Beauty and the Beach 2 Competition - My Entry

Hey everyone! So for my second post today I'm bringing you my Beauty and the Beach competition entry. I'm sure most of you know what it is but for those who don't it's a beauty competition held by Travel Supermarket for a chance to win £500 or £1500! All you have to do is upload an entry inspired by the beach, you can find the rules here, but it ends tomorrow so be quick (I am the queen of last minute!). I know this is a nails blog, but of course I'd like to be in with the chance of winning the full amount, so I hope you'll excuse pictures of my face! I'll put them after the jump and the nails before for those of you who dont.

The Nails

So for the nails, I went directly with the 'beach' theme, and painted a beach on my nails. My style is definitely more cartoon-ey so I wanted to stick with what I know best. I decided to add things you can find and do on the beach.       On my thumb I did a rock pool with a crab next to it, on my pointer finger I did flip flops, on my middle finger is the edge of a picnic rug, on my ring finger is a bucket and spade and a sandcastle with a flag, and on my baby finger is a starfish. 

To do these nails I started off with a base of Butter London - Fiver, and then I sponged on Barry M - Blueberry, but I decided it didn't look very good so I used a paintbrush to make it more of a straight line. Then, on the tips of my nails I sponged Butter London - Cuppa. Then I got a tiny piece of sponge using tweezers and sponged on the white for the foam of the waves. I then mixed Barry M - Blueberry with some white to create the 'waves' with a tiny brush, and I used the same white (MASH - White nail polish) for the clouds (which unfortunately haven't shown up too well in photos). The yellow on the rug, sun and bucket is Clinique - 70 Degrees and Sunny, the red on the rug, flag and spade is Essence - Redvolution, and the crab is redvolution mixed with a tiny tiny bit of brown, the green on the flipflops is Clinique - Hula Skirt, the orange starfish is Clinique - Juiced Up, the black detailing, such as the birds, is China Glaze - Liquid Leather, and the darker brown for the stones and sandcastle is Barry M - Mushroom, either on its own or mixed with white. I did all the details with a tiny cut down brush. (Phew that was a big paragraph)

The Hair

Now here come the pictures of my face! For the hair I decided to go with curls. For me curls are the only hair design to go with the beach and the sea, and they were the first thing I thought about when this competition was mentioned to me. I also added a pinned back plait on one side, for those windy (or hot) days at the beach where you wish your hair was off your face. 

The Makeup

Next up is the make up. I decided to go with neutral colours, because it seems to me that they're what really suit the beach the most. The beach is about subtlety and dressing down, and neutrals and browns are the perfect way of showing that. 

This is the part of the competition that actually took me the longest. I'm AWFUL at makeup but I was determined to make it look good. I was going to use the eye makeup from the hair pictures above for my entry but the pictures just weren't good enough and I felt I needed to do a bit more for my design. This time I am a lot happier with it, and considering this is only my second or third time playing around with eyeshadow I'm pretty proud of what I did.  

For my eyes I used:

MUA - Eyeshadow Primer

Sleek - Nougat eyeshadow

Sleek - Honeycomb eyeshadow

Sleek - Bark eyeshadow

Clinique - High Impact Mascara

Models Own Black Eyeliner

and Sleek - Bark eyeshadow for my eyebrows

I started off with a base of Nougat, and then I slowly build up with Honeycomb and Bark. I put a bit of Nougat in the corner of my eye and on my brow bone to highlight, and a little bit underneath the eye too. I then put eyeliner and mascara on. For my eyebrows I used Sleek - Bark (I prefer to use matte eyeshadow rather than a pencil).

With my lips, I again went with more of a subtle look to match my interpretation of the beach theme. I applied Revlon 932 Red lipstick very lightly ... and then I rubbed the majority off. I know that might sound silly to most of you but I with a very limited lipstick collection I find it's the best way to create a subtle tint to my lips. 

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with what I've created, especially the nails, and I hope you all like it too!

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Alice