LOTD: My little sister attends a Red Carpet Party

I think you've all seen my sister (Joanna) before, in my previous posts. She always gets me to do her makeup for her balls and themed parties. This party was a Red carpet theme, and originally i was going for a classic red lip, nude eye, and winged liner look, but when she showed me her dress, i knew that something else would suit the outfit better. It was a deep royal purple dress, so i thought that i would do a really classy and mature wine coloured look, and make her look expensive by using champagnes and golds, along with sparkling accessories.

I was actually in a huge rush when i did her makeup (rushing home from the beach, i only had an hour to do everything including hair), so i didn't manage to document the steps or products i used. I only know that the lips are a combination of Kartricia lip tar (creamy purple) mixed with a deep Berry red lipstick that i owned, applied with a lip brush.

Turned out nicely, she looked elegant and classy imo. Hope you guys enjoy this look!

i dont know why, but the colouring of this photograph is a bit off...

the next two are better colour references (on a mac book pro calibrated screen)

i cant garuantee what colours you are seeing if u have another monitor! :P

My first go at Eyelash extensions

Just to clarify, I am not a trained professional nor am I a student undergoing professional training in eyelash extensions; I just bought the supplies off ebay because i thought it would be interesting to try it out myself, and with the help of some vague youtube videos outlining the general procedure performed by trained professionals. I know a lot of people have been urging never to try do this yourself, or never to let an untrained person do it for you, but in my pre-defense, I have extremely good hand coordination (5 years art scholarship + design degree), and i practiced on fake lashes first :) 

Disclaimer: I am very aware of the many risks involved, i did a weeks worth of research reading up on every article, website and watching every video. This post is not a tutorial, and I am not trying to encourage you all to try pick this up and try it yourself, there is a possibility something could go wrong if you are not careful and don't do your research (or undergo proper training for that matter). This is just a record of what i decided to go forward with after weighing out the risks, after doing patch testing and practice on fake strip lashes. It is quite difficult to do, so don't let my post influence you in any negative way...this is just what i have done. I do not plan to carry this out as a professional service, because, well I'm not a qualified professional. The participant receiving the lashes were also aware of the risks :)

So meet my friend, Reena; she naturally has very short lashes, that measures from 1mm to 4mm at most, and has never liked wearing fake strip lashes daily. Luckily, her lashes arent also sparse, so extensions would be the perfect solution for her, since eyelash extensions are individual lashes adhered to an existing natural lash with very strong semi-permanent black glue (not the same glue used with strip lashes etc, this stuff is MUCH STRONGER).

Here is a picture of what her natural lashes look like:

So i had to set up for the proceedure, which includes steps such as taping down the bottom lashes (VERY IMPORTANT NOT TO MISS ANY HAIRS), priming the lashes (ridding it of any oils/residue), and using a lash comb to neaten the lashes (so its easier to work with).

After the first few lashes were placed down, this is what it looked like:

After many more were placed down..look at the difference! (i placed 8mm lashes, J curl):

Starting progress on the other eye:

More progress....

The results were  really good :) no mishaps occurred during the proceedure, my friend fell asleep haha, it was very time consuming though...it took a total of 2 hours per eye (4 hours)! we took a dinner break in between :P

BEFORE:

AFTER:

she finally has some natural looking lashes she can flaunt! yay for success!

REVIEW: Garnier Clean Detox vs. Loreal Perfect Clean

I haven't done any reviews on skincare before, and i recently bought two new facewashes, so i thought it would be nice to share my thoughts and experiences about them! Both of them were around the $AUD 10 or less mark, i think they were on discount though, not sure.

My Skin type: I have very dry skin that flakes alot around the T zone and nose area, i do not have sensitive skin, even though I have very dry skin, my skin does get a little tacky and slightly oily (or rather clogged pores, not really 'oil') during the scorching Australian summer months.

What I look for in a facewash: non-drying/moisturising, refreshing (but not menthol-y), a scrub of some sort to exfoliate gross flakey skin and clear out pores, and a great smell. I do not like facewashes that have acne clearing acids and menthols in them as they are wayyyy to harsh/drying for my dry skin - it would probably make my whole face flake off!

Garnier Clean Detox:

This is a foaming 'purifying gel' that claims to help:

- neutralize toxins and impurities

-Remove impurities and makeup

- Boost radiance

Pros: Its a liquid gel texture (as u would get in most gel facewashes), its clear, and it smells SO GOOD! It smells like refreshing green tea, and it foams like a dream. It also comes in a pump bottle which is convenient.

Cons: For those of you who need a scrub to do that bit more (to get down into ur pores and remove unsightly flaking skin) this facewash is just too 'soft' to do anything like that, i usually add my Vichy's face exfoliating beads into it, and then it works well.

Overall Verdict: It smells divine, it foams nicely, it leaves my skin feeling light and dewy, but it wont scrub out my pores and flakes if i have any, but for a hot summers day, it is great to remove that uncomfortable sticky/tacky feeling and to just freshen up your face.

 Loreal Perfect Clean:

It comes in a very interesting looking bottle with a face scrub attached to it (they call it cleanPod) and i chose the one which says 'glow' :)

This is a close up of the clean pod in different lighting, click on the picture to get a closeup view :)

The tiny protruding bristles are quite flexible and seem quite effective for scrubbing and buffing the skin with the facewash.

This is how it is removed

The actual formula of this facewash, surprisingly, smells EVEN BETTER than the garnier clean detox, its a DIVINE APRICOT smell! Makes you wanna eat it :D Better still, it has tiny exfoliating beads in it that are perfect for the pores and flaky skin. The ONLY thing i would say about this is that i prefer not to use the actual facewash with the cleanPod because i feel that you make more use of the gritty exfoliating beads when you use your fingers to really massage it into your skin. I tend to swap and use the cleanPod with my garnier detox because it has a lack of abrasion.

This is just an example of the cleanPod in use, after i scrubbed the back of my hand that i had tested foundation on; and yes, i have used it on my face before, and i am quite the happy customer.

Better yet, when the cleanPod is placed back into the bottle, there is a suction cup on the back of it, making it able to be stuck onto the shower wall. Its a pretty nifty gadget

Pros: Best. Smell. Ever., effective scrub, awesome cleanPod, just the right amount of foaming, lovely gel texture to the wash, leaves you fresh, and cleansed; cool suction contraption to the cleanPod.

Cons: I feel that the cleanPod doesn't effectively make use of the formula's gritty scrub, because it has little teeth of its own so it doesn't really push the scrub into the skin. Because the scrub has great grittiness which is awesome for my dry flakey areas and pores, i don't use it to remove eye makeup in the shower - i would rather use my garnier for this job.

VERDICT: If i seriously only had to have one, i would choose the Loreal perfect clean in Glow because of the smell and multiple exfoliating options, but honestly both of them have its benefits (such as the garnier being soft enough to use to remove eyeshadow without getting exfoliating beads into my eye), and honestly i use them together, i mix the two, and sometimes i just use garnier with the cleanPod scrub. Having them both has been a WIN-WIN situation for me :)

Hope that was of some help and interest to you all!