Sunday, 22 February 2015

Beauty | High end products worth the hype


Hello there :)

How is everyone today? Hope you are all fine and dandy :) I've just got back from a family holiday in Wales which I must say is a beautiful country, however I'm not such a fan of the steep hills, heights are not really my thing! Do any of you like heights? I'm currently writing this in front of a lovely warm log burner, I don't know what it is about log burners but there is just something very calm and relaxing about them and they also make me feel very homely. 

I'm really enjoying writing some beauty posts at the moment, and have really been enjoying the #bbloggers chats on Sundays and 8pm and Wednesdays at 8pm! I love finding out what others think about beauty products and also finding out about what products others think are worth the hype which is kind of what inspired me to do this post. I have also seen similar posts so thought I would share my thoughts on which high end beauty products I think are worth the hype. I find posts like this incredibly useful as high end products are never on the cheap side so it's useful to find out if you are going to get your money's worth. 


There are so many beauty products out there at the moment all claiming they are the best so it can sometimes be difficult to pick one! I tend to read a lot of reviews before I purchase something as I want to make sure others have loved it as then I'm more likely to get on with it and especially when they are products that are going to make me spend a few penny's. I have in the past rushed out to buy certain products that I have then not got on with and I wish I had researched more into before hand.  

There are a number of high end beauty products that have been raved about in the blogging community and I thought I would share with you today the ones that I thought where worth the hype! You may already have some of these products and love them or hate them or you may be tempted to buy them! Either way I hope this post is either  enjoyable to read or helps you :) 

Nars Sheer Glow Foundation: Now I'm sure you all have either heard about this product or have it yourself. It is certainly a product that has been talked about non stop in the blogging community and I'm not surprised why. I must admit I heard about it through other bloggers and vloggers and I'm so glad I did as this has easily become my new holy grail foundation. I have quite dry skin in the winter and fairly normal skin the rest of the year so I wasn't really after a heavy or matte foundation. I was after something that would provide me with light to medium coverage and give me a healthy looking glow and Nars sheer glow has definitely met all of my requirements. It's super easy to apply and blend and gives such a nice healthy looking finish. I've been impressed with this product since day one of owning it and I can't recommend it enough. The other great thing about it is that it lasts all day, which is great as there is nothing worse than wearing a foundation that slips off your face throughout the day. Although this foundation is not on the cheaper side of things I can definitely see why people rate it so highly and if you are thinking about purchasing this personally I feel it's worth a little spending splurge on. 


Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream: Now I'm sure lots of you again either own this magical cream or have heard about it. This was another product that I had heard being rated so highly throughout the blogging community and as it's winter and my skin tends to suffer I wanted to give this a try to combat some of my worst dry spots and let me tell you I am extremely glad I did. This cream is so moisturising and is great for lips and those dry spots other products can't quite seem to sort out. I tend to use it when I do my morning and evening skincare routines and you don't need much of it for it to work it's magic. My lips have been super soft since I have been using it, and it has really helped some of the dry areas on my face. If I'm honest I'm not a fan of the taste but that's probably because your not meant to really eat it so I don't recommend trying that. If your thinking of purchasing this product I say go for it you won't be disappointed I certainly wasn't!


Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wizz: Now I don't know about you guys but I'm obsessed with my brows and always have been since I was a young teen so am always on the hunt for the next best eyebrow product and well I think I may just have found it. I'm sure lots of you will have heard of the Anastasia Beverly Hills brow range as Anastasia is the queen of brows after all. I have tried a couple of other brow products on the market but nothing worked as well for me as her Brow Wizz has done! I'm officially in love with it, and the best thing about it is that it makes my brows look great without looking fake or drawn on. I really want to try the brow promenade but I don't quite trust myself with it as it's a gel and well me and gel products have a love hate relationship but it's something I want to try in the future for sure. The Brow Wizz has a wax pencil at one end and a spooley brush at the other end. It's a great product for filling in your brows quickly and easily. It's certainly a product I can see being in my make up bag for a very long time in the future. 





Benefit Roller Lash Mascara: Now I'm sure you will have all heard of this product! It has been talked about non stop recently in the blogging community as it is Benefits newest mascara and there was a free sample in the latest ELLE magazine which everyone including myself jumped at the chance of trying. When I first heard about this product I just thought it would be another one of those products claiming they can make your lashes look insane but always being disappointed when you actually try them. However Benefit have got this one just right, I have been beyond impressed with this mascara, and even my mum has who has short lashes with no real curl. Now we both have super long curled lashes and I can see why everyone was raving about it. I currently only have the tester version but both me and my mum will be purchasing the full size versions of this product. I have found my holy grail mascara.


Hourglass Ambient Blush Palette: Hourglass is a brand that I have only stumbled across in the past few months and I'm sure glad I did, the blogging community is partly to thank for this. They are a more expensive high end brand but the quality of their products is incredible. I stumbled across this palette and fell in love so got my aunt to pick it up from America for me for Christmas as it's much cheaper over there and I'm so glad she did. You get 3 different shades of blushes in this product; Luminous Flash which is a champagne rose colour, Incandescent Electra which is a peach colour and Mood Exposure which is a plum colour. All of these shades also have a illuminating powders in which make the colours look amazing. The great thing about these blushes is that a little product goes a long way which is great as it means this is hopefully going to be a long lasting palette that you get your money's worth from. I've been super impressed with this palette every time I have used it and is a great addition to my makeup collection. 



What high end products do you think are worth the hype? Have any of you managed to find any dupes for these products? 


Now today's Barney picture was taken by my lovely father, I thought I better give him credit for this photo as he took it and it will make him feel special! He's cute and reads all my blogs too so hi dad this photo is a shoutout to you! This Barney photo was taken on our last walk in Wales on our holiday, I think someone was holding a stick for Barney to pose like this, he loves sticks and there were plenty of them in the woods we walked in. Poor Barney did get a bit confused with what was a stick and what was actually still a tree at times. 

Hope you are all well and jolly :) 

Anna-Louise
xx





View Full Post
SHARE:

Sunday, 15 February 2015

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
SHARE:
© AnnaLouise-M . All rights reserved.
BLOGGER TEMPLATE DESIGNED BY pipdig