OOTD

The past week has been a beautiful, sunny, sparkly week (weather-wise) so I thought 'Why not be a proper blogger and pick out a location to shoot some OOTD pictures?' Excellent idea!

I decided that shooting an OOTD post at our local castle would be such a cool idea! Fashion and make-up within the grounds of a half-ruined Scottish castle seemed to be the best plan I'd had since adding cream to my Bread & Butter Pudding recipe!

Then Saturday came along and it went from sunny and cool, to snowy and SUB-ZERO.

So; it was, with a heavy heart, that my friendling (Lara) and I decided that trudging up the steep embankment of a castle in the freezing sleet whilst wearing short dresses probably wasn't the most medically-safe idea. We decided, instead, to do a quick 60's style eye make-up look on Lara, and a really REALLY quick OOTD post with the fun dress I had thrown on.

I adore the quirky-ness of this dress! It was a rather nifty Primark find and is covered in cute little French Bulldogs, a breed of dog I would love to have! Their ears are so adorable!

The little collar reminds me of school-dresses but teamed with a statement ring and some very high, thin-heeled platforms makes it look a little more grown up.

I intend to wear this dress throughout the Summer, I need to tone my arms to pull the look off a bit better, but all in due course.

It takes 9 months to put on the baby-weight so it'll take 9 months to get rid of it... or so the saying goes.

 I have never laughed so much whilst doing Lara's makeup!

She has the prettiest, most gorgeous features and I am insanely jealous of her cheekbones and her jawline... but her skin seemed to change all of my highlight and contour concealers into different colours! My pearly white highlighter went bright pink when it came into contact with her skin, much hilarity ensued!

I used the Urban Decay Naked Palette 2 to achieve this light smokey look. 

Lara chose the shades:

Verve, Suspect and Busted.

The winged eyeliner was provided by M.A.C and a lovely soft 60's look was born!

(Idiots.)

Despite our plans crumbling around us, the day was fun. We got some pretty photos (see above, especially) and who doesn't enjoy a day of trying out new make-up looks?

OOTD posts might have to be left until the Summer, I'm still warming up after this one!

Love,

Laura xxx

(Special thanks to Lara, who was 'scared of your blog people seeing my face'. I think we all agree that it is LOVELY.)

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette Review & Smokey Eye Tutorial

I finally bit the bullet and coughed up the cash to pay for the Urban Decay Naked Palette. I have been in two minds about it for months and months but decided that it would be a good investment, especially for the things I want to do in the future.

 Everything about it is just so stylish, the tin it comes in is lovely and surprisingly heavy. It comes with a double-ended brush, one is for the crease of the eyelid and the fluffier one I use to blend in the colours and to give smooth edges.

The pigment of the shadows are thick and a little goes a long way, this is the first time I've been able to achieve any kind of blending of colours, before the eyeshadows I was trying to blend would just mottle into one horrific colour. Now I'm able to get a beautiful ombre effect.

The range of colours are supposed to be basic nudes, darks and golds that you can use as both a day and an evening look. The bronzes and golds are so shimmery and thick, they're just a delight to use!

The Naked palette definitely puts the fun into putting make up on!

I achieved this brown/shimmery/smokey eye look by blending a lot of colours together and layering.

I started by spreading 'Verve' all over my eyelid (I'll add a photo of all of the shades at the end), particularly towards the duct. Next I blended 'Suspec't into the lid, started from the middle of the eye, I dragged it outwards to form a cat-eye effect. On the outer-corner and into the crease of the lid I applied 'Busted' which is a beautiful chocolate colour. In between all of these steps I took a very fluffy brush and gently blended the corners so get a soft look. 

Lastly, I applied a teeny tiny amount of 'Half Baked' over the darker part of the eye, just to get a light shimmery bronze look.

I love the look, and like I said earlier, this is the first time I've been able to achieve it so I'm really glad I bought the palette and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to oomph their eyes!