May favourites

This month has definitely been one of trying new products and getting to grips with older ones or testing new combinations.

T-B- NYX cream blush in "Natural", Beauty UK blush in Royal Rose.

My NYX cream blush has become an everyday staple for a dewy finish to an everyday face. It adds a healthy tint whilst remaining in place pretty much all day. I've been using one of the new baked blushes by Beauty UK which I'm a big fan of, it's very pigmented with some fine shimmer to it, and it complements the NYX blush well enough to use on top just to add a bit of extra kick to the colour or keep it on for longer.

Ooh la la Naked is a wonderfully creamy moisturising body wash with a heavenly scent that makes me want to eat it and produces mountains of creamy lather when used with a shower scrunchie (buff puff/ mesh-thingy... Everyone calls them a different thing!) 


Naked's Perfect Getaway cream cleanser is something I've been using everyday for the last week and a bit and so far it's pretty much perfect. I don't use it quite as the directions suggest (smoothing on and removing with a cotton pad) but use it like a hot cloth cleanser which seems to be working well. Full review on this to come once I've been using it for longer! 

Max Factor Experience Weightless Foundation - I'd seen Fee @ Makeup Savvy rave about this foundation and I love, love, love it! The coverage is amazing, for general blemishes I don't need anything extra but spots do require either a tiny bit extra foundation (which can be built up without looking at all cakey) or a dab of concealer. It visibly perks up my skin leaving it looking smooth and perfect whilst not looking like I'm wearing a heavy foundation or feeling as though I'm wearing anything on my skin at all! It lasts all day, doesn't need any powder on my normal-combination skin and is what I'd describe as a satin finish. This is definitely a must have and something I'll be sticking with. I actually got hold of this for £6 including postage on ebay instead of the Boots £10 price after swatching instore for a colour match.

elf Studio cream eyeliner- after quite a number of months of this being my only used eyeliner the top of this started to dry up and made application difficult and a bit messy. Having started to burrow down past the top layer of drier eyeliner it's got a new lease of life and I'm back to using it every single day without fail. Such an amazing product for the tiny £3.50 price tag. 

elf Studio stipple brush- perfect for cream blushes and for a quick swirl in pigmented powder blushes too. 

Bourjois Delice de Poudre bronzer- a tiny price for a lot of bronzer! This smells delicately of chocolate which in my books can only be a good thing, it's just about totally matte though there is the odd bit of shimmer thrown in. It's great for evening out my chest and neck if my fake tan is starting to fade or for a bit of all over colour on my face, this is a really buildable powder ideal for us paler girls (mine's number 51 which is the lighter colour I believe). 

Nivea Daily Essentials oil free moisturising day cream is another new product, I was running low on my Simple oil balancing moisturiser and this was on offer in Tesco for £1.50 (usually £3) so I thought it was worth a try. If anything I prefer it to my Simple moisturiser, it's scented, which I like, and it's possibly a little more moisturising too, the formula is more creamy and less gel-like. Does a great job of keeping my skin from getting oily through the day and moisturises too!

17 Wild Curls is definitely my favourite everyday mascara (and that's not to say it doesn't deliver fierce curled lashes!) but with No7's exquisite curl mascara layered over it I'm left with even bigger lashes that are both volumised and lengthened. 

A long favourites post this month! Anything outstanding that you've used this month? Let me know!

x

Mapril favourites

Since we're now half way into April and I've still not done March favourites I thought I'd squish them together (hence the oh-so-clever title) and maybe do a mini favourites at the beginning of May if anything's changed..

So, Mapril favourites...

Soap and Glory's Scrub Your Nose In It. Love this! Great for an oil-free face all day and can be used as a mask as well, lovely minty scent and feel to it, this will be great especially as the weather gets warmer. Full review to come.

Topshop blush in Flush remains a firm favourite, because of the cream-to-powder finish I've been using it over powder mineral foundation (shock!) without any disastrous results too.

Please excuse the ridiculously grubby packaging, although pretty it seems to be like a magnet for staining! I've been using my Lily Lolo mineral foundation with my Liz Earle Skin Tonic for better, more flawless coverage and extra staying power.

L-R Mac Laugh a Lot and No7's Power.

 Mac's Laugh a Lot is a Lustre finish and on my lips doesn't look that much different than my normal lip colour, except with a lovely glossy finish that generally makes a simple face of make up look much more polished. Power is a gorgeous raspberry colour that I tend to blot down to leave a pretty stain, it's perfect for spring and it's not drying either! 

NYX cream blush in Natural. I have finally worked out how to make this work for me. A very, very light hand and my ELF stipple brush, I buff it in and it leaves a wonderful fresh finish and a perfect natural colour, just as the name suggests! 

What are your new spring favourites?

x

Fabulous February's Favourites!

I can't believe it's the end of February already! 

This month's favourites include....

Topshop blush in "Flush", No7 Exquisite Curl, Lily Lolo Flawless Silk Finishing Powder, ELF's cover up stick, ELF's Candid Coral blush, Distilled Witch Hazel and ELF Mist and Set spray.

Topshop Cream Blush in "Flush" and No7 Exquisite Curl mascara

After many months of seeing "Flush" on other blogs I finally popped this in my basket when Topshop had their recent free delivery offer, it's gorgeous and I love it.. full post of love to come!

I wrote about No7's mascara here and since then I've used it just about every time I've worn mascara. It's great for everyday and layered with 17's Wild Curls for more drama! 

ELF's studio line blush in Candid Coral

This was my first blusher from ELF and it's perfect, it's subtle but buildable and the fine gold shimmer works even with my pale skintone adding a very natural sheen to the skin. Total bargain too, as with all things ELF!

Lily Lolo's Flawless Silk Finishing Powder and ELF's all over cover stick

Flawless Silk is great for using all over the skin to keep oil at bay without taking your fact to a totally matte level, it adds a flattering glow and a very slight peachy colour that add to that flawless finish. 

I'm still using ELF's cover stick under foundation or alone just about every day, it stays put, lasts and matches my skintone. Definitely one of my essentials.

Distilled Witch Hazel and ELF's mist and set

Once again Witch Hazel makes the line up, see my full post here for more raving about it. Tightens pores, evens skintone, balances moisture levels and banishes oil. 

ELF's mist and set has been hailed as the poor man's fix plus.. I've never tried it, nor do I intend to! This is great for freezing make up where it's meant to be whilst leaving skin looking healthy and hydrated. 

Last but not least, Neal's Yard Chamomile Cleanser

I managed to leave this one out of the photo (there's always one) but this has become an everyday staple over the last few weeks after a rocky start! Full post on this to come but it's doing a wonderful job! 

January Favourites

Urban Decay's Naked palette, ELF stipple brush, 17 Wild Curls mascara, L'Oreal Telescopic mascara, ELF cream eyeliner, ELF essentials primer, ELF cover up and colour stick, Clarins' True Radiance foundation!

Urban Decay's Naked palette... I've used this just about every day now since I got it when it first came out (in November?) and I love it. It's simple, it's easy to choose a combination that works and the shadows are beautifully soft and pigmented. 

Clarins True Radiance foundation- perfect for evening out the complexion and brightening with it's dewy finish and gold coloured micro-particles this is a perfectly easy to wear, easy to blend foundation. It doesn't dry the dry parts of my face out and stops me looking shiny with it's oil free finish.

Both 17 Wild Curls and L'Oreal Telescopic have been favourites for a while now, either alone or layered... wild curls is great for volume and telescopic is fab for length. Together they're amaaazing.

L-R ELF cover up stick in apricot beige and color (bleurgh, COLOUR) stick in spotlight. ELF's cover up stick has become a firm favourite over the past couple of months, as my Clarins foundation is relatively light coverage and I'm prone to blemishes and redness this is great for splodging on underneath. I also use it on it's own. It's so easy to use and at £1.50 it's probably one of the best value-for-money things that I own. The colour stick makes a great highlighter, blends easily and looks perfect without any fuss. 

Once again ELF's eyelid primer, use this under every eyeshadow and it does just as well as UDPP in my opinion! Keeps shadows crease free and in place allll day long.

It's taken me a while to make my mind up about the ELF stipple brush. I'm not really sure that it's firm enough to use for application of foundation, but that's not something I've explored much.. however it's great for blushes- especially cream- and for stippling over my make up after using a setting spray of some description. Better than a certain Sigma F15 that I had to send back due to epic shedding! 

The cream eyeliner I've been using just about everyday. Not much more I can say about this! Full review here. 

If you're interested in finding out more about any of these let me know and I'll try and do a more detailed post on it :)

What are your current essentials?

x

November Favourites!

Finally, a proper post! ;)

I have SO many products I'm loving this month, so many that not all the products pictured are going to get a proper mention, I've included what they are below the pictures and most of them will get a proper post of their own soon. If there's anything in particular you'd like to know more about then let me know and I'll get a post up for you :)

Simple Oil balancing moisturiser, Distilled witch hazel, Nivea's pearly shine, Bourjois 10 hours sleep effect, ELF seductive, ELF cover up stick, ELF cream eyeliner, ELF eye primer...! 17 Wild curls mascara...

Witch hazel- I've been using this for about a month now and my skin is definitely doing better. I wouldn't necessarily say that it's lessened the amount of spots I get particularly, but it keeps moisture levels balanced and skin soft and smooth, I've not been using half the moisturiser I used to! It's also made a HUGE difference to the size of my pores around my nose and the congestion in them too. I'll definitely keep using this. Bargain at just over £2 from Boots!

ELF cream eyeliner- this has been especially great in the colder weather as my eyes tend to run. No smudging and totally waterproof, but comes off easily when you want it to. Perfect for a more smoked out/smudgey look and really easy.

ELF lipstick in Seductive. For £1.50 you can't go wrong and the colour of this is perfect, in the "my lips but better" range this is perfect, it doesn't dry my lips out too much either. The packaging's great too as you can see the colour through parts of it. 

Bourjois 10 hour sleep effect foundation- this is my first liquid foundation in quite a while and I'm loving it, it's a great colour match with a lovely finish, nice smell and it blends in quickly and easily! I've been applying this with my ELF studio powder brush and that's been perfect for providing good coverage without looking mask- like.

As above... Plus Lush it started with a kiss lip tint, ELF everyday eyes (I think..) palette, Everyday Mineral's Aussie Perk Me Up concealer.

Everyday Minerals concealer- Aussie Perk Me Up- this is perfect for giving a dewy glow to the skin after foundation but without leaving skin feeling at all greasy or tacky as it's a powder formula. Buffed in it looks really natural and leaves your skin looking healthy and alive (always good!) I'm also using Lily Lolo's flawless silk (not pictured) to keep my foundation the right side of bright alive skin and not lightbulb glowing ;)

ELF all over cover stick- again, £1.50 from ELF and great as a base, leaves skin tone even and blemishes covered.

Liz Earle Superskin moisturiser- not in the above pictures, but this is just fab for my poor skin at this time of year, lasts ages, and the £32 price tag is well worth it in my opinion.

Simple oil balancing moisturiser- still using this in the mornings to keep my skin shine free and my make up staying put all day!

Looking forward to getting proper posts on a few of these up for you very soon! :)

Hope you're having a great weekend! xx

September favourites...

MUA blush in shade 04. I cannot tell you how much I love this blusher. It's amazing. Perfect. Really pigmented, blends beautifully and is just the right shade of warm glow. The fact that it cost me just £1 makes me love it all the more. 

Wild Curls mascara.. I wasn't sure about this to begin with, it was a little too wet for me to be using it regularly but after a few weeks it's great! I'm reaching for it over my L'Oreal telescopic mascara, something I never thought would happen! For a mascara that's £5.99 against the £9.99 of the L'Oreal one that's pretty impressive.

Skin so soft Signature Silk whipped body oil. Now that it's getting colder and the heating's on every now and again my skin is really suffering. Slathering this on after a shower goes quite a way to keeping my skin smoooooth and soft. 

  

Naked palette- Toasted is my favourite, along with Sin and Smog. Virgin and Naked together make a lovely highlight too. Naked and Buck also make great all over colours for lazy days. 

24/7 glide on eyeliner in Whiskey- I never thought there could be this much difference in an eyeliner. It goes on beautifully, gives you a few moments to smudge it in and then it sets totally. I have problems with my eyes running in the day and especially in the cold, and this doesn't budge even when I'm wiping my eyes which I didn't think any eyeliner could withstand!

No7 blending brush. I think this would be the closest to the one I have.... Mine came in a set that I got a few Christmases ago and I love it, it's absolutely perfect for blending and it's also great for all over colour. It's really soft, washes well with little shedding. 

Garnier mineral (with mineralite) 48 hour deodorant- while I will never understand the need for 48 hour deodorant (except for proving that it really will last you for 24 hours?!) this has impressed me. My body seems to do something weird and once I'm about a quarter to half a can of this size deodorant through, it stops working. Suddenly something that was keeping me all nice and dry becomes useless and I'm forced to find another. This one hasn't done that, and I'm nearly at the bottom of it. Garnier also claim that this allows skin to breathe which is always a bonus! Really fast to dry and not even a hint of white marks.

What have your September favourites been? Tried any of mine? 

x