Mac eyebrow duo | Omega & Charcoal brown

I feel as if eyebrows are an important step in your makeup routine, they can really shape your face and I personally think my face looks incomplete without my eyebrows. I like using powders on them as pencils can look too harsh and often give that 'drawn on' effect, whereas I do like my eyebrows to have a fairly strong shape, I also like them to look soft and natural. I have been using mac charcoal brown on my eyebrows for nearly a year, It has always been a part of my mac quad, and I put satin taupe in a mac duo on it's own as I wasn't using it very often, flash forward to present day I have recently purchased mac omega as I have felt that charcoal brown was looking a tad too harsh against my blonde hair, so I figured it would be perfect to put both of my eyebrow powders into a duo and put satin taupe back with my other mac eyeshadows. putting my two eyebrow powders into a nifty little duo makes more sense, omega is a much better match for my eyebrows as it looks softer on my face, but if I do want a stronger brow I have the possibility of mixing the colours together. omega is an ashy light brown shade that looks darker once it's applied to the eyebrows, it's the perfect colour for girls with lighter eyebrows or like myself who wants a softer eyebrow look. charcoal brown is a mid tone brown which is slightly on the warmer side, this is a cult favourite among brunettes as it's a lovely match to most brown eyebrows. I love how multi use this palette is going to become as obviously they're eyeshadows and can also be used create a matte eyeshadow look if you don't want to travel with a big palette and you can do your eyebrows, knocks two birds with one stone.

Bare minerals well rested undereye brightener

I'm a girl who has struggled with the dark circles under my eyes for as long as I can remember, no matter how much concealer I put under there they just don't seem to cover well, not only that I have the added problem of said concealer creasing no matter what I do. I have seen the bare minerals well rested floating around the blogosphere for quite a while now but I haven't seen many reviews on it, so I thought I would pitch in and give my views on the product.

This product is essentially an undereye brightener in the form of a loose powder, its purpose is to counter dark shadows so it can be used around the eyes, nose and lips. before using this product I go about my normal concealing routine (corrector, concealer, powder) and then apply this product over the top of all that and it instantly lifts any darkness around that area, it truly is amazing. because this product is a loose powder it helps set any product that I have under my eyes, I have tried setting my concealer with this product under my eyes without powder beforehand but I found that it didn't work too well and went smudgey so for me it works better if I use this over the top of a powder, even though I am using two powders I have found that it doesn't make my undereyes look cakey or dry.

I'm a little bit confused as to what this product is meant to be, as the pot says 'concealer' but on the website and through other people I have only heard of it referred to as a brightener so I was a little bit baffled because this product only comes in one shade, and I typically take a seriously disliking to the whole 'one shade suits all' gimmick yet I was proved wrong as this powder is a perfect match for my skin tone so who knows, it may be a product that actually suits all skin tones? I think that this powder is going to be fantastic in the summer when you don't want to wear too much makeup as it also has SPF20, so it will give you coverage and an SPF when you don't want to have a tonne of makeup on. this is one of the only products that has made a difference to my undereye circles and I love how it makes me look more awake and refreshed,  this is the first bare minerals product I have tried but I'm now intrigued about their other products as I have completely fallen in love with this one. this product is £19 and available here from the bare minerals website.

Is there anything you would recommend to me from Bare Minerals? 

TANWORX by Monu skincare fair-medium self tanning foam

Tanworx fair-medium self tanning foam - £20 *PR sample

I was a little bit apprehensive about posting the pictures of my legs as i'm not a slim girl by far, but hey-ho who cares, right? we're all beauty lovers and need to see this sort of stuff! Monu skincare is a brand that are very ethical and believe in using natural ingredients as it is more beneficial for your skin and the environment, not only that they do not test their products on animals so that's a major plus in my eyes. they believe in the phrase 'bringing out the best in you, using the best of nature' which I thought was a lovely phrase that fit in well with the brand. I was kindly sent the Tanworx fair-medium self tanning foam to review by monu skincare, and thought I would share my thoughts on the product.

with this product you apply it to your skin using a tanning mitt and it will develop and intensify over a 3 hour period, you must wait a total of 8 hours before washing it off to benefit from the full effects of this tan. I like to apply my fake tans at night and sleep on them then hop into the shower in the morning as that way you're not walking around getting darker by the hour and smelling a bit funky. for me self tan has to be quick drying and fuss free as there's nothing I hate more than applying tan and standing around naked for a good half hour until the product dries, after using this product a few time's i'm certainly impressed by how quickly the product dries, my skin was touch dry within 5 minutes and didn't feel tacky in the slightest, as you can see I sat on my white bedsheets after applying the tan and there was no residue left behind on the sheets, hoorah!

The self tanning foam is paraben free, which means that there are no nasty preservatives in there and I found the application to be easy and streak free when using a tanning mitt no one likes fake tan hands and when it's first applied it has a fresh baby powder scent, but this does in fact fade to the typical 'wet biscuit' smell that fake tans tend to have after a couple of hours so be sure to wear baggy, older clothes that you don't mind smelling of soggy biscuits. this tan does give you that natural, sunkissed bronze tan that I personally love, as you can see from the swatch that the tan itself isn't extremely olive toned, but it also isn't orange in the slightest it's a happy medium between the two.

I'm not a fan of really dark fake tan and prefer something a little bit more subtle, this tan is aimed towards fair-medium skin tones and I agree that this tan will not look too dark or 'off' on pale skin tones, because once it's washed off it reduces in intensity to a medium, glowy sun kissed look, they do in fact sell the same foam tan but in the shade 'dark to very dark' which I personally haven't tried so can't comment on how dark it is in comparison to the fair-medium shade. one slight negative I will say about this product is that is does cling to really dry skin, it isn't drying on the skin in the sense that it will leave your legs dry like the sahara desert once it's dry, but it will cling to any patches of skin you haven't properly exfoliated, I have a bit of a problem with dry elbows and It really clung to that area so make sure you prep you skin beforehand by exfoliating and moisturising extremely dry ages of your skin which is typically your elbows/knees. to maintain the tan it's recommended that you moisturise daily, this is so that when the tan does fade it fades evenly. the tanworx self tanning foam retails for £20 which you can buy from their website here and if you're not a fan of foams they also sell the same tan in a lotion.

I found that this product lasts a good 5 days with regular moisturising and does indeed fade evenly, I cringe when I see patchy fake tan where it's been scrubbed off! I have got my eye on a few other products by monu skincare as I'm very impressed with this tan, it's definitely taken over St.Moriz medium tan as my new favourite!

Highstreet hits | MUA undress me too eyeshadow palette

So I thought I would start a series on my blog called 'highstreet hits' where once a week I will talk about a highstreet / drugstore product that I think is worth picking up. I think that this will be a great way for people who are on a budget or looking for some new highstreet products to look at what I have been loving and think is worth picking up on your next trip to Boots/Superdrug (UK).

The MUA undress me too palette is an eyeshadow palette which contains a total of 12 neutral shadows. this palette is a dupe for the cult favourite urban decay naked 2 palette, the colours are extremely similar and are placed in the same order of the naked 2 palette so if you're on a budget or don't want to fork out the hefty £37 for the naked 2 palette then I highly recommend picking this up. all 12 of the eyeshadows are highly pigmented and are buttery soft to apply to the lids, because of this they also blend extremely well together. I will say now that the undress me too palette does have amazing staying power but it's not as long lasting as the naked 2 palette, but that's what you would expect for a fraction of the price. I'm wearing the shades 4 and 11 over the lids and 3 in the inner corners in the photo above, I actually prefer the shade 4 in the undress me too palette rather than the urban decay one, it's slightly more orange toned which I love, I think that this colour would really make blue eyes pop. so if you're just staring out with makeup and want to experiment with eyeshadows but don't want to break the bank then I think that the MUA eyeshadow palettes are the way to go, that have a lot of different variations so i'm sure there's a palette for everyone. The Mua undress me too palette is available from Superdrug here for £4

The perfect perfume and body spray combinations

My two favourite scents are vanilla and coconut on their own or mixed together they smell delicious. I have been wearing the natural collection vanilla body spray (£2) for years and I don't think I could be without it it's easy to just chuck in my bag and spritz whenever i need to, it smells sweet and not too over powering. as soon as I saw that the body shop sold a vanilla perfume (£8.50) I was sold, it's so tiny and sweet I couldn't resist although this perfume is on the more floral vanilla side it smells amazing and this little bottle has actually lasted me around a year. I don't feel like myself unless I'm wearing perfume and i'm always conscious about how I smell, so whenever I wear the body shops vanilla perfume I always pair it with my vanilla body spray, I just spritz it over my skin and clothes and the scent lasts all day, they make an amazing combination. the same rule applies with my favourite coconut combination, I spritz the body spray all over my body and apply the perfume to my wrists and neck. Estee lauder bronze goddess (£45-£50) is my all time favourite perfume and you can be sure that i'm going to stock up on it in may when it's released again, it's such a wonderful holiday smell which reminds me of pina coladas. the nspa creamy coconut body mist (£3) is so gorgeous I actually like it more than my vanilla body spray sorry vanilla... but it smells exactly as the name suggests it's so creamy and coconutty I just can't help but spraying it around my bedroom. Nspa products are always on offer in asda on a 3 for £5 offer or knocked down to £2, I always stock up on the 3 for £5 deal as it's such a bargain.

Taylor swift wonderstruck perfume

The Taylor swift wonderstruck perfume has quickly become one of my favourite everyday perfumes, it's a sweet but not sickly sweet perfume that's perfect for everyday wear. first of all, lets address how beautiful the packaging is, the iridescent purple bottle is gorgeous and looks beautiful on my dressing table, the gold detailing gives it an extra pretty look to it and it generally looks different to the standard perfume bottles that you see. now i'll be honest, notes in perfume baffle me but from the sources i've checked these are the notes that are in this perfume - top notes: freesia, apple blossom and raspberry - middle notes: Vanilla, honeysuckle and white hibiscus - base notes: golden amber, sandalwood and peach. as you can imagine from the sweet notes that this is a really girly perfume and apparently this was inspired by Taylor's favourite memories and scents. the note that stands out to me the most is raspberry but the sandalwood is also a definite standout. this perfume does last a fairly long time but it does fade after a few hours to a barely-there scent. I do love this perfume and will be repurchasing it when it's finished, you can get a 50ml bottle from boots here for £28 but it goes on offer a lot of the time for half price.

February favourites | Beauty

So february is done and dusted and we're now in march, where has the time gone? February was quite a good month for me with Aarons birthday, valentines day and other exciting stuff but I didn't really travel too far out of my comfort zone when it comes to makeup, I have just stuck to the same old stuff. Although, saying that I did dip my toes into the BB Cream waters and tried and loved the Dr.Jart+ Regenerating beauty balm which I have a review of here if you want to read into my thoughts on it a little bit more, but to sum it up it's a beautiful light weight beauty balm with excellent coverage. to apply the Dr.Jart beauty balm I dug out an old favourite of mine which is the real techniques buffing brush, I forgot how good this brush it and it's been applying my BB cream like a dream ha that rhymes. throughout February I have been trying to look all glowy and 'oh look it's spring and i'm fresh as a daisy' kind of look, so at the end of january I bought the mac mineralise skin finish in soft and general and I haven't touched another highlighter all month as it's just so beautiful! I run out of my trusty macadamia oil at the beginning of the month and decided to go back to another oil I had in my stash which was the tresemmé liquid gold restorative complex, this oil is extremely light weight and doesn't weight my hair down and the oil doesn't transfer onto my fingers when I run then through my hair a few hours later... Ick! Taylor swift wonderstuck has to be my most worn perfume of the month it's such a beautiful sweet scent which isn't too sickly and I don't know why I held off buying it, thank you to Aaron's mumma for buying me this for christmas, it's so lovely!