What's In My Makeup Bag? #2

Hi ladies! So this past weekend the boyfriend and I went back to his for the weekend to visit with his parents. That and he also needed his dad's help to fix his laptop. Anyways, here's what I brought back with me!

Eyes:

Sleek Storm Palette: This is the ONLY eyeshadow I've been using this month. It's one of the four products in my 4 For The Month challenge, and I've certainly stuck to it! I mostly make use of the top row, but I'll talk more about it at the end of the month. Anyways, I love the neutral colors in this palette and it's excellent for very simple, everyday eye looks.

Urban Decay Primer Potion: Last time I traveled, I didn't bother bringing an eye primer, and I regretted it! So this time I brought along the very travel friendly version of UDPP. It's the primer I've been using the majority of this month and I've fallen back in love with it. Good thing, since I have the professional size of it to get through!

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in Zero: The only pencil I use for my waterline. Stays all day, it's amazing, that's all I have to say.

Maybelline The Falsies Mascara: I definitely prefer this one over the One By One mascara that I picked up along with this one. This one just does an amazing job of lengthening my lashes. I've never used something that made them look so long. But at the same time, it's not clumpy and my lashes don't look spidery. I can see why everyone raved about this one.

MUA Mascara in Shade 1: I just use this to brush and set my brows.

3 brushes: One's from e.l.f and the other 2 are from the Studio Tools line sold in Target. They're cheap, but I find they work well for simple eye looks.

Lips:

NADA! I know, how terrible have I been with the lips lately. I had my Summer Fruits EOS lip balm though!

Face:

L'oreal Studio Secrets Magic Perfecting Base: Probably the first and last primer I'll ever use. It does such a good job of smoothing out my skin and making my makeup last that I don't see a point in searching for anything else!

Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation in Opal: I'm still not quite ready to review this yet, because I'm still in the process of finding what sets it best and whether it's best used as an all over foundation or a concealer and blah blah blah. But at the moment, I'm using it as an all over foundation and I apply it with my fingers. The color matches me pretty well and it does an excellent job of covering, BUT, I feel like it's almost equal to the coverage I got when I mixed Neutrogena Healthy Skin and Revlon Photo Ready. But then again maybe I'm just not using enough, we'll see!

Garnier Tinted Eye Roll On in Light: I love this for my undereye circles. It just blends in so well and covers amazingly.

Bare Minerals Mineral Veil: I didn't want to use the Bare Minerals foundation to set my foundation, since the Vichy foundation is supposed to be so full coverage. But I found that this just didn't keep me oil free long enough, so I tried setting the Vichy with my Bare Minerals foundation and it worked out much better, but this did well enough at the time.

e.l.f Complexion Brush: Used this to apply the Mineral Veil. It's nice, doesn't put too much product on your face or make you look powdery.

What do you make sure to bring along in your makeup bag when you travel?

NOTD: China Glaze Sea Spray

How gorgeous is this color!? It's definitely one of my new favorites, especially for Spring time. It's a nice change from the typical pastel pinks, purples, and blues that we often see for Spring. It's like a blue gray and I just think it's gorgeous. It's probably looking a bit more blue than gray in these photos, but I promise you, there's gray in there! :D

I used 2 coats, but it was pretty opaque after 1.

Thoughts?

Bomb Cosmetics Haul

The other day, when I was back in the country with my boyfriend to visit his parent's, we went to the Garden Centre, and next to the Garden Centre was this little shop, which I'm afraid I don't know the name of, but it had a lot of lovely little odds and ends. Lots of jewlery, candles, cards, mugs, etc. What caught my eye was this section, which just screamed LUSH.

I quickly started smelling everything, after squealing to Craig about my find. I've recently fallen in love with Lush bath bombs, bubble bars, and melts, so when I saw something that looked to be very similar, I was sold. They were selling for 1.99 each, which sounded fantastic to me, even if they are a bit smaller than the type of bombs or melts you'd find in Lush. The photos aren't that great of quality, I just had my bf snap a few on his iPhone, but once I got home I searched for them online and found that they sell loooads more things on their website. There's a HUGE selection of bath melts and bombs, and also soaps and candles, a few of which I did see in store but I didn't know they were sold by the same people since they were in different sections. Anyways, I'd never heard of this company before, but I'm definitely glad I have now, and will be making an order online once I run out of my current stash.

But, I did notice, that on the website most things sell for 2.49 each, whereas they were only 1.99 in store, but still, that's a pretty decent price. They sell at some places in the US, but not online on their website like they do here in the UK.

But here's what I grabbed:

Raspberry Ripple Bath Mallow, (sorry I don't know the name of the middle one! I couldn't find it on their website either, but it's a strawberry one!) and Love Cloud Bath Creamer (I also couldn't find this one on their website, but luckily I could read the name from the photo my bf took)

The raspberry one smells like raspberries and the strawberry one smells like strawberries, haha, couldn't get more simple than that! And the Love Cloud one smells like chocolate and vanilla. They all smell AMAZING and look like cupcakes and candy!!! I can't get over how adorable they are.

Another photo I took once I got home:

The Raspberry Ripple one is missing because I used it when we were back at my boyfriend's. I was very impressed with it! My boyfriend's parent's bath is huuge and I thought it might be too small for the bath, but it wasn't. It made the bath creamy and was so fragrant. The only complaint I'd have is the little bits from the top of the bath melt that didn't melt down and just floated about in the bath, but they seemed to go down the drain alright, haha.

Have you ever tried Bomb Cosmetics before?

Tips for Quick and Natural Makeup

Hi ladies! Just thought I'd do a post on a makeup look I did the other day. I was trying to be quick, so I thought I'd give you my tips on doing a quick makeup look that looks rather natural (as in not completely flawless) and makes you look slightly more presentable to the world! (oh and, excuse my brows! They were in need of some grooming)

Tips:

1. Only apply concealer and a mineral foundation for your face makeup so that you don't need to bother with the hassle of liquid makeup and blending. Use concealer to cover any blemishes and dark circles and mineral foundation for evening out your skin color and getting rid of any oil.

2. Go for neutral yet bright eyes! Apply a bright eyeshadow to the inner lid, and then a slightly darker, but still neutral color to the outer lid.

3. To really define your eyes, apply mascara and some eyeliner to your waterline. If you don't like black on your waterline, then go for a champagne color to open up your eyes, or a brown if you want something dark but not as dark as black. Don't bother with lining the upper lash line when it comes to a quick look, not unless you're super quick with it! (which I'm certainly not)

4. Sticking with the neutral theme, go for a lip color that's essentially your lip color, but slightly darker or lighter, up to you!

5. Apply a little blob (YES, BLOB) of lipgloss to the middle of your lips and SMUSH.

Close Up Of The Eye:

(I used Sleek's Storm palette and Maybelline's One By One mascara)

Close Up Of The Lips:

(I used NYX's Thalia and Philosophy's Cinnamon Buns lipgloss)

Well that's it! Hope that was helpful to some of you. I know most of it is pretty common knowledge but I just thought I'd share the tips I find most useful when applying quick and natural makeup!

What are some of your tips/hints when it comes to quick makeup application?

Lush Space Girl Review

Space Girl Bath Bomb: 1.90 pounds

What Lush Say:

"Here comes a ballistic of astronomical proportions. We were inspired by The Imagined Village's intriguing interpretation of Space Girl from their second album, Empire & Love. It's shaped like Saturn with added space dust for our alien friends, and the refreshing scent of blackcurrant sweeties will make you hungry for your own space adventures. Space Girl is stellar, just remember your blaster and your freezer gun."

What I Say:

I liked this bath bomb for the "show" that it put on for me. It exploded into a purple gray cloud and had wisps of fuchsia and blue throughout it. There was even a bit of crackling, but if you didn't know it was supposed to crackle, you probably wouldn't of even noticed it, to be perfectly honest. Once I got into the bath, I enjoyed the scent and liked the fact that it stuck around for the duration of the bath instead of melting away with the bath bomb, which I've noticed happen with some bath bombs in the past. The glitter was pretty, but not something I much care for in a bath. I suppose I was just wondering if it was safe for glitter to be anywhere near my lady bits, LOL, but sorry, that's probably me being paranoid. I didn't feel exceptionally smooth once I left the bath, but overall, I liked this bath bomb and would consider repurchasing it.

Ohhhh prettttty, ooooh, aaaah. ;)

Has anyone used Space Girl before? What did you think? Was it....out of this world? -giggles- Ahem....

NOTD: Models Own Lilac Dream and e.l.f Glitter Glam

Hi ladies! It's March which means we can now hide away our dark polishes and take out our bright and pastel colors! Which is just what I did the other day.

I used Maybelline's base coat, 1-2 coats of Models Own Lilac Dream, and then layered e.l.f's Glitter Glam over the top. While the e.l.f polish can be a bit goopy, it's just so gorgeous over any color that it's worth the goop. ;)

What do you think?

Collective Haul: Boots, China Glaze, and Clinique.

Hi ladies! ANOTHER collective haul post. I know, I'm terrible. ;) I plan on trying to watch my spending now, but who knows! I also plan on trying to find a job for the weekends, since at the moment I only work a couple hours during the week. Anyways, onto what I got:

Eighty Eight Beauty Supply: http://www.8ty8beauty.com/

I've heard about this website from a few YouTube guru's and figured I couldn't say no to China Glaze nail polish for $2.88 each! It is an American company so shipping to the UK was expensive ($16), but when everything is converted into pounds, it only cost about 19 pounds for FIVE China Glaze nail polishes, including shipping, which I believe is a very good deal. The only thing about the website is that when you order, you don't get an exact shipping amount, but get sent an invoice a couple days later. So essentially, you need to order and give your details before even knowing exactly what you're paying, which can be a bit of a con in my eyes, but when I googled shipping prices, they seemed pretty reasonable so I went for it. But other than that, once the nail polishes shipped, I had them rather quickly.

No Flash:

Flyin' High, For Audrey, Sea Spray, Frosty, and Innocence.

With Flash:

How pretty do they all look!? Perfect Spring colors, if you ask me.

Boots:

It was 3 for 2 on Maybelline products (although in the end the cashier forgot to give me the discount, sighs) and a lot of my mascaras have hit the 3-4 month period when you're supposed to throw them out, so I decided to pick up some mascara. Also, I've been needing a base coat for awhile now, and Maybelline had one on sale, so I grabbed it.

Maybelline The Falsies: 8.19, Maybelline One By One: 6.49 (sale), and Maybelline Forever Strong Pro base coat: 3.09 (sale).

Maybelline The Falsies brush:

I had to pick up this mascara because it's a favorite of soo many bloggers and YouTubers. I've only used it once, so I can't say anything yet, but I'll try and review it in a later post.

Maybelline One By One brush:

The newest mascara from Maybelline, and since it's on an introductory price, I figured I'd grab it. I've used this one twice, and again, really can't give my full thoughts yet and will review it at a later time. But so far so good!

No7 Beautifully Balanced Purifying Toner for oily/combination skin: 3.50ish with 5 pound off voucher:

I've run out of toner and decided to try a new one, specifically this one because I had a 5 pound off voucher and because I liked the packaging. It has a pump! It was only 3.50 which I think is a great deal for a toner.

Glamour Magazine:

As I'm sure you all know, Glamour magazine are currently giving out a range of Clinique samples with a purchase of their magazine for only 2 pounds. Nothing really stood out to me other than the moisturizer and the lipgloss. I've heard loads of raves about this moisturizer, but unfortunately I'm only realizing now that it's for dry skin and it's far too greasy/oily for my skin type. As for the Long Last Glosswear with SPF 15 in Air Kiss, it's sheer and sticky, but not so sticky as to annoy me, but in the end, it's nothing special and I'd never purchase a full size of it.

On the lips:

Boots:

And FINALLY, I made an order on the Boots website for the Vichy foundation. Lisa Eldridge used it in her Acne Covering YouTube video as a spot concealer, and it convinced me to try it for myself. I have some acne scars that just aren't covered by my concealer/foundation. I'm not sure if I'm going to use this as a concealer or as an all over foundation as it's meant to be used, but I'll test it out and review it for you and use it in a FOTD very soon.

Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation in 15 Opal: 14.30 pounds

Well that's it! What have some of your recent buys been?