Clinique's Autumn Beauty Picks

Like all bloggers and females of the Internet, I love Autumn and Winter; despite the fact it gets ridiculously cold and I have to wrap up in about 30 layers I have the chance to wear cute clothes and dark make up (and lots of it), I can decorate my house with fairy lights and festive decorations, and I am just a general lover of all things Christmas - I've already even bought some decorations. One thing not to be loved is the affect the cold weather has on my skin, I generally have slightly dehydrated normal skin throughout the year, but come winter and my nose and cheeks become flakey and dry and my makeup struggles to sit as well as it does through the warmer months, so I have to start paying a bit more attention to my skin.

The Urban Decay Primer Duo That's Awesome

Urban Decay are a brand that I think have killed it the past couple of years, they set the trends and know what makeup needs people are craving before we know ourselves. I don't think a day goes by where I don't use at least one item of makeup from them, and just yesterday I've ordered more from them.

L'Oreal Haul and Reviews

On a maybe not so recent trip to Boots - I'd probably say 10 weeks ago - I noticed L'Oreal Paris were on a 3 for 2 offer, now with me needing a new eyeliner and having wanted to try their new foundation for a couple of months now, I felt it was the perfect time to take advantage of the offer, whilst getting myself a little freebie!

The Eye Cream You Have To Try

Eye creams to me have always been a product I forget to apply, I seem to buy a couple then find them practically untouched 6 months later. I'm only 20 years of age so I don't yet have wrinkles and I've never really suffered with dark circles - other than on a Monday morning. However I recently developed quite a dry under eye area, I woke up one morning with a random red mark under my eye that just became drier and drier; it was starting to cause my concealer to sit quite badly under my eyes, so I knew I had to try something.

Review | W7 Sculpturing Face Brush

Review | Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir Bath Oil

If you saw my last post you'll know that I was challenged by House of Fraser to create the ultimate Mother's Day gift guide, there were some great picks in there for every budget and for different mums, depending on whether she's a beauty lover or more of a candle fiend. One of the products was the Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir Bath Oil*, a product and brand name which just instantly makes you think luxury and maybe a little expensive.

The One Sweep Wonders

When it comes to eyeshadow a lot of the time I find it impossible to just leave it at one shade on the lid, I always feel like it needs the extra crease definition or just deepening up on the outer corners, it's probably down to having that many eyeshadows that I just want to play with them all in the morning. But in the past couple of months I've been putting the blending brush down and realising that some eyeshadows can work wonders just swept over the lid on their own, meaning they're the perfect shades for when you hit the snooze button one too many times leaving you 10 minutes to get ready.

The Urban Decay Naked Palette is 100% my favourite palette, it's my go to palette for every occasion because I just know it's never going to fail me, whether I want a girly daytime look or a deeper smokier look. If I'm in a serious rush my favourite from the palette to reach for is Toasted, a gorgeous warm bronze toned pink with an almost metallic finish. It's the most amazing shade on the eyes, it blends out beautifully and is an amazing colour for the winter months. It's my most used shade with a serious dent in it, I can feel the pan getting worryingly closer every time I use it.

An amazing alternative to Toasted, just slightly less warm toned and a bit more silver, is the L'Oreal Color Riche in 201 Cafe Saint Germain. The product looks a bit bruised and battered because the eyeshadow is essentially a pressed pigment, so after getting it home when I bought it the shadow had completely smashed in the bag. Partly my fault, but on closer inspection I think it was partly the manufacturers fault. However, this wasn't going to stop me trying it, so I pressed it back in to the compact and have been reaching for it a lot recently. It has an amazing wet look about it, and even has a wet but creamy feel to it on the fingers. It isn't the easiest shadow to blend out because of it's texture, but the colour is simply gorgeous.

I imagine by the end of February people will be bored out of their brains hearing me talk about this one, but it really is that good! The Bourjois Colorband in 04 Rose Fauviste is a golden beigey pink, after doing some online searches it's very MAC All That Glitter's esque. I mentioned this in my Everyday Makeup post, so I won't go on too much. But it's just an amazing cream eyeshadow stick,all it requires is a few swipes across the eye, a quick bit of blending with your finger and it sets like paint, this seriously isn't budging for anyone!

The next two I'm going to speak of in a more broad term, because they were both limited edition shades that I got in Christmas sets last year. The pink glittery shade is from Soap and Glory, and I have an inkling that you can get it in their Off The Wallflowers palette, but this style of shade is one which I feel everyone needs, it's a frosty pink with glitter running all through it, similar to MAC's Naked Lunch. The next is a simple champagne shade, this one is from No7 but I have no idea what shade it is, but not only are these shades great for your base, but they work perfect for just swiping over the lids to cancel out any redness or veins on the lids. Both of these style of shades are perfect for if you're just starting out with makeup, because they're so simple and easy to pull of.

What are your favourite 'one sweep wonders'?

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Review | Real Techniques Duo Fibre Brush Set

Real Techniques Duo Fibre Brush Set

With the release of the new Bold Metals collection it's easy for a lot of the Real Techniques brushes to fall of the radar and be forgotten about, so after finding these pictures on my laptop I thought I'd give them some of the recognition they deserve.

Double Your Lips In Seconds | Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk

Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk - £16

You know those products that on first use just make you think "YES, YES, YES!"? This was one of those products. After seeing Amelia Liana talk about it so much I felt like I needed to try it, especially when she said Rimmel's Eastend Snob is a dupe for it because I love that lipliner, knowing I would never pay £16 myself for a lipliner I knew this had to be on my Christmas list.

One of the first things I noticed was that the formulation is slightly drying and the pencil does have a tendency to drag along the lips, the liner basically feels like it's stuck to the lips which does seem to help give it some longevity. I find putting a lip balm on when I first start applying my makeup helps it out and does make it apply and feel more comfortable. Using the lip balm also means the liner doesn't highlight any lines, creases or dryness on the lips, because the formulation is quite drying it can have a tendency to do this.

The colour is a slightly brown, nude with a pinkish undertone to it. It's a typical "my lips but better" shade which means it blends seamlessly in to the lips and helps to enhance and double the size of the lips but still look natural - I apply it all over the lips and ever so slightly overdraw them helping the lips to look really plump and juicy. Full and plump lips are the biggest trend at the moment, but a lot of them I find can be too brown or too mauvey, I still love those shades, but if you're after something to look natural and still enhance, this is your best bet. It has become my go-to lip colour for when I'm in a rush because I know it will look great with any look or outfit, but will also last me the whole day. I find it lasts around 7 hours on the lips even after eating, I do like to top up the lip balm because the dry formula starts to become more obvious and uncomfortable as the day goes on.

I feel like this has caused me to get a bit of a Charlotte Tilbury/high end makeup bug. I barely buy high end makeup for two reasons: I find the stands a little too intimidating or busy and the price just puts me off, I always think for £15 I could get three lipsticks in Boots instead of one from MAC. But every time I try something high end I'm always impressed by it a lot more than I am with budget brands, whether I will ever have the courage to spend £40 on a palette from Charlotte Tilbury is another question. But if you're not as shy with your money as I am I really recommend this lipliner, it's a product I think will suit every skin tone and every look and I'm sure will impress everyone who uses it just as much as it did me.

Have you tried anything from Charlotte Tilbury?

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Review | Tanya Burr Lip Gloss in Afternoon Tea

To start, lip gloss is defiantly not my thing, I love a good bold matte lip all year round. I don't mind a satin finish and at most I can handle a coloured balm, but lip glosses are something I've never really got on with. I tried some from Maybelline in the summer that I quite liked, but wouldn't really say they changed my opinion of glosses in general.  I'm not trying not to like them, I almost want to, I imagine they would easier to handle when on the move, so when Tanya Burr released her lip gloss range months ago I was intrigued to see what they were like. They received rave reviews from everyone, people claiming they're comparable to Chanel lip glosses and other people saying they converted them to lip glosses.

Tanya Burr Lip Gloss - Afternoon Tea

Review | Cinders Bath Bomb

Cinders Bathbomb - £2.50

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Lush products; I love their face masks, their hair products, lip products and particularly anything I can use in the bath. I love having a bath all year round, but especially during the winter, it's just a really nice way to relax and warm up after being out in the cold, so I'm a massive fan of Lush's Christmas range, in particular their Cinders bath bomb.

A Kylie Jenner Lip for £1

Essence Lipliner - 06 Satin Mauve

Kylie Jenner seems to have blown up over this past year, no longer are people wanting to know how to get the bronzed look of her sister Kim, instead they're wanting to replicate Kylie's winged liner, fluttery lashes and overdrawn 90's nude lip. I'd even go as far to say that in the past year both the Jenner sisters seem to have become more of a hot topic than the Kardashian sisters. It all seems a bit crazy how much influence a 17 year old can have on women of all ages across the world!

I personally haven't really been too desperate to get that 'Kylie Jenner 90's lip', I think it's a nice colour but I wasn't up for paying £12.50 for MAC's Whirl just for it not to suit me, nor was I willing to go the effort to get that lipliner, it seems to be sold out everywhere that sells MAC. However, I was recently in Wilkinson's and noticed their new Essence stand, so naturally I had to take a look at what they had. I've heard a lot about Essence from American YouTubers, but when I was looking there wasn't really anything that caught my attention other than this lipliner, which I personally think is an amazing dupe for MAC's Whirl or Soar, but for only £1! The lipliner in question is Essence's 06 Satin Mauve. For £1 I wasn't expecting much in terms of quality but I have been completely been proved wrong.


















It's creamy and glides on the lips effortlessly, lasting pretty much all day - I put this on my lips around 12pm a few days ago and it was still on my lips at 7pm that night. It has a slight purple undertone to it which I think makes it perfect for the colder months when I find myself gravitating to more deeper tones. I find it suits any kind of look and is the perfect colour to quickly put on in the morning and then throw in your handbag because of how easy it is to apply. I personally have been loving wearing it with Benefit's Rockateur and Urban Decays Toasted with a wing liner, it looks like I've put a lot of effort in to my makeup when really it's taken me about 20 minutes. It's a great 'my lips but better shade' and is a perfect dupe for those wanting to replicate Kylie Jenner's 90's nude look.

I couldn't recommend this enough, for £1 it's amazing and I'm keen now to try some more of Essence's makeup, so if you've any recommendations let me know! I'm thinking some of their lipsticks or blushers maybe? If you've been wanting to try MAC's Whirl or Soar but you're having difficulty getting hold of them I'd check your local Wilkinson's for an Essence stand because for a fraction of the price I'm sure this will suffice!

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Review | Duo Striplash Adhesive

Duo Striplash Adhesive - White - £4.99

If you were to ask most of the girls you know what makeup task they find most difficult I'm pretty certain most of them would say applying false eyelashes - and possibly liquid liner. Which wouldn't surprise me, because for years I've longed to be able to wear false eyelashes but I've just never been able to actually get them on to my eyes. I've been unsure whether it was me, whether it was the eyelashes or whether it was the glue, and I've finally realised it's all in the glue when it comes to false lashes. I had suspected this because the eyelash glue you get with Primark lashes might as well just be water, it does nothing!

Review | Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge - £5.99

When it comes to foundation application the thought of using a sponge used to once disgust me. When I think of foundation sponges I just think of the multi packs you can buy in Poundland or dirty sponges girls in high school would keep in their makeup bag -  and those kind still do disgust me. However, in the past few years the beauty industry has seen the launch of several different foundation sponges, most notably the Beauty Blender. I've never tried the original but I've tried a cheap one off eBay and needless to say, it was rubbish! Around a year ago, Real Techniques, released their own version of the Beauty Blender and with mixed reviews across the board I've always been keen to try it, so on a recent trip to Boots I noticed they had their 3 for 2 offer on and picked one up to try.

Review | Urban Decay Naked Basics 2

Urban Decay Naked Basics 2 - £22.00

There's nothing quite like a new Naked palette to create hysteria in the beauty world is there? So when Urban Decay announced they were releasing a new Naked Basics palette, just like a lot of people, I was excited by it. I don't actually own the original because I thought the shades were a bit too warm and basic? Yes they're called Naked Basics, but the original shades just weren't unique or interesting enough for me to get use out of them. When I saw pictures of this version, I was interested and was keen to snap it up.

Review | No7 Stay Perfect Eyeshadow Duo in Iridescent Purple

Okay so last time I blogged I said I would try my best to keep at it. But it's just hard to get motivated at the moment, I feel like since being back at uni I'm tired 90% of the time. I keep coming up with ideas in my head for blog posts but just never get them started, but I'm hoping I can keep at it this time!

No7 Stay Perfect Eyeshadow Duo in Iridescent Purple - £8.50

I've got a review of the No7 duo, which is my favourite eyeshadow at the moment and has quickly become my favourite budget eyeshadow. I bought this duo about a month ago when I was on the hunt for the perfect Autumn/Winter eyeshadow, I knew I wanted something slightly pink and berry because I just love them colours on my eyes. I discovered this duo after searching for a dupe for Estee Lauder's Raisin's duo which was popular with Zoella and Tanya Burr last year, but it was around £23 and I couldn't part with that much money for two eyeshadows. I've spent the last year hoping to find it in a blog sale, but after buying this beauty from No7 my craving has been cured.

The duo comes with a warm toned pink shade which has a slight golden undertone to it, making it the perfect all over the eye colour whether it's worn on its own or with other shadows. The second colour is a deep aubergine colour which adds a perfect pop of colour to the eye when applied to the crease and outer corners of the eye. This is perfect for those of you who want some colour on the eyes but still want to stay fairly neutral. The eyeshadows are super creamy so they apply like a dream and have a lasting power with a primer of at least 8 hours, which is the longest I have found for any budget eyeshadow. In my opinion these shadows are comparable to Urban Decay eyeshadows -  some of the best on the market - but for a fraction of the price.

The only problem is that a light hand is needed when applying the purple shade, if too much is added it can cause you to look tired or like you have some eye infection, neither of which are a good look and once too much is applied there's no going back. However when it's done correctly it really can look stunning on the eyes!

I purchased this at the full price of £8.50 which I think it is completely worth! However all beauty products are currently 3 for 2 in Boots and there is always a No7 voucher hanging around, so you could get this for a real bargain if you work the deals. I really recommend this duo and will be looking to pick up some more colours soon, so even if purple isn't your thing I'd check the other colours out just for the great formulation!

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Review | Yes to Grapefruit Brightening Facial Wipes

Yes to Grapefruit Brightening Facial Wipes - £3.99 (currently £2.66)

I think it's fair to say I've abandoned this blog in the past few weeks, I was working more and moving back to university so I've not really had as much time as before, and honestly I've been a bit lazy. But I'm going to make an effort to stick to regular blogging like I started. However, enough of the excuses and on to the product. 

Face wipes are somewhat of a taboo in the beauty world, everyone almost looks down their noses at them and people have become afraid to give them a try. I'll admit, I'm one of those people and these are the first face wipes I've tried in about 2 years, but after seeing Lily Pebbles rave about them I thought I would give these a try. 

These wipes are designed to be used as a quick exfoliator for the skin, I'm not sure if this is in the ingredients or the slightly textured cloth, but they're recommended to only be used a few times a week rather than every day. I personally just use them as a quick way to remove makeup when I'm wearing a lot of it or if I'm feeling too tired for a two step cleansing routine, although I do still follow these with my Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish which helps to properly cleanse the pores and soothe the skin. 

After using them a few times I've decided these will defiantly be only for rare occasions. I find they leave a film over my skin giving it a slight tacky and itchy feeling, I also noticed my skin become very red after use and I needed to cleanse straight after to soothe the skin. Honestly, I wouldn't recommended these to anyone, whilst they have an average price point for face wipes there are some much cheaper ones on the market - especially for just removing make up - which I'm sure wouldn't leave your skin as red and inflamed as I found these did.

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Review | Rimmel Apocalips in Stellar and Apocaliptic

I think it's fair to say I'm late on the bandwagon with this one. The Rimmel Apocalips were released around 18 months ago and although I've been interested to try them, I've just always passed. I've never been a big fan of glossy lips and I'd read reviews that said they can smudge easily which always put me off. Although Rimmel are pretty much my go-to for drugstore lips so I don't really know why I didn't just trust them to create something amazing. However on a recent trip to Poundland I noticed they were selling three different shades and at £1 each I couldn't resist finally trying them and picked up these two shades.

The first shade I decided upon was Apocaliptic, which is a deep berry pink colour, so one perfect for the Autumn and Winter months. A typical 'me' shade, and one I think I'll be getting a lot of use out of in the next few months.

The second shade was Stellar, which is more of a coral toned pink, so defiantly more of a Summer shade. Coral toned colours aren't something which I tend to gravitate towards because I find they make my pale complexion even more washed out and have a tendency to make my teeth look slightly yellow, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway.

The consistency is slightly thick but really creamy and becomes opaque from one layer of product. They first go on glossy but after a few hours eventually dry matte, however it's what I find to be a comfortable matte texture, it doesn't feel too drying and instead feels like there's nothing even on the lips - I was constantly checking it was still there because it felt like it had all gone. The wear time of them is amazing, even through eating a stain is still left on the lips and they don't even budge from drinking. For day to day wear my personal favourite way to wear them is to apply a small amount in the middle of both lips and blend it out with my finger, this method means they dry matte instantly and aren't too dramatic for the day.

The applicator is also a great selling point, it is a doe foot applicator with a slight well in it that holds the perfect amount of product. The shape of it is slightly pointed meaning it fits perfectly to the shape of the lips and helps to get a precise and neat application. It is basically the perfect applicator for cream lip products!

I'm almost regretting not picking these up earlier, because they're some of the best lips products I've tried in a long time! I'm now keen to compare these against Revlon's new gloss stain and see how the two compare.

I'll be defiantly be looking to try more shades of the Apocalips in the future and seriously recommend everyone trying them. Of the two my favourite has to be Apocaliptic, I find it just suits me more and is one I feel I can get use out of all year round, however I do still love Stellar and found it to suit me a lot more than I thought it would. I'd also recommend checking out your nearest Poundland, I always see Revlon and Rimmel nail polishes and Rimmel eyeshadows in mine, so they're worth popping in to!

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