JANUARY FAVOURITES

beauty

Let’s all sing it together “These are a few of my favourite things…” Nope? Just me? Anyway… Here are the items I’ve been using and loving this month. 

Wild About Beauty Eyeshadow in 04 Becca £13 › available here
I feel like I’m always quite minimal with my make-up in January, after the make-up fest that is December, so I dug into my stash and pulled out this eyeshadow from Wild About Beauty. I’ve loved using it this month when I wanted to feel like I’ve still made an effort but without wearing a tonne of eye make-up. Becca is a really pretty copper, almost rose gold toned brown shimmer – it provides a subtle oomph and I feel a bit more glam with it on. The eyeshadow itself is fantastic quality; great pigmentation, no fallout and easily blended out.

Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel £28 › available here
I’ve been using this as my second cleanse in the evening and for my morning cleanse and I’m loving it. I normally don’t enjoy balm cleansers as they often feel too heavy for my skin and I always feel like there’s an oily residue left on my face but this one feels very lightweight and just leaves my skin feeling clean and nicely hydrated. Ingredients include pumpkin enzymes which deep cleanse pores and gently exfoliate dead skin cells away without irritation and MSM which has anti-inflammatory properties to help soothe and calm the skin.

Bobbi Brown Lip Pencil in Nude £16.50 › available here
I am OBSESSED with this lip pencil. It’s a deep pinky brown and I’ve been using it for a while just as a lip liner as this shade is just about the perfect match for my natural lip colour but this month I’ve started using it all over the lip and I’m adoring it. It’s a perfect matte look with that kind of 90’s vibe to it and doesn’t dry out my lips. This also looks great with a bit of Benefit’s Ultra Plush Lipgloss in Hoola over the top (you can read my review of those lipglosses here).

NYX Wonder Stick in WS02 Medium £10 › available here
I’m a contour addict and I’m not ashamed of it. I bought this at the beginning of December and have been using it religiously ever since to do a cream contour. I don’t actually use the highlighter stick side, which is probably a bit of a waste, but I just don’t fancy using a stick concealer under my eyes or on my cheeks to highlight – I prefer a more lightweight product for that. The contour stick side however has been genius and I wouldn’t be without it. It’s basically grown up colouring in – draw on your face where you want your contour to be and then just blend it in. I either use a Real Techniques brush for this or even just my fingers. The formula is creamy so it’s very easy to blend out and doesn’t leave any harsh lines.

NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Rikugien £20 › available here
Rikugien is described as a “rose pink” however, on me, this definitely reads as more of a deeper berry pink tone. It’s pretty opaque – one layer will definitely give you decent colour but it is slightly less pigmented that other shades in the range so it’s more of a buildable colour, which I actually really like about it as you can amp up the intensity of the colour. The texture is creamy and is very easy to wear – it doesn’t feel heavy on the lips.

MAC Amplified Lipstick in Blankety £15.50 › available here
I think the Amplified lipsticks from MAC are probably my favourites and Blankety is no exception. For me this is my ideal everyday nude lipstick – it’s a soft pink-beige that just gives the lips a little something but doesn’t wash me out. This feels quite rich and moisturising on the lips and gives opaque coverage with only one layer.

Valentino ‘Valentina’ Perfume (RRP £44) £22.44 › available here
Now I’m no perfume expert and I never have a clue what it means when people talk about “notes” and stuff so I’m not really going to attempt to review this! It was a Christmas present and I really like it – I’ve been wearing it pretty much every day since I got it. It’s a light scent that’s perfect as an everyday perfume as it’s not remotely overpowering but has enough to it that you could definitely wear this on an evening as well. It you understand anything about perfume apparently “the notes” feature bergamot, strawberry, jasmine, orange blossom, tuberose, cedar, amber, white truffle and vanilla. All I know is, it smells lovely!

Murad Age Reform Osmolyte Tonic £9.95 › available here
I got this in a Beauty Box (I can’t remember which one as it was aaaaages ago) and reached for it this month as my skin has been super dry and tight. I’ve been using this during both my morning and evening cleansing routine and I’ve really enjoyed it. This tonic is designed to provide a “hydration boost” for the skin and contains chamomile, green tea extracts and taurine (Taurine is an Osmolyte amino acid which helps regulate the water balance in skin cells). My skin is definitely a lot less tight and dry now but I can’t be sure it it’s because of this or just because I’ve been slapping on frankly industrial quantities of moisturiser. Regardless, this tonic definitely helped ease the tight feeling when used and my skin certainly felt plumper and more hydrated. You spray the mist lightly over your face and it dries quickly (within a minute for me) leaving no residue and it didn’t cause any skin irritation.
Annoyingly this seems to be out of stock everywhere at the moment because I would definitely repurchase.