Totally forgot to take a proper photograph of my make up, sorry for the video still! Note to self, must try harder!
For the last couple of months I simply haven't been able to start my make up routine without using the Vichy Aqualia Thermal Rich Moisturiser and the Illamasqua Satin Primer. These two products work amazingly well together and my foundation never goes on as smoothly if I skip one of these products!
Foundation wise, the star of the moment is of course, Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum. I'm sure you're all getting sick of me mentioning it all the time but honestly, I'm so in love with it! The coverage is wonderful, it blends so quickly and easily and the colour is pretty perfect for me which is always a good thing! Concealer wise, there are a few I really love. In the video I'm going to embed at the end of this post I use all three of these, Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection, Benefit Boi-ing and Benefit Erase Paste. On the day I filmed my foundation routine video my skin wasn't looking so great, as you will see, but hopefully it gives you a pretty good idea of how well they work!
Another Bourjois product I'm head over heels in love with is the Delice de Poudre bronzing powder and I use the shade 52 which I believe is the middle shade, but don't quote me on that! I use this with an ELF Complexion Brush and I love the way it helps to really sculpt my face without looking too fake and just a bit, well, odd. No one likes looking odd! For my blush that day I opted for MAC Something Special Cream blush which is the perfect peach shade & I popped a little bit of NARS Douceur over the top, because one blusher is never enough for me! I'm pretty obsessed, but obviously my blush shade changes from day to day!
Which products are featured in your current every day foundation routine? I'd love to know what you're reaching for at the moment!
Once upon a time in a land not so far from where you're sitting,
there was a little, okay not so little, girl named Jennie who dreamt of having her very own pair of Princess shoes. She had spent
hours imagining what the perfect pair would look like right down to the
very last detail and she was beginning to think she would never
find them! They would be a beautiful soft pink shade, a perfect red
heart would sit right on the toes and they would have a soft bubblegum
scent to them!
Retiring to her bedroom to weep privately
for the shoes that existed only in her dreams, Jennie popped on to
twitter, her favourite social networking website, and learned that
Sarenza were having a competition and she immediately clicked over to
have a look at all the wonderful shoes they had to offer. This was too
much of a coincidence. Surely her dream Princess shoes couldn't be on
that website just waiting for her to stumble across them?
Much to Jennie's surprise, (but I'm sure you could all see this one coming a mile off) there were her dream Princess shoes (these Vivienne Westwood & Melissa Lady Dragon Vii shoes just in case you were wondering!)
just sitting there patiently waiting for her to stumble across them.
Upon reaching for her purse where her debit card was nestled safely she
realised that she had left it in her boyfriend's car...I mean on her
boyfriend's, err, horse? Because obviously dating anyone less than a Prince just wouldn't be suitable for a Princess, right? Sighing and
flailing her arms in dispair she wondered if she would ever have her
magical Princess shoes and promptly decided to enter Sarenza's
competition & that is where we leave this story for now, where this
particular fairytale ends is still unknown...
xoxo
*This post is my slightly unconventional (I'm not sure I've entirely followed the rules!) entry for the Sarenza ambassador competition. If you'd like to hear more about it you can do so here.
2011 was a year of exciting product launches and discovering some really fabulous beauty products that I now can't imagine my collection without! I had hoped to narrow down my top picks to just 11 so that I could do a top 11 of 2011, but in the end I just couldn't decide! I popped up a favourites of 2011 video on my YouTube channel which is a whopping 22 minutes long and I will embed that at the end of this post so that you can watch it if you would like to and in that video I mention all of my favourites from last year. If I were to mention everything individually in this blog post I think I would have been photographing products for hours upon hours so I've decided to just include a selection here!
Last year was the year I discovered some incredible base products, some are fairly high end but there are also some much more affordable options. I'm so happy that I discovered beauty blogs because without them I'd probably still be using some rubbishy foundation completely unaware that there are some lovely products out there. MAC Studio Sculpt foundation is an expensive product but my gosh is it brilliant! The gel based formula makes it lovely for all you dry skinned lovelies, the lightest shade is a perfect match for me and it gives a medium to full coverage depending on how much you build it up. A more inexpensive foundation option is Bourjois Healthy Mix serum. This is also gel based but much thinner in consistency and it gives a light medium coverage.
Concealer wise there is only really one star of the show for me and that's Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer. It has amazing coverage, the lightest shade is a perfect match for me & it costs under £5!
Eyebright from Benefit is a product I discovered quite late in 2011 but it's one that I wouldn't be without now. I absolutely hate the feeling of putting things in my waterline but this is worth it because it really brightens and opens up the eyes which is something I need because I only have tiny eyes! Another Benefit product I absolutely love is the Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow in the shade Recess. This is the only thing that keeps my eyeshadow on for longer that 10 minutes which is nothing short of a minor miracle!
I'm not the biggest eyeshadow person, a lot of heavy eye make up really doesn't suit me so I tend to always go for subtle neutral colours. There are two palettes I discovered last year that I'm in love with and they are the MUA Heaven & Earth palette and the infamous Urban Decay Naked Palette.
Somehow I managed to narrow my favourite blushers down to just four, which for a blusher addict is pretty amazing, don't you think? Illamasqua cream blush in the shade Promise is the most perfect warm mid toned pink and it really does look beautiful with so many different make up looks. Another Illamasqua blush I adored last year is their powder blush in the shade Tweak and yes, it really is as bright as it looks! A red toned hot pink, this is quite a tricky shade for someone as pale as me to wear but with a light hand this gives the most beautiful flush of colour. NARS Douceur and NYX Natural are both similar subtle neutral shades that gives a lovely healthy glow to the skin.
Firstly I'm super sorry for including the limited edition Viva Glam Cyndi lipstick but I just absolutely adore it. Other lipsticks that really stand out are Topshop Pillow Talk and of course, Revlon Cherries in the Snow. Last year I wasn't a huge fan of nude lipsticks and since I'm usually a fan of a more natural base I branched out into lipsticks that make a bit more of an impact!
Finally I had to include a couple of stand out hair products the first being the John Frieda Go Blonder Controlled Lightening Spray which really has worked wonders at lighting my hair colour by at least two shades! The conditioner that stands out to me as really helping to make my hair feel and look healthier is the Lee Stafford Treatment For Hair That Never Grows Past A Certain Length. I feel like I get a lot less breakage which is pretty amazing considering I backcomb my hair most days!
As promised I have embedded my favourites of 2011 video in case you would like to watch and hear a few more of my favourite products! Have you tried any of the products I've talked about in this post? What did you think of them?
What were your favourite products of last year? I'd love to know!
