Products that blew me away

This post is a reflection of products I've purchased, and instantly fallen in love with, only to continue using them day to day. Price ranges vary considerably, which is proof that you don't always have to spend big money to find treasures.

In eye makeup - my best buy...the one men constantly comment on (even a romanian paper seller when I stopped my car at traffic lights knocked on the window to say he liked my eyes!) is by elf. A £1.50 quad called eye brightening in LUXE.



I can't imagine these colours not looking amazing on everyone, regardless of eye colour. I wear the gold packed on my lid (over either mac bare study paint pot, or revlon mettallic creme shadow in the gold colour) with the bronze in the crease, and the dark brown to darken the crease up. I don't really use the red shade, although I could probably add it to the crease colour to warm things up if I could be bothered!

I use something like blanc type by mac ( a matte neutral ) as my highlight as the gold is shimmery and I don't like being overly so. Although people always guess my age as early 20's - I am 37, and I feel my eyes have the skin of my age (less taught), so I try not to use too much shimmer. This may be me being overly paranoid, but rather that than look garish.

Another eyeshadow love - more recently is ricepaper. It's a yellow based neutral with a lovely sheen to it. I use it as an all over eye colour - on the lid and as a highlight. I also use it as a cheek highlight as it gives a really pretty sheen without glitter.



I also adore the SLEEK original palette which I bought in London. The colours have to be swatched to really see how beautiful they are, but they seriously rock as good as mac, and for a fraction of the price.



Mascara - I have thick eyelashes but they aren't as long as I'd like, so the mascara I find to be best for making them long and lushious is doll eyed long from NYX. I have to get it on ebay which is a pain but it is worth it. One thing though - don't overload this or you get spider lashes...ick!



In the blush department:

I was so close to selling off my pretty baby beauty powder from the mac hello kitty collection, as I didn't really understand how to make it work. Everyone seemed to say to use it as an all over powder, but to me it just felt like making my skin all flushed...not really my thing.


As a last resort I went over to MUA and browsed the reviews. Recent reviews stated that pretty baby worked amazing as a subtle blush on pale skin, so I gave it a try. I used my 181 brush to apply as its densely packed, and WOW! A totally natural looking slight (very slight), natural healthy glow. I fell in love instantly, and hope to never run out! I'm so pleased as I LOVE LOVE LOVE the compact.

Bronzers - Up to now I've been happily using rimmel's natural bronzer which works great but is nothing to scream about. Then lollipop26 (the girl is bad for my credit card I tell you!) reviewed ELF studio warm bronzer recently, and although I resisted for a couple of months...once elf did a free shipping offer, I was all over it like a rash ;)





I apply this with a large flat bronsing brush, but with a light hand as it's really well pigmented. It gives a nice peachy sheen, which I really like. I actually love this most when applied over my rimmel bronzer. I love how this looks - I go from pasty to interestingly peachy glowing. Adore it and recommend it most highly.

Lips - I have to be careful with lipstick to work as I work in a humid environment for 4 hours with no break, and my lips suffer horribly for it. My current favs are pink fish lip conditioner from mac, and barbie lipstick (also a balm) from gosh. Both give a pop of colour without drying.

Gosh Barbie



Body Exfoliator - the exfoliating gloves from the body shop. These are absolutely fantastic, and I love them.