beauty

What’s new to my makeup bag.

IMG_5283I wanted to share with you some new drug store products that have made it into my makeup bag. numbered

  1. Rimmel London Lasting Finish Primmer. £6.99. This primmer is nice and moisturising, it is a little on the thick side but it does provide a nice smooth base for your foundation and it also has a slight shimmer to it making it illuminating too.
  2. Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in shade Light. £5.99. This concealer is really creamy goings on really well and blends out nicely with out drying out your under eyes.
  3. Revolution Baked Highlighter in Peach. £3.00. This is so gorgeous, I also have the Golden Lights shade but picked up Peach for a more rosy highlight. It is very pigmented and finely milled. It applies really well with a large fluffy brush and is pink without being too much perfect for my fair olive skin tone.
  4. La Cross Premier crease shadow blending brush. £2.49. I got this brush on Ebay, it is such high quality, super soft and fluffy while dense enough to make blending your crease shadows so easy.
  5. Max Factor Excess Shimmer in copper. £7.99. This is a creme high pigment shadow, its called copper although I would describe it as a rosey champagne, it has such a nice shimmer looks gorgeous swept across the whole lid or as a highlight on the inner corner.
  6. Sleep Makeup Divine Eye Palette in Au Naturel. £7.99. This is my absolute palette at the moment. I wear them during the day or night there’s such a good range and I have used every colour. The champagne shimmer in the top right is my favourite as well as the mauve matte brown, shimmer khaki and the shimmer deep plum. So pigmented and creamy they blend really well, stay put through out the day and when the shimmers are used with a damp brush they literally make your look.
  7. Revolution Ultra Bronzer. £3.00. This is a huge pan for the price, and a great build able cool matte bronzer which works for subtly warming up the complexion through to a full on contour. Great bronzer for fair skin.
  8. Maybelline Push Up Drama Mascara. £7.99. Oh My God! this is literally the best mascara ever. If you like slightly clumpy full lashes then this is amazing. It goes on so quick and instantly wow! and it lasts all day, doesn’t crumble and is flexible and comfortable on your lashes.
  9. Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in shade Vanilla. £9.99. I have tried other foundations but I just keep coming back to this one. I love hydrated dewy makeup at the moment and this is exactly that, it has a medium to high coverage and applies so nicely. I have the shade Vanilla 52 mixed in with Light Beige 53 depending how much colour I want. I also find these foundations to have yellow undertones, perfect for my olive skin. Other light foundations I have tried have been too rosey.
  10. Olay BB cream in fair. £9.99. I picked this one up the other day from Superdrug where Olay was buy one get one free. I got their complete lightweight day fluid and also picked up this bb cream as it was free. It is so hydrating and moisturising with a subtle hint of coverage. I like to use it on its own or under my foundation when I want a little extra coverage and hydration.

So these were my latest additions to my makeup bag and this below, is my makeup bag. I got it for Christmas its from RiverIsland and is quite large but its a perfect size for my everyday makeup and its just so pretty in Nude and rose gold leather.

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I am loving a super highlighted, dewy completion with a mauve and dark dusty pink smoky eye at the moment. I think I am trying to get into the spring session even if the weather isn’t ready to yet.

All of the products are available in Superdrug online or in store.

I also got my nails done today and for the first time in ages I have gone for a deep dusty pink. It’s OPI You Sustain me. When your fair and have dark eyes its hard to wear pinky pinks as they just don’t go with your skin tone but I would defiantly recommend trying a cooler pink such as a mauve shade or one with a brown tone to it.

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Our London Bedroom Tour

Hello everyone, I know I haven’t done a post in absolutely forever but today I wanted to talk about our bedroom. We will be moving in July and I wanted to do a post on our room, how we decorated it and made the space work for us before we move.
So we are currently renting a 4 Bedroom Victorian Terraced House in Greenwich I have been living here for 3 years and Zac moving in with me last year.  Our room is on the top floor, we have the whole floor to our selves as it’s an attic conversion. It is large but it is a bit of an irregular shape and it has sloping ceilings which limits the wall space and head room (but we are both short so its fine for us).

When renting, you are limited with what you can do, so work with what’s there. When I moved, this bedroom was part furnished. It had a large bed with a massive headboard which was taller than the wall which meant the bed was away from the wall and kind of abandoned in the middle of the floor, there was a chest of drawers which matched the bed, a wicker arm chair and a side table. We moved the arm chair into the living room down stairs. I put the chest of doors and side table into one of the other bedrooms but the bed was too big to dismantle so I decided to keep it in the room and make it work.

I took the headboard out of the posts to open it up and turned it round to use the foot board as the headboard; this allowed me to push the bed up against the wall maximizing the floor space. When Zac moving in we needed more storage space. So we looked on Gumtree.com. Gumtree is perfect if you want a furnish a room when your renting as you don’t want to be investing loads of money if you are going to be moving in the near future. There is so much Ikea furniture on Grumtree for under £20 most of it barely used and in perfect condition and its already put together so no flat pack disasters.

So here’s our room.

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The room is light and bright as there are two sky lights in the bedroom and one in the en suite. We chose white bedding as it makes the room seem even brighter and therefore bigger. We also hung an over the door mirror over the door to the en suite to maximize the space. We have gone for mostly dark furniture with a few warm beach wood pieces to tie the sky light frames with the bed we added a light wood washing basket and tv stand to bring it together. We also chose to ascent the room with coppers and metallics to add different textures and sophistication to the room.

We wanted the room to be tidy but livable so we kept a lot of things open like the cube storage in dark wood which we keep in the cubby hole (as we call it) we have filled it with photos, books, our initials and special things. We also keep the products that we use every day out on top of the dresser to make things easier in the mornings.

And this is my desk -I am very proud of it, I love how its all black and this desk lamp with wood and copper details (from George at Asda!) goes so well with everything. Before I put the desk in, this space was unused and it just looked messy but this Ikea Micke Desk fits perfectly between the dresser and the wall giving my enough headroom to sit comfortably and work and it has plenty of storage. I keep my hair dryer, straighteners and curlers in the cupboard on the left, paperwork in the to drawer and stationary in the smaller drawer.

Moving on now to our en suite. It’s neutrally decorated with a cream tiled floor cream walls, glass walk in shower and glass sink. To tie it in with our bedroom with have some black and beach wood ascents and grey towels.

Next to the bathroom in a large build in cupboard. It has a sloping ceiling again but we use it as our wardrobe where we store our hung clothes, shoes and our extra bits and pieces. It’s not that exciting but here you go …

Everything in our room is inexpensive and can easily to taken with us when we move. Like I said before Gumtree is amazing for getting cheap furniture. I picked up this 5 drawer Ikea Kullen chest of drawers for £15, Two 3 drawer Ikea Kullen dressers sold as a pair for £25 and this Ikeas Micke Desk for £10.

ikea gumtree furniture

Primark candles smell so good and are so cheap. I have the Cedarwood & Myrrh glass candle on our bedside as well as in the bathroom. I also have their vanilla defuser in the bathroom, a vanilla column candle in the lantern, a vanilla and coconut jar candle on the side and vanilla tea lights in everything else 🙂 I love to lite candles at night and it keeps the room smelling amazing.  All the other ascents in the room are  from the highstreet, the copper bowl and gold tea light holder is from George Asda and the black wire basket is from H&M.

I hope you enjoyed having a look round our bedroom. If you have an questions or comments leave them bellow. Have a lovely day.

Marble details.

Take a look at my gorgeous new marble phone case. It’s so simple and minimal it works so well. I love marble accents -they work so well to break up a natural decor in the house and now my phone adds that perfect accent to my outfits too.

 It’s monochrome simplicity will go with anything so for me it makes the perfect case for my phone.

This case is by Gmyle and was a reasonable price at £5.99. I like how it looks against my iPhone 6 gold, it doesn’t cover the entire border of the phone so the gold shows through along the top, bottom and buttons on the sides. Really pretty and cute.  I love this so much I think I might need to add a few more marble pieces to my collection.

Rimmel London Nudes.

I am a real fan of Kate Moss’s lip stick collection for Rimmel London. They come in such a great range of colours, they are really long lasting and costing only £4.99 from most dug stores -they are my go to lippy. Kate Moss recently brought out a new Nude Collection and again I was not disappointed.

This new collection features 5 gorgeous lipsticks in a range of beige shades, a clear lip conditioner and 5 nail polishes in an irresistible range of nudes. The collection is so on trend for this season and will see you through the summer and well into autumn/winter. For me it’s their lipsticks again that have caught my eye. I have purchased shades 43 and 48, 43 is a buttery caramel colour, it’s not far off my natural lip colour but just takes away the pink tone so it works really well against my olivey skin. 48 on the other hand is a rich dark beige almost chocolate, which would made a perfect nude against dark skin but for me it works as a chcocolately statement lipstick -I love it because it is still defiantly a beige shade and not a red or plum tone. There is a colour to compliment every skin tone and with its same long lasting finish as in Kate’s previous collections they will last. Perfect against your summery skin.

What’s in my makeup bag.

I recently had a sort out of all my makeup. It was such a mess -eye shadow dust and black liner splodges everywhere. The other morning I had a rummage for my tweezers my hands got so covered in makeup, I’d had enough. From that point I knew I needed to have a sort out. I had all sorts in my makeup bag, things I hadn’t used in ages and all just taking up space and making it even harder to find what I am looking for.

It is always good to have a sort out, make up is expensive and you don’t want to be chucking everything away but most makeup products have a 12 month use by date on them so it is important for hygiene to throw away old products. It is best to invest in products you know you are going to use everyday to make your money go further. I cleaned up all my makeup and washed my brushes and then sorted them in to the products I use most often and ones that I might use again in the future.

This little beige makeup bag was an absolute bargain from Newlook it was £3 in the sale. It’s a nice size as it fits all of my essentials with out take up too much room in my hand bag if I need to do my makeup on the go.

I would probably say I buy most of my makeup from Boots as your points add up quickly on my Boots card and their products are often on 3 for 2. Here is a list of my must haves right now.

Maybelline Lash Sensational Lah Multiplying Mascara £7.99

Maybelline Fit Me! concealer £5.99

Boujour Smokey Eye Trio £7.99

Boujour Healthy Mix Foundation £9.99

Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Liner £7.99

Rimmel Professional Eye Brow Pencil £2.99

Rimmel London Good to Glow Highlighter £4.99

Rimmel London Lasting Finish Lipstick by Kate Moss £5.45

Makeup bag -Newlook £3

Brush set -Amazon £6

Maybelline Fit Me Concealer Sand 20. Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara Very Black 1Rimmel Professional Eyebrow Pencil Black/BrownBourjois Healthy Mix Foundation Beige 54

Bourjois Smoky Eyes Trio Eyeshadow Nude Ingenu 4Rimmel London Good To Glow Highlighter Notting Hill Glow 1Makeup Revolution Matte Concealer Stick 01 FairestMaybelline Eye Studio Gel Liner Black

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick By Kate Moss 38Body Collection Eyelash Curlers

If you are interested in how I contour my face. I have the quickest and simplest steps for everyday contouring, link bellow -Complexion Perfection.

https://katielouisaclarke.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/complexion-perfection/

The perfect trim at home.

Getting your hair cut professionally is always going to guarantee you a good hair cut but sometimes there’s no time to get to the hairdressers and when you just want a trim to loose those scruffy ends I can’t see the harm in doing it yourself. I have very long, brunette hair which comes to almost my waist at the back, my hair is extremely thick so I have a couple of layers put in to lift the weight and a few slightly sorter pieces around the front to frame my face. I like me hair to be easy to wear and style, I like not having to worry about my hair or what it is doing during that day. This may not be the best technique for you and your hair type but if your hair is long then I’d give this a go.

You should always cut your hair immediately after washing when it is still damp as this makes it easier to get a clean cut. First of all I separate out the top section of my hair (from just above my ears) and clip it in a bun on top of my head out of the way, leaving the bottom section down. I then divide the bottom section into two and bring all my hair round to the front. I brush through the lengths of the hair to ensure they are smooth. I then clamp my hair between my first two fingers and draw down to about an inch before the ends; using sharp scissors I cut about 2cm off the ends of my hair. Always cut parallel to the ends of the hair to keep it even and consistent. Do this on both sides until you are satisfied the hair is even. By bringing all your hair round to the front and cutting it straight across this will result in the back being slightly longer than the front this helps it fall more naturally and give it a slight V shape.

Next take down the bun and again brush through the hair. Divide the top section into two, the top back section (the crown) and the top front section. Take the back section and gather all the hair up vertically from the head. Again clamp the hair between the first and second finger and drag through to the ends maintaining the vertical of the hair. Again snip about 2cm off the ends of your hair. Let go of the hair and let it fall into place. Cutting it vertically gives your hair layers with out horrible staggered straight lines, this way will give it a feathered softer finish.

Repeat this with the front section. I like to ensure the front section is a little shorted than the back to give me the framing pieces around my face. Afterwards I let it fall again and ruffle it up to see how it looks. It’s good to gather the top section up vertically one more time to check the hair is even through out.

That’s it! It’s that simple. Cut away the dodgy edges from the bottom section of hair and then do the same with the top section but vertically from the head, cut to a straight line and let it fall.

Complexion Perfection.

Everyone’s skin in different but I wanted to share with you how I like to achieve a glowing complexion. For me I believe it’s all about creating highlights and shadows with a slight dewiness to make your skin appear healthy and fresh. I like to start with Bourjois Radiance Reveal Healthy Mix foundation “for a healthy glow and flawless complexion” I apply this evenly and not to heavily across my whole face, this will act as a base for the other products so I like to keep it as light as possible whilst achieving full coverage, I also like to apply it with a medium foundation brush to ensure coverage. If you are in a hurry I like to pretty much leave it there as this foundation isn’t too masking your skin looks great just from this but for the true rich glow it’s time to contour and highlight.

So next I take Maybelline Fit Me concealer in Chestnut. it’s important to choose a concealer that is at least 3 shades darker than your skin tone because you are going to blend it into the natural shadows of your face to give it greater depth. So using the concealer draw a line following the hollow under your cheek bones and across your forehead close to your hair line and then using a beauty sponge blend it out, working the colour until it softens and blends into the foundation below. Subtly is the key.

Next you need to lift the highlights of your face; under your eyes, down your nose and into your T zone. For this I like to use a Light Foundation stick in the fairest shade. I draw a triangle under each eye and then a large T shape down my nose and up into my forehead. Then using my finger I like the blend and soften this colour into the foundation below. You have now created a complexion filled with highlights, mid tones and shadows that give structure to your face.

Finally I like to finish with Rimmel London’s Up and Glow highlighter, it’s a shimmer cream that sits perfectly when applied to the peak of the cheek bones and above the brow for that added glow.  I accompany my complexion with a lick of mascara and i’m ready to go for that fresh faced look.

Contouring can be extremely complex but I find this simplified technique works well and looks great for everyday makeup.

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Want to know how to keep that summer tan for longer, click here.

https://katielouisaclarke.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/glowing/

Want help finding the right foundation for your skin tone, click here.

https://katielouisaclarke.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/my-top-two-foundations/

Glowing.

Since getting back from holiday 2 weeks ago my tan is slowly fading but I’m determined to keep the glow for as long as possible.  The best thing you can do for your skin is keep it hydrated. Use a light weight body mosterisor so your skin stays plump but not caked in a greasy residue, I find it best to do this at night before bed so it has all night to seep in. Similarly your shower routine is very important I’m using Right Guard’s shower oil it’s rich in argon, almond and coconut oils -great for your skin and smells amazing. It’s good to buff your skin over with the palm of your hand as not to scrub your tan away.

And finally for finishing touches I use Body Shop’s bronzing dry oil on my arms and legs to add that extra glow especially now my natural colour is fading a little.

 

A post on the perfect glowing makeup to match your glowing tan is to come, so stay tuned! 😀

A good mani.

A girl with a good manicure projects confidence and professionalism. You can’t hide your hands, we use them for everything from greeting someone to simply scrolling through our phones.

I like to paint my nails just as much as the next girl but I was struggling to find the point. I would always choose a nice shade and it would look great for the first day but after a while and after I’ve washed up a few dishes and tidied the house twice my nails would always be left chipped and broken. I would then struggle to find time to redo them so they just continue to slowing chip away till I’m left with that horrible little patch of colour in the centre of each nail.

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I have just started a new job and shabby nails were not an option. First impressions matter even down to the colour of your fingers and toes. So I decided to get my nails done. I’ve never thought it was worth it before but now seemed as good a time as any to give it a go.

shades of nude

I had my nails shellacked. Basically its the same as painting your natural nails like you would at home, but the special formula sets like rock under UV light leaving your nails feeling super strong and so glossy. The brand I used was CND Shellac -they come is a huge array of colours. I am wearing Field Fox its a gorgeous dusky nude pink shade. If I wasn’t at work I would probably try a darker mauve colour, or a striking red or black. CND claims it will last chip free for 14 days, It’s currently day 4 and so far it looks as fresh as the day I had it done -Yay Sucsess! Hav a found a polish that actully lasts? I will keep you posted on how it looks on day 14 and whether I feel it is worth spending the little extra money on it.

For inspiration and my favourite shades check out my nails board on Pintrest.

Thanks for reading everybody. A follow up post is to come shortly. Have you had any experience with Shellac? leave your comments and views below. Lots of love 🙂 xx

What’s in my handbag.

I try not to carry too much around with me, but like every girl after a busy week I always seam to end up collecting a bundler of useless clutter: screwed up memos, pens, lipsticks and old tickets. Its always good to keep on top of it and have a good clear out when ever you can.
I think the best thing to remember is to pack light -Keep your hand bag organised and tidy. Its always better to have room for the odd extra thing than carry around a full heavy bag every day. In my bag I have my purse, phone, headphones and sunglasses and then purfume, lipstick and nail polish to keep my touched up and fresh. I hardly ever carry around makeup with me- its heavy for one and I don’t feel the urge to keep touching it up, I think I look worse by the end of the day when I’ve piled layer on to layer so I just leave my makeup when I’m out and about.

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Handbag Asos.  £30
Purse new look.   £12.99
Lipstick Revlon in nude.  £7.99
Perfume Miss Dior.   £40
Sunglasses h&m.   £4.99
Nail polish Barry m in matte mocha.   £3.99
Headphones Betron noise cancelling in gold.  £19.99
Phone case Amazon matte burgundy case.   £2.99

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If I had to pick only one item to be in my bag forever it would have to be my headphones, life is always better with some tunes to keep you going.
I hoped this has been helpful and I’d love to hear what your couldn’t live without, handbag essential is? Feel free to leave it in the comments below 🙂
Lots of love x