Eyeliner and Energy Drinks: September 2015

Heavy Coverage, Matte, Drugstore Foundation Routine

Lips are MAC's Velvet Teddy allllll day.

Considering that I wear foundation pretty much every day, I've never really wanted to be spending a fortune on the products I use. However, it's taken me forrrrever to find a foundation that fits my pale, matte finish needs that doesn't cost a fortune or feels like I just spread butter on my face. Until about two/three weeks ago my go to foundation was Inglot's YSM in shade 41 and I was running on low and bought some things on a whim and holy lord my life has changed so I'm gonna share my finds with you all right here.

Skull is a tealight halloween decoration in Penneys for €3 get on it.

Foundation: Seventeen Stay Time Foundation in Fair (€8.99)

Concealer: Seventeen Stay Time Concealer in Fair (€5.99)

Powder: Collection Pressed Powder in Candlelight (€3.99 - similar)

Blush: Seventeen Cheek Stamp in Bashful (€6.99)

Bronzer: Essence Sun Club Matt Bronzing Powder for Lighter Skin (Penneys/Pharmacies)

Brushes: Real Techniques Expert Face Brush (€13.29), buffing brush and contour brush (part of a set €28.99)

Using the Real Techniques Expert Face brush I'll apply a layer of the foundation (side note for all you pale gals - the Stay Time foundation comes in super pale shades, for the first time in my life, I had to use the third lightest shade and not the lightest) all over my face and down my neck (after I've done my eyeshadow). Before I do my concealer I'll do my eyebrows with my old reliable ABH Dipbrow and then I'll apply the concealer on my T-Zone (using a brush to tidy up and sharpen my eyebrows) under my eyes in a downwards triangle shape, above my lip and on my chin. With the buffing brush I'll then press the powder all over my face to set the liquidy stuff and give my face an overall matte finish. I use the essence bronzer as a contour (I buy one of these a year, they're huge and actually do last that long) with the contour brush under my cheekbone. In the picture above I'm wearing Benefit's Coralista but when I was buying some of the stuff above if you spent more than €8 on Seventeen products I got a free cheek stamp and it's quite literally, a stamp to apply blush. The applicator I don't like at all, but the colour of the blush I got (Bashful) is a really nice nude, muted pink colour and looks really nice on when applied with anything other than the stamp (seriously, anything but the stamp), sure, it was free can't complain.

All Seventeen products are available in Boots nationwide and online (links above) and if you haven't already, the new Boots app for iOS and Android is hunreal. You can link your advantage card to the app and then load different deals to your card which you can use automatically when you scan your card at the checkout. The deals are personalized for you and there's loadssss of savings to be made!

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The Black and Grey Lip ft. Illamasqua, MAC and Inglot

I'm back again and this time I'm moving away from the eyes and focusing on lips. When it comes to buying make-up, lipstick is the one thing I can not get enough of. No matter how many nude lipsticks I might have, I can still justify another (and another, and another...). Truth be told, I would have left lips out of my make up routine most days up until maybe a year ago or so, but over the last year I have become obsessed with black and grey tone lips so here's my first ever product review of some of the black and grey lip products I've acquired.

Illamasqua - Pristine (€27.95)

Over the summer I was in Birmingham for a few days and Birmingham, the wonderful city it is, is home to a Selfridges. Knowing Selfridges stocked Illamasqua the one thing and one thing only I wanted was their matte black lipstick - Pristine. Black lipsticks are scarce as is, let alone matte black lipsticks so I was not leaving the UK until Pristine was mine. Illamasqua lipsticks are a little on the expensive side and I was so confident it would be worth every penny but I was a little disappointed in this. The colour payoff wasn't intensely black as I wanted it to be and I found myself reapplying it a lot (not to mention the actual product came loose from the packaging after first use), I dealt with this anyway because like, its a matte black lipstick?? Not like you can find one of them anywhere. But that night in my hotel room I was scanning the Illamasqua website to see if there was anything else I wanted to get before I left and the answer to all my black lip problems was there.

Illamasqua - Repulse (€24.95)

When I was buying Pristine the girl selling it to me suggested this and I didn't want it at all, I wanted matte and I wasn't ruining that with a gloss, but when I went back and saw it I needed it. Applied on top of Pristine this gives the most intense black lip ever. The gloss worn over the lipstick makes the colour last a million times longer and I no longer cared about the negatives of Pristine, I wanted matte but I got better than that. Obviously this isn't a lip colour I'd wear every day because no matter how good the product, it's an absolute pain when you can't even eat without staining everything black but I looooove these two products together and I could not be more satisfied with my first Illamasqua purchase.

MAC - Stone (€20 - Brown Thomas)

Where do I start with MAC's Stone? I love this colour more than life itself. Back last year I bought Stone as a lipliner and although in the packaging and when its swatched it almost passes as a nude/taupey brown colour, on the lips it takes a 'muted grey but still kinda taupey' colour and I am obsessed. I originally bought the liner to wear as an all over colour, and I did that and it looked incredible, but then I discovered the beauty of lining the lips with Stone and then blending it with the Velvet Teddy lipstick, absolute game changer, everyone needs to try it and I mean it. So while Stone/Velvet Teddy was my go-to nude lip, to say I was over the moon when MAC announced their Matte Lip collection which included Stone as a permanent lipstick in the collection I could not cope. Naturally, I got my hands on it on its release day and it was everything I wanted it to be. MAC's matte formula is faultless, giving a matte appearance but still being creamy and not drying the lips out to bits and the colour is identical to the liner. Everyone needs this. Everyone.

Inglot - #436 (€14)

When I first saw Inglot's new Black Swan matte lipstick line I felt a little 'meh' about it. Although the colours were dreamy, I didn't really need another black lipstick, nor did I need a grey that wasn't Stone in my life. As well as that, when Inglot first came to Ireland, I bought a matte red lipstick and applying it felt like I was using a wax crayon on my lip - not fun. But when I saw this colour in person a part of me couldn't help myself. My hair at the moment is a pastel lilac colour and this lipstick is the exact colour that divides grey and lilac and I loved it. I had heard it was sold out everywhere but when the Inglot I was in happened to have one I just went with it. The formula of their matte lipsticks has improved enormously, they no longer have that crayon feel or have my lips as dry as Ghandi's flip flop. I don't wear this as much as I'd like to but nonetheless, its a gorgeous colour and it looks good with my hair, what's not to enjoy?