Summer Skin Essentials

Here are a few of my skin essentials for summer whether you are staying in your own country or travelling abroad.

Facial Sprays

Mario Badescu facial spray is a recent buy for me and I feel there may be a bit of a hype around this product but I was intrigued to give it a go. On first application with makeup, my skin did sting for about 10 seconds but that is because I have sensitive skin. I definitely believe this is an ideal product to take on your carry-on luggage as it refreshes your face but also your hair and body!

MUA pro-base fixing mist is a great budget setting spray for keeping your makeup in place throughout the day. I apply the spray after applying makeup quite liberally which in turn does make your face look quite wet but once it has set it is a great product.

Highlighters

MAC ‘Soft & Gentle’ mineralise skin finish so this is my first and trusted highlighter it has amazing payoff which can be built upon for a subtle glow to a highlighted goddess! I’ve had this product for months and I’ve hardly made a dent in it. Well worth the money in my opinion.

Revolution vivid baked highlighter so this is a more pinky highlighter to the MAC one. I often use this highlighter as a blush as there are pink undertones. It just creates a perfect mix of glowy and pink flush to the cheek.

Pixi by Petra beauty blush duo in ‘Rose Gold’ well this is surely becoming one of my favourite beauty products as there are many ways to use this product. Firstly the gold highlighter side can be used as a highlighter on its own. Secondly, the pink side can be used as a blush for the cheeks or swooshed over the eyes. Finally if your feeling glowy mix it all together for the perfect summer check from day to night.

Benefit Sunbeam highlighter this is a liquid pot of gold perfect for highlighting the highest points of the face as when it catches the light it gives a beautiful golden glow to the skin.  

Mascara 

Superdry lash mascara waterproof so a waterproof mascara is essential to combat sweat, heat and water. I wouldn’t rate this product for giving a whole lot of volume but it has a great brush for lower lashes and precision application if you have got fake or extension lashes on.

NYX colour mascara in ”Brown’ this is a great product to have handy for a more natural look. If you are lounging by the pool and still want some definition. You can get this mascara in your natural eyelash colour or go wacky and pick a bright colour!

Eyeshadow sticks

NYX jumbo eye pencil in ‘Yogurt’ and NYX jumbo eye pencil in ‘Bronze’ they are ideal for travelling as they are highly pigmented and can be used in subtle look or built upon to create nighttime looks.

KIKO long lasting 8 hour no-transfer eyeshadow in ’21’ brilliant budget eyeshadow stick great for blue eyes to make the colour pop. The best bit about it is that it claims to not transfer for 8 hours. Which is great for when in a hot country and you don’t want your makeup halfway down your face.

SPF BB creams and foundations

Olay hydration + BB cream this is a great BB cream to apply either during the day or at night. I would say for a BB cream it has a slightly heavier coverage. it has SPF 15 which is always a bonus on holiday.

Maybelline dream fresh BB cream this BB cream is so light and great for evening out skin tone. I don’t find it drying on the skin and can be used on its own. I would say it has pinky undertones which suits my skin tone but not everybody’s. This product also has SPF 30.

Rimmel fresh skin foundation this can be used as more of a going out at night as it is a foundation so a little more coverage. I feel it is a bit drying on the skin and contains grey undertones which doesn’t suit my skin, unfortunately.  It does, however, give a really natural finish and an SPF of 15.

Pixi by Petra glow booster this is neither a BB cream or foundation but is great under it to create a glowy feel to the skin and is light and dewy.

Brows

Benefit gimme brow this is the only brow product I take on holiday as it’s a perfect size and brings life back to your brows once you’ve done the rest of your makeup.

Lips

MAC Satin lipstick in ‘Spirit’ so I would obviously take more than one lipstick on holiday but this is my essential. It isn’t too matte or drying on the lips but not glossy that your hair gets stuck on it everytime u move!! If you really like nude, brown colours this is the match for you.

Perfume

Mango Passion Eau de perfume we all love to smell fresh in the summer and this is perfect as it’s under 100 ml. It has a real coconut fresh scent that is just a perfect smell for summer not too heavy but no to floraly either.

Escada Fiesta Carioca my favourite scent for summer. Every time I put it on it just reminds me of long hot summers. A perfect blend of fruitiness and lightness.

Hope you have enjoyed this post. Didn’t intend for it to be so long as it was supposed to be essentials! Anyway, hope this gives you some ideas for your next holiday.

Benefit Gimme Brow Review

So recently I was shopping in my local boots (with no makeup on, ahhh!!!) and a lovely benefit lady came over and offered to do my makeup for free. At first I was like oh maybe they will just try a few products out on my hand but no she took me through all the new brow products, which was so interesting and then done my full face of makeup which was so lovely and made my shopping trip even better!!

Once the lady had done my brows, which where so nice I decided to get the gimme brow. Now I had heard a lot of positive things about this product but never bought it so I thought since I had got my brows done and was in Benefit I decided to just bite the bullet and buy it. The main reason that swayed me to buy the product was that it is supposed to tint your eyebrows. So as I am going on holiday in a few weeks I thought I don’t like wearing too much makeup on holiday so making my eyebrows look fuller will be a real plus.

Even if you don’t want to necessarily tint your eyebrows it’s such an easy product to apply to your brows for your everyday makeup. With an easy applicator it helps tidy up brows while making them look fuller without looking fake.

Also a major plus is that it isn’t very big so it can be carried in your makeup bag, handbag and took for travelling. One thing I would say though is that I think £18.50 may be a little much for the size but I suppose in comparison to other brow products is isn’t that expensive.

Hope you liked this blog post cause I love writing about products I’ve been trying for you guys to hear about them. If you have any products you would like me to try and review please leave them in the comments.

 

 

30 Blog Post Ideas

So I think one of the hardest things about starting a blog whether it is about cooking or building is deciding on what your blog post is going to be on. So I decided to do this post to try and give some inspiration on blog posts involving beauty and fashion. Now I’m not going to lie it has been hard trying to think of new blog post ideas to suggest because I don’t want to be doing the same things all the time.

Beauty

1. New product review – I would recommend using this product for about 1-2 weeks before reviewing it and maybe even longer for like cleansing products
2. A round-up of products you use on a daily basis
3. Different make-up looks – Wedding, Spring, Winter a New Make-up Trend
4. Explain what you love about Beauty/Make-up
5.  The reason why you wear make-up 
6. Your make-up wishlist   
7. How you store your makeup – tour of your vanity/drawers
8. Good products for your own skin type
9. Favourite products you have had throughout the month
10. Everyday skincare 

Even posts on hair like:

1. New hair hacks – how to tackle frizzy hair, how to achieve shinier hair
2. Hairstyles for occasions 
3. Haircare routine 
4. Products to help dry/oily hair 
5. Different types of hair brushes – how best to use them
6. Simple tutorials – how to curl or pleat

 

Fashion

1. Get ready with me – don’t need to to makeup just clothes or you could do clothes, hair and make-up
2. OOTD – showing your favourite outfit for the gym, parties or just for round the house
3. Your favourite celebrity looks 
4. Lookbooks – Summer, Spring, Winter, Autumn
5. Sharing types of clothing from different cultures
6. Clothing haul
7. Fashion wishlist – clothes you really love from designer brands

 

Food

1. New health trends 
2. A food you have been loving recently
3. Sharing a recipe – could be anything from sweet, healthy or savoury
4. Giving advice on a food – how to cook it, eat it or prepare it
5. Sharing a healthy eating plan
   
6. Showing benefits of certain foods
7. Helpful on the go food tips

Best Matte Lipsticks

Now I cannot express how much I am in love with matte lips right now but I am finding it extremely hard to find the perfect matte lipstick! I really want the Kylie lip kits but I can’t afford the shipping on them to the U.K. So that’s a no go which is sad. Although I have seen the tricks of putting powder on top of lip gloss but it just doesn’t seem to work on my lips they just go all chapped.

My favourite matte lipstick that I own currently is ‘Mac Velvet Teddy’ this is the best and lasts on my lips but the only down side is I can’t go out and buy new Mac lipsticks every time I feel like it because of money!! So I have been scouring lower budget shops and brands to try find the perfect matte lipstick.

Now I was so excited to do this post because this weekend I found NYX in my local boots shop!! Which I was so excited about so I went and bought the soft matte lip cream in San Paulo and just the matte lipstick in MLS33 – Spirit but I am a little annoyed that I didn’t buy more because they are just so good!! They have a good balance of being matte enough but having enough moisture.

The last lipstick I bought was the Sleek – Matte Me in Shabby Chic. I love the colour of this lipstick but it is very dry on the lips. I put it on just by itself to try it when I first bought it and it was really dry but I just thought it was my dry lips so when I put it on again I applied Nivea Hydro Care on my lips under the lipstick to see if it would make the difference and I have to say it helped in the short time but as the day went on my lips did start to get dry again!!

Hope this post has helped with finding lower budget matte lipsticks but if you have any other suggestions on good matte lipsticks please leave comments and I’ll be sure to check them out!! Hope you have had a good weekend and thanks for reading xx

How Do You Clean Your Brushes?

Hello you lovely people!! So to the answer to the title I think is that it’s totally up to you how you clean your brushes but I do think there are a few guidelines to follow when cleaning them. Which I am going to show you today. But I don’t want this post to have to much writing because I think continuous blocks of writing can be boring for you to read so I’ll stop rambling and get to the post 😊

Here are my brushes that I felt were in need of a long over due wash!! Well I know that you can go out and buy all these products to clean your brushes but I think a good old fashion sink of water and soap will do the trick!!

 

Step 1: I filled my sink with warm water and added preferably baby soap but I ran put so just used really soft sensitive soap that I had handy.

*Sorry I took all my pictures for this post last night and when I went to upload them they were all gone so sorry!! Not going to be a “more pictures, less writing” post this time!! 😦

 

Step 2: If I had pictures I would be showing: just putting the brushes into the water and trying not to dip them in to far so that the bristles become loose but if you do by accident just quickly dry the brush with  a towel.

 

Step 3: Once I had repeated step 2 with all my brushes (which took forever!!)  I gently dabbed them with a very nice blue towel – NOT!

 

Step 4: Now I just lay all my brushes out flat to let them dry off in time for the morning when I do my makeup!!

I hope you enjoyed this post on brush cleaning I know it’s quite short and I don’t even know if it’s right but it works for me. Thanks for reading and leave comments if you have any ideas for my next blog post! 🙂 xx

 

 

 

 

 

Top 5 Favourite Mascaras

Hello guys and welcome back to my blog today I am talking about my favourite mascaras and having a bit of a rant about how I find it hard to buy mascaras because of all the celebrity endorsements and adverts!! I have to admit I don’t really know what mascaras to buy when one of my favourites has run out because I feel that celebrities and all the biased adverts influence my decisions when going to buy products. This doesn’t just apply to mascaras I feel this way towards most products. I don’t know if it’s just me who feels like this but if you have similar views please feel free to post any comments.

So onto my favourite mascaras. The first one I have chosen to show you is the Clinique High Impact mascara. And by the way this is not in any sort of order there just what I picked out my makeup collection first. So this mascara I first got as a little sample and I would advise this as more of an everyday mascara instead of an ultra black night mascara. The product is really easy to apply to the eyelashes and does lengthen and oh my goodness my pretty much number one thing – IT DOESN’T CLUMP!!! I’m sorry I know people like this effect on the eye but I’m not a big fan!!

Now my next mascara is the Benefit They’re Real. So this was my ‘holiday’ mascara which I truly fell in love with over the summer. When I go on holiday I don’t tan immensely but I do get a little colour so I need a darker mascara to make my eyelashes look like there actually there!! This definitely does make your eyelashes longer but be careful that none of the excess mascara on the brush makes your eyelashes clump together.

My next favourite mascara is the Soap and Glory – Thick and Fast. I only just got this mascara actually it’s probably my newest mascara and I know you might be thinking this is a bit early to be adding this to your favourites but I really did love it from the moment I put it on. I kind of just bought this on a whim one day when I needed a night time mascara which I think it is. The brush is really thick which is good to layer the mascara on the eyelashes which is ideal for a more darker night time look.

My second last mascara is the Maybelline Sensational mascara which is definitely my impact all black mascara which I usually wear when I already have quite dark eye shadow on and I don’t want to wear fake lashes. So a recommendation from Fashion & Face!!

My last mascara is the B. Longer – lengthening and defining mascara. This is the best mascara for getting right into the inner corner eyelashes because of it’s long wand which is so good and no need for fiddling with the wand to fit round your eyes. Only downside is that the mascara does smell quite a bit!!

Thanks for reading another blog post, hope you are enjoying what I having been saying about products and please make sure to keep in mind these are all my opinions and this is not an ad for any of these products. xx

My Real Techniques Make up Brushes

So I’ve decided to do my next post on makeup brushes, to be honest I didn’t really know what to do the post on – either fashion or beauty? So please help me out and leave comments on what I should do my posts on! Thank you xx

I think that makeup brushes can make or break a look. There are hundreds of different types of brushes out there and I find it all very confusing so I have tried to break down my brush collection to be more understandable! *DISCLAIMER* These are my brushes that I have either bought myself or got as a present so I don’t have the most expensive collection or by no means the largest!

Face Brushes

Real Techniques Pointed Foundation Brush – I use this brush to apply my liquid foundtion. I use it if I want to build up more coverage if I’m going out or have a busy day.

Real Techniques Blush Brush – This blush brush is a really good size to apply a shimmery blusher just to add the extra shimmer on top of your original blush.

Real Techniques Contour Brush – Contour has only really started to hit the mainstream makeup looks recently but it is a really good thing to be able to do even if it is tricky. Because there are so many different contour brushes I haven’t really had a chance to try the variety of brushes on offer but I do find this brush is very easy to use.

Real Techniques Buffing Brush – This was my first makeup brush that I ever got and it is still one of my favourites. This brush is ideal for really buffing the product into your skin to get a really natural and perfect base!

Real Techniques Sculpting Brush – This brush I don’t use very often to be honest because I have quite a lot of brushes in this shape but when I do use it I mostly use if for applying foundation! (which is probably wrong) It is good for getting the foundation into the contours of the face which is good for making sure your foundation isn’t patchy.

Real Techniques Bold Metals Collection 101 Triangle Foundation Brush – This is another great product from Real Techniques with the angle to the brush it is brilliant to get an even coverage on your face from around the nose to under the eyes.

Real Techniques Fan Brush – This fan brush is not the biggest but it is really good for brushing away any excess eye shadow which has fallen out onto my face but I also use it to apply a little highlighter if I just want a sutle shimmer to the high points of my face!

Real Techniques Bold Metals Collection 100 Arched Powder – Again this brush is fantastic! It is really big and so soft so it doesn’t irritate my face and it is also perfect for applying powder all over the face. What else could you ask for!?

Real Techniques Bold Metals Collection 301 Flat Contour – As I was saying earlier I have many of these kind of contour brushes and I find them very useful and they are very versatile.

Real Techniques Bold Metals Collection 300 Tapered Blush – This is probably my favourite blush brush because it is ideal for applying how ever much product you want on your face it is just the right size to cover the apples of the check so I think I always have just the right amount of blusher on!

Eye Brushes

This following collection is a handy and very beginner proof collection and all the brushesare pretty straight forward to use.

Real Techniques Base Shadow Brush – This is the first of my essential eye brushes. This is just the best to apply any base colour onto your eye.

Real Techniques Deluxe Crease Brush – This is my second essential eye brush. This is the perfect size just to apply the darker colour onto the crease to make it more defined.

Real Techniques Accent Brush – This brush I mostly use for applying lipsticks or lip balm pretty straight forward nothing fancy!

Real Techniques Fine Liner Brush – The name pretty much gives it away! This brush is ideal for a fine line of eyeliner to create a thicker lash line.

Real Techniques Brow Brush – Because I don’t do my eyebrows very often (because I am terrible at them!) I sometimes use this brush to start my flick for the eyeliner!

Real Techniques Bold Metals Collection 200 Oval Shadow
Real Techniques Bold Metals Collection 201 Pointed Crease

These are the last of my brush collection and I just grouped them together because I use them mostly just for blending I don’t really have much else to say about them apart from that they are very good just like all of the Real Techniques products!

I’m so sorry I have kinda just realised that most of my brushes are Real Techniques I think it is just because I got a lot of brushes for my Christmas so yeah sorry about that!!!!!

Anyway thanks for reading and make sure to leave comments always here to answer any questions! Thank you xxx

Party Make up & Outfit

Last weekend it was my dad’s birthday so we decided to throw him a party!! This was months in the planning so it was quite a big night!! Since it was such a highlight night in the calendar I needed to get a really nice outfit so here I’m just going to show u what I wore and my makeup and hair so hope you enjoy!! Xx

I decided quite early on I wanted a midi skirt so I trolled the Internet looking for the perfect mini skirt but as usual I couldn’t find anything that went WOW! So me being me
I left it till the week before the actual night to get out and go to the shops. But once I did I found a beautiful white lacy midi skirt from New Look and a blue cobalt trim cami top which I tucked
into the skirt. Once I had decided on my outfit I need to get shoes. This was easier said then done but I did finally get the right pair of shoes from Next. They were the same
colour as my top and tied up my leg  With my
outfit nearly complete I just needed to pick up a classic cardigan in case I got cold.

Before I done my makeup I just curled my hair pretty simple with my Nicky Clarke curling wand with the smallest
wand. Once I curled my hair I just ran my fingers through the curls to loosen them off and give my hair a more relaxed look!

I didn’t really plan my makeup ahead I just kind on done what I felt like on the day of the party so I decided to go a goldy bronzed look with slightly darker at the outer edge of my eye!! I really wanted to apply some fake eyelashes but I just couldn’t get them to stay on and I got really frustrated so had to stop. Which I really regret! For my base I just used my Bourjois foundation (which I swear by!!) and then bronzed up my face slightly using my Seventeen define and conquer palette and a little bit of Collection Little Mix blusher with some Mac soft and gentle highlighter to the high points of my face. Finally on my lip I used Mac Velvet Teddy!!

I have left a list of all my products I used at the bottom of this post

That’s pretty much everything I did except one thing I did do my tan – for the first time ever! Which I used the Rimmel mousse. Which just tied everything together.

Hope you enjoyed this blog post and I’m sorry it’s been so long! Xx

Clothes

New look blue top

White skirt

Next blue shoes and maybe heels

H&M Cardigan

Makeup

Bourjois foundation – vanilla Clair

Revolution eye shadow palette

Urban decay eyeshadow primer

RT miracle completion sponge

Seventeen define me conquer

Collection – little Mix blusher

Mac highlighter – soft and gentle

RT fan brush

RT setting brush

Wake me up concealer

YSL touch èclat

Soap and glory primer

Water spray

Benefit POREfessinal

Sensational mascara

Borjois colourband – tight line

Tan

Rimmel

Dove gradual built up

Hair

Nicky Clarke hair curlers – smallest one

Ran fingers through each curl to make them more loose

Tres emme heat defence