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

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. 

The £1.50 brush you all need

You would never think to look in Primark for make-up brushes, would you? However, having previously had a lot of luck with a mini powder brush back in my teenage days, I took a chance with this £1.50 small flat-topped stippling brush and I'm actually really impressed with it.
To give you an idea of size, here is my face:

It's absolutely perfect for blending cream blushes, bronzers or highlighters, and is soft and wash-able at the same time.
I love it so much that I might have to buy (a few) more.

Thanks for reading!

Lou x

2 Budget Gloss options

I am having a real lip gloss moment at the moment, which is inconvenient, because most of the world seems obsessed with the matte-est of matte lips. 

I just find gloss really easy to wack on and trust that it won't crack or crumble off in a really really unattractive way, which is my main fear with anything matte.

I also don't really have it in me to buy a high-end lipgloss (except the Clarins Lip Perfecters which are the bomb.com), so I set about finding a couple of bargain-ous highstreet options. These are the two I have been using over the last few weeks, both with a ridiculous price tag, so I thought Id share them with you.

First of all, this is the XXL nude (??) Lipgloss from Essence in the shade Soft Almond. This was something amazing like £1.90 from Wilko's, and I really like the formula, which is more wet gel rather than sticky? If ya know what I mean. Lovely stuff. Lasting power isn't great, but its lipgloss, what do you expect? It's not pigmented either, just adding a gloss of nude to the lips, really easy for every day. I personally think this a great find, and such a bargain. I do remember looking at the other colours and seeing a lot of glitter, so I'm not sure if I'll be going back for seconds, but it depends on the shades.

Lip Boss from Barry M. First of all, I think I love the name? I started off thinking it was a bit stupid, but I think I've warmed to the idea. I also think the packaging is really quite nice, its pretty solid and hefty. The colour looks neon- bright in the tube but it really isn't all that bad.

As you can see here, its more a wash of warm peach. Pretty inoffensive and pretty, probably more suited for summer but oh well. I remember this being £3.50, which is a pretty good deal. The downside to this product is the smell- which is something like really cheap oranges. I really hate it.

Between the two, I would say the Essence one is my favourite, colour and formula wise, and for the price you really cant complain.

Thanks for reading!

Lou x

A Budget Base

I really love a good cream eyeshadow base, and when it comes in at £1.99, it's even more exciting. This is the Miss Sporty Glossy Shadow in 160 Peanut Butter, and I think it is amazing and you need to go buy it right now.

You can see here that the colour is a beautiful, high- gloss, almost wet- look mauvey browny pink? Would you say? This is such a versatile colour, and can be used as a base for a bronzey brown eye look, a pink look, a purple look, or a peach look. Pretty much all the looks I regularly do, and I love the glossy finish so it looks great by itself too. Powder eyeshadow miraculously blend into the cream seamlessly, without setting it first, and I haven't noticed any creasing once I've layered other products over the top.

I finished my eyes off with these products (as well as liner and mascara, obviously). I used Kiko shadows in 233, which is a beautiful cranberry/ purple satin shadow, and 220, which is a really shimmery golden peach. I used 233 in the crease and on the outer half, and then dusted 220, which is fairly sheer, over the inner part. I then used this cream eyeshadow pencil from Collection on my inner corners.

I really love this look, and especially the Miss Sporty eyeshadow pencil, which I think is amazing quality and a beautiful colour for the price.

Hope you enjoyed this!
Thanks for reading,
Lou x

Travel Brush Edit

Being away from my full selection of make-up brushes really stresses me out, and I find it just as hard to limit my brushes as my actual make- up when I go away.
I always limit my selection to whatever I can fit into one of these Real Techniques pouches, which can comfortably hold these 9 brushes.
I also carry my travel powder brush in my bag at all times, so I have no need to pack an extra one when I go away.
It goes without saying that most of my brushes in general are Real Techniques, and when I go away I tend to take my favourites...which, funnily enough, are Real Techniques too.

Face brushes

Face brush wise, on this trip, I took my sponge, which I don't normally do because it's so annoying to travel with.
My Buffing Brush is my pick for base application. It blends in my foundation or whatever I'm putting on my face really well, and its nice and big and easy to use.
I use the Expert Face Brush for bronzer. I find that the dense bristles blend and buff a soft bronzer (normally the Body Shop Honey Bronzer) into my skin really well.
The Multi Tasker brush is fab for blusher; nice and big and cheek shaped. It doesn't plonk too much product on your chops, but if it does, you can always wack out the expert face brush for an extra blend.
The Elf Blush Brush is fabulous for highlight. If I'm using a powder highlight I will normally reach for this brush to swipe it along my cheekbones and blend  into the rest of my face products. Really cheap too! If you're really good with setting your under-eyes, this is a great one for that too.
The RT duo- fibre eye brush is my favourite for concealer. Either under my eyes or around a blemish, this is a really good one for softly buffing in product for a seamless finish.

Eyes

Eyes- wise (oo-er), I managed to pack almost the whole essential eye kit from Real Techniques without meaning to.
The Base shadow Brush is great for exactly that- getting the base of your shadow down. It's great for packing or brushing product onto the lids.
The Domed shadow Brush is fabulous for the crease. It's just the right size so that you get just enough in the right place, and just the right consistency to blend everything out beautifully.
The Duluxe Crease Brush is perfect for blending. Dodgy edges, complicated blending and colour-layering, this brush does it all.
The Accent Brush gets right up under the bottom lashes, or right into the crease if you're trying to get a more intense contrast. It's also great to wing out colour, or pack a dark colour on the outer corner, as it's so precise, it's hard to go over- board.

I find that for a trip, this collection covers the basics and allows me to do everything I want. If I'm away for more than a few days, I'd definitely give them all a wash, especially the concealer brush, to keep them clean.

Hope you enjoyed this, and it was helpful!
Thanks for reading
Lou x