My Everyday Makeup

I've just finished putting my makeup on and thought why not make a post out of it! I try to change my makeup and use different eyeshadows for the weekends and nights out but my day to day makeup for work is always the same. I tend to wear: 

Mac Studio Sculpt Foundation or Mac Face and Body Foundation on a Real Techniques Buffing Brush

Mac Studio Finish Concealer under my eyes and on a few blemishes using a Real Techniques Deluxe Crease Brush

Mac Mineralise Powder and Rimmel Stay Matte Powder

Bourjois Poudre Bronzante and Daniel Sandler Watercolour Blush or Nars Orgasm Blush

Mac Charcoal Brown eyeshadow on a Mac 266 brush to fill in my eyebrows

Smashbox eyelid primer

Mac Naked Lunch all over my eyelids, Wedge in the crease, Mystery as an eyeliner, Vanilla under my brows as a highlight. I use a Real Techniques Base Shadow Brush

L'Oreal Volume Million Lashes mascara 

Mac Lovelorn Lipstick. 

Phew that's a lot of Mac! 

Here's a photo so you get the idea of what it looks like, pretty boring and basic though! 

Excuse my awful hair, I had it curly the night before this photo was taken and I hadn't yet done anything to make it look half decent! 

Xx

My Skincare Routine

It's about time I wrote a post on the cleansers/ creams etc I use. I have a big basket full of cleansers/toners/masks/serums/moisturisers... The list goes on! You name it, it's in there. I go through phases of using particular products then switching to something else although at the moment I'm trying to use up a lot of them so that I can use the new ones I get for my birthday and Christmas ( which is coming round way too quick). 

For cleansing I am switching between two products- Bioderma and Elemis Pro Radiance Cream Cleanser. I use the Bioderma when I have makeup on as it gets rid of every last little bit and only takes a few minutes. I use the Elemis cleanser when I have hardly any makeup on or none at all, it's thick and smells gorgeous. I just massage it over my skin and then rinse with warm water, followed by the L'Occitane Immortelle Essential Water. I love this stuff! I just have the sample size as it always comes in a box or bag along with full size products I order but that's plenty big enough as I took it on holiday in my hand luggage( I am addicted to using it). Just spritz it on your face after cleansing and it instantly refreshes it without that horrible drying affect toners have. I don't like using toners as they strip my skin and I don't like the tight feeling they leave behind. My skin is quite oily and dehydrated but I don't like stripping the oil off it as it then makes my skin go into overdrive and produce more oil! I can't win really! :) 

Currently I am using up my L'Occitane samples of Essence Sublime and the Angelica Hydration Cream. I'm hoping that by using these my skin won't be as dehydrated and uneven. The Essence Sublime reduces redness, evens skintone, tightens pores and gives the skin an overall fresher and smoother look. My skin does look better and my pores aren't as visible, it also soaks in very quickly so my skin clearly needs and loves it! The moisturiser is light and fresh and not at all greasy so it ticks all the boxes as far as I'm concerned! If I'm suffering from a few breakouts, I use the La Roche Posay Effaclar A.K Targeted Breakout Corrector which seems to reduce the redness of my spots and makes them heal quicker. Also every night I use the RapidLash eyelash growth serum which I was a bit dubious about to begin with buy it really had made my lashes grow! I bought it a few months ago when I had my eyelash extensions taken off as my natural lashes have always been short and horrible. It took a few weeks for me to notice a different but it has definitely thickened and lengthened my lashes. 

Nails Inc Haymarket

Finally a nail polish post! Yippee! I have had this nail polish for a year or so but only just rediscovered it recently. I keep all my nail polishes in two stackable boxes at the salon I work at so it's easy to forget what's in there. I can't remember where I got this from but I think it must've been QVC or on the Nails Inc website, so I probably bought a few at one time! It's a gorgeous pastel green colour and looks great on. I find Nails Inc polishes harder to paint with than OPI polishes but I think that's just because I don't use them very often. This colour looks amazing on fingernails and toenails and is definitely on trend this time of year.

Excuse the photo of my awful feet! I was hoping if I included my flip flops, my feet wouldn't look as gross! 

I used Leighton Denny One For All as base and top coat. I usually use Seche Vite as its so shiny but they seem to be lasting well with the Leighton Denny. 

Mac- new foundation and blush

This is becoming a running theme on my blog but...... I went to Mac again! We popped into town to get some clothes for my boyfriend and I thought I might as well pick up a few bits in Mac. The girls in the shop are always very helpful and find me everything I need quickly, which means my boyfriend doesn't have to wait around too long! ( he hates shopping, especially makeup shopping!). I only picked up two things this time- Studio Sculpt Foundation and Harmony Blush.

When I first got into wearing Mac about 5 years ago, this foundation was my first ever purchase and I loved it. It makes my skin look flawless and even which is great because I have quite a few marks on my chin and forehead from spots/blemishes (I wear NW25) . My skin is also very oily, more so in this warm weather, and I find that this stays on well and still has good coverage after a full days wear. I would describe it as medium to full coverage although I sometimes mix it with a little of Mac Face And Body Foundation for a thinner consistency and lighter coverage. You could also set it with Studio Fix Powder Foundation for a very full look that will last and won't budge all night.

I probably won't wear the Studio Sculpt Foundation in the daytime for work as I quite like my skin to show through in summer, instead I will use it for a night out. It also has an SPF of 15 which is great, although some foundations containing a sun factor can cause flashback in photos so this is always worth bearing in mind. However I have never had a problem with this particular foundation. Now onto the blush! I have been meaning to get Harmony Blush for months as its great for contouring because it contains no shimmer.

I tend to contour my face lightly with my Bourjois bronzer but I find it a bit too warm sometimes and maybe a bit noticeable on my skin. For those of you that aren't familiar with contouring, check out Pixiwoo on YouTube. They have hundreds of really good tutorials that get a bit addictive after watching the first few! Another reason for buying the foundation and blush is that I am going to the horse racing in Newmarket in a few days so if you're lucky I might post a few photos of the evening and of my makeup :) so you can see how it turned out!

Cheeky trip to Mac!

So I accidentally bought 4 new eyeshadows and a quad palette from Mac... We only went in there to buy a gift card for my boyfriend's sister, when I remembered I had a £20 gift card kindly given to me by a client a few months ago. I have filled my palette of 15 eyeshadows which goes in my professional makeup kit so I decided to buy a few shadows just for me to use. I mainly do bridal makeup so I have the key colours from Mac in my main palette. There were a few shadows I have wanted for a while so I finally bought them and can't wait to use them! The palette that I bought was £6.50 and each shadow refill is £10 each. I get 25% off at Mac as I have a pro card, then I had my £20 gift card, so I didn't feel too guilty about spending money I shouldn't! ( we are saving money for a house). 

Clockwise from top left- All That Glitters, Paradisco, Cranberry, Satin Taupe. 

All That Glitters- This is a beige/ champagne colour. It looks great all over the lid with something like wedge in the crease, or smoked out with a darker colour along the lash line. 

Paradisco- A colour I had never looked at before until I watched a Pixiwoo tutorial! I'm very much into coral/ peachy colours at the moment and this one is perfect. It has a slight gold sheen to it, so looks perfect with with any of the colours in the quad palette( complete coincidence). 

Cranberry- One of those colours that will look nice applied properly, or can make you look like you have bloodshot eyes or an eye infection! Best used sparingly smudged along the lash line or blended in the outer corners. All year round colour. 

Satin Taupe- I have wanted this colour for ages! It's a brown/ taupe colour so goes with a lot of shades in the mac range. I can't wait to use this and will probably wear it most days. 

Mac Lipstick 'Riri Woo' by Rihanna

Yes it's another Mac lipstick review! I couldn't resist buying this lipstick, I missed out the first time round when Rihanna's collection for Mac sold out in 3 hours! I was fully prepared for the second part of her collection and waited patiently until 12pm when it was released as an online exclusive but it still took me 45 minutes to get to the checkout to buy it( I admit I did panic a little when I thought it would sell out before I got one). There were two other products in the collection, a bronzer and blush duo, which I nearly bought but reasoned with myself that I didn't need it!, and bronze lustre drops which can be used to highlight the face or give it an all over sun kissed glow. After placing my order, it didn't take long for my package to arrive. I say package, it was actually a crumpled Jiffy bag with the lipstick rolling around inside. I expected a black Mac box with tissue paper but I've never just ordered one product from them before so I think the Jiffy bag is normal. The outside of the lipstick is the usual black with the Mac logo around it. What I didn't know was that the lipstick was embossed with 'Riri' which is a nice idea and distinguishes it from the rest of my lipsticks. Rihanna said she wanted to create a lipstick that suits everyone and I can imagine that this is the case. To look at, I would've said Riri Woo was too much of a blue red for me ( I lean towards orange reds) but it is perfect for my skin tone. I do wear fake tan when I go out so this may be why it suits me as I haven't worn it with my natural skin tone( think pale and boring). 

It is also a matte red which I tend to steer clear of as I get very dry lips, but I was pleasantly surprised as it felt comfortable on and lasted all night( surviving a few drinks too). At £14 a pop, Mac lipsticks aren't the cheapest but I love them and they certainly live up to the hype. I'm sure it won't be long before I'm adding yet more lipsticks to my collection! 

Ponds Cold Cream

This stuff is a god send! It's been around for years and I remember my mum having a pot of it in her bedroom drawer. It costs £4.49 for the 50ml size from Boots, and has a variety of uses. It is marketed as a cleansing cream, even claiming to remove waterproof mascara, but I also use it as a face mask as its thick consistency means i can layer it on and it stays put until I wash it off. The smell is also fresh and typically what you would expect from a cleansing cream, although this particular Ponds Cold Cream is perfumed( I think you can buy ones that aren't) but even so I can hardly smell it on my face. I do this every week and my skin is left feeling moisturised and calm( especially if I've been having a cheeky squeeze of my blackheads before hand!). This product is great for me as some face masks can leave my skin feeling too tight or make me breakout in unattractive spots. The only downside is the size of the pot I bought( they do larger sizes however) as I'm so slapdash with facial products that I find myself re purchasing probably more than I need to and I'm forever gouging a huge chunk out of the pot every time. Obviously at £4.49, a lot cheaper than most cleansers, I can buy more and not hear my bank balance groan! 

L'Oreal Volume Million Lashes Mascara

I've just purchased this mascara after finishing a different L'Oreal one. I admit I'm a little clueless as to which mascaras are good and which aren't as I had eyelash extensions on for 4 years. I tend to ignore mascara adverts as I still think I've got my lashes on (until I look in the mirror, sad that my long lashes are gone!) so I had to enlist the help of my boyfriends sister. She recommended a few mascaras so off I plodded to Boots to have a look and decided on this one. 

What I had forgotten was how expensive mascaras are! This mascara cost me £10.99 in Boots which I think is the average price.  I know you're thinking I must have spent a small fortune getting my lash extensions refilled every 2 weeks but I didn't actually pay to have them done. My friend and I are both beauty therapists so just swapped treatments instead of paying each other, which was great! 

As you can see from the photos there is a difference in the length and thickness of my lashes so I am very happy with this mascara. The wand also doesn't get overloaded with product so it is quick and easy to build my lashes up and also works well for my bottom lashes. I find some mascaras smudge towards the end of the day but this one hasn't done so I'm very pleased and will definitely repurchase!