On Spring Make-Up & High Street Products

I am no beauty blogger but I am a lifestyle blogger who adores make up so I thought I'd pop up a few more beauty posts in the coming weeks to add a little variety. I often get comments on my make up (mostly favourable) and get asked about the products I use so I hope this answers a few questions. I have quite the ever-growing collection of cosmetics and I tend to switch them up every few days depending on the look I'm going for from high street to high end (but mostly high street - girl's on a budget). My staple look is winged liner with lipstick of some kind as I'm not a big gloss fan and only really whip out the dark smokey eyes and lashes for the rare evening out. This is what I used to achieve it.

I start with a primer and right now I'm loving the Nivea Express Hydration primer and let it sink in for a few moments. I picked up Rimmel's Wake Me Up foundation in Ivory a few days ago on a whim as I haven't used it in over a year (a bit too sparkly for my usual taste) and found it to be very yellow and too dark on my skin much moreso than before so I use it with a really light hand on a Real Techniques buffing brush and add 17's Stay Time concealer in light where I need it and to tone down the yellow a little more. On my eyebrows (products not pictured because I fail at beauty blogging) is a little of Mac's Charcoal Brown eyeshadow on an angled brush with Maybelline Brow Drama in Dark Brown as a setting gel. As you can see I've used a little too much as it leaves a slightly white coating (odd) but mostly it does the job and isn't too noticeable in real life. On the eyes it's the first shade of MUA's Matte palette on the inner corners and brow bone, the third colour on the inner half, the fifth on the outer half and the sixth in the crease and on the very outer corners with a tiny bit of the matte black on the same angled brush as a smudgy top lid liner. The lashes aren't curled but do have two coats of Benefit They're Real which is a great lengthening mascara but does nothing for volume. The cheeks are Topshop's cream blush in Head Over Heels with their Glow highlighter in Polish on the cheekbones. For the lips I've worked Topshop's lipstick in Innocent on first and patted on a little of Rimmel Kate Moss (matte) in 107 for a lighter berry tone that I don't actually own in a lipstick on its own.

All in all it takes me about ten minutes to pop on as it doesn't need much precision and leaves me looking healthy and done up without spending time getting everything on my face just so. It's one of those looks that I can change the lipstick of to a dark red or purple without having to worry about re-doing the rest of the face either which is great if you're in a bit of a rush and don't have time to re-do an entire face of make-up before heading out in a new outfit. I find the 17 concealer quite good but powdering it can look a little cakey on my face and it's nowhere near as dear to me as Collection's Lasting Perfection which I'm currently all out of. I swear, I go through the stuff like gin. That's it, really!

Like I said, I'm no beauty blogger but I'm happy to try new things even if these shots were a stroke of luck and the first two on my face after three days of playing around to no avail. I'd like to say I learned how to use the camera's manual settings to make the colours look as they do in real life but honestly, I'm not sure I did. I'd been playing around and it was a total fluke. I'm kind of scared to change them now in case I can't get them back the same!