My Make Up Bag

Jack Wills Make Up Bag

Recently I've had a couple of emails asking me about what I carry in my 'every day make up bag' so, here's what you can normally find in my bag. I should quickly mention the make up bag itself  - it's not too big or too small, with a little compartment inside and a small zipped pocket on the front. It was a little pricey as it's Jack Wills and a limited edition print but I got it in the sale so its all good!

Dream Matte Powder - Maybelline

First up is my trusted Maybelline Dream Matte Powder. I'm sure you've already heard about this as it's got a loyal following but in short if you've oily skin this is amazing. I only use this to touch up and oiliness on my nose but it just absorbs oil like crazy! If you ever suffer with oiliness I can't recommend this enough and it's only £7.19 from Boots.

Cotton Candy Lip Butter - Revlon

This is another one you're probably fed up of hearing about as there are hundreds of revlon lip butter reviews out there. But this is super pretty and perfect for touching up on the go as you don't really need a mirror and it feels just like a lip balm.

Snow Fairy Lip Tint - Lush

This is lovely. If you get chance to buy it at christmas, it's limited edition, definitely try to pick it up. It smells divine, it adds a beautiful pink tint to your lips and it's not greasy on the lips. What more can you ask for? 

Peaches and Cream Blush - Vivo

Adding colour to my cheeks isn't something I usually need to worry about (naturally rosy cheeks) but sometimes after a long day my skin is just looking a little dull and I find a quick sweep of this on my apple makes the biggest difference! I'll review this separately as I could ramble on and on about this

Witch Stick

Kind of self explanatory really - If I get a blemish during the day I just pop some of this on it and it sorts it out. Simple. I don't carry this with me every day as I like to keep it with the rest of my skin care but it's a frequent visitor to my make up bag :) This is another one I'd recommend as for £2.89 you can't go too far wrong.

Witch Concealer Stick 01 & Mineral Cover Concealer 03 - Maybelline
Last up are the two concealers I cart about with me. The witch concealer is great for concealing spots - especially as it won't make them worse as it's got witch hazel in it. And then my mineral cover concealer I use solely for my under eyes as 03 it quite pink toned so it works amazingly a cancelling out any blue tones :) (There's talk of both being discontinued, which I hope isn't true. But I've seen both in stores so you should be able to find them)

After writing this I feel like I carry loads with me but I do genuinely use everything and it barely takes up any room. Let me know what you carry around with you on a daily basis!

Hope you've enjoyed!! xx

Cold Cream

 I recently got a couple of boots vouchers through the post so, when I popped in I picked up a couple bits and pieces I wanted but I was £3 short of getting my double points so I picked up a tub of Cold Cream – something I’ve been meaning to test out for months.

 It’s a measly £2.42 for a whopping 200ml and is a bit of a cult product as it's the original make up remover that a lot of your grandparents probably used. If your looking for an extremely gentle nightly make up remover that will moisturise while taking off your make up - this might be the one for you. 

I personally only reach for this when I'm wearing more make up than normal as I find this a touch too heavy for every-day-use but, say after a night out this is perfect as it really cuts through the most long wearing foundation. I should also mention it does a pretty good job of getting through eye make up - without it stinging your eyes. Its not really cut out for waterproof mascara though.

 If your trying to fight/prevent ageing, one of the best methods if to keep your skin hydrated and plumped up, and nothing is going to moisturise your skin like this.

I use this by rubbing it over dry skin then leaving it a good 10 minutes or so (I usually use this time to get ready for bed) then using a muslin cloth - or a normal face cloth I just remove the cream and my make up with warm water. This is my night time saviour when I'm too lazy to do a full routine as i feel like it takes my make up off and moisturises my skin in one step. 

Overall I like this for days I want to treat my skin, however its not going to be part of my daily routine any time soon as its just too heavy. If you've got dry skin, or your looking into anti-aging and want something to really help plump up your skin, this might be something to look into as most make up removers can be quite drying however that's not to say that if you've got oily skin this isn't for you, you'd probably just have to use it much more sparingly.

I should also point out it has a relatively strong scent, that I'm personally not too keen on but my mum really enjoys. The smell also lingers for quite a well, it’s up to you whether that’s a negative though.

Let me know if you’ve tried cold cream and what your thoughts were on it :)

Hope this has been helpful!! x

Origins GinZing

I’ve put off doing this review for months now as it’s definitely going against the grain on popular opinion but as an eye cream junkie I really want to throw my thoughts on it out there. I’ll start with the basics, Origins Gin zing eye cream is available for around £21 for 15ml which is pretty average for a mid to high end eye cream it’s also pretty easy to get hold of.

Now the general premise of the eye cream is that it’ll lightly hydrate your under eyes while it’s distinctive peach colour will help to cancel out any blue tones and the tiny light reflecting particles will ‘lift’ the look of dark circles. This sounds great, I have two problems with it. Considering it’s designed purely as a day time eye cream the fact is has no spf is surely a bit rubbish no? Especially with the skin around your eyes being so delicate.

The other issue I have with it is that I just don’t feel like it keeps my under eyes moisturised. I like my eye creams to be pretty hydrating but even so I feel like after 30 minutes any moisturising properties seem to have disappeared.  

Regardless this is a good eye cream and I can definitely understand why so many people love it and continually repurchase it but if you’re after something to use day and night, this isn’t it. And for me I just don’t feel like the ingredients do anything long term – it makes my under eyes look better when I first apply it but it’s not going to prevent anything.

Overall, I’ll definitely use it all up but I’m not going to be repurchasing as I just think there are so many better eye cream that are so much more versatile as this really is just a one trick pony. It brightens and that’s about it.

Hope this has been helpful!

A short and sweet little review to try and get me back into the swing of blogging :)

Halloween Nails

As well as doing a few Halloween make up looks I thought I’d show you a few really simple Halloween nail art designs so even if you don’t want to go all out with the make up.

These pumpkin nails are probably my favourite as they take a maximum of 10minutes to do and they’re really cute! They also attracted a lot of compliments when I was wearing these. Simply apply an orange base then once it’s dry dot on the face using a plain black polish then to finish use a clear top coat.

Then there’s the classic spiderweb design, everyone seems to do something like this and I’ve already seen lots of tutorials on different spider webs looks but I thought I should include it anyway as again it’s very simple, quick and really effective too. To do this just have a black coat all over your nails then draw in 3-4 diagonal lines coming from one corner of your nail then join them up :)

This is probably the hardest one to do as it’s a little bit fiddly but if you take your time it’s not that hard. Just apply an orange base coat then do a big black dot for the spiders body and slowly draw in the legs. You’ll have to wait for that to dry completely but then you can do two white dots on each spider for the eyes, again wait for it to dry then do two really really tiny little black dots to finish off.

And finally a Halloween nail art post wouldn’t be complete without a really generic spooky nail! Again I used an orange base, then using a dotting tool I put on some bats and then using the dotting tool I just dragged a black polish into the shape of an old weather-beaten tree on one finger :)

There are absolutely tons of designs you can do like this, I actually did another two but for some reason my computer is being a complete pain and not letting me upload them…

Hope thtis has been helpful!! x

P.S the polished I used were: Barry M Tangerine, Barry M White and Barry M Black

Tiger FOTD

I did this Halloween look over a week ago but for some reason I wasn’t quite happy with it so I never got around to posting it but, looking at it again I thought I might as well- hopefully it’ll give someone out there an idea for what to wear to a costume party :)

This one is just as simple as my other Halloween looks but it just takes a little longer to do, all you’ll need is a foundation, a white eyeliner, a contouring powder, an orange and a black eyeshadow, eyeliner and a mascara.

1. Apply your foundation (I opted for matte full coverage)

2. Sharply contour cheekbones & temples

3. Go around the contouring with the orange shadow

4. Draw on lightened areas with a white liner and blend

5. Sketch on stripes, liner and broaden out the nose with an eyeliner

6. Go over the liner with a black shadow to darken & draw on the lip

7. Conceal lower lip, apply mascara and touch up

8. Do your hair and your ready to do!

The more I look at this the more I like it but I’m still not 100% happy with it, what do you think? Have you decided on what you’re going to be this Halloween? I still can’t choose between the Fairy, the Mermaid and the Zombie!

Hope this has been Helpful!! x