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My Eyebrow Routine

My eyebrow routine changes from time to time. It depends on how my actual eyebrows are behaving and whether I went crazy with the tweezers. It also depends on what brow products are working for me too.

I have a bit of a funny relationship with my tweezers. I can get completely carried away with them and pluck away hairs I should have never have touched. It also took me a long time to figure out that getting rid of a few hairs at the base of my brows on the inside would work wonders for the shape. And then, of course I did the thing that a lot of people do, plucked the hell of out of the front part of my brows! They were ridiculous for so long, but sure look they are only brows at the end of the day 🙂 I do have brows, the hair on them is quite long and wiry though. And because I plucked them so much in the past, some patches just won’t grow back. If I am just popping to the shops or heading to the gym, I’ll just fill in the tail of them a little with a pencil and be good to go. But if I am doing makeup, this is my brow routine at the moment.

I am still trying to grow them somewhat and they are definitely far from perfect, but I am at a stage now where I don’t completely hate my brows. On makeup wearing days, I use three products to fill them in and keep them in place.

The NYX Micro Brow Pencil which I love and have a full review of here. The shade I use is ‘Ash Brown’. My hair has an auburn tinge to it and so do my brows, so I feel the more ashy brown shade makes them a bit more neutral.

The Freedom Duo Brow Powder is another product I spoke more about in a previous post here. I have this in the shade ‘Soft Brown’. I usually use the darker shade on the tail of my brows and the lighter shade through the rest.

What I use to set my brows is a pretty new product to me. The Too Faced Brow Quickie. This is in the shade ‘Universal Brunette’ This contains fibres so it works well for bulking up the brows, adds some colour and fixes them in place. It is also waterproof. I am still testing it out so don’t have a definitive opinion on it yet. It is available on the Debenhams website here.

If you want to see me put these products into action, you can click on the video above or go directly to my Youtube channel here. I thought it would be easier to do this in video form 🙂

Have you any ride or die brow products that you can’t be without? I would love to know.

Thanks for clicking.

Gemma

xxx

November 11, 2016/1 Comment/by Gem

Bargain Buying, Beautynook Tips, Haul, Makeup, Skincare, Tanning

Beauty Shopping Online

I am an avid online shopper. I do love going into shops and seeing products in the flesh, don’t get me wrong. However, living on our little island, we don’t always get the products we want in store, or we just don’t have the time to do it! So, here are some of my favourite online beauty shopping haunts that I like to frequent 🙂

Of course, alot of our favourite beauty retailers give us the option to shop online too, as well as in store. Some of my favourites are Boots, Debenhams, Brown Thomas and Arnotts. And I love that with some of these you have the option to click and collect so you don’t have to pay shipping and then whatever you bought, is packed up and paid for, just waiting for you to pick it up in store. Superdrug is another one that does that too, although I know they only have stores here in Dublin. You can shop from them online too though.

My favourite Irish online store for beauty shopping has to be cloud10beauty!They cover some of our amazing homegrown talent like Cocoa Brown, Waxperts and Blank Canvas Cosmetics. As well as some harder to get brands here like Pestle & Mortar and Alpha-H.They have you covered with blogger/vlogger brands like Zoella, Real Techniques, Colab, Tanya Burr and of course SOSU by Suzanne Jackson. There is something on Cloud10beauty for everyone, the shipping is super quick, it is free over €40, you get free gifts with purchase. They always have website deals on and very generous sales.

My next favourite online beauty shopping destination is Cult Beauty

The name really says it all! Cult Beauty stock a good chunk of the brands we all want a part of. And not just old stock, we can get new stock from American brands we covet! They stock the likes of Anastasia Beverley Hills, Aesop,Becca, Daniel Sander,Eve Lom, FAIRYDROPS (I didn’t know that actually, this post is really enabling my shopping habit :)), Huda Beauty, Jouer, Laura Gellar, OCC. I could go on, I really could. They have free worldwide shipping over £50, and again you can get free gift with purchases. They are also based in the UK so no worrying about custom charges and the likes.

Beauty Bay is another UK website that is jam packed full of American brands we want to get our hands on.

Products are a little pricey and shipping takes a while, but once you’re aware of that the beauty shopping is awesome! They stock the likes of Gerard Cosmetics, Natasha Denona, Anastasia, Cargo, Cover FX, Dose of Colour, Ellis Faas, and of course Makeup Geek!!!

Look Fantastic is another….fantastic beauty shopping hub 🙂

They offer free standard worldwide shipping, it can take a while, so you do have to be patient, but again they are a UK registered company so no duty to worry about. They sell the likes of Illamasqua, EX1, Benefit, Deborah Lippman, Dermalogica and Nudestix. What I particularly like about Look Fantastic is their range of hair care. They cover brands like Kerastase, Redken, Phillip Kingsley, Nioxin and Tigi to name a few. And, they don’t scrimp on the money off vouchers either!

Feel Unique is another website I am often found browsing.

It is great for makeup and haircare, but it also carries an abundance of fragrance choices too, for both men and women. They cover the celeb fragrances as well as the likes of Marc Jacobs, Chanel, YSL and Stella McCartney. I rely on Feel Unique alot at Christmas time, it’s really handy for picking up gift sets.

For my last contribution in this post, I thought I would add in Asos.

Asos is a website I spend alot of time procrastinating on 🙂 It’s well known for fashion, but it does carry a good amount of beauty choices too. It has brands like Barry M, Rimmel and Benefit. But, it also carries harder to get brands (for us) like Japonesque, Anna Sui, Cowshed and so much more. There’s free shipping from Asos over €25 and they offer free returns too which is really handy.

I think I’ll leave it there 🙂 There’s other beauty corners of the internet I like to frequent, but I don’t want to bombard you. And these are all tried, tested and trusted websites that I’ve purchased from successfully on numerous occasions.

I hope you found this helpful and maybe discovered a new online beauty shopping haunt.

Thanks for reading.

xxx

July 22, 2016/2 Comments/by Gem

Beautynook Tips, Youtube Video

Long Lasting Makeup Tips

I’m like a broken record, I know, but I have pretty oily skin and as a result of this makeup, as much as I love it, doesn’t particularly love me. It sinks into my skin, oxidizes and just doesn’t hang around too long. So, as a result, over the years, I’ve tried and tested lots of different ways to make it last longer on my visage. I’ve done a post about this in the past, but I’ve updated and added some different steps, so I thought I would put together all of my Long Lasting Makeup Tips in video form and demo them on my mug 🙂

Before Makeup

After Makeup

There is a lot of long lasting makeup steps in the video, I don’t expect anyone to do them all, unless of course you’re really oily like me. But if you struggle with your makeup slipping and sliding, or have a special occasion, some of them might help you a little. You can click on the video up above or go to my YouTube channel here to watch.

Just in case something takes your fancy, I’ll link any reviews I have done in the past of the products I talk about in the video.

Waxperts Wonder Pads. Review here.

La Roche Posay Serozinc. Review here.

Vichy Normaderm Anti Blemish Care Moisturiser. Review here.

L’Oreal Infallible 24 Hour Matte Foundation. Review here.

Rimmel Lasting Finish Nude Foundation. Review here.

Nyx Micro Brow Pencil. Review here.

Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer. Review here.

L’Oreal Infallible Fixing Spray. Review here.

Makeup Revolution Ultra Contour Palette. Review here.

I really really hope you find something helpful within my waffling. These are by no means my personal long lasting makeup tips. I’ve just picked them up along the way on my makeup journey and tried and tested them on my skin.

As always, thanks for watching and if you have any other long lasting makeup tips to add to the pile, please do comment. I would love to try more 🙂

xxx

July 16, 2016/by Gem

Beautynook Tips, Makeup

Cleaning My Makeup Brushes

I don’t think there’s one person in the world who enjoys the task of cleaning their makeup brushes. If you do I applaud you, for me it’s a menial task. However, the aftermath is so rewarding, seeing all of the white fluffy head peaking out of their flower pot homes 🙂

How I clean my makeup brushes is not a new way or a fancy way (have you seen the machines you can buy now to do it?) but it gets the job done and it gets my makeup brushes and sponges squeaky clean.

Over the years of being a makeup fanatic I have accumulated alot of makeup brushes, so it does take me a while to get through them and then that means when I run out of clean ones, I have a pretty mammoth job on my hands. I change up my foundation brush probably every three uses, of course you can just wash as you go, I just have a few to procrastinate with 🙂

Brush cleaning mats have become the norm in the makeup world. Sigma and Real Techniques have their own versions of them. They’re basically just a gripped rubber surface and so people have found cheaper alternatives be it in the household department (rubber gloves work great too), in Penneys, Dealz, or for me I found mine in the body care aisle of Boots.

This is the Massage Glove from Soap & Glory. I first saw Anna from ViviannaDoesMakeup using this. It’s rubber, it has grips and you can slip your hand into it for added pressure on your brushes. Even better news a lovely reader told me she saw these being sold off in her local Boots for nearly half the RRP, score!

In the past, I’ve used the Massage Glove in conjunction with baby shampoo and this works well, but for more stubborn makeup brushes like tightly packed kabuki ones, it can be a labour of love trying to get the bristles really clean.

There are specifically formulated brush cleansers too which are great but can be hard to come by. I saw alot of people using naturally derived soaps, and the Moogoo Fresh Milk Cleansing Bar has been spoken about very highly to get the job done well, so I had to give it a go. It contains Olive Oil (which is another great deep brush cleanser in it’s own right) and Cocoa Butter.

Both of these, with some added hot water of course do the job really well!

I take the massage glove on my hand. Another reason why I like the glove is that it protects your hand from the soap and water. I am not a fan of crinkly fingers 🙂

Wet my makeup brush with warm/hot water.

Swirl it in the bar of soap a few times.

I am firm enough to get into the base of the bristles, but I am conscious of the ferrule and the handle as if they can get damaged from water getting in, the bristles or even the actual brush head can become loose.

I massage the soaped up brush with the glove to lather it up and really get it clean.

And then rinse.

For brushes you use with liquid products, you might have to repeat the steps a couple times until the water runs clear.

It works really well on makeup sponges too. Here’s my well loved Beauty Blender.

And my Real techniques Sponge before and after.

It even works on the flat tightly packed brushes too.

When it comes to eyeshadow brushes, if I have only used them for powder products, I usually grab a few that are of similar length and clean them together.

When I am finished soaping up 🙂 I lay a towel on the floor under a radiator and place all of my makeup brushes down along it.

The towel helps absorb excess moisture and then if the radiator is on the residual heat helps the drying process too. If I need some of the brushes in a hurry I’ll put a few of them alot the top of the rad too, not ideal, but needs must 🙂

Of course if you lived in a hotter drier climate you could just use your window sill, or you can just air dry them or even put them in the hot press, whatever works for you!

And there you have it, my makeup brushes are now hygienically clean but also any product staining is also gone too, which is not always achieved with other methods.

Be sure to let me know if you found this helpful and if you have any brush cleaning tips or tricks 🙂

xxx

May 11, 2016/4 Comments/by Gem

Beautynook Tips, Skincare

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream, a very well known skincare staple in the beauty world.

Us beauty enthusiasts go on about Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream alot, but does it live up to the hype? And exactly what can you use it for?

Elizabeth Arden will give you a list as long as your arm including using it on your eyelids and cheekbones as a highlighter, to tame fly away hairs and the likes. I don’t think this stuff is very practical in the real world, so I wanted to list my real life uses in a post 🙂

Eight hour cream has an ointment texture, although I get the fragrance free version, there is still a slight nearly medicinal scent to it, but it doesn’t linger so it’s not something to worry about too much. It is not fast absorbing so don’t be expecting it to soak into your skin any time soon. I see this as a pro rather than a con though because of what I use it for.

Here is what I use it for:

Chapped lips! It so great for hydrating the lips. It’s a great night time treatment, but it works really well to prep the lips before lipstick application as well as a giving the lips a nice shine without being sticky if you want to just wear it on its own.
I use it as a night time treatment on my brows and eyelashes. I think it helps with their condition. It also helps with softening any hard brow hairs you might have too.
It is fab for dry cuticles, it needs alot of working in, but it’s worth it.
If you wear lashes, you know the plight of left over lash glue, Eight Hour Cream massaged into the roots can help remove it gently.
Any dry skin spots you might have will benefit from a splodge of it!
If you have scrapes or minor burns it can help ease the itch and heal the abrasion.
Finally, I use it a foot treatment. I slather it on and then put some fluffy socks on before going to bed. It helps with cracked heels and any dryness that you might have from wearing stupid shoes (like me 🙂 )

Overall, Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream is a brilliant product to have in your skincare arsenal. It has so many uses, probably more than I have listed, they’re just things I use it for personally. It’s not cheap you can get it in Boots, Debenhams, anywhere that sells Elizabeth Arden really. The standard price is €33. A tube of it will last you forever though. The one I have now is over a year and it’s still going strong. I did order mine from Strawberry.net where if you’re lucky you can sometimes get a good deal on it.

Let me know if you use it and if there’s any other cool uses 🙂

xxx

January 18, 2016/1 Comment/by Gem

Beautynook Tips, Makeup

Duraline from Inglot. A Makeup Staple!

Duraline is one of those things so many of us have in our makeup stash but we never think to talk about it. It is such a handy thing to own. Bear with me, I know it doesn’t look much in the picture 🙂

First off, you can pick up Duraline from your local Inglot store, or they stock in on the website here It costs 12 euro and will literally last you a life time.

A more technical explanation of Duraline is as follows ‘Silicone polymer forms a breathable film while this waterless clear liquid transforms any powder into an intense and easy to use liquid.’

In my more lay man terms Duraline is an awesome liquid that you can add to eyeshadow to make them into coloured eye liners. 🙂

I chose this Body Shop yellow eyeshadow because it shows the effect Duraline can have.

As you can see it can darken lighter shades, so just be weary of that. However, you can always add some white shadow in to lighten it up a bit. It’s a bit like being a painter 🙂

You just need a couple of drops and you can tranform any shadow matte or sparkly, and it dries to a waterproof finish, so you don’t need to worry about it sliding around you eyes. On a side note, to save your eyeshadow, scrape it out of it’s pan and do the mixing separately because it will dry it out!

Duraline is also the best invention ever for reviving dried up gel liners/brow gels etc. Seriously it’s such a life saver. Again a couple of drops and your gel is as good as new.

You can add Duraline to foundations or concealers too if they are too thick or harder to spread. I saw on the online grape vine it can also help them last longer too. I’ve yet to try this method, but I will be definitely giving it a go in the future.

Because Duraline dries, I also find it great for adding glitter to the eyes too. I usually do this but adding a teeny tiny amount to a synthetic brush, apply a really light layer to my lid and then use the same brush to pat on the glitter and then your party ready!

In Conclusion (I feel like I’m back in college throwing that into a post 🙂 Duraline is such a handy and underrated product. Go get it 🙂

xxx

December 4, 2015/3 Comments/by Gem