Honey, I'm home!

I'm back!

It's been over a year, but I'm here (and I rhyme). Back on the blog, and on the 'tube - head over to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZn7sERMMJ0vH1FkeQG1dPQ to check out my new video.

Hope you enjoy!

The Perfect Nude Nail

When I realised I didn't own the perfect nude nail colour, I went on a hunt. Luckily, my favourite nail range, the Barry M quick dry, had a couple of nude selections  and it was 3 for 2 soo...

This is the first one I tried out of the three I bought yesterday and I feel like it can't get better than this, this is the perfect nudey- beigey- pink colour, and because it's my favourite quick-dry formula I love it even more. The shade name is Winning Streak - all of the quick dry range have racing- related names which is pretty cool. I use two coats to make sure it's super opaque, over the Iron-Mani base coat, also from Barry M, and under the Seche Vite top coat, which is life.

Basically this is a staple, nude polish for a bargain at £3? £4? Less if you're me and you never just get one. Love it, over and out.

Thanks for reading!

Lou x

Sunday Chats | Lazy Weekends

Recently, I've had a fair few lazy weekends. This might be something to do with most of my friends being on actual holiday abroad, or holiday from uni, as a fair few of them are still studying.
For a lazy weekend, I like a mixture of junk food, boxsets, youtube, coffee and a spot of shopping (shopping is like therapy, right?). I also like to squeeze the gym in if I get a chance between watching MAC lipstick collections and eating Ben & Jerry's on the sofa in front of Sex & The City. I think I'm middle aged.

Anyway, the point of this post was just to recommend my three favourite things from this particular weekend.
Firstly, coffee. Real, grown up coffee-  yeah, I'm that girl now. Real coffee is definitely nicer than the normal stuff you get in a jar, which I use during the week, and my ground coffee of choice is from Pact Coffee - check out their website - I get a pack delivered a month and you get a lot  of cups per bag. It isn't cheap, about £7/8 a bag, but it's a little weekend treat I really enjoy.

Secondly, my YouTube discovery of the weekend - Allana Davison. She's basically hilarious and I've been binge-watching her videos aaall weekend. Glorious.

Thirdly, yep, it's a boxset, I live in the past. I don't know what it is but I love a DVD, a real, solid DVD. My DVD collection is extensive and still growing and I've been re-watching the SatC series recently; it's a classic.

So yeah, I hope ya'll had a great weekend!

Thanks for reading

Lou x

New to my MAC Palette | Coppering & Sumptuous Olive

Y'know, I am really enjoying this whole palette - building situation, and my DIY MAC collection is actually turning out to be a lot more adventurous than I had imagined.
I started off with fairly neutral shades, and have a nice selection of mattes, along with Star Violet and All That Glitters as beautiful lid shades.
However, one evening I got caught in a swatch- photo hole on Google, and I fell in love with these two shades; both a little more out there than my original selection. Copping and Sumptuous Olive are both beautifully pigmented and highly metallic, and I think are going to be so lovely for the summer months.
Coppering is a really warm burnt- orange copper with gold shimmer. It's very red-toned so may be quite tricky to wear, but I've given it a go a couple of times already and I think it's soo pretty.
Sumptuous Olive has really opened my eyes to the world of green eyeshadows; I just want loads more because this one is so beautiful. It's a yellow- toned olive- green with gold shimmer - really high- shine and would look beautiful on any eye colour.
So yeah, here are the new recruits, I'm v. excited about them. The only problem is, now I need a lovely warm, mid brown crease shade...

Thanks for reading :)
Lou

Base routine/ favourite base products

Oh hi! Welcome to my morning face, and my amazing mug which I got literally ten years ago. Welcome.

It's been a while, sorry about that, life got in the way.

Anyway, hopefully as  you can see from the title, this post is all about base (buttery biscuit base)..if you don't know what that means I don't think we can be friends. Look it up.

So for this, I used all (very almost) highstreet, or drugstore products to achieve a natural looking base which just needed topping up with whatever eye and lip look I fancied.
I won't say this is an everyday look - I tend not to have time to do a few of these steps- but this probably only took 15-20 minutes tops.

For foundation, my favourite at the moment is Rimmel Match Perfection in a mix of Porcelain and Ivory to get my colour. I love this stuff, even though I have pretty oily skin, and I think it might be better suited to normal to dry skin as it has a really natural/dewy finish. I do get oily on my T Zone during the day, but I prefer that to the foundation breaking down into patches which looks awful with foundations like the L'Oreal True Match. Anyway, I digress.

For concealer, a mix of my Bobbi Brown Corrector, Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer and the L'Oreal True Match clicky highlight pen thing. Love all these, great cocktail of concealers. Speaking of the Collection concealer, I used a little of Shade 4 to warm up my face just around the edges and on my cheeks. This isn't a cream contour, it's a pretty warm shade, but it works really nicely as a cream bronzer.

For powder (which isn't in the photo, sorry, it was 7am) I use my Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Difused Light, as well as my Fit Me Powder to set oilier areas.

I like to cancel out discolouration on my eyelids every day, it just makes your eyes look so much more awake. I was using the Maybelline Colour Tattoo in Creme de Rose, but I have this sample of Benefit's Stay Don't Stray so I've been using that for a while now - it's lasting forever!

For my brows, I am looving my Anastasia Dip Brow in Soft Brown at the moment, I think it's dried out a little and I'm finding it a lot easier to not over- load. I top this off with the L'Oreal Brow Plumper. 

Somehow, for the rest of my face, I accidentally used three Revolution Products. Firstly, this huge Bronze/Shimmer/Highlight pan and then the blush in Love. Really like both of these, especially the bronzer which I always go back to. For highlight, which I basically put all over my face, I used the Revolution Radiant Lights palette which is amazing if you're looking for a budget highlight, really long lasting, and a great selection of three shades for all skin tones. Ah-maze.

So yeah! Think that's it. As I said, not something I have time for every morning, but definitely nice when I have a little more time in the mornings and I want a little extra bronze 'n' glow.

Thanks for reading!

Side note, I have child hair. Yep. 

New Fragrances

I had a fragrance moment in January, and really went on the hunt for a delicious new perfume. Luckily, it was my birthday, so I was actually able to pick up a second one in the sales (January is the best time to have a birthday).

So Jo Malone... I've definitely been lusting after the brand in general for a while now, and picking just one to take home as my own was actually really difficult. I went into Selfridges convinced I was going to pick up English Pear and Freesia, but after smelling it again I decided it was too sweet and sickly, and so the field lay wide open to the whole range, and I finally settled on Nectarine Blossom and Honey. Not one I hear much about, but I really like it. Even though it's Honey and blossom, I wouldn't say it's too sweet, it's a good mix of floral fresh and sweet, which is perfect for day time.

In the sales, I had real luck in Debenhams looking at their reduced Fragrance gift sets from Christmas- such a good tip, if you're after a fragrance, it is always worth waiting until after Christmas to see if the gift set has been reduced, because they always get knocked down a lot and become way cheaper than buying the perfume alone. I chose Love Story by Chloe which is a delicious warm-ish fragrance - quite eveningy- but not as sweet and sultry as my Georgio Armani Si which I still love. I think I managed to pick up this 50ml bottle with a body lotion for around £38 - pretty good considering the perfume alone is normally priced at over 60£. I just had a quick google and you can still get a good deal over at Boots - http://www.boots.com/en/Chloe-Love-Story-Eau-De-Parfum-50ml-100ml-Body-Lotion_1728479/  .

So yeah, just a quick ramble about ma new smellz, love em, have a whiff next time you get a chance :)

Thanks for reading!

Lou x

Real Techniques Sculpting Set | Review

#reallifegrubbybrushes


Disclaimer: I both use and wash my make-up brushes, unfortunately, these three were not all clean at the same time. Apologies.


This is a lovely Real Techniques set I received for my birthday - it's definitely not one  you hear about much, or one that I had even seen very much in the shops or online - but it really is great and an all-round good selection.


I'm not one for contour, I have fairly pronounced cheekbones which make me look dead at the best of times without me creating even more of a shadow, and I don't believe this set of brushes needs to used for contouring or sculpting at all.


The angled face brush - probably meant for contour - is ah-mazing for foundation. Like, literally so good - its really dense so it really blends the product into your skin without leaving horrible streaky marks, and it's quite skinny; making it easy to get around the nose, eyes and eyelids. You could definitely use this for contour too if you were that way inclined, but I definitely count this as a flawless base brush.


The next brush, in the photo, is the fan brush, which is something I didn't think I needed... what the hell was I doing with highlight before this brush? I will never know. Amazing for highlighting cheekbones, under the brow, topline, bottom lip, all the lips (oo-er). I luff it.


Lastly, a brush I already had in some form or another, but definitely an absolutely essential for so many things. This is the setting brush, and it's perfect for just that -setting the under eyes- as well as being totally brill for blending concealer under the eyes, around the nose and wherever else you might find it. Having two of these still isn't enough, I need 10.


So yeah, definitely a brush set I would strongly recommend, and one which could probably cover absolutely all bases if you needed it to - foundation, concealer, powder, bronzer, highlight, and probably blush as well.


Thanks for reading! x