Fashion Week Inspired Look

I recently shared a few videos about a Fragrance Direct haul and with London fashion week just having passed us by, I wanted to create a look inspired by some of the makeup we saw on the runway.

From bold and graphic to vibrant pops of colour & of course the signature glossy supermodel skin!

For my look, I wanted to create something with a strong lean towards the graphic liners we saw but with a slightly more wearable feel.

There were strong feline focus' to the eyes, with some looks being imperfectly smudged out to give that lived in feel. 

I decided to go with a classic winged liner pulled in at the inner corners to extend the look of the eye and smudge the top into the gorgeous two-dimensional pigment by Glo & Ray called More Electric £12.90 I also picked up the shade 'Goldmaniac' which I used to create a lip art that you'll soon see later on in this post. This pigments are absolutely stunning and go on very smoothly, I just loved how they reflected under lighting, picking up all the different colours present.

Now for the liners, we have the Maybelline Master Gel Liner in brown £2.50

I loved that this came with a precise liner brush and a sponge tip smudger..all for under £3, what more could you want?! 

I love starting with a brown as a 'liner base' then blending the black into it - concentrating your application of the black at the base of the liner shape. This gives a softer more earthy feel to a smudged liner look and the transition is more forgiving on paler skin tones. 

For the main black liner, I found a gel formula coming in at just under £4 by Calvin Klein beauty - I couldn't believe that for that price it came with a full sized brush!

Now during the countless hours that you can spend on a site like this, I came across two brush sets that I thought would make fabulous all-around starter kits for all you makeup lovers. With brushes, I'm quite fussy and only go with brands that I'm familiar with, I jumped for joy when I found this brush set by Royal & Langnickel at half price for £8.95 - a brand that I trust and already have countless brushes from in my professional kit.

The brush labelled 'Smokey Eye' was perfect for diffusing the shape of the liner and getting that smudged effect.

After achieving your runway ready eyes the next step is getting that perfectly sculpted & glowing skin.

To achieve this you need a good set of dense buffing brushes to make sure that your foundation & contour is thoroughly blended in and looking flawless. I found this stunning set by Royal for only £6.99 - the set included a handy blending sponge too!

For contouring, I love to use cream based products as they simply blend more seamlessly and are more forgiving on drier skin types or those who may have textured skin- where powder based products may go patchy. I found this kit by loreal called Infallible sculpt £4.99, which I have used and featured here on my blog previously. The cream has a lovely thin consistency so you will not struggle to blend it in - this also makes it easier to build up to the intensity of your preference.

For Blush and highlight these stunning dual intensity blushes by Nars £30, caught my eye, the shade Frenzy in particular, as it has a highlighter and blush in one conveniently sized product. 

To complete this look you want a striking lip colour - taking the feel from the Dolce & Gabbana look but going for a drastically deeper tone to be more in keeping with autumn lip colour trends. I decided upon the pure matte lipstick by Nars in the shade Volga £21. A lovely creamy formula with a handy shaped applicator that is more precise than the traditional lipstick bullet shape.

Then for fun, I also wanted to do an interesting lip art inspired by some of the graphic lips we saw on the runway, including love heart/petal detailing using the Glow & Ray pigment in 'Goldmaniac' mentioned previously, mixed into a clear gloss - I actually used the brush that came with the Maybelline liner to achieve this as it was very firm and perfect for achieving those crisp lines.

Lastly, I picked up a fragrance. I always like to switch up my perfume at this time of the year. I love Euphoria by Calvin Klein - Described as having dark exotic floral notes - this is perfect for those who, if like me, do not particularly enjoy sweet fruity scents, preferring something that's alluring & feminine but with a richer feel. 
This wears beautifully - at first spritz you're hit with the floral & fruity notes. Top notes include pomegranate & Japanese apple, heart notes reveal hints of lotus flower & black orchid then at the base, we have the notes that give this perfume its 'weight' including mahogany and Amber.
I picked up the 100ml Size for £39.95 saving £30 off the high street RRP.

& that's everything!

I hope you enjoyed the more creative direction of this post - I love referencing fashion week looks as they're always more out of the box and interesting to look at. We can all keep on trend with the looks you see by simply being inspired by them and challenging yourself to create more wearable versions or just having fun replicating them because that is what makeup is all about!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. As always, if you need any further help with this look or just want some makeup advice feel free to contact me!