My Pay Day WIshlist

Pay Day may still be just over a week away, but I am a girl who likes to be prepared! Therefore I have begun to put together my wishlist of what to splurge my money on. It consists of a mix of high end and high street items but all I have been lusting after for a while. Here are just a few, unfortunately the list has grown out of control so I'm unable to share them all!

Firstly, it's an item from MAC

I love MAC lipsticks, they are always of a brilliant quality and are so durable. I don't own many as they are slightly out of my price range to buy often, but as a little treat to myself they are very nice. I have had my eye on shade New York Apple for ages now and so I think I am going to have to treat myself to it. Looking on their website today they are showing as currently being out of stock, I hope this isn't for long!

Makeup Revolution

Literally every eye palette from this new brand! I have read such great reviews on this brand, with all eyeshadows having great pigmentation and longevity and I just love all the eye palettes that I have seen from them. Even better, they are super affordable!! The eye palettes like the ones shown above are only £4 each, £4!!! That's an amazing price! This whole brand is worth looking at though when it comes to good quality makeup for an incredibly low price as their lipsticks start from only £1. This brand is currently only available from Superdrug online but they are definitely worth having a look at.

Real Techniques

All my brushes are starting to get a bit old now so I am looking to get some new, good quality ones. I keep reading such amazing reviews about Real Techniques recently and so I really want to have some of my own. Pictured is the core collection and I think this would be great as a starting point for a new brush set. It includes a detailer brush for applying concealer, a pointed foundation brush for liquid foundation, a buffing brush for powder or mineral foundation and a contour brush. This is available for £20.99 from FeelUnique and there is no doubt that I will be owning this in the very near future!

Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet

I have read review after review about these new lip colours from Bourjois and I am yet to read any that paint them in a bad light. They look so incredible on the lip and dry to a perfect matte finish, which is my favourite lip look at the moment. My must-have of the collection is 06 Pink Pong, which is the one shown on the far right of the picture. It is such a bright, vivid pink and I think it will look perfect now the weather is hotting up (finally).

So there's just a few from my current wishlist, hopefully I shall be the proud owner of these in the very near future! Are any of them also in your wishlist? If not, what beauty products are you lusting after right now?

Subtle make-up looks - Wedding day!

So, with the wedding rapidly approaching (in case you missed it, it's my brother's not mine!) my mum and my aunt have asked me to do them some subtle but pretty make- up for the big day. As they are complete newcomers to make-up I was a bit nervous about using different products and styles on them on the morning of the wedding without trying them on them beforehand, so have started experimenting with some basic make-up looks on them. Understandably they didn't want anything to heavy for the day, partly because I think it would be a massive shock to the family as it is if they are seen with make-up on! So I tried to really tone it down.

Last night I tried out some looks on my aunt for the first time, it was actually a really fun evening! She has quite dark eyelids and under-eyes naturally and so she just wanted to lighten them and even out the colour as well as give a nice even glow to her face in general, so these are the products I used:

Firstly I applied the Garnier Caffeine Roll-on to her under-eye area. I love this product because it works immediately as well as long term; it has a subtle nude pigment (you do have to pat it in slightly with your ring finger) which instantly conceals any dark circles whilst the caffeine in it works to fight their appearance long term. Here's a swatch so you can see what I mean by the pigment, bear in mind this is just rolled on, I haven't blotted it in to the skin in the picture:

It is quite thin so really easy to pat in to the skin and doesn't leave it looking cakey under your eyes.

I then applied a CC cream to her entire face. I chose a CC cream over a foundation as they are much lighter and so would look softer on her face. The one I used is from Beauty UK and is in shade 20 Fawn. It gives a lovely even cover to the face and is the perfect texture to blend in to those tricky areas around the nose and eyes.

I then set this with Rimmel Clear Complexion Powder in Translucent as mentioned in my earlier blog post here. I applied this incredibly lightly with a chunky powder brush and it suited her face a lot better than it suited mine! Then a quick brush of Avon Illuminating Face Pearls to brighten her face and add a little colour.

I love these pearls, they give a gorgeous shimmer and highlight perfectly without being heavy in any way.

And then it was just her eyes to do!

I applied some Benefit Stay Don't Stray in shade light/medium just over the eyelid up to the brow to hold all the eye products in place and then applied a light pink illuminator (I think I got this in a set from The Body Shop YEARS ago!) to highlight her brows to make her eyes look more open. Then Mac Eyeshadow in shade Gleam to the lid just to add a bit of colour and shimmer. This eyeshadow is perfect because it doesn't settle in the creases of your eyelid like some others do and so looks even all day long. Here is a swatch of the 2 colours together:

As you can see, they are very gentle colours but great for highlighting. I then finished the whole look off with a couple of lashings of one of my favourite mascaras - Maybelline The Colossal Volum' Express Smokey Eyes Mascara.

Overall I was incredibly happy with the look, and more importantly my aunt loved it too! It was a nice toned down 'barely there' look that just looked great on her.

Do you have any suggestions of looks/ products to try out? Recommendations and comments are always welcome!