The Make-up Memory Lane Tag!

Hi! I thought I'd do this tag as I've enjoyed reading it on various blogs; most recently Natalie's here and I also liked Vivianna Does Makeup's video on it. I think it's interesting to think about how our makeup preferences have changed over the years. As mentioned before, despite wearing makeup in the pictures below at ages 16 and 13, I actually wasn't really very interested in it until I was around 17!

First makeup item ever purchased?
I can't remember but it may have been either Maybelline's Dream Matte Mousse Foundation (which, even in the lightest shade, was too orange for my skin!) or L'oreal Glam Shine 6 Hour Lip Gloss in Eternal Beige which is a fairly sticky and glittery pinky nude shade that I picked out especially for my year 11 prom in 2009:

This is how my natural brown hair colour looks.

Almost six years later, I still have it and I'm not sure if it might be too old to use now!

First MAC item? 

I think it was Ever Hip lipstick which is a really nice coral pink.

First MAC/other brand collection? 

Ever Hip was released in the Fashion Flower collection I believe. 

First high end make up splurge? 

I think it was YSL's Touche Eclat - but mine ran out annoyingly quickly. I got it because it was (and still is) a bit cheaper on this website and it's of course a cult product, but it basically ran out before I'd even made my mind up on whether I liked it or not - it's too late to say anything to them of course!

First makeover experience? 

When I was 13 I got a 'makeover' / photo shoot gift experience because my dad didn't want his 50th birthday gift experience. At the time I actually sort of wanted to be a model (cringe) so I quite enjoyed it, even though now the photos are a bit embarrassing! My hair was straightened to within an inch of its life and I had pink eyeshadow on:

Me in 2006...

First makeup brush? 

Hmm probably a makeup freebie, but the first proper set of brushes I bought myself was from 17!

First eyeshadow? 

When I was 14 I used to quite like using this Ipod-shaped eyeshadow palette that my friend got me, but the first eyeshadow I think I ever bought for myself was a dark brown 'Little Round Pot' by Bourjois - I'm still not sure whether shades like that make my blue eyes pop or whether they just made me look tired or bruised! The actual eyeshadow is nice though.

First skincare "investment"? 

Hmm, I actually don't think I've ever made a massive splurge on a skincare product. The only thing that comes to mind is La Roche Posay's Effaclar Duo which unfortunately didn't work at all for me, but I was able to get my money back with a guarantee :)

First nail polish owned? 

I used to get random unbranded nail polishes for free from my teen magazines but I didn't use them very much because I didn't want to get into trouble at school (such a goody goody) I did enjoy peel off nail polish though - so satisfying! I have no idea what the first nail polish I ever bought for myself was.

First fake tan attempt? 

I've never tried to do an all over fake tan application apart from dabbling a little bit with gradual tan. I did use to apply fake tan on my legs for nights out to in an attempt to make them look less pasty (that's right, only on my legs.) But other than that, I can't really be bothered to do a fake tan and I'm okay with being pale!

Hope you enjoyed this post!
What are your makeup memories?

Sabrina xx

My Top 10 Nail Polishes for Spring/Summer

Hi everyone! I thought I'd share 10 of my favourite nail polishes for Spring and Summer in no particular order. I'm actually sort of 'shopping my stash' with this post as I don't need any more nail polishes and will probably be applying all of these colours in the coming months! I tend to mostly go for bright pinks and oranges as you can see in the picture below, but I also love pastel shades.

From left to right:

1. MAC Morange - this is the only MAC nail polish I own and the most expensive of the bunch at £10. I got this a few years ago when MAC released nail polish and lipglass versions of their most popular lipsticks, including Morange - it is permanent however. As much as I love bright lipsticks, I think this sort of bright orange is probably better off on my nails than my lips! It's been a while since I used this but I don't recall having any problems with the formula.

2. Rimmel Cocktail Colour in Shirley Temple - I am a sucker for glitter polish, despite how annoying it is to get off, and I love this vibrant shade. It doesn't seem to be available on Boots.com at the moment but I have seen it in stores. It's great on it's own or layered over a similar colour, like Barry M's Mango.

3. Maybelline Forever Strong in Tornado Rose - this is a very pretty and girly pink which is right up my street. (Excuse the white label mark - mine somehow got stuck to another nail polish!)

4. L'oreal Colour Riche in Sex on the Peach - firstly, great name! This is a peachy pink and definitely one of my favourites. The only thing with this is I think it's a bit expensive for a drugstore polish in terms of how much product you get for your money - it's £4.99 for just 5ml, so basically a pound per ml, which is the same as MAC as that is £10 for 10ml. I wonder if this will be the first nail polish I use up as I'm already about half way through!

5. Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint in Mango - a bright, shiny and very cheerful orange. It's gorgeous! However I do remember this one chipping quite quickly.

6. 17 Fast Finish Nail Polish in Peacock - this is a stunning turquoise with an almost duochrome effect going on - depending on the lighting, it can look quite blue or green.

7. Barry M Speedy Quick Dry Nail Paint in Stop the Clock - this is my most recent purchase of the bunch and what I've had on my nails for the past week. I love this colour! The other day I had to repaint both my index finger nails after they chipped when I was scooping up some coconut oil, but other that I haven't had any problems with chipping.

I wouldn't say it dried that quickly which is slightly disappointing, and it also can be a bit streaky so it needs at least two coats - but other than that, this is a great polish and very summery.

8. Essie Mint Candy Apple - this a beautiful mint green, a very popular shade from Essie and one of my all-time favourites, even though again the formula can be a bit streaky and runny making it sometimes a bit frustrating to apply - you have to be careful not to let it run on either side of your nail. I can deal with this though as the colour alone makes it worth it!

9. NYC In a New York Minute Quick Dry Nail Polish in Raindrop - This is a lovely 'sky blue' shade which I wore to match my May Ball dress in 2013. I would say this is the most bargainous out of all my picks, as for your £1.79 (or £1.49 on offer) you get a very nice quality polish - although again I wouldn't say it dries particularly quickly.

10. Barry M Nail Paint Boots Limited Edition - Sorry to choose a limited edition shade that I'm pretty sure is no longer available! I've included it anyway because I think this shade is quite dupeable - I had a quick look online and one example I've found is Revlon's Grape Icy, which by what I can see is a bit darker and more purple - see here. Essie's Splash of Grenadine also looks similar, but a bit lighter. But I'm sure there are loads more dupes out there for this!

There you have it, those are my 10 favourite Spring/Summer polishes that I'll be sporting this year. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this post!

I'd love to know, what are your favourite Spring/Summer nail polishes?

Sabrina xx

High Street Haul: Boots, New Look and Superdrug!

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great Easter! Today I have a haul post to share, because I went to Boots, New Look and Superdrug, and stuff just happened...

I actually only got a few things from Superdrug so I'll start with those. I got two Barry M nail polishes from Superdrug as the £3.99 ones are currently on offer for 2 for £6 and I wanted to get a more expensive product for free when I took advantage of the 3 for 2 offer in Boots.

As I've said before, I do have too many nail polishes - but in my defence these two are both very unique in my collection, as I don't think I had any yellows at all before I bought this one!

I picked up one of the new Quick Dry polishes in Stop the Clock, which is a really pretty and summery pastel yellow. I'm not sure if this will go that well with my skin tone but I love the colour so it's worth the risk. I'm also looking forward to seeing if it does dry quickly as it promises!

The other colour I got was Almond in the 'Gelly Hi-shine' range which Anna from Vivianna Does Makeup said was an amazing dupe for Nails Inc's Porchester Square in this blog post. I don't normally go for this kind of taupe shade but I thought this would be a great work-appropriate neutral which is something a bit different from the light, natural pinks I usually go for when I think of more formal nail looks. I've tried a few shades from the Gelly range and they've all been great, and I love Barry M polishes in general!

Moving on to Boots, I went in knowing I was going to get the L'oreal Brow Artist Plumper, as Renata from Speaking Beauty wrote that it was a great dupe for Benefit's Gimme Brow, which I've tried at a Benefit counter - it looked great, but it's too overpriced for me at £18.50. L'oreal's offering is £5.99, but I got it free with the 3 for 2 offer and it's the first eyebrow product I've ever bought! They had no tester for the darker shade but I tested the lighter one and knew it would be too light so I got the darker one - I have dark blonde hair so I just hope my eyebrows don't clash too much with my hair colour.

'Dark Brunette' swatched

I quite like it so far! It's a welcome new addition to my everyday makeup as it definitely makes my eyebrows look more polished. I had a look at the even cheaper (£3.99) Rimmel version of the eyebrow mascara type product (Brow This Way) but the brush was shorter and larger so I wasn't sure about it. I like the brush of the L'oreal one, it's quite long yet small and it makes me feel like I know what I'm doing when I do my brows haha.

Before and After

But seriously, this kind of brow product did seem best for me as an eyebrow product beginner because I just don't know how to fill in my brows with products like Benefit's Brow Zings and the mascara-like brush does it all in one go so it's pretty effortless. I also wasn't sure if my eyebrows even need much filling in as they're quite thick already!

I also went in thinking I was probably going to buy the No7 Beautifully Matte Foundation - I had a sample of it and quite liked it, but I also noticed that L'oreal had a new foundation aimed at oily skin - Infallible Matte Foundation, which at the time of posting is on offer for £6.99.
It looked intriguing - it promises to stay on for 24 hours which is a slightly pointless claim considering that no one keeps their foundation on for 24 hours! In the end I went for the No7 Foundation as it has SPF which is great for daytime wear (I can use my Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation for night time wear to avoid flashback in any flash photography) and looking on Makeupalley on my phone I could see that the No7 foundation had a higher rating/more positive reviews than the L'oreal one. I would still love to try that L'oreal foundation sometime though! I have never tried a foundation from either L'oreal or No7.

Side note: am I the only one who checks the overall rating of a product on Boots.com and Makeupalley whilst browsing in Boots or Superdrug?! I just don't want to take the risk of blindly buying a product without checking any reviews or ratings first, and I might even return a product unused if I did buy it blindly and then find that it has extremely negative reviews!

The final product I got in the 3 for 2 was the Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara, £7.99, which I've heard great things about on blogs. I've used it a few times now and I like it so far apart from that it's a little clumpy, but I'll let you know how I get on and probably do a full review soon!

I went to New Look just to see if they had any nice work appropriate pieces other than the usual white shirts and black trousers. I bought this dress with a contrast collar. It is a little short (I'm 5'9) so I'd probably wear it with tights. The only size 8 they had in this had foundation marks around the collar so I got 10% off and it's non-returnable. It is £19.99 normally and looking online it's currently on offer for £14.99 which is slightly annoying, but nevermind.

They also had a black version but no size 8s, I tried on the 6 and it was way too tight, so that made the decision for me on which colour to get!

Lastly I didn't intend to buy a bag and I haven't bought a new one in ages, but I fell in love with this one - it is such a classic style but in a gorgeous, unique colour, which I couldn't help but notice is very similar to the nail polish I bought earlier that day, Barry M's Almond.

The rose quilted design is very pretty and it's a good size - not too large or small, and I really like the adjustable strap. It was also very reasonably priced at £12.99!  I'm not sure if it goes that well with my new grey dress, but it doesn't clash either. Overall, everything about this bag is gorgeous, and I think it's suitable for finishing off both formal and casual outfits.

Thanks for reading!
Sabrina xx

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Ten Makeup Favourites Under £10!

Hi! So I thought since I've mentioned high end brands in my other posts so far that it was about time I balanced it out a bit and talked about really good affordable products (I'm sticking to makeup, because it would be hard to talk about skincare as well and fit into a list of ten products!) They're all available at your local Boots or Superdrug unless stated otherwise, and they're all in no particular order. For each product I'll mention if there's a high end product it compares to and if I have any minor gripes with it. Enjoy!

1. Collection Ultimate Wear Lasting Perfection Concealer, £4.19

I'm starting with an obvious one! I mentioned this in my last post as I'm currently trying out the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer and I'm curious to see how it compares with this. This concealer is really, really good - there's a reason it gets so much hype in the beauty community (blogs and YouTube.) It gives you a high coverage and doesn't look cakey. It can sometimes be drying and settle into fine lines under my eyes, but other than that this concealer is amazing. I've repurchased it many times.

Here is a swatch along with the NARS one. The NARS concealer is making the Collection concealer look kind of orange but it's not! The fairest shade is a good match for my skin tone.

Top: Collection. Below: NARS.

My Bright Lipstick Of Choice

If anyone reading this post knew me at Uni in Aberystwyth and ever went on a night out with me you may well have seen me wearing a bright pink lipstick. It might seem like an unlikely choice for someone as naturally shy as I am, however I'm not scared of wearing this colour - in fact it makes me feel more confident! Alcohol also helps.

MAC Show Orchid Lipstick

As you can see, it's a beautiful bright fuchsia pink. It's bold and definitely a night time shade, and I've worn it on countless nights out.

Here is a picture of me wearing it in my first year at Uni:

I took this photo in a nightclub and apparently didn't think to move my hair out of my face first! Haha. This is such a throwback. It was when I first started 'coming out of my shell' I suppose, both in terms of wearing brighter makeup and my all together more outgoing personality when I started going out more at university.

To be fair I was already quite late to the party when it came to makeup, as I don't think I started wearing it regularly until I was 16-17. (And then getting kind of obsessed with it from 17 onwards) Before that, I'd only dabbled with lip smackers, lipglosses that I got free with teen magazines and an eye shadow palette shaped like an Ipod that a friend got me when I was 14.

Anyway, while I definitely wouldn't say I *need* this lippie to feel confident, it certainly does help with making me feel good about myself - something which doesn't happen too often. I think it compliments my fair skin nicely, probably because of the blue undertones. So if you're fair skinned like me and are looking for a new bright lipstick, this one is a great choice! It's definitely one of my favourites.

This lipstick used to only be available at MAC PRO stores (I bought it when it was available with a limited edition collection) but I just looked on their website and found it's being sold there! Eee! The only snag is that it's quite expensive at £15.50 (ouch. MAC lipsticks were £13.50 when I first started buying them 3 or 4 years ago.) 

So if you're on a budget and would like to buy a dupe, I have a lippie in my collection which is very similar, just slightly darker - L'oreal Rouge Caresse Lipstick in 202 Impulsive Fuchsia.

Comparing swatches on my arm

I don't know why I bought it really considering how similar it is to the one I've already got, but oh well! It's not that different from Show Orchid in terms of formula. Both are quite shiny and I would say the L'oreal one is a little bit more nourishing on the lips, but Show Orchid is by no means drying.

Sometimes I like to use this as a 'base colour' to help Show Orchid stay on better. Or other times I might not want to take Show Orchid out with me and risk losing it (yes, I'd be kind of upset - is that sad?!) so I take this for top ups instead.

Personally I like both a lot but prefer Show Orchid's ever-so-slightly lighter colour - not to mention I love the vanilla-y smell that MAC lipsticks have!

The L'Oreal Rouge Caresse Lipstick is £7.99 available from Boots and Superdrug. MAC Show Orchid is available here.

Do you like bright lipstick? If so, what's your favourite? x