I Got My Hair Done!

As I'm sure some of yous may or may not know, I have incredibly dark hair and although I have died my hair in the past to red and purple etc. I have always went back to dark because I love it and I always thought it suited me the best, although my boyfriend would disagree. But anyway, my boyfriend's sister is a hairdresser in Belfast and her salon uses the brand Wella; and they were coming to the salon to do a colour day - which basically means they talk to the hairdressers about up coming fashion trends and how to achieve them -  so she needed a model, and I kindly offer myself up to the plate because... why not? A change would be nice and if it's being done professionally then even better! 

Her idea was to do a rose gold inspired look, but obviously because my hair was so dark, it would be quite hard to achieve that colour in an hour or two but she mixed the colour anyway and just hoped for the best - and I fell in love with the colour! It wasn't really rose gold, it was more red/copper colour which was still beautiful.

So here is the before photo:

And here is the after;

The roots were still kept quite dark, with the colour being brought down from the fringe. I'M IN LOVE!

Going Out Makeup

I went out for a nightout with my boyfriend on Saturday and it was the first time I'd been since before Christmas so I wanted to go full glam with my make-up so I thought I would share it with you 

This was the look I created - it's very smokey on the eyes with big lashes, the face is quite flawless with a defined contour and bronzed cheeks with quite a pink blush to the cheeks, I also kept the lips a nudey pink shade.

These are all of the products I used to create this look;

Primer: No7 Airbrush Away

Foundation: No7 Airbrush Away in Deeply Honey

Concealer: Freedom Pro Correct and Conceal palette, Bourjois City Radiance in 01

Contour: Freedom Cream Contour Palette, Makeup Revolution Contour Palette

Bronzer: No7 Dual Bronzer Compact

Blush: L'Oreal Blush Sculpt in Soft Rosy

Highlight: Feedom Highlight Palette and Bourjois Bronzer

Brows: Freedom Brow Pomade in Ebony and Rimmel Brow Gelin Dark Brown

Eyes: Rimmel Eyeshadow Primer, Max Factor Eyeshadow Palette, Rimmel Exaggerate Eyeliner

Lashes: N7 Lash Curler, No7 Velvet Lash Mascara and Eyelure False Lashes in No100

Lips: Collection Lip Liner and Maxfacotr Lipfinity in Pearly Nude
L'Oreal Infallible Setting Spray to ensure it lasts all night

Kylie Jenner Dupes?

I am a huge fan of Kylie Jenner's Lip range and signature lip colours and when I seen that she was releasing her kits I was pretty excited - but living in Northern Ireland it is incredibly difficult to get your hands on these kinds of products from higher end brands - so I decided to go on a hunt to try and find some lip products that could be a dupe for the Kylier Jenner Lip Kits and I think I have found them *squeals*

And they are the....... Max Factor Lipfinity Lip Colours

 I found three shades which I think are the perfect dupes for Kylie Jenners lip colours - they are a liquid lipstick which dries to a matte finish, but with the clear balm to put on top it adds a very nice sheen and makes them very moisturising an long lasting.They aren't drying and are very comfortable and for only £10.99 they are reasonably affordable from your local drugstore. The only "problem" I guess you could say is that you don't get a lot of product, I would say only 1/3 of the packaging is the product and the rest is the brush - and within each set you get a balm - I would have preferred to have had more product for the £10.99 and then been able to buy the balm seperately (which you can actually do) instead of paying £10.99 each time and getting another balm and hardly any product.

Top Winter Skincare Products

Coming into the Winter months can be quite harsh on your skin, and here in Northern Ireland, it is very cold and wet and just horrible at this time of the year - so I need products that can help reduce my dry skin, hydrate my skin and add a bit of radiance - and with these products I achieve that.

No7 Beautiful Skin Radiance Exfoliator 
 I have only been trying this product for maybe 2 weeks now maybe every other day and I really like it. Everytime I use it my skin feels so much softer and looks so much healthier adding a really like natural glow to my skin - it's also quite gentle on my skin so it doesn'y affect my sensitivity and there is little to no fragrance.
Soap and Glory Scrub Your Nose In It
I've been using this product for a good few months now, maybe 2 or 3 just as a more intensive exfoliating treatment as compared to the No7 one - it is quite strong and almost has a tingling sensation to the skin - but I've noticed that when I do leave it on for a few minutes it really helps to clean out my pores, especially around my nose and leaves my skin feeling baby soft and clean. On the downside though, it does leave my skin feeling quite tight but once I moisturise my skin is back to normal.
No7 Beautiful Skin Hydration Mask
I've has this mask for a good few months now and it's still going strong - I really love this product, it's probably the best facial mask I've used. Its quite thick and creamy in texture and it has almost a cooling effect which really helps to tone down on my redness and it leaves my skin feeling and looking so soft, healthy and hydrated - especially coming into these winter months this is exactly what I need, I would highly recommend it!
No7 Beautiful Skin Overnight Radiance Boost
I would use this product only maybe once or twice or week, it really depends on how my skin is looking and feeling, but I would apply this before I go to bed and a few minutes after I have moisturised just to ensure that I don't layer it over and it can't be absorbed properly into my skin. I really love how this product makes my skin look in the morning - its really radiant and fresh and exactly what I need for my skin.

Favourite Winter Lipsticks

Winter is a great time to start experimenting with different lipstick colours and for me, being able to alter the look of your makeup by only changing one small aspect of it is something I really love and enjoy doing - so in this post I'm going to share with your 5 of my favourite lipsticks for Winter.

 These are my top 5 lipsticks for Winter and from left to right they are;
No7 Pillarbox Red
Revlon Va Va Violet
Rimmel Kate Moss 48
Avon Frozen Rose
Maybelline Tantalizing Taupe
These lipticks are perfect for winter as they are all, non drying and very moisturising and creamy on the lips, the pigmentation lasts all day and the wear of each is great in all weather conditions - I've never had any smudge or run in the rain or cold weather which is always good and the colours themselves are perfect for winter season.
 

What are your favourite lipstick for Winter?

My Go to Pale Makeup

For me personally, I find it really hard to get a flawless look when I do decide to go pale - which now is quite often - but this is because that I hadn't found a foundation that gave me the coverage that I needed especially for my red cheeks, but now I've found two *jumps up and down with excitement* and these are the No7 Airbrush Away foundation in Calico and the L'Oreal True Match foundation in 1N Ivory. These two foundations are literally the best foundation I have found for pale skin and seeing as I love them so much, I figured I would share with you all the face products I love using with them both :)

Here I am wearing the L'Oreal True Match foundation

Primer: The tried and true Maybelline Baby Skin Poreless Primer

Concealer: No7 Under Eye concealer in the shade 10 and Maybelline Fit Me concealer in the shade 10

Contour: Freedom Cotour Stick in Fair and Makeup Revolution Contour Palette

Blush: Benefit Dandelion, No7 Cranberry crush, Max Factor Miracle Touch Creamy Blush in Soft candy and Max Factors Creme Puff Blush in \Gorgeous Berries

Highlight: Rimmel Good to Glow in Notting Hill Glow and MUA highlighter in Iredescent Gold

My Everyday Face

These are the products I have been using on my face for about a month now, and I absoloutely love them. This routine for me is so much faster but gives the same awesome finish - my skin looks great and healthy but it's a lot faster which is a big bonus!

The products I use are;

- NARS Sheer Glow in Punjab

- Maybelline Fit Me concealer

- Chisel Cheeks by Barry M

- Max Factor Creme Puff Blush in Lovely Pink

- MUA Matte Perfect powder 

L'Oreal Super Liner brow pencil in Dark Brown

- L'Oreal Telecopic Mascara in Black

- Bourjois Liquid liner in Black

Some Splurging (Again :))

I have been trying nearly all of these products for a good few weeks now and I love them all! Reviews will be coming soon :)

Benefit Cheeky Sweet Spot

I bought this the other day because I have wanted for ages, or since when Gemma from Miss Makeup Magpie done a review on it and the other day when I was in town I called into benefit and I seen they had it on offer for £19.68 - a total bargain :)

I absolutely love this palette, everything about it is gorgeous, the packaging is study and lovely looking and the pigmentation of the products is amazingggg.

My favourite by of the new year so far :)

Halloween

So I hope yous all had an amazing Halloween, I love Halloween, it and Christmas are my two most favourite times of the year. Granted I didn't do very much for Halloween, on Friday I went down to Newcastle with my boyfriend and watched the biggest fireworks display - it was amazing, I had never been to a fireworks display before so I was a big child and on Saturday we were meant to go out, I was intending to be Pocahontas but the weather was terrible, like I mean it was raining like mad, some places were flooded and everything so after we got dinner we decided to be fat and rent movies and eat munchies :)

But I thought I would share with you the make-up I decided to go for on Friday and some Halloween looks I was playing around with on Saturday.

This was my Friday face - I went for a simple winged eye liner, with quite a strong contour and black lips. My brows are also quite defined as I wanted the look to be strong and angled. The products I used were - Maybelline Fit Me Foundation - shade 120

Seventeen Under Eye Concealer - shade fair

Revlon Photo Ready Concealer - shade light

e.l.f  HD face powder - translucent 

MUA bronzer

L'Oreal Eyebrow Pencil  in the colour dark brown

Revlon Liquid Liner in the colour black

Revlon 3D Photoready mascara in the colour black

misssporty lipstick in the shade black

I only done two Halloween looks, just because my skin is so sensitive and applying that much make-up to my face does not end well lol.

This look was more for those who wanted to be a sexy vampire and the like, unfortuately I didnt have any false eyelashes or this look would have looked so much better

This look was for people who wanted to be something simple and for those who didn't want to spend money on buying a costume.

 

My Make - Up Storage

Lets start with the left hand side

This is where I keep my everyday make - up like my foundation, concealers, mascara etc.

If you seen my latest haul post then you would have seen this item I got from TkMaxx, it's a storage book that I have decided to use to store my foundations in. 

This is the bulk of my collection. Here I keep all of my palettes, brushes, lipsticks and lipbalms. In the glass jar to the left I keep all of my small lipglosses, lip balms/lip tints.

Both of my brush holders are from B&M

I've arranged my lipsticks to that all of my summer shades are to the far side, the neutrals are in the middle and all of my winter shades are at the side closest. 

I got these drawers from muji. It's a small set of two drawers, small set of five drawers and large two drawer set

I use a candle holder from B&M to hold my eyeliner pencils in and the floral crown is from Primark

Product Review - NYC City Proof Twistable Intense Lip Colour

 

Everytime I go to buy one of these products, theyre always on sale, which is why I love Superdrug. They must see me coming! I love these products. I honestly don't have a bad word to say about them, I will say though that their lasting power isn't the best but not the worse, which I don't mind because it doesn't bother me having to reapply, it's no hassel. 

I love the fact that for the price, which is at most, £2.99, but on sale they're only £1.99, they're really good. They smell lovely, kind of like vanilla or something like that, the texture is really smooth and goes on really evenly and the pigmentation is wonderful. 
The three shades I have are: 031 Gramercy Park Plum. 030 Metropolitan Mauve. 010 Nolita Neutral

So for only a few pound each, they're fabulous, I intend to buy a lot more of these, especially coming into winter :)

Product Review: Dream Lumi touch Concealer by Maybelline

I'm on the fence about this product, the reason I picked it up was because I wanted to try a new highlighting concealer for around the eye area and what have you - but I was a little disappointed and a little pleased. 

What I liked...

Firstly I like the packaging, it's short, sweet and simple with a twistable bottom and a brush tip. I like when concealers have brush tips especially for under the eyes, it means there's less hassel and less mess, which is a big yay in my book.

I also like the covering power of the concealer - it gives quite good coverage for under my eyes which is a must for me, I like to have bright healthy looking skin around my eyes which this concealer does.

I love, how it adds a luminescence to my undereyes (clues in the name) - it gives a nice healthy glow without being too obvious or fake looking. 

What I don't like...

I only disliked one thing, and that was the fact it didn't highlight under my eyes - it just, as I said before added a luminescence to the area, I wanted to make the area a shade brighter just to really highlight and define it - but this concealer just didn't carry it out. Which is disappointing because it states it's a highlighting concealer, sad face. 

But I do like this product for the reasons I mentioned before and I may repurchase it when it runs out :)

Nail Polishes for Summer

Throughout this summer I've really been loving wearing pastel shades on my nails - I don't know why, I just prefer them over the ott bright shades but in saying that - I have worn one particular bright shade which I just love! 

I've also loved experimenting with nail art over the summer as well - ust because it really adds to a look especially if it's to match an outfit your wearing or to just jazz up an outfit and to add something unique to the look :)

The first two polishes are from the brand misssporty and I believe they're part of their summer collection - they're really lovely colours and are also pastel shades unfortunetly though they don't have any names.

The next polish is from Collection and from their Hot Looks 60 second range and it's in the shade candyfloss  which is a really nice pastel pink - I don't know wear this one very often as it does tend to go quite gloopy really fast, but it is very nice

The next polish is from Barry M and the Gelly range. I absoloutely love colour - it's the one I have been reaching for the most especially when I'm tan because it looks lovely. It's in the shade rosehip and is a lovely pale pink

This next polish I also love and have worn it quite a lot - its from NYC and is in the shade Blue Sky. It's a really nice pastel blue and is the nicest pastel blue that I have been able to find in the drugstore.

Again this polish from Collection and it's from the Work the Colour range. I love this colour - I do have an e.l.f. lilac shade but its not very opaque and I would have to do about three layers to get a really nice intensity but with this polish the intensity is really nice even with one coat. It's in the shade Lilac Daze

The last polish is from e.l.f and is a really nice nude which I would use quite a lot as a base for doing nail art because I think it helps to add to the intensity of it. I do also wear this on it's own with no nail art and it still looks very nice. It's in the shade Desert Haze

The bright shade I have been loving throughout the summer is from Rimmel and their Lasting Finish range in the shade 504 It's a Scorcher. I love this colour - it's a really bright orange with a slight shimmer to it and it looks so lovely with and without tan - which is definately a bonus. 

Below are just some pictures of the nail art I have been loving throughout the summer also

 

Nail Polish Storage

So if you're like me and you just kept all of your nail polishes in a make-up bag under your bed, then you need to read this post. 

As I'm sure we all do, I love a bargain and E-bay is my bargain palace, I love it. the main reason I was hunting on E-bay was because I had recently read that it's better for your nail polishes if you keep them standing up straight, as when they're just lying around they tend to become more gloopy and gunky and all of that nasty stuff - so I was on a mission to find a storage solution for my polishes... and I found it. 

Behold, my Nail Polish Acrylic Stand

Dimensions - 29cm wide x 16cm deep x 19cm high

If you wish to purchase or look at this item then click this link

It has four tiers and can hold 40 nail polishes, though I've found that if you have quite small nail polish bottles you can hold just few more than that. I bought this item last week and it was delivered two days after I bought it, which I thought was amazing! And it was only £12.29 along with free delivery. 

I went for an acrylic stand because I wanted to match the acrylic drawers I purchased off muji for my make-up, I like to co-ordinate like that :)

Here are some pictures of my stand with my polishes :)

:)

College

As use all know, or for those of you who don’t know, I was in college doing an NVQ Level 2 Beauty Therapy course, and I’m so happy to announce (even though I said it before) that I passed with flying colours and I have also been accepted into the NVQ Level 3 Beauty Therapy course, yay!

I will say though that beauty therapy is not what I expected, most people, especially those in university always judge those who do beauty, and class them as drop outs, lazy or just not smart, but let me tell you, the amount of biology and detail that is involved in beauty is really quite shocking, it is very intense, not because it’s hard, but because of the sheer amount that you have to know which is why it’s essential to revise in order to know it because there is no way you could learn it all just off the bat.

I did love it though, as a lover of biology I will say that I was a lot more excited about the biology aspect of the course rather than the actual practical, and I found it a lot more interesting than the others in my class (they thought I was nuts, lol.) But it has been one of my best life choice I could've possibly made, I can't wait to get stuck into Level 3 and who knows what may come after?

It's pretty exciting :)

Make-up Removal

I have recently bought two new products to remove my make-up with. As most of you's should know by now, I love using face wipes, especially the Nivea Daily Essentials or Simple - but what I've found, especially with the Nivea, is it leaves my skin feeling very dry and somewhat tight - which would be great for people who love to use soap (which I wouldn't recommend) but it gives you that very squeaky clean feeling, personally I don't like that feeling.

So when I was in Tescos I was looking at all the skincare brands and I noticed a product that I'd never seen before, it was the Garnier Soft Essentials, Comforting Cleansing Lotion. The only other times I have used a lotion to remove make-up is in my Facial class and I loved it. It was very hydrating and didn't leave your skin feeling dry so I had to buy this product. It is enriched with Rose extract and is for dry skin, which I have during the autumn winter months and can be used on the face and eyes.

I've been trying this product out for a few days now and I love it! I use it every night to take off my make-up  with some cotton wool pads and the effect it leaves on my skin is wonderful. It's very moisturising, especially because it's for dry skin, and it keeps my skin hydrated throughout the night and even into the morning. It takes off my make-up really, even waterproof mascara so it's a win win all round! Plus it smells divine :) 

I picked this up on sale for only £2.00

I also picked up Simple's Eye Make-up Remover. I love Simple with a passion, it's my favourite skincare brand EVER. I picked this up because I didn't know how the Garnier Cleanser would do with all of my make-up and as I've used this product before and it was magic, I decided to get it again. 

It takes off my eye make-up easily using cotton wool pads and as there are so many caring vitamins in the Simple products, it didn't leave my eye area feeling dry and it didn't leave it irritated

Love Love Love it. 

I picked this up for £2.00 also :)

I picked up the Large Cotton Pads for 99p in Tescos :)

My Skincare Routine

Skincare is one of the most important part of our daily activities, no matter how old you are, what skin type you have and where you live. These are actually some of the main factors which influence what type of skincare regime you have. For example - people who live in colder climates would tend to have quite dry skin, and because it's cold, they would have the heating etc. turned on. But having the air conditioning on, drys your skin out more and can even make it dehydrated so it's imperative that people who live in colder climates drink the recommended 6-8 glasses of water a day and moisturise their skin in order to keep it healthy and moisturised. 

My skin type is Combination and I also have Sensitive skin so it's important that I use products that don't contain oil but have enough moisture to keep my skin nice and lubricated and that won;t be too harsh on my sensitive skin. I'm also quite prone to comedones (which are blackheads) so I need a few products to help minimise those.

The products which I use don't change that much because they're suited to my skin whether it becomes more dry, oily or both. But in Winter, my skin tends to be more on the dryer side so I use products which would help ease that and keep my skin moisturised.

As you can probably tell, I love Simple. It's great for people with sensitive skin and it also contains no oil so it won't make me more oily but at the same time is very moisturising. On my more oily days I tend to get quite a few spots and blackheads so for those I would use my Garnier Pure Active Anti-blackhead scrub which I have a post on if you want to check it out here along with my Clean&Clear blackhead clearing cleanser and for spots I would use my Tea Tree Oil which I also done a review on if you want to check it out here. 

On my dryer days, I would use my Simple Foaming Cleanser and it is quite moisturising and really gives you that squeaky clean feeling without leaving you dry. I would also use my Simple Oil balancing Exfoliator as it helps to balance the level of oil on my skin whilst also getting rid of any dry patches of skin I may have. For days when I'm staying in the house I would use my Simple day moisturiser and for days where I'm going out or heading to tech I would use my Nivea Express Hydration Primer for normal to combination skin which I have also done a review on if you want to check it out here and for my lips I would use my Carmex lip balm in Cherry flavour.

  

To remove my make-up I would use these Nivea wipes for dry and sensitive skin especially coming into the Winter months as they help to moisturise my skin.

Here are some tips to help you decide on what kind of skin regime you should have;
1. Skin Type - is your skin dry, oily or a combination?
2. Skin Condition - is your skin dehydrated, mature or sensitive?
3. What are your problem areas - blackheads, spots, eczema, milia? 
If you answer these, then you'll now what type of skincare routine you should have, and what products you'll need 

I hope you enjoyed this post and let me know about your skincare routines, I'd love to read them! :)