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

April's Wishlist...

Yes, it was on my last wishlist, but I've been busy finishing up my Neal's Yard cleanser and getting involved with a Soap and Glory scrubby face wash, now I'm excited to be getting my hands on this soon. I find it so easy to get distracted my other, cheaper cleansers though, despite knowing how much I love this one!

Bourjois lip tint in Cyber Cassis. I saw this on Makeup Savvy and Fee rates this so it's on my list! I hate having to mess around with lipstick when I'm out and about so this looks perfect and hopefully it won't dry out my lips either.

Not beauty related, but so pretty it had to be included, a gorgeous iPod skin from Decal Girl

June's glamour magazine that goes on sale on the 9th of June will contain a generous sized mini (apparently worth between £8 and £10 according to Raspberry Rouge) of one of the three Benefit tints... I'm leaning towards Posie Tint and High Beam, though at £2 for each magazine it wouldn't break the bank to buy all three! 

ELF's new addition is this Studio complete coverage concealer palette, which looks perfect for meeting different concealer needs as your skin colour changes throughout the year, ELF claim that it provides a "flawless, makeup artist finish" for £3.50 you can't go wrong really!

What are you lusting after this month? Let me know.. there's room for a few more on my list ;)

x

Mysterious black bottles from elf.

I've declared my love for elf, budget makeup company, many times now so I'll spare you my thoughts on the company themselves!

These two black bottles are from the elf studio line and contain daily brush cleaner and makeup mist and set, which both retail at £3.50 each.

The daily brush cleaner was bought on a bit of a whim, I'd always seen it as a waste of time.. Why do I need a spray when cleaning my brushes quickly in the sink works just as well?! Turns out convenience is the answer, I can have a brush daisy fresh and ready to use again in under a minute with this, no waiting around all day for brushes to dry! It smells nice too and is in a really generously sized bottle- 250ml. You spritz it onto your brush and use a towel to remove any old makeup left on there, before letting it dry for a few seconds. Definitely something I'd recommend for lazy-girl brush cleaning in the mornings!

Please excuse smeared bottle...!

Makeup mist and set is also a spray bottle but this one houses setting spray for perfect makeup all day with a dewy glow. The only thing that I feel could be improved with this is the spray could be a little finer, it works just fine as it is but sometimes I get a couple of bigger drops on my face which feels a little odd. I definitely see an improvement in the longevity of my makeup when using this, plus it leaves a fresh glow about you and makes sure there aren't any sneaky cakey patches of makeup in sight! The 60ml bottle lasts me a couple of months when used most days.

Have you tried sprays from the studio line? Want to?

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! 

ELF's lovely lippies!

L-R- Classy, Gypsy, Seductive

Last year ELF launched their essential (£1.50) line's lipsticks. Within the day there were shades sold out and after a little research (elf's swatches rarely reflect the true colours in my experience) I decided on Classy or Seductive. Typically these were both out of stock and so I ended up with Gypsy first. A deep pink this is reserved for more dramatic looks for me personally but a lovely colour all the same. Classy is a lighter lilac-y pink and Seductive more coral based. 

L-R- As above- Classy, Gypsy, Seductive

Packaging-wise these are sturdily made and survive the battle inside my bag with ease. A silver tube with a transparent band in the middle makes them easily identifiable in amongst a drawer and saves having to rely on the teeny font on the end.

Top to bottom- Classy, Gypsy, Seductive

All three are creamy, pigmented and non-drying, my only niggle being the relatively strong fruity scent that comes with the colour, the only giveaway to their bargain price. I can't decide if this is any better than the wax-crayon-esque cheap lipstick smell but the taste is certainly better. Lasting power is average, but better than the similarly priced MUA lipsticks.


Overall a total steal, perfect for experimentation and everyday wear! Available from ELF at £1.50 each.


Have you tried the ELF essential lipsticks?


x

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

Accessorize NOTD!

I thought I'd cleverly disguise my new year's post.... So first of all, Happy New Year!

And then onto the NOTD ;) this was what I wore for Christmas day this year...

Accessorize Pink Spice. A beautiful mix of pink and orangey-yellows. Love it!

Then I added a coat of ELF's "Twinkle" to it (which is a matte finish) and added a coat of INM's Out the Door to make it shiny again!

Hope you've all had a very happy Christmas period! 

Rach xx

P.S- giveaway winners coming soon!

ELF cream eyeliner

ELF hold some strange power over me, there's very rarely a time that I don't want anything from their website. It's affordable, it's generally good quality and therefore.. almost guilt free ;)

Recently they brought out some new colours in their cream eyeliner range and I was excited to try the copper colour. ELF recently updated their cream liners so that they include a little brush with the pot, I'm not keen on it, and would not recommend, it's quite scratchy for a product that's so soft, and my delicate little eyes did not appreciate it! It's also pretty hard to get a good line with and I found I was much better off using a flat eyeshadow brush to apply as I had some problems using an ordinary liner brush due to the product being a little on the drier side.

At first glance the copper colour looks like quite an ordinary brown, but when on there's a subtle glow to it and another dimension of colour that means it qualifies for it's name. I apply it for a soft look, and it lends itself to this really well, no harsh lines here! Once on there's absolutely no smudging or slip-sliding around, it stays exactly where you put it until you take it off with your cleanser/make up remover. Even when my eyes are running in the cold this won't smudge or rub off.

Overall, a total bargain for £3.50 and available in a variety of colours.. from ELF

x

ELF new polish releases..

Hidden amongst some gorgeous autumnal shades- some lovely deep reds, one with sparkle, and a beautiful looking purple, lots of perfect for christmas shades!- that have just been released by ELF is a matte top coat.. 

Something that they've managed to keep very quiet! At £1.50 it's well worth a try although I've no idea how long  it'll stay chip free and matte for...

The Facebook group is currently at 64,700 likes and with an offer of a free studio eye primer (normally with orders over £10) at 65,000 it may be worth waiting!

Oxford Jasmine has swatches here

If you get it, it'd be great if you could let me know what you think! 

x

ELF order!

This was a small order, I couldn't resist, ELF's facebook page was jammed full of new product pictures and frenzied weirdos ;) 

I think the only brand new product I got was their new lilac nail polish, but here's what I got! (Oh, and please excuse the awful pictures, my phone was dying, and I wanted to get the pictures before I had to send it away which meant taking them in really bad lighting.. So much editing needed = fuzzy pics!)

Image credit: ELF

The colour is definitely more "real" in my picture, it's not as vibrant as the swatch, which I think I like, it's a slightly dirty lilac which is more my taste! Can't really go wrong for £1.50, NOTD with this to come! 

Again, this picture is a much better representation of the colour than the online swatch, a common issue with ELF... 

This is one of their cream shadow duos and ELF claim that it's long wearing and "crease resistant"... An interesting way to describe an eyeshadow that has creased and slipped within 3 hours of applying ;) it wasn't as if it was even exposed to the heat! I was inside all day as when it's really hot I just feel like crap if I'm outside for very long at all, so it really had no excuse! As ever I had GOSH's primer underneath it, which works perfectly with my powder shadows.. I may have to invest in the powder version of Butter Pecan to wear over the cream one and see if that makes it any better. In all fairness, this is a £1.50 eyeshadow, it was just a little disappointing as I know that ELF can do better!

I know! Something that appeared on my wishlist has actually been bought! ;)

I love this brush! It's really soft, and not just on your hand, then turns out to be scratchy on your face, it's properly soft, yet stiff enough to be used for some hardcore mineral powder buffing which is great. It's really great quality, and a huge bargain at £3.50! It's really great for days when I want better/more flawless coverage, even though it takes longer to apply than with my kabuki.

Unfortunately I had to buy the obligatory ELF face primer for £6 which meant I couldn't afford to buy anything else this early on in the month! Maybe later ;)

Have you had any great ELF buys or disasters recently?

Rach xx

Loving my ELF £5 Kabuki brush!

Image credit: eyeslipsface.co.uk

Thought I'd publicly express my love for the ELF Kabuki brush! It was from the Studio line and to be honest I wasn't holding out much hope for it but it's turned out to be amazing! It really makes my skin look flawless and it's so quick and easy to put my foundation on using this, it's also a bit of a bargain at just £5! Highly recommended, buy it when ELF next put a code up on facebook ;)

Another tiny ELF order!

ELF had a free delivery code on their facebook page again the other day and as I desperately needed more primer I toddled over to have a look..

I do like these sleek black boxes! 

Obviously I got the primer.. and I've been using a really cute mini buffer brush ever since I started using mineral foundation last year. This kabuki is longer and so I was worried it wouldn't get the powder on densely enough and I'd be there forever. It does a very good job and it's sooooo soft! At £5 I'm impressed so far!

Boring white polish too as I have no white polish in my collection. I'll probably mainly use it for on top of coloured polishes for patterns and dots rather than as a nail tip colour... but we'll see!

Rachel xx

ELF eyebrow kit..Where I think I made a stupid mistake.. and then do.

I love the look of ELF's new (well they're new to me!) studio products, and they feel really solid which is great, nothing worse than a cheap product that feels cheap!

What ELF say:

• Creates brows that are fuller, thicker, and more defined.
• Shapes and sets your eyebrows
• Gives lasting colour definition for a naturally beautiful look.

I actually had a slight problem with this... Surely it would make sense to have the bit you put on first on the left, and then the second bit on the right? That's how we work, left to right right?! Not so with this. It seems like a really minor issue, but as I didn't touch either the wax or the pigment I didn't really notice much difference between them and thought that the dark one was the colour and the lighter one the wax. It'd probably have been a good idea for me to read the directions but I thought I knew better ;)

So I ended up with the wax alone on, and then it was only when I put the brush to the lighter powder that I realised what I'd done. Oops.

Here are the directions...

Use the pigmented.. OH! I just realised I was right the first time. I feel so stupid, it IS the gel then the powder (left to right, yea!) ;) Ahem. I shall continue..

Use the pigmented brow GEL (I did this the first time!!) to define and shape the brows with the angled brush for precise lines. Set the colour in with the brow powder and fill in with the blending brush for a naturally finished look

This is before (I've taken new pictures for you so that you get to see it with the gel first, then the powder.. man, how confusing is this!?)

I'm sorry it's such a scary picture....

And then after....

I swear anyone under 14, or who has not been taught how to pluck eyebrows, should not be allowed near tweezers. Admittedly my eyebrows are just quite pale anyway, but they're now slightly patchy and short due to over-excited plucking when I first starting attacking my eyebrows with tweezers at about 13 or so.

I'm hugely impressed with the eyebrow kit, I think it looks natural and it's quick to do and last all day (unlike my previous eyebrow pencil).

Available from ELF for £3.50, ooh, and I'm medium :) xx

ELF order!

Superfast delivery from ELF!

I ordered on Monday, it was dispatched Tuesday and got here today!

It was just a small order as I'd been wanting the Studio eyebrow kit for flipping ages and it had been in and out of stock- normally out!- in the colour I wanted everytime I looked, and so when I saw it in stock the other day I dived on it! I also got an Olive eyeshadow duo and 2 brushes- an eyeliner one and an eyeshadow one, both from ELF's normal range (not Studio). Everything I ordered was £1.50 except the eyebrow kit which was £3.50 I think.

Really happy with all of it which hasn't always been the case with previous ELF orders, I do think the quality and general usefulness of their products has increased since they released their studio line.

The eyeshadow brush is quite thick and really not useful for the crease but great for lid colour.

The eyeliner brush is a *little* bit scratchy and I wish it was angled, I may cut it... ha!

The pigmentation of the eyeshadow is amazing!

There's also very little fall out which I'm impressed with and it's almost matte (why, oh why, do people think that EVERY eyeshadow needs sparkly bits to fall over your face?!) which I love. I've got a FOTD coming up for you with the eyeshadow and eyebrow kit, and a bit of a before/after with the eyebrow kit too (once I'd figured out which bit was meant to go on first... oops!)

Hope you're Wednesday's been a good one!

Rach xx