Color blocking on my nail: I’ve tried it before with orange and blue, and and now that Spring is in the air I decided to try it again. This time I went for baby blue and bright pink.

The colors are great, but I made some minor mistakes. I must rework my technique of creating perfect vertical color fields, that’s for sure!

(I used essence nail polish)

Very black smokey eyes

These days I’m totally into black smokey eyes. There is nothing as easy as creating black smokey eyes. Especially when you don’t have a lot of time, like in mornings. Correction: when you don’t want to make time if that means you can stay a little longer in your warm, cosy bed.

Black smokey eyes are perfect for every time of the day depending on how much powder/eye pencil you’re going to use.
If you don’t want them to be black, you can also easily vary in colors and style.

There are tons of ways to create smokey eyes. And there is plenty of inspiration around.
Here are a few of my favorite black smokey eyes looks.

Light smokey eye - classy, perfect for work!

Dark smokey eyes

Chanel launched a new spring make-up collection and it’s just gorgeous!
Light but still vivid cheers of pink, orange, red, purple…

Neutral colors that give you an extra glow without being too much ‘in your face’.
The Chanel colors remind me of a doll. Happy, fragile, but very feminin.

These colors are perfect for a spring bbq or picknick in the parc.
I would combine them with romantic clothes with a flare vintage.

There are more ‘reddish’ colors though too that give a more femme fatale look (which is more my kind of thing).

Here’s how you can recreate the look. More looks you find on the Chanel website.

How to

My ultimate 2012 beauty wish list

Now that 2012 is here to stay, time for a beauty wish list and start preparing my wallet for some necessary expenses. Hurray!

Since my make-up course started in 2011, I systematically grew my make-up and beauty collection. I bought all the basic products that I need for my professional shoots.
Now that I have the basics right, it’s time to start a bigger collection with more colors, more varieties etc. so I have more possibilities and more looks to create. (and more stuff for to test myself too off course )

Therefor;
My beauty wishlist for 2012: -also known as my 2012 resolution list -

1. Touche eclat – Yves Saint Laurent – Mytical product I want to test to see if it’s actually worth its 33 euro
2. Lao Tze – Rituals – To make my feet happy and ready for summer
3. Le vernis 08 – Chanel - Femme fatale nail polish
4. Inimitable waterproof – Chanel – Apparently the best mascara on the market. Must test this out!
5. Auto bronzing water lotion – Lancaster – sun tanning lotion to hide my white skin
6. Flowerbomb – Viktor & Rolf – Eau de toilette I’m longing for since V & L collaborated with H&M and I got a sample I sniffled on, but never actually used.
7. Invisble Lift – L’Oreal – I’m dead curious to the brush to see if that actually works for a long time.
8. Solar sublime spray – L’Oreal professionel – hair sun protection
9. Dumb blonde conditioner – Tigi  - I adore Tigi and its great products in great bottles
10. Gloss control – L’Oreal Professionel – more shine, more fun!

If you’re ever ready to spend some money, I won’t say no!

Glitter lips

W00p w00p there is a new year around the corner.
After a great party yesterday (featuring my sparkly glitter shoes) I’m totally ready for a new year!

A year full of glitter, glam and sparkles!

Enjoy!

This time a year I’m totally into sparkly shoes. Nothing more festive than the perfect eyecatcher shoes to celebrate the new year. After reading some blogposts, I decided to do it myself.

How to create your own sparkly shoes
It is so easy to create your own party shoes, believe me! You just need

• Velpon or other glue
• Glitters
• Suede shoes
• 30 min time
• A table that can handle a lot of glitters

I got my glitters ans velpon in AVA (Belgian paper shop), they always sell glitters around Christmas period for 3 euros. My glitters were black ones.
My shoes, I bought in a vintage shop for 5 euros (yes, size 38 is very convenient at times).

Step 1: prepare yourself
You need to handle quick, because you need to put the glitters on the shoe immediately after glueing your shoe. So make sure your glitter pot is turned open and your table is protected with paper.

Step 2: apply glue on a 5 cm part at the back of the shoe

Step 3: Immediately apply glitters on that part.
Be royal! It’s better to apply too much glitter than too less.

Step 4: move aside and glue another 5 cm piece

One done.

Step 5: continue along the shoe

Step 6: tap your shoe on the table to remove all unnecessary glitters

sparkly shoes; all done!

This black and white shoot was quite improvised. Without a clear idea we ( Willem – photographer, Titia – Model, I – hair&make-up) decided to take some photographs at a random Sunday.

Although everything was improvised, I am quite happy with the result: an easy and happy portrait of Titia.

Many thanks to the talented Willem, with his eagle photographer eye.
And Titia, for her great hair to work with and the style with which she’s wearing her makeup: pink eyeshadow, black eyeliner and mascara.

The trick to clean your brushes
Use ether.
Ether – the fluid that disappears as fast as fast as snow for the sun – is the best  and fastest way to clean and disinfect your brushes.

The advantages of ether

• It dries very fast – as in; in minutes
• It doesn’t only clean your brushes, it disinfect them too from bacteria, dead cells..
• It’s not as harmful for your makeup brushes as using shampoo or other household products
• It’s very cheap and you can buy it at a pharmaceutical store for just 2 euro

How to clean your brushes

1. Put some ether in a metal cup or a glass
2. Put your brush in for 10 sec
3. Get your make-up brush out and clean it in a paper wipe
4. And you’re totally ready to re-use!

Enjoy!

Clean make-up brushes

Laurence

For this black and white shoot I had the chance to work with one of the prettiest girls I know: Laurence (no really, she’s so cute).

She is made up with

• Mat eye make up (colors yellow & blue)
•  A soft pink lip color and lipliner
• Dark highlight under her cheekbones and a lighter highlight on her cheekbones
• Pro vision cream foundation and natural silk powder
• Pink blush

Laurence