My Favourite Highlighters

Hi Beauties, hope you're all well!
On this dull and gloomy day I thought I'd do a post on my favourite highlighters. Contouring and Highlighting has become huge lately, especially in the last year or two. While contouring is something that I'm yet to come to terms with properly, I do love a nice bit of highlight!
So today I thought I'd come on and tell you about my absolute favourites! Some are palettes, some are singles, some are cream/liquid but either way they are all fab!

First up is the Seventeen Skin Wow 3 Way Highlighter.  It's a silver toned  liquid product  that serves more than one function. You can use it as a primer underneath your foundation to illuminate your skin and give a nice glow, you can use it on the tops of the cheekbones to to highlight, and as of yet I'm trying to figure out what the 3rd option to do with it is, but I'll figure it out! But anyway, my preferred method for using this is to apply a tiny bit to the tops of my cheekbones, and I'm good to go! It's not a highlighter I'd use on a daily basis because it is very shimmery and very obvious, but it's great for nights out. You need so little of it and the bottles so big it'll last for ages! It's a bargain too at only 8.50!

Next one that I absolutely LOVE is the MUA Undress Your Skin Highlighter in Pink Shimmer. This was under 5 euro and for the price it's well well worth it! It's so pigmented and lasts all day. It's a beautiful pink toned highlight with a silver almost blue toned shimmer. If you didn't see the packaging and the name on this, I think you'd genuinely be forgiven for thinking it's a high end highlighter! This one is definitely one that can be built up if you want a really heavily highlighted look, or one that  you can just tap your brush into gently for a more subtle effect.

 The Make Up Revolution Radiance Palette is up next, and it's one that has been getting a lot of love lately! And yes, they do look like a certain high end highlighter palette. ;) But I can't answer if they perform the same as I don't have both! But anyway! This palette is a lot more subtle than the other ones mentioned, so if you're someone who'd like a more natural glow then this one is for you. There's 3 different shades, and my personal two favourites are the first two, the middle one I especially like to use to set my under eye concealer as it brightens up the area without leaving it cakey or too glittery! I tend to use the 3rd shade more so when I've tan on. The powders are decently pigmented, and while I don't think they last all day, they last a reasonable amount of time on my skin, and costs around the 10 euro mark. You can also buy these individually so handy if you only want to try one particular shade!

Last, but nowhere near least is the Sleek Solstice Palette. This is the ultimate highlighting palette, it really is! It comes with 4 shades, 3 powders which are extremely soft and highly pigmented and last ALL day, and one cream highlight. I can't even begin to explain how much I love this. Everything about it is beautiful from the gold outer packaging to every single shade. I think the powders could probably double up as eye shadows if you're into something on your eyes that has a bit of dimension and not flat. The only bad thing I've to say and it's my own fault for being so clumsy is how easily breakable the powders are. I only had the palette a matter of hours and let it fall and one powder smashed to pieces. It's still useable, but a lot of the powder has gone into the cream shade so it's just messy. But I still love it regardless! Again this was fairly affordable and was only around 12 euro!

So ladies, these are my favourite highlighters. They're all fantastic and I'd recommend all of them to you really and truly!
Ps Sorry for some of the picture quality, taking good pictures is something I'm still trying to get better at, but I'm going to keep practising!
Have you tried any of these?
Thanks for reading,
Alisha xxx

First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads

I'm a demon for not looking after my skin as well as I should do. But as I'm getting older and noticing lines creeping in where they used not be, I'm getting worried. So since Christmas, I've been trying to put a pep in my step when it comes to my skincare routine. I've been trying different brands, and adding different products to my routine, some have worked, and some not so much. One product however that has worked for me and I've noticed a difference in my skin after is the First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads. I'd heard a few bits and pieces about First Aid Beauty on various social media channels, but hadn't tried anything from the brand. I came across a set on www.cloud10beauty.com that had a few products in it, and the Radiance Pads were one of them, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to give them a try.

The Pads, are free from alcohol, and are made up of ingredients including glycolic acid and lactic acid to exfoliate, Cucumber and Indian Gooseberry to tone, and lemon peel and liquorice root to brighten the skin. Another thing to note is that they're free from alcohol, and are suitable for sensitive skinned folk. First Aid Beauty also claim these pads will help reduce visible pores, and diminish  fine lines.
These pads are double sided, one side has a slightly bumpy texture, and the other side is just flat.
So how did I get on?

I have to say I really really like these. I use them at night after using my Emma Hardie Cleansing Balm, although not every night, (they are safe enough to be used every day, I just choose not to). When I wipe the pad across my face and neck, I can feel a slight tingling sensation on my skin afterwards, so it really feels like the product is really tightening up my skin.  Around my  nose would tend to get fairly red with dry patches of skin, but when I use these pads, the dry patches disappear, so they really do exfoliate the skin.
After I've used them I go ahead and use my normal eye cream and night serum and moisturiser, or sometimes a moisturising face mask if I need it. When I wake up the morning after using these, my skin just looks brighter and fresher and it looks like I've gotten a great night's sleep, even if in reality I've been up late watching my favourite snapchatters!
As for the claim to reduce the size of larger pores, I don't really notice any difference. And I have fairly big pores on my nose, (they're the bain of my life). I don't notice the diminishing of my fine lines either.
But regardless of that, I still really like them! I'm terribly lazy, and so physically exfoliating my skin with a face scrub is a rarity. So these are a god send for me, because I've no excuse as it only takes seconds!
They are available on Cloud10Beauty  Here in packs of 28 which are 16.95, or a pack of 60, which are 30.95. The pack that I got was the 28 as it was included in a gift set, so I think when I repurchase I'll get the bigger one, just so I know I have them!
I'm really impressed with these, and at the moment, I'm sitting browsing the Cloud 10 site looking at some other First Aid Beauty products! Oops!
Thanks for reading,
Alisha xxx

Make Up Revolution Haul

Hello lovelies, how's your week going?
I'm back this week with something a bit bold. I'd been so good and holding out buying make up, but then Make Up Revolution had a discount code on the Leap Year so I just had to purchase a few bits! Make Up Revolution are a very reasonable priced brand anyway, so the discount code just made it even better!
Let's see what I got shall we?

So as you can see, I eh, got quite a bit!! Whoops! 

Starting with face products, I got 4 items.  First off, I got the Pro Fix Amazing Make Up Fixing Spray. I've seen and heard this being used a lot, and I've never used one, so I said I'd give it a try. Now I've used it once or twice, and I'm not blown away just yet, but I'll keep ye posted. 

As if I didn't have enough blush already, I got one of The Matte Blushes in the shade Dare. When I saw it online it looked nearly like a really light purple that I thought I'd nothing like it in my collection. Well turns out I was wrong, I've a Sleek blush nearly the exact same! Oops! I haven't tried it yet, but again I'll fill ye in later on. I also picked up one of the Ultra Blush Palettes in Hot Spice. Now this and the Fixing Spray I got in a pharmacy near where I work, but online this blush palette looks very dark and not like much. However though it's the complete opposite! It's made up of 6 beautiful varying shades of coral tones, and 2 amazingly pigmented highlighters! I've been wearing this quite a bit since I got it, and I think this is definitely worthy of it's own blog post. #Staytuned. Lastly for the face I got the Correct and Conceal Palette in the Light/Medium shade, I bought this to try cream contouring, but realistically I should have bought the darker shades for that, but I'll get use out of this some way.  

 I've heard a lot of good things about Make Up Revolutions eye shadows, so naturally I had to try some. I picked up the I <3 Make Up I Heart Chocolate Pink Fizz Palette. These I Heart Chocolate Palettes I believe are possible dupes for the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palettes, but I don't have any of the Too Faced ones, so I can't compare. But just look at the packaging, just LOOK! How cute is it? Anyway, as you can see below, the shades in here are all different neutral tones, bar the navy one. I have tried this a couple of times, some shades are amazingly pigmented, some not so much. But I think that's to be expected with all palettes!

Another thing I had heard a lot about was the Awesome Metals Eye Foils. Again, Stila have something like this, the name is lost on me but the concept is the same and they're a fair bit more expensive than the Make Up Revolution ones. They come with a mixing tray and a mixing solution that you use to mix the shadow.  I picked up the shade Rose Gold, which obviously is rose gold. This I'm very much looking forward to playing with! 

And no make up look would be complete  without the eyebrows! So I picked up a Brow Duo Brow Arch and Shape in Dark. This has a brow pencil type product on one end, and a pen on the other which is to help draw on light feathery strokes. First off, it's not dark! I've very dark brows for some reason, considering I have light brown/reddish hair. But I'm enjoying using the product so we'll see. 

For lips, I went with one product. And that was the Lip Lava in Shockwave. It's a really vibrant pink/purple shade. It's a liquid lipstick type product but not one of those really drying matte ones, it's a more glossy moisturising type product, which again is a less expensive similar version to the Too Face Melted Liquid Lipsticks.

Lastly, I got some shampoo for cleaning my brushes and a little brush cleaner. The brush cleaner looked a lot bigger online, but it's tiny. It'd be perfect for smaller brushes, say like eyeshadow, but for bigger face brushes, it's far too small. The shampoo is OK, it does take the product out of the brush, but after a few goes. 

So that's all the bit's I've gotten so far from Make Up Revolution. They're easily accessible, they're in a lot of Superdrug stores, and online with international delivery from  http://www.makeuprevolutionstore.com/ 

I'm trying to slowly get back into more regular blog posts, so apologies for the delay, and also the poorly taken photos. I'll get better! 

Have you tried any Make Up Revolution Products? 

Thanks for reading,

Alisha xxx

All About The Base

Hey lovelies, happy Tuesday! Hope the weekend treated you all well and Monday wasn't too bad?
Mine was great, my best friend got engaged recently, so we went out for dinner and caught up on all the gossip,and then went for a couple of drinks afterwards. So it was a nice weekend! I was then off Monday so happy days  :)
I'm back today with a post on my base routine and what products I use to give me the perfect base day to day. If your base isn't right, then obviously the rest of your make up won't be either!
So obviously I cleanse tone and moisturise first, I'm using a Garnier Cleanser and Toner at the minute which are great.Cheap as chips, but make my skin feel really clean and moisturised. For moisturiser I'm using a hydrating serum from Superdrug as I'm always rushing in the morning because I always leave it to the last minute to get up! I will go into more detail about my skincare in another post though.

My first step is always a primer. No matter how much of a rush I'm in I'll always use a primer. The one I'm currently using and Loving is the Rimmel Match Perfection Fix and Perfect Primer. This is a great little primer and it only costs 8.99! Rimmel maintain this is a 5 in 1 product, that has a number of functions including mattifying the skin, and  reducing the size of pores. I don't really notice either of these things, and I've a ridiculously red nose with huge pores. But for me it just makes my foundation last a lot longer than it would otherwise. It's more of cream consistency which I much prefer to the ones that are too silicone like.  I've been using this consistently since the end of December, and I'm almost out, which is a good sign.

For my foundation I've been loving the Rimmel Match Perfection. No other foundation has got a look in since I got this one. I fully intend on doing a blog post on this alone, so keep an eye out for that. It's a medium coverage, which I love because me and full coverage just don't get along. At the same time though it is buildable, so if you're someone who's into fuller coverage you could just build up a couple of layers. It's labelled as a radiance foundation and it is dewy, but a lot of the dewiness is gone once I powder it. For me though the winner for this is the length it lasts. Now seen as I use a primer I would assume that helps, but it lasts throughout the day with no top ups. I put it on in the morning at around 8 45, and when I come home at 6pm it looks more or less the exact same bar a slight shine on my forehead and chin. I find it even lasts relatively OK on my nose, which I find no matter what I use it always slips off my nose first. It's another bargain at 9.99, and comes in a decent amount of shades, so it's worth a try if you want to try a new foundation but don't have a huge budget. My next step then is to do my under eye concealer, and unless I have a whopper of a spot this is the only place I use concealer. I'm lucky enough to have relatively clear skin most of the time, but there is a fair bit of darkness under my eyes.

The concealer I've been using lately is the Catrice Liquid Camoflage Concealer. It's the perfect consistency, it's thick enough to cover my under eye bags  without being cakey and really brightens up the area, and applies nice and smoothly.  I'm yet to find a concealer that doesn't end up looking funny on me by the end of the day, but I think that may be more to do with my powder.  This was only a few euro as well, and it's well worth it.

My last step then is to set everything with a powder, and the one I'm currently using is the MUA Skin Define Hydro Setting Powder. Again this is another product that's cheap as chips but works well. It sets everything into place and makes my make up last a bit longer than it normally would. After a while my forehead does get a bit shiny, but I can deal with it. My only gripe is I find my under eyes get a bit creppy looking, but I'm going to keep trying and testing until I find something to eradicate that.
So that's my every day routine for my base. After this I go on to do my blush and bronzer etc, and I will show you what I use in another post.

What are your current go to base products?
Thanks for reading,
Alisha xxx

PS Love Make Up Range.

Hey Lovelies,
Hope you're all well and happy! Another Monday done and dusted! Although I can't say much, I was in Liverpool/Birmingham for the weekend and only came back today so my Monday was alright! Anyway, I'm back today to show you a few bit's that I've picked up recently from the Penneys/Primark Beauty Range. Now I'm just going to say that I haven't given any of these a good go yet, I've tried some of the bit's once or twice, so we'll see how they fair out. I'm just letting ye know about them in case ye fancy going out and picking them up! :) I also bought these at different stages, between here and the UK.

Contour and Sculpt Contour Kit: I know, not another contour kit offering! The whole contouring thing seems to have just blown up in 2015, and when I saw this I couldn't not pick it up just to try it out. I haven't been one for the contour phase, as if it's done badly, it just looks like two stripes down the side of your face. This one comes with a contour shade, a bronzer (well at least I think it is), and a highlight.  It also comes with a tiny little brush, alongside a picture to show you where to place each powder.Now, I did try it once, and I have to say I didn't find it very pigmented. But for me that may be a good thing because at least then I can't go overboard. It was a steal at 4 euro, and I'm going to give it a good go before I make up my mind.

Blush Duo: I'm a blush fiend, I have loads and loads, but yet I still go back for more! To be fair, I didn't have anything like this in my collection. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. This is a blush and highlight all in one, and it reminded me very much of the No7 ones  that were released last Summer. This is yet to be tried out, but I'll report back as soon as I do.

CC Sticks: I came across these in Primark in Liverpool the other day and just had to try them. They had 4 different types to do with particular problem areas. I picked up the yellow for under eye circles, the green for redness, and the purple for dullness. I'm not sure if these are available in Ireland yet, but if not I'm sure they'll be along soon. I tried yellow one on Sunday night going for dinner, as we'd been doing a lot of travelling and walking and what not, and a lack of sleep at night between going out, and someone snoring, meant I had fairly bad circles under my eyes. I didn't use a primer as I was being lazy and only had a few minutes to liven up, so I found it a bit dry, but I think with a primer it'd be fine. It really did a good job of cancelling out the darkness under my eyes, I instantly looked more alert and awake! These were again only something like 1 or 2 pounds, sure I couldn't leave them there!

        

Velvet Matte Lip Pencils: These were the things I was most excited to pick up. I've seen plenty of people talking about them so I was mad to give them a go. I picked up two, a Red, and a Brown/Nude,

 which is that kind of colour the one and only Kylie Jenner seems to love! I've tried the brown colour so far, and I've to say, I'm not sure if the colour is for me, but the texture is nice. It's matte without being extremely drying, but I always use a bit of balm because no matter how hard I try my lips are chapped. These remind me a lot of the Maybelline Lip Pencils which I love, which are also comparable (apparently) to the Nars ones. So if they're something you'd be interested in, you may like to try these. 

So ladies. they're some of the bits you can pick up in our favourite shop at the minute. There's a lot more, like foundations, nail polish, eyeshadow, and also brushes, (some of which I've tried and I'll talk about in their very own post soon.) 

Like I said, I'll give everything a good go and if there's anything worthy of it's own blogpost, I'll be sure to do it. Have you lovelies tried any of the Penneys/Primark make up?

What did you think?

Thanks for reading, Alisha xxx

NYX Intense Butter Glosses

Everyone and their Granny know's about NYX Butter Glosses now that they are fairly easy to get a hold of in Ireland. However, I spotted a product that there hasn't been much talk about on the Boots website recently, and decided to give them a try, and they are the Intense Butter Glosses.
These are 7.75 and seen as I liked the original Butter Glosses so much I said I'd give these a go. Word of warning though, these are most definitely NOT for the faint hearted. If you want to know why, then read on!

I picked up two shades to try. Buying these online it was difficult to choose shades, as there wasn't any swatches on the Boots website, and I didn't really spend much time searching through Google for other swatches, I just went with shades that I didn't have anything like in my collection, and also shades that I thought would show a true reflection of pigmentation etc.
So the big question is, what are they like?



Well, the blurb on the website says:
Smother your lips with a silky gloss bursting with color! Our Intense Butter Gloss has the same mouth-watering texture and scent of the original formula with even more color payoff in 12 new delectable shades.

First off we'll look at the packaging. It's the same little tube that the original Butter Glosses come in, with the colour of the product being the colour that the packaging is also. The only difference is that the lid is silver as opposed to being the same colour as the tube like the original Butter Gloss. You get 8mls of product, which I think is plenty, as really, who uses up a full lip product?
The smell is just as amazing as the original too. That really creamy vanilla scent, I just can't get enough of it, I always have to take it out to smell it every so often!
The Intense Butter Gloss is most definitely intense, for something that's deemed as a gloss, it is extremely pigmented! One swipe of these is sufficient to cover the lips, and it's so easy to make a mistake with these, but slow and steady wins the race with these, so taking your time and concentrating on applying it is key here, and possibly using a lipliner too.
To me these are comparable to a liquid lipstick, just without the horrible dryness that comes alongside most of these. I don't think the texture is quite the same as the Butter Glosses, don't get me wrong it's comfortable, but it doesn't feel exactly the same on the lips.
Longevity wise, I've put this on around 9am, had lunch around 1/1.15, and still have colour on my lips in the afternoon. It has a  strong shine when first applied, and this does last a decent length of time also. It doesn't wear off funny either leaving you with those funny rings, which we all hate don't we ladies!
I picked up the shades Spice Cake and  Toasted Marshmallow. Spice Cake is a deep berry colour, almost a purple. And Marshmallow is more of a nude/brown with a hint of purple. Both of these colours are lovely, but not for the faint hearted. There's a couple of nude shades online that I'd love to try, just to see are they comparable in pigmentation and longevity.

                                                                          Spice Cake

Toasted Marshmallow

                                Toasted Marshmallow on top, Spice Cake on bottom in artifical light

Toasted Marshmallow top, Spice Cake bottom in Natural Light

I love these, and am very glad I picked them up. But as I said, for those of you who just like a sheer slick of colour, these may not be for you.
For anyone curious, you can pick these up on the Boots website.
Have you tried the Intense Butter Glosses?
Thanks for reading,
Alisha xxx

2015 Beauty Favourites

Howdy all!
I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year. Did anyone get up to anything exciting for it? We're finally getting back to normality after all festivities, so to ease us back in to reality I decided to do my top picks of 2015!
No matter how hard I tried to cull my make up buying habits in the last year, it just didn't work out, but I like to console myself with the fact that I could be spending my money on worse things! :)
So on we go! Just a head's up, I really only picked the things that I was obsessed with this year. There's so much stuff I love, but didn't feel I used it enough or long enough to justify putting it in here!

 Catrice Ultimate Shine Lipstick In A Rose Garden: This was my favourite lipstick this year, signs by that I've used a fair whack of it. It's the perfect every day lip colour. It's a nude but not so pale that it washes me out, it's just a shade or two darker than my natural lip colour and I just love it! The formula is beautiful too. Nice and moisturising with a good colour pay off.  I will definitely be getting a new one when this runs out.

Soap And Glory Solar Powder Bronzer: I never used to be a bronzer person really until 2015. I found a lot of them to be orange looking on me, and just didn't' look right. This one however is great. It has two shades in it, a bronzing shade which isn't too orange, and a nice highlight shade. I swirl the two together with a big fluffy brush and apply to the high points of my face and it just adds a nice glow to my face. Again this is something that I'm close to running out of, so I may repurchase at some point when I've used some of the other million bronzers I have.

Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer: I've tried numourous concealers in 2015, and while most of them were good, I found that nothing compared to the wake me up for disguising my under eye circles! It's light, but yet still brightens up under the eyes and makes me look fresher and more awake. The foundation is also a great foundation too if  you're on the hunt for a bargain foundation! Unfortunately I don't have a recent one of these to photograph but I'll add in a picture from another source so you know what it looks like!

Max Factor Creme Puff Blushes: It took me ages to get around to trying these, and they were much hyped about by bloggers all over, and I can see why. They're soft and creamy, easy to blend and just beautiful on the skin. I only have one shade in this, and I think it's lovely pink, and it just adds a gorgeous pop of colour to my cheeks, with an ever so slight highlight too. It actually reminds me of my much loved Benefit Dandelion blush!

The Body Shop Virgin Mojito Body Butter: It took me until 2015 to try a body butter from the Body Shop, how bad is that! But I'm so glad it was this one, I've been using it non stop through the winter, which is random given it's a summery scent, but I don't care because it smells divine! It smells exactly like a mojito, minty, fresh, and citrusy! I've been trying to repurchase it but because it's on offer on the website it's out of stock! :(
























Rimmel Instant Tan Mousse: I think this may have been my ultimate stand out product for 2015. I've tried numerous tan's in my time, but this one is the winner for me hands down. It's a tinted mousse, and it's really easy to apply and dries practically instantly. It's a fool proof product to use, and this comes from someone who always used to make some sort of mistake with tan, but this one you could nearly use it with your eyes closed!

Catrice Even Skin Tone Foundation: I've really gotten in to Catrice foundations in 2015. This one and the Nude Illusion are definitely my two favourite foundations hands down. This particular one does a great job of reducing redness and also is meant to visibly reduce pigmentation marks after continous daily use for 12 weeks. I don't really have much pigmentation, I do have dark marks on the outer area of my eye, but I can't say whether I've noticed a difference or not. But I just love it for how much of a difference it makes to the redness of my skin, which I have a lot of! It's a medium to full coverage foundation, but doesn't look cakey which is always a good thing! Cleary my blogging skills are a little rusty as I forgot to photograph this, so I grabbed a picture from the Catrice website, so at least you'll know what the bottle looks like if you decide to purchase! (Which you should) :P

Photo from www.catrice.eu

Garnier Micellar Solution: This is the best stuff since sliced bread! It's just the easiest thing to remove make up quickly, and we all know how hard that can be. I've used a couple of the different types for various skin types, but the one for normal skin wins hands down all the time! Again, another product I forgot to photograph, but I think everyone knows what this looks like anyway!

So ladies, they are my top picks for 2015. I could have kept going, as I do have lots of make up, but as I said  before these are by the far the things that really impressed me in 2015. Other things that I haven't mentioned this time round will more than likely be mentioned at some point on the blog!
How about you lovelies?
What were your faves?
Thanks for reading,
Alisha xxx