The Weekend Face #1

As you may or may not know, Matt and I met at Uni but he has since graduated and got a big boy job in London, meaning our relationship has gone from seeing each other every day to every weekend. We are quite lucky its not too far to travel, however I am an appalling packer and find it virtually impossible to pack light. I've been making a conscious effort therefore to try and squeeze down my make up bag for the weekend and plan ahead (although I am still terrible at this!) Among making my case a little lighter (the amount of skincare I take is not ok) trying to condense my make up bag has lead to me using well loved things I had forgotten about again and mixing up my make up routine. So I thought it might be interesting to show you what I take as a mini series on the weekends I go down to visit, but leaving out the standard staples as that would get boring!

Lets start with the base. I chose Healthy Mix as it gives light to medium coverage, which is buildable and also helps to perk up and hydrate my skin in this horrible weather (review soon) with the usual culprits of Benefit's Erasepaste for under eyes and Collection's Lasting Perfection Concealer for any redness or blemishes. My new powder of choice - Rimmel's Stay Matte - was put to the test to set my foundation and keep oil at bay, but I'm not seeing much difference between this and my previous 17 Miracle Matte powder. Finally a dusting of 'London' from my Fashionista palette (amazing for travel) along my cheekbones combined a blush and highlight in one.

For my eyes, I chose to go for a natural look and began by lining the waterline with Rimmel's Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl in 'Nude' and swept 'Naked' from my Urban Decay Naked palette all over the lid. This palette is amazing for travel as it has shades for every occasion so I take it with me everywhere as you can probably see from the battered packaging! I took 'Virgin' also from this palette as my brow highlight and used Bourjois Intuitive eyeliner to deepen my lash line - still not too sure on this one but a review will be coming soon. Lastly, lashings of my two favourite mascaras completed this look. 

For lips I took two lipsticks - Kate Moss for Rimmel 107, an amazing deep red which I have been obsessed with recently and wear for both the evening or day and Barry M lip paint in '101' - a milky nude shade. As my eyes were pared down I either went for a bright pop of red or combined both of these together in the style of Lisa Eldridge to brighten up 101 which can be a bit dead by itself.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend! Let me know what you think of these products xxx

Review: FashionistA Blush Palette

L-R: (top) Juicy Apricot - Blushing Coral // (bottom) London - Rose Shine

L-R: Blushing Coral - Juicy Apricot

L-R: London - Rose Shine

£5 for the Palette // Blush £4 each

I love the idea of creating my own palette and the choice of a red or black one from FashionistA seemed a great place to start. I already have a number of eyeshadow palettes and because of my love affair with blushers recently I thought the best quad to get would be full of some new blushers, although you can mix and match with bronzers, blushers and eyeshadows. You can buy the shades individually or buy a palette and 4 shades to fill it at a discount price (I think around £10-15 for all of them together).

I chose the colour red as it is a bit different and looks quite smart. The actual quad is very sturdy and sleek with a large mirror making it perfect for on the go. The individual blushes come in sleek black containers which you can use individually or pop them out to fit into your palette. I chose the colours Juicy Apricot, Rose Shine, London and Blushing Coral.

All the blushes I chose are very pigmented so a light hand is needed but this pigmentation also means a little goes a long way and therefore the product will last longer. They are also prone to fall out but this didn't bother me too much. I found each shade very long wearing, although I never really have a problem with blushes fading in the first place.

I think my favourite out of the blushes have to be the two peachier shades as I didn't have anything similar in my collection before. Juicy Apricot is a bright peachy shade with gold flecks in it but these don't translate onto the skin like a disco ball, instead it just gives a lovely glow. London is the prettiest out of them all consisting of a shimmering peachy base with veins of pink running through. Both of these have been reached for a lot on days when I want to perk up my complexion in a not so obvious way. Blushing Coral is a very dark pink which I reach for more on nights out as it is quite a bright colour. As you can see from the pictures I managed to make a big dent in it with my nail before I'd even used it when putting it into the palette - so annoying!  This blush is very easy to over apply due to being so pigmented, however a light dusting along the cheek bones can really pull a look together. Lastly is Rose Shine, which I wore in a recent outfit post. It gives a lovely soft pink matte glow to your cheeks which would look really pretty on the apples as well as cheek bones and gives a wind bitten flush to your face.

I think this quad is great value for beginners to fill up with what they would like to experiment with. It is great for travel and versatile due to being suitable for eye shadows, bronzers and blushes and the fact you can switch the items in the palette and replace with new ones depending on your mood or the occasion. The quality of the blushes are great considering how cheap they are and I recommend you all pop down to Superdrug and give them a go! 

What would you fill up your quad with? Do you have any other recommendations for do it yourself palettes? xxx