Summer Nights Look

Hi everyone ... long time no see (or read!) I've seriously been lacking in posts recently, mainly due to blogger's block and enjoying the rare sunny weather that we don't normally get in the UK. But I thought I'd come back with a makeup look. My photos aren't that great but you get the jist of what the makeup look is all about - bronzed colours, resembling a beautiful summer night's sunset.

For this look, I used mainly ELF products including this gorgeous Baked Eyeshadow Palette in California. It's filled with warm, toasty colours perfect for achieving that night time sunset look. I applied the top middle colour as a base, using it all over my lid up to my brow bone. I then applied the top second colour on my lid up to my crease, followed by the bottom middle colour in the outer corner of my lid and blended. I tried to keep the look subtle, so I didn't apply the colours heavily - this palette is perfect for this as the shadows aren't extremely pigmented. I then applied the top middle colour that I used as a base in the corners of my eye and slightly under my waterline and the top second colour again under my eye. I then went ahead and applied black eyeliner along my waterline to define my eyes, followed by mascara (after curling my lashes!)

I then applied my lip stain in the shade 'Heartbreaker' which is a coral colour. I like the way it looks in combination with the eyeshadow - very summery!

Hope you enjoyed this post - I want to start doing more makeup looks (I'll just need to improve my photos hehe!)

BUY THE PALETTE HERE: 

http://www.haveyouseen.com/4x45

BUY THE LIP STAIN HERE:

http://www.haveyouseen.com/4x46

Thanks for reading!

January Favourites: What I've Been Loving

I know that favourites are popular amongst bloggers and YouTubers, so I thought I would join in and display my choice of beauty favourites that I've been loving since around Christmas time and give my opinion on each of them!

Real Techniques Core Collection
I received these brushes for Christmas and I've been using them everyday. I particularly love the buffing brush to do my foundation, as it's great for blending in and providing a good coverage. The contour brush is also brilliant for doing my bronzer as it's easy to blend and doesn't look streaky. These brushes are well worth the dosh!

Lush 'Bubblegum' Lip Scrub
This scrub works amazingly well! Not only does it help remove the dead skin cells from your lips, but it tastes so sweet! I love using this at night and then applying Vaseline; it prepares your lips for the next day when you may want to use lipstick. This has been great to use throughout these Winter months, as my lips have been quite dry due to the wind.

Andrew Barton 'Hot Iron Protection Spray'
You may have seen this in my review last month. As my hair is long (and I don't have regular trims, which I know is badddd) this spray helps protect my hair before I use my hair dryer or curling iron. It also smells really nice, which is always a positive! I don't mind which heat defence spray I use, but I'm loving this one at the moment.

Next 'Gold Vanilla' Lip Balm
I also received this for Christmas and it works wonders! I had been wanting a colourless lip balm for a while to use before applying lipstick and this does a good job of moisturising your lips! It also smells lovely as it's vanilla - two in one!

Sally Hansen 'Nail Growth Miracle'
I've recently started biting my nails again (urgh I'm very annoyed with myself!) I was doing sooo well at growing them and then BAM! Now they're back to their scruffy short ways. However, this little miracle (as it's clearly stated) is a miracle indeed! I paint my nails with this everyday and it helps restore them to a healthy, strong state and I have actually noticed a growth spurt! HOW DO THEY DO IT?!

Clinique 'Colour Surge Beige Shimmer'
Even though I got this eyeshadow a while ago, I've been using it a lot more regularly these past few weeks. I love the shimmery, neutral shade and it looks lovely on its own with a bold lip, or blended with a darker shadow.

Elf Lipstick 'Seductive'
I love the coral colour to this lipstick and I know it's a bit bright for this time of year, but I love the shade! It's a mixture of pink, peach and red - the outcome looks really pretty! Anyway, you probably know how much I love Elf hehe!

I've enjoyed reading these type of posts recently, so I thought I would do my own! Hope you liked it:-)

Have you tried any of these products? If so, what do you think?

The Ultimate Smoky Eyes

Not only are these compact eyeshadow sets cute and affordable, but they also create the perfect smoky eye, with each shade labelled with the appropriate place to sweep on the lid. I decided to buy two of these in the shades "Smoky" and "Beautiful Browns", as blues suit me as I have blue eyes and browns suit me as they're quite neutral shades. At £2.50 each, you might as well give them a go!

As you can see, there is an easy guide to tell you where to place the shadow. The cream coloured base colour is a lovely undertone and helps brighten the eyes. The light brown shade that follows is perfect to place all over the lid up to the crease. The third shade is a rich, chocolate bronze colour with a hint of shimmer, which gives the eyes a nice sparkle and the final darker brown shade helps define the eye, giving an overall gorgeous brown smoky look.

This is my favourite one and I love wearing this mini palette on a night out. Filled with whites, greys and dark blues, it's perfect for creating the ultimate smoky eye and makes your eyes pop! I especially recommend this if you have blue eyes like myself, as they really bring out the colour. Last time I wore these eyeshadows, they stayed on all night (with the help of eyelid primer beforehand).

As you may already know from my previous posts, I love ELF! Their products are incredibly affordable and I've found that they are good quality too, therefore you can't go wrong!

Thanks for reading; 

I hope the swatches helped you get an idea of the true colours of the shadows!

What's your favourite ELF eyeshadow?

What's In My Makeup Bag (Everyday)

Helllooo!

Okay, so I've decided to do a post about my everyday makeup. It's nothing extravagant; I try and stick to a natural look as I don't want to look like a completely different person when wearing makeup. I'm hoping to do some Christmassy posts within the next couple of weeks. I'm still trying to find decent lighting in my house, as I want my photos to be good quality. But for now, this will have to do until I find a good spot. So, let's get into it!

After moisturising, I apply my L'Oréal Infallible Long-Lasting Perfecting Foundation in the shade 'Porcelain'. I love this foundation; it's creamy and blends in well. I then apply either my ELF Maximum Coverage Concealer in the shade 'Porcelain' or my No7 Quick Cover Blemish Stick in the shade 'Fair', depending on what my skin is like that day. I find that with the blemish stick, it can clog up easily, especially if you have a dry patch of skin. The liquid concealer by ELF glides on easily and is good coverage.

My eyebrows are a tricky one; they are quite thick so I don't tend to fill them in all the time, it just depends on how they look that day. If I do decide to fill them in, I use No7 Beautiful Brows Pencil in shade 'Blonde'. It comes with a brush on the end as well, which is useful!

I then use a powder as I have quite oily skin; I tend to use Pressed Powder in the shade 'Neutral' by 17; it helps 'set' my makeup and makes my face look more matte, which hides the shine. I keep applying this powder throughout the day over my nose and forehead to help keep the shine to a minimum.

Seeing as I'm reallly pale (as you can probably tell by the amount of products in 'Porcelain' haha) I brush bronzing powder across my cheekbones, forehead, nose, chin and neck... everywhere really; just get it on!;) I use Shimmering Glow Powder by Collection 2000 in the shade 'Sunkissed'. I love that it has a slight shimmer to it, so that my face isn't completely matte.

I use Collection 2000 Kohl Eye Liner Pencil in 'Black' along my waterline; I try and accentuate my eyes the most as that is where I feel I need makeup, as my eyelashes are blonde. I feel naked without eyeliner and mascara!!

After curling my lashes with my No7 Lift And Curve Eyelash Curler I apply No7 Stay Perfect Mascara in 'Black'. This is one of the best mascaras I have stumbled across. I was looking for a good mascara for a while as every one that I had tried would end up rubbing off under my eye throughout the day and I was constantly having to blot it off! However, this mascara stays put all day, so I really recommend this!

I finish off with the ELF Therapeutic Lip Balm in 'Strawberry Creme' as it's really moisturising, especially now that my lips are dry because of the cold weather :(. I usually apply lipstick after, but I change it up everyday depending on my mood!

Thanks for reading! More posts to come!

P.S If you aren't already, follow me on Twitter: @BeautyPieBlog

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Winter Lipsticks

I literally can't get enough of these lipsticks so I decided to do a post about them. Because they're quite neutral colours, I find they look better with Winter outfits as they just compliment them well. I have chosen four Elf lipsticks and two Clinique ones and the selection mainly consists of browns, pinks and reds. (Mind the effects on the pictures, I'm trying to get used to editing my photos hehe!)

1. Elf Mineral Lipstick - Barely Bitten
2. Elf Mineral Lipstick - Runaway Pink
3. Elf Mineral Lipstick - Rosy Tan
4. Clinique High Impact Lip Colour - Extreme Pink
5. Elf Lipstick - Classy
6. Clinique Colour Surge Butter Shine Lipstick - Adore U

1. This was one of the first Elf lipsticks that I bought and I love it! I'm not the type of girl to wear red lipstick as I've never thought it suited me, however I found that this lipstick isn't a particularly bright colour; it's more of a darker red and I find that it suits me more than a brighter colour due to my skin tone. It gives sort of a sore lips kind of look, which is perfect for Winter when that cold weather bites (eeek!)

I also absolutely loveee Elf lipsticks; they're so creamy and I love the colours that they come in - I hope to own every colour one day;) I can't get enough of them!

2. Another one by Elf! At £5 each, these beauties are really worth stocking up on! I would say this colour is close to nude and I love wearing this with neutral eye makeup. Pink doesn't usually suit me (especially bright Barbie pink, oh no) but I love this shade! It's also extremely moisturising and long lasting.

I usually apply Vaseline or lip balm before applying lipstick as I've found it glides on better and softens your lips beforehand. I love the matte finish that you get with this lipstick.







3. This colour is similar to Runaway Pink and it is quite hard to tell the difference, however this one is just slightly darker as it's more of a brown colour. I usually try and build this colour up so my lips don't appear too dark!

Writing this post makes me want to buy more Elf lipsticks, so I might just do that hehe!

4. I got this lipstick as part of a free gift after spending so much on Clinique, but it has become one of my favourites lipsticks to wear at this time of year! It's very creamy and shiny, plus the colour is very bold and pigmented (the name says it all really!)

The lipstick has a slight shimmer to it and I would say it's close to a fuschia shade. Since I have pale skin, I've found that it suits me really well (which I was surprised about, seeing as pinks don't usually look that great on me).

 5. Surprise, surprise - another Elf lipstick! By now, you have probably realised that I'm slighttttly obsessed with Elf lipsticks, I just love them for obvious reasons!;) However, I was actually disappointed when I first got this because as soon as I used it, it snapped at the bottom, which shows that it's not very strong. However, I still use it (I just have to be very careful hehe!) It was only £1.50 anyway!

However, I adore the colour and the matte finish that this lipstick gives you. I would say it's less creamy than the Elf Mineral lipsticks, however I don't mind as the colour is amazing!

6. I love the unique packaging of this lipstick as the lid has an unusual texture/pattern. I'm not usually keen on this type of lipstick shape, I prefer ones with an angled point (as you can see, this one is flat therefore more difficult to apply!)

I've found it's better to apply it with a brush so I don't ruin the lipstick, but I absolutely love the light brown colour, creamy texture and shimmery outcome. I actually wore this for my prom last year and it lasted the full night!


I hope you've enjoyed this post, I love writing this blog so please follow me as it would mean a lot - plus I want to know if people are actually reading this hehe!

Thank you!!