My Every Day High Street Face ...

So I thought I would write a blog post on an every day face with products from just the high street. I personally love the high street for make up, especially because I live in Manchester city centre so there is a really big Boots on my way home from uni (very dangerous) so they have a really good range of everything. Although the branch of Boots closest to me has high end brands available as well, I thought it would make sense to only include the brands you would normally find in a high street shop. 

Well that's attractive! Haha 

In the picture above I had just cleansed using a face oil, toner and moisturiser. I started off using the L'Oreal  Lumi Magique Primer, which I have really enjoyed using. It's the second time I have bought it now and I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for glowing skin. I used it under my foundation here but it is nice mixed in with foundation as well. I then used the Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation in 52 (Vanilla). Foundation colour range is probably where I struggle most with high street foundations. I am just too pale! However, I really like this foundation. It is really lovely to apply, and blends well. It provides light-medium coverage, and leaves a funnily enough really healthy finish to the skin with, in my opinion, a moderately dewy finish (although it says semi-matte on the packaging). I then used the Maybelline, Browdrama, scuplting brow mascara in Medium Brown, lightly through my eyebrows. I haven't used many eyebrow gels so I can't really say if this is amazing or not, but it does the job quite nicely for me. 

I then moved onto my eyes, and as I don't have a high street eye primer, I jumped straight into the eyeshadow. I used a recent purchase, the Revlon quad in Moonlit Clair de Lune, which is a lovely combination of browns in a satin finish. I have to admit that eyeshadows are generally things that I tend to stick to high end brands with because the quality and the lasting power just seem to be so much better, even if they are more expensive. However, I was really impressed with this quad, and even though they might not have as much pigmentation as say the Urban Decay or Mac eyeshadows they were still good. I used the lightest shade all over my eyelid, and then used the shade below it over the 
 rest of the eyelid, with the darker two blended into the outer corner and underneath the eye. I then used my Rimmel Scandaleyes precision micro eyeliner in black on my top waterline and eyelid. I really like this eyeliner, and find it really easy to use and manipulate. I then used my Masterpiece Max mascara from MaxFactor, which I have loved for a really long time and is especially good if you want a heavier mascara look. I then used my No7 Natural Blush in Honey (I'm hoping that No7 count as high street but sorry if you feel it doesn't) for a subtle contour, followed by the L'Oreal blush in True Rose on my cheeks. I love this shade! It is a really lovely subtle colour and is great for a naturally flushed look. I then used my Soap & Glory Glow All Out face powder to set my face, and then another new addition to my make up collection, Revlon ColorStay Ultimate Suede lipstick in 010 Womenswear, which I really love! It stayed on for so long, and was really creamy but slightly matte as well.
 I think I will definitely be looking at more of their range! 

Although it sounds like a lot of products, the finished look isn't too heavy because I have used most things sparingly! In some cases, it is definitely worth spending the money on higher end products, but the high street has some fantastic products too!

xxxx

Spring/Summer Nails

I thought I would do a post on some of my favourite Spring and Summer nails, because there are lots of lovely colours and trends out there at the moment and I thought I would share a few of my favourites. I'm really loving pastel colours for the Summer because I think they look lovely with a tan, and lean towards more dark, sultry colours in the Winter when I'm a bit paler. The first one I'm going to review is the Bourjois 10 days no chips nail polish in 25 - Macaron which is a coral kind of colour. I'm not sure I would say it went 10 days chip free as mine chipped after about 3 and then I took it off because I really don't like chipped nail varnish. However, my nails do seem to be especially prone to chipping so it might last longer on someone with stronger nails. Overall, I really love the colour and the formula of the nail varnish. I bought it for £5.99 from Boots and it was one of two new shades, 25 and 26 - Guimave, which is a lilac colour, which is also lovely but is similar too other nail varnishes I have already got. 

25 - Macaron - Bourjois 10 days no chip nail polish

The colour looks pinker than it actually is in real life but it is still a really lovely coral colour, with a really lovely thick formula. However, the brush is angled and it took me a while to get used to it because I have fairly narrow nails, but regardless of the brush it is still one of my favourite nail colours for the spring. 

My second favourite colour for the Spring is Powder Pink from the range Nails Inc made for InStyle which came free with the June issue (which cost £3.80 and a normal Nails Inc polish costs £11.00 in Debenhams so as it was full size it was definitely worth buying). It is more of a lilac/pink than a pale pink, and is a lovely pastel shade. The formula is also absolutely lovely in the Nails Inc polishes, and creates a lovely opacity after two coats and is very shiny. I love it when magazines pair up with good brands to make good freebies with issues. I own three Nails Inc polishes, all that came with magazines and I will definitely be buying some from a Nails Inc counter at some point because I really like the formula. 

Nails Inc for InStyle - Powder Pink

Another really lovely colour is one I have already reviewed ( see here for a full review) and is a MaxFactor Mini in 20 - Mellow Yellow. Although it takes about 4 coats to reach any sort of opacity, the coats dry very quickly so doesn't take too much longer to do. I wasn't overly keen on this at first, but I have had lots of compliments about it and now I have got used to it, I really like it!

20 - Mellow Yellow from MaxFactor Minis - Top - with flash, Bottom - without

Another really lovely Spring colour is 346 - Capri from Essie and it is a lovely powder blue. I have used it before on my Simple Nail Art post and it is really lovely. It is one of the first Essie nail polishes I bought and it is such a nice colour and the formula is good, although it definitely requires two coats to be opaque. 

I did not realise how many favourite Spring/Summer nail polishes I own, so I think this will have to be a two part post, so look out for part 2.

xxx

It's a kind of magic ....

Like many other lovers of all things beauty, removing nail polish (especially the dreaded glitter polish!!!) can be an absolute pain and sometimes, yes I admit it, I just can't be bothered with it and leave it to chip away. I'm sorry mum! So when I heard about the new nail polish remover form Bourjois I was definitely intrigued. I managed to grab one from Boots (apparently they aren't selling them in Superdrug), but I think they are selling out quickly. I had to pretty much fight one girl over the last one on the shelf (we were about to take our earrings out and start finger clicking at each other - would have been quite a sight to see I can tell you now), when one of the sales assistants restocked the shelf. It was quite amusing as we then both sheepishly took one each and went our separate ways,  but just so you all know I totally could have had her! (This is a total lie, I would definitely have lost as I have never been in any sort of fight in my life and I would definitely have started crying if she had even touched me :)  )

The idea is that you put your finger in the hole in the sponge and twist it in the sponge. On the bottle it says it takes 1 second, which is a bit of an exaggeration, think more like 5-10 seconds for two or three coats (including top coat), and about 30 seconds for glitter, but it is still pretty incredible in my opinion. However, do not tip the pot up. I thought (yes, looking back it probably wasn't my best idea), that I would be able to lie down, casually watching tv on my laptop, and be able to remove my nail varnish at the same time. It turns out I couldn't, because a whole load of liquid came out, so I think it's best to keep it pretty much vertical and don't let it roll around because that sponge actually holds a lot of liquid, and I'm sure mine will run out quicker as it has less in it. 

I picked this up for £4.99 from Boots,and although it is more expensive than the standard nail polish remover, I will definitely repurchase it when it runs out (however, I can't really see it working on toes - that could prove a bit difficult - so I would still use normal remover for my toes). It is really handy and as hassle free as removing nail polish is ever going to get really. It also means I can fully enjoy all the glitter I want without having the hassle of scrubbing it off. Overall, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wears a fair bit of nail polish (it is acetone free so can also work with false nails), or to anyone wanting a minimal fuss way of removing nail varnish. However, beware of the smell, I'm assuming it is due to how concentrated it is but it is pretty potent, other than that it is pretty fab. 

xxx