My 2015 Favourites!

My favourite primer of the year has to be the Makeup Forever Step 1 Mattifying Primer. I bought this when I was on holiday in Florida and it's the only primer I've used since. It's in between a silicone and a cream texture and makes my makeup stay all day and helps control shine. Foundation wise this year has been the year of L'Oreal. Although I have loved the True Match Foundation it's been all about the L'Oreal Infallible Matte 24 Hour Foundation. I know that I love this because I've bought it in a shade lighter for winter which I never normally do! I love the way that it's high coverage without feeling it and looks really good on the skin. It also deals well with my oiliness and lasts all day on my face. There have been a few concealer favourites this year but the Maybelline Eraser Eye came out on top with it's amazing coverage and lasting power on the skin. I discovered the Boujois Healthy Balance Powder this year and fell absolutely head over heels in love with it! Good coverage, not cakey and smells amazing. I don't think I'll ever change my powder, this is the one for me!

I discovered brow tinting this year which has been an amazing life saving and when my brows are in a pretty good shape all I need to use is the Maybelline Brow Drama and I use the shade medium brown. I've had this one for a very long time so I could probably do with a new one but I love the way that it distributes the perfect amount of product and doesn't leave my brows feeling hard and crispy. In terms of brow pencils there has been one absolute winner, the Soap and Glory Brow Archery Pencil. I have this in two shades, Blondeshell and Hot Chocolate, the latter being my favourite of the two. The nib is thin so is great for precise brow drawing and the colour is great. I couldn't imagine using any other brow pencil!

Eye primer wise I have used the Mac Painterly Paint Pot all year and nothing else. It matches my eyelids perfectly, neutralises veins and stops my eyeshadow from creasing. I've also used it pretty much everyday for an entire year and haven't made much of a dint in it. Palettes. This was a very hard category to choose a favourite but I have to say there is one clear winner and that is the Too Faced Natural Eyes Palette. I've used this so much this year and have hit pan on several shadows, a tell tale sign that things must be going well! The right mix of neutral and party I can do a lot with this palette and it's great and compact. I use it so much that I've left it in my uni room and brought other palettes with me to convince myself to use something else!

Winged liner has become a big thing for me in the past 12 months and I now wear it pretty much everyday. Although I've tried three types of liners from the L'Oreal Super Liner range I can't pick a favourite. I've used the original, Superstar and Perfect Slim. All of them were amazing. If you're a regular reader of my blog then you'll know that the only eyeliners I use in my waterline are the Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajals, especially Jet Black. I've used these for years and they work really well and last for quite a good length of time, especially considering the price. I've had a very up and down year in the mascara department and I have to say that the start of 2015 was where the best mascaras were, and they were both magazine freebies. I enjoyed using the Benefit Roller Lash but my favourite was the Clinique High Impact Volume Mascara. It volumised, lengthened and was an all round amazing product. I never got round to repurchasing it but remembering how amazing it was makes me want to have it back in my life.

On New Years Eve 2014 I bought the Soap and Glory Solar Powder Bronzer and I haven't looked back. It's an all round amazing product, especially since they updated the package, and I don't think that I could change back to another bronzer. Winter or Summer I get so much use from this product. I've never been one to have an extensive blush collection and this year hasn't changed that but I think I have found one that will keep me going for a very long time. When I was in America I picked up the Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Tipsy and I absolutely love it. It's a warm pinky peach and it goes with all of my makeup looks, at the minute there really is no need for me to have another blush in my life, but we shall see what 2016 holds in that department. Things have been quiet on the highlighter front this year so there's nothing in that category, but if anyone has any recommendations that would be much appreciated.

This year has to have been the year where I got seriously into lip products. Before this year I owned a few, select products that were pretty much none existent on the  lips but I have really broadened my horizons. I could have chosen a lot of products to have been my overall favourite but I have to say that looking at them all there is one clear winner. That winner is Mac Kinda Sexy, which was kindly gifted to me by some pretty great friends for my birthday. It is my perfect nude, an amazing lipstick and gorgeously matte. It's my go to night out lipstick and works well with or without a lipliner. Simply amazing! 

December Favourites

I wasn't planning on doing a December Favourites post due to my 2015 Faves that will be coming up next week, but I thought that I've been loving a few things this month so I might as well share!

I bought Harper's Bazaar last month because I saw that it came with a free mini Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair. I'd never used a serum before and I was curious to see how it would work on my oily skin. I am in love with this product and will be really sad when it runs out. It gives my face some much needed moisture without creating a load of oil. I've noticed that it also has a real effect on spots as well as I get much less when I use this. If you saw my Nine Ladies Dancing post then you'll have seen that to get my glittery lids I used the Collection Glam Crystals Glitter Eyeliner. I've found that this is so much better than a normal glitter as it sticks to the lids and stays on for a very long time. It does make my eyes sting for a bit whilst I apply it but that's completely worth it. My lips seem to have hated me this month so lip balm has been my best friends and the Maybelline Baby Lips gives me just the right amount of moisture to keep my lips from getting dry. Also my Lush Lip Scrub has been great at getting rid of the skin on my lips after they've gone through a dry patch.

Mini L'Oreal Haul and First Impressions

Just a small little post today about a favourite product of mine that has been repurchased and a new product that is a new one for me. If you've been reading my blog for a while then you'll know that I was in the love with the L'Oreal Infallible 24H Matte Foundation as soon as i tried it. The first one I bought was in the shade 11 Vanilla, the second lightest shade, as I felt like the lightest shade was a bit too white. I could get away with it in the summer months but now I feel like 10 Porcelain is the perfect shade for me. It has a slight yellow tint to it but mixed with my Boujois Healthy Balance Powder (which is also yellow) it works out. It's a medium to full coverage but feels really light on the sky and manages to keep my very oily skin pretty matte all day.

I was in desperate need of a new concealer so I thought that I'd try something new and went for the L'Oreal True Match Brightening Concealer in Ivory. I don't have a brightening/ highlighting concealer in my collection so I was intrigued to give it a go. I have to say, for a first try I'm a big fan. It, like the foundation, is quite yellow but that's fine. It took A LOT of twisting to get some out at first so if you get it, it's not broken, it just takes a while to get it going. It give a nice amount of coverage and doesn't feel heavy on the skin. So far I like it but I'll keep trailing it out and report back!

The Most Exciting Festive Bath Ever!

Beauty bloggers seem to have this complete and utter obsession with Lush, something that I've never really had. I've had a few Lush products but they were a few years ago when I couldn't really appreciate what was going on and thought that bath bombs were just something that turned my bath a cool colour (which is still something that's important to a degree). Because of my lack of Lush knowledge and the fact that apparently Lush brings great things out around Christmas I thought that I would trial some products, and boy am I glad that I did.

I knew that I wanted to get Candy Mountain because last year I bought the Snow Fairy shower gel and loved the scent. Candy Mountain has the Snow Fairy scent and is a Bubble Bar, something that I have never tried from Lush. If you are a Lush newbie, as I am, I'm going to say that they bubble bars are really hard to dissolve. You have to really massage the bar to get the bubbles going but once you get the rhythm it's really easy and totally worth it! It gave me plenty of bubbles and turned my bath pink, but to be honest it didn't stay pink for long. I don't know why I went for the Father Christmas Bath Bomb but I wanted something that was festive and a bit different, and I mean come on just look at his cute face! I was told by one of the staff that it had the same scent as Snow Fairy but that didn't matter when it got into the bath. I was expecting a bright pink but what I got from my little santa chum was a very festive green! Amazing!

I am DIEING to try more Lush products so if you have some suggestions please let me know because I am a complete newbie when it comes to things like this!

Twelve Drummers Drumming

THE LAST DAY OF EYEMAS! I can't believe it! I have to say these three weeks have totally flown! Drummers Drumming, another one that I found difficult to do. I used blue shades in the end because I could picture the little drummers wearing little blue jackets and thought it looked cute! Also I've not done a blue look in this series so I thought I'd end it with a bang!

I primed my eyes and then got to work with my Urban Decay Vice 3 Palette. I started with the shade Truth, a cream matte shadow, to give the look a clean base to open up the eye. I then started on the blue and used the shade Freeze which is a light blue shade in the crease. I layered it on with a fluffy brush to get an intense colour with a soft edge. To darken up the look a little I took the shade Heroine, a dark navy blue, on an angled brush and used this to define my lash line. I also took this underneath and blended it out to deepen the eyes. Eyeliner and mascara then finish off the look. And that's eyemas done! I've really enjoyed doing this little series so don't be surprised if you see something like this in the future!

Eleven Pipers Piping

Eleven pipers piping! One of the ones I always get confused with the number on. This one is the shimmery version of six geese a laying and I'm starting to sense that dark browns are kind of where I'm at right now. The Urban Decay Naked Smokey palette is the one to thank for this look and I have to say I'm going to be using this palette a lot this winter!

After priming my eyes I went into the crease with Combust, a light ashy brown that I use as a base colour. I then used the shade Dirtysweet all over the lid, which is a beautifully gorgeous shimmery gold. I layered this on to get a lot of intensity as I just love the colour. I then went into the crease with the dark matte brown shade Whiskey to darken up the crease. I then used the light brown shimmer called Radar on the outer part of the lid and took this underneath the lid and blended it out. Winged liner, black eyeliner in the waterline and lashings of mascara finished off this look.

Ten Lords a Leaping

Every day it seems to be getting harder and harder to make these looks different and not repeat! This was a very brave look for me, there's a lot of red which may border on 'punched in the face'. I do quite like the way it turned out though, whether I'll be wearing it again is another thing!

Primed the eyes as per usual and got straight to work. I was feeling really brave so took a risk with the shimmery, vampy red shade from the Urban Decay Vice 3 Palette called Sonic. I patted this all over the lid and blended it out so that the edge was really soft. I also took it underneath and did a lot of blending. To give the look a bit more depth I used the warm, dark brown shade called Reign from the same palette  on the outer corner of the eye and did a lot more blending! To make it look like I didn't have some kind of eye problem I did a little bit of liner quite close to the lash line. To finish off I lined my waterline with Rimmel Sable Brown Eyeliner and a little bit of mascara.

Nine Ladies Dancing

I am absolutely, head over heels in love with this look! I love the colour, I love the drama and most of all I love the glitter! I decided that 'Ladies Dancing' deserved its very own video, because I've not done one in a while and I wanted to do one in this little series. I'm so glad I decided to do that because I like the way it turned out and I am literally in love with these eyes! This is clearly the most dramatic look I've done so far and is what I'd class as definite Christmas party makeup. Don't be expecting every day from now on to be this intense because it won't be, just to pre warn. Hope you enjoy the video and I apologise for the awful nails, totally forgot they'd be on show!

Mac Painterly Paint Pot

Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette // High and Smoulder

Mac Metallic Pigments // Femininity, Dusty Desire and Maribu

Collection Glam Crystals // Funk and Dancing Queen

L'areal Super Liner Perfect Slim // Black

Rimmel Kohl Kajal // Jet Black

Clinique High Impact Mascara

Taste Lights Camera Splashes Mascara

Eight Maids a Milking

Yep, I know what you're thinking. Abz, I'm so glad that you finally got to use that milk jug in the shape of cow. I know, me too! I seriously apologise for the state of my brows in this look. They're in dire need of a wax and I didn't realise how bad they were until I saw these photos! For this look I went down the pink route. I know, very stereotypical to go pink for girls but I've not done a look like this so far and I kept it quite neutral. I really like how it turned out and it rekindled my love for the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette, which is all I used shadow wise for this look.

A little change in this look in terms of primer as I used the Kiko Shadow Stick in 21 Passionfruit. I used it because it's a sparkly pink/gold and I thought it might add a little extra pinkness to this look. Using the matte white shade Strange from the Naked 3 palette I put this on the inner part of my lid just to brighten it up a little. I then went into the crease with Nooner, a matte brown with a tint of pink that I absolutely love. This was all I used in the crease and layered it to build up intensity. To make the lids a bit sparkly and festive, I used Dust, a shimmery pink, on the inner lid and Trick, a gorgeous rose gold, on the rest of the lid. Finally I took Blackheart, a black with red shimmers in it, on an angled brush and then across the very close to the lash line. A swipe of black liner to the waterline and a bit of mascara and the look is complete. Now I'm ready to go and milk some cows.

Seven Swans a Swimming

I've never really understood a no makeup makeup look before until I did this to my face. When I planned to do this look I knew that I wanted to go very simple on the eyes, understated but great like a swan. I thought about going for the liner look but I've done that quite a few times already in this little series so I thought I'd use a little bit of black eyeshadow instead. I wasn't sure about this look at first but I quite like it. It's taught me that you can still put makeup on without having to go over board with the eyes. You learn something new everyday!

All of the eyeshadows I used for this look are from the Urban Decay Naked Smokey Palette, ironic when this is the furthest thing away from a smokey eye! I started off by putting the shade Thirteen a pale white, all over my lid to lighten up my eyes. I then used the cool light brown shade called Combust in the crease, but only lightly as I wanted to keep the eyes quite bare. The last shadow I used (yes I only used three, crazy right) was Black Market, which as you probably guessed is a black. Not quite matte but also not shimmery, somewhere in between. I took this on a small pencil like brush and lined the top of lash line with it, focusing on the outer edges. This was the first look in these twelve days that I haven't used eyeliner in my waterline and I have to say I think that's what makes my eyes look bare. So all I did was finish off the look with mascara. 

I hope you like this one and the fact that it was something a little bit different for this blog!

Six Geese a Laying

Welcome to the inevitable neutral eye with winged liner look with was bound to come at some point in these twelve days. I just felt that geese are brown, these eyeshadows are brown, it was meant to be. I'm still loving the Fleur De Force eyeshadow palette so that's all I used to complete this look and I love wearing this everyday with a big jumper. It's seriously become my staple. 

Primed my eyes as per normal and then used the shade Coconut Cream from the Fleur De Force Eye Quad in Cosmic Bronze all over the lid. I then used the light brown matte shade called Taupe Brown in the crease, doing it layer by layer to build up the intensity. To make it a little darker I use the shade Cocoa Brown on the outer corner in a 'V' shape to flick the shadow out a bit. I also did this in layers to make the colour more intense. For a bit of sparkle I used the brown shimmery shade Mink Shimmer and patted it onto the lid for an extra something something! Finishing off the look I winged out my liner with a fancy cat flick, put black eyeliner in the waterline and piled on the mascara. Look this look and it's one that I think I'll still love for years to come!

Five Gold Rings

This was the look I was most excited to do and I have to say it didn't disappoint. I was glad to crack out the sparkle and get my glitter on which to me is what Christmas is all about. I added the winged liner because I felt that this was more of a Christmas Party look and the liner would make it night time appropriate, even though I rarely ever not where liner nowadays. Everyone knows the five gold rings so I wanted to make this eye look very special.

As per I primed my eyes with the Mac Painterly Paint Pot and got to work. I used the Too Faced Natural Eyes Palette for this look and first took Honey Pot, a nice shimmery gold shade that was the inspiration for this look. I simply patted it on the lid with a flat brush and did this a few times to build up the intensity. To add a little bit more sparkle I used the Gold Barry M Dazzle Dust and patted it all over the lid as well. Back to the Too Faced Palette I used the shade Chocolate Martini, which is a gorgeous chocolate brown with gold glitter and shimmer running through it, into the crease and the outer edges. I did this a little at a time to build up the colour but also to keep a bit of softness as I wanted the main focus to be on the gold. I did a very thin line of liner for this look, using the L'Oreal Super Liner Perfect Slim, and I think that it worked out well as it defined the eyes but didn't take attention away from the gold. Black eyeliner in the waterline and lashings of mascara and we're done. Lovely!

Four Calling Birds

I'm not going to lie I was a little stuck with what to do with this one but I think that it turned out pretty well. I went for a smokier eye to anything I've done so far and I really like the way it looks. I went for the darker, grey/black tones because when googling the good old calling bird (as per with these 12 days) I noticed that they are jet black. So because black isn't the best colour to work with I just decided to smoke it out. I also like the harsh line and liner as it intensifies it even more.

You know the drill, I primed my eyes with the Mac Painterly Paint Pot and got to work. I started off with a bit of a base and put Combust from the Urban Decay Smokey Palette softly in the crease. I then put DTF from the Urban Decay Vice 3 Palette on my lid as it matched the grey theme but kept it light. Defy from the same palette then went into the crease, with lots of building up to intensify the colour, and Black Market from the smokey palette was focused onto the outer corner. All of the shades were blended underneath the eye, with a particular focus on Black Market and Defy. I finished off the look with winged liner, black eyeliner in the waterline and lashings and lashings with mascara! This look may be making an appearance on my next night out, you never know, I do like it a lot.

Three French Hens

I was rather excited to have a go at this look as I knew it was going to be a bit different. As with most of the looks I'll be doing in the upcoming weeks I googled what french hens actually look like. I don't know why but I assumed that they were all red but the ones I looked at were orange with a bit of red so there was a slight change of plan to what I was going to do, but not massively. Red eyeshadow scares me slightly but when I use it I like the way it looks on the lid and the way it makes my eyes look really blue. If I was to do this again I'd put liner on because I think it would finish off the look a little more but other than that I really like how this turned out!

As always I primed my eyes with the Mac Painterly Paint Pot and then got to work with the shadows. I took Lucky, a shimmery orange, from the Urban Decay Vice 3 Palette all over the lid but leaving the inner corner clear for a lighter colour, I used Last Sin from the same palette. Now for the exciting part. My Kiko eyeshadow in 128 is what I used for the red in this look as it's a poppy colour red and matte which was great for using in the crease. I built the colour up as opposed to going straight in with the full colour so it didn't look I'd got punched in the face. I made sure I blended it out to the max as well and I think it was successful. I also look all three colours underneath and blended them out, keeping the red strictly to the outer corner. Finishing the look off with brown eyeliner for a softer look and used a lighter mascara to open up the eyes. I also lightly dabbed on my Clinique Lipstick in Poppy Pop to add a little bit more red (as if there wasn't already enough!). Love this look and I'll definitely be trying it again.

Two Turtle Doves

Day two of the 12 days of Eyemas and we are on to the very cute Two Turtle Doves. I knew that I wanted this to be a clean and light look but also with a little bit of sparkle. I assumed that turtle doves were all white but when I googled them they had a bit of a grey touch to them as well, which I used as well in my eyes. I really like the way this look turned out and it's a bit of a more wintery version of what I wore throughout the entire month of October. I think I'll be cracking this look out sometime next month no doubt!

Priming my eyes with my Mac Painterly Paint Pot I covered my entire lid with Bobby Dazzle from the Urban Decay Vice 3 Palette (I have a feeling I'll be using this palette a lot this month!). Bobby Dazzle is a shimmer shade which is whiter than white and made my lids super shiny. I then used DTF from the same palette, which is a soft matte grey, through the crease to soften it out and add the all important grey to this look. I added a little more to the outer corner to intensify that up and then took both of the shades underneath the eye and that's the shadows done. I finished off the look with some winged liner and I did a smaller wing than normal so not to overpower the look. The I added some black eyeliner to my waterline and a bit of mascara. Two turtle doves complete!