Oompa-Loompa? Me? No thanks!

As you may have guessed, I have a massive aversion to the terrible fake-tan craze which always appears at feiseanna; I'm really pale so temporarily making my legs orange to me looks unnatural and a little bit tacky. Of course if you find fake tan works for you, go ahead I have nothing against the idea, it does look good on some people. Just try to avoid looking orange.

My refusal to use fake tan or too garish make up means I've adopted a simpler style when I'm getting ready for a feis; I think the dresses are embellished enough already so I don't need to do too much to my face. So that you can see what I look like pre-makeup, here's a before shot:

Yes, I know, no wig. But mine was in a pitiful state, so I decided GHD curls were a better idea.

As you can see, aside from my eyes I'm pretty washed-out looking, so it's time to add some colour! For my feis makeup look I used a neutral base colour eyeshadow, a dark teal coloured eyeshadow, two shades of silver/grey eyeshadow, a bright turquoise kohl eye pencil, coral blusher, a light two-tone bronzer and a coral coloured lipstick and gloss.

I started off by using a neutral sand-coloured base on my eyes to get rid of any minor discolouration, I then covered this with a pale and shiny silver colour from my duo eyeshadow palette. This makes my eyes look wider and more awake as well as giving a pretty iridescent shimmer to my eyelids. I then layered the lower part of my eyelid with the grey and dark teal colours to give a shadow, before drawing on a solid line with the turquoise kohl eyepencil, creating a really nice block of colour to match with the colours on my dress. I then used mascara on my lashes to "open" my eyes up.

It looks really light like this, but then...

...It really is quite a punch of turquoise!

The next part is really easy, I simply use a larger blusher brush to brush on even amounts of a light coral blusher and and two tone sand/brown bronzer to create a natural and healthy glow on my cheeks, brushing a little of the sand bronzer on the ridge of my nose for a sunkissed look. The bronzer has a light shimmer in it that makes my skin glitter subtly. Sorry if the pics don't show this to its full advantage, but you get the idea.
To make this stick I spritz my face with a thermal water spray which moisturises my face and ensures I don't sweat my face off. I then apply lipstick by dabbing it on my lips to get an even, smooth, matte coverage before applying a light coral gloss then voilà!..

This look is intended to subtly emphasise your feautres so that they'll be noticed from the stage, with a promotion of natural-looking beauty, so as you can see it's a bit less flamboyant than other feis styles. If you're looking for something a bit more natural-looking (wigs are going that way, why can't make up?) then this might be the sort of style you may want to adopt. Barry M have brilliant eyeliners in loads of colours that really stay on well and will always have a colour to match your dress.

Why not play around with your make up today, it's always good to find new styles!