FACE OF THE DAY // Smokey Heat

Hello everyone! Happy Monday - I hope you've all had a good weekend and whilst I know it's a day most of us dread the arrival of, I hope your Monday is good too. Today I'm here with a face of the day post featuring a smokey look utilising my Naked Heat palette from Urban Decay. I love doing a smokey eye look on myself and I really think it's one of the most flattering and actually easy to axheive eye looks you can do. 

Beauty Best Of | Rimmel

Being quite the makeup junkie, I have naturally accrued and tried several products in my time. I have also tried several brands and my avid makeup obsession has allowed me to be quite familiar with certain brands and what they have to offer. With that in mind, I thought it would be good to create a series focusing on a brand and showing what I believe to be some of their best products. I'm also considering maybe creating another series in which I also share a brands worst products - let me know if you'd be interested in seeing that!

So, today I'll be focusing on the best of Rimmel - a hugely popular, British company founded back in 1883. With famous faces such as Kate Moss promoting them, the brand sells their cosmetics in well known British stores such as Boots and Superdrug. The brand also sell their products internationally in countries such as the USA, Spain and Canada with prices ranging generally from about £3-8.

My Oldest Makeup Product

Browsing on Bloglovin' one day, I found a great post full of awesome ideas for blog posts. One of those ideas was to write about your oldest makeup product and after rooting round my collection, I found mine and thought I'd share it's background with you today and maybe give you an insight into why I have kept it for so long.

So, my oldest makeup item is a Rimmel Stay Glossy lip gloss that I purchased about 4-5 years ago back in year 11 of secondary school. I purchased that along with lots of other makeup as part of preparation for my prom. (Now, before i got any further, don't worry I don't actually use this product anymore and haven't done for a quite a while!) As you can see, it's pretty beat up too so it's not the nicest looking product in my collection..

After many occasions of cleaning out my makeup collection, I somehow could never bring myself to throw this little lip gloss away. I guess in many ways it's because it symbolises an important time in my life that I like to keep ahold of in some way. Cheesy, I know. My prom was pretty much for the first time in my teenage years that I felt truly beautiful - I'd always been that kind of normal, "nothing special about her" kind of girl and prom to me symbolised the first moment that I truly began to feel like me. I'd never really worn makeup much nor had I even worn a dress or heels before - and while these things definitely do not define you as a woman (and while I hate heels to this day), on the day of my prom they were tools that made me feel confident and made me feel good about myself. Dressing so differently and putting myself out there in a way that you do at a prom gave me the confidence to continue to do so from that day forward and every day from then I have become a little bit more comfortable with myself and with expressing that. 

That lipgloss represents my youth - a time in which I hadn't truly found myself nor felt comfortable to share it with the world even if I had. It represents to me change, growth and development and it reminds me each day that things get better and that you can learn to love yourself and be comfortable with who you are. And I suppose that's why I keep hold of it, it's a reminder of how much I've changed and how much I'll continue to change - though it may just be a very out of date tube of pink lip gloss, what it represents to me is far, far more.

What's your oldest makeup product and what does it mean to you?

Face of the Day: Bronze and Berry Tones

Hey everyone! I'm officially on my Easter holidays from Uni and while I've still got some work I need to be doing over it, I do have more time I can dedicated to blogging!

So with that, in todays post I thought I'd do a face of the day. In this look I'm using one of my favourite combinations: bronze and berry tones. I think a bronze smokey eye looks so beautiful on any eye and a berry lip is one of my most loved colours.

Products Used:

L'Oreal Nude Magique Blur Cream | £9.99

Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation in Ivory | £8.99

Maybelline The Eraser Concealer | £7.99

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in Transparent | £3.99

Revlon Powder Blush in Haute Pink | £7.99

Benefit Hoola Bronzer | £23.50

Anastasia Beverley Hills DipBrow Pomade in Chocolate | £15.00

Maybelline Brow Drama in Dark Brown | £4.99

Urban Decay Naked Palette | £38.00

Milani Colour Statement Lipstick in Sangria | £7.95

My Current Top 5 Foundations for Dry Skin

Having dry and sensitive skin sucks. Being a girl that enjoys wearing makeup with this skin type sucks even more because that can sometimes prove difficult with certain products. 

For a while now, I've been on the hunt for the perfect foundation that won't emphasise dryness but will also be gentle on my skin and help to conceal redness and blemishes like a foundation should. In this post, I'm gonna share with you my top 5... enjoy!

From L to R:
Mac Studio Fix Fluid, Rimmel Lasting Finish 25 Hour,
Revlon ColourStay, Bourjois Healthy Mix,
Rimmel Wake Me up

1. MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC20 - £21.50

This for me is a pretty full coverage foundation and it can be quite oily in finish. So, it's definitely not one for acne prone skin, but for my dry skin - I love it. I think that it covers blemishes really well and for me, it lasts the whole day. You definitely have to blot and powder once or twice but other than that, I really like this foundation. There's a not an amazing colour range in MAC foundations for those of us with paler skin but this is a decent match for me (I'm an NC20).

2. Rimmel Last Finish 25 Hours in Soft Beige - £7.99

This is a foundation that I have only recently come to try but have heard a lot about. It's a full coverage foundation and though the shade I bought is a little too dark, it oxidises on the skin over time and doesn't look that obvious. It blends nicely and covers blemishes and uneven skin well. Though 25 hours is probably a bit of a push, from wearing it during full days of Uni, I can certify that it does last well. It's great for my dry skin and it doesn't cling to problem areas which I like.

3. Revlon Colour Stay in Buff - £12.49

This was a saviour for my skin when it was at its worst - it covers redness incredibly well for a drug store foundation providing you with a buildable full coverage that doesn't feel heavy. It blends well and lasts for a long time on the skin. It also comes in different formulas depending on your skin type so this is one that anyone can use.

4. Bourjois Healthy Mix in 52, Vanilla - £10.99

You've probably heard a lot about this one, particularly because it's supposed to be a brilliant dupe to Chanel's Vitalumiere Aqua foundation. Whilst I've not tried the Chanel version, I really love this foundation and have done for quite a few years now. It feels so light on the skin and it gives a finish that actually looks like skin, too. It's not cakey and blends like a dream whilst still covering uneven skin tones and redness well. A great Summer foundation.

5. Rimmel Wake Me Up  in Ivory -  £8.99

This foundation provides me with about a medium coverage yet it stills feels really nice and light on the skin. It has this lovely sort of shimmer within it with gives the face a fresh, dewy glow. Now when I say shimmer, I definitely don't mean glitter so don't worry, I just mean well, glowy. This range has a nice choice of colours for the paler girl and it also has a good staying power, too. This has been my go-to foundation lately and I can definitely see it staying in my collection.

And that's it for my top 5, what would be your picks?