What's in My Travel Makeup Bag?

I did a post on this last year, shortly before I went to Turkey with my family. At the time I wrote that I wouldn't be bringing any makeup with me on my subsequent trip to Uganda, which is something I later regretted.  My general makeup routine has changed quite a lot in the past year too, so I wanted to do an updated post on what I will be taking with me to Uganda when I set off this evening.

Much of my everyday makeup routine is made up of MAC products, and though I actually only have ten MAC makeup items and three brushes, most of them were carefully chosen to be part of my daily routine, so that I get maximum use out of them.

Face products: Bobbi Brown Natural Finish Long Lasting Foundation SPF15 in shade 0, Porcelain. (£29, here), MAC Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation in shade NC15 (£19.50, here), MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Light (£20.50, here), MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Lightscapade, from the Reel Sexy collection (£21.50, here), MAC Blush in shade Fleur Power (£17.50, here), Benefit High Beam (£18.50, here), Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer in shade 1, Fair (£4.19, here)

Eye products: MAC Paintpot in Rubenesque (£14.50, here), Maybelline Colour Tattoo eyeshadow in On and On Bronze (£4.99, here), MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack (£14.00, here), Sleek i-Divine palette in Au Naturel (£6.49, here), Maybelline Volum' Express The One By One Mascara in Black (£8.49, here)

I haven't pictured any lip products as I haven't quite decided which ones I'm taking, but I will definitely be taking some of my Revlon Lip Butters. (£5.99, here)

Recent Empties

I have never done a post like this before, but I'm always interested to see what other bloggers are using or have used up, and whether they would repurchase or not, so here goes!

First up is my Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation SPF 15 in shade 0, Porcelain (£29, here). when I first bought this foundation I was delighted simply because I had found a foundation that was pale enough to be a true match. However, it really wasn't all that appropriate for my skintype (as mentioned in my foundation routine post, here) and was transferring and smudging in my T-zone area after only a couple of hours wear. I began using it as a base for apowde foundation, which was marginally more successful and so I have used it up. I would not repurchase this formulation again but I would definitely purchase another formula from the same brand, as i think they are great quality and you can't fault the shade range.

Next is my Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer in shade 1, light. (£4.19, here) As you might know this is my asolute HG concealer and I already have a new one on standby.

The nail polish remover is something of a staple for me and I buy it regularly. This particular one actually came from Poundland and was really great because it had a flip-top cap with a very small opening, which meant that you didnt loose anywhere near as much through evaporation when it was open, and it was easy to open with one hand (great for when using the foil method of removing glitters!) unfortunately I havent been able to get another bottle of this from Poundland, but I have managed to track some down on Amazon, for the princely sum of £4.38! It's not as good value as Poundland, but it's still a very effective nail plish remover. You can find it here.

MAC Brush Cleanser (£8.50, here). This was my first bottle and I already have a backup ready to take it's place (actually I've had it for weeks!) it lasted much longer than I expected and I've found it really effective.

Lastly is this little sample-sized pot of Seaweed Mattifying Day Cream (Full size £9.00, here)  by The Body Shop. I got this in a little sample set with 3 other products from the seaweed line ages ago, and only recently got around to trying it. I LOVE this, it moisturised my skin without leaving it oily, and contains dimethicone so it also makes a great primer. The little pot also lasted quite a while but it's now completely exhausted. Unfortunately this has been out of stock in the five, yes FIVE stores I have been to, and is out of stock online too! Please, The Body Shop, get this back in stock!! I need it in my life!

LOOOONG overdue IMATS London haul!!

hey girls!! i'm SO sorry this has taken me so long, but i was super busy with my job and family stuff, so i took a little break from blogging. i have now quit my job (YAY!) and so i' hoping to get back to my regular blogging schedule.

anyway, i promised to do a haul from IMATS which was last month, as i bought quite a lot of stuff! before i go into this i just want to give a little disclaimer, i am in no way trying to brag or show off about how much money i have or how much stuff i have, i saved up for months proir to IMATS to enable me to make some big purchases at reduced prices, which is really a money saving way to buy.

anyway, into the haul!!

when i got home, before i played with or opened anything, i had to take lots and lots of pictures!! these are all of the bags i came back with, i was so excited!!

this is eveything i came back with all laid out. it looks like more than it actually is because i included all of the bags and literature. come on, i love that stuff!!

first of all i got quite a few new tools. crown brush was really well priced and inexpensive, so i picked up a few brushes there. i also got some disposable plastic spatulas. i think this entire bundle cost around £20, so really good value!

i picked up (from left to right) a small fan bush, a tiny little blending brush, a fine detailer brush, a badger (so soft!) flat shader brush, a HUGE natural hair shader brush, a badger crease brush, a tiny synthetic smudger brush, a square liner brush, and a badger anglpenil brush. let me just say that these brushes are LOVELY. i have had zero shedding (unlikemy 3 MAC brushes!!) and they are all super soft.

i really wanted a big flat-topped kabuki brush, and Royal and langnickel were having a big sale on their kabuki's, selling them at only £6 each.  

this brush as been a bit of an obsession of mine! it's so soft, and absoutely brilliant for buffing mineral and powder based products into the skin.

sleek had a big stall shaped like one fo their iconic eyeshadow palettes, and they also had some great discounts!

they were doing pout paints at 3 for £10, and lipsticks at 4 for £10, which was a complete bargain, considering pount paints are usually around the £6 mark and lipsticks aound £5!

the i-Divines were discounted, but only by about 50p individually. you could buy all of them for a bigger discount but i already had most of them, so i just got the PPQ palette, which i haven't seen before.

 as always, the shadows are super pigmented, and are a mixture of shimmery and matte formulas.

the lipsticks i got. they are (L-R) cherry, mystic (matte), candy cane and baby doll. baby doll is FAR too pale for me to actually wear, but it looked nice in the tube!! the colours here are really washed out, but i just couldnt get a true picture. to give you an idea, candy cane (3rd from left) is actually a super bright pink toned red, but it comes out here looking like a pastel pink. and cherry is really dark and vampy, but here looks more like candy cane does in real life. i'll put swatches up eventually, as i really like the formula of these lipsticks.

i also picked up some pout paints, so that i now have the complete collection.

i stopped off at Beatuy So Clean to get some cosmetic sanitiser, as i'm a bit of a germ freak!! the other day i told one of my friends that she coud help herself to use any of my makeup, and then i nearly freaked out when i saw her sticking an eye pencil in her eye! i was very glad for this spray that day.

i cant actually remember what stall i bought this at, i just remember they were selling beauty blenders and BEAUTIFUL foundation palettes which i was sorely tempted by, but it was the nd of the day by then and i'd already gone over my budget! this palette is lovely though, even though the surface of each shade is quite small, they go down quite deep and the coverage is great. i managed to snag this for a cheeky tenner as the show was closing, which i was so excited about!!

i actually bought these at the first stand i visited, i belive it was 3 for £5, and they are super soft because they're human hair.

i also bought some lash adhesive from there, but i havent tried it yet so i can't tell you much about that one!!

NYX had a HUGE line the whole ime i was there, so i went back just before the show closed to get what i wanted. it was slim pickings, so i just got 2 lipliners in dolly pink (front) and pinky (back) 

there was a stand called backstageshop.com which i was SO attracted to. it had the usual cosmetic stuff, but also quite a lot of theatrical and stage makeup too. i bought quite a bit from there and went back several times!!

the pack in th back of this shot was like a special effects starter set, and was a bargain at only £15! it contains: a lip colour/balm, liquid latex, arterial blood, spirit gum, and wound wax, all made by makerm and all in clear plastic cosmetic bag. i think the individual items had about a £35 value, so it was a great price for the bundle. i also picked up from this stand the ben nye mist and set (which unfortunately i had a bad experience with!) a ben nye concealer quad and a lipbalm they gave me for free because i bought so much!

i also picked up at this stall my biggest and most exciting purchase.... an airbrush system!! i decided not to go for one of the big brand systems because A) theyare very expensive compared to generic systems and B) a generic system will be easier to sell on if i decide i want to invest in a branded system, as a generic compessor has more practical uses.

the whole bundle, including 2 types of cleaner, airbrush and compressor cost only £100, compared to the £280 benchmark of the big brand names! so far i'm loving airbrush makeup and application, it just looks so flawless!

after i bought my compressor i was super excited, and went out looking for some makeup to go in it. OCC was my first port of call, and they fulfilled my needs perfectly.

i got a full sized bottle of foundation in my own colour, which is Y0, and then sample packs of all the yellow and red based shades, plus the blush, bronzer and highlight shades.

that about wraps it up for this haul, hope you enjoyed!

whats on YOUR whishlist?

Blushing, ME?

hey girls! today i'm bringing you a face of the day post, which i'm actually SO happy with.

i didn't use any blush at all, and just relied on bronzer, which i never usually use. i was always a bit scared of bronzer because i'm so pale, but my i'm loving NYC mosaic bronzer (availible here) at the moment! i apply it with a big fluffy brush in light strokes, building up the layers. the brush i use is really really soft and not very firm (its from the fraulien 38 set, availible here) and i previously didn't like it, as it laid down so little colour, but it's just perfect for bronzer!

top two pictures without flash, bottom two with flash

face: Rimmel stay matte in 01 mixed with Barry M foundation creme in white, NYC colour wheel mosaic face powder in all over bronze, Collection 2000 lasting perfection concleaer in 01, benefit powderflage (under my eyes), Rimmel clear complexion powder in transparent, Ruby and Millie cream highlight

Eyes: MAC paint pot in Rubenesque, MAC eyeshadow in Satin Taupe, Sleek ink pot Gel Liner in black, NYC High definition Seperating Mascara in Black (underneath), Max Factor False Lash Effect Fusion mascara in Black

Lips; Sleek Pout Paint in Port.

i love this lip colour so much, which is why i included the pictures with flash, as the lip colour is much truer in them, though it makes me look excesively pale. its a really deep fuscia pink, bright but dark at the same time

i love how this brinzer looks so much!! let me know what you think!

Some New Goodies!

Hey girls! I know I just posted saying that I wasn't going to post but I got a LOAD of work done in not very much time so I thought I could write a post so.....

I went shopping the other day and I went again yesterday, (though I blame my sister for that one) and I got some new stuff, so I thought I’d show you.

Both times I went to the new Westfield centre in Stratford, which I really like. The first place I went to was MAC, which is fast becoming my favourite place, where I checked out the new Glitter and Ice collection. I picked up a paint pot in Morning Frost and an eyeshadow in Satin Taupe from their regular line.

 Top: Satin Taupe, Bottom: Morning Frost

Next I went off to Superdrug where I got most of the other stuff. I got 3 MUA lipglosses in shades 1, 4, and 5. I’m really impressed with the pigmentation of shade number 4, it comes off really opaque and pretty. I actually bought 4 of these, but when I opened the red one I got (can’t remember the shade, sorry!) the lid broke and I had to throw it away, or it would have spewed lipgloss everywhere. Thankfully they were 3 for 2 so I didn’t actually pay anything for that one!

 Shades 4,5,1

Clockwise from top: 4,5,1

I also got a new foundation, powder and concealer. I have been wanting to try a highstreet foundation for a while now, as currently I’m using Bobbi Brown, which is pretty pricey! I got Rimmel Stay Matte as I’m also wanting something with a bit more coverage and shine. I haven’t tried it yet, but when swatched it feels really creamy and nice, which is a plus. I’ll post again soon and let you know how I’m getting on with it. I got their Clear Complexion powder in transparent to go with it, which I’m loving so far. I also picked up a Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer which is so worth the hype, and I picked up the Barry M Lash Modelling mascara, which is a great and cheaper alternative to Maxfactor False Lash Effect fusion, which is what I was previously using.

Lastly I went to Boots where I got a set of 3 jumbo lip balms, which I thought I could break up and give to my sisters as little extra Christmas presents.

And that’s my haul! Have YOU finished your Christmas shopping yet?