Quick Make Up | Mummy Face

Hello Lovelies, 

I have had this post half finished since Sunday and have only just found time to finish it off. I have been nominated by Jess over on mums the new name for the Liebster Award which I have half finished as well so that will be up in the next couple of days. 

Getting ready for a day out now takes at least a hour. So I rarely have time to apply a full face of make up. I have managed to whittle my daily make up down to just the essentials which I shove in a make up bag just in case I have to apply on the go.

Left to right: 
Soap and Glory you wont believe your eyes has been featured previously here. I definitely need this now to reflect light from the lovely bags under my eyes. I find this really cooling and love the three ball applicator. 

Rimmel Wake me up foundation again another go to of mine, I always seem to come back to this foundation. It has a good coverage and can be built up on the skin, at the moment I have fairly dry dull skin. So the dewy look of this foundation really helps to brighten my complexion. As you can see I am desperately in need of a new foundation, I'm scraping the edges of this one.

Body Shop all in one BB cream, I've not had this for very long but it's great for days when I can't be bothered to put foundation on and just need a quick fix. I did notice a difference to my skin though it definitely felt more quenched. 
  
Real techniques brushes, I use the contouring brush for my blusher and the expert face brush for blending my foundation. They're the perfect size for this make up bag. 

Soap and Glory sexy mother pucker gloss stick in the shade Nudist, I have wanted this for so long and every time I went to my local Boots they were sold out. I finally found one and it was the last one on the shelf, it was fate. I love this it gives such a natural shade and stays glossy for ages. It's so easy to apply as well so good for on the go or a quick slick before rushing out. 

Collection lasting perfection concealer, not a lot needs to be said about this one it's that well known. But it has to be the BEST concealer I have used. 

Lancome Hypnose mascara, I used to use this way back when I was a teenager (feeling old sigh) my sister bought me this one for Christmas and I have rekindled my love for it. it just gives the best curl and length. 

Vaseline is an essential item at the moment. Ever since I have been in hospital I've had ridiculously dry lips, it could just be the cold weather. This is one of their vintage tins, i love how they have gone back to the older designs.

Lancome blush, hands up I don't know what shade of blush this is (and it may be my sisters oopsie) but this is my go to blush as it is matte. A lot of the blushers that I own have shimmer in which I do like but for an everyday look I prefer a matte and this one is perfect it gives a light flushed look. 

Last but not least is the Ted Baker make up bag/ pencil case. I was looking for a small make up bag as I recently purchased a Ted Baker hand bag that I didn't want to just throw my make up in in case it leaked. I picked this one up in Boots and it is just the perfect size for my bag.      

What make up essentials do you have in your make up bag?

xx

    

Beauty Ban is OVER!

Hello Lovelies,

I made it!! 2 whole months without buying any beauty products, to celebrate I went a little crazy in Boots. 

Usually I stick to the "drugstore brands" and don't spend over £10 on a product and that's at a push. Because it had been so long I decided I would treat myself to a few things. Including the fabulous In the Light palette from Stila.

 It's such a beautiful nude palette, it was the lighter shades which drew me in. Over the past two months I have been using MUA's Heaven and Earth palette everyday, eventually I hit pan in the lighter shades, the perfect excuse to find a pricier (£25) match.

 The shadows are so pigmented, the balance of matte and shimmer shades is also a bonus. When I bought this I didn't realise that it came with the eye liner, I don't usually wear brown liner but I will be giving it a try. 

 I also got a few things which I have had my eye on for a while, including the Maybelline 24hr Tattoo in bronze on bronze. I have been wanting this for ages and finally decided to go for it. Then there were a few impulse buys which sneakily landed in my basket, Rimmel moisture renew lipstick in the shade Glam Plum Fulham and Maybelline colorsensational in Midnight plum.  

For the past two months I have been scraping the bottom of two collection concealers so I was so pleased I could eventually buy a new one. Collection have changed the packaging of their concealers as well as the names of the shades. The shade I got is fair 1. 

As spring is around the corner I also fancied a new shade of blusher but didn't want to commit to something too pricey so I went for Rimmel's lasting finish soft colour blush in the shade Santa Rose. This is such a beautiful light colour that I feel will be great for spring time and the beginning of summer.

I also had a cheeky trip into lush and fell in love with the smell of these two. I have just finished my Snow Fairy and I'm so sad that Lush don't stock any other sweet smelling shower gels. After talking to the lovely assistants I was pleased to discover that there are some products out at the minute with the same and similar scents. 

The Fluffy Egg Ballistic is the same scent as snow fairy, it smells so sweet and delicious. (Snow fairy fans stock up on this one it wont be around for long!).

The Melting Marshmallow Moment is apparently really moisturising on the skin. I am tempted to break a bit off each of these and mix them together. 

Woah that was a long one, I also got some new clothes and hair things but I'll save them for next weeks post. I hope you enjoyed reading, if you have any suggestions or want a particular post please let me know. 

Thank You  

xx

My Skincare Favourites

Hello Lovelies, 

It's been a while since I last posted a blog, I've been busy getting into my new work routine. I promise I will try and be more organised with my scheduling. 

I thought I would share my favourite skin care products. 

 Garnier skin care has been my go to product for the past couple of years, it all started with the Moisture Match moisturiser, I can't tell you how much I love this. It smells so nice a little bit like lemonade, it instantly refreshes my skin. It soaks in really well so you're not left with a greasy layer and it leaves your skin feeling super soft. I LOVE it!
 I later discovered the soft essentials cleansing milk and toner, these smell like roses and remove every speck of make up from my face. I try and use these everyday to take of my make up, however recently I have been forgetting, so as a fix for this I decided to buy the goodbye dry cleansing wipes. I know that wipes are not the best thing for skin, but sometimes after a late work shift, I am so tired I just want to crawl into bed and grabbing a wipe is the easy option. I haven't been using these wipes for that long but, I so far they seem really good at removing my make up and leaving my face feeling lovely.  

 On to Soap and Glory, one product that I have been using everyday since I bought it on my birthday is the You Won't Believe Your Eyes. This product is such a life saver for my tired eyes. Each day before applying my concealer I apply this under my eyes and it instantly makes them feel refreshed and looking a lot lighter. It's a must if you have tired eyes. 
The Fab Pore recently featured in my empties post, this is a mask which I apply to my skin when having a relaxing bath. It always leaves my skin feeling beautifully soft and refreshed. The mask has small blue beads which burst when you apply it. 
Peaches and Clean is also great for cleansing, I usually use this in a morning as it removes any make up that may have clung to my face from the night before, it also smells amazing. 
The Greatest Scrub of All is a really good exfoliator, I don't tend to use this product too much. It's great however for in the winter months when my skin decides to dry out.
If you have any favourites I'd love to hear about them. 
Thanks for the read      

xx

Update!

Hi lovelies, 

I hope you've all had a good week. Just a short update on my make up ban this week. Last weekend I had to nip into boots for a few essentials, non beauty essentials, and my lovely Mr treated me to a few beauty bits. So technically I haven't broken my ban yet. Haha. 

 After digging through my old make up I found a bourjois healthy mix foundation and fell in love with it all over again. It gives such good coverage and smells delicious. The one that I had in my stash was one that I used when I had a tan so it was a shade too dark for me. 

When I saw that it was on offer in boots I had to get one but I just couldn't break my ban. 

Along with the foundation a few other bits were on offer, I got the dark kohl mascara and the mega liner. 

I'm still in two minds about the mascara as the brush is really plastic and hard which is totally different to soap and glory thick and fast which is one of my all time favourites. 

The mega liner may be gifted to someone else as I have always struggled to create a nice neat line on my lid never mind a winged line. I seem to have really small eyelids and the liner ends up covering half of it. Any tips? Or anyone else have the same problem let me know. 

Thanks for reading and have a fab week. 

Xx

Empties

Hello Lovelies, 

I have finally managed to find time to sit and write a few blog posts. As promised for a few weeks here is my empties post. I hunted around for the things that I have used up and have repurchased and probably will over and over again so here they are. 

There aren't that many things that I repurchase as I like to switch things up quite often. But these lucky 5 I find myself going back. 

1. Soap and Glory the fab pore facial peel. I love this product, it's quite a thick face peel with small blue beads that burst on your skin when you apply. I usually use this mask whilst I'm having a relaxing bath or watching a DVD. When it's washed off my skin always feels smooth and refreshed. All in all a nice product, you may notice that I repurchased this product with my birthday money in my birthday post. 

2. Rimmel Wake Me Up in ivory, I have extremely pale skin that often breaks out and this foundation is so good for covering blemishes and brightening my skin. I think I am now on my 5th bottle of this and love it. However, because it is an illuminating foundation and has a light shimmer to it I have recently been using it less. I will be purchasing this again for the spring and summer months though.  

3.PRO:VOKE Touch of Silver shampoo and conditioner. Because I dye my hair myself and have recently been dying my hair a lighter blonde than usual I have been using purple shampoos. I stared using the John Freida purple shampoo last year and loved it.

A few months ago when money was tight I switched from that to this, as this has a smaller price tag. I can honestly say that this shampoo helps to brighten my hair and dulls any brassiness. One downside to this product is the packaging, it might just be me but when I'm in the shower I like to be able to pick up my shampoo and conditioner quickly, I find it really hard to see the difference between these two bottles at a glance so always end up picking up the wrong bottle. I also find them really hard to squeeze although I am ridiculously weak haha. 

4. Boots coconut and almond leave in conditioner, this stuff is amazing! I can't praise it enough. I have long hair that knots easily when it's wet, probably because I haven't had it cut for over 2 years ooops, but this spray not only smells good enough to eat it helps to untangle my knotted hair as well as making it feel better. I am on my 2nd bottle of this and will definitely be purchasing again. The price is really good as well I think it's under the £2 mark although I'm not 100% sure. 

So there we have it my empties post which I was meant to be posting for the last 3 weeks. I hope that it has lived up to expectations. If you have any comments or questions please ask. 

Thanks for reading. 

xx

  

Mini make up ban update

• Hey Lovelies, 

I had planned to do my empties post but I forgot to bring my things to my parents house, even though I had planned ahead and organised all of my things. 

So instead of the intended post here's an update on my make up ban. I am finding it so hard, I even went into boots the other day and had to walk out because all the beautiful things were shouting me. I felt like the woman in confessions of a shopaholic when all the mannequins are talking to her, if you haven't seen the film it is a must. Anyway I had to leave. 

This week I have been mixing up my daily make up and trying combinations of other make up that I was either given for Christmas or was stashed away in my drawers. 

 If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my FOTD post, this is the make up that I used on that day. 

The new products in this picture are Benefit; boi-ing, Hoola and high beam. I love, love, love Hoola, I received this in my best of benefits at Christmas and have to say that I had put it to one side for a while. It is a matte bronzer, I use this for contouring my cheeks. Its so easy to blend so when my make up ban is over and I have used this for a little longer I will more than likely be purchasing a full size one. 

Boi-ing on the other hand I am not too sure about, I had wanted to try this for ages but because I usually use the Collection concealer I can't seem to get used to this one. I find it hard to apply especially on blemishes. Any tips would be handy. 

High beam, I have used this highlighter before as I have the TROPIcoral set. I love high beam it's such a quick and easy highlighter, you literally need just a few spots on your cheek bones, I usually blend them in with my ring finger. 

So they are the new products that I have been using, the rest are products that I have rediscovered. Bourjois has been a brand which I have been going back to for a few years. For a while I have been using the Rimmel wake me up foundation which gives such a lovely coverage but at this time of year I think that it is just too dewy. So to find this in my stash was nice, the healthy mix gives such good coverage, it also smells really fruity. 

In the winter months I tend to go for lighter blushers as I have really pale skin and anything too dark looks ridiculous (in my opinion), so I tend to stick to colours like Rose D'or by Bourjois, this shade has a subtle shimmer to it making it look like you have been out in the fresh air.

Another little treasure that I hadn't used for a while is the Bourjois smokey eye trio, I love nude colours on my eyes, it's like my security blanket I very rarely use colour (to be honest it scares me a little). I usually use the heaven and earth palette but I've hit pan on my favourite colours, so this was my next go to nude shades. For my eyebrows I used the rimmel eyebrow pencil in 002. I just use this very lightly to fill in my brows on days when I don't want the power brow. 

Mascara was an old favourite, Great Lash by Maybelline. It adds a good thickness and length to my lashes, I tend to use this and the Soap and Glory Thick and Fast which I love but have nearly ran out of, so I'm using it sparingly. 

Last but not least lips, I have been using a different lip stick/ lip tint/ lip gloss each day to see which I prefer, on this day I used the 1000 kisses by Rimmel, this shade is a deep pink/plum shade. I'm not sure what it is called as I have moved it, as soon as I find it I will update this post.          

Most of the products in this post I have purchased from Boots or have been given.

This was supposed to be a short post but yet again has turned into a rambling essay. 

I hope you've had a good weekend. 

xx

Make up ban!

Hey, 

Do not fear people I will not be walking around with a naked face! 

Recently I have had a few changes in my life; including moving in with my boyfriend, starting a job and then unexpectedly deciding to leave at Christmas and starting a different new job. 

Like many people at this time of year I am being a penny pincher (tight), and now to get to the point after the life story/ ramble. 

I have decided to ban myself from buying any make up/ beauty products for a whole 2 months!!! Yes I know lets all gasp in shock and horror. Believe me this is going to be such a challenge for mye as I often find myself slipping a lippy into my food shopping or wandering into boots when I shouldn't be anywhere near it.     

So to help me with my ban I have just decided to empty all of my make up drawers and this is the contents, well the items that I don't use on a day to day basis anyway. Personally I don't think that there is that much, others may however disagree. Instead of buying new make up I have decided that I am going to try and use some of my old make up. 

Fingers crossed I don't become too tempted or give in before the two months is up!

Let me know of any tips you have on being make up savvy? 

Thanks lovelies 

xx