What's in my make-up bag? Revisited!

Not long after I started this little corner of the internet I wrote a 'What is in my make-up' post. Almost two years later everything inside my make-up bag excluding my beloved Cath Kidston make-up bag itself is different so I thought it time to write another post. My make-up bag definitely seems to be a bit of a tardis as all of these manage to fit in there!

The Face:

 Left to right: Sleek Face Contour Kit in 'Light', Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation in 'Ecru' and Nars Blusher in 'Orgasm'

I like a simple make-up routine especially Monday -Friday and these products teamed together work really well. Starting off with my Estee Lauder foundation which I apply all over my face I then brush on the darker powder in the Sleek contouring kit to define my cheekbones a little (using my Real Techniques Stippling Brush). The bronzer is followed by the highlighter and a dusting of the newest addition to my make-up bag - my Nars Blusher. What I like about these products is that they are long lasting and subtle enough to wear for work but you can also layer up the intensity of the colours by simply applying a little more.

The Eyes:

 Left to right: Benefit's 'They're Real!' Mascara, Soap and Glory's 'Supercat' Liquid Eyeliner and Stila's 'Into the Light' Eye-shadow Palette.

Having tried all three of these eye products in the past and then trying newer additions to the make-up world there is something about these three that keeps me coming back to the high quality results they deliver time and time again. With recent mascara purchases leading to panda eyes and smudging (never a good look) I welcomed the return of 'They're Real' to my make-up bag. Even if I'm in a rush and mascara application time is pretty tight just a quick swoosh of the mascara wand and instantly my eyelashes look better. My favourite shadows in Stila's palette are 'kitten' (top row, second from the left) and 'champagne' (bottom row, far left). Once I've put on my eye-shadow and mascara I finish my eyes with my 'supercat' eyeliner on my top lid and I'm ready to go!

The rest:

From left to right: Real Techniques Stippling Brush, Real Techniques Power Brush, Rimmel London 'Stay Matte Powder' in 'Silky Beige' and Maybelline New York's 'Baby Lips' in 'Pink Punch'

As you can probably tell by this stage I don't use a million and one different products, I've tried so many different foundations, powders, brushes etc over the past couple of years that I've got to the stage now where I've reverted back to old favourites and find that simpler make-up routines actually work better (and save me time in the morning when I'm rushing off to work). 

The powder and lip balm are what I call the finishing touches as I use a dusting of my 'Stay Matte' powder when I've finished my foundation and a dab of 'Baby Lips' to my lips which are both really quick to apply.

So there you have it! An insight into my make-up bag - I'd love to know if you've done a similar post recently. 

Korres: Lip Butters

Hey there...remember me?! The last few weeks of being taught for my undergraduate life are about to end. I'm spending most of my days cooped up writing my dissertation so blogging has had to take a bit of a back seat. But I thought I would make a little re-appearance to share with you all how amazing the Korres lip butter range is. 

Now we all know the weather lately hasn't been amazing, I'm talking wind, rain, snow, sleet- everything. So my poor old lips when I have ventured out of the house (either to the library or food shopping) they have taken a bit of a battering. This is where the Korres lip butters come in!

They are described as "A buttery lip balm that melts on the lips and offers a shiny tinted finish. The combination of shea butter and rice wax offers deep hydration and softness" which I think is pretty spot on. You can find the lip butter pots here for £6 of £7 which I think is really reasonable considering how hydrating they are. What I also really like is the tint of colour they give. I tend to wear 'quince' in the day- a pinky shade and then 'plum' in the evening which unsurprisingly is a plum shade!

Regarding staying power I only have to re-apply every three hours or so which is pretty good. Overall I would really recommend these as they are a reasonable price, have a gorgeous subtle scent, offer a healthy bit of colour for the lips without being as vibrant as a lipstick and really do the job well!

Have you tried any of the Korres lip butters or have a holy grail lip balm?

xxx

A little beauty splurge

I'm definitely no beauty and make-up expert, but seeing all the hype surrounding Benefit's 'They're Real!' mascara with lots of positive reviews in the Blog-o-sphere and with Benefit's ambitious claims including "One sold every 20 seconds" and "94% of customers asked said they saw dramatic length and volume" I couldn't help but want to know more about this holy grail of mascaras. Luckily there was no Benefit rep at the stand whilst I was looking at the products when I was in Boots yesterday (not too keen on their 'friendly' help and feeling like you have to buy something).

Anyway, despite the pretty hefty price tag (£18.50) I decided to give Benefit a go as I've never used any of their other mascaras whilst thinking of the beauty blogger mantra- you ultimately get the quality that you pay for! I was really excited to get home and test it out and I'm really pleased to say I wasn't disappointed!

The brush is quite thin and has tiny bristles- Benefit say to get the best result to "Postition the wand horizontally and wiggle from side to side from the base to tip...layer generously as desired" this technique worked really well and I didn't need to apply another coat! With not a dreaded clump in sight....phew!

Now for the serious question-

Is it worth £18.50? 

In my opinion I think this is definitely worth that little bit more money than you would pay for the usual drug-store make-up brands such as Rimmel or Maybelline which normally won't set you back anything more than £10. This has clearly had the research put into it to make a mascara that isn't prone to smudge and does what women really want from a mascara- length and definition.

Whilst I was in Boots I also had a browse over the 'UNE' make-up stand which is one I haven't ever given much notice to at all, I bought the 'Blush Grand Air' in the 'Breezy Cheeks' shade. This is a creamy blusher with the appearance of being a powder yet goes creamy to the touch and applies excellently. I also bought their 'Blush Brush' which they recommended to apply the blush with, it's a tiny little thing but does just the job!

Have any of you got the Benefit 'They're Real!' mascara and are now a convert like me?

What UNE products do you have?

Stila 'In the Light' eye-shadow palette

I would say I am probably more of a clothes addict than a make-up fiend BUT since I started blogging my interest in the world of beauty has definitely increased, so much so that I actually found myself getting very excited when I saw this product- the Stila 'In the light' eye palette in the Cambridge Boots whilst I was visiting there last weekend

After wanting to buy an Urban Decay Naked palette for such a long time I could never find a store that actually sold it, so after seeing Zoe's review for this over on Zoella I decided to start looking out for this instead. If it's good enough for Zoe then it's definitely good enough for me! (psst it's £10 cheaper too!)

The shades from left to right:

Top Row: 'bare', 'kitten', 'bliss', 'sunset' and 'sandstone'

Bottom Row: 'bubbly', 'gilded gold', 'luster', 'night sky' and 'ebony'

I really like the natural-ness (is that even a word?!) of the shades, I'm definitely a less-is-more type of girl and the different looks/blending opportunities really are endless.

Also what I thought was really nice is that they include a 'smudge stick' of waterproof eyeliner so you really can achieve a full look with the palette.

This morning I tried out their 'basic beauty' look as they also supply you with a little lookbook of how to achieve 6 different looks, this one is probably the most simplistic out of them all, the picture below doesn't quite do it justice!

Overall I'm really pleased with the palette, I think I am going to get a lot of wear out it and I'm looking forward to experimenting with all the shades. Have any of you been tempted by this palette or are you always going to stick to the Urban Decay palettes?

Definitely need to get a better eye make-up brush though, has anyone got any good makes/brushes they can recommend?

Birthday Wishlist

I often think that there are two types of people in the world- those that make lists and those that don't! I am definitely in the list-making half as they often help me feel more organised. With my 20th birthday next month and exams over I reckoned it was the perfect excuse to start thinking about what I would like to get for my birthday (or dream of getting for some of the items)!

1) Biba purse this is stocked at House of Fraser for £69, as much as I love my current Cath Kidston one it has become a little tired looking and I'm after something a little more sophisticated.
2)Keratase- Cristaliste shampoo and conditioner. Being a huge fan of Kate Middleton (still feels strange referring to her as the Duchess of Cambridge) and her amazing hair when I found out she uses Keratase to look after her luscious locks I instantly decided I wanted to give their products a go. Their Cristaliste range is meant to give long hair a gorgeous shine.
3) Topshop blusher in 'Flush' for £6 I think this is quite a bargain as the quality of Topshop make-up is really quite decent.
4) American Apparel  Galaxy Glitter nail polish £9. I love the gorgeous large chunks of glitter in this polish and think it would give a really nice overall finish.
5) Benefit- Porefessional primer £23.50. I've heard lots of good things about this pore-reducing primer so despite it's rather steep price tag it's meant to be worth it and I really should own a primer by now!
6) Urban Decay- 'Naked 2' Palette I feel like the last girl in blogger world to own this...so many different gorgeous shades to choose from that apparently blend together superbly and definitely warrant the £36 price tag.
7) Urban Outfitters shorts £35. As if I need any more shorts! But these really are so cute and I love how they have styled it with a cropped denim shirt.
8) Boutique at Topshop £48, this is a little on the expensive side for a poor student like myself to afford- hence why it's on my birthday list! My knitted jumper collection definitely has a white and blue striped pattern hole in it and I reckon this would be a really versatile piece.
9) Gilly Hicks undies £7 for one or £25 for five! If you haven't heard about the recent Gilly Hicks mania you must have been living under a rock!! Last week Gilly Hicks opened their new stores in Bluewater, Kingston and much to my delight at Westfield Stratford. Their underwear is so gorgeous!
10) Dune loafers £85. After finally saying a sad farewell to my long enduring brogues this week I was instantly online looking for a replacement and was seriously unimpressed by the likes of Topshop and River Island's offering. These beauties are by Dune and hopefully at £85 they are of a good quality (definitely a brown leather theme going on here with these and the Biba purse!).

So there you have it my rather ambitious birthday wishlist! Are any of you fellow list makers? Do you have any other good recommendations of what I could ask for? xxx

Great Dane's cheekbones, teenage hormones

I was so excited to make a cheeky trip into the Cath Kidston factory shop (that is in a corner of their distribution centre in St. Neots) on the way back from Devon today. It was full of fellow CK lovers like myself with the odd grizzly child (they are just too young to appreciate the gorgeous floral prints!!). I bought myself a new make-up bag as I have had my previous one for several years and felt I deserved an upgrade. I got mine for £8 and they normally cost £12 so it was enough of a saving for me to feel like I was getting a bargain. You should have seen me 'umming' and 'ahhing' over the differing prints I had to choose from! In the end I chose a pretty pinky rose and baby blue one, what do you think?

Also as a huge fan of seeing people do posts of what they have in their make-up bags and hand bags I thought this is the perfect opportunity to show what I have in mine and will now be housed in my gorgeous new Cath Kidston beauty! (I took the picture with my make-up laid out on my Cath Kidston duvet cover...can you tell I'm a bit of a floral addict?!).

1. My Clinique eye shadow quad- my favourite out of these four is the pinky tone which can be darkened or lightened by the bottom two colours. I think less is definitely more with eye shadow.
2. Rimmel 'Glam Eyes' liquid eyeliner- I am a HUGE fan of liquid eyeliner as it is far more defined and longer-lasting than my kohl eye pencils. Depending on what I'm up do determines how much I apply and how big the flick is at the corner of my eyes!
3. 17 Pressed powder- This I apply on top of my foundation to give more of a 'matte' finish and evening it all out before I apply my blusher....
4. Natural Collection Blusher in 'Rosey Glow'- once this runs out I am planning on getting a more expensive one as this just about does the job of highlighting cheek bones but isn't great.
5. Clinique eye cream- on days when I'm feeling/looking a bit tired I just apply a few daps of this cream to under my eyes and instantly they perk up- it's an amazing product and great knowing I've got it for 'bad' days.
6. Cath Kidston blusher brush- this comes from my set of Cath Kidston make-up brushes and is just the right size to apply my blusher.
7. Collection 2000 kohl pencil- my simple kohl pencil if I'm going for the smoky eye look.
8. Rimmel Stay Matte foundation- I bought this at the beginning of the year and I was really let down and have been waiting for it to run out ever since, it doesn't really give a 'matte' look and nor does it cover the skin really well and tends to go a bit oily.
9. Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid foundation- this is my replacement for the Rimmel foundation as it is getting near to running out (hooray!) I actually tried blending them together and it turned out ok although I think that was probably because the Maybelline one is so good!
10. Rimmel 'ScandalEyes' mascara- my sister recently recommended this mascara to me and I haven't been disappointed, I don't have the longest eyelashes in the world unlike my boyfriend who has ridiculously long ones it is unfair! So I am constantly on the look out (along with the majority of the female population) of a good mascara. Even with just one coat of this my eyelashes look longer- I'm a happy customer.
11. No7 'Intense Volume' mascara- I tend to use this as a base coat for my Rimmel mascara and use this to highlight my lower eye-lid lashes as the other one has a huge brush and this is easier to reach tricky places.
12. Soap & Glory eyeshadow duo- one of my best friends gave me this for Christmas and I was really pleasantly surprised by the product, you apply the lighter colour all over the eye-lid and apply the darker one to just above the eyelashes- creating an easy to achieve smoky eye look!
13. Topshop 'Brighton Rock' lipstick- everyone knows how much I love this lipstick and it has become a staple product in my make-up routine.
14. Korres lip balm in 'Quince'- for days when my lips are very chapped and in need of some TLC this perks them up in both colour (it is a lovely deep pink colour) and nourishes them too.

So there we have it- my make-up contents revealed, I am really surprised by the huge variety of brands that I have ranging from Clinique to Collection 2000. I'm gradually learning what products work well and what don't. If you have done a similar make-up bag contents revealed post I would love to see, please leave a link    xxx