The Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette review

Too Faced has forever been my holy grail in terms of eyeshadows, I always find myself reaching for them over others and so I thought it was about time to get my hands on the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette after seeing so many positive reviews. So as any other makeup lover would do, I hastily added it to the top of my Christmas wish list and was very pleased to have received it this year. 

What I love most about Too Faced eyeshadows is the pigmentation, and the Chocolate Bar palette is no exception. These colours are beautifully pigmented and creamy making them easily blendable with the perfect amount of neutral to rosy colours to suit all skin shades. Like most Too faced palettes this one comes with two highlighting shades in ' White Chocolate' and ' Champagne Truffle' which are larger than the other pans which is greatly appreciated as I always find myself using up these lighter shades quicker than the others. 

This palette has the perfect combination of matte, satin and shimmery finishes, with eyeshadow trends evolving from the classic all matte, this palette provides beauty lovers with the ability to change up they're look but still provides shades which are soft, subtle and still equally as beautiful as they're neighbouring sparkly shades. 

Other than the extraordinary pigmentation and selection of colours Too faced have also created this product with cocoa powder giving the palette the outside appearance of a Chocolate Bar but also the smell! I think this is such a lovely and unique idea for a makeup product and it has truly made me a lover of the brand and this palette. I will deffinetly be adding this product to my 2014 favourites. 

Katie

you can also find me on Instagram and Twitter.

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Perfect Summer hair and skin

With the heat rolling in it's all about hydrating to keep your hair and skin looking healthy...

With Christmas coming to an end and New years approaching the days have been getting hotter and dryer with some days being so unbearably hot I've found myself not wanting to leave my well conditioned house. With this extreme weather I have been thinking how much my beauty routine changes over the seasons and in particular this one. There's no more delving into my deliciously fragrant moisturisers or hair products that are almost edible but instead the only thing that i've been concerned with beauty wise is moisturising and nourishing. I thought this would be the perfect time to update you on how I keep my skin as well as my hair looking and feeling healthy throughout this incredibly dry and humid season. 

What I find the most difficult is finding relatively cheaper products which are going to provide my skin and hair with the nourishment it needs to 'survive' this season, most of the products I use are from mid to high range simply because I find that the quality is so much better and my money is well spent because the job is done well. My two loves throughout this time for my skin are Estee Lauder and Clinique skin care, separate they are wonderful, combined they work magic!

I use the clinique 3 step skin care range all throughout the year, it keeps my skin healthy clear and truly brings down redness and has decreased those nasty spots by quite a bit. However, throughout summer I desperately need a moisturiser which is thick, creamy and will sink into my skin to really hydrate. I have found switching out the clinique 'dramatically different moisturising' lotion for the clinique 'even better skin tone correcting' moisturiser a great help for hydrated skin while trying to stick within the same brand. This moisturiser is amazing, it takes a little while to sink in but it is incredibly thick and moisturises my face very well, the scent is also pleasant and fresh. The big bonus about this product is that is has SPF which is perfect, particularly if you sunburn as easily as I do. 

Body wise I like to apply the Lush ' Vanilla dee light' body moisturiser to my skin in the morning and night after I shower, it has a super lovely scent which isn't too overpowering. It has a thinner consistency so it spreads well across your skin and you don't need to use a whole lot. This is my favourite moisturiser to use on my body, its very hydrating and light on the skin which is great during the heat, I can't stand wearing a moisturiser which feels heavy or sticky on my body particularly when I'm outside in the heat already feeling gross from humidity. So this moisturiser is most definitely perfect for the hot summer months. 

In terms of hair I have been using a new shampoo and hair masque. Both combined work miracles. I have very curly and frizzy hair which can be very temperamental ranging from dry to oily. What I need most during this season is something that is going to really moisturise, nourish and tame frizz. I find these two products do just that. The shampoo I have been using is the renewing argan oil of morocco by Organix and the hair masque (which I have been using without guilt as a conditioner) is the macadamia natural oil deep repair masque. Both smell amazing but what I love most is they leave my hair so incredibly smooth, soft and shiny. 

After a week of using these products my hair was notably less frizzy and dry with my ends looking so much more healthy. I have also started to reuse my moroccan oil treatment in combination with these two products which has just made my hair that much better. I have to use this one through damp hair as as I said my hair can be oily so adding extra isn't going to help it any. This product adds extra shine to my hair, tames frizz and has deffinetly made a contribution to the healthiness of hair at the moment. 

All of these products have tremendously aided in rescuing my hair and skin from the weather this season. In honesty, I deffinetly recommend all of these products, while most are pricey as I mentioned before it is most deffinetly worth the investment. If you haven't tried out any of the Clinique products mentioned in this post I recommend checking out the smaller ml 3 step skin care that Clinique offers for a lower cost.

Let me know if you have tried any of these products and how you felt they helped out your skin and hair this season.

Katie

you can also find me on Instagram and Twitter.

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Beauty Halloween Makeup: Mermaid Tutorial

Halloween is tomorrow so I thought I would quickly fit in another Halloween tutorial before the day approaches. This time I've gone for something a bit more girly and feminine a Mermaid! This one wasn't as quick as the vampire tutorial but it still pretty easy if you are running out of ideas and need one quickly! 

I'll show you how to get this simple Mermaid look, just follow the steps below: 

Products used:

Face:

Nars sheer glow foundation in Punjab

Nars creamy concealer in vanilla

Rimmel stay matte pressed powder

Sephora moon shadow palette in 'in the heat'

Napoleon Perdis colour disk in flamingo road

Inglot eye shadow in number 487

Eyes:

Model co 05 palette in Island fever

Inglot eye shadow in number 487 (purple)

Inglot eye shadow in number 447 (silver)

Sephora moon shadow palette in 'in the heat'

Cover girl lash blast mascara

Lashes

Lips:

Mac lipstick in Hue

Start off with this base you like, I am once again going with my cult favourites Nars sheer glow foundation and creamy concealer. Because this is a mermaid tutorial I really wanted very highlighted cheekbones so if you don't have a lighter concealer you can use a foundation instead or lighter setting powder. I also did my brows at this point but if I could do it again I would leave them till last as the colours went absolutely everywhere and my brows ended up purple!

Now take a blue shaded eye shadow on a fluffy brush, I used a small fluffy contouring brush and use this colour as your bronzer. Try to be super precise around the cheekbones to get a really precise line and then blend it out. Take this same colour and couture your nose blending slightly towards the lower crease of your eye.

Now take a dark blue or purple shadow and pack this onto the eye lid, at this point it doesn't matter how messy you are as long as the colour is staying on your lid, try to drag it down into the inner corner as much as you can.  With a blending brush, blend out this colour in the crease and take it down over the blue contour on your nose. I then took a violet purple in the outer corner and blended that into the crease just to soften it a bit.

Now for the crazy bit! For this I used an old loofah which I didn't use and cut a large section out of it, but if you can find any netting like fish net stockings you will create the same effect. I had to pin with bobby pins the netting across my face into my hair to get it to stick, I had to stop myself from laughing a couple of times but it really is worth it to get that mermaid scale look! 

With the same blue you used for contouring the cheeks, take a wet, flat foundation brush and start applying the colour around the edges of the top of your face, making sure that the colour is darkest at the edge and blends out towards the centre of the face. I also took this down around my face so it blended into the cheek bones. After the blue begin to create a gradient from blue, to purple (using a light shade) to pink. The trick here if you are using similar netting is to make sure it doesn't move or the scales will not turn out as prominent.

Now take a silvery shadow as a highlight, I used this on the top of my cheekbones initially but then decided to place it anywhere that suited my fancy, this look shouldn't be too polished or symmetrical so I placed it randomly around my face as well as my jaw line and just down my neck. 

Now take the same netting from before and hold it just under the jaw line and taking the same purple and blue eye shadows create a scale effect! I also did this along my collar bones.

Now back to the eyes! Take the same silver eyeshadow that you used as a highlight on a damp angled eyeliner brush and create a wing, you could also use a silver liquid eye liner or eye liner pencil for this.

If you wanted you could leave the look here, followed up by some mascara and lashes! But I wanted to do something a little bit fancier, so I delved into my craft supplies and found some silver glitter and white iridescent confetti. You could use anything for this from a craft store like beads or pearls.

Using eye lash glue, apply little spots along the cheek bone and up around the brow. Using tweezers (or you could just throw it on randomly) apply glitter and confetti pieces randomly around the places you have applied the glue. I also took some and put it along my neck and collar bones.

To finish it off apply a coat of mascara and your favourite lashes! I opted for some long black lashes with glitter just to add even more sparkly to the mermaid look!

And you're done! This look takes a little bit of time just to get the colours looking perfectly but it is definitely an easy look to achieve for the perfect girly Halloween. If you want anymore tutorials let me know in the comments.

Katie

You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram.

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Lush haul & Mini Review

As this term is coming to an end I have finally found some time to get into some shopping and I thought what better way to end final assessments then with a pamper night... or just pampering in general. Lush is by far my favourite place to shop for all things bath and body related simply because everything smells like lollies and who doesn't want to smell like lollies right? Not only that but lush is cruelty free which is a big bonus! 

The first goodie I picked up was a body cream, as summer is approaching and spring is already heating up moisturising is essentially to keep your skin healthy and glowing, not to mention keeping those well earned or 'applied' tans long lasting. The body cream I picked up is called 'Vanilla dee-light' it has such a gorgeous light scent, very vanilla based as the name suggests with hints of jasmine. The consistency is creamy but thinner than most body creams I have used which I have found to like as it isn't taking as long to soak in while still leaving my skin super smooth and smelling great. 

I picked up two lip products the first a lip balm in 'lip service' and the second a lip scrub in 'bubble gum'. I had never tried lush lip balms before so I thought I would give this one a try, so far this lip balm has been average, it isn't as moisturising as I would have liked but time will tell I hope.

I had tried Lush lip scrubs in the past so I knew that this one wouldn't be a disappointment, this lip scrub tastes absolutely amazing, definitely bubble gum flavoured the scent is quite similar to the 'snow fairy' bath wash or 'comforter' bubble bar. This lip scrub leaves my lips super smooth and soft; I like to use it at least once a day particularly in this weather which easily dries my lips out. I definitely recommend this one!

I also picked up a soap in 'godmother' and cleanser bar in 'fresh farmacy' which I haven't yet used, however the scent of Godmother smells exactly like 'snow fairy' so I know I'm going to love it, plus it's covered in purple glitter!

I also purchased a spot treatment called 'grease lighting'; it is amazing and is a repurchase I think I will be doing a review just on this product in the future.

And finally I got my hands on the last 'Whoosh' shower jelly which smells exactly like Sprite lemonade even though the label suggests it smells like grapefruit and rosemary? too bad if you were hoping for those scents, but I absolute love the smell and how much it foams up when using a loofah.

If you're ready to wind down after a busy semester, I suggest popping into Lush to purchase these products or any other great smelling goods that are certain to help you de-stress. If you want any other hauls like these be sure to let me know in the comments.

Katie

You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram.

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Beauty halloween makeup: Vampire tutorial

Halloween is approaching and I thought that the perfect first halloween tutorial was to go with the classic vampire. This vampire look was inspired by the vampires from The Vampire Diaries TV show.

I'll show you how to get this simple vampire look, just follow the steps below: 

Products used:

Face:

Nars sheer glow foundation in Punjab

Nars creamy concealer in vanilla

Rimmel stay matte pressed powder

Benefit hoola bronzer

Mac mineralized skin finish in soft and gentle 

Eyes:

Inglot eye shadow in number 153

Inglot eye shadow in number 402

Inglot eye shadow in number 451

Too faced romantic eye palette in un-veil and ever after

Nars blush in deep throat

Este Lauder taupe eyeliner

Revlon black velvet eyeliner

Cover girl lash blast mascara

Maybelline master precise liquid eyeliner 

Lips:

Mac lipstick in mac red

Mac lipstick in media

Starting of with the base you like, I used nars sheer glow foundation with nars creamy concealer to conceal under my eyes and just along my cheek bone as a highlight. I used rimmel stay matte pressed powder to set the rest of my face.
                                                          

For brows I just used a soft ash-brown eyeshadow by MAC in oaker with an angled eyeshadow brush to fill and shape.
The main part of this look is the eyes, this look is quite simple and not as crazy so I did a smokey eye shadow look. I started with a soft and shimmery taupe shade, the one I used had purple undertones which worked well in creating a sunken eye type of look.

Then take a dark and shimmery brown shade on a crease brush and starting from the outer corner use wind whipper motions to blend that into the crease. Now take a dark shimmery black and place that in the outer 'V' of the eye and blend slightly into the crease. The colour I used was too light and so I took a deep black eyeshadow in a matte finish and went over the top.
     

For the under eyes you want to create a really sunken type of look and so I used dark brown and red shades. Firstly, take a medium brown eyeliner pencil and run that just beneath the water line blending it out with a smudge brush.
 

Then take a dark black eye liner and line your bottom water line and top lash line and smudge with the same brush. I took more of the brown liner and placed if further under the eye blending down towards the cheek bone. 

Now take a dark brown shadow, mine had shimmer in it but it doesn't matter which you use. Now blend underneath the eye making sure the colour is darker just under the eye. Now take a red eye shadow ( I didn't have one so I used a red blush) and blend over the brown creating a bloodshot 'dead' appearance. Now take the same dark brown shade and blend just under the eye focusing on this inner corner.

Now for the veins, I used the same medium brown eyeliner and began drawing jagged lines underneath my eyes. I didn't have any particular method for this, just make sure it doesn't look to polished. To blend out the veins I used an angled liner brush to make them appear underneath the skin rather than drawn on top.

Most vampires have very contoured cheeks and so I used a medium/dark bronzer to create a sculpted effect using a real techniques contour brush.For the lips I used a red lipstick and a dark brown- purple to create a blood type shade. But a red lip still looks great. 

And that's it! Finish it off with some vampire teeth and fake blood and you're done! Pair with a black dress and heels.

If you want to see anymore super easy and simply Halloween tutorials let me know in the comments.

Katie

You can also find me on twitter and instagram.

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Nars Sheer Glow foundation review

This month I went on a trip overseas to tropical Vanuatu, such as beautiful place truly the 'Happiest place on earth', my only dilemma I had before leaving was choosing the right foundation that would provide me beautiful coverage but also withstand the tropical climate of Vanuatu, not to mention the daily swims in crystal clear water. 

Before using Nars sheer glow I used L'Oreal true match, which is a super beautiful foundation in its self but I always found that if I was in hotter temperatures or in the water it would always end up having quite a strange finish, something I didn't want while spending my days soaking up the sun in paradise, right? 

I purchased Nars sheer glow on a pure whim, after reading other reviews online, all i can say is wow! This foundation is perfect! I purchased two shades from Kiss & Makeup NY, in Siberia (light) and Punjab (medium/dark). I purchased the darker shade for my holiday and the lighter for my return. This foundation has the perfect coverage, although I wouldn't say it was necessarily 'sheer' as the label suggests but a more medium coverage and very buildable. The finish is dewy without a setting powder (which I used) and it lasted pretty much all day any day I wore it. This included swimming through waterfalls, flying along 60m high zip lines, swimming with turtles, kayaking and much more and it stayed all day long until I took it off at night. 

I have now been using this foundation for about a month and as of yet have seen no breaking out or redness associated with some foundations so this has been a big plus! On another note being a super pale gal, finding foundations light enough for my skin tone can be a BIG pain and so finding a super beautiful foundation that actually suits my skin shade has been wonderful. Nars products tend to be quite pricey and so if you aren't sure about making the commitment you can always ask for a tester beforehand. I also purchased mine from a wholesaler and so it was a lot cheaper then purchasing in store or from the website.

This foundation I definitely recommend even though the cost can seem a little high just for foundation, I also purchased the Nars creamy concealer and wore this with the foundation! If you would like a review of this product as well let me know it the comments .

Katie

You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram

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