Beauty in a flash: 10 minute on-the-go make-up for busy gals!

Sometimes there just isn't enough time in the day to do a full face of make-up, may it be you've woken up late and are rushing out the door or you have to pop out suddenly in a hurry and want to make yourself look a bit fresher and more polished!

I've collated my favourite quick and easy tips on how to get as polished as possible within 10 minutes and put it into this blog post for you to try out yourself - I'd love to know how it works for you!

What you need:

• Hydrating moisturiser
• Hydrating eye cream
• Brow pencil
• Eyelash curlers
• Mascara
• Powder (Non-translucent)
• Big fluffy powder brush
• Your favourite blusher
• Hydrating lip balm

1. Apply a hydrating moisturiser to prep your skin, you want to look plumped, healthy and glowing. The way to lovely looking skin is all about being hydrated. Follow this with a hydrating but not heavy eye cream. Tip: For maximum hydration, look for products containing Hyaluronic Acid. I used Clarins HydraQuench Lotion with SPF15 and Emu Oil Well Moisturising Eye Cream - both contain Hyaluronic Acid. Make sure your moisturiser always contains a SPF - it's so important.

2.  Make sure your brows are neat and tidy. A polished look can be ruined by bushy or unkempt brows. Pluck any strays and wrestle them into a neat shape with your fingers (or a spoolie if you wish). Lightly feather in some colour and shape using an eyebrow pencil slightly lighter than your brows (you don't want scouse brows!) Use your fingers to brush through them afterwards to make sure the colour is all even and natural looking. Brows are so important as they shape the face, don't spend long just make them look shapely and natural. I used Mac's Brow Pencil in Lingering. (It's so good that I urge you to go out and buy one NOW).

3. Curl your eyelashes from root to tip for a dramatic wide awake look. Long, curled eyelashes will transform your face and make you look wide awake. I used Shu Uemura eyelash curlers. Follow with lashings of mascara, 2 coats on top lashes and 1 coat on bottom lashes. I used my all time favourite Max Factor False Lash Effect mascara.

4. Next, you want a face powder full of colour - not transparent. Use a big fluffy powder brush to sweep into your powder and dust lightly all over your face. Not too much powder though - this step is just to even out your skin tone without the use of a proper foundation or concealer. To conceal darker areas like under the eyes, concentrate on those areas slightly more but with a light hand to keep it looking natural. For this I used my Real Techniques powder brush and Mac Studio Fix Powder. This powder is great when used for a light dusting as it's very pigmented and evens everything out in one thin coat to save you looking dry and cakey.

5. After powdering, use your favourite blush to inject some colour and life into your cheeks. You've evened out your skin tone to a nice, flat colour, but without adding a blush or bronzer, your face can lack life and look a bit dull, not to mention lacking shape and contour.  Use your fingertips to grab some blush and carefully apply it along your cheekbone by dabbing and blending. A powder or cream blush is fine. By applying it to your cheekbones, it's doubling up as a blush/contour - this will give your face a bit of dimension and slim down your face. 

6. If you find the blush isn't as even as you'd like, take your fluffy powder brush again, pinch the bristles between 3 fingers so the bristles becomes thinner and more dense. The brush is now the perfect shape to run along your cheekbones. Use this in a slanted back-and-forth action while sucking your cheeks in to buff the blush out into a smooth wash of colour. I used Laura Mercier Second Skin Blush in Peach Whisper.

7. Lastly, pick your most hydrating and shiny lip balm to smooth any chapped, flaky skin and add shine. I used Blistex MedPlus for lips.

Extras: If you have any extra time or products, add a cream highligher to brow bone and top of cheekbones for a glow, I'd use Jemma Kidd Dewy Glow in Rose Gold. Use a light-reflective concealer in a correcting shade (salmon or peach) for dark areas under the eyes if you need a little extra help with darkness, I'd use Clinique Airbrush Concealer in 02 Medium. Lastly, over the top of the lip balm I'd apply a juicy neutral coloured lipgloss like Mac's Cremesheen Glass in Richer, Lusher for fuller, juicier lips.

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So those are my top tips for getting polished, fast. Let me know what you think!

Apologies for my absence.....LOTS more coming soon!! Promise :-)

Mallzee - Making Shopping Social - Exclusive NEW Shopping Site Launching Later This Year

Just wanted to fill you guys in about a new and exciting website launching before the end of the year.....Mallzee!

It's all about creating a new experience for online shopping, and is following in the footsteps of many personalised shopping platforms that have recently launched, promoting the idea of a "personalised" shopping experience. A bit like 'Shoe Mint' if you've ever visited.

 Users create their own personalized shopping mall (Mallzee) by picking their favourite brands and stores. Mallzee then finds products matching your personal style and showcases them in your own unique Mallzee! - convenient, no?

For people that find the world of online shopping daunting or don't know where to start (because it's a big old world out there on the internet!) this is a great idea for really getting that personalised, tailored experience that is really you. I find the idea so helpful, just like having a personal shopper but in your slippers and pyjamas! I often find myself scrolling through pages of clothes I don't care for, so having my own personal style laid out for me in one place sounds perfect.

They've even added a new social aspect which I think is really interesting and could help to shape internet shopping in the future. Users of Mallzee can invite their friends to ‘visit’ their Mallzee through the use of Facebook chat.  Friends can then discuss product choices and key items they think their friends will love and purchase from the mall themselves with great discounts negotiated by Mallzee.

Another unique feature is that if your still unable to decided on a purchase, you can also create polls to ask your friends opinions before you buy - this sounds really clever to me, sometimes it takes a second opinion right?  An added bonus to inviting friends to your Mallzee is that as the ‘owner’ you earn money every time anyone buys from your Mallzee! So you get paid when you or your friends shop!

Sounds too good to be true doesn't it? I can't wait until the site launches to see all the new shopping features in action.

What is really promising is the brands that Mallzee have lined up to feature on the site, they currently have over 200 brands signed up to Mallzee (Urban Outfitters, New Look, Feel Unique and St. Tropez to name a few).  

Mallzee launches later this year and you can register now for a launch invite at Mallzee.com - also, if you spread the word on Facebook or Twitter, they will enter you into a prize for £100/$155 of shopping vouchers and some other goodies.

This sounds like a really fun, unique and helpful way to shop. I am looking forward to all the things Mallzee have to offer! Remember to claim your launch invite so your in for a chance of winning the goodies!

What the Mallzee site will look like

You can follow Mallzee on Twitter @MallzeeHQ :-)

Let me know what you think!

Mini MUA (Make-Up Academy) Haul - Heaven & Earth Palette & Lipsticks

I posted this picture to Instagram a few evenings ago showing a few bits I picked up from make-up brand MUA. Make-Up Academy is a drugstore make-up brand here in the UK and you can purchase their products in Superdrug.

I decided to pick up the 'Heaven and Earth' palette as I've heard good things about it and it's also comparable to the Naked palettes by Urban Decay with it's neutral and natural colours. I picked up two lipsticks also in Shade 16 - Nectar and Shade 4.  At £6 all in for a palette and two lipsticks I couldn't see a reason not to give these bits a try.

I have a few eyeshadows from MUA already and was impressed with the quality for the price of £1.

This Heaven and Earth palette is of the same great quality in my opinion - the packaging is nice, not the best and quite tricky to open but still nice for a cheaper brand. 

This palette has a great selection of colours from the light champagne colours, to deep red-toned browns.

My only criticism of the formula is that it does cause quite bad fall-out on application, but if applied with a tissue underneath the eye, you can avoid most of this glitter! I would have liked to see some matte shades in this palette, but for the price I think it's great!

(Swatches are from left to right in the palette)

My favourite two shades is are the end two - beautiful mink browns!

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MUA Lipsticks - (Left to right) Shade 16 - Nectar & Shade 4

Shade 16 - Nectar

Nectar looks shocking in the tube but is a lovely peach sheen on the lips. This is such a wearable shade and is so comparable to my new favourite lip gloss - Mac's Cremesheen Glass in Richer, Lusher.

Swatch with flash - Shade 16

Both of the lipsticks are extremely sheer and almost like a lip balm or Revlon lip butter. You can build up the colour however, and I really like the glossy finish as it makes the lips look bigger!

Shade 4

Shade 4 is a bubblegum pink and also has a sheen like Shade 16. I really love this shade on the lips. It's such a natural 'slap-on-and-go' colour, I think it could definitely suit most skin tones!

Swatches with flash - Shade 4 (top) and  Shade 16 (bottom)

Heres a few snaps of me wearing a few shades from the 'Heaven and Earth' palette and Shade 16 - Nectar on my lips! 

Close ups of eye make-up

Ignore the flake of orange on the right hand side of my upper lip - haha!
Close-up of me wearing Shade 16 - Nectar

I Instagrammed this pic of me wearing Shade 4 - the shade is
slightly over exaggerated because of the filter, but it is such a
lovely lipstick!

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So there you have it! A few make-up bargains that are great quality for the price. You can purchase all MUA products from Superdrug - the 'Heaven and Earth' palette retails at £4.00 and the Lipsticks are £1.00 each - £1.00!!!!! If you are new to make-up and want to dabble here and there, I really recommend buying some MUA products to play around with and try!

Hope you enjoyed :-)