Week 7 - Essence 'Nudes' Eyeshadow Palette

This eyeshadow Palette was bought for me as a stocking filler for Christmas and I've come to love it already! One of the things I look forward to most about my days off, is spending my mornings doing my makeup and testing out new tutorials I've watched on YouTube. My morning routine when I'm not at work starts with checking my social media whilst I wake myself up, then before jumping in the shower I wash my face with Garnier Daily Energising Gel Scrub and brush my teeth with Pearl Drops 4D whitening toothpaste. I then use the Body Shop Vitamin E Eye cream around my eyes and Vaseline Moisturiser over my face and neck, and whilst I wait for my creams to set in I'll decide on what look I want to go for. Lately, this eyeshadow palette has become the base for every look - which is usually just a basic smokey eye as that's about all I can manage. Ha. 

The palette comes with 8 different shades, ranging from a pale cream to a deep brown. There are various shades that have a shimmer or metallic look to them, which creates more of a glamorous evening look. For the look in the photo below, I started with the palest colour over the entire eye lid, then applied the pale shimmer shade in the corners of the eye to brighten the eye even further. Next I applied the mid brown shade to the outer corners of the eye and the dark matt brown into the crease of the eye, and then of course - blended! Now, I am NO expert when it comes to eyeshadow, but I have found that the more times I've done this look, the smoother it looks.

This Eyeshadow palette was bought from Wilkinson's and it cost just £4. I can honestly say that for the price, these eyeshadow are the best quality I have ever found.. taking into account the 8 different shades. The colour is super pigmented and extremely long lasting, so it's perfect for a whole day of shopping or a night out with the girls. You can create a number of different looks including pale and natural, dark and smokey or super shimmery if your off to a glamorous party. Please, give this palette a go and let me know your thoughts on which eyeshadow palettes are your favourites! 

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Week 6 - Enhance and Glow Luminous Body Scrub

Week 6 - Enhance and Glow Luminous Body Scrub

Week 6 calls for skin rejuvenation! We're getting towards the end of winter.. we've had months of going from freezing cold, blustery weather outside to boiling hot centrally heated houses inside, and I don't know about you.. but it's safe to say that my skins starting to feel the effects! I think it's really important during the winter to take the time to look after our skin, because after all, we need to feel good about ourselves all year round! I personally try to allow myself 30 minutes every evening to scrub, buff, moisturise and attempt to tan my luminous, pearly white skin. 

Avon's 'Skin so Soft' Enhance and Glow Luminous Body Scrub has become my winter essential this year! It's a creamy, pearlescent scrub that has fine grains which feel soft on the skin. Before finding this product I had tried a few different body scrubs and I found them all to have quite  large beads that felt really rough on my skin.. but this one has got the texture just right. I use this scrub 3-4 nights a week and I absolutely love how velvety soft my skin feels as soon as I step out the shower. I also combine use of the scrub, with other 'Skin so Soft' Avon products such as the Enhance and Glow Shimmer Oil Spray or the Enhance and Glow Perfector Body Cream to keep the skin moisturised. The only negative I have for this scrub is that it doesn't particularly leave my skin 'glowing', however it's not too much of an issue as I often use a tanning moisturiser after exfoliating anyways. 

This product can be bought from Avon online, or if you have a local Avon representative that delivers the catalogue's to your door, it can be ordered and delivered to you by your representative. This scrub costs anywhere between £2-£4... I only say this because the 2 times I've purchased the product, it's been on different offers. (I have tried looking on the Avon website for the price but the website has been down all night, boo!) So let me know what you think of the scrub and tell me what skin products are your winter favourites! 😊

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Week 5 - Nail Polish

Firstly, I'm going to start by asking how is it February already? I say this every year, but January always just seems to fly by and before I know it Christmas becomes a distant memory and suddenly my birthday's just around the corner (which I'm definitely not complaining about ☺️). So with it being Valentine's Day next week (eek, excited anyone?), I thought I'd make this week's post all about creating beautiful nails and I'm going do something slightly different. I'm currently training to become a nail technician, so for me, doing my nails is something I love to do and I can spend hours practising different designs.. which is why I thought I'd show you a few of my favourite nail designs and talk you through how to recreate them at home. 

My first look is very simple, just a standard rounded tip with the Maxfactor Glossfinity nail polish in the shade 'Flushed Rose'. I also use the Barry M 'base coat, top coat and nail hardener' before and after applying ALL nail polish as it really helps the look last for longer and gives an extra shiny finish. In this picture I have acrylic nails on, but if that's not something you want to have done, you can simply buy plain false nails - such as 'Elegant Touch' - and then paint them yourself. They come in a choice of a square or oval tip, and in the shade 'totally bare' which is a perfect base for applying whatever colour you like. I personally love the oval shape at the moment as I think it creates a more sophisticated look and it makes my hands look so beautiful. 

My second nail design is another simple one, especially perfect for a romantic meal out with a special somebody. For this look, I've filed my natural nails into a 'squoval' shape - square with slightly rounded edges - and painted them with Maxfactor Glossfinity nail polish again, but in the colour 'marshmallow'. I've then gone for a deeper pink from the Barry M nail paint range in the shade 'shocking pink' for the ring finger. To finish it off, I love to go over this with a coat of nail glitter from the Seventeen range as I think it really just completes the look. I'm absolutely in love with the idea of doing a different design on the ring finger to really make a bold statement.. you can go completely over the top yet it can still look elegant as it's just the one nail.

 

This last nail design is slightly more fiddly and frustrating to get right.. but once completed looks like you could've had it done in a salon. For this I've used the 'dusky rose' Maxfactor Glossfinity nail paint as the base colour and then left to 100% dry - this is always the tricky bit for me, as I'm just far too impatient!! Once completely dry, I used the shaped nail tip guides to create the gold triangle (I do buy mine from Amazon for 54p, but I believe you can find these nail tip guides in all of the drugstores, they're just slightly more expensive.) Once these are in place and they all look the same on each nail, I simply apply the Barry M gold 'foil effects' nail paint to the section at the end of the nail. On this occasion, I then added the gems which I again bought from Amazon for roughly 90p, using tweezers to place them on just afterI've applied a top coat.

Products mentioned in this blog:

-Barry M Nail Paint - £3.99 (currently 3 for £9 at boots right now)

-Maxfactor Glossfinity - £5.99 (Superdrug and Boots)

-Elegant Touch false nails - £2.99 (Savers) 
-Nail Tip Guides - 54p (Amazon)

-Nail art gems - 94p (Amazon)

Obviously these nails can be recreated with any colour and brand nail polish of your choosing, these are just my personal favourites. Barry M has always been one of my top nail products as they were the first to start all the different nail effect polishes and I've just loved them ever since. As for the Maxfactor Glossfinity.. they were actually a Christmas present which have turned out to be brilliantly long lasting so I've become a huge fan of them. What're your favourite nail polishes? I'd love to know, so leave me a message in the comment box below ☺️

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