MAKEUP | The makeup I did for myself for our backyard ceremony

Hello! Due to COVID, our original wedding plans were postponed and instead, Barrie and I got married in an intimate backyard ceremony with just our immediate family present and our closest friends watching on Zoom. I did my own hair and makeup for the day, and I wanted to share the details of my makeup look.

Face:

• Guerlain L’Or Primer*
• Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter*
• Guerlain Parure Gold Foundation*
• Guerlain Multi-Perfecting Concealer*
• Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Filter Setting Powder

Eyes:

• Paul & Joe Beaute Eye Primer
• Charlotte Tilbury Dolce Vita Palette (now called the Bella Sofia)*
• Fenty Beauty Flyliner Longwear Liquid Liner
• Dior Diorshow Pump n Volume Mascara*
• Esqido Oh So Sweet Lashes*
• Burberry Effortless Eyebrow Definer*

Cheeks:

• Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze and Glow (for contour and highlight)
• Charlotte Tilbury Cheek to Chic Blusher in Sex on Fire*

Lips:

• Lisa Eldridge Velvet Muse lipstick

Other:

• Finishing spray was Urban Decay All Nighter*

I used some of my tried and true makeup products for this makeup look. Even though there were newer products in my collection that were more exciting, these were the ones that I was sure would get me through this day and make me look amazing. My absolute must-have makeup items have been highlighted using italic text in the list above. While I loved most of the products I used, the ones in italics are my ride or die products.

I was a little disappointed with the Esqido lashes. I had been saving these lashes for at least five years and I always knew I wanted to wear them on wedding day. I normally don’t save lashes and only wear them for a day, but this time I tried to save them after, and they completely fell apart while I was cleaning them. I used a water-based micellar cleanser to clean the band but a lot of the lashes fell off the band, making them completely unsalvageable. For a $35 pair of lashes, it’s absolutely insane that you can only wear them once. I don’t think I would recommend these. The band was pretty uncomfortable to wear too, as it was a lot thicker than the KISS lashes I normally wear (I highly recommend those, if you haven’t yet tried them). I had two vials of Esqido lash glue and they both dried out within a year, so I had to use the KISS lash glue which was perfect.

We’re still going to have our “big” wedding next year with the reception and party for all of our family and friends. Let’s just hope this COVID thing eases up a bit so that we can have my family travelling here from China for it.

Thank you for reading!

Products annotated with an asterisk (*) were provided by PR for review consideration; all opinions are my own.

Valentine’s Day look featuring Burberry Spring/Summer 2016 Runway Palette, Face Contour and Fresh Glow Highlighting Luminous Pen

Burberry Beauty is one of my favourite office-appropriate makeup brands with reliable products, so when I was looking to create a romantic look for our Valentine’s evening out, I naturally turned to Burberry.

On face:

• La Prairie Cellular Radiance Perfecting Fluide Pure Gold to prep skin (review to come)
• Burberry Fresh Glow Luminous Fluid Base mixed with together with the foundation
• Burberry Fresh Glow Foundation in No. 26 mixed with the base

On eyes:

• ArtDeco Eyeshadow Base to prime eyes
• Burberry Complete Eye Palette in Rose Pink No. 10
• Amaterasu Liquid Eyeliner to line
• Anna Sui Mascara Primer & Top Coat, with one coat of its Length & Separation Mascara
• Burberry Effortless Eyebrow Definer in No. 03 Ash Brown on brows

On cheeks:

• Burberry Light Glow Blush in Hydrangea Pink No. 10 
• Burberry Face Contour Pen in Medium No. 01
• Burberry Spring/Summer 2016 Runway Palette in No. 02 Nude Gold

On lips:

• Burberry Kisses Lipstick in Military Red worn as a stain (for daytime)
• Burberry Lip Velvet Lipstick in Oxblood worn at night for a sultry date-night look

Switched out my pinky-red lips for this @burberry Lip Velvet in Oxblood for a nighttime look for V-Day. Rest of makeup all Burberry ❤ … #burberry #burberrybeauty #bbloggersca #bbloggers

A photo posted by Sheila (@maddylovesblog) on Feb 14, 2016 at 4:51pm PST

The star product of this look is indisputably the Spring/Summer 2016 Runway Palette in No. 02 Nude Gold (C$72). This neutral-toned gold highlighter is an absolute beauty – imprinted with a lace embroidery design and housed in a sleek, magnetic metallic case, this highlighter is a definite must-have for any highlighter or Burberry fan. I had to really convince myself to dip my finger in this because otherwise it would have gone in my makeup archives where I store all the products that I only look at and not touch. I’m very happy that I did try this out because this is one of the smoothest, most buttery, and most pigmented highlighters I’ve ever used. It reminds me of Becca’s Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in terms of how soft this feels and how pigmented it looks, but it’s way less powdery with almost zero powder flyaway. Despite its softness, the lace print is nicely pressed into the powder and will last at least a few uses with a fluffy brush.

The Face Contour Pen in Medium No. 01 (C$39.00) and Fresh Glow Highlighting Luminous Pen in Nude Radiance No. 01 (C$39.00) are complementary contour and highlight sticks housed in slim, twist-up pens. They remind me of the Clinique Chubby Stick Contours, but the Burberry pens are much slimmer in shape and can easily create a more precise contour, especially around the nose area. The texture of the Contour Pen is creamy without being slippery. It’s able to draw a precise contour line, but still blend out effortlessly to avoid the harsh lines. The colour is a nice neutral-brown that works great to create a daily wearable contour. While grey-toned contours are very popular as well, I find that when contours become too cool-toned, they tend to look too ashy and editorial, while neutral-toned contours work very well on my skin on a day-to-day basis. The Face Contour pen is also available in Dark No. 02 (C$39.00) for darker-skinned ladied, but I haven’t tried it.

I didn’t use the Fresh Glow Luminous Pen in this look, but I swatched it below with the Contour Pen for your reference. For a highlighter pen, this is not as frosty, and is more of a day-time appropriate highlighter. This pen is drier than the Contour Pen, and dries down to more of a glow. If you want something subtler, this highlight pen does a great job at giving you a dash of highlight to contrast with your contour.

Lastly, I previously already reviewed the Burberry Kisses lipstick in Military Red, but I have to reiterate how much I love this red lipstick. It’s such a lightweight formula so your lips don’t look heavy at all. My boyfriend generally isn’t a fan of heavy makeup, so my compromise to him is a lighter lipstick formula so that it doesn’t look too overdone. I wore this as a stain during the day and the fresh colour was perfect for the look.

At night, I switched this out for Burberry Lip Velvet lipstick in Oxblood, which is a darkened mulberry with a matte finish. It vamped up the look just enough so that it was night-time appropriate, but not overly so that the boyfriend was uncomfortable with it. The Lip Velvet formula has a matte finish but felt super lightweight and comfortable on the lips. My lips were particularly dry yesterday, but I didn’t notice any creasing or colour migration into my dry lines. It also wore very well as it lasted through our entire dinner and movie. I swatched Oxblood below (one, two and three swipes).

Soft, romantic birthday look featuring Charlotte Tilbury & Shu Uemura (with some mini reviews)

My birthday was this weekend! To celebrate, the boyfriend took me to one of my favourite restaurants in Vancouver to celebrate. I put together a soft romantic look for the occasion, featuring products from Charlotte Tilbury and Shu Uemura.

On face:

• Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream to prep
• Charlotte Tilbury Wonderglow Primer to smooth
• Charlotte Tilbury Light Wonder foundation in 2 to cover
• Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Dim Light

On eyes:

• Shu Uemura Shu:Palette in ME Medium Brown 856 on inner corners and 1/3 of eyelid, M Soft Brown 851 on rest of eyelid, M Dark Brown 895 to smoke out the look on the upper and outer lower lashline
• Paul & Joe Liquid Eye Liner to line the upper lash line
• Anna Sui Mascara Primer & Top Coat, with one coat Length & Separation Mascara and topped with one coat of Curl & Volume Mascara
• False lashes from Daiso
• Burberry Effortless Eyebrow Definer in Ash Brown No. 03

On cheeks:

• Charlotte Tilbury Cheek to Chic Blush in Sex on Fire on apples of the cheeks, sweeping upwards
• Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow to contour and highlight

On lips:

• Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheap Lip Liner in Pillowtalk to line
• Charlotte Tilbury K.I.S.S.I.N.G. Lipstick in Bitch Perfect

Some mini reviews

Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream is seriously amazing, especially when used with Charlotte Tilbury Wonderglow Primer and Charlotte Tilbury Light Wonder foundation. Magic Cream is very thick and great for dehydrated or dry skin (like mine); it just melts into the skin, and if you give it a minute to soak in, it will give you a plump, smooth canvas to apply makeup on top of. Wonderglow primer works very well with Magic Cream because it is silky in texture, blends in very well, and leaves skin looking glowy and healthy.

Light Wonder foundation in #2 is a good match for my NC25 skintone. Coverage is light to medium, and it’s extremely buildable without ever looking cakey or feeling heavy. It doesn’t really do a good job at covering imperfections or spots, you’d definitely need a separate concealer for that, and it’s just okay in covering redness (I built it up around my cheek area where I’m the most red). The texture of Light Wonder is where the magic lies, so if you have relatively good skin (not much redness or spots), then this foundation would be good for you. Compared to other foundations I’ve used, this one is more like a BB cream than a true foundation, but the light, watery texture is just really great for those hot summer months.

Charlotte Tilbury K.I.S.S.I.N.G. Lipstick in Bitch Perfect is the perfect pink nude for my skintone. It works amazingly with Pillowtalk lip liner in that they just complement each other so well. Texture, again, is very creamy with great coverage in just one swipe. I absolutely love Charlotte’s lipstick formulas, and I can’t wait for her Matte Revolution lipsticks to make their way across the pond.

What do you think of this look?