“The day is cold. The day is cold and dark and dreary.” ~ Rainy Days

Welcome to my Halloween look, and the “first” chapter to my newly renamed Book of Fables. (or the 28th edition of looks in general). This look was inspired by Sefie’s cosplay of Edea, I love the look of veins or cracks slowly infecting someone’s perfectly porcelain face. It’s hauntingly beautiful.

This look was shot completely in the dark, with our only lighting provided by tea candles We managed to experiment a lot with light photography (but that’s for another post). And by we, I mean myself and my partner Toby~ Who is an amazing photographer (he does 95% of my cosplay shoots) and is eternally loving and patient with my insane fussy and cranky attitudes on shoots! XD *love*

I unfortunately could not find the appropriate contacts and had to digital enhance my iris, I’ll find them one day!

INGREDIENTS
Face
MAC Prep + Prime
MAC Studio Sculpt Foundation in NC15

Cheeks
NARS Bronzer in Laguna
NARS Highlighter in Albatross
NARS Powder Blush in Orgasm
Revlon Colorstay Eyeliner in Black

Eyes
Rimmel Quad Eyeshadow Snokey Noir
NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base
MAC Duo Eyeshadow in My Dark Magic
Cezanne Liquid Eyeliner in Black
Savvy by DB Luxury Liner in Shimmering Slate
Cover Girl Lash Blast Fusion in Very Black

Lips
NYX Lipliner in Deep Purple
NYX Jumbo Lip Pencil in Vixen
NYX Lipstick in Penelope

SPELLS
Face
Prime your face with a primer, then apply foundation all over the face.

Cheeks
Contour with bronzer, highlight with highlighter and apply a pink / golden blush to the apples of your cheeks.

Using a black eyeliner, creatively draw veins where ever you see fit! Don’t be scared to make mistakes, it’s just makeup and can easily be removed and redone~

Eyes
Shape brows with the black shadow, give it a sharp / harsh edge.

Prime your lids and apply an almost black shadow into your crease and blend out. Line upper lashline with a black liquid liner, wing out for a cat eye effect. Apply a smudge proof pencil eyeliner in black onto your waterline.

Curl your lashes, and apply two coats of black mascara. Apply your false lashes.

Lips
Line your lips with a dark berry lipliner, then apply a dark berry lipstick to your lips, use a black lipstick to the center of your lips for a more gothic look.

Happy Halloween~

Despite being a computer geek who fears the sun’s rays, I looove nature. At least the concept of it That’s essentially how the name of Fables came to be, my love for greek mythology, nymphs, fairies etc. This is why shooting outdoors is my favourite types of shoots

One of my favourite bags from TopShop, the leather is incredibly soft and gives off a very casual look. Not to mention an across the body bag leaves my hands completely free. Shoes were from a sample sale from RMK, tops from Portmans and jeans from Gasp

I looooove being in the forest, and the fact that Sefie lives just around the corner makes the location all the more attractive

Carnation, Natural, Tulip, Poppy, Cosmos

Pros:

• Great pigmentation
• Easy to sharpen
• Strong staying power

Cons:

• Very drying
• Drags the skin a lot (hard pencil)
• Limited colour range

Price: $2.99AU

Rating:

Where: Exclusively at Priceline

Yay! It’s been a while since I did a Local Luxe entry I should have a couple more in the pipe line coming soon~

One thing I love about Savvy by DB are those cheap bins you sometimes see around Priceline, where every product goes got $2.99 each The lipliners were one of them, so I snapped some up. I actually don’t really use lipliners for lining my lips, I use them for giving my lips some colour, whilst topping them off with either my lip balm or semi-opaque gloss.

Despite Savvy by DB’s great Eye Liners, I think their lipliners fall short I found them almost painful to use unless I “pre-heated” them (lying them next to a heater before hand) since the pencil was naturally very stiff / hard, I had to really go over my lips several times to get any level of pigmentation. And when I did, it left my lips feeling very dry

The exception should be Cosmos, it was one of the liner that applied pretty smoothly, but given I’m more a Natural personal, I can’t see myself using Cosmos daily.

Still with either a gloss or lipstick applied over, this stuff gives great pigmentation and long lasting power So maybe if you can be bothered to pre-heat them, it might be worth a go. But personally, I’d rather the MAC lip pencils, which just glide across my lips.

When Sam asked if I could play ‘makeup artist’ to her ‘photographer’ for an upcoming shoot, I couldn’t say no! I’m certainly no makeup artist, but I do love me some makeup~ And I love learning about how to apply makeup on other people, not just myself Fantastic learning experience!

The above photo is of Hitomi, who loves Hime Gyaru fashion and is a cosplayer herself. She had the most beautiful eyes I used relatively neutral tones for both her eyes, cheeks and lips. I just made sure to apply her liner with a heavier hand and she came prepared with some very Hime Gyaru-like lashes I was going for a young innocent look, I didn’t really have to try very hard.

And lastly this is Clara, a fellow cosplayer (tho not as much anymore?), her look was meant to be more adult and almost seductive. Think a mature young lady attending the Melbourne Cup races. The red lips really pulled everything together Her wig looks crazy natural

Overall, I had a blast, can’t wait to play makeup artist at future shoots!

Another Halloween collection, this time by OPI One of my favourite brands~ This collection is called Go Goth, it was a mini bottle set, not sure if they were ever released in full sized bottles. Let’s get on to the swatches!

Obscurity

This is a matte black polish, it applies shiny and dried matte. I’m not sure how I feel about this, mainly because I find the formula hard to apply, hence the streaky outcome. Although it could be because this is coming from a mini bottle and my craptastic application skills. I don’t have many matte shades, so this is a welcome item to my collection This is 3 coats, no top coat.

Sanguine

A deep, dark blood red-maroon with some very soft shimmer to it. Love this, but then again it’s not the most unique shade and I’m relatively certain there are plenty of other shades you could pick up the match this. This is 3 coats without top coat.

Nevermore

OPI claims this is a blackened purple, but it kinds looks like a purple and blue duo-chrome with tiny glitter particles. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, I love glitter! But the best kind is tiny glitter, gives the polish a smooth application and makes removal very easy! 3 coats, no top.

Unripened

Ooh, I love looking at this one close up! The official description claims it is a dark glittering green, but I can’t seem to see any green in this formula. Instead I see and duo chrome blue and purple glitter, see below.

The glitter particles were very small, not at all chunky. This polish however from a distance will appear almost black. 3 coats and no top coat.

Overall, it’s a nice collection, but nothing that really wowed me. I think at the moment China Glaze’s Halloween collection is still sits at my favourite this year

My candy and 70-80s rock star inspired look~ Been making good use of my glitter collection lately Some things I wish I had done better was stronger pigmentation and done a better job of drawing that star on my face, I used a stencil and it still looks rather dull I also found using a spritz of water or MAC Fix+ to be much better glitter adhesive, as opposed to using clear lip gloss as it feels lighter and allows my skin to breathe more. Enjoy!

The hair price I’m using was provided by Headline Hairpieces from the Melbourne Beauty Bloggers Event! I think I need to get some blue ones eventually, it would make a killer look

Steps to reproduce:

Face
As always, prime your face with MAC Prep + Prime. Apply MAC Mineralise Satinfinish SPF15 Foundation in NC20 all over the face, conceal with Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer in Beige and set with NARS Loose Powder in Flesh.

Cheeks
Standard cheeks with NARS Bronzer in Laguna to contour, NARS Powder Blush in Orgasm for the apples and NARS Highlighter in Albatross to highlight.

Eyes
Prime lids and both lash lines with NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow base. From the Coastal Scents 88 Ultra Shimmer Palette, apply a light pink all over the lid, inner corner of your eye and brow bone, and a hot pink into and above the crease and under your lower lash line. On the right side of your face, extend the hot pink all the way to your temple, shape till desired and blend! Take NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in True Purple Pearl to your crease. Next place a stencil of a star (or any shape you want) to your cheek bone and colour one side with the hot pink, and another with the purple pigment.

Use MAC Powerpoint Eye Pencil in Engraved to line your lash and water line. Fill and shape your brows with a medium to dark brown colour from the 88 palette. Next, hold your bottle of MAC Fix+ opposite your right temple about 20-30cms away and spray all over your eye makeup. Quickly (before the Fix+ dries) dab Coastal Scent Glitter Powder in Pinky, near the outer corner of your eye and out towards your temple. Do a second spray with your Fix+ and apply NYX Glitter Mania in Crystal over the pink glitter.

Curl your lashes, apply two coats of L’Oreal Extra Volume Collagene in Black and glue on your false lashes.

Lips
For the lips apply MAC Pro Longwear Lipcreme in Goes and Goes, then apply MAC Dazzle Lipstick in Troublemaker on your “inner” lips for added dimension.

Recently there appears to be a new trend in mascara land, called the 3 Dial Mascaras.

Essentially how they work is you can reduce or expand the size of the barrel that the mascara wand is pulled through. Reducing the size will wipe off more of the product, where as increasing the diameter of the barrel will wipe off less of the product. The idea is the more product on the wand, the more volumising your mascara application will be, and the less you use, the more defined and “daytime friendly” your mascara will become.

It’s an interesting concept that hasn’t particularly wowed me since I tend to go full volume at all times since my lashes are naturally dark, just defining them has no impact. But I can see this being popular among people who either don’t wear very much makeup, or those with lighter hair so that the difference between a light and heavy mascara application is more apparent on them.

So far I’ve been able to try the Rimmel 3 Dial which was given to me at the Melbourne Beauty Bloggers Event (but you can purchase it from Priceline or any supermarket for $18.95AU) and Almay which I purchased from Priceline for $19.95AU, and each of them have 3 dials.

1 – lightest coverage
2 – medium coverage
3 – heaviest coverage

Out of the two, my vote goes to Almay just for the packaging and formula. Some notes that came to mind, note that the swatch images were taken with dials set to 3.

Rimmel

• No smudging for over 10 hours
• Dial 3 gives me clumpy lashes
• Dial 1 gives me some definition with a little length
• Other than the text printed on the bottle, no way to tell whether you are sitting on your selected dial or not.

Almay

• No smudging for over 10 hours
• Dial 3 gives me very clean relatively thick defined lashes
• Dial 1 clearly defines my lashes with a little length
• The bottle clicks each time you hit a particular dial so you know without looking at the bottle that you currently sitting on an actual dial.

MAC’s Haute and Naughty Lash had a similar concept, minus the dial feature. I think it’s really cool that the makeup industry is trying to find new ways to improve existing items such as mascara

Pros:

• Highly pigmented
• Easy to blend
• Soft silky texture

Cons:

• Potential fallout
• Easy to cake on for less experienced people

Price: $16.95AU

Rating:

Where: Priceline

Let me just reiterate that if you want me to love a product, make sure it has high pigmentation. Nothing worse than digging into an eye shadow only for it to almost be invisible on the skin.

Two reasons why I love pigmented products, one because I’m a colourful person who wants the world to be one big rainbow! And two, value of money, a little goes a long way. I received this palette from the goodie bags from the Melbourne Beauty Bloggers Event and was thrilled as I had seen it previous used on YouTube by other makeup gurus

Swatches above are from the “Give me Gold” palette.

This is my new everyday palette, I love how pigmented the colours are, which means I have the option of going for a subtle light look, or a heavy more costume-like look. Versatile!

I love how this stuff applies like silk, no drag at all and it blends so easily too! I feel like I can’t stop raving about this product.

But, I’m me and I look for the bad in everything. The only problem I had with this is because it’s so pigmented and soft, I can see this being very easy to accidently cake on for some people, which can lead to fall out off the cheeks. So make sure you are careful when using this product. Though I’ve still given this product a high rating because this isn’t usually a problem for me, just wanted to mention it for others.

Other than that, if you love pigmented products, I recommend this!

Last Saturday Sefie gave me an advanced on my birthday and Christmas present ;D And took me to Napoleon Perdis for a quick makeup class! Basically we sit with a makeup artist for 1 hour where they teach us whatever we want, I requested for tips on how to improve my “dramatic” makeup and came up with a vampire look.

As Sefie may very well end up on the famous Master Chef series next year, she requested tips on how to apply natural looking makeup for TV. This is the result, isn’t she absolute gorgeous!? She’s so cute!

Our loot! The class was around $95 each, which could be exchanged for product at the end of the class. I chose a powder foundation, brow pencil and an amazing contouring powder (will most likely review them at a later date). I’m not sure exactly what Sefie got, but she got a ton of great goodies!

My lovely makeup artist and I! He was amazing to work with, incredibly friendly and just as obsessed with costume / special effect makeup as I am! The makeup was really something, it makes it look like I’m wearing coloured contacts because of the contrast~

Close up of the eye makeup, his technique was a little different from mine, so I def did learn a thing or two in that department.

I just had to show off how he managed to contour my face so perfectly, despite all the practice I have, I still can’t get it to look as natural as he managed to. Back to the drawing board for me.

Overall, it was an amazing day spent with someone very close to my heart! Thanks again for the great day Sefie <3 <3

I could not resist this collection, two reasons. Duo/triple chromes are my favourite of all polishes, amazing to look at! (Oh shiny!) And it’s so glittery without being chunky! Which means I don’t need to spend heaps of time scrubbing away at my nails :/

The consistency and formula for all polishes I find to be very similar, you will need to apply at least 3 coats to build up the opacity for this polish, which I found a bit misleading when I looked at the bottle (seemed pigmented from the outside). Another thing I found annoying were the brushes, for each bottle the brushes were not smooth / straight. Some were a little bent, which I found made application slightly more challenging.

Swatch time~

Bad Fairy

One of my favourites of the collection, it’s essentially a red colour with hot pink / red / gold shimmer. Under the sun it’s a red polish that reflects gold, beautiful! If you lean towards the conservative side of nail colours *cough*Sefie*cough* then this might be a good colour to give yourself a bit of a kick into the more colour spectrum. This is 3 coats, no top coat.

Mean & Green

This is a hard colour for me to pin down, it reminds me of beetle shells, I can’t really tell what the base colour is. Almost like a green, with gold and purple shimmer, depending on the light it can look purple or green. A very cool tri-chrome (is that even a word?) colour. This is 3 coats, no top coat.

Also apologises for the terrible swatch photo of this My white balance was completely off.

Formidable

My other favourite from the collection! It’s a duo chrome blue and purple shimmer, most likely with a dark purple base. I’m so great at describing colours aren’t I? It’s gorgeous in the sun, purple that reflects blue, beautiful colour. This is 3 coats, no top coat.

I’d wear Bad Fairy to work, and Formidable at night / on the weekend. My two favourite colours! I’d say Bad Fairy is more wearable, but I’m a cosplayer, so it’s pretty much in my DNA to want outrageous colours, so Formidable is my favourite!