I was always a powder highlight only kinda gal, until this year. I never really understood the difference in what they did and powder highlight was just so much easier to use.


I always used this NYX beauty - shade 04, ritualistic - as it's such a gorgeous icy glow, but it's still warm enough to use in winter and it doesn't look too cool toned with slightly warmer toned make-up. Eventhough this is a very creamy formula, I always find that sometimes adding another powder into the mix can make your make-up look a little cakey and heavy. Don't get me wrong, the look that this one gives is gorgeous and it's my favourite powder highlight, but sometimes the finish just isn't quite right.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, the lovely guys over at MUA sent me two shades of their light lustre liquid highlight - sublime (on the right) and marvel (on the left). Both have a gorgeous pearl finish and give that glow without making you look like a completely glitterball. Out of the two, sublime has to be my favourite as I tend to find that if you put too much of 'marvel' on, it can look a little too dark for my skin, but would be such a gorgeous natural glow for you darker skinned gals. Sublime is fairly similar to the shade of Benefit's highbeam, so this would be a fab alternative if you're not quite ready to take the plunge and go high-end first time.


Now, I'm a complete liquid highlight convert, because as much as I love my powder highlight, and as much as they're easy to use, I just find that liquid highlight gives you a much more natural and glowy look, rather than a blinding sparkle highlight. So, I guess that whichever you use depends on the look you're going for!
Also, I'd definitely say if you were going to trey either first, go for a powder, as it is much easier to blend and apply, as with the liquid highlight you have to blend straight away or it starts to sink into the skin and you can struggle to blend it! (not a fault with this exact highlight, but is a problem with most other liquid highlights)

So, thank you so much for reading, and let me know if you prefer liquid or powder highlight in the comments below,

Lou Loves x

*This post contains sponsored/gifted content, but all opinions are my own*

First off is the much hyped about high beam highlighter. I held off giving this a go, because I never really got the appeal with liquid highlighters. But, as soon as I tried this, I realised why everyone loves it so much; it's such a dewy and delicate finish but can definitely be built up for a blinding highlight. I really love the shade of this as well, it's got that gorgeous pink undertone which makes it that little bit different than your usual icy glow.

I love to blend this in with my finger. I dot it along my cheekbones and brow bone, and then just pat it in with my ring finger for a more natural look, but you could definitely use a quite dense brush (maybe a concealer brush?) to build up the shade. This works perfectly on pale skin, but because of the shade, I'm not sure how well it would work on darker skintones.


Next up, is my brow holy grail - goof proof brow pencil. I'm completely obsessed with this brow pencil - it's super easy to use but makes your brows look good and more importantly stay put! It has two tips to use; the pointed end is designed for mapping out the brow shape and defining, whilst the wide tip is used for filling in! I have shade 3, which I think is the only shade they do in a mini, but they have 6 shades for the full-size product, and which come with a built in spoolie which is super helpful for travelling!


Finally, is my all time favourite - Rockateur. I'm obsessed with this product just because it's so versatile! Obviously, I love to use this as a blush, but it's also gorgeous as an eyeshadow, and I also use this as a bronzer, because of the gorgeous bronze shimmer running throughout it! This might be my all time favourite Benefit product, because it feels so lovely and light on the skin. It's also a really nice blush shade; it's such a perfect delicate blush shade, but you could definitely build it up for a more dramatic, evening look!

Thanks so much for reading, and let me know your favourite Benefit product in the comments!

Lou Loves x

All products can be found on www.benefitcosmetics.co.uk

I'm such a huge lover of drugstore skincare and definitely have my favourite brands, so today I'm talking you through my top 5 products!

First off, is the L'Oreal Smooth Scrubs nourishing scrub. I have been obsessed with this as the weather has gotten warmer! I tend to find that the sun really dries my skin so I've been loving using this to get rid of any dry spots. It's got 3 different sugars to tackle different things which I thought was really good ; it's got white sugar to buff away impurities and dead skin, blonde sugar because it's a natural moisturiser and brown sugar as it's rich in minerals to help strengthen the skin's barrier.



The next is a mask that I was sent by Formula 10.0.6 a couple of months ago (to see my review of all products click here). I've been loving using this mask to clear the pores around my nose. It feels so gentle on the skin, but still really detoxes pores. It makes my skin feel so clear and fresh - it's not like any other mask I've tried! It also smells amazing - the bergamot makes it such a lovely scent for summer as well as it's not too heavy.


You'll probably all be bored of me droning on abut this moisturiser now, but I literally cannot get enough of it! It's a water based formula so feels really light on the skin but still feels like it's doing good. It makes your skin look really dewy and glowy; what else could you ask for in a moisturiser?! They also do it in 3 types so they cater to all skin types ; dry and sensitive, dry to normal and normal to combination! It's also infused with hyaluronic acid so really helps improve the appearance of the skin's surface!

A bold statement I know and not one that's thrown around lightly but I mean it.... These brushes WILL change your make up game! These Spectrum beauties will make even Beyoncé jealous!

It's no secret that I love my Spectrum A10 fan brush but these 2 new discoveries have taken the top spot. They're the B01 flat top blender and the B06 tall tapered blender.

I've been in dire need of a good foundation brush for a while but have never got round to picking one up and just making do with my beauty blender. Now, owning this B01 babe, it's made me regret not picking one up! It's a flat top blender so really buffs the product into the skin but it's ridiculously soft so isn't scratching the product off your skin!

I used to not be that happy with the finish that my beauty blender created as it looked dry, flaky and all round a bit rubbish. This beaut on the other hand leaves you glowing and flawless all day (and night!) long. Although using a beauty blender is considerably quicker I think the finish it gives is worth adding a couple of minutes onto doing your make up

The other brush - B06 tall tapered blender - is THE brush for applying shadow into your crease or outer corner and then blending it out. Because of the height of the brush fibres you can get a really soft blend but still keeping that strong pigment.

I used to use the NYX 17 brush for this job but it never quite gave the soft blended finish I wanted so hat one is now fulfilling the job of blending my transition shade. This brush is also insane at blending out shades if you've applied too much as blend it to wherever you need it to be and if you press a little harder you can buff some of the product onto the brush!

Although I rave about the Real Technqiues brushes, Spectrum always go above and beyond with quality as well as design - how can you not love their brushes?!

I hope you're all enjoying your new year so far, thank you for all your support so far and I'll see you all soon!

I am a huge lover of face masks and I talk about them all the time, so when a new brand, Cadden and Lee offered to send me their new masks I jumped at the chance and today I'm going to be doing a review of them for you all!


They've released 2 masks: one for normal/dry skin and one for normal/oily skin. So far I've only tried the dry skin one because I haven't wanted to use the normal/oily one yet because my skin has been very dry recently! But, when I've given it a go I'll be sure to let you know what I think.


This mask is so good I can't even tell you!! The first thing I noticed when I opened the packet was how delicate the mask was - in scent and the material of it. I kept the mask on for 15 minutes (it recommended 10-15 minutes) as my skin is really dry because it's getting a lot colder. Something that really impressed me about this mask was how it clung to the skin and didn't slide about like I found the Garnier one did. After I'd taken the mask off, my skin was quite red but my skin tends to do that whenever I've put any sort of product on it. However, my skin was so soft I was so shocked and I didn't quite believe it to be honest! The next morning my skin was still super soft and it look a lot healthier and glowy.

I've only ever tried this mask and the Garnier moisture bomb one but this one is by far my favourite because it worked so much better for me, personally. Although it may be a little more expensive I'd definitely give this a go if you're looking for a hydrating mask!

As Cadden and Lee are a new brand I thought I'd talk a bit about them and their ethos. They promise to: use no artificial colours or fragrances, use no chemical/artificial preservatives, never test on animals, be 100% vegan, make and source ingredients for the mask in the UK, include no parabens and use all natural and organic ingredients. Pretty impressive, huh?

"Our philosophy here at Cadden and Lee is simple. As out skin can only absorb so many ingredients, we believe that using fewer ingredients, but of exceptional quality, it is the most effective to deliver healthy and luxuriant skin. Many companies manufacture their sheet masks overseas but we believe in sourcing top quality natural and vegetarian ingredients from local UK suppliers, using our own special recipe to create the perfect facial sheet masks for you. We hope you love them and enjoy them as much as we do!"

Blogmas Countdown - 4 days!

I mentioned this Botanics Hot Cloth Cleansing Balm in my London Haul (click here to have a read) and I've been using it for the past few weeks so I thought it was about time that I did a review on it!




The only thing that I don't really like about this product is that it's quite hard to get out of the pot as the product is quite solid and you have to really scoop it out. I know a lot of people have said that this is a really good dupe for the Emma Hardie Cleansing Balm. Although I've never actually tried the Emma Hardie balm, I can get why it's compared to a product of that price tag!

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you all enjoyed this post and I will see you very soon,

Love Lou
xxxx

Click here to go to the product on the Boots website

Blogmas Countdown - 2 Weeks

As I mentioned in my last post (link just here) I picked up this little beauty of a blusher and I've used it a few times so I thought I'd do a review for you all!


This is a gorgeous shade if you have pale skin like me but I feel like it's one of those shades that will suit everyone because it's very glitter based. I was actually quite worried when I realised how glittery it was but there is a lot of pigmentation behind it so when applied it's more of a gentle shimmer. The pigmentation is really good and little goes a long way with this because much more than a couple of swirls with your brush makes you look a litttllleee bit like a clown (just to pre-warn everyone thinking of getting it!!) The colour itself is a gorgeous deep pink/mauve that looks really natural on.

Despite being a mauve based shade, it has got very rose gold undertones to it which are mainly because of the shimmer running through it. The rose gold side to it makes it look very glowy on the skin and it adds quite a lot of depth to your make up. I tend to find that once I've done my base, my face tends to look quite flat and has no depth and this has completely revolutionised my make up!


I love how long wearing this product is as well. I often read that after a couple of hours some drugstore blushers tend to fade into the rest of your make up but I can definitely see why this is the price it is because it's such a good quality product!

The packaging of this beauty is as gorgeous as the product itself! It comes in a box with a brush (which I was surprised at how good it was!) and a little mirror in the lid so although it is quite bulky, makes it perfect for travelling. It's also pretty sturdy packaging because I've read on some blogs that some cardboard type packagaing breaks quite easily but this doesn't seem as though it's going to break anytime soon.


So, this retails at £24.50 and I picked it up at a Benefit store but it's also available from all bigger Boots stores. If you want to pick it up on Boots online click here and if you want to buy straight from the Benefit website click here.

So, I hope you all enjoyed this review, let me know if you recommend any Benefit products down in the comments and I will see you all again very soon,

Love Lou
xxxx

Right now, there is a really big hype around this product (as well as the now blogger famous lip lingerie) so I thought I'd pick one up to see what the hype's all about.

I got the shade 01 Sweet Cloud and it's a really shimmery bronze/gold with a coppery shimmer to it and also quite chunky silver glitter running through it. This shade is nothing like any other shade I have ever tried - in fact all of the shades in the range are super unique - there's literally nothing I can compare it to, to give you all an idea of what it looks like.


The product itself obviously isn't as pigmented as a cream or powder product may be as it is just a tint but I was really happy with the colour pay off from it. I was also pretty surprised by the formula of it - I thought it would be quite a liquid product but I'd say it's definitely more of a cream than a liquid product.


I've found from this, that you can get 2 looks out of it. You could get a subtle wash of colour that has a really pretty shimmery sheen to it (which I prefer) or you can go all out glitter. This really depends on how much you apply - it took me a few uses to work out how much product worked well for me.


I have tried this product both with and without a primer and I would definitely recommend giving it a go with primer. When I wore it without primer it lasted for about 3/4 hours before creasing whereas the primer locked it on all day.


I've used this a few times so I thought that I would share with you my favourite looks that I've conjured up using this product as a base. My favourite is, applying this a little heavier and adding winged eyeliner which is super quick to do and looks really nice. Another favourite, is adding a wash of colour with the tint then using the 'Bookworm' from Tanya's hollywood palette into the crease toad some definition to the eye.

So, I hope you all enjoyed this post, thank you so much for reading
and I will see you very soon,

Love Lou
xxxxx

Buy this beauty here - £6

A couple of months ago, my favourite concealer was discontinued so I did a bit of research and discovered this lil' bad boy.


I found the Rimmel Match Perfection 2-in-1 skintone adapting concealer and highlighter and I've been giving it a little go .It has vitmains C and E so it's really good for you skin and it also lasts a long, long time (it says up to 13 hours, I haven't tested it to that length but it does last a long time)! It adapts to your skin tone so it is meant to be a perfect match for any skintone. However, I still find it's a little to dark for my skin! I have it in the lightest shade (ivory) but it's too orange for me.. It might be because I have yellow/pink toned skin but I'm not sure.


The quality of this concealer is amazing! I don't tend to find light/medium coverage concealers that great, but this one is really nice! I think it might be because it's quite lightweight on the skin which is really nice in summer when you want to let your skin breathe a bit. Another bonus is that it's really buildable, so if you did want to have a bit more coverage, you could build it up.


 I completely love this product and cannot get enough of it! It was just £5.99 which is pretty good value (even for a high street concealer!)

Thank you so much for reading, and let me know if you've ever tried this in the comments,

Love Lou
xxxxx