April Favourites

Hi lovely ladies, hope you're all okay! Just thought I'd start by saying sorry for the delay in posts but I've been a very busy lady! Anyway, today I thought i'd finally share with you all my April Favourites. It's the 5th of May today, so I've been pretty rubbish and should have probably got this out much sooner but better late than never right? I've had a few things I've been loving this month especially as I can now officially see the start of summer on the way and therefore can crack out the more appropriate makeup.

Lacoste Eau De Lacoste Pour Femme - 50ml - £45.00 here

I recently mentioned this product in a recent haul post and I love it. This stuff smells incredible, I actually won it in a competition but I can't get enough of this stuff. This is just the perfect Spring fragrence and I honestly haven't stopped spraying it throughout the whole month of April. I have had so many different compliments whilst wearing this perfume and loads of people keep asking me what i'm wearing, it's one of those scents that is strong enough so you can smell it but isn't too overpowering and it's just a really nice fresh and clean scent. It's sweet but also has hints of floral scents which I love. This bottle is pure heaven and if you see this bad boy around give it a sniff.

Benefit Fake Up Concealer - No.1 - £18.50 here

I won't blabber on about this one because I just recently mentioned this in a full review on my blog - here - but I love this and it's been my favourite beauty discovery over the last month. I'm so glad that I purchased this because it's just so refreshing and cooling under my eyes in the morning and also help keep those bags at bay! So overall a massive winner.

Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation - Soft Ivory - £33.00 here

At the start of the month I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this bad boy but I've found out the perfect way to apply it and this really is amazing. The rave reviews it gets are for a reason and I'm soooo glad that I picked this up, the coverage is crazy good and I love the finish of this. I'm not going to go into too much detail about this one because I'm planning a review in the near future but it's pretty impressive.

Rimmel Instant Tan Sun Shimmer - Light/Matte - £3.49 - here

This is one of the cheapest fake tans on the market coming in at an impressive £3.49 me and my friend picked it up whilst we were in boots and were feeling like we wanted to be a bit sun kissed. To be honest I wasn't expecting a lot from this tanning product but it's actually really impressed me. I personally love fake tans that are instant just because I hate having to wait for them to develop because if i'm honest I hate not knowing how it's going to turn out. But anyway, this has beat the St.Tropez instant tan & the fake bake instant tan I've tried hands down and become a new favourite product for me. I'm thinking of doing a comparison between this instant tan and the 17 one so look out for that but yeah this just leaves me feeling and (hopefully) looking sun-kissed and healthy and I love it. Another win for Rimmel this one.

Soap and Glory - The Daily Smooth Body Butter - £8.50 - here

Another month and another Soap and Glory product is featured in my monthly favorites  my addiction knows no bounds and I've found another product that I love from the brand. This is the Smooth Body Butter and I just really like this, it is really moisturizing and creamy and sinks into my skin really quickly. It smells just like the Soap and Glory Mist you madly mist (here) you can get so I like to apply this after I've had a shower and then mist my self with the matching scent and I feel really clean and relaxed and moisturised so I've been really enjoying that.

Nars Laguna Bronzer -  £26.00 - here

Again I've just done a review of this so I won't ramble for too long but I feel like I want to shout my love for this product from the roof tops or something. It is the perfect summer accessory  you need this in your life for Spring and Summer because it's just going to warm up that complexion and make your skin glow. It is just amazing and deserves every single bit of love it gets from the blogging community in my opinion.

Maxfactor Lipstick in Lilac Wine (665) - £7.99 here

This lipstick has become my absolute go-too for the month of April, it's a really pretty pink but it has a really nice golden sheen to it so it looks lovely with a golden/bronze eye and bronzed up skin. It's just a really nice formula and isn't drying and I just find that it's the perfect colour for my skin tone and helps to warm my complexion up and give my makeup that va-va-voom it needs.

Nivea Lip Butter in Raspberry Rose - £2.25 - here

Mmmmm, this product is gorgeous, I've heard about these in the beauty community a little bit and thought I'd give this one a sniff and the second I did I bought it, this smells like those really nice raspberry yogurts I used to have when I was a kid, but really it just smells like raspberry and it's really sweet and is just super yummy. It's really nice and moisturizing on the lips too, it doesn't transfer a huge amount of colour but it's great for chucking in your handbag.

Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this post, thank you all for reading. I hope you have a lovely May & I'll speak to you all really soon.

Lots of Love,

Gem xxx

Valentines Day - Beauty Picks

My Valentines Day Make Up Picks -

Hi lovelies, hope you're all okay, today's post is back to being beauty related and today I thought i'd take some inspiration from Valentines day which is coming up on Thursday and show you my top beauty picks for the love inspired day. I don't really know why these particular products stood out for me as products that were perfect for your Valentines make up look but I just thought they were. Anyway, i'm not going to ramble on too much, I hope you all have a brilliant Valentines day whether you're paired up or not & I hope this is useful if you're doing anything special. Also I know the hearts background is a little distracting but I wanted to inject a bit of 'love' into the post so you'll have to put up with it!

The first pick which I think is essential for V-day would be a really flawless base, whether you're going out for a meal or just chilling with your partner you'll want to have lovely skin, I think this is a scenario where you want to look completely natural and kind of go for the 'no makeup' look but still have good coverage to help blur any imperfections. Therefore I think a really good pick for date night would be the L'oreal Lumi Magique Foundation, (here) this is going to make you look really nice and natural but give you a really subtle glow so you'll look really healthy and glowing, which is definitely a look you should be going for. There is quite a good selection in these shades and its really easy to blend so you aren't going to have any problems with application.

The next thing I think you need to make sure you get right on date night would be your blush, I'm not a massive fan of blusher i'm more of a bronzer girl but there is something about the pinks shades that just make me think of valentines day, you want to have a really rosy glow to your cheeks on a date so I would say that the 'Love at first blush' (here) by Soap and Glory is your perfect product, plus the name just reminds me of Valentines day! Love at first blush has loads of different segments inside it and contains different shades of pink and white so that you get a gorgeous pink blush with a bit of a sheen so it also works as a highlighter again portraying a glowing skin look. Alternatively I think cream blushers work really well, they're amazing for staying powder and they look really natural because you don't want too look too plastered in makeup, the cream blush I've chosen on this occasional is by the Body Shop and it's part of the Lily Cole collection and it's in the shade 'Crazy For Coral' this would really compliment more darker skin tones and look really nice with a tan, this is a very sheer product but you can build it up which means it will be really hard to not end up with a natural finish.

The next thing you want to think about on date night would be your eyes, I think you have to decide whether you want your lips or your eyes to be the feature of your Valentines make up look and make sure you only stick to one. For Valentines day I don't think you want something heavy or bright on the eyes, it's more than likely that it will scare your date away if you turn up with bright green and blue eye shadow, for that reason I decided to start of the eye make up look with a Maybelline Color Tattoo (here) in on and on bronze, they do a selection of shades so pick which one will suit the eye look you want to create. These make an amazing base for eye shadows and are going to keep your eye makeup on all night, this can also look lovely on its own as long as you blend it out into the crease. For shadows I've suggested using the Naked 2 Palette by Urban Decay but in all honesty you could use the normal naked palette or any neutral eye shadow palettes, Make up Academy do some great ones. I just think they have a lovely selection of shades which means you can smoke it up if you want to have a more sultry eye look or you can just sweep a neutral color over the lid and add a bit of definition in the crease. Neutral eye shadow in general is just a massive pick of mine for Valentines day. Next you'll want to create some curly, flirty lashes and the best mascara for giving you both amazing volume and length in terms of your lashes would be Benefit's 'They're real' mascara, (here) which gives you the look of wearing false eyelashes without all of the hassle.

The next thing I think is a top must have for Valentines day is a strong lip, depending on the look you're going for you can add some 'va-va-voom' and go all out with a statement bright red lip if you want too, this Kate Moss for Rimmel one in shade 001 (here) is perfect for that and will really draw attention to your lips. Or you can choose to go more subtle with your lips, my two picks are from Soap and Glory and they are the 'Sexy Mother Pucker Lip Glosses' (here), these are really cool because they plump your lips, this is really good for date nights because you can magic your lips too look fuller and bigger really quickly. The two shades I have gone for are a really light nude color & also a hot bright pink, I think it's all down to preference and the lip color you'll feel the most comfortable with.

The last thing you want to make sure look perfect for your date night would be your nails, now obviously your nails need to match you're outfit but the two nail varnishes in my collection that really reminded me of Valentines day was the Barry M Nail Polish in shade 302 (here) and the Models Own Mirror Ball nail varnish in 'hot stuff' (here) which has a little more glitter to it.

Lastly you want to smell really nice so I would slap on your favorite fragrance so that you're smelling sweeet, my fragrance of choice would be the original Juicy Couture Perfume which I love.

Anyway, I hope you have a lovely Valentines day, let me know what your Valentines Beauty must haves would be in the comments & i'll speak to you all soon.

February Wishlist

Feb Wishlist - Chanel Bronze Universal, Benefit 'Fine One One', Rimmel Apocalips, Real Techniques Eye Kit, Proactiv Solution, Mac Creme Cup & Rimmel BB Cream

 

Hi everyone, hope you're okay! Today I thought I'd do a February wish list, I have done a wish list post in ages and I personally really like reading them and it adds a bit of depth to my blog rather than having constant review posts. Anyway I'm not going to ramble for ages I'm just going to jump right in and get on with it.

1. Chanel Bronze Universal - I've wanted to try this product for such a long time, I've heard so many great things about it from lots of different bloggers and I have never actually tired any Chanel products so I think this would be a great way to dip my toes into the Chanel pond so to speak. I think the packaging of this product is really luxurious and it just looks lovely. I'm out of bronzer so I can probably justify picking this up but the price tag at £30.00 has always put me off, I think that's sooo expensive! It looks lovely though and apparently the 30ml contents lasts for absolutely ages seeming as it's a cream product and from my experience with cream blushes I would expect it to last a long time too. I have ready so many reviews on this product and I think it's the product that I want to pick up the most in the month of Feb.

2. Benefit Fine One One - This looks like a really cool product, it's a new release from Benefit and I have been seeing it on loads and loads of blog posts recently and it's really made me want to try it out. Sticking to the cream products this is basically a cream stick that contains a stripe of blusher, a stripe of bronzer and a highlight shade, this means you can just hold the product at the center of your cheek and in one quick swipe have your blusher, bronzer and highlighter done. I think it's such a cool idea and I think the reason I want to try it so much is the fact that it's so different to a lot of products on the market and I've not seen anything like it. I also think Benefit is such a cool brand and the packaging and idea behind this is really cool. This is a fairly expensive product at £23.00 but I think it would be good quality the only thing I would be worried about would be how messy it would get and I would be a little skeptical in case the shades mixed in together and I ended up without the definition of the 3 individual shades. 

3. Apocalips - I recently did a post on the new offering from Rimmel and I said that they weren't that ground breaking or different to be getting the huge and over top amount of hype that they have been served by the blogging community. That being said I do quite like them I just wish they didn't smell funny. I really want to try the shades Big Bang and Nude Eclipse to see how they are and I'm wanting to try those out this month.

4. Real Techniques Eye Collection - You may have seen on my blog this week that I have recently picked up a new Urban Decay eye shadow palette - the Glinda. But recently I've just been experimenting a lot with eye shadows, I want to pick up some eye shadow brushes that I can use with all my new palettes, I do have a few old ones from Elf but I know real techniques are good quality and a bargain for the price!

5. Pro Active Solution - 4 Piece Set - My skin has been playing up loads lately and I've heard that Pro Activ solution is one of the best ways to get your skin under control quickly and also improve it's quality. Also seeming as it is the new year I really wanted to start taking care of my skin more and I though a 4 Piece Skin care set would probably help me to do this. As much as I do want to try this though I'm a little bit sceptical, I've heard very contrasting reviews on this product, some people love it and swear by it and some people hate it and swear that you should stay away from it! So I don't really know.

 

6. Mac Crème Cup - I love Mac lipsticks, if you haven't heard me rave about it enough I got Mac Angel as a Christmas present and love it to absolute bits, I've used it every single day since and I don't seriously think I could live without it. Mac lipsticks are hands down the best I've ever tried and I really enjoy using them. I've heard crème cup is the same sort of colour as Angel but more of a creamy formula and without the frost finish so I would love to try it out.

 

7. Rimmel BB Cream - This is a new release from Rimmel and in all fairness it's a product that I haven't heard a whole lot about, I think this is why I am so fascinated by it, I really haven't bought into the whole 'BB' trend and think that the whole idea is a way for companies to just rebrand tinted moisturisers, I've never really found one I liked either but I'm quite keen to try this just because i'm a huge Rimmel Fan and they're a brand that never seem to get it wrong for me. This isn't a product that I've been lusting after but a product that I am curious about.

 

As a side note since I made this wish list I have added 2 more things to it haha, i'm so rubbish! I really want to try out the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette and also the Urban Decay Naked Flushed Palette, both really interest me & intrigue me and I have been loving Urban Decay over the last few months so I would love to try their new releases!

 

Hope you enjoyed this post, let me know what's on your February wish list! Thanks for reading! :) xxx

 

Beauty Favourite's 2012

 

 

 

 

 

Real Techniques Brushes/Juicy Couture Perfume/L'Oreal Telescopic/Benefit they're real/Palmers Cocoa Butter/Rimmel Wake me up concealer & foundation/ Soap and Glory you won't believe your eyes/ Rimmel Fix and Perfect Pro Primer/ Mac Studio Fix fluid/ Lancôme hyponose star mascara/ Kate Moss Lipsticks (Rimmel)/Mac Studio Fix Powder/ Mac Mineralize Skinfinish Natural/ Mac Studio Finish Concealer/ Bourjois Bronzer/ Maybelline Colour Tattoo's/ Mac Lipsticks - Angel and Outrageously fun/ Topshop Crescent Moon highlighter

Beauty Favourites 2012

Today I wanted to show you all my fav products of 2012, firstly I want to say sorry for the rubbish photo's, winter is making it really hard to get a decent photo! the lighting was crappy all day today so I just had to try and do the best I could with what lighting we did have.

Anyway, I have discovered so many new products this year, a lot of them I found through the blogging scene, reading blogs and watching beauty video's has really helped me to discover some amazing products and all of the products I've featured within this post are definitely the best products I've found throughout the year and the products that I would continue to repurchase in the future. Sometimes I find it quite hard to do monthly favourites on my blog simply because I find it hard to pick amazing stand out products that I've only discovered for a few weeks but the fact that I've loved the majority of these products for months and months makes them stand out to me way more. Anyway on to the post.

Firstly I thought I would talk to you about my stand out face products of the year, firstly the Palmers Cocoa Butter has kind of become my must have moisturiser, I LOVE the smell of this product so much, it's simply gorgeous and it's the best moisturiser ever, it leaves my skin feeling really smooth and soft and keeps it from drying out for hours, you can use this moisturiser all over your body but I find that it's perfect for my face.
Something else that has really transformed my morning makeup regime this year would be the Soap and Glory 'You won't believe your eyes' this is such a great product, I have a really hard time sleeping and i'm therefore left with really puffy under eye circles and very red and sore eyes, the one thing that combats all of these problems for me is this S&G product. Within minutes it helps to de-puff the area and it makes my eyes look much more awake and normal. God send I tell ya!

Another product that I've loved since about August this year would be Rimmel's Fix and Perfect Primer, i'm not going to go on about it to much because I've mentioned it in various posts since I began blogging but I just find it to be incredible for the price that it is, it smooth's my face like nothing else and means that my foundation goes on really flawlessly, I haven't strayed to another primer since and am now on my 3rd bottle, it's an absolute fav of mine.
There were two foundations that really reached out to me this year and have stood the test of time, firstly was Rimmel Wake me up foundation, this is the most fantastic foundation ever, it's so cheap and definitely the best foundation from the drugstore, it smells nice and really does 'wake you up' and help make you look lest tired with all of its light luminizing properties, it never fails to make me look more awake in the morning and has a really good coverage and also lasts all day. I've been completely impressed with all of Rimmel's new releases this year and this one is top of the chart! Also the wake me up concealer is exactly like the foundation but perfect for the under eye area and really helps to make your eyes look more awake so comes first place as my favourite drug store concealer.
This year was also a year that I decided to go on my quest for a more expensive foundation, I came to the assumption that the more expensive foundations were probably worth spending the money on and that I would probably get better results, I purchased a few since I started blogging some from Benefit and then I got the Mac studio fix fluid (NC15) and I love it, it gives me the most flawless face ever, it is a foundation with full coverage but it doesn't look too cakey and its lasting power is amazing. I think this is such a great product and is perfect for evening wear, in all fairness I happily wear this in the day sometimes too but I feel like my skin can breathe better if I wear my Rimmel wake me up so therefore i'm going to be keeping this foundation for special occasions, it's just simply gorgeous.
Towards the end of this year  I began to experiment much more with mac products and in the short time I've been trying them out and using them I've fell in love with them and three of their products are literally so amazing that they had to make some of my favourites of the year. Firstly Mac powders have really won me over this year, the Studio Fix Powder is amazing when paired with the Studio Fix Fluid for a really flawless night look, this powder actually has so much coverage that you could wear it by itself or pair it with a foundation to make your skin look amazing! Another powder that has really impressed me this year would be the Mac Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium, this is the perfect powder for everyday due to the fact its got minerals in it so it's good for the skin and it's a baked product so it is really finely milled and soft, I feel like my skin can breathe when I wear this product but also that I have enough coverage for everyday, it's a great addition to my makeup bag and unlike any powder I've ever tried before.
Another product that easily made my yearly favourites this year would be the Mac studio finish concealer, for bad skin days and those days where you've had no sleep this bad boy works wonders, it literally covers everything but is creamy enough that you can blend it in and it won't look too cakey, a must have Mac product for me.
The Topshop highlighter in 'Crescent Moon' was another stand out product for me this year, it helped to divine my cheekbones but also make my skin look much more glowing and lovely, plus it just gave my face a lovely golden sheen which was beautiful when my face hit the light. Lastly my fav product for my face this year was one that would probably have been in my favourite products for the last 4-5 years, it is the Bourjois Bronzing powder, this is a product that I've had for ever, it lasts so long and its great for contouring your cheekbones and also just adding some colour all over the face.

This year I actually only found a few eye products that I actually really enjoyed. Firstly I've been loving Urban decay as a brand and I think their eye shadow palettes are amazing! I currently have Naked 2, Smoked and now the UD Vice palette that I got for Christmas and love. I think they have some of the best and most pigmented eye shadow shades and I love them all and get so much use out of them, hopefully they have more lovely palettes to release in 2013.
My favourite eyeliner of the year would have to be L'Oreal's super liners simply because they are so easy to use and don't dry out really quickly, they just give a really professional line and also are so easy to use. I also loved L'Oreal's telescopic mascara this year and would say it was my fav drugstore mascara of the year, it has a plastic brush that grabs the lashes and really lengthens them and I find it does the job really quickly.
I've also featured 2 high end mascara's in my 2012 fav's, up until Christmas my fav high end mascara would be Benefit's 'They're Real' Mascara, I loved how it lengthened my lashes and help a curl in my straight lashes all day and I felt that it really performed for me. But my mum got me the Lancôme Star Mascara for Christmas and I personally think this beats this product hands down! The reason I like it so much is because the Lancôme mascara is of a much wetter consistency and I felt that the Benefit Mascara dried out very quickly and therefore was much harder to work with, especially as it was a dry formula mascara in the first place. Other than that they basically did the same thing but because I've only been using the Lancôme one for just over a week I thought it was only fair to give a shout out to Benefit as well.
The last eye product that I've been loving throughout this year would be the Maybelline colour tattoo's, I've spoken about these a lot on my blog as well but I think these are just great eye bases and also work well all over the lid for everyday, they're such great products and are meant to be great dupes for the Mac Paint pots.

The last products I want to talk about in my 2012 favourites is lip products, I have found two sets of lipsticks that have really impressed me this year and these are such great lipsticks that I am hoping to purchase more within 2013.
Firstly from the drugstore I love the Rimmel Kate Moss Lipsticks, these have a fantastic formula, are lovely and creamy on the lips and best of all are developed by a true British icon, I find that the shade selection in these lipsticks are great because they're all colours I don't see all the time and I've really been enjoying trying them out so fingers crossed for more being developed in the future.
Secondly this year I finally decided to try Mac Lipsticks, before this I always felt that they were crazily expensive and I couldn't really justify the price because I'm not a massive lipstick wearer, but since I've had these two lipsticks in Angel and Outrageously Fun, I've been wearing lipsticks every single day. These are the creamiest lipsticks I've ever felt and they also smell and wear amazing, I will definitely be expanding my mac lipstick collection in 2013.

Some random products I've been loving this year are Aussie hair care products in particular the 3 minute miracle conditioner, nearly all of the Soap and Glory body care products, all of the Real Techniques Brushes and also my favourite perfume of the year Viva La Juicy by Juicy Couture.

Sorry for the humongous post guys, if you're still reading then thank you & let me know what your favourites of 2012 were!

♥

Face of the day!

Hi lovely ladies :)

Back again today, I must admit I do love this blogging business! it ain't half a lot of fun, and I finally have a hobbie woohoo! Anyway, I was trying to work out what kind of post I wanted to do today and I decided on a face of the day post. I chose to do this because I absolute love look at everyone else's and it's one of my fav blog posts to read! Probably because I'm a huge nosey parker and like to see how makeup actually looks on the face ! Anyway this isn't going to be very interesting, I simply thought I'd start of by showing you my everyday day to day face so that you can get to see the products I use before I branch out and show you some more creative looks, so this is just a simple day time makeup look with a neutral golden smokey eye which I love! also sorry about the crap quality on my photos, defo need to invest in a better quality camera now I'm taking this blogging business a bit more seriously but for now this will have to do!

Anyway, if you have any questions about how I created this look just leave your comments below and i'll try and get back to you as soon as possible, but i've shown all of the items i've used in the list below as well! Also I would like to take this opportunity to mention that I think anybody who puts these kind of posts up are actually very brave, its taken me about 5 days to even have the courage to upload these pictures haha! Anyway, thank you for reading!

 

Products Used:

Face

Foundation - Mac Studio Fix Foundation - NC20 (Too dark for me!)
MUA pressed powder - literally amazing powder and only £1.00, go and get this!

Soap and Glory - Love at First Blush Blusher

Bourjois Bronzing Powder

Eyes

MUA Glittery eyes pallette (Golden and Brown Shades used)

Elf Liquid Eyeliner in Black

Benefit they're real mascara

Lips:

MUA Sugar Lips, Lip Balm

Hope you enjoyed this post,

Lots of Love

Gem xxxx