Merry Christmas!!!

ByHester blog is having a little Christmas holiday,

but I will be back in the New Year with lots of beauty tips,

lifestyle shots and with HHH, HesterHomemadeHome.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!!

Eyeliner tutorial

 

One of the questions I get asked most is; How do you apply an eyeliner?



Applying an eyeliner is dead simple, especially if you use a gel or liquid one.
I love using the Bobbi Brown gel eyeliners, the soft formula is easy to apply and when dry the liner becomes waterproof. I just gave that a little test and after a soaking wet dog walk my eyeliner is still in perfectly place, cant say the same about my hair though ;)

 

 

The Bobbi Brown Long Wear Gel eyeliners come in 13 different colours, I'm wearing the Black Mauve the colour is still intense but not as hard as a black eyeliner. Have a look at all the colours here. I also love the Ivy and Denim ones.

You apply the gel eyeliner with a little brush, Bobbi Brown sell a special one to go with the eyeliner, but I like using Shu Uemura's 4F brush. This is a very flat small brush that gets the colour right to your lash line.

 



 

Apply the gel eyeliner to your little brush and press the brush against your lash line. Instead of trying to draw one straight line (almost impossible) draw small brush strokes, just wiggle your brush from left to right in short strokes. Its so much easier to get a nice straight line this way.

 



For the winged bit  follow the line of your lower lashes with your brush and put a little dot of eyeliner down. Now join the dot to your eyeliner, once again by using short brush strokes. First you join it up to the corner of your eye. Then you join it up to the eyeliner. And there you go a lovely winged eyeliner!

The trickiest part is yet to come..... making sure your two eyeliners match :)
That's where these come in handy

DHC make these olive oil infused cotton buds, they are individually wrapped and make it very easy to take away any wonky eyeliner wings or smudges. Just wipe the part of liner away you're not happy with. Pat dry with a tissue and try again. If you go wrong remember its just makeup not a tattoo, dodgy liners are easily removed and reapplied, practise does make perfect.
For more info on the olive oil infused cotton swabs click here.

And there you go, your party makeup sorted.

Hope all you ByHester readers have a wonderful Christmas!

Esprit Christmas

 

How cute are these pictures of the Esprit Kids Christmas campaign?

Shot by Stefano Azario, styled by Jet Vervest and Hair and Makeup by me.

 

Hesters Homemade Home: quilt

Have you guys had a good look at the date today? 12/12/12 Indeed its the last triple sequence date you and I will ever see! So what to post on this special date? I tutorial on how to make a comfy quilt? Okay here it goes,


 

 

A while ago Martha Stewart Living magazine had an article about using bandanna's in the house and I thought wouldn't a bandanna quilt be a lovely thing to have, last week I finally came round to making one.

I ordered a couple of bandanna's of Ebay, unfortunately when they arrived I noticed the blue was very dark and didn't go with the grey and white. Not to worry you can always lighten colours with a bleach bath. Just mix water and bleach in a bucket 1part bleach to 10 parts water and let sit for a few minutes, the bandanna's all changed colours in different ways and different times, One even didn't change at all!

The result, some lovely vintage looking bandanna's. After the bleach bath was the fabric in the machine on a short cycle to make sure all the bleach has gone.

(as you can see I put in a different fabric with the bandanna' as well, why waste your bleach ;)

 

 

Iron your bandanna's and lay them out to make a nice colour pattern. As you can see I had some help from Kermit the dog :)

 

 

Now you are ready to start sewing, first off all make the horizontal strips. Pin the sides of the bandanna's together and sew. Iron the seams open otherwise your quilt will get lumps and bumps.

 

Even though my bandanna's all came from the same shop they still differr in size big time, keep an eye on that otherwise you'll get a wonky end result.

Once your horizontal strips are done, you can pin them all together to make your quilt. Once again iron open the seams. Cut your wadding to the same size of your quilt and prepare the backing. I used a plain white sheet. Your backing has to be bigger then the quilt as this will also make the borders. Put your backing down with the wadding on top, topped by the quilt. Fold the backing over twice to make the border, fold the corners neatly and pin. Stitch the border.

 

 

 

Now you can make the decorative stitches, I followed the squares on the bandanna's the get the quilted effect. But you could free style as well.

 

So there you go a very easy to make but lovely bandanna quilt!!

 

 

Once again mister Kermit didn't want to move, maybe proof the quilt is very comfy ;)



Brides magazine

 

This lovely bridal story is out in this months Brides magazine by Conde Nast.

Shot by Ian Derry, styled by Bryony Toogood and hair & makeup by me.

Did you notice all the girls (big and small) have their hair in a bow? This is such a great way to

wear you hair this holiday season. I will put a tutorial on the blog later this week.

Sinterklaas Speculaas

Sinterklaas postcard by Freddie Langeler

 

Yeay its the 5th of December which only means one thing, its Sinterklaas!!!!
Over in Holland today is the day that St Nicholas brings you your presents, maybe even a sarcastic poem, and if you been naughty well then just some coal for you or Sinterklaas might even take you back to his native Spain! Want to read a bit more about this Dutch tradition have a look at Wikipedia here.

Besides presents the 5th of December is filled with Sinterklaas sweeties! Last year I blogged a recipe of pepernoten, a very small spied cookie. This year I bring you almond filled speculaas. A soft spiced dough filled with sweet almonds, this will truly bring you in the December mood.

 

 

This recipe uses speculaas spices, a spice mix you can buy in any Dutch shop but more difficult to find anywhere else in the world. To make your own mix together: 30gr cinnamon, 10gr ground nutmeg, 10gr ground clove, 5gr ground coriander seeds, 5gr white pepper, 5 gr ground aniseed Store in an airtight container.

 

You will need:

250gr self raising flour

125 gr sugar (dark brown if you can find it)

1 table spoon of speculaas spices

150gr of cold butter

1 pack of almond spijs (300gr of Dr.Oetker)  You can make your own if your shop doesn't sell this.Ground together 125gr of almonds and 125gr of sugar.

2 eggs

Almonds to decorate

baking tin of 20cmx20cm, I used a round one as I don't own a square one.

 

Okey to make this delicious spiced almond filled pie you,

* Mix flour, sugar, speculaas spices and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Add the butter and with two knives, slice the butter in the flour until you have a crumb like dough. With cold hands mix this together until you have a ball of dough.

*Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for an hour

*Make your Almond mix, or use the store bought one, mix in an egg to create a paste.

*Preheat the oven to 170C

*Use your rolling pin to roll 2/3 of the dough in a square or circle, depending on your tin, and put the dough in your baking tin. Fill with the almond paste, use a spoon to distribute evenly.

*Roll out the rest of the dough and cover, crimp the sides so the pie is closed properly.

*Decorate with almonds and give it a egg yolk wash.

*Bake for 35 minutes in the middle of the oven.

 

There you have it, all you need to celebrate Sinterklaas tonight!!
Have fun and I hope you get lots of presents!!