Day 6. Six Favorite Makeup Brands

Barry M: 
Love their nail varnish!  Loads of great colours.

Nars:
Very expensive but they have gorgeous blushers and eyeshadows.

Urban Decay:
Most of their products are really good, wide range of eyeshadow colours.  Amazing primer obviously!
 
Lush:
Not make up as such but they do count themselves as selling cosmetics.  I love their soap and also especially Dorothy bubble bar, mmmm!

E.L.F:
With a price range of about £1.50 to £3.50 they have such a huge selection of products.  Some aren't so good but some are sooo good for the money.
 
Boots own brands:
This is just my go-to brand for make up remover wipes, hair dye... just anything I'm not sure where to get it from I know I can trust them for being cruelty-free.  They have lots of other brands so have so many things to choose from and of course you earn boots points, which you can use to spend with later!

This is a very boring pictureless post so here is a photo of my cat Theo :)

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Day 5. Five Favorite Makeup Brushes

I found this one quite hard because there are a lot of brushes I like!  I decided to go for five brushes which have quite different uses like eyeshadow, blusher etc... you'll see!  They probably look a bit funny in the photo as I had just washed them!

From left to right:

E.L.F. Eyeshadow brush:  This is so good for just applying eyeshadow on the lid and it is only £1.50!  What a bargain!  I've got a couple of these.  I'd like to try their Studio equivalent of this, the c brush.

Mac 217:  Best brush I've used for applying and blending eyeshadow into the crease.  I would really like another one of these but they are made using goat hair and I am only buying synthetic brushes now - also it's by Mac who I've stopped buying from!  However Sam from Pixiwoo tweeted me (I was so excited by this!) saying that her Real Techniques Base Shadow brush is very similar, so I am going to get the set which includes this when I have got enough Boots points!

Real Techniques Buffing brush:  I use this for powder but it can also be used for foundation and I find it good for wiping away any fallout from under my eyes.

Real Techniques Contour brush:  This one is what I've been using for blusher recently.  It is nice and precise!

Real Techniques Stippling brush: Love this one for liquid foundation!  It is also good for blusher too.

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Day 4. Four Makeup Products You Can’t Live Without

Bourjois Volume Fast & Perfect:

I've mentioned it before in Day 1, so I'll just say again, I use this every day and I love it!

E.L.F. Eyebrow Kit:

Any eyebrow product really because I got chicken pox a few years ago and being a teenager I was completely aware and just scratched them all... So now I am covered in scars!  I have one in my eyebrow so there is a hole and I always need to fill it in.  For everyday I just tend to use a pencil (mentioned in day 2) but as I don't like that one, for nights out etc. I use the E.L.F. eyebrow kit which is a pigmented cream and a powder.

Oilatum Natural Repair:

This was recommended by the pixiwoo girls and everyone went crazy trying to get their hands on some!  It is sold in Boots and it was sold out for ages but now it has settled down and is quite easy to get hold of!  It's a really nice moisturiser but because I have combination skin verging on oily, I don't use it every day - I have my Vitazing for that at the moment - I mostly use it if I'm giving myself a facial or after a shower before an important day/night make up wise!  Unfortunately I don't know if this is cruelty free or not, since it is a less common brand it is harder to find out about.  I'll try to find out before I repurchase and will post the results on here!

Mac Studio Finish Concealer:

I'm very lucky in that I don't get too many spots, but I really need concealer for under my eyes, I have such dark circles!  I've been using this one - Studio Finish in NW20 - for a while now and it is quite good.  I wasn't going to repurchase it, but now I can't because of Estée Lauder testing on animals anyway!  Not sure what one to get next, maybe Nars?  Any recommendations are welcome!

P.S. I had to use my top in the background of the last 3 photos because I was in my room and I usually just do it against my duvet but my cat sleeps on my bed and it was soooo hairy and disgusting that I just couldn't do it... haha!  But I think it looks quite good actually!

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MUA Nail Varnish in Shade 23

So here is the nail varnish I mentioned in my recent haul post.  I am very impressed with it I have to say, the colour is really nice and it was almost opaque in one coat.  Please note my ring finger nail went a bit wrong, I applied a shimmery top coat, then Seche Vite, but I didn't leave it long enough to dry and then I rubbed it...

Unfortunately I can't comment on how long-lasting the nail varnish is because my nails don't take it very well and they always chip within about 2/3 days, no matter what brand or what top coat I use.  It's very irritating!

Overall I would definitely recommend this, especially as it's £1!!!  I've never tried any of the other ones but I've found that cream ones tend to have better coverage than pearls or shimmers so I did consciously avoid them.  It would be interesting to try them.  But as Superdrug are still on my Naughty List I won't be able to try any more for the time being!

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Day 3. Three Makeup Products You Wish You Had

Sugarpill eyeshadow in Buttercupcake:

I have the purple colour from Sugarpill called Poison Plum and I really like it.  Honestly it wasn't as good as I expected, I thought it was completely matte (This one claims to be but I'll need to look up swatches!) and it felt more rough to the touch.  However,  other than this it is a really good colour and nice pigment, so I would like this bright yellow one, it's just so eye-catching!  Photo from Sugarpill online no copyright infringement intended.  Cost $12 or £7.99 from here if you are in UK.

Sin blusher by Nars:
Unfortunately I can't find a photo of this without stealing someone else's so if you don't know what colour this is then just google it!  It is quite similar to E.L.F's Berry Merry which I own but you know that way I just feel like I need Sin just to compare the two even though it is £20.50 and Berry Merry is £3... It's just a bit of an obsession!

Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation in Shade 2:
Again I do not have a photo of this, I'm not even sure what it looks like to be honest...  I saw this being used in the Pixiwoos videos quite often and I really want to try it.  However I am trying to cut out using products which have animal products in them (not vegan as such, more vegetarian make up!) and I have emailed Illamasqua twice, tweeted them twice, I then told them this via Twitter and they asked what I was wanting to find out.  I asked them again if the foundation is vegetarian, they didn't reply, I sent my request again and they said they would look into without actually getting back to me... I asked if they had found out a while later again to no response.  So needless to say they are not in my good books!  I think I am going to phone them then they can't escape, mwahaha!  Cost £25.

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Day 2. Two Makeup Products You Would Not Recommend

NYX Glitter Cream Palette:

My auntie brought me this palette back from when they went to Florida. I've just never been able to find a use for it, there is no way to stop it creasing because of the formula, even if you apply it over an eyeshadow or base, it just melts that eyeshadow and makes it crease too! Also although there looks like there is a lot of glitter in them, some of them are quite sparse when applied. I'm not sure why I'm keeping them, they are just so sparkly I don't want to bin them! Maybe one day I will find a use for them!

No. 7 Eyebrow Pencil:

I bought this after my Une pencil ran out as my friend had got it and said it was quite good. However the actual product in it is quite hard (it actually hurts my head 'cos I need to press it so hard to apply it!) and instead of being 'blonde' as it says, it is more of a gingery colour instead of being ashy as you would expect. I am going to try and use it up, grudgingly! One thing I do like about it is the wee brush on the end! Cost £8.


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Primark Print Skirt

My blog is not going to be focused on fashion because I don't consider myself to be particularly stylish, especially on a daily basis!  I will probably do a few 'Outfit of the Day/Night's if I am dressed up for nights out or anything I think is quite nice.  I thought since I mentioned this in my recent I'd put an outfit together which I'd had in my head (these things don't usually work out well for me!).  They are both similar but just to show the different shirts.

Shirt: Primark £10

Skirt: Primark £4

Blazer: New Look £25

Skirt and Blazer as before.

Blouse: New Look £18

I prefer the first one but originally I wanted to wear this for going to a club and I thought the sleeves would make me really warm, so I tried it with a sleeveless one too.  Now you can see my love for the colour orange...  

 

I didn't even end up wearing this and wore a red lacy dress from New Look instead - if I find any pictures I will post them but I don't think there was many taken!  My friend even did my hair really nicely and I don't have any evidence of it before it deflated, gutted!

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Day 1. One Makeup Product You Use Everyday

Origins Vitazing Moisturizer:

I love this and I use it in the morning once I have rinsed my face, then I go and have breakfast, come back and apply my make up.  It comes out of the tube a creamy white colour and has tiny dark specks in it.  When you rub it into your skin it activates the pigments and they seem to adjust to your skintone giving a warm, healthy glow.  Cost £26.

Unfortunately, due to Estée Lauder resuming tests on animals, I will no longer be purchasing from Origins which means no more Vitazing Moisturizer, sad face!

Because I can no longer regard this as cruelty-free product I will include one which is, Bourjois Volume Fast & Perfect Mascara:

This is my second tube of it and I really like it.  I have always struggled with finding a good mascara but this one has definitely been my favourite one so far.  The wand rotates and you can select which way you want it to go too which is useful!  The rotation makes it much faster to coat the lashes and also by holding it against the tips it creates good length.  Cost £11.99.

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