Illamasqua Skin Trio + Topshop Wicked | FOTN

I went to the theatre last night to see ‘Wicked’ in Manchester, and I thought that I would just do a little “face of the night” post telling you what I wore on my face and so letting you know some of my favourite products at the moment, as so to speak.

I started off by applying the Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion + all over my face (I mentioned it in THIS haul post). I've been using this mainly as a nighttime moisturiser, however I've used it when my skin feels like it needs a little bit more moisture!

I then used my favourite skin trio of the moment, starting with the Illamasqua Hydra Veil primer - I am absolutely loving this as I have very  dehydrated skin, and this gives my skin a real boost whilst providing a great base for my makeup. Sticking with Illamasqua, I used their Skin Base Foundation in the shade 4. This applies perfectly over the Hydra Veil, using a Real Techniques Expert Face Brush. To get rid of my terrible dark circles, I used my Bourjois Healthy Mix Concealer and applied this under my eyes and across my eyelids, and also on the redness around my nose and any little blemishes.

MAC Eyeshadows; Clockwise - Omega, Brule, Handwritten, Era

At this point I then move onto my eyes, and I started off with doing my eyebrows, using Omega eyeshadow (top left) from MAC on a small angled brush.  

Using a MAC 217, I applied the shade Brule (top right), a matte skin colour shade also by MAC, all over the lid, just to set the foundation and concealer across my lids. 

I then applied MAC eyeshadow in Era (bottom left) all across the lid, again with my 217, and then I used my Real Techniques Duo Fibre Eye Brush to apply MAC Handwritten (bottom right), a gorgeous matte chocolate brown, through the crease. I also took this on a small angled brush on the lower lash line. 

I lined my top lashline with the Illamasqua Precision Gel Liner and my top waterline with the Bourjois Queen Attitude Khol Kajal Liner, finishing off the eyes with a few coats of my favourite mascara ever, the Maybelline The Rocket Mascara.

Moving back to the skin, I powdered through the centre of the face with the last of the Illamasqua face trio, the Illamasqua Powder Foundation (I think I’m using shade 135? - it’s a tad too light for me though). 

I am a huge huge fan of contouring, and recently I have been loving using my Benefit Hoola bronzer and the Real Techniques Contour Brush. 

The final touch for the face was using the gorgeous MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in Soft And Gentle on the tops of my cheekbones.

Bringing the whole look together, I finished it off by using Topshop’s Lipstick in Wicked, a lovely burgundy shade.

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The Autumn Edit

Benefit Smokin' Eyes | NARS Eyeshadow Duo in Kuala Lumpur | NARS Semi-Matte Lipstick in Scarlett Empress | MAC Lipstick in Twig | Maybelline Colour Tattoo in Metallic Pomegranate | Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Crush 

With cold mornings and winter coats coming out, autumn is definitely upon us. Here are a few of my top beauty picks for this autumn.

Benefit Smokin Eyes Palette, £28.50

The autumn/winter ’13 eye trend is all about soft smokey eyes, and this palette from Benefit is perfect for that. Sweep the pink shade all over the lid as a base, then blend the lighter grey all over the lid, avoiding the inner corner, and then the darker charcoal shade in the outer corner and outer crease to define.

NARS Eyeshadow Duo in Kuala Lumpur, £25

This gorgeous eyeshadow duo from NARS has perfect autumnal colours. Apply the lighter peachy shade all over the lid, then blend the darker aubergine shade through the crease.

NARS Lipstick in Scarlett Empress, £18.50

A berry or burgundy lip is a key staple of autumn/winter trends. This lipstick from NARS is described as “Perfect jewel toned blue-red”.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Crush, £7.99

An inexpensive burgundy lipstick is this Chubby Stick-dupe -- these can be sheered down or the colour can be built up for more of an intense look.

Maybelline Colour Tattoo in Metallic Pomegranate, £4.99

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the Maybelline Colour Tattoos - they stay-put all day, don’t crease and come in a ton of colours. I chose one of the newest shades, Metallic Pomegranate for this edit as it is a stereotypical autumn colour. Apply all over the lid and under the lower lash line, blend and add a bit of mascara. For a more dramatic look, blend a dark brown powder eyeshadow like MAC Handwritten through the crease.

MAC Lipstick in Twig, £15

For a more daytime shade, MACs lipstick in Twig is perfect - described as “soft muted brownish-pink”, the satin finish lipstick is a muted down version of the classic burgundy lip for autumn.

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Sample Sized Sweethearts

I’m little bit obsessed with sample/travel sized beauty products - I have such a fascination with mini versions of products. I don't know what it is but I just think that they are so darn cute. 

I have quite a few “minis”, if you will, in my makeup/beauty collection at the moment; let us take a look at a few! 

Benefit PoreFessional Primer 

Benefit Porefessional Primer

This is the third sample mini size version of this that I have gone through. My auntie got given this at a Benefit event a couple weeks ago and then gave it to me, but I love how velvety soft this feels on the skin. 

The full size version of this retails for £24.50 HERE 

No7 Airbrush Away Primer 

No7 Airbrush Away Primer

A second primer mini: This was included in a free No7 gift set a couple weeks ago. Alike the Benefit primer above, this also feels very soft on the skin, providing the perfect base for your makeup. 

The full size version of this retails for £19.50 HERE 

No7 Triple Protection Tinted Moisturiser 

No7 Triple Protection Tinted Moisturiser

Also from the free No7 gift that the primer came in; I haven’t used a tinted moisturiser in a very long time. The smaller size means I can get through it quicker, as I’ve had a little bit of a foundation obsession recently, so the smaller the better, haha. 

The full size version of this retails for £11.50 HERE 

The Body Shop Seaweed Clarifying Toner 

                                                          

The Body Shop Seaweed Clarifying Toner

A couple months back, The Body Shop had a three for two offer on travel minis and this was one of the things I picked up. I’ve tried this before and really like it, and again the smaller size means I can get through it quicker. 

The mini version of this retails for £3 and the standard size retails for £8, both HERE 

MAC Face and Body 50ml 

Could you class this as a mini? I got the smaller 50ml size rather than the standard 120ml for face and body as I’d never tried it before. It is a really lovely foundation, great for any skin type!


This retails for £21.50 HERE 

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March Favourites!

So I have here some of the things that I've really liked this month, I hope you enjoy!

My mum got The Body Shop Strawberry Body Polish in a set for Christmas and she's not really a fan of body scrubs, so I kindly took it off her hands for her! It's such a nice product because it had tiny scrub particles in it as well as strawberry seeds and it lathers up like a body wash too, so it is a 2-in-1 product, which is always a good thing! I don't usually like strawberry scented things as I don't like any artificial strawberry products like sweets and scents and things, but I love this so much!

I bought the Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer after I had heard so many YouTubers talk about it and I love love love it, it is my favourite concealer ever! The best thing as well is that it is so cheap as well! I love it so much and I really don't think I will find another concealer that I love as much as this - let's just hope they don't discontinue it for a very long time!

I've been using the Revlon ColourStay Makeup for quite a while but I started to go off it and then it ran out and I never repurchased it. But I did buy another one at the beginning of March and I really love it again! I realised that why I didn't love it as much a few months back is because I used so much product that it made my skin look and feel horrible, and also I never used a moisturiser before applying it. Now I'm using smaller amounts and I buff it straight into freshly moisturised skin which keeps the skin looking a lot more like skin!

Another item that I've had for a while that I've come to like again is the No7 Shine Free Makeup Base - I went off this when I started wearing the Revlon ColourStay because it is a demi matte finish, the primer is a matte finish so they weren't too great together. However, I realised a few weeks back that it's probably good thing to wear moisturiser under your foundation so the primer isn't as bad under that foundation. However, last week I was ill and had a cold so my skin was super dry and disgusting, so wearing a matte primer and a demi matte foundation just made my skin even more disgusting so that was the only time this month that I didn't like them together!

Another item that I've had for ages but only really started loving again is the Benefit Eye Bright. Now I got the Benefit Confessions of a Concealaholic kit as a birthday present a couple years ago and I really liked the Eye Bright which was in that, but the extent of me using it was as an inner corner highlight. Anyway, I bought the actual pencil version with a Boots voucher that I got on my last birthday, but I'd only actually used it a couple times until a couple of weeks ago when I watched a YouTube video from MakeupByTiffanyD where I think she was explaining how she gets rid of her dark circles. So basically she applied her foundation and then applied the Eye Bright under her eyes, blended it and then applied her under eye concealer over the top - the pink of the Eye Bright counteracts the blue of under your eyes making it brighter and more neutral. I tried this and it really helped so Eye Bright is one of my key makeup staples now!

Okay, so I don't really have many things in my favourites this month, but I've not really bought anything new; I'm hoping that next month's and May's favourites will be a lot better because I'm getting my MAC Pro discount in the next couple weeks so I will be having some spending sprees so I'll do a haul post when I have time to go to the MAC store! Eeee, I'm so excited, MAC is amazing!

Alrighty, I hope you're staying happy, healthy and safe, and you're having a great day whatever you're doing!
Lots of love xx
Emily XO