Throwback Thursday: Bobbie Gentry

Hi Tory,

The first thing that you need to know is that I am a huge fan of Bobbie Gentry. She's most well-known for her breakthrough 60s song Ode to Billy Joe, an amazing exercise in storytelling, and credited with kick starting the whole Southern Gothic genre. I totally recommend that you check out Fancy as well - she's just incredible.

put on mississippi delta, turn up the volume, pile on the lashes!

The next thing is that it's really struck me how you can instantly know what A Sixties Eye means (high contrast, thick black eye liner, big eye lashes), but that the more I research into different women's takes on it, the more variation I see. Raquel Welch's 60s eye was very straight across and fantastically feline. This week, with Bobbie Gentry, her 60s eye is slightly down turned and sad, which fits her music perfectly.

costs
£20.56

She also has a healthier, more peach coloured look - less of the nudes and the stark black and whites of the era - so I tried to get as much of that into this as possible. Big eye lashes, of course, and big hair, but with a kind of sexy country feel - all peach pie and sexy secrets in the hay but in a high glam way.

Bobbie was very high glam, and naturally she ended up doing shows in Vegas, and then just as glamorously vanished from the scene where she now lives in happy obscurity. Put on Mississippi Delta, turn up the volume, pile on the lashes!

Products Used

• Sleek iDivine Palette in Oh So Special
• Collection 2000 Big Fake Lash in Black
• Barry M Blink Precision Eye Liner in Black
• MUA Lipstick in Shade 11
• 2true Fake Lashes in Glamour
• Prices based on what I paid for the whole look from scratch (including palettes and lashes) and correct at the time of posting

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

Jellybean Nails - with Sharpies!

Hi Tory,

I really enjoyed doing the heart-frame nails for Valentine's Day and wanted to expand on the technique a bit. Framing the nails in black like that gives them a cool, graphic quality - almost like a Batman comic, so I've been playing around with some ideas.

try out some bright jellybean colours - maybe do a different colour on each finger

This one actually came out of an accident - never dismiss your mistakes! - where the brush slipped and the line came out too thick. I kept going and that's how Jellybean Nails were born! (I bought a set of fine detail art brushes at The Works and I'd totally recommend it as they're perfect for nail art and they don't cost an awful lot.)

costs
£6.77

The finishing touch was using a Sharpie pen to do all the details and make the rounded corners - my caveat is to let the nail polish underneath dry completely or the Sharpie won't stick.

Also then let the Sharpie dry or the top coat will smear it. (The great thing about using Sharpies in nail art is that if you make a mistake you can just wipe it off with some surgical spirit and it doesn't ruin the nail polish.) Try out some bright jellybean colours - maybe do a different colour on each finger. Fun!

Steps

• Put on a clear base coat and then your background colour (I used two coats) and let this dry thoroughly.
• Do three sides of a black frame using a small art brush and black nail polish - I found it easiest to do all the left sides, then the bottoms, then the tops. Leave the right side free, and I also kept my Bourjois remover pot on hand to clean off the brush.
• Paint just over one half of the right hand side of the nails with black polish and leave this to dry completely - you want your Sharpie coat to stick!
• Round the corners of the rectangle you have left using the Sharpie - you can make it as deep or as shallow as you like but you want to end up with a lozenge shape. You can also use the Sharpie to fill in any gaps in the black polish.
• Use the Sharpie to make three small dots for the jellybean highlight and let the Sharpie dry completely. Put on a clear topcoat and it's finished!

Products Used

• NYC In a New York Minute in Grand Central Station
• MUA Nail Polish in Shade 9
• 2True Glossywear Polish in Shade 39
• Sharpie in Black
• Prices based on what I paid for the whole look from scratch, and correct at the time of posting

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

Bow Tie Nails 27/2/13

Hi Tory,

It really irks me that the press-on stickers I bought a while ago for false nails turned out to be such a bust - and I really don't want to go down the nail glue route as I'm trying to condition and grow out my nails again. So I'm left with little packets of really cute nail designs but no way to use them.

"time to get creative!" I said to myself.

"Time to get creative!" I said to myself. (At this point I can hear our grandmother somewhere in the ether telling us not to spend money on things but rather make them ourselves. Consider this a tribute of sorts, Nan.) The fiddliest part is the bow tie which is essentially two triangles facing each other.

costs
£4.78

I used a combination brush and blob stroke for the triangles, building up the colour as I went. If you have a steady hand, you could use a little, fine art brush for this step as well. After I'd done the nail art I figured out that it would be so much easier to do the tips, then the dots, then the triangles and work down the nail. Hindsight!

So now I have some nail art which is not too far away from the original false nails, and only uses two colours (three if you count the clear top/base coat). You could do a negative version for a bit of Lux Tux Action, or maybe do the details in glitter for a bit of 42nd Street Pizzazz? The original nails had one single black rhinestone for the third finger nail of each hand - that's a snazzy detail to add too!

Steps

• Base coat the nails with a clear coat and then apply the white background - I used three coats of the MUA All Nude for this. Make sure it's thoroughly dry before moving on to the next step.
• Using the nib of an old pen and a black polish apply three tiny dots in a line from just below the nail tip to about halfway down the nail - this will give you the buttons.
• Either freehand or using the rubber band method paint a black tip on the nails.
• Again, using an old pen nib dipped in black polish, paint two triangles pointing at each other in the bottom half of the nail for the bow tie. Let everything dry thoroughly at this point.
• Apply a clear top coat and you have a set of cute bow tie nails!

Products Used

• MUA Polish in All Nude
• 2True Glossywear in Shade 19
• NYC In A New York Color Minute in Grand Central Station
• Old pen
• Prices based on what I paid for the whole look from scratch, and correct at the time of posting

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

Valentine Nails

Hi Tory,

I really resisted the idea of doing something for Valentine's Day, mainly because I'm not a hearts and flowers kind of person. Why do you need one day a year to say "I Love You"? I do intrinsically like hearts as a shape tho (I know... I know...) and I've wanted to do nail framing for a while now, so... I combined them.

I'm convinced that bruce wayne would let alfred do this on his toenails of an evening

I like how the hearts feel more graphic - I deliberately didn't make them too neat or perfect, or the frames too thin. I wanted something that looked a little bit like a Batman graphic novel or a Saul Bass poster. I'm convinced that Bruce Wayne would let Alfred do this on his toenails of an evening, but that's just me. ;)

costs
£2.99

When it came time to find a brush to do the artwork with, I wanted something that was thin and pointy enough and with a manageable handle. It just so happened that I had an eyeliner that I really didn't like and was about to throw out, so I just washed it off and that's now in my nail art arsenal.

The main thing to stick with is doing everything slowly and in sequence - I found it helpful to do all the left sides in one go and so on, for example. You can fix any mistakes a lot quicker that way too! And, if you really weren't into hearts, you could just have big thick frames or switch the colour combination. Happy Chocolate Day! ;)

Steps

• Paint nails with two coats of a dark or hot pink polish and let dry thoroughly
• Using a small, thin brush (I used the brush from an old eyeliner that I'd washed) paint a "frame" around the nail using a black polish
• A good tip for the frame is to paint all the left sides, then the right ones, then the tops, then the bottoms, letting each dry between coats to keep everything as uniform as possible
• Mark a small black dot where the points will begin
• Using the brush and small strokes, form the bottom edge of the heart first in a sharp angle, then curve the top edge in to meet the black dot marker to make the curved top
• Finish with a clear top coat to protect it!

Products Used

• MUA Nail Polish in Shade 3
• 2True Glossywear in Shade 39
• Spare brush
• Optional clear top coat
• Prices based on what I paid for the whole look from scratch, and correct at the time of posting

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

Handy French Manicure Tip

Hi Tory,

Whichever way you look at it, French manicures are a bit of a pain to get right, no matter how much practice you put in, or how steady your hand is. I've done tips and tricks on this subject before, but found this nifty little work around this week and just had to give it a go.

All you need is a thickish rubber band. That's it. It's so simple I can't believe that I've never seen it in action before. The basic principle is that the rubber band grips to your nail so it's a solid surface, the tension pulls back the skin so you don't get blobs everywhere, and it gives you a nice, crisp edge.

all you need is a thickish rubber band

So, let's go for it. Paint your base colour - one or two coats depending on the polish and make sure that it's absolutely bone dry. The rubber band will take off some of the surface gloss, but you'll be putting a top coat on to even things out. Place the rubber band just under where you want your French tip to be and pull it down securely, holding it in place. Then, just paint your contrasting tip polish on the free edge, wait for about 30 seconds and very gently remove the rubber band. Genius!

One More Thing...

• My clearly labelled "A4 Watercolour Paper" had to be cut down to fit my printer. How does that work??
• The best way to get a dewy foundation? Use a damp sponge and lightly press your warm hands over the surface so that everything melts in and adapts to your skin.
• If you're doing any kind of makeup work - theatre, shoot, wedding or whatever - always take paper cups and tissues with you in your kit. You'd be amazed at how often you'll need a tissue or somewhere to put warm water!
• Another tip for makeup kits on the go - stock up on travel sizes of products like tissues, shampoo, moisturizer and so on. So much easier than decanting or carrying around heavy bottles.

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

Woodland Gel

Hi Tory,

all I can think about at the moment is sludgy palettes and autumn leaves

There are masses of Biba posters all around town for the exhibition. You have to come down and see it with me, or I shall have to come up to London and drag you back down on the train. Seriously.

So I've had a lot of Sarah Moon haziness to look at, and the weather is getting a wee bit greyer and a wee bit chillier, so all I can think about at the moment is sludgy palettes and autumn leaves. (Mum and I went in to Big Biba at Derry and Tom's in the 70s. Mum says we didn't but I'd lay good money out that there were absolutely categorically no other shops in London at the time with Art Deco interiors and that much purple and brown going on. We were there. I know this to be true.)

And I wanted to do something with gel liner as a smudgy base, and I'd just recently picked up this rather gorgeous little MUA one that's a lovely dark chocolatey brown with some copper sparkles in it... so I started thinking of browns and coppers and khakis and berries... and here we are. You could probably fuzz it out even more and add some spiky false lashes if you really wanted to rock that King's Road in the Seventies vibe. I think that everyone should rock that vibe at least once a year - now is the time! I have decreed it!

Products Used

• MUA Gel Eye Liner in On The Move
• Beauty UK Eye Palette in #4
• Collection 2000 Eye Definer in Brown
• MUA Mascara in Shade 4
• MUA Bronzer in Shade 2
• 2True Glossywear Lipstick in Shade 10
• Total Cost = £11.97

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

MUA Deco Chrome Eyeshadow Look

Hi Tory,

Part of my last mini haul was the gorgeous shade #26 from the MUA single eyeshadows' range... it's this beautiful eau-de-nil colour subtly shot through with gold that just said Art Deco to me, so I got to thinking...

it's this beautiful eau-de-nil colour subtly shot through with gold that just said Art Deco to me

My joint favourite building is the Chrysler Building with all those wonderful, soaring chrome chevrons, and I adore the fashion drawings of Erte with the vamp ladies in their watercolour Deco tea gowns. So these were my inspiration for this stylish and pretty Deco eye - all made with MUA, so kind on the pocket! I ended up wearing it to Bloomsbury for the TOWIB meet-up (a room full of makeup bloggers all chatting happily about palettes - bliss!), and I paired it with a strong berry lip and fairly dramatic blush.

Products Used

• MUA Single Eyeshadow in Shade #14
• MUA Single Eyeshadow in Shade #26
• MUA Single Eyeshadow in Shade #15
• MUA Mascara in Shade 5
• MUA Intense Colour Eyeliner Pencil in Jet Black

Suggested Blush and Lip

• MUA Blusher in Shade 6
• 2True Glossywear Lipstick in 10
• Daphne Guinness for MAC Cremesheen Glass in Richly Revered

You don't have to use the Daphne Guinness gloss.. but, you know, it's Daphne Guinness. ;)/p>

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

The Biba Look

Hi Tory,

Here we go with the Biba tutorial - lots of hazy greens to mimic that 70s meets 30s Hollywood glamour style by way of Kensington High Street.

It's all about keeping the colour above the crease and up to the brow, LOTS of lashes and a dark, plummy mouth.

Products Used

• Beauty UK Metallic Sparks Jumbo Pencil in Green 4
70s meets 30s Hollywood glamour style by way of Kensington High Styreet
• Beauty UK Eyeshadow Palette in No. 4 - Earth Child
• MUA Eyeshadow in Shade 7
• MUA Intense Colour Eye Pencil in Rich Brown
• Rimmel Sexy Curves Mascara in Waterproof Black
• MUA Blusher in Shade 2
• 2True Glossywear Lipstick in 10

Have fun with the Biba palette!

Hugs and kisses,
xxx