Halloween 2015 - My look

I know, I know. Tumbleweeds on the blog, long time no see,  blah blah blah. Who gives a pumpkin about why I have not  updated this blog for so long. I don't think for one minute that your life has stopped running its course because my blog hasn't been updated  so let's cut to the chase and let me share with you what I wore on Halloween, which in case you didn't know, is my favourite day of the year.


I've got a list long as my arm of looks I would like to create  and characters I would like to impersonate for Halloween until  Halloween 2057. I can't tell for how long I have been longing  to have some tribal style paintings on my face so this year I  finally turned myself into a Tribal Warrior, inspired by  "Alive" by Empire of the Sun and some tribal makeup looks from Instagram.

After the trauma of finding a wig that fitted the bill last year  for incarnating Cleopatra and the costs involved, I really  wanted to do a budget look this year and wanted to recycle  what I had in my wardrobe and makeup collection. Minus my  contact lenses (more on that later) everything I wore, from  the makeup, the outfit, the jewellery was recycled from the  past. With putting on weight over the years, and even after  losing 8 pounds for the occasion there no chance I could have  worn my brown avatar skirt so my ordinary multi purpose black  skirt had to do.

Now for the piece de resistance: the most inexpensive,  comfortable, easy to wear and striking even on dark eyes  lenses on the planet. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to  the Mesmereyez Xtreme LOUIS One Day Halloween Contact Lenses at £6.99 a pair from Hunt or Dye.
Of course I am never going to be as good as the boyfriend who  pops in his lenses in a micro second flat, because he wears  lenses every day but I don't recall managing putting lenses in  my lenses so fast. I am not sure if it's because they are  designed to last just one day and that the material is super  thin but I found them very easy to insert in my eyes. Another  big help was the colour. There is no way you can put the  lenses inside out. The outside is very obvious from the inside  and it felt so reassuring to be 500% sure they were inserted  the right way.

Other products used:
-Usual bog standard very highly pigmented red Stargazer eye  shadow from eBay, purple and black eyeshadow from the sleek  makeup acid paletteSnazaroo white Face Paint
- Ben Nye Liquiset
- Ben Nye Final Seal
- Lips: La Splash Cosmetics Waterproof "Lip Couture" in  shade "Malevolent"


Did you celebrate Halloween? Did you get dressed up?
Tell me all about it in the comments below, on instagram or on  twitter @tsunimee :) xx

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Cliloopatra: My character for Halloween 2014

I can't tell you for how long I had been wanting to travel to Ancient Egypt and  become Cleopatra for a day. I have been putting it for so long, then when Katy Perry released Dark Horse, I interpreted it as a sign so I had to be the Queen of the  Nile this year for Halloween.


I couldn't have made life for difficult for myself choosing to become Cleopatra.  Cleopatra eye makeup, in my eyes anyway, is all about intricate eyeliner work,  which is the last thing you want to replicate on a person with hooded eyelids like  me. And then Cleopatra is famous for her luscious fringe (or bangs as Americans  would call it) so began the maniac hunt for a decent looking wig. Now if you thought there were a  huge reality gap between advertisement photos of, say, burgers or eyes supposedly  transformed by mascara, the gap is even bigger when you buy a wig. The amount of  money I spent buying wigs which looked absolutely nothing like the picture is  unbelievable. Then to top it all off, the finishing touch for a Cleopatra look is  some form of golden headdress which turned out to be the biggest ball ache. Again,  an incredible amount of money was spent in buying all sorts of head gear on eBay for nothing. One week before Halloween, I wish I had broken my leg instead of  wanting to become Cleopatra. In a nutshell, everytime I was trying to wear a  headband over my wig, I looked like an Arabian Sheik, the hair would be stuck to my  head, would ping out at the bottom and I just felt very unpretty and unhappy. Then  I thought getting a headchain would be a good idea. I purchased this very one actually but it didn't work out. On a  wig it would constantly slide about, fluff the hair up and make you nervous the wig would lift off. On my natural mop of hair, it looks actually really really nice but  I looked more like Princess Jasmine than Cleopatra. In the end, I wished I just went ahead, bit the bullet and bought a headdress à la Moloko.


To cut a painfully long story short, decisions had to be made. On Friday Night, I wore the wig without any form of headgear, which made difficult for people to recognise who I am and on Saturday, I wore a necklace, which I already own, under the wig fringe and it added a little Cleopatra touch to my costume. Without further ado, here are some photos of my Halloween week end. A nice blurry one to start the proceedings…






















Last but not least, some snaps illustrating the not so attractive sheikh hair style, pinging out at the bottom, which I talked about earlier on, and why I felt I just couldn’t possibly go out like that.





What I used:
 
Eyes: Two faced shadow insurance, Nyx Jumbo Pencil Collection (2000) Felt Tip Eyeliner, Gold Eyeshadow in the L'oreal HIP Flamboyant Duo, Dark Blue from Sleek Makeup Monaco Palette, 'Atlantis' Blue Eyeshadow from Milani, Katy Perry Eye Lashes Revlon eyepencil,
Lips: Boring Nude Lip (Mac Velvet Teddy)
Wig: This wig From Ebay.
Necklace: Primark. £3








See? I told you the wig looks shorter in real life! Or maybe it’s just because of the model’s giraffesque neck.


What I learnt from doing this makeup: When you see a wig, reality is that it will be 2 inches shorter on you, use double sided tape to secure your wig, wigs and hair accessories are a nightmare when paired together. I am grumbling a lot, but I really enjoyed wearing this look. Most of all, I enjoyed the makeup challenge and trying to be Cleopatra for the week end. Next year, I fancy being something spooky again though. Wouldn't mind having a dab at special effects makeup.


Hope you have had a fantastic Halloween. If you dressed up and did some fancy makeup, let me know in the comments, I would love to see :) xx

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Last Minute Halloween Makeup: Webby Witch

You know when you have not been in touch with an old friend for years, you know an email is long overdue but you don't know where the heck to start, how to summarise years of absence,  I am like that with this blog. So I'm just going to go right into it and share a little bit of makeup with you, just like in the old days. About two months ago, I started a new hobby and I have been going to salsa classes every Thursday. So last Thursday, on Halloween Eve, the Halloween Obsessed girl that I am couldn't resist the urge of wearing a halloweeny makeup look. It had to be wearable as I would still need to be able to dance  with a partner, without smearing him with face paint or something like that but most of all it had to be simple, because I knew no one else would wear an Halloween makeup on the night.


Once on new year's eve, I decided to join a fancy dress bar crawl on my own and I turned out to be the only one in fancy dress gear and makeup, bar a lost Jack Sparrow. After surviving that experience, it is pretty safe to say that I've gone past caring whether I am going to be the only one wearing fancy dress makeup. It's too much fun to be had, fancy dress makeup opportunities are too rare and I didn't want to miss out.
So this is what I came up with: a mismatched asymmetrical colourful cobweb look and black lip accessorised with a mini-witch hat on a headband, ideal if you can't bring yourself choosing just one colour symbolic with Halloween.










Although this look can be done last minute and requires very few products, you might want to practise beforehand before your big day. What made all the difference was the  marvellous Extreme 24 hour felt tip eyeliner from Collection (2000). You still require a pretty steady hand but it made my life so much easier. But the product which I had the most pleasure using was 'Sunrise' orange eyeshadow from the makeupstore: fantastic pigmentation, very smooth and hands down the easiest shadow I have ever worked with. It makes me want to throw all my makeup away and buy products just from the makeup store. The green is a combination of the 2 green eyeshadows from the sleek makeup acid palette and the purply brown colour in the crease comes from the 'oh so special palette'.









Originally, I wanted to recreate the gorgeous web look from GoldieStarling but had to declare forfeit after battling with my hooded lids. I have to start so much higher than my crease that I end up with very little space for the web part. The web part under my eye was not much easier, as it gets all distorted every time I smile and laugh. It was pretty much a case of working with what I had (lots of under eye wrinkling action) rather than against it and adapt the angle of the web and the space between the lines to match the wrinkles, so that the web still looks pretty when you smile and move your face.





had so much fun wearing this look. I was so worried the eyeliner would smudge but a practise the night before made me realise I had nothing to worry about: it withstood lots of laughter tears and didn't budge until I was ready to take it off. Oh why can't it be Halloween again next week so that I can have some more play with it?


 

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Aaa-ooooooo. Look into my eyes

Hello again, my little pumpkins. I hope you are well and that you've had a nice time around Halloween. This should have really been part of my previous post but I was on a tight deadline and didn't want to stand up my friend Rae, for our first blogging date together.


I am beyond excited to tell you about the contact lenses I used for my halloween costume this year. I heard about them from my friend Megan, a lovely Canadian girl whose makeup talent has no bounds. She is better known under the username of NsomniaksDream on youtube. As soon as I saw these particular lenses on her, I knew I needed them in my life.




The lenses are called 'Black Wolf' and they are just perfect for dark brown eyes. Apparently, their recommended retail price is a whopping £40.99 but I got them for £24.99 on Best Coloured Contacts.com. £24.99 is a bit more than I would generally want to spend on a pair of contact lenses but Halloween is my favourite time of the year, and I don't celebrate birthdays, Easter and a whole host of days during the year and, and ... I wanted to treat myself.





I have bought some contact lenses in the past, but these are hands down, without the shadow of a doubt the best looking contact lenses I have ever owned. I can't believe how dramatic and striking they look even on my dark brown eyes. If looked after properly, they can last up to 90 days. I've worn them twice now and I can't wait to wear them again for a special night out, or one of the Christmas Dos I've got coming up.






Unlike my avatar lenses, I found these extremely comfortable to wear. At times, my vision was blurry but I'd like to attribute that to the double JDs consumed on the night!







I am a total newbie when it comes to wearing lenses. In fact, I've only worn lenses twice a year, the Saturday before Halloween and Halloween Day itself. On average, it usually takes me around 40 minutes (per eye) to put my lenses. This year, I thought I would practise. So I practised, practised and practised every day for the week preceding Halloween. The practise was worth it and now I can proudly say that it only takes me around 5 minutes per eye. I can't tell you the number of twitter friends I've asked for advice and the number of youtube videos I've watched to suck less at putting lenses in. I'm nowhere near good enough to give some tips but I wanted to share something which I've read on youtube which finally made me tick. Regardless of which fingers you use to pry your eye open to put the lens in, hold your eye in a way which makes it virtually impossible to blink. If you don't blink, the lens will go in. And it's true! That made such a difference for me to try to do that!
Also, the lens will never drop by itself, you need to give it a little push.    


   
   




I think last year, I might have put one of my lenses the other way round. Youtube videos talk about this bowl shape that your lenses need to have if it's the right way round, but I can't make the difference. Right way round or wrong way round, it all looks like a bowl to me. My friend from work said that, the darker/most pigmented side of coloured side should be on the outside. It's sometimes to tell which side is darker but not with the Black Wolf lenses. You could really tell which side to put on the outside and that made me feel at ease and confident that I was wearing them correctly.


Finally, I just love the free case they came in. They are semi transparent so I can see without opening the case, whether the lenses need a top up of solution. I just couldn't be happier with these lenses and I think they really complimented my outfit this year. You can see more of my devil pictures here or by clicking on the picture below.





I couldn’t finish this post without giving a shout to NsomniaksDream on youtube. Below the collection of all the looks she did for Halloween this year.

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Fork, fishnets and fun - My halloween 2012

I need to say it right away. I don't think anything could beat the excitement I had when I  turned myself into an avatar for Halloween. I loved that film so much, for so many reasons  which I won't go into right now and becoming a na'vi for a night is one of my most fun, exciting and memorable Halloween moments of all time. Any character you turn yourself into after feels  a bit boring. But I can't be avatar every year and it took me ages to decide on what I was  going to be for Halloween this year.

  
I don't know how this has happened but I seem to own 4 sets of devil horns in my house and  I thought I could recycle some of them and become a little Lilith for Halloween this year.


Problem: Devils are so popular for Halloween. How can you jazz up a devil's makeup and  costume? What can you do to stand out from all the devils around?  Paint your whole body red? Have eyebrows on fire?

   
This is what I came up with and I hope you like it.











  


  





I wanted to have 3D cartoon lips for the night. I know, I know, it looks like I drunk milk from the bottle and forgot to wipe my top lip but this was intended. Products used my favourite red lipstick of all time, All for Eve red lipstick, Black Barry M eyeliner on the edges and some 17 Cosmetics gold highlighter in the middle.

   






It was fun playing again with  spirit gum, and challenge myself makeup wise. It was the only way for me to get excited about my halloween character, after the anti climax of not being an avatar.



I want to tell you about the contact lenses I bought especially for the occasion and if I wasn't pushed for time and on a #bloggingdate with @raeraemakeup, I would have written about them today. Hopefully, I should be able to blog about them tomorrow. Click here to see what Rae turned herself into for Halloween 2012


Hope you had an amazing halloween! xx

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Return to Pandora - My Halloween antics

It's been so long since I last blogged, I feel I have forgotten how to do it. I hope you will excuse this very simple post from me. I am nowhere near sorted computer wise but I can finally talk about computer gate without crumbling into tears (this lump in the throat won't give me a rest though)


Time away from it all has helped me but nothing has been more uplifting than the amazing & overwhelming support from you all, from blogosphere and twitterland. Then something else happened: you guys were so lovely, I felt I just couldn't come back on twitter, with just tweeting about doom and gloom. Until one of you - and you will recognise yourself - told me I could come back, no matter what tweets I was up to post. That gave me the biggest lift in the world and I happy I have come back to twitterland. Coming back to the bloggosphere (this for me includes blog reading and commenting on your wiriting) is taking longer but it is on the cards, when access to technology permits it.

To ease myself gently back into blogging, I wanted to share a few photos with you, photos from one memorable and happy week end: Halloween weekend. Some of you will know that Halloween is a big a deal for me. It's quite simply my favourite day of the year. With the computer apocalypse happening, I was feeling so low that I didn't even know if I was going to celebrate it. Being a whopping 10 pounds heavier (my all time heaviest) didn't help my confidence but I couldn't live with myself not doing anything for Halloween. I am so glad I made the effort. It was such a blast. Nothing could have spoilt my mood: not the uncomfortable lenses, the rain or the fact that my camera broke in the middle of the night!


A big fan of Avatar movie, I wanted to be a (tsu)na'vi again this year but wanted to jazz up my makeup a little and make it a little bit more three dimensional. I went out dressed as an avatar twice: Saturday 28 November and the actual Halloween night, Monday 31st October. The pictures below are from 31st October, where a new camera had to be purchased in emergency for the occasion.

I prefer the look of the lenses I wore on Saturday night but I prefer the avatar marking of this makeup look.

Necklace (as I lost the one from last year) was a bargain from BHS: 50p ladies and gentlemen. Get in!

No way on earth I could have fitted in my brown skirt from last year. This bargain back up from eBay just had to do.

Posing with Beetlejuice and the only thing I could think of at this stage was the new polishes from Models Own bearing the same name

I don't who he was but he did scare me!

Want to see what I used to do my makeup? Here, here :)

Thank you so so so much again for your support
liloo xx

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Becoming Blue for Halloween

Take one liloo with no makeup on. This is so scary in itself, it could have been perfect to scare the kids out, or anyone for that matter.

Leave your hair to grow for a year, braid your hair and put the coolest looking contact lenses in. I bought them with my own money from eyesbright.com and I chose the ones which were actually called 'avatar' lenses. The lenses looked absolutely amazing, the perfect shade of yellow with darker brown on the outer circle. However, I think I must have worn them inside them out as I could really feel the lenses throughout the night. To make matter worse, I forgot to remove them at the end of the night, slept with them and ended up with a blurry vision for a day which spooked me out. For the love of Halloween, no matter how tipsy you are, please please please remember to take out your special effects lenses before going to bed, ok?

I was asked if I was going to the full works and get my whole body blue but I chose to do a half mask again and I am so glad I did. It was raining on both nights (Saturday preceding Halloween and Halloween night itself) and I can't begin to imagine what it would have been like to be rained on with wet paint smudging all over the body.



This is what I used: For the actual paint, I mixed a bit of blue and white Ben Nye Magicolor Liquid Paint. No need to mix it water, it's already the perfect consistency. I only mixed the blue and white to make the blue a smidge lighter. I absolutely love this face paint, and I have used the blue many times as a eyeliner on my toucan look and on my flamingo look






I chose the biggest eyelashes I could find in my stash, added a bit of black in the crease to define the eyes a bit more than last year. The face paint is great, very resisting to the elements. The downside is that it's very hard to blend eyeshadow on top. Blend too much and you start to wear off the paint underneath. To add a little bit of sparkle, I added some glitter pigment from Mac on the eyelids.

Once the base was on, I added my markings very very gently with a random brush and some plain black eyeshadow. The little white dots were done by simply dipping an old eyeliner brush straight into the white liquid paint.


The piece de resistance was my lovely handmade ears from my best friend @joannadelilah, the ultimate master of disguise on YouTube. She made them herself, from scratch, first making a mould and then creating them with some liquid latex! I love my ears, I've worn them 4 times now. I have the nose to go with it but I am a bit shy to wear it.

Finishes touches were some mini crystals stuck on some white dots and a generous spray of Ben Nye Final Seal all over my face. My avatar mask stayed so well through the night. Even the little crystals stay put! The response I had throughout the night was absolutely amazing. I was the only avatar in the hood but people recognised me instantly. 'Oh it's Avatar' they kept on saying. I had such a buzz, despite my fuller figure this year.

I think I might have gone overboard on the white dots, I prefer the look I was wearing on Halloween Night itself (Monday 31st October) but much prefer the look of these avatar lenses.


Did you go out for Halloween? Feel free to link me to your piccies. I'd love to have a look! x


tsuna'vi
(liloo)

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