In My Makeup Bag

Studded leather makeup bag from Austique. Available in navy here and you can find similar styles here and here.

Recently I’ve received a few requests from you lovely lot as to the makeup and beauty products I use. Your wish is my command so here we have the first of what I hope will be a series of posts about grooming. As I’ve said many times in the past, I’m actually pretty crap when it comes to makeup. This is partially out of laziness and lack of time – given how high maintenance I am when it comes to clothes and accessories, paying the same level of attention to my visage would be exhausting – but it’s perhaps also a hangover from my teenage years when I experimented wildly and badly with caked on foundation, orange fake tan and vats of glittery eye makeup. I looked like a low rent drag queen, especially given the stilettos and body con I paired the sorry lot with. Of course I’ve erased those days from my memory, as one does with truly traumatic experiences, but the periodic appearance of photos from “Val De Lobo ’07” or “So and So’s Sweet Sixteenth” have no doubt served to keep me in very minimal, low risk make up ever since. Well now I’m a bit older and while probably not exactly wiser, certainly less likely to leave the how looking like the cast of TOWIE and Footballer’s Wives combined. So I’ve decided that maybe it’s time to take a few make up risks and have been embracing lipsticks of all colours and even experimenting with the odd smoky eye! I’ll be telling you more about this in beauty posts to come but I thought that to kick things off, it might be an idea to share the makeup staples I just couldn’t live without…

bareMinerals basics

Anticlockwise from left: Light stroke brush, £14, Full Flawless Face Brush,£24, READY Blush,£22 (I wear “the faux pas”), Original SPF 15 Foundation,£25 (I wear “fairly light”), SPF 20 Concealer,£19 & Well Rested Face and Eye Brightener,£22

Aside from when I’m on shoots, I have used nothing but bareMinerals powders on my face since I was 18 years old. I find any other foundation, even supposedly lightweight ones too heavy and pore clogging to wear on a regular basis. This stuff is genius as you can apply the lightest of dustings to eliminate the odd pimple of bit of blotchiness or buff and build it for a camera ready coverage if you’re off out somewhere fancy for the night. It also doesn’t totally screw up your skin if you don’t take if off before going to sleep which, let’s face it, we all do sometimes. The foundation also contains SPF which is brilliant if, like me, you always forget to apply it. My love affair with bareMinerals products began with their Get Started kit which you can buy here. It’s great because it includes all the powders and the brushes which are utterly essential but pretty expensive. If you want to purchase or find out more about any of the other products click on the underlined descriptions above.

Les Yeux

From left: Lancôme Artliner liquid eyeliner,£22, Lancôme Le Crayon Khôl eyeliner,£16.50, Eyeko Alexa Cheung Eye Do eyeliner,£15, MAC False Lashes mascara,£18 & Dior Iconic Overcurl waterproof mascara,£24.50

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you much about my go-to eye makeup. A flick of black liquid eyeliner and lashings of mascara never fail! Generally speaking, I keep the eyeliner part to an absolute minimum, if I wear it at all, during the day. Then come evening all you need to do is add more for a defined feline flick. People often ask me about how I apply it so neatly but seriously, it’s so easy. If I can do it anyone can! The trick is practice – always the way, obvious though it sounds and boring though it is – and also starting with the thinnest line possible as close to the lash line as possible. You can always build it up but it’s a total nightmare to make the line thinner or neater once it’s on. The amount of times I’ve gone about my business with totally mismatched eyes is not to be believed. When it comes to liquid eye liner, Lancôme is the absolute best but it is seriously bloody expensive so Rimmel or L’Oréal can be great alternatives. As long as it’s got a good brush (fine, possibly spongy, without trailing stringy bits if you know what I mean) and the liner itself isn’t ridiculously gloopy then it will be fine. When it comes to makeup, I think splashing out on really great quality foundations and concealers is the most important thing as ones with tons of chemicals and whatnot in them can seriously mess with your skin. With eye liners and mascaras you can get away with spending a lot less and to be honest, some of the cheaper brands products are basically just as effective.

Perfect Pout

From left: Lanolips 101 Ointment, £9.97 & L’Occitane En Provence scented lipbalm,£8.50

While my recent obsession with offensively bright lipsticks shows no sign of waning, I rarely if ever wear them during the day. This is less to do with fearing looking OTT – that’s an unavoidable side effect of dressing like a cartoon character anyway – and more because I know I’ll get it all over my clothes, face and anyone/anything else I come into contact with. I don’t do lipgloss (another beauty product I abused as a teen) so lovely balms like this are my everyday pout perfectors. Lanolips 101 Ointment is quite literally the best thing ever for vanquishing chapping and leaving your lips all soft and smooth while L’Occitane’s Rose Tenderness Lipbalm adds just the right amount of shine and smells delectable too.

Have you found this little beauty post interesting? I’m scheming a few more so let me know what you like or don’t. Also I must apologise for the rubbish photographs. I took them myself and my photography skills are so non existent they make my makeup technique look Charlotte Tilbury standard!

Love Ella. X