NIP + FAB FACE MASKS.

I recently purchased two Nip + Fab face masks - the Glycolic Instant Fix Mask and the Dragons Blood Fix Plumping Mask. For anybody that knows me well they should know how much I love this brand so I was eager to try them out for a quick fix on my skin and I can definitely vouch for how good these products are! I worked pretty solidly over the Christmas period and wore make-up pretty much every day and that was really showing on my skin. Although I was cleansing every day, I needed a change, so I decided to take a chance on these two.

I tried the Glycolic Instant Fix Mask first - like it says on the label it contains glycolic acid which refines skin texture and smoothes the appearance of wrinkles - luckily something I'm not starting to show signs of just yet but why not start early! It also contains amino acids to brighten and even the skin tone, which was one of my main concerns as my skin was looking so dull. With this mask you have to apply a thin layer and leave for 10 minutes. I always tend to leave masks like this longer, they aren't clay masks and don't tend to prevent your face from moving so they don't leave you itching to remove the minute it dries. About 15 minutes after application, I went straight to the bathroom to remove with a warm flannel, my skin felt so smooth afterwards, and definitely a lot brighter. I would 100% recommend this mask to anyone who feels like their skin needs some life injected into it (not literally).

The Dragon Blood Fix Plumping Mask had high expectations to live up to as I use the Dragons Blood Fix Serum. Obviously containing dragons blood which comforts and restores the skin by hydrating it to the max, it also contains hyaluronic acid which also hydrates the skin - both of these hydrating ingredients combine to create gorgeously smooth and plump skin, which is what I had after washing off this mask - again, I applied a generous layer, this time a thick one, and then left for about 15 minutes before rinsing with a warm flannel. This mask can also be used as an overnight mask so I'm eager to try that! This is definitely my favourite of the two but I think I'm slightly biased due to my love for the Dragons Blood Serum - both of these products definitely help to maintain a youthful complexion.

I'm definitely falling head over heels in love for Nip + Fab as I use so many of their products and have yet to find one that I don't like! Have you tried any Nip + Fab products? If so, what did you think?

BENEFIT AIR PATROL.

The Benefit Air Patrol eye primer is something I've had my eye on since the spectacular press event in which many of the YouTubers/bloggers I follow were invited to. Lunch, 100ft in the air - probably the best promotional launch I've ever heard of. I thought it was so original and it automatically made me so intrigued by the product itself.

Air Patrol is a multi purpose product. It's a BB Cream Eyelid Primer with SPF 20, and contains EnviroDefend Complex which is known to protect your eyelids from sun, smoke and pollutants. Eyelids are one of the most delicate parts of your body - a thin piece of skin that acts to protect your eye, so it really is a part of the body we should start to pay more attention to, and look after! Alongside this, Air Patrol acts acts as an eyelid primer, preventing eyeshadow from creasing, fading or smearing. According to Benefit statistics, 91% of women said that Air Patrol helped to extend the longevity of their eyeshadow - how can they be wrong!?

One of my favourite things about Benefit as a brand is their packaging, and Air Patrol is by far my favourite. I love the simplicity of the packaging, but the fact that the lid of the product looks almost like a wing. The product also features a CushionCalm tip which is a super soft rubbery applicator meaning that the direct application won't put any added pressure on the delicate parts of the eyelid. No harm done.

I've used this a few of times, once or twice with eyeshadow and the other times on it's own and I must say, compared to the primer I usually use on my eyelids, it's a winner! My eyeshadow lasted all day/all night and through lots of tears (one one occasion, but I swear they were happy tears!) It also works as a brilliant cover for any dark or veiny eyelids - something I'm not particularly prone to but it did create a nice smooth texture on my eyelids.

Overall - this product is a big winner for me! Packaging ticks all of the boxes and so does the way the product works. Well done Benefit! Super impressed!

CLEANING MY MAKEUP BRUSHES.

Today I took on the mammoth task of cleaning my make-up brushes. It's something we all despise, but it needs to be done. Make-up brushes can harbour all kinds of bacteria - let's face it, it's something that's used all over our face, eyes, lips and anywhere else you apply make-up on a regular basis. If they are your personal make-up brushes, they may not need to be cleaned as often as those that belong to a make-up artist and are perhaps used on a number of clients. I like to try and clean my personal brushes as often as possible, and there are a number of ways to do so.

First of all - you want to find a product to clean your brushes with. When we talk about cleaning the brushes, we mean the bristles - not necessarily the handles which can be wiped down with a cloth or a make-up wipe of some variety. I've used a variety of different products - shampoo, baby shampoo, a solid cleanser, a liquid anti-bacterial soap, a regular brush cleaner - all of which do the trick, but I think it's all about finding a personal preference. I've heard about using Olive Oil but I haven't tried that and I'm not all that convinced that using a product that you use to cook food is all that good on your face. At the moment I've been using the Dr. Bronner 18 in 1 Pure Castille Soap in the scent Rose, (I purchased mine from ASOS, but you can buy it in a lot of other places) but you can use anything you like that does the job properly. I'd also recommend Johnson's Baby Shampoo, BeautyBlender Solid Cleanser and if you're in a fix - regular shampoo.

Let's talk as though you are using a liquid product (anything that's not a solid cleanser). You need to put a little amount in your hand and massage the brush into the product until the residue begins to appear the colour of the product originally on your brushes. When rinsing the product from the brush, you need to make sure that you are angling the brush downwards so that you don't get water into the ferrule (the metal bit) which is where the bristles are glued into place - any water in here and the bristles can get dislodged and eventually begin to shed.

I used to use the product in my hands, but after a few brushes I found it became uncomfortable so I started to put the cleanser on my make-up mixing palette and rub the brushes onto that instead, it worked a lot better and my hands felt a lot nicer as opposed to beforehand. This works brilliantly and gives my mixing palette a good clean too!

Once their cleaned, I give them a good squeeze and set them back to their original shape so that they dry nicely. Some of my denser brushes don't always rinse that well so more often than not I'll have to go back and rinse them out again. I then use an old tea-towel (nothing fancy at all), and roll up the end slightly so that the handles are higher than the bristles when drying - again, this stops any residue or water build up in the ferrule so prevents bristles from shedding.

I know it's tedious but it's something you MUST do! If you haven't done so lately, go and clean your brushes now!

CHANEL SOLEIL TAN DE CHANEL

The Chanel Soleil Tan De Chanel is an iconic product and something I had my eye on for the longest period of time - perhaps the product I own that I lusted after for the longest - and I can safely say it was worth it. As a Chanel product, it was pricey but I treated myself to it as a gift for finishing university with a 2:1. First of all, the lady on the counter when I purchased it was the most helpful person, and definitely represented Chanel with style and class - something I always love to see. She explained the product fully to me and told me all of the different ways in which I could use it.

The product itself is a cream bronzer - something I'd never ever worked with but always wanted to. It's also one of those products that's so pretty you don't actually ever want to use it - it took me a while, but eventually I did!

I use it two different ways - one way is to use it to bronze up your skin, which is going to be perfect when it comes to Summer and my upcoming holiday. I use my Real Techniques Contour Brush and buff it into the skin instead of using a powder bronzer. Over application can give an orangey-muddy look but if used correctly it can give you a bronze goddess summer glow which looks gorgeous.

Another way that I use it is as a cream contour product - I use the Real Techniques Bold Metals 301 brush which is a dense, flat contour brush. The density of this brush means that it doesn't suck up any of the product and creates a stiff line of contour on your skin. I line the outer parts of my hairline, my temples, hollows of my cheekbones, chin and nose with this product, apply whatever concealer/foundation I'm using to the blank sections of my face and then blend together using a Beauty Blender.

One thing I can say about this product is a little for sure goes a long way - it looks as though it's hardly been touched so I know it will last me a long time!

TOO FACED BETTER THAN SEX?

The Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara has been at the top of some peoples make-up must haves for a while now, so I bought it for myself with some birthday money that I had. Considering I'd never tried anything from Too Faced before, needless to say I was eager to try it.

One of the first things that I noticed was the packaging - I've always been a fan of Too Faced's packaging, it's so iconic and allows you to immediately recognise the brand. The mascara tube feels as though it's made of metal, and is relatively heavy for a mascara however that didn't put me off at all.

The wand itself is relatively big and the hourglass shaped applicator is thick and at first glance seems as though it would give a false lash effect. The statistics on the packaging state that 90% of users saw a dramatic look with one coat so I had high hopes for this mascara, especially as I'd seen so many people raving about it.

The rumours were definitely true about this! It adds a lot of volume, although not that much length but it definitely adds a lot of drama. At first, I had to let this mascara dry a little as the formula is a little too wet for my liking, however once it had dried out the mascara was perfect for me and on first impressions alone has quickly become one of my favourite go to mascaras to use. I would definitely recommend a careful application, however, purely because the applicator is so big and if you wear mascara on your lower lashes then be even more careful with the application.

I'll definitely be using more products from this brand purely on the impression of this one product. 

Go Too Faced!

SHOW TIME MAKE UP.

I've been meaning to write this post for months. MONTHS. In June this year, I was in a professional production of Cabaret, performed and managed by the students, lecturers and professionals at Canterbury Christ Church University. It was an honour to be chosen to be a cast member and to work with the rest of the team and it was one of the most fun months of my life. I'd always been involved in the annual musical, having previously been part of the wardrobe team for Zombie Prom, and The Witches of Eastwick but this year was my first time on the stage and it was exhilarating. We rehearsed intensively for a month which was hard work but performing was one of the best feelings and it was honestly the best way to end my experience at university. Onto this post - one of my favourite ways to wind down before show time was to do my make-up.. quite often involved some tantrums with my false eyelashes but we got there in the end! It was a very stylised make-up look and with practice it became like second nature for me to apply.. this post is going to list the products I used and details of how I applied my stage make-up.. get yourself a tea, it's going to be a long one!

Okay, first of all let's give a brief description of the show - Cabaret is set in Germany, during the rise of the Nazi party and the whole show is set around the Kit Kat Klub, a seedy underground club where the tables are linked via telephone. Very naughty! Anyway, my character, Maria is zee baby of the Kit Kat Girls, the dance team in the club. The whole look for the girls in the club was very specific to the era, and although at first it was different and difficult to do, it ended up being so much fun to replicate!

So rather than starting with face, I would always start with my hair. Due to the babyish nature of my character, I had the easiest hairstyle! Two pigtails, right on top of my head. At first, they were curled however it proved to be too time consuming, so I decided to use my Babyliss Wave Envy to crimp them. I then used the Colab Extreme Volume Dry Shampoo, alongside a little teasing, for extra texture and volume. Finished them off with a little bit of ribbon and my hair was done - see I told you it was easy!

Moving onto face. Before I'd actually done my hair I'd coated my eyebrows with Vaseline - funny, but for the first couple of shows I used a tinted Vaseline and managed to have pink eyebrows for a while! So I coated them with Vaseline in order to slick all the hairs down before applying Grimas Eyebrow Plastic. We had to block out our eyebrows, but I'll explain more about redrawing them later! So to use the Grimas Eyebrow Plastic, you need to apply thin coats with a spatula, it looks horrifying, but once it's dry and covered with concealer or foundation it looks brilliant. All of the other girls used a glue stick, but because my eyebrows were thicker it worked a lot better for me to use this!

After eyebrows I moved onto priming my face - I used The Body Shop Instablur Primer (similar to Maybelline Baby Skin and Benefit Porefessional) I didn't feel like theatrical stage make up required a dewy finish so I chose something to mattify, and whilst that sunk into my skin I attached some surgical micropore tape to the outer corners of my eyes in order to make a harsh edge. I went onto applying my eye make up before a base because I had to use a lot of black so I wanted to avoid any fallout. I used a LaRoc 120 Summer Tones palette - basically the same as a BH Cosmetics 120 palette but I think cheaper. I used a grey tone as a transition shade, and then started to use black in and above the crease - as we were moving our eyebrows further up, it made sense to be able to blend our eyeshadow higher. I used a Grimas Greasepaint in Purple for all over the lid and then set it with a purple eyeshadow from the LaRoc palette - I made sure there was a harsh line along the crease to look almost like a cut crease and carried on using the purple along the lower lashline. I then used a Barry M Dazzle Dust in Gold for the inner corner and blended it into the eyeshadow on the upper lid. I tightlined my upper waterline using a Rimmel Scandaleyes Eye Shadow Stick in Blackmail- I hate tightlining, I find it really awkward so I used a chubbier pencil as it covers more in a quicker space of time. I then used a Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil in Pure White to line the lower waterline. I applied the Charlotte Tilbury Full Fat Lashes mascara to my upper and lower lashes, before adding a set of Ardell Demi Wispies. To complete the eyes I used the Illamasqua Precision Gel Liner to cover the band of the false eyelashes and make the lashes look fuller.

From eyes, I moved back to the eyebrows, using the MAC Pro Longwear Concealer and a Beauty Blender to dab concealer onto them. This used a large amount of product, so I wanted to use something full coverage in lots of thin layers. I then set using the MAC Select Sheer Pressed Powder which was then lost during the performance process. Sad times. I moved onto base and used the MAC Pro Longwear Nourishing Waterproof Foundation which I swear is an absolute Godsend. I made sure to use a Beauty Blender on and around the eyebrows in order to avoid moving the Eyebrow Plastic. I then used the Pro Longwear Concealer again to conceal and highlight the face. I dampened the Beauty Blender using MAC Mineralize Charged Water to blend in the concealer. I love using a spray like this, it's so handy when you're not really near a sink!  I went onto contour using the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit and like always, using the shades Java and Fawn, however this time I used a brush that was a lot more dense in order to create a harsh contour line. I used a fluffier brush for the jawline and hairline and slightly on the nose. I went in next with a bright pink blusher - Hussy by Illamasqua. I applied this mainly on the apples of my cheeks but blended alongside the contour. We were working from a photograph for inspiration and her cheeks were so pink so I chose the brightest blusher I had!

After blusher, I decided to bake in order to create a harsh contour and bright under eye. If you don't know what baking is, it's where you apply a loose powder and leave it to set for a pro-longed period of time. I used the MAC Prep and Prime Loose Translucent Powder with a small triangular sponge underneath the contour line, and everywhere I had highlighted (forehead, chin, under eyes, nose and cupids bow) and left it to set whilst I finished my make-up. I actually went to mic check and vocal warm up like this, getting some odd looks from the band and the rest of the crew!

After this I went onto lips where I used a Essence Lipliner in Wish Me A Rose to line the lips, followed by a Rimmel Colour Burst Lip Crayon in a pink/red colour (I don't remember the shade) and sealed it with a coat of Lipcote which I had never used but love! My lipstick didn't even come off after cleansing!

I drew on a new set of eyebrows which proved difficult - they were probably different for each show. I used a L'Oreal Super Liner Perfect Slim in Intense Black at first however I felt as though they looked too harsh and by the end of the show I was using the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade in Medium Brown as the brown colour made them look a lot better, and as natural as they could possibly look.

After this, my face was finished - after mic check and vocal warm up, I dusted off the loose translucent powder from baking, and applied The Balm Mary Lou Manizer highlighter everywhere! Tops of the cheekbones, forehead, chin, cupids bow, and tip of the nose. I felt as though the highlighter really allowed my little girl character to come to life!

That was the finished product, requiring a lot of make-up and lots of touch ups throughout the performance! Stage make-up is possibly my favourite as it requires a lot of work but you become a completely new person through it! For anyone wondering too, this week my skincare routine proved to be very important and I used the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser to remove the make-up at the end of the day. Cream Cleansers can be heavy duty and therefore brilliant for removing stage make-up!


Be prepared for lots more posts now I've finally found the motivation to blog again - including lots more about stage make-up!

BEDSIDE BEAUTY #1.

We all have those beauty products we just can't live without and some of those live in the top drawer of my bedside cabinet - making them easy to reach for before bed, and when I wake up in the morning. There's not many products are lucky enough to be one of the first things I want when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I want at night but these are the lucky few..

First of all, the most used and definitely most important is a bottle of water. 'That's not a beauty product' I hear you say, but it is. Water has many health benefits especially upon the skin, staying hydrated keeps your skin looking plump and young, which is one of the many reasons I always have a bottle next to my bed. You'll also find the Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream, used more often than not a a lip balm however it can be used as a thick protective moisturiser and hand cream. I much prefer to use it as a lip balm, however as I love to keep my lips nourished and hydrated, especially when I go to bed. One slick application of this and my lip's definitely aren't dry in the morning. I keep a Witch Blemish Stick there at all times as it's something I swear by for any spots or blemishes - a generous application on top of a clean face at night time and it helps to keep all my unwanted friends at bay! Enough said there really.. Alongside this skincare favourite is my night cream - it's the Simple Kind to Skin Vital Vitamin Night Cream, It's thick so you only need the tiniest amount imaginable. I haven't been using it for long enough to be able see a difference yet, which is a reason I keep it in my bedside drawer - to remind me to use it! The final few bits are some scrunchies .. I like to sleep with my hair up sometimes and these are the most comfortable things to wear your hair in (although I feel like I'm secretly reliving my 90's childhood). I also keep two pairs of glasses and my television remote controls for my Sunday night CSI/NCIS marathons..