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. 

5 tips for 5 minute morning make-up | Sunday Chat

I am two weeks into my first full-time, real- life, serious job. Eek. So far, one of the hardest things I've faced is squeezing my leisurely morning skin,hair and make-up dawdle into a seriously quick, to-the-point routine. I'm just getting the hang of it, and here are a few tips I've learnt so far.

1. Minimise your morning skin routine.
Save the masking, toning, exfoliating and serious double- cleansing for the evenings. In the morning, stick to a swipe of micellar water and moisturiser. How anyone does more than that is beyond me.

2.Full- coverage face is still not the one.
When you're at work you want to look awake, fresh and ready, and your first thought is- oh, I'll put  a real, serious foundation all over my face to go with my real, serious job. Wrong. I've spent too long in the morning blending that stuff around my chops to decide that it just isn't the one. Bare Minerals Complexion Rescue you are the one. Yet again.

3.Prioritise your face.
There are certain parts of your make- up routine you can do on the train to work, and certain parts you can't. Mascara and eyeliner are a no-no. So is prodding that fresh spot around with concealer whilst sitting next to a smart business man. That just isn't cute. My rule of thumb is: get your base, brows and lashes done at home. Bare minimum. If  you have to sacrifice one of the three, your brows can be done on the train, trust me.

4.Highlight is taking a back seat.
a) I have trouble even fitting both bronzer and blusher into the space of time I have on the train
b) I'm not sure my colleagues are ready for my J-Lo glow.

5. Convenience products for the win.
I have only just realised that I do not own any eyeshadow quads or trios which are handy to throw in my train make- up bag for the commute. That Naked Palette just isn't going to cut it for a nice grown-up day time look. At the moment, my MAC Cinderella palette is saving the day, and I seriously need to find a few matte- heavy, small palettes for work make- up. (Apart from my Naked Basics 2 which is life)


PS: If you drive to work, leave ten minutes early and sort your business out in the toilets before you  start. It's just logical.

Lou x

Budget Bronzers

Even ghost white girls like me want to bronze up a bit, and I've found its quite hard to find bronzers in general,  let alone cheap ones.

These four are my four favourites, all really affordable and really really good.

Firstly, here's the Body Shop Matte Bronzer in 01 light matte, and if you are pale and you need a bronzer or a contour powder, go and buy this right now. I think it's £12 but the Body Shop often do 40% off so its easy to pick it up for seven or eight pounds. To me, this is fairly expensive, but I can assure you, its worth the money. So silky, such a nice colour, pigmented but not too harsh so you can built it for a more cheek-bone-y (?) look. The packaging is also really nice, sturdy with a nice mirror which makes it really good for travel

This is a slightly darker matte bronzer, its from MUA and its Bronzer Shade 3. I think it's fairly universal as a bronzer shade, but I can get away with this even with my pale skin, so good for all skin tones. Really pigmented, and I'd use this for contour in the summer when I'm hopefully slightly more tanned. The picture above shows the body shop bronzer on the right and the MUA version on the left. It is slightly darker but if you're looking for a more budget option than the Body Shop bronzer, this MUA one is really good, and i think it's one or two pounds- amazing.

 Onto Shimmery Bronzers, and this is slightly different because its bronzing pearls, which I feel like aren't really a thing these days. The swatch makes it look quite orange,and I suppose it is, I'd use it if I wanted a shimmery golden bronze look. Really easy to build or use lightly, definitely good on all skin tones because of the buildability. This pot is from Avon and it was around £4- really affordable, and this has lasted me for YEARS.

If you're looking for a shimmery budget bronzer, this three tone 'Bronze, Shimmer, Highlight' from Revolution is definitely one to look at. I love this product so much. It's not glittery, it's a really nice shimmer. On a normal day, I'll sweep the middle tone over my cheeks or under my cheekbones, depending on the look I'm going for. If you had darker skin, the darker bronze colour is amazing too, I can only get away with this shade mixed with the middle shade but it's so lovely. The highlight is amazing, basically a light skin- coloured powder which is really nice mixed with the bronzers just to add glow, or on top of the cheekbones by itself for a really subtle sheen. Lovely. This was £4 and I think this is such a good product. It  feels very similar to the Body Shop bronzer in it's silkiness, and it is beautiful and buildable.

I hope this helped if you're looking for a bronzer to help you into Spring/ Summer!

Thanks for reading :)

Lou x