August Beauty + Travel Favourites

Well if I thought last month was filled with favourites, this month has to be the largest number of beauty favourites ever! For two weeks out of the month of august I was on an amazing Royal Caribbean cruise around the Mediterranean (lucky me) so most of these product are not just august favourites but holiday/vacation/travel favourites.

Makeup: The first makeup favourite is a foundation by Benefit, it is their Hello Flawless foundation in 'believe in me ivory'. I loved the foundation while on holiday for two weeks in august, it was perfect paired with the amazing Essence All About Matt Fixing Powder which I sadly used up completely on holiday. Another Essence base product I loved for the past couple of months is the Essence Stay All Day Concealer which is just fantastic and all Essence products are really inexpensive! My next makeup item is a very long term favourite, the NYX Blush in 'taupe', it is fantastic for contouring especially if you have pale skin as I do. I have a contouring post coming soon. The last makeup bits are lip products both of which are stains (my favourite kind of lip product). Firstly, the Topshop Gloss Ink in 'sugar rush', it is a gorgeous bright pink glossy stain that does last well; secondly the Loreal...splash stain...things! I have the shade 'lolita' which is a perfect neutral shade - at the time these were released they had a lot of negative reviews but I don't know why, I love this lip stain!

Skincare + Haircare: The product I am going to talk about next is a mix between skincare and makeup, it is the Decleor DD Cream which is an SPF and tinted moisturiser combined in my opinion. It was in a previous favourites post. My favourite moisturiser for the past couple of months has been the Nivea Sensitive Day Cream, I took it on holiday and it was just perfect. I am currently using the night cream and it is equally great although the packaging breaks very easily! The last couple of skincare products are from Guinot, you may have seen them already in my travel beauty posts (here) and (here). They are cute mini SPF products, the lip balm was a life saver on holiday! Onto the only hair care favourite for August, the Moroccan Oil Anti-Frizz Spray which does exactly what it says on the bottle, it really helps to reduce frizz - I have been using it every single time I wash my hair this month. 

Tools + Accessories: A few makeup brush favourites, the first is the powder brush I have been using everyday this month - it is from the Ecotools travel brush set that I purchased from Feelunique back in January. Ecotools brushes are amazing in my opinion and inexpensive. Next up some trusty brushes from Real Techniques, they are all from the core collection - the bristles are super soft, smooth and blend products quickly and easily. My last favourite for august is my Sewlomax Grey Lipstick Pouch which is personalised - it says Heather on the back! I love the Sewlomax makeup bags, I used this one on holiday as my mini-mergency bag.

There are all of my favourites for the month of august, I am missing a few products such as the Ted Baker Mia Perfume and the L'Occitane Almond Hand Cream but I thought the post was very long already! 

Have you tried any of these products, if you have what did you think of them? What were your stand out products throughout august?

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Blogger Competition: HOF 'Inspired By Mum'

I was recently contacted by House of Fraser asking whether I would like to take part in their new Mother's Day, 'Inspired by Mum' blogger competition. You have to be a blogger to enter - to enter you just need to create an outfit or beauty look inspired by your mum, then photograph your look and post it on your blog. In the post you need say which item from House of Fraser would 'complete' your look, it could be an accessory, clothing item or a beauty item. Leave a comment on the House of Fraser Competition blog post (here) with a link so they can see your blog post entry. The competition closes on the 2nd April at midnight, for more information check out House of Fraser's blog. Here is my entry/look!

The photos of me are from a couple of months ago, I have been ill recently so I had to use older photos but the makeup is the same as I wear all of the time

This makeup look is one that I wear the majority of the time, it is inspired by my mum as she wear very natural makeup which is defined and simple but pretty. My mum is never overly made up with makeup (unless she is dressed as an umpalumpa for world book day at work) so I take her lead with my makeup. My stance on my makeup on the whole is to define and perfect as much as I can, I love to contour and cover but keep my skin looking like skin. I think less is more although I do love me some winged liner. Here are the steps to achieve my natural 'inspired by mum' makeup look.

Base: For my foundation I used the Benefit Hello Flawless Foundation in the shade 'believe in me ivory' (£25.50) which I love but the shade is a bit too dark so I use a really small amount and blend it down my neck too. I used my Real Techniques Expert Face Brush to apply my foundation, it is amazing as all of the RT brushes are. Now onto concealer, I have super dark circles and dry skin especially around my eyes...then add in a couple of very fine lines and it is a concealers worst nightmare! I haven't found my dream concealer and I don't think I ever will but this Clinique Airbrush Concealer (04, £18) is the closest thing I have found so far to perfection. It is a great shade, it has medium coverage, it doesn't emphasise dryness and it blends incredibly quickly/easily. 

Brows: My mum doesn't do anything to her brows but mine are so unruly that I have too. I fill them in pretty much everyday and I used my Mac Eyebrow Pencil in Lingering (£13). It is a fantastic twist up pencil, so quick and easy to use. Then seal with brow gel, I love the Tweezerman Brow Mousse but for this look I used a MUA clear mascara. 

Eyes: I always apply something on my eyes and for a quick two eyeshadow look I use my Nars Pleasures of Paris palette which I have had for ages. I use my trusty Nars Pro Prime Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Primer (£18) first and this primer is one of my holy grail products. I have quite deep set eyes and eyeshadow always creases on me - this primer keeps my eyeshadow crease free for most of the day, which for me is very impressive. Then I apply the shade 'abyssinia' all over the lid for a brightening base; then just along the upper lash line I apply the shade 'cordura' to define the eyes and it makes the lashes look thicker and fuller instantly! Then onto the lashes themselves, both myself and my mum always wear mascara, I think it makes a real difference overall.  Firstly I use my Shu Uemura eyelash curler and yes it is worth the hype (and the slightly steep price tag). I either use my Lancome Hypnose Star mascara (£22.50) or my Bare Minerals Flawless Definition Waterproof Mascara. 

Lips: For the lips both myself and my mum like to keep it natural - unless it is an evening look, in which case it is plum shades all the way! For this natural daytime look I used the Revlon Lip Butter in the shade 'pink truffle'. 

To complete my 'inspired my mum' look I would have to choose the Chanel Coco Mademoiselle Fragrance (£48). For as long as I can remember my mum has had Chanel fragrances as a gift from my dad. They look so expensive and luxe, I love the smell of Coco Mademoiselle, it always reminds me of my mum when ever I smell it. 

There is my entry into the House of Fraser Blogger 'Inspired my mum' Competition! What do you think of my look? Are you going to enter the blogger competition? 

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A Very Late Mini Benefit Haul!

Now, I have been really lazy and forgetful...I bought these items at the beginning of December last year and I completely forgot about this blog post...oops. I bought a few things from the Benefit UK website as they were having a mini sale up to Christmas and I bought the two creaseless cream shadows from there and I bought the Hello Flawless foundation from Debenhams I think....

I bought two creaseless cream shadows in the shade 'flatter me' and 'birthday suit' I bought the shade flatter me as I saw some beautiful swatches online of that shade and I bought the shade 'birthday suit' purely from Essie Button, shade raves about this product/shade so I thought I would try it out - I love Essie Button, I think she is amazing! Overall, I really like the shades, the shadows apply so smoothly and they look great. Although the creaseless claim doesn't really work on me - I find that at the end of the day these shadows will have creased but with a primer they do tend to last all day. 

I also received some samples with my order a couple of which I have already used, finished and loved. I love the Total Moisture cream! A full review of the Hello Flawless foundation and the creaseless shadows will be coming soon (hopefully) it is on my 'to do' list but I have a lot of uni work to do as well. 

And, its snowing again in Manchester (yey - that was sarcasm! the snow was fun at first but now getting to university is awful...and icy) x



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