The Power Of Makeup Challenge! 

Early last year YouTube sensation Nikkie Tutorials went viral after starting a trend called “the power of makeup”. She done a video of her making half of her face all glam with makeup and the other half completely natural, she looked incredible either way but throughout her video she told her story of why she loved makeup. She inspired me instantly so I thought I’d do the challenge myself. 

makeup never really excited me until secondary school and even then it didn’t phase me half as much as it does today. I never really went into school with makeup on unless I could be bothered. But now, that’s completely changed and my obsession for makeup grows more everyday. 

I’ve never been too lucky with my skin especially when I fell poorly. I’ve always suffered with acne, redness and scarring but the past three years my skin has gone through hell and back. My acne went from 10 to 100 real quick, I suffered with blood scabs all over my face which left awful scarring, my skin went from oily to super dry and flakey due to not getting enough nutrition and my cheeks are constantly looking burnt where they’re so red but thankfully the past few months my skin has gotten a lot better which I believe is why I’ve gotten so obsessed with makeup. I’ve now got a surface to paint on. 

Here are some photos of my skin between 2013-2015: 

Shocking right?
I don’t do makeup because I want to grab people’s attention, I do makeup to make me feel good and it’s something that makes me happy within. Makeup makes me look heathy, gives me colour (so I don’t look like Casper the ghost anymore) and it gives me a boost in my self esteem overall. Makeup helps people express themselves and there are no rules. I’m not perfect at makeup, I’m not a professional makeup artist and I’m not claiming I ever will be but everyday I sit for hours playing about with my makeup and creating new looks on myself, friends and family. So, today I’m going to go full glam for you to show the difference between my natural face and me with makeup!
I like to use makeup to enhance my features and to take away features I don’t like about myself. 

• I like to start off by using primer to blur any of my pores, moisturise my flakes & counteract any discolouration on my skin and give my makeup a good firm base to sit on. 
• I very rarely use foundation due to my skin being so dry it just looks horrible but when I do I like to go in with a high coverage foundation which is lightweight to make my face even and flawless. 
• Now concealer, that’s something I couldn’t ever live without! I use it to cover these black designer bags I get through continuous lack of sleep under my eyes and brighten them so I don’t look like something out the walking dead no more! I also love to cover up any nasty spots I have on my face and make them vanish.
• After concealing I like to set it with a powder to set the concealer in place and to brighten and highlight my under eyes that bit more.
• Bronzer, now everyone’s got to love a bit of bronzer right? Bronze makes me go from Casper the ghost to healthy bronzed ready for summer chick (I like to think that anyway hahah) sometimes I like to rock my pale skin but usually I add bronzer to my cheeks and forehead to give me a tanned look. 
• Now blusher, I was never a fan of blusher if I’m honest but recently blush is something that I’ve grown to love. Peachy tones or light pink blush is my favourite, it makes the apples of my cheek pop and a gives me healthy glow. 
• Eyes… I’m absolutely obsessed with eyeshadow and I love to play around with it. Not very often do I go for a simple look, I like to go crazy and try out new looks. I love the look of a deep crease, it gives a smokey effect which pulls the eye look together! I usually go for a golden, orange look as it enhances my greeny/brown eyes. No eye look is complete without lots of mascara. Now I’ve got very small eyes, I smile and instantly they vanish (my friends and family rinse me for this) so using mascara is a must. It opens my eyes up completely and makes them look so much brighter and bigger. 
• Now let’s talk brows! I love to “colour in” my brows. I love to calve them out and make them nice and bold. Although I have my eyebrows threaded and tinted, I like to fill in my brows as my hairs are quite sparse and I suffer a lot with bald patches. I usually focus on the tail of my brow and fill them in fully and as we come closer to the front of the brow I don’t use half as much product so it looks some what “natural”.
• No look is complete without these last two products, the first being lippy. I’ve also got a massive obsession with lipsticks. Wether it’s liquid, gloss, metallic, glittery or just a matte all lipsticks I love and my collect is forever growing. I don’t really do a nude lip unless I feel like it, I’m more of a bold and bright lip girl. I feel it brings the whole look together! I love love love it.
• Lastly, HIGHLIGHT. This is the one product that tops any makeup look off. A bright, glowing, cheek popping highlight. I smother myself in highlight, from my cheek bones to the tip of my nose. Highlight has completely changed the makeup game. I tend to stick to a golden or white highlight as I feel it works well with my skin tone. I like to highlight my inner corners of my eyes too, it makes my eyes look wider which is a bonus obviously haha. 

So here it is lovelies, here is my finished look. makeup makes such a difference to my life and I just love it. so thankful to have the amount of makeup I do! 

The stigma against makeup needs to end. Let people cake themselves in makeup. The quote “less is more” certainly doesn’t apply to makeup, sometimes more is more and if you want to smother your face in highlight to blind the man on the moon, you go for it! Don’t allow people’s negative comments stop you from doing what you love. Makeup is a beautiful creation but not all love it and that’s okay too. If your confident in your bare face, that’s incredible and I solute you for having such amazing confidence! Your all beautiful with and without makeup! 

I hope you’ve enjoy today’s blog post. I invite you to do the power of makeup! It’s amazing to see the differences. Here’s a list of all the products I’ve used today: 

Face: 

• Primer- flawless colour correction primer by Barry M 
• Foundation- L’Oréal Paris infallible sculpt in Light 
• Concealer- LA Girl Pro Conceal in Light Ivory
• Powder- NYX Highlight & Contour Pro Palette a mixture between Soft Light and Cream for under the eyes and Collection Sheer Loose Powder for the rest of the face
• Contour / Bronxer- Hoola Bronzer by Benefit 
• Blush- Blushing Hearts triple baked blusher in Iced Hearts
• Highlighter- Goddess Of Love triple baked highlighter in Goddess Of Faith

Eyes & Brows:

• Brows- Revolution focus and fix eyebrow shaping kit with MAC prolong wear waterproof brow set in Quite Brunette to hold the hairs and powder in place
• Eye Crease- the bronzed colours from the NYX Highlight & Contour Pro Palette
• Eye Lid- Urban Decay Smokey Palette 
• Mascara For Top Lash Line- Kiko ultra tech curve curling mascara and Maybelline lash sensation lash multiplying mascara
• Mascara For Bottom Lash Line- supersize fat lash mascara by Collection 
• Waterline- Kiko long lasting stick in 06 

Lips: 

• Kylie Cosmetics- metal matte in Heir

I hope your all well and enjoying the summer holidays! 

Tons of love as always,

Elle xo