Review: The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer Highlighter and NUDE'tude Nude eyeshadow palette

One of the best things about moving house is having the opportunity to reorganise! I took full advantage of this, especially in de-cluttering my makeup. It has been so much fun being able to try new things from my stash!

One of the products I have really enjoyed recently is the Mory-Lou Manizer from The Balm. I have no idea how long it was hiding in the hack of a drawer, as it is by no means a new product, but I thought I would give it a chance when I cleared out some of my older highlighters.

This highlighting powder comes in a round mirrored compact. It is super soft and smooth and applies absolutely effortlessly. I would describe it as a warm champagne colour that is very reflective, but with no glitter or sparkles, just a satin sheen.

A little definitely goes a long way as the pigmentation is very good.

I use it as a highlight on my cheekbones, with a thin fan brush and a very light touch. It's also great as an eyeshadow - either an all over base lid colour, a brow or inner corner highlight.

It just adds the most amazing glow to the face and goes with most blush colours I have tried as it is neither too warm/ gold toned or silver/ cool toned. Sometimes highlighters can look a little off on very light skin like mine, but I find this one to add the perfect amount of radiance, without adding too much colour.

The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer is available from Superdrug here for £17.49.

I am also currently trying out The Balm NUDE'tude Nude eyeshadow palette (£29.99), which has a great selection of neutral, wearable eyeshadows. The texture is super smooth and they have great pigmentation. My favourite eye shadow is stand-offish - a nude, pinky toned shimmery colour that is perfect as an effortless all over lid colour!

Naked and Neutral

A fun and wearable smokey eye paired with peachy lips and cheeks that's super easy to create with minimal products!


Products mentioned in this video:
Dr Jart Regenerating BB*
Origins A Perfect World BB*
MAC MSF Natural in Medium
Earthnicity Minerals Coral blusher
Sleek Brow Kit
UDPP
Shiseido Shimmering Cream Eye Colour BR306*
Urban Decay NAKED palette - Smog, Half Baked, Virgin, Sin.
Clarins 3 Dot Liner*
Urban Decay Big Fatty Mascara*
The Body Shop Colouglide Shine Lip Colour 01 cheeky coral*
Jo Malone Rosewater and Vanilla perfume

Products marked with * were sent to me for review consideration.

Thanks so much for watching and I hope you enjoyed the video! xxx

Accessorize Lovely Day Palette

Everyone loves a good bargain, especially when the quality of the product is much higher than its price! Recently I have been playing around with some makeup from Accessorize and am absolutely in love with their beautiful Lovely Day palette!

The palette comes in cute cardboard leopard and rose print packaging with a sizeable mirror. Although I am not normally a fan of paper cases this does make it lightweight and perfect for travelling or just throwing into a hand bag.

The selection of colours and textures is also impressive. There are lots of different colours to choose from in matt, shimmer and satin finishes. I love the mix of pigmented fun, bright, yet wearable shades and staple neutrals making this palette extremely versatile.

A selection of shades (with flash)

 (Without flash)

I recently created a neutral brown and gold smokey eye using a couple of shadows from this palette.

The shadows were really rich in pigment and effortless to blend. Not bad for under £8.95!

This palette is available in Superdrug and online, and I highly recommend you check it out.

Have you tried any makeup from Accessorize? Which are your favourite products? Any recommendations? xxx

OOTD: The wedge trainer

After posting a pic of my new purchase on twitter I had lots of lovely responses requesting an outfit of the day post featuring my new shoesies.

 

If you are a regular visitor to this blog you may have noticed that trainers are not exactly a wardrobe staple for me. This may stem back to the fact that I absolutely lived in the trainer/ jeans combo in my teens until I discovered fashion and the fact that actually I could wear anything I wanted, not the same uniform as all my friends. I will be the first to admit that the wedged trainer is a bit of a ridiculous trend, but as soon as I saw the Isabel Marant number I was immediately lusting after them, quite despite myself. So after much umming and indecision I finally decided to purchase the next best thing - meet my new love The Ash Cool Suede Strapped wedge trainers in clay!

Excuse the awkward pose and face in this photo. We were on our way to the cinema and running late so a quick iphone snap on the stairs was all I could coax from the bf (after the dismal attempt below).

I paired my new super comfy trainers with an equally comfy pair of American Apparel disco pants, a vest from Zara and an oversized boyfriend shirt from Topshop.

I got my Ash trainers from Asos for £139 here, but you can also find them on the Ash website here.

Have you given into the wedge trainer trend? What will you be wearing yours with? xxx

OOTN: K Middy

If you can't beat them, join them! That's always my philosophy when visiting the glamorous capital of the north - Liverpool.

So for a bank holiday night out I knew that big hair and heels would be a must! I chose this lace overlay bubble dress from Zara (as worn by Kate Middleton), which I was able to track down, despite it's instant sell out in the UK, while I was shopping in Hong Kong.

The wedges are from All Saints, which I had packed to wear with another dress, but given the freezing weather I had to pair them with black tights and hope that in the dark no one would notice the dreaded open toe shoe/ tights combo. Shhhh... I don't think anyone saw...

The makeup was a fail safe brown smokey eye, lashes and pale lip. To show off the deep v in the back I pulled my hair into a low side ponytail, which was super easy to style and made sure that the volume stayed put all night. 

 

I hope you are all having a fabulous bank holiday weekend! xxx

Belinda OOTD

Although I do love a bit of leopard print I sometimes feel like it has been 'overworked' in all too many a store. Nevertheless, I was immediately drawn to this dress at a recent Motel blogger event! The Belinda dress (£52) offers a more sophisticated leopard print pattern paired with an (almost) full sleeve, longer length and a very deep v neck... so much so that I had to pin mine to protect a little modesty ;).

My dress had it's first outing a few weeks ago when the bf and I went on a double date. However, as well as being comfortable enough for long winter evening it's equally work friendly with a little camisole or vest worn underneath. I chose to keep it pretty simple with patent black and brown Kurt Geiger ankle boots, my Michael Kors rose gold watch (£199) and Les Nereides ring.

Have you seen Motel's new collection? What are your favourite pieces? Are you a fan of leopard print? xxx

OOTD: Legally Blonde

This weekend the bf surprised me with a trip to see Legally Blonde at the Savoy theatre. I always think it's a shame that people don't dress up to go to the theatre anymore, so wanted to make a little special effort to show my appreciation of his thoughtfulness.

 Dress: Brunello Cucinelli, Pearl Coin Necklace: Banana Republic, Shoes: Zanotti, Clutch Bag: Boohoo (£20 here).

This dress was a kind gift from a family friend and is very different from my usual style. I do find the draping can be a little unflattering as it creates a lot of extra volume on my (already wide) hips, but it falls so beautifully that I love it all the same. It's also very comfortable and with its soft taupey shade extremely easy to wear. It's always nice to try something out of your comfort zone and play with your style!

Getting ready in a hurry (when am I ever not? lol) I kept makeup pretty simple. I used the Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint (shade beige 02) set with MAC MSF natural as a base, and followed with NARS orgasm illuminator to add some colour to the cheeks. For eyeshadow I created a winged out cat eye with Shiseido's shimmering colour in BR 306. This is a fantastic cream shadow - it is intense, blends like a dream and lasts exceptionally (even without a base). I finished off the look with a nude lip using YSL's Rouge Volupte in no. 1.

Are you playing with your style this season? xxx

Work It Out: Classic Colour Block

Not a particularly adventurous outfit for the workplace, but I rarely feel inspired on a Monday morning! I picked up this cute little colour block, pussy bow blouse from New Look about a week ago. This is definitely a staple piece as it goes with just about anything - skirts, trousers, and even under sleeveless dresses when it gets chilly. What I particularly like about this blouse, apart from its purse friendly price of £22.99, is that it isn't see-through like so many other overly 'sheer' blouses currently in the shops, so great to wear in the office without a cami underneath.

 Blouse: New Look, Skirt: Zara

Another point to note is that this blouse offers quite a generous amount of space in the decolletage area. I often struggle to close the top button in shirts (I wear size 10), but due to the slight ruching detail at the shoulders it creates a little extra volume where you need it most ;).

What staples are you investing in this Autumn? Are you still wearing colour-block pieces?

Flawless in 5 minutes

Perhaps one of my most requested makeup looks - flawless makeup in 5 minutes. This little routine is perfect for me when I am rushing out of the house in the morning! It really helps you look naturally and effortlessly glowing and fresh, even when you are feeling far from it ;).




Products used:
Nars Sheer Glow foundation
Bobbi Brown corrector
MAC mineralize skin finish natural

NARS Laguna bronzer
E.L.F. Pink mineral blush
E.L.F. All Over Colour Stick in Persimmon
NARS Madrague eyeshadow duo as brow powder
MAC Painterly paint pot
L'ancome Hypnose mascara
Beaute Weightless Lip Creme in Trace

Jane of the Jungle

As much as I love and lust after high end brands, I often browse my local Superdrug, Boots, and even Sainsbury's (mine sells Cargo!) to find some good deals and special offers. Therefore, I was not surprised to find that the affordable company Sleek has come out with some great new products for the summer.

Recently, with this unbearable heat, I have been wearing minimal makeup and keeping everything pretty neutral with 'earthy' colours. I have therefore reached for Sleek's new Safari palette a number of times.

This palette contains 12 mineral based eyeshadows (both matte and shimmer) for just £4.88.These shadows are quite pigmented and true to colour in the pan, and I really like that they are not all shimmery (my favourite is the matte green in the bottom row). For such a low price this is definitely a great deal as the colours are pretty and very wearable.

The texture of the shadows is similar to any other pressed mineral make up and behaves in the same way as a pressed pigment so you have to be careful with fallout, or use them wet to give a more dramatic effect. I often find that mineral shadows such as these work better applied with your fingers.

Here is a simple daytime look I did using this palette.
I used the shimmery beige all over the lid (L to R 5th on bottom row), the matte light brown in the crease (1st on the bottom row), the shimmery brown (last on bottom row and dupe for MAC twinks) on the lower lashline with a thin line of the matte black (1st on top row) as a liner along my upper lashline.
Now I am lusting after the acid palette!! I can't wait to try it, but can never seem to find it :(.
Do you guys own any Sleek palettes?

FOTD

Hello my lovelies,

Just thought I would do a quick little post to share with you my makeup on Sunday.
It is quite smokey, but was very fast and easy to do.

I simply used two Barry M dazzle dusts. No. 39 went all over the lid, and I have to confess that this has been my favourite all-over lid colour for a few years now. It is a beautiful shimmery yet neutral shade, which goes on like a dream and really makes my eyes look green and vibrant. I then added no. 97 in the outer V with a pencil brush to make my eyes appear more deep set and blended it with a fluffy brush to make it smokey.

On my lips I used BarryM 101, but as this can sometimes be a bit too stark as well as drying on the lips so I mixed it with GOSH Darling lipstick to get a more creamy consistency and a more flesh toned nude colour.

Hope you all had a great weekend my lovelies
xxx

FOTD

I tried out a new look today. No winged eyeliner (gasp), just some on my upper waterline to make my lashes look a bit fuller, and a little smudged into my bottom lashes. What do you guys think? My eyelashes look longer, but I think I love the winged eyeliner look too much to give it up! hehe :)
I used a bourjois liquid metal eyeshadow as a base with retrospeck and mulch on top.