Hello everyone!

Today I thought i'd write about a beauty product that I believe is very underrated in the world of beauty and that is lip pencils.

So what's the point in using a lip pencil? why not just use a lipstick?

Well I personally find it hard to wear a nude lipstick without a lip pencil, especially when it comes to the colour of my lipstick bleeding and making the colour look faded. With a lip pencil it makes you're lip colour stand out and look slick. I think of it as like when you were a kid and it looked worse if you coloured outside of the lines so if you had an black or dark outline to colour inside of,  it made the picture stand out. Also with a lip pencil you can create an outline that makes your lips look bigger and more like Angelina Jolie than miranda sings.

I think everyone seems to be after that Kylie jenner lips look (as it's literally my most popular post!!)  at the moment and although it's come out that she has temporary fillers, the way she creates most of her looks is also with the help of a lip liner. I've heard that she either uses whirl, soar or spice I believe and I can see why because whirl and soar are so good for creating that plumped up lip effect without it looking ridiculous. I look from the photos is simply soar as a base, velvet teddy on top and whirl round the edges. Another trick with liner is to not do a cupid's bow and instead just go straight across as shown in the photo to give the illusion of plumped up larger lips. And in the bottom photo you can really see how the liner almost adds like a subtle ombre look to them, which I really like.

I think in particular Mac are really good for liners as they glide on beautifully, have great colour selections, are long lasting and have great colour pay off! I really love them and they are such a good way to either make your lips stand out or make them look lovely and plumped up.. 100% would recommend.

Thankyou for reading! 

Love Becky xx

Autumnal Make up look

 Hi Everyone!

so today I thought I would do an autumnal makeup look as it's starting to go into autumn. I know it sounds a bit silly to change your makeup based on what season it is but seeing as I change my clothes and go for a lot darker shades why not change my makeup to fit??

For this look I will be using:
Rimmel Match Perfection foundation
Laura Mercier camoflage concealer
Benefit Hoola Bronzer
Mac Espresso Eyeshadow
L'oreal Black lacquer eye liner
No7 Intense volume mascara
Naked 2 palette Half-baked, snakebite and bootycall
Mac's retro matte lipstick
Hourglass dim light powder

Firstly I applied the Rimmel match perfection foundation in the shade 010 light porcelain as i have sadly very much lost the tan I once had :(. I applied this with my fingers as I didn't need a lot of coverage compared to most days and because the weather is relatively still warm I don't like having too much foundation on my skin as I feel like if I put on too much it would just melt off and turn very patchy :/. Usually I would use the real techniques buffing brush to buff in my foundation and build up coverage but I think using your fingers when you need just that bit of coverage can work just as well!

I then when on to add a touch of concealer with a small flat brush to cover any spots or dark circles.

Next I applied my hoola bronzer from benefit, which is a really subtle bronzer that works for a lot of skin tones. Also because it's s matte and subtle I can get away with using it as a great contour even when I have really pale skin. I find that a lot of bronzers are the opposite and because they're so dark or orangey it looks a bit ridiculous next to my naturally fair skin. So I just use this in the natural contours of my cheeks to add more definition to my face. I then applied dim light by hourglass on my cheek bones to give a beautiful glow and add a bit more colour to my face, because even though I like having pale skin I think in autumn my skin still needs livening up with just a bit of colour to make me look a bit more healthy and glowy even when the sun's not out.

Next I did my eyebrows with Mac's Espresso, which is a lovely matte brown that is great for slightly darker eyebrows like mine, but not so dark that you look like you have cartoon eyebrows. I took one of the small angled brushes in the Nic's picks real techniques collection and brushed the shadow through to make my eyebrows stand out a bit more... Unfortunately, we can't all be as blessed as Cara Delevinge in the full eyebrows department.

Next is my favourite part, eyes! I used the naked 2 palette by urban decay to do my eye shadow. Its a really simple eyeshadow look to do I think that just requires a bit of blending. First I take half-baked all over the lid which is a very golden colour that reminded me of autumn and the fallen leaves you get in autumn, then I took snake bite across the crease and outer-corners and lastly I took bootycall in the inner-corners of my eyes to open them up a bit and give the illusion of them being further apart. I applied all the areas with a small flat brush and went over with a small real techniques blending brush and my finger. You'd be surprised how useful you fingers can actually be to help blend your eyeshadow sometimes! 

I then attempted a winged eyeliner and tried to get both sides even. Although you can use any technique to do this I usually go from between the middle of my eye and the inner-corner and drag a very close to the lash line, line toward the corner getting thicker as I go along. I then do a diagonal (ish) line towards the bottom of my eyebrow and just pray that they're both even! 
I then put on my mascara with No7's intense volume, which is ironically good for a more natural lash look.

Finally I put on Mac's Retro Matte lipstick on to finish the look, which is a beautiful red/berry colour. I love using darker lip colours like berry and red in autumn and I think the berry colours go so well with the Half-baked golden eyeshadow.

Thankyou all for reading!! 

Love Becky xx

The Best Bronzers in the Business!

Seing as the weather in England is starting to get better and the holidays are coming up I thought it was about time I did a post about getting that lovely bronzed look and my favourite bronzer products I use to achieve it. Unfortunately the bronzers I' going to mention are pretty much all high end so on the slightly pricier side but I think they're all worth it and truly the best I've tried but I will do an alternative budget bronzers post as there still are some great low end alternatives if your not wanting spending a lot on bronzer.

The first I have written about before and it is the the famous Hoola bronzer from benefit. This is a matte bronzer so predominantly good for contouring. I think this really works especially for pale skin because even the most heavy handed of people (me :/ ) it's difficult to go too over the top unless you literally cake it on. It's a really nice warm colour that's not orangey nor shimmery so you can create contours in your face whilst warming up your complexion so what more could you want in a bronzer! It's currently £23.50 at the benefit counter, which is not too extortionate but also not cheap, however it's something that for me is worth saving up for!

The second is another pretty famous bronzer that I definitely approve of and think it has every right to it's fame is Nars' laguna bronzer! Only a recent buy of mine because I thought I'd love it and then end up buying it for the rest of my life..and it's not cheap (£29). Alas this is what has happened, I finally caved and loved it! I could tell that it was very loved bronzer even by the Nars' stand, as it was by far the most used tester of the whole Space Nk shop. I think the reason its' so loved is because it's very universal and can be used by many different skin tones either as a contour because of it matte texture or as a bronzer to warm the skin because it blends seamlessly with my pale skin and I'm sure it would with darker skin tones as I've seen it work on my friends, some of which have skin tones are that are a fair bit darker than mine. Obviously it's not going to work for everyone but for my personally this bronzer gets a massive thumbs up just purely because of the non orangey colour, matte texture and ability to blend really well with my skin...side note, this also makes a great eye shadow :) 

lastly this next one is definitely a bronzer and not a contour. It's Bobbi Brown's shimmer brink in Bronze (so I'm allowed to count it as a bronzer) for currently £29.25. This product is so good for many reasons, you can use the bronzing end with a small brush to bronze your face and make it look glowy and tanned or use the lighter highlighting end to add light and definition to your face. Another thing about this bronzer is that it can also be used as separate eye shadow colours! and they work as really good shimmery shades.. But my favourite thing about this product is that is all in one and with a big fluffy brush I can blend the shades together and create a tanned/glowing complexion with a few strokes of the brush.

Thankyou for reading about my favourite Bronzer's! I've left the swatches on my hand below (L-R Bobbi Brown shimmer brick, Nars' Laguna, Benefit's Hoola) If anyone has any suggestions of any good bronzers I haven't mentioned feel free to leave a comment.

Love Becky xx

My Highlighting Homies

 So to kill the elephant in the room I've been away from blogging for just over a month...

I won't make an excuse or say I've fallen out of love with it..or had a break, I've just purely been busy.

But...

I'm now back and plan to post more often...we'll see how this works out.

So to start back I thought I'd ease myself in by talking about one of my favourite makeup products..Highlighters!!

I love highlighters because when you get it right it can make such a difference to your skin, make it glow or look more airbrushed than just foundation alone. But get it wrong and you can end up a shimmery hot ass mess that's similar to when I used to use glitter under my eyes at the school disco's. anyone else do that??

So I thought I would share my highlighting wonders of the highstreet.

First is possibly, in fact definitely not a cheap or reasonably priced product..but it is truly beautiful! It's the hourglass ambient lighting palette. This is a palette of three highlighters according to the website a 'trio of Hourglass' best-selling Ambient Lighting Powder collection containing two existing shades (Dim Light and Radiant Light) and one new limited edition shade (Incandescent Light)'. My thoughts are that in all honesty it is slightly too expensive for what you get, because at £56 I would expect this to be a miracle worker. However, considering the single ambient powders are £28, I think it's pretty reasonable. All the highlighters in this palette are so so good and make you glow rather than shimmer or shine, they also have they're individual uses. for example the dim light has more golden brown pigments which makes for a really nice bronzer that can really hollow out your cheek bones and in my opinion makes them stand out really well. Whereas, the other two are more for the tops of my cheeks or to use all over. I think if I wasn't so concerned with running out I would definitely use this everyday because of the beautiful glow it can add to your face. This is easily one of my favourites to use for special occasions as it can last all night and looks so nice!

Next is a new purchase of mine that is Dior's backstage light boosting primer 30ml. This is a liquid highlighting primer that you could use under your foundation, mix in with your foundation or use on top by patting into the area's on your face you want to highlight (how I use it). I was recommended this by the lady at the counter as a glowy alternative to the sadly discontinued amber diamond powder that dior did before. I'm so glad I gave this a go because it adds such a noticeable glow that lasts all day and is slightly shimmery, which is nice because it's still subtle. This lasts a long time and has multiple uses and ways to use it so overall this is a really good highlighting product that is worth the £29 price tag I think.

Next is a highlighter by bourjois. This is their very famous drugstore/highstreet/boots/superdrug (basically a lower end highlighter) but even though its at a lower price this does not mean it's any less good or of less quality. It comes in a really cute packaging that reminds me of a fairytale story book, and the actual product smells ind of like chocolate or vanilla, which I personally really like! even though I think some people who don't like fragranced makeup really wouldn't like :/. 

However, regardless of the smell etc I still think the actual product is so so nice for the price. As a pale skinned girl i have to be careful that any highlighter blends in with my skin and isn't a pigmented blush/highlighter or bronzer/highlighter that's going to make my skin look orangey or too pinky. So when I bought this I was aware of the bronzer side of this highlighter and did test that the bronzer wans't too orangey, because I thought it would be hard to use this compact without using the bronzer side as well. Luckily for me the combination of the two blends in seamlessly with my cheeks and it is actually quite easy with a small contour brush to just use the two separately.

Lastly is a liquid primer by L'Oreal paris lumi magique that I believe I have mentioned before. It's basically the cheaper version or the Dior light boosting primer or benefit high beam. I personally love and have used this highlighter a lot! again its a primer so can be used in many ways that I just see as liquid glow that you can add to your foundation or your tinted moisturiser or just use on it's own. The only slight issue I have with this product is that it doesn't last as long as the other more expensive brands but if you are looking for an alternative at £9.99 it's a pretty good option, especially when L'oreal have their 3 for 2 on makeup deals.

Thankyou for reading! I'd love to know if anyone has any favourite highlighters that they would suggest using?

Love Becky xx

My Fragrance Favourites

Recently I have invested in a lot more perfumes than I used to. I used to be firmly attached to heat by Beyonce and occasionally variated with heat rush or midnight heat. So by variated I mean I didn't variate much at all, I just stuck to Beyonce's fragrances. However, from working on the fragrance counter in superdrug I've become way more invested in fragrance than I thought I would be. So I thought I'd share some of my recent favorites..

The first is Ghost Eclipse. This one is definitely not a typical fragrance choice of mine as it's quite fruity and lemony, whereas I tend to go for a fragrance with more of a musky tone to it. However, it is still lovely. It comes in a really nice orangey red half-moon shaped bottle and I believe you can get it in 100ml, 50ml or 30ml. As I said earlier it's quite a fruity smelling fragrance with notes or lemon, mandarin, peach and sensual rose. I would say this is an evening summer fragrance as it's too heavy for the day  but is still fruity, which I think is good for summer. Of course you don't have to listen to me though and you can wear it whenever the hell you want, it just reminds me of an summery evening. In terms of the price I believe it's around £24 for 50ml, which is pretty reasonably priced for a fragrance.

The Next is from lush called Vanillary. Now this one is definitely my typical fragrance being that its' just pure vanilla, which I love! My favourite thing about this fragrance is it's lasting power. If I put this on in the morning I can smell it on myself all day. This I love about a fragrance because I hate when they wear off or you cant smell them on yourself after 5 mins because then what's the point. yes other people can smell it but I can't! and if it's a nice smell I'd like to be able to smell it on myself. This one is just such a nice vanillary scent, that just stays on all day and that's why I love it. it's quite expensive for what it is, 30ml for £28 but it's something I would definitely ask for as a nice gift rather than one i'd but for myself given it's price tag.

Next is Taylor Swift's new fragrance, called incredible things. Basically it's a really nice, sweet fragrance. It's top notes are Pink Pepper, Sparkling Grapefruit, Wild Passion Flower  and it's mid notes are Vanilla Orchid, Suede Flower and White Amber Drydown. Other notes include Creamy Musk, Madagascar Vanilla, Haitian Vetiver. I think the reason I was so drawn to this fragrance and loved it so much is firstly the bottle, which is kind of a terrible reason to buy a perfume but I just thought it was such a cute bottle and hoped that the scent lived up to it's packaging. Thankfully, I actually really liked the scent too! I think the reason is because I love musky fragrances that are slightly sweet, which is exactly what this is! It also contains notes of vanilla, which as I said earlier is one of my favourite scents. I think this fragrance would probably suit spring day times or just to use as an every day fragrance whether you're a fan or Taylor Swift or not.

Finally is my favourite fragrance potentially of all time! It's Jean Paul Gaultier's classique. After trying this behind the makeup counter multiple times and spraying any tester of it that was on display. It was finally given to me as a present. Although, This one is the most expensive (around £50 for 50ml), which is why I was so against buying it for myself. Luckily I have a very lovely boyfriend who kindly bought it for me :). Its top notes are Rose and Rum, It's heart is vanilla orchid and It's base is sandalwood and tonka bean. Onec again a fragrance that has vanilla notes or has vanilla orchid as it's heart is most likely going to be a winner for me so it's no suprise I like this. Tonka bean is also quite a common complimentary note to vanilla so I really like that that's involved too! I also have found that I tend to go for fragrances with sandalwood as well (such as Beyonce's Heat) so again it's really no suprise to me I'm a big fan of this perfume. It comes in a sophisticated and feminine bottle that I personally really like and makes it quite unique. I think this fragrance is great for evenings or if you're going on a date but me personally I love it so much I just wear it all the time. 

Thankyou for reading! I'd love to know what your top fragrances are and whether you have tried or have an opinion on my current favourites? 

Love Becky xxx

The Best Selling Mascara: Lancome Hypnose Drama

 Last week I had that dreaded moment where my beloved loreal telescopic mascara ran out!!that's right I had desperately scraped out the last bits of mascara from the tube and released it was about time I bought a new mascara!

I tend to not stick to the same mascara for very long and take buying a new one as a chance to scope out a new mascara and hopefully find my holy grail! Therefore, went to my local House of Fraser counter and as per-usual I was approached by one of the sales people. Now usually I just say I'm fine because I normally know what I'm looking for. However, this time I literally had no idea, I've not really delved much into high end mascara's other than the famous Benefit they're real and one by MAC called Zoom Fast black lash. So I really didnt know where to look or what I was doing! Eventually after many attempts and trials I chose Hypnose Drama by Lancome in intense black.

When it comes to lashes I like them as intense and dramatic as they can get! and for that reason I can really see why this is a top selling mascara. As much as the packaging is just a slick black colour and not especially exciting, the actual mascara has really blown me away and really does curl the lashes whilst keeping them soft so they wont get crispy or spidery when building up layers of volume. I chose the intense black colour, which is good for me because the original wasn't particularly dark and I like my lashes to be as dark, long and voluminous as possible!

There's nothing especially great or unique about the wand but the formula is what really makes this mascara work and the brush just helps to grab all the lashes and is pretty easy to use. The mascara is not too wet and not too dry and really adds A LOT of volume and length. I just hope it lasts and stays that way for a while! 

I would definitely say for £22.50 this mascara is worth it, as much as a love lower priced mascara's and am not a makeup up snob I truly think that other than the they're real mascara by Benefit this is the best macscara I have tried so far! which is kind of annoying as now I have to fork out a fair bit of money when I need a new one but I do think it's worth it ;).

I would love to know what your favourite mascara's are and whether you have any recommendations? Thank you for reading! 

Love Becky xxx  

Nars' 'and god created the woman palette'

 Hello Lovelies! 

Today I thought would share with you my thoughts on my favourite palette at the moment! I have been wanting this palette for so long after seeing it in space nk before Christmas. This colours in it are so incredibly beautiful and compliment any eye colour, the colour selection is very well chosen and there are colours to take you from day to night.

The quality of eye shadows in a Nars palette is really high because the shadows are so easily blendable and don't crease for a long time. They are well pigmented and look so iridescent and nice on the lids. Therefore, when buying a nars palette or eye shadow especially considering their price tag, quality is not something you have to worry about.

The shades in the palette are a mix of dark and light colours with a nice slightly shimmery gold, black. My favourite shades are strangely the shimmer shades ( I usually go for mattes), they are called Kalarahi in the top middle and Galapagos is bottom middle. 

Kalahari is a lovely shimmery taupe that is almost like mac's satin taupe but with more warm, browny gold tones to it. This I love to wear either on it's own or all over the lid with the darker shades in my crease.

Galapagos is the perfect shimmery dark brown without being too dark and difficult to work with. I love wearing this in my crease or to blend half way across the lid and created a nice graduated ombre effect.

The other shades are Alhambra (bottom left) a shimmery cream that is good to highlight or used all across the lid for a natural look, Bellisima (Top left) this is a nice matte grey which in all honesty I don't use a lot but I've been told it works well with hazel eyes so I think i'll give it a try :), Coconut grove (bottom right) is a lovely brown that is so nice in the crease and so nice to have in the palette to change a day time look to night, and finally night clubbing (top right) is the golden black colour in the palette, so pretty and if you like dark makeup around your eyes you'll love this colour and it's unique golden flecks within the shadow. 

I hope this has been a helpful review for anyone who was looking into buying this palette or that this post has alerted you to a new amazing palette. it's such a small neat compact product that actually is worth it's price tag!

 So have you tried the 'and god created the woman palette', what are some of your favourite palette's? Thankyou for reading! 

Love Becky xxx