Christmas Makeup Look | Blogmas Day #8

It's nearly Christmas and you know what that means? It's party season! Whether it's a work party, a family party or a Christmas night out with your friends you want your makeup to fit the festive feeling. So, I've decided to share my go-to makeup look for this year with you.

Starting with the face, I like to use a long-lasting foundation with a high coverage for parties so I apply this Revlon Color Stay foundation in the shade 'natural beige' (which I'm aware is a good few shades darker than my skin tone, but it's to match my fake tan) all over my face using my damp Real Techniques Miracle Complexion sponge for an even finish. I then apply the Soap & Glory kick-ass concealer in 'light' under my eyes, on any spots, around my nose and down the bridge of it. This conceals any imperfections and helps to highlight parts of my face. Using the trusty Rimmel Stay Matte powder I set all of this in place. 

Moving onto the eyes, I apply the Urban Decay primer all over my lids using my finger and blend the shade 'Naked' from the first Naked palette into my crease. I then pack the shade 'Sidecar' all over my lid, leaving a space in the middle of my lid with no product on it. In this space I add the shade 'Half Baked'. To darken up the crease I blend the shade 'Buck' into it and gradually add a small amount of 'Darkhorse' on the outer 'V' of my eyelid I blend the shade 'Hustle'. I just continue to blend until it looks blended well enough. 

I'll then leave my eyes for the time being, and move onto contour. Using the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush I'll apply the Sleek bronzer from their contour palette under my cheekbones, my jawline, to my forehead and down my nose to make it appear slimmer. I'll blend this in using the Real Techniques brush and then to soften it a little bit more I'll use the Real Techniques sponge. To apply my Bare Minerals blusher in 'Your Highness' I use the Eco-Tools powder brush. I finish off my face makeup by sweeping a bit of the bronze shade from the Sleek 'Cleopatra Kiss' highlighter on the tops of my cheekbones, down my nose and on my cupids bow. 

 Moving back to the eyes, I apply the darkest shade 'hustle' to my lower lash line and using the L'oreal Super Liner Perfect Slim to add a small wing to my upper lash line. Using a black pencil liner I line my upper waterline and then I'll apply a set of Ardell Demi Whispie Lashes and coat my lashes with the Benefit Roller Lash mascara. For my eyebrows, I first brush through them with a spoolie and afterwards fill them in using the powder from the Barry M Brow Kit and the Eco-Tools angled brush. To complete my eye look I add a little bit of the shade 'virgin' from the Naked Palette to the inner corner of my eye and my brow bone.

And finally, to finish off the look I'll apply the Barry M Matte Lip Paint in the shade 'Obsessed'.

 What's your go-to Christmas party makeup look?

Sarah-Michelle x 

p.s. I know I missed yesterdays blogmas post and I'm really annoyed about that, but it was so busy yesterday with our early Christmas (post coming soon). Hopefully, this will be the only blogmas post that I miss!

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August Favourites

Summer has come and passed so quickly this year! Where did the time go? Anyway, here are some of the things I loved throughout August.

• Maybelline Eraser Eye Concealer - At the beginning of the month I ran out of concealer and rather than re-purchasing my good old faithful collection concealer, I thought I would try something new! I had been seeing a lot of youtubers and bloggers raving about this concealer, so I thought why not give it a go? I now know why they all love it so much; it conceals my dark circles whilst still feeling light and leaving a flawless finish. 

• Maybelline Lash Sensational Waterproof Mascara - I think I've mentioned once before that I'm very picky when it comes to mascara and I don't try new ones that often, but I really wanted to try the Lash Sensational mascara. I love this mascara! It multiplies the appearance of my lashes and makes them appear longer, without clumping! The applicator is the perfect size and shape to cover all of my lashes as well. 

• Maybelline The Nudes Palette - Yet another Maybelline product! One thing that my makeup bag lacks, or rather lacked, was a good eyeshadow palette. Maybelline products were on offer at the time (as you can probably tell) so I decided to pick up The Nudes palette. I love how similar the colours in this palette are to those in the Naked palette. It's a great mix of matte and shimmery colours so that you can create many different eye looks for the day right through to the night. My favourite look to wear, using the palette, is a gold smokey eye as it makes my blue eyes pop!

• OGX Weightless Hydration Coconut Water Conditioner - Throughout August I used this conditioner after my usual shampoo and noticed quite a bit of difference in my hair. The ends of my hair tend to be quite dry and dull because of blonde dip dye. Since using this my hair has felt hydrated, silky smooth and it's significantly shinier as well! Also, it smells of coconut, which I love the smell of.    

 What were you loving in August?

Sarah-Michelle x

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My Everyday Makeup

For my everyday makeup, I don't tend to wear very much. I'll only wear eyeshadow, lipstick and contour my face if I'm going out or to a special event. But anyways, here's my everyday makeup routine!

Firstly, I use the Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Gel Foundation in the shade 51 vanille Clair and blend it all over my face using either the Real Techniques expert face brush, or a sponge. I prefer using a sponge if I'm in a rush because I find it quicker to blend the foundation using one. However, at the moment I am in serious need of a new sponge as my current one is falling apart! The Bourjois serum has been in my daily makeup routine for a while now and I wrote about it previously in this post along with some of these other products!

I then move onto concealer! Currently I'm using the Collection Lasting Perfection concealer, which is loved by many bloggers, in the shade fair as I'm quite pale. I dot this onto any blemishes that I have (which thankfully isn't too many at the moment!) and also under my eyes to cover up my dark circles.

Next, I use the Rimmel Match Perfection loose powder and, using the Eco Tools powder brush, lightly dust it all over my face to keep my foundation and concealer in place. I usually focus more under my eyes and on my nose as these are usually the areas that I notice my makeup disappearing first. I prefer to use loose powder simply because I always end up breaking my pressed powder anyway.

I will then usually fill in my eyebrows using the Barry M brow kit. I used to never fill my eyebrows in, but this is a step that I never miss now because I like my brows to be bold, especially when I'm wearing my glasses.

Rather than using black eyeliner, I like to use brown as it's not too dark and I feel as though it compliments my eye colour and skin tone better than black. At the moment I'm using the Rimmel Special eyes precision eye liner pencil in rich brown.

Mascara is another step, like the eyebrows, that I never miss. Even if I'm not wearing any other makeup I will always put a little bit of mascara on to emphasis my lashes as they're really short and quite light in colour. I use the L'Oreal Paris Superstar mascara to lengthen them and add volume.

To give my cheeks a little bit of colour I swirl my Eco Tools powder brush in my Benefit Hervana blusher. The Hervana blusher has 4 gorgeous pink colours that compliment each other to create a natural flush!

To finish off my makeup I swipe a bit of Burts Bees lip balm on my lips and I'm good to go!

What makeup products are in your  everyday makeup routine?

Sarah-Michelle x

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