(from back left: Garnier Medium BB Cream, Soap & Glory Hair Supply, Palmers Cocoa Firming Butter, Garnier Ambre Solaire Dry Face Mist, Benefit High Beam, MAC 'Insanely It' Sheen Supreme Lipstick, OPI 'Conquistadorable' Nail Varnish, Nivea Essential Care Lip Balm, MAC 'Indianwood' Paint Pot, Rimmel Scandaleyes Mascare, MAC 109 brush, RayBan large turtleshell Wayfarers, Rimmel 'Timeless Tango' 1000 Kisses Lip Tint, Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer, Garnier Tinted Caffeine Eye Roll-On)
So let's kick this thing off with non make-upy products...
Thanks to the rather strange, insanely beautiful weather that graced Liverpool with its presence during May, I was whipping my limbs out left, right and centre and because of the sun, I gave my usually religious nightly false tan application a rest for a few days. Being a member of the fairer skinned group (ahem ginger...) I don't usually tan very well, singe would probably be a more appropriate word, but miraculously I absorbed a reasonable amount of rays and found myself moisturising like nobodies business to lock in that colour. For this frantic moisturisation, the Palmers Firming Butter worked a treat and it actually did seem to make my legs appear well less...flabby. Tar very much Palmers!
Now, I have a very paranoid phobia surrounding wrinkles. Yes, I'm only 16 but after watching 10 Years Younger since I was about 7, wrinkles have scared me to my very core because of this I am an avid sunglasses wearer. Not just when it's really sunny but pretty much all the time. Ever since I was presented with these little beauties at Christmas...
They have become a permanent item in my everyday attire. They have become particularly handy of late and I have literally worn them pretty much all day, every day throughout May. However as beautiful as they are, they're also slightly large taking up pretty much my whole eye to nose area. Add this largeness to my tanning obsession and a problem arises, extremely dodgy tan lines. I can feel you all panic but do not threat my little blog friends, Garnier Ambre Solaire Dry Face Mist was on hand to solve my problem, a few sprays across the paler parts of the face and voila, total tan uniformity. Brilliant.
Next we have Soap & Glory's Hair Supply. It's a hair masque and it smells like utter wonderfulness. For those of you who do not know, sometime last year, I swerved the hair dye and went back to my natural hair colour but my inner non-conformist wasn't happy by this and before I knew it I was getting my hairdresser (A.K.A Deej) to whip out the peroxide and Ombred Isabel arose. I have now became a slave to it and am currently sporting about half a head of progressively lighter hair. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. However with great hair comes great responsibility and looking after bleached hair can be a bit of a task especially when you throw in rather hot weather conditions. In order to avoid my hair starting to resemble hay, I grabbed my Hair Supply, covered my head in it and thanks to whomever master minded this little bottle of beauty, my hair is now looking (and smelling) rather lovely.
Now for my face faves...
I've loved the Garnier BB cream since the Little Curly Girl (A.K.A my sister) gifted it to me on Christmas morning, but a few months ago I picked up the darker version and my love for this product grew more and more. It smells gorgeous and blends really nicely, it's not too heavy and can easily applied with hands if you're lazy like me. Also on that trip to Superdrug I found the perfect partner to the BB cream, the tinted eye roll on. I absolutely adore this for under the eyes, and for all those night owls like myself who are constantly thinking it's okay to stay up until the early hours even though a 7 AM wake-up call is looming, it does wonders to your under eye area making you look all awake and fresh.
At the end of April, I went to a party. A lovely party that was filled with pre-exam celebrations and dancing and fish-bowls and lots of awful Facebook photos the day-after. Why am I telling you this I hear you wonder? Well being the make-up enthusiast that I am, I tend to often be called upon as make-up artist to make all my beautiful friends look even more lovely for all our nightly ventures. This was the case for this party. So after beautifying my friends, I was left with about 5 minutes to illustrate my own face, annoying I know. Halfway through my eyelash application, people had arrived and I was all a flutter, still wearing my dressing gown with unfinished smokey eyes. It was as awful as I'm sure you're all imagining, but being the trooper that I am, I quickly finished my face and then graced the party with my presence (minus my dressing gown and plus my best party clobber). This being a house-party there were people up and down the stairs all night and somewhere along the lines my make-up bag became a popular place for party goers and a few of my things were stolen. Awful I know, I was fumingggggg. Because of this I had to venture out and replace my products with a few cheaper alternatives until I could afford to go to MAC to replenish my supplies. On my travels, I came across the Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer and I was so impressed with it, I may not even go and get a new MAC Studio Finish concealer, which I have used since the ripe old age of 12. Out of the robbery darkness comes light in the form of this little beauty, every cloud and all that.
I've also been majorly big on the contouring and highlighting scene this month, venturing back to my old favourite that is the Sleek Contour Kit in Light, I don't use the highlighter just the contour shade as I use Highbeam by Benefit instead. The contour colour plus my new find which is the MAC 109 brush and your face will be looking catwalk ready in no time ( well that's a bit of an exaggeration but they work pretty darn well together). On days when contouring is not really necessary, though I barely ever find one of those days...Highbeam still looks fab on it's own leaving a lovely pink sheen on the cheekbones which looks heavenly in photos.
And here's swatches...
(From Left: MAC Indianwood paintpot, Rimmel 'Timeless Tango' 1000 kisses liptint, MAC 'Insanely It' Sheen Supreme Lipstick, Benefit Highbeam, Collection 2000 Concealer in 03 Medium, Garnier Eye Roll-On in light, Garnier BB cream in Medium)
Eyes and Lips!
This little beauty is MAC's Indianwood Paint Pot and it is one of the most beautiful colours ever! (swatched above) I got it in January and have used it sporadically ever since, but lately it has became my go to eye base for pretty much every single day. It's a gorgeous bronzey colour with gold shimmer and it looks great on its own or matched with something liked Baked pigment from Urban Decay. I've been wearing this alone and quite lightly blended across the lid with some black eyeliner during the day or as a base for my smokey eye at night and I'll match it with colours from my Jemma Kidd Palette or Sleek 'Oh So Special' palette. Love it.
My favourite mascara of May is...
Rimmel Scandaleyes Mascara in Black. It's got a huge wand, kind of like the Bad Gal lash by Benefit. It makes lashes look super long and thick and got a really nice formula that doesn't go crispy and gross. Definitely one of the better mascara's I've tried of late and this has been my go to mascara nearly every day this month. Definitely worth a look at if you're in Superdrug or Boots anytime soon.
Another MAC find now and it's this...
MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick in Insanely It. This came out a while ago but I found it in a CCO on a recent trip to Cheshire Oaks and couldn't resist picking it up. It's bright blue-toned pink, I'd compare it to a glossier and sheerer version of Show Orchid. It looks great alone or on top of another colour, I wore it over Girl About Town on Friday and it looked gorgeous.
Also
Rimmel 'Timeless Tango' 1000 kisses lipstick has replaced Benetint as my favourite lip stain of all time. This is super pigmented and goes on so easily, the balm at the bottom not only seals the stain in but also adds a gorgeous glossiness to the lips. It doesn't dry out your lips and it has great staying power. When it does fade, it doesn't go flaky in places which is also great. Really love this product and the line has a great colour range, perfect.
I've also been loving Nivea Essential Care lip balm which is definitely one of the best lip balms on the market and is great to apply both before and after lipstick application to avoid it looking dry or cakey on the lips. Also OPI nail varnish in Conquistadorable is a perfect pink for toes this summer and it goes on really easily, yay for that!
Woah, this was a ridiculously long post, so well done if you've got this far! Hope everyone had a wonderful May and are now all looking forward to summer! I for one only have two exams left and then I'm off for 3 months, YAY! Thanks for reading guys!
Stay Classy!X
