Celebrity Beauty: Leona Lewis' makeup in "Bleeding Love"

I would be really surprised if you have not heard yet of Leona Lewis. She is amazingly talented and her powerful voice is spellbinding. Leona was discovered due to the British reality talent show The X Factor (similar to American Idol) which she successfully won.

Her current hit "Bleeding Love" has been leading the charts and is so often shown on MTV - I think I know it by heart. Having watched it so often I've had a chance to admire her amazing look in this video over and over again. She is beautiful – no question about that. But her makeup is just magical. Whenever I would see the video, I would think to myself: whoever created this makeup is a genius. So, finally, I decided to find out who is responsible.

Leona’s makeup artist is Jane Bradley. According to Jane’s blog, she first did Leona’s makeup in September/October 2007 and has been “almost permanently attached to Leona” since. Currently, Jane does Leona's makeup for all the numerous events she attends daily (and Leona has a lot as she is promoting her debut album and is taking the entertainment industry by storm). Jane also flew to LA to do Leona’s makeup in the "Bleeding Love" video.

Leona’s look in "Bleeding Love" has made some noise among beauty addicts worldwide and, of course, among beauty bloggers. There have also been a couple videos on YouTube in which people attempted to recreate her makeup in that video. Not only the makeup is gorgeous, but also the dress she is wearing is breathtaking. Just in case you were wondering, it is a Dolce and Gabbana creation worth £100.000=$200.000.
This crystal-encrusted forty pound dress is from Dolce and Gabbana collection Fall 2007.

Going back to Leona’s makeup in "Bleeding Love"… I decided not to post the YouTube videos here as, to my big regret, each of them has some kind of a presentation flaw – like a noisy cartoon in the background for example. I am not the one to give directions on creating a smoky eye as I am just trying to master it myself. I also tend to wear more subtle makeup so this look is new for me. However, I thought it would be fun to look into the details of this amazing makeup by Jane Bradley. So I took a closer look at Leona’s makeup and did a couple screen shots.


As you can see from the photos above – it is a dramatic smoky eye done in very dark (almost black) green shades. Dark green eye shadow, the base of Leona’s smoky eye, is applied with a bit of a tick on the outer eye corners. Light silver shadow goes right under the eyebrow to lift it up. I think there is also a golden highlight in the center of an upper eyelid. Finishing touches include fake eye lashes and a black eyeliner applied along the upper eye lashes.

I decided to give this smoldering eye a try myself. It was a very quick experiment and I am not claiming that I did recreate Leona’s look.
I used:
L’Oreal eye shadow in black: 163 Smoke;

Essence’s shadow in sparkling green: Jungle Queen 22,




Lancome’s silver eye shadow in 316 Pierre de Lune,




Chanel’s Liquid Eyeliner in black,




Estee Lauder’s Magna Scopic Mascara.





I did not have an eye shadow in the exact dark green but it appeared to be no problem at all.
Here is what I did:

applied L’Oreal shadow in black, then over it a shadow in sparkling green to achieve the extremely dark green shade. I liked the final color and how you can control the intensity of green and black shades by layering and blending. It took me some courage to really go faaaar beyond my outer eye corner. Not sure I achieved that upward tick – need some training here. To blend the eyeshadow well and to create a smoky transition I used a brush and my finger (which is always a reliable tool).

applied some shadow along the lower eye line and made sure there was a nice transition between the upper and the lower eye lids(along the outer corner).

applied a metallic-silver shadow under the eyebrow. Silver should be quite subtle not to stand out.

achieved a bit of a more highlight with a tiny touch of white shadow right under the eyebrow in the outer corner.

finished up with an eyeliner along the upper eye lid.

curled eyelashes and applied mascara.

did eye brows. This look needs prominent eye brows to be balanced. Since my usual eyebrow corrector allows just a touch of colour, here I had to use an eye pencil in dark brown.

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Top 5 Beauty: Five Women Celebrities Who Look Gorgeous for Their Age

A couple months ago I came accross this top 5 list of women who look great for their age. I personally agree with the list and found it quite inspirational.

1. Demi Moore (45)

2. Helen Mirren (63)

3. Halle Berry (42)

4. Michelle Pfeiffer (50)

5. Sophia Loren (74)

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Celebrity Beauty: Golden Globes - Looks I liked and The Ones I didn't

After browsing some sites and beauty blogs posting about best looks at Golden Globes, I decided to write about my favorite ones.

I am usually amused by the lists of best dressed/looks and worst dressed/looks put together by, gor example Yahoo and E! etc. Many times I really can’t understand, why on earth this dress is on the best list and that one is on the worst.

For example, I don’t understand why Angelina Jolie in her silver and very neutral Versace ended up in the best list, while Salma Hayek, in my opinion looking glamorous, classical and sexy, got on the worst list and her Dior dress was said to be “snooze-worthy” (yahoo). I personally, want to snooze looking at Angelina’s outfit…

Anyway, here are the looks I liked


1. Jennifer Lopez
I love JLo’s style and this time she was as glamorous, beautiful and hot in her gold Marchesa gown as always.


2. Eva Longoria
I think Eva looked perfect, gorgeous and simply amazing in her red Reem Acra dress.


3. Melissa George
I thought her dress stood out and found her look classical but at the same time captivating and original.


4. Kate Beckinsale
Loved this white dress. It is classical, fits Kate so perfectly and she looks to me like a tender white lily.

The looks I didn’t like:

1.Drew Barrymore
Too much fluffy stuff going on about her look… Hair, dress… everything’s a mess (sorry, Drew)


2.Demi Moore
Wrong color dress for the tanned color of her skin. She just doesn’t look good. Don’t like the abundance of diamonds on the hands. The whole look is just not right.


3. Angelina Jolie
First impression: Zzzzzzz……..
Second impression: sigh… such bony hands… I wish she started eating a bit more…

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Beauty Inspiration: Sarah Jessica Parker

With the Sex and The City Movie 2 coming out in just a couple days I decided it was the time for a post on Sarah Jessica Parker, beauty and glamour inspiration to millions of fans around the world.
Born March 25, 1965 , SJP is a successful television and theater actress and a producer. Though she is mostly known for her role as Carrie Bradshaw she starred in many movies, just a couple resent examples include State and Main (2000), The Family Stone (2005), Smart People (2008), and Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009).
But still for me SJP is all about Sex and the City. For her role as Carrie Sarah Jessica Parker got several awards: she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Emmy Awards. Her success as Carrie Bradshaw also helped her to break into fashion and model industry: she became the face of many of the world's biggest fashion brands, she designed and launched her own clothing line Bitten and released several of her own fragrances. Sarah Jessica Parker is also combining an amazing career as a successful actress, fashionista and entrepreneur with being a wife and Mom. She is just awesome and is a role model for many women!


Isn’t it amazing, the charm and power that this woman has! I was just wondering what is it about her that we like so much!? I love her charm, she simply combines uncombinable - she is glamorous, stylish, sexy and at the same time shy, open-hearted, friendly and has this girl-next-door feel to her. She is a dream girlfriend!


I have to say, to me Sarah Jessica Parker looks perfect on the screen, her every gesture, how she walks, holds a purse, tries on shoes is just perfect! I also admire how fit she is. Damn, SJP has a beautiful lean body. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever come across a mention of her work-out routine: is it Pilates or Yoga or just great genes? Or maybe it’s the ballet training she got as a young girl?
You know what else is inspiring? How damn great she looks for her age!

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Oscar Night Red Carpet Photos 2010 Sarah Jessica Parker

Now you know I love me some Carrie Bradshaw, but I'm so not loving SJP's Oscar look. It's another great lesson on how the texture of the makeup is as important as the colors themselves. There is an undeniable heaviness to her eye shadows and liner that overpower her eyes making them look smaller. I would've done away with the drop shadow under her eyes (no liner or color underneath), and then given her a bigger false lash to open her eyes and draw the focus upward. She's way too pretty to look like she's drowning in heavy makeup.

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Oscar Night Red Carpet Photos 2010; Sandra Bullock

Red isn't the only color on the menu when it comes to punching up those lips. Sandra Bullock wore a bold pink hue on her lips which complimented her platinum gown and carnation pink cheeks. Beige tones brought her eyes out beautifully without overpowering the look. It wasn't a safe choice, but it was the right one. Just a little extra color on the face can make a huge difference, try something bold and have fun with makeup.

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Oscar Night Red Carpet Photos 2010 Kathryn Bigelow

Kathryn Bigelow is the first women to win an Oscar for Best Director, she was favored to win and she knew the night was hers. Somewhere along the way while putting together her look for the night, she decided to break from tradition and wear her hair *gasp* down. While the norm in formal hair is to wear it up, don't worry so much about rules. If you have a personal style that works for you, stick with it, I'm sure she felt comfortable and more like herself (plus she looked fantastic). The only rule left is that there aren't rules anymore when it comes to your personal style.

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Angelina Jolie’s Long Lost Teenage Modeling Photos

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