Sunday, July 25

Work work. Rush rush. Sleep sleep?

I re-read a few bits of my posts today and have noticed that quite often I'm not making proper sense of things.
I would just like to apologise for this awful writing!
I've been trying to blog more to get into a natural habit of doing it, however I have also been working 6 day weeks at the restaurant I manage for the past month and I'm certainly starting to become slightly zombie-esque.
So on the subject of wanting more sleep and still having to be at work bright and early, I thought I'd show you what makeup I take to work in the mornings and apply in the (empty) office when I've accidentally slept in after a late shift from the night before.

Olay Daily Moisture Fluid is a new one for me, it's not massively hydrating, but is quite a nice base for makeup and is fine moisturising-wise now I've switched to a heavier night cream.

I don't generally wear foundation at work as it all wears off from the heat no matter what foundation/primer or setting powder I use. I'll just set my under eye concealer (Loreal Touche Magique) and mattify my t-zone with an ELF mineral face powder (which I've forgotten to include) and touch up with my Korres compact (again forgotten!!)

The ELF All Over Colour Stick in Pink Lemonade is great for quick flushed and dewy cheeks and I find pretty useful when I don't want t be carrying messy minerals or fragile pressed powders around with me.

You may have noticed I've got a few mascaras going on in there. I actually missed one out (I'm rather embarrassed the work it takes me to HAVE eyelashes) I use Cargo LashActivator (the serum end) every morning first, topped off with (my rather dried out) Urban Decay Lash Primer Potion, then a layer of Maybelline Falsies. If I've skipped eye makeup I'll add a coat of Too Faced Lash Injection on top - absolute crap on its own but when put on top of another mascara as a final coat it makes everything fatter blacker and longer. (For me at least).

Don't shout but I am guilty of curling my eyelashes after mascara, I find it just works better, holds better and looks way more wide awake. (Luckily although my eyelashes are short they must be strong as I've not had any breakage from this).

The eyeliner you can see is a sad Barry M excuse for my usual loves of Urban Decay eyeliner (lost) and my old Lord & Berry retractable liner (used up). I only use a little liner in the roots of my lashes in the morning - purely for definition - I don't need my morning eyes looking any smaller.

I add a bright-ish lip colour or tinted balm to brighten it all up. (My new Gosh is my current fave)

This may seem like a lot, but the result is very natural clean face with dark dark lashes and pop of pink to stop me looking like a ghost. And I have it down to 5 minutes. When I have time I sling my Fake Bake Bronzing Powder in my bag as well. However I'm feeling very lazy lately and have therefor decided to embrace the pale...it's way less effort!

Any suggestions for easy morning makeup?

Lauren x

Saturday, July 24

Bargain Hunter and FOTD

So although me and the boyfriend are currently in the process of buying our first house, I can't help but indulge on a few purchases now and again that aren't lamps, tables or paintings. So I spent the other day bargain hunting around town for some little lovelies to calm my need to by makeup!
Gosh Soft'N Shine Lip balm in Barbie is lovely and currently all shades are 1/2 price. Much more pigmented then I expected but the shades are still sheer enough you can build the colour as bright or light as you like. I wouldn't say this moisturizes my lips, but i doesn't dry them out. I find this product really comfortable to wear and the cool blue toned pink really can build to a bold barbie pink which wears away to a pink stain when the balm has gone. Love it! I believe this brand is new to Boots, I'm looking to cut back on the chemicals I put on my face, especially products that are going straight on to bare skin. This was about £5.99 and claims to reduce dark shadows (and I've got plenty to test it on) This does seem to be aimed at young skin, I'm not sure how young you have to be to fit that group - I'm almost 21 am I too old?? Oh well the product smells pretty yummy, though I don't think the fruitiness smells all that natural, but hell if it works, it works. we'll see how it goes.

Famous by Sue Moxley eye shadows are currently 2 for £6 in Superdrug so I couldn't resist! I bought shade 1 - a creamy iridescent colour that is just goooorgeous. and shade 3 - a lilacy grey mushroom also with an iridescence flashed through. These eyeshadows are so nice, creamy soft and blendable, the packaging isn't the highest quality but not too bad. I'm massively keen on the unimaginative shade names but the lovely colours totally won me over. they do have matte shades in the range also but none really caught my eye this time round.

This is actually my boyfriends purchase as I got sick of him using my face scrubs, I pushed him to buy this grapefruit one as I loved the idea of being surrounded my that fresh smell in the morning. I was right! I love it. And now he whines at me for using his face scrub. Oh how the tables turn.

I also bought some Superdrug own body lotion and butter as their body range (scrubs and shower gels included) were 2 for £4. The red cherry and plum body butter smells like cherry flavoured yogurt and sinks in nicely when applied to slightly damp skin. it really is a super thick butter so be warned if you prefer something lighter. The lotion I bought was in cocoa, which smells slightly sweeter then Palmers own cream. There was also a coconut one which smelled lush but I have way too many coconut scented things!

Here's a FOTD using some new products. I kept it quite light as me and the boyf were just going for midweek cocktails and to see Toy Story at the cinema (oh my god so awesome)

I kept everything pretty simple and sheer:

Famous by Sue Moxley Eyeshadows shades 1 & 3.

Maybelline Falsies Mascara.

Olay Moisteriser mixed with a bit of Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid Foundation.

Korres Wild Rose Compact Powder.

No7 Natural Blush shade Petal.

Loreal Touche Magique Concealer.

I also used the new Aqua Light Pantene shampoo and conditioner. I'm not a Pantene fan usually but I am quite loving this so try it out if you haven't already. My hair feels cleaner for longer yet doesn't feel stripped or dry at all.

Found any bargains lately?

Lauren x

Sunday, July 18

Making Me Some Lippy, From Lippies.

So the other day whilst re organising my dressing table I was arranging my lipsticks and came across this

That's my fave lipstick. How the sun managed to make it SPLIT is beyond me. I also found another lipstick with a clear lid that had been bleached...though I preferred the bleached colour with that one so I wasn't so devastated about that.

ANYWAY... I needed to make it usable till I re-purchased it, so I'd read about people melting lippies down and I had a few empty Lily Lolo sample pots lying around soooo...

Got me some of these, Did a bit of this,

Did a bit more.
Then I got a bit addicted and thought 'this is easy let's lop off some lipsticks and make me own!'
So my second lip pot consisted of these,

See that second from left? My twice worn Illamasqua lipstick! True, the shade was too matte and lilac toned to suit me, but it still breaks my heart a little when I see it all chopped down and sad looking...damn my over-excitement at making lip colours in pots. I also added a squeeze of Palmers Lip Butter to counteract the drying effects of some of the lipsticks.

After my experiments I ended up with these,

The Barry M colour - worn as a more muted stain. Though melting it down did seem to make it a little less pigmented anyway.

The random mixture, it's alright, who'd of thought four shades of pink would make...another pink.

Maybe I didn't think that one through properly. Though it was pretty fun.

What do you think?

Lauren x

Thursday, July 15

I'm Back...For Now....

Hey,
So I've been mega busy lately, trying to sort out a mortgage so me and the boyf can buy our first house, working ridiculous hours at work and on top of all that I bought a new face powder (on a bit of a budget....ok a lot of a budget) and my skin literally freaked out!! So any makeup I've been wearing lately has had the lone purpose of saving the public from the horrifying state of my skin. Thankfully (due to a few product swaps and a lot of patience) my skin is finally getting back to normal. I've also discovered some loooooovely products along the way.
Upcoming blogs (when I find my bloody camera lead) include my review on the Cargo Lash Activator Extreme (taken a while I know) My thoughts on my new Korres products - and what I am now lusting after from the range. And my mini ELF haul. I'm also trying out a new moisturiser and a few more bath and body products that'll keep me going for a while.
Enough chat, I have a few unshown/unused photos on my computer for the blog so I thought I might show you how I'm currently organising (I use that word loosely) my make up, I had a maaaassive clear out and got rid off all the products I bought on a whim (cheap and cheerful often turned out to be rough and rashy...) So hopefully everything looks a bit more streamlined and tidy.

I use Muji drawers to store my makeup, though I'm fast running out of space and plan to order a few more for my ever increasing collection.

Blusher drawer - With the odd Bronzer that I can squeeze in.

All my concealers and highlighters. I think of this as the draw of magic, everything to hide and enhance. lol. The crap I can't fit in the drawers above.
I have two tumblers of mascaras, This one is the new and favourite one. The other is filled mainly with No.7 Mascaras I insisted on buying and hated them all. Tshh.
A mixture of good and absolutely shite makeup brushes that I keep as I'm also losing my brushes for days at a time.
I rarely wear eyeliner, preferring to line my eyes with eye shadows so I don't know how I ended up with this lot. Do love my Urban Decay 27/7 Glides though.
Most of my singular eye shadows, I store large eye palettes on top of these drawers.
Loose eye shadows, I wear these way more then any pressed eye shadows. I love my NYX Loose Pearl Shadows and am now in the process of re-potting them so they're actually usable.
Small palettes/big eyeshadow. The LA Girl trios are gorgeous at a glance, not very pigmented to use but that didn't stop me from buying about 8 colour combos.
My lip gloss drawers. It's very pink I know. I loves me a pink pout.
My Lipsticks (that aren't in the bottom of various handbags) lots of NYX again. I've only recently got into lipsticks again but am gradually building my collection (to my boyfriends dismay).
How do you store yours? I cant believe a couple of years ago I'd have all my makeup jumbled up in a giant fruit bowl, I couldn't bear that now!!!
Now that my skin is healing and I have discovered my favourite base combination (NEVER thought I'd find that) I'll start doing FOTDs to hopefully bring a bit more range to my blog.
Let me know if you have any ideas!
Lauren x