Smashbox Shapematters Palette

It's no secret that I'm a makeup lover. So when I saw the Smashbox Shapematters Palette half price at Boots last week I couldn't resist! The palette comes with a brow section, face section and an eye section. The brow section consists of a wax and two brow powders (taupe and soft brown), the face section contains four powders (contour, bronzer, highlight and glow) and in the eyes section there are nine eyeshadows (vanilla, totally nude, champagne, stripped, posh, platinum, sumatra, aubergine and blackout).

I was most excited to try the face section and also all the eyeshadows because they looked beautiful wearable colours! I wasn't too crazy about the brow powders as the colours are too light for my hair colour and I also feel like I don't have as much control over the product when I'm using a powder. I was a little bit disappointed with the highlight shade as I didn't feel like it was pigmented enough, the contour and bronzer shade make a lovely colour when mixed together however when used alone the contour shade is too greyish for me and the bronzer shade is too much on the warmer side. The shimmer highlight is a light champagne colour so it's perfect for when my tans wearing off and my foundation is lighter.

What I was really impressed with was the eyeshadows! All 9 shades are absolutely beautiful! The shades are (left to right on the picture above) vanilla, totally nude, champagne, stripped, posh, platinum, sumatra, aubergine and blackout). The eyeshadows are really pigmented and there is a range of matte and shimmer shades, they blend out beautifully and I was so impressed with how longwearing they are. My favourite shades to wear together are posh and aubergine blended out with totally nude. I'll definitely still continue to play around with these eyeshadows as I think the colours are stunning. In all honesty I wish this palette was just fully complete with eyeshadows! But the eyeshadows made the palette worth buying! 

Let me know how you felt about this palette if you bought it and also if you love any other products from smashbox! 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

New MAC Eyeshadows

Sooo.. Exciting news! Last week I started my course in Media Makeup which I've been waiting all summer to start! So now I'm officially a training makeup artist and I couldn't be happier! For the course, I had to purchase a makeup kit to get me started and as you can guess by the title I bought a MAC kit! The kit came with so many beautiful products but I was particularly excited about these four eyeshadows! I love MAC eyeshadows so I was super excited when I found out that there would be four more of their eyeshadows heading my way.

The shades included in my kit are (left to right) Shroom, Satin Taupe, Brun and Embark.

Shroom is a light cool toned cream colour which does have some shimmer and it is definitely one of my favourites out of the four shades I have, it blends really easily and looks lovely paired with Satin Taupe which is of course a taupe shade! This shade does have shimmer in it as well which means that its really easy to blend. Brun is a cool toned brown and I really liked the colour of it in the pan however when I swatched it on the back of my hand it definitely wasn't as pigmented as I hoped it would be! Embark is a red toned brown which was the shade I was most excited about! It's mid September now and I'm definitely feeling some autumn vibes creeping around in the UK so warm toned brown eyeshadows like this one are perfect for this season! And I'm definitely thinking that this is going to be one of my go to eyeshadows! 

Let me know what your favourite eyeshadows are (MAC or any other brand!) 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

Lazy Day Makeup

We all have those days when we're feeling super lazy but we've got one or two errands to run, or those days where you want to watch Netflix all day but you need to nip to the shop for Kinder chocolate (yes this was me half an hour ago). And although I love to go out on a day to day basis with a full face of makeup, on lazy days I just can't be bothered but I'm just not one for going out with no makeup on so I've got my quick as a flash makeup routine for those days when I'm feeling lazy!

I start off with Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation. Now I'm not one for drugstore foundations because I always find that the colours are too pink and they're just not long wearing or full coverage enough for me but I'd heard good things about this particular foundation and I thought I'd give it a try and oh what a lovely foundation it is! It's medium coverage and has a dewy finish and smells amazing I use the shade 53 and it matches my skin colour perfectly! However, I find that this foundation only lasts about 4 hours on my skin before it starts to slip and slide off my face and it makes me so sad because I really do love this foundation! I set the foundation with a quick dusting of Bare Minerals Mineral Veil Translucent Powder just to make sure my foundation stays put. 

As they say "a good face starts with a strong brow" and there is no other eyebrow product that can compare to my beloved Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade wow wow wow! I can't rave about this product enough, I've had mine since December and I still haven't used it all up yet! This stuff is bulletproof and no matter how lazy I am feeling I will always save a bit of time for my brows. 

I keep my eye makeup simple by just sweeping a cream shadow over my lid with my finger and most of the time I tend to reach for my Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow I love the shade Birthday Suit (cheeky) it's kind of a similar shade to the Maybelline Colour Tattoo shade On and On Bronze but it's a bit more cool toned. Cream shadows are great for lazy makeup days because they require minimal effort and blend out really easily. I pair this with a few coats of mascara, todays choice was Benefit Rollerlash just to finish off the eyes. Rather than using a lipstick I reach for a tinted lipbalm for a little bit of colour but nothing that requires any effort, I love Benefit Cha Cha Balm it's really moisturising and has a beautiful colour too! 

Let me know what your favourite makeup products are for your lazy days! See you soon!

Rebecca x

August Favourites

So it's the last day of August! I can't believe how fast this month has gone! All in all August has been one hell of a busy month for me! And there are a few products which have been my absolute saviours this month whilst I've been away.

My first August favourite is my MAC Studio Fix Fluid Foundation. Every man and his dog has heard about this foundation! I've spoke to people who love it and I've spoke to people who hate it but I first purchased this foundation nearly 3 years ago and personally I tend to fall in and out of love with it but recently I just can't get enough! Before switching back to my studio fix I was using my Estée Lauder Double Wear foundation, which I love because of it's flawless, full coverage matte finish! However, at the start of August I went to iBiza for a week and didn't fancy packing on the layers of a full coverage foundation but I'm not one to go without any makeup so I toned down the coverage to my studio fix fluid. Oh my goodness I fell back in love again! I forgot how well this foundation just glides on my skin and has that lovely semi-matte finish which I've been loving this month! I love how you can use a small amount of product and have a lighter coverage or you can build it up in areas where you need it for more coverage. 

My second favourite of the month is the Aussie Take the Heat 3 Minute Miracle Deep Treatment. When I go abroad my hair tends to suffer with the sun and combining that with all the straightening and curling on an evening (I wasn't blessed with naturally beautiful hair it's more of a fluffy mess) my hair felt like it was on it's last legs. Sometimes using a treatment once a week is just not enough for me, my hair is thick and long so it needs extra TLC. So, I've been using the 3 minute miracle as my conditioner everyday instead of using it as a one off treatment. After shampooing I slather my hair in this product and then tie it up whilst I exfoliate then make sure all the product is rinsed out so I have no build up. Afterwards my hair feels softer and much more healthy, my ends no longer feel dry and my hair is much more easier to style! I can't stop using this as my conditioner because I LOVE the way my hair feels afterwards! 

My last but certainly not least favourite of this month is my Mary-Lou Manizer from The Balm Cosmetics. This is my absolute favourite ever highlighter! I've had it since December and used it near enough every single day and it looks barely used! But because it's summer I've been all over that glowly bronzey makeup! And this product just puts the icing on the cake! It's kind of like a champagne gold highlighter and it blends beautifully on the skin. Usually after I've applied my bronzer I apply this to the high points of my cheekbones, on the tip of my nose and cupids bow then whatever is left on my brush I dust in the centre of my forehead. A small amount of product goes a long way! And I find that using a Real Techniques setting brush or the Real Techniques duo fibre contour brush works best for this product! If you're all about the strong highlighter then I 100% recommend this product!

Those are my favourite products for this month and hopefully September has some more to offer! Let me know what your favourite products are this month in the comments! See you soon!

Rebecca x