Showing posts with label Benefit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Benefit. Show all posts

Friday, 6 December 2013

The Smokey Eye



Who doesn't love a smokey eye? I felt like glamming it up a bit the other night and decided to do a graphite/charcoal themed smokey eye. I paired it with a nude gloss to keep the focus on the eyes and used a bronzing blush to sculpt my cheeks and not introduce too much colour. I love this look and will definitely be re-creating it at the weekend when I go out for a Christmas meal! 

I am so obsessed with eyeshadows and my collection is ever-growing. I wanted to delve into some more smokey/dark colours so I added the ones I used here to my collection recently. I usually wear browns, neutrals and bronzes but I am really getting into my red toned browns, greens and greys lately.



Here I used:

Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation in Cashew
MAC Pro Longwear Concealer in NW25
Estee Lauder Automatic Brow Pencil in Soft Brown
Benefit Speed Brow
Lime Crime Eyeshadow Helper
Clinique All About Shadow Eye Shadow in Graphite
Estee Lauder Pure Color Eyeshadow in Black Crystals
Estee Lauder Double Wear Eye Pencil in Graphite
Estee Lauder Lash Primer Plus
Estee Lauder Sumptuous Mascara in Black
Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Powder
Benefit Dallas Box 'O Powder
Estee Lauder Pure Color Gloss in Tempting Tearose


Are you a fan of the smokey eye look?


Monday, 16 September 2013

Benefit Box O' Powder in Dallas

Benefit Box O' Powder in Dallas - £23.50 here.
 Ah Dallas, a true old favourite of mine that is sadly rumoured to be discontinued shortly. As soon as I heard, I knew I had to get my mitts on one just one more time.


Dallas is a blush that I used faithfully everyday for a good few years until it finally was all used up. I will give it to Benefit, their boxed blushes are really fantastic quality and they last forever! When I finished my little box I didn't bother to replace it and went on to try something new, but it has always had a special little place in my heart.


Dallas is a gorgeous, neutral blush shade with plum undertones and shimmer that looks almost like a bronzer on the skin. I love it because it really sculpts my face and gives a natural sunkissed sheen. The shimmer isn't over-kill or really glittery, it's very sheer and gives the cheeks a real glow which I love.


I'm off on holiday soon and this is definitely going to be my 'go-to' holiday glow blush shade, I absolutely love it. I really recommend getting your hands on one before it's gone forever, and I just can't believe Benefit would discontinue such a fantastic blush powder - I am gutted.



Swatches of Dallas with flash.

Have you tried Dallas or any of Benefit's Box O' Powders?



Saturday, 27 July 2013

Benefit Speed Brow

Benefit Speed Brow - £13
Just a quick post about a product I am absolutely loving, my new friend Speed Brow by Benefit.
I find Benefit as a brand quite hit and miss with their products. I am a huge fan of their Erase Paste and use it almost every day, but some of their other products, mainly their base products, have disappointed me. 




I first tried this product at work, as while I was on counter I noticed in the mirror that the hairs on one eyebrow were brushed the wrong way and made it look terrible. I don't know if you know what I mean when your eyebrow hairs get out of control and go in funny directions? As Estee Lauder don't do a brow gel, I quickly popped over to Benefit, applied a quick bit of Speed Brow, and hot footed back to my counter. I was quite skeptical of the tiny brush and didn't think it looked like the best applicator but the small size allows you to be really precise and brush them with accuracy into the desired shape.


I was so impressed by how it smoothed my brows through and kept them in place all day without looking like there is any gunky product on them whatsoever. They literally didn't budge! To touch, my brows felt like they weren't going to move but they didn't feel hard or crispy at all, still soft. It also helps to smooth through the product that you've applied in your brows to help it look natural and not too harsh, but doesn't wipe the product away.


Unedited heavy swatch of Speed Brow on my hand.
Combing the product through is really easy and the colour is perfect for the shade of my brows. Speed Brow does only come in one colour but I do think it's quite universal, it's light enough for blondes and not pigmented enough to look obvious on really dark or black brows. The colour also has a taupe/ashy undertone to it which most people brows naturally have.

All in all, a really fantastic product that does what it says on the tin and one that I would happily repurchase!

You can pick up Benefit's Speed Brow at any Benefit counter and online at benefitcosmetics.co.uk.


Have you tried Speed Brow before? 
Would you recommend any other brow gels?

Thursday, 6 June 2013

Face of the Day - 04/06/13






A cheeky little face of the day from Wednesday and a very firm affirmation that I am indeed in love with bronzer. My Bobbi Brown Bronzing Powder in Deep 4 infact (review here). I urge every girl to try it when you're next near a Bobbi Brown counter, it's such a great quality product. The shades are perfect for bronzing, I feel like mine is quite red toned, which keeps me from looking 'orange' and like I'm 'tango-ed' LOL! The texture is very blendable and not heavy what-so-ever which makes this bronzer so easy to use. 

My favourite bronzing brush is my Real Techniques Buffing Brush, traditionally used for foundation. It provides precision bronzing with the perfect shape and soft synthetic brush hairs that buff out the product to look natural and perfect.

In the photos, I have contoured my nose also which I had never done before. Again I achieved it with the BB Bronzing Powder and my Eco Tools Airbrush Concealer brush which worked really well. I kept the rest of my makeup simple with only mascara on my eyes, some brows and a lipstick.



Heres what I wore:


Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation in Cashew
Benefit Erase Paste in Medium No2
Estee Lauder Ideal Light in Medium
Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer in Natural Tan
Bobbi Brown Bronzing Powder in Deep 4
Estee Lauder Automatic Brow Duo in Soft Brown
Estee Lauder Sumptuous Extreme Mascara
MAC Lipstick in Kinda Sexy

I clipped my hair back as it needed a wash and my top is from Zara! I hope you enjoyed the post! Please let me know of other things you'd like to see on the blog - and I may have an outfit of the day post ready for next week of my outfit for this Saturday night!

Remember to check out my blog sale here!

What make-up have you been sporting recently?








Monday, 20 May 2013

My Absense & My Make-Up Story

Hello all!
Long time, no see :-(


I posted this picture to my Instagram a few days ago, and it shows that I haven't posted since April 24th! Almost a month ago.

I've been sooooo busy this past month and have been at work most days - boo! I had been working really hard and it just took all my energy, by the time I got home the only thing I wanted was a cuppa, my dinner and bed! Sorry poor blog! 

I have got lots and lots of posts in mind, and things I had already photographed and edited before I took my impromptu break from blogging, so you shall be seeing those soon. Sometimes it's nice to have a little break and it makes you realise how much you miss writing posts and thinking up blog ideas, but I do apologise to anyone who reads regularly - sowwi!!

If theres anything you would like to see me post about or content ideas for the blog then please leave me comments or feel free to email or tweet me. All my links and buttons are on the right-hand side of my blog ------->

So......that aside, I thought it would be a great time to share that I have a new job which I am so so so incredibly excited about!


I posted this picture to Instagram a little while ago now, and yep, I will be working as a Beauty Consultant for Estee Lauder! The picture was taken when I was watching the training videos and reading through the guide that my Counter Manager gave me.

I was so lucky to get this job, and I feel very blessed and happy that I will be in a job that I will hopefully really enjoy! :-)

I'll tell you all more about it in my next post and let you know how I'm getting on. 

In this little chatty post, I thought it would be fun just to talk about how my love for make-up started and how I got to where I am now.

So like a lot of little girls, it probably started with my Mum. I always used to watch her putting her make-up on, she never left the house without foundation and lipstick - even if she was just dropping me to school in her pyjamas!! My Mum has always had so many lipsticks, and she always mixes her own lip colours to get different combinations and shades. 

In year 7 I was obsessed with wearing make-up, my usual tipple being Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse foundation which my Mum also used to use and we both now agree that it's awful - haha! I was partial to pink and peach eyeshadows when I was around that age, and me and my best friend Bethany got told to wear less make-up to school or they would make us take it all off - naughty!!

 In year 8 I found myself in love with a bronze eyeshadow from Victorias Secret that I used to use on my cheekbones for a glow - I was literally obsessed with it and would wear it everyday - on my eyes too. It came in a cute little pointy pot with a sponge tipped applicator - it's on eBay here, I might have to order one again to see if it's still as good as I remember! The shade was called "Gold School". 

In year 9 I used to love doing black eyeliner only on the top with a flick and some mascara. I used to use a black liquid eyeliner by Rimmel, the one with the pointy top, and after that dried, I'd use a black kohl liner by Rimmel to make it really black and smooth looking. People always used to ask how I got my eyeliner to last all day without it smudging off - thats how! I always wanted to get it perfect, I've always been a perfectionist with make-up and I'm constantly searching for better ways, better techniques and better products. 

During school I always used to wear Benefit's Some Kinda Gorgeous and went through quite a few of them. I remember going to the Benefit counter with my Mum one day, and she went there to buy her usual foundation, the twist up pan stick one, and I remember them telling her they had discontinued it. I think we both tried the SKG and she also bought me Dallas blush which I completely used up over about 2 years - I wore it every single day! I also used to wear Benefit's That Gal primer on it's own a lot as it brightened my face when I didn't want to wear foundation.

Year 10 was a lazy year for me, and I never really wore make-up, I really relished those extra minutes in bed at that time and make-up became an after thought. Year 11 saw my make-up love come back and my signature look was liquid and kohl on the top lashline and just kohl on the bottom lashline. I wore that pretty much everyday for a year or so. 

Going into college I started to get more and more into make-up and began to buy the more expensive stuff. I had a Saturday job for a few years and would happily spend my whole weeks wages on make-up in town when at college on Monday - oops! I discovered MAC and bought my first eyeshadow from there - Naked Lunch. I started to pencil in my eyebrows before moving onto MAC Espresso eyeshadow in my brows with a MAC 208 brush. I wen't through a bottle of Benefit's High Beam and loved wearing it on my brow bone, cheekbones and anywhere I could put it really - LOL! 

I didn't really wear much foundation until my second year at college as I felt my skin looked fine without it. Going into my second year at college, I became obsessed with concealer and started buying every concealer I could get my hands on. Stemming from the hatred of my dark circles, I tried to find the 'perfect' one that would hide them, and started wearing mineral foundation too. 

Any holidays I went on were a certain excuse to spend all of my spending money in one hit at Duty Free after splurging on MAC and Chanel amongst others. By my 18th birthday I had got myself a little collection together that is still ever growing. Delving into high-end foundations, blushes, make-up brushes (which aren't cheap) amongst many other things, I'm sure that over the years I've spent a small fortune on make-up - sue me!

Make-up is something I've always loved as I've always wanted to look the best version of myself. I remember doing my Mum's make-up for her if she was going out, and she used to always say 'why don't you be a make-up artist?' which I always shrugged off as it seemed so impossible and I thought make-up artists were only for celebrities and film stars. I've wanted to be a make-up artist for a good few years now, and aspire to train and gain my qualifications. Make-up artists aren't all about TV and Film, you can make over brides, someone with a special event to go to, it might be someones birthday or they might simply want some help looking good for a night out and are unsure how to do it them self. Make-up is about making people feel beautiful in their own skin and giving them the opportunity and the confidence to feel they can be anyone they want to be. I've always loved the way make-up can transform a face, how you can feel like you have flawless skin, or long eyelashes, even if you don't. 

Some people probably think it's odd that I love make-up so much, or think I'm vain, or that the make-up I wear is unnecessary, each to their own. I love it, and that's all that matters. I love it because to me it's magic, it's art and there is an incredible amount of skill and knowledge involved in make-up artistry that I really admire and aspire to be able to achieve myself one day. 

I hope you enjoyed this post - just a little about the inspiration behind my blog, and how I got to be such a lover of make-up!


"The point of make-up is not to try to look like someone else, but to look your own best"

- Tom Pecheux 


What do you think about make-up? I'd love to know!


Tuesday, 16 April 2013

Face of the Day - 14/04/13 & 15/04/13



So heres what my face has been looking like the past two days - interesting, huh? All jokes aside, I love knowing what products people are wearing and how they achieve each look. Both looks are pretty natural, the second being pretty fuss free but good for everyday.



Ignore the fact that I wear this necklace in 99.9% of my photos - I like it, okay?

Laura Mercier Oil-Free Primer
Estee Lauder Double Wear in 3W2 Cashew
Benefit Erase Paste in Medium No.2
MAC Pro Longwear Concealer in NW25
Illamasqua Eyebrow Cake in Thunder
MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack
Rimmel Scandal Eyes Waterproof Kohl Liner in Nude
MAC Eye Kohl in Teddy
Estee Lauder Sumptuous Extreme Mascara
Chanel Soleil Tan de Chanel 
MAC Cremeblend Blush in Something Special
MAC Cream Colour Base in Shell
Estee Lauder Pure Color Lipgloss in Rock Candy



Yesterday I only had to pop out for a bit so I thought I'd just do something natural. I'd been watching Made in Chelsea (MIC, don'tcha know) most of the day, and was loving the make-up that a lot of the girls sport on that programme. A flawless base, often dewy looking, neat and tidy brows, a smudge of black liner on the top lash line, super super curled eyelashes and lashings of mascara - top lashes only - bronzed cheekbones and a bit of gloss - done!


Laura Mercier Oil-Free Primer
Estee Lauder Double Wear in 3W2 Cashew
Benefit Erase Paste in Medium No.2
MAC Pro Longwear Concealer in NW25
Illamasqua Eyebrow Cake in Thunder
Avon SuperShock Gel Eyeliner Pencil in Black
Estee Lauder Sumptuous Extreme Mascara
Bobbi Brown Bronzing Powder in Deep 4
Jouer Tinted Lip Conditioner in Cosmo


Still loving my Double Wear, and my MAC CCB in Shell copious amounts - I'll do a review soon!

What make-up have you been reaching for lately?