SLEEK DEL MAR VOL II PALETTE

I've been a big fan of Sleek palettes for a good few years now. I used to use the Ultra Mattes V2 palette all of the time and was perfectly happy with it, until I became greedy and discovered MAC, Make up Geek, Urban Decay etc etc... which led to me having to share my time with them all so it didn't get used quite as much as it wasn't my only baby anymore. 

I bought the original Del Mar palette last year and used it so much over the summer months, especially when I went on holiday as these palettes are so pretty for the summer, when you want to be a little more colourful with your make up. The outer box sunset packaging immediately drew me in and when I saw the colours I knew that I would need to buy this palette. I had been wanting to get a yellow eye shadow for the last couple of summers, so when I say that this palette had a yellow, that was enough of a reason for me to buy it alone. Surprisingly, I think the shades are very wearable and are a good mix of easy to use shades and pops of colour. You could easily create an everyday natural shade with the two matte brown shades and maybe the gold or the beige shimmer shade. The shades blend well and lasted on me for the whole day, without fading at all. The majority of the shades are matte, with exception to the light peach shade which has a soft shimmer to it, also like the gold shade and the light beige shade. The second shade in the palette, the orange has a fine glitter in it which is also the case for the dark grey shade. My only gripe with this palette is that the shades aren't as pigmented as I would like. On the one hand, this isn't a bad thing as it makes the shades more wearable, as they're not crazy bright but at the same time when you're using colour you want it to be seen. 

When I was looking online at other peoples looks that they had created from this palette I saw a lot of blue heavy looks, so I wanted to ignore the blues in this palette and focus on some of the other shades. Obviously I had to use the yellow as it was my first love of the palette. I like the look I came up with as it reminds me of a sunset. It's very warm and bright, but still fairly wearable - I didn't feel silly leaving the house like it. When I first used the palette the shades weren't as bright as I wanted them so for this look I used a white MUA eye liner over my lid first and applied the shades on top, which really helped make the colour more vibrant. I used the yellow shade on the inner lid area and blended that into the orange shimmery shade in the centre of my lid. I used the light matte brown shade through my crease and darkened the crease and outer corner with the dark matte brown shade.  I used the light mauve shade under my lower lash line, with the dark green shade in my outer lower lash line. I finally used the light shimmer shade as a brow bone highlight and a little bit in the inner corner of my eye. I wanted to make sure that I only used the shades in this palette and it was very easy to create a look with only these shades as there is such a variety. I initially thought I would pair this eye look with a nude lip but I got carried away with the colourful shades and decided on a red/coral shade on the lips. I used Bare Minerals Energized lip liner with the lipstick in shade Go the Distance over the top, also from Bare Minerals. 

I'm excited to use this palette more over the summer months and try out more ways to use it and maybe incorporating some other shades too. I would always recommend Sleek palettes as they have so much to choose from and they only cost £7.99! 

FEBRUARY FAVOURITES

It's about time that I wrote a favourites post; I often feel like there isn't any products that I haven't already spoke about or any that I have particularly liked that month also I haven't bought many new products (until now), so there isn't anything new and exciting to share.

As February was passing by I was noticing that I was particularly liking some of the products  that I was using and I had enough to mention. 

First, my mum bought me The Body Shop Glazed Apple body scrub and body butter for Christmas and I just started using them around the beginning of February. Unfortunately they were a Christmas fragrance, so no longer available but all of The Body Shop scents are amazing anyway! I love the smell of these, I think it's a bit more on the melon smelling side than apple but still just as good. The body butter feels so hydrating and the scrub is just the right consistency to use regularly. The smell of both definitely lingers on the skin and in the room which you apply the products. 

Two products that I rediscovered in February were the MUA Undress  palette and the Revlon Photo ready foundation. I've had the MUA palette for a while now and used to use it all of the time but then it kind of got kicked to the side when I started using MAC and Make up Geek shadows more. I forgot how much I loved the colours in the palette as it's so everyday appropriate and for the price it is pretty darn good! 

My sister gave me the Revlon Photo ready foundation as she hated it. I started using it as I knew it was one of the lighter coloured foundations that I own and as I've been ditching fake tan recently, I needed my light shades! I find that it applies really well, lasts a good amount of time on the skin and doesn't feel heavy or cakey. It's a light medium coverage and pretty lightweight, it gives a natural, to slightly dewy/radiant finish. 

I spoke about the Hoola bronzer by Benefit in my 2014 favourites, as I really like it for contouring. It stayed as my go to contouring product throughout February and I really enjoyed using it. I've just found another product that may have replaced it though, so keep your eyes peeled to find out what that is soon! 

I've had the Make up Geek Immortal black gel liner for quite some time now but I don't religiously use black liner. It's an amazing gel liner when I do use it, but It's not always in my routine. In February however, I noticed how much I enjoy using it and how I prefer my eyes when I do use it. I've been loving using it to create a nice winged out look, by also blended black eye shadow into the liner to make it more of a smoky line, instead of a stark black line. I've included the Sigma E05 as it's my favourite brush to apply the gel liner with, as it makes eye liner really easy to apply. 

February was a pretty good month, that seemed to just fly by. I'm excited and also a little apprensive about March, as I have something new happening which I will probably mention in one of my next posts. I hope you all had a great February and have a happy March!

What products have you been loving?

EASY MAKE UP LOOK | MAC ARENA AND SWISS CHOCOLATE

I've had this post saved in our drafts for at least a couple of months now, just sitting there all lonely and neglected due to an intense amount of uni work and work hours - oh why can't assignments write themselves and why does my bank account not fill itself? 

This make-up look is really simple and easy to do and all you need is three eye shadows and an eyeliner. I used mac's Painterly Paintpot as a base and then applied Arena by Mac all over the lid. I put Swiss Chocolate through the crease and then the black shadow in my beloved Sleek Ultra Mattes palette in the outer  crease. You can achieve this look with any light shadow for the lid and any warm brown shade through the crease and then obviously any black will do as let's face it, blacks just black. I used the same black to line the lower lash line and Maybelline's gel eyeliner on the upper lash line. I used the highlighter shade in the Sleek face form kit in fair under my brow bone and a little bit in the inner corner of my eye.  I have just used baby lips in Pink Punch on my lips and I'm still amazed at how extremely pigmented it is for a lip balm! 

I really like this look as it's so simple but looks very complimentary on the eye and nicely frames the eye without being too dark and dramatic for the day time. 

I hope you're all getting very excited for Christmas, only three more sleeps!