Event: Selfridges Christmas Beauty

A few weeks ago I headed to Selfridges and met up with the gorgeous Ting from The Ting Thing for the Selfridges Christmas Beauty event.

My collected Selfridges make up haul

Selfridges Christmas Beauty Ticket and Golden Wristband

Starting off at Topshop (yes I got sidetracked), I soon made my way back to the beauty hall to purchase a ticket and receive my gold wristband. This ensured I could take part in the event and indulge in the food (profiteroles) and drink (grapefruit non alcoholic cocktails for me) that was on offer.

Taking place during the Christmas Comes Early promotion, there was an additional 10% off on the evening. Slight disclaimer, I didn't purchase all of the below on the night and went back later on in the week to pick up the MAC products and Lancome items.

However, here's a rundown of everything I bought on the night:

Tom Ford Lip Color in Nubile available here

First up, the Tom Ford Lipstick. I have always wanted to own something from Tom Ford and I finally made my first purchase. I chose the Tom Ford Lip Color Shine in 07 Nubile, as this was matched up to me as a great nude.

Urban Decay Naked 3 Eyeshadow Palette available here

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion available here

Next, I headed to Urban Decay and had a little eye makeover using the Naked Palette. I confessed that I must be the only beauty blogger who doesn't already own one and before I knew it I'd already grabbed the Naked 3 in it's rose gold toned glory and the matching Eye Primer Potion to boot.

Shu Uemura Eyelash Curlers available here

I've always wanted a Shu Uemura eyelash curler, since it's heydey in the 90's as the eyelash curler to own. I picked up this one ready wrapped as it looked so cute!

Bobbi Brown Foundation Stick available here

I also went to Bobbi Brown to look for a concealer. Somehow, I came out with a Foundation Stick instead as I was persuaded to try this out (I always use liquid or cream foundations) and at the very least I can still use it as a concealer. I have tried to use this as a foundation and found it a bit too much but as a concealer I love it!

Charlotte Tilbury lipstick in Coachella Coral available here

I did try out a few products from Charlotte Tilbury, including the lipsticks, but came away empty handed as I just couldn't pick!!

Curl makeover from Umberto Giannini

On the night, I also had a wash and blow dry at Umberto Giannini and Ting played photographer :) How amazing are these curls?!

We had a great time at the event and played around with the photobooth too!

With Ting

I went back to MAC a few days later to purchase the huge haul below.

MAC Haul

I got: MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in Global Glow, MAC Lip Pencil in Boldly Bare, MAC 129 Brush, MAC Pro Longwear Paint Pot in Painterly, MAC Lipglass in Viva Glam VI, MAC Matte Lipstick in Diva, MAC Frost Lipstick in Viva Glam Rihanna, MAC Frost Lipstick in Angel, MAC Amplified Creme Lipstick in Impassioned, MAC Amplified Lipstick inVegas Volt, MAC Satin Lipstick in Viva Glam II, MAC Cremesheen Lipstick in Speak Louder and MACCremesheen Lipstick in Lickable. Phew!

I will do a separate post on my MAC collection but I decided to take the plunge and build up a lipstick wardrobe. This is because on my last three trips to MAC I've picked up three almost identical lipsticks!!! This way I got to make sure I had every base covered and it was fun to go all out!

Lancome Advanced Genifique Serum Gift Set available here

Lancome L'Absolu Velours Lipstick in 385 Velours de Pourpre available here

Finally, I visited Lancome in search of my favourite serum, Genifique. I got this Christmas special set and also came away with this lovely L'Absolu Velours in 385. This intense lip colour with a velvet matte finish is such a gorgeous shade, a real bright cerise pink!

I had a great time building up my makeup collection and even with all this I'm sure I'll be back next year!

MAC Amplified Creme Lipstick Chatterbox

Mac Amplified Creme lipsticks have a moisturising cream finish and a vivid colour. Whilst looking for Candy Yum Yum, I picked up this great little shade and I'm so glad that I did.

MAC Amplified Creme Lipstick in Chatterbox available here

Chatterbox is a beautiful vivid pink, a real classic in my eyes. The texture is smooth and quite creamy, and it lasts ages before fading out to leave a pink stain and wears evenly too. It even works on dry lips without showing up your skin, although you might want to wear a balm underneath if you've got very dry lips just for comfort.

Whilst on some darker skins it comes out a light pastel, on me it comes out a bubblegum pastel pink, verging on Barbie pink. In the swatches you can really see the red undertones.

Long wearing, highly pigmented, quite matte and with an even application, these are a great formulation for wearable, everyday lipstick that you can eat and drink in.

Daylight swatch

Studio Light Swatch

At £15, it's a mid range price point, with high street lipsticks costing up to £10-£12 and high end ones costing up to £25-30, so really it's still pretty good value for money. Don't forget to use Back 2 Mac too!

Have you guys tried Chatterbox?

MAC Studio Fix Fluid Foundation SPF 15 NW22 - Product Review and Swatches

I'm currently looking for the perfect everyday foundation, one that's not too thick and matte, dewy but with enough coverage to even out my skin.

MAC Studio Fix Fluid Foundation available here

I picked up MAC Studio Fix Fluid as I tried it in the shop and really liked the finish. For me, it's perfect; just the right kind of dewy finish without looking and feeling greasy.

The shade is NW22 which I think is pretty close to what I need. It's perfect for golden yellow skin tones which is great for me as the yellow in the foundation counteracts the redness around my nose and chin. It's maybe just a touch too yellow fot me but it's still a good enough match to be wearable.

Daylight swatch

Studio light swatch

I like the creamy consistency and it's easy to apply. I use either a foundation brush or sponge and both work well. It's also really buildable so tend to go for a light base layer and then keep adding to my nose, chin and central cheek area to cover redness.

I think the coverage is a medium working up to a medium/heavy which works really well for me as the skin on my forehead and most of my cheeks needs less coverage than my T Zone, meaning that I hate to apply too heavy a foundation all over when parts of my face don't need that much coverage. It's good at covering small blemishes but you will probably need a little extra concealer for bigger blemishes and spots.

It lasts for around 7 hours and it does get a bit shiny around my nose and chin but powder helps combat this

The packaging makes it quite difficult to get the product out as it's a screw top lid that comes off and you can't squeeze the bottle as it's glass. Also, the lid gets dirty really quickly as it's a rubber finish.

It also contains an SPF15 which is great!

The downside is the smell which is pretty chalky, but at £21.50 it's really quite good value.

What do you guys think of Mac Studio Fix?

Birthday Mac Makeover – Kim Kardashian Make Up Tutorial

So, this time last week I was still wearing my full face of armour from Mac make up. I had a great make up lesson at the Mac store Birmingham where I was shown how to get a Kim Kardashian inspired make up look.

The Mac make up lesson costs £50 and is redeemable against purchases made afterwards, but believe me it’s easy to spend that and more! The make up artist showed me how to do my make up by doing one eye/cheek and letting me do the other side. The smoky eye in particular was a lot more difficult that I’d imagined and involves around 7 products! However, I think I learnt a lot about highlighting and contouring which is what I was most interested in.

If you’d like a summary of how I got this look here goes!

Preparation

Cleanse face using make up wipes. Apply gel based moisturiser (Mineralize Charged Water Moisture Gel £26) to dry quickly. Next, use a primer all over face (Prep + Prime Face Protect SPF50 £22.50) and the Fortified Skin Enhancer SPF35 £22 in Neutralize to counteract redness in nose and cheek area. With both, don’t rub in, simply smooth over skin to create a flawless base. Use a concealer such as Studio Finish Concealer in NW25 £14.50 and a 224 concealer brush to cover over any blemishes.

Highlighting and contouring

Use a concealer such as Select Cover Up in NW20 £14.50 under the eyes.

Apply Prep +Prime Highlighter £17.50 in Radiant Rose in a triangle shape below eyes, drawing a line beneath the eyes from just past the corner out towards the edge of your face, down to the end of your nose. Join up the two lines and fill in the gaps lightly. Smooth this out to create your highlighted area.

Next the cheeks. Draw a line from the hairline to halfway past your cheek using a Bronzing Powder £19 in Matte Bronze. Apply using a 239 brush to get a thin line. Above this, use a pinky blusher such as Powder Blush in Fleur Power £17.50 from the apples of the cheek above the line, moving out towards the edge of your face. I think we used a 150 large powder brush.

We blended the colours together to erase any lines, although keeping the bottom contour and finished off with something that looked like the Mineralize Eye Shadow in Aurora £16.50 at the very top of the cheekbone to highlight.

Eyes

This is where it gets a bit fuzzy! I know that we used the Paint Pot £14.50 in I think Constructivist over the eyelid. Then, we used the following eyeshadow colours £12: Brule, All that Glitters, Handwritten, Twinks and Carbon. I’ve written them down from lightest to darkest but I can’t describe exactly how we got the look! I do know that it involved using a dark shade such as Twinks to extend and create the catseye, with a black eyeliner extended past the lash line into the flick in a squiggly line! We used the Kohl Power Eye Pencil in Feline £14.  There was also some serious blending going on! We cleaned up the eye area using a cotton bud to create a line from the outside edge of my eye up to the end of my eyebrow to give a really slick catseye look. We also extended my eyebrow using a 208 Angled Brow Brush £16 and a dark brown colour such as Twinks. To finish off, we used Opulash Optimum Black Mascara £14.

Finally, everything was set using Studio Careblend/Pressed Powder £20 in Medium and the lips were glossed up using a brown colour, which I think was Tinted Lipgloss £13.50 in Oh Baby.

Here is a picture of the finished product (excuse my terrible hair!)

I decided to purchase mainly products from the Prep and Prime range to help me get a great base first, and I can use my own products for now before investing in the Mac. The products I bought were:

Mac Prep and Prime Fortified Skin Enhancer SPF 35 30ml in Neutralize (£22)

Mac Prep and Prime Highlighter 3.6ml in Radiant Rose (£17.50)

Mac Studio Finish Concealer SPF 35 7g NW25 (£14.50)

What do you think? I don’t think I’ll be able to recreate this look as well as the MUA but I’m going to try and practise at least!