eyebrow Archives - Irish Beauty Blog Beautynook

Posts

Brow Routine Updated

I sound dramatic when I say I get a lot of questions about my brow routine. But, it’s actually probably my most asked beauty question.

My eyebrows have come such a long way in the past couple of years. I was definitely one of the ‘tadpole’ brow crew. We started in our teens and we just continued on plucking and plucking and never looking back 🙂 With the help of YouTube videos and the awesome brow gals at Benefit though, I finally gotten a handle on filling them in.

Unfortunately my natural eyebrows are left in a bit of a wreck from over plucking. I did get a stem cell treatment done last year that definitely helped them fill out a bit, but as you can see, a decent brow routine is completely necessary for me.

As I say in the video, I am no expert and my brows are not perfect, nor are they twins. But I’ve come to terms with that and just do them to the best of my ability. I’ve gotten better over the years, so maybe this time next year I’ll be even more accomplished 🙂

My brow routine is probably the longest part of my makeup application and I’m completely ok with that. I think they’re the most important part for me, and I kind of build everything else around them. I do use and excessive amount of products I know.

However, I get super oily in that area of my face throughout the day, so pencil alone just doesn’t cut it for me! And I use two brow gels to add texture, and to set everything too.

I’m not listing products here, because I feel this video is more about how rather than what I use. But if you want to know about anything specific, just ask 🙂

Let me know what you think and as always thanks for clicking.

Gemma

xxx

**PR SAMPLES INCLUDED*

July 18, 2018/by Gem

May Favourites 2018

It’s about that time again dudes. Another month, another faves video. This time I’m looking back over my May Favourites for 2018.

May has been a trying month for me personally I won’t lie, but shite talking about makeup and beauty products definitely helps with all the personal stuff 🙂

My May favourites for 2018 and beauty heavy, there’s no fashion or random loves in sight. Also the lip I am wearing is one of the new L’Oréal Color Riche Shine lipsticks in 466. I am loving the formula of these.

My messed up hair is something I can’t even apologise for. It was a good idea at the time. I swear one of these days I’ll take a course on styling hair or something. I am absolutely brutal at it 🙂

As always I’ll list my May favourites here, but if you want to hear my musings on them click on the video above or here to check them out.

Vichy Mineral 89 Serum . I definitely use more than necessary of this stuff as a day time moisturiser. But it’s great if you don’t like a heavy cream in the day or for night time. I use it in conjunction with a serum and it doesn’t interfere with my makeup.

I actually think the Essence Kawii Trend Edition Collection is gone from June, so apologies if you like what you see.

This is a great little palette if you see it around though.

The Kryolan Translucent Powder is a great staple to have in your makeup stash.

Mine is battered and bruised, all with love though. I end up going back to it so much 🙂

Second last in my May Favourites is this giant eyeshadow brush from Blank Canvas Cosmetics.

Specifically known as the F11 Large Eyeshadow Brush.

Then finally two brow products from Isa Dora which I have been using all through May and really enjoying.

The Precision Brow Pen and the Brow Shaping Gel. Feel Unique actually sell Isa Dora too so I’ve linked them if you want to have a closer look.

And that’s it for my May Favourites. We are officially in June, my birthday month. My June faves are usually a bit more interesting as a result 🙂

xxx

PR SAMPLES INCLUDED

June 1, 2018/by Gem

Haul, Makeup

Brown Thomas Makeup Haul

No I definitely do not have money in January to be throwing around in Brown Thomas!

Every Christmas my brother gives me a voucher for BT and I am never mad at it. It means I can still makeup shop whilst poor after the festive period 🙂

I went into Brown Thomas initially to spend it. I’m not too far from Grafton Street. If you follow me on Snapchat (username: Beautynook), you would have seen the scenario. Initially, I was going to blow all €75 on Huda Beauty.

The Mauve Obsessions palette is already in my possession. (Blogpost on it here). I knew they were out of the Warms Palette, but had the Smoky from checking online. The plan was to take the plunge on that and maybe get some other bits to try from the brand.

I found out on that day, that just because something is in stock on the Brown Thomas website does not mean they have it in store. They have separate warehouses apparently. So, I walked away with nothing and had to do my shopping online. A bit frustrating, but sure I’m a little more calmer shopping online, less distraction and I’m less likely to overspend 🙂

I decided to do click and collect in store just because they will charge you a delivery rate regardless of your spend. But, it’s free to get it delivered in to your local branch.

So what did I buy?

I did end up getting the Huda Beauty Smoky Obsessions Palette.

I know there’s mixed feelings about these little palettes. The Mauves Obsessions is in major rotation in my makeup routine, so I wanted to extend my collection and try another shade range.

Everything else I picked up is from Zoeva. Yes, Brown Thomas stock it now! You can get it in store now too in their Beauty Lounge which is adjacent to the main store on Clarendon street.

I decided to get another eyeshadow palette to try. Zoeva are such a lovely brand in my opinion. I got their Plaisir Box (review here), a couple of years back for Christmas and the palettes are beautiful.

This time I went with the Aristo Palette. For not particular reason really. It’s new and it had a couple of more interesting shades along with more wearable colours. I just thought it would be fun to play with.

Their Graphic Brow pencil in the shade Cinereous made it into my basket.

I needed a new micro brow pencil and thought this would be a good one to try.

Another more practical purchase was their Eyeshadow Fix.

I got the matte one to give a go. It comes in pearl too. Eyeshadows mean nothing to me without a decent primer. I have super oily lids.

The last thing I got was a bit of a random buy. This is the Zoeva Strobe Gel in Halo. It comes in three shades.

Curiosity made me click on this. It’s a gel highlighter. It is literally a goo highlighter, I can’t wait to dig in!

The packaging is really nice. It comes in a 15ml glass pot. Hopefully the gel itself is nice too!

And that’s it for my Brown Thomas haul! Keep an eye out here on Beautynook if you’re curious about any of the products. I am sure there’ll be reviews and demos galore in the coming weeks 🙂

xxx

January 24, 2018/by Gem

Bargain Buying, Makeup, Makeup Tools

Affordable Makeup Loves Currently

I am back with another installment of current affordable makeup loves. This has just become a bit of a thing now on Beautynook. I am constantly trying out new makeup, but there is always certain products that stay in the main makeup stash!

My last installment of affordable makeup loves was here if you fancy checking it out.

I have five makeup products to talk about this time. First up is actually two products I hauled from Beauty Bay on Black Friday. (You can check out the full haul here).

They are both from the brand LA Girl. The first one is their Glide Gel Liner in Brown.

I have worn this nearly every day I’ve worn makeup since it came. It is so damn creamy and pigmented. I am going to sound really dramatic here, but it’s a dream to use. I find now since I’m getting older. The skin around my eyes isn’t as tight as it once was. I’m in my 30’s now, sad times. Some kohl pencils can drag a bit on the upper lash line.

This honestly does exactly what it says on the tin though. It glides on, lasts really well and they also come in loads of different colours as well. They are €4.70 on the Beauty Bay website here.

My other LA Girl love, that again, I’ve been using every single day is the Shade Slim Brow Pencil.

I have the shades Medium Brown and Espresso. I’ve definitely been reaching for Medium Brown more though. It’s a tad cooler in tone. I love a micro brow pencil and these are a really great one. They are €5.90, again from Beauty Bay here.

My next affordable makeup love is one of the Bourjois Rouge Velvet Lipsticks.

I literally haven’t stopped harping on about these. (I have a full video and blog post on them here). The shade 02 Flaming’rose has become my everyday lip shade in particular though.

It’s a really flattering pinky nude shade for paler, more pink toned skin like mine. These lippies are uber pigmented, apply really smoothly and last really well on the lips too. I would for sure recommend them. They are the cheapest online from Feel Unique here.

I have a eyeshadow brush for my fourth product. I actually received this in a goodie bag. It is the Blank Canvas, Rose Gold, E01 Round Eye Blending Brush from their Dimension 1 Collection.

I had this on my desk still in the package when I decided to wash and sort through the main brushes I use. My eye brushes were still drying when I had to put on a face of makeup, so I picked up this. I literally did a whole eye look with this one brush.

It’s a good size for crease work and using on the lower lash line too. You can apply product with it, but it’s also nice and fluffy so you can blend with it too. A great all rounder. You can find it on their website here.

And that leaves us with one more favourite. This is the limited edition Under The Midnight Sea highlighter from Wet n Wild.

It’s from their Midnight Mermaid Collection which is in stores now, I believe.

It’s lovely cool toned gold, soft powder highlighter. Wet n Wild have had some absolute highlighter gems over the past couple of years. This is definitely one of them. It’s gold but has like a green iridescent to it. Very wearable though and very pretty. I’ve been wearing this lots since I got it in the post.

And there concludes my current affordable makeup loves. Let me know what you think 🙂

xxx

CONTAINS PR SAMPLES

December 11, 2017/by Gem

Bargain Buying, Makeup

Beauty Bay Black Friday Mini Haul!

I had no major plans to do any Black Friday shopping in all honesty. At the time I was fairly broke and couldn’t really justify more beauty purchases. As I did a blog post about the deals that were going on, I was aware of them though and I couldn’t help having a look on Beauty Bay!

I didn’t buy a huge amount, but I thought I would give you a look at the couple of bits I did pick up. I picked up bits I actually needed and then a couple of random things just to try. Beauty Bay had 30% off for the Black Friday weekend and they had a queued system to actually get onto the site. This shopping was done on Sunday evening, so although I was eyeing up Zoeva palettes and the likes too, they were all sold out! Probably for the best as my bank account would have taken a major battering 🙂 Zoeva products are actually cheaper on Beauty Bay in general for some reason, if you’re ever in the market though.

I spent €25 in total on the website which got me free shipping to Ireland.

I needed a brow pencil and an eyeshadow primer. So, I thought I would try some from a different brand. The LA Girl products are cheap in general and with 30% off they were even cheaper.

I picked up one of their PRO.primer HD Eyeshadow Primer in Nude.

You can see it on the website here.

Then, for brows I got two of their Shady Slim Brow Pencils.

One in Medium Brown and one in Espresso. Just because I’ve been enjoying using two tones of pencil through my brows of late. I thank Eylure for that. (Review of their Fleur De Force Brow Define Pencil here).

The LA Girl Shade Slim Brow Pencils come in ten shades which is pretty awesome from the Beauty Bay website here.

While I was browsing the brand, I decided to also get some their eye pencils to try as well.

Two shades of their Glide Gel Pencils went into my basket. Brown and Gypsy Teal. I find it hard to say no to a teal eye liner 🙂

These pencils are available in 19 shades here.

I decided to try one of their Endless Semi Permanent Auto Eyeliners too. The shade Olive was clicked. I like to play around with coloured liner.

These are available here.

My last Beauty Bay purchase was an eyeshadow from Makeup Geek. I went with one of their foiled eyeshadow in the shade Whimsical.

It reminded me of Mac’s All That Glitters in the picture and I thought a more intensely pigment version of that shade would be a nice addition to my Makeup Geek collection. It’s definitely way more pink and cool toned though.

You can have a closer look at it on the website here.

And that’s the end of my very restrained and somewhat practical Beauty Bay Black Friday shopping. Go on make me jealous, what did you buy?

xxx

December 5, 2017/by Gem

Makeup

Affordable Makeup – Five Current Favourites

I do this every so often. I’ll pick five (or so) affordable makeup products that are in my makeup rotation at the mo and have a little chat about them.

Why do I give them different names you ask? The last one here was called ‘Current Budget Friendly Makeup Favourites. Well the only reason for that is that it’s good for SEO not to have the same titles all of the time. That’s the only reason I am calling this Affordable Makeup. Sure it all means the same thing 🙂

My first affordable makeup love of recent times is the L.O.V Cosmetics Eyeshadow Palette in ‘Devoted To Metallics’.

L.O.V is created by the same company who brought us Catrice and Essence. You can find it in pharmacies nationwide. There’s more information on the Irish Facebook page here. I’ve used a fair few products from the brand, It’s definitely been hit or miss for me. This palette from their Autumn collection is a hit in my humble opinion though.

It’s €14.99 so not the cheapest out there I know. The quality of the packaging is A1 though and the shimmery shades inside are super pretty. The pink colour in particular has been getting a lot of love from me on minimal makeup days. It’s a great ‘whack all over the lid shade’.

Next we have the Eylure X Fleur De Force Brow Define Pencil.

Now I did a whole blogpost on this a while back here so I won’t go into it too much. But, I have been thoroughly enjoying this. Having the two tones of brow pencil in one means I reach for less brow powder too. I think this makes my brows look a teeny bit more natural and less drawn on.

My third affordable makeup choice is the Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Liners.

I talk about these all of the time. They are some of my favourite liners out there full stop. I feel like when the weather gets cooler I become more obsessed with lipstick and branch out a bit more. I consistently pick the Rimmel liners to either use on their own as they are super creamy and pigmented. Or to use under lippies.

I have the shades Addiction, Diva Red and Eastend Snob here:

Because they are soft, they do have a tendency to break. This doesn’t bother me too much though. I’m just careful not to twist them up too much. You can find them on the Boots website here.

Another Rimmel offering has made into my current top five. This is their Insta Fix & Matte. Rimmel know their way around a setting powder and this one proves that for sure. It’s just a general talc based pressed translucent powder but it’s quite smoothing on the skin too. This is something that I always appreciate as I have ginormous pores. I like it 🙂 You can get this from Boots online here.

My last favourite is the Wet n Wild Liquid Catsuit Matte Liquid Lipsticks. I am fairly late to the party with these. Everyone has been raving about them for a good while now. I have two shades in my possession.

Nudist Peach and Give Me Mocha.

Give Me Mocha in particularly has been floating my Autumnal lip shade boat. I have been using this with Rimmel Addiction lip liner underneath. They are of course matte liquid lipsticks so they can be drying. But I find the formula on these quite thin so it doesn’t ball up or feather. And they stay on put once they dry too. I need to try more shades. They are under a fiver aswell which makes it even better!

And there you have my current affordable makeup favourites. What’s yours?

xxx

*********INCLUDES PR SAMPLES**********

November 6, 2017/by Gem