Eye of Horus inspired Halloween eye make-up

The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health. The eye is personified in the goddess Wadjet. It is also known as 'The Eye of Ra'. My MAC pencil eyeliner came in pretty handy for this look, as did a couple of colourful eyeliner pencils that I kept but thought would never come in useful, especially the blue one.

With great difficulty I applied the eyeliner in an almost cat-flick style as well as drawing on the swirl and extra lines. The eyeliner pencil was extremely soft so I ended up with pretty thick lines instead of nice, thin, neat ones. I went in with a gold eyeliner and a blue on the top almost reaching my brow bone. I simply eyelined the other eye and added a black shimmery eyeshadow stick to my lips in place of a black lipstick.

It's an ever so simple look but one that is pretty effective. It would look fab on both eyes if you have the patience and possibly with a black wig of some kind. My nan used to have this Egyptian wig in the dressing up toy box when I was younger - now I wish we'd kept it!

Skeleton Halloween Look

For some reason I've got really into Halloween this year. When I was at Uni I used to hate having to dress up and my costumes were never very imaginative but inspiration seems to have taken hold and on Sunday afternoon I decided to have a go at a couple of 'easy' Halloween looks, this skeleton being one of them.

Again I used the Seventeen Define & Conquer palette and the lighter shade to make myself look ultra pale. It would be great to use a white foundation/facepaint to get a more realistic skeleton base.

I also returned to the trusty Makeup Revolution Give Them Nightmares palette and went nuts with the black eyeshadow. I blended it out massively and used a blending sponge to bring it down my cheeks to make me look a bit more skeletal.

I didn't have a black lipstick so used a shimmery black eyeshadow pen and drew on the fake stitches with an eyeliner pen. It was ridiculously easy. For someone like me (lazy) it's the ideal Halloweek make-up look. What do you think?

Minimal effort Fawn/Deer Halloween look

Halloween isn't all about the scary looks! When doing some research online for some 'easy' Halloween looks I kept coming across fawn/deer looks, which I personally thought was a little Christmassy (my neice dressed up as one for her Christmas play) but it seems pretty popular so I thought I'd give it a try.

Obviously it's not nearly as good as some pro make-up artists can do but I'm pretty happy with it. I used the Seventeen Define & Conquer palette, using the darker contouring shade for the 'brown' of the deer all over my face (it was as if I had a tan, which was odd!) and the lighter shade for the highlights around the eyes and nose. Then I simply went to town with a brown eyeliner pencil, colouring in my eyelids and eyebrows and adding a nose.

Funnily enough I didn't have any antlers to hand so popped on a floral headband, which I think works pretty well. Personally I think this works best for brunettes but that may be because I'm a bit bias!

What makeup looks are you doing for Halloween this year?

Halloween nails

Happy Halloween everyone! For the last of this week's Halloween-themed posts I thought I would do some spooky nails for you, so if you're going out to a party tonight you can have a go yourself!

Luckily I had all the shades I needed in my collection, which actually tells me my collection is way too big. I'm not one for tricky nail art and I didn't really have all of the right tools I needed but I'm really happy with the results.

Let me know what you think in the comments and tweet me your own nail art pics @cherryp13.

Poundland Ceramic Halloween tealight holders

Bit of an odd post from me today. Usually it's all beauty, beauty, beauty and the odd bit of fashion/lifestyle but keeping with the theme of the moment I thought I'd post about these absolute bargains that I found recently.

Usually I'm not much of a celebrator of Halloween. I guess unless you're a child or have a party to go to, there's not much you can do to 'celebrate' but this year, instead of trying to beat them I thought I'd join them and get involved a little bit. Hopefully this week's worth of posts has done the trick (ha!).

When I was planning this week's Halloween-themed posts I knew I had to have some of of accessory/background to photograph on/with and while I was browsing in Poundland recently I came across these. They're ceramic tealight holders, if you couldn't tell, and I think they're absolutely brilliant. Perfect for this time of year if you're looking to decorate the house a bit or you could use the pumpkin one as an alternative to a real one and have it lit in your window.

A lot of people may not want to use these all year round but I don't see why you couldn't. I especially love the black pumpkin one and it's eery smile.

What Halloween decorations/accessories are you loving this year?

Makeup Revolution Give Them Nightmares Palette

So here we are, the palette I have been waiting absolutely ages to feature! I wanted to dedicate an entire week to Halloween-themed posts so when this dropped through my door I thought it was absolutely perfect.

The Give Them Nightmares palette is just amazing and absolutely brilliant for creating Halloween looks on the spookiest day of the year. I was planning all sorts of out there looks but unfortunately I'm not the best at actually executing them so I've gone for a pretty simple look, which would be great if you are heading to a party and don't want to go full on fake blood and witches nose.

I like the fact that the palette rotates around four main colours, green, blue, purple and black and then provides different shades of these so you can really build up colour and do some serious blending. For my look above I've gone for the green shades, all of which are super pigmented and apply like a dream. There is a bit of fall out on application, which is a bit annoying, but nothing a quick swipe of a cotton pad won't fix.

The shades are all extremely soft and blendable and some of them contain glitter so you can add a bit of sparkle to your look. The shadows last ages as well so they're really ticking all the right boxes.

While the palette is perfect for this time of year you could definitely use it all year round - maybe stick to the plain colours and use them subtley to create an every day look.

I am really loving this palette as you can tell and I had great fun creating this look. I've teamed it with one of the brand's new lipsticks, which I featured here.

Have you tried the Give Them Nightmares palette? Tweet me the different looks you've created @cherryp13.


*This palette was gifted to me by the brand and I have given an honest review.

Lush Halloween 2014

While this isn't the entire new Halloween range from Lush, I have to say these are probably my two favourite products from it. I chose the Sparkly Pumpkin bubble bar as it's the most representative of Halloween of course and I've never tried anything glittery in my bath before so thought I'd go all out.

This is definitely glittery and then some. It's so glittery in fact that trying to photograph it was a bit of a nightmare as I ended up with glitter all over my hands and the camera, oops! It's not easy to get off either so I'm now a little worried of emerging from the bath when I use this, I might look more glitter ball than subtle shimmer.

Despite this looking like a pumpkin it smells insanely good, exactly like Refresher sweets. Does anyone remember those? This smells exactly like them, I can't get over how good the scent is. The bubble bar contains juniperberry, lime and grapefruit oils, which are all so uplifting and refreshing, I can't wait to give this a go.

The second product I picked up was Wizard's Hat…which doesn't really look like a wizard hat in all honesty. It's a bit smushed but it still smells great and lovely and fresh. This is another bubble bar and contains energising tangerine oil and purifying juniperberry and fennel essential oils to help banish stress. I also can't wait to try this one, but again it's another glitter fest. I think I'll use these quite sparingly so I don't over do the glitter but all in all I really love them. They're so my sort of scents and they're really reasonable too.

Have you tried anything from the new Halloween range?

Wednesday Wishlist #99

New Look: Orange Pumpkin Face Tshirt - £7.99
ASOS: Bat Clutch Bag - £18, Pumpkin Across Body Bag - £18
Topshop: Xray Tee - £18, Glitter Devil Horns Headband - £8.50, Knitted Pumpkin Face Jumper - £38, All over Bat socks - £3.50

Unfortunately I don't really celebrate Halloween anymore. I see it as more of a kids celebration or something you celebrate by dressing up and going to a club when you're at Uni.

I remember the first time I went Tric or Treating, I was dressed up as a witch and had a pointy hat and used a black bin bag as my cape. That's about as imaginative as my costumes got. After that I always went as a devil or cat, even at Uni! I remember coming home and having LOADS of sweets to get through but now I'm one of those people that doesn't even open the door to people. What a grump!

I was originally planning to celebrate Halloween on my blog with some halloween inspired nails but it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to take any decent photographs now that the clocks have gone back. By the time I get home from work it's dark and I don't have any professional lighting etc so a wishlist will have to do!

Highstreet stores really go all out for Halloween. There's some really great bits and pieces to choose from but sometimes they're a bit pricey to wear for just one night. I think if you're going to a proper party you'd want to really make an effort but if you're just off out drinking there's not much point and you can probably find some cheaper fancy dress in a supermarket.

How are you celebrating Halloween this year?

Wednesday Wishlist #54

Topshop: Cobweb Glow in the Dark Leggings - £22, Conical Stud Horns - £12, J.W Anderson for Topshop Bat Handknit Sweater - £69.99
New Look: White Ghost Coin Purse - £4.99

I don't really do anything for Halloween any more. I think the last time I dressed up was back at University when absolutely everybody would dress up, but I never really put much effort into my outfits. These days people's outfits are a lot more imaginative and even fashion stores are getting in on the act as well.

I absolutely adore the J.W Anderson for Topshop Bat Handknit Sweater, but I don't adore the price. I actually picked up a dupe version for a fraction of the price from Internacionale, which I will definitely try and feature on the blog soon!

If you're struggling for a Halloween outfit idea for tonight then I'd suggest you get down to your nearest Topshop ASAP. They have such a great range of Halloween goodies. I just love the Conical Stud Horns, a much better take on the traditional tacky red devil horns in my opinion!

If I was dressing up this year I'd definitely go for the Cobweb Glow in the Dark Leggings. It's minimal effort and minimal price for an outfit with added glow in the dark, brill!

What are you dressing up as for Halloween this year?