More on my bargain makeup...

On my latest makeup spending spree as well as the Revolution palettes I also picked up a MUA under eye concealer and a Sleek Makeup highlighting kit.

The concealer was only £3.00 it comes in 3 shades. Being super pale I bought the lightest shade 'luminous' as I like to use a shade lighter than my foundation. 

Here is how it looks on my hand...

As you can see it is quite pale. I have tried several under eye high lighters/ concealers including Dior, touché eclait, asda and Rimmel. Dior is my favourite but I would say this is a good budget comparison. I'd buy it over touché eclait or the asda one anyway.

Here you can see it under my eyes on a particularly tired Monday morning. It doesn't cover dark circles but it does brighten up the area.

On the above picture I have used my iconic 3 Revolution Pallete and must say I was really impressed... It lasted all day... Even survived a gym session after work (obviously only to be showered off afterwards)

Along with this I also used my Sleek highlighting kit. At £9.99 this was at the higher end of budget makeup and I was expecting it to be more of a contour kit (obviously I should have checked before buying what was inside) . It is however nice quality... Reminds me somewhat of benefit and their highlighters such as benetint and watts up.

The compact includes some ideas for where to apply each shade (below) which are handy. I followed these but also added a little of the lighter shade to the tear duct area. 

It's a nice little addition to my makeup kit as I don't have many highlighters and is something I would use on clients as well as myself. I feel it definitely made a difference to my makeup today and I felt I looked more radient and awake. 

Revolution Makeup - mermaids vs unicorns

As mentioned in my previous post I treated myself to some new budget makeup from Superdrug at the weekend to experiment with and allow me to play around a bit with different colours. At just £4 each this and the previously discussed iconic 3 were a bargain not to be missed.

As you can see in the photo below the pigmentation is really good, however you do need to apply more than you would with a more expensive brand such as my favourite Urban Decay.

The greens and blues are the 'mermaid' half of the palette and the purple sand darker blues the 'unicorn' . I tend to stick to nudes and neutrals rather than colour but there are times I do fancy wearing a bit of colour so at just £4 this is worth it for experimenting and trying out different looks.

I've only had a quick go of it but in the look below, I applied the first green shade over the whole lid with a flat brush, then used a bullet shaped brush to blend the darker two greens into the outer triangle then finally blended the darker purple shade through the crease with a blending brush. 

The colours go on nicely and blend well but I would like to play around with them more and create dramatic looks with eyeliner and lashes x 

More of my favourite things...

I haven't updated here in ages as I always seem to know what I want to write about but struggle to actually word it! I guess practise makes perfect so I should make the effort more often. Especially now I have the app on my phone.

Anyway I thought I would ease myself back in with a straight forward post about some of my prized possessions in my makeup

Firstly, I adore my three Urban decay palates; naked, naked 2 and smoked. I recently invested in naked as it contained two of my favourite shades, virgin and half baked as well as many other beautiful shades like sin and side car. There are some fab YouTube tutorials on using this and the other two palates! 

Secondly in this picture, you will see my MAC studio sculpt foundations in 4 shades which I tend to use on clients as they can be mixed to achieve an ideal shade (hint McDonald's stirrers are great mixers and the white paper cups which sauce can be dispensed into make great mixing containers). These foundations give a medium to full coverage while still feeling light.

However, my personal favourite foundation is Estée Lauder double wear . It gives me enough coverage to tone down my freckles without making my skin look too flat. Eventually I will buy more shades to use on clients as I build up my business as I think it is better for maturer skin than the MAC studio sculpt.

In this picture here I must firstly give a special mention to my favourite gel polish of the moment... flower blossom by NSI polish pro. It's such a pretty pink girlie colour which complements any outfit.

Now onto the brushes. I did done research reading other blogs in search of good dupes for MAC brushes with a lower price tag. These four, I feel, do a perfect job. From left to right they are... A wide, flat brush by GOSH which is great for packing shadow onto the lid, a chubby fluffier shading brush by crown which is also great for applying base colour to the lid but also for blending too as it's thicker and fluffier than the GOSH. Next there is a bullet shaped brush by crown which is great for adding detail to the socket line and creating a smokey eye. The final brush by GOSH does a similar job but with a softer effect as it us a fuller, fluffier brush.

Ok so that was my first post in ages... It wasn't actually too bad once I got into it!

Xxx