The only time you want to blend in...

Beauty Blender

This little thing is so wonderful, the concept is utterly simple but it does wonders. I use it for concealer (mainly under eyes and blemishes if any). I spray a little fix plus on it then blend away, in no time I'm done!

It's so easy to use and just covers evenly, naturally and makes you look smooooth.

I THINK I got it for $20 when I was in Sephora? It's about £16 here in the UK.

Little pricey for what is essentially a blob-shaped sponge but trust me, it's worth it. Given what you'd pay for a decent concealer brush!

Bravo beauty blender people, you've revolutionised the simple sponge!

My trusty one covered in LOVE!

Who doesn't love nudity...

NUDE - ProGenius oil


I love this stuff, it feeds my skin the good shizz it needs. Makes a wonderful overnight face oil and also great for around the eyes in the morning.

Hydrates, smooths and gives you the right stuff for healthy glowy skin without makeup.

A tad pricey - £58/30ml but in my opinion worth it. I have so many uses for it - for around my eyes, for my whole face overnight and in the winter and also for any dry skin. I'm sure I'm on my 4th bottle since discovery but it lasts ages!

Veet just got NEAT

OK so I'll keep it short. I've tried many many home-microwave waxes and usually, they work at the beginning but then once they've cooled a little you either need to keep dashing to the microwave and get a little burnt again or you end up looking like this guy...

Veet - Oriental Wax is just brilliant. It warms in 40 seconds, is NOT sticky and properly removes hair. I hate it so much when your wax just becomes useless after a few minutes of cooling. This one works even when it's cooled! (i.e. when it gets all gloopy again).

You can re-use the strip over and over and I find it works even better the more you use one strip.

I used up the whole pot, didn't have to go back and re-heat and just cleared everything up with water.

(It also tastes good)

Veet - you gorgeous sugary sweet dissolving pot of excellence!

Eye See Those Shadows!

Got these from Inglot in Westfield, they had 1 bajillion colours. It's a surprise I came out with just two colours!

Below is #63 (black one) and #45 (goldy one)

Love 'em!

Teamed with MAC's Fanfare...

This is a GOSH palette - Tropic Fever!

Sorry about the sweaty eye area!

Sanctuary - 5min Thermal Detox Mask

Love this stuff! Leaves my skin feeling fresh and looking clean.

I use it a couple of times a week. It goes on nice and thick and feels all warm. I don't wanna bang on too much, but it is lovely. You can feel the difference to your skin as you wipe it away!

Laaaavly!

MAC - Asian Flower

A beautiful beautiful shade, enough so to make me resurrect this sucker of a blog!!

Got this from MAC in Selfridges, think it was about £14.50.

It is so gorgeous, pale pink/lilac with a wonderful pop. It's STILL not tooo much to wear everyday, I've been wearing this to work and not had any funny looks just yet.

It's really creamy but it doesn't compromise the colour. You can put on one layer for a sheer tone or a few like I do to really make it show.

It also has that delicious Vanilla scent that MAC love to seduce me with.

It does look a little scary in the tube, but I assure you ladies and pretty men, it is gorgeous when on!

Cowshed - Mixed Travel Candles

I've found the one thing I will always welcome as a present... Candles!!

I love them, I love nothing more than to come home from a long day and light one up. Or to just sit and read or watch TV with a lit candle. It does wonders for my mood.

I got these from the best pal for my birthday recently and have now burnt them all out :(.

I was too lazy to make the effort to actually smell all three and make notes for the sake of this review but they all smell great and look gorgeous. Each with about 10 hours burn time!

MAC Amplified Lipstick - Shade 'Morange'

Orange! I love the colour Orange, it is gorgeous. Never did I think I'd rock it on my lips though! I've only gone as far as Benefit's Cha Cha Tint. I was in MAC in Selfridges a couple of weeks ago browsing and saw a girl wearing Orange lips... Soooo I picked this one up and thought I'd try it! Once again my wonderful friend told me it looked good and here I am now!

I do love this shade now, it's so wearable. I didn't it would be something so casual, but it is! You can put on a dab for a little pop of colour, or go all out and really POP. Either way, it is lovely. I think it's a good Red alternative - if you don't want to be as serious and foxy.

The texture is matte-ish but with a very slight shine if you put on a few layers. It lasts ages, and even when it fades, it fades into a lovely matte reddy orange. I use MAC's lip primer (which I LOVE) underneath and it really keeps it put!

Again, it has that lovely Vanilla scent I'm a sucker for ^_^.

Well done MAC, you da bomb.

'Twas a rainy/windy day for a homie's birthday

Boots No7 Beautiful Skin Hot Cloth Cleanser

I had been meaning to do a review on this for ages, as I love it so much! I've lost count of what bottle I'm on now, there are very few products that I use up and re-purchase a lot and this is one of them!

I think I came across it last Autumn on the Boots website when I was browsing for a nice cleansers (there was nothing wrong with the Clearasil Skin Perfecting Wash I was using, I was just bored of it) and I came across this! The reviews were glowing so I went and bought one (around £10ish but a bargain if you use the £5 off No.7 vouchers). 

Sorry - I should have picture it when it was full!
 (Also the cap is missing... meh!)

If you don't already know, you basically apply a pump or two (I've gone from 1 pump, to 2 pumps and now even the cheeky 4 for a good clean - you don't need that many though I'm just too indulgent!) to dry skin and massage in. Then you take your muslin cloth (there's one with every bottle) run it under comfortably hot water (I make it quite hot as it cools a little on the short journey from the tap to my face!) and place it over your face for as long as you want. Now this doesn't always happen, I now just apply the cleanser on a wet face, dry if I remember to, wet the muslin cloth and use it to take give my face a wipe with the cleanser on. Heck there have been times where I haven't even used the muslin cloth! I love it still!

The texture is lovely and thick, as I mentioned before you don't need my greedy few pumps, 1 or 2 is enough. The smell is delightful, I have never enjoyed a cleanser smell so much! Usually the novelty of the smell wears off, but this I enjoy everyday! It's slightly floral and clean, nothing overpowering. Finally and most importantly, it does leave my skin nice. It hasn't dramatically changed my skin into that of a supermodel but it does leave it nice and fresh!

I've seen a lot of comparisons to the Liz Earle one, I'm yet to try Ms Earle's version - if I do I shall update this! :)

Overall - I love it! 

I cannot be bothered to rotate - same difference!

The Body Shop - Ceramic Oil Burner

I know this isn't quite makeup/beauty, but it is one of the best purchases I have ever made from Body Shop! I never used to be into candles and stuff but I like a room to smell nice and fresh.

This thing is gorgeous, I use the Aloe & Soft Linen Home Fragrance Oil which is around £3, you can sometimes catch it on sale, which is what I once stumbled upon and bought a kajillion of them. This burner itself I think was around £10ish? I bought it a few years ago now! BUT I have been burning it at least a couple of times a week since! I get a pack of cheap tealights from Ikea (the Berry ones, they just look prettier and smell delightful), stick it inside the burner, fill the well on top with some water, add some drops of the oil and voila! The room fills with the beautiful scent of  that just fresh linen, the smell for me, is so calming and clean. There are other scents, I have the Satsuma one but honestly speaking it's not as strong or Satsuma-ry as you'd like with a Satsuma scent.

But yes, I highly recommend this thing. In just a few minutes it fills any room with a lovely warm fragrance. It also leaves your things smelling nice?! I left this on a wardrobe shelf (I have no wardrobe doors so it's OK) and realised a week or so later that my clothes smelt of the oil! Iz nice!

MAC - Russian Red

I have found my red lipstick. I went on a hunt for one a couple of years ago when I was even noobier with makeup and ended up buying Benefit's Flirt Alert... It is a nice lipstick but I didn't and still don't feel 100% comfortable in it.

THIS HOWEVER is exactly what I wanted. It's a matte formula which means it doesn't screaaam attention to your lips by being too shiny (you can add a coat of gloss if you want!) but it stands out as a bold, sophisticated and my opinion very wearable red.

It also has that delicious vanilla scent that Mac always has *sniffs lips**

Update ;)

Estée Lauder - Sumptuous Mascara

I love love love this mascara. I've heard you shouldn't spend too much on mascaras as they have such a short shelf life... But after getting the sample tube for this (on the left) in a gift set... I was in love. My eyelashes are nothing special (as you can see from my By Terry Touché Veloutee review) and this mascara just works them. I don't know if it's the formula or the brush, or both! It really fans out my eyelashes, added the right amount of volume and lengthens!

It's about £19 I think, which is pricey for something that you should apparently replace every 3-4 months (guilty of not doing this btw) but it really is a GOOD QUALITY mascara. I think a lady should have some good quality staple items, and if it's something you're using every single day then why not spend a good penny on it!

I've been through a lot of mascaras and this is my first high-end one, I have come across some really good ones from Rimmel etc. but this is fabulous.

By Terry - Touche Veloutee in Beige

OK sooo since I started working, my eyes show the hours I work! I never had an issue before with the skin around my eyes, I got the odd noticeable eyebag when I was at uni and staying up until stupid O'clock but I never did cover up my eye area. NOW though, I feel like I look like a single mother with a mortgage. No me gusta! 

I've mentioned before, I don't really like foundation. It just irritates me and I prefer to not mask myself completely.  Don't get me wrong, I most likely will wear foundation in the future for occasions and whatnot but as far as my everyday look goes, it's a nada for me.

Which is why I LOVE this concealer By Terry. It's on the pricey side (£35/6ml from Space NK) but sooo worth it. Most of you probably already know she's the lady behind the YSL Touché Eclat, so just imagine what her very own version would be like.

Initially when I was looking up new concealers, I saw the By Terry under eye concealer which was specifically for brightening the under eyes, and I wanted it. However I explained I wanted it for covering imperfections on the rest of my face too... Which is when the nice lady recommended this beaut! 

Without the concealer... Exposure!
This was the best one of many takes XD ...*Cries*

The package is glamourous, resembling the YSL one with a clicker at the end and a brush depositing the product. However it's annoying that you can't see how much product you have left, I may have to fight it to crack it open. I don't really use the brush it comes with, I just use my finger for blending it in. 

Sooo the results. I love them. I no longer use this on the rest of my face (I use my MAC Select one) but I'll keep using this for my undereyes only instead of the other one! It really naturally brightens my undereyes.  The formula is lovely and smooth, not too runny so that it looks totally different once dried but not too solid so that it causes dragging around that delicate area. The colour, surprisingly is a really good match. For brightening undereyes anyway, it's not 100% to the rest of my face but perfect for my eyes. 

I really do love this, it's bloody pricey but I think completely worth it. *This* in my opinion, is a beauty investment, a staple item! 

It allows me to look refreshed and still keeps it natural. It's made me realise you don't need foundation to look totally flawless (I'm sooo not totally flawless btw), a dab of good concealer in the right places and you are good to go my friends!

The pics I've added are quick ones I took to show its results! The one below... Isn't the best representation as I realise I did a shoddy job of blending on the outer corners and the DSLR is extremely unforgiving with such a close up... I'll try and get a better pic up soon!

With the concealer... 

MAC Viva Glam Lipstick - Nicki Minaj

Soooo here's a review I didn't think I'd ever do! 

1. Because Nicki Minaj irritates me and 2. Because I kinda sometimes hate pink

But here I am, and in LOVE with this colour! I was in the MAC store with a chum looking at Russian Red, as I'd wanted to try it for a while now. The lovely guy helping me (Joshua!) asked me if I had seen Nicki Minaj's Viva Glam yet, and even though it looked like something I used to highlight my exam notes with, I tried it! 

At first I thought woah it's REALLY pink, but then as I blended it out and added a little more, I didn't hate it? I think what persuaded me most was my friend and Joshua telling me it actually looked good! It reminded me of the Sixties/Spring/Summer, I imagine myself with a flicked out bob, bright green dress, winged eyeliner and this lip colour.

Once it's actually on your lips, it's still bright but not as scary. It's amazing how it can transform your face into fresh, just with that pop of colour. I now love it and I want to wear it everywhere, if I want to rock it to work then I may have to stick to just the one layer but it's pretty nonetheless. 

Overall, I am impressed. I didn't think Nicki Minaj's shade would suit me in a million years. I think it would suit a lot more people too. I love the Vanilla scent (like all other MAC lipsticks) and I love the consistency, it's not glossy but not too matte - meaning it's not drying on your lips but does stay put.

Well done Miss Minaj, consider a move from music to makeup? *Grin*

My makeup today...

I took a day off today to hang out with a pal! Since I started work, this has been rare! It's been so long since I just had a nice day out shopping.

Sooo I thought I'd share my makeup for today! I am wearing...

- Revlon ColourStay liquid eyeliner (I think I'll go back to my Rimmel one...)

- Estée Lauder Sumptuous Mascara

- Simple Rich Moisturiser

- Mac Strobe cream

- Mac Select Cover up concealer in NC42

- Terry Touche Celoutee concealer in Beige

- Mac Velvet Teddy lipstick (with a little Carmex underneath)

- Mac cream blush in 'Ladyblush'

This is kind of my everyday look! However I did buy from MAC today Russian Red and Viva Glam Nicki Minaj... Soooo I may be jazzing it up ;)

Estée Lauder Bois De Rose Lipstick - Review

 I got this as part of a little Estée Lauder gift set and I think it's just such a romantic shade. I think the thing I love most about it is the texture, it is sooo creamy but still so pigmented. The colour is a lovely wearable dark pearly rose which isn't TOO pink (I'm not a huge fan of pink).

When I saw this, I thought it would be one of those items I'd pass on to my mother as it looked a little mature for me but I tried it on and was pleasantly surprised! It was dark and bold enough to give me a different look but not so bold that I can't wear it everyday. Having said that, I'm yet to sport it to work, I might try a light layer one morning :).

Overall I give it 8/10, it's not a colour I would usually go for (that's just me ignoring anything too pink looking) but it is a pleasant surprise, it's a really good quality lipstick and is a nice thick, creamy texture so you won't really need any gloss or balm with it.

MAC Velvet Teddy Lipstick - Review

 After stumbling across a random review on this, it looked like a gorgeous nude everyday colour, and it is! I went into MAC one day for a new blush and thought I'd try this out. I've always loved nudes, my latest everyday nude is from Bodyshop, it's the colourglide in '42' which is a lovely sheer-ish nudey peachy pink!

This however is more pigmented and when I first tried it on in MAC, came out much bolder than I'd expected. It's quite matte and so it made my dry chapped winter lips look awful, but the lady told me to swipe on another layer as I kept rubbing it off and voila! It smells gorgeous too, I went to pay for it and could smell faint vanilla, then I realised it was my lips, yay!

About 2ish swipes

I really do love this now, I wear a thin layer of Carmex underneath for moisture then put a few swipes of this on and it's a gorgeous everyday colour. I get weary of nudes washing out my complexion out and thought this would do that as other NC42's found it looked grey on them, but with just the right amount (you have to be careful not to put too much as it is very pigmented) it looks glamorous! At the moment I wear it everyday, but I'd also pair this with really smokey eyes for a night out.

Overall I give this 9/10 it WOULD be nice if it was a little creamier but that might compromise the pigmentation sooo I'm happy with it.

Estée Lauder Signature Satin Creme Blush - Review

 I got this one in the 'Coral' shade. I absolutely love cream blushers, the last one I got and have nearly used up was MAC's 'Lilicent' which sadly discontinued :(.

I'm really liking this one! I love peachy colours for my complexion and find it hard finding a nice peachy cream blush, I have both MAC - Peaches and NARS - Gina, both of which are beautiful beautiful colours, but I suck at putting them on!

So I came across this, it's about £23.50 (in either HoF or Debenhams) and it has a really silky feeling to it. It's not as thick as some cream blushers but it's not quite a powder one, it's in between! I was reading some reviews on this and saw a lot of mature ladies rave about this?... I'm putting that down to Estée Lauder being the kind of brand my mom uses! I think anyone can use it though :).

I looove the colour, it's gorgeous peachy tone, not too flat and not too bright. I actually wear this everyday to work! You can put it on very sheer and also build it up if you want something with more pop.

I used to apply this with just my fingers but I found because it's not as thick as my MAC one, that I disturb my makeup a little so I used my angled blush brush which works really well! It's quite pigmented so you only need a small amount.

Overall I give this 8/10, I wouldn't mind it being a little thicker like my MAC one as it'd be even easier to apply and also give a little glowy shine to cheek apples! Otherwise it is a really good peachy blusher!

Nars Sheer Glow - Review

So I'd been looking for a foundation for ages, I avoided foundation before because I found it SO hard finding the right one for my complexion (I'm a little yellow-y). I got this after I bought Dior Airflash which was too light for me (will review that one soon).

I went into John Lewis (£29.50) to check this out after reading some amazing reviews and the lady tried Barcelona and Syracuse on me.

 I like this, it has the yellow tones for my skin and it's a really light formula. You can put the sheerest amount just to even out your skin tone and it looks natural  but gives you a nice glow.

The only thing that I personally didn't like about this, is that it still isn't the right colour for me (on the right of the swatch it is rubbed in), I can get away with wearing a very sheer amount of it but anything more than that and it's hello The Mask! I think something in between Barcelona and Syracuse would have been perfect but alas :(.

Overall it's a really good sheer foundation for people like me who don't like that much coverage, I'm sure it's buildable but it's just as good sheer.

I give it an 8/10 - knocked off 2 because it wasn't my perfect match :(


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Post numero uno...

Hey guys! Soooo this is my first ever post on this blog! *shifty eyes* I'm going to get to makeup blogging as soon as I figure out how I actually want to organise what I'll blog... and also decide what to start with! Yay! Now to make up my mind... (See what I did there).

Until my next post...

I bid you a fabulous farewell!