AUTUMN BLUSHERS

I'm drifting away from bright summer blushers and adding warmer, richer autumnal tones into my make up routine. I'm really missing a subtle plum blusher from my collection, I would love any suggestions for pretty plum shades please!

MAC Warm Soul - When you need to add a warm glow to dull skin on a gloomy day, this blusher really delivers. It is a pretty, beige pink blusher with golden shimmer running through it. It really brightens and adds a glow to your skin.

Bourjois Healthy Mix - This orange toned blusher can be built up to a slightly burnt orange colour that really warms the complexion and looks pretty autumnal. It works really well with MAC woodwinked on the eyes and Topshop infrared lipstick dabbed lightly on the lips. You can see it swatched and worn here.

Nars Orgasm - Although this golden peachy pink blusher is also well suited for the summer months, It shows up as a pigmented, deep warm pink on my skin tone. I love wearing this to give me a flush of colour to my cheeks and have been wearing it together with the sleek storm palette in this autumn make up look.

Sleek Suede - The perfect blush to wear with a strong autumnal berry lip. This matte blush is a neutral peach brown that is similar to MAC gingerly. It works well with strong lips or eyes as it sculpts the face and brings warmth and colour whilst staying neutral.

Benefit Benetint - For a natural, wind bitten flush of colour to your cheeks Benefit Benetint is great for autumn and winter. It gives a subtle but buildable rosy glow to your cheeks. You have to work quite quickly with this to blend it in with your fingers in an upwards circular motion, I follow just under my cheekbones to get the right place for me.

What are your favourite autumn blushers?

AUTUMN MAKE UP

I've been wearing this look along with last year's copper eyes & red lips look a lot throughout September so far. I've also dyed my hair a bit darker this year and I'm so tempted to add a hint of plum through the ends!

For this autumnal make up look I used two colours from the Sleek storm palette that actually remind me of the infamous and now discontinued Estee Lauder Raisins. I applied MAC bare study as an eyeshadow base before sweeping the light pink colour from the storm palette all over my lids. I then blended the deep cranberry colour into the outer corner of my eye and up into the crease. I also ran it under my lower lash line for definition. For my brows I used Rimmel professional eyebrow pencil in dark brown and lined my eyes with a small flick using collection fast stroke liner.

For my base, I used Bourjois healthy mix foundation as it gives a nice dewy finish and is buildable to a medium coverage. I applied the bobbi brown corrector in bisque under my eyes to counteract any dark circles and swept Nars Orgasm blusher onto my cheeks to give me a flush of colour. I dabbed a bit of Topshop glow highlighter in polish to the tops of my cheeks and under my brow bone and finished with a touch of MAC Brave lipstick on my lips.

What make up have you been wearing this autumn?

Februarys 'Orange' Favourites

After January's Pink Favourites I thought I would continue the theme and make this month my 'Orange' Favourites! It seems that I get drawn to a colour each month, In January it was pretty dreary and rainy and so I was drawn to bright pinks and throughout February I've been excited for spring and have been drawn to oranges!

Balance me wonder eye cream - After using up two samples of this from a glossybox and a magazine I got full size 15ml for £20. I love this eye cream, I use it in the morning as it really brightens and hydrates under my eyes and with continued use has helped reduce my dark circles. It has great ingredients such as chamomile, brightening lemon, cucumber, coconut and rose hip oils and hyaluronic acid.

Bourjois Healthy mix Blusher in 41 - Swatched here This is supposedly a dupe for Chanel Reflux blush, its such a pretty coral orange shade that is perfect for Spring and really makes the skin look glowing!

Revlon Lip butter in Tutti Fruitti - The perfect subtle orange lip it is quite sheer and pretty rather than being a bold orange. I love the texture of these and how easy they are to apply, I always seem to pop a Revlon lip butter in my bag and this month it's been Tutti Frutti!

Real Techniques Powder Brush - Real techniques are my favourite brushes and this powder brush is amazing, it is so soft and huge! It creates a smooth, even finish and is perfect for quick bronzing or powdering.

Ciate Nail Varnish in Hopscotch - This is a bright orange, fun nail varnish perfect for Spring and summer.

Hugo Boss Orange - I found this perfume whilst having a clear out and I had forgotten how much I love this smell, it takes me back to happy summers spent driving around with friends giggling and listening to music with the roof down. For me it's a real 'free spirit' scent with orange blossom, vanilla, apple and sandalwood notes.

Olive Green and gold smokey eye

I've always wanted MAC's sumptuous olive but after reading that the natural collection from boots have a good dupe for only £1.79, I picked it up straight away and tested it out. Natural collection Moss Shimmer is a lovely golden olive colour, I don't have sumptuous olive to compare them but they certainly look similar from swatches I've seen online.

This looks great swept all over and under the eye with a gold (I used Half baked from the Naked 1 palette) blended into the inner corner of the eye. I wore this with liquid liner and then kept the blush and lips quite subtle with pale pinks. 

I took over 100 photos of this look and wasn't happy with how any of them turned out so sorry the photos above aren't great! If you have a chance I would definitely suggest swatching shimmering moss as it is such a lovely colour.

Products used -

Eyes - Natural collection Moss Shimmer and Urban Decay Naked 1 Halfbaked with Smog 
          slightly blended into the crease for definition.
         - Collection Fast stroke liquid liner

Face - Rimmel Match perfection foundation 
        - Rimmel wake me up concealer
        - Bourjois Delice de Soleil Bronzer to contour
        - Bourjois Blush 37 Rose Pompon
        - Illamasqua Gleam Highlighter in Aurora

Lips - MAC Creme Cup
        - Revlon Crystal Lilac lip gloss

Autumn Make up

I've been wearing this look all throughout September and October and only now am I finally starting to change up my make up! As Halloween, Bonfire night and my Birthday have now all passed, I'm getting pretty excited for Christmas! As I've loved wearing this Make up so much I thought I would share what I've been loving and constantly wearing.

Face - Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation

        - Collection Lasting perfection concealer

        - Sleek Blush in Pixie Pink

        - Mac Soft & Gentle Highlighter

Eyes - Eyeshadow - MAC Naked lunch all over eye, Mac Satin Taupe in crease and Mac Nocturnelle blended under the eye.

        - Loreal Superliner in Black Vinyl

        - Fashionista white eyeliner

        - Revlon Lash Potion Mascara

Lips - Maybelline Babylips in Cherry Me

Nails - My Halloween nails

Autumn Copper and Red Make up

I'm so excited, Autumn is finally here! Theres nothing I love more than a crisp autumn day, crunchy autumn leaves and cosying up with a good book and hot chocolate! I've been burning my vanilla chai and salted caramel yankee candles and wearing fluffy socks and I love it!

Products used:

Face -
MAC Pro longwear Foundation NC30
Collection lasting perfection concealer
Rimmel Stay Matte Powder
Bourjois Bronzer
Mac Ladyblush
MAC Soft & Gentle highlighter

Eyes -
MAC Naked Lunch, Mac Quarry
L'oreal Superliner in Black Vinyl
Clinique Superfine liner for brows in dark brown
Mac Melon pigment and 17 Enraged Trio copper colour for lower lash line


Lips -

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain - Crush

Summer Blushers

L- R Bourjois Healthy Mix - Sleek Pixie Pink - Sleek Rose Gold - Mac Well Dressed

These are my current go to blushers. I think all of them are very pretty, well pigmented and easy to blend!

Bourjois Healthy Mix blusher 41 - You can see what this looks like on my skin here. This is a lovely coral orange blush which gives a healthy natural glow.

Sleek Pixie Pink - I love this bright pink blusher, it gives a lovely flush of colour to the cheeks and is very pretty and girly.

Sleek Rose Gold blush - This is my favourite ever blusher. It is a gorgeous golden peach coral which has a warm golden shimmer which reflects light as you move. You can see me wearing it here.

Mac Well Dressed - This is a pretty pale soft pink, it's quite cool toned and I normally wear this in the winter but I think its perfect for these rainy summer days!

What is your favourite blusher?

Bourjois New Healthy Mix

I had mixed feelings when I heard that Bourjois were reformulating their Healthy mix foundation, it was already my favourite foundation for glowy, soft skin the way it was, but then on the other there were a couple of downsides to the original formula - it didn't last all day and it was very heavily scented which sometimes caused me breakouts. I was excited to see what Bourjois would change.

I bought bourjois healthy mix foundation in the shade 54 which is the shade I wear in the winter, as it's summer soon I would have rather bought shade 55 but they didn't seem to stock it in my local boots. 
I hate to say it but I preferred the original formula. I'm so glad I ended up with shade 54 as although its light in the tube, It seems to oxidise on me and become darker on my skin. It also doesn't sink as well into my skin or feel as moisturising. I applied it first with my real techniques stippling brush and then the next day with my real techniques expert face brush which seemed to work better. Don't get me wrong, its still a lovely foundation but personally, I preferred the original. 

I also bought the bourjois healthy mix blush after seeing it on Sandra's Blog as its a really good dupe for a lovely Chanel blush, I don't own a coral orange blush and I think this will look so pretty in the summer.

I've now bought so many new hyped highstreet foundations (Revlon nearly naked, the New Bourjois healthy mix, Rimmel True match foundation) which are all pretty good, but to be honest I'm wishing I saved my money and tried Nars Sheer Glow or YSL Touch Eclat Foundation which I've got a feeling that I will love!

Lesson learned I think, these all will be great for the summer and I will use them up but I think the next foundation I buy, will be from Nars or YSL.

Halloween Black Cat nails

I love this simple black cat nail design, It's easy to do and looks cute on the nails! For Halloween I'll be wearing black sparkly nail varnish on my nails and then have this little cat design as an accent nail!

This is how I achieved the look:

Step 1 -  Paint the whole nail black and wait to dry, I used 3 coats of 17 Nail Varnish in Nightshade.

Step 2 -  Using a cuticle stick, paint a pink triangle on the nail using the middle as a

             guide for the top of the Triangle, but make sure you leave enough room for the  

             eyes! For this I used Bourjois 26.

Step 3 - Again using a cuticle stick draw on the eyes, to do this I made a circle shape and 

            then dragged the stick up to create a 'cat eye' effect. I used 17 Nail Varnish in  

            Sherbet Lemon

Step 4 - Whiskers! I used the thin metal pen end of the models own nail art pen. This has a brush and a pen, I found the brush too difficult to use but the pen was so easy to draw on the nail.

Step 5 - Once the eyes are dry, use a cuticle stick to draw on the pupils. I used 17 Nail Varnish in Nightshade but a Green Nail varnish would also work really well!

Let me know if you try these!