February beauty favourites!

Hello! As you can see by the title today's post is going to be my February beauty favourites! Yay! So this is my first ever monthly favourites post and so there are quite a few products that I have been loving throughout the month of February! So let's get started..

Aw here are all of favourites in the shape of a heart..with my brushes just placed ever so stupidly in the middle there..oops!

 Ecotools!

So for Christmas one of my dear friends bought me this set of ecotools brushes and I love them! I use them everyday, along with my real techniques brushes and they are just as soft and are very high quality! In this particular set which is the 'fresh and flawless' set you get a total of 5 amazing brushes! As you can see they come beautifully packaged and are nice and small but I have a tiny head so it's perfect! If you need some brushes to get started with makeup I recommend getting a set like this because there is everything a beginner would need in this kit! It's fabulous!

Orange lips! It is no secret that I like orange and that I am excited for spring so put two and two together and you get this! The Loreal Glam Shine balmy gloss in the shade 910! It is a chubby stick basically and my mum describes it as a wax crayon (best description in the world there mum) I must say I do love the colour of it and it is not extremely pigmented (it is supposed to be that way..I think) so I can even get away with some orange lips for school (perfect!) However, it is quite drying and since it is described as a "balmy gloss" I was not expecting this but hey ho I can work around it! I want to try the Bourjois ones so I will also let you know in the future how I get on with those.

Good old liquid eyeliner! I must admit this past week I have not been wearing it much because I am really into the fresh faced spring look (getting a bit ahead of myself I know but I'm excited ok! haha) so I haven't used it all too much but I do love it to death and it definately deserves a place in my favourites! The liquid eyeliner I use is the Loreal Super liner in perfect slim (It has the pointiest, slim tip ever! It's incredible and so precise), I know that there is also a chunkier version of this which allows you to draw thicker lines I guess, who knows? I have never tried that one but I gave the perfect slim one a whirl aqnd I adore it! This was the first ever 'pen' liquid eyeliner I have ever used so going from using that weird brush/nib thing you usually get with liquid eyeliners to this was a little tricky at first I am not going to lie (and I have been using liquid eyeliner for years, I consider it one of my talents! haha) but I promise that you will get the hang of this and if you have never used liquid eyeliner before, I reccommend purchasing this because it is a fine nib making for a precise and easy (well...as easy as you can get with liquid eyeliner) application! Plus it is much easier than gel or traditional liquid eyeliner so give it a try! Go on I dare you! tehee

Excuse the state of my mascara firstly, it is very well loved! I use the infamous, the incredible Maybelline the falsies in black drama! Oh my goodness, if you can find me a better mascara cheaper/same price as this then I will give you a medal (don't take me up on that! haha) because this mascara is phenominal! This mascara was first brought to my attention by the beautiful Tanya Burr who used to basically worship this mascara ever time she used it and so whilst I was in London I thought why not try it? That was the best thought ever because this mascara is the perfect consistency (some people say it is too wet but I didn't find that) and it adds little fibres onto the end of your lashes, making them appear longer and fuller! Go try it, I promise you won't regret it!

Oh brows! What would we do without them? (probably look very odd!) I never used to fill in my brows because I always found that they looked to harsh (no before you ask, I did not use black or anything or a pen, pencil or crayon!) because my eyebrows are quite full-ish and kind of dark but I think however many you tube videos you watch, however many blog posts you read, the only person that knows how to do your brows is you! I don't think doing your brows is something you can master in a week, it takes time! Bt I have three main tips:

 - Don't overpluck!!! Believe me I speak from experience, do not overpluck! Please! It os very easy to do but the thinner and more arched your brows are, the older you will look! If you are sitting there right now plucking away, put the tweezers down! Pretty please?! Maybe when I feel brave enough I will put some pictures up of what my brows looked like when I overplucked them and what they look like now but that is for another time!

 -Less is more! Even if your eyebrows are black, don't use black! Go 1 or 2 shades lighter if you have brown eyebrows and 1 or 2 shades darker if you have blonde eyebrows! Try to use powder also as it looks a lot more natural as you can mimic the hairs if that makes sense whereas with a pencil, natural looking brows are very hard to achieve! Be light handed and don't rush it!

 -They will never be exactly the same! The sooner you use this the better because you could spend forever sitting there trying to get them to be identical but trust me when I tell you, it will never happen. (unless you measure it out but who does that?!)

Anyway, MUA's pro-brow kit is a great way to get started as it is affordable and comes with a pair of adorable mini tweezers (not for overplucking!), a mini double ended angled brush, 3 different shades of long lasting brow powder and a gel to set them in place! I love this kit because you can mix the shades if you wish to find the perfect match and it also has a little mirror which is great for on the go (just if you tend to do your eyebrows in the car or something..haha) and the powder is really easy to work with and isn't too warm in tone which I like! The gel also comes in very handy for keeping those brows firmly in place!

Back to MUA again! Eyeshadow is something I use on a daily basis, nothing fancy usually just a flesh toned shadow on the lid and a matte light brown usually goes in the crease of my eyelid to add some defintion. Which is why I love this palette so much! It has the shadows that I need to create a simple, yet effective look but it also has the potential to have a gold smokey eye, a bronze look, a dark black smokey eye or a pink champagne look! All of which look very pretty and are easy to achieve! You are pretty much set if you get this, especially if you are looking for a cheap, useful eyeshadow palette to get you started, this is the one! As I have mentioned before I think in a review of this palette which you can go take a look at here, I recommended it to my friend who wanted to get into wearing eyeshadow more often and so far she hasn't complained about it so all is good! 

I have worn this every day since I brought it this month! It is the MUA blush in the shade 'lush' and it is a bright pink that looks quite scary in the pan and seems a bit adventurous but it is the perfect pop of colour for spring, it gives you a fresh, pinched glow and since it is a creme blusher it looks very natural! It brings so much colour into my skin and makes it look alive and fresh and healthy which I am in love with!

So there you have it! My February favourites for 2014 and I have loved alot of products this month and I look forward to reading and watching everyone elses posts so I can go out and try even more products in March (It is also my brithday in March so I am particularly excited!) In fact, if any of you enjoyed this post and it introduced you to some amazing products you have on your shopping list then do let me know in the comments or tweet me (links are at the top of my page or in my contacts page) and feel free to link your February favourites post below or you can tell me your favourite product of February 2014! I hope you enjoyed this post and I will see y'all soon! Goodbye!

Charlotte x

Spring essentials haul!

Hello! I am very excited to be writing this because myself, along with a couple of my friends, decided to create a blog! So how better to start this blog than with a haul! And a collective one at that! I have not been shopping since before Christmas and even then all I was doing was buying presents for others, so  this shopping trip was a real treat! I had a whole list of things in my head of what I wanted to purchase and as per usual the majority of it was makeup, thank heavens for Superdrug! So I am going to share with you all of the lovely things I have purchased for the upcoming spring and summer! Who else can't wait for spring?!

 So as you can see I made a little trip to new look in search for a flower crown as I have wanted one for a while and new look had quite a variety of styles and colours but after trying them all I went for this gorgeous pink one that is very girly and pretty and it reminds me of the blossom in spring!

What shopping trip is complete without a snoop around Primark? I restrained myself from buying clothes, that is for another time, however I did find myself in the sunglasses section as I did need some new ones. I spotted this quirky pair and tried them on as I have been searching for the right pair of retro style round sunglasses for ages now! Apparently they suited me so they are my sunglasses for this summer! (so exciting!) And then I just needed some more trusty Primark bobbles because they are extremely durable and just £1.00!

Superdrug! Once again, this another shop that I just can't resist especially since what I wanted was mostly makeup. As you can see I am loving the bright spring colours at the moment! I really am getting a bit ahead of myself with the seasons here! It's still freezing and I am walking around with light blue nails and orange/coral lips! Oh well I'm setting the trends already, that's my excuse! haha                        

I haven't purchased nail polish in quite a while, probably because I have so much of it! These two colours, I just fell in love with instantly, the one on the left is 'bold blue' by MUA and the one on the right is 'satsuma' by Barry M which I am very excited to try as I have not tried the 'Gelly Hi shine nail paints' yet! I know I am a bit late on the bandwagon but still, better late than never! Barry M are just amazing when it comes to pigmentation, you can be sure that you will get the best!

Lips! I have way more makeup than I need (so I'm told) but lately I have been feeling like I have no lip products that I can use for the transition from winter to spring! I have so many lip products it is a little ridiculous but I had no coral or peachy shades so off to superdrug I went to get me so lipsticks!

Now, I have never owned a beauty UK lipstick before but I went around superdrug trying to find an orange lipstick but it seems that every theif in the world has decided to take all of the orange lipstick testers, even Barry M who had two orange lipsticks! Both the testers weren't there! So in the end I found this one which seemed to be reasonably pigmented and so I grabbed it.

Firstly, please excuse what looks like a rash on my hand, I can assure you that it is not a rash. I just took these pictures after shopping and I had been swatching like crazy, then I tried to rub it off and it just made it worse..hopeless, just hopeless. Anyway, It looks a bit more red/orange on this picture but I can assure you that it is orange! And I love it! I think it suits me more than red does, I am not to sure why but this will be my staple for spring!

As you can see above this lipstick is called 'naughty' (trust me to pick this one!)

Yay! I have wanted one of these for ages! I swatched every orange chubby stick that each brand had, I think Maybelline are the only ones without these at the moment. I compared this one by Loreal and the Boujuor one and Loreal was more pigmented and so I chose this one! Can you tell my favourite colour is orange?

As you can see it is a lot more subtle than the lipstick and it has quite a glossy finish to it. I think this will be more suitable in the summer as it is a lot more natural than the lipstick, if you are in school then these would be perfect as you still get a hint of colour and glossiness without looking too made up!

Obviously Loreal don't seem to believe in names so this shade is called 910 :) They come in a variety of different shades!

The ever so trusty MUA! I have never tried their blushers but I wanted some brighter ones that I could just use the tiniest bit of to get a pinched glow. I picked up one powder and one creme blusher and here they look quite similar but they really aren't! The powder one is very pigmented and bright and the creme one is more subtle but it looks so gorgeous on the skin!

This is the creme blusher and it is called 'Lush'

This is the powder blusher (above) and this one is called 'Marshmellow'

It is a crime if you have never tried this! Collection's lasting perfection ultimate wear concealer (yes it is a very long name!) is the dream concealer! It is so pigmented as you can see below and it blends beautifully! I have been blessed with dark under-eyes and so this stuff is a life saver as it gets rid of them right away! All I would say is make sure to moisturise your face before using this as it is a bit drying and it is so much easier to work with when your skin is moisturised!

I have to have it in shade 1 as I live in Britan and so I am quite pale! If you want it for your under-eyes then I recommend going a shade lighter because this will brighten your skin as well as covering it!

I honestly wish that you could smell this! In fact if you ever happen to come across it, just smell it because it is just delicious! I have tried it and it does work very well! But I must admit I did purchase it purely for the smell as it is just gorgeous! As you can see it is caramel cream flavour/scent and it is heavenly!

As you can see there is a nice big dip in it from where I've already used it but I love it so much!

That is all for my shopping haul! I hope this helped you on whether you want to purchase any of these products or if you were just bored and wanted a read, I hope you enjoyed it either way! :) Please feel free to leave comments if you want to know prices or anything else! Have a lovely day and I will see you next time!

Charlotte x

MUA fashionista review

So one of my favourite drugstore makeup brands is MUA (Make Up Academy) as they are so inexpensive but have amazing pigmentation and and amazing overall quality in most of their products. Recentley they have started selling fashionista products and called it the fashionista range. This range includes foundation, concealer, primer, lipsticks, ect. But the most exciting products are their customisable palettes and their quite broad variety of blushes, bronzers and eyeshadows and this is what I will be mainly reviewing for you today.

I really like the concept that is building your own palette of blusher, bronzer or eyeshadow or even mix them into a palette to create different palettes for different looks. I find this is great for people who want a M·A·C blush or eyeshadow palette but cannot afford it as M·A·C is more pricey than MUA with blush refills at £15.00 and eyeshadow refills at £10.00, but then you still have to buy the £14.00 palettes to put them in. Whereas with MUA fashionista, both blushers and eyeshadows are £4.00 each and the palettes are just £5.00! Also, both the eyeshadows and the blush refills from MUA are the same size so you don't have to buy more than one palette if not necessary. So now I am going to show you the products that I own from the fashionista range and what my thoughts are on them.

EYESHADOW: Trend-setter

This is an eyeshadow that caught my eye straight away as it looks very interesting and quite pretty in my opinion. And when I swatched it I completely fell in love with it! Before I have done a galaxy themed eyeshadow look and got quite a few compliments on it and was quite proud of it, however it took some time as I had to use lots of different eyeshadows and glitter to achieve it, however with this eyeshadow I could do that look with just this colour! It is a purple/blue colour with gold shimmer running through it and it also has some silver shimmer too, it is just a gorgeous colour in my opinion. However, if you are not a fan of colourful or more creative makeup looks then this colour may not be for you, but if you want to start getting into these more interesting looks without having to follow the complex tutorials and take longer to get ready then this eyeshadow may be good for you as it could be a whole look with this eyeshadow. However it is not an everyday shade and even I have not had the chance to wear this eyeshadow yet, but I still love it!

EYESHADOW: Icey

Now out of all of the three fashionista eyeshadows I purchased, this is the one that I have got the most use out of. In the pan it looks light a really light blue with silver undertones but on the eye it looks a bit like a duo-chrome as it looks light blue but you can see silver in there too and this is an eyeshadow that you can wear on its own all over the lid and blended a bit up through the crease and also in your inner corner/tearduct area and even under the eye and it gives such a fresh look and is a good way to add colour without being bold so if you want to get into using more unusual colours without using those neon bright colours that can be hard for some people to pull off, then this eyeshadow is for you! Out of all the fashionista eyeshadows I currently own, this would be the one that I would recommend as I think it is very easy to pull off and not a colour that I have seen or used before.

EYESHADOW: Lilac dream

This is lilac dream and it has not been done justice in this picture because it is a gorgeous light purple that has some silver shimmer running through it. The reason it is out of it's packaging in this picture is because I wanted to show you how you can remove the eyeshadow from it's sturdy packaging so that you can put it into your palette! It is so easy to do, all you have to do is push the bottom of the eyeshadow from beneath the packaging and the bottom bit you push on should look like the picture below. The eyeshadow should then just pop out, some are harder to remove than others! But just to ensure that you don't break your product, I recommend that you do this with the eyeshadow facing down and into the palm of your hand so that your eyeshadow does not break. Anyway, the reason I purchased Lilac dream over the other eyeshadows available was because I have green eyes and purple eyeshadow suits green eyes, however because I have quite fair skin, brighter and slightly darker purples make me look like I have a bruised or black eye! So I needed a pretty light purple to use and I felt that I would give Lilac dream a go. I actually haven't even tried this eyeshadow on my eyes yet as I haven't had much time to experiment with certain looks as I have been quite busy and limited with my time so I often just wear a neutral eye look on a daily basis as it is quick and simple, however I have swatched this colour and it is stunning! So I will have to incorperate this colour into a look very soon!

Here is the back of then pan of the eyeshadow Lilac dream. I wanted to show you this because I love how even when you have the products in their packaging or in the palette, you can see the colour and the shade which you can't do with other high end palettes like urban decay or M·A·C. This is handy especially if you do tutorials on you tube or are a makeup artist as you can just look at the back of the palette rather than having lift up the eyeshadow to see the colour.

The palettes!!

Here are the two palettes that I currently own, the PPQ limited edition lipstick pallete and the black customisable palette. The limited edition palette is £10.00 and the customisable palette is just £5.00! The customisable palette currently comes in two colours which are red and black.

So this is what the palettes look like when opened. The first thing that you notice is the huge mirror that covers pretty much all of the lid which comes in very handy if you travel alot and it saves you from carrying an extra mirror with you everywhere. As I have said it is an alternative to higher end palettes if that is not in your price range however bear in mind that higher end palettes are going to be higher quality but Fashionista products still have amazing pigmentation and are very creamy and are of good quality. The palettes are very easy to use once you get used to them as I found it difficult to remove the pan after placed into the palette but if you do it how I explained earlier it should work just fine. Also a good tip is when you put the pan into the palette, make sure that the colour on the back is faced the right way up, otherwise you may find it harder to read the colours of the back of the palette.

This is my black customisable palette and I decided to make a blush/bronzer palette because the eyshadows I purchased are mainly for single eyeshadow looks whereas these colours I like to use together. In this palette, starting from the top left, I have blush-juicy apricot, bronzer-barcelona, blush-New york, bronzer-Tokyo. I absolutely love all of these colours. I use Tokyo bronzer for contouring and it is so pigmented! When I first used it I made the mistake of heavily swirling my brush around in it and then applied it straight to my face and I looked like I had a dirt mark on my face and then I realised I only need a few taps of this bronzer an a little goes a long way. I will then use barcelona as a bronzer for all over the face and then take new york blush onto my cheekbones if I want a peachy pink sheer blush or juicy apricot if I want a more coral blush. I love using all of these colours and both of these blushes are just gorgeous and I am so happy with them! I also foung that juicy apricot is a good dupe for Coralista blush by Benefit!

This is the PPQ limited edition lipstick palette. This is £10.00 and when I first purchased this palette I thought that it would be empty but I only opened it to discover that it was already filled with 4 beautiful shades: red red, hot pink, nude and Cocoa. I was so excited to use these colours, not only on their own but to lighten or even slightly darken other lipsticks I own. However I tend to use them more as lip tints as they are not very pigmented and when I try to pick up the product with my finger or even with my lip brush, it dosen't pick up the product very well and even when you make a dent in the product with the brush to pick up alot of the product it still dosen't have amazing pigment on the lips. When I did manage to get a bit of the colour nude on the lips it left a line along the inside of the lips, kind of like concealer lips so I unless I am using this incorrectly, I am not a huge fan of this lip palette. However I am going to try and make use of it and use them as creme blushes. If all else fails then I will just remove the lip products and buy new eyeshadows or blushes to go in the palette instead.

This is what the back of the blush juicy apricot looks like in the customisable palette and so as you can see you can still see the colour and shade when it's still in the palette which is very useful for those of us who are obsessed with makeup.

Here you can see that it is possible to remove the pan of product from the palette and it is just as easy to put them back in again so it is very easy to use these palettes.

This is the skin brightening face highlighter by fashionista. This is a product that I often use on days when I don't feel like wearing foundation but still want a little bit of coverage and just want to brighten up my complexion if it's looking a bit dull and this product is perfect for that! I didn't realise that it came in different colours as at first I thought that it was a liquid highlighter so I assumed that they were all the same colour. So the colour that I ended up with was called star shine and it is quite bronzed and a tan colour which is not my skin tone. However I can make it work as if I blend it well it will blend into the skin and does not look so dark on my skin and just gives it a glow, but since it is summer I have been blending it a little less as it gives my face a glow with a slight tan which actually matches my body to my face as at the moment my face is more pale than my body so this colour is actually working quite well for me. I also use this to put underneath my foundation as it gives a glow to my face as well as a base for my foundation. So I do recommend this product if you want a product that gives minimal coverage but adds a glow to your skin and it is just £8.00!

I would just like to add that after using this product for a while, I realised that I was allergic to it as I kept coming out in a rash on my face every time I used this. And yes I'm sure it wasn't breakouts! So if you have sensitive skin like myself then I wouldn't advise this product, even though it is amazing I have had to discontinue it's use due to irritation of my skin.

So overall I have been loving loving the fashionista range from MUA which is no suprise to me as MUA cosmetics are just amazing for the price and so I am always excited when they bring out new products! I would recommend that you check out the fashionista products and just MUA too because they are so affordable and a review on MUA will be coming up so that you can fall in love with them like I have.

Thanks for reading everyone and I hope you enjoyed it!

I will see you in the next post!

Charlotte Ansell

Just as a disclaimer, I have not been sponsered by MUA or fashionista and all products featured I have purchased myself and these are all my own opinions of these products