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I am way late on the March Favourites for 2018 bandwagon. We are well into April. But sure I thought, better late than never, right?

March Favourites

My March Favourites this year are a bit of a mixed bag of beauty (of course), fashion, (in inverted commas ha), and a Netflix recommendation.

march favourites

March has been a bit of a funny month for me. I have been job hunting, but in a different way from what I am used to. Blogging for the last four years has given me a love for digital media and I’ve realised it’s the industry I would love to work in. Don’t get me wrong, I would love nothing more than to write about beauty full time, but here in Ireland, as someone like me, that’s not really a reality right now.

irish beauty blogirish beauty blogger

So March has been a been a whirl wind of interviews, beauty writing and life stuff. It’s been weirdly a month of clarity for me, so for that I am very grateful. Also, the weather was getting a teeny bit warmer through the month, so that helps everything. I wouldn’t be Irish if I didn’t bring the weather into this sum up somehow 🙂

Ok, I digressed completely there, let’s get into my random bag of March Favourites.

top irish beauty blog

I talk more about them of course in the video, but I will link what I can here.

The Ella & Jo Squeaky Clean Brush Cleanser is my first beauty fave. You can buy it directly from their website or Meaghers Pharmacy also stock it. (It’s currently 20% off from Meaghers.)

I chat about the Wet n Wild 1 Step Wonder Gel Nail Colors all of the time but the shade, Lavender Out Loud, has been my go to shade through March.

The Nudestix Intense Lip + Cheek Pencils are available to us from Cult Beauty. I chat (and am wearing), the shade Kiss.beauty blog ireland

My Betty & Biddy necklace that I show isn’t on their website now, but I will link them here so you can check out what else they have on offer.top irish beauty blogger

The jeans are from Penneys and Littlewoods as I mention. I don’t have links to either, sorry.beauty blogger ireland

And then finally my honourable fave is Wild Wild Country on Netflix. I’ll link the Wikipedia page here so you can check it out. It’s a mind boggler 🙂

And there you have my March favourites for this year. Thanks for clicking as always, I really appreciate it.

xxx

***********PR SAMPLES INCLUDED**********

 

Real Techniques Brushes

I have spoken a lot about Real Techniques Brushes (and their sponges too).

Real Tecniques Brushes

But, with all their new releases at the moment, which on a side note, I need everything! I thought I would bring it back to some of their basics, and the Real Techniques brushes I reach for on a daily basis.

Real Techniques Brushes

I’ve split it into face brushes and eye brushes. Just a coincidence that there’s three of each 🙂

irish beauty blog

First up is one of the first Real Techniques brushes I ever bought. Although this is a newer version of it. John broke my old one when he attempted to do my makeup. You can check out the lolz in that video here. This is their Blush Brush.

affordable makeup brushes

Although I definitely do not use it for blush. I love that the fab Pixiwoo ladies always say their brushes do not need to be used for their namesake. Use them for what they work for.

irish beauty blogger
top irish beauty blog

I use the Blush Brush for bronzer. I love the tapered shape for doing some light bronzer contouring too. It’s €14.99 from the Boots website here.

My next choice is their Setting Brush. It’s again tapered and like all of their brushes synthetic.

top irish beauty blogger

I don’t specifically use it for it’s named purpose either. This, for me works great for setting my lids with powder rather than my face.

beauty blog ireland
beauty blogger ireland

I also use it for highlighter too. It’s €9.50 from Cloud 10 Beauty here

My last face brush choice is the one I probably use the most. It’s the Cheek Brush. top beauty blogger irelandI use this to pack on setting powder. It’s domed and moderately dense, so I find it great for applying powder quite liberally. As well doing a good job of getting in around the nose and the brows.

top beauty blogger ireland
beauty blog

Because I have oilier skin. I tend to go in hard with the powder and then use buckets of setting spray to make me look less like a powdery mess 🙂 This was part of the Nic’s Picks limited edition collection, so you can’t buy it individually unfortunately.

Onto my eye brush choices. beauty bloggerThese all have purple handles, and are all part of kits which is super annoying, I’m sorry. But they have such similar brushes still available and you can still find the kits in chemists and stores.

Feel Unique have the Starter Kit here, which contains the Deluxe Crease Brush.

irish beauty website

I bloody love this brush for under eye concealer. But I generally use it on lazy days when I just want to put a wash of colour across my lids. There’s no faffing needed, it does the job in a couple of swipes.

top irish beauty website
dublin beauty blog

I do use my other choices for their actual purposes 🙂 I love the Base Shadow Brush for building up colour on the lid.

dublin beauty blogger

It’s quite small and tapers at the tip so works great for blending and application. You can kind of blend with it as you go.

real techniques
drugstore makeup brushes

I love using it for applying loose pigments and glitter aswell. It works well with powders, creams and mixing mediums too.

My last choice is the Essential Crease Brush.

budget makeup brushes

This is just super dainty and great for precise crease work. The bristles aren’t too tightly packed so it still gives you scope to blend colour as you go.

top beauty blog
top beauty blogger

I love using this for blowing out colour on the lower lash line too.

And there you have my most used Real Techniques Brushes! I am a huge fan overall of the brand. They have brushes to cater to most budgets and needs. They are all synthetic and cruelty free. And for me, generally wash really well too. Have you a favourite?

xxx

 

The weather is kind of changing. I can see daffodils when I am out and about. That’s proof 🙂 With the changing season comes new beauty releases, which is always exciting! I thought I would compile some that I have from a few different brands. This is some of the new Spring Blush And Cheek Releases for 2017!

spring blush releases

 

First up we have two (of three) new Perfect Blush colours from Isa Dora.

isa dora perfect blush

05 ‘Poppy Peach’ which is a soft slightly iridescent peach:

irish beauty blogger
isa dora ireland
beauty blog

And, 60 ‘Pinky Peach’, which is very much it’s name sake.

beauty blogger
beauty blog ireland
beauty blogger ireland

I have been using these quite regularly over the last couple of weeks and have been enjoying them. I found them online from Feel Unique. They have an abundance of shades to choose from here. They retail for €15.30.

Next is the Clarins Contour Kit.

clarins ireland

I already have a full blogpost on this here, so I won’t go into much detail. But, I thought it deserved to be in the mix. It’s a cheek product and it’s new 🙂

Next we have a couple of different offerings from the very affordable Essence Cosmetics.

As part of their Spring/Summer range for this year, they have the BlushPlay Sculpting Blush Palette.

essence cosmetics ireland

This is in the shade 10 ‘Play It Peach’.

essence makeup

It has a highlight shade, a scultping shade (although to me this is more of a blush colour) and then a light satin coral ‘define’ colour. This is of course the blush shade. It retails for €4.95.

irish beauty site
irish beauty website

Another new cheek palette from Essence is their Prismatic Rainbow Glow Highlighter.

essence unicorn blush

The internet is kind of going mad for this at the minute. The shade is called fittingly 10 ‘Be A Unicorn’.

top irish beauty blog

The colours, indvidually do show up true to colour.

top irish beauty blogger
unicorn blush

Swatched together though, they give you a really lovely light gold highlight, with subtle flecks of the colours shining through.

top irish beauty blogger
essence highlighter

This retails for €4.40.

 

Next, is the very beautiful 7 Lights Powder Illuminator By Shiseido.

shiseido ireland

This powder was first created in 1917, and this offering is the modern day version of it.

The packaging alone is pretty stunning and then the powder contains 7 colours that are meant to help uneven skin tone and freshen the skin.

shideido makeup

 

I have been using it to touch up my makeup of late and have found it works really nicely.

shiseido 7 colour powder

The brush that comes with it is really perfect for on the go too. Swirled together the colours give you a really pretty peach, wearable sheen.

irish makeup blog
irish beauty website

 

Shiseido is sold in pharmacies here in Ireland. It was actually quite hard to source it in stock online. I managed to find it on the Escentual website here. It is priced at €48.76.

The last Spring blush release I have to show is Benefit’s newest Boxed Blush in Galifornia.

benefit galifornia blushbenefit cosmetics

It smells like holidays in a box.

benefit cosmetics ireland

 

Once the gold overspray is gone, you are left with a really pretty peachy pink blush, with a hint of golden shimmer running through it.

benefit makeup ireland
top beauty blogger ireland

 

Galifornia is available now from Debenhams here and Cloud10beauty here. It retails for between €30-34 depending on where you buy it.

spring blush colours

And that’s pretty much Spring Blush products in a nutshell right there 🙂 Any of them take your fancy?
xxx

 

 

 

 

 

seventeen stare struck blush

I thought I would review my Seventeen Cheek Stamp that I picked up in Boots a while back along with their Define and Contour Kit that I reviewed here

I got the shade “Stare Struck”.

seventeen blush boots

It is a lovely dusky pink with a light silvery shimmer going through it. As you can see the powder blush is in the base of the packaging. The lid itself is a spring loaded sponge, so when you close the lid the sponge sits on the blush and is pre loaded with product for you when you open it.

cheek stampThe lid also sports a mirror which is always a handy addition to any makeup product. Of course you can just use the product itself with a blush brush, if you don’t like the sponge applicator that comes with.

If you stamp the blush onto your skin, you are going to get a little something that looks like this.

seventeen cheek stampVery Aunt Sally don’t you think? 🙂 Don’t worry though it’s powder so you can just blend it in with your fingers or a brush and you will be left with a colour that looks something like this.

stare struch swatch blendedcheek stamp swatch blended

It is a really pigmented product and blends really well into the skin, leaving behind a lovely flush of blush on the cheeks, that lasts throughout the day too.

Overall, I really like the Seventeen Cheek Stamp. I love the colour of this one “Stare Struck”, there is a choice of five colours in the collection though. I like the idea of the stamp mechanism as it makes it more portable and easy to throw in your handbag. And lets face it, it’s really cute too 🙂

The Seventeen Cheek Stamp retail for €6.29, and you can pick it up in Boots

What do you think?

xxx