Hello Cheeky

Afternoon all!!!

Did you have a good Easter? How many Easter Eggs have you managed to devour? (I'm currently on my fourth, but that doesn't include all the cream eggs) 

Now before I have a chocolate induced spot outbreak, I'm currently enjoying trying out a sample of the Cheek Pop that the lovely people at Clinique sent me. 

LOOK HOW CUTE IT IS. I love the packaging, so much so that even though it's slowly decaying in my make-up bag, I still insist on keeping it. And the daisy pattern that the blush is set in makes me feel summery every time I open it, even though with each use it's slowly fading away, which makes me sad (so many feels). 

I'm really loving some of the summer shades for make-up that are out at the moment, and the Cheek Pop is such a perfect addition to your summer make-up collection. 

Now this blush is only available in four shades, which has received mixed opinions looking at customer reviews, but I really like the small selection. 

The four available shades are:

Ginger Pop 

Peach Pop

Berry Pop

Plum Pop

The first two are the two warmest shades, whilst the Berry and Plum Pops have a bluer, cooler hue. Each of these shades are vibrant yet natural in tone, and despite the small selection, there is a shade for every skin tone. All you have to do is break down the shades into a scale of dark warm-light warm- dark cool - light cool. Then you just need to figure out if you have a dark or cool skin tone and whether you prefer a dark or light blush. I feel when there are so many shades to choose from, that's when things start to get confusing. For me, I have quite an olive skin tone, and I usually wear quite warm, bronze coloured blushes, but I decided to step out of my comfort zone and go for a warm light blush: the Peach Pop. 

I am so happy with this choice. I was honestly worried it would be too light for me, but it works so well, and actually brightens up my face. For a casual day look, I go for the hue on the far left on the swatch above. It's so subtle, but there's just enough colour present to highlight your cheeks. For an evening look, if I want my eyes to be the statement area then I'll opt for the hue in the middle, however if my eyes are quite bare, then I'll brighten up the blush. 

What I really love about this blush is that even though it's technically a compact powder blush, it's really buttery and soft to the touch, and  applies and sits on the skin like a cream blush. This creamy texture means that it can be applied and blended into the skin very easily with the fingers, which I actually prefer with this particular blush over using a brush. 

Have you tried this product yet? If you have I'd love to hear your thoughts. Also I' love to hear your thoughts on this post. I definitely want to do more like it, and I was wondering whether to put up a picture of me wearing the blush, but thought the swatch showed it better. Let me know what you think, any feedback is welcome : D 

Steph

x x x 

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My Daily Mask

Happy Saturday people!!!

What are you guys all up to this weekend? 

I'm off to see The Book Thief with my Mum after waiting for what feels like decades for her to finish the book that I lent her. 

So I have a lot of plans for make-up and hair posts for this blog, which I'm really excited about. But before I start any of that, I thought I'd share with you my daily make-up routine. The majority of these products will most probably feature in future posts and for me, they're the Crème dela crème

Products I've used:(Top left to bottom right)

Body Shop Extra Virgin Minerals Powder Foundation Brush

bareMinerals Original SPF 15 Mineral Foundation in Medium Beige

BareFaced Beauty Mineral Blush in Selene

Bourjois Powder Brush

Bourjois Volume Glamour Max Mascara

Art Deco High Precision Liquid Liner 01

Betty & Walter Rose Lipbalm

For me, bareMinerals is the Holy Grail of foundation. I bought it on a whim after testing it in Debenhams. I've tried so many foundations over the years from Estèe Lauder to Yves Saint Laurent , mainly because I struggle to find one that suits my olive skin. I also have quite a dry T-Zone and was finding that all the liquid foundations I was trying would just cling to the dry areas, and it would look gross. 

With bareMinerals, the range of colors is incredible, and because of it's mineral nature and blendability,  it adapts to my skin tone. 

One thing I really disliked about liquid foundation was that I didn't feel like it looked natural, and I was so conscious that I was wearing it. 

The Body Shop Foundation Brush is amazing at blending, and by the time I'm done, I'm left with flawless, natural looking coverage that feels so light and lasts all day, and that's without even using primer. 

BareFaced beauty is a similar brand in the sense that it really focuses on the skincare benefits of using minerals. The color looks quite harsh in the pot, but I use a very tiny amount for some natural looking warmth. 

It's a pretty good job that the base of my daily routine is so natural looking, because as you can probably tell from the picture below and previous posts of mine, I choose for my eye make-up to be the main attraction, and with all the other foundations and blusher's I have tried with this particular eye make-up style, it was just way too heavy. 

I'm pretty sure that if, like me, you're a winged eyeliner fiend, then no matter how many years you've been doing it, you're never quite satisfied with the outcome, with one wing ever so slightly wider/longer/thicker/angular than the other. For years I used pencil, thinking that I couldn't move onto liquid eyeliner until I was a wing master. I finally made the move, but nothing I tried cut it. That was until I was asked to do a product review for Art Deco make-up, and they sent me their precision liner. With this product it's the closest I've ever got to creating wings that I'm happy with. 

I found liquid eyeliners with short, hard brushes difficult to use when creating a wing that flows, so the long brush on this product is perfect. 

I also use this tutorial that I found to create the shaped wing that I like. 

http://www.topinspired.com/top-10-eyeliner-tutorials-for-irresistable-cat-eyes/

So there it is. I wear this look so often, and it works with practically everything, giving a delicate yet alternative edge to an outfit. For an evening look (which I'll do in another post) if I don't feel like changing my eyes, I'll pair this look with either a dark brown or a dark purple lip just to add a more sultry, gothic touch, but at the same time keeping it feminine. 

I hope you're liking my blog so far. I'd love to get some feedback, so feel free to tell me what you think about it so far. 

Who of you out there is a fellow winged eyeliner lover like me, and what products/techniques do you use to create the perfect wing? 

Steph x 

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