perfector Archives - Irish Beauty Blog Beautynook

Highlighters My Most Used At The Moment

If I’m wearing makeup, you best believe I have highlighter on! I sometimes just go for a more subtle liquid approach, or a mixture of liquid and powder. Generally though, powder highlighters are my jam.

I am going to run you through the three powder highlighters in my collection that I gravitate towards the most. I’ve loads of lovely other ones, but these are my ‘don’t have to think about it’ picks. They work for me and last well throughout the day.

First up, is the infamous Mary-Lou Manizer from theBalm Cosmetics.

I think the majority of makeup lover have Mary-Lou in their lives, or one of her very lovely sisters.

She isn’t too warm, she isn’t too cool. She’s the perfect in between slightly golden shade. The powder itself is soft and really easy to blend.

If you have yet to see Mary-Lou in the flesh, go check her out in your local Debenhams. You won’t be disappointed. She will set you back €19 online here.

My next choice in my most used highlights is one I picked up at Christmas time last year.

This is the Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Pearl.

If you have pale skin like me or even paler, this could be your perfect shade! It has more of a silvery tone, that can be more suited to pink toned skin tones. It gives shine without sparkle (all of the Shimmering Skin Perfectors do). They melt into the skin effortlessly.

You can also use this wet if you really want to amp up the glow. I did a whole review on this when I first picked it up here. Becca is in store from Spacenk or online from Cult Beauty here.

My last choice is the more pink shade out of the three highlighters. It’s still has a pale gold finish to it on the skin, so works really nicely for me without looking too obvious. I like that look sometimes, but generally everyday, I just want a bit of shine.

It is the Too Faced Prismatic Highlighter in Blinded By The Light.

This is the lightest shade in the three Prismatic Highlighters from Too Faced. There is a more pink shade too that I do use too, but this is just the one I reach for the most. They give such a lovely shine, nearly wet look to the skin.

I tend to reach for this more in the evenings. It looks so pretty as an eye shadow too. You can find these in store or online from Debenhams here.

And there you have my current faves. Any of them your favourites? What’s your most reached for highlighter?

xxx

December 27, 2017/by Gem

April Favourites 2017

It’s April Favourites time for 2017. This year is going too damn fast! But, the weather is getting a little bit better and it’s a bit brighter out. So, I can complain (of course), but I won’t 🙂

My April Favourites for this year consist of mostly makeup, of course. But there is a hair care tool and a new tech gadget, that myself and John splurged on. We had a busy month, so it was a bit of a treat for getting through it.

L’Oréal Infallible 24 Matte. Review here.
L’Oréal True Match Foundation. Review here.
Mac Sheertone Shimmer Blush in ‘Springsheen’. Available from Brown Thomas here.
Maybelline Color Show Pencil in 520. Swatched here.
Maybelline Brow Precise Micro Brow Pencil in ‘Soft Brown’. Available from the Boots website here.
Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in 13. This is a new colour and I cannot find it online. But the older shades are available from Debenhams here.
Paese Artist Silky Matt Liquid Lipstick in 707. I have swatches of it here.
Canon G7X Mark ii. I researched this camera to within in a inch of my life :). I already have a DSLR, so I am hoping this will help me up my photo game on social media. And then maybe myself and himself can experiment with vlogging too. I bought mine from Conns Cameras on Claredon Street here in Dublin. They were super nice and helpful. It is on their website here, if you want to check out the specs and all that good stuff.

You can as always click on the video and to watch or click here to watch it directly on my YouTube channel.

And that is my April Favourites for 2017 in a nutshell. Roll on May 🙂

Thanks so much for watching and reading, as always.

Gemma

xxx

May 1, 2017/1 Comment/by Gem

Skincare

Current Day Time Skin Care Routine

When is comes to my day time skin care routine. I keep things fairly simple.

I am not a morning person at all, so I usually do my showering and deep clean my face the night before, if I am up and out early in the day. I have oily skin, with places of dehydration. I am prone to breakouts and blessed with lovely (not so lovely) large pores, that like to get blocked. As a result, I don’t like to layer too many products onto my skin. Because of this, my day time skin care routine is pretty simple.

I start out with cleansing my skin. For me, micellar water works well. I know not everyone gets along with them. Right now, I am using the Garnier Pure Active that is for oily skin prone to imperfections.

I just apply some to a cotton pad and swipe all over my skin to refresh everything and get rid of any oil build up. It is available on the Boots website here.

These large oval cotton pads from Penneys are my favourite. They are quite thin, so the product soaks both sides, but they don’t break up or become ‘fluffy’ :). I always just pick these up when I’m on the queue in Penneys. I love that they leave them beside the till 🙂

For eye cream, I have been using the La Roche Posay Toleriane Ultra for probably more than a year now.

Although I have oily skin, I tend to get some dryness under my eyes. This does a brilliant job of keeping the under eye nourished without being to heavy. I have a full review of it here, if you want to know more about it.

I don’t tend to use a toner generally during the day, but if I do it’s usually either the La Roche Posay Serozinc which I have a full review of here.

Or I do love the Pixi Glow Tonic, which again I have spoken about in more detail here. I think I need this is my life again very soon.

For moisturiser, I tend to go with something light weight that won’t disrupt my makeup. I have a couple of holy grail moisturisers that I always recommend to people with more oilier skin. The La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo, I have a full review of it here. Or the Vichy Normaderm Anti Blemish Care which I’ve reviewed in the past here. At the moment I am switching between the Dermalogica Active Moist.

And the Garnier Pure Active Sensitive Anti Blemish Soothing Moisturiser.

I have to say both of them are working really nicely for my skin. They do a good job of hydrating, but sinking in quickly with no residue.

I always use some sort of lip balm in the morning too and let it do it’s thing while I do my makeup. At the minute I have three in my everyday skincare drawer.

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream. I always have a tube of this on the go. I have a full blogpost on it here.

Then I have a Nivea Lip Butter.

I use this going to bed too. I love the scent 🙂

And then if I want to use a lip balm that doubles up as a lip product to leave the house in, I will reach for the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector.

I just have a mini of 01 here, which has a peachy tint to it. I love how this feels and looks on the lips.

And there you have my current day time skin care routine. I like to think it’s pretty simple, but effective. At the moment, there is no SPF included. I haven’t found one that doesn’t interfere with my makeup as of yet. I usually use a foundation with SPF in it or mix one in with the foundation I’m using.

Have you any skin care products you couldn’t live without?

xxx

March 15, 2017/1 Comment/by Gem

Makeup Tutorial, Youtube Video

Easy St Patrick’s Day Makeup Look

I wouldn’t be Irish and the occasion would not be marked if I didn’t at least attempt a St Patrick’s Day Makeup Look.

I am a big fan of green eyeshadow, so for me this is something I would wear anytime honestly. But we will call it St Patrick’s Day makeup because it fits the bill too 🙂 As always I am not a makeup artist, so this is just something really simple and easy to achieve, but hopefully fun at the same time too!

I did a St Patrick’s Day makeup look last year, when I first set up my YouTube channel here. This is full on green. I thought this year, I would make it a little more subtle, but still festive at the same time. Think of it like your own makeup, that you are comfortable with, just with a hint of Paddy thrown in 🙂

As always, you can watch the video by clicking on it above, or directly on my Youtube channel here.

I used a mixture of the Urban Decay Naked Ultimate Basics palette which I have all the details on here. I used some Makeup Geek shadows, which you can buy online here. And, of course some Mac shadows that you can buy from Brown Thomas online here. The Kiko cream eyeshadow stick is directly from Kiko here.

Of course I use and name an abundance of other products. If you have any questions about any of them, just let me know in the comments below. You know I love to talk makeup any time 🙂

As always, thanks for taking the time to click in. Have a brilliant St Patrick’s Day whatever you get up too. I think my own this year will be pretty low key, but I am very much looking forward to it. There is always such a lovely atmosphere 🙂

Gemma

xxx

March 12, 2017/by Gem

Makeup

Highlighters My Current Favourites

What did we do before highlighters? Actually I remember what I did, wore too much blush 🙂

My oily skin doesn’t really let me enjoy cream highlighters to their full capacity. They just don’t last on me and I have to powder pretty much my whole face so the premise is lost. Powder highlight is my jam though. For the sake of longevity I mattify everywhere. But, then I can go in with a powder highlight and bring some much needed dimension to everything.

Here, I have five highlighters from my collection that I’ve been reaching for alot over the past while. I’ve done posts in the past on all of them so I’ll link them as I go. I just thought it would be good to dedicate one post so some of my very faves.

First up, we have the cheapest of the group.

This is the Sleek Solstice Highlighting Palette. I am only adding one shade within it into my most used. The other three don’t really get much use. I have full swatches of the palette here. ‘Equinox’ is my shade of choice. It is a baked peachy champagne colour.

This is just a great all round colour. It is the most powdery formula of the bunch, but for the price point, it’s bloody lovely. Sleek,if you’re reading this, you should totally bring ‘Equinox’ out on it’s own!

My second choice in Mary-Lou Manizer by theBalm. This really is an infamous highlighter.

I have an old post on this here. I’ve had Mary-Lou for nearly two years now and she is still going strong.

It’s a light champagne colour that works for so many skin types and blends really nicely into the skin. At just over 20 quid it’s not quite budget or high end, but she’s worth every penny 🙂

My third choice is the Urban Decay Afterglow Highlighter in ‘Sin’.

When these first came out last year, I ran to Debenhams and picked one up. I am a bit of an Urban Decay fan girl! ‘Sin’ is like Mary Lou’s lighter sister.

The formula of these is so long lasting on my skin. This is nearly what makes me reach for it so much! I did a first impressions video on ‘Sin’ here when I first bought it. Not the best quality, but you can see me ramble out it more 🙂

My fourth and fifth choices are both by Becca Cosmetics. Becca know how to formulate a good highlighter. The consistency is always super creamy and a dream to blend.

‘Champagne Pop’ doesn’t really need much introduction. If you are a makeup fan you will know all about it and probably own one yourself.

This was their first collaboration with Jaclyn Hill. It’s a gorgeous peach champagne colour. More deep in colour than ‘Equinox’.

If I am being honest with myself it’s too deep for my skin tone, but I love it so much I wear it anyways. I just have to bronze up a little more. I have a really old blog showcasing it here. Excuse my eyebrows in it. They are awful ha!

My last fave is ‘Pearl’ from Becca. This is the newest highlighter in my collection but I think it’s the most complimentary out of all of them on my skin.

As the name would suggest is a white pearl colour. It swatches quite icy.

But it does blend into a really lovely wearable shine. It’s honestly one of the best highlighters I have found for lighter skin tones. You can see it applied to the face here.

Here they are all swatched together for colour reference.

What do you look for in a highlighter? Do you use one in your day to day makeup? Let me know 🙂

xxx

February 13, 2017/by Gem

Makeup

Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Pearl

This is a weird sentence, but it took me a while to warm to highlighters. With my oily skin, adding glow was just never a thing I wanted to do. But as makeup has developed and become more long lasting. I can mattify and then add shine when I want too. I feel liberated 🙂 Over the last couple of years I have been adding them to my makeup collection like a fiend. Powder more than anything else. One of my latest highlight purchases I want to talk about it the Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in ‘Pearl’.

I know how good Becca Shimmering Skin Perfectors are. I have ‘Champagne Pop’ and ‘Prosecco Pop’ in my possession already. And although I love them and reach for them, they are both a little dark for my complexion. But by god I make them work!

I had some Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket a couple of weeks back and pottered into Spacenk. I bloody love that place. On the spot decided I wanted a new Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector. The formula and pigmentation is just so nice. They melt into the skin. They also don’t disappear completely on me after a couple of hours of wear. I had a swatch of all of them and after careful thought, went with ‘Pearl’. Believe it or not, I actually don’t have a highlighter in my collection that is this icy white. Comparing it to the other swatches I thought it would compliment my pink toned Irish skin the most.

It swatches on the arm how you would expect. Icy and shimmery.

When you apply it with a brush to the skin, it’s much lighter and leaves more of a cool toned shine with a hint of shimmer. The formula allows you to build up the intensity too without looking too powdery.

I have nothing bad to say. It’s a great addition to my collection and I’m delighted my shopping whim paid off 🙂

The Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector comes with 7 grams of product. I picked up Pearl in store here in Dublin for €36. You can get them from the Spacenk website here too for £32.

January 9, 2017/2 Comments/by Gem

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