Okey dokey, let's get back into the swing of things. First thing on the agenda is to apologise for how my lookbook picture in the post below has turned out. Too much to the right for my liking. If you want to see how it's meant to look, click on the lookbook link and check it out, maybe even give it a hype hehe. Plug plug shameless plug.So I've decided this is going to be a generalised post on DUH DUH DUH ... makeup. It's not quite fashion, but makeup goes through trends just like clothes do, it's just that most of us like to stick to the looks we know and are comfortable with when it comes to decorating our faces. And in spite of what you might think, my knowledge of makeup and how it works is terribly miniscule. I only ever wear eyeliner (and on a night out, mascara) so that's all I really know about.
Zara's always had a makeup range sitting in their shops, Urban Outfitters have just introduced a whole new line, but I'm going to focus on one of the most highly anticipated assortments of makeup to hit the high street, Topshop Makeup. I may be a few months late in reviewing it, but at least we know what the real deal is now. Copious amounts of magazines praised and hyped the range before its release date was even published and it nabbed my attention. I'm one of the biggest Topshop freaks you'll ever meet - to use a cliche, I'm like a kid in a sweetshop everytime I enter it, so it gave me hope that their makeup would be on a par with their Imusthaveeverything clothes.
Topshop showcased their makeup collection on the catwalk and in true, quirky Topshop style, subverted the usual parade of glamourous Cindy Crawfords strutting down the catwalk, with models styled to look like wild, furry woodland 'brownies', complete with monobrows. Surprisngly they somewhat pulled it off, but I doubt I'll be copying it anytime soon.
I used my first purchase for my second look on lookbook.nu, although to be honest you can't see it too well in the pictures I used. So here's one I made earlier:
It's not a brilliant picture, but you can see a little bit of the colours I used. I bought a black eyeshadow crayon in Midnight. My verdict? Well, at £6 I thought it wasn't too badly priced, it's extremely easy to use and much less fiddly (for those who are less dexterous of hand) than the more conventional palettes of eyeshadow you find. Another plus point is that it can act as an eyeliner as well, which is how I used it. Any bad points? Only a minor one; allow it to settle for a bit otherwise it'll smudge onto your eyelids, which as you can see, is what happened to me. But if my beloved Look Magazine is anything to go by, I am unintentionally bang on trend. Apparently the smudged, poorly applied makeup look will be a big trend for seasons to come. (I'm not so certain of this, but let's pretend it will be, for my fashion credit's sake.)
So it's a thumbs up for the eyeshadow crayons. Midnight is good for that smokey effect, Orb (white) is good for dotting around the tear duct to make yourself look more awake, (a good tip I stole off a friend) Sea (turquoise/blue) is good for flashing some colour and brightening up eyes and Satchel (brown) suits the hazy romantic look that is so prominent today.
There you go, a Topshop Makeup winner. Now for a loser. Their Eyeliner. It's a deceptive little thing - you walk into the shop, tear yourself away from all the wondrous items of clothing in there and surrender to the intrigue that surrounds the Topshop Makeup stall. You pick up their black eyeliner - a staple of any cosmetics bag - inspect it, then pick up the tester version of it. Twist off the lid and draw a line on the back of your hand. You never actually try it on your face do you? Not eyeliner at least. I've never seen anyone stand there applying the tester eyeliner actually onto their eyes. This is where the deception craftily lurks. It comes in the form of a felt tip pen, accessible and easy to use and amusingly reminds you that you're actually just colouring your face in - and on the back of your hand appears a strong, thick black line that's hard to smudge.
My mother bought one and came to me the next day asking if I wanted to try it because it was so ineffective. The skin of the back of the hand and the eyelid must differ pretty significantly because as I found when I tried it, the ink refuses to come out of the pen and the end result is is that you look like you've used a felt tip pen that had run out about a month ago and have slovenly smeared it over your eyes. Topshop eyeliner: nil points.
If you want a good, cheaper alternative, go for Rimmel Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer. It's a twist pen so it saves on bothersome sharpening and has an eraser on the end to eradicate any mistakes made when applying it. I used this eyeliner in Aqua Sparkle, the blue colour which is around the corner of my eyes in the picture.
And now for one thing I haven't tried - it's not solely for the eyes but I'm intrigued by it. Oh yes, it's Mariah Careys best friend, GLITTER. We all have that angelic little eight year old still stuck inside of us somewhere, longing to be a mermaid when she grew up. This was a time when you thought if you chucked glitter all over yourself it instantly made you prettier. We've grown up now and hopefully know a bit better, but there's something still so appealing and feminine about glitter - when applied correctly. Glitter has the potential to look a bit over the top and draggy if it's piled on. But, as shown in the picture below, glitter can transform you into a smouldering hippie with cascading golden tears (poetic, non?) - a perfect look to get away with this festival season. In the picture a gold glitter is used on the face and if I were to try this out, it's the colour I'd like to experiment with as it's closer to a skin shade than the other colours available (Lagoon which is a blue colour and Gilt which is pink, a colour which is too reminiscent of the eight year old girl situation for my liking). Unfortunately, they've stopped selling the gold coloured glitter online and I haven't found it in any of the Topshops I've been into, even the Oxford Circus one. Sigh. My inner hippie and inner eight year old will have to wait.
It hasn't been the most balanced or diverse review, as I've only looked at three of their products - but to be fair, if I were to examine anymore products this post would mutate into something the length of a short novel. What I've gathered from the products I've tried and from what I've heard off friends and family is that the range is varied enough for you to experiment with new styles and looks without spending a fortune and it's vast enough to find amongst all the nicely packaged rough, a few trusty diamonds, that you'll definitely go back for more of.