July Favourites

Wow this year is flying by! I can't believe it's the end of July. Anyway into my two little favourites this month!

Before I went away at the start of July, Benefit launched their new brow collection, and I was living and breathing for it so I thought I'd pick up a few items that caught my eye. I purchased the Precisely My Brow Pencil in 4 and 3D Brow Tones in 4 too. 

I've grown apart from my dipbrow as I mentioned in my Holiday Makeup Kit post so I was so excited to try these. And wow my whole brow routine has completely changed! 

Precisely My Brow Pencil has made doing hair strokes in my brows so much easier, the product just glides on and it's great for getting hairs in the sparse areas of your brows and a sharp tail on the end. Oh and it has a spoolie (spooly?) on the opposite end and you can't go wrong with that!

After filling in my brows using the pencil I use 3D Brow Tones to add more dimension to my brows. I love how this product adds a highlight to my brows making them look glossy but it's still wearable for everyday. 

Those are my two little favourites for this month, let me know what your favourites are in the comments below! See you soon!

Rebecca x

Pop Of Colour Tutorial

I finally got round to using my Neptune eyeshadow from Makeup Geek. I love bright colours but on a day to day basis I never reach for them which is probably why I've put off trying this eyeshadow for a long time. I was inspired by a makeup tutorial video that makeup artist Karen Gonzalez (iluvsarahii on instagram) did a while ago (link here). 

After priming my eyelids with MAC Prolongwear concealer and setting it with a cream coloured eyeshadow, I blended Makeup Geek eyeshadow in the shade Creme Brulee into the crease using a MAC 224 brush. 

Then I used a MAC 217 brush with Makeup Geek eyeshadow Frappe and focused this more into the crease itself and also used this shade all over the lid. 

Next I used a MAC 210 brush and Morphe gel liner in the shade slate to do a bold winged liner to bring the eyeshadow look together. 

I used Benefit Rollerlash mascara on my top lashes and then applied my favourite lashes which are the Eylure 157 lashes (these are exclusive to Superdrug!) 

For the bottom lashline which was the main focus of the look, I used the Makeup Geek eyeshadow in Neptune wit a MAC 219 pencil brush and smudged it from the outer corner of the lower lash line to the inner corner. I also used this eyeshadow in the waterline and to finish off the look I used the Benefit They're Real mascara in Beyond Blue.

Hope you like this makeup look let me know how you incorporate a pop of colour into your makeup! See you soon!

Rebecca x

September Favourites

How is it the end of September already?! Not that I'm complaining because if you know me well enough you'll know how much I love autumn and winter! I can't wait for coats, cosy nights in, big jumpers and for Costa to bring out their christmas hot chocolate flavours! (Praying for black forest hot chocolate again this year). But anyway, since we are coming towards the end of the month it's time for my September favourites so these are the products which I have been loving this month! 

1. Benefit Hoola Bronzer is my first favourite of the month. I do love my NARS bronzer but having recently done work on contouring and highlighting on my makeup course I've fell back in love with this matte bronzer. I love using bronzers during these colder months to warm up the skin and I also like to use a stronger contour as well at this time of year. This bronzer works well for so many skin tones and can be used as a contour shade because it is matte and not too warm toned!

2. MAC Embark eyeshadow is my second favourite of the month, this eyeshadow came in my makeup kit and I also have a smaller sized one in my MAC burgundy times nine palette. I've been using this eyeshadow most days for the past 2 weeks, I blend my bronzer into my crease and then pack the Embark eyeshadow on my lid and then blend it into the crease colour. This is slowly becoming my go-to eyeshadow look and if you read my last blog post I predicted I would become hooked on this eyeshadow (makeup psychic).

3. MAC Rebel Lipstick. Everyone knew this was coming! This time of year is perfect for pulling out the plum lipstick and I wore this lipstick for the first time in months this week and oh wow I forgot how much I loved it! The colour stays all day although I do have to reapply after eating but the colour is absolutely amazing and I can't wait to wear this more throughout the next few months! If you've never worn a dark lipstick before but want to try one this season then I would definitely recommend this one. Now that I'm used to wearing Rebel I definitely want to go darker with my lipstick so let me know if you have any favourites! 

4. My last but not least favourite of the month is MAC 188 Duo Fibre Brush. What a fabulous brush! It is perfect for applying highlighter to the tops of the cheekbones, because it's a duo fibre brush it doesnt pick up too much product so you can control the level of highlight which you want and the size of the brush fits perfectly on the tops of the cheekbones to control where you want to apply your highlighter. 

That wraps up my favourites for this month and I've definitely got some new products lined up to try during October so keep your eyes peeled for reviews and who knows maybe some will creep up in next months favourites! Let me know what you have been loving this month in the comments! See you soon!

Rebecca x

Tenth Blog Post

Double figures! This is my tenth blog post so to make it all about the big 1 0 I thought my tenth blog post should be about my ten favourite makeup products! It was really really hard to narrow my favourites down to just ten and unfortunately I have more than ten favourite products but obviously there are some which just didn't make the cut! So, without any more rambling on here are my top ten favourite makeup products.

1. Mary-Lou Manizer from The Balm Cosmetics. If you've read my August Favourites blog post you'll know all about why I love this highlighter, but if you didn't then I'll explain it all again. If you're like me and you are all about the strong highlight game then you will love this! Out of all the highlighters I've used this is the most intense one, I first bought this product in December and it's now September and I've been using it pretty much everyday and it barely even looks used! A little bit goes a long way with this product and it blends beautifully. I apply it to the tops of my cheekbones, tip of my nose and on my cupids bow and any left over on my brush goes in the centre of my forehead (gotta get that glow on). I find powder highlighters work best for me than cream or liquid highlighters because I do set my foundation with powder so cream and liquid products don't blend on top of my powder very well (or at all for that matter) so I'm glad that this is a powder product as it applies so much easier. I have a medium skin tone when I've fake tanned which is pretty much all the time so the champagne colour of this highlighter is the perfect shade. 

2. Laguna Bronzer from NARS. Again if you read my July Favourites post you will know all about my feels for this product but reading about it twice never hurt nobody. I used to love Hoola bronzer from Benefit and I had it for a long time (at one point I even used it as a powder to set my foundation but we can forget about that time in my life) and I loved it but recently when I've been going on nights out and I'm more fake tanned than on a day to day basis so the Hoola bronzer just wasn't dark enough and it started to look a bit grey (not chic). I'd heard great things about this bronzer and I loved that it has a red undertone so it would be perfect for those times when my skin is darker because of my fake tan. And then that was it! I was hooked! And I've been hooked ever since. I haven't used any other bronzer because I love this one so much! The product has gold flecks in it but when you apply it to the skin personally I can't see any shimmer which also makes it a perfect product for contouring. It is a deep colour bronzer so I tend to steer away from it on my pale days but the rest of the time I can't get enough. I use it to contour my cheekbones and then blend it up towards my temples and then under my jawline as well. If you're looking for a new bronzer, this one is amazing, I've only just hit pan on it and I've been using it nearly everyday for about two months maybe? It's a little pricey but personally I think it's worth every single penny.

3. MAC Fluidline Gel Liner in Blacktrack. I only used to wear eyeliner when I went on a night out because I couldn't really be bothered with the effort that it took to get a straight line across my lashline however, I think it was because I was using the wrong products. I found that liquid liners were too messy for me and I also found that eyeliner pens were too thick for me to work with so I thought enough is enough! I had to invest in a gel liner and a thin brush so I could get this liner game going! I bought this eyeliner along with the MAC 210 Eyeliner Brush and oh how much easier this made my life! Because the brush is so thin I don't have to worry about drawing my line too thick and I can get a good sharp point on my wing as well but as good as the brush is the eyeliner itself is what wowed me. It's quite creamy so it's really easy to apply and it sets with kind of a semi matte finish which I love because I didn't like the glossy look which other eyeliners gave me. The product is long wearing and best of all doesn't transfer onto my eyelids! All these reasons are why I've been wearing eyeliner more and more because I find it so much easier! Not everyone prefers a gel eyeliner and a brush but it works perfectly for me and has made doing my eyeliner much more easier!

4. Hello Flawless Custom Powder Cover-up from Benefit. Finding the right powder in the right shade was the biggest struggle for me. Most powders I'd used were too chalky, too red toned, too cakey or just made my face look flat! It was a disaster but I am a big fan of Benefit products so I thought I'd try it, I had no hopes of it being amazing because of the disappointment I'd had from other powders but I was pleasantly surprised. I have the shade Honey and it's kind of got a yellow undertone which is great because it means that my face will match my fake tan. It gives a demi matte finish so my skin still actually looks like skin (?) and it makes my foundation look flawless. The only downside to this product is that it doesn't last very long, it's only 1 or two months after buying it when I find my self getting to the last little bit and need to purchase another. But it's still one of my top ten favourite makeup products because it's the perfect shade, texture and finish for my skin so I don't mind going out and buying it more often than I'd like to. 

5. Naked Basics Palette from Urban Decay this is in my favourites because it is my most used palette. It has 6 eyeshadows (Venus, Foxy, Walk of Shame, Naked 2, Faint and Crave) which are all matte except for Venus. I love this palette because of its wearable shades and how you can create an eye makeup look using every single eyeshadow in the palette which is something you can't do with many palettes! I use the shade Foxy everyday to set my eyeshadow primer so that all my eyeshadows blend better as trying to blend powder into a liquid eyeshadow primer is very difficult as you can imagine. Venus is lovely for a brow bone and inner corner highlight and I tend to use Walk of Shame on the inner part of my lid, Naked 2 as a transition colour in my crease, Faint on the outer section of my lid and blended on my bottom lashline and Crave in my outer corner. Despite the eyeshadows being matte they are really creamy and blend like a dream! 

6. Peppermint Lipbalm from EOS. I've heard people rave about EOS lipbalms and I've heard people who don't like them and as a lipbalm on its own I personally think it's pretty average. BUT what I love about these lipbalms is that because they are quite waxy they don't give off much product when you apply it. This is why these lipbalms are absolutely perfect to put on before applying lipstick! Although I love a matte lipstick they can be quite drying but no one wants a big thick gloopy layer of lipbalm on just before applying lipstick! So what I tend to do is just sweep my EOS lipbalm over my lips once and then apply my lipstick. So matte lipsticks are no longer drying and I don't have to waste time waiting for a thicker lipbalm to soak in! Problem solved.

7. Stay Don't Stray from Benefit. Until about 6 months ago I never bothered with eyeshadow primers. The ones I had used just didn't do anything for me, if anything they made it harder for me to blend my eyeshadow and so I abandoned ship. However, last christmas I treated myself to one of the Benefit christmas boxes which contained 4 eyeshadows, a minature They're Real mascara and a sample size of the Stay Don't Stray eyeshadow primer so I thought I'd give it a try! This primer has a concealer in it as well which means that it adds coverage so that I can start my eyeshadow with an even base. I set it with the Foxy eyeshadow from my Urban Decay Naked Basics palette so my eyeshadows blend easier. The primer makes my eyeshadow last longer and I've noticed that when I wear this eyeshadow primer my eye makeup stays put for longer and doesnt move around, and because I loved it so much I bought the full sized one!

8. Modesty Lipstick from MAC. This is one my favourite lipsticks. It's a creme sheen lipstick so it's super moisturising and the colour is perfect for everyday. It can be so hard to find a lipstick that goes with most makeup looks and lasts long enough to wear everyday. The colour is kind of a dark nude with a hint of pink, a lot of people (including me) describe it as a 'your lips but better' colour. I love owning this lipstick because I know that I always have it to fall back on if I'm being indecisive about which lipstick to wear.

9. Rimmel London 1000 Kisses Lipliner in Tiramisu. This lipliner is in my favourites because it exactly matches my MAC Velvet Teddy Lipstick and it took me so long to find a good matching lip liner for this lipstick! However, it's also really pigmented as well so it's great to wear on its own all over the lips. The lipliner lasts all day and I always find that I never have to top it up. Although the lipstick is really pigmented and a great colour if worn alone it can be a little drying.

10. Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade if you know me personally or you've read my Lazy Day Makeup post you will know how much I love this product. This is the only product in my makeup routine that I am not willing to change. The dipbrow is waterproof, smudge proof and basically bulletproof! The formula is creamy and glides on like a dream. I have been using this since December and 8 months later I'm only about two thirds of the way through my pot. I love love love this product so much because of how easy it is to apply and how long it lasts. If you're all about the strong brow - get this and you will not be disappointed!

So, that wraps up my tenth blog post! It's been a lengthy one but a little reading never hurts! Let me know what your top ten makeup products are! See you soon!

Rebecca x