How to: Team GB Nails!

When watching the Olympics, I noticed a lot of the athletes had this sort of thing going on and I decided to recreate it! It's really easy and simple, and today I'm gonna tell you guys how to do it :)

Step 1) Locate a red, white and blue nail varnish. This should be fairly simple if you are nail varnish obsessed like me! Make sure your blue is a nice royal blue. The shades I used were: Essie* 'Apertif', Barry M 'Indigo' and Rimmel Nail Tip Whitener.

Step 2) Locate a family member or friend who is willing to hold the open bottles for you so you don't smudge your nails. Tell them it's for the Olympics and they can't refuse! 

Step 3) Paint your index and ring finger with the white colour.

Step 4) Starting from your thumb, alternate the blue and red until every nail is a lovely Union Jack medley!

Step 5) Go over each nail again (this is where your nail buddy comes in) until the colour is opaque.

Step 6) Go over with a topcoat. I used Sally Hanson Diamond Shine Topcoat.

Step 7) Go and show off your lovely British nails by cheering on Team GB!

If you try this, comment below letting me know how you got on or tweet me a pic @sian_llewelyn 

Don't forget to subscribe to be in for a chance to win my giveaway coming up!

Weekend Lusting!

I seem to be in a brush lusting phase at the moment! This Chanel one is at the top of my list. I really like the notion of the slightly tapered end to get to the little nooks and crannies. I also think the brush looks so stylish and professional - being slightly shorter might make it a bit easier to use as well. Anyone got £30 spare?!

This cheeky madam is also on my list. I know a lot of make-up artists use a smaller brush to set make-up, rather than a massive one. I use a Clarins one at the moment which I love, but I think I would get a lot of benefit from having a smaller one - to concentrate the powder onto my oily areas. This one $8 from their website, I can't find it on Boots. 

Point of inquiry, does anyone know why these brushes are cheaper to buy in dollars? Comment below if you do and make sure to subscribe to my blog. Giveaway will be coming if I hit 50 subscribers :)

NOTD & Review | Revlon 'Grapefuit Fizz'

Since it's actually be nice weather for the past few days, I thought I should take a brief hiatus from the dark colours I normally sport and I've been wearing this shade from Revlon. It's called 'Grapefruit Fizz' and comes in a range with a few other 'Fizz' shades. It's one of those 'smells fruity when dry' polishes, but it really just smells strongly of Grapefruit constantly. If you're not a fan of strong smells, definitely avoid this one, as it fills the room when you're applying it and it lasts for at least 2/3 days around your nails.

In general, I'm not a fan of this nail polish. I bought it a few months ago and have only worn it a couple of times since then. It's really sheer so you need to build it up using 3 or 4 coats to make it opaque, or layer it over another colour. You can see from how much I've used in the bottle, this annoys me as this nail polish cost £6.49 and I've used nearly a 1/5 of the bottle for only wearing it 2 or 3 times! 

I usually layer it up in 3 coats and, as you can see, it's still quite sheer. I also find the smell too strong, as I mentioned. Another thing (that is probably the main thing putting me off it) is that it makes the end of my nails look really yellow. I'm not sure if this is due to a yellow undertone in the polish, or due to the fact that it's not getting colour to the ends of my nails so they look yellow in comparison? Either way, I don't like it. 

You can see in this picture that my nails look really weird! Not pretty is it?! It's a shame because I think I would really like a watermelon pink colour that this seems to suggest. 

Next post: Everyday make-up look or best tanning products?! Let me know!

Review: Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream

I received a 7ml sample of this with a magazine that I bought for my holidays (either Elle or Cosmo - I think it was Elle) and thought I'd do a quick review for you guys!

I love this eye cream. It's super light and you only need the tiniest bit to get around both your under eyes. I start by squeezing an amount about the size of a small bead on to my ring finger, then touch my two ring fingers together so there's some cream on the ring finger of each hand. I then dab it gently under my eye and then a tiny bit around and up on to the lid. It's best to use your ring finger, as you're not able to transmit much strength through it, so you don't risk damaging the sensitive skin under your eyes.

This for all skin types, I find it works well with my combination skin as I often get dry patches under my eyes and I find I often miss this when moisturising so it's good to have something especially for that! It's also 99% natural and cruelty free, which, as you all know, is a major factor for me liking a product. I've definitely found since using this in the night, I don't have as bad under eye circles the following morning - and I have not been sleeping well recently!

I don't know if I love it quite as much as Origin Ginzings, as the Ginger extract in that cream really energises your eyes and brightens your eyes up. It's going to be a tough decision to make when this cream runs out and I have to choose which one to buy!

Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream retails for £14 for 10ml, or £20 for 15.
Origins Ginzing Eye Cream retails for £21 for 15ml.

MAC 'Snob' Dupes!

Around October time last year, I lost my beloved MAC* 'Snob'. I was visiting a friend in Exeter and I either lost it in a club or it fell out of my bag in the room I was staying in and rolled under something. Either way, I was without 'Snob'.

Being a poor student and being especially poor with Christmas and birthdays coming up, I really couldn't justify buying a replacement. So instead, I put it on my Christmas list and was tragically without it for nearly two months. It was a very traumatic time for me. I'm sure you'll understand.

Anywhoo, I knew I'd need some sort of blue-toned pink to compensate the loss 'Snob' left in my life, so I went on a little search for a dupe. I ended up buying two lipsticks which I felt matched the shade fairly well and these two were: Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in 006 'Pink Blush' (£6.99) and Natural Collection Lipstick in 'Pink Mallow' (£1.99). 

Here's what they look like in the tube:

As you can see, not very similar at all! But when swatched on my arm:

They look a bit more similar. Rimmels 'Pink Blush' is a lighter, sheerer and has warmer undertones. I've always stayed away Rimmel lipsticks, not because of the quality, but because the taste is so horrible! Natural Collection's 'Pink Mallow' is nearer the colour but, again, lacks the blue undertones that 'Snob' contains. It's lasting power is not brilliant but, for £1.99, what would do you expect? 

Now, I know many people love the shade of 'Snob' but find it hard to wear, because of those blue undertones. To those people, try either one of these lipsticks! I personally prefer 'Pink Mallow', because the colour is closer, it's cheaper and it has a nicer, creamier formula. 

FUNNY STORY (sort of):

I actually lost my MAC 'Snob' AGAIN earlier this year, and convinced myself that I was jinxed. I said "If I can't find it, I am not re-buying it again! It's just not meant to be!" 

I eventually found it hiding under my bed, hidden by my duvet cover. I never would have seen it, had I not caught a tiny glimpse of it in my mirror when adjusting my duvet. Sneaky 'Snob'.

Mini Beauty Haul & Announcement!!

This was fuuun :) I've been on a spending ban for so long, it was nice to treat myself to a few things - and finally pick up this NARS* eyeshadow duo I had been eying up!

John Lewis was the first place I hit - I swatched a few eyeshadows but this one had been calling out to me for a while. It's called Alhambra and retailed for £24, I paid £21.60 and John Lewis had 10% off beauty. It was between this and Isolde (which is next on the list) but I thought I would get more wear out of these neutral peach shades for the summer. Both shades are shimmery, but one side is a natural pinky-peach and the other is a golden peach shade. They compliment each other perfectly and are beautiful enough to use separately. I also tried out the NARS Laguna bronzer but it didn't look too good on me! Although that might have been the 8 hour shift in the heat!

NARS* Eyeshadow Duo in 'Alhambra'

I went to MAC* then as I really wanted a nice matt brown shade for the crease - I was looking for something like Cork, but then I tried out Wedge on the back of my hand and really really liked it. It's surprising as I'd never really liked the look of it online. Thankfully, the eyeshadows in MAC haven't gone up in price along with the lipsticks and they are still £12.

Finally, I popped into LUSH to check out their new make-up and to get a new pot for my Retread conditioner, as my mother knocked mine off the shelf and a big chunk broke off the bottom! LUSH handed me over a replacement pot to decant my conditioner into without delay, they are all so lovely. I had a look at their make-up line, but nothing particularly 'wowed' me and leapt off the shelf. There were a few nice lip colours but £14.50 is a lot of money and I don't have endless amounts of money. I buy a lot of make-up yes, but things I've looked at a lot and things that I know I'm going to use a lot. So nothing stopped me in my tracks, but I will have a proper look and try and get a few things to review them for you guys. While I was there, I picked up another massage bar as my beloved Therapy will be no more soon. I bought 'Peace' this time - it has a very earthy, woody smell, rather than the orange-cocoay smell of Therapy. I believe I paid £6.95 for it.

That's it for now, I should be picking up a few things over the next few weeks - if there's anything in particular you want me to review, let me know in the comments and I will try my hardest to get it done :)


EXCITING NEWS:

I know I'm a long way off, but if I can get to 50 subscribers, I will be doing a giveaway of either: a MAC* Lipstick or a Chanel Nail Varnish. Possibly limited edition! You will have to be subscribed to my blog to enter so make sure you do!

Review: Topshop Lipstick

I've spoken before about my love for Topshop make-up so today I'm going to tell you about their much talked about lipsticks. I have two shades, Whimsical and Infrared - although I'm eying up quite a few more.

Left: Whimsical, Right: Infrared

Whimsical is a really pretty pink with undertones of peach. It's quite a natural shade and really lovely when applied to my pale skintone. It's not a groundbreaking colour but the undershades of coral in it made it stand out for me on the shelf. I've not worn this one as much as Infrared, simply because I have a tendency to go for brighter colours. I pair this with a smokey eye on an evening out quite a lot. In contract, Infrared is a bright orange-red. I bought this one after hearing so much about and I do really love it. Unfortunately, it's not the best shade for my blonde hair and does look much better on those with glossy brunette hair. It looks great with a tan. 

The formula of the lipsticks is really good for the money - they retail for £8, which personally I think is quite a lot for a high street brand (but then I suppose it is Topshop!). When applied, the lipsticks look nice and creamy, although I wouldn't say their lasting power is the greatest. I find Infrared has a tendency to go patchy after a certain amount of time - this is amplified if you have chapped lips. I would say you need to have nice soft lips to apply these lipsticks. When I wear them, I find myself topping up every 1-2 hours. 

Topshops colour range wasn't extensive when I went in April but they are constantly adding more to their line up. I'm extremely impressed with Topshops make-up so far! They're a nice alternative when you consider that MAC* Lipsticks are retailing for £14 each. Personally, I will always prefer MAC* as I consider their staying power and colour selection, second to none. However, if I were in that position (as I so often find myself) when I have very little money but I just really want a new lippy, I would head to Topshop straight away! 

Whimsical and Infrared

Lust of the Day | Topshop Matte Eyeshadow in 'Painted'

I was browsing the Topshop website and I saw this absolute gem on there. I'll admit, the colour is out there but red colours can be really flattering on blue eyes. This might actually be similar to MAC's Cranberry, only less pink. 

I'm the kind of person where I don't wear a lot of eyeshadow during the day, usually one or two neutral colours, if at all, so I think a colour for the evenings should be dramatic and stand out. This colour could look gorgeous if applied in the right way. I'm going to be in town on Monday, so I may have to go and check it out! For only £6.50, you've got to right?!

Khol Eyeliner | Topshop 'Coal' vs. MAC 'Smoulder'

Khol eyeliner is a staple in any make-up bag - it can be applied subtly in the day to define the eyes, or smudges to give a sexy smokey eye in the evening. That's why many people, including myself, thought it always needed to come with a hefty price-tag. But is this right?

I'd always heard so many good things about MAC 'Smoulder' Khol Liner, with reviews saying how it was ''the blackest black you'll ever use'' and how "creamy and easy to work with it was" so I decided to order it a few months ago. I was really excited for it to come and when it finally did, I was so disappointed. It's not bad per see, but I don't really consider it any higher quality than a Rimmel eyeliner and considering it retails for £14, I really expected a lot more! I tried to use it a few times, and each time I found the pigmentation poor and that it faded really quickly.

Then a few weeks later, I was browsing the Topshop make-up section in Oxford Street and happened to come across their Khol Eye Pencil is 'Coal' and swatched it on my hand. Imagine my astonishment when it came out a beautifully intense black and the pricetag was £4 - a whole £10 less than MAC's! This one has great lasting power on my eyes and, yes, it does smudge a little bit if you rub at your eyes but the main bulk of the liner stays put. If you were using this to create a softened, smokey eye, this is actually a bonus and the MAC pencil doesn't smudge at all. 

The Topshop pencil applies much softer, I often found the MAC pencil dragged across my eyes and was a little uncomfortable to apply in my waterline. 

Topshop - £4 for 1.27g

MAC - £14 for 1.45g

Left: MAC, Right: Topshop

As you can see in the above picture, the Topshop liner gives a much more intense black compared to MAC, and I had to go over the MAC Pencil a few times to fill it in!

Following one smudge with my finger

Both pencils have smudged but the Topshop one still has the bulk of the liner where applied, whereas the MAC one seems to have lost what little colour it had to start with. I don't know if the MAC Pencil I got was defective, or if the pencil itself is just extremely overrated. Let me know in the comments below if you have used either pencils and what you thought?

Nails of the Day | China Glaze 'Smoke & Ashes"

Todays nails come from China Glaze's Hunger Games collection - if you haven't read or seen the Hunger Games yet, go and read them right now! China Glaze released 12 colours as part of this collection, I have two: Smoke & Ashes, a glitter-black with green shine, and Harvest Moon, a beautiful copper bronze. I have my eye on Fast Track and Riveting as well! 

China Glaze nail varnishes are one of my favourite brands - they're not too expensive and you get a large bottle. It applies opaque in two coats and without any bumps or glooping (is that a word?!). These also last for ages, I find I can go up to 5 days without a topcoat before I have any chipping on these nail varnishes. If you're in the UK, China Glaze are available online and I usually buy from Amazon or Ebay.

Aldi...make-up?! | Intro & Review

Yeah, you read it right! Today I'm going to be talking about a few make-up items I picked up from Aldi. No, I've not gone insane. In general, own make products - like M&S, Boots, Superdrug, Tesco, Co-op and Aldi - are cruelty free. Lacura is also a well established brand, who sell premium products at crazy low prices. So I thought as the products were fairly cheap, I would check them out. I have five items to talk about so lets crack on!

1) Lacura Shimmering Day Cream:

I'll just start by saying that I LOVE this cream. I picked this up a few months ago for £3.49 and I've used it religiously every day since then. Like the name suggests, it has shimmer in it so the minute you put it on, your skin looks radiant and glowing. It comes with a pump, which I love (I hate digging into pots to get cream!) and half a pump is enough to cover your whole face. I would definitely recommend this to anyone.

2) Lacura Q10 Moisturing Night Cream:

This is actually one my Mum uses, which I have used a few times so I thought I would include it on this review. The reason I don't use it, is I find it a little bit heavy for my younger skin - but I know my Mum loves it. I just asked her and she described it as "rich and moisturising". The name is obviously a play on Nivea Q10. This retails for £1.99 I believe.

3) Lacura Waterproof Mascara: 

The first thing to notice about this is that it has a very chemical smell to it. The tube is small and doesn't appear to come in a larger size but the wand is a decent size and quality. The formula itself is ok, it provides a fair amount of lift and volume. It's not very curling, and I always need mascara to curl my lashes. For the price of £2.39, it is very good. It doesn't flake or smudge on me and is suitable for sensitive eyes.

4) Lacura Compact Powder:

This powder comes in a very sleek case, with a mirror and applicator puff. It's of average quality - if you didn't suffer from oily skin or problem area's, this would be great. If you did, I would recommend a better quality one. This seems comparable in quality to the Collection 2000 Lasting Finish Powder, which I've used for a while and is a similar price. You can pick this up for £1.99

5) Lacura Duo Eyeshadow in 'Olive':

Now, these aren't shades I would normally pick up for my eye colour (a blue/grey) but I thought for £1.99 I might jump on the olive eyeshadow trend. These actually give really great colour pay-off considering the price and blend reasonably well. This compact includes two matt shades - an olive green and a lighter cream. I was a little disappointed when I got this home to discover that the green is very light, I wouldn't call it Olive personally but it is still a very pretty colour. The lighter cream shade is much more wearable and is light enough to use as a brow highlighter, if needed.

Nails of the Day | Topshop 'Smashing Pumpkin'

Todays nails are a rather nice shade of orange from Topshop's infamous nail collection. These are extemely good for the money, retailing at around £5/6 each. Their choice is excellent as well, there really is a colour for everybody! Personally, I'm eyeing up Hidden Treasure, Blitz, Bees Knees and Pool Party as well. Two coats gives you a lovely finish and the dotty lid makes it easy to locate in a hurry :)

LUSH | Emotional Brilliance

I am so excited for this to launch, LUSH are one of my favourite shops for their firm and definitive stance on animal testing. After the sell-out of The Body Shop, it will be really amazing to have another place where I can go for everything and not compromise on my ethics. 

This new make-up range will have a lot to live up to, the success of LUSH's bath products and their overall popularity means that the make-up range will have to be something really special so people aren't disappointed. I

What I'm hoping to see in particular...

A good choice of lipsticks

Concealer

Nail varnishes?! (Out there, but could happen!)

A curling Mascara.

I know from reading Temptalia's blog that there will be cream eyeshadows, liquid liptints and liquid eyeliner

I really hope that LUSH expand into their hair styling products - the bane of my life is trying to find a good quality hair spray! Come on LUSH, I know you can do it!

Review: Revlon Photo Ready Cream Blush

Follow my blog with Bloglovin 

Today I'll be reviewing another product from Revlon, their new Photo Ready Cream Blushers. These are available in three shades: Flushed, Pinched and Coral Reef. Being a beauty junkie, I'd heard about these before they hit the UK from American bloggers.

I'm generally not the biggest fan of cream blushers, but I am a fan of Revlon so I was both anticipating their release and ready to pick one up when they hit the stores. The shade I have for you is Pinched, which is  a very natural, peach shade with an ever so slight shimmer. All three products swatched effortlessly in the store, but I decided to pick up the most natural one as I don't use cream blush regularly, so I thought it best to not risk walking around with unblended blusher. Imagine the horror!

As you can see in the swatch, the colour is fairly sheer, and easily blends into the skin. The texture is probably one of the creamiest I've seen in a cream blush and as it's not an overly thick product, you won't run that risk of applying too much. This is certainly starting to change my mind on cream blushers, and I may have to make a cheeky trip to Boots to pick up one of the other colours before the offer runs out!

These are available in Boots and Superdrug for £5.99 currently, with the intent of going up to £7.99, along with the Balm Stains so I would definitely pick either up now if you were thinking about it.

Nails of the Day: Barry M Nail Paint 'Indigo'

After reading in a magazine that blue was the shade to have on your nails, first thing I did was rummage through my nail varnish collection and pull out one of my favourite blue shades of all time.

I try a lot of different nail polish brands, yet I always find myself going back to Barry M. Their colour selection is great, they give a smooth finish and the lasting power is of quality you wouldn't expect from a nail varnish that costs £2.99. This is called 'Indigo' but there's really very little purple in it. It's more of a cobalt blue colour, but I love it anyway :)

BBloggers Unite

So I happened to stumble onto a blogspot that mentioned this site and I thought I would check it out. It's a brilliant idea of getting blogs together in one easy to find place. I'm definitely going to be checking this out in more detail and hopefully finding a few blogs that I might not have otherwise :)

Check it out here.

x

Sian Wants!

Ever since watching a review of this on Amarixe's blog, which you can read here, I have been majorly lusting after this foundation. Well, the entire Revlon Summer collection in general if I'm honest! The Revlon PhotoReady Collection has just hit the Boots and Superdrug in the UK so hopefully this foundation will be soon to follow. 

When the new Colourstay Collection is finally available here for me, I'll be off like a shot to pick up this foundation, having heard such good things about it. I might also pick up a cheeky Colourstay Smoky Stick while I'm at it. The Torch shade in particular looks gorgeous!

Review: Benefit 'They're Real' Mascara

Today I'll be reviewing a fairly recent little product from one of my favourite brands Benefit. I know this mascara has been out for a fair while, but I still thought it was one that people may not have tried yet and might like to know about it. Benefit were always famous for only have the one mascara, the infamous 'BADGal Lash' mascara, that I know is still a cult favourite. So when I heard that a new one had been released, I thought it must be something pretty special if Benefit are bringing out a new mascara, with a new name, and not some variant on BADGal (as they've done previously).

This product retails for £18.50 and is available online, or anywhere that has a Benefit counter. As you can see, the packaging is very sleek and simplistic. The tube appears small, but it's nice and thick and you actually get slightly more product that other mascaras - 8.5g compared to the usual 7/8g. The outer cardboard packaging is covered with different studies, all of which singing the mascara's praises!

'They're Real' claims to lengthen, curl, volumise, lift and seperate - all without smudging or drying out! A lot of this comes from the very nifty little brush, which is rubber with a little spikey ball on the end to really separate and draw out each individual lash. This is a nice idea in principle, except the ball gets clogged really easily with excess mascara, so you're not so much "separating" the lashes as you are clumping them up.

The mascara itself, for me, is good. It certainly does give you that 'false lash' effect, but I would say no more than say MAC False Lashes or some Bourjois mascaras. When I first used this mascara, I absolutely loved the effect it gave. It curls and volumises your lashes, exactly how it says. The biggest problem with it, is getting the bloody thing off! Seriously, I had such issue getting this off my lashes and I found that, because it wouldn't come off properly, it was starting to ruin my lashes to the point where they had lost their natural curl and felt bristly and fine. It is a great mascara while it's on but I don't think the overall look is worth the effect it had on my lashes. I stopped using this daily in around February and I would say my lashes are only now starting to look healthy again. I still keep it and I will occasionally reach for it to give my lashes an extra "oomph" for a night out but this is a rare occasion!

I really wanted to love this mascara but I don't think I could honestly recommend it :(

Let me know if you've tried this mascara and if you found the same as me? Next review will be up soon and will either be a review of Revlon Photo Ready Cream Blusher or of St Tropez...any preferences, let me know!

Bye for now x

Review: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains

Anybody who knows anything about make-up knows that Revlon have been excelling in the lip product departments this year. First came the Lip Butters, which I just fell in love with! I have three: Strawberry Shortcake, Raspberry Pie and Candle Apple. These products were absolutely fantastic, and I would recommend anybody who doesn't really like wearing lipgloss but still wants that 'lipgloss shine' to check them out because they are really good.

However this review is talking about their latest products which have been advertised by the ever lovely Emma Stone, the Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains. These have been compared the the Clinique Chubby Sticks, which I have not tried. I've swatched them a couple of times but I could never really justify shelling out for a product which didn't seem to be anything special. The Revlon balms are on a much more friendly price scale and are currently on offer £5.99 in Boots and Superdrug - get them quick before they got up to £7.99! I had told myself I would be on a spending ban for a while but at £5.99, it'd be rude not to wouldn't it?!

The three shades I picked up were: Darling, Honey and Crush.

Top to bottom: Crush, Honey, Darling

Darling Cherie looks a little bit scary in the tube as the packaging is a pale lavender, yet when it's swatched or applied, it comes out this lovely pale pink with only a slight hint of lavender. It's colour is comparable to MAC Angel or Snob. I would say it is slightly blue toned, but ever-so slightly. It certainly wouldn't be as unwearable as I know Snob is on warmer skin tones. It is fairly sheer so if you have dark lips like me, I would recommend applying a small amount of concealer before using to get the full colour benefit. Definitely don't walk past this shade! 

Honey Doece is one I actually picked out for my mother. It's a flattering nude shade with a very slight hint of plum-peach I would say. A really nice shade if you have a warmer skin tone and darker features. 

Crush Beguin is a deep berry colour, which is like my achilles heel! I'm forever on the search for the "perfect berry red" shade. This one comes pretty close. It almost has a wine-coloured tint to it which looks really rich and flattering, especially on the paler skintones. I noticed it also makes your teeth look nice and white as well - alway a plus!

 I do really like these products. They truly are a 'stain', they don't dry out your lips as much as I thought they would (Rimmel 1000 Kisses - I'm looking at you!) and they apply with a shine, that eventually fades to a matt finish. I wouldn't say I love them as much as I love the Lip Butters, which I adored right from the get-go, but they are definitely not one to pass up. 

What make-up I took to Rome!

Hi everyone! So I thought I would do this post on what make-up I took to Rome because I thought it'd be quite interesting for you all to read. The reason for this being, I only went for three nights and decided not to pay the extortionate fee of £25 to check a bag in and instead, to just take hand luggage. This is all very well and good, except there is a limit to the liquids and therefore, the amount of make-up you can take with you. For those who don't know, you can only take a maximum of 1L, and each individual item cannot be more than 100ml and they must all fit comfortably into one 20x20cm plastic bag! For a beauty lover such as myself, it's a bit of a nightmare! But I managed to do it! My mother (who I went with) and I spent ages sorting out what we would take, what we could share - for example, I took most of the make-up and she took most of the skincare, because she has about a million samples already - and what we would have to do without.

So I thought it would make quite an interesting blog post, a sort of 'beauty-essentials' as you will because I took all these and genuinely didn't find myself wanting for more or wishing I had brought something different. I've split this post up into what I took in my little plastic bag, and then into what I brought in solid form to go with them.

LIQUIDS:

So first things first, we have my Chanel Vitalumiere foundation in shade B10. Of course I took this, I couldn't not! It's my absolute favourite foundation at the moment and it's just perfect for a holiday. It's super light and feels like you're wearing nothing at all, and lasts all day - even through a day of running around Rome sightseeing in 35 degree heat!

Next I took two concealers - Clinique Airbrush Concealer in 01 Fair and MAC Studio Fix in NW20. In all honestly, I had only planned to take the Clinique one but popped the MAC one in last minute, simply because I had a bit of room in my plastic bag! I used both of them, although I had to be careful to keep the MAC one out of the sun as it did start to go very melty in the heat, although in reality, this is quite a chalky concealer so it didn't really do much harm!

I also brought Benefit BROWzings in shade Light. For me, this was a no-brainer, although it is slightly annoying that this had to go in my bag as it is mainly a powder, but the coloured wax counts as liquid and I didn't want to take any chances and have to see any of my make-up thrown away at Security. I don't think I could have emotionally coped with that!

I also had to bring this mini bottle of suncream. This is just from Boots - it's the Soltan Factor 50 Spray Suncream. Yeah, not much to say about this really! 

I decided, after much deliberation, to bring my MAC Paint Pot in Painterly. I absolutely LOVE these, and I also have Indianwood, which I wanted to bring but decided that as Painterly is that lovely nude, 'your skin but better' shade, that I would use it more as a neutral colour in the day, and also as a base for other eyeshadows.

Sorry for terrible quality!

For mascara, I had no choice but to bring my favourite mascara of the moment which is the No7 Exquisite Curl Mascara. No7 in general doesn't really do it for me and I think this mascara is the first thing I have bought from them in quite a while but I do enjoy it very much. If you have quite straight lashes like myself, this works wonders!

On to the lipsticks! This was by far the hardest decision, as anyone who knows me will tell you that lipsticks are my biggest weakness - I'm forever buying them! I'm having to stop myself buying the Revlon Lip Stains at the moment even though I want them SO MUCH but I don't need them and I can't afford them. Sob! Back on track, I whittled my choice down to three in the end and one lipbalm. The three I chose to take were MAC 'Snob', MAC 'Impassioned' and Revlon Lip Butter in 'Rasberry Pie'. Of course, I also took my trusty Burts Bee's with me as well.

SOLID PRODUCTS:

Everything else I took had to compliment my liquid products. First on the list was to choose a blusher and I decided on Benefit Sugarbomb, because it's a brilliant summer blush - it gives a lovely flush on the cheeks and can also be used all over the face to bronze it up a bit. 

For the eyes, I took my MUA Heaven and Earth Palette. I've been absolutely loving this recently, and have really been enjoying creating lots of different looks with it. It's really versatile and can be used in the day, just to add a bit of definition or in the evening to create a smokey eye. I also took MAC Eyeshadow in 'Mythology' but I can't find this at the moment to take a picture of!

I just took a cheap powder, this Collection 2000 Pressed Powder. My reasoning for this was that I was going to get nice and shiny anyway so I didn't want to take a more expensive one, in case it broke or I left it in the hotel. I do quite like this powder, especially for the incredibly cheap price and I have more than one, so if something happened to it, it wouldn't be the worst thing ever. 

Make-up tooks wise, I took my trusty MAC Brush Kit as it has all your essentials really! I also took my eyelash curlers which are the Models Own ones from Boots. These only cost me £6 and I really think they are excellent! Please excuse the gumminess of mine, they need a good wipe!

And that's it guys! I also took my LUSH Therapy Massage Bar and Seanik Shampoo Bar and my mum took a lot of samples from Clarins for cleanser and creams. 

Thanks for reading xx