A (late) September Favourites!

Hey! Many apologies for a bit of a lull on the blogging front, I've just started back up at Uni for 2nd year and there's been so much going on with (re)freshers and my course loads and society duties but I should be back on track from now. Today I'm going to share with you some things I've been loving in September.

Quite a small amount of products this month, I've found a really good lot of products which I've been using everyday for the past few months and I've also been living on a tight budget so I haven't been buying as many new things as I usually do - hopefully should be getting something sorted and having a look around soon for some new buys though!

Origins Zero Oil Moisture Lotion: My skin has been a bit of a big oily mess recently so I decided it was time to do something about it! I picked this up after hearing a few good recommendations about Origins skincare and decided to give this ago. It's really, really great and I'm going to be doing a full review on this next week so keep an eye out for that.

Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation: I love, love, LOVE this foundation. It is seriously so good, I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a light, natural coverage. Read my full review of this here.

Naked Rescue Intensive Care Conditioner: It's always been so hard to find a cruelty-free conditioner for a budget price tag, but this is a new range that has appeared in Boots in the past few months. I've also tried one of their shampoos, which just smelt divine but this conditioner is the one I'm really impressed by and have been using alternately with my LUSH 'Retread'. 

Benefit Hoola Bronzer: It's getting into the autumn months and the nights are getting darker already! I've definitely been needing to crack out the bronzer to give my face some degree of colour. I love Hoola but it is getting a bit too dark for me. Any good recommendations for me guys?

No7 Amazing Eyes Pencil in '10 Brown: I've really been using this a lot recently. Black kohl can be quite harsh and dramatic sometimes, especially when you want quite a natural look as I often do. This one is really great as it's quite soft and easy to apply. 

MAC Eyeshadow in 'Jest': I've been reaching for this beauty so much recently, I did a post on this eyeshadow paired with MAC's wedge which I will link here. This is such a pretty and easy look to do in the morning, and one of my favourite combinations to use.

Rimmel Kate Collection in shade 01: This is a classic true red colour, and I've had this in my bag nearly all of this month. It's so great to whip out and make any make-up look appear more dramatic immediately. The formulation is great for a drugstore lipstick and I really, really like this.

Revlon Nail Enamel in 'Lilac Pastelle': The bottle on this is horrendously worn down because I bought it in a market for £1 (unopened). It's a beautiful light purple colour and really cute to wear.

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in 'For Audrey': I was saving this little gem for me to purchase when I finished placement and was finally allowed to wear nail polish again! It had been in my amazon basket for weeks and I finally ordered it this month. It's one of China Glaze's most famous colours and I can see why. I'm wearing it on my nails right now and I've been alternating between this shade and the Revlon 'Lilac Pastelle' all of this month. Love it!

That's it for this month folks! Next post should be up this week :)

Review | Clinique Airbrush Concealer!

As an insomniac, I'm always on the hunt for a really great under eye concealer. I find a lot of them don't have a huge amount of coverage in them and mainly work to illuminate your under eye skin, which is great - except when you have dark circles to cover. I have tried Benefits Erase Paste, which was too cakey, and MAC* Studio Fix, which is too drying on my under eye skin. I used to use Collection 2000 Illumination Touch Concealer which worked pretty well and this is the one I was using when I found the subject of this review; the holy grail aka Clinique's Airbrush Concealer.

This is without a doubt, my favourite under eye concealer and something that I don't think I could go without. If ever I woke up and all my make-up had mysteriously vanished, this would be one of the first things I would rush out and by (btw, let me know below if you would like me to do that tag!). I've never given much thought to Clinique's make-up. I like their skin care but have never found myself drawn to their cosmetic range. It was actually a concealer that my mum was using and she said the shade was too light for her. I was using the Collection 2000 one at the time and I said mine was too dark for me. So we swapped and both ended up loving the each others concealers, funny isn't it?!

I have since repurchased this and I definitely would again. It gives such great coverage without caking or looking too heavy and also brightens up your eyes so much. It blends in beautifully and the shade I used which is 01 Fair is a perfect match for my skin. I use this under my eyes and blend it down around my nose where I get a fair amount of redness and it covers any blemishes up easily. Go and buy it right now! Go on, go!

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