Where there's smoke, there's By Terry Ombre Blackstar in Bronze Moon

By Terry Ombre Blackstar in Bronze Moon

I had an 'ohhh, that's how' moment a few months back while watching vlogger, Anna, do her makeup, and thought 'I want try that.' In a flash I found myself in Mecca picking up yet another Ombre Blackstar, but this time I grabbed Bronze Moon. One of the many #goodexcuses to buy makeup.

Bronze Moon swatched on the inside of my arm

For a lazy, smoky brown eye I messily applied bronze moon (a shimmery, warm golden brown) all over the eye lid one eye at a time to prevent bronze moon from setting, and went in with Zoeva's 228 Luxe Crease Eyeshadow brush and blended the crap out of the rough edges for a softer, sultry look. I finished the rest of the look with Urban Decay's Sunburn (neon red/orange), Marc Jacob's Ro(Cocoa), my go-to brown eyeliner, and smudged a small amount of bronze moon along the outer corner of the lower lash line.

The thing I love the most about bronze moon is its ability to intensify the green in my hazel eyes.

Wearing Bronze Moon on my eyes

The Bagful breakdown:

Total amount for By Terry Ombre Backstair in Bronze Moon:

• $56.00 AUS / $43.50 USD

Value for money spent (performance and quality):

• 10 out of 10 bags — Tattoo like hold (the temporary kind), with amazing colour payoff.

Would another purchase be on the horizon?:

• This palette.

How to apply Nars All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation

Stumped on how to apply Nars' All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation? I certainly was!

Despite my tireless pursuit to learn how to make this persnickety foundation work for me, I've officially thrown in the towel. In other words, I'll be returning this bottle ASAP.

Fret not normal skinned people, Nars' All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation might just be the foundation for you. For oily/combination gals, be sure to check out Kitsch Snitch's review.

Other products used and/or mentioned in this tutorial:

• Eve Lom's Mineral Powder Foundation in shade no. 4 Petal
• Chanel's Vitalumiere Loose Powder Foundation
• Laura Mercier's Secret Concealer in shade 1.5
• Cosmedics Antioxidant Hydra-Mist

*Edit* I suffered some sort of reaction to Cosmedics Antioxidant Hydra-Mist shortly after filming this video. If you have sensitive skin, please do not use this product.

And on closer inspection, here I'm wearing Shade Light 4 in Deauville a few weeks ago

Swatch of deauville slightly blended out

Swatch of Deauville fully blended out

tl;dr: Tom Ford's Lips & Boys Lipstick in Jack and William

Lips & Boys: Jack (left) and William (right)

Lips & Boys: William (right) and Jack (left)

Swatches of William (right) and Jack (left)

Wearing William (could I look anymore miserable?)

Wearing Jack

So many boys -- baddies, goodies, loners, exhibitionists, simpletons, nerds, freaks, hotties, cuties, narcissists, liars, heartbreakers, flirts.. the list goes on. Jack and William, they both wooed me during an intense swatch session so much that I smuggled them home in my suitcase.

Do you know Jack?

• Of the Fuchsia to Magenta Family
• Creamy
• The big spoon to the little one
• Lasts for six hours
• Loud, but never obnoxious

William? I could just kill him..

• Of the Metallic Family
• Manspreader 
• Wears unevenly
• Pash and dash
• Exotic looking, but when you hover near him you notice he wreaks of garlic
• Wash his number off your hand

Vanilla scented, smaller in size (clutch-sized), and please try before you buy.

Lips & Boys, they're all the rage. Just keep in mind some don't behave as well as they ought to.

The Bagful breakdown:

Total amount for Tom Ford's Lips & Boys:

• $45.00 AUS / $32.00 USD

Value for money spent (performance and quality):

• Jack: 8 out of 10 bags — likes long walks on the beach.
• William: 2 out of 10 bags —  all talk and, no action.

Would another purchase be on the horizon?:

• Hey now, Giacomo.

My love/hate relationship with liquid foundation

Liquid foundation has always proven to be treacherous territory for me. The difficulty with pinpointing the perfect formula and colour can be downright intimidating. Then there's the recipe: primer versus no primer, concealing, highlighting, to bronze or not to bronze, contouring and blush all while avoiding the dreaded mask line. 

Give me a second, I need to catch my breath.

For years now powder has been my friend, because in all honesty liquid foundation scares the crap out of me. When it comes to powder foundation the guesswork is minimal and it's wicked easy to apply. The thing is when your skin is combination to dry, both pressed and loose powder magnifies flaky bits and well, that isn't cute on anyone. 

So I did my homework, watched loads of videos and picked two liquid foundations I thought could work for me.

Taking the good with the bad, let's start with the dud first.

Laura Mercier's Foundation Primer (left) and Silk Creme Foundation (right)

Swatch of Laura Mercier's Silk Creme Foundation in Creamy Ivory

On workday mornings I really don't like to muck about with my makeup, I'm more of a swipe on and go kind of gal and I can't afford any surprises. When Laura Mercier's Silk Creme Foundation proved difficult in the application department I had no qualms sticking it in the 'to bin' pile. Then I thought about the expense and took a different approach, so I binned the sponge instead and grabbed my favourite foundation brush to do the dirty work.

Wearing Laura Mercier's Silk Creme Foundation in Creamy Ivory

The immediate result was just what I was after, read: smooth and natural. As the day wore on, however, my skin appeared mottled and slightly tortured.

Envision a safe haven for a million miniature, milk filled saucers. The primer and the foundation both failed to keep my skin covered and opted to pool within each individual pore. Yikes!

Can I bin it now?

Because I always take the less is more approach with makeup, I looked to other like-minded bloggers and virtually shopped their stash and walked away with a goodie. Say hello to Make Up For Ever's HD Foundation. 

Make Up For Ever's HD Foundation in shade 118

Swatches of Make Up For Ever's HD Foundation in shade 118 - blended (left) and unblended (right)

In terms of consistency Make Up Forever's HD Foundation resembles Chanel's Perfection Lumiere Velvet Smooth-Effect, it sheers out just as well as Laura Mercier's Silk Creme Foundation, yet manages to stay put all damn day.

Wearing Make Up Forever's HD Foundation in shade 118

Make Up Forever's HD Foundation for me is the gateway to clearer looking skin without masking the stray freckle, I really don't mind them. Classified as medium to full coverage, HD Foundation tidies things up quite nicely with minimal effort and I can do it all with a single pump of product. To finish things off, I set my makeup with Chanel's Vitalumiere Loose Powder Foundation.

Semi-related side note: Sephora + Pantone's magical Color IQ gizmo really works. The sales associate captured images of my skin in three different places (forehead, cheekbone and jawline), applied a bit of math by averaging the swatches and spat out 2Y06. If you're unable to get matched in store, but have a bottle at home in a shade you really love you can also find your match online -- just make sure Sephora stocks the brand in question. Go on, give it a whirl.