AKA The only inspiration you need for last minute Christmas and NYE Makeup looks this year.


Now I don't know about you, but if there is a make up product that is synonymous with winter celebrations, it's the wine lipstick. This dark colour screams high level glam, but can be tricky to balance with your eye makeup. Over this past year, I have created two looks that I always reach for when I want to use this beautiful lipstick by L'Oréal [See Below]. They are super easy, quick to do and look STUNNING! Keep reading to find out how you can create these dark lipstick friendly looks, ready for Christmas and New Years Celebrations (admittedly a bit late, but as many of you will have gathered by now, last-minute is my middle name).

The lipstick featured is L'Oréal's Color Riche Matte Lipstick in 430 Mon Jules.

Ombre Liner

Eyeliner: 

Black Eyeliner: Estee Lauder Pure Color Eyeliner in Blackened Black [Discontinued - I cry 😭, this eyeliner is so good!]
Silver Eyeliner: Maybelline Color Show Kohl Eye Liner in Sparkle Show [This may be an updated version of what I used, I don't currently have access to the actual eyeliner I used]

Recreate this at home: 

This look works best using creamy, easy to blend eye pencils. Start by drawing the outer half of the wing in the black eyeliner. Then draw the inner half of the eyeliner in the silver pencil, overlapping it with the inner third of the black eyeliner. If you are worried about the eyeliner melting off, or smudging, go over each section using eyeshadow in the same colours.

Simples!

Sparkly Lids

This light-on-the-eyes look sits beautifully on simple, glowy, healthy looking skin. Therefore, skin-prep (think well-moisturised skin and dewy-finish primers) is key! For the eyes, just one eyeshadow is needed - something gold and glittery!

Eyeshadow

So just before Christmas my mum had to get a new phone because her old one broke. However this new phone was too big for her old phone case. Therefore, I took it upon myself to make her a bigger one for Christmas :) Here is how I did it:

What you will need:

-2 contrasting fabrics (thin)
-thread
-needle
-sewing machine (although you could hand sew the whole thing)
-felt
-fabric scissors
-a button
-a tape measure/ruler
-a pen/fabric chalk
-pins
-embroidery thread (or something you can make into a loop for the fastening

1) Cut the fabric

Measure the size of your phone and add 5cm on to each measurement (width and length) so as to incorporate a seam allowance.
Using a tape measure or ruler draw out the size of the fabric you will require from the measurements you just took. The width should be doubled so that you can fold over the fabric later and and get both sides of the case. This should be done once on the two fabrics and the felt. Then cut out the fabric :)

2) Sew the fabrics together

Place the two fabrics together with the right sides facing each other and the felt ontop. Pin together and then stitch along 3 and 1/2 of the edges allowing a 1cm-1.5cm seam allowance with the sewing machine (there should be a line next to the needle you can follow to keep the stitching straight and the seam allowance at the same length). Don't sew half of one of the shorter sides together so you can turn the fabric the correct way round by pushing it through the hole - make sure you have removed the pins, cut the seam allowance off to about 5mm near the stitching and cuts off the corners of the seam allowance to allow you to get a sharper point in your fabric. Fold in the raw edges of the unstitched end and sew along the fold to close up the hole.

3) Sew into a phone case

Fold the fabric in half with the outside material on the inside and pin the bottom and side edges together. Either use a sewing machine to stitch very closely to the edge along the bottom and side of the case, or hand stitch along the edge if the fabric is too thick (I kept breaking sewing machine needles so had to resort to hand sewing... :( ) I would probably change to a running stitch if I was to do it again so the stitching didn't show through the edges on the outside...

4) Add the button!

Turn the case the right way round and sew your button onto the front of the case. Then take some embroidery thread (as it's thicker than normal thread), or a strip of excess fabric (which you could make into a strap by either making into a spaghetti strap (google it) so as to hide the fraying edges, or by plaiting with two other strips of fabric - just make sure the plait is really thin) and stitch onto the middle of the top of the back of the case in a loop (if you are very clever, you could insert this into the fabric by attaching it to the case when sewing all the fabric together in step 2 by attaching it a ¼ of the way along the width of the fabric with the loop sitting between the two fabrics (not the felt).

5) Fin!

To finish you could embroider the phone owners name or do an appliqué image on the front in a contrasting fabric (though that would be easier to do before you sew all the materials on the front). Go creative and have fun with it, this is just the basic idea :). You could also design it so that the back of the case is longer than the front and folds over the case to button onto the front to make for a securer fastening :) Or you could use velcro or poppers. The ideas are endless :)





If you have a go at this be sure you tag me in your creations on Instagram: @RougebyJuneKonrad

Merry Christmas!! (only 3 days to go hehe)

June xx

 So, 5 days until Christmas, but what's that I hear? The cries of a stressed human who has that one relative they don't know who to buy for? Or maybe a broke teen who has to buy 10 gifts but is on a strict budget? Don't fret! I've complied (oo fancy) a last minute gift guide for you all, aimed at multiple price ranges :)

Quote Posters

I made this poster for a cat-lover friend this Christmas after she said the above during dinner. Whether it be a one off phrase or a phrase they say all the time, a quirky quote poster is a great last minute gift for someone you don't know what to buy for - and especially fab for us poster loving uni students. I designed it on picmonkey.com and had it professionally printed by instantprint.com costing me £10.94 (including postage and VAT). This was probably not the cheapest way of doing it but I paid for next day postage so it got to me in time for Christmas... You can save more money if you have an A3 printer to hand- there may be one at your school/uni you could borrow or at your local library) - or print it on A4 and buy a cheap charity shop photo frame to spice it up a bit and make up for it not being generic poster size :)

Top tips for quote posters

1) Use multiple fonts - each line of mine is a different font.
2) Highlight the key words in the text by making them bigger, bolder and in different colours.
3) Include a simple picture to do with the main topic without a background so it blends into the background colour.
4) Don't use a long quote, paraphrase if you have to!
5) Point out to them that they said it by putting their name and the year at the bottom of the page (I've cut my friend's name off this for privacy, but it is there in the original).

If you don't like this style, you can parody other styles of poster such as the 'Keep Calm' ones or turn a funny picture of your friend into the style of a meme. The possibilities are endless. For instance my friend has had a thing about badgers wearing party hats for years, so this year I printed out a poster of a badger that I'd added a party hat to and captioned it!

Food Hampers

Who doesn't love food? This year for my grandparents I am putting together a hamper for homemade food to suit their taste. As they don't like many sweet things, I have only given them a few things (at one stage I planned on buying fancy cheese and making biscuits). To present them I bought professional looking food bags from amazon and labels from a local kitchen store to make it look extra special 😊 I couldn't find a hamper to present them in, so wrapped an old shoe box in brown paper and ripped up strips of white and red tissue paper to fill the inside of the box.

Heres the recipes I will be using if you are interested:

Dark Cherry and Hazelnut Biscotti

(Use proper butter, not marg! They took forever to dry out, but were the biggest success of the operation. Defo making them again at some point :) )

Tuiles



Pistachio and Cranberry mini Meringues

Any plain meringue recipe with chopped pistachios and dried cranberries added to the mixture (only one of the types in each meringue, not mixed together) They didn't provide much flavour, so unless you are sprinkling them on top for decoration, there isn't much point adding them to be honest. Ah well, you live ad you learn :)

Books

Books are great for the book lovers in your life. Whether its a book you love and want to introduce them too, or a book based on things they love that you think they'll love, you can be rest assured that if they love reading they will use this at some point - just make sure they haven't read it already...

I bought A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor for my Dad. This was originally a radio series he listened too, so fingers crossed he'll enjoy the book just as much 😊

My personal book recommendations are the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Dubargo and (the similar) Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan.

Bath Bombs

Makeup

 

Perfume 

Perfume is a little harder to get right, as it is so individual. Mini perfume sets, like this one from New Look (£12.99), means the recipient will hopefully like at least one of them. These are also, once again, great stocking fillers to split up and give out individually to people- especially if you're strapped for cash!

Jewellery

Chocolate

Phone Cases

Gift vouchers 

And if you're truly stuck, vouchers are the way to go. Whether it's money towards something they've wanted for ages, books, somewhere to visit together (like this Cat Café my friend and I have had our eyes on for aaages) or promise vouchers (such as the one above I just designed on Picmonkey that you are welcome to use). I'm also going to suggest subscription boxes such as Birchbox if you can afford it and charity sponsorships such as Guide Dogs which I used to receive 😊.

Any reccommendations of your own? Add them in the comments below!

Merry Christmas :)

June xx