Hello again everyone and welcome to the latest Beauty On A Budget make-up tutorial. For this tutorial I am going to be creating a combination of a shiny and well not so shiny make-up tutorial. A kind of a make-up opposites attract look. The transition between the casual look of spring to the glitz and shine of summer. Hope you all like it.🙂
So without further ado let’s get to this …
First off here is me before the tutorial:
Step 1
Using Miss Beauty London Perfect Face Primer and Make Up Gallery Make Up Sponges 24 Pack, cover your face and neck and rub the primer in. The smaller triangle sponges are great for any blending of the primer under your eyes. Using Manhattan Fresher Skin Foundation – Classic Ivory and Make Up Gallery Make Up Sponges 24 Pack, cover your face and neck and rub the foundation in. The smaller triangle sponges are great for any blending of the foundation under your eyes. Using the make-up pad provided, blend in Miss Beauty London powder around the face. Using Make-Up Gallery Hide & Seek Concealer Natural Coverage dot under the eyes, just in the middle of the forehead leading off from the nose area, lightly around the face and on any blemishes. Rub in well with Make Up Gallery Make Up Sponges 24 Pack. Again the little triangle is great for under eyes. To make the nose longer and thinner, draw lines down side of nose on both sides and in the middle of the nose without joining the lines and place a dot on top of the nose. Again blend in well with the little triangle.
Step 2
Using the brush above from Make Up Gallery Cosmetic Brushes, highlight your cheeks with the first colour indicated in the top of the Max & More Conceal, Highlight and Contour Cream Palette on the picture shown above by the direction of the brush and use the second colour indicated as blusher in the bottom picture.
Step 3
Using the Make Up Gallery Brown 4, cover each eyelid and do a mini wing by drawing upwards from the outside corner of your eye. Cover above eyelids with Miss Beauty London Eye Crayon Soft Creamy Eye Colour 2 Cappuccino. Also use the crayon to brighten up inner corners of eyes and dab under eyes too. Use Essence Kajal Pencil – White under eyes as well. Blend brown and white together. Use the black in Miss Beauty London Eye Brown Kit and with the brush provided use it as an eyeliner and on your eye brows. Using Max & More Mascara With Argan Oil – Black place on the top and bottom of your top lids and the tops of your bottom lids. When coating the under part of your top lids wriggle the brush through for extra volume and length.
Step 4
Using Miss Beauty London Eye Crayon Soft Creamy Eye Colour 2 Cappuccino, coat your lips adding extra shine to the middle of the bottom lip.
Step 5
Using Make Up Gallery Time to Shine Nail colour – Deep Amethyst 28, paint nails.
Hope that helps! 🙂
All products in this tutorial were purchased from three shops: Dealz, Euro Saver and Euro Giant with the exception of the Essence eye pencil:
Miss Beauty London Perfect Face Primer: €1.50
Make Up Gallery Make Up Sponges 24 Pack: €1.50
Manhattan Fresher Skin Foundation – Classic Ivory: €1.50
Max & More Conceal, Highlight and Contour Cream Palette: €3.00
Make Up Gallery Brown 4: €1.50
Miss Beauty London Eye Brow Kit: €1.50
Miss Beauty London Eye Crayon Soft Creamy Eye Colour 2 Cappuccino: €1.50
Essence Kajal Pencil – White: €2.00 (My sister got this in a charity shop but Essence make-up generally isn’t too expensive. A little bit more than the other products in the tutorial though).
Max & More Mascara With Argan Oil – Black: €1.50
Make Up Gallery Time to Shine Nail colour – Deep Amethyst 28: €1.50
Yesterday I went to Glamour Hair & Beauty Salon in Bray and had a hair wash, blow dry and hair cut as well as an eyebrow wax. I was very pleased with the outcome. Everyone there was very friendly as usual and did everything as always with great attention to detail. I usually either get the eyes done or the hair cut (either as a dry cut or occasionally with the wash and blow dry) but yesterday it was the first time I did the three in the one day and I thought I would share the result of the three together. Recently I had my hair dyed with Clairol Nice ‘N Easy Black 2 by my wonderful sister Sharon who did a great job so everything I think beauty-wise has come together well for the moment.
I’m heading down the country back to my hometown in Meath this weekend which is an annual trip to the blessing of the graves where my father and other relations are buried in the graveyard. My little dog is buried close by too so I’m going to visit his resting place as well.
Today I placed a religious Guardian angel medal at the memorial site of a young man who sadly lost his life in tragic circumstances on May 9th in Bray. His name was Krzysztof Rudnicki and he was a 33-year-old homeless man originally from Poland. The medal was placed there to honour his memory from me, my mum and my sister. We didn’t know him well but we had met him quite a few times when giving change. I always remember that he would say ‘God bless you’ when you would give change to him. Even thought I didn’t know him well he seemed like a nice person. Mostly we used to meet him outside Supervalu where he used to sit a lot and sometimes sitting near where his memorial is situated.
It is very sad. Very surreal too. He was born in 1985. I’m only a few years younger and it is just so heartbreaking. These things just shouldn’t happen. There needs to be so much more did for homeless people by people with the power and the finances to do so. We shouldn’t leave people in situations where they are in all sorts of danger.
My condolences are with all his loved ones at this time. Krzysztof Rudnicki, rest in peace.
Every month Ellie would rush to the post box to see what was the latest news with her adopted donkey Pedro. Pedro lived in the donkey sanctuary a couple of miles away. He had been abandoned by his owner. He was disheveled, had painful pads on his feet and long nails that were causing him lots of pain. Pedro was back to his old self and little Ellie was sponsoring his progress for $10 a year. Each month the sanctuary would send how he was doing and little tokens such as this animated picture of Pedro by a fellow sponsor.
(When I seen this prompt, I instantly thought of my own little donkey Lorcan who I have sponsored/adopted and who lives down in The Donkey Sanctuary in Cork, Ireland. I have been a supporter of the sanctuary around ten years now and they do fantastic work so I’d just like to highlight their website here: https://www.thedonkeysanctuary.ie/ and if you wish to adopt/sponsor one of the donkeys which will ensure the continued health and wellbeing of your chosen donkey or well as the other donkeys you can go to: https://www.adoptadonkey.ie/ On this page you can see a photograph of my little Lorcan and all the other donkeys up for sponsorship/adoption.)
My book Black Coat based on a previous Friday Fictioneers prompt is available at:
For Friday Fictioneers Writing Prompt. Check out the website at:
1st to Die (2001) is the first in the Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson. Having previously read books further on in this series it was interesting to see where it all started.
In the plot of this first outing we meet the protagonist Inspector Lindsay Boxer who has quite a lot on her plate in this first book. She has three main issues to deal with. Firstly she has just realized that she has a dangerous blood disease. Secondly she is falling for her partner Chris Raleigh and doesn’t know how to tell him that she is very ill. And thirdly there is a killer/s on the loose killing newly-wed brides and grooms. Clearly that’s enough to send anyone over the edge so it sets up a compelling plot. Thankfully Lindsay is not on her own dealing with all of this. She has her old friend Claire, ME and two new friends Cindy, Chronicle reporter and Jill, assistant D.A. Together the four women make up the Women’s Murder Club and offer each other support and help to solve the crime which is sweeping through America leaving no straight wedding party safe.
Patterson once again writes a complex case. I love how the couples are all so different from each other. It feels like he thought through their personalities and why they got together as opposed to just throwing down a few couples in order to have a plot line. That was great writing. You got a real sense of the victims and their individual personalities, relationships and journeys. The usual Patterson style of quick chapters and numerous cliffhangers at the end of many chapters keeps the reader turning the page. As always with Patterson’s books, they are quite addictive and when you say you’ll read three chapters or so, you’ll probably end up reading ten in that one sitting.
I very much enjoyed the book. I had actually seen a film version of this book prior to reading it so I did know the ending but that didn’t take away from how good a read it was at all. It gave me an opportunity to see how everything was pieced together to come to the conclusion and it was pieced together very well. Being a writer, my favourite character is Cindy. I think I just get a lot more where she is coming from in the books and there is always elements of humour with Cindy as she tries to get the big story which I enjoy reading. The twists and turns in the novel are as always great and everything is not always quite as it seems at any stage which is excellent for a murder mystery!
A great read.
To purchase 1st to Die by James Patterson go to:
And for more information about James Patterson and his work go to:
Kill Your Friends (2008) by John Niven is a very original read.
The book follows ambitious record producer Steven Stelfox. Stelfox is probably one of the most dislikable characters you could find in fiction and this book is very cleverly told from this complex character’s POV. The story takes place in the late nineties and 27-year-old Stelfox is chasing the money while pretending to be interested in the creative process. So far probably an authentic portrayal of many successful record producers (not all thankfully!) but there is even darker elements to Stelfox’s character such as murderous desires, a love of destroying people and countless prejudices. All round he’s just not a very nice guy and the type of person one loves to avoid in real life. But Stelfox is also charming and charismatic and all of this combined is a very dangerous combination. Be warned, do not look for any redeeming features in his character. They aren’t there. In short he is a sociopath. But told from his POV creates some very fresh, original writing. There is great satire in this book. Ultimately it is a well-written satire of people like Stelfox.
It is a well-written account of the darker side of the music industry too. Niven writes the concept of many artists filtering in and out of the business and their dreams falling to pieces. How Stelfox and co promise them the world only to forget all about them and consequently they returning to everyday life disillusioned and still dreaming about and regretting what never was. The detached way which Niven writes the responses, both inner and outer, from Stelfox and other industry big shots is spot-on of a ruthless and cold response that exists in the music business and in business in general. It was good to see this side being explored as opposed to the fluffy ‘I’ll make you a star’ and ‘Now you are a star’ storyline which is played out a lot. Niven doesn’t sweep this murkier side under the carpet which kudos to him for not doing. Nor does he sweep under the carpet the even murkier element of record producers using their power to gain sexual favours from the artists and those in awe of the business so double kudos to him for that.
This book definitely is like American Psycho which I haven’t read in full as of yet but I read a bit of it and it definitely reminded me of it. It’s an obvious comparison but it’s a true one so if you like that book, you will like this one most likely. My favourite character in this book was Parker-Hall. Sure he was business-orientated but you got the impression he was a decent guy and that his decentness was part of why he was so successful. He was everything Stelfox would do better in the business being but wasn’t. Stelfox’s jealousy, cruelty and ruthlessness go to extremes with Parker-Hall and I found that part very sad and hard to read. But at the same time very realistic.
It’s not the easiest read in the world and you will definitely want to read something more jolly or at least something with a more likable main character after but it is certainly worth a read. It’s very different from a lot of books and is very well done and well researched by the writer.
To purchase Kill Your Friends by John Niven go to:
And for more information about John Niven and his work go to:
Jamaica Inn (1936) by Daphne du Maurier is a wonderful classic Gothic novel set in the 1820s in Cornwall.
The story follows protagonist Mary Yellan who sets out for Jamaica Inn to live with her Aunt Patience and her husband Joss Merlyn. It was her mother’s wishes before her death that Mary would go and stay with them but what lies ahead at Jamaica Inn ensures that this story is top class compelling. Soon a story of coming-of-age and setting out in the world to find your place becomes a tale of murder mystery and psychological drama. This is the first book by du Maurier which I have read and her writing style is simply gorgeous. There is a great balance she strikes between giving you all the descriptions you need to keep you engrossed in this story without overdoing it. Her portrayals of the characters and the internal workings of their minds adds a lot of spice and intrigue to the piece – and also sends the reader into many roundabouts which is always great in a mystery story.
Alongside the character portrayals, Jamaica Inn itself is a character in it’s own right. It sets the scene perfectly for a foreboding gloom to hang over so many aspects of the story. So many people are scared of Jamaica Inn and rarely – if ever with the exception of Mary – visit it unless they are usually up to no good. Or that is the image which is painted in any case. This adds to the overall intrigue in the setting. Mary’s relationship with Joss Merlyn is also a major element of this story. He is very mentally abusive towards Aunt Patience and Mary decides it is her duty to look after her aunt who has become a shadow of her previous self. The ongoing clashes between Mary and Joss are extremely well-written and leave the reader wondering where their confrontations will lead.
But there is an element of this book which shows that sometimes not everything is as it seems and without giving too much away du Maurier wrote this element to perfection like all mystery writers worth their salt. I was very fond of Mary. She is a very strong and determined woman who in many ways was very much ahead of her time. On the downside though she had a trusting nature which by itself is great but it was a trusting nature that bordered on too trusting. And her judgments often seemed to be made on who she liked as a person more than the facts in the case. This was a very clever character trait for du Maurier to put as one of Mary’s qualities however because she could use it to supply red herrings for the readers.
I loved it and it is a definite must-read.
To download your free copy of Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier go to:
She had dreams to get out of this small town, make waves literally in the world. Those yellow and blue flags at the leisure centre always lifted her spirits when energy was low or she felt insecure. She turned the light off and walked to the bus stop. Her head full of the future, tired of the present.
On the bus she looked at the tattoo of a tiny yellow and blue flag on her wrist. She imaged standing on the podium with the Ukrainian flag flying as the anthem played.
Someday I will finally make my parents proud.
My book Black Coat based on a previous Friday Fictioneers prompt is available at:
For Friday Fictioneers Writing Prompt. Check out the website at:
Recently there was a situation that became very high profile in the YouTube community. Vlogger Tati Westbrook made a video on her YouTube channel entitled Bye Sister … which insinuated that fellow vlogger James Charles was predatory towards straight men and men who were trying to figure out their sexuality. While the situation began from a disagreement over Charles promoting a rival vitamin brand to Westbrook’s and her husband’s vitamin brand, it soon turned into a very serious matter.
Videos appeared on the internet from various men who claimed Charles was predatory towards them and fellow vlogger Jeffree Star spoke about Charles being ‘a danger to society’ while various gossip channels on YouTube and media jumped on the band wagon. A social media account even made up a story about Charles touching a boy sexually in a bathroom when he was in school. The latter was later found out to be false. What ensued from all of this was a huge drop in Charles’ YouTube followers and a toxic and overwhelming amount of bullying and trolling online which quite frankly was disgusting. Added into this bullying and trolling was a live video on YouTube detailing the drop in Charles’ followers and the rise in Westbrook’s followers with even more space at the side for live comments filled with hate for Charles and hate towards many of the comments from the minority of supporters of Charles.
This whole thing blew up very fast. My reporter’s brain (and my humane brain) said to me that I had to look into this in an objective way so I looked at the videos to see what all this was about. And I realized that there was nothing concrete in any of it. Nothing to suggest Charles was a predator at all. There was a lot of people saying things but nothing was adding up and I learned that all this hate was coming from people taking what people said at face value. The idea of ruining someone’s career and more importantly their character based on he said and she said stuff didn’t sit well with me.
I am very strongly against predatory behavior and sexual harassment but I am equally against peoples’ lives being ruined based on vicious lies and half truths. There is no harm when you don’t know any of the people involved in a situation personally to look at things from an objective standpoint. It doesn’t make you a bad person because you don’t instantly believe the claims being made against a person. It makes you a fair person and being a fair person is being a good person. I say this because throughout this whole situation even to question things was instantly seen as equal to being a monster who was ok with predatory behavior and sexual harassment and who was disbelieving of all victims of either of the aforementioned.
I have faced predatory behavior and sexual harassment in my life and something was just not ringing true about the claims for me from very early on. There did seem to be a milking of the situation for YouTube views and attention. When you face those things, you feel intimidated by that person and you have two options: you go to the police or you make the very difficult decision (often based on circumstances) to let it go. There isn’t an option 3 which says ‘I won’t involve the police but I’ll go on YouTube’. And if you were to go on YouTube and talk about your experiences the last thing you would do is say the person’s name because you’re intimidated by them. As someone who has faced this, I was very upset to see something so serious being put out there as ‘drama’ and like an unfolding entertainment saga. When you face it, it is very, very frightening and extremely demeaning.
Did I say anything at the time openly that I actually supported James in the situation? No. And the reason for that was I was a coward. I seen the level of hate supporters faced where their whole personality and integrity was been called into question because they didn’t go along with the party line and jump on the ‘James Charles is cancelled’ band wagon. But thankfully the hate has shimmered down a little bit and I feel I can be open about what I feel because there is a lot this situation says about our society. It has showed that we are very quick to judge people when we don’t know all the facts and that so many of us are so bored that we jump on word of mouth and troll and bully somebody without thinking of the effect that might have on the human being in question and then we wonder why so many peoples’ mental health is bad. One of the main reasons is that so many people are always looking for the negative in another person and any shred of misinformation is like gold dust to them. Is it because it makes us feel better about ourselves? Is it because we’re looking for a ‘soap opera’ in our lives? I’m not perfect. I love a bit of gossip as much as the next person but ‘These two people are secretly a couple’ is very different from ‘This man is a sexual predator’. There is lines and boundaries that we probably shouldn’t cross in our pursuit of entertainment and gossip because these things have huge impact on peoples’ lives and the lives of the people who love and care for them.
These are very serious allegations that have been made against James. I’m going to be honest and blunt about this: I do not believe the allegations. That might not be the most popular thing in the world to say but there it is. People will have different opinions and that is fair enough but there is a way of expressing those opinions and in this whole situation in my opinion a lot of people have not expressed those opinions very well. It has become a bullying, trolling and quite frankly cruel exercise altogether which are the traits as a society I believe most of us are trying to get away from. There has also been a very dangerous element in our society exposed here: we quickly believe and destroy people based on what other people say and nothing more. There is a lot of people very nervous about things like this being said about them and with good reason because when an allegation like this is made there is many people who won’t look at it objectively and form an opinion, they will just take it at face value and that is a dangerous culture that we are creating because even let’s leave this situation for a moment and talk in general, people in life have grudges against people and many people will use any angle to destroy someone and it’s a good idea to maybe be a bit cynical that not everybody’s intentions are so honest. By all means support genuine victims of these situations when you have looked at the facts but to believe everything everyone says in situations like this so blindly is incredibly dangerous. Unfortunately and I hate to say it but alluding to someone being predatory is becoming a very popular way to destroy someone so by all means support victims but be cautious to not believe everything. Be open to looking at it from both angles before you decide and I think through doing that things would be a lot less toxic.
This has actually been very ugly to see happening on YouTube and the various internet communications and with that in mind, I just want to end this blog post by saying be kind to each other. By all means be honest about what you feel but you can say it in a way that shows that you do remember you are talking to another human being. Most of us are only trying to get through the day and be the best version of ourselves we can be. Do think emotionally but do think objectively when you need to. I promise you that it doesn’t make you a bad person. Quite the opposite actually. Combine the heart and the head and at least for your own conscience you can’t go wrong. Finally, please don’t send hate to anybody in this post. I think there has recently been enough of hate spread around the place to last a lifetime, don’t yous’?
Last night Duncan Laurence won the Eurovision for the Netherlands with his song Arcade in Tel Aviv, Israel. Winning with a total of 492 points (combined from public and jury votes), the win is the fifth win for the Netherlands but their first win in 44 years. The track which was hot favourite to win faced tough competition in a tight Eurovision battle. At the end, it came down to being between Sweden’s John Lundvik, who was the most popular with the juries, and Laurence. Ultimately the public vote decided the outcome giving Netherlands the win.
On the combined totals of jury and public votes Italy came second with Mahmood and his song Soldi, Russia finished third with Sergey Lazarev and his song Scream while Switzerland finished fourth with Luca Hanni and his song She Got Me. Rounding off the top 6 was Norway with KEiiNO and their song Spirit in the Sky and Sweden’s John Lundvik with his song Too Late for Love.
Another major talking point from the night was Iceland’s Hatari holding up Palestinian flags in support of Palestine when they received their votes from the public vote. The act also held up the rainbow flag and trans flag earlier in the evening. Hatari have proven themselves this year to be full of courage to use this platform to highlight both Palestinian rights and LGBTQ+ rights and I feel they are absolute legends and pure class. They have done Iceland very, very proud.
Following Laurence’s win, the 25-year-old who was born in Spijkenisse in the Netherlands said:
“Yes, yes! Oh my God! This is to dreaming big, this is music first always, thank you, thank you!”
Speaking to reporters after, Laurence said some absolutely beautiful words:
“I think the most important thing is that you stick to who you are and see yourself as I see myself, as I see (fellow contestants) Sergey, as I see Chris, as I see you, just a human being. As a person who has talents, who, with this trophy, will in however many years stick to what they love – even if they have a different sexuality. Stick to what you love and make the best of it, and love people for who they are. That’s the most important message. Dream big.”
It was a very well deserved win. Congratulations Duncan and all involved. Congrats Netherlands! 🙂
To watch Duncan Laurence’s Final and Semi-Final performances as well as his win, highlights from Eurovision 2019 and his music video for Arcade you can do so below:
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