Quarterly Beauty Favourites: 09/14 - 12/14

autumn, beauty, Favourites, makeup, nails, review, skincare, tattoo, winter

Hi everyone. I've been thinking about the way I do product reviews. I post so infrequently that it seems a waste to do a post that reviews just one product, or at least it does to me. That's when I remembered the favourites videos I used to do on youtube where I'd do mini reviews of a bunch of products I'd been liking recently & since I organise my blog photos quarterly I decided to do quarterly favourites. You could also think of them seasonal favourites, so these would wind up being my Autumn-Early Winter favourites... Or I could witter on more & really annoy everyone ^^

I thought I would start with the hair dye I use as I forgot to include it in the group photo (is it just me or does this background look really cute?).

I had never dyed my hair a bright colour before I used these dyes but I had a friend in high school who used to dye the ends of her hair all kinds of colours using directions hair dye. Honestly that was part of the reason I never went for bright hair, she was ALWAYS having to re-dye her hair, directions didn't seem to stay in her hair for more than a day & I was not upto dealing with that level of maintenance for anything.
But I saw about this dye on big fashonista's blog & since I'm pretty sure anything that lady doesn't know hair dye isn't worth knowing I tried it & OMG! A) It is super cheap, B) it goes a really long way, I'm still using my first bottle & C) the colour selection is really great..
I dyed my hair properly the first time but since then all I do is mix some of the dye into my conditioner & let it sit on my hair for as long as I can cope with. It works for me, is SO simple to do & it doesn't stain my hands ^^

From cheap to really really not ^^ So Caroline Hirons was saying in her September Serum's video that Shiseido Ultimune Power Infusing Concentrate would be really great for people with poor health (or something like that, watch the video) & so I kind of felt like I had to get it... With it being £60 it took me a while to get it but I really do feel like it has made a difference to my skin but I'm not sure if it's worth the price, it gets used up pretty quickly & I'm pretty sure I can get a similar effect (on the surface at least) with cheaper products. So the science for this is amazing & if you can afford it easily, get it. But if, like me, you feel uncomfortable spending that much on skincare, I'm not sure this one is worth it.

Lit Glitter. I have been getting really 'drag queen' recently & wearing a lot of glitter (I tend to in Autumn-Winter) & I don't know what I would do without lit clearly liquid glitter base. Being a liquid it mixes with the glitter so there is almost no fall out to get in your eyes etc & there are no stingy fumes like I find there to be with some glitter liners (the Urban Decay heavy metal ones in particular). Lit also has an amazing selection of glitters - all round cut so they don't scratch your eye if they fall in) & the nicest PR team ever.....I sound like an advert but this is more like toned down fangirl-ing, I get really excited talking about my lit glitters. In the picture are my glitters in Rich & Famous, Festive, Hot Chocolate, Champagne Wishes, Porcelain & Beach Baby...all in a size two (because that's the size I like).

I mentioned I've been more 'drag queen'-y with my makeup recently & part of that has been going stronger with my contour. These two Illamasqua products are the most amazing contouring products for pale skin, possibly ever. Hollow Cream Pigment from Illamasqua has been my go to contour product basically forever. An amazing grey, brown, taupe colour that looks exactly like a natural shadow on pale skin, I usually apply this underneath foundation with my finger & blend it out as I apply the foundation....or occasionally over the top if I forget ^^
Heroine eyeshadow is something NikkieTutorials uses all the time & now I've used it I absolutely ADORE it! I tend to blend this softly over the top of where I have applied hollow cream pigment, or apply it on days when I just want a light contour.
Oh & the brush is something I got by accident (I wanted the full size but ordered this thinking it would be just a shorter handle) but I actually ADORE it for blending out concealer. I use it everyday ^^

Recently the top coat I was using dried up (anyone else notice that happens a lot with fast drying top coats?) & in my search for a new one I rediscovered an old favourite brand. Save the Nail is a tiny little brand I've only ever seen in Boots, I've been using the green 'repair & rescue' base coat/treatment for years now & have always thought it was amazing. So when I saw they had a top coat I got it as a stop gap measure & I LOVE IT! Best top coat I have ever used & it dries almost as quickly as my old top coat, plus it is super shiny & keeps my nail polish in place for AGES!

Okay, last two favourites ^^ I got this OCC liner in Sybil a while back. I've had brown eyeliners before but I rarely find them to be the right shade...I had almost given up on them completely. But I'd heard about these OCC pencils & wanted to try it....I have NEVER used an eyeliner as much as I use this one ^^ It's the perfect mid tone, medium dark brown that looks great however it is used, I've even used it to fill in my brows ^^
And finally, the Tarte lipscrub....its kind of self explanatory but I normally find lipscrub have sugar particles that are just too large & scrub too harshly where as this one has lovely small scrubby particles....there's not really much more to say.

Okay so the last product is actually a.....not favourite? When I got my first tattoo I got super nervous about after care & did A LOT of research & the product that was recommended more than anything else so I assumed it was the holy grail of healing a tattoo.....so I got it!
I don't get it AT ALL! It's like medicated Vaseline & I really don't understand what good this is going to do for anything I think I used it on my tattoos only once or twice...right at the beginning. It's probably just my personal problem with mineral oil, I'm sure it works for other people but I've healed both of mine with Cocoa Butter & coconut oil (after the first 4 days) & personally that really works for me.

What products have you guys been loving this past quarter?

4 comments:

Lipstick and Lightening6 January 2015 at 15:28
I've always been curious to try Shiseido but it's so so expensive x
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Anonymous7 January 2015 at 11:37
I've not heard of that dye brand before, I'm a directions girl haha :) I'm super lazy with dying my hair, it's about mixing with a conditioning treatment and just throwing it on in the shower. I usually dye it properly the first time, but if the colour is darker than my natural hair I always skip the bleach part!

I think tattoos, it's what works best for you. For all my last ones I actually used E45 for all the healing, it's not too greasy and it doesn't smell. When they've heal I continue a bit more with my normal body butter. I would like to find an alternative for E45 though that's cruelty free, I think I read something about a Lush product, or Body Shop product but I'll just have to shop around. By February ;)

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