FOTD and EOTD

Here's a quick face and eye of the day post as I haven't done one of these for a long time. I'm back at the parentals this week and really had to limit what I brought with me because I'm off on a hen party tomorrow, then travelling back home to London on Sunday and didn't want to haul a big load around with me. When I'm forced to pack lightly, I find out that I really can cope with just a few pieces of makeup. So here's a FOTD with a few of my favourite makeup items that I brought back with me.

On my face I am wearing MAC Select foundation in NC25, set with Rimmel Clarifying Powder. I am wearing Too Faced blush in Papa Don't Peach over my cheeks and cheekbones with MAC's Springsheen concentrated on the apple of my cheeks. On my lips is my new favourite lipstick: MAC's High Tea.

All the eyeshadows are MAC, and here is one of the looks I've created with my pan collection so far. I have green eyes, so I find warm, golden shades really bring out the colour of my eyes. I applied All That Glitters all over the lid, with some Woodwinked on the outer corner. I also used Woodwinked to line the underneath on my eyes which you can't really see in the picture, but gives my eyes that extra pop, and it's the perfect consistency to line your eyes with. I believe it's a veluxe pearl shadow, which just glides on effortlessly. I used Twinks in the crease which is a gorgeous dark, dirty plum colour, it works really well with the golden shades and is really warming to my eyes. Shroom is a safe highlight colour for anyone in my opinion, I used it here on the browbone and the very inner corner of my eye just to finish the look. My eyes are lined with Loreal Superliner (my fave) and I'm wearing Rimmel Glam Eyes mascara and Bourjois1001 lashes on top of that.

Make-up Product of the Month: October - MAC's High Tea Lipstick

I bought this lipstick whilst I was on the hunt for a shade a little bit different to what I usually reach for. I was after a nude shade, but the usual suspects from MAC, i.e. Myth, Creme de Nude and the like are not always what I’m looking for. I love Creme de nude, and it looks great with a smokey eye for an evening look, but on a day to day basis with neutral makeup, it can make me look a bit washed out, especially this time of year. Wanting to find a lipstick that would do more for my complexion led me to High Tea. It’s still a nude shade, but not in the same sense as Creme de Nude, it doesn’t make your lips paler than they really are. On the website it is described as a “beiged pink with small particle pearl” and the shade appears to be as light as the other nudes I mentioned. However, I really wouldn’t put this in the same category, and in person it is somewhat darker. It adds a nice warmth to the lips which in some lights, has an almost brown shimmer to it. If, on the other hand, you have quite pigmented lips, this would help to tone them down and I think this would also be a great nude choice for people with darker skin tones. So with that, I would class this lipstick as a more universal nude which unlike a “true” nude can be pulled off by most of us.

Beauty finds of the month so far

I am trying to complete my MAC palette, and getting there slowly. MAC shadows are a little pricey so I’m quite happy to fill just the one palette with colours for everyday wear and I’m choosing colours that I know I will wear frequently and not get bored of. The palettes are also useful for travel as it’s more convenient to have all my shadows in one place. Three of the shadows I chose I’ve seen blogged about a lot, and really felt these colours were staples that I had to have in my collection, they are: All That Glitters, Satin Taupe and Shroom. Shroom I think is the perfect highlight colour, it brightens your eyes without being too brassy like a pure white eyeshadow. My fourth choice was close to being Carbon which I consider another staple colour, but I noticed a close shade to this called Typographic. I think Carbon is such a popular shade as it’s possibly MAC’s darkest, closest to black shade. However, I think for a lot of amateurs like myself, black is not a very forgiving colour and unless applied flawlessly can really make your eyes look smaller. After swatching Typographic, which looks incredibly similar to Carbon on first glance, I could see that this was a more muted version of the colour, more of a dusky grey colour, and the consistency was more concentrated yet blendible, a combination I thought would work well for me, so I chose this as the darkest colour in my palette.

Also in the picture is the GOSH Extreme Art eyeliner. I was keen to try this out after being impressed with their various pencil eyeliners, and have not been let down by this. I like GOSH’s colour collection, although it’s not as big as I would like, I feel like they could provide a few more experimental colours, I do like the majority of colours there are to choose from. Some are quite different and might be colours I would usually avoid, for example I’m not a great lover of blue on my eyes, but in the form of a quick line near the lashes, I think it’s possible to be more daring and try out colours you’re afraid of or not used to. I do slightly wish GOSH would work on improving the brush because I don’t find it very user friendly. I have become accustomed to Loreal’s Superliner which as well as being of great quality, is honestly the easiest liquid eyeliners to apply I’ve ever used. So comparing the two, I find the shape of the applicator quite difficult to apply, it’s the same thickness from root to tip, not gradiated like the Loreal liner. I also find that it picks up slightly too much liner so I find myself getting eyeliner in places where it shouldn’t be like on my eyelashes. Hopefully with practice I will learn a better technique in order not to do this.

The other MAC product featured here is High Tea lipstick which I haven’t seemed to put down this month so I will write a little more on that in another post and include a few extra pictures. Sorry the picture quality is not great, the days are getting shorter now we’re getting closer to winter and the lighting once I’m home from work is not great.

Onto my latest hair product purchase, and right now I’m loving this straightening spray which bizarrely, (I found) is a Morrison’s own brand product. I will give a full review of this product very soon, but for now just want to say I’ve been pleasantly surprised by this product, quite smug in knowing I only paid £1 for it! It’s formulated with vitamin B5 which is a key ingredient in rival brands and seems to be giving my dry, lacklustre blonde locks more of a shine than it used to have, so I'll be updating with a full review of this product very soon.