Pamper Night Essentials.

I love a good pampering sesh, there's nothing better than getting home and having some proper 'me' time. I regularly make time to treat myself, I find it helps me feel less anxious and I sleep better; as a result I have some pamper night essentials. 

First either pop on one of your favourite films (I've put a few of my top 10 there- He's Just Not That Into You, Beauty and the Beast and Rent...I have an eclectic taste!) or get the latest copy of your favourite magazine and give your face a good old wash with your cleanser of choice. 

Now it's time for a face mask. There are two I seem to alternate between, the first is Sanctuary Spa's 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask-  this self warming, charcoal mask opens up pores and gets right in there to get rid of any impurities. If I fancy a bit of a more vigorous exfoliation then I've been opting for Lush's Brazened Honey Fresh Face Mask, the great thing about this is that it has ground almond shells in it to exfoliate. I usually find beaded exfoliators too harsh and steer clear of them, but the all natural ingredients in this make it a winner. As it has no preservatives, you need to keep this in the fridge to ensure it keeps which makes it that bit more refreshing when you put it on.

 While my face mask is doing it's job I like to give myself a bit of a mani-pedi. I run a small bath of hot water and dip my feet in, then using Soap and Glory's The Scrub of Your Life I give my feet a good seeing to- gross I know but if you don't regularly scrub your feet you'll end up with cracked heels and flaky skin which is never a strong look. After my feet are baby soft, I slather a bit of Heel Genius on and rub in a bit of Hand Food on the backs of my hands to make sure my skin is hydrated. 

The most stressful part of a pamper evening comes from choosing a nail colour, more than 9 times out of 10 I use Barry M Nail Paints, they have a huge range of reasonably priced colours to choose from and the quality is great. The time of year completely depends on my choice of nail colour- pastels in spring/summer, muted tones in autumn and brights on the run up to Christmas...I can't be the only person who does this, right?

Now I've put myself in the mood to pamper so I will leave it here- what are your pamper night essentials? 

Top 10 Over £10

I love a good beauty bargain as much as the next girl, but there is something so nice about treating yourself to a bit of luxury every now and then. Unfortunately I treat myself a lot more than I should and would often rather forego something necessary in favour of getting my hands on an expensive foundation- I'm trying to work on it, I promise!

I've compiled a little list of my favourite high end products, by no means is it in order nor is it an exhaustive list, but here is my Top 10 Over £10;

1)NARS Sheer Glow Foundation

2)Chanel Soleil Tan de Chanel

3) Benefit Box O' Powders

4) MAC Eyeshadow Palette

5) MAC Lipsticks in Crème Cup, Fanfare and Velvet Teddy

6) MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Soft and Gentle

7) MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural

8) Urban Decay Perversion Mascara (and Subversion Lash Primer!)

9) Urban Decay All Nighter Setting Spray

10) Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara.

For more details about why I love each of these, why not watch my newest video? 

My Evening Cleansing Routine || Video

I've found that my skin has recently been in better condition than it has been in months. Whether this is due to the lack of stress or down to my updated cleansing routine I do not know, but just in case it's the latter I filmed my evening cleansing routine. Enjoy!

Benefit Gimme Brow || Review

Gimme Brow- £17.50

I have been a massive fan of Benefit's Brow Zings for years- I'm fairly sure it was the first brow product I ever got, actually! Brow mascaras seem to be getting more and more popular now that many are opting for the 'Cara' brow, so I chose to put my relationship with Brow Zings on hold and hot footed it to my local Benefit counter to see what all the fuss was about.

At first I didn't really get on with this very well, despite the teeny tiny wand I found it almost clumsy to apply and the wand picks up SO much more product than necessary. After a few goes I've got a bit better at it, but rather than use it to fill in my brows, I use it to set them after I've filled them in with MAC's Charcoal Brown eyeshadow.

Honestly, I'm not completely blown away by this style of brow-fixing but I think once you get used to it it may well work. I know I've read so many rave reviews about Gimme Brow. Maybe I'm just using it wrong?! 

xxx

Before we do anything can we talk about those ADORABLE little bug things I found on Picmonkey? They were too cute to be left out.

Hey guys, the whole world and his dog knows about MAC eyeshadows, right? 99% of bloggers seem to own palettes and I've seen various posts detailing the colours they've chosen and various swatches etc, but I've not seen one telling you a) how to do it and b) whether or not it's worth it. Don't worry though, I'm here to answer those burning questions- or maybe not so much burning as simmering? This isn't a post preaching the greatness that is MAC eyeshadow, it's just about the building process.

There are various sizes for the palettes, so you'll have to look and see what would suit your needs best. I just have the single sided, 15 pan one. This is quite a splurge as the empty palette will set you back about £16.50 and each refill costs £10, but I have to say I'm so glad I started building my own. I always found with pre-made eyeshadow palettes there were colours I loved and used up so quickly and then others I never touched, so in theory money was wasted. The perk of building your own palette is that you can only include colours you would use. Also, there is no pressure to buy all the refills at once, I've built this over several months and some people take years to fill theirs.

I've written the name of each shade I have in case any take your fancy- you can clearly see which ones I favour (it's currently Brulé with Charcoal Brown in the crease). While building this I tried to include muted colours I would use regularly and that would complement each other for various looks- although the odd statement like Antiqued snuck its way in. Any time I've asked someone for help in a MAC store they've been great so if you're nervous, just ask! I found myself having 30 minute discussions about eyeshadows and it always helps to have a professional opinion on colours that would suit your skin tone, and I'd usually ask which colours they felt they couldn't live without in their palettes to get inspiration.

Although it's expensive to build, this palette has made all my other eyeshadows become redundant. It's not so much a splurge as an investment, as I said you can build it up over time and tailor it to you. It might be OTT to say, I probably couldn't live without this now! How about you? Do you have a MAC Palette? Do you want one?

Favourite Things || Sleek Face Form Palette

The Sleek Face Form Palette is something I have been itching to get my hands on for the longest time. For whatever reason (my money is backing the idea that I had angered the beauty gods) it was like gold dust in my town, everywhere was always sold out. Even when I ventured further afield, they'd magically be sold out too, I truly believed I was cursed- overly dramatic? I don't think so. Thankfully, there was a glorious day when I strolled past this little beauty tucked away, all on its lonesome, in Superdrug so I hot footed it to the till in case another Sleek drought hit Colchester. 

  

Sleek Face Form Palette in 'Light'

Anyway, enough setting the scene, let's talk about why this is one of my favourite things. For just £9.99 you get a bronzer, a highlighter and a blush (NB:in the darker shades there are two bronzers and a highlight). The bronzer is the most perfect contouring shade, it's completely matte and several shades darker than my skin tone so I can create the illusion of cheekbones. All three powders have great pigmentation and are perfect for blending. And they last forever- both in the pan and on the skin. I always like having palettes in my collection because they make life so much easier when travelling- why pack three products when you can just take one? That coupled with the ginormous mirror means this ticks all the boxes.

The bronzer is probably my most loved powder in the palette, since buying it I've used it everyday without fail. While the highlight is pretty, I've recently fallen in love with MAC's Soft and Gentle Mineralize Skinfinish so that's taken a backseat for now. And the blush is great, but for me it's a bit of a statement so I prefer to use it for a night time look rather than a summer one.

How do you feel about the Sleek Palettes? Love them or loathe them? Let me know! 

Mac Mineralize || Review

MAC Mineralize Moisture Foundation- £27.00

 So, long time no speak...again. Revision and finals are
kinda getting on top of me so this and my attempt at a YouTube channel have been severely neglected- just bear with me until the 31st of May then I will have nothing but time to devote to blogging!
Anyway, let's get to the point of this post, I recently ran out of foundation and fancied trying something new. Very predictably, I fell into my nearest MAC store and asked their advice. Since summer is just around the corner (fingers crossed!) I wanted to go for something a bit more dewy than I normally would, and the lovely lady working the counter directed me straight to the Mineralize range where I ended up buying the foundation, powder and concealer.

We'll start with the foundation. I always love MAC packaging so there's no complaints there, the actual product is a bit of a different matter. As you can see from the pictures at the start of this post, it's definitely dewy so I got what I asked for but I find it might be a bit too dewy. I'm concerned that I look more sweaty than glowy, if I'm honest. As for lasting, today I have just been moseying around and it's faired well, especially for something that's not full coverage (it's more medium, if you were wondering), and even when I worked an 8 hour shift yesterday it held up fairly well without any need for setting spray. That being said, it doesn't feel like it's really worked into my skin, if you know what I mean; it's not heavy at all, but I am very aware that I'm wearing foundation. Would I buy it again? I'm not sure, like I said it's a lot more dewy than I'm used to so perhaps it's that that's holding me back. I'm going to persevere with it for a few more weeks and then see how I feel. If you do want to look like there's a lightbulb inside your skull though, this may well be the foundation for you!

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural- £22.00

Now for the powder, I got this in the shade Light Plus so it doesn't add any colour for me, it just sets everything in place. Their Mineralize Skinfinish Natural powders are all low coverage so should be suited to all skin types. I have been loyal to Rimmel's Stay Matte for as long as I can remember, but recently I've found it goes a bit to cakey and clings to dry patches, so this may have replaced it as my go to powder! settles really nicely on the skin, without caking up around the nose or showing everyone my dry patches. As far as I can tell, it neither adds nor takes away from the glow of the foundation underneath so presumably it'll be great over a range of foundations. Despite being significantly more expensive than Rimmel, I can see myself repurchasing this.

MAC Mineralize Concealer- £16.50

Finally, the concealer. I always need a nice, creamy concealer to cover the ever-present bags under my eyes and I figured that I may as well get the full set. This is probably my least favourite product, firstly it seems to make all my eye makeup smudge a lot more, a problem I never usually have. It feels almost slippery when you put it on so, despite providing full coverage of bags at first, it slides all over the place throughout the day and leaves you with minimal coverage (although that could just be my eyeliner leaking down my face!) Setting it with powder didn't help it to stay either. Honestly, I'm fairly disappointed meaning I won't buy this again. I'm in the market for a new concealer if anyone knows of any good'uns.



And that's about it for this post, what foundation, powder and concealer are you using at the minute? Would you recommend? Let me know in the comments!

Keep it clean, people!

The internet has fast become an absolute goldmine of information on how to apply make up, yet there are significantly fewer blog posts and vlogs talking about how to properly wash your face. For years my mum badgered me about the importance of a good skin care regime and, during my moody teenage years I dutifully ignored her and treated my skin terribly, but no, at the ripe old age of 23, it pains me to admit that mum was right (she has a terrible habit of doing that). Taking proper care of your skin isn't just good for preventing and fighting spots, it makes applying make up so much easier, significantly reduces the amount of foundation and concealer you need and virtually eradicates the need for primer.

Just to give you an overview, my skin is fairly sensitive and can get quite dry (thanks, eczema!) but on the whole it's not too bad with regards to spots, although I am susceptible when shark week comes around, like every other girl on the planet. Although, I have found that when I stick to a proper cleansing routine my break outs are far fewer and further between.

But enough blabbering on, let's get to the point and give you a step-by-step on how I cleanse my face every night and most mornings (sometimes you just need that  extra five minutes in bed)- I start by popping a little bit of Simple Purifying Cleansing Lotion on to two cotton wool pads and holding them on my eyes for about 10 seconds then wipe my eye make up away. Simple have always been a much loved brand of mine, and holding the pads over my eyes helps to remove waterproof mascara.

Next I move on to Clinique's 3-Step- I've been favouring this regime for almost 3 years now and, although I occasionally stray to other products, I always come crawling back. The products vary depending on skin type so, if you choose to give them a go, it's best to nip down to a Clinique counter and have them advise you. I wet my face with warm water and massage two pumps of Clinique Liquid Facial Soap all over- I avoid my eyes just because they get irritated quite easily but I'm almost certain you can use this to remove eye make up too- I keep rubbing for about 30 seconds to really lift the build up of product and oil out of my pores and what not, then wipe it all off with a flannel. I pat my face dry with a towel and use a cotton pad to swipe my face with Clinique Clarifying Lotion, I much prefer this to a beaded exfoliator because you can feel it getting to work without feeling like you're having several layers of skin scrubbed off. I finish up using Clinique All About Eyes and Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion. The great thing about Clinique as a brand, as well as being generally great at what they do, is that they LOVE a free gift; they usually do an offer along the lines of "spend this much and we'll give you this", All About Eyes is often one of the freebies they give out meaning I've never had to actually buy any. All of their moisturisers seem to dry quickly without leaving a greasy feeling and a little really goes a long way, so use sparingly!

Once or twice a week I'll use a face mask, at the moment I'm loving Neutrogena Visibly Clear 2 in 1 Facial Wash and Mask,  but generally I find following my routine helps to keep my skin clear and radiant. Don't get me wrong though, I'm no super woman and every now and then I am prone to laziness and just give myself a once over with a face wipe- don't tell mum!

(I now see I forgot to include Simple Cleansing Lotion in my picture...oops!)