LASHES, LINER & LIQUID LIPS

Hi lovelies!

I don't know about you, but I find myself in such a good mood nearly every day in December! I think it's because of all of the festive joy that comes with Christmas, and the fact it's also my birthday month - what can I say, I'm a child at heart!

I've come today to share with you the beauty Advent Calendar I've decided upon this year - the Sleek MakeUp A Gift A Day Advent Calendar! I purchased mine from Boots for £35 (now gone down to £26.25) and it was in the 3 for 2 Christmas gift offer they do, so I bought this, a Christmas gift for my sister and as my best friend was with me, she chose herself a lovely Ted Baker perfume gift set that was free - I love Boots at Christmas time (let's get real, I love Boots all year round)! So I'm going to be sharing with you what I get on each day and comparing the £35 price tag to what I'd be paying separately for each item, as Sleek is a company that I love and purchase from anyway.



The design of the Advent Calendar itself is absolutely gorgeous and I think it's sophisticated and (forgive me) sleek. I adore how the numbers aren't written on the doors in the standard way every other Advent Calendar is - some are written as words and others are written as numbers, e.g. 'nineteen' and 'four' and '15' and '24'. I also love the way in which the doors are shaped - even at the age of 22 (23 a week today!) it still gets me excited, and it helps me to get out of bed every morning because I'm excited to see what's behind the next door.




















Day 1:
'Excited' was a bit of an understatement for the first day of December. I couldn't wait to open the first door in my Advent Calendar, yet at the same time I couldn't believe I was finally allowed to open it! Day 1 was behind a lovely, shiny, golden door and my first gift was a blusher in in 'Rose Gold'. The colour is very similar to the Nars blusher I currently use and a No 7. blusher I have previously loved - I already felt this calendar was hand-picked for me!




Item: Blusher.
Shade: Rose Gold.
Item size: 6g, whereas a full size blusher is 8g so really not far off - if someone had told me this was a full sized product before doing my own research, I would have believed them.
Price: £4.99 (Boots).
Rating: I LOVE this product! Couldn't fault it, from the colour to the pigmentation.
Total calendar worth: £4.99/£35.




Day 2:
After a very successful Day 1, I was keen to open Day Two, which was behind a very intriguing shaped door. Behind the door was an eyeshadow brush - a brush that reminds me very much of my Real Techniques bold collection eyeshadow brush. I will use this for some very precise crease work or, as an alternative, to apply concealer, as the brush is very dense and the bristles aren't too fluffy.



Item: Eyeshadow Brush.
Shade: N/A.
Item size: Full size.
Price: Although I couldn't find this specific brush, I did manage to find a set for £13 (Sleek) so worked each brush in there to roughly be about £2 each.
Rating: Again, another product that I really like and am happy with.
Total calendar worth: £6.99/£35.

Day 3: Day 3 might have been my favourite so far. One of my most favourite makeup products is a liquid lipstick and, you've guessed it, that's what I found behind my patterned door of Day 3! This gorgeous Matt Me lip cream is a a beautiful colour, and it wears so well. The formula is top notch and it dries so quickly too - comparable to Mac and Jeffree Star!




Item: Liquid Lipstick.
Shade: Rioja Red.
Item size: 3ml, so half the full-size at 6ml.
Price: £4.99 (Boots).
Rating: Quick drying, long lasting, high pigmentation, another five star product for me.
Total calendar worth: £11.98/£35.




Day 4: Sticking with the Christmassy theme of 'red', behind Day Four's door was a truly stunning matte nail varnish. Although I do usually have a professional gel manicure for my nails, I do have a vast collection of nail varnishes and love doing my own nails. I plan on having my nails done a nice red colour with some Christmas nail art a little bit closer to Christmas, so might just paint my toes with this beautiful red to match.



Item: Nail Varnish.
Shade: Rioja Red.
Item size: 7ml.
Price: I can't, for the life of me, find this anywhere online so I'm just hazarding a guess based on their prices of other products, purely for the purpose of this blog series - £4.99.
Rating: The product itself I love - however next to some of the other items from the calendar, the nail varnish seems slightly on the smaller side.
Total calendar worth: £16.97/£35.




Day 5: Another intriguing shaped door for Day Five - these first five days have certainly not been a disappointment in the slightest! Day 5 brought me a Twist Up Lip Pencil and I'm so pleased with it. Visually, the packaging is beautiful - although I am a huge fan of Sleek's classic black packaging, the beautiful pinkish red colour of the packaging (which is close to the colour of the product itself) is new and innovating. The lip pencil glides on like a dream and is, again, long-lasting.




Item: Lip Liner.
Shade: Sugared Apple.
Item size: 0.22g.
Price: £2.99 (Sleek).
Rating: Another product I just can't fault! A gold star from me!
Total calendar worth: £19.96/£35.




As you can see, Days 1-5 were total successes for me and I'm so excited to share with you what Days 6-10 bring me in my next blog post!

Thanks for reading,

Hi lovelies!

Today I bring you my August monthly faves! I'm really excited because this is the first 'favourites' post I've ever written, and I'm excited that I've actually got some products to mention - I'm one of those who tends to stick with what I know! In addition to all of the products I mention below, all the products I talk about in my Skincare Routine post are also included, I just didn't want to be repeating myself so I don't bother mentioning them (if you want to have a nose, you can go over to the post and have a read).

My first monthly favourite that I've been loving is the Milani Conceal and Perfect 2 in 1 Foundation and Concealer (£13 - Beauty Bay). I finally bought this when they came out with the shade '00 - Light Natural' because I am a pale person and I knew that the other shades would be either too dark or too orange on my vampire-esque skin. Although this doesn't match my skin tone perfectly, it's close enough, and I like to mix it with other foundations so I get the correct colour with amazing coverage. The Milani foundation is definitely a high coverage foundation but doesn't feel too heavy on the skin, and unlike other heavy duty foundations (MAC, I'm talking to you), didn't break me out. This has quickly become one of my favourites!



My next monthly favourite is my deeply cherished Morphe x Jaclyn Hill Eyeshadow Palette. This is one of those, 'get it while you can' kind of deals. Although it is limited edition, Jaclyn has said that Morphe will keep restocking it until everyone has one, but it will eventually stop being available. I originally got it from the Morphe website and had to wait about a week and a half for it to be shipped to me here in the U.K. Myself and two other friends went in to make shipping and customs a little bit cheaper, so altogether we paid around $130, which converts to about £98.50 meaning we paid just over £32.80 for each palette (I believe it will be available on Beauty Bay during the next restock but I don't know how man units they plan on stocking). Back to the palette itself, the colours are purely amazing, the pigmentation of every single shadow is unreal and the creamy formula is just to die for. There is a bunch of colours in the palette to compliment every skin tone and there are an endless amount of looks you can create with it. They could easily have doubled their price point and it would still have been value for money. I urge you to get one while you still can! It has quickly become the favourite palette in my collection!




Next is the L.A. Girl PRO.conceal HD Concealer Green Corrector (currently £4 - Beauty Bay). I bought this because I can suffer with quite bad rosacea (extreme redness) on my face. It can sometimes be so bad that high coverage foundations and concealers don't cover it. I decided to give this a go as I'd heard positive reviews about the yellow toned concealer. It is truly amazing at counteracting the red! After I've moisturised and primed, I apply it to the affected areas on my face and blend it in with a foundation brush, and continue with my routine as normal. It hides the red very well and the consistency of the concealer is nice and blendable - I definitely want to try out the normal concealer shades of this!



Another monthly favourite(s) of mine are the Jeffree Star Liquid Lipsticks (Usually £16 but two shades are currently on sale for £12.80 - Beauty Bay). I currently only own a handful of J* liquid lipsticks; Androgyny, Chrysanthemum, Pumpkin Pie, I'm Shook (collab with Manny MUA), and I did also have Virginity but I sold it on as it didn't suit my colouring. I'm next in the market for Mannequin and Celebrity Skin - at £16 a go, it doesn't exactly break the bank but for people who are a bit in a tight spot with money (Student Finance, where are you?) it's definitely a treat every now and again - besides, I think if you have to wait for something you really want, it makes it more worthwhile when you eventually get it! All of the liquid lipsticks I've tried from his collection so far are just amazing. The formula is extremely long lasting, doesn't dry or crack the lips and barely needs reapplying throughout the day. It's also very creamy and so easy to work with - this is coming from someone who openly admits lip makeup is her weakness! If you don't already own any Jeffree Star liquid lips, and you can get your hands on some then definitely do so; if you're a fellow Brit, Beauty Bay often do a couple for a few pound off making them more affordable.

Well hi there lovelies!

During my short twenty-two (almost twenty-three, eek!) years on this earth, I've been attempting to look after my skin for around eight years. Along the way, I've picked up some handy little tips and tricks that my skin (and hopefully yours will be too) was extremely thankful for! Some of these are kind of basic and if you're not new to skincare then you'll probably already be doing, and some of them, I tried for curiosity's sake and found they worked really well. So here are my skincare top tips and tricks!

Don't sleep in your makeup!
Kind of an obvious one? But how many of us here have done it? Guilty! It's only recently that I came to realise how much damage sleeping in your makeup can do to your skin. Not only can it cause horrifying breakouts that can leave you traumatised (perhaps a bit dramatic, but we've all been there), it can severely dry out your skin, cause wrinkles and block your pores. Your skin goes through a lot in one day; it will sweat and pick up lots of dirty particles from the air around you. Leaving this to absorb into your skin overnight really isn't doing that lovely little face of yours any favours!

Don't use wipes to remove makeup!
If you're a repeat offender of using wipes to remove your makeup then you need to stop, now! Invest in some micellar water and oval cotton pads. Makeup remover wipes just don't do a very good job at all. Half the time, only a handful of the makeup is removed and, more scarily, a makeup wipe is like a breeding ground for bacteria - yuk! Micellar water is definitely the way forward for the removal of makeup - in the long run, it'll work out cheaper for you too!



Wash your face every morning AND night!
I used to think that I could get away with the old, 'I've already done my crazy elaborate skincare routine this morning so I don't have to do it tonight,' or the, 'I'm a bit pushed for time this morning... I'll just do my skincare tonight and it'll be fine'. The official medical terminology for this is called 'lazyitis' (this is something I've been diagnosed with time and time again, mainly by my mum!). By cleansing your face at night, you're letting all the goodness soak into your skin while you sleep and letting it recuperate after having a full day of makeup wear. As it works overtime while you're sleeping to repair itself, come the morning time, there will be dead cells and excess oil to cleanse away (can you imagine trying to get a flawless base with these?! Yuk!), which is why it is important to wash your face both in the morning and at night time.

If you're like me, a sufferer of 'lazyitis', and you really can't be bothered going to wash your face before bed, then a handy tip is to just remove your makeup and wash your face when you get home for the day - when your tea is cooking, during the adverts for Corrie, or when you get changed into your pyjamas, which for me is as soon as I get home!

Apply your cleanser to dry skin!
This is a little trick I happened across by accident. With the majority of cleansers, the instructions tell you to apply your cleanser onto damp skin. One day, me being me, having one of my many moments in life, applied it directly from the bottle onto my skin. After I had massaged it all in, I realised what I had done and washed it away with cold water. I noticed that after I had washed it away, my skin felt absolutely beautiful, so I started trying it with my other cleansers and they all had the same result. I also noticed that my skin actually felt clean too! After doing some research just to check that I wasn't doing more damage to my skin than good by applying it directly onto dry skin, and I found then when you apply cleanser onto damp skin, the water actually dilutes the cleanser so you're not getting as much out of it. The lesson learned: always apply your cleanser to dry skin!



Always, always, ALWAYS tone your face after cleansing!
This little step is so important and many of us either forget or 'don't believe in toner'. I'm telling you now, toner is not a myth. It's very real and very important! When you cleanse your face, you disturb the natural pH balance of your skin. Toning helps to correct this, as well as shifts any dirt that may have been missed during cleansing, and it helps the appearance of pores. You don't need a mega expensive toner, one that you can pick up from the Pound Shop will work fine - just make sure you remember to tone!

Exfoliate your face up to 3-4 times per week!
If you're like me and have dry skin, you might want to go a bit mad with the exfoliation. Don't! Put down your St. Ives Scrub and read this post! Under no circumstances should you be scrubbing your face every day. You need to find a healthy balance that works for you. I like to exfoliate either every other day or every three days, and I've found this works wonders for me at keeping the dryness at bay.  By exfoliating every day you can actually cause the skin to become more irritated, dry and flaky, and you're killing off the healthy cells in your skin. For me, that's a big no no!

Don't use the plug and fill your sink with water!
Always use running water from the tap when you're washing your face. If you fill the sink up, once you've splashed your face once to remove a product, you're just splashing that product right back on your skin, so you're not actually washing your face. Why would you want to splash dirt back on your skin?!



Avoid the temptation of the hot tap!
I know, especially in the winter months, the hot water tap is far more appealing than the cold, but you should always try to use cold water on your face. Not only does it help you feel more awake in the mornings, whereas warm water opens up your pores, cold water help to minimise the look of them.

Hi lovelies! Are we all okay?

I come before you today with my updated skincare routine, perfected in Summer 2017! I have done a lot of trial and error with this routine and I think there are only two products from my skincare routine blog post from Christmas 2016 that survived the spring and summer! I can truthfully say that my skin has never been in a healthier way and part of that is down to consistency with skincare (which basically means doing it every morning and night!). So without any further delay, here is my updated Summer 2017 Skincare Routine!

Hey lovelies!

Lil' disclaimer before I get started - I bought all of these products with my own money!

If you've not heard of 'Wish' before, it's primarily an app that you can download on your phone (also a website but it seems smoother in-app) and you can buy products from there for insanely cheap prices. The catch is that they'll usually take a while to come so as long as you can wait 4 weeks for those pair of eyelashes to arrive, you'll be fine! Another reason people like to dismiss Wish is because sometimes the quality of a product may be quite poor - however if you're happy to pay £1 for something that would usually cost you £25, then you can't really complain!

Hello lovelies! 

Welcome to my blog post all about the products I regret buying! Just a quick disclaimer before I get on with the products, just because these products didn't work for me doesn't mean that they don't work for everyone, my opinion is just my own and there will be many people who love the products that I mention. Just because I've mentioned one product from a brand I don't like, doesn't mean that there aren't ten products from that brand that I absolutely love! 




Okay, now that all of the niceties are out of the way, let's just started!

The first product that I regret buying is one that I actually got in an Advent Calendar. 

Tanya Burr - Candy Floss Lip Gloss (bought in the Deck the Halls Advent Calendar for £25 - no longer available).

No flash

Flash

This is just a product that unfortunately I can't learn to love.