CHARLOTTE LAUREN // MAKEUP ARTISTRY

It's prom season and everyone wants to look great for the pictures, (you know your mum will be showing them to everyone for at least the next year!) so here are my tips on looking prom perfect.

First things first you want to make sure your skin is the best it can be so you have a nice base for your makeup! So in the weeks running up to your prom start doing deep cleanses, face masks and cleansing your face everyday. Products like Elemis Melting Cleansing Gel (£28.50) and the No.7 Skin care ranges are great!

For foundation and Primer you want to find some with no SPF in them to avoid the white cast you can get in flash photography, so products like Mac face and Body (£28.50), though it is quite sheer, you can built it up, or just conceal the areas you need more coverage, and it leaves a lovely finish to the skin. Also Nars Sheer Glow looks great in pictures (£30.50), the best primer that I've used it Smashbox Photo Finish Primer (£25.00), it creates a lovely smooth base for you to work on and isn't geared towards a certain skin type.

Another thing is to not close up your eyes, so I wouldn't recommend using a black eyeliner on your water line as that will close up your eyes, an alternative for this is using white eyeliner and that will open up your eyes and make them look bigger. I love the white eyeliner by MUA (£1.00) and it so cheap! I set it with a light eyeshadow to keep it on my water liner longer.

Lashes are also a good way to open uo your eyes and draw a lot of focus to them, for the most natural look individual lashes are your best bet but for more of a dramatic look strip lashes are great and their are loads of different styles to choose from, some of my favourites include Ardell Demi Wispies (obviously!) (£4.99) and Katy Perry Oh Honey Lashes (£4.69), both are quite natural but just add the right amount of length and volume and I love them!

Lips can make or break a look so, for prom I'd go for a pinky/nude! That way you can tell you have colour on your lips it finishes off a look if you make your lips look perfect with lip liner and really define the outer edges to they look clean, and with a lighter colour you don't have to worry about fading!

However sometimes a red lip is just the thing to finish off a look so, if red is what you're going for then I would recommend using a lip liner and a matte finish such as Ruby Woo by mac (£15.50), I know a lot of people hate how this feels on the lips but it lasts for ages which is really important for prom as you're going to be having a lot of pictures taken and don't want to be worrying about what your lipstick is getting up to!

To finish off I would use a powder, I like mac mineralise skin finish natural, but just use whatever is your favourite. This will keep your make lasting longer and make sure you're makeup doesn't look shiny in pictures!

Thanks for reading I hope this helped, and if its your prom I hope you have a fabulous time! :)

Charlie xo

I never thought that leaving college would mean I'm ten times busier than when I was their but I'm happy that I am. This week I've had a lot of makeup work do to, I've had weddings, hen do's, proms and also have been working on set of The Addams Family musical everyday this week! So it's been hectic (which explains the lack of blog posts) but a lot of fun. So today I have a bit of free time so I'm going to be writing about the things I've been loving over the past month!... I also have one thing that I didn't like right at the end!

My first favourite is this lipstick by mac in creme cup (£15.00), I've been wearing this lipstick almost everyday on top of a darker lipliner (which is my next favourite) to create sort of a gradient look and I really like it. I can't rave enough about mac lipsticks just in general and this shade is the perfect nude for me :)

Next is the lip liner I've been wearing almost everyday paired with the lipstick, and it is the Rimmel Lasting Finish lip pencil in 011 spice (£2.95). I really like this lip liner, It's very creamy and has a good lasting power, the colour is a dark pinky shade and it looks lovely on most skin tones, and for for the price you can't go wrong!

Individual lashes in general are a favourite this month, I love the look of them, they're really natural and stay on a lot longer than strip lashes do, you can get them in a range of sizes and colours depending on what look you're going for, however I do recommend going to a professional to get these done as the glue is quite strong and it's tricky to put them on by yourself!

Words can't describe how much I love this foundation! It's the Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua (£33.00). You only need a little bit of this to cover your entire face and it just blocks out all of your imperfections and discolouration, it leaves your skin with a dewy look which I personally really like :) I know it's quite expensive so it's not going to be everyones cup of tea but for a makeup lover I think it's worth the investment haha

My last favourite is Benefit Coralista blush (£23.50), I love this shade and I've been it wearing a lot myself and also using it on clients, it suits almost everyone and it easy to wear both really natural and if you want to build it up and wear it more dramatic you can! Also it has a very pleasant smell to so that's a plus! hahaha

And the last thing is something that I have not been loving at all this month and that is the Eyeko skinny liquid liner in black, this eyeliner is terrible to say the least, you can't go over the eyeliner you've already done because it wipes off all the product if you try to do a second layer, even if you leave it to dry, so it's really hard to get a nice wing and I've only had it for about three weeks and it already drying up! Not good haha If you have and pen eyeliner recommendations please let me know in the comments I'm looking out for a good one! :)

Thanks for reading, let me know what you've been loving in June and if you've tried any of these products! :)

Charlie xo

Whilst I was on holiday I realised makeup was somewhat useless and anything I put on my face completely vanished with in the hour! That being said when it got a bit cooler at night I did like to put on a little bit of makeup so I could wander about with out scaring the children! haha So here is what I used and the products I found lasted through the heat.

So first off for my face I use The Body Shops All-In-One BB cream (£12.00) and Extra Virgin Minerals Powder Foundation (£15.00). I love the BB cream it's one that matches to your skin tone, although when you first apply it I find it goes quite orange and then seems to calm its self down! haha and to give it a bit more staying power I then apply the powder foundation over the top, this powder is very lightweight so it doesn't look cakey or over done and just makes the BB cream last a little longer.

For eye makeup I find it sticks a lot better if you use something to prime to the eyes, such as a primer, urban decay do amazing primers like the Primer Potion (£16.00), or things like a cream eyeshadow such as the Maybelline EyeStudio Colour Tattoo (£4.99). These will make the eyeshadow last longer and prevent it from creasing. The eyeshadows I reached for a lot were two from the Stila In the Light Palette (£25.00). The colours "kitten" and "bliss" were my go to!

My two favourite waterproof products were the 100% waterproof mascara by Rimmel London (£5.29), this helped keep my eyelashes curled all day (which is a hard task with my poker straight eyelashes) and it didn't smudge all day! For eyeliner I found myself loving the Stila Smudge Proof Eyeliner (£13.00) in damsel, when it says 'smudge proof' that's exactly what it means! Once it's on your eyes this stuff isn't going anywhere, perfect for the hot weather!!

For lips I kept it quite simple, using Niveas Sun Protect Lip Balm (£3.29), which works wonders! No.7's Lip Liner in nude (£6.75), my favourite shade of lip liner of all time, it's a 'my lips but way better' sort of shade! And lastly Mac Lipstick in Creme Cup (£15.00), which is a lovely pink/nude shade which leaves a subtle shine on the lips.

I hope you enjoyed this and have more of and idea of what makeup works in the sun. One last thing before I go, I've been working on my facebook page 'Charlotte Racz MUA' and it would be great of you could check it out and like it. Feel free to message me for appointment if you live around the Manchester Area!! I'm also having a giveaway when I reach 100 likes so it would be worth a like even if you live far away haha thanks for reading :)

Charlie xo

FLASH // NO FLASH
I feel like everybody has their own way of contouring, how much product to use, where to place it and which type of products. So today I'm going to be sharing a way of cream contouring that I've found works best for myself and clients! I'd choose cream contouring over powder as it gives a more natural result. Also sorry for the bitch face in the first picture the flash was to bright to actually open my eyes hahaha

source
So first you need products I recommend getting two shades of your favourite concealer, the highlight shade needs to be two shades lighter than your natural skin tone and the contour shade should be two shades darker. The products I used where a little to greasy for my liking, I would say a product like mac select cover up concealer (£15.00) would work wonders for this.

The point of highlighting is to bring features forward so apply it to all the areas that the sun would naturally catch and the areas you want to enhance and contouring pushes the darker parts of your face back so apply this to parts of your face that you don't want to catch the eye. In hairdressing and makeup the "perfect" face shape is an oval, so with contouring you want to make your face look as oval as possible (my face shape is round by the way!).

HIGHLIGHTING
1. So I start off putting a thin strip of highlighter down the centre of my nose and a small circle right on the end if it, this is going to help make my nose appear smaller and thinner (I hate the shape of my nose so this helps a lot haha)
2. I then apply it above my nose in the centre of my forehead as the sun would naturally hit this part of my face.
3. To brighten up the eye area (the inner corner of my eyes are ridiculously dark!) I put this in a triangle shape underneath them, winging it up to my temple and down to the apples of my cheeks, this helps lift that area as well making you look more awake.
4. I put a small bit just above my lips on my cupids bow to make my top lip appear fuller and dab a little on my chin.
5.Once I've done that I apply this on my brow bone (at the highest point underneath my eyebrow) and above my eyebrow at the arch, I then blend a bit of it upwards to give the impression of a higher arch.
5. To make my face shape more oval I apply a line of highlighter under my cheek bone below where you would contour with a dark shade and this helps to elongate that part of my face.
6. I didn't do this but you can also add highlighter on the laugh lines around your mouth if you feel they are a problem.

CONTOUR
1. I then apply the contour shade, which unfortunately you can't see quite as well, down the sides of my nose. I do this in very thin lines as if you cover all of your nose it will actually end up making your nose appear bigger!
2. Around my hair line on my forehead, focusing more on the temples. This will give my circle face shape more of an oval look.
3. Under my cheek bone, this just makes your cheekbones look more prominent and thins down your face.
4. Around my jaw line and the sides of my chin, this will get rid of any double chin business and elongate the chin making it appear oval.
5. If you have thin lips or the top is larger than the bottom then you can also add a bit of contour under your bottom lip and it will add a "shadow" making it look fuller, but my lips are quite bottom heavy so I didn't do this part!
6. You could also add a small horizontal line above the circle shaped highlighter on your nose, this will give the effect of a button nose but I personally don't like how this looks on me!

BEFORE // AFTER
Once you've done all of that you want to blend it all together, my favourite brush to use for this is the real techniques buffing brush (£21.99) from the core collection and just blend until everything is seamless, a good tip is to take a photo of yourself with the flash on and then the flash will pick up any harsh lines that you can't see normally. Once it's all blended you can see where to add more of needed or if you're happy with how it looks you can just finish your makeup as normal setting the cream contour with a powder or makeup setting spray.

And their you have to how to contour like the professionals! I hope you enjoyed thanks for reading :)
Charlie xo

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