A few have asked to see this… a glitter eyeshadow, yet some may think it’s neither here nor there. Pink glitter on the eyes which in a flash can sparkle (or not). Well it happily complimented my pale Irish skintone earlier, however the true fabbiness of it is only really made fabbier by model Marta Ortiz’s skintone at the Ashish Spring/Summer 2012 show (Oh and love that Sunflower print top).

Actually, that bit I just mentioned above about glitter “happily complimenting my skintone”, do real people talk like this? Is it not just make-up counter ladies who describe product in this secret language not unlike JRR Tolkien’s elves? All I know is that I’ve been hearing a lot of it about the past few days whilst shopping browsing so I’ll not inflict more upon you here. I took these shots last September at London Fashion Week and while I’m in deep confessional mood today I might as well tell you that I stepped as FAR back as the space would permit me to honestly consider these glitter eyes seriously. From back here, each little piece of carefully placed pigmented glitter twinkled and reflected the light beautifully. It was like looking at a good painting. Is that fair to say? At least it’s not Elvish speak right?

Here’s another shot, a real close up one. See, I was intrigued by this shadow because I don’t have a vast eye colour collection (by vast, I’m not referring to vast volume of product but amount of funds invested in colourful eye stuff…), to date I’ve only considered product in colours which I think actually suit me; never yellow eyeshadow because it’s too yuck! Pink of any kind makes me look ill. Black, brown, navy, grey, orange and blue are ticked as yeses but glitter?

I had to step back again and look at it on a girl with skin closer to my own complexion (Yeah, I wish!) So yes, you’ll probably roll your eyes at my wishful thinking and dedication to what could easily turn into a huge expensive mistake except…

….these painted eyelids are a result of a little art experiment. One part Vaseline (yes Vaseline) rubbed onto the lids and then pat some art glitter into it. The results are rather good no? If you’re concerned that the art glitter might scratch your eye out (oh yes it did) then a pigment pot glitter eyeshadow from MAC might me a safer bet. They come in several colours but aren’t as dramatic. MAC make-up artist Georgina Graham packed-on pink glitter from a MAC Pro glitter pot (they’re only available to professional MAC artists) hence the art shop artist’s glitter tip available to the rest of us went floating about backstage. I’m not entirely sure at which point this little nugget snuck into my notebook but someone also said that a clear or nude shadow base or cream shadow would work instead of Vaseline if you didn’t fancy your lids feeling slippy. SO use one and apply the glitter while it’s still wet. Oh and sparkles are messy; they scatter everywhere – including your clothes so some other lovely person suggested getting dressed after doing your eye make-up. Honestly bits of glitter have been falling onto my face and clothes trying this out all day but I’ve removed them with transparent scotch tape (wrap a small piece around your finger and life the specks off your skin).

So after a day spent in the company of Vaseline, glitter, scotch tape and my pens and pencils it’s a happy coincidence that the MAC team use these pads to sketch out and fill in the products used in each show (in keeping with my earlier art reference too). This slightly off-centre and haphazard vision of a ‘pretty’ eye (I’m so going to use this NON Elvish word forever now in beauty) is both feminine AND forward thinking. Considering these shots were taken backstage at Ashish’s London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2012 show they are in fact next February’s Spring look. You’ll be very much ahead of the 2012-vers if you decide to join in my sparkly art experiment now.

It’s incredible some of the fashion things I’ll allow myself have when people start running around in Christmas Sarah Lund jumpers. I know perfectly well that my current jumper fixation has everything to do with today being the first day of winter in London and nothing to do with the fact that it’s been winter in Scandinavia since October 14th. (Their winter runs from October 14th to the end of February). But let’s not talk about wintery things yet, OK? I’d much rather talk about the carbfest which was my huge dish of cuttlefish pasta yesterday, it was yum until someone told me that a cuttlefish uses its cloud of ink to hide from a predator so in honour of the little cuttlefish and still ignoring winter for a while I’m giving my dark inky nail polish a rest. I’m sitting at the airport here, sifting through these shots and I’ve fallen in love with these nails I shot at Ashish’s Spring/Summer 2012 show. Aren’t they the perfect winter antidote?

Watching backstage while model Flaviana Matata had her beautiful long fingernails painted, I vaguely remember asking if this glitter would suit ‘lil old pasty me. OK, I’ve just looked at my scribbled answers in my notebook and the answer in BIG writing says NO!… So for everyone else…here’s what I was told. “Deep coloured polish is more flattering on pale skin because of the contrast it creates. Look for opaques, dark purples, inky blacks anything along the lines of Chanel’s Rouge Noir. (Sorry Mr. Cuttlefish). Olive skin can look sallow with dark polishes so slightly lighter and more vibrant shades such as intense navies and and royal purples will brighten the skin.” And dark skin like Flaviana Matata’s beautiful hands? “Dark skin can take the drama of shimmer and bright colour and anything with sparkle.” Right so maybe this sparkle doesn’t suit me but when has that ever stopped any of us?

So if you’d like to attempt this, first up you’ll need good nails because this look is basically nude with glitter on top. I was advised at this point to exfoliate once a week with a hand scrub and moisturise frequently and then buff with a buffing pad to smooth ridges away. Anyone who wears dark nail polish can stain their nail so a nail technician suggested I swab my nails with hydrogen peroxide on a cotton ball to remove discolouration (warning do this no more than once a month).

Then the whole glitter look is really quite simple, just a few products, paint on Lumos Instant Impact Bottom Coat onto the nail and then immediately add some glitter while the Bottom coat is still sticky. Then add a coat of Lumos Instant Impact Top Coat to seal the glitter in place. The technician was using a MAC pro product but glitter from an art shop is just as good.

I’d intended doing this myself… I mean how hard could this be? Answer. A bit maybe – look at the special bottle action in the picture above, the technician is holding the Bottom Coat bottle and glitter in one hand so the minute the bottom coat is on one nail she can get straight to work on dabbing on the glitter. Up close this bit looked fiddly as she dabbed the glitter on gently with this brush above. But I’ll try anything once so here are a few more things to keep in mind if you’d like to try this yourself. 1. When applying polish at home, steady your hand by anchoring your little finger on your work surface and 2. Grasp the brush with your other hand between your thumb and three fingers. Oh and when applying any type of polish wipe one side of the brush against the lip of the bottle, then use the other side to paint one stripe of colour up the center of your nail and one stripe on either side. Dry for two minutes, then apply a second coat.

Here’s the technician giving a quick slick of glitter to my fingers when everyone else was finished. See what I mean about my pasty digits?

The same look on Flaviana Matata’s fingers looked a million times better and then of course there were the eyes (a separate post maybe if anyone wants). So this little glitter injection has made me feel a lot less wintery this morning (Yeeeeeeeaaah!). Now to find some more winter cheeryuppage. Hmmmmmmm!