First tutorial: 50's inspired

Ok Ive been promising a tutorial for a while now and Ive been nervous to start doing them just because:
a) Im not sure Im good enough
b)my makeup never photographs very well and
c) I dont even know if you guys are interested
so I thought Id start out just by taking photos of the make-up I did on myself today (Im trying out a new style since I turned 25 and I think Im liking it - a bit 50's inspired, probably bought on by my new love of Soap & Glory, I love the images on their packaging). I also used a lot of the products Im going to be reviewing this week so keep your eyes peeled for the reviews but for now heres a step by step tutorial.

So feel free to follow this step by step to create your own 50's inspired look.

I hope you enjoy it, let me know  if you like it and if there are any looks youd like me to include in my future tutorials e.g celebrity looks, film/theatre looks, fashion looks etc etc.

Here goes.

Before I put my makeup on every day I cleanse my face and moisturise. These are 2 steps I never skip ever. At the moment Im using Ponds Hydranutrivita Moisturiser because my skin is still reovering from the cold winter weather and is quite dry.

After moisturising I usually apply some of Benefits "The porefessional" which is a pore minimising primer but today I skipped that step as I was rewiewing as I was going. My first step today was to apply "you wont believe your eyes" by Soap  Glory under my eyes.

I applied this with the applicator and then I patted it into my skin with a clean finger as it didnt sink in very quickly on its own.

I then applied foundation. Todays foundation was from a Tester of Clarins Skin Illusion Foundation. I always apply from the nose outwards and I apply with clean fingers for easier blending. Remember your face doesnt stop at the jaw, you dont want tide marks. I always blend the foundation under my jawline and blend it out into my neck so it fades into the colour on my neck and chest especially if its a bit darker than usual like this one.

(I would usually use a Max Factor foundation and maybe mix 2 shades together to get a colour match).
This shade was actually slightly dark for me but I loved the texture and coverage. (Just ignore the fact its a bit dark).
Heres a close up after application.

I always apply concealer AFTER foundation. Sometimes the coverage of the foundation alone is enough to hide any blemishes but today I used an under eye concealer (rimmels "Recover" anti fatugue concelar) and a product I dont usually use (Benefits "it stick") which I thought would be best for concealing around the nose and to highlight a couple of areas as it was lighter than my foundation.

I blended the concealer with a clean finger. Under eye concealer should be patted into the skin not dragged or wiped.

Then I set with powder. You can use a translucent powder, but I prefer to use a slightly coloured powder which matches my foundation. I tend to just sweep this onto the nose and outwards onto my chin and forehead, anywhere I dont want too much shine. I tend to miss out my cheeks as theyre going to have blush on them anyway. Powder will set any concealer youve applied and take away any unwanted shine.

I then apply blush. The colour will depend on what look Im going for. If I want sculpted cheeks I go for a brownish blush just underneath the cheekbone, quite often I will go for quite a bronzed cheek to add a bit of colour but the colour I wear more than anything is a pink tone. I actually love Rimmels range of blush (notice how Im not using any of my fancy kit products, just my every day cheap makeup)

This is a nice one, its actually got quite an irridescent light pink which gives a bit of shine to my cheeks. This is what I decided to wear today, just lightly swept up onto my cheekbone to add a hint of colour.

Time for eyes. I always start with the lightest colour. Its weird because when I do other people's makeup I start with the darkest and blend out to the lightest. But anyway I started with a matte white shadow all across my eyelid and up onto my brow bone applied with a really soft fluffy shadow brush which Ive had for years and years and never lets me down, its the best for applying base colour.

Then I applied a matte dark brown shadow from the lashline to the crease, really pushing it into the socket to get a defined crease. You can then blend this a bit more using the brush you used fro the white shadow. This just softens and blends the edges a bit.

Then the same brown underneath the eye, just along the lashline with a liner brush.

This is a Ruby and Millie square brush for lining. Its not the easiest for lining but Ive sort of gotten used to it. I only ever use it for lining with shadows. Just adds a bit of extra definition around the eye.

If Im not doing a dark dramatic eye, I line my waterline with white eye pencil to brighten and open the eye. I use this quite a lot on brides for the same reason.

Because I wear glasses I find it's important to define my brows and frame my eyes.

Ive tried a few different products, brow gels, brow pencils etc etc but I always find myself going back to brown shadows applied with a stiff angled brush. Im using a GOSH angled brush here which I love for brows.
Here (hopefully) you can see the difference between an un-defined brow and a brow thats been defined with brow shadow.

And here are my 2 brows all finished and defined. Its also important to say that I tidy up my brows and pluck any stray hairs before I start my makeup.

 For that classic 50's look, you need a sweeping black eyeline. Theres plenty of different products out there; powder, pencils, gel liners, liquid liners. I love gel liner but for this style I think the liquid liner works the best. It can be a bit tricky and does take a bit of practise, maybe youll need to tidy it up afterwards and its always hard getting both eyes to match too so just practise your winged liner.
Take your time, apply with a steady hand. Your flick needs to flick upwards to open the eye and I find it useful to do the flick first with my eye open so I can carry on the line of my lower waterline at the same upward angle (if that makes sense). Once Ive got the flick I close my eye and line from the outside in. This is just the easiest way for me, you may find your own way.

So its all starting to come together nicely. We have the neautral shadows, the strong defined brows, the winged liner. Time to apply mascara. Its totally up to you how much you apply. The classic 50's look proabbly would have been quite minimal or only on the upper lashes but I love mascara so I applied quite a lot of it especially because my lashes at the moment are quite sparse and short :(

Thats the eyes sorted. For the 50's inspired look the lips are also very important, quite a defined cupids bow and a very sultry, pouty look. Lots of people probably associate the glossy red lip with the 50's style which I love but I tried to tone the lips down a bit as it was during the day and I was only leaving the house to pick up the boyfriend which I didnt think was an appropriate use of the glossy red lip.

Sooo..........I used another Soap & Glory product called Marvelips which has 2 ends. One end is colour, the other end is highlighter. It advised you to apply the colour first then use the highlighter in the middle of the lips afterwrds but I tried this and it didnt work for me so I applied it in reverse. I coated my lips in the highlighter first which I felt moisturised them a bit. I applied lots of the hightlighter to the cupids bow to accentuate it.

I then applied the colour which was a sort of dark dusky pink, quite a neautral tone which I really liked especially for daytime. I applied most of the colour to the outer edges trying to leave the highlight in the middle for a pouty look.

I took a piccie out of direct light as it wasnt showing the true colour. You can also soo in the middle where ive left a bit of the highlighter showing through. I love this product. Really soft and silky :)

I then decided it wasnt quite bright enough to match my nails and the red in the top I decided to wear so I went over this colour ( i used marvelips as a base) with Models own tangerine lip balm.

I wore this on Saturday over rel lip pencil and it gave a lovely bright pop of colour and a gorgeous glossy silky finish so perfect for a classic 50's look with the bright red lips. But for now I just wanted a brighter pop of colour so I applied a bit of this with a lip brush.

That's it, all finished. Im slowly mastering a 50's style fringe.

I hope you all enjoyed my first tutorial. I just feel like Ive ramble but hopefully Ive made sense and maybe Ive inspired you to create your own 50's inspired looks.

Im quite liking this look, Ive tried it out the past few days, maybe Ill keep it.