Huda Beauty lashes and Peaches Pigments

I couldn't wait to do these 2 next product reviews! 

Huda Beauty Lashes:

Firstly let me talk about Huda Beauty lashes... I am obsessed!

I am wearing the style 'Samantha' which are quite long but really fluffy and quite natural looking. They give just the right amount of drama added to the eyes without looking too much. I also find although they are really full (a lot of lashes packed on) they are still really easy to apply. They feel really lightweight on my eyes and they are curved so when applying they fit really easily.

They cost £15 and are worth every penny! 

Peaches Makeup pigments:

Wow these are some of the nicest eyeshadow pigments I have ever tried!

The camera doesn't do them justice for how glittery they are.

I so excited to wear these over the festive season. They are so pigmented and such gorgeous colours. 'Pearl' can also be doubled up to use as a highlighter on your cheekbones as its less glittery than the others.

I will deffinately be adding to my collection!

Merry Christmas xxx              

Too faced 'born this way' foundation, Artis brushes and cleaning system

Hey guys,

I really couldn't wait to share with you the latest too products that I have tested!

Too Faced 'born this way':

The first one is Too Faced's 'born this way' foundation. I have tried so many foundations and this is one of my favourites. Here are the positives and negatives of this foundation:

Positives:

During the winter months when my skin isn't at its best I do like wearing a full coverage foundation and this deffinately has enough coverage for me as I am used to wearing ByTerry Cover expert and Estée Lauder Double Wear. What I really love about it is that although it is full coverage it still looked really natural on my skin and I found the colour 'nude' was a great match.

I also loved the fact that it lasted all day. I haven't found many foundations that compare to double wear in their lasting abilities apart from this one! 

The pump and applicator are really easy to use so no pouring foundation out of a heavy pot of squeezing too much out a tube! 

It is a really moisturising foundation and I have combination skin so it helped keep the dry parts of my skin really moisturised. Especially good for winter when my skin is a little bit more dry than the summer. 

Negatives:

There really isn't many negatives for this foundation except it might not be for people with really oily skin. Because it is so moisturising it might make oily skin too shiny. I didn't have this problem so for me this foundation is great!

Artis Brush oval 8:

I went to Space NK my absolute favourite beauty store and I am so excited with my purchases. I bought the Oval 8 Artis brush along with the cleaning system and can I just say OMG I am completely in love with this brush! It is the best makeup brush I have ever used and worth every penny!!!

There is absolutely nothing negative whatsoever to say about it so I am just going to tell you why it is so good...

The reason I decided to get Oval 8 for a foundation brush is because Oval 6 was sold out! I originally wanted Oval 6 but I now love this brush so much that eventually I am going to get every single brush that they make! It has thousands of tiny bristles to make it sooo soft! Honestly it is the softest thing ever on your face so you will have no worries of it irritating your skin if you have sensitive skin like me. Also the quality of the actual brush is so good, with the handle and the shape of the brush it is so easy to use.

I am really glad I got the oval 8 for foundation because it is so large I can put my foundation on so quickly. And can I just say it goes on so unbelievably even. I was using before Real Techniques buffer  brush to apply my foundation and I would have to blend my foundation with a sponge. With the Oval 8 there is no need for a sponge!!

It is also great for applying blusher, bronzer or powder and that's where the cleaning system comings in handy... So I bought also the Artis microfibre cleaning pad which comes in a cute mirrored box. Also the Artis brush cleaning foam. What you do is squeeze the foam onto the pad then in circular motions rub your brush on the pad. What is so great about this is the brush is completely clean and dries instantly!!! No more washing your brushes waiting for them to dry!!! You can re-use it instantly so if you wanted to use the same brush to apply foundation and then a powder you can clean it inbetween. (To clean the microfibre pads you can put it in the washing machine or buy a new one every so often).

Something I have figured out is that you can actually use this cleaning system on all your brushes. I have cleaned every brush I have on it and they all dried almost instantly (the real large powder brushes such as Mac's 150 you might have to swirl around on the microfibre pad for a bit longer to get it really clean and dry).

My next brush out of the Artis collection that I will be purchasing will be a smaller one for concealer. I am so obsessed with these brushes honestly I can't tell you enough how amazing they are! Add it to your Xmas list! ( Also as a reminder I am not sponsored by Artis or any brand... this is a real honest review).

I will be back soon with some more reviews for you my lovelies

Sophie xxx

My wedding makeup- from the point of view of a makeup artist

From my years working as a makeup artist I have done the makeup of hundreds of brides and close to thousands of bridesmaids and finally it was my turn to be the bride instead of the makeup artist! 

I got married 3 months ago and I got to experience from the other end what it was like to have the stress of planning a wedding and more importantly planning my wedding makeup!

It took me a long time to decide if I was going to do my own makeup or if I was going to hire someone to do my makeup. Eventually I came to the decision to have a makeup trial. I knew this was going to be tough because I had never had anyone do my makeup before and of course knowing the tricks of the trade I am extra fussy! I just thought if I didn't have one I would regret it so I got on the case going through my contacts! I booked a makeup trial with a girl who had been recommended to me by a friend. It was a very strange experience to be the client instead of the makeup artist and I actually quite enjoyed it! I told her the look that I was after but whilst she was doing my makeup I made a concious effort not to comment on anything throughout because I understand that everyone works differently and I wanted to let her do her thing to see the end result. I was surprised to see what she had done and I really liked it but it was deffinately not how I would have done my makeup! However, it was so nice for once to be the one sitting in the chair relaxing and letting someone pamper me! Having dealt with fussy clients myself I know that it can be really difficult at times so I made sure I was the perfect client.

After a week of thinking over it and doing a 100 different makeup trials on myself I came to the decision that I was going to do my own makeup. Although she was clearly very talented I felt as though I had better achieved the look I was after. I knew this wouldn't be the same as doing my makeup on a day to day basis because your wedding is the most important day of your life but for me it felt right to do it myself.

I decided to go for a fairly natural and classic bridal look. I go everyday of my life experimenting with heavy makeup, smokey eyes, glitter and glam but for once I wanted to go for a look that wouldn't date. I didn't want to look back at my wedding photos in 10 years time and think OMG what the hell was I thinking! So this is the look I went for:

I decided to keep it simple and natural by using neutral colours and not overdoing my contour or eyes. It was a scorching hot summer day which is so rare in England which I was so grateful for as it meant we got to live our dream of getting married outdoors but it also meant I was literally melting! 

I had to slightly adapt my products accordingly when doing my makeup on the day of the wedding as the British weather can be so unreliable so we didn't plan on having such amazing weather! These photos were taken at sunset after the ceremony so as you can see the makeup did withhold the heat!

Products used were:

Face:

Primer- Clarins beauty flash balm (this primer is really cooling for the summer but also keeps my skin looking firm)

Foundation-Estée Lauder double wear. 

Concealer- ysl anti cerne 

Corrector- benefit lemonade 

Highlight- nars albatross

Bronze- Charlotte tilbury bronze and glow

Blush- too faced sweetheart blush

Finishing spray- Urban Decay deslick (had to keep my makeup in tact!)

Eyes:

Eyeshadow- Tom Ford eye quad in Cocoa Mirage

Liner- Mac blacktrack 

Mascara- Diorshow waterproof 

Lashes- Velour Lashes cluster holic

Brows- Anastasia Beverley Hills dipbrow pomade in Blonde

Lips:

Liner- Charlotte tilbury in Pillowtalk

Gloss- Clarins instant light natural lip in Petal Shimmer.

Hope you enjoyed reading my experience  on bridal makeup as a makeup artist.. Here's a couple more snaps of my day! Xxx

Laura Mercier Extra Lash Sculpting Mascara

For my first ever post (so excited!!) I am going to be reviewing the Laura Mercier Lash Sculpting Mascara in Black Onyx.

*** Firstly I want to point out all views and opinions are my own ***

I have tested this mascara over the past 2 weeks and this is what it looks like: 

Positives:

. It has a nice thick and creamy formula. I like my mascara thick and I find that with some mascaras I find I have to apply a three of four layers to get it to the desired fullness but this really only needed two layers. 

. I also absolutely love the brush it's got loads of tiny bristles that allow the mascara to coat every single lash even the tiny ones in the corners. The spiky edges to the bristles really allow each lash to be completely separated.

. It really gets my lashes looking extremely full and jet black looking.

. It lengthens my lashes to their full capacity. I don't have the longest of lashes but when I wear this mascara I even had a couple of people ask if I am wearing falsies!

Negatives:

. So I absolutely loved this mascara at first, I was honestly thinking it's the best mascara I have tried and I have used soo  many mascaras but I changed my mind about 4 hours later when I looked in the mirror and had black smudges all under my eyes! This mascara is it is really not in any way smudge proof. I do get quite watery eyes but even on the days that I wore this when my eyes were normal I would find that it had smudged. It doesn't necessarily flake but you get this horrible black dot smudges and I end up having to touch up my concealer about 3 times in the day when I'm wearing this.

. I also find that if you apply more than two coats the formula will start to clump. I love building up my mascara and to be honest two coats is all it needs to make it really dramatic with this mascara but I thought I would see how far it could go and it ended up clumping.

. The formula seemed to thicken by the second week. I'm not so sure that this is a negative but if you want a dramatic look then you won't really be able to achieve it from this mascara until it is slightly used by week two and the formula has really built up on the brush (the photos I have taken are from week 2 of using this mascara). 

Conclusion:

Overall I would say this is a good mascara for a night out but not practical for everyday use and definitely not for anyone who has watery or sensitive eyes.