Hello June!

                              

                                                 Happy June Lovelies

Can you believe it's June already??? It's was literally the 1st of May two minutes ago! 

I always find June to be such a fresh month full of events, things to do - I'm not biased because it's my birthday but it does make things much more exciting. I love going all out for my birthday celebrations. 

I will post an updated party planning blog and let you know what I've been up to (5 days to go eek!!!!) 

This month will be all about makeup that you can wear in warm weather because there is nothing worse than wearing makeup that makes your face feel cakey due to the heat or in some cases does not stay and literally melts off; summer nail polish colours; summer beauty and fashion inspo. 

Some of my favourite things about June:

- The evenings are longer

- The weather (hopefully) warms up but in fairness we're quite lucky as Ireland has got a beautiful, roaster of a summer the last few years.

- Festival fashion rolls around

- Summer fashion inspo starts coming into shops

- Late nights in the sun making memories 

- Random trips 

- I love changing my Skincare routine and discovering new products as summer can dry my skin out a little bit - so I need to look after it more so but I love that. 

- Skin and hair get lighter - I feel like my skin gets a healthy glow to it when I'm out and about in the heat but protecting it is key. 

- I always experiment with recipes and drinks during summer as I have more time.

                         

June is so special to me - for several reasons. So its definitely a month to be celebrated.

                              

Enjoy June, make memories, laugh a lot, stay out late, relax on the beach, put your hair down and all the cheesy sayings that have to be done hehe.

Until next time beauties,

A x

Contour and Highlight

Hey lovelies,

I hope everyone's January isn't going too bad. It really is one of those months that drags on isn't it? All the major festivities and partying has died down and its back to 'reality' with work, college or school. But its not all bad as new spring fashion comes out and there is always new makeup to be found and in my case reviewed!

Anyway today I'm going to talk about one of my favourite makeup steps: Contour and Highlight. This make up step really took off not so long ago and there has been a lot of enthusiasm about it. It is a case of hollowing out your cheekbones (while sucking your cheeks in making a duck face) and building on your own cheek bones, around the top of the forehead, down the nose (makes it look more narrow) and down along the jaw line for a more subtle defined look along with highlighting your features such as the top of the browbone, top of cheekbones, forehead, chin,nose, above the centre of the lip lip all to make your face look more oval and longer. It is a case of enhancing your own features but definition and brightness. 

I'm very excited to write this blog. I remember it was sometime in 2013 and the gorgeous beauty blogger Suzanne Jackson aka SoSueMe had a blog post about the sleek contour palette Here and then she brought out this Youtube video all about contouring. I was so excited to try it immediately and I wanted to find products similar to the ones she used.

So back in September 2013 I purchased the seventeen instant glow contour cream and the Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer as I thought they were a good combination to try out.

I remember googling what products to use to get some ideas and at the time American brands came up that I didn't have easy access to so these two products were perfect for me.
I used it the whole time. I love the colour of the seventeen cream bronzer as you can make it subtle or build it up for a night out. It completely changed the way my makeup looked. I also love the Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer and find that the two of the them compliment each other perfectly. I have only good things to say about this Rimmel product, it is the most amazing concealer/hightlighter. 

After I would set my whole face with translucent powder to keep it in place. Sometimes I would you C&H powders over my creams for a more defined contour look. 

A little tip, you can achieve Contour and Hightlight easily by either getting a powder two tones darker than your own one, like this MAC mineralize powder.

Or you can even a foundation that is two tones darker for the contour and two tones lighter for highlight.

FAVOURITE CONTOUR AND HIGHLIGHT PRODUCTS

The Laura Geller Highlighter & Blush - Spice Chai/Fr.Vanilla. This is absolutely beautiful combination and it has amazing pigmentation. This Laura Geller brush is one of my favourite brushes to use for contouring, it is fab and you can easily hollow out the cheek bones. 

  

The MAC pro longwear concealer - though it is quite a heavy concealer so I would only use this if I was going to an event early in the day and needed all day coverage like a Wedding or a Ball. It has quite a heavy texture to it so I wouldn't use it as an everyday concealer - but other than that it is perfect for highlighting if you need something to last. 

I use this sleek palette everyday. Its gorgeous for a subtle warmth and brightness to the face. It can be used as an everyday C&H but you can also build it up at night for a deeper look.

In this picture, I was at a Wedding during the summer

and I used a mixture of the Seventeen cream bronzer and Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer/highlighter, but I also put the Sleek palette on over everything at the end

This is a little blurry but I used the Laura Geller highlighter, the sleek bronzer and blush. I love mixing things up and using different C&H

BRUSHES

Personally the brushes I would use mostly commonly for contouring and highlighting would be the Laura Geller angled brush 

and the Real Techniques Expert Face brush. I found the Real Techniques blush brush fab for highlighting and blush

as the tip is flexible so it can narrowly put product on or spread it out.

I would also like to say that any of these brushes here would be absolutely perfect for C&H :

Any Angled, Tapered or Flat top brush that can easily hollow out the cheek bones.

Here are some extra brushes as a guide:

I hope my Contour and Highlighting guide has helped with tips and you can take away something from it. I remember one of my friends asking me to contour her face and she said "the contouring trend came out of nowhere and it's something I'm terrified to even try it". It is something different that has only become very well known and big the last few years but there are so many brushes and products out there these days which is very handy as you're always bound to find it someway and on any budget.

I really enjoyed writing this blog post as its my absolutely favourite step in makeup.

All the products mentioned in this blog post can be purchased from:

http://www.cloud10beauty.com/

http://www.feelunique.com/

http://www.qvcuk.com/

http://www.laurageller.com/

http://www.crownbrush.ie/

http://www.boots.ie/

http://www.sleekmakeup.com/

Until next time beauties,

A x

Haul Time!

Hey fab beauties,

So I've decided to do my first haul as I picked up a variety of things yesterday when I was out shopping from; Penneys/Primark; Brown Thomas; Marks and Spencers.

 

I was in around Brown Thomas, Cork yesterday and I spotted the MAC counter. I need a new highlighter/concealer, I was all for heading over to Boots to pick up my favourite concealer - Rimmel 'Wake Me Up'.

E6.99

I have been watching a couple of youtubers lately and a lot of them seem to use MAC concealer so I said I'd pick it up and I will give it ago and do a review on it as soon as possible. I also picked up MAC's Studio Sculpt. The Concealer is E21.50 and the Foundation is around E31.50. MAC is not my everyday, go to product as I can only buy them every so often because it can be expensive for a student so MAC is definitely a huge treat to get and it lasts absolutely ages.

 

I used the foundation a few years ago when I was experimenting with make up so I'm going to give it another try (I feel like the concealer and foundation needed to be matched up, thats my excuse hehe).

So the next items I picked up were from Marks and Spencers, their own brand of make up called the 'Limited Collection'. They come in at about E6-7 each.

I loved the packaging straight away, very eye catching. I got the matte bronzer, in the shade light and the blusher, in the shade apricot.

The matte bronzer is perfect for autumn. I prefer matte to sparkle. So I'll have a review about these cute things soon.

The next spot I headed to was of course, Penneys/Primark. I picked up a few bits unrelated to beauty here.

 

I picked up a cute, colourful laundry bag. Its just so pretty.
I also picked up Nivea wipes 2 for a strange E4.46, theyre for dry/sensitive skin. I use wipes on my face before I cleanse in the morning and at night. I also got some little slippers E1.50

 

Also I got a travel bag for E15, that can be turned in a suitcase and the pattern is fab.

I also bought such a cute macaroon lipgloss E1.50

 

A random little thing but it was so pretty and smells so sweet.

 

I can't wait to review my bits and pieces for you fab things. Happy Haul! 

Until next time beauties,

A x

Go To Products

Hi guys and dolls,

So over the next few blogs I will be reviewing a fast range of products. I want to show you some more of my go to products that I've been using over the last few months.

In the photo, you can see; 

• W7 In the Buff and In the Nude Eyeshadow Palettes
• W7 Souffle Mascara
• Naked 3 Palette
• Vaseline - Spray and Go
• Cocoa Brown 1hour Tan
• Cocoa Brown Gentle Bronze
• Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs Lotion
• Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs Spray
• Sleek MakeUp Contour and Blush Palette
• Vita Liberata Tan Mousse
• Shiseido Refining Moisturiser

All these products have been tried and tested for months. I can't wait to tell you about each one and show you make up looks that go along with some of the products.

Until next time beauties,

A x