Holiday Beauty Essentials

Somehow we're already in July and every social network I go on, people are counting down the days till they go on holiday. I personally am not going away this year *sobs* but I thought I'd do a post showing you all my holiday beauty essentials anyway. I've not included the obvious products such as a good SPF and moisturiser, instead I've chosen to show beauty items that you'd reach for probably more in the evening time when going out for dinner or drinks. Of course there's nothing stopping you wearing these in the day if you wanted to! 


GOSH CC Cream Illuminating Foundation 

This is probably one of my favourite face products to date and I've not even not even had it a month yet. It's the perfect kind of foundation for everyday use - especially in a hot climate. It gives a light yet even coverage which looks very natural. As it is a colour correcting foundation it evens out and reduces any redness in the skin whilst creating a dewy finish. It feels very lightweight on the skin, not oily or cakey in the slightest plus it leaves your skin feeling extremely soft. It does contain SPF 10, however you may want to apply a little bit of SPF before putting this on just so you are protecting your face from any harsh sunlight. This product is ideal for travelling with due to it's squeezable tube design and nozzle applicator meaning no mess and no fuss! I'll have a full review about this CC cream coming up on my blog very soon.


MAC Coral Bliss Lipstick

Coral Bliss is a light shade of coral with a slightly pinky hue to it. It's a cremesheen finish meaning the colour transfers slightly more sheer than what it looks in the bullet and leaves a glossy finish on the lips. Due to the glossy finish this is a very light and comfortable lipstick to wear however the finish does also mean that it's not particularly long lasting and does require touch ups every 2-3 hours, especially if eating or drinking. Coral Bliss is a very nice, neutral coral shade which looks perfect on every skin tone. It really compliments a tan and helps to brighten up your complexion - creating a truly radiant look. The perfect Summer lipstick without a doubt!


Benefit The Porefessional Primer

A primer is a must when you find yourself in a hot environment, it keeps your make-up in place and also helps it to last longer. I really like the Porefessional primer as it feels silky and smooth, it blends really easily and it does even out my skin tone ever so slightly. After moisturising my face I apply a small pea sized amount of this product on my finger and then dab a little bit on my chin, forehead, cheeks and nose, then using my fingers I blend it in. You really don't need much of this at all as a little goes a long way and you will notice a difference in the staying power of your make-up!


Sleek Contour Kit 

Nothing accentuates a tan more than a little bit of bronzer and highlight and the Sleek Contour kit is the perfect handy little compact which allows you to do both. Both the highlight and the bronzer are really pigmented so you don't need to use a lot of product to get your desired look, plus they're really blendable and long lasting.The bronzer is a lovely matte brown shade, not muddy or too orange like some bronzers tend to be. The highlight is a gorgeous peachy champagne colour which suits all skin tones and really illuminates the face. The compact itself is very sturdy and looks to be of very high quality. The packaging is a really nice matte black, with a fairly large sized mirror inside - perfect for on the go touch ups. Due to it's small size this is ideal for travel which is another big reason I had to feature it in my Holiday Beauty Essentials. I highly recommend this product to anyone looking for a good quality contour kit which doesn't break the bank. 


Sleek Blush By 3 Palette - Lace

The Sleek Blush by 3 Palette is ideal for those who'd like to create a variety of different make-up looks but don't want the hassle of having to pack a million different products. This palette contains 3 beautiful coloured blushes, all of which are really intensely pigmented and so easy to blend. 

The three shades within the palette are;

Crochet

Guipure

Chantilly

Crochet is a matte peachy orange, Guipure is a peach toned pink with flecks of gold shimmer running throughout and Chantilly is a bright red toned pink which at first glance looks rather terrifying but really it's not. This particular selection of colours are perfect for the Summer months as they're so bright and fun - they're amazing on tanned skin however they do work for pale skin also, you just need to be a little light handed on the application. I personally love to mix a little of Crochet and Guipure together and apply that on to my cheeks and I find it just creates the most amazing flush of colour - it really makes my skin look so much more radiant and healthy. The palette itself contains a large mirror and is an ideal size for travelling. If you'd like to see a more detailed review of this product that you can by clicking here.

Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette

The Naked Basics Palette is the most ideal neutral eyeshadow palette to travel with. It contains 6 shades, 5 of which are matte whilst the other one has a slight shimmer to it. The shades inside the palette are as follows;

Venus, Foxy, Walk of Shame, Naked 2, Faint and Crave.

Venus is the shimmery white shade. Foxy is a creamy, yellow shade. Walk of Shame is a beige / pink colour. Naked 2 is a light beige brown colour. Faint is a chocolate shade and crave is a very dark black colour.

This fantastic range of shades can very easily carry you from a day to a night look simply by adding one of the darker colours in order to create a smokey eye. I believe this palette can very easily double as a brow kit due to the great selection of colours and if you really want, Venus makes a great highlight also! It's a handy multi purpose palette which also happens to be a very travel friendly size - which is a nice change from the difficultly large size of the original Naked Palettes. Again if you're interested in reading more about this product you can see my review here. 

That's all for my round up of my holiday beauty essentials! Let me know what you think of some of these products, or if there are any products you'd personally recommend me to try!

I hope you're all well. 

Beauty Photoshoot #4

Hello Readers, 

It's been a while since I shared some of my photography on here so I figured I should probably update my blog with some of my more recent work. This selection of images are all from a little test shoot I did back in April featuring the lovely Holly Stancer from Model Students Agency. She's only 16 years old yet she was an absolute dream to work with, so natural in front of the camera! The original sort of theme for this was quite minimalistic, with cranberry eye-shadow, sharp contouring and slick wet hair however I like to experiment on my shoots which is why we decided half way through to switch up the make-up look and even try shooting behind a wet plastic sheet for an almost glass like effect. I'm really happy with the outcome of these images so I hope you all like them too!  

Model: Holly Stancer @ Model Students
MUA: Jessica Rose Pykett

That's all for this post, I hope you're all well!

Model Students | My Photography | Instagram

Beauty Photoshoot

 

Hello Readers,

I'd just like to apologize for my absence the last few days. I shouldn't make excuses for why I didn't update my blog so I won't bother making them! If you've been keeping up with my blog for a while you'll know that I love photography and it's my absolute dream to make it as a fashion and beauty photographer. So naturally, I spend quite a bit of time doing photoshoots! It's been a while since my last photoshoot as I've moved up to Nottingham and I don't have any friends on hand to use as models which is quite unfortunate. I recently felt so motivated to start shooting again that I decided to do something I'd never done before... hire a model from an agency!

I'm honestly so happy with the way the images turned out. The model I hired was lovely and was really easy to work with. Below I've included a few images from my shoot which I hope you enjoy looking at. The theme of the shoot was very autumnal, with the main focus being the very autumn appropriate vampy lip.



That's all for this blog post. Let me know what you think of my images, I'd love to hear some feedback!

Hope you're all well.

 

September Favourites.

 

Hello Readers.

Today I will be doing my September Favourites post for you and I don't know about you but I can't believe that September is almost over. This year is flying by! It's true when they say "the older you get, the quicker time goes by". Before you know it Christmas will be upon us..

I've been a bit absent from my blog recently so I'd just like to apologize for that. I'm starting to feel motivated to get back into the swing of doing regular posts and have now found the perfect set up to photograph products! So let me know what you think of this new location. I think it's better then the floral bed sheets but that's my personal opinion! I'm still trying to find a good spot to do my OOTD shots however. I'm not really comfortable having my photograph taken in front of loads of people however now that I live in a city, I'm going to have to get over this. I'm never going to be able to make the most of my city background if I'm too scared to be seen doing my OOTD shots!

Anyway enough babbling and on with the post. This month I have 1 skincare favourite and 3 cosmetics favourites to talk about.

The first product I'm going to talk about is this Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Daily Scrub. I don't often talk about skincare products on this blog as I am useless at skincare. I just use whatever product is on offer usually. When doing my food shopping for my new flat, I picked this up on a whim. I've been using this for about a week now and I can honestly say that I really love it. My skin feels lovely and soft after I've used it and due to the pink grapefruit extract within this product it does leave a really uplifting and fresh feeling behind. I've been using this both in the morning when I get up and in the evening before I go to bed and I would say that my skin has been looking much better since using it. My boyfriend has also been using this and he loves it also! When I was a bit younger I found that my skin didn't really like Neutrogena products however I've had no problems with this one and will continue to use it.

 



The next product I have to talk about is Rimmel London's Match Perfection Foundation in Light Porcelain. I've been using this for months now so this is by no means a new product. I went through a quite a big stage of wearing either BB cream or just a powder instead of foundation, however since being away on holiday and gaining a tiny bit of colour I started using this again and have recently fallen in love with it again. This foundation is the lightest foundation I have personally ever come across and it suits me perfectly right now. It's a very light coverage foundation so those who like a lot of coverage may not like this one as much. I use about a pump and a half to cover my entire face and a little bit more on nights out. This foundation blends very easily and creates a sort of semi-matte finish. It looks very natural on the skin and feels very light also. The only negative criticism I would have to say about this product is that the pump does get very messy as shown in the image above. I do however love this foundation and will continue to re-purchase it.

 

The next product I have to talk about it another old product which I have recently fallen back in love with. This is Sleek's Blush in the shade Suede. Suede can only be described as a warm peachy toned bronzer, so it can easily be doubled up and used as a bronzer. At first glance, I'll admit it doesn't look like much however it really is beautiful. It's the perfect blush to use when you want to create quite a bronzed, contoured sort of look.This blush is super pigmented so a little goes a long way. I've had this blush for probably about a year now and I have only recently hit pan but ever so slightly as you can see from the slight dent in the image above. The compact is tiny however you get 8g of product in there so it should last you quite a long time. The compact itself is a very small and simple, matte black packaging with a mirror inside which is very handy. This is my only Sleek blush however I would happily purchase more as they all seem to be good quality products and for a fairly decent price too.

 

The final product I have to talk about this month is this Rimmel London Lasting Finish Lipstick in Starry - Eyed. Now that Summer is over and the colder months are upon us I'm itching to start wearing vampy looks. I've already been sporting a vampy look, quite a few times this month and this has been the lipstick that I've reached for. Starry - Eyed is a cross between a plum / red wine colour so it's a colour that I think will compliment a lot of different skintones. This lipstick is long lasting, super pigmented and like all of the lipsticks from the Lasting Finish line, it has a slight shine to it. I personally quite like this as it means it's more comfortable to wear. This lipstick retails around the £4 mark so it's really affordable and I would highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a good vampy lipstick!

That's all for this months favourites post. Please let me know what you think of this new set up to photographing products. I personally think I'm going to stick with this as it looks quite clean and shows of the products well, however I'd love to hear your opinions on it too.

I hope you're all well!

Paige.

July Favourites

 

 

Hello Readers!

 

Today I will be doing my July Favourites post. I will just say now that I haven't featured many products in this favourites post as It's been so hot and I just haven't been using that many products or wearing that much make-up for that matter. However when I have been wearing make-up, these are the products that I've been reaching for and have been enjoying using during this incredibly hot weather we're having. In my favourites this month, I have a lipstick, a blush, a face contour kit and a BB cream. So enough chatting and on with the post!

 

Okay so the first item I want to talk about in my July Favourites is this blush from the Dainty Doll range. This is a powder blush in the shade 001 Hippy Shake. I bought this blush many months back but never really used it because it's a odd dusky pinky, lilac colour with quite a bit of shimmer in it which I originally thought would look horrendous on my face. However after recently using it in a photoshoot on a model, I really liked the way it looked on her skin and I decided to start using it myself. This blush is a very light colour and therefore requires a little bit of building up however once it's on it's a lovely subtle flush of colour which looks very healthy on the skin. It's not a colour for everyone however, as Dainty Doll cosmetics are for pale skinned girls like myself. I picked this up from Fragrance Direct for £1.99.

 

The next product that I've been loving this month is Sleeks Face Contour Kit in Light. I picked this up back in April whilst I was in London and I have not regretted it in the slightest! This product is rather hyped up but it's definitely worth the hype. This handy little kit contains a matte bronzer on the left and a beautiful highlight on the right. The bronzer is buildable so you can control the intensity of the contouring and is also very easy to blend so if you've applied too much or have been a bit too heavy handed it can be fixed. The highlight is a lovely pearly iridescent shade which I actually prefer over Benefit's High Beam. Like the bronzer this is buildable, however it can be a little bit chalky but other than I adore it! The highlighter creates the perfect subtle healthy glow which is great for this time of year. I love this little kit and have been using it so much during the warmer weather for that perfect bronzed, glowy summer look.

Next product that I have been enjoying throughout July is this Gosh BB Cream in the shade Sand. I've done a blog review on this product before, so if any of you are interested in reading a more in depth description of this product then you can do so by clicking here.
This is the first BB cream I've ever used and it's honestly so good. I picked this up on a whim as I was really drawn to it for some reason. I picked up the lightest shade which is Sand and I doubted this would suit my skintone as sand is usually quite a dark beige shade in most foundations. However this suits my skintone perfectly! Not only that but it provides a really good coverage for a BB cream. It's light on the skin however it does do a good job covering any blemishes or discolouration. This is has been a lovely product to wear during the warmer weather as I feel comfortable with the coverage it gives and the way it feels on my skin.

The final product in my July Favourites round up is this lipstick by Maybelline. This is the Maybelline Colour Sensational Lipstick in the shade Citrus Slice. I picked this up a while back from Fragrance Direct when I first started my obsession with orange lipsticks. When this arrived I was extremely disappointed with it as it's extremely sheer and has almost no colour payoff whatsoever, it's pretty much just a lip balm. However I've recently come to really love this product as it is such a nice, moisturising lip product. It's comfortable to wear and creates the most beautiful glossy shine on your lips. It's been nice wearing something so moisturising on my lips during this really hot weather we're having.

I hope you enjoy this post!
Let me know what you're favourite products have been for the month of July.

Hope you're all well.

Paige.



Dainty Doll Creme Blush Review.

Hello Everyone!

Today I'm going to be reviewing a piece of makeup from the Dainty Doll Range, created by Nicola Roberts. I've got a few pieces of makeup from this range and if I'm honest, I don't often use them. Not necessarily because I don't like them but because once I have a set everyday makeup routine, I rarely use any other products. That being said, I recently discovered a new found love for one of the Creme blushes from the range that I own. The product I'm talking about is the Dainty Doll Creme blush in 003, called Billion Dollar Babies.

 

This blush comes in a beautiful matte black compact with Dainty Doll printed in gold. The packaging looks incredibly high end due to the colours and I really like the simplicity of it. Inside is a small mirror which is really handy! However one thing that I don't like about the Dainty Doll Products is that they all have names, yet none of the names are printed on the product, just the product number. I personally like seeing the name of my product rather than just seeing a number as it helps me get a better idea of what kind of colour the product would be and in general I think it's just nice to know the name of your product!

Billion Dollar Babies is a muted pinky, taupe colour which at best can be described as a nude shade. When I first got this blush, I didn't think much of it and it wasn't until I saw Gabrielle Rose (a youtuber) use it for contouring in her Drugstore Makeup Tutorial video that I got the idea to use it to contour my face. I've been using it non stop for the past few days and I can honestly say that I really do love it. It's such a natural colour which goes on quite sheer but can easily be built up to create a nice natural pinky / brown colour which makes for a lovely contour. I really like how natural this looks on the skin, it suits me as a pale person much better then a normal bronzey colour. As you would expect from a Creme blush it wears nicely throughout the day and doesn't budge or slide so it's quite long lasting unlike some powder products.



I've included this image to show you what Billion Dollar Babies looks like as a contour. Here I've applied it to the hollows of my cheekbones using my Real Techniques Contour Brush to blend it in. As you can see from this image, it's a very natural and subtle colour but it does the job and contours my cheekbones nicely!

 

I think this blush originally retails for over £10, however as some of you may have noticed lately, all Dainty Doll products have dropped rapidly in price, what this means exactly I'm not sure. Hopefully this doesn't mean that it's being discontinued as a brand as I personally really like Dainty Doll! I got this from either Amazon or Fragrance Direct and payed somewhere between £2 - £3 odd for it which is amazing value.

 

So overall I'd have to say that I really do love this product and I highly recommend it to any pale girls out there who struggle to contour without looking too cakey or too dark!

Have you tried this product? What do you think?
Are there any Dainty Doll products you would recommend me to try out?

Paige.