The biggest thing I have seen in the celeb magazines lately, has been the no makeup, makeup look. Which involves wearing makeup that matches your skin tone and to not over do the other aspects of putting your face on, such as too much blush and no over the top eye looks.
I personally really respect this trend, and would always prefer to look natural instead of coming across as having ‘put it on with a trowel’. I think women look far more beautiful with subtle aspects of makeup that enhance their already unique features.
For me, I nearly always wear mascara on my eyes and powder on the skin on my face to reduce redness and any uneven skin tone. I felt that I already achieved this look on a regular basis, so I wanted to show how I did this and what products I have used. As you can see in the image above my makeup is subtle, used to mainly hide dark circles and blemishes and to remove any shine from my skin.
So having decided to give this a go for the blog, I wanted to show the difference on my face between what my skin looks like bare and with subtle makeup. I will be achieving this by doing a half and half photograph. One half of my face will be made up and the other will just be as it is – completely natural.
The image below shows me achieving this, and I don’t see a great difference unless you get very close up to my skin. The powder I chose has covered a few blemishes and the light application of mascara has enhanced my lashes just enough so my eyes look awake. Half my lip has lipstick on it, a shade similar to my own lip tone. If you look closely the bags under my eye have faded compared to the natural look of my skin and the powder also hides any pimples on show.
So what products have I used for the makeup half of this look. Well the mascara I used was a gentle application of Rimmel London’s Super Curler 24 hr Mascara (a little goes a long way).
The eyeshadow is from Makeup Revolution Elements 3 and is a light brown to match with the colour of my hair and eyes.
The lipstick I like to use is a natural look one which compliments my lip colour. It’s from L’oreal Paris Made for me Naturals collection and is for ‘Dark Brunettes’ Number 240. (I’m not even sure if they make this anymore but I bought several a couple of years ago and this is my last one).
And finally the powders I use are Rimmel London Stay Matte pressed powders in shades Silky Beige and Transparent, by using both I create an almost contour effect, using the lighter shade around my cheek bones and brow bones and the beige one for all over coverage. I finish with a very light dusting of Rimmel Lasting Finish Blush in Pink Rose, just patted onto my cheek with a brush.
I am interested to know what people think of my natural makeup application and look. As you can tell I like Rimmel London products! Do you have any product recommendations for me? I will leave you with a picture of myself from the other week, exactly the same makeup application but in some natural light where it can be appreciated a bit more.
Thank you for reading, have a lovely day.
★ Sabrina ★
Vita Coco sent me this fabulous box with a sample for me to use. Its description reads, ‘Eat It • Wear It • Swear By It’. Even before it arrived to me I already knew how I first wanted to use the coconut oil.
My hair is naturally curly and can be quite dry. I have read about a number of celebrities who swear by regular coconut oil hair treatments. After doing some reading I decided on the best way to test if the product would work on my hair. I would photograph myself during the initial day of testing to determine visual differences. What I hoped to see was shiny and smoother hair after the first use.
So what else can you use this coconut oil for? Cooking is one option, and I have a wonderful curry recipe that I plan to use it on. I would normally buy dried coconut but I think that the raw coconut may mix better and be more cost effective, because it’s so versatile in this state.
I’m very impressed with the colour because of how bold it is. As you can see on my swatch on my arm it’s a deep shade of purple, not as dark as it appears in bulk in the pot, but still a wonderfully bright shade. Although only a very small pot at 4.5g, I feel as though this makeup will go a long long way. I barely used any of the powder for the swatch and I know that with the correct brushes it can be blended well.
Thank you to VLA Cosmetics who got the prize to me very quickly and well packaged as well. I am very happy with the product, and having not tried any MAC makeup before, I am impressed with the pigment.
Spectrum Brushes are some of the most beautiful makeup brushes I have ever seen, no scratch that, they are definitely the prettiest I have seen! But what makes them so good? Well I decided I wanted to try them for myself and review them. So here I am in action, using these brushes and photographing them as I go, to give you an overall review of these unique looking products.
Being lightweight and soft the brushes are each designed for a specific makeup application. The shapes are specific to applying all kinds of makeup including Powder, Cream and Liquid. There are Eye Shadow, Foundation and Contour defining shapes as well as the general brushes for everyday use.
I kept hearing great things about the quality of these brushes from all over social media. And when I held them in my own hands and used them to apply makeup to my skin I could understand what all the fuss was about. Soft and shape specific, they made the application of my makeup products easy and precise.
I’m very pleased that I can add these stunning brushes to my collection, and I hope they last me for many years to come.
If you have enjoyed this review then please feel free to leave me a comment, and look out for more beauty reviews and pictures including these brushes in use, coming soon…
Day 3. Today I began to notice a few very tiny chips at the edge of my thumb and first finger. Not that noticeable though unless you were up close. This was bound to happen to me because of all the things that my hands go through every day. But it’s not bad enough to ruin the manicure. My nails are still a wonderful shade and are shiny, I have been both cooking and cleaning and typing the past 48 hours, so I am surprised they are in such good condition. So far so good!
Day 5. Other than a few minor chips my nails look great. The look and feel of he polish is still smooth and shiny which is what I would expect to see from a successful manicure. So far the quality of both the polish and the gel top coat is excellent.
Day 7. It’s been a week since the application and overall my nails look fabulous! The shine, colour and smoothness is still apparent and other than my thumb and first finger loosing some polish at the tips the manicure is still in a very good condition. When looking at them not close up you wouldn’t notice the chips.
Day 9. Today I inspected my nails and as you can imagine they are beginning to grow out now at the backs. Their pink lines stand out against the dark red colour painted upon them. Saying that though the look of my nail varnish is still very good. My first finger, thumb and middle finger are now beginning to look worse for wear, but from a distance you can’t tell very much.
Day 11. Not much difference in two days despite my daily duties. All of the nails are beginning to grow out now and most are chipped at the edges. Saying that I have never known a nail polish to last this long without me needing to remove and re-apply at least one of the finger nails.
Day 12. More growing out and a tiny bit more chipping, but otherwise my nails look great for having been applied 12 days ago! I’m starting to really like the quality of this product. It goes to show that when you apply things correctly it can really work in your favour, no wasting time reapplying polish every day or so.
Day 14. Time to remove the nail varnish, but I’m impressed with how well it’s lasted. My daily routine involves cooking and cleaning and I would’ve expected more chips than I have. As you can see in my photograph my nails have lasted reasonably well overall and I think if I were applying this nail polish long term it would be very useful investment knowing that when applied correctly it will last a minimum of a week, almost 14 days if looked after.
I was lucky enough to receive this incredible palette from Makeup Revolution London in my mystery bag in March. If you saw my mystery bag reveal here on my blog then you’ll remember it. I wanted to swatch this one and really test out the vibrancy of the colours. At first glance you can see how pigmented the shades are, especially some of the shimmer colours with glitter for extra sparkle.
Here are the 12 shimmer shades of eye shadow. I particularly like the darker shades, because that is how I would usually do my makeup style. As you can see from my swatches there are differences between the shades even those of similar colour like the blues. Luckily I think there are palettes that suit everyone, and there are palettes that people may use only a few of the colours included. I wouldn’t reach for the majority of these shades on a daily basis, but they are great for themed makeup and fancy dress nights out, or just matching with a bold outfit. The great thing about a set like this one is that those shadows are there when you need them, and you can use your regular palettes for the regular days of the week. Unless you love bright and bold as an everyday look in which case this palette is certainly for you!
Outfit 1. Skinny Jeans, Owls T-shirt, short sleeved Lace Cardigan and Black Boots.
Outfit 2. Skinny Jeans, Flowing Dip Hem Shell Top and Black Shoe Boots
Outfit 3. Skinny Jeans, short sleeved Bold Print T-shirt and printed Dolly Shoes.
Outfit 4. Skinny Jeans, Patterned Vest Top and Dolly Shoes
Outfit 5. Skinny Jeans, Striped Jumper and Black Boots
Outfit 6. Grey Jumper Dress with black skinny jeans and boots.
Outfit 7. Skinny Jeans, Statement T-shirt and Dolly Shoes.
I know a lot of bloggers do swatches of the colours in the palettes, but these aren’t brand new items so there will be plenty of people out there who have already reviewed them. I just wanted to give my honest opinion of them to you.
Swatch 1 – Iconic Smokey – ‘Silvery’
Here are my recent brush replacement purchases. I chose mostly eye specific brushes because I generally wear makeup on my eyes if nowhere else. The final and largest brush in this image is the new foundation one I ordered. Mine was old and looking worse for wear so I decided to replace it.