Firstly, let me begin by saying that I wear make up because I LOVE MAKE UP!!! I love to create, and make up is just another medium for me, like an artist paints a picture, I paint my face.

Using make up I can express different feelings, moods, and even personalities within myself. I do not however, wear makeup to cover things I dislike about myself. Make up is not a mask for me, nor do I use it to feel better about myself. I love my face with or without it, and have no shame in the world seeing me fresh faced. I use make up as a tool of self expression and an outlet to exercise my creativity.

There is nothing 'natural' about my style, and in turn nothing 'natural' about the way I wear my makeup, so this may not be the tutorial for you....... If you are interested in learning how to achieve a 'natural look' post your requests in the comments below and I will do my best to fulfil them.

If full coverage glamour is your cup of tea........ENJOY!!

Read my last post on skincare to prepare your skin for perfect make up application every time. A fresh, well looked after face will make your job so much easier!
Always start with a clean, freshly moisturized face, depending on your skin type you may like to use a primer. Sometimes I use them, sometimes I don't, but my favourite at the moment is Velvet Veil from Miss Kiss Vintage 

After priming, apply your foundation. Depending on what foundation you select will obviously determine what tools you use to apply. Some are better suited to sponges, some brushes, and some are even designed to activate with the heat of your fingertips. For the purpose of this tutorial, I am using Revlon Colourstay Foundation in Ivory, applied with a foundation brush.

Pour a small amount of foundation onto the back of your hand and load up your brush. Apply dots of foundation to cheeks, nose, forehead and chin, and then blend out these dots using your brush to cover your whole face. Cover lips and eyes and be sure to blend foundation into hairline and past jawline.

Then using a powder brush or Kabuki, powder your whole face (I'm using Revlon Colourstay Powder in Pale) to set your foundation. You may also like to give an all over dust of translucent at this point.

If you have areas needing concealing (blemishes, dark circles under eyes or uneven skin tone) apply concealer to these areas and blend out using your fingertips or a small concealer brush. Another coat of translucent powder will set the concealer.

Brows, in my opinion, can make or break a face!! I am blessed with relatively full brows, however I still pencil them in! Full sparse or non-existent, I'm a firm believer in filling them in to some extent as it creates a wonderful frame for the rest of your face. I personally prefer to use a pencil, however there are a plethora of different options available from gels, to powders to stencils!
If you are using a pencil like me (I've used one by Models Prefer available at Priceline), be sure to sharpen it every time, a sharp pencil will give you a precise result whereas a dull edge will result in less than impressive brows, and nobody has time for that!
Begin by outlining the shape you wish to achieve. I like to begin at the base of my brow and follow the natural line, extending the tail out slightly. I then create the arch by extending the line from the top of my brow out past the natural hairs and curving around to meet the base line, if this sounds confusing here is what I mean.

Once you are happy with the shape of your brows, fill in the gaps with your pencil (or powder) keeping away from your natural brows, and then using an angled brush, blend the pencil out through the natural brows to soften the intensity of the guideline you have drawn. Use a small concealer brush with a dab of concealer to sharpen up your edges and once happy give another dust of translucent powder to set everything in place.

Feel free to skip this step and go right to the liquid liner for an 'everyday' pinup look.

Begin by applying highlighter to your brow bone and across your entire lid, I used Miss Kiss Vintage's illuminator applied with a sponge tip applicator.

Then using a mid brown (I've used Brown Matte from Miss Kiss Vintage) and a sponge tip applicator, apply to the lower lash line and the crease of your eye, starting at the outer corner and finishing 3/4 of the way in.

Take a fluffy brush and run it back and fourth over the harsh edges of the brown to blend it out, it should look like this.

Then take a darker shadow (I used Truffle from Miss Kiss Vintage) and a flat eye shadow brush, and apply again to the crease starting from the outside corner, but this time only work it up 1/2 way.

Using a smaller fluffy brush, blend out the harsh edge.

The thorn in a lot of peoples sides, however a very necessary part of the pinup look. My favourite has always been Face of Australia Liquid Eyeliner in Black. There are hundreds of options available and it really is personal preference and what you are comfortable with.

The trick to perfect liquid liner is, there is no trick!! Practice makes perfect I'm afraid. I have been wearing black winged liquid liner since the first time I ever wore makeup so have got it down to a fine art now, but honestly it's one of those things you just get better at the more you do it. I like to hold a compact mirror up close to my eye and slightly below it, so I am looking down into the mirror, which stretches out my eyelid for smooth application. I start at the flick, some people start from the corner, again its what ever works for you! So, I work with the line of the bottom of my eye and extend that line continuing the same angle outwards, removing pressure on the brush towards the end to create a tapered flick. I then draw a kind of triangle from my lash line out to meet the flick, and fill in the centre of it. Then from the inner corner of my eye, I taper a line out to sit flush with the wing, and finish by lightly smoothing out any bumps in the line by filling in any wiggles in the line with the very tip of the brush.

An angled brush dipped in the tiniest amount of black shadow run along the bottom lash line from the outside corner to 1/4 of the way in will nicely finish your liner.

As I have very fair, long , thick natural lashes, I need to wear mascara even if I plan to wear false lashes, as my luscious blonde lashes look silly on the underside of my jet black falsies! If you have naturally dark lashes, feel free to skip the mascara if you wear false lashes, or in turn, feel free to skip the false lashes if you get the desired result using only mascara. I, never one to do anything by halves, always wear both!!

Apply mascara to your top lashes, concentrating on the lashes closest to your nose, these lashes need a good coating of mascara as they are what will blend into your false lashes should you choose to wear them.

I am in constant re-evaluation as to weather or not to apply mascara to my bottom lashes, up to you entirely whether you do or don't. Mine are naturally very long so without mascara, I find I achieve more of a doe-eyed look and with mascara maybe I feel like it closes up my eyes a little bit? Either way, for this tutorial I have applied mascara to my bottom lashes on the outside corners only.

Lash application is another practice makes perfect situation, however here are some handy hints to de-mystify the situation a little.

* False lashes should not come all the way in to the inside corner of your eye, this will close the eye up and camouflage all the hard work you have put in to your eye shadow.
* Trim your strip lashes from the outside edge to properly fit the width of your eye, ideally the lash should come 3/4 of the way in to the corner of your eye and blend into your natural lashes.
* Apply the glue to the edge of your false lashes, not your eye. Then blow on the glue for 10 seconds or so to encourage the glue to get tacky, this will help the lash to grab straight away rather than slide around on your eye.
*I like to use a pair of tweezers to apply my lashes looking down into the mirror of a handheld compact, this way your eyes are open, but lowered enough to be able to see where to attach the lash.
* Place the edge of the strip lash as close to your lash line as possible attaching the centre first, then using the pointy end of the tweezers to attach the outer then inner corners.
*Using the end of a make up brush or the blunt end of your tweezers, poke the entire lash line to fuse the lash in place.

In this picture I am wearing Miss Kiss Vintage human hair lashes in Screen Siren.

There is a whole lot of buzz around the art of contour at the moment. Some people LOVE it, and some people HATE it. Also, like everything in the land of make up, there are a million different degrees of contour as well as a boat load of products available to achieve your desired result.

I guess you could say my taste for contour sits about mid range. I absolutely appreciate the artistry in good contour, and the incredible transformations one can achieve when skilled at the craft. The thing with contour though, is that everyone's face is different, and no one method is going to work for every shape face...remember this people!!

When contouring my own face, there is not really much about the structure of my face that I wish to change, so for me a bit of bronzer dusted diagonally from the top of my ear to almost the corner of my mouth accentuates my cheekbones enough that I'm done. A quick swipe of coral shimmer highlighter from the Body Shop across the apples of my cheeks, gives me a bit of colour in my face without looking rosy, and if I'm feeling particularly fancy a swish of golden glow illuminator from Miss Kiss Vintage across the height of my cheekbones and the bow of my top lip.

Lips can be broken into a few steps depending on the look you wish to achieve, but for this tutorial its a straight forward two step process.

Lip liner can be a wonderful tool for altering your pout without the need for invasive procedures, lining slightly outside your natural lip line with a slightly darker pencil than your lipstick or gloss can give you the illusion of a much fuller pout, but be careful not to go over board. A line pencilled in too far from your lips natural edge can be very obvious!

I was blessed with a naturally pouty kisser, and for this reason simply line my lips natural shape, if anything, I line on the inside edge rather than the outside to save may natural lips from looking TOO full. Put simply, I use lip liner as a guide to 'colour in' with my lipstick. Like with your eyebrow pencil, be sure to sharpen your lip liner before you begin, to ensure a crisp sharp line to work from. I have used MAC lip pencil in Cherry.

Then, all that's left is to fill in the space you've outlined with colour!

Lipstick has made a massive comeback in the last few years, with an entire rainbow of possibilities. This, for someone like me is both wonderful and devastating at the same time.....I could literally go broke from my lipstick addiction!!

Due to being lazy, I have a huge LOVE for matte glosses. The idea that once my make up is done, I don't need to re-apply my lipstick throughout the day excites me no end, and also my nature is to greet everyone I see with a kiss, so not branding everyone with an imprint of my pout is another huge plus!

I encourage you to experiment with different colours when choosing a lipstick for the pinup look. Red is not your only option, and I often parade a brightly painted pout in all kind of colours like pinks, purples and my personal favourite, orange.

When talking traditional though, a pinup's best friend is her red lipstick, and I am a firm believer that there is a shade out there for everyone, so if you haven't found yours yet....KEEP LOOKING!!

Here I've used my tried and true never fail RED VELVET velvetiness from Lime Crime. 

And there you have it!! Pinup make up in 8'ish easy (once you get the hang of it) steps!!

I love, love, LOVE reading your feedback, so please direct all comments and questions to the Comments section below. I'll get back to you all as soon as I can.

Till next time

Its no secret that I like to wear A LOT of makeup...

A LOT of the time!!

And wearing so much makeup, so often, can create HAVOC with my skin, So here, for your information is my tried and true routine for clear, healthy, glowing skin for perfect make up application every time!

What you put IN your body is always far more important than what you put ON your body. All the lotions and potions in the world will do no good if your insides are not hydrated and nourished. Amp up the H2o intake every single day,  and incorporate green juice into your diet, at least once a week for a nutrient boost, that will have your insides (and your outsides) sparkling. I like to throw a bit of green apple, celery, cucumber, zucchini, kale, and lemon into the juicer and then add that juice to a high powered blender with some spinach and fresh mint and blitz until smooth. This can be stored in air tight mason jars in the fridge for up to a week or frozen in ice cube trays to put into smoothies.

Now I like to party like the best of them, and I know there are times when after a big night out the LAST thing you can be bothered with is washing your face...but believe me...IT IS SO IMPORTANT and SO WORTH IT!! If you can't stand the thought of a full cleanse, tone and moisturize, that's fine, but PLEASE!! Get that gunk off you face before you slumber, you, your face (and your pillowcases) will be glad you did! It is as simple as rubbing a small amount of coconut oil (food grade and organic is best, if you can't put it IN you, don't put it ON you) all over your face, your eyes, lips, brows, EVERYWHERE!! Massage this wonderful stuff into all the little crevices of your face for about a minute. Then wet a face washer (flannel or wash cloth, depending on what you call it where you are from!) with water as hot as you can stand from the tap.  Wring out as much water as you can and cover your face with the hot, steamy cloth. This really is like heaven! A steam bath for your face!! Leave it there for 30 seconds or so, and then wipe away all of the coconut oil, you will see that all of your make up comes with it! Rinse and repeat this process at least once, the warmth of the cloth will draw out the oil from your face, which will have attached itself to any dirt squatting in your pores, clearing your skin of any unwelcome critters.

After this step you are welcome to proceed with the tone and moisturizing steps, but if you are just to spent from dancing the night away, you will be fine to jump fresh faced, into bed now! The difference in the way you feel getting into bed, as well as how you wake up is HUGE with a freshly cleansed face.

Over the years, I have tried MANY different skincare products. Some cheap, some expensive, but none as effective as the one I'm about to share with you now...APPLE CIDER VINEGAR!!!!! Not neat!!!! Please don't put that stuff undiluted on your face!! But a dilution of 1 part ACV to 4 parts water will do the trick nicely. You will need the organic kind (found at your local health food shop) with the 'MOTHER' still in it (this will be clearly marked on the label) I like to use BRAGGS Organic Apple Cider Vinegar. Make up a bottle (glass is best) of the 1:4 part dilution, and with a cotton pad, swipe this miracle potion all over your freshly cleansed face, avoiding your eyes. Concentrate on any problem areas (blackheads/acne) as this will help clear away any nasty bacteria playing house in your pores. Feel free to swipe it right down your neck and across your décolletage and over any pesky ingrown hairs you may have from waxing, since using this potion on ingrown's, I now have NONE!!

The imperative ingredient to radiant skin is MOISTURE!! I've already covered the importance of moisture from the inside (up that H2o intake PRONTO!!) and moisture from the outside is equally important. Over the years I have tried a myriad of different moisturizers and spent plenty of money in the process. My favourite for a long time was Clinique's dramatically different Moisturizing Lotion, in fact I used their entire 3 step program for many years, but in the last couple of years I noticed my skin not responding to the way I was treating it anymore, so I LISTENED to my body and made the change.

I found with age, my skin has become much dryer than I was used to (having suffered terrible acne in my teens and early twenties) and even quite flaky in areas. With a bit of thought I made the connection that treating my skin with products that cleared out my overly oily acne prone skin in my 20's was too astringent for my now relatively normal skin type in my 30's. Over clearing this skin led to dryness, which I, in turn, over moisturized, this then resulted in pesky milia around my eyes.

After researching different options and trying and LOVING the methods I have shared with you today, I was still in need of a replacement moisturizer, which honestly, was the trickiest thing to find. I have always recommended Moo Goo products to my clients that suffer with sensitive scalps and psoriasis, and decided to take my own advice and try their moisturizer........BOY, am I GLAD I DID!! I use their FULL CREAM face and body lotion as a daily moisturizer on my face, as well as all over my body. I just adore it!! Not only does it give me the result I'm after, which I would happily part with the big bucks for, it comes in a huge pump pack that lasts for AGES and is ridiculously affordable! At less than a quarter of the price of my previous moisturizer, I can't help but feel like I have won the skincare lottery with this wonderful product. I have also found it to be a godsend for treating sunburn and my husband even finds relief from chafe and heat rash. I get mine from my local health food shop, check out their website for stockists near you www.moogoo.com.au

Seems like a bit of a no brainer right?? I honestly can't place enough importance on this issue though! Your skin is not a robot, it cannot produce miracles, all the fancy lotions and potions in the world won't work if you aren't properly rested, the same way the best, most expensive concealers and foundations in the world wont cover up over tired eyes. I get that we live in a busy society, I understand it is a normal thing for one to over commit. I guess I'm just posing the question of what is more important to you? If the answer is perfect skin, then get your tush into bed at a reasonable hour (make up free of course!) and enjoy some well deserved zzzzzzz's.

Obviously, like everything in life, we are all different and what works for me, won't necessarily work for you, some skin is oilier or dryer than others and we all have different areas of concern. The best way to find the perfect skin care regimen for YOU is through trial and error, and don't expect the same routine to work forever. As you age, so does your skin, and it requires different things, you can't expect to treat your 35 year old skin with the same routine and products that you used on your 20 year old skin, my point? LISTEN to your body, it will tell you when something needs to change.

Further to that, try not to stress about your skin. I know its hard, believe me, but one of the biggest contributing factors to troubled skin is stress levels. If you are experiencing a high stress situation and your skin is suffering from it, be kind to yourself and rest assured that with time, this will pass. Stressing over your skin in a time when you are already stressed out will only exacerbate the problem and then its just a vicious cycle.