The Travelling Eye Makeup Products

I have been slacking so much with my blog recently that I think I may have actually redefined the word 'slacker'. I haven't had much time to blog as me and my mum have been house-hunting for a place for us two and my brother so over the past few weeks we've been viewing different houses which takes up quite a bit of the day travelling around having a little look. On the other days I've been at college and work and I am seriously unorganised so hats off to people who have busy lives and stick to a blogging schedule. Also I reached 200 followers a few weeks ago which is crazy so thank you to everyone who has followed!

Continuing on with the travelling makeup theme I bring you the last post (I bet everyone is thinking "finally, it's ending") in the mini series but this time focusing on what I took away with me for my eyes and the little hairs otherwise known as eyebrows; the other posts I did were on face and base products and lipsticks.

EYEBROWS

Maybelline Brow Drama Sculpting Mascara, Dark Brown- £4.99

When I first bought this product (review here) I was unsure as to whether I would get much use out of it but now it is a product I reach for on most days as it really sets my eyebrows into place and is especially useful now that I've been creating a much fuller shape with my eyebrows.

Natural Collection Eyeshadow, Crushed Walnut- £1.79

This is the powder I've been using to fill in my eyebrows non-stop for absolutely months now, the colour match is perfect and lasts all day which is essential as I don't really want to have half a eyebrow. I fill my eyebrows in a lot darker than the natural hairs regardless of whether it's day or night time but could be used sparingly to create a natural look or applied more heavily for a more dramatic and bold making it so versatile.

Rimmel Eyebrow Pencil, Dark Brown- £2.99

I use this pencil to firstly create the outline of the shape I want my eyebrows to be and then follow with the powder and brow gel to top it off. I couldn't be without the pencil as I find the powder doesn't work well directly on my skin where I like to extend my eyebrow up (this sounds remotely odd) whereas the pencil stays put.

GENERAL

Miss Sporty Studio Lash Incrediball, Extra Black- £2.99

I've been using this mascara non-stop since I bought it in February and find it gives me defined eyelashes and can be easily layered without clumping now I've mastered how to use the wand; I reviewed this mascara here and, for me, is a do it all product.

Soap and Glory Supercat Eyeliner- £6

I only used this liner once as I always get nervous that I will ruin the eyeshadow I've spent a good few minutes applying and blending by creating a monstrous flick but this felt tip liner provides an intense black colour with long-lasting power when paired with primer. 

E.L.F Essentials Eyelid Primer, Sheer- £1.95

I honestly would not be able to wear eyeshadow without this product as my eye makeup creases and wears off so quickly without a base. This is incredibly easy to apply as you just need to swipe some product onto your eyelid and then blend it out with your finger, allow it a few seconds to dry and then apply your eye products over the top. If you were ever thinking of buying Urban Decay's Primer Potion I would definitely recommend trying this primer out first as I wish I never bothered buying Urban Decay's offering as e.l.f's does an equally, if not better, job!

EYESHADOW PALETTES

MUA Undress Me Too Palette- £4

I love this palette and brought it along because I wasn't sure what shades I would use and bringing this meant I had a lot of choice. The only shade I ended up using was the matte shade Naked (the far left shade on the top row) as it is so useful for helping to blending out harsh edges as it is the same shade as my skin tone making the process a lot easier.

MUA Undressed Palette- £4

I didn't wear any eyeshadow during the day but at night I wore three shades on my eyes (ain't nobody got time for creative eyeshadow choices) from this palette: Shade 2, the second shade from the left on the top row, a shimmery pink used as my base colour, Shade 8, underneath Shade 2, an olivey brown placed on my outer corners, and then Shade 10, the fourth shade from the left on the bottom row, a dark shimmery brown, used to deepen the outer v.

I hope people enjoyed this little collection of posts I did and seeing the products I chose to take with me makes me realise that I could make do with so much less makeup than I own, but that wouldn't be any fun at all, let's face it.

Would any of these products been in your makeup kit when travelling? What items would you take for your eye makeup?

The Travelling Base/Face Products

I recently did a post on the five lipsticks I took with me while I was away in Lincoln, which you can read here, and today's post is going to be on the products I took with me for my base makeup including foundations, concealer, powders, blushers, contour and highlighters. I was originally going to include eye and eyebrow products as well but realised the post would quite possibly be longer than the River Nile (Geography Goddess in the building) and so the final post on these items will be up later in the week.

Having to pack lightly made me realise which products I truly love enough to take on a journey with and accompany me, think of them as my children but in cosmetic form. Or don't. Admittedly that would be kind of hard to imagine.

FOUNDATIONS AND CONCEALER

Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation, 100 Ivory- £6.99

For day time wear I prefer a light/medium coverage and this foundation is exactly that while giving a really healthy, dewy finish to the skin. I mentioned this foundation in more detail here (forgive me for my lack of detail, I WAS YOUNG AND UNAWARE).

Revlon Colorstay Foundation, 150 Buff- £12.49

For nights out I prefer a heavier coverage foundation as I find my base has to look more perfect if I'm wearing more makeup so it all comes together better. A dewy finish to the skin would just translate into 'greasy mess' on camera and so that's why I brought two foundations with me. I did a post on this foundation in more detail here.

Maybelline Better Skin Concealer, 02 Light- £5.99

This was the only concealer I took with me and it was a bit of a risk considering I'd only owned it for a few days beforehand but that is how much I felt I loved it. This was perfect and so good for covering my dark circles but I did wish I had taken along a Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer with me to cover up spots as my skin decided to be really nice and give me some hideous ones, thanks life. I did a post on this concealer in more detail here.

POWDERS

Collection Sheer Loose Powder, Translucent- £2.99

This is the only face powder I own as my other Rimmel ones broke (so traumatising) a few months ago and I decided to use this powder up completely before buying any other face powders so I didn't have any choice which to take. This does the job at setting my makeup and mattifies the skin but is so bulky and makes it such a pain to shove in your bag, also it makes such a mess, or maybe I'm just disastrous when it comes to loose powders.

Soap and Glory Kick Ass Concealer Setting Powder, Light- £10.00

Honestly you're probably thinking 'what on earth is that monstrosity on the right?' and I won't blame you; basically I bought the Kick Ass concealer quite some time ago but the screw fell out that held the little compartments together and for the longest time I left the product sitting there on my windowsill, not getting any use out of it, until I decided to have a go using the powder to see if it would stop my concealer creasing. After using it I was so impressed with the lack of creasing under my eyes and have been using it ever since, I'm aware I'm probably violating hygiene rules (I did consider wrapping cling film round it haha) but I'm not sure what else to use as an under eye setting powder?! Any suggestions are welcomed with open arms unless you're afraid of personal contact with a stranger.

BLUSHERS

Sleek Blush By 3, Lace- £9.99

It only made sense to me to bring along this palette, not only for the three completely different shades but also the massive mirror which, by the way, turned out to be so useful, yes I was one of  those annoying girls who was doing their makeup on the train half-asleep. I mentioned in a post previously how I don't seem to get much use out of this palette (here) but really wanted to make an effort to use it more and now I seem to wear the colours a lot which I'm really pleased about as the pigmentation is insane.

Seventeen Blush, First Flush- £3.49

As the Lace palette doesn't contain a matte pink shade I brought along this blusher as it's also highly pigmented and is such a lovely colour; I've owned this blusher for quite a while now and am planning on doing an individual review on it as I never hear much about Seventeen blushers.

CONTOUR AND HIGHLIGHT

Sleek Contour Kit, Light- £6.49

Does seeing the pan in the bronzer bring joy to your heart? No? Just me then. For a contour product this is the only powder that came to mind as other bronzers I have I feel lean too orange to work as a contour. The fact this palette comes with the loveliest highlighter as well made life so much easier, as a huge highlighter fan I really didn't know which to take with me so just brought this duo to save space.

George at Asda Under Eye Concealer, Light- £4.50

This product is a highlighter/concealer hybrid but I personally use it for highlighting as the pinkish tone doesn't work well with my skin tone to conceal but love blending it on my brow bone and into the inner corners of my eyes as it instantly brightens my face. I did a post on this concealer in more detail here.

So that's everything I took for my base and face products, to be honest I really don't think I brought that much with me considering my huge makeup collection haha! Also sorry for the seemingly endless linking back to other posts I've done, I thought it'd be easier to click the link if you wanted to read it rather than looking around on my blog, it's not a shameless plug.

Would you take any of these items away with you? What are your makeup travel essentials?

Maybelline SuperStay Better Skin Concealer

I have always struggled with blueness under my eyes and have never been satisfied with concealers; I have tried a whole range claiming to be the ultimate dark circle banisher but never got the results I wanted mainly because it's not darkness as such that I suffer from. On a trip to Asda I was side-tracked by the makeup aisle (as always) and kept noticing the Maybelline SuperStay Better Skin Concealer, I recalled seeing a review likening this concealer to that of Mac's Pro Longwear and after sending out a tweet seeing if anyone had tried it I was kindly told by @MyBeautyNotes that it had an orange undertone, therefore counteracting blue, and I was sold.

The concealer comes in only two shades, Light Beige and Medium Beige, in which I have Light Beige, while selling at £5.99 for 11ml. This is marketed as a skin perfecting concealer and says it gives 'instantly flawless natural-looking coverage' and is in a plastic, old-school lipgloss tube which makes squeezing the product out a lot easier and more hygienic than a wand. A little goes a long way with this concealer and a few times I have made the mistake of getting too much product out meaning I have to blend, blend, blend it away, however it doesn't go cakey nor does it make my under eyes look clogged or creased. I love a dewy finish to my skin and I would agree that the concealer gives a natural-looking finish to the skin even with its amazing coverage.

I tried the concealer as soon as I got home and I was so impressed with it, it erased pretty much all of my blueness, I was so excited and happy but didn't want to get my hopes up straight away. I've now been using it for nearly 3 weeks and it is my favourite under eye concealer by far, I took it away with me to Lincoln (hands up who wants to murder me the next time I mention Lincoln?) as my only concealer and it banished the crazy, over-tired circles from my eyes.

The only issue with this concealer is that due to it's tone it can look a bit odd if you go too over-the-top with it as it does look orange against my foundation, however, I just solve this issue by using my foundation brush with the leftover foundation on it and working it around my eye area to blend the colour nicely. Due to this the concealer wouldn't work for concealing spots as it would be fairly obvious where you had concealed but for me this is no problem as I did not want it to be a multi-tasking concealer. I'd say if you are have really fair skin then the orange tone may be quite difficult to blend but as I have a yellow undertone it isn't as noticeable as I imagine it to be on a pink undertone, but I could be wrong.

I set this with the powder from Soap and Glory's Kick Ass Concealer and I notice only very minimal creasing towards the end of a long day which is amazing as every concealer I've tried, even when set, seems to crease on me like crazy which is highly soul-destroying. In terms of the lack of creasing I really can't say if it's the concealer itself or the powder as I started using it at the same time as the concealer so it's worth keeping in mind.

You should be able to see the orangey tone left on my arm, this also shows how far a little amount goes!

Why do seriously good results never translate well in photos? The top picture is in sunlight but it doesn't show how effective the concealer is and the bottom picture is in bathroom lighting (classy) but shows the effect better

I would definitely recommend this concealer and, even if you find it doesn't work for you, it is only £5.99 and is worth the gamble, my mum wants the concealer as well now and so we're going to pick up the darker shade for her.

Have you tried this concealer yet? I am now interested in the matching foundation too so am going to spend some of my night researching it, I am basically a scientist minus the science and the full-blown investigation. And the brains.

Maybelline Brow Drama Sculpting Mascara

When I first heard about the Maybelline Brow Drama Sculpting Brow Mascara I was so excited as I am a huge eyebrow enthusiast and I had visions of it shaping and filling in my eyebrows in one easy swipe. At £4.99 I would say it's a reasonable price but think it could be cheaper, but that's probably just me crying over trying to save money.

My opinions on this product are a bit mixed and I've been using it to try and work out whether I like it or not but just can't decide. I fill my eyebrows in every single day that I do my makeup and wouldn't dream of leaving them how they are naturally as they are quite light compared to the hair on my head and are also quite sparse. This product is disappointing for me personally in that, when used by itself, a full and thick brow isn't achieved and it kind of took me by surprise at how little colour it adds. However, on the Boots website it is described as a finishing touch for eyebrows which brings me onto my next point; I've been using this gel after having already filled in my eyebrows to smooth out the hairs and make the shape more precise and I find that it holds them in place much better than my MUA clear mascara that I used to use.

It claims to have a 'no clump formula' but I feel like the ball end of the wand can pick up too much product and, if I forget to wipe the excess off, it ends up putting too much in the beginning part of my eyebrows and it goes quite hard and stiff which is just a nightmare. It does leave my eyebrows quite crispy feeling, not in an annoying way but in a way that I can tell I've put something through them which could be a negative for some people.

I bought mine in the shade Dark Brown which is the darkest of the three shades available but I really wouldn't say this is that dark at all and I could seriously do with the colour being a few more shades darker to get the look I like. If you have quite fair eyebrows then this could do the job for you and would give a little definition. Similarly, if you don't like a really overdone eyebrow this product would be great just to add a bit of a tint and to tame them but I would say to avoid this if you want them to be heavy and a standout feature.

To sum up this whirlwind of thoughts this product is good for a finishing product when used carefully so lives up to some of the claims but don't expect it to be an all-in-one wonder product as it is definitely something I could live without.

Maybelline Baby Lips in Pink Punch

I am annoyed. I gave in and bought a Maybelline Baby Lips. I ALREADY OWN AN EXCESSIVE AMOUNT OF LIP BALMS. I INFURIATE MYSELF.

Anyway, moving on, I bought mine in the shade (shade doesn't feel right for this but never mind) Pink Punch while I was queuing at Superdrug and noticed they'd filled a shelf display full of all the Baby Lips and, in true Dani style, I thought 'what the heck' and picked it up. Oh the drama.

The Baby Lips are priced at £2.99 which I think is really good because there is a lotttt of product which will last ages. You can buy them here from Boots but also places like Superdrug and supermarkets with a beauty section should stock them too.

I really like the smell of Pink Punch and it sort of reminds me of Hubba Bubba Strawberry Gum (flashback to childhood begging) or just a fruity scent in general. It has a smooth consistency and I like to use it in the morning while I'm doing the rest of my makeup so my lips will be nizzzze and smooth when it comes to putting on my lipstick.

I wish I picked up one of the non-tinted shades because it is way too sheer for my preference and so it was pointless me buying a coloured version as I use lipstick everyday. I think this colour would be good for those wanting a slight hint but nothing too much but I find, on me, I can't really see the colour on myself.

In all honesty it's just a standard lip balm that has received a lot of attention and so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it but, then again, I can't think of any stand out lip balms that I own because my lips don't get that cracked or dry. Perhaps in the Winter I'll be able to tell if it lives up to its claims of moisturising for 8 hours and will be enlightened. I do however think this is a good, basic lip product to own just because it's handy and the fact it has an SPF of 20 is always beneficial.