Birthday nails, BYS in Red Carpet

Hello there!

I hope your week has started off well.  I actually haven't had such a busy time recently so I've been trying to rest as there's a really busy couple of months coming up soon.  I already posted about some of my birthday presents.  I also got a few new polishes.  One of them was by BYS in the shade Red Carpet.  I decided to try this one first and was really impressed by the colour and the formula.  I put on two coats of this lovely dark red and a top coat and it was glossy and opaque.  My nails never normally last me long at all and it took this a few days to chip which surprised me.  It also seemed to dry relatively fast luckily as I'm a fidget.

I applied some Misslyn nail stickers which I had been given as a present for my birthday last year and haven't used up yet.  I really like the effect and I love the deep red colour with the rose gold of my ring.
I also got this cute set of Nails Inc Minis which I am looking forward to testing out once this nail varnish comes off.  It has it's own caviar base and top coat in the set which I've never tried before.

There's two pretty shades of pink: pastel and fuchsia, and a bright red.  I really want to try the fuchsia shade next!

Till next time :)

Twirlybirdie

February Favourites: Make-up

Hello!

I hope you enjoyed my February favourite's for body care.  Here are the make-up products I've been enjoying recently.

On my lips I have been using the Joik red wine lip balm.  It's super light packaging makes it great to cart around in my bag.  I like it on it's own as a really smoothing balm or as a moisturising prep for lipstick.

The Lumene Natural Code lipstick in Crystal Rose I bought because it was really cheap in a sale.  It's turned out to be really useful as it's a pretty semi-sheer light pink colour which seems to work with any make-up look.  Many lipstick shades make me look drained but this seems to perk up my face in a subtle and easily wearable way.

The Balm Stainiac in Prom Queen has been neglected for a while but I recently re-discovered it when I was wanting a natural looking flush of colour to my cheeks or lips which be long lasting.  This does the job really well and the colour is very natural looking on me as long as I don't over do it.

Another pretty blush I've been using a lot is this pink blush from my Too Faced Glamour to Go palette.  It's a subtle blush with a hint of gold.  The shade is not too pink and when lightly applied is very natural looking .

So those are my February favourite's for make-up.  No eye make-up products but I've been experimenting using different eye shadows on most days so that's probably why I haven't narrowed down any favourites.

I hope you enjoyed this post!

Twirlybirdie :)

My first Feel Unique order! Maybelline Haul

Hi there!

I hope you're having a great weekend :).  I recently placed my first ever order with feelunique.com.  There is usually quite a big mark up on the price of cosmetics over here so sometimes it is cheaper to buy them online.  They have free worldwide shipping on orders over 10 pounds, although not all the items are available for shipping overseas.  Once I had found enough items of make-up I was wanting to purchase that met the free shipping amount I made my first order.

 The order arrived in this box which was quite a lot larger than the items inside!

The box was filled with these foam pieces which freak me out for some reason.  They just give me the shivers!

I ordered the Fit Me concealer in shade 02 and two Colour 24hr Tattoo eye shadows from Maybelline in the shades Rose Gold and Bronze on Bronze.

I'm really looking forward to testing these beauties out!  Reviews will be coming soon.
Over all I'm happy with my first experience of ordering from Feel Unique and will probably be ordering from them again in the future!

Twirlybirdie :)

Make-up Factory Sensitive Mascara

Hello

I hope you are having a nice evening.  I have a chocolate marble cake in the oven.  It's the first time I've tried the recipe so I'm excited to see how it turns out!

I was given this Make-up Factory mascara in Sensitive as a Christmas present.  I've never used any products by them before.  At the moment I'm using the Clinique High Impact mascara which I really like but there's always room for a second mascara in my life. 

The brush is actually quite similar in shape to the High Impact one but the bristles are much stiffer.  I prefer the softer brush on the Clinique mascara but this one still does a fine job of lengthening and separating my lashes.  I would say I get less of a curl when I use this one than I do with the Clinique.

I still use this though and keep it in my bathroom for days when my Clinique mascara is in my handbag and I can't be bothered to fetch it because I am that lazy.

Here is a scary close up photo of me wearing this mascara.
It's nearly time to get the cake out the oven, yay!
Till next time :)

Twilrybirdie

My current stage make-up essentials

Hello,

I hope you are having a good start to the week.  I went to the chiropractor yesterday for the first time ever.  I was a bit nervous as I was having my neck done.  It cracked LOADS, it was quite intense and I think I squealed a couple of times after some extremely loud cracks.  I think it did some good though because my neck tension seems to have dispersed quite a lot.  I have four more sessions so am looking forward to seeing how I get on with that.
I thought I'd do a post of some of the make-up products I've been wearing rather frequently for stage.  Some of these products I use for day to day activities too but less intensely.

 I also use different eye shadows and blushers depending on the role but the products here are current stage make-up staples.

The Garnier BB cream in Light would probably surprise a lot of people who perform on stage as traditionally very thick foundation is considered a necessity.  I find if I apply the BB cream with a brush I get enough coverage.  This is fine for me when my skin is quite good.  I use a concealer as well to hide any redness from blemishes and under my eyes but I prefer this to heavy thick foundation which I can't stand and makes my skin itch.
The Art Deco eyebrow powder is good for day or performance use.  I just apply it more heavily for a show than I would during the day.  It is quite a dark powder for me so it shows well on stage.  For normal day wear I just brush it lightly through my brows.  I also set it with a brown eyebrow gel.
The Lumene Rasberry Miracle lip sorbet in Full of Berries is a bright red very highly pigmented rich colour which is why I started using it for the stage.  I feel like the brightness of the colour lifts my face and my otherwise quite pale complexion.
For eye-liner I like to use the Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner in 01 Black.  I originally bought this for normal day use but found it more suited to stage make-up.  Unlike my mornings when I'm in a rush I can take my time to apply it for a performance using the little brush.  It's quite an intense black and is a thick formula which lasts well making it good for the stage.
We can get our make-up done by great make-up artists at the theatre but I really enjoy doing it myself and using my own products.  I'm pretty sure that wearing make-up for performances is at least partly responsible for my obsession with make-up!

Till next time :)

Twirlybirdie

The Body Shop Rainforest Shine Shampoo review

Like most of my skin my scalp can sometimes be sensitive to certain shampoos.  It's really hit and miss as most shampoos are absolutely fine and then suddenly after maybe even years I'll try a new one and find that it's irritating.  I recently had just such a problem with a shampoo from a more expensive brand that I decided to treat myself too (!) so decided to try out a shampoo that has as natural sounding ingredients as possible.  This Body Shop Rainforest Shine Shampoo sounded just the ticket with it's ingredients containing no parabens, sulphates, silicones or collorants.

I'd used sulphate free shampoo before and found it really difficult to get out of my hair.  I also found it doesn't lather up well and I end up needing to use quite a lot of it as I have long hair.  I decided that my scalp needing some time off from any unnatural ingredients though so decided to give this shampoo a try.

The instructions say you should add a few drops of water and lather it up in your palm before you apply to your hair.  I did this but I still needed to use quite a lot of it to cover all my hair and I paid special attention to rinsing it all out.  After using it a few times I would say that I still struggle to get it all out of my hair.  Even if I feel like I'm rinsing it under the shower for five minutes I can still feel it on some of the roots when it's dried.  The rest of the hair does seem really nice, healthy and shiny though so I plan to persevere with it and maybe turn the shower up to it's highest setting to try and make sure I get it all out!  I've found that adding a small amount of shampoo with a sulphate in it helps to get it to lather up and rinse out.   Then I don't have to use so much of the natural shampoo which is good as it is expensive.

All in all I think it's worth trying but bear in mind that you have to try a lot harder to get it all out of your hair than with your average shampoo.  If you can manage this you just might love it!