Hourglass ambient lighting powder - Diffused Light

This product is probably one of the most hyped from 2013. The Hourglass ambient lighting powders consist of 6 different finishing powders to create the most beautiful light on your face. The six shades are: Ethereal (a cool translucent), diffused (warm, pale yellow), dim (natural beige), mood (sheer lavendar pink), luminous (champagne pearl) and radiant (golden beige) and they all look/sound lovely!

I am lucky enough to now own Diffused light and let me tell it is stunning to even just look at!

 

It is a very pale yellow, which is meant to help reduce redness (something I definitely need) and is very finely milled. It can cause a little bit of powder to puff up if you're rough with it but i'm still testing the best way to use this. If you own one, what do you find works best? Which brush do you like to use? I'm currently using my Real Techniques Blush Brush but am wondering if something else would work better... Once on the effect is subtle but good. It helps just to kind of blur pores etc on the skin and gives a nice glow to the skin. I'd say it helps to minimise redness slightly but not massively so. 

I now have my eyes on getting more because these are simply stunning. I think next i'd like either Dim, Luminous or perhaps even Mood light! 

The Ambient lighting powders can be bought for £38 at SpaceNk here

What do you think of these powders? Worth the hype (& the price tag!)?

Revlon Colorburst Balms

I'm not quite sure why but for some reason I've gotten a little obsessed with the latest release from Revlon. After seeing some great reviews I thought the colorburst balm crayons sounded and looked lovely. I found that I liked the look of pretty much every shade (matte and lacquer) and couldn't wait to get my hands on some!

(Image taken from Revlon.com)

The Matte balms come in 10 shades: Complex, Elusive, Sultry, Showy, Unapologetic, Shameless, Mischievous, Audacious, Striking and Standout.
The Lacquer balms also come in 10 shades: Ingenue, Coy, Demure, Coquette, Vivacious, Flirtatious,  Whimsical, Tease, Provacateur and Enticing.
They all cost £7.99 each and can be bought online at boots here (matte) and here  (lacquer).

After seeing a post about them actually being released early online at boots, I immediately went online to look, and of course ended up ordering some... I was good and restricted myself to only buying two - one matte & one lacquer. It looked like at the time of ordering some shades were already out of stock so I think these are certainly going to be popular! I believe they have now been released into boots stores so if you spot them I recommend having a look!

Once i've gotten my delivery I'll give you a review of my thoughts and I just hope they're as good as they sound!

Have you been looking forward to this released? What's currently gotten you excited?

Naked 2

Now I know all the recent hype has been around the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette but i'm rather late to this hype and only just got my hands on the Naked 2. If you haven't heard of any of them, where have you been?!

(Image taken from Urban Decay.com)

When comparing the palettes, although Naked and Naked 2 looked pretty similar, Naked 2 just had the slight edge for me. After reading so many rave blog posts on these palettes I just knew I had to get one and boy was it worth it! The palette includes 12 shadows, which can all be mix and matched to create various looks for day and night time. They go on smoothly with no fallout and last really well throughout the day. Since getting the palette it's pretty much all i've been using and previously I must admit I wasn't much of an eyeshadow wearer during the day but this has converted me! 

The Naked 2 palette costs £37 and can be bought from Debenhams here (currently out of stock). I know this may sound a lot but it's definitely worth it.  

I'm still undecided as to whether I should now also get the Naked 3 because it does look lovely but do I need it when i've got this? What do you think?

Skin care routine

I've recently been trying to improve my skincare routine and when I first started I was pretty good at doing it every morning and night but sadly i've gone backwards and now it's usually only once a day - varying as to whether it's morning or night... I'm working on it, promise!

The products i'm currently using are (not all of them every day):

• Liz & Earle Cleanse and Polish
• Emma Hardie cleansing balm 
• Clinique Take the Day Off cleansing balm
• Bioderma
• Pixi Glow Tonic
• La Roche Posay Serozinc 
• Hyrdaluron
• Origins Ginzeng moisturiser
• La Roche Posay Effaclair Duo
• Simple kind to skin moisturiser

I've found that I actually really like all of these and they all seem to work quite well for my skin, although I don't always use all of these each time because it's not really needed. I love using bioderma on days i'm feeling a bit lazy to remove all my makeup. I sadly did used to be one of those people who used makeup wipes to remove makeup and that with moisturiser consisted of my skincare routine... Awful I know! I feel using bioderma alone is at least better than a face wipe and it's really effective to take off my makeup.

I got the origins moisturiser for christmas and I love it! It smells gorgeous - like chocolate orange, and my skin feels so soft and plump after using it.

Out of the current cleansing products I have, I think the Emma Hardie is my favourite despite its price tag. It has a pleasant smell, changes from almost a waxy texture to an oil and just feels so luxurious. Its really effective at removing makeup too. Afterwards my skin looks and feels a lot cleaner, healthier and softer.

What are your favourite skincare products?

Apologies

Apologies once again for such a long absence - I've had such a lot going on with uni and family and everything else that it's hard to find much spare time and so when I do have it I just want to sit and do nothing haha. But I have quite a few planned posts coming up with lots of exciting products that i've recently got my hands on!

Absence

I realise its been a very long time since I posted so apologies for that! I've just started back at university doing a postgraduate course (how am I that old?!) and its all been a bit hectic! I am definitely feeling old now, especially in comparison to all the young, excited freshers. I have a bit of the 'been there, done that' feeling, which is kinda sad I suppose but i'm just lacking the excitement to go out & get crazy every night. Have any of you experienced this?

Am also trying to balance this with working to be able to afford the course/living and still have some fun in my life! So much, so little time!

I do have a few post ideas planned though so keep your eyes peeled for those.

Morocco

Apologies for not having posted in a little while, I know it's not very regular anyway but it's been a while due to the fact I was away on holiday in Agadir, Morocco.

I went away for a week with just my mum and it was lovely to have some time away, get some sun and just relax!

I'm hoping now i'm back that i'll be able to start posting a bit more but I do have the start of university coming up and that's always a busy time

So that's it for now, hopefully see you soon!