Winter Favourites

Hello!!   It's time for the seasonal round up of all my favourite things again. I'm hoping that Winter is just about over now and we can all start looking forward to Spring and Summer. I'm definitely ready for a bit of warmth!  

  I've found a few hair care gems over the past few months that have led to a lot of hair related compliments, even after a day or two too long without washing. The first is the Tangle Teezer. These have been around for ages but this is my first one and I honestly don't know how I've managed so long without one. I have quite thick hair that often got quite knotty after washing it. The tangle teezer stops all of this and manages gently glide through the hair without damaging it.   The v05 miracle illuminator heat defence is brilliant. Lilly Pebbles had mentioned this a few times and when my old heat protector ran out I decided to give this a go. I thought it might leave my hair feeling greasy but it doesn't at all and just makes my hair feel really soft and smooth. I always think it's hard to tell if heat protectors are really doing any good but I love the way it makes my hair feel so I'm more than happy.   The Charles Worthington texturising spray has been raved about quite a bit in the blogger world and celebrated as a much more affordable version or the Oribe dry texturising spray. I couldn't bring myself to pay for that one so I've no idea how they compare but I absolutely love the texture this gives to my hair.  

It's no secret that I love the Real Techniques make up brushes, I rave about them all the time. Over Christmas time I treat myself to the Nic's pics set. The Duo-fibre face brush has fast become a favourite of mine. It's perfect for blush as it blends beautifully and picks up just enough colour to give a lovely wash of colour.   I mentioned the Maybelline colour drama in the colour light it up in my last post. I absolutely love everything about this. I even love that it smells like a real crayon. As we start to move into Spring I might not wear this quite as often but will definitely be trying out some of the other shades.   The Maybelline brow satin in the colour dark blond is what I've been using on my brows recently. I was using the Soap and Glory Archery but prefer the colour of this one. It has a pencil on one end and powder on the other. I haven't used the powder too much but love the pencil side.  

The Elemis skin nourishing range is one of my favourite smells ever. I've tried the milk bath before and loved it but I have showers more than baths so the shower cream is perfect for me. You can smell it on your all day and it leaves the skin feeling really nice and soft.   The lovely Tanya Burr brought her book 'Love Tanya' out recently and I couldn't wait to pick it up and have a look. I think she's absolutely gorgeous and new from the sneak peaks she's put on instagram that the pictures were going to be stunning. It hasn't disappointed. I think this is a brilliant coffee table book as you can just pick pages at random and have a little read rather that going from start to finish. Well done Tanya!   I hope you enjoyed today's post. I enjoy putting these ones together. Keep checking back for more.

Contouring: The Kimmy K Way

Hello!!   My sister asked me to do a post on contouring a little while ago, even though she was blessed with much better bone structure than me. I thought I would split this into two posts starting with the very sculpted method, ala Kim Kardashian. Prepare for some pictures of my face looking a little bit weird.  

   

 

To create strange picture number 1, I used the Maxfactor yellow CC stick and the Loreal lumi magique stylo touche de lumiere (these products have very long names). I used these on all of the high points of my face and the areas that I wanted to catch the light.

 

 

I then used the Bourjois bronzing primer on all the areas where I wanted to create shadow. I applied this with the Real techniques contour brush. At this point you look like an extra from the Lion King but it's all starting to come together.

 

I then applied a small amount of my YSL touch eclait foundation to even everything out which I applied using the real techniques miracle complexion sponge.

And taa daa you have a more sculpted face! It's not showing up as well as I would have liked in the picture but it does create a really nice effect. I think this would work best on darker skin, paler skins have to go a little bit more delicately or risk looking like they've been tangoed. You could also go over this and add some more highlighter to make it extra glowy.

 

I hope this was helpful. I'll have a second contouring post up soon to show a slightly different technique so remember to keep popping back.

 

 

 

Current favourites

Hello!!

Today I thought I'd show you a few products that I'm really enjoying using at the moment. I suppose we could say my spring favourites!

First on the list is the V05 high volume hairspray. I've never been a big user of hairspray (apart from a questionable rock hard pony-tale phase at the age of 13) but recently I've been using this one to keep things in place. I have to wear my hair up for work and find that this gives me enough hold as well as a boost of volume so I can play around with the style a bit more.

The next item is the high intensity hand cream from Bliss. I find this really moisturising and only need to use it once or twice a day, a little goes a long way. This smells is incredible, it's very orangey and zingy which is quite different for a hand cream but I really like it. Bliss is quite a high end brand so for a hand cream this was fairly expensive but I've been using it for quite a while now and have barely used any so I think it works out ok.

My next faveourite is the Vinylux top coat from CND. While this is designed to be used with the vinylux polishes I also use it with other brands too and find that it still works really well. I think it gives a similar effect to gel nails but without the damage that gel can cause, it also makes my polish last much longer without chipping!

Next up is the Garnier summer body moisturising lotion. This is basically a gradual tan that has all the moisturising properties of a standard Garnier body lotion. I tend to stay away from tan in the winter months but as soon as spring hits I like to add a bit of colour and I've been reaching for this one year after year. I only have to do about 2 applications before I'm nice and golden and it leaves my skin nice and soft, unlike most fake tans. It does have quite a strong tan smell but I normally just apply it at night before bed and then shower the ginger nut smell off in the morning. I love this stuff!

The next item is the Real Techniques miracle complexion sponge. I've mentioned this in a blog post before so if you want to know a bit more about it click here but basically I've used this every day since I got this and absolutely love it!

Next is Tanya Burr's lip gloss in Aurora. This is another product I've used every day since getting. I don't normally where lip gloss very often but this has converted me. If you want to see more about what I think of Tanya's new line click here.

Last but not least is the Decleor Arome tonic. You can read more about this here. I think Decleor has become a faveourite of mine in general but I am especially enjoying the Arome tonic. It's so nice to use in the day time. It's really light and the scent really lingers all day. I'm in love with this scent!

So that's it for my little round up of favourites. Hope you've enjoyed. I might make this a seasonal thing unless I have a new lift of products before the summer. Thanks for reading.

Robyn xx

Real Techniques

 

Hello!!

Today I thought I’d show you the brushes that me and pretty much every blogger and youtuber have been raving about since their launch. I’m talking about the real techniques brushes from the lovely Sam and Nic Chapman. I haven’t got too many of these so far but I have used them every day since I’ve bought them and would recommend them to any one.

The first set I bought was the core collection. I got these ones ages ago, mainly for the buffing brush. The buffing brush is amazing and I use it for foundation most days. I find it gives a really good finish and doesn’t shed at all. I use the contour brush a lot too but mostly for highlighting. I can’t say I use the foundation or detailer brushes very often but I would still recommend the set. At £21.99 for 4 high quality brushes you can’t really go wrong.

 I was recently after a new blush brush and thought I might have another look at real techniques stand. It's different to other blush brushes I've tried and it's tapered so really takes the work out of blending for you, anything for an easy life you know.

 The last two I got on a bit of a whim because they were on offer and I just wasn’t feeling strong enough to resist! It was buy one get one half price and I had been pondering about getting the powder brush for a while any way so I did. Not an awful lot to say about this one, I’ve been using it for bronzer and it does the job nicely! I also got the miracle complexion sponge. I hadn’t planned to get this and to be honest had heard very mixed reviews but at half price I thought I’d give it a go. I wasn’t sure what I thought when I first used it to apply my foundation, it was a very different technique to buffing like I’m used to but after using it a few times I really like it. I’ve been using it damp, which seems to be working best. I think I'll be sticking to this for a while.

 

 Hope you enjoyed this post, I hope it wasn’t too rambley. I really do rate Real Techniques and will probably be trying out more of their brushes in the future, I’ll let you know how I get on with them.

 

Robyn xx