What's In My Make Up Bag | Updated

I'm normally the type of person who puts all their make up in storage and uses it as and when needed rather than sticking to a similar routine on a daily basis, mainly because I have so many expensive products I need to use otherwise they've been a complete waste of money. However in the recent weeks I've started to use a make up bag of products instead as it gives me an extra 15 minutes of sleep (fabulous). 

Firstly this make up bag is absolutely divine,  quite childlike I suppose but the pugs with a bow collar are just beyond adorable and I've been squeezing this into the smallest of bags just so I can look at it more. It's from Ted Baker and was in the ASOS sale for £15 reduced from £22. It is PVC as you can probably tell by the flashback in the photo which also makes it easy to keep clean!. 

Products (left to right),

Mac Prep+Prime Light Boost, Nars Sheer Glow, Chanel Bronze Universal,

 Mac Well Dressed Blush, Mac Pearl Cream Base, Mac Creme d'Nude, L'Oreal Superliner,

Mac Pro Longwear NC20, Benefit Stay Flawless Primer, 

Mac Duo: Nylon+Charcoal Brown, Mac Painterly Paint Pot

I've definitely become a 'Mac girl' as the months have gone by. I find them to be easy products to rely on in the sense that I know exactly what I'm getting with each product I buy. 

I use the above products to create a natural base so my skin looks as bare as it can be with contouring to add shape to my face. Although I'm realitively slim unfortunately I haven't been blessed with a face to match so I like to add products to help me not look like a fat baby. I'm also starting to use light coloured blushes, eye shadows and lipsticks as again it matches the natural look.

Lastly I've been loving highlighting with a couple of products which is what I use the Mac Light Boost and lighter concealer for as it just makes me look more awake and helps to brighten up my normally dull looking face!.

I haven't included my mascaras or powders because I use that many at the moment I'd need tens of pictures to show them all!. 

Update | Brow Routine

A few people have asked how I get my brows like in the above photo so I thought I'd give you an update on how I do them now as it's changed a bit over the past months!.

Left to Right - Mac Beguile Brow Set, Mac Duo in Nylon + Charcoal Brown, Tweezerman Mini Tweezers,
 Revlon Angled Brush, Maybelline Wax Pencil.

Step 1. I make sure I only tweeze stray hairs on the bottom of my eyebrows to keep them at their natural shape and avoid a disaster at all costs!.

Step 2. I then brush them through with the spooly on the end of the maybelline pencil. I never actually use the pencil side because it just makes my eyebrows look thin and bleurgh.

Step 3. I then use my revlon angled brush with the charcoal brown eyeshadow and draw a line underneath my brows following their shape to make sure they're defined. I then fill them in softly making sure I don't press to hard because again full on brows doesn't suit me at all. When I can't be bothered I fill in only my natural shape as it's way easier. However when I'm going out and I'm going to have a lot of make up on my eyes I drag the powder up a tiny bit making sure I still follow my natural shape exactly. I think the main thing to do is use fresh powder on the end of your eyebrows and then use the rest of whatever is there for the middle to front as this makes them look a lot more natural!.

Step 4. If I can be bothered (aka im going out) I'll use the other end of the revlon brush with the nylon eyeshadow under my eyebrows to make the shape stand out a little bit more then blend it down.

Step 5. Finally I then use the Mac Brow Set to set my eyebrows in place. This just makes sure the colour stays put the entire day and I normally use it to push the hairs up at the front of my eyebrows a little bit more in order to create a more natural look (well as natural as you can get with filled in eyebrows).

I understand this look isn't for everyone and most people will think I'm an idiot for spending so much time on such a trivial thing but I don't think my eyebrows have ever looked better! :)

How I Prep My Skin

I've never been lucky with my skin and have always relied on dozens of skincare products daily in order to make my skin look half decent or slightly healthy. It doesn't help that my skin is oily on my t zone and extremely dry on my cheeks either as I can never find products that work to tone down both!.

However this month I decided to try a brand new routine for prepping my skin before make up and hoped for the best. Luckily this attempt was extremely successful!

Firstly the Skin Perfection Miracle Blur by l'Oreal (£12) is an absolute babe, it's perfect for people with larger pores (especially on cheeks and noses) as it covers them up entirely. It feels like a primer but quite a bit thicker and needs to be blended in properly otherwise it'll shift all over your face but that's something I'm perfectly willing to put up with!. It's definitely a miracle product in my eyes and even works with my primer (more of a night-time thing that though).

Secondly is the new Stay Flawless Primer by Benefit (£25) which is quite like a pritt stick that you used to get in school. I was drawn to this because I just can't be bothered with liquid/gel primers as I never know how to use them properly. (How can you apply in circular motions but completely avoid blending them in?!). I apply this on my t-zone as that's the only place I need extra longevity and oil control. I swapped from the well loved smashbox light primer to this and have noticed a massive difference but never happens with me and primers. My make up not only stays on longer but it even looks fresher for hours. 

The biggest surprise I had was that I wore this primer to the gym and after an hour my make up hadn't moved a touch!.

Lastly is my favourite skin care product EVER which is Hydraluron by Indeed (£22). This is a product that I actually couldn't do without. It's designed to hydrate skin from underneath and works an absolute dream. No more overnight moisture masks overnight for me!. I apply it on a morning and at night to ensure my skin stays soft throughout the day and I have noticed a massive difference in the health of my skin. I've gone from getting breakouts everyday to once every 2/3 weeks and my blemish scars are disappearing quicker than ever!. I couldn't recommend a skincare product more. I genuinely think it would benefit every skin type even those with oily skin because I've also noticed that my skin goes a lot longer before becoming oily now!.

Haul | Benefit

I decided to try out Benefit's make up as I hear everyone praise how good their products are and for the prices of them you'd assume so!. I've never been a benefit fan because I think their packaging looks really cheap and tacky and I'm definitely not a fan of the blush/bronzer boxes as they're just basically cardboard. But I'm going to overlook that and hope what's inside is better!.

World Famous Neutrals - £26.50

 I've used this a couple of times already and I only bought it yesterday. The colours are gorgeous and the creaseless shadow pots are amazing and they've really made my eyeshadow last longer. I also love the fact this only costs £26.50 and has 4 eyeshadows with the same quality of mac which cost £10 each!.

Sugarbomb blush - £23.50

This blush is quite versatile because you can mix what colours you want to create a different type of pink. However I've used this a couple of times so far and It isn't very pigmented. Hoping I grow to love this otherwise that's a lot of money wasted.

Fake Up Concealer - £18.50

I'm also a bit warey of this product as it hasn't worked brilliantly on me so far but I do highlight the tops of my cheeks with mac pro longwear so the overhaul of concealer probably doesn't help!. I'm going to keep trying it for the next week without any other concealer and fingers crossed this also lives up to its reviews!.

My opinion with benefit is still the same and I still think it's ridiculously overpriced considering how cheap it feels and looks. However I think the eyeshadows are absolutely fabulous and I'll definitely be collecting the rest of the boxes in the range!

My Eventful Weekend!

 I'm 6 days into my week and a bit of so I decided to actually plan everyday out of my weekend instead of sitting in my room internet shopping!. So on Friday night I went out with some of my closest friends to Durham for the night!. Please excuse Thomas's face, he likes to ruin my photos!.

I also thought taking selfies of myself was an important thing to do at 3am

We then headed off to The Bluereef Aquarium in Tynemouth on Saturday morning to see the fishies!. Slightly hungover but thankfully I was smart the night before and stopped drinking past the point of tipsy. Hurrah for learning lessons!

I love the aquarium but going on a saturday wasn't the best idea as there were parents who had no control over their kids all over the place. Gets a bit irritating when every 2 minutes you have a child charging at you!.

Finally, on Sunday me and my family went to see the European Team Championships in Gateshead Stadium. As you can see the weather was horrendous and I spent the entire time soaked through. There was even thunder and lightening at one point!.


All in all I had fun and it's nice to actually get out the house instead of working constantly!.

RiRi ♥ Mac

As some of you may know Mac have teamed up with Rihanna to create 4 different collections which will be released every season. On Thursday the second collection was released at 12pm (although it was actually 10 minutes late) and everything was pretty much chaotic as the online queue to check out was 20 minutes which meant the Heaux lipstick I originally checked out with had sold out by this point. However I was lucky enough to get there in time to bag the duo blush/bronzer and ririboy lipstick which are gorgeous products. 

My favourite part of the collection is this duo blush/bronzer mainly because of how gorgeous and glowy the blush is. Second favourite thing is that it's going to be a great addition to my travel make up bag and replace my nars laguna bronzer which takes up a lot of space!. I originally wasn't going to get this because I'm not interested in mac's powder products however with it being limited edition I didn't really have the time to consider it otherwise it would of been gone (sucks). 

Next up is RiRiboy which is practically identical to Up The Amp except with a retro matte finish (which is extremely dry) so probably not going to be a good lipstick for the colder months. However I just think it's a gorgeous colour and my first purple lipstick so fingers crossed I actually suit it!

Beauty Looks | Red Lip

I tend to be one of those girls who doesn't plan their make up and instead chucks on the first make up items I can see. However I've decided to try to change this in the hope that my face looks a bit more organised and less "I fell asleep in my make up and this happened". So I bought some face charts from a company called pro chart in order to create some make up looks when I'm bored or on half days from work as I've finished watching new girl now and have nothing else to do (amazing finale by the way). 

My first look is more of my winter clean look which I decided to recreate to test it out. The result was better than expected although it would work better on someone who looked better than I do (always the case I'm afraid).

I did mix up the products a bit as I was in more of a powdery mood rather than cream (mainly because all my brushes I use to apply them are in need of a clean). On my face I used bourjous healthy mix foundation, mac select cover up concealor, mac brow set, mac courdory eyeshadow, nars laguna bronzer, mac well dressed blush, studio fix + powder, sleek highlighter with mac so chaud on my lips. 

On my eyes I used a mac paint pot in lets skate on the lids with woodwinked blended in to nylon eyeshadow. I then did an outer corner flick with my loreal liner pen and used YSL babydoll mascara with layers of maybelline falsies over the top. 




For me this is more of a shopping or a quick meal look. Maybe a night out look with a bit more contouring and false lashes on!.