Flawless.

This post originally started out as a simple 'This is how I created a Christmas / New Years Eve make up look'. I will get to that, I promise. Just stick with me for a second okay? If you've been around here for a while you'll remember I wrote a post about being 'fake' - about how society expects women to be perfect yet they feel the need to hang us out to dry for using un-natural elements to create that very effect. Well this post is going somewhere like that. 

I'm going to presume that you guys have heard 'Beyonce' the self titled album by a woman who is not only crazy talented and probably one of the most successful people in the world but she is also the most beautiful mother and inspiration to women. If you haven't? Please go to iTunes and listen to even a snippet of it and come back to me feeling empowered and ready to kick ass before reading the rest of this post. 

Her entire album is a collection of things that I personally feel most women wish they had the strength to believe. That we are enough, more than enough. That we are more than who we marry, that we are more than what we do for a living. That we can dream and achieve anything that we set our minds to. 

If I'm being honest although the album made me feel like I could go to America and take on President Obama and win his chair it also made me feel guilty. A guilt that I should not of felt. I'm the kind of girl that hides behind her layers of make up. I am the kind of girl that gets asked how I look so good on Facebook but so 'average' in real life. 

I don't have the will power to feel 'flawless' when I wake up in the morning. I don't feel like what I was given is 'enough' for the world and I guess this post is about reminding you all that feeling 'flawless' isn't always about being natural and perfect the way you are. 

What I guess I'm trying to say is that you can find strength and power in many different elements of 'beauty'. You need to take wisdom and inspiration from people like Beyonce and know that yes she may look and feel perfect in the morning but that she also feels the need to layer make up on before she goes on stage. That doesn't make her any less of a woman. That does not strip her of any of her power. 

We are growing up in the middle of the 'selfie' nation and what you have to remember is at the end of the day you are the only person who has control over how the world sees you. Never let anyone make you feel less than who you are for changing parts of yourself to feel like 'you'. 

Find strength and power in the fact that YOU have the control to do it. Sculpt, prime, primp. Do how much or how little of anything in the world to make YOU feel 'flawless' and never be sorry for any of it. 

I don't even celebrate new years eve so I don't know why I'm doing this but one night after work last week {Its part of my working contract that I wear natural make up, shoot me} I decided to come home and play with make up - this is what I came up with! 

1. Prepare your face by applying a thin layer of M.A.C Prep and Prime all over your face. 

2. Take a concealer one tone lighter than your foundation and apply it under your eyes in a 'V' shape, apply the same concealer down the middle of your nose and under your brow bone. {For this I used no.1 Erase Paste by Benefit Cosmetics} 

3. Apply a very light layer of translucent powder over the 'lightened' areas. This creates the very basic element of sculpting for your face. 

4. Apply a thin layer of foundation evenly over your face, I used Inglot YSM CREAM Foundation in shade 54 {remembering I have a very deep tan on, I had to match my foundation to it}. 

5. Again apply a thin layer of translucent powder over your entire face this time! After you have your foundation set take a slanted angled brush to a HD BROWS quad brow pallet and attack those brows! 

(*) I normally now go into sculpting but because this is a very dark eye look I do my eyes! For this look I applied 'Shadow Shields' under my eyes so there was no fall out! 

6. Prep the eye lid with M.A.C Paint Pot in the shade 'Nude'. I then took M.A.C 'Black Tied' over my entire lid working it probably a little too high towards my brow. This can be messy because we will be blending! Also apply this black under your eyes! 

7. I then took some Inglot eye shadow pure pigment in shade '23' {a silver toned grey} and worked that with a blending brush into the entire surrounds of the black eye shadow creating neater boundary lines and creating a softer look to the smokey eye. 

8. Take some 'Vanilla' pigment by M.A.C and use it as a highlight under your brows (right down to meet the grey) and in the very insides of your eyes. 

9. Apply a very thick line of black liquid eye liner {I used YSL} before applying a thick layer of Mascara - I used YSL Baby Doll.

10. To complete your eye look take white Gel Eyeliner by Inglot {this is a HERO product of mine from 2013} and apply it right along your water line. If you aren't too careful with this you may have to re-apply your bottom lash mascara! 

11. SCULPTING! I'm going to break this step into a few sections to make it easier : 

To begin I used Bourjois 'Bronzer Primer' on a real technique's sculpting brush and applied it under my cheek bones, right around up into my hair line to sculpt the top of my face. Down under my chin and up past my ears to give my chin a stronger line. Down the sides of my nose to create a longer slimmer effect and last but not least under my bottom lip to create a fuller effect. 

(*) Brows : You've already achieved the sculpt step in number 8 by creating a light reflecting element under your brow with the white pigment! 

(*) Nose : Take a brush like *this and dip it into your bronzer. For this I used Inglot Bronzing Powder No.75 -  Run the brush down the sides of your nose and in light strokes out towards the face. Then take an eye shadow blending brush and blend it into your foundation. To re-highlight the section of your nose that you pre-sculpted in step.2 take some white eye shadow pigment or pressed shadow and run it lightly right down the centre of your nose. 

(*) Cheeks / General Face Shape : For your face the face it's very simple. Run your bronzer over the areas that you pre-sculpted with the bronzing primer. Make sure with this you BLEND. It's the only aspect of sculpting that you can go wrong with! 

To take your cheeks to the next level use the same white that you used down your nose and run it right under your eyes {over where you bronzed} along the top of your cheek bone creating another 'light and shade' area! 

(*) Lips : Run some bronzer under your lip again - for this area I would suggest using an eye shadow blending brush! Then take some of the white eye shadow and dot it into the top of your cupids bow! 

12 : Use a nude lip liner to strengthen the natural shape you have - I used'Naked' by Urban Decay. Over that use a nude lipstick, I used M.A.C 'Myth' all over my lips. Finish with a nude lipgloss! For this look I used Urban Decay Midnight Cowboy Lip Junkie Lipgloss.