I have been learning about makeup for around four years now. Among the books I've read and the talks I've been to, the most useful tool that I have found has definitely been YouTube. Not only is it free, but unlike a book it’s always getting new content which keeps it up to date and relevant. With this in mind I thought that today I would share with you the makeup artists who are, in my opinion, the best in the biz. That way you can pick up some great tips straight from their mouths!





Rae Morris: I first heard about Rae Morris around three years ago when I saw a number of people, including Wayne Goss, talking about her new book on YouTube. I ended up purchasing this book (Makeup: The Ultimate Guide) and I don’t know what I would do without it. It is my holy grail of makeup tips and there are so many tricks that she writes about that save time and effort in doing your makeup. Not only is her work efficient but it is beautiful. She truly is one of the top makeup artists in the world, and I find this all the more incredible as she actually fell into the profession by chance. Having originally trained as a hairdresser, a series of events at a fashion show meant that she was left attempting to finish Naomi Campbell’s makeup (having had no previous experience in the field) just as the paparazzi jumped in and starting photographing her. Rae makes YouTube videos, however, I would say that the best way to learn from her is to read her publications.




Lisa Eldridge: I came across Lisa Eldridge after another makeup artist that I know of assisted her for a short time. After looking at her channel I was astounded by the incredible makeup looks that Lisa created. She has numerous international credits including many Vogue covers and making the faces of some incredible models and celebrities. Lisa has a YouTube channel where she shows of some of her insane skills and shares some really useful tips. Her tutorials are extremely clear and professional, arguably making them some of the best on YouTube for the budding makeup artist. Lisa also runs a blog, but I think that in terms of learning new techniques it is essential that you watch her videos which she makes regularly.




Wayne Goss: I think I actually love Wayne. Not only is he an incredible makeup artist who is responsible for busting many a makeup myth, but he’s hilarious too and always adds a cheeky wink at the end of each of his videos. He’s no nonsense, straight to the point and incredible at what he does. For quick tips on how you should really be doing your makeup, he’s your guy. I love the way that you can learn so much from one of his four minute videos, but still come away from one of his videos grinning (Wayne, if you’re reading this, please be my friend?!). If I ever want to know the best technique to do something, I would always turn to Wayne’s channel first, plus his honest reviews have made buying makeup so much easier for me in the past. You know the bit in the Wizard of Oz when it goes from black and white to in colour? That’s how you’re going to feel after you go and subscribe to him.



I love sharing my makeup tips, but at the end of the day I’ve learned everything I know from other makeup artists, and I continue to learn so, so much from these guys now. They have had years of experiences on thousands of clients, so they're bound to have something to say that will help you no matter what your level. If you are serious about makeup then you seriously need to check them out!

Today is a bit of a spontaneous post (my favourite kind!). I was having a trawl through some blog pictures on my computer, and since I’m currently away from home I thought that it would be a fantastic opportunity to share with you some of my favourite drugstore products. I think that all of these have been featured at some point before on my blog, but you can never give a product too much love! The products that I’m writing about today are my most frequently used and the products that I love to use the most - perfect for a student budget!




Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer £4.19: A product that needs very little introduction. These little tubes of creamy concealer are extremely popular among the blogging community and over the past two years I’ve purchased more than five. The great thing about these is that they are only £jorgh per tube and will last you a few months, which I love. They are also brilliant both for blemishes and for under-eyes. Just to play devil’s advocate, I have to also point out that the colour range isn’t fantastic and I often find myself mixing two colours. The text on the tube also rubs off within a couple of days, but if dodgy packaging keeps the price low then I don’t mind at all!

Maybelline Falsies Mascara £7.99: I’ve bought this product quite a few times now too. I find that it’s brilliant because it doesn’t dry up too quickly (as long as you don’t abuse it with the dreaded pumping!) and the shape of the wand is a dream! It curls upward which encourages your eyelash into a curl. If you love black, thickening mascaras then this is definitely for you, but if you wipe a little product off on the tube then this also looks great on the bottom lashes. I couldn’t say whether or not this is very lengthening as my lashes are already fairly long, but this mascara seriously rivals some high-end mascaras and it is my go to.

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint: I purchased this polish in ‘Greenberry’ back in April. I’m in love with the colour and have worn it on and off on both my fingers and toes since I first got it. Besides the gorgeous, bright colour (only one to two coats needed) I adore how quick and easy it is to apply with fantastic results. The polish dries to a lovely, glossy finish which is never in a hurry to cheap, but can be taken off with regular polish remover like a dream. Oh, and did I mention it’s only £3.99?




Elegant Touch Rapid Dry for Nails £3.05: This product has a whole review to itself and is one of the best beauty bargains that I have ever come across. I’ve had this for nearly five months, and after using it nearly every time that I paint my nails it has still not run out. This product is designed to be sprayed over freshly painted nails to make them dry in just 60 seconds. The 60 second claim may be a little exaggerated but I’m ready to use my hands again after about two minutes, and so long as you hold it far away enough it will not affect the quality of your manicure in any way.

Charles Worthington ‘On-The-Go’ Hair Serum (similar here for £5.19): Why did I only get a travel sized version of this?! This hair serum tames frizzy hair amazingly whether it is dry or wet. If my ends are looking a little dry I sometimes pop a bit of this from my mid-lengths to my ends then comb it through and it doesn’t leave any greasy residue whatsoever. It has really been a lifesaver, but it also gives great results on freshly washed hair. Once combed through and blow-dried it leaves my hair looking glossy, healthy, and mostly importantly, tamed!

Maybelline Gel Liner £7.99: I know I’m not the first person to catch on to the fact that this gel liner rivals it’s high-end friends. I couldn’t see myself buying a high-end gel liner for a very long time after finding this, and I was even quite impressed with the brush. Although I tend to use the brush with other liners, when I want a really thin, black line on my top lash line this is the gel liner that I turn to. It isn’t the most intense black that I’ve ever seen, but it is in no way grey or brown and will stay put!

In case I hadn’t already gone on enough about it on Twitter, I went to IMATS (International Makeup Artists Tradeshow) last weekend! An incredible time was had by all - just look at how excited my Mum is to be there ;) If you want to see Part One of this post which is all about my day at IMATS then please click here. Anyhow, I thought that some of you may like to see some of the sorts of things you can get your hands on at the show and so I’ve put together a haul for you.

I went to IMATS yesterday and it was blooming amazing. I could leave the post right there but instead I thought that I’d tell you a little about my day. IMATS, for those of you that don’t know, is the ‘International Makeup Artists Tradeshow’. It is basically a huge weekend-long exhibition of makeup based brands from NARS to makeup schools to special effects makeup. The event also includes various seminars throughout that day that are mainly aimed at the professional makeup artist, but as you can imagine the show is also a haven for beauty bloggers as well as your regular beauty fanatic.


Fitting into both of these categories I decided to go along on Saturday with my mum. The event was at Olympia National Hall in Kensington which meant a five AM start for me - this may have been slightly excessive, but a beauty blogger’s got to look her best, right? This was especially true for me as one of the great thing about IMATS is that it attracts so many beauty YouTubers and bloggers that you may follow yourself. I was lucky enough to meet quite a few bloggers and YouTubers that I love which you will see later on in the post.

One of the attractions that I think is most fun about the event is the body painting that goes on all around. Some of the designs are fun, some are pretty and some are just plain scary - especially when teamed with prosthetics! There was one guy going around with special effects monster makeup and stilts. He was having great fun scaring the visitors and you would quite often hear a scream as you were walking around the show as he snuck up on his next “victim” - unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a picture! You can see some fantastic examples of some less scary prosthetic makeup in the shots of Daniel Craig and Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean above.






Every year IMATS also holds a competition for makeup students called “Battle of the Brushes”. The competition was going on throughout the day in a closed off area on the second floor. It was great fun to go up throughout the day and see how the contestants were getting on and the makeup progress into something really amazing. I managed to get a few snaps but some of them are slightly obstructed by the contestants’ mirrors. Hopefully this gives you an idea of how much talent there was in one room on the day, though!

As I mentioned before there are a few stages throughout the venue that host talks throughout the day that are all based on the makeup industry and makeup techniques. These talks are hosted by people who are at the top of their field in the industry and I genuinely found them really interesting. The pictures above are from the talks that I attended including ‘Red-Carpet Glamour’ by Gary Cockerill, ‘Tracking Trends Fall 2013’ by Kevin James Bennett and ‘HD Makeup for the Modern Bride’ by Sindy Perez. These talks aren’t necessarily everybody’s cup of tea but I found them extremely entertaining and informative. There are definitely things for you to pick up whether you’re a professional yourself or a total newbie to makeup. Mine and my mum’s favourite seminar, however, wasn’t strictly speaking a makeup seminar. You’ll know what I mean when you see the following pictures...








The final talk of the day was all about the power of social media... the speakers? A beauty blogging dream team! Unfortunately the Pixiwoo sisters (the original intended speakers) were unable to be there, so Ruth from A Model Recommends, Louise from A Sprinkle of Glitter, Anna from Vivianna Does Makeup and Caroline from Beauty Mouth took their places.
My mum found this comedic quartet absolutely hilarious. They focused their talk on the benefits of blogging and how to make the best of blogging. Their tips were mainly aimed at people like me who feel like they have something to give to the beauty community and how to be a blogger not a blagger. Their seminar felt a lot more like a chat between them and the audience, with a good bit of the D word thrown in for good measure.

As you can see I got to meet some of the lovely ladies afterwards as well as Lily Pebbles of What I Heart Today and Katie Snooks from Katie’s Beauty Blog. Writing this right now I still can’t quite believe it. It was so surreal to get to talk with these girls - they’re actually real human beings! Overdramatic? Perhaps, but for somebody who spends more time reading blogs than watching TV their kind words meant so much to me and I genuinely did feel a little star struck!


I want to say hi again to all of the lovely ladies that I met throughout my day at IMATS and I hope to meet you again one day! If you are any way involved in the makeup industry I would highly recommend attending IMATS next year. And the year after that. And the year after that. The tips and networking that you can gain throughout the day (or weekend) could be more fruitful for you than hours and hours spent on the internet. Besides, who doesn't love discounted makeup (look out for a haul post soon)?! I’m officially an IMATic fantatic. I’m a fIMATic. I really really like IMATS.

So as you may have noticed my blog has had a little makeover. I spent the last couple of weeks making all of the graphics and I've been teaching myself CSS - I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with the result!

I have also bought a domain and am planning on moving to wordpress soon but this is where I need some help. Wordpress themes differ quite a bit to blogger templates but I really want to use this layout when I'm on wordpress, and sooner rather than later if possible. I'm trying to teach myself how to create Wordpress themes but any help/advice you can give me would really help! If you or anybody that you know is any good at PHP or has made Wordpress themes in the past I would love to get in touch. In other news I am officially home from university now and so you will be seeing a few slightly different backgrounds in my photos. I've got some exciting things lined up this summer which I really can't wait for - for example, if you're reading this just after it's gone up then I'm probably at IMATS aka in makeup heaven so look out for a post about that.

As you may already be aware if you follow me on Twitter, last week was my end of year university ball. I won't go into too much detail about the night as I think a lot of us felt let down by the poor planning of the Student Union, but it was really nice to see friends again before everybody started moving out for the summer. Half of the fun, of course, was sorting out the outfit. Sorting out mine turned out to be quite a last minute thing as there wasn't long between my exams and the ball, but I thought that it would be fun to share it with you all the same.



I had originally planned to wear a coral dress for the evening, but at the last minute I changed my mind and wore my back up dress. I'm not normally one to wear a body-con dress to special events, but this one felt a lot more elegant due to its long length and the lace overlay. My favourite thing about the dress is the low back. I don't know why but I've been such a fan of clothing with plunging backs recently; I think it's a great way to show a bit more flesh while staying classy.

My absolute favourite thing about the outfit would have to be the shoes (which unfortunately seem to be sold out on Aldo's website). I had these picked out long before anything else! These were from Aldo so they were a little more expensive, but I decided that it would be worth it since I hadn't invested in a good pair of heels in so long. I chose a wedge heel as I find them more comfortable and easier to walk in, plus I have a couple of holidays lined up where I hope to wear them. Besides, how pretty are they?! I'm totally in love with them and will definitely be purchasing more pairs of shoes from Aldo in the future. It's so difficult for me to find stylish, good quality shoes in my size (European 42) but Aldo fits the bill perfectly!

This outfit may not seem particularly dressy to some of you, but please keep in mind that the venue for the ball was a field. Yes, a field. I told you that it was disappointing. If you have any questions about any of the items then please feel free to comment below. I'm also planning on doing a post on my ball makeup soon!

Did any of you have any university/school/work balls this summer? Do you love these shoes as much as I do?

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