Bourjois Healthy Balance Powder | To combat oily skin I have to use a powder but often that comes with having an over-matte base which leaves your face looking dry and having exaggerated pores. With this powder though that doesn’t happen. Your makeup is set, your face is matte but you still have a radiance about your skin and pores are left looking invisible - full review here. 

The Body Shop Camomile Silky Cleansing Oil | This was a recommendation from Lucy and one that I was very weary of. Having oily skin the thought of putting oil on my face terrified me but it removes makeup like nothing I’ve ever used before and leaves the skin feeling nourished and moisturised, but not greasy.

Barry M Quick Dry Nail Paint - Eat My Dust | I’ve been obsessed with this shade since I picked it up all the way back in March. It’s the perfect pastel blue that isn’t too pastel and the formula is fast drying for any impatient people out there like me - full review here. 

Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Pencil - East End Snob + Revlon Moisture Stain - London Posh | As of late this has been my favourite lip combination. The Rimmel Lip Pencil is another recommendation from Lucy and the colour is a great pinky nude with the formula being long wearing but not drying, I had to go back and pick up some more shades - full review here. I’ve had the Revlon Moisture Stain since last year and loved it when they first launched but it became lost and buried in my makeup collection. I was recently looking for a nude gloss though and digging through my stash found this beauty. The texture is unlike any other gloss product but isn’t sticky and sticks around a long while. I like to put East End Snob all over my lips for colour and add London Posh to the centre of the lips to add dimension.

Bourjois 123 Perfect CC Cream | Recently I was on the hunt for a summer base that was light in feel but still had coverage - quite hard to come by. I picked up this CC Cream from Bourjois to test out and ended up loving it - full review here.

What are your current favourites?

~ Jade xx

I’m a massive fan of the Barry M nail varnishes - my particular love lying with the Gelly collection which I’ve mentioned and raved about countless times. Barry M’s spring collection is a wash of beautiful pastels - its a shade range that they get right every time - with a new quick dry formula. These varnishes are quite patchy so you need three coats to get a really good opaque finish but the shades are a pastel lovers dream - I picked up Eat My Dust and Full Throttle a perfect pastel blue and a pastel orange/coral - however because they are quick dry it doesn’t take very long to paint your nails and if like me you're incredibly impatient with waiting for your nails to dry, then you will love these.

Have you tried Barry M’s new formula yet?

~ Jade xx

Contouring is a step we all take to make our cheeks more chiseled and our noses more straight. It’s a step I prioritise in my makeup routine - along with my brows - and one I hate to skip. 
For my contour in the past I have raved about the Sleek Face Form Kit in ‘light’ - review here - which I still love, however recently something new has entered the ring, the Barry M Chisel Cheeks Contour Kit. This new little gem from the high street contains a contour shade, a bronzer and highlight shade. The contour shade is the best high street contour colour I’ve tried - even better than the Sleek version - as its very ashy and pigmented which is the perfect combination to create realistic contour as most contour shades from the high street are too warm toned which doesn’t create a shadow but rather a brown stripe across your cheek - not a good look. The bronzer is pigmented and completely matte which is great to add warmth to the face without it looking like mud, which bronzers with shimmer can do. The highlight shade is great for highlighting under the eyes because it is also matte. It has been my first time using a matte highlighter and I can say I prefer it to shimmer ones. I often find that shimmer highlighters look too overdone like you’ve had a fight with a fairy or touched cheeks with a Kardashian whereas a matte highlight still brings light to places you want to bring forward without everything being too reflective. These powders aren't the mist blendable though so it's better to start light and add more rather than going straight in with a lot of product and not being about to blend it out.

I realised the other day that I hadn’t done a current favourites post in over four months and as these are one of my favourite posts to write I thought I’d better rectify the situation.

Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick - Bond Girl* | I’m going to write a full review of this beauty soon but it’s become my go-to lipstick in recent weeks. A matte formula that doesn’t dry out your lips or feel uncomfortable but still lasts? & don't even get me started on the packaging. It’s a winner in my book.

Barry M Eyeshadow Pencil - Brown Black | Perfect for the days when you can’t be fussed with eyeshadow but you want something. Just smudge it on the lid and blend out with either your finger or a brush for a fuss free, five minute makeup job. It doesn’t crease either.

Alexa Chung - It | Alexa Chung is one of my favourite humans in the public eye. Her style and makeup is something I strive to replicate and her brazen faced attitude is to be admired. Her book ‘It’ is a quick read - it took me about three hours with tea breaks in-between - and is filled with talk about her style inspiration, fashion mishaps, boys and breakups with photos and sketches breaking up the pages.

Jo Malone - Peony & Blush Suede* | Peony & Blush Suede is the newest edition to my collection  of Jo Malone colognes which I’ve previously written about my love for. Peony & Blush Suede isn’t a scent I would usually go for but I love it. It’s a floral scent - which usually I favour the spicy and woody scents - with a fruity top note of apple and heart notes of honey and rose to add to the Peony. It lasts all day on the skin and smells even better the longer you wear it.

What are your current favourites?

~ Jade xx

As the festive party season is upon us I thought I’d share with you all my beauty essentials 

for this time of year that will see you through any festive occasion from a 

Christmas meal to a New Years party.

FACE

At every event this party season there’s going to be pictures taken so to prevent yourself looking overly shiny never go without powder - I’m forever in love with the Rimmel Stay Matte - even if you usually would skip it as you may look great in person but the camera will pick up any shine and multiply it by ten. But that doesn’t mean you can’t add a little highlighter to still have a healthy glow - I’m currently loving the Topshop highlighter, review here. You also want a good concealer as the same with shine the camera will pick up any blemish even if its only small. For this I love the Collection lasting perfection concealer but I don’t need to go into detail as everyone and their mother knows about it by now.

EYES

For eyes I’m still loving my Stila in the light palette - review here - as you can create subtle, natural looks perfect for a low key affair but you can also create serious glamour which would fit perfectly for a New Years bash. I’ve also been loving the Maybelline master drama chromatic pencil in vibrant gold for a hint of gold sparkle under the eyes. If you’re going for winged liner this season then you have to get your hands on the L’Oreal super liner perfect slim, I’ve never used a product that makes winged liner so easy and I’ve repurchased this countless times.

What are your current favourites?

~ Jade xx

A few months ago I did a ‘my summer essentials’ post - which can be seen here - and so I thought I’d follow up with a post of my essentials for the colder months since we have now been swept into the depths of winter here in England - I'm already bored of the cold and can't wait for summer to return.

I love candles all year round but particularly in winter they are a must for me. There’s nothing better than cosy-ing up after a cold day with a blanket, a mug of tea - how very British of me - and a good movie with a candle burning in the background. This one from the white company is one of my favourites and I buy one every year. The candles from the white company in general are amazing but for me the scent ‘winter’ - which is only released during winter, obviously - is my all time favourite. It’s the perfect blend of cinnamon, clove and orange that isn’t too overpowering like some spicy scents can be. The best thing about the candles from the white company is that even when they aren’t burning you can smell them and you only need to burn them for an hour or so at time so you definitely get your moneys worth. They’re also made from organic material so they don’t smoke and leave black soot on your wall like silicon based candles do - e.g. Yankee candles.

Barry M textured nail varnish - lady

Revlon lash potion mascara - blackened brown

MAC eyeshadow - satin taupe

Bourjois happy light serum primer - matte

Real techniques contour brush

Barry M recently came out with a new textured line of nail varnishes called the ‘royal textured glitter’ collection. I picked up the colour ‘lady’ and have really been enjoying it. Two coats gives an opaque finish and the varnish itself is really pretty. Its part iridescent sparkle, part white glitter and part matte white flecks with an interesting textured finish. Barry M previously came out with a textured line of polishes during the summer and they didn’t catch my eye however this time around they have and I will be looking at picking up some more shades. The best part is they last a lot longer on the nails than a regular varnish because they’re textured. 

I’ve done a full review on the new Bourjois matte primer - which can be seen here - and since I bought it a couple weeks ago and I haven’t stopped wearing it. 

I picked up MAC’s eyeshadow in satin taupe when I was in London a few weeks back and I think I’ve fallen in love. I don’t usually go for cool tone eyeshadows as I don’t think they particularly suit me however satin taupe is great to pair with a warm toned champagne colour and adds just the right amount of smokey-ness for a daytime look. 

I’ve been trying out a new mascara recently and although I picked up the wrong colour - I’m a true black mascara girl all the way - I’ve been really liking this new option from Revlon. It adds just enough length and volume without my lashes looking too spidery or too full. 

Finally I’ve been in love with my contour brush from real techniques. Originally I used this for what the name suggests - contouring - however recently I’ve been using it to buff in my concealer. It’s the perfect size and as it’s duo-fibered and synthetic it doesn’t soak up too much product or make concealer look heavy and caky which I can sometimes find when I use a heavy duty concealer like my MAC pro-longwear. 

What are your current favourites?

~ Jade

This post is a quick how to on splatter nails. It’s a super easy process and perfect for summer.

What you will need:

~ Base/Top coat ~

~ Four nail varnishes of varying colours ~

~ Cello-tape (optional) ~

~ Nail varnish remover ~

~ Cotton wool buds ~

~ Straws ~

Step one: Apply a base coat to protect the nails from any staining and apply a base colour. We chose to use a bright yellow (Avon nailwear pro+ in ‘Lemon Sugar’) but you can use any colour really, though if you’re going to use darker colours to splatter with we’d suggest you use a lighter base colour.

Step two: Next you want to cover the space around your nails with cello-tape - one strip above the cuticle and then a piece either side should suffice. This just makes the cleaning up process a bit easier however it is optional. 

Step three: Next you want to chose the colours you want to splatter across your nails - we used various colours from the Barry M gelly line. Three colours works best however you can chose as many you want to. To splatter them across the nails you need to dip your straw into the nail varnish - using a different straw for each colour -  and then blow across the nail (be sure not to blow too hard or you’ll cover the whole nail or get large blobs of nail varnish which will take a while to dry..we found this out the hard way..). As you can see from the picture above this process can get quite messy so make sure you cover your work surface.

Step four: Leave your nails to dry completely (this may take some time depending on how many colours you used and how big the ‘splats’ were). 

Step five: Remove the tape from around your nails - if you used any - and clean up around the edges by dipping a cotton wool bud into nail varnish remover.

Recently it’s been lovely and sunny in England so to mark the end of our exams Lucy and I laid in the sun enjoying the sunshine and went on a country walk seeing as we live in the back end of nowhere. As usual I had my camera with me so thought I’d share some of the pictures I took with you all. 

What do you do on sunny days?

~ Jade xx