My Holy Grail Foundation: Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation

I’ve been meaning to do this review for as long as I can remember but now is the time to talk about the beautiful Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation, my holy grail!

If you’ve been following me for a while… who’d thought I’ve ever part away from my beloved Estee Lauder Double Wear eh… I still love it, but I was on the look out for something a bit more natural, lightweight and with no SPF in.

I first discovered Luminous Silk when I was browsing for a last minute foundation for my wedding at the end of October last year. I popped into Selfridges and the make-up artist applied it to my skin. The colour match was perfect (number 2), which is quite hard for me to come by, as I’m that really awkward pale skin tone that isn’t ivory pale, but in between the levels of pink-toned paleness. I’ve been told my skin tone is ‘Alabaster’ but it’s incredibly hard to find a foundation that matches my skin. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised with the colour match, coverage and finish. It looked very natural, dewy and looked amazing on. It also felt so weightless, like I had nothing on.

I did indeed wear it on my wedding day and I haven’t stopped wearing it since! I honestly wear it everyday without fail.

(Apologies for the bad quality photo, but this was me on my wedding day at about 7pm, the foundation still looks amazing and glowy and I didn't touch it up or anything!) 

It’s pretty pricey at £40.00 a pop, but so so worth it! It really does give your skin that beautiful natural glow. And, mine is still going strong 7 months later with loads still left in it. So when you think about how long it lasts, the price isn't too bad... that's my excuse anyway.

So, if you’re in the market for a new weightless natural foundation, I’d highly recommend trying this one. As it’s pretty expensive, I’d recommend stopping by a counter and trying them out before you buy.

As always you can follow me @zoeyoliviablog to see what I get up to daily. You can also reach me on twitter: @zoeyoliviablog. Or, if you like Bloglovin', I'm kind of new to it but follow me on there. I also have Pinterest, I'm often procrastinating and pinning my life away... So do get in touch :).

Wedding Planning #5 | Choosing your wedding day make-up

Planning to do your own wedding make-up? Or interested in what I wore on my face? Then keep on reading...

I recently wrote about 'choosing your wedding day lipstick', but after writing it I thought it would be useful to talk about what I wore on my whole face and talk about the daunting task of choosing and doing your own wedding day make-up.

Doing your own make-up on your big day is for sure a stressful task, but if you're fussy like I am it makes perfect sense to do it yourself. I could of had a make-up artist and not worried about my make-up but I thought what if I hate it? What if I have a nervous breakdown and call the wedding off because I didn't like my make-up? Bit dramatic, yes...  But you know your face best, and you know what you like to put on your face.

I trialled more make-up than you could of possibly imagined, but to me that seemed normal as I am a massive make-up fiend anyway.

I began researching on my desired wedding day make-up look back in June last year, so I'd say around six months before my big day was when I started to trial my make-up. Maybe this is a little extreme, but I wanted to get my make-up just right. I wrote about my initial ideas for my hair and make-up back in August here.

Towards the final few weeks, I was set on using my all time favourite foundation, Estee Lauder's Double Wear and then I tried Giorgio Armani's Luminous Silk Foundation two weeks before and decided that was the one. It appeared more natural on the skin and didn't have any SPF in it which was great in case my photographer was using a flash.

I also changed my mind ten million times on what lipstick and blusher I was going to wear. I go into more detail about this in my previous post on 'choosing your wedding day lipstick'.

As well as the daunting task of finding the perfect eyeliner to stay put on my annoyingly watery eyes. I trialled Guerlain's Liquid eyeliner and Bobbi Brown's Long Wear Gel Liner and it was so hard to choose between the two. The struggle was real ladies!

The amount of eyeshadows I bought and ended up wearing my all time favourite from NARS' Limited Edition Laser Cut eye, cheek and lip palette that I got a few years back...

Sometimes you may already have it in your bag. So experiment with what you've got, try new things and make sure it's what you want. It's your wedding, your face, so do the look that's going to make you feel like a million dollars on the day.

Also, do experiment with your bridesmaids! Two of my bridesmaids came over a few weeks before the wedding and we did our make-up together. It was great to get their opinions and ensure we were all happy with what was going on our faces. It was also nice to talk about other beauty related things, such as 'What nail varnish should I go for?' 'Should I spice things up with a red lip in the evening?' 'Will this look go with my bridesmaid dress'. There's lots of things to consider in the beauty department and it's great to bounce off other peoples ideas and opinions.

My wedding make-up was very natural yet provided enough coverage to cover any blemishes or dark circles. I went for coral-nude shades with a teeny bit of sparkle on the eye lids. I wanted to rock a winged eye as it's my go to too. I wanted that 1940's look, yet very natural and pretty.

Here's what I wore on my face. Let's start with the base, I moisturised with my Environ AVST moisturiser and then primed with my Urban Decay All Nighter make-up setting spray to ensure everything would stay put all day. I then chose Giorgio Armani's Luminous Silk Foundation for a natural radiant glow, as well as concealing those pesky blemishes and dark circles with my NARS trusty creamy concealer (I could not live without this!). I left it for five minutes before applying Laura Mercier's Translucent Loose Powder to ensure my foundation and concealer wasn't going to slide around.
I also applied a teeny bit of my Hourglass' Ambient Ethereal Light Powder too.

After that, I applied my holy grail Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush in Dim Infusion and my Mary Lou Manizer highlighter on my cheekbones, underneath the brows and on the cupids bow.

For the eyes, I applied my Maxfactor cream eyeshadow and then applied a beautiful gold shade from my NARS Laser Cut eye, cheek and lip palette. I then winged it out with the Bobbi Brown Long Lasting Gel Eyeliner and applied this to my waterline too.

For my lips, I prepped my lips with Charlotte Tilbury's Lip Cheat Lip Liner in the shade 'Pillow Talk and then applied my lovely Chanel Rouge Coco in the shade 402 Adrienne. To make my lips appear fuller and plump, I applied Chanel's clear lipgloss on top.

I then spritzed my face with the Urban Decay All Nighter setting spray again and that was the look complete!

I also trialled another 'Bridal make-up look for Pale Skin & Brown Eyes' here if you're interested. I don't go into detail about the products but it's a sped up video on the look I was going to go for.
Perhaps I'll create another video on my actual wedding day make-up in the near future. If that's something you would like to see then do let me know :).

If you're interested in reading more about my wedding experiences, I blogged about mine and Joe's initial ideas here. As well as my initial hair and make-up ideas here. And last but not least, the stressful period with eight weeks to go, you can read about that one here.

As always you can reach me on social media. I have Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog, and twitter: @zoeyoliviablog.

Bridal Makeup for Pale Skin & Brown Eyes

I apologise if my blog has been a little 'wedding heavy' lately and I'm really sorry if it's not your thing, but it's all I can think about at the moment!! I promise I will get back on the fashion hauls, lookbooks and travel vlogs in due course. Or if you are enjoying them, please do let me know :).

In my last blog post, I spoke about my bridal make-up must-haves and the look I want to go for. I want something fairly natural with a winged eye and a nudey-pinky lip during the day, and I'll potentially wear a red lip in the evening.



I have created a little trial of what my bridal day make-up may look like. Also this may help any other future brides out there who have pale skin, brown eyes or ginger locks.

I've listed all the products I've used in the Youtube description bar, so do take a peek if you're interested. Any who, on a totally unrelated note, I'm going to watch the Olympics for the rest of the evening, Murray's playing and I'm a big fan... Can he get another gold?! We shall find out in an hour or two.

Zoey

Feel free to follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :).