Sunday 29 December 2013

Affordable Brushes


Makeup brushes I feel are really important in a makeup routine and I'm always reading up on different brands and trying to find ones that won't mean I have to give up everything I own just to buy one. I felt I'd never had decent contouring and highlighting brushes and made do with brushes I already had at home but was never completely happy with the outcome, hold on in there Dani from the past though as a happy ending is a-coming.


The brush on the left is Elf's Small Tapered Brush which I purchased during one of their 50% off promotions, I already talked about it briefly on my Elf Haul post but it really is perfect for contouring. I have quite a small face and most brushes I've tried contouring with have been far too big making it such a challenge to use but this synthetic brush is teeny tiny and makes the job so easy. Ever since purchasing this I have used it every single day and can see myself using it and repurchasing it for a loooooooong time especially as it is only £3.75 full price.

The next brush I love is from eBay which I bought for £1.99 and is again synthetic; I can't actually remember who the seller was but if you search 'makeup brushes' on eBay so many different sellers will come up. There's been a lot of talk about these kinds of brushes as they look so similar to Real Techniques brushes and I initially bought this for contouring before I had the Elf brush, however, this brush is too dense to be used for a contouring brush and I was left feeling quite disappointed so put it in my cupboard and didn't really use it. Once I bought my Mac Mineralize Skinfinish however I realised the fan brush I had been using for highlighting previously didn't work well for the Skinfinish so dug this out and it works amazingly at picking up the product and allows you to place the highlighter precisely.



This was a pretty short post but I don't have much else to say apart from, buy them, BUY THEM NOW! Can you recommend any cheap yet amazing makeup brushes?

Friday 20 December 2013

Elf Haul

Elf posts are one of my favourite things to read and I can finally do one thanks to their elf-mazing (okay I'll just put an end to that now) 50% offer they held recently. Elf do these promotions fairly often but I always used to forget to sign up to their newsletter so would miss it *shakes first angrily*, but not this time. I spent £19.07 in total which is pretty darn good value for money and I was pretty well restrained considering it was my first time ordering.

Originally I really wanted the Studio High Definition Powder and had read so many positive reviews but unfortunately it was out of stock, it was an emotional moment for all people involved (just me). I'm going to get the powder next time there's 50% off and I might as well throw the matching Undereye Setting Powder in there too.



I bought this lip brush for college as when I'm doing people's makeup I always end up using small eyeshadow brushes but they are a pain in the beehive to clean so I thought I'd order a brush actually meant for lips in the hope it will clean better. It is a little bigger than I expected but actually seems like it'll be good for applying lipstick, it's also really soft as well.

Oh my word I've always wanted one of these brushes, I just think they look so dang coooool. I struggle with gel eyeliner so much, both on myself and other people, but this seems like it's going to be good as my hand won't end up getting in the way and block my vision.

This brush is seriously my hero, it is so amazing and better than I could have imagined. It is so perfect for contouring and doesn't pick up a lot of product meaning you can't go overboard and blends everything out so well. I need to pick up another one of these brushes so I can use it for my highlighter as the ones I currently use don't do the job as well as I would like. The shape of this brush reminds me of the Real Techniques Blush Brush but on a much smaller scale.


This product is supposed to be a bronzer (Captain Obvious) but after doing a heck load of research online people said they prefer using it as a highlighter so ordered it for that purpose instead. I've been really liking using this as it gives a nice champagney gold sheen to the skin; I'm planning on doing a post on this and also of another shade, Sun Kissed which I bought for my mum, so people can actually see what these look like and aren't just buying them based on the picture online.

I'd heard a lot about Elf's baked eyeshadows so thought I'd give them a go in some shades that aren't similar to ones I already have. Burnt Plum (to the left of the bronzer) is a sheeny burgundy sort of shade while Pixie (to the right of the bronzer) is an iridescent pinky gold shade. Both of them are so smooth and seem like they'll blend really well but I can't really say much because the only time I've tried them is late at night when I look practically dead but I'm going to try them in daylight and shall report back.

I much prefer the packaging of this eyeshadow, it looks like the little baby child of a Nars product, is anyone getting this vibe? Mystic Moss is a slightly shimmery dark green colour that I ordered as I thought it'd be more flattering on my eye colour as browns just don't seem to do anything to make my eyes pop (to be fair I've never felt anything makes my eye colour unbelievably great) but feel a dark green in the crease will make the green in my eyes come out a bit more.


No-one will be able to understand how long I spent debating over whether to get this primer or the Mineral Eyeshadow Primer; I googled endlessly, bugged my mum constantly and even tweeted about it, pretty sad for the sake of £1.50 difference. I read pros and cons about both primers but in the end went with the one from the Essentials range and I am so pleased with it so far. I have used it a couple of times and there has been such minimal creasing which is so good and makes me feel a lot better as my Urban Decay Primer Potion has started going runny and weird so I wanted a cheaper but equally good product. I bought mine in Sheer but there are three other options to choose from.

This is something I had always been intrigued by but not heard much about so thought I'd give it a go. I also bought one for my mum but neither of us have used it that much yet. It's supposed to create an invisible barrier for lip products to stop them sliding around and moving which is perfect for me as I'm one of those irritating people who checks their lipstick after basically every mouthful of food/sip of drink in either my phone reflection or a mirror.

That's everything I bought during the 50% off sale and the items I'm most pleased with is the Small Tapered Brush, the Healthy Glow Bronzing Powder and the Eyelid Primer. I'm going to do individual reviews on the three I just mentioned as I think they're worth people knowing about but is there anything else you guys want to know more about? Let me know in the comments! Also, is there anything else I should try from Elf?

Wednesday 18 December 2013

100 Followers

Somehow I reached 100 followers on Bloglovin'...brap brap ting.


I was gormlessly lolling about on the sofa when BAM, Bloglovin' greeted me with a message which led me to envision a choir of angelic cherubs (they creep me out) singing their praises.


Watch out Zoella, this girl is #4189 in the Beauty charts, your #1 spot isn't safe for much longer. I jest I jest but as Miley once proclaimed, it is a climb.

I'm so happy people actually have used their energy to move their mouse/finger onto my profile and chosen to follow me and now my blog posts will now appear on 100 people's feeds (?!) which is just crazy and means I must now attempt to project some sort of cool and sophisticated image. To sum up (cue Ross Geller): thank you guyzzz.

#2014bloggerchallenge


This post should have gone up 10 days ago (thanks gmail for providing me with this information) but I am a very lazy human who occasionally struggles with the simple task of turning my laptop on and typing.

Basically I had a YES I'M GONNA DO IT moment and am taking part in Gaby's, from Another Girly Blog, 2014 blogger challenge which I'm pretty sure you would have heard of if you're a blogger. For the challenge you have to write two blog posts a month on the topic Gaby sends out and is just a good way to motivate yourself to sit down and blog.

Are you a part of the #2014bloggerchallenge?

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Mac Mineralize Skinfinish in Soft and Gentle



Never in my life have I been so excited to get a product home and put it straight on my face like I was with Mac's Mineralize Skinfinish in Soft and Gentle. This product is raved about so much and it was always something I knew I would end up buying at some point in my life but at £22 it's not the cheapest item in the world, UNTIL, during a casual stroll round the city centre I noticed Debenhams had 15% off all beauty and fragrance taking it down to £19.80 and then combined with my 20% staff discount the skinfinish was mine for £15.84. There are some serious (but minimal) perks to a job in retail. After having used the tester to swatch the product I walked round for the whole day admiring my shimmering, glistening hand. The beginning of a really creepy love affair.




Isn't it the most beautiful thing you ever did see?! The highlighter I swore by before this was MUA's Undress Your Skin Highlighter which I still think is amazing but it has a pinky iridescent tone to it which doesn't seem to compliment any other blushes than pink. I still love the MUA highlighter but now I have two options depending on what blusher I choose to wear.

I haven't tried this highlighter out with foundation on yet but only with bronzer and blusher but with this added on top it gives a healthy looking glow to my face which I am in desperate need of as I feel like I'm Pasty McPaster recently. It is quite a glittery highlighter so I made sure to buff (I feel like such a try hard when I say this) it into the skin so it didn't just sit on top.


I think I'll still own this highlighter when I'm about 59 as it seems it will truly take years to use up. Have you tried Soft and Gentle or any other Skinfinish? If not what's your favourite highlighter?

Tuesday 3 December 2013

My Bedtime Routine

I always like seeing people's bedtime posts so thought I'd dramatically crawl onto the bandwagon and show what I (attempt) do beauty wise each night after I've cleansed my face but before I go to sleep.



As an avid lipstick wearer it's important for me to keep my lips smoothy smooth smooth by using my Popcorn Lip Scrub by Lush although I swear this is counterintuitive as I do this after brushing my teeth so am essentially just getting sugar back into my mouth when I lick it off. Fun story time: a few years ago I bought one of these lip scrubs, took it to school and ate it during lessons within several days, I'm sorry dentist I know you can tell I've had 'sugary foods' as you like to say. After scrubbing my lips I then use either my Nivea Lip Butter in Caramel Cream or my Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm, yes I have a choice of two on my windowsill for easy convenience, can anyone say WILD?



Finally to round up this short routine so short it can barely be classed as a routine is The Body Shop's Almond Hand and Nail Cream which I got for free as I saw someone blog about a VoucherCode. This cream smells so nice and the tin packaging makes me feel like I'm fro ma different era even though I'm clearly not. Lastly is this Room and Linen Spray in Lavender and Chamomile from Avon; I spray this around my bed and near my pillow when I remember too and it's just a nice relaxing scent. Saying that though I once got a tad spray happy and when I put my head on the pillow I literally swore my chest was closing up which led to me sitting up for about 5 minutes drinking water and gasping for air. Why does drama follow me?

That's it for my bedtime routine and although I don't do it every night I like the idea of being an organised and routinely person even though my room is far from it and I am nearly always rushing. Do you use any products before you go to bed and do you actually stick to it?

Monday 2 December 2013

Nspa: Jasmine and White Musk Body Fragrance


Perfumes and body sprays aren't the type of thing I usually post about and I don't tend to take much notice of posts about them either because liking a scent is really all down to personal preference and you can't exactly take a picture of a smell (I'm going to claim full copyright for that future invention). However, this Jasmine and White Musk Body Fragrance by Nspa, available in Asda stores, is so blog worthy it's unreal. I unfortunately can't find this product online but it will be in the Nspa section at Asda with the Bathing Rituals range. Saying that, my mum originally found this in the clearance section for £2 due to it having damaged packaging and then we found another one again a few weeks later for having no lid (lucky for me eh heh).

This product says that it's a 'sensual, spa inspired scent of Mandarin, Pink Pepper and Jasmine with sophisticated tones of Musk and warm Amber' and also has Sandalwood oil in it. I can't even think of how I would describe this smell but, for a body spray, the scent is so strong and lasts for a good few hours which is unusual for a body spray. I've had several compliments on this spray and one friend mentioned how it reminds her of her mum's perfume which goes to show how noticeable the smell is. It just smells absolutely beautiful and I feel is quite a grown up smell but is completely wearable both for day through to night.

I do like to spray myself in the morning and then at least once throughout the day I top up to keep the smell noticeable and so because of this you can end up going through it quite quickly. I don't find this to be a problem as I believe the original, full price is something like £4/£5 and isn't as much as an investment as a perfume.

I've heard a lot about the actual perfumes from Nspa which comes in three scents: Orient, Bloom and Pure. I want to get my hands on Orient as how it is described seems like it will be the smell that will most resemble the Jasmine and White Musk body spray but hopefully be even stronger! You can read more about Nspa here as they claim to get an even more intense scent you can layer different products.

Have you tried any fragrances from Nspa or do you tend to stick to perfumes? What's your favourite scent to wear?