My Favourite Highlighters!

As Summer draws nearer and the weather slowly becomes hotter, I like to go for more of a dewy, glowy look within my makeup. A great way to achieve this is through the use of highlighting and in this post, I thought I'd share with you my favourite highlighters! 

Enjoy.

Benefit High Beam - £19.50

This is the only liquid highlighter that I own and I really love this one in particular because it has multiple uses. As well as using this highlighter alone, you can mix it with your favourite foundations to give you that beautiful radiant glow. As well as this, you really only need the smallest amount of product each time you use this highlighter so I feel as if this could honestly last for years! This is more on the pinker side as highlighting products go and has this beautiful pearlescent sheen to it. On the skin it looks soft and smooth and it blends effortlessly. This is great for an everyday, natural look. 

The Balm Mary Lou-Manizer - £17.50

You've probably heard a lot about this highlighter in the beauty community. This highlighter is from brand "The Balm" and the product aside, I just love the vintage packaging! This is more of a champagne kind of colour and I feel that this is in particular what makes it so flattering on lighter skin tones. The formula of this product is so fine and smooth and it blends like a dream on the skin. This is a highly pigmented product and you really aren't going to need a lot. It's also multi-purpose and can be used as an eyeshadow, too! This is probably my all time favourite highlighter - it's just that good!

Sleek Face Form Palette in Light - £9.99

This highlighter from Sleek is part of their Face Form palette which also contains a beautiful blush and contour shade. The highlighter is also fairly champagne toned in it's hue but it's not as intensely pigmented in it's shade as Mary Lou-Manizer is. It's very nicely pigmented particularly for a drugstore product and it blends well too. It's quite a shimmery highlight and so a little does go a long way and after having this for quite a while now, I've barely made an indent! I'd definitely recommend this whole palette as the other two products within it are amazing!

MUA Undress Your Skin in Pink Shimmer - £3.00

This is a great little highlighter from MUA - it looks beautiful in the pan and very shimmery - which on the skin, it definitely still is. This has a strong amount of pigmentation for such an affordable product and it applies and blends smoothly to the skin. Be warned however, you can definitely easily use too much of this and look a bit like a disco ball so for this one in particular, less is more! It doesn't last as long for me as the products mentioned above but it does last for a good few hours which I still think is impressive with all things considered.

So, there you have my favourite highlighters for that gorgeous, glowy-skinned look. I'd love to hear what your favourites are so please do comment below and tell me!

Thanks for reading.

Face of the Day #8: Utopia

Wow, 2 posts in one day - I'm a roll! Ha, anyway in this post I'm going to be doing a 'face of the day' which will feature my newest lip product: the Lime Crime Velvetine in the shade Utopia - a gorgeous purple-pink liquid lipstick. If it takes your fancy, you can also read my review of the product here as well!

Products Used:

Maybelline Baby Skin Primer - £7.99

Revlon ColorStay Foundation in Buff - £12.49

MUA Concealer Palette in Porcelain - £3.50

Pixi Correction Concentrate Concealer - £12.00

Naked 1 Palette from Urban Decay - £37.00

Bourjois Healthy Balance Powder in Vanille - £8.99

L'Oreal Telescopic in Black - £10.99

Milani Baked Blush in Luminoso - £4.49

Benefit Hoola Bronzer - £23.50
Anastasia Beverley Hills Dipbrow in Chocolate - £15.00

Lime Crime Velvetine in Utopia - £13.50

Liquid Lipsticks

Liquid lipsticks are a product that I've been enjoying for a while now. You get the pigmentation and finish of a lipstick with the ease of application that a gloss can provide you. For these reasons, they've been my go to lipsticks and in the beauty world they're becoming more and more popular.

So, in this post I thought I'd run through some of my personal favourites and tell you what each brand says about them!

MUA's Velvet Luxe Lip Lacquer, £3.00

" Long - lasting and kiss proof, these intense formulas come in five rich, vampy shades. Encased in chic frosted glass packaging, these lacquers glide on with the ease of a gloss, drying in seconds into a matte velvety texture. They are the ultimate make-up bag must have."

Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet Lipstick, £8.99

"Bold, matte and long-lasting colour with 24hr hold. It's lightweight, velvety texture and non-drying formula gives extreme comfort that doesn't smudge! From sassy reds to vibrant pinks and everyday nudes there is a colour to suit every occasion."

Lime Crime Velvetines, £12.50

"Ground-breaking formula that goes on liquid and dries completely matte. Touch-proof, transfer-proof, long-wearing and utterly addictive!"

Collection Cream Puff Lip Creams, £2.99

"Velvety soft, matt-finish lip cream. Enriched with a ultra-moisturising, vitamin-rich formula, the creamy colour hugs lips to give your pout the perfect powdery finish."

So that's my run down of my current favourite liquid lipsticks. Have you tried any of these or do you have any recommendations for me? I'd love to know!

Building Up Your Makeup Kit / Collection #4 - Highlighter.

Hey guys! In this post I will be continuing my 'Building Up Your Makeup Collection' posts this time moving on to highlighter!

1. Where and Why?

Highlighting is a great way to sculpt and well, highlight the face - it can help to give you a beautiful healthy glow as well as make points on your face look higher and therefore give you a more youthful appearance. It really is an effective and fairly easy addition to a makeup routine that I think makes a real difference to a look.

There are various places on the face you may want to highlight and for these areas you may find different kinds of highlighters work better for each. Places like the brow bone, the bridge of your nose and along the cheekbones are areas most people like to highlight.

2. Formulation and Finish:

Formulation and finish are two things I think you should really consider before purchasing or using a particular highlighting product. One of the main reasons for this is that different products work best for different people and you may therefore find a particular formulation easier to work with. Another reason is that you may find one particular finish a highlighter works a little better in a look than another.

Highlighters just like blushes and foundations come in various different formulations. The most common of these being liquid, cream and powder. You can also purchase highlighters in shimmery, pearlescent and matte finishes - and as I said, these finishes work better depending on the kind of look you are going for.

Cream highlighters come in pot or stick form and these are generally quite easy to work with. Their formulation and the colour of the particular highlight may also make them good primers or eyelid colours as well. Cream highlighters make for a more natural, subtle highlight and are easily to blend and manipulate.

Benefit's Watt's Up is a cream highlight that's perfect for that
naturual, subtle highlight!

Buy at ASOS for £24.50

(Photo credit: Google Images)

Liquid highlighters are of course a lot thinner in consistency compared to cream blushes and because of this they can be mixed with other liquid products such as your foundation or moisturiser. They can create a beautiful, subtle highlight all over the face and either mixed in with another product or used alone.

Benefit's High Beam is a great liquid highlighter. You can mix this product
with foundation and your moisturiser for an overall facial glow.

Buy at Boots £19.50

(Photo credit: Google Images)

Powder highlighters once again can be used as a eyeshadow colour if you so should desire and are generally the formulations with the strongest pigmentation. This means that it's easy to go overboard with then especially if they have a shimmery finish so it's always good to make sure you're not using a heavy hand when working with them.

MUA's Undress Your Skin Highlighter is a inexpensive and very
good quality highlight.

Buy at Superdrug for £3.00!

(Photo credit: Google Images)

In terms of finish and when you'd want to use them, it all really depends. Usually, on an eyeshadow look for instance, you'll generally want to use a matte powder highlight or simply something without shimmer in order to not over power the rest of the look - especially if you've already used shimmer. 

If you want a very glowy and summery look however, shimmer is great to give that effect as it makes you look very healthy and youthful - though of course, it's possible to go a little overboard so be wary! For something more subtle, go for something with less shimmery and moving towards more of matte finish.

3. Shade and Skintone:

When highlighting, especially along areas of the face such as the cheeks and nose, you may want to consider the colour of the highlighter you are using. Although the colours of them tend to be sheer on the skin, they do still provide a subtle tint and certain shades are more flattering on certain skin tones.

TheBalm's Mary-Luminizer is my current favourite highlighter,
perfect for light to medium skin tones!

Buy at FeelUnique.com for £16.00

(Photo Credit: Google Images)

As a girl who has more of a fairer skin tone, I really enjoy slightly yellow-toned champagne colours and pearly pinks. Peachy and deeper golden tones may work better for those of you who have medium-dark skin!

MAC's Mineralize SkinFinishes are great highlighters with shades
for all skin tones.

Buy at MAC for £23.00

(Photo Credit: Google Images)

** Concealers can also be used to highlight places such as a under the eyes and the high points of the face (think of the Kim K look). For that, you might want to get a concealer around 2-3 shades lighter than your skin tone! **

And so, that's everything I wanted to cover on the wonderful world of highlight. I hope that this post was interesting and helpful to you and as always, thank you for reading!

Building Your Makeup Kit / Collection #2 - Concealer.

So, this is going to be the second instalment in my series on basic products to have in your starter makeup collection. This particular post is going to be all about concealer, let's get started shall we?

1. Formula:

As with foundation, concealer comes in various different formulas / variations - the most common being cream, liquid and stick concealers. My personal favourites are cream and liquid concealers as I generally tend to prefer the finish and look of them.

Stick or twist up concealers may be something you'd want to look into as they do allow for fairly easy spot application and they are lot less messy compare to other types. This makes them quite handy for on the go and you don't really require any tools for application.

L'oreal's Lumi Magique Concealer is an example of a
pen / stick concealer. This particular one is
very highlighting so is good for application
under the eyes and high points of the face.
Buy at Boots for £8.99
(Photo credit: Google Images)

A lot of liquid and cream concealers are easy to work with and this is another reason why I prefer them. They are easy enough to apply and blend nicely because of their formulas and they won't drag or pull at the skin as some stick concealers can. I think there's a better element of control with cream and liquid concealers as well because you can choose yourself exactly how much product you want to use. Generally they also tend to have better coverage which we'll get into in a second...

2. Coverage:

Coverage is something you'll want to think about when purchasing a concealer. You may want a variation of 1 or 2 concealers for different purposes. For instance, for any blemish or acne you may want something a little more high coverage to really conceal them. For minor redness and blemishes something of a light to medium coverage will work well.

Collection's Lasting Perfection Concealer is a cult makeup product
for many. It has a great coverage for a liquid concealer
and it's really affordable too. This makes a really
nice staple concealer for everyday.
Buy at Boots for £4.19

(Photo credit: Google Images)

I have generally found that cream concealers have the most buildable coverage so these are what I tend to use on spots and more intense blemishes. Liquid concealers are generally a lot lighter (though they can still be buildable and there are some high coverage liquid concealers) and these are nice to use under the eyes and in areas around the face for a brightening effect.

Benefit's Erase Paste is a really great cream concealer.
It has an amazing coverage which is easily buildable if
you feel you need more and covers blemishes and darkness
well.
Buy at ASOS for £20.50

(Photo credit: Google Images)

3. Shade & Purpose

Recently, concealers of varying shades have really become popular in the makeup world. Different colours of concealer can help to more efficiently cancel out different kinds of discolouration in the skin - these are referred to as colour correcting concealers. For instance, green can help to cancel out redness and acne blemishes where as pink/peach tones are good for under eye bags and purple tones in the skin. 

Pixi's Correction Concentrate concealer is a peach toned concealer
that is great for cancelling out darkness around the eyes.
Buy at BeautyBay for £10.75

(Photo credit: Google Images)

As well as colour correcting concealers, choosing the colour of your 'normal' concealer is important too. Generaly, you'll want your concealer to be 1-2 shades lighter than you foundation / skin colour. This is because a lighter colour under commonly concealer places like the under eyes makes for a bright, highlighting effect which can really help to minimise the appear of darkness around the eyes and make you look healthier and more awake. 

*Applying this lighter colour concealer on the high points or your face like the bridge of your face and middle of the for heard can also help to give you that nice, bright glowy look*.

MUA's Pro-Base concealer palette is ideal for everyday use

it has 3 different shades for normal concealing as well highlighting.

This all helps to effectively conceal your face.

Buy on MUA's site for £3.50

(Photo credit: Google images)

Finally, you may want to opt for a shade of concealer that is more or less the same colour as your foundation. This comes in handy when tidying up makeup mistakes or simply to achieve a more polished look. It's great for defining your brow shape as well as tidying up eyeliner and eyeshadow.

So, that's pretty much everything I have to cover on the subject of concealer! Once again, I hope this post helped you and gave you some useful information. I also hope you're enjoying this series, thank you very much for reading!