Fall Makeup Look

Hey everyone!

Since today is the first official day of fall, I thought what better way to start off than with a makeup look?  In fall I love all the colours of the leaves and that's the kind of shades I like to stick to with my eyes (okay that sounds weird, matching my eyes to the leaves on trees but hey?).  I love the bronzes, golds, taupes, maroons and crisp reds. 

Face

To start with I applied Benefits Porefessional primer all over my face.  Then using Real Techniques Stippling Brush I blended No7's Beautifully Matte foundation into my skin and then went ahead and set it with Rimmel's Stay Matte powder. 

I then applied an ELF blush in Peachy Keen to the apples of my cheeks and blended upwards along my cheekbones.

 

Eyes 

I first primed my eyes with Smashbox's Photo Finish Eyelid Primer.  I then went on to use my Revlon Custom Eyes Palette in Naturally Glamourous. 

I used the second shade (left to right) all over my lid using my MAC 217 brush.  Then applied the middle shade in my inner corners. 

For my crease, I took my Sleek storm palette and used the top right colour which is a gorgeous berry shade and blended it in with my MAC 217. 

I then used my Rimmel Exaggerate Liquid Liner to create a slight winged look.  (This eyeliner is on it's last leg and I'm looking for a new black liquid liner that is great and easy for winged liner, if you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments). 

After that I curled my lashes and applied my favourite mascara right now, Benefits They're Real. 

Lips

For lips, I applied an all time favourite of mine, regardless of season, MAC's Creme Cup.  This lipstick is such a delicate pink and nicely evens out the slightly more dramatic eyes. 

Overall 

Overall, I'm really feeling this look.  I think it's really pretty for autumn and I'm sure I will be wearing this throughout the season.  I hope you all liked this post and let me know of any fall posts you would like to see in the comments below. 

Katie

Xox

Avon Colortrend Lipstick Review

Hey guys!

It isn't a secret that I am a huge lipstick fanatic.  With over 40 in my collection, picking which lipstick to wear has become a regular challenge.  I'm here today to let you in on a little favourite of mine. These beauties at £3.75 each are a bargain for their quality, colours and selection. 

First things first, this range has a gorgeous colour selection.  They have a bunch of colours I would never normally try, but since they are so cheap, I can give them a go.  The colours are surprisingly well pigmented and glide on the lips so smoothly.  They leave a slight gloss finish but last a fairly long time (I would say 3-4 hours). 

The first colour in my collection is Doll Pink.  Doll Pink is pretty much what it claims, a bright barbie doll pink.  I love how bright and fun this colour is and it's a perfect summer shade.  

Next in my collection is Passion.  Passion is a bright orange-red with pink.  It's pretty much a mix of them all.  When looking at it, it's hard to define whether it's a pink, red or orange.  It's a lovely shade and definitely unique, I've never seen another shade quite like it. 

Then I also have Flirt.  Flirt is clearly orange but has a distinctive pink shine to it. I adore this colour because its so vivid and different but the pink shine makes it so easy to wear. 

Next I have Violet Friday, which although looks intimidating, it's actually beautiful.  When swatched it appears much more pink based but gives enough purple to show it's unique side.  The purple lipstick has been rising in popularity over the past few months and I think this is the perfect colour to start with. 

Finally I have Amethyst which is a deep plumy pink and is probably the most "normal" shade out of this little collection of mine. This lipstick reminds me slightly of MAC's Hot Gossip but more plum.  This colour is perfect for everyday wear. 

So if you haven't guessed already, I'll sum it up for you, I love these lipsticks.  They are all so beautiful.  Although I only have a fraction of the full collection, the shades I have are stunning and so completely unique to anything else I own. 

(From left to right) Amethyst, Violet Friday, Flirt, Passion and Doll Pink. 

I hope you all enjoyed this post and thank you for reading! Let me know some of your favorite lipsticks below in the comments! 

Katie 

Xox

Ps. My laptop is still broken, I'm still writing from my phone while patiently waiting for the laptop fixing placey to miraculously fix my laptop. Thank you for bearing with me. 

Naked Basics Palette Review and Looks

Hey everyone! 

In case you haven't heard, the Naked Palettes by Urban Decay are some of the most lusted eye products out their in the beauty world.  It originally started with the Naked palette, then there was Naked 2 followed by the most recent Naked Basics.  I was constantly meaning to get the Naked palette and when the Naked 2 I meant to get that as well but I never got around to it.  But about a month or two ago, I finally bought the Naked Basics Palette.  

The palette consists of six eyeshadows, five matte shades and one shimmer.  I created 4 different looks that I'm going to share with you after my little review of the whole palette. 

So I absolutely love this palette and I use it pretty much everyday. The colours are all extremely pigmented and I do realise the lighter shades are less visable in pictures, they do show up nicely in person.  I must warn you though Crave is such a deep intense black, it can be really messy! I cracked a tiny bit of the side of the pan and every time I pick up the palette, I'm now covered in black. My white bed sheets have also suffered.  This aside, I would 100% recommend this palette.  It's perfect for all levels of skills, beginners to pros will get use of this. Now lets get into the looks I created with this palette. 

Look Number 1 - Dramatic 

My first look is the most dramatic of them all. I started off with Foxy all over my lid and then used Naked 2 and Faint in my crease to add definition. I then added Crave to my outer corner and smoked in inwards to the outer 2/3rds of my eye. I then lined my eyes with liquid eyeliner (Rimmels Exaggreate) and winged it out. I also brought the liquid liner underneath my bottom lash line and added pencil liner (Avon Glimmerstick) to my water line. I think this look is more of a "night out" look and perfect for parties. 

Look 2 - Smokey 

I definitely feel this is a much more wearable smokey look for everyday. It's quite similar to the first look but less dramatic. I used WOS all over my lid and added Naked 2 to my crease. I then added Faint to my outer corner and blended it out. Next I added my liquid eyeliner and winged it out again. I also added pencil liner to my waterline. 

Look 3 - Slightly Smoked

This is one of my most worn looks for my eyes. It's so natural looking but yet it is still clear you made the effort. I applied WOS all over my lid and added Naked 2 to my crease and blended it out. Then I added liquid liner to my top lash line and added a slight wing. 

Look 4 - Mrs Bright Eyes

This is perfect for when you wake up and your eyes are just looking a little tired and dark. I applied Foxy all over my lid and added Venus to my inner corner and brow bone. Then added yet again my liquid liner to my top lash line and created a little wing. I use this one a lot when I've slept in and I don't have much time on my hands. 

I hope you all enjoyed this mixed review/tutorial post.  Let me know in the comments below what your favourite look is. If any of you are wondering, my laptop is still broken and I'm writing this from the blogger app from my phone so I'm sorry if the layout or whatever isn't as good but the app isn't the greatest but its the best I can do. I will be blogging from my phone until I can get my laptop fixed so please bear with me for the time being! Thank you so much for reading and I will speak to you all very soon! 

Katie 

Xox

Back To School Make Up

Hey Everyone!

Its fast approaching.  The return to school is dawning upon us.  Summer is almost over and whether your going back to high school, college, uni or even just going back to work, this make up look is perfect.  Its glam enough to kick off the school year but its also natural enough to wear everyday.  So without further ado, let's get into the make up tutorial.

Face

The first thing I like to do in the morning is apply some of the Simple Soothing Eye Balm.  It's so cooling and fresh and really helps wake up my eyes in the morning. 

Next I apply foundation (L'oreal Infallible Foundation) with my Real Techniques Stippling brush.  This foundation seriously lasts all day so is perfect for school/work where you don't necessarily have time to reapply any make up.  (P.S all my fellow pale skinned girls, this is such a perfect pale colour and is the most natural coloured foundation I have ever found, it doesn't say a shade name on the bottle but I know its the lightest colour in the range).  I then apply Rimmel Stay Matte Powder with the Real Techniques Duo Fibre Face brush to lock in the foundation and make it last even longer.

Then I apply MAC Well Dressed to the apples of my cheeks with the Real Techniques Duo Fibre Contour Brush.  After that I use MAC Pearlmatte Powder to highlight my cheekbones and browbones.

I then like to spray MAC Mineralize Charged Water Skin Hydrating Mist (what a mouthful) to give a nautral dewy glow to my skin.

Eyes

Using Benefit's Browzings from my Smokin Eyes kit I lightly fill in my brows to give a natural get defined look.  Then I brush through my brows with a spooly brush to make them even more natural looking. 

For eyeshadow, I start my applying Smashbox Photo Finish Lid Primer to help my eyeshadow last all day.  I also find that my eyeshadow never creases when I use this. 

I then apply Walk of Shame from the Naked Basics Palette all over my eyelid.  Then taking Naked 2, I blend it into my crease using my MAC 217 brush to create definition.

Then using my NARS Duo in Kalahari, I apply the gold shade all over my lid.  Then apply the second colour to my crease and blend outwards. 

I then use No7 Eessential Eyeliner in Brown to line my lash line and wing it out slightly.

Finally for the eyes, I apply Revlon Grow Luscious Mascara in Black to curled lashes.

 Lips

For lips, I like to go a little more natural for school and work so Revlon's Lip Butter in Juicy Papaya is perfect.  Then I like to apply L'oreal's Glam Shine Lipgloss in Sheer Peach for an extra shine to the lips (plus is smells amazing).

 

Before and After

Overall I really like this look and it does not take much time at all.  Obviously it would look better when your hair has been styled too and not left in the ponytail you slept in...oops.  Let me know if you try this out!  Also is there any other 'back to school' posts you would like to see?  Let me know in the comments below!

 

Benefits 'How To Look The Best At Everything' Review

Hey Everyone! 

You may be unaware of the world of teleshopping, but one things for sure, there are some definitely plus sides to it.  I recently purchased Benefits 'How To Look The Best At Everything' Kit from QVC.  An instant plus side to buying it through QVC was that I was able to pay in three monthly instalments of around £6.  This made me feel less guilty about paying around £20 for a bunch of minis in a pretty box.  Now let's get into the actual review. 

First thing's first.  The packaging is freaking adorable.  I could literally hide this away in my bookshelf and it would blend in beautifully.  Its actually a really sturdy box and survived an attack from my little pup at the letterbox.  It's sealed by a pretty strong magnet, so you could easily travel with this and not worry about any of the products falling out. 

The box includes;

• Porefessional (7.5ml)
• Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Foundation in Champagne (7ml)
• Boiing Concealer in 01&02 (2x1.5g)
• Hello Flawless in Champagne (4g)

I've actually used professional before and I do really like it.  Porefessional is a primer specifically designed to help minimise pores, which is great for me because I have particularly large pores on my nose and around my t-zone (thanks dad, darn you genetics).  I find the texture of this product quite bizarre as it almost feels greasy when you first apply it but that quickly absorbs into the skin and feels fine.  Benefit claim you can wear this on its own to conceal open pores but I find it only works when I have foundation/bb/cc cream on.  When I do use it though, I do notice a dramatic difference in the size of my pores.  So if open pores are your main skin concern, definitely give this wee one a bash.  I don't tend to wear primers every day because I always wonder what effect it has on my skin and if its actually clogging the pores or what but on special occasions this is the primer I tend to pick. 

Next we have the much anticipated (in my case anyway) Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Foundation.  This was a MASSIVE let down.  Not necessarily because of how the product works/feels ect, just because of the sheer colouring of it.  I don't know what Benefit where thinking when they added this into the 'light' edition of this kit.  Maybe I'm abnormally pale?  Its plausible but not the most likely answer here.  This foundation was like a million shades to dark for me and unbearable to use.  Not only was it too dark, I thought it was insanely orange, it just made me think, 'who's skin is that colour naturally?'.  Maybe if you fake tan you could get away with this but it was just not working for me.  You can see in the pictures below the clear colour difference between Hello Orange Flawless (left) and my current CC Cream by Maxfactor (right).  No amount of  blending was doing this justice.  If your a true paley like myself, this is a definite miss, in this shade anyway. 

 

 





















The third product in the kit was one I was also excited about trying and thats the Boi-ing Concealer.  The lightest shade in the kit was fine for me colour wise, but the second would never be used.  I first applied Boi-ing under my eyes where I suffer from dark circles and puffiness.  I did notice a major difference when I applied this and my eyes seemed instantly brighter.  I really loved how hydrating this concealer felt as well and it didn't 'tug' at my sensitive skin under my eyes like some other concealers have.  One thing I did notice about using this under my eyes was that it did crease throughout the day.  I also used this on a little patch of breakouts that kindly decided to form on my chin.  I felt like for breakout and redness, this is a little too hydrating so it actually disappears quite quickly.  I didn't feel like it covered up my breakouts as well as some of my other concealers (yes I'm talking about you my lovely Maybelline Coverstick AKA lifesaver).  It was okay but I felt like this product is much better suited to under eye issues.

Finally in this kit we have the Hello Flawless Powder again in champagne.  Again this colour is too dark for me so I never really used much of it.  I would like to comment that I am really happy with my current powder (Rimmel Stay Matte) and I don't think I would splurge for anything else and I wouldn't of even tried this product if it hadn't been included in this kit.  I like the little brush they included, it was really soft and would be perfect for travel/on-the-go.  I feel like I don't have that much to say about this product but I kind of have the opinion that powders are powders and they all have the same effect (pretty much).

I like how they included a little 'tips and tricks' booklet but most of the techniques were pretty basic and anyone who is interested in reading this review in the first place will probably know it all already.  

Overall I was pretty disappointed at Benefits feeble attempt at a 'light' complexion kit.  If I could find this kit in a paler shade I would have probably liked it so much more.  If you are planning on buying this kit as a try before you buy all the full sized, go into your nearest benefit counter to make sure it matches your skin tone, otherwise I wouldn't risk it.

Luckily, like I said above, I purchased this from QVC, which actually allows you to return make up even if you have used it (which is pretty rare in the UK).  So this is heading straight back.  Sorry Benefit, this really didn't do it for me.

Have any of you guys tried this kit and had the same issues? Or am I just ridiculously pale??  Let me know in the comments!