The Body Shop 'Blue Moon' Eye Make-up Kit

With it being just 45 days until Christmas I have been more than excited to see all the Christmas collections being launched! I was lucky enough to be invited along to The Body Shop Christmas Collection Launch so I got a sneek peek into the Christmas products they will be selling this year. Along with being given the Ginger Sparkle Shower, Scrub and Moisture Collection (which I will review soon), I was lucky enough to receive the Blue Moon 3 Step Eye Kit. I couldn't resist but create a make-up look straight away and share it with you so here it is, along with my thoughts on each product ...

In this set you receive The Body Shop 'Super Volume Mascara', 'Carbon Blue Eye Definer', 'The Eyeshadow Brush' and 'Shimmer Cubes Palette 20' all of which can be seen in the image above along with the friendly character the 'Gingerbread Man Sponge' which is part of the Christmas gifts collection at The Body Shop this year! Personally I think this kit would make an excellent gift for someone this Christmas, as it comes with all the products to create a stunning smoky eye. 

Shimmer Cubes Palette 20:  

The 4 shades in this cube complement each other beautifully! They are all shimmer shades and the thin texture of the shadows allow them to be easily blended along the lid. 'Snow White' is a gorgeous white shimmer, which not only attracts me because of the name but also because the shade makes this shadow perfect for highlighting the inner corner of the eye. 'Indigo Blue' is the dark, almost navy, shade which I think is great to apply all over the lid as a base for a deep smoky eye. 'Starlight Silver' is as the name suggests a silver shade which would also look really nice all over the lid, if you just wanted the darker shades in the outer corner of the eye. Finally 'Midnight Black' is a gorgeous black shadow with the shimmer giving it a charcoal feel. This shade would look amazing blended into the crease and outer corner of the eye. It would also be the perfect shade to place under the lower lash line, if you prefer a darker shade to outline your eye. Overall this is a gorgeous palette which is great to create many different looks from a deep dark smoky eye to a subtle shimmer across the lid. 

The Eyeshadow Brush:

The eyeshadow brush is the perfect shape to press shadows onto the lid in order to prevent a great deal of fall down. With the brush being thin in width, I found this brush was great to push shadows into the crease and under the lower lash line, using the tip of the eyeshadow brush. With the brush being made from synthetic hair this prevents any dreaded hairs falling into your make-up!

Carbon Blue Eye Definer:

This product is perfect to use along with the shimmer cubes, as the shades look great together. I found this product worked best when I warmed it in between my hands before applying. This aloud the pencil to glide across the lid and easily blend into the lash line using the smudging sponge, to create a slightly more smoky look with the product. The pencil also applied easily in the water line. The shade of this pencil makes is slightly less harsh than a typical black pencil, whilst still outlining and defining the eye. 

Super Volume Mascara:

This is one of The Body Shops best selling make-up products so I was really to try this out for myself. Normally I go for a mascara with a thicker wand as I find these easier to pick up all my lashes. Therefore when I opened up this mascara to find a reasonably thin wand I wasn't sure how I was going to get on with it. However I was pleasantly surprised with the results. The wand separated out my lashes and added a length to my lashes which I was more than happy with. The wand did not pick up too much product and therefore did not leave my lashes looking clumpy, instead the mascara spread evenly across the length of my lashes and added a thin layer of mascara to each lash. 

My eye make-up look:

Using all of the products above a created this smoky eye look. I used the 'Indigo Blue' shimmer cube all over the lid and blended a small amount of 'Midnight Black' into the crease to add a bit of depth to the eye. I used the eyeshadow brush to apply these shadows and then blended them around the edges using a blending brush to create a soft smoky look. I placed 'Snow White' into the inner corner of the eye to add a slight highlight to the tear duct area. Next I took the Carbon Blue Eye Definer and placed this all around my eye and in the water line. Using the smudging end of this product I blended out the pencil on the upper and lower lash line, again to add to the soft smoky look. Finally I added two layers of Super Volume Mascara to both the upper and lower lashes. 

If I had to choose a favourite product from all those discussed above I would have to choose the 'Snow White' shimmer cube. Not only do I love the name of this shadow but it also creates a beautiful shimmer in the inner corner of the eye and, applied lightly, would look stunning as a highlight on the brow bone! 

I hope you have enjoyed this post! To have a look at the Christmas gifts from the Body Shop this year visit their website and look out for my review of the Ginger Sparkle Shower, Scrub and Moisture Collection coming very soon! Also let me know in the comments below if you have tried any of these products from The Body Shop before. I would also love to know of any Christmas collections you have been loving so far this year! 

Until next time, Samantha x

Maybelline 24hr Colour Tattoos

After searching and searching for the shades I really wanted I finally got my hands on the 24 hour Colour Tattoos from Maybelline. After seeing other bloggers rave about these I really wanted to try them out for myself and see if they really did live up to the hype. 

I got the shades Permanent Taupe and Metallic Pomegranate. With berry shades currently being on trend I was really excited to try the Metallic Pomegranate shade! I can honestly say these products really do live up to the hype they have received. They are a gel-cream eyeshadow and this suggests to the me that the texture would be that of an eye product which really creases and moves about on the eye. These however are an exception; they stay put all day and do not crease at all. 

Metallic Pomegranate is a red berry shade with a slight shimmer and Permanent Taupe is a brown/ grey shade and has a matte finish. The shades look beautiful on their own or also mixed together on the eye. Permanent Taupe is also a great shade to use as a base if you are applying a lot of shadows on to the eye as it will really help to keep these into place. 

When applying the Colour Tattoos I used my ring finger and pressed it onto the eye lid and took a small detailing brush and ran the product underneath my lower lash line. Because I am a huge fan of a smoky eye I used a brown eye shadow, with both the Metallic Pomegranate and Permanent Taupe, and blended this into the edge of my eye lid around into the crease. A blending brush is also great to use with these products even if you are not adding eye shadow in order to buff out the edges and ensure you do not have any definite lines around the edge of your eye. One tip I would give is to not be shy with the product, I found they look better when I went slightly higher around the eye and really buffed it out around the edges. 

I can honestly say I love these and would recommend them for anyone looking to try out a new eye make-up product! They stay put all day and are really easy to apply. They are priced at £4.99 in both Boots and Superdrug and there is a range of amazing shades to choose from! 

If you have tried these too let me know what you think and what shades you have been loving in the comments below!

Until next time, Samantha x

Highlighter Heaven: Illamasqua Gleam In Aurora

First of all I want to start with a bit of a disclaimer. I am currently the social media intern at Illamasqua, so I am slightly biased to their products but everything I say in this post is my own opinion and I do genuinely LOVE this highlighter and it is my current favourite Illamasqua product that I have tried so far! So if you want to find out exactly what I love about this product keep reading ...

Illamasqua Gleam in Aurora is my current favourite highlighter and a product which is sure to be a staple in my daily make-up bag for a long time! Gleam is a cream highlighter which I love as I find that some powder highlighters tend to fade from my face throughout the day. Gleam however lasts all day and I leave the office at 5:30pm with a dewy fresh highlight to my cheeks.

Gleam has a slight shimmer to it, however this is not over powering and helps to add a glow to the cheeks. I apply this product using my ring finger and my finger marks in the image below show my love for the product! I generally apply it to the tops of my cheek bones and occasionally down the centre of the nose. It is easy to blend into the skin and does not leave my cheeks feeling at all sticky like some cream products can. 

The swatch below shows that Aurora has a gorgeous champagne colour to its pigmentation. Personally this is my favourite shade for a highlighter as I tend to prefer champagne shades to highlighters which have a pinky tone. 

Aurora can be purchased at illamasqua.com for £18. I may be interning at Illamasqua but I can honestly say this is one of my favourite highlighters of all time and I would recommend this to anyone wanting to try something new! 
What highlighters have you been loving recently?

Samantha x

High Street Make-up Must Haves

In this post I thought I would share with you the high street make-up pieces which are staples in my everyday make-up routine. 

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer:
This concealer has been a staple in my make-up bag for a long long time! I love how creamy it is and this makes it so easy to blend. I always apply this with the applicator under my eyes and around the nose area, as well as any where I have a blemish and blend it in to my foundation using my ring finger.

Rimmel Eyebrow Pencil:
This product is a recent purchase of mine and I don't know what I did without it! Before having this I used a matte eyeshadow to fill in my brows but this pencil has made it so easy to make my brows look neat and get the desired shape with very little effort. I have this shade 002 Hazel and I find this to be the best colour to compliment my blonde hair. 

Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder:
I saw many beauty bloggers rave about this powder for a long time so I picked it up for myself and I can honestly see what all the fuss is about! It helps keep my make-up base in place all day in the office and it doesn't leave my skin looking chalky which many other powders do!

Bourjois Bronzing Powder:
This is another product I saw on beauty blogs over and over again before I made the purchase. I love the way this product applies to the skin, giving you a smooth matte contour with no heavy patches which I have found some other bronzers to give. Another bonus of this product is the smell, it really does have a chocolatey scent to it! 

Maybelline Gel Eyeliner:
You may have seen my previous post a few months ago on this product. I honestly LOVE this gel eyeliner. I had never previously used a gel eyeliner before this purchase and always found my eyeliner to crease a smudge. However since using this my eyeliner never moves and I have found myself using this product in my eye make-up day after day!

Real Techniques Brushes:
I have also done a post on my love for these brushes before and therefore my love for them definitely has not died! I love they way they help me apply my make-up with ease and they will not be disappearing from my daily make-up routine for a long long time! The added bonus is they are made by the amazing Samantha Chapman from Pixiwoo! Check out my previous post to see which brush I use for what. 

I hope you have enjoyed this post. I would recommend these products to anyone wanting to try a new and affordable product. What high street make-up products have you been loving? 

Until next time, Samantha x

Lip Crayon Loving

I recently purchased this lip crayon from the brand seventeen sold within boots stores. Keep reading to find out exactly what I think about the product ...

There are so many things I love about this product! I went to London the other day and felt this was the perfect opportunity to put this product to the test. The lip crayon wore evenly throughout the day and left my lips feeling moisturised. I only applied the crayon twice throughout the whole day and when on the move I like to have a product which is easy to apply, and this lip crayon certainly is!

I feel this product is perfect as a cheaper alternative to the more expensive lip colour balm/ chubby stick from clinique. With the chubby stick being priced at £17 and the seventeen lip crayon £4.99 the difference in price is certainly noticeable. The only downside to this product is the colour range, as there are only 5 shades to choose from. I got the lip crayon in the colour Bold, which as you can see from the image above is a orange shade. The image below shows how the colour transfers to the lip. This image was taken after applying one coat of the crayon to the lips. You can add more coats over the top to create a more intense orange colour. You can also add a lip gloss over the top to create more colour intensity, however I preferred to just apply the crayon by itself. 

As I mentioned above the lip crayon can be purchase from the seventeen stand in Boots stores or alternatively you can purchase online at:

http://www.boots.com/en/Seventeen-Lip-Crayons_1335196/

This product is perfect for someone on a budget and also someone who is on the go and wants a lip colour to apply quickly and with ease. I hope you enjoy this product as much as me!!

Marvellous Maybelline Gel Eyeliner

 In the past I have always struggled to find an eyeliner that lasts the whole day and doesn't budge. Eyeliner always manages to smudge into my crease area of my eye as the day goes on and I am no longer left with a sharp line of eyeliner. Recently I discovered the Maybelline Lasting Drama gel eyeliner, after reading about it on other beauty blogs and seeing it being used in Youtube make up tutorials, and this really is the product which has solved my previous eyeliner problems.

Unlike other eyeliners I have used in the past this gel formula lasts the whole day on my eyes with barely any smudging. One of my favourite looks is a winged out, cat eye effect on my top lid and this product really helps me to achieve a look like this that lasts throughout the entire day. As you can see from the images above the gel eyeliner comes in a small glass jar style pot which gives you a generous amount of product and is really easy to chuck into a make up bag and take it where ever you may need. It also comes with a handy little brush which I have found to make application of the eyeliner reasonably easy. 

Some people struggle to achieve a straight line with a gel eyeliner but I can honestly say I have LOVED the application of the product and have been able to easily achiever a winged out eyeliner look which I personally love to wear. I would highly recommend this product to anyone confident enough to apply a gel eyeliner and also to those of you who like me are struggling to find a smudge proof liner. 

Thank you very much for reading and if you purchase this product I hope you enjoy it as much as I have !!!!

Butterfly Fancy Dress

At the weekend it was my uni's summer ball. As well as live music and spending time with friends before going our separate ways over summer, a huge part of the summer ball is fancy dress. There is no theme and therefore you can go dressed as whatever you wish. I planned to go with my twin sister Hollie and my best friend Georgia and we wanted to go as something really girly which would allow us to create a funky make up look. We all decided to go as butterflys and below are a selection of photos from summer ball...

As you can see from the photos above our outfits consisted of a purple metallic skater skirt, a black and white tie dye crop top and the butterfly wings. I will put links to where these can be purchased at the end of this blog post. Aside from the outfit a big part of our look was our hair and make up. These aspects can be seen in more detail in the images below.

We decided to style our hair in very tight ringlets. We used a curling wand to achieve this look and I'm not actually sure on the model of wand we used as it was my sisters and she has it at uni with her, but it is the style of wand where you simply wrap your hair round and hold it in place (you do not have to clamp you hair into the wand itself). We split out hair into about 6 layers in order to achieve a really curly hair style. With the make up, we really wanted it to tie into our outfits and therefore we focused on the colours purple, pink and blue. Below are the products you will need in order to create the make up and face paint look. 

Aside from my usual make up (foundation, powder, bronzer, blusher, highlighter, eyeliner and mascara) above are the products needed. I began by doing my usual make up look and added slightly more highlighter to my cheeks than I normally would in order to make my face sparkly and glowy. I then applied eyeshadow in bright colours from the pallet shown in the third picture. I put pink in the inner corner of my eyelid, blue in the middle and purple in the outer corner and crease and blended all the colours in. I then applied fake eyelashes, we used the Katy Perry colour pop eyelashes in the green shade. We also applied a lipstick in a light pastel purple colour and added a light pink lip gloss over the top.

Moving onto the face paint. As you can see from the first image above we used Snazaroo face paints in the colours pink, purple and light blue. Using the sponges in the fourth picture we applied the face paints in square like shapes all down one side of our face, blending together where necessary. Once the face paint was dry we added a sort of Aztec pattern over the top of the face paint using a black liquid eyeliner. Next we used glitter, as shown in the second picture, and placed this inside the black eyeliner to add sparkle to the look. We did a similar pattern down one of our legs to add a bit of body paint. 

Overall we were really happy with the outcome of the look and I hope you have enjoyed reading how we achieved it. Below are links to the outfit pieces, as we purchased them all online :) ...

Wings: http://www.fancydress.com/costumes/Giant-Butterfly-Wings/0~117089?mkwid=sDUrSdW3M&pcrid=17035214887&kword=&match=&plid=&gclid=CKvSq8e_ibcCFVDMtAodhmcA8A

Skirt: http://www.daisystreet.co.uk/chelsea-metallic-pleather-skater-skirt-in-purple

Crop Top: http://www.boohoo.com/restofworld/tops/crop-tops/icat/crop-tops/new-in/sara-tie-dye-crop-vest/invt/azz50695

Thanks for reading !!

My Favourite Make Up Brushes - Real Techniques

Ever since I got my first set of real techniques brushes as a present I have fallen in LOVE with them. With them being designed by the amazing make up artist Samantha Chapman, who I have watched on YouTube for years, I always wanted them after seeing them being used in the pixiwoo make up tutorials. If you haven't seen their make up tutorials you have to watch them they're amazing!

I use the real techniques brushes for applying most of my make up so keep reading to find out which brushes I use for different stages of my make up application...

Starting from right to left ....

Blush Brush: I use the blush brush mainly for applying bronzer and occasionally for applying the Rimmel stay matte powder. I love how big this brush is, which allows easy application of something like powder which I like to apply to my whole face.

Buffing Brush: I LOVE the buffing brush for applying liquid foundation. Its amazing for really working the foundation into your skin.

Contour Brush: I always use the contour brush for applying blusher. The small shape of the brush makes is easy to apply blusher to the apples of your cheeks and it helps blend really well!

Pointed Foundation Brush: I do not actually use this brush for foundation as the name suggests, I actually use it for highlighter, as the shape of the brush is really good to place highlighter into the right areas of my face. 

Detailer Brush: I normally use this brush for applying lipsticks. For day-to-day make up I just apply lipstick straight onto my lips, however when I'm going on a night out I really like to make sure my lipstick is perfect and this brush really helps to get lipstick in the right shape around your lips. 

Brow Brush: again I do not use this brush for brows as the name suggests, as I actually use a different brush for my brows. I use the brow brush for blending out black eye liner as it helps to create a more smoky and blended look. This brush is also great for using a gel eye liner to create a winged look. 

Pixel Point Eyeliner Brush: Again this brush is amazing for gel eye liner as the thin shape allows you to get really close to the lash line.

Accent Brush: I love using the accent brush to place eye shadow into my tear duct area. Because the brush is so small its really good to add fine details to your eye make up. It is also great for putting eye shadow underneath the eye.

Base Shadow Brush: This is the brush I use to apply all my eye shadow. It blends shadows amazingly so I usually use just this brush to create a subtle smoky eye with neutral/ brown shades for every day make up.

Deluxe Crease Brush: Again this brush is amazing for blending eye shadow. I usually use my base shadow brush and go over the top with the deluxe crease brush when I'm using stronger, darker eye shadows as it helps to blend eye shadow even more and never leaves harsh lines.

I have also hear that the Expert Face Brush is amazing for foundation so this is 100% on my shopping list for the next real techniques brush to get! Hope you have enjoyed this post and if youre wondering whether or not to purchase these brushes I would definitely persuade you because i personally think they are AMAZING and priced very well too!!

My Uni Makeup Storage

Thought I would share with you my makeup collection storage in my uni room. I have the majority of my makeup with me at uni so keep reading to find out how I store it ...

I store my makeup in the pink draws shown in the picture above. I can just about fit all my makeup in the draws but as my collection grows I may need to buy a bigger draw set or find a new way of storing my make up but at the moment this way works for me!

As you can see from the image above I keep different makeup within each different draw. Starting from the bottom I have all my nail varnishes and nail art bits in the bottom draw. In the next draw up I keep all my eye make up including eyeliners, eyeshadows, glitters, and eyelashes. In the top draw I keep all my face and lip products. This includes foundations, blushes, bronzers, lipsticks and lip glosses. Finally the makeup bag on the top is where I keep my current everyday makeup. I sometimes switch this up but its mainly all my go-to/ favourite makeup products. 

Thank you for reading!! Think I better start thinking of a new way to store my makeup as my collection grows because these draws are getting pretty full! :)

Classic Red and Black Make Up Look

I thought I would share with you a make up look I wore the other night when I went out for dinner on my Mum's birthday. Its a really classic look with red lipstick and thick black eye liner on the top and is also really easy to create so if you want to find out more about the products I used to create the look below keep reading...

Face:

For my face make up I just used my normal day-to-day products. These include Rimmel foundation, Collection 2000 concealer, Rimmel bronzer, Collection 2000 blush and Seventeen highlight. 

Eyes:

For my eye make up I began by using the MUA heaven and earth palet which I have done a blog post on in the past. I used a light neutral shade all over my lid and a darker brown shade through my crease. I then used a light almost white MUA eye shadow in the tear duct area. I used a white eyeliner in my water line as this really helps to brighten and widen your eye. For the thick black eyeliner I used Avon glimmerstick in black and also a Rimmel liquid eyeliner to create the flick. 

Lips:

This look involves using quite a bold red lip stick. In this look I used an Avon colour trend lipstick in the shade Winter Wine. Another red lipstick which I LOVE is the Rimmel by Kate Moss lipstick in the shade 01. 

Hope you enjoyed this look! Thank you SO much for reading :)