (update)

Dark Room & Colour Darkroom

Previously, in my recent assignments but also when i studied a-level photography i have studied black & white film/ analogue photography, and i absolutely love it! I still find it so exciting with developing the films and waiting to see how they've come out. However in the recently assigned projects i have been asked to experiment with colour negative film that is 35mm in the colour dark room at uni, i also have to experiment with medium format (120) colour film which i have been testing out on my Diana F+, and also large format film. I find printing from colour film even more fun than black & white, you have to print in complete darkness, and get the levels of magenta and yellow correct after numerous test strips to get the correct levels.

It ends up taking a fair few hours to get one decent print from the colour dark room, but it's definitely worth it!

Digital Photography

We have also been assigned to use digital photography partially in our projects, which i've obviously studied before, i enjoy using digital for the still life assignment as it's easy to connect to the studio flashes. In digital photography i've learnt how to fully set up a professional studio, with different lighting (such as Tungsten Red Head studio lamps) with different flash heads such as beauty dishes and soft boxes. I've also learnt more on Photoshop, like how to edit and print a very high quality image at a high quality standard on PhotoSpeed paper (matte, lustre, glossy, etc.) on epson printers.

More Toning - Duotone, & Ilford Art 300 Paper - Hand Tinting

I've also experimented with toning again, such as sepia, copper red, blue etc. and duo toning with two different colours of toner on b&w prints as well. I also tried out printing on Ilford Art 300 paper in the dark room which has the feel of watercolour paper, so you can paint on a print afterwards and hand tint it. The paper had a really nice texture and i wish i could of used more of it but unfortunately it was quite expensive compared to the average Ilford glossy that i currently buy for the b&w dark room.

Recent photos taken on a car journey:

 tested out the cheesy 'effects' bit on my Nikon D5100, to try out selective colour on these signs