New Makeup for the New Year

With the new year comes new picks for makeup. Gone is the heavy makeup of the Christmas period -  I lie, I was sick almost the entirety of December so no makeup was worn - and in comes the fresh bases, pretty shimmery eyeshadows and nude lips. A fresh face for a fresh start.

A base I thought I didn't get on with very well is what has been on my face for the past week or so - Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum (shade 52, slightly too dark but we make it work), I've largely been forgoing concealer and powder, oddly, so there's none of that pictured. For my cheeks, theBalm Mary Lou Manizer and Stila Convertable Colour in Lilium have been present consistently. They make a lovely pairing,  more natural than you'd expect giving the pigment punch that they pack. Soap & Glory's Archery brow pencil in Blondeshell is all I've been using for my brows since I bought it, so there's nothing new there, and W7's Absolute Lashes has been gracing my lashes - it bridges the gap between natural and a bit more perfectly, giving lovely definition without being too much. Teamed up with my Primark eyelash curler (surprisingly good, given that it was only £1), I've had lovely fluttery lashes. Finally for my eyes, No7 Shade and Define eyeshadow pencil in Pink Pearl and various shades of the Stila In The Light palette (now depotted, muahaha) have been upon my lids,with a particular preference for Kitten, not surprisingly.

It takes barely five minutes to do in the morning, at the minute, which is lovely! Do you switch up your makeup once the new year rolls around?

Goals and Challenges

I'll admit it's taken me until today to get my rear in gear for this year, but I've had a fairly good think this year about what I'd like to achieve, and how I want to go about it. Most of it ( as always) is to do with blogging, reading and writing, but I think I've found good ways to quantify my achievements, and being able to see what I'm doing is what spurs me on! Without further ado - my goals and challenges (note: NOT resolutions, I never stick to them) for 2015

The Blog
In the past I've pressurised myself to get this particular post up on that particular day, and I just cave when I put too much pressure on myself. This year, from now, I'm just going to aim to post whatever I feel like 3 times a week. I'm hoping these days will be Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday as these are the days that fit best with my uni timetable, but I'm not going to fuss too much if I post on a different day instead.

Reading
I'm always saying I'm going to read more and then not doing it. This year I've set myself the challenge of a book a week - so 52 books for the year. I've already read two books this year (Watched, by Kerry Wilkinson and The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling, the latter just being out of curiosity if I'm honest) and I have 3 in line to be read by the end of the month. I really enjoy reading, and it makes me happier in myself, so doing more of it is something I intend to do.

Studying
I had some issues with uni last term, and want to try my hardest to make that up over the rest of the year. My aim is to make time to study each day during term time (and during holidays, but not as much), and to pass any assessments with 60% and above.

Writing
I've heard some people on a group I'm a part of with goals of a million words this year, and things like that - my goal is slightly different. I would like to write a short story every month, with the intent to compile them at the end of the year. They'll be children's stories, and I plan to use my brother as a guinea pig :D

Other
Those are the main ones, but other than that I really just want to drink more water haha. All of my goals are just things that I want to do to be able to actually see that I'm achieving something.
I always participate in the Goodreads reading challenge (I cleared my account of all the books before the start of last years, which I failed so it's slightly bare but I'll be updating it fairly often this year) so if you'd like to add me on there - link  I'll add you back and we can stalk each others progess!

What are some of your goals/challenges/resolutions for the new year?

Skincare Staples

In an effort to get myself into a proper routine with my skincare I recently picked up a few bits and pieces. I'm a big fan of the Botanics range from Boots, finding them to be brilliant quality for a pretty darn low price. In conjunction with the stuff I have from the Botanics range, I have a few bits from the Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit range, and a couple of random bits and bobs that bridge the gaps. I don't use all of it all in one go, but it all serves a purpose.

Cleansing & Exfoliating.
Both Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit products, I have the Clear Skin Daily Facial Wash and Daily Facial Scrub; I've found both of these to be suitable for frequent use (although I don't use the scrub on a daily basis) and neither exacerbate the oil production of my skin.

Moisturising.
Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit Oil Free Moisturiser, Boots Botanics Mattifying Gel Moisturiser and Soap and Glory 5in1 BB Cream. In general, I'll only use the Soap and Glory one when I'm going to be leaving the house, as it has an SPF of 25 in it. The other two I alternate on days and nights, depending on how my skin feels and what I have closer to hand.

Toner.
Botanics All Bright Cleansing Toner - widely hailed as a dupe for the Pixi All Glow Tonic is this toner. I've never tried the Pixi offering, but I can vouch for the Botanics version, having repurchased it once already. Full price this is only £3.99, but I've managed to pick it up for less than £2 on both occasions that I've bought it. It doesn't make a massive difference to the brightness of my skin, but it does induce a slight glow, and feels like it's cleansing my skin where my actual cleaners might not have done such a good job.

Lip Balms.
Two lip balms that I actually feel make a difference to my lips. The Blistex Intensive Moisturiser and the Nuxe Reve de Miel. Two completely different price ranges, and two completely different types of product, but both do a good job of moisturising the lips. I use them at different times, making more use of the Blistex (because it absorbs properly, and because it's cheaper so I don't feel as guilty), and use the Nuxe balm as an overnight treatment.

Treatments. 
There's a bit more in this section than any of the others! I have two face masks, both from Superdrug; one's the Witchhazel mud mask, which I'm not overly fond of the scent of, but which does a nice enough job of treating the skin, and the Vitamin E Moisturising Mask, which is more of a thick moisturiser than a true mask, but it does a good enough job.
The Botanics All Bright Serum is something I use in the evenings, between toning and moisturising and I have to say I think it's the thing that's making the most difference to my skin. It really softens and I think I can see a more visible brightness when I use it. Another Botanics product is the Super Balm. This just seems to be an intensely moisturising balm like product; it's one of those things that's solid in the pot but really melts as soon as you touch it. I definitely wouldn't use this all over my face, but on bits that are extremely dry it's a god send; I've used it on my eyebrows (which oddly get insanely dry, who knows why?) and on eczema patches and it works quite nicely. It claims to be 93% organic so isn't something I'm worried about putting on to problematic areas.

That's about everything that I use pretty regularly. I'm yet to find a strong need to use eye cream, but I daresay it'll be something I add in to my routine at some point when it seems like I need it.

What are some of your favourite skincare bits?

Soap and Glory Feel Good Factor - here | Pink Grapefruit Wash - here | Pink Grapefruit Scrub - here | Pink Grapefruit Moisturiser - here | Blistex Intensive Moisturiser - here |  Nuxe Reve de Miel - here | Superdrug Witchhazel Mud Mask - here | Superdrug Vitamin E Moisturising Mask - here | Botanics All Bright Cleansing Toner - here | Botanics Shine Away Gel Cream - here | Botanics Super Balm - here |

Best Reds

Nothing says winter than a good red, right? Right.
Throwback to spring, and I put together a post with my three favourite spring reds so I thought I'd put together something similar for the autumn/winter season. I'm one of those people who'll wear a red no matter what time of the year it is, so it's nice to have a few options for what to wear.

MAC Ruby Woo.
This is my favourite all around red. It's a beautiful true matte finish, and largely neutral in tone. The colour isn't exactly deep, but it isn't as bright as the more summery red shades which is what makes it suitable for either season. Out of all the reds I have, this is probably the one I wear the most, and it'll more than likely be the one that I repurchase. It's £15.50 here.

Revlon Matte Balm in Stand Out.
A similarly neutral toned red to Ruby Woo, but with a slightly darker colour, slightly less matte finish and an infinitely more comfortable formula. The matte balms are overall my favourite lip product, and I'd recommend Stand Out to absolutely anyone looking for a good red; their colour selection is pretty good, and the other red from the range, Striking, was one of my favourite spring reds. Stand Out is £7.99 here.

Rimmel Kate Moss 107. 
Everyone's favourite A/W shade in a nutshell right here. I'm not overly fond of the packaging or the scent of these, but their formula is beautiful; being matte without being drying or looking like you're rocking some serious prune lip. The colour is also more berry toned than any of my other red favourites, and it was my hands down favourite from last year and one that I can see myself getting a lot of use out of for years to come. These are £5.49 here.

Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet in Grand Cru.
These lipsticks are something you absolutely have to try if you haven't already - again there's another red in the range that was one of my S/S favourite reds, and they have quite the beautiful colour range. These are definitely true matte lipsticks, coming in a thin liquid formula that can be built up for more opaque coverage on the lips. The colour is the deepest of the four, being more of a Bordeaux shade than a true red, and perfect for winter in particular. These are £8.99 here.

So, those are my favourite reds and berries for autumn and winter, what are some of your favourite lip colours for the season?

Affordable Everyday Autumnal Makeup

Seasonal trends can sometimes be a bit pricey to keep investing in, particularly the lip and cheek colours that you might like to switch up come the changing of the seasons, but I've put together an autumn look for fairly cheap, and the eyeshadow palette can be used all year around :)

Apologies for the less than wonderful pictures, as ever :)

The bits I used are the Make Up Revolution 32 Shade Flawless Palette - £8 here. Maybelline Colour Tattoo in Vintage Plum - £4.99 here. Make Up Revolution lipstick in Rebel With Cause  - £1 here. Make Up Academy Clear lip liner - £1 here and the NYC Cheek Colour in West Side Wine - £2.99 here.

What are some of your favourite products for autumn and winter? Let me know :)

Acrylic Storage & Makeup Collection - Picture Heavy

Like a lot of us, I've got more makeup than I know what to do with. My mum sent up my stuff from home this week so it was a bit of a mad scrabble to find places to put it (I'm trying to keep my stuff all in one place so I don't seem like I'm taking over in here!) With that in mind, I purchased a set of drawers from Very, and a few acrylic bits - from Muji and eBay - to store all the makeup I decided to keep post clear out. There are bits I use a fair bit more often, and they're stored on the top of the drawers and in the first drawer of the unit (not photographed because it's more than a little chaotic in there), the rest of the bits are split up into the other drawers so as to keep them out of the way.

You can see the basic set up of what I've got in this picture, as well as my boyfriend's work uniform and a section of his expansive game collection in the background. I forgot to move the shirt, apologies :D The wooden chest has six smallish sized drawers, with the top three holding makeup of some description, and the bottom three holding various nail/body/skin/randomly placed items. There are two sets of the wide 2 drawer units from Muji up there, a small 9 piece lipstick holder from eBay, a larger acrylic holder from eBay, a makeup mirror from B&M and a pencil pot from ASDA.

Just a slightly closer look at the acrylic bits on the drawer top without the mirror in the way.

Small lipstick holder - £3.49 from eBay here

At first I wasn't sure what size lipstick holder I was going to get. I've had the 24 ones before, but I don't like the size of them and I found that the acrylic making them was a lot thinner and more prone to breakage. The plastic making up the 9 piece one I have now is significantly thicker and I can see it lasting a lot longer. It also takes up a lot less room on the drawer top and I prefer how it looks in general. This holds some of my more "favourite" lipsticks, so to speak. I'm also a bit of a sucker for uniformity so anything I had 3 of went in this holder for the sake of looking nice. 

Large acrylic holder - £6.99 on eBay. No longer in stock from the seller I purchased from, but there are similar ones all over the site.

At the minute, this is just holding lipsticks, brushes and my setting spray. Moreso because I don't have space to rest it on top of the Muji drawers with proper products in it than anything else to be honest. This holds the majority of the rest of my lipsticks that are in a true bullet form, a little kabuki at the back, and my eye brushes in separate compartments. I put the pencil holder that has my face brushes in the main compartment just because it keeps them all together that way. Ideally I'd have foundations or something in this, but I'll switch it up at some point no doubt.

2x the 2 Wide Drawers - £10.95 each here.

I've been lusting after Muji storage for aaaages now, looked up actual Muji drawers and every alternative you can possibly think of for months now, but when it came down to it I knew I'd be best off going for the real thing and I'm glad I did. I daresay when we have more space I'll probably buy a few more sets just so I can have things organised a bit better than they are now, but so far so good. I like the size of the drawers, the sleekness of them and the fact that you can see inside at any given moment. The drawers hold the bits of my collection that I use the most often, with the top drawer holding basic "everyday" kind of stuff. 

Excuse the background clutter that you can see in every close up picture of these drawers. Bad preparation over here! As you can see, in here I've just got a few options of "everyday" kinds of makeup. This'll likely get switched out a fair bit, but it makes sense to have it all in one place. There's also the Makeup Revolution 32 Shade Flawless palette on top of the drawers, which I've designated my new everyday palette because there's SO MANY COLOURS in there.

Second drawer down houses far too many blushes, highlighters and bronzers. This is the majority of them actually. If you're wondering about the bronzing primer, it got into an argument with a piece of sellotape that my mum put on it. 

Random drawer of randomness. It has extras of bases, eyebrow and mascara stuff, a couple of Colour Tattoos and a few skincare bits. Productive!

Aaaaaaand the last drawer

The last Muji drawer holds the majority of my other lip bits. The drawers doubled up a bit so you can't see most of what's in there, but heyho! This is probably my favourite drawer because  it's all brightly coloured :)

Finally on the picture front, sticking perfumes and such on the shelves that hold ALL of the games, just to deman-cave the room a bit. 

Muahahaha.

How is your makeup stored? Let me know if you'd like to see how I've got the rest of it stored, not that it'll be helpful because it's pure chaos in there, but heyho.

L'Oreal La Palette Nude Swatches & First Impressions

I'm not entirely sure if this palette is actually "out" yet, as the Boots.com website still says something about a waiting list and I've yet to see it pop up on the Superdrug site, but while browsing my local Boots today, this was sitting on the shelf under a note that said "la riche eye palette". I've heard a wee bit of buzz surrounding this of late, and after getting hold of it its pretty easy to see why. As I said, I only bought this today so I've not tried it properly - this is purely a swatches and first impressions post based on what I've seen of the texture of the shadows.

As the name suggests it's a pretty nude palette - moreso than even the likes of the Naked(1,2,3) in my opinion as there's no super dark black/grey shades and even the deeper colours are very wearable. The first shade in the palette didn't show up on my skin in the photos, and registered merely as a shimmer in person.

The first five shades in the palette. For the most part, muted rosy tones. Similar to the Naked 3 colour family.

The second lot of shadows. These are all slightly darker but still very wearable. I'd have no trouble wearing these day to day alongside the lighter tones in the palette.

The swatches. As I said, the first shadow doesn't really show up on my skin and isn't visible in the photo. The black intrusion you see to the far right is a tattoo, apologies - I ran out of arm space while swatching.

The formula of these is soft and buttery to the touch - this is my first experience with L'Oreal eyeshadows and I have to say I'm quite impressed. The mattes felt no drier to the touch than the shimmers do, and I think they'll all blend quite nicely.

The palette is £14.99, which I think is quite expensive given that it's a high street offering, but the quality is there if you don't mind paying a little extra for it. I found this in Boots, but I daresay it'll be available in Superdrug at some point in the future. I've not seen an official release date for it anywhere, so who knows when it'll be popping up.

What do you think of the colour selection? Are you still liking the pink tones, or think it's getting a bit samey now?