shimmering 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

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

Skincare, Tanning

Cocoa Brown Ice Goddess Shimmering Oil

The Cocoa Brown Ice Goddess Shimmering Dry Body Oil is the third installment in the shimmering body oil family.

The other two offerings which I am sure you are familiar with are Golden Goddess shimmering loveliness. There’s a yellow gold one and a rose gold one to choose from. This is the first one with a more icy glow 🙂

The Cocoa Brown Ice Goddess comes in a trio with the other two. It will hopefully be available in it’s own right this year.

I was lucky enough to receive this from Cocoa Brown as a little festive treat so mine is personalised, which makes it even more special.

It comes in a 30 ml glass bottle and has the same distinctive Tahitian Gardenia fragrance that all of the Cocoa Brown products have.

The Ice Goddess has become my personal favourite out of the three oil choices. It has more of a pearl toned shimmer to it so is more flattering on my paler pink toned skin tone. I need a decent tan to rock the other two.

You just give it a shake to mix the shimmer and oil together and then apply it wherever you want some extra glow. You can even use it on your cheekbones as highlighter. The shimmer also disguises mild imperfections and makes the skin feel nice and hydrated.

As it’s a dry oil it doesn’t feel sticky once it dries down on the skin. And you can choose the amount of glow you get by how much you use and how much you work it into the skin.

The Cocoa Brown Ice Goddess Shimmering Dry Body Oil is available from Penneys around the country as well as selected pharmacies. You can also pick up the collection online from Cloud10beauty here for €14.95. The collection includes 30ml bottles of all three of the oils.

Have you tried any of them? What’s your favourite?

xxx

***sample***

January 2, 2017/5 Comments/by Gem

Haul, Makeup

Becca Jaclyn Hill Champagne Collection Face Palette

I managed to nab a Becca Jaclyn Hill Champagne Collection Face Palette. Phew, that’s a mouthful, right? 🙂

I went in to Space NK Grafton Street just to have a look and ask about them as they had had a shipment the week before. Low and behold the lovely ladies told me they were getting another shipment in the next day and I could put my name down if I was certain I could be in to collect in that very day. And so, I did just that 🙂

Completely spur of the moment really, the Becca Jaclyn Hill Champagne Collection Face Palette became mine.

If you don’t know already, Jaclyn Hill is a very successful American beauty You-tuber. She had previously collaborated with Becca Cosmetics and that was when Champagne Pop was born. (I have a full review of it here). The collection has now grown and includes: Champagne Splits which are a blush and highlighter combo. Liquid and cream Champagne Pop shimmering skin perfectors. There was also an eye-shadow palette that Becca controversially had to take off of the market because of quality issues and of course finally what I am showing you now, the Becca Jaclyn Hill Champagne Collection Face Palette.

I really love the gold and white packaging of the palette. It is smooth to the touch, is a little weighty so feels nice in your hands and contains a large mirror in the lid, which is always appreciated.

It contains 5 powders in total. 3 blushes and 2 shimmering skin perfectors i.e highlighters.

We have Rosè Spritz which is deemed a luminous blush.

Amaretto – A mineral blush.

Pamplemousse – This is also a mineral blush.

Then we have the highlighter that started it all Champagne Pop.

And then finally, Prosecco Pop.

Here are all the powders swatched together just so you can get a sense of the colour differences and finishes.

With the flash on

Without the flash on

All of the powders are as you would expect from Becca super soft and pigmented. They swatched really nicely onto the skin. The blushes are a good mix of colours and finishes. I use Champagne Pop alot already even though I think it might be a little too deep for my skin tone, I don’t care, I love it 🙂 I am foreseeing I might have the same problem with Prosecco Pop, it is very golden. But, it’s very pretty so I’ll make it work 🙂 I think it will make for a lovely eye shadow too.

The Becca Jaclyn Hill Champagne Collection Face Palette retails in Ireland for €54 from Space NK if you can get your hands on it. They do have it on the UK website here though if you want to get it shipped and it costs £48.

So, let me know what you think? 🙂

xxx

August 10, 2016/4 Comments/by Gem

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