Makeup Favourites 2015

Every year, I read every single 'Best Of ...' post I can find at the end of the year; if someone has included a product in a round up of things from their entire year it's got to be pretty impressive! I haven't done this sort of post since 2013, but I have found so many incredible products this year that I just had to write one!  Over the next few days I'm planning to post a little 2015 review post to round up everything else I've loved this year, but for today I'm focusing on make up!

What I Got For Christmas 2015

After seeing endless tweets about 'what I got for Christmas' posts and enjoying the few I have read so far, I thought I'd write another one of my own (if you fancy a peek at last year's post click here).  Obviously, I'm not posting this to brag, and I've just chosen to share a few of my gorgeous gifts, as some of them are more personal and I'd rather keep to myself.

Nyx Cosmetics

Firstly, hope you all had a brilliant Christmas!  Now that the big day is over, I'm sure I'm not the only one who needs to be a bit tighter with spending, so for now - bye bye high end beauty splurges! Thankfully, this brilliant brand has recently arrived at Boots online and the high quality products matched with the low prices meant I don't need to completely tighten my purse strings just yet.

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to write a quick post wishing your all a happy Christmas, and regardless of whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Festive Party Beauty

I'm pretty sure that festive makeup is my ultimate favourite type of look to create.  I love piling the glitter onto my eyelids, going overboard with a highlighter and painting my lips with my favourite shades.  What better time is there to put festive beauty into action than a Christmas party?! I created this look two weeks ago for my work Christmas do, and I can imagine I'll be doing something pretty similar on Christmas day.

Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani Eye Shadow Palette

First things first - I've broken up for Christmas! Woohooo! The run-up to Christmas in a Primary School is pretty stressful, so these two weeks off are being welcomed with open arms! I'm heading home to Wales to spend the holidays with my family and I can't wait to spend some time with everyone.

At the start of December I was celebrating some good news at the same time as the Urban Decay Gwen Stefani palette was released, which I had been eyeing up on instagram, so I bought myself a little celebratory present (here).

I am a big Urban Decay palette fan - I adore the original Naked palette and the Naked Basics palette, and I also own a build-your-own palette with a few hand-picked shades in.  Their pigmentation and formulation have never let me down before, so I had pretty high hopes for this palette.
 
Even before I opened the packaging I was in love - look how beautiful the box is! I actually still have it and I'm still keeping the palette inside it; I can't bring myself to put the box in the bin!

The palette itself is completely different to any of the Naked palettes; the fifteen shadows are in round pans in a 5x3 layout which is shown on the lid of the palette with a monochrome pattern.  I love how it's different to the Naked style of a line of rectangular pans to show that it's clearly designed by someone else.  I adore the tarnished gold accents on the palette which make it feel luxurious and high end.  In a nutshell: it's beautiful.

Admittedly, when it comes to eye shadow I'm not particularly brave.  I go for the usual neutral shades and once in a blue moon I'll break out of my comfort zone and try something different before going straight back to my beloved browns and golds.  Because of this, the UDxGwen palette is perfect for me - most of the shades are neutral; they range from a matte cream to a shimmery gold to a matte black and pretty much everything in between.  There's a variety of sparkle, glitter and matte shades which are perfect for every occassion.  Then, to mix up the shades a bit, there is a super shimmery barbie pink and bright blue for days when you're feeling brave.

I have to admit, I love all of the shades, but these are four of my favourites.  The top swatch is Baby; a shimmery peachy champagne shade.  Punk is a matte deep chocolate brown with a hint of purple which is so different to any other dark shades I own - perfect for a smokey eye. The gorgeous gold shimmey shade is 1987; the ultimate festive colour.  I also adore Pop - it isn't very pigmented but it's a pale champagne shade with pink, gold and silver shimmer and glitter running through it.  The name of this shade is ideal, because adding a dab of glitter to the center of my lid really makes my eyes pop!

In a nutshell, I adore this.  I honestly think this might have shot to the top of my favourite palettes list, this is the only palette I've bought home with me this Christmas, and I'm usually attached to my Naked palette in the festive season!

Eye Shadow Application: Wet vs Dry

For years I only ever applied eye shadow using a dry brush.  It never even crossed my mind to try using a damp brush until a few months ago, and now I find myself wetting my brush before applying quite often.

Original Source Skin Quench Moisturising Oil Spray

The Original Source Skin Quench oil claims to be a quick drying moisturising oil spray which should leave your skin feeling quenched, nourished and revitalised.  For the last few weeks I've been spritzing this over my legs after a shower and hoping for the best.

Autumn Beauty Favourites

In my opinion, once December 1st rolls around, autumn is over and winter starts.  It seems to instantly get colder, scraping frost from my windscreen is a daily job and glittery sparkly goodness is in.  I'm usually more of a summer girl, but I really enjoyed autumn this year.  These are the beauty bits I couldn't get enough of over the last few months.

Winchester Cathedral Christmas Market

Two weeks ago, my parents came down to visit Rob and I in Portsmouth for the weekend and to start getting into the Christmas spirit.  What better way is there to start feeling festive than spending Sunday wandering around a Christmas market?! We jumped in the car and headed to Winchester cathedral for the day.

A MAC Base

Although I've been a bit of a make-up addict for a good few years, and I've tried my fair few base products (read my All About That Base post here), until now I had tried very little from MAC.  Apart from a concealer and MSFN, I was a bit of a newbie so armed with a discount code, I popped the MAC Matchmaster Foundation and the MAC Studio Fix Powder Foundation in my basket.

Christmas Wishlist

With Christmas only a few weeks away, I can help but keep adding things to my seemingly endless wishlist, especially with everyone else's wishlists popping up all over my Bloglovin' feed.  This year, this is what I'm hoping to find under my tree!

Every Day Eye Makeup

Lately every time I have more that two minutes to put my makeup on, I find myself going for the same eye products.  I  am loving a soft brown smokey liner with layers of lashes.