The sleek contour kit in ' light' feat. the realtechniques contour brush

Before I go into this post can we just appreciate this amazing Vogue cover of Emilia Clarke?!  Okay appreciation done.... Last week I bought my first ever contour kit, being super white I've always been quite sceptical about contouring because the highlight shade just isn't going to do anything for me..... I saw the nars contour kits and was kinda like... hmm... maybe I should try one?! but at around £30 quid I just couldn't justify it. So I turned to google and found the MUCH cheaper sleek option.  I've used a sleek blush before so I knew to be quite light with the amount of product used. I found this shade quite...orange? I'm not overly sold on it, maybe I need a little more practice or perhaps a more rosy-hue'd product. as I thought the highlight didn't show too much but that really can't be blamed on the product as I use the lightest shades going. The contouring shade is matte which I really like and the highlight does have some shimmer to it so although it doesn't show up heaps on me I get a nice little shimmer going.  I will say this brush is GORGEOUS. oh god, it's so much softer then I even dreamed, it blends in amazingly. It's a bit of a splurge at £22 but honestly if you're going to get a contour brush make it this one.  I kinda loosely followed the patterns that come with the contour kit and I did like the contour but I definitely need more practice. This is a great starter kit for someone like me just trying to get into this. I found contouring the nose really simple, but my jaw looked kinda weird I think because of the orangey hue, and I won't like I don't really know how contouring my cheeks is any different from putting on bronzer?! Just me?!  any tips for a beginner?  Ciao x  Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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February 2015 favourites

It's that time again!! Favourites! First I will start with the Charlotte Tilbury Palette in 'Vintage Vamp', I hadn't used this for a while and suddenly started loving having burgundy eyes this month! I always love using the pearl shade in my inner corners - it's just perfect to give my eyes that little pop!  next up we have the 'Boi-ing' concealer, I just love this under my eyes all soft and creamy it blends perfectly, This isn't fantastic on spots I find I prefer the collection 2000 concealer for that but this is a firm favourite!  Ever since I got Charlotte Tilburys 'Amazing grace' lipstick I haven't really wanted to wear any other pink. I just love this shade so much and it goes with most make up looks!  This month I have been loving my new Realtechniques brushes, in particular the crease brush which I find is also the perfect under eye brush, it's firmness means it's exccellent for smudging and blending too!! I really want to try out their contouring brush! And lastly a non-beauty favourite is RuPauls drag race, I may have become sliiightly obsessed with this after Jemma told me to watch it! I can't wait for the new season to start in March!!  What have been your favourites this month??  Ciao darlings x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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RealTechniques Bold Metals Review

This is such an unexpected post, on Thursday I received 4 of the stunning Realtechniques bold metals brushes in the post. I had absolutely no idea where they came from and a major panic I had somehow ordered them in my sleep or something! Checked all my boots accounts and no it wasn't me! I was so overwhelmed that someone would get something so beautiful for me and after some investigation - it turned out it was two of my besties from back home who wanted to surprise me with a late birthday and christmas gift!! I was so shocked and I feel so blessed to have such amazing friends! I have been having a hard time lately and these were the perfect pick me up. They have put the biggest stupid grin on my face even in these times. I had been lusting after these for a while but couldn't afford to get them! They got me the 200 oval shadow, 201 pointed crease, 202 angled liner and 300 tapered brush. The last one is rose gold, and oh my gosh - I have such an obsession with it that me and Jemma(Dorkface) cannot stop talking about all the different rose gold things we want! These brushes are honestly gorgeous and so soft. I really wasn't sure about the price for the more expensive brushes but after feeling the tapered brush I think I am going to have to dig deep in my wallet and invest in the other brushes! What I really love is the size of the angled liner, I hadn't looked at it before but it is a lot smaller then a usual angled brush, I find them too large to do under my eye usually; so this is going to be the perfect size to help me acheive a smokey eye look this year! ( that's one of my beauty resolutions!) The silver brushes aren't as bank breaking as the other brushes so if you do want to invest I would suggest these all 3 that I have are amazing brushes! I think I may actually use the oval shadow to start highlighting my face a little more as it is quite a large eyeshadow brush and I do really need to get into highlighting.... this may also mean a cheeky purchase of the hourglass highlight palette. Have you guys got any of these beautiful brushes? & Happy Valentines lovelies ( I'll be spending it with pizza and my cat - the cat lady dream!) Ciao x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Beauty: 2014 favourites.

Beauty: Autuminal Favourites

I know I have been off the blogging radar, I got a new laptop and can't seem to get photoshop on it, to edit my pictures so I may have to get back to the old laptop again....I am pretty useless with technology!

So a lot of people are going on about their Autumn favourites and there are some excellent selections going on. Of course we all have the standard dark A/W lip, I know a lot of people are going for berry's but this dark brick red ( MAC's hearts aflame) is the one for me this Autumn( if you want a cheaper version look at the Kate Moss for Rimmel collection 07).  My daily lip is MAC's Yield to love, I love a good Mauve ( I've probably said this countless times) - mylipbutbetter. Anybody have a few good Mauve's to recommend? Illamasque seem to have some good ones going!

I got this rimmel bronzer to replace my beloved topshop bronzer and its perfect! I always prefer a bronzed cheek to a blush and this is quite subtle, I was debating the bodyshop honey bronzer but I was broke and this was cheaper...what's new? but it was a great decision, same quality! On top of this I have been loving dabbling the Rimmel stay blushed! I am going to do a review of this because I love this so much more then I ever anticipated.

A few weeks on and I am still wildly in love with the Naked basics 2, it actually hurts to debate using another palette, like I feel like such a judas I have to find a way to sneak this one in as well. I think it's brilliant to do a simple shadow sweep a long with the brick red or a brown smokey cateye with the mauve.

And lastly I have fallen back in love with my Realtechniques blush brush! I always put this aside for my Kabuki brush but recently this has been coming out on top.

What are your favourites?

Ciao xo

15.09.2014

The Daily Face

Beauty: Rose Golden Zoeva Brush set review

Since these were released I was like. I NEED. Not only are they rose gold ( I seem to have some strange obsessed with) but the overall set was made of brushes I genuinely wanted ( I also really wanted to enlarge my brush collection.)
BUT.
When I finally got the money to afford them, they had made the vlogging/blogging rounds and that was it. SOLD OUT. I was gutted. Not going to lie, these were due back in in april and I refreshed that page everyday on holiday to make sure I didn't miss out.
And I wasn't disappointed.

You get 8 beautifully soft brushes and two bags - one a leather clutch and another is just a standard drawstring bag. ( I haven't found a purpose for this one yet/)
The brushes are:
Face:
106 Powder: Apply loose and pressed powder
102 Silk Finish: Apply and blend foundation
110 Face Shape: Contour the face shape with cream and powder products
127 Luxe Sheer Cheek: Apply powder blush
142 Concealer Buffer: Apply and blend concealer

Eyes:
227 Soft Definer: Softly blend and smooth eyeshadow
231 Petit Crease: Accentuating and blending in the crease
317 Wing Liner: Detailed eyeliner strokes and a perfect wing

I have tried out most of these brushes, not only are they the softest brushes ever but they are GOOD. I tested out the 102 brush against the Realtechniques expert face brush with both foundations I have, I found it fared better with the more liquidy foundation rather then the Lord and Berry which doesn't really run, however it did spread well but not as well as the realtechniques but pretty close. The powder one works just as well if not better then my MAC brush, I will only use the MAC one now when taking make up around as it's smaller. and the concealer and cheek brushes are also extremely good, I haven't used a concealer brush before and I am quite enjoying it, though sometimes I think my fingers do work better.

In terms of the eye brushes I haven't used the wing liner as I have two already. However the crease brush I decided to try out and boy did this pick up colour. I wasn't expecting the brush to take on as much eyeshadow as it did! so much I had to blend it out quite a bit with the soft definer which works well as either a blending brush or a lidsweeper.

This set is 58 euros which I think with P & P came to around £55 quid, so thats like... £8ish a brush? plus a leather clutch, BARGAIN. This set is perfect for those who are getting into make up or expanding on their small brush collections ( like myself.)

I've already picked out 5 other Zoeva brushes I will be getting my hands on! Which do you recommend?

Ciao x

January Haul

Hey guys!
Thought today's blog post would be about some of the things I bought/ was given (for birthday/Christmas) this month! I am in no way trying to brag about anything ( maybe except that I have amazing friends with amazing taste!!)

Okay so first up, I already blogged about some products in this picture, the Naked Flushed, Hello Oxygen foundation and Porefessional so I won't go into these. Also I just realised I bought the jewellery stand to the left which I think once I fully sort out my make up collection and storage I will do a whole post about that. The other stand was also from Urban Outfitters and that was a present from my sister!

So as you can see at the front are some RealTechniques brushes, the blush brush and expert face brush were presents from  work colleagues and I bought the eye-shadow brush as I had just lost my topshop one. The main thing I can say is, believe the hype about these brushes. I watched a lot of beauty bloggers/vloggers go on about these and I was like...are they really that good? I always used to use my fingers when applying foundation and I heard it helped add oils from your fingers to your face and at the time I had a really oily face all the time, also I had a MAC foundation brush and it was taking forever for me to get it all on and set on my face and when you have 20 minutes to get ready in the morning that's not ideal. The expert face brush is a revelation if you were to buy your first brush make it this one! I also found the eye-shadow brush picks up heaps more pigment then my Topshop one however I don't feel like it blends it as well so I usually have to go over the edges with a blending brush.

Secondly there are a few nail products: two Essie nail polishes and a nail buffer. One of my new year beauty resolutions is to take better care of my nails. So I bought a new Essie base coat ( it's the hydration one) and a buffer so I can start giving myself some proper manicures. The Essie nail colour is called ' All Tied Up' and if you go to Fragrance Direct most of the nail polishes are only £2.50!!!

The last couple of products are the Rimmel Scandaleyes, Lush Santa Scrub and MACs Sable frost eye-shadow. First of all I LOVE this eye shadow it was a gift from my friends and I had eyed it up for my palette. It's perfect for an everyday eye-shadow or even mixing with a darker shade for going out. The Lush santa scrub tastes DELICIOUS however I always wipe it off as you have lots of little dead skin once you've truly started to rub it in so the joy of taste is short-lived.  Lastly the Scandaleyes, to be honest I am still deciding how I feel about this, the brush shape is slightly weird and I can't decide if it is any better then my false lash mascara, I think I won't be repurchasing this.

Next up is this Oxblood bag from Topshop, this was a gift and I had always wanted a bag that opens up like a doctors bag, you know the way the sides are together when its closed and open into a sort of rectangle shape?! Maybe I'm a little weird like that but the fact the bag does this makes me insanely happy. It's the perfect sized bag and I generally can fit everything I need for the day in it, the way it closes also means no rain will get in and living in Manchester this is essential!!

These shoes I had been eyeing up for a while, I used to have some gorgeous ankle boots from River Island which I wore to death and I had been hunting for ages for a brown ankle boot replacement. Something about brown ankle boots in winter, I don't know! These were on sale from Topshop for £25 - I couldn't resist! I would just say is someone has laced these up mighty weird as the laces come from the bottom of the shoe not the top.

Lastly are two items of clothing both from Topshop, being January I was pretty broke so I couldn't go on mad ones, if you remember my last lust haves both these items featured and I got them both in the sale, the trousers for a tenner and the dress for £15. Happy days!

So that's all I've been buying/receiving. Even though I need to be careful with money in Feb I have eye'd up a lot of MAC products that may need to be mine.....

What have you guys been buying? Or what did you get for christmas that you loved??

Ciao x

Beauty: Review - Lord and Berry Foundation & Benefit Hello Flawless Foundation

Hello everyone!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Hope you all had an amazing christmas and new year. I got back yesterday from home and it was loverrrly. 

I got some really amazing presents like some GHDs and a MAC Palette, some bags, a new wallet and so many other gorgeous things! 

Today I got two cheeky shades for my MAC palette that I will feature quicky. I went to MAC with the aim to get Cranberry as I had a £10 voucher. However they were out of stock!! Gutted so immediately I fell in love with Plum Dressing, however I have a list of shades I wanted, and thought it might be more practical to get a brown shade that was on the list, that I could use for my brows.So it was Head Vs Heart: when we looked at Haux there was one in stock. it was like fate..... it became mine!! ....And so did Plum Dressing. Oops. 

Anyway!! Let's get onto the main reason for this post. 

So last year I was looking for a new foundation to swap too as I felt that throughout the day the L'oreal True Match was getting quite oily and I could feel it sat on my skin. 

So Lord and Berry had a creme foundation I was really interested in and with fate again my foundation ran out the day before I went home, Luckily there was a stand in Dubai mall. So I bought the foundation and thought sweeeeet. ITS GOT A SCREW CAP. because one of my biggest pet peeves is the lid coming off my foundation and it spilling all over my other make up. So the shade I got was almond, which isn't the shade I wanted I think it was a little darker but a white girl in a sunny country, obviously they wont stock my shade. I got the shade anyway and when i first used it my initial thought was its thick. It came out a lot thicker then the L'oreal. However with the RealTechniques expert face brush is spread beauuuuutifully on my face. The shade didn't look wrong either which I was chuffed with. So all in all loved it. 

HOWEVER. 

On christmas eve I was going to do a cheeky top up and sometimes when trying to squeeze out product it would get quick stuck and hardly anything would come out. so I went to do my top up and this was a time nothing was coming out so..... naturally. I squeezed a little harder then. BOOM. EXPLOSION. foundation was EVERYWHERE. Absolutely gutted. That photo is the aftermath!  I went back to the store to see if I could get one exchange and it had gone!!! Couldn't believe it!! So whilst walking around the mall my mate said she had the Stay Flawless Foundation from Benefit, I swatched it and it felt really light, had a nice ivory shade so today I bought one. She tried it out on my face so I have worn in all day. Honestly, it doesn't fell like I have any on and when I run my finger over it I don't FEEL that foundation sat on my skin another bonus is it has SPF in it, which for fair skin is really good, I think its gonna be really helpful at festivals to know I have some protection on my face.. I have combination skin and this seems so far to really work keeping down the oil.  She did say I would need to do a top up throughout the day which is expected. I also ended up buying the Porefessional which is a product I have been looking at for a while, as I don't use any primers just a nivea moisturiser, the combination seems to be working so far. I might do an update in a few weeks on how I feel then although the lid does feel heaps more secure and the Hello flawless comes with a Porefessional tester, They are a little pricey the two coming up to £50 but they seem worth it to me! 

Ciao Beauts x

PS who is loving my new rug?! ( Urban outfitters!! )

PSS sorry about the picture quality I have temporarily misplaced my SLR!