If you read my posts here and here. It is literally no secret that  I adore the benefit mascara, "They’re real". I could go on all day (almost) about how much I love this mascara and probably still have more to say the next morning. I am well and truly in love with a mascara (it’s rather sad but I’ll live ;) ).   Saying that, no matter how much I love that mascara, a part of me can never quite justify spending £20 every other month . It’s not that "They’re Real" isn’t worth it, I mean in my eyes, it totally is. I just find this mascara as more of a luxury and normally buy when I have disposable income or when I have vouchers and such. 

 In the mean time I have found a few certain lower price drugstore mascaras which I also really love and help fill in the "They’re Real" mascara shaped hole in my heart. I thought I would give you a post on my favourite 3!

1- W7 Big Lash

This first I will talk about is this one. This used to be my go-to mascara back when I was in school. Obviously not realising that less is more I would wear this daily. It creates really voluminous lashes and without clumping. It is easy to layer and build-up volume and length with this. Very proud of myself 16-year old self for finding this little gem for only £3!

2-  Boujour Ultra Curl

I actually picked up this mascara ago on a whim. It was 3 for 2 on Boujour and I needed one more item to finish the deal and so I picked up this. I’m glad I did! It’s really lovely mascara for a more natural lengthy-look on your lashes. It separates your lashes without clumping and adds slight volume. I love this mascara for every day, as it holds a curl really nicely and adds a volumised and natural looking texture to the lashes.

3- Maybelline Falsies Drama Push Up

Any mascara with the word falsies in, I normally scoff at in disbelief. Honestly though, this mascara does a fantastic job at creating a false-lash effect. The formula is really pigmented and so, it gives off the illusion that your eyelashes are a lot fuller than what they seem. The comb-like brush separates your lashes really well give them an individual and defined length. 

What are your favourite drugstore mascaras?

Review & Frist Impressions: PS..LOVE CREAM CONTOUR KIT

I haven't had a good chance to look at the latest "P.S Love" make-up range in Primark. However, last weekend while shopping in  there this cream contour kit really caught my eye. I have seen countless blog posts  which include a fair share of reviews on the features of this range. Claiming this low budget range to be more often than not, good for the price. I figured I would hop on the bandwagon, not only on purchasing this kit, but also on the cream contour fad and give my personal first impression and review.

Despite that on the packaging it states that it has darker shades, I couldn’t find any other shades other than the one that I’ve purchased. This might possibly be harder for those with lighter skin since these colours are tailored more towards to darker skin tones. 

Upon opening up the packaging I realised that the consistency of the shades were more of a powdery texture and not a cream based product. This was slightly disconcerting since they were not what they are advertised to be.

The product came with three shades; contour, bronze and highlight. It also included a little brush. I never really expect much from brushes which are included, but this one proved to be really good. It was narrow and firm so it was very good for precision. 

It also came with a little guide on where to apply each shade to, which is ideal for cream contour beginners like myself. Other than that there were no other directions. It would’ve been ideal for it to direct you on to whether to apply it before foundation or not. Obviously these are factors I can Google, it just would have been beneficial for them to have added those in.

BEFORE                                                                                   AFTER

 I started by applying the shades  over my foundation accordingly to the guide with the brush provided. My first impression was that the shade ‘contour’ was a really pigmented colour. It defined areas really  well such as my nose and cheekbones, without too much work. However I found that the other two colours were not as great. The shade bronze was too much the same colour as my skin, so it didn’t really achieve much. The highlight shade did absolutely nothing apart from leave a lurid dark patch above my lip. I felt that this shade was much too dull for it to work as a highlight. My skin colour isn’t particularly dark either so I don’t really know they came out so bland.

When blended out with a damp beauty sponge, the bronze and highlight basically blended into nothing. However I found when built up they leave a slight warmth to the skin. The contour shade on my nose resulted in a really nice contour. It kept my nose really defined without being too heavy. However in other patches on my face such as my cheekbones it left muddy patches which were very stubborn to blend out. I also found out later that you could see the lines from where I first applied the contour.

Overall I wouldn’t really recommend this, since it didn’t really do too well for me. Perhaps it was just a little light for my skin tone for it to work as a full contour kit. I feel that the shades would be much more successful as a cream based product, like the packaging suggests. They would be easier to blend out and more pigmented that way. I think, if you’re pale and looking for bronzer then I think than these shades are ideal. As a contour kit, it just doesn’t do very well and poses more as a bronzing kit in my opinion.

What items have you tried from P.s...Love? What did you think to them? Let me know! 

 I saw that a while ago one of favourite youtubers\blogger, Jess from JDRmakeup had done this tag over her on her blog. I really enjoyed reading it and thought it was a lovely way for you to get to know me!

1. Is your hair naturally curly or straight?

My hair is naturally straight, however it does get a couple of kinks in whenever it dries naturally and when I sleep on it, making it sort-of wavy. It used to be poker straight when I was a little girl so I don’t know what's really happened to it!
2. Do you dye it yourself or go to the salon?

I dye my hair myself. I always have, I find it too expensive to go to the salon every 6 weeks or whenever. I am thinking about going though, because I think it will save me a lot of stress and disappointment with box hair dyes and I feel like my hair could do with a sprucing up in terms of colour as well.

3. Do you wear the same style everyday or do you change it?

For work, I normally just shove it up in a high pony tail. For days where I am not at working and going out I normally wear it in plaits the night before and in the morning it is somewhat in lose waves, I find this a lot more simpler than having it straightened or natural since it gets so knotty over- night.

4. How long does it take for you to put on makeup?

I barely wear hardly anything to work so it takes me about ten minutes maximum but it can take me from 45 -60 minutes if I want to do everything properly. I hate being rushed, if I want to feel  10/10 on my make-up.

5. What do you do first, face or eyes?

I start with foundation and primer first; I think creates a nice blank canvas for the more colourful products. However, Sometimes I start with eye shadow if there’s going to be a lot of fall out.

6. Do you collect makeup or just buy what you need when you need it?

I normally just buy what I need, but if I like the look of something I will buy most likely buy depending on my funds are like. I don’t really just keep what I need, I normally and like to keep it ( you know, just in case).

7. How often do you wear false eyelashes?

Probably a couple of times a month! I normally wear them for special occasions or when I am going out on a night out. I will rarely wear them when I'm just going shopping or whatever. I don’t necessarily need them but I always think they make my make-up look more ‘made-up’.

8. What are your current everyday makeup staples?

I absolutely adore the naked 2 and 3 palettes ( I will one day own the first one!), they never fail to let me down and appear just a pigmented as they do on a swatch as they do on your eyelids. I don’t really have anything else at the moment. I will always have certain things I will be most likely to use  [blog post on that here] but nothing is really standing out to me. I am really liking a lot of highlight at the moment and I am really loving the yellow –toned  Undress Your Skin by MUA for that.

9. Do you wear makeup if you're home alone or with family?

Normally, no if I am just at home, my skin can very get irritated so I like use this time to let my skin breathe and try to apply as much moisturizer as I possibly can. If we are going out then I will most likely wear either a  full face of make-up or a 'no make-up' make-up look.

10. How many high-end products do you have?

I can’t say I have a lot. The majority of my makeup I own is mostly drugstore. I have a handful of products from benefit and then my two naked palettes and I think that’s it. I have to do a lot of research and planning before I buy anything that's over about £15, I’m a little frugal like that. 

11. Do you plan your OOTD every night or decide in the morning when you're getting dressed?

I normally have a rough idea of what I would like to wear and what I would like to wear I with it. I have to wear a certain uniform to work, so normally I am very eager to plan to wear something else.

12. How often do you change your handbag?

I literally only own one bag at the moment! I had a clear out of bags a while a go and since then have not been able to build my collection back up. I am just normally using a brown leather one from Zara and I also have recently purchased a small Dune messenger bag which I love and is fast becoming my new go-to bag.

13. How often or when do you work out?

HA. Honestly not very often. I very nearly went out the other day for a jog (for the first time a long time), but then my phone broke and had to fix it. I find it SO hard to find the motivation to get out and for a jog. I have started to use exercise videos at home, since this doesn’t actually involve me leaving the house.

14. Left or right handed?

Right. 

15. How tall are you?

I think I am 5 ft 5 give or take a few inches.

16. Do you speak any foreign languages?

I did french GCSE, which I hated at the time but would love to be able to speak a little fluent french now. The only thing I really remember is the word for grapefruit which is pamplemousse and that’s only because I find that word oddly adorable! 

17. Sweet or savoury?

I do tend to like savoury things more, but I do have a giant sweet tooth at the same time. I will be more likely to choose a savoury item over a sweet though.

18. What's your favourite perfume?

Bombshell By Victoria Secret and Tease by Victoria Secret. – Basically anything by Victoria Secret! Haha!

19. How many pets do you have?

I have a new maltese Puppy! He's adorable and I love him!

20. Do you read comments posted on blogs?

I don’t get a lot on mine but any that I do get I will of course read them. I normally skim through comments on other people’s blogs just to see what everyone else’s opinions are, if it’s a review or what not.

21. Do you keep a list of products to try as you see other posts? 

I guess, I do in a way keep a mental list and then do further research into them later on.

22. How did you come up with your blog name?

So, I was struggling so hard to come up with a name for my blog. I really like the idea of significant dates and months. September is one of my favourite months, since Summer is coming to an end it gets a little cooler and there’s such beautiful sunsets at night. It’s also the month of my birthday so I decided to base my name around that. 

23. What sort of camera do you use for your photographs?

I use a Nikon D3100, it’s not the best but it does the job J

24. What's your favourite colour?

I like a lot of different colours for a lot of different reasons . I really like pastel colours 

25. Do you swear?

I do yes, although it changes depending who I am with. It’s likely increase to swear when I am with friends or my boyfriend. I don’t normally swear around my family and work colleagues as much.

26. What are you doing with the rest of your day?

So there isn’t really a whole of the day left to be honest! It’s 10 to 8 on a Saturday and I will be just having a quiet night in. I am all partied out from last night still. I will probably take a nice long shower and plan my next blog post, since I have no idea what I want to write about.

I hope you enjoyed this! Let me know if you do this!

Neutral Make-up for Prom

It is soon that my younger sister will be having her first ever prom. She has asked me to try out a couple of make-up looks on her before the big day. This one turned out to be her favourite out of the ones we tried, so I thought that I would share it with you. I attempted to do a classy and lightweight, easy to wear look, since this would be her first experience wearing a full face of make-up. Using mostly my Naked 2 palette it has few bronzy shades with lots of highlight and a long thin medium-length wing.

BASE

I primed her skin with the Pore-fessional Primer by benefit to give a smoother base for the foundation.

I applied True Match by L’Oreal since this is an easy foundation to apply and wear. It’s not too heavy on the skin but creates a really natural and pretty complexion. It also doesn’t have an SPF in it which is ideal for events and places where you’ll be having your photo taken. SPF bounces back light and will make your face extremely white in photos using flash. I just a applied it with a real-techniques expert face brush.

I then applied Lumi Magique by L’oreal under her eye in an upside down triangle shape to brighten up her eye area slightly.

I brushed through her brows using an eyebrow brush and applied an Eyebrow pencil from Kiko. I didn’t want to go over-board on her brow and just kept them more or less natural.

BRONZER/HIGHLGHTER/BLUSHER.

I used a highlighter from the Maybelline master-sculpt contour kit and highlighted top of her cheeks.

For blusher I used a really pretty coral colour from a Cargo cosmetics palette called California Throwback. 

I then contoured  her face using the bronze shade from the master-sculpt kit.

 EYES

I primed the eyes with a NYC primar from a palette.

I applied a colour tattoo eye shadow with a flat eyeshadow brush in Bronze On Bronze to the main part of the eye.

I used Nooner from my naked 2 palate in the crease using an angled eye shadow brush, from the same pallete I used Factory for more defination and applied that overlapping nooner, and then blended them together.

I took my NYX jumbo colour pencil in milk and applied this into the inner corner of the eye and applied Bootycall over the top and blended that in.

I also applied bootycall to the brow bone to highlight that area.

Using L'oreal Ultra Precision Eyeliner  I drew a thin line across the lash line and a thin wing which ended just before her eyebrow.

 I applied a light layer of mascara and used the fleur de force ¾ lashes, which aren't too annoying and actually really easy to apply if you aren't too fond of wearing false eyelashes.

 LIPS

For the lipstick we decided to go for something quite bright and  Lashing finish by Kate in 05.

Have you had your prom? If so what make-up did you wear?

Review: Revlon HD Matte Lip Colours

I have recently been on the hunt for some new lipsticks and lip products. Ever since Kylie Jenner released her lip kits (which I will one day own!) the beauty community has gone absolutely mental  over them! I can’t open my YouTube without someone’s video popping up featuring  them!  Everything I own just looks drab in comparison as the Kylie Jenner ones look stunning!  Since I am basically too tight to spend, at the moment, to spend £20+ on a lipstick, I am finding myself drawn more towards the more drug store side of things. I stumbled across these in whilst browsing the counters in Boots and I am very impressed!

Liquid lipsticks honestly never seem to sit right on me. I always end up with them bleeding into my skin or making one side of my lips look slightly bigger than the other. Huh? Although, I am very pleased to finally find a liquid lipstick which didn’t make me look like a clown. Thank goodness!

I was completely drawn in by the bright range of colours on display and slick,compacted frosted glass packaging. The swatches which I did in store were so pigmented!  Revlon was on three for two as well! Even though I’m not a big ginormous fan of liquid lipsticks I decided getting three shades to get the ball rolling and I’m so very glad I did.

The applicator is slightly different to a doe-foot sponge where the end of the brush would normally slant, this one goes completely flat. I find that this made it really nice to apply and the flat end just glides along your lips making it really easy to build up.  I found that they were all very easy  to apply apart from Passion where things got a little messy, but hey red is always a  high maintenance colour anyway.

The formula was not at all sticky and didn’t set into really dry and patchy finish like I have found with other liquid lipsticks previously. Unlike they claim, they don’t completely result in a matte finish. This is kind of a disappointment; it would have been amazing to find a completely balanced formula in these lipsticks which also dried matte. It definitely makes up for it in other aspects and doesn’t put me off wearing these in the slightest.

It proved to be very long lasting after I ate a meal and drank at least two cups of tea. They eventually faded a little while later, but they were still very pigmented. It didn’t leave a nasty outline on your lips either which I find is what most lipsticks fade to. It was still a very wearable colour and would have quite happily gone on with that, without feeling the need to top it up or re-apply.

I think I have honestly found my new- go to lip products and I plan to go and get every colour! Even though they aren’t completely matte I do think that they are a wonderful lip product to have in your collection. I wish I had bought these sooner!

Have you tried these? What matte lipsticks do you like?

Nivea Post Shave-Balm: not your everyday primer

There has been precisely a million and one reviews on the Cooling Post Shave Balm by Nivea Men being used as a primer. I have seen a mixed range of good and bad reviews of this. Most reviews claim that it makes your make-up last a lot longer and works better than a lot of primers. Often to be described a cheap beauty hack. I am very open minded to trying out cheap products.So when I saw this in Superdrug I couldn’t pass it without buying it and decided giving it a go.

The product comes in an awkwardly large bottle - mine always seems to be really cold does anyone elses? It doesn’t have a dispenser just pours out the lid which can be a little temperamental since the product is a little watery and too much is easily poured out.

 The first thing I noticed about this balm is that the smell is incredible! It has this really refreshing aftershave smell. It isn’t too over-powering but smells like a freshly washed man! The consistency is a very thin and watery. A little goes an extremely long way so you definitely get your money’s worth in that respect. .

When I apply this I found that it is very moisturising and soothing which is something I always look for since I have extremely sensitive and dry skin. It doesn’t contain any alcohol which is always a massive bonus as it aggravates my skin. 

I always end up patting mine dry as it takes a little too long to do so on its own. It ends up drying on the skin a little tacky creating a dewy base for your foundation.

 I thought I would have an issue with foundation sliding off since it had dried very shiny but it applied well just like any other primer. I really like mine with BB creams since it almost creates a thicker coverage for it and adds more moisture. I did find that made my skin shiny throughout the day and felt the need to apply to more powder which is unheard of for me but I don’t really mind since it meant my skin stay moisturised under the foundation. It kept my foundation on well non-the-less.

Overall I do really like this a primer on days where I feel I need more moisture under my foundation. I don’t think I would use it daily and completely cut out all primers, but I enjoy having it as an option. I feel like it does a good job of keeping my skin moisturized and dewy but not so great at smoothing pores. I bought mine for just under £5 but since then I have seen it go down in price. I’m guessing this is because it’s doing so well. I have seen it as cheap £3 in places like Asda. Definitely give it a go if you are curious like I was.

Have you given this a go? What did you think?

xxx

My not-so-little-anymore sister is having her prom coming up very shortly. Seeing her getting prepared for it takes me back to when I had mine. It’s a very stressful and exciting  time for a 16-year old; The stress of finding the right dress, what make-up to wear, your prom date?The list sure does go on. Luckily for my sister, as having someone who experienced prom, she has me to guide her the right way and avoid these if she will let me! Haha. For me, I  had never been to something where I could dress up like I could for this, and I was itching to go all out. However it is very safe to say that my prom experience was very far from perfect and there’s a couple of things which I wish knew beforehand.

Prom is not a big deal.

I know for my prom, I was extremely excited. Sure, I had doubts in my head and was wondering if it was going to be as good as it looked in the all films. But it actually ended up in being a humongous anti-climax. That’s not to say don’t get excited. Please do! But just realise that it’s probably not going to be as amazing as it traditionally is in films. It’s literally going to be a few hours of your life where you’re going to be doing the same things you do at school (minus the dancing) with the same people. What I am saying is try not to stress, prom isn’t as a massive big deal as you think it will, so try not put so much pressure on your for it be so perfect.

Plan your Make-up.

I did my make-up myself for prom and I really really hated it. I know this has contradicted what  I have just said about not being perfect, but I really did despise my entire face.  I did my make-up myself and back then I really had no skill in that department. I knew basic stuff like how to do ok eye shadow, but nothing really prom-worthy. With no idea what I wanted my make-up to look like I was sat down at half 3 in the afternoon staring into the mirror struggling on where to start. I ended up just piling on the eyeshadow and foundation because back then the rule more is less didn’t see fit to me. I also having never experiencing false eyelashes decided to go for the biggest most extravagant lashes I could find. Silly me. In the end I really hated it. I should have 100% , done a run through, done some research or had it done professionally. I mean it wasn’t a complete disaster, I just didn’t feel comfortable with what my face looked like. If you are having your make-up done by professionally do a run through with them. I have heard of way too many people who have had it done professionally and didn’t like the outcome.

Why does nothing match?! haha!

The Prom Dress.

I think finding the prom dress may be the most exciting bit. It can also be a bit depressing when nothing fits or doesn’t live up to your standards. You’re going to find some you hate yourself and some that you love yourself in. It’s a slight rollercoaster. It’d probably best to start searching for your dress early, that way you can make the most of your time and figure what kind of shape dress you would like and colour etc. Looking back my dress wasn’t fantastic and I wish I had gone for something a little longer, but I did end up wearing mine for two weddings that same year so I suppose that made it more versatile in a way. In my school everyone seem to find it a massive scandal if you had the same dress as someone else. There was even facebook page where you were supposed to post your dress to make sure no one got the same one! Which seems so ridiculous now! One of my friends and me pretty much wore the same dress and neither one of us cared. Also for some reason I made non of my shoes and bag match the dress. What a complete fashion disaster! Okay, so it wasn't the end of the world but it's just another thing to add to the list!

So that’s mostly all the things I wish I had thought out thoroughly about my prom. I know prom’s just  a little bit of fun, but in some ways it got made in to such a big deal by others and in my own head. I know exactly what I do differently if I was going to do it again.

Have you had your prom yet? What would you do differently about yours? If not what are you most looking forward to?