My Beauty Fix: Make your eyeliner stay put!

Hello and welcome to My Beauty Fix,

I recently had someone ask me what they could use to make sure their eyeliner stays put all day as it kept smudging after a few hours. So I thought I would turn it into a Beauty fix for all of you that have the same problem.

There are a few things that could be causing your eyeliner to smudge,

• Your eyelids may become oily throughout the day, making the liner slide.
• You may have hooded eyes, which is where the skin from your upper eyelid hangs down over the crease and rubs against the liner.
• Or the eyeliner you are using is not a suitable formula or is not manufactured very well (you can usually rule this one out if it is a well known brand).

Regardless of the reason for your eyeliners movements there are steps you can take to ensure your eyeliner stays put all day and doesn't fade.

Fix 1: Prime your eyes! You can find some great eyeshadow primers on the market that are made specially to solve this problem. Urban Decay, Too Faced, Mary Kay, MAC and many more create many different types of primer to suit specific needs.

This will create a good base for your eyeliner and even eyeshadow and will keep it all in place for longer. Remember to apply to all the areas you are going to apply liner to, so don't forget under the lower lash line.

Fix 2: Set your liner! Just as you set your foundation with translucent or mineral powder to help it last, the same can be done with your eyeliner. Choose an eyeshadow that matches your eyeliner shade and gently press on over your applied eyeliner. This will set the liner and make it stay in its place.

Fix 3: if the above fixes don't work for you, then it may be time to invest in some different formulas. I find gel liners are really hard working and rarely smudge, there are some great gel liners on the market in brands such as MAC, Urban Decay, Bobby Brown, Maybelline, Collection Cosmetics and many more.

There are also many waterproof or long lasting eyeliner formulas from Urban Decay, Make Up For Ever, Barry M, Benefit and many more.

I hope this is able to fix any eyeliner issues you may be having, but if you are still having problems please let me know as I will be happy to help find a solution that is right for you.

Thank you for stopping by for My Beauty Fix, if you are having any problems with your beauty regime that you think I may be able to help with then please leave me a comment with your problem or email me at dani@daniduffymakeup.co.uk quoting 'Beauty Fix' in the subject and I will do everything I can to find you a solution!

My Beauty Fix: Fading Eyeshadow

Welcome to My Beauty Fix!

This weeks problem is about fading eyeshadow, don't you just hate it when you spend ages applying some lovely colours to your lids, but after a few hours they've disappeared! Well here's my tips on how to keep them looking fresh and smouldering all day long!

Step One: Always apply make-up to clean, we'll moisturised skin. This goes for your whole face, not just the eye area.

Step Two: Apply an eyeshadow primer to the eye area. There are many products on the market that are tailored for this purpose, some of my favourites are Urban Decays Eyeshadow Primer Potion, MAC's Prep and Prime Eye, Benefits Lemon Aid and Too Faced Shadow Insurance Eyeshadow Primer, although there are many more out there.  These work great under your eyeshadows to help them blend and stay put all day.

Alternatively, if you don't want to spend money on a primer just for your eyes, try using a light layer of concealer across your lids, not only will this counteract any colour you may have on your lids, but it will also act as a primer to help the colour last all day.

Another option is to use a product like MAC's paint pots in Painterly (nude matte) or Bare Study (nude with gold shimmer) which I love as they give a lovely wash of colour but also helps keep any other colours in their place.

Step Three: Apply your eyeshadows as normal but make sure you blend well, this will help push the colours into the primer/concealer which will help them last longer.

Step Four: this is an optional step, if you are really concerned about your make-up fading or sliding, try a finishing or setting spray like Urban Decay's All Nighter, MAC's Fix+ (I haven't tried either of these yet so I can't comment how how long they will last but I have heard good things), Collection Cosmetics Fix Me Up or any of the other setting sprays that are out there.  For big events I use the Model in a Bottle setting Spray, but because this is quite heavy I don't recommend it for everyday use, but it works amazingly!

Step Five: If after all of these steps your eyeshadow is still not lasting all day, then there must be something wrong with the product you are applying. If you have had it for a long time it may have gone off, so smell it and see if there is anything funky about it and if there is then please throw it out! It is better to have wasted your money than risk your health, so throw it away and treat yourself to some new eyeshadows!

Now you can practice applying those smouldering eye looks that will last you all day and night!

Thank you for stopping by for My Beauty Fix, if you are having any problems with your beauty regime that you think I may be able to help with then please leave me a comment with your problem or email me at dani@daniduffymakeup.co.uk quoting 'Beauty Fix' in the subject and I will do everything I can to find you a solution!

My Beauty Fix: Smudged Mascara

Hello Beauties and welcome to My Beauty Fix!

Today's fix is just a quick one, but it happened to me this morning and I had a little Eureka moment! You know when you're in a rush getting ready (which I'm sure is most of us, the majority of the time) and you apply your concealer, eyeshadow and liner perfectly then when you come to put your mascara on, you blink too quickly and end up with mascara smudged everywhere!

Now, you have two options, you can either huff and wipe off your make-up in the areas that have been tainted with mascara and reapply or you can try my quick and simple fix.

My fix: Wait for the mascara to dry and then use a cotton bud to wipe away the dry flakes of mascara. The trick here is to wait until the mascara is dry. It is natural to want to wipe away the smudge as soon as possible, but fight the urge as wet mascara will end up smudging more.

Give it a try next time, It is really that simple!

Thank you for stopping by for My Beauty Fix, if you are having any problems with your beauty regime that you think I may be able to help with then please leave me a comment with your problem or email me at dani@daniduffymakeup.co.uk quoting 'Beauty Fix' in the subject and I will do everything I can to find you a solution!

My Beauty Fix: Eyeshadow Fallout

Hello and welcome to My Beauty Fix!

Welcome to this weeks instalment of My Beauty Fix!  This week, I would like to tackle any problems you have with eyeshadow fallout.  It is always such a shame when you spend ages reaching the point where your skin and base are applied perfectly only to ruin it when you start in your sexy smokey eyes and drop black eyeshadow all over your cheek (I've lost count of how many times its happened to me!). There's nothing you can do about it, every time you wipe it you just smear the blackness all across your face. So what do you do? Here are my quick fixes to help you...

Fix 1: It sounds so simple that you are going to kick yourself for not thinking of it before, but how about applying your eye make-up first! When I first heard this, I couldn't believe how simple the solution was and it really helps! This way you can do whatever you like with your eyes and you can just wipe away any mess you make before applying your base.

Fix 2: If the first fix sounds a bit scary and awkward, or even if you just forget and have applied your base before you remember the fix, then try dusting a heavy amount of translucent powder on your cheeks, just below the eye area. Don't get me wrong, this will look strange but the layer of translucent powder will catch any shadow fallout and allows you to sweep away all of it without it smudging.  But be warned, you need to apply a lot of powder under the eyes, enough that you can see it sat there otherwise it won't work. Also, sweep the powder inwards (towards the nose) as this goes against the hair growth on your face and makes it easier to brush away rather than blend in.

Shadow Shields from www.cocktailcosmetics.co.uk

Fix 3: Finally, the other option is an eyeshadow guard. I have seen the girls over at Pixiwoo use them on a few occasions and they seem to help, personally I haven't tried them yet so I can't comment on how good they are but I do believe they could be a solution to this problem. Having scoured the web, I have found them to buy here at Cocktail Cosmetics where you can get 30 for £7.95.

I hope you have enjoyed My Beauty Fix this week and hope my tips can help you stop wasting your time clearing up after the inevitable eyeshadow fallout!

Thank you for stopping by for My Beauty Fix, if you are having any problems with your beauty regime that you think I may be able to help with then please leave me a comment with your problem or email me at dani@daniduffymakeup.co.uk quoting 'Beauty Fix' in the subject and I will do everything I can to find you a solution!

My 3 Steps for bigger looking eyes

Hello my lovelies,

I thought I would share some of my tips to help make your eyes look bigger,

• Use an eyeliner to darken the lashline, whether its pencil, gel or liquid liner.  This will emphasise the shape of your eye and will make it look bigger.

• Apply a nude or champagne coloured eyeliner to line your waterline.  This will open up the eyes making them look more open and wide (and more awake).  Choosing a nude colour is less harsh than white and will look more natural.

• Make sure you curl your lashes! This will open up your eyes making them look bigger.

Give these steps a try and see your eyes look bigger and even more gorgeous than before!

Product Review: Collection Cosmetic's Metallic Cream Eyeshadow

As summer is on its way, its always good to start preparing your look for your holidays or for those rare days where we have some sun in England!  The summers humidity can wreak havoc on your make-up, so it is important to find quick, light products that have great staying power on your summer skin. Which is why I am very excited to tell you about the Metallic Cream Eyeshadow from Collection Cosmetics (formerly Collection 2000)

So let me paint a picture for you....

There I am standing in Superdrug testing all the products from the Collection range on my hand - I always end up walking out looking like I have some multi-coloured disease - and as I'm trying to wipe the rainbow off my hand, I realised that this product had stayed put!  And I mean really stayed put, like superglue!  I was almost blown away.

Could a little pot of cream eyeshadow really have this much staying power for £2.99.... yes it does!!

So I went back to the store to purchase the product and couldn't wait to get home and try it out.

Its the Metallic Cream eyeshadow from Collection Cosmetics (formerly Collection 2000).  Initially, I had glanced at this product and then moved on to something else, mainly because it is a cream product and comes in a lipgloss-style tube with a brush on the end.  I haven't had very much luck with cream eyeshadows in the past and MAC's paint pots are the only ones I have found that don't crease on your eyelids throughout the day. So I hadn't really thought much about this product other than seeing what the colours came out like.

I have to admit, the Collection cosmetics range keeps surprising me and I haven't yet found a product of theirs that I haven't liked. It just shows you can still buy quality make-up that will do what it says (on the tin) for a reasonable price.  Which is great for teenagers and those who don't have a lot of spare cash lying around to spend on cosmetics.

Available in 6 intense colours: Gold Rush, Copper Pot, Emerald City, Platinum Bling, Rock n Rose and Rock Pool. I bought the product in Platinum Bling which is a a browny-silver-grey colour which I love and think it is great to help create a quick and easy smokey eye. This product dries quickly so you have to be quick to blend, but is great for a quick wash of colour, or as a base for a smokey eye!

Here, I have applied the cream eyeshadow all across my eyelid, you can use this as a wash of colour, or you can add other colours to create different styles.

I definitely recommend these eyeshadows as they are fast drying and smudge proof! Perfect for a quick touch of glam before you hit the beach (or anywhere really).

Have you tried the Collection's Metallic Cream Eyeshadows? Tell me what you think of them....

Quick Make-up Tips: Eyes

Apply white eye liner to the inner corners of the eye (& waterline) for instant brightening effects