Beauty: Ice Princess

It’s been a fair old while since my first thoroughly amateur attempt at a beauty tutorial so I decided it was high time for another one! I suspect that I actually found my YSL Beauty: Couture Palette step-by-step rather more useful than you guys did as it forced me to step out of my comfort zone and make a cack handed attempt at eye shadow, the results of which (I think) turned out surprisingly well. During the madness of fashion month it was enough of a struggle to find the time to eat, sleep and maintain an acceptable level of cleanliness so despite lugging most of my makeup collection with me around the world, most of it never left my suitcase. So with those crazy days behind us – for four months anyway – I’ve been experimenting with a few new beauty looks. After all, if you’re wearing a really special outfit for a particularly fabulous occasion it seems fitting to try something a little different when it comes to your visage, right? The perfect opportunity to do just that presented itself when I styled up this beautiful balletic look for the Jimmy Choo dinner a couple of weeks back. So friends, I give you the somewhat pretentiously named “Ice Princess”…

Clockwise from top left:
Dior Couture Colour 5 Eyeshadow Palette in Grege, £40.87, click here to buy or here for more colours
MAC Mineralize Eyeshadow in Fog & Mist, £17, click here to buy
Dior My Lady Blush, impossible to find stocked anywhere but Rosy Glow is £30.50 and actually rather better, click here to buy.
Dolce & Gabbana Gloss Fusion Lipstick in Lotus, £26, click here to buy
Dior Addict Lip Maximizer, £23, click here to buy
Dior Wonderland Nail Polish, £18.20, click here to buy
Dior Junon Nail Polish, £18.20, click here to buy
Dior Ruban 268 Nail Polish, £18.20, click here to buy

You all know me pretty well by now so I don’t need to tell you that I’m not one for doing things by halves. Given that I was wearing a fairytale mash up of tulle, glitter and silver, a similarly shimmering makeup look was the obvious option. This is also a good one as there are a few different routes you can take depending on how girly you want to go. My basic “kit” consisted of a variety of lip, eye and nail colours in shades of silver, grey and assorted pale pinks. I figured that all of them would work well with the palette of my outfit, I just had to choose which to use.

Eyes

If I was a sensible person I would have tried and tested the lot ahead of time, instead of winging it a couple of hours before the event which involved a lot of umming and ahhhing and mind changing while my ever tolerant photographer Holly sat on the sofa reading a magazine, occasionally weighing in when I was about to throw in the towel or do something stupid. In the end I opted for the Dior Couture 5 Colour Eyeshadow Palette which comes in a bunch of great shades. I used “Grege” which is delicious and sold out basically everywhere on the planet but after a thorough search I managed to find some on this site. To be honest any of the Dior palettes with silvery/grey elements will work perfectly for this look – those were the two I used – and there’s a large selection including all the newest ones here. Next time I’m going to try the MAC Mineralize palette for a slightly more hard edged version but given that I’d left myself so little time on this occasion (FOOL!) I decided to play it safer with one that wasn’t still in its packet ten minutes earlier.

Step 1

I started with a super fresh base, bareMinerals is my go to and has been since I was a teenager. Then I used the lighter portion of the palette and the fatter end of the mini brush that came with it (I promise I’ll invest in actual makeup brushes soon) to apply a liberal helping all over my eye lid, reaching up towards the brow. The beauty of a pale shade like this is you can pretty much just whack it on without running the risk of ending up resembling a failed contestant on Ru Paul’s Drag Race. I layered it up in the inner corner of and a traced a fine line underneath my eyes to make them look brighter. I suspect this could be a great technique if you have a fancy party to go to but, for whatever reason, happen to be hideously hungover.

Step 2

Step 2, the darker shadow. This is where things can all too easily come unstuck. Last Halloween I had an unpleasant experience where the “subtle smoky eye” I attempted just resulted in my looking like I’d been punched. Luckily it was Halloween, so I just rolled with it. But on this occasion I couldn’t really go out looking like I’d just been in a punch up so I was much, much more careful with the application. Starting in the outer corner of my eye, I basically built it up into a little triangle and extended the “flick” until I deemed it flicky enough.

Step 3

Next, finishing touches. The liquid black cat eye eyeliner is my failsafe and it works SO well with a subtly smoky shimmer. There really isn’t much skill to it, just practice, practice, practice. The most important thing I find is getting an eyeliner with a great brush. If it’s the kind that clumps or goes straggly then you’ve really got no hope. I’m currently using Lancome Artliner but it doesn’t come cheap and I’ve found some great alternatives from Revlon like this one. Once I’m satisfied with the line I apply mascara like there’s no tomorrow. My fave is MAC False Lashes effect as again, the brush is crucial. Maybelline Volum’ Express is great too.

Lips

As you know, I’m a big fan of a mega bright lipstick but with all that eye makeup going on and the light, girlishness of the outfit I decided that on this occasion more colour in the middle of my face wouldn’t be a wise move. Instead I went for Dior Lip Maximizer which is basically a pinkish gloss that makes your lips all tingly and pouty. There really is no skill whatsoever in applying this, just whack it on. I also thought that Dolce & Gabanna’s Gloss Fusion Lipstick in Lotus could work well but I don’t own any lipliner and got it all over my face when I tried to apply it. I suspect that’s more down to my lack of patience (and skill) than the lipstick.

Nails

For my nails I decided, after pathetically painful deliberation to opt for Dior Junon. I wear a lot of pink nail polish and decided that with all the girlishness going on with this outfit, a moodier hue might give things a more grown up twist.

Hair

I was seriously pushing the boat out on this occasion and even decided to do something a little different with my hair… I know, right! While I may not be fantastic at makeup, I literally know NOTHING about doing my ‘do so I played around with plaiting and came up with this concoction. It is seriously so damn easy. Just take a section on your parted side, plait it and then twist into a low bun, teasing out a few strands so you don’t look like your mum plaited it for your first day of school…

Et Voila!

What do you think of my Ice Princess beauty look? Will you be trying it?

Love Ella. X

Images by Holly McGlynn