Beauty | Current Favourite Makeup Brushes

Helloooo there :) 

How is everyone today?! Hope all is fine and dandy as always if not turn that frown upside down it's nearly the weekend :) Yay I hear you shout! Have any of you got any nice plans this weekend? I'm travelling back from a super holiday in Wales and then working :)

Today I thought I would do yet another beauty post, I'm really enjoying doing beauty posts as it's something I'm really passionate about so I find them easy to write and the words just flow from my mouth to my laptop or something like that!

Since collecting makeup has become a hobby of mine I have also started to build a collection of makeup brushes because the right tools are key for easy application of makeup, and well like makeup you can never have too many brushes so I thought I would share with you my current favourite brushes as I don't know about you but I'm always on the look out for new ways to apply my makeup. I'm also always on the hunt for soft and fluffy brushes as they are the best as they are unbelievably nice on the face.

My current favourite brushes are all face and eye brushes not that you can really get many other ones, I have also said they are my current favourites as they are the ones that work best with my everyday makeup that I'm wearing at the moment as I have found that some makeup goes on better with some brushes than others do. Does anyone else find this? 

Real Techniques Stippling Brush: Now I can imagine most of you will have come across real techniques brushes, who  have been created by the lovely Sam and Nic Chapman who also have a super youtube channel called Pixiwoo where they upload lots of really helpful makeup tips and tricks. I've so far only got a couple of their brushes but I have my eye on their bold metals collection! The great thing about real techniques brushes is that they are high quality brushes at a reasonably affordable price so what's not to love about that?! Now my current favourite brush of theirs is the Stippling Brush. I cannot sing this brush's praises enough, I love it, in fact it's probably my all time favourite face brush too. I use it every day to either put on foundation or tinted moisturiser and it always helps to give me a flawless look finish. I have tried other brushes but always come back to this one, it just helps to blend in my makeup so nicely and easily.

Nanshy Blush Brush: Nanshy is a brand I came across in the summer after hearing some bloggers and vloggers rave about the brand, and I'm so glad I invested in some, I've been super impressed with them and they even rate higher than some of my more higher end brushes. I went for their masterful collection in pearlescent white (I thought the white was a really cute colour for a make up brush) as I wanted both face brushes and eye brushes and I have both their face brush set and eye brush set on my wish list. Their brushes are so soft and help to apply make up beautifully. One of my favourite brushes from the masterful collection and one of my current favourite brush for applying brush is the Nanshy Blush brush. It is a really nice shape for applying blusher and is also really soft, I have tried a number of blush brushes but this is my definite favourite.

Nanshy Powder Brush: Another Nanshy brush!! I just love all their brushes but their powder brush is currently one of my favourite brushes. Their brushes are almost magically soft and this particular one just makes applying powder super easy and almost an enjoyable experience. I'd be lost without this brush for applying my powder!

Zoeva 101 Luxe Face Definier: Now I'm sure most of you will have herd of Zoeva makeup brushes, maybe the rose gold collection in particular. My current favourite is not one from this collection, I'm afraid I don't really like rose gold! Sorry I'm a silver and white gold type of girl. This brush is a fairly new one to my collection but I'm already a big fan of it. I mainly use it for my bronzer or contouring as the shape of it makes it great for this. Like all Zoeva brushes it is super soft and high quality making it easy to apply my makeup with.

MAC 217: Now I can't rate this brush highly enough it has helped to teach me what blending is all about and well I'm grateful to MAC for bringing out a brush for this purpose. I don't think there are many other brushes out there they are as great for blending as the 217 is. I'm a big fan of blending, and this brush has just made the experience of blending eyeshadows enjoyable. If you're after a brush for blending eyeshadows I recommend this brush 100%.

Zoeva 221 Luxe Soft Crease: In my opinion you can never have enough eye brushes as the more you have the less often you have to clean them, but I'm just lazy! I really like blending out my eyeshadows so this brush is another one of my favourites for that purpose and it sure does it's job well.  It's super soft and big and fluffy which makes blending out really easy and you don't have to use much pressure for it to do it's job. I probably use blending brushes more than actual shading brushes as I just find them so easy to use and this is another one of them. I use both this and the 217 on an almost daily basis.

Nanshy Shader: Another Nanshy brush I know but I just love them so much like I've said further up the post! This Nanshy brush is a flat shader which makes it perfect for applying eyeshadow easily to your lid with almost one sweep. I love this brush because it is a flat shader which means I find it easy to apply a good coverage of eyeshadow without it going everywhere. It's hard to describe this brush really as once you try it for the first time the brush speaks for itself! It's such a good quality brush and next to my blender brushes is my most used eyeshadow brush which is why it's one of my favourites I guess. 

What are your favourite makeup brushes? Are any of them ones that I have mentioned? I really want to try a beauty blender as I have heard they are great for applying foundation, have any of you tried them? 

The Barney picture today is one of him the other day whilst we were on a walk where my dad made me climb a scary big hill. Barney didn't find it scary instead he thought it was great fun and raced up it. He is pretty much fully recovered from his swimmers tail now thankfully so he is a much happier chap again! 

Hope you are all well and jolly :) 

Anna-Louise 

xx

View Full Post

Lifestyle // 10 things that make me happy

Hello there :) 

How is everyone today! I hope everyone is feeling well and jolly and that you are all having super weeks. I'm away on holiday with my family in Wales and with Barney of course. We are staying next to this beautiful canal, which weirdly is up in a hill. You wouldn't think you could get canals in the hills would you, it seems a bizarre place to put one but there was obviously some logic to it many moons ago when they built it. 

I would just like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported my blog and followed it! I now have over 100 followers on bloglovin which I know is not much to some people but it means the world to me so thank you so much everyone! I will be holding a giveaway when I'm back from Wales so watch this space :) 

Today I thought I would do a post about the things that make me happy as I haven't been feeling overly happy recently and I always feel that it's important to focus on the positives and the things that make you smile so that's what I'm doing and I'm sharing them in a blog post with you :)

My Dog: Now I'm sure if you have been following my blog for a while now you probably would have guessed that Barney makes me happy. To me he is the best dog in the world and my best friend and he never fails to make me crack a smile. 

My Family: To me family are incredibly important and I'm so lucky to be surrounded by such a loving and supportive family who can make me smile even when my dad makes me climb scary big hills and I get grumpy. I love them all to pieces and well I'm incredibly grateful for everything they do for me the certainly do make me happy :)  

This is my great uncle Alan and great auntie Bet, It was Al's 70th birthday whilst we where away!

My Work: Now this might sound strange saying that my work makes me happy and makes me smile but a year ago I was too frightened to leave the house and having aspergers makes working and maintaining a job difficult and my work have welcomed me and made me feel like part of the family and given me a purpose every week  as well as improving my confidence and well that makes me happy :) 

My Bed: Now who's bed doesn't make them happy right?! I love my bed, we spend a lot of time together especially as I sleep a lot since having M.E. and well I look forward to getting into it every time. I smile to myself when I'm tucked up all warm in it, sad I know but hey ho :) 

My Blog: Although I am relatively new to this whole blogging thing my blog already makes me incredibly happy! I love my blog! I look forward to writing new posts and sharing things I love and general rambles and it has also helped me find my love for photography again as well as enabling me to interact with others and giving me another purpose to life. 

Makeup: Where do I start with makeup?! It's completely changed me and given me so much confidence as well as helping me to find a career path in life. I love everything to do with makeup from finding out and trying new products to putting it on and wearing it which I find incredibly therapeutic! I love wearing it and I always have some sort of a smile on my face when I'm doing anything to do with makeup. 

Photography: I have recently found my love for photography again and I'm so glad I did as I love capturing special moments in life, experimenting with different ways of taking photographs also taking photographs makes me smile and I love looking back on them. 

Music: I have always loved music, not playing it but listening to it, I dread to think how much money I have spent on it over the past years. I find that it helps calm me down when I'm stressed or angry and there is always a piece of music for every life situation. I think it would be cool if life was like high school musical and we popped into song at random times! Don't you? 

Aeroplanes: Now this may sound a strange thing to make me happy but I love planes and flying and everything to do with planes. I always wanted to be a pilot when I was older however circumstances have changed making this not possible but that hasn't stopped me loving flying and aeroplanes. I find them sooo interesting does anyone else? 

(this is me actually flying a real plane! I was trusted with full controls)

Food: Saying that food makes me happy makes me sound like I'm enormous I'm not I just love food who doesn't?! I'm always thinking about the next meal apart from lunch I'm not a fan of that! Breakfast and puddings are the best!! What's your favourite type of food? 

I hope you all enjoyed pancake day this week!! What did you have in your pancakes?

What things make you happy? :) 

Today's Barney picture is of him lying by the log burner where we are staying, I think he loves the warmth as he is always by it! Poor Barney has managed to get Swimmers Tail this week which means he has sprained his tail from too much swimming! So we had to have an emergency visit to the vets for some pain killers as he was in a lot of pain poor boy. It stopped him from being able to move his tail but he is on the mend and we are getting some small wags again, we just won't be going swimming again this holiday! 

Hope you are all well and jolly 

Anna-Louise

xx

View Full Post

Beauty // My travel makeup bag

Hello there!! 

How is everyone today! Hope all is well and that you are smiley and happy :) A smile a day keeps the doctor away! I was recently in a local hospital waiting for an x-ray and on a white board there was a sign saying smile and something along the lines of it's good for you and people benefit from it. Anyway the funny thing was the receptionist was the grumpiest and most unfriendly person I have ever seen, I had to try so hard to not say anything and point out the whiteboard behind her. It sure did make me and my gran chuckle. 

Little update I have decided to change the days that I post to a Sunday, Wednesday and Friday as it suits my week a little better as I tend to write my posts on a Tuesday and Thursday as that is when Mum is at work and I have the most free time. 

Anyway I'm off on a family holiday to Wales this weekend! I've personally never been to Wales so I'm excited to see what it's like! Have any of you been to Wales or do you even live in Wales? I've said Wales a lot of times so now I'm thinking of Whales as in the ones that live in the sea! Have any of you seen the film Free Willy? Sounds weird I know but it's about a whale and setting it free etc! Was one of my favourite films as a child, we had it on video which probably tells you how old the film was! I have gone completely off topic now I do apologise. 

Right so today's post is going to be my travel make up bag and what I take with me on holiday :) obviously this changes at different types of  the year though so I'm sure I will do similar posts in the future. I always love being nosy and seeing what different make up people use and what they take away with them so thought this would be a great post today so I hope you all enjoy it :)

I'm never a fan of packing to go away but that's usually because I always want to take everything I own with me! I'm not very good at picking what things to take, and I always feel sorry for the things I leave behind. So I've had the difficult decision of choosing what make up to take away with me for a week. I tried to think logically about what to take whilst I was packing so I tried to pick little things and brought an eye-shadow and blush palette so I have lots of choice and can still do different looks without taking everything.

Primer : Now I'm still trying to decide whether I like primer or I don't. I have a couple at home but I decided to take Benefit's Porefessional as it's slightly smaller than the other ones I have so thought it would be perfect to travel with!

Foundation: I've been trying out a couple of different foundations over the past few months and I can finally say I have found my holy grail foundation! It's one that has been talked about loads by bloggers and vloggers and has lots of positive reviews so I thought why not give it a try! My new holy grail foundation is.......Nars sheer glow of course! After hearing so many good things about it I was very excited when I finally got my hands on a bottle and the colour match was great, the foundation feels amazing on my skin and doesn't bring me out in spots, it also gives a nice healthy glow to the skin and as I have dry skin this is what I want from a foundation! I'm in love with this stuff and could talk about it all day but I don't want to bore you and I think I may do a review post on it at some point! Have any of you tried it? What do you think of it?! 

Powder: Now when I travel I always tend to take pressed powder rather than loose powder which I tend to use a fair bit at home! My pressed powder is also smaller and as it's pressed it's doesn't make much mess! So I decided to take my favourite powder with me which is the Rimmel Stay Matte. I love this powder I think it does the job well as the other great thing about it is the fact that it's a drugstore one so it's not too pricey :) 

Bronzer: Bronzer is definitely something that is a necessity in my travel make up bag so I decided to pack my all time favourite bronzer which is a KIKO one. If you haven't checked out KIKO cosmetics already I highly recommend that you do! I've been really impressed with everything I've purchased from there so far and they are high quality at an affordable price, what's not to love hey?!

Blush: I have a real thing for blush, I have so many of them so it's always hard to decide which one to pack so I want to take them all however there isn't always room for this. So this time I went away I found the perfect solution which was to take a blush palette, then you have a couple of different shades of blush for different make up looks and it's all together so it doesn't take up as much room well that's my theory  anyway. In my current travel make up bag I decided to take my hourglass Ambient Blush palette which ticks all the boxes for being a great one to travel with. 

Concealer: Now this is something I sometimes use when I'm away but it all depends on how much time I have and where I am and how much sleep I have. So I decided to pack one of my favourite concealer's which is a high coverage one so I have something if my bags under my eyes decided to be enormous one day or if my face decides it wants to have a breakout whilst I'm away. I decided to pack MAC's Pro Longwear concealer :)

Brows: Now I am obsessed with eyebrows, literally obsessed. I rarely ever go out the house without sorting out my brows first even if I have no other make up on I will have nice brows. So of course I have had to pack my daily brow products. I like to use Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wizz and then I use NO7 lash and brow perfecter and these two products never fail to let me know so they had to come for a trip. 

Eyeshadow: I always find the easiest way to pick what eyeshadows to take away is by taking an eyeshadow palette as you then have a variety of shades and a palette is much easier to travel with rather than lots of individual eyeshadows. For the current holiday that I was packing for I decided to take my Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette :)

Mascara: This is a beauty product they people take with them every where. Even if your not wearing any other make up mascara can make the world of difference, well it sure does to my eyes. The mascara that I have brought away with me this time is one that people have been talking about a lot recently in the blogging community and I can now see what the hype was all about! Of course it's Benefit's new Roller Lash Mascara and my goodness it sure does make your eyelashes look amazing! I'm in love with it. This was definitely a beauty product I was not going away without. The one I currently have is a tester one so it's a smaller one but that's great because it makes it the perfect colour to travel with. 

Lips: You always have to take some sort of lip product away with you, I tend to take some sort of lip product everywhere even in my handbag. Instead of taking a couple of different ones I made the brave decision to only take one lipstick and one lip gloss with me as it would then be less to pack and then I wouldn't be stuck for choice on what to wear on my lips when I was away. I tend to prefer nude and pink shades and these tend to go with most looks so I took my Urban Decay lipstick which is very pigmented and lasts a long while and my MAC lip gloss both of which are light pink shades. 

So this is everything I have taken away with me in my travel make up bag. Obviously it varies depending on where I go and what time of year it is, but as this was a holiday to Wales in February I have taken enough to do a full face of make up. I hope you have enjoyed this post, I love knowing what products other people use and what they take away with them so here is what I take with me! 

Where is your favourite place to go away to? What is your holy grail product that you take everywhere with you? 

The Barney picture today is one of him in the car the other day! Obviously it was too bright for him to have his eyes open! He is loving the canal next to where we are staying! He is in and out of the water all the time! I love watching him splash about in the water and have lots of fun!

Hope you are all well and jolly!

Anna-Louise

xx

View Full Post

The Liebster award

image source

Helloo there :) 

As you can already guess by the picture today's post is the Liebster Award which I was kindly nominated for by Agne. Thank you so much for nominating me, this post definitely seems like a bit of fun :) The Liebster Award was created as a way for people to discover new blogs :) 

The rules are as follows: 

1. Thank the person who nominated you and leave their link

2. Answer the questions from the person who nominated you

3. Nominate between 5 and 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers 

4. Create 11 new questions for the people who you have nominated to answer 

5. Let your nominees know that you have nominated them

Below are the questions that Agne gave me and my answers to them: 

1. What is your most embarrassing memory of a lifetime? 

Whenever I get asked questions like this I always forget everything. The most embarrassing memory I can remember is a recent one. I went for a day trip to Go Ape with a friend and they have these zip wire type things that you use to get down from the trees on. When you get to the bottom you are meant to land on your feet only I didn't I landed backwards on my bum and this caused not only my trousers to be pulled down but also my pants! It was rather embarrassing to say the least! Especially as I then had to walk round with bark in my pants for the rest of the course. 

2. Favourite breakfast and Lunch dishes? 

Now this one is an easy one to answer as I LOVE breakfast! I would eat breakfast all day everyday if I could. My favourite breakfast however and I have it everyday is Weetabix Minis the chocolate ones mixed with some all bran and milk of course. I'm not a big fan of lunch so I don't have a favourite lunch dish. 

3. The best cosmetic brand for you is

This is a hard one as I love so many different brands for different reasons. It's a tough one but I think it would have to be MAC as that's where the largest section of my make up comes from. 

4. Family or career? And why? 

Now I'm a big family person so of course family first as that's just the way I am and family will always be the most important thing for me as they have been there through everything and they are incredibly supportive.

5. If you could choose between living a celebrity life or an ordinary people life, what would you choose? 

I have thought about this lots before, but I think I would always choose an ordinary life as I like to do things in certain ways and I'm not sure you would be able to do normal everyday things if you where famous. Having to deal with press and hate etc would drive me mad too. Although I wouldn't mind being a celebrity for one day just to see what it feels like. 

6. Imagine meeting your idol and you could ask just one question. What would you ask him/her? 

I don't really have idols but the person who I most look up to is my mum so I would ask her what I was having for dinner. 

7. Why did you start blogging? 

This is a great question! I started blogging as I wanted somewhere that I could write down what I'm thinking and share with people the things I do and don't like. I also love taking photographs and a blog is a great way to share them. Another reason was my Aspergers syndrome, I wanted to write posts to help others who might be in a similar situation to me. 

8. The best movie you have ever seen? 

Without a doubt my favourite movie ever is ELF! I love this film to pieces and I can't tell you how many times I have watched it and it never seems to get boring and always makes me laugh. 

9. What is your dream job? 

My dream job is to be retired! This is what I used to tell my teachers what I wanted to do when I left school. I'm not retired but the dream is still there! If I could have any job in the world I would love to be an airline pilot, I always wanted to do this when I was younger and have flown a couple of times and loved it however my medication unfortunately means I'm not able to fly but it doesn't stop it being my dream job. 

10. Three things you can't live without

The first thing I couldn't live without would be Barney of course! My dog is my best friend, I hate being away from him for even a couple of hours. The 2nd thing I couldn't live without is my mum, I don't know what I would do without her she is always there to pick me up when I'm down and she is unbelievably supportive. The 3rd thing I couldn't live without is chocolate milkshakes! I'm obsessed with chocolate milkshakes I have one everyday where ever I am. 

11. What can you wish for other bloggers? 

I wish that other bloggers are able to get everything out of their blog that they want to and that it is something they love doing :) 

The questions for my nominees are: 

1. What is your favourite colour? 

2. What noise does a giraffe make? 

3. What's your favourite pudding? 

4. If you could travel to anywhere in the world where would it be and why? 

5. What's your favourite animal? 

6. What's your favourite candle? 

7. What's your favourite TV programme? 

8. What is your favourite season; summer, spring, autumn or winter? And why?

9. What is your favourite way to relax and De-stress? 

10. What's the best joke you know? 

11. If you could be any celebrity for one day who would you be and why? 

My nominees are: 

1. Charlotte at http://www.basicisbeauty.blogspot.co.uk/

2. Laura at http://www.blameitontherainbeauty.com/

3. http://adayinstyle.blogspot.co.uk/

4. Niamh at http://beautybud3598.blogspot.ie/

5. Jadie at http://jadiespillett.com/

6. Karen at http://www.jinksybeauty.blogspot.co.uk/

Hope you guys enjoy this it's good fun :) make sure that you all check out each others blogs and pass this on as it's a great way for new bloggers to get their blogs out there a bit more and a great way to find new blogs!

As usual hope you are all well and jolly :)

Anna-Louise 

xx

View Full Post

Winter walks #3 // Barney Rubble

Hellooo there!

How is everyone! Hope you are all well and that your are having a great week so far! Have you been up to anything exciting yet this week? We haven't had any snow here this week which is great, as well it gets a bit boring after a while, not that we had that much of it anyway! It's been a rather warm week so far with a number of clear and sunny spells! Oh dear I'm sounding like a weather woman! What's the weather been like with you? The sun makes me so excited for spring and summer they are definitely my favourite times of the year! I'm also definitely more of a summer fashion person than a winter person! What about you guys what season of fashion do you love most? 

I'm afraid today's post is going to only be a short post! I'm just really not feeling myself at the moment so don't really want to a force a post and you guys not enjoy it. I'm having a lot more feeling down time at the moment but that's aspergers and my medication for you but hey ho, there will be good times around the corner I'm sure, there always is, isn't the saying every cloud has a silver lining something like that. 

Being a dog walker means I go on a lot of walks, and I love taking photographs so like to take my camera with me which results in well can you guess?! Lots of pictures of Barney of course! So instead of a chatty post today I thought I would just share some of those pictures as I know a lot of you enjoy the Barney photos and well I love my dog and love posting pictures of him so here you go....

I tried to get them both to look at the camera but Katie just wanted to look where she wanted! Terrier's hey they have a mind of their own!

Barney and I found some sticks and some water both of which are Barney's favourite things on a walk so I thought it was only fair to let Barney play his favourite game of stick fishing! 

He was so funny he kept trying to sit down in the water and would then realise it was super cold so would sit hover instead. 

Barney likes to put his head under the water to look for sticks! Strange dog, maybe all the best ones are under the water who knows! I'd love to be a dog for the day just to know what goes through their mind. Would you? 

I hope you have enjoyed these Barney pictures, I love pictures of him as he always makes me smile and looking at pictures of him makes my smile bigger and brightens my mood! I think the world of this dog and he has changed my world for the best and I can't thank him enough for it :) He truly is my very best friend :)

Hope you are all well and jolly 

Anna-Louise 

xx

View Full Post