Winter Nail Picks.

I love dark nails around this time of year. Black, burgundy, navy, greys. I love the way they look with a shiny top coat and a dark vampy lip. I also love glitter, too, so you know I had to include just a liiiiittle bit of that. Most of the glitter polishes I have are limited edition from different OPI or Barry M collections, but I will say that Barry M has the best range for fun polishes so definitely check that stand out first!

Review | Seventeen Define and Conquer Contour Kit.

It's not secret that finding a good contour product can be hard, but a good contouring product from a budget brand? Unheard of... until now! I'd seen this product pop up on a few beauty blogger Instagrams and with the inner drag queen in my always looking for new sculpting products, I decided to take up the Boots 3 for 2 offer and give this a go.

First off, I love the clever name. Lame, so lame, but I thought I'd mention it anyway! I also really like the packaging. Very Nars-esque but without the horrible dirt/powder attracting rubber texture. Sleek and compact with a good mirror. I approve already.

Inside are a highlight and contour powder duo. The texture is the same for both - creamy and pigmented, not chalky and definitely blendable. I already knew after one application that this would be a good one for beginners, it's so easy to blend!

10 Winter Lip Picks.

It's probably no surprise that I love bold, dark, vampy lips. So much so that this post was both a joy and a torture to write. 50% of me was so excited to share with you my favourite dark lip colours because well, I love talking about lipstick! The other 50% was dreading it because it was extremely hard for me to narrow it down to a) a particular number and b) permanent, readily available shades. I'm happy to say that all these colours are permanent, no limited edition ones here! I managed to restrict myself to just 10, otherwise I'd be here all day listing lipsticks! Most of these are more berry, purple and burgundy toned colours (although I did include a couple more subtle shades for you guys!) because I find them more readily available than the darker reds. That being said, I am waiting on a certain Lime Crime product that I'm hoping will prompt a follow-up post closer to Christmas around my top 5 holiday reds. Keep an eye out!

A lot of these are MAC, but I have a few budget/drugstore lipsticks here too that I love for winter and I hope you will too! These are just some of my favourite dark lipsticks, particularly the ones I've been using this year... if you want to see more lipsticks (and to see them in action on ma faaaace) then follow me on Instagram. I always post new makeup purchases on there and usually show them in a FOTD before they feature on ze blog!

My Inglot Eyeshadow Palettes + Swatches.

I've been a big Inglot eyeshadow fan for a few years now. I feel like it was such a small brand for a long time and lately has grown to be more popular than the likes of MAC among Irish girls. They're big into their Instagram and other social medias and have super talented makeup artists working on their counters so it's no surprise why they're getting so well known. It's so funny to me that when I first saw xSparkage mention Inglot, her and other beauty bloggers were talking about the struggles of finding Inglot stores (particularly in America) and now there are about 4 in Dublin alone! It's nice to see more stores popping up around the country (Galway needs one asap!) and with Inglot Ireland announcing their online store, I thought it would be a good opportunity to whip out my palettes and get swatching for you guys! 

In short; Inglot eyeshadows are pigmented, amazing quality and amount of product for the price and come in an array of colours and finishes. The high quality is pretty much the same for all Inglot shades I've tried. The only downside I have to Inglot is their numbering system - it's impossible to remember the numbers. That's the only reason why I refrain from using them too much in blog posts because I have to try and get them out of their palettes which is no fun for anyone involved! I would actually own more of their shadows if I kept a list of the shades I already own, because I'm always worried about getting doubles of the same shadow!

 

Numbers aside, they are amazing eyeshadows and that's what I'm going to focus on today, showing you the shades in my current collection and some of my favourites. They have a Freedom System whereby you choose the eyeshadows individually and put them into the Freedom System palette. These palettes come in loads of different sizes (2, 3, 5, 10, 20, even 40 eyeshadow slots!) and the Freedom System also extends into powders, blushes/bronzer/contour, lipsticks and concealers. These are SO ideal for both travel and makeup artistry. The prices of the palettes of course vary on the size, and are available on the Inglot Website. One thing I want to mention before I get into the shadows I own, is that Inglot also offer rainbow shades (in bright and neutral shades) which consist of 3 different shades of the same eyeshadow. I don't own any of these yet but will definitely be investing in some soon, it's worth looking online for swatches of those because I know they're super popular among Inglot fans!

Brow Game 101 | My Brow Routine - Products, Techniques, Tips&Tricks.

I've been meaning to do this post for a long time, but I was avoiding it for ages. Purely because brows are a personal thing, different for everyone and can be hard to explain in a written post. That, and there are so many different ways to fill in your brows depending on the look you're going for. This is going to be my own personal brow routine. I'm a big fan of a fuller, sculpted brow and that's exactly how I like to do my own. My brows are naturally dark and thick, but I thought I would show you guys a couple of different ways I like to do my brows. I definitely don't think my brows are perfect, and I'm constantly trying to make them better, but I get asked about my brows quite a bit so I thought I'd do this post for those who were curious! These methods and tips can be taken and tailored to suit your own personal brow style and I think there's a few things everyone can take away from this post, no matter what brow shape or style you like! I hope this is helpful for some of you; I've gone through some of the different methods separately so you have the option of reading all of them, or just focusing on the way you personally prefer to do your brows. I'm going in order of my natural evolution in brow products; I began with powders and soon discovered new and unique products to use - I hope you discover some new ones as well! This is gonna be a long one, so stick on the kettle!