Brows, Brows, Brows

Hi again, so i thought i would do a post on eyebrows.Eyebrows frame your eyes and face, it is key to get your eyebrow shape correct with your face shape.

How to detremin what eyebrow shape suits your face:

Start by pulling your hair back, with no make up on. There are six basic face shapes, look closely in the mirror and decide which face shape yours is.

Oval

• forehead is wider than the chin
• prominent cheekbones
• face gracefully tapers to a narrow oval chin

Heart 

• similar to oval but the chin tapers to a point.

Round 

• face is almost as wide as it is long
• face is widest at the cheeks

Long 

• forehead, cheekbones and jawline are all about the same width
• can tend to have a prominent chin
• has an elongated appearance

Square

• forehead, cheekbones and jawline all about the same width
• squared jawline is the most obvious feature

Diamond 

• not as common as the other face shapes
• typically the face is highly angular
• the forehead is somewhat short
• the face is widest at the temples 

If you have determined you have an oval face shape, the best brow shape for you looks like this..

If you have determined you have a round face shape, the best brow shape for you looks like this...

If you have determined you have a long face shape, the best brow shape for you looks like this...

If you have determined you have a square face shape, the best brow for you looks like this...

If you have determined you have a heart face shape, the best brow for you looks like this...

If you have determined you have diamond face shape, the best brow for you looks like this...

Now that we have got the shape of the brow that suits our face, its time for shaping.

There are three simple rules to shaping any eyebrow, the diagram below shows exactly where to measure. 

You could use either a thin eye shadow brush, pen, cuticle stick, which ever is easiest for you. 

First measuring from the outer corner of your nose in a straight line up, this is where your brow should always start. 

Second, the white line on the diagram, is where the highest part of you arch should be, from the tip of the nose angle straight through the pupil and you will find where your arch should be. 

Thirdly, measure again from the corner of the nose past the edge of the eye, this is where the eyebrow should always end. 

Following these step correctly, you really cannot go wrong!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not do these eyebrows, they are criminal. 

The big square block brows

The thin line 

The comma 

If you really are having trouble go to a beauty therapist, just to point you in the right direction, then you can keep up the eyebrow shape they have created for you. 

Hope this helped 

Sophie 

xoxo

Nail Varnish Collection & Storage

Hi again, its Sunday, the weather is awful! Rainy, wet and miserable. So i decided to have a good sort through my nail varnishes and throw away any that i have had for too long that have gone so gloopy even a few drops of nail varnish remover wont save it :(. 

Here is the finished result! I have organised the nail varnishes by brand instead of colour, but that is just personal preference :)

The box to the right contains tools such as, nail files, cuticle clippers, nail art brushes, gems and flower nail art. Then behind that i have all my manicure and pedicure products, the brand is Skin Truth and they are perfect, i cannot fault them! the pedicure products are blue/Green and smell like mint leaving your feet feeling tingly and clean, while the manicure ones smell more floral. The products in the bottles are; pedicure foot lotion, hygiene spray, foot soak, foot scrub, foot mask and a re-vitalizing spray. The manicure ones are orange, i have; hand soak, hygiene spray, hand mask and at the back in a tub is cuticle massage cream. 

Also to the sides of the draw i keep two brushes, one for hands and one for feet when applying the mask. 

Birds eye view of the draw finished :). 

Thanks for reading. 

Sophie 

xoxo

Face Of The Day

Hello again! i thought i would show you my everyday make-up and what it looks like. Its so simple and easy to do, it usually takes me about 20 mins to complete the whole make-up.

I even sometimes on a night out if i am rushed for time, do exactly the same make up but with a brighter lip and false lashes! :)

I start of by moisturizing my face with Dermalogica Clean Start with SPF 15, don't forget your neck :)

I then apply Carmex to moisturize my lips so that it can sink in by the time i apply my lipstick it will just glide on. I exfoliate my lips around 3 times a week, i do this by using Lush's sugar lip scrub, but every night before i go to bed after bushing my teeth i rub my toothbrush in circular motions over my lips just to get rid of any dry chapped skin then apply my Carmex before bed, you will wake up to nice moisturized lips. 

After applying the Carmex i start on foundation, i find that i don't need to use a primer as it dosent do anything for my make up and making it stay in place as the moisturizer has already made the foundation apply smoothly. I have combination skin normal/oily, oily especially on my T-Zone, so what doesn't work for me may necessarily work for you perfectly. At the moment i am using Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation, i apply this in dots all over my face then buff in with a Real Techniques Buffing Brush, i cant tell you how much i like this brush, but about that in another post! 

After i have buffed the foundation in, not forgetting the neck again, i apply concealer. The concealer i use is Collection 2000 Lasting perfection i apply this using my ring finger gently around my under eye circles and on any blemishes i may have. 

I then set it all with a powder, currently i am using Mac Mineralize Skin Finish. I then move onto eyebrows, as i tint my eyebrows i only lightly dust over them with an angled brush and Cork eye shadow from Mac as i think they are dark enough but need help at the start as the hairs are sparse. I have used countless number of eyebrow setting gels but to be honest they are all the same, they all do the same job. I have found the best way to keep your eyebrows in place is clear mascara! you can pick clear mascara us from Boots for as little as £3.99 from the Miss Sporty range and it works just as well as the high end brands. 

After the eyebrows i move onto eyes i line the top of my eyelids with Loreal Super Liner in Silver Black, it has to be the best  liquid eyeliner i have ever used and i wont stop re-purchasing it, well unless it gets discontinued :(. I then line my water line and tight line with Mac Smoulder Eye Pencil smudging underneath a little. 

Moving onto Mascara i will fist curl my lashes i think it makes a massive differance, the mascara im using is Collection 2000's Sky Lash whos rival is YSL Shocking Mascara, this marcara is brilliant it has a plastic bendy brush and differant sized bristles which catch every single one of your lashes, and for £4.99 instead of YSL's £23.00 its a steal!

Finally onto the lips the two lipsticks i reach for day to day are Natural Collection Cranberry or Mac Hue they are both a nice neutral colour with a hint of pink. 

Then voila your every day make up is done! 

Thankyou for reading 

Sophie 

xoxo

My Dressing Table Set-Up

Hi again! I thought today i would do my dressing table set-up as i love looking at other peoples storage ideas  and having a good old nose!

My dressing table is from Ikea in the 'MALM' range its white, has a glass top and a single draw that pulls out, i'm sure it was around the £90 mark. (if i can find a link i will put it at the bottom of the page).

When i first had the dressing table it was sticking out way too far from the radiator which looked weird, so my dad measured the width of the radiator and got his trusty circular saw out so that the dressing table slotted in perfectly, hooray!

Underneath the glass i have made a collage of recent and old pictures i love.

On the right side i have some perfumes that i am loving at the moment, Marc Jacobs Daisy ( I love the bottle), DKNY Be Delicious, Gucci Rush and Paco Robanne One Million which is my boyfriends.Next to that i have a candle burning, then infront i have a coaster to put my tea on when i'm getting ready in the morning :).

Then going to the left side i have a small glass pot which has jewelry that i wear everyday, then i have a cute box (I cant remember where its from,sorry)full of skin care products that i love at the moment, next are by brushes that are in a acrylic pencil holder from Homebase, hiding next to the brushes a box of tissues, lastly i have another pencil holder (i think from WHS) holding all my pencil eyeliners and tweezers. 

Here is a birds eye view with the draw open 

I store my make up in sections with empty Glossy Box boxes, and it works really well. You can get 6 boxes along the whole of the draw with a couple of inches to spare at the end. 

In the first box i keep powdered blushes bronzers  and highlighters.

In the second box i keep foundations and concealers, at the moment Collection 2000's Lasting Perfection concealer is my favorite.

The third box contains lip products from lipstick, lip gloss and lip care.  

The fourth box mainly contains pigments, but i also have loose and random eyeshadows aswell.  

In the fifth box there are palettes including my MAC eyeshaddow palette, HD brows, Front Cover etc.

The sixth box contains falce eyelashes, mascaras and some of my gel and liquid eyeliners, my eyelash curlers also live in there too :). To the left of the box in the little space that is left i keep a mini bag full of hair bobbles and hair grips or bobby pins.

The mirrors i do my make up infront of are also from Ikea and are around the £10 mark. 

Below my dressing table i also have storage, to the right i have a Soap and Glory bag which i keep hair extensions, extra hair bobbles and grips.Then to the right i have a clear plastic basket which contains my hair products that i reach for day to day, also in the red wicker basket i keep my hair dryer straighteners curlers etc.

Thanks for reading i hope you liked it :). 

Sophie 

xoxo

Beauty Therapy Training (My Personal Experience)

When i first left school in 2008 i decided i wanted to go straight into college to do what id always wanted to, Beauty Therapy. I've always had an interest for the industry ever since i can remember, whether it was make-up, nail varnish or skin care.

I enrolled at college on NVQ Level 1 Beauty Therapy course, i can remember being so nervous on my first day but i saw someone from my year at school so we stuck together. I would say there was around 25-30 students on the course, on the first day we did general team building exercises and 'tell us about yourself' games so we could get to know one another. 
Everyone made friends quickly but you could tell that there was some 'bitchy' element that there would be with any just girls atmosphere.
Half way through the course only 15 students were left including me, they either got kicked off the course of dropped out themselves, not that i was complaining the smaller the group the better as me and my friends found.
During Level 1 you study Manicures and Facials, as well as functional skills i don't know weather this applies to every college but we had to do this compulsory to pass the course, which i didn't find too bad and our teacher was super nice :)
We had practical assessments of our manicures and facials on paying public clients and our own clients we could bring in, we had to perform so many of each treatment to a high standard to pass.
Overall my first year was really good, you make friends quick and learn if beauty is for you or not.

I then enrolled on NVQ Level 2 Beauty therapy, lots more new faces so on the first couple of days it was team building exercises and 'get to know' each other. The exact same thing happened in level 2 there was around 30 students at the beginning by the end of the course 17 were left!
During Level 2 you study:

• Manicures 
• Pedicures 
• Facials 
• Eyelash Tinting 
• Eyelash Perming 
• Eyebrow Tinting 
• Eyebrow shaping 
• Waxing 
• Make-up

I enjoyed level 2 so much more than level 1, i think it was because it was more to do with beauty, not that i didn't enjoy doing functional skills, but that was what i came here to do!
In level 2 we still had functional skills, I.T English and Anatomy and Physiology. You have to learn ALOT of A&P. Every bone in the body, every muscle and what they do etc etc.
With assessments we had members of the public book into the college and we would perform treatments on them for the assessments we needed, we also had to do written assessments and an on-line exam to pass certain sections of the course. For each section say make up, you would have to do a look for day, evening and bridal. Then say waxing you would have to use 3 different types of wax to pass that exact section.
Your first ever client from the public is scary as your used to performing treatments on your friends in class, you get to know what skin type they are, how they like their brows done. So a member of the public becomes daunting, but after that first one it just becomes second nature talking to people you don't know asking them quite private questions on the consultation, i wouldn't worry as your tutor will be there at all times helping you and checking that you are doing things correct. :)

I then enrolled onto Spa And Body Therapies Level 3.Before i could enroll on the course i had to do a 'trade test' this is where the tutor from that level will ask you to perform a treatment on them to see how well you perform and what your attitude to learning is like.
There were 15 students on the course and 15 students at the end, i think going through level 1 and 2 really tests you to see if beauty is something for you.
During Level 3 you study:

• Full Body Massage 
• Aromatherapy 
• Spray Tanning 
• Full body Exfoliation 
• Hot Stone Massage
• Reflexology 

Level 3 is deffenatley more intense than any of the other levels, the A&P is on another level, people think Beauty Therapists are stupid but if they sat in our lessons i'm sure their mind would be boggled the amount we have to learn! 

Our assessments were done again by members of the public booking a treatment and we would use them for  our assessments. I do have to admit when your practicing on your friends you know what to expect with a full body massage so you can take the appropriate clothes off and since you have all been together for 3 years you are all quite comfortable with each other, but for the first time massaging a member of the public and telling them that they have to take their clothes off, some of them look at you as if to say WHAT?! and you end up thinking did they not know what to expect when the booked in for a full body massage?! 

My advice if you want to enroll on a Beauty course is:

• Be friendly everyone is in the same situation as you and doesn't know anyone.
• If your college offers extra courses, say eyelash extensions, do them they are usually cheaper than doing them after college!
• Get a big bag that can fit a folder in so you don't have to carry it around 
• Buy an A&P book or loan from a library 
• Try to keep all your work organized, there's nothing worse than looking for an assessment consultation sheet and not being able to find it so you have to do the treatment again.
• What you do to your clients you have to have done to yourself. Id never had my top lip waxed, neither did i want it waxed but had to have it done to see what the pain was like etc.
• Have fun! having loads of treatments and being pampered is the best part so enjoy it!! 

I hope i helped someone who is looking to study Beauty Therapy if you have any other questions dont hesitate to ask.

All together my college experience was amazing you come out with the qualifications you want and friends you will have forever. :)

Sophie xoxo

Nail Of The Week: French Glitter

At the moment i am loving french manicures, they look classy, elegant and polished. 

To start of the manicure i applied my base coat, in this case i chose a dusty pink colour, the one i used is from tesco's range 'All About Nails' in the colour Cashmere. They do some lovely colours in the range they are deffinatley worth checking out and are only 99p! Bargain!!

I then waited for that polish to completely dry before starting with the white tips i used a polish from collection 2000's range colour 103 french white, i applied the white to the tips of my nails from one side of the nails to the other.

When the white polish was dry i then applied my top coat, the polish i used is 17's glitter top coat to finish off the look, you can get this from Boots or Superdrug for £3.99. 

Sophie 

xoxo

Product Review: MAC Mineralize Skinfinsh

Ive had this mineralize skinfinish in gold deposit from MAC for a while now and thought i would do a review on it. 

I ordered it online from MAC's website and when it arrived i wasn't too sure what to think of it. From first glance i thought no way is that going to suit my skin tone, as it looked orange and very very glittery.

I was completely wrong! it looks absolutely gorgeous on, i think it would work well with every skin tone. 

I apply the skinfinish as a highlighter to my cheeks just not too heavy. I have recently come back of holiday and it looks great with a tan. 

Although if you don't like shimmer or glitter at all  i don't think this will be for you.

 It lasts well through the day but needs a top up as the glitter starts to fall off, although if you didn't mind about the glitter & shimmer it lasts perfectly throughout the day.

The skinfinish retails at £21.50 on the MAC website, i think if you like shimmer, glitter and a bronzed but not over the top look this is perfect for you!

Sophie 

xoxo