Makeup & Beauty by Sarahmarie
Spring is fast approaching in the Garden County, birds are singing and flowers are in bloom - it’s about time us girls caught up!!
I've been keeping an eye on the catwalks of London, Paris, New York and Milan to bring the latest trends right back here to you in Wicklow.
I've also been checking out our own local pharmacies and online stores to find out where the best beauty offers are hiding and I will be sharing those all important makeup tips - Enjoy!!
Hot Trends Spring 2012
• Luminous Skin, with 'Feminine Minimalism' and 'Sports Revolution' big themes on the catwalks right now, LESS really does mean MORE.
To achieve that beautiful dewy look, keep product use to a minimum. Use a good quality liquid concealer and light coverage foundation (face and body or a tinted moisturiser).
Use a translucent setting powder and finish off with some highlighter along the top of the cheekbones and some petal or peach blush on the apple of the cheeks.
Top Tip: Using colour correcting cosmetics can significally reduce the amount of coverage needed in a foundation eg; a green neutraliser will minimise redness in the skin.
Ask your local pharmacist or makeup artist for help when choosing.
• Statement Lips, high impact lips are one of the biggest trends this season.
Bright orange being a catwalk favourite along with black cherry, chocolate red and pretty pastels.
Both Lancome and Nars have even brought out an electric shade of white for this season (Lancome's is called Blanc and Nars' is called Ecume).
When making lips the focus point of your makeup leave a little foundation on your lips, it will hold the colour better. Always use a good quality lipliner to prevent the colour from bleeding out, especially on more mature skin. Use as close a shade to your lipstick as you can find, soften the inside of your line with a brush and carefully fill in with your lipstick.
I like to line the outside of the lips with a very fine line of concealer for extra impact (remember to blend).
Top Tip; A dab of clear lipgloss in the middle of the bottom lip will create the illusion of fuller lips.
• Defined Brows, well sculpted brows with dewy skin and a nude lip is now a popular natural look, which can easily be changed up for a night out after work by simply adding a strong impacting lip colour.
Use an eyebrow pencil one shade lighter than your hair colour if you are dark and one shade darker if you are fair.
Trace the outer lines of your brows with the pencil, going no further than the highest point of the arch. Soften down the lines and blend the colour into the middle and along the rest of the arch, using an angled brow brush.
Then using the same brush go over the whole brow with some brow wax/shadow or eyeshadow. Perfecting this look can take time so be patient and practise.
• Dip Dye Hair, This seasons hottest hair trend is the Dip Dye, Jessie J, Dakota Fanning and Steven Tyler are all recent fans of this look, brightening up their tresses in honour of the Spring season.
The 'in' shades being pink, purple and blue.
Top Tip for fair hair; combine all three shades in your dip starting with pink blending into purple and then into blue at the roots, add a slight wave to style, this looks very cool on light blonde hair.
Also ‘in’ right now: metallic eyes, fishtail plaits, sporty ponytails, wet look hair & very defined lashes.
Beauty on a Budget in Wicklow Town
Every now and then I will be bringing you news on where to find the best offers on beauty around Wicklow.
This month I've chosen Unicare's Abbey Pharmacy.
So you might have noticed in recent months that the Abbey Pharmacy (across from AIB) has been taken over by Unicare. However what you might not know is that any products taken off the shelves in 72 Unicare Pharmacies nation wide come directly to our very own Abbey Pharmacy to be sold off at superb discount prices.
These products can be found to the far right hand side of the store and range from makeup, hair care, skin care and perfumes to toiletries and even baby care products.
The products and brands are constantly changing so you never know what you will find on the shelves at any given time (in the past I have even snapped up some Smashbox eyeshadows and brow shadows at one third normal retail prices).
Makeup
At the moment the featured makeup brand on sale is 'Revlon', with prices slashed off foundation, blusher, mascara, liploss, powder and concealer.
Below I have chosen some examples of sale prices.
• Revlon Custom Creations foundation at €10.00....Regular Retail Price €20.00
• Revlon ColorStay Mineral Foundation at €9.00....RRP €19.00
• Revlon Fabulash Mascara at €5.00....RRP €10.00
• Revlon ColorStay Mineral Lipglaze at €5.75....RRP €11.5O - I tried no.535 Eternal Blossom, I love its non-sticky formula.
Also in store is makeup brand 'NYC' it is not part of the sales but is famous for keeping all product prices below €4.00, NYC lipsticks are beautiful and the pigment and longevity are better than some more expensive pharmacy brands.
False Lashes
Abbey also have a lovely range of false lashes at the moment from Eylure and i Envy.
I tried Paparazzi 02 strip lashes from the i Envy range by Kiss at €4.19....RRP €6.99
I loved this set, I wore them with a dramatic smokey eye, they were very full but not chunky making them light wearing and more natural in appearance, the glue held all night and I still have a full bottle left over.
Top Tip; Before putting the glue on your lashes make sure they fit, if the strip is too long cut off the outer lashes with a nail scissors. When you have put on the glue let it set for a few seconds the glue will stick to your skin easier when it has turned a little tacky already.
Skin Care
The skin care sales are amazing with massive discounts on popular brands such as Olay, L'Oreal, Neutrogena and many more, catering for all skin types both young and mature.
A favourite of mine for young skin is 'Nivea Visage Young' selling at €3.60 marked down from €7.21 meaning it’s now also affordable on a teenage budget.
Other bargain favourites I’ve chosen to share are;
• Olay Total Effects at €11.09, RRP €18.49
• L'Oreal Revitalift 10 Repair at €11.25, RRP €22.49
• Neutrogena Multi Defense at €5.99, RRP €9.99
Other Bargains: 40% off selected John Frieda Frizz Ease Hair Care products, up to 50% off selected perfumes, 50% off selected St.Tropez products, 40% off selected Fake Bake products, 40% off selected Broadway and Kiss false nails.
So if you are a budget queen who wants to keep her pennies in her purse, put Unicare's Abbey Pharmacy on your regular visit list. The girls are extremely helpful and pride themselves on service with a smile so if there is something you need and can't find, don't be afraid to ask. Happy shopping!!
Online Buys
If you are too busy to get to the shops check out cheapsmells.com I stumbled on this site recently which offers massive discounts on a large range of products including Clarins.
Always remember when buying online make sure the payment method is secure and the site provide a genuine contact number, email or address. It I so easy to make a fake site these days so if you are not sure, don't buy!! Try calling the contact number or mailing the email address to ensure a site is genuine.
Next month I will be showing you how to re-create a celebrity/catwalk makeup and reviewing one of my favourite professional makeup brands.
Thank you for reading and be sure to check back regularly
Credits: Dermot Byrne photography, model: Daniella Moyles
Contact Sarahmarie, Sarahmariemakeup@gmail.com or call 086-2271429
