NARS Vs. Sleek

Shown above: Sleek Blush in Rose Gold and NARS Blush in Super Orgasm.

I currently have a new-found love for the brand NARS, I bought my first item from them a few weeks ago and fell in love. Of course, this meant I had to also check out Sleek, a British brand that sells good quality products at drugstore prices. I heard that Sleek sold a blush in the shade Rose Gold which is a dupe for the NARS Super Orgasm blush and decided to put the two to the test. 

Blushes Open Together.

My initial reaction on seeing the two blushes together was that they didn't really look very similar at all. The Sleek blush has a very smooth looking finish, a warm pink base tone and very small gold micro-glitters whereas the NARS blush is a lot more 'choppy' looking, a dusty pink base colour with rather large gold glitters. Both look absolutely gorgeous, however in the pan they don't look like dupes of each other.  

Swatches in daylight; Top - NARS, Bottom- Sleek.

Once I swatched the two next to each other on my arm I could clearly see that they are in fact good dupes. You can still see the differences I mentioned above, but the overall look you receive is very similar and one could easily pass for the other. 

Swatches in Indoor Lighting; Top- NARS, Bottom- Sleek.

I personally love both the blushes, but if you're looking for a cheaper alternative then Sleek is definitely the way to go. The Sleek blush was a mere £4.99 compared to the £23 NARS blush. I've worn the sleek blush out a few times now and it really is the perfect colour for me, it's easy to build up for a bolder look, but most importantly it seems to stay put for a very long time. I love the gold glitters, as I really enjoy a strong highlight on my cheek bones and a dewy look to my skin overall, and the glitters really are the perfect touch to the look. I'm planning on trying out a load more products from Sleek and am very happy overall!

My Makeup Brush Collection.

Link to the photo of my brushes: HERE

I've only recently (within the last 6 months or so) gotten into makeup, so my brush collection isn't huge. I only actually have 14 brushes, 3 of them being double ended brushes. 

Real Techniques Brushes.

Disclaimer: This is not my photo.

I have both the original real techniques sets, which I believe are absolutely perfect for beginners. You can buy both sets for a lot less that in store on Amazon, which is where I got mine. I paid around £25 for both the sets, which I think is an absolute bargain! I don't use the foundation brush, and I find it a bit too flimsy for my liking, but the rest of the brushes are so soft and versatile, the sets really do provide you with everything you need as a beginner. 

Urban Decay Brushes.

I have all 3 of the Naked palettes, and each palette comes with its own brush- which I have removed and store with my other brushes. The original Naked palette comes with a flat rigid eyeshadow brush, which works really well to pack on eyeshadow, Naked 2 had a two sided brush, one side is a smaller version of the original brush, the other is a big fluffy crease brush, which I use nearly every time I wear eyeshadow. Naked 3 also has a double sided brush, however unfortunately, both the Naked 3 and the Naked 2 brushes have duplicate flat eyeshadow brushes, which is a shame considering how much the sets cost. However, the naked 3 does have a flat fluffy brush which is amazing at blending. 

Estee Lauder Brushes.

I did use to have the whole set of gold Estee Lauder brushes, however I lost the smaller lip brush and the bigger powder brushes were way to flimsy for me to use. I do like the smaller eyeshadow brush, though I wouldn't buy it again. The fact that its shorter than the powder brushes gives it more stability, however it is still very flimsy and can be hard to work with. Fortunately for this brush, its mobility makes it a good blending brush. 

Wilko Brushes.

I would never have considered buying Wilko brushes if I had just walked into the store, however, after they first launched, everywhere I looked there was nothing but great reviews! I decided to head in and pick some up- considering the most expensive brush is only £4, you can't really go wrong. I chose the concealer brush and the smokey eye brush (which is double ended), and they have really lived up to the reviews. Although they are only cheap, they have held their shape very well, which is impressive considering I use the angled brush all the time. I already have a concealer brush from the real techniques collection, and so I use the concealer brush as a lip brush, which works surprisingly well!

I'm hoping to buy more brushes soon, as there are a lot of brands I've heard about and want to try, plus my collection seriously needs expanding! Let me know what brushes you use down below!

Building Confidence Without Makeup

Living without makeup can be hard, but having a bare face shouldn't stop you from walking out of the house. Makeup used to act like a mask for me, I had very bad skin and didn't feel comfortable leaving the house without wearing a full face. Now I have built up my confidence to the point where make up is something fun and exciting, instead of a chore.

I really believe that everyone should be able to feel comfortable in their own skin, personally, I went down the 'cold turkey' route. I gave up makeup almost completely for a good 4 years. I believe that doing so helped me build confidence in my own skin, and makes me a happier person. So, I'm going to share a few of my tips and tricks to ease yourself into wearing less makeup.

I am not, in any way, saying that everyone should stop wearing makeup. Makeup is an amazing thing. I just believe that everyone should be allowed to feel comfortable in how they look, and being confident without makeup is a huge step in building confidence in yourself!


1. Remember, Makeup Should Be Fun!

The most important thing to remind yourself is that makeup is something that should be fun, you should be able to be creative and wear crazy makeup looks, or spend hours applying it and having fun. However, it shouldn't be something that takes over your life, unless you count spending all your money on new makeup goodies.

2. Try A More Natural Approach.

It's obviously a lot easier to ease into it rather than just jump in, that's how I approached the task. You could simply try wearing a more natural 'no makeup' look, and work from there. Try toning down the level of coverage, for example, wearing a BB cream or powder foundation occasionally instead of full coverage foundations. I also started dying my eyelashes in place of mascara for a long time, I found that dying and curling them provided enough length and darkness that I was comfortable with how I looked. Another benefit of this is that the health of my skin and eyelashes improved drastically when I cut down on my makeup wearing. 

3. Invest in Skincare.

It's a whole lot easier to feel comfortable with the way you look if your skin is looking healthy, when I first gave up makeup I invested a lot of my money into my skincare routine. I think this made the transition a whole lot easier, and as my skin became healthier my confidence rose. This will also give you a chance to get to know your skin a little bit better.

4. Try Limiting You Products.

Tell yourself you're only going to use 5 makeup products, then stick to it. You'll find you'll choose product that cover the areas you're most insecure about. Then, start cutting down the product slowly. My everyday routine tends to be under eye concealer and a setting powder, as this is the area I'm most insecure about. Once I was able to fully pinpoint my insecurities, it was a lot easier to overcome.

5. Go Out Without Makeup.

You don't necessarily have to spend the whole day without makeup, but if you're going out to the shops or somewhere similar, consider leaving without any makeup. Making small trips without any makeup on really helps build up your confidence, and it will be such a good feeling when you're finally brave enough to spend a day in college or at work without any makeup on!

I hope this helped someone, if you have any suggestions or tips please leave them in the comments!

Dye My Hair With Me: Pink Lilacs.

Hey guys, this is just a super quick post as I'm working all day today but didn't want to leave you guys empty handed.

My hair has been looking quite drab and dull the last few days, so i decided to liven it up by using my hair mask dye to dye it a pinky lilacy colour. My hair has always been pretty dry, and the bleaching doesn't help it, so I use this hair dye mask to add some moisture back it, whilst adding a bit of fun to my look. Here's what you'll need:

- An empty tub, container or bowl.

- Cheap conditioner 

- Coconut oil (or another hair oil)

- A hair dying tool (optional)

-Hair dyes of your chosen colour

Okay, to start, I simply add a load of conditioner to the container, making sure I have enough to cover my whole head, and a little extra to really saturate it. I also add a little bit of coconut oil for added moisture, and then mix it up really well.

Next, I add some of my pink dye, I'm using pink carnation by directions, but you can use any brand or colour that you choose. I recommend using a vegan dye as they don't do any damage to your hair.

Once I've reached the darkness I want the dye to be, add a little bit more as some of the dye will wash out, and it won't be as strong as the colour looks here. Then I add a small amount of the colour violet, as this pink dye is too much of a neon colour for my personal liking, and the purple tones really cool the colour down.

I mix the colours together really well, to make sure I'm not left with any blobs of purple dye or coconut oil. The final colour looked like this:

This is the kind of tone and colour I think complements my skin tone the best, it's the colour I tend to sway towards when dying my hair a crazy colour. Here's my hair colour before adding the dye, as you can see it's looking pretty drab, and the purple dye is fading in patches- it's really time for a touch up.

I add the dye, and then leave it on for around half an hour, unfortunately I am unable to show you guys a finished picture, as I am writing this post sunday night and won't be back before this post publishes. If you'd like to see the final result, you can follow me via the instagram link on the side bar.

I'm really optimistic about how the colour will turn out, it looks like a really pretty colour at the moment, I'm just hoping it will stick. 

Thanks for reading, please leave me a comment :)

What's On My Windowsill?

This may seem like a weird blog post, but my windowsill is my favourite part of my room. I fill it with the things I love; Plants, rocks, bugs and other miscellaneous objects that take my liking. I will try to find links to similar items, but most of these are unique. So, here's a few of the things I have on my windowsill! 

Various Rocks, Quartz and a Concker.

Everything in this picture was found by yours truly. The two stones have pretty swirly patterns on them, which I found on the beach. The quartz piece was found along the coast line, and conckers are meant to keep spiders away!

Geodes and Raw Crystals

I bought these crystals at a local antique store, they're meant to have healing powers, but I think they're beautiful.

Link to a geode website: Best crystals

Tumbled/Smooth Crystals.

These ones are all so pretty, I love the opalite and the meteor fragment the most.

Fake and Cut Crystals.

The two largest crystals here are actually fake, but they started my love for crystal collecting. The heart crystals came from a necklace set, where you could interchange the stone, but I only kept the crystal hearts.

Link to cut and polished crystals: Healing Crystals 

Elephant Incense Holder. 

To go along with my massive collection of incense, I have this adorable little china elephant. There's a hole in the top of his back that you use to hold the incense up, and he came with an ash tray too.

Elephant incense holder: Paprika

Fossils.

I've always held a fascination for fossils, I think they're so pretty, and each one is completely unique. I only have a small collection so far, but I'm working on growing it.

Buy fossils: The Fossil Store

Various Pieces from Evan.

Everything here was kindly donated to my collection by my boyfriend, along with a few other things in this post. The giant piece of quartz he just found walking around, the bullet opens up to reveal a secret love note and the cute little bug was bought at the christmas market.

Bullet Locket: Aliexpress

Quartz Stalactite.

I'm not really sure about whether of not this is a real stalactite, or if it's quarts, but it's one of my favourite pieces in my collection.

Bugs.

Excuse the scratches on the bugs, but I absolutely love them. A local store used to sell them for a £1 each and I was heart broken when they stopped selling them. At least I collected all the bugs!

Buy buys in acrylic: Tiger

Dinosaur Tooth.

Again, I'm unsure if this is authentic, because fossils are easily faked, but if it's real it's the coolest thing in my collection.

Buy a dinosaur tooth: UKGE

Vintage Perfume Bottle.

Courtesy of Evan again, me and him having matching bottles. I've yet to find something to put in it yet though, any ideas?

Iridescent Knife.

Evan sure knows how to please a girl, having this thing on my window sill to sparkle in the sunlight makes me very happy indeed. Plus, it makes me look really badass!

Buy an iridescent knife: Amazon

Please remember to check the side bar for updates on what's coming next!

'Directions' Hair Dye Review

I've been using the directions hair dyes for a while now, I love dying my hair all kinds of crazy colours, and I find these to be the best for me. I currently am using the colours 'Violet' and 'Cerise'. I find that violet is the perfect colour for toning my hair, but also makes for a very pretty purple alone and cerise is very pretty when lightened up with conditioner for a pretty pink.

I personally like to mix the two together with conditioner to create a toned down pinky purple colour like above. Considering these dyes are only £5 each, they're really good quality. Not only are they easy to use, but they mix well together and with conditioner, unlike other hair dyes I've tried, meaning you can create an endless amount of colours- not that they don't have a good selection, with 34 colours to choose from. 

They also last a really long time. I only need a small amount of the product to make the colour strong enough for my liking, so I'm only half way through my pot despite using them a lot of times. 

The colour lasts a really long time in your hair. I do find that the pink washes out a lot faster than the purple, but that's normal as red tones tend to fade faster than blue tones, but even the pink will last me around 2 weeks. 

Directions make vegan friendly dyes, so they won't dry out if you leave them on too long, as they're made from vegetable fats. I find the dyes are really conditioning for your hair, and I have before left the dye on my hair over night (under a plastic bag to reduce mess), which left my hair looking silky, the colour was really intense and it lasted a lot longer than normal. I really like to add a little bit of coconut oil in with the dyes and use them almost like a hair mask, they're so moisturising.

Overall, I love these dyes, and will definitely be buying more soon. I'm looking to try Rubine and Alpine Green next! So, for £5 these are a 10/10 from me.

Please remember to check the side bar for updates on what's coming next!

99p Bargain

I recently ordered one of this scary looking contraptions off eBay for just 99p including shipping. It's used to remove blackheads and spots, and I've been rejoicing since I ordered it. I use it in the bath around once a week to really clean out my pores, and I think my skin is thanking me. I've noticed a dramatic decrease in the number of breakouts I'm getting since I started using it, and my skin has been looking a lot smoother .So I recommend you go pick one of these up if you haven't already.

Please remember to check the side bar for updates on what's coming next!