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?

Affordable Eyebrows

I've been into eyebrows for about a year I'd say and, since then, I've been through phases that I just can't think about because it makes me cringe so much i.e. filling them in waaay too dark with an eyebrow pencil to completely messing up the shape of them. I still love having defined eyebrows and feel that they are a really important part of my makeup routine and have found certain products that work really well for me and I wouldn't change. All of the items are use are so cheap and I personally don't see the need in buying an expensive matte Mac eyeshadow or Benefit's Brow Zing kit.

The first item I use is Rimmel's Professional Eyebrow Pencil in the shade Dark Brown; I don't use this pencil to fill in my eyebrows anymore as I prefer the look of powder but use the brush on the lid to sort my eyebrows out in the morning. If I could only use this eyebrow pencil however I would be able to make it work by using the pencil lightly and brushing through them to give a less harsh look. For £2.99 this item is so handy and lasts forever and is something I have repurchased several times.

I've had eyebrow kits in the past from MUA and a brand at Tesco but only ever used the darkest shade and so didn't get my use out of the lighter shades or the gel/wax and so that was when I decided to start looking at matte brown eyeshadows instead. The first one I bought was MUA's Matte Eyeshadow in Shade 19 and it literally is the most perfect shade for my eyebrows as I like to enhance the colour and go a bit darker. This eyeshadow costs £1 (oh my word it brings tears to my eyes) and has also lasted me so long. This eyeshadow doubles up well as an eyeshadow crease colour as well so you can get so much use out of it.

Another really good colour match I've found is Natural Collection's Eyeshadow in Crushed Walnut which is £1.79 so is a bit more expensive than MUA's option but Natural Collection often do a 3 for £5 offer so it'd be worth picking up then.

Finally, the brush I use to fill in my eyebrows is EcoTools Flat Eyeliner Brush (gosh I'm so wild using an eyeliner brush for my eyebrows) and I literally just wiggle it in either eyeshadow and then tap off the excess and brush it through my eyebrows following the direction the hairs grow. I used to use an angled eyeliner brush but it became slightly mangled so I bought this one and find I can create a better shape because it's sturdier and all one length. At £5.49 this is the most expensive product I use for my eyebrows but any sort of fairly dense angled or flat brush would work exactly the same.

From left to right: MUA's 19, Natural Collection's Crushed Walnut, Rimmel's Dark Brown

As an extra finishing touch I do use Maybelline's Brow Drama Sculpting Mascara in Dark Brown and find it really set my eyebrows and so have been reaching for it daily (even after my mixed review) but feel it isn't necessary unless your eyebrows are cray cray wild.

Do you use an eyeshadow or do you prefer using a kit for your eyebrows?

Recent Lipstick Purchases

Good grief, I haven't blogged in nearly two weeks (gasps of horror fill the room)! When I broke up from college for half term I was planning on being Miss Blog'O'Mighty until I went into work one day, checked my shifts and saw I was working every day apart from one so my plans were foiled and, even on my day off, I was ill, curse you immune system x 5694503.

Recently I have managed to control my lipstick buying habit and have only bought three in the past few weeks with two being by Natural Collection and one from the Rimmel Kate Moss Matte range.

 Left: Pink Mallow    Right: Rose Petal

When on a work lunch break I was cruising the aisles of Boots and decided I wanted some nudey, plain lipsticks as I don't own many and so went to the Natural Collection stand as they only cost £1.99. The shades I bought were Pink Mallow, a mauvey, powdery sort of pink and Rose Petal, a peachy, coral nude. Unfortunately I hate the texture of these lipsticks and feel like the formula clumps on my lips and just looks really unattractive and so I haven't been reaching for them since purchasing them, but, the other shades I own apply well so I think the brand is a bit hit and miss in terms of quality. Rose Petal does not show up on my lips at all which is a shame as it looks like such a nice shade on my hand but I think the colour is just too light even though my lips aren't that pigmented anyway so heck knows what's going on there.

Aah I bought yet another Rimmel lipstick from the Kate Moss Matte range as I am already a fan of 107 and 110 but this time bought the shade 111 Kiss Of Life. I felt like I owned a lot of different reddy toned lipsticks (50 shades of red) but not a true, pin-up red and this lipstick instantly came to mind. I love this lipstick and, although I feel like a red lip makes me look a tad bit overdressed for day-to-day life, I wore it to work (wow true daredevil) and found it lasted well throughout the day but did need some touching up as it faded slightly in the centre. I don't know what took me so long to pick up this lipstick but am so glad I did as it's really suited for the Autumn and Winter months. I was originally thinking about buying a Mac red lipstick but have saved myself a fair bit of dollar with this lipstick only being £5.49 and a Mac lipstick being £15.

From left to right: Natural Collection Pink Mallow, Natural Collection Rose Petal, Rimmel 111

Have you bought any lipsticks recently or have you tried any of the above shades? Also, the photos in this post are awful and the lighting is so off but there is only so much a girl can do with a windowsill, sheets of A4 paper, an iPhone 4 and a grey, overcast sky! Could anyone please recommend a good but reasonably priced camera I could buy that would be good for focusing on products when with a busier background and maybe with some like auto-adjust colour settings or something?! I am not a technical kind of person and need guidance in my time of need plz plz plz.

Rimmel Foundation Comparisons: Match Perfection, Wake Me Up and Lasting Finish

I recently realised that I own four Rimmel foundations/BB creams (this wasn't a conscious decision these things just happen okay?!) and thought it would be interesting to compare them against each other and give an overview of each (flashback to comparing and contrasting in GCSE English). I own the Match Perfection, Wake Me Up and Lasting Finish foundation and also the BB Cream, however, I won't be talking about the BB Cream as I just completely did not get on with it and I feel it isn't as easily comparable as the other three are to one another.

I love the classy packaging of these products and the fact they are glass makes them feel a lot more expensive than they actually are. Also I love how they are colour coordinated in that the lids match the colours used on the bottle and so look nice when being stored.

The Match Perfection Foundation is my most recent Rimmel foundation purchase but I really like it and am enjoying using it so far. It feels incredibly lightweight on the skin, unlike the Lasting Finish foundation, and applies evenly to my face without sticking to any drier areas or moving around on oilier areas. I love wearing this for an everyday base as my skin still looks like skin and is left with a nice, fresh look. I wouldn't say it gives 'an illuminated glow' as it so claims but I would not class this as a negative because I like the finish of it. I use my Rimmel Stay Matte Powder to set the foundation on my t-zone but leave the rest of my face unpowdered when using this and find it stays put regardless. It has a very similar fruity scent to the Wake Me Up foundation which I actually like but know that other people may find this off-putting, in which case, the Lasting Finish foundation may be better as it does not have much of a scent. I either use my fingers, Real Techniques Expert Face Brush or Cosmopolitan Blending Sponge to apply this depending on how I feel and the amount of time I have in the morning. This foundation comes in eleven different shades of which I chose shade 100 Ivory which isn't actually the lightest shade for once (shock, horror) and instead it being 010 Light Porcelain. I would really recommend this foundation for people with normal skin types and perhaps dry as well but possibly not for oily skins as I don't think the seemingly moisturising formula would work well.

Next is the Wake Me Up foundation, one which I adored and then hated and now cry about because I want to be able to use it but can't. When I first bought this it was amazing, it gave my face a really nice glow and was the right amount of coverage for my normal skin at the time, however, after about four months of using it my face began getting incredibly oily and so I began changing my foundation and looking for one that would last against my oiliness. After what seemed like forever my skin settled down and is now only occasionally oily and so I have retried this foundation several times but it looks awful on me! It doesn't last on my skin, it makes me look overly shiny and also the shade I have which is 100 Ivory (again) is too dark for me even though it is the lightest out of the six available. I know so many people love this foundation and so I definitely think it is my skin that does not suit it but, saying that, I own and have repurchased the matching concealer several times and really enjoy using it. I do however love the smell and packaging of this foundation and think the orange looks really appealing and summery and matches the claims of giving 'a radiant glow'. This foundation, as I'm sure most people know, has shimmer in it that isn't incredibly noticeable on the skin but could be a problem for some people if they want a matte finish in which case the Lasting Finish foundation would be much better suited.

Lastly is the Lasting Finish foundation which I can't quite make my mind up about if I like it or not. I first bought it as I wanted to try a higher coverage foundation and, upon using this, found it completely masked my skin and gave a clean base to work on. However, after using it more and more I found that it actually felt sticky on my skin which I hate as I don't want to feel like I'm wearing makeup even if you can tell that I am. My hair becomes stuck to my face and also bits of dust (how weird do I sound right now?) stick as well and don't seem to want to be removed which gets very annoying. However, since trying it again, I have found that if I use just the right amount of product then it does not give me the sticky feeling and it looks nice on the skin but, unfortunately, I do not own a laboratory where I can measure out quantities every morning before applying. I do find that this foundation tends to gather in certain places, such as around the bottom of my nose, and also wears off near my mouth and so I can't say it lives up to its claim of lasting 25 hours. I would however use this foundation for when I am going out in the evening or at night and my skin is looking particularly bad and I want to cover it, but, after trying the Match Perfection, I will not be choosing to wear this as a day time foundation any time soon. I also bought this in the shade 100 Ivory (do you see a theme here?) however there are only six shades to choose from in this particular range.

From left to right: Match Perfection, Wake Me Up and Lasting Finish

One thing that confuses me with these foundations is how all of the ones I own I have bought in the shade Ivory yet they all differ slightly even though they are made by the same company. The Wake Me Up shade definitely seems too dark for me even after being blended but the Match Perfection and Lasting Finish shades blend into my skin very well.

I love how both the Match Perfection and Wake Me Up foundations have SPF in them; Match Perfection has factor 18 and Wake Me Up has 15. Although the Lasting Finish does not this can easily be counteracted with a daily face moisturiser with SPF but is worth considering if you want a multi-functioning product.

The Wake Me Up foundation I feel everyone, apart from those with oily skin, should try at least once because it is quite a different foundation to others available in the 'drugstore' and does give a fresh glow and so also making it a good choice for younger girls wanting to wear an everyday foundation.

The Lasting Finish foundation would be perfect I feel for someone who is seeking a buildable, higher coverage foundation and doesn't mind the feeling of having foundation on their skin or those who do not feel it but probably would not be recommend for those with dry skin as I can imagine this foundation to cling to dry patches and emphasise them.

My definite favourite out of these three foundations is the Match Perfection due to its lightweight feel, easy application and quick blending time and I feel would be suitable for all skin types other than oily.

Do you have a favourite out of these three foundations or do you prefer the BB Cream or Stay Matte Foundation offered by Rimmel?