A Very Late 13 Best of 2013!

Hey everyone, hope you're all well. You may or may not have noticed I haven't posted for a while which is down to a combination of things. Namely having a bad time at my job and having to quit, being a busy third year university student and some exciting goings on which have meant I haven't been able to blog as much as I'd like. I'm hoping now this will change as I've really missed posting and thought i'd start my return by doing my belated 13 favourites of 2013. As everyone says, it's so hard to narrow it down to just 13 products so I really tried to pick the ones that absolutely stood out over everything else and managed to eventually whittle it down to these!

1) Benefit Porefessional & MAC Refined Zone Primer (not pictured) - This may be cheating a bit but this combination of primers is my absolute favourite. I find the Porefessional is great at hiding any pesky visible pores around my nose whilst the MAC is amazing at reducing shine and mattifying any oily patches of skin for longer lasting make-up.

2) Covergirl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3 in 1 Foundation - Sticking along the theme of long lasting make up, I adore this foundation! Not only does it stick around for hours but it contains SPF which is great for daytime, is a perfect colour match and gives great coverage without looking too unnatural. The only downside for me is that it's unavaliable in the UK but if I ever visit the US I'll definitely be stocking up!

3) Loreal Nude Magique BB Powder - I really like this powder for looking really natural whilst helping with any oil control on my face. It photographs nicely and sits well on the skin whilst not being too expensive or clogging my pores. The only negative is that the shade range is limited to around two. They are fairly adaptable but if you have a medium-dark skintone, I'm not 100% sure this could work for you.

4) Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder (White) - This is one of my favourite discoveries of the whole year. The perfect powder for under eyes as it not only sets the area beautifully to allow a crease-free finish but also further brightens any undereye dark circles left after concealer. I will definitely continue to repurchase this throughout 2014!

5) Illamasqua Blush in Tremble - I have to admit, I'm not someone who always wears blush but when I do, this is the one I reach for 90% of the time. It's such a pretty, wearable peachy pink that I can't imagine looking bad on anyone. When my face needs perking up it's the one i'll always choose. I love it because it's the most long lasting brand of blush I own and it's matte so doesn't leave too much shimmer on my face. Highly recommend this!

6) MAC Patisserie Lipstick - This is definitely my all-time favourite everyday shade. It's basically a much easier way of wearing nude as it's a pinky brown shade which doesn't wash me out or look too unnatural. It provides a bit of a sheen and a wash of colour and for someone who finds nudes just don't work for them I find this perfect.

7) MAC Sable Eyeshadow - The perfect plummy toned shimmery brown. It's a hard to describe shade but it's great all over the lid or in the crease and I find it works well with practically any colour I wear. Seriously beautiful and I use it quite a lot!

8) MAC All That Glitters Eyeshadow - My favourite all over the lid, everyday colour. This is a colour I will always repurchase and that gets the most love from me! It's a really lovely pinky gold colour that is super flattering.

9) Stila All Day Waterproof Liquid Liner - This year brought about a new love of liquid eyeliner that I'd never had before and it's all because of this baby! It's a really opaque, slightly glossy black and I find the thin nib of the felt tip applicator makes application so much easier. The only negative is it does take a minute or two to dry so I do tend to wait before curling my lashes.

10) Soap & Glory Archery Brow Pencil & Liner - Another one of my favourite discoveries of the year. I never really heard this talked about but I absolutely love it. I also own the Hourglass Brow Sculpter but find this so much better. You get a felt tip applicator on one end which is great for sparser areas of brow where I need to mimic hairs and then a really pigmented pencil which leaves an amazing finish on the brows. So, so good!

11) YSL Babydoll Mascara - Although expensive, this was definitely my favourite mascara of the year. I'm still not sure if this is 'the one' but it's one of the best ones I've used for creating a slight curl, adding length and volume. It leaves a really nice finish and has left me wanting to try every YSL mascara there is now too.

12) Bumble & Bumble Dryspun Finish Spray - I've gotten through around 3 cans of that this year as I just can't leave without big hair. This stuff is really good at just adding some texture and volume to the roots and ends and creating good bed hair. I'm not 100% sure I prefer this to the Oribe offering but at £17 cheaper it's definitely worth it!

13) Models Own Hedonist, Topshop Celestial & Barry M LE Holographic Silver Glitter - As you may be able to tell, I've massively cheated here. But who realistically can be just one nail polish for the whole year?! It was hard enough to get it to three.. But anyway! These were the three that stood out to me. Hedonist is an incredible neon red shade that I could barely take off all summer. Topshop Celestial is probably my joint favourite shade ever with it as an amazing cornflower blue shade that works any season. Finally, I picked up this Barry M LE Shade (with no name) towards the end of the year and it is THE most amazing glitter - it's like a silver toned rainbow on the nails! I must have stocked up on around five so if you can find it i'd definitely recommend it.

So that's my (sort of) 13 favourites of 2013. I'd love to know what you think of any of these products or what you're favourite products were and i'll hopefully be back soon with another post! Thanks for reading :)

Favourite Spring/Summer Polishes

L-R Models Own Hedonist £5, Topshop AWOL £5, Barry M Pink Flamingo £2.99, Barry M Neon Pink £2.99, Essie Fiji £7.99, Essie Go Ginza £7.99, OPI Gargantuan Green Grape £7-9 & Topshop Celestial £5

Hi everyone, hope you're all well. Today I wanted to share my favourite spring/summer nail polishes. I was looking back through my old posts and one of my first posts was on colours for autumn/winter so I wanted to continue on with the seasonal polish post. Without further ado, here all my bright and pastel picks for this time of year! :)

First up a couple of bright polishes. Hedonist is a gorgeous red/orange neon shade that's particularly eye catching on the nails, I've done a full review here. Then we have Topshop AWOL. I was trying for a while to track this shade down and it was so worth it. It's a beautiful colbalt blue and as with all Topshop polishes, the formula is great. Then we have a couple of old Barry M favourites, Pink Flamingo which is actually a very pretty coral toned pink and neon pink which is exactly as the name suggests, a bright pink with a slightly blue duochrome to it which looks incredible in the sunshine when the light hits!

Then onto the more pastel shades! First is a cult favourite, Essie Fiji. As much work as this polish takes to get perfect (usually around 3 coats) the colour is definitely worth it. It's so unique and so pretty. Also on the off-white theme we have my latest addition, Essie Go Ginza from their new collection. I actually haven't heard anything about this shade from any bloggers but it is absolutely incredible! It's a slightly off white purple and is so stunning, definitely going to pick up some back ups when this collection goes! Next is OPI Gargantuan Green Grape which I find to be the perfect shade of mint green. The formula is really nice, I do find OPI a bit hit and miss but I have absolutely no gripes with this one. Finally, my all time favourite polish Topshop Celestial. The perfect cornflower blue that actually looks flattering against my pale skin and a nice glossy, long lasting finish.

I'd love to know your favourite spring/summer shades as well as whether your team pastels or team brights. I have to say, I'm totally undecided!

Models Own Hedonist

Models Own Hedonist £5

Hi everyone! Today I wanted to share with you a product I've been absolutely obsessed with lately, Models Own Hedonist polish. I have been wearing this colour for about two weeks straight and have totally reignited my love for it. First off, the colour is absolutely incredible. The pictures don't even do it justice! It is the most neon red/orange in the world and is so beautifully vibrant this time of year.

Formula wise this is a definite hit from Models Own. As you may have seen in my Fruit Pastel collection post, some of those feel a little short with streaky and sheer formula's but this one only takes two coats to be completely opaque. I also don't find it to be streaky at all despite actually being a matte formula and it lasts around four days on my nails which is also really great.

I'm not usually a massive fan of matte polishes but this with a bit of my Jessica High Gloss In A Flash top coat leaves a really nice creme type finish meaning the colour doesn't fall flat at all. All in all, this polish has to be one of my all time favourites polishes and one I would repurchase over and over. If you get this be prepared to get a whole lot of compliments from strangers!

Thought I'd include an indoor picture so you can see the kind of shade it really is!

What's your favourite summer shade? Do you own this colour?

Please make sure to leave me any requests for any posts you'd like to see and feel free to check out my blogsale page at the top which has been updated if you're interested! :)

Current Favourites!

Hi everyone! I'm sorry for the total lack of posts this last week. As some of you might know I'd been doing work experience at Red Magazine the last two weeks so hadn't had a lot of time to post but from Thursday onwards I will have no uni so will be able to fully commit to posting more! :)

I thought today I'd share some of my current favourites. I have to say, I'm not one for doing monthly favourites myself yet just because I don't feel my favourites change often enough every month so I thought I would do a roundup every now and again when I've had products really stand out to me. 

Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray - This was a slighly impulsive purchase I made a few weeks ago. I actually had a Space NK voucher from my birthday to use and really wanted to try this out after seeing so many amazing reviews of it giving voluminous hair. Although pricey this stuff is incredible, I absolutely love it. I've never found a product that gives my hair so much volume and this alongside my Bumble & Bumble Texturizing Cream (which is also a favourite but forgot to take a photo of it!) gives me the perfect beachy, volumised hair.

Laura Mercier Radiance Primer - I got this in the gift with purchase offer Harvey Nicholls were running and oh my gosh, this is my new holy grail primer! I was initially so worried about how it would fare on my skin but with Benefit Porefessional on my oilier nose and this all over the rest of my face, my skin has never ever looked so bright and healthy. My makeup lasts far longer than any other primer I've tried including the Laura Mercier Oil Free Primer so I'd urge anyone to give this a go.. it's incredible!

Maybelline Babylips in Peppermint - I love this stuff for days where I don't feel like wearing anything too heavy as it gives a sheer wash of colour that slightly lightens my lips whilst making them baby soft. It's also great to pop on before a lipstick to help my lips stay a lot more moisturized and I honestly adore these so much for really hydrating my lips as well as the minty scent and cannot wait for them to arrive in the UK. I've done a full review of them here.

Rimmel Match Perfection Concealer & YSL Touche Eclat Foundation - I won't talk about these too too much as they were both in my last post but I've loved these whilst I've been having a lot of early mornings for brightening up my skin and have worn them together everyday for the last three or so weeks.

MAC Cream Colour Base in Pearl - You may have seen in my last post that I really wanted a non-glittery more sheeny highlighter and this one is incredible. It is exactly what I was looking for, it's pretty subtle but that's exactly what I like for everyday use if I'm honest and I really, really love it. Next on my list is Luna as like Pearl it's a sheen finish but more intense which I think will be ideal for evening wear. Thank you to Megan for suggesting I try these out!

Stella Summer Rose Perfume - I mentioned this in my perfume collection I did months ago but I have really loved using this perfume lately, it's definitely going to be my summer scent! As the name suggests it's pretty floral which isn't usually my taste but it's a lovely and such a beautiful bottle.

MAC Malt Eyeshadow - I've had this for a couple of months now and it's quickly become one of my top three favourite MAC eyeshadows. It's perfect for in the crease, a light cool toned brown with a bit of pinkness to it and great all over the lid for a neutral matte eye. I haven't found a single colour or makeup look it doesn't work with as of yet.

Topshop AWOL - I am totally obsessed with anything cobalt blue at the moment and this polish is no different. The shade is similar to Essie Butler Please that was in a haul of mine a little while ago which I mainly got as I couldn't find this shade online and presumed it had been discontinued. I then managed to find it in store a while ago and had to get it. The reason this beats the Essie is totally due to formula, it lasted around four/five days on my nails whilst the Essie only lasted a day without chipping. A lovely shade all year round I'd say.

Models Own Polish in Hedonist - Finally, another bright nail polish and this is Hedonist from the Headkandi collection. Again, Models Own aren't my favourite formula but this one actually lasts better on me than other ones I've tried and the shade is totally worth it. It's a neon red and it's so, so bright on the nails that it's definitely one of my all time favourite colours of my collection.

What have been your favourites lately? Also please let me know if you'd like to see a full review on any of these products or if there's any others posts you'd like to see from me!

Models Own Fruit Pastel Collection

Hi everyone! I'm currently working my way through a long list of recent purchases I have to review but I know this particular collection was one a lot of you requested to see in action. As you may have seen from my wishlist that I've been eagerly awaiting the release of the Models Own Fruit Pastel collection for a while now, which features five scented colours that I thought would be perfect for spring/summer.

Models Own Fruit Pastel Collection, £5

So first off, the shade range. I have to say, to me these are the perfect five shades to put in a 'pastel' collection, pretty much covering all the colours I would love to wear in these upcoming months. To me, there wasn't one that I thought looked too scary or ugly which wasn't great for my bank balance when it came to buying them! The shade names match the scent of each one; Blueberry Muffin, Apple Pie, Grape Juice, Strawberry Tart and Banana Split. 

I have to firstly confess that the scented element really isn't what I was interested in, I don't often go to smell my nails anyway..? But actually, it is a cute edition to them. However, if this is something that drew you to these polishes it's worth noting that after two days wear, the only ones I can still smell are Blueberry Muffin and Strawberry Tart.

Onto the formula which is where this becomes a little disappointing. These take a lot longer to dry than I'm used to and to get an opaque, non-streaky finish it took three coats. On top of this, they do have a tendancy to bubble even with a good top coat, which was really such a shame. I actually ended up applying them twice as the first time, I had bubbles on every nail which I cannot stand! Wierdly though, the second time round only the yellow and the pink bubbled badly, despite all having the same amount of time between each coat, whilst the other three remained pretty bubbleless.

Overall, I will probably continue to use a couple of the ones that don't bubble but I will probably be passing on a couple too. Banana Split is a really great pastel yellow which is so hard to find so I may persevere but with some of the other shades, I have plenty of similar only with a better formula. If I were to recommend any of these as a better shade/formula, I'd have to say go for Blueberry Muffin, Grape Juice or Apple Pie (though the blue and green were the only scents I really liked!)

Swatches L-R Blueberry Muffin, Strawberry Tart, Banana Split, Grape Juice and Apple Pie

Hope this review helped and please let me know your experiences with them as I'd love to know if it's just me doing something wrong! Also let me know if there's any posts you'd like me to do and I'll add them to my list! :)