How I Like To Store My Make-Up

Recently I had an email asking me how I stored my make-up so thought I’d share with you all my make up bag! 

I say make up bag but it’s actually a vanity case which I bought from eBay for £30. It’s not fantastic quality but it does the job. I’ll probably buy another in 2 or 3 years from beauty express. You can buy them from there for about £35 and I know they will be of a high quality.

The vanity case is split into 6 sections with a main storage part at the bottom.

I fill each section with a different product. My first section is for make-up brushes, sponges, eyelash curlers etc. I like to store my make-up brushes in brush guards. You can buy these from eBay for about £4 for a pack of 8. They come in a range of sizes; I bought the small ones for my eye shadow brushes and am currently waiting for the larger ones for my foundation, stippling and kabuki brushes. They protect your brushes from dirt, grime and dust etc so they are really worth the investment. I like to clean my brushes with equal parts of extra virgin olive oil and anti-bacterial washing up liquid. Make sure its anti-bacterial otherwise you won’t get rid of the germs embedded in your brushes which if left un-cleaned can lead breakouts.

My next section is for my everyday essentials so my foundation (I use two types and mix them the MAC pro-wear formulation and Lancôme’s teint idole), my high impact curling mascara, my MAC blusher, a No7 blusher, No 17 translucent powder and my MAC penultimate eyebrow marker.

The next section is for my eye shadows including my palettes. I’ll be doing a review of the beauty UK palette you can see in there. They’re amazing eye shadows for the price they cost.

I also have a section for more pigmented eye shadows so my Barry M dazzle dusts for example...

The next section is filled with my lip balms, lip glosses, lipsticks etc. I’ll be doing a lip balm haul in the next few weeks so make sure you look out for that!

My last section is for storing eye pencils, liquid eyeliners etc. 

 Finally the bottom of my case is filled with bigger items such as my Manly eye shadow palette and spare/replacement products such as foundations etc...

Anyway I hope you’ve enjoyed having a nosey through my make up kit. Let me know if you like this kind of post or would like to see more. 

Again, if you have any more suggestions for the type of posts you’d like just drop me and email or comment below!

ELF Liquid Eyeliner REVIEW

I've said on a few of my posts on ELF cosmetics that I've found them to be a bit hit and miss. I bought 2 of the liquid eyeliners a while ago but havn't got round to doing a review until now. I bought the ash and the copper colours.

Here is what the blurb says...

"No more tugging or pulling on your eyelids with this easy glide liquid eyeliner. The smudge-proof liner is rich in color, creating a long lasting defined look. The fine tip brush creates easy and precise definition for natural or dramatic effects."

I can't really say that it does what is promises and heres why...

1. It is most definitely not a smudge proof liner 

It tended to fade throughout the day especially near the corners of my eyes. It stayed perfect for around 3 hours or so but by the afternoon it had creased and was quite patchy in places.

2. It is not rich in colour

It took me a good three goes to get the coverage I wanted to build. It's not a very smooth application and seemed to take ages, especially with the ash colour. The copper colour also looks nothing like it did on the website.

3. The brush tip isn't fantastic either 

I found it to be far too stiff and unflexible to create a smooth winged look. The stiffness of it actually caused my skin to drag along with it a bit meaning that it doesn't fufil its promise of no tugging and pulling on eyelids. 

All in alll I wouldn't rate this product and I definitely wouldn't buy it again. For £1.50 though you can't really expect excellent quality!

*I apologise for the spelling and grammar of this post, I got my degree results today and have been celebrating all day! :)

If anyone has tried this product or one they think is better please leave a comment below!

DIY: Luxurious Chocolate and Orange Leg Wrap

I don’t know about you but my shins are an area that often becomes dry and flaky so on top of exfoliation I tend to use a body wrap treatment every 1-2 weeks. You can usually get a body wrap treatment from your local spa or salon but they often come with a huge price tag. Here I’ve designed my own concoction using chocolate and orange. Dark chocolate is rich in antioxidants and will help to draw out toxins from your skin. This wrap should leave your skin feeling wonderfully hydrated and moisturised!

FOR A FULL LEG WRAP YOU WILL NEED:

70g of dark, good quality chocolate

2 tbsp of honey (natural and organic is preferred)

2 tbsp of almond oil

Fine zest of one orange

Juice of half an orange

Cling film

1 large towel

A cheap large make up brush or spatula 

METHOD:

Start off by prepping your skin with a body scrub to get rid of all your dead skin cells. This will allow the mixture to penetrate your skin better. Might I suggest my DIY invigorating ginger and lime body scrub? (See link if interested:...)

Place a large towel on the area where you are going to apply the treatment, it can be a bit messy the first few times you use this recipe.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl then squeeze in your orange juice and add your zest, honey and almond oil to the mix. 

Stir the mixture until it has cooled slightly and is at a comfortable temperature.

Apply your cooled mixture to your legs with your spatula or old make up brush (you might need someone else to do the backs of your thighs if using there).

Wrap your legs in clear plastic wrap or cling film, pat down and relax for 20 minutes, take deep breaths as you inhale the delicious smell of chocolate! 

Remove plastic wrap then rinse off the wrap in the shower.

Pat your legs dry then follow with natural shea butter to leave your legs feeling silky soft.

TIP: For an extra treat try putting 2 towels in the drying machine for 5 minutes to warm them up then once you have applied your cling film wrap your legs in the warm towels. As well as feeling nice the heat will allow the mixture to penetrate your skin deeper.

This is a really fun recipe to try out with your girlfriends for a girly night in or for if you just want to indulge in yourself and have some me time. I would recommend maybe trying this once a week as well as exfoliating and moisturising. If you want to make this mixture for the whole of your body simply double the list the ingredients. I will be suggesting some other non-chocolate body wraps in the coming weeks so make sure you look out for them!

 If you have any comments or feedback I’d love to hear from you!

M.A.C. Penultimate Eyebrow Marker RRP: £14

At Christmas my friend Amber introduced me to the penultimate eyebrow marker from MAC. I’ve always been a bit funny about filling in my eyebrows as I’ve got quite light hair but she assured me that this eyebrow marker would be fine as she was blonde and used it herself. And thank god she did! I tried it and I was absolutely hooked. I’ve been using it for the last 6 months now and can honestly say I wouldn’t use anything else so I thought I’d write a review on it to let you all know how fantastic it is. 

First of all, here’s what the blurb says...

“A liquid, pen-style marker for colouring and styling the brows to a well-defined, natural-looking finish. Easy to control. Tapered tip provides precision and helps create the feathery strokes needed to fill in and perfect the brows. Flow-through, quick-drying formula means no smudges. Long-wearing.”

It does everything it says on the tin but I’ll elaborate a bit more...

Does it provide well-defined natural eyebrows?

The application couldn’t be easier. Using short, fast strokes you can create your perfect eye brow shape. It’s perfect for filling in those bald spots (yes, most people have them!) and creating a beautifully defined, arched brow. 

Is it easy to control?

The felt tip calligraphy-like pen makes this brow marker a doddle to use. You do have to work relatively quickly with it though as it dries quite fast and once it’s on, it won’t budge all day!

Does it really suit all eyebrows? 

The wonderful thing about this brow marker is that it was originally part of the limited edition “all ages, all races, all sexes” collection meaning that it will suit almost everyone. When I first saw the neutral brown toned pen I thought there was no way it could possibly suit every single person. As a result I tried this out on all of my friends ranging from blondes right through to dark brunettes and can honestly say it suited every one of them. For the darker haired I would suggest building it up over two layers. 

Does this product work and would I buy it again?

Absolutely 100% yes. It does exactly what it says on the tin and I very highly doubt I will ever switch to an alternative. I promise if you try this product, you will not be disappointed.

Think you’ve found a better alternative? Please let me know by commenting below!

ECO BEAUTY DISCUSSION: Part 2 – Bringing New Life into Old Product Containers

If you follow my blog you will be aware that I love to make my own beauty recipes such as face masks, body scrubs, eye treatments etc (if interested see the ‘June’ section on the left). However I noticed that I’ve never really spoken about how to store these DIY recipes so I thought I’d write a post on how to recycle old pots and containers and maybe give you some inspiration. I recently watched a programme on mega cities by Andrew Marr that really made me think about how much unnecessary waste we throw away so this post also has the goal to maybe make people think more carefully about what they throw away and whether they could bring a new lease of life to it.

Old pump dispensers

Here I recycled my Trevor Sorbet heat spray to make it into a bottle for storing my own homemade toner. I took all the labels off and cleaned the pump by filling the bottle with hot water and spraying. Then I put it in the dishwasher to give the bottle a really good clean inside and out. I then carefully poured my own homemade recipe into the bottle and ta-dah I had a perfect place to store my potions. 

I did a similar thing with an old Vichy body moisturiser pump that my flatmate was about the throw away. Again I stripped it of its labels and gave it a good clean then filled it with my almond oil that I use for cleansing my face. One pump dispenses just the right amount I need for my face everyday instead of pouring it from a large container. 

Pots/Tubs

Here I took my No7 Protect and Perfect Eye Cream that I’d used up. Again, I put it through a cycle in the dishwasher to give it a thorough clean and then filled it with vitamin E oil. I then used this to dab on to cuticles and under my eyes. You could even squeeze the contents of vitamin E capsules into small containers such as this. 

This pot was filled with a body butter. Some of you may have seen this before in my DIY: ginger and lime body scrub tutorial (http://www.bebeautifulblog.org/2011/06/diy-invigorating-lime-and-ginger-salt.html). This kind of pot is perfect for pouring in your DIY face masks and scrubs and can then be kept in the fridge. 

Bottles

This was originally a Boots cucumber eye make-up remover gel. Once I’d used it all up I emptied and cleaned it then filled it with extra virgin olive oil. As I’ve mentioned before this is a much more natural way to remove make up (and is usually more effective than the eye make-up remover formulations you find in the shops!)  

Spare Contact Lens Containers

These are fabulous for storing make-up. Here I’ve filled an empty contact lens container with a Barry M Dazzle Dust that seemed to be going everywhere when I opened it.

Tiny Jam/Pickle/Chutney Jars

My friend Katie told me about how she reuses these tiny jars and I thought I’d share it with you. It’s such a simple idea that I can’t believe I hadn’t thought about it sooner. Katie suggested if you clean out the contents once used and put them through a cycle in the dishwasher then you can use these little jars to dispense your favourite beauty products for travel. Not only will this reduce the amount space used in your luggage but they can also be washed out and disinfected for use againand again.

I hope you found this post useful and has maybe given you some inspiration as to how you could recycle your old pots/jars/bottles etc. If everyone just re-used one old product container it would make such a big difference. 

If any of you have any recycling ideas or eco-beauty ideas then please leave a comment below – I love reading your comments!

Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eye Liner in Black £7.99

I’m so glad that one of the cheaper make up brands has started to re-create the gel liners from the more expensive brands including MAC, Bobbi Brown etc have had around for a while. I am absolutely in love with my MAC fluid line one but at £13.50 a pot it’s definitely not a purse friendly make up product.

What’s the application like?

Unlike the MAC fluid line, the Maybelline gel comes with its own brush. The shape and size of the brush is perfect to create a sweeping line right across the eyelid. The brush makes it so much easier to draw a perfect line so would be really useful for someone looking to venture out into experimenting with make-up as its perfect for beginners. 

 

Does it last?

The great thing about a gel eye liner as opposed to a kohl eye liner is that it lasts for so much longer. There is virtually no difference between the MAC version and the Maybelline version in terms of how long they last. Mine lasts all day, even in humid and hot weather.

What’s the pigment like?

Again, it’s very much the same as MAC. The gel produces a very dark, pigmented colour that will last all day. 

Does it come in any other colours?

The one thing I would say about this product is that the colour range is rather limited. Maybelline only do a black colour whereas MAC and Bobbi Brown offer a wide selection of colours ranging from browns through to plums and denim colours. I’m sure Maybelline will start to introduce different colours in the next few months though.

I think I’ve covered everything but if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in contact. I check my emails/blog daily and will typically get back to you within the day.  All in all this is brilliant product with a very reasonable price tag. It’s something I will definitely be purchasing again.

Hope you enjoyed this post, if you have any suggestions or feedback let me know by commenting below!

DOTTY NAIL TUTORIAL

This nail art technique couldn’t be any easier. All you need is a dotting tool which you can purchase from eBay for less than a couple pounds including postage. 

Start by filing your nails to a suitable shape and pushing up your cuticle oils.  

Apply a base coat. Here I’m using OPI start to finish nail varnish. 

Apply two coats of candy floss pink nail varnish and leave to dry for a good 15 minutes. 

Carefully use a medium size dotting tool to create your dotty design on top of the nail colour and leave to dry for 10 minutes.

Finish off by applying a shiny top coat to seal the colour. 

I’ve chosen pink and brown here as I think they look quite good together but try your own different combinations to suit your own personal style.

TIP: If your cuticles are feeling a bit dry try massaging a vitamin e soft gel capsule into your nails to moisturise and soften. 

If you have any comments on this look or have any suggestions please comment below!