My Favourite Cheek Highlights

I used to consider myself a blush girl, I loved it and it was my favourite makeup item to buy. Nowadays I am definitely more of a highlight girl. There is just something so beautiful about a perfectly highlighted cheek bone. 

I have collected quite a few highlighters lately and thought I would share my faves. First I will talk about my fave liquid highlighters.

Revlon Skinlights in 01 Natural Light (Discontinued)

This stuff is amazing, its a liquid illuminator that gives your cheeks a beautiful natural looking dewiness. It's also a great base for a powder highlight to make them last longer. This was discontinued a while back :( and my tube only has a little left so I am savouring every drop. On ebay this fetches about $100AUD!!

Nars Liquid Illuminator in Orgasm (RRP $29USD)

This illuminator has a thin consistency and is a pretty pinkish colour. However once blended out it's not too pink for a highlight. It is quite shimmery so I wouldn't recommend using a highlighter over the top or a shimmery blush. I have used this as my blush and highlight before and it looked quite pretty. 

 

MAC Paint Pot in Rubenesque ($35AUD or $17.50USD)

I've had this paint pot for ages but never thought of using it as a cheek highlight until a few days ago. I never really loved it as an eyeshadow base as I found the consistency too thin and not pigmented enough, but this means it works great as a cheek highlight! If you own this give it a go.

Now onto the powder highlights...

Dior Amber Diamond ($51.50AUD on StrawberryNet)

Hands down my favourite highlighter. It's absolutely gorgeous. You can layer it lightly for a really pretty natural looking highlight or keep laying for a more dramatic obvious highlighted look. You can't really go wrong with this one.

Nars Albatross (RRP $27USD or $49AUD)

Albatross is a white highlighter with an obvious golden sheen. This is more of an obvious highlighter and I love using it for nights out. 

BYS Blusher in Peach Sundae (RRP $3.95AUD)

Yes this is a blush but its a really light apricot toned blush that is light enough for me to use as a highlighter. It gives a gorgeous sheen to the cheek bone and is another favourite of mine for a night out. Before I bought Amber Diamond this was my HG highlighter.

Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Sin (RRP $17USD)

Another product which isn't marketed as a highlight I know but trust me this is insanely gorgeous on the cheeks. It is more obvious than your typical highlight so definitely use a light hand to apply but it gives you a beautiful pinky shimmery highlight. 

BYS Baked Bronzer in Golden Shimmer ($8.95AUD)

This is marketed as a bronzer but it is far too golden and shimmery for that. Instead I use this sparingly as a highlight when I am going for a bronze look and want to add a bit of golden shimmer to the tops of my cheeks.

Want to see swatches??

L-R: Revlon Skinlights, Nars Illuminator, MAC Paint Pot

L-R: Amber Diamond, Albatross, Peach Sundae, BYS bronzer, UD Sin

And what do I use to apply these highlighters??

T-B: Tapered Highlighter F35, Tapered Blending E40, Foundation F60.

For applying all my powder highlights I tend to use the Sigma Tapered Highlighting brush (F35) as it is the perfect size to just swipe on your highlight colour. If I want more precise application or I am using an eyeshadow I use the smaller Tapered Blending brush (E40) and if I am using a cream I tend to favour my foundation brush (F60).

What are your favourite highlighters?? Do you favour cream/liquid or powder products??


Hannah xox

My First EOTD :)

Inspiration is sometimes hard to come by for me when it comes to different makeup looks. I was never a very creative person so my recent obsession with makeup and experimenting with different looks is quite new to me. This is why I love EOTD and FOTD posts.

This is my first attempt at an EOTD post. I never knew how hard these posts were to make! The photos took me ages to take and I'm still not overly happy with how they turned out but I think they will make do for my first try :) 

This look is just a basic goldy/bronze brown smokey eye. I hope you like it!

To create this look I first primed my eyes with Urban Decay Primer Potion. I next placed MAC's Honey Lust in the inner corner, MAC's All That Glitters in the middle and MAC's Woodwinked on the outer third of the lid. I then blended MAC's Patina into the crease and added a little definition to the lash line and outer v with MAC's Twinks. I used Urban Decay's Virgin as a highlight on the brow bone. 

I smudged some Face of Australia's Liquid Liner onto the lash line and lined my waterline with BYS's soft white eyeliner pencil. I also added some Twinks and All That Glitters to the lower lash line before I  curled my lashes and added a coat of Model's Prefer Jet Black mascara. 

And here is a full face shot (eeek!) haha

And the products that I used to create this look;

May Faves!!

Sorry its a few days late..I can't believe it is June already! This year has gone by so fast. So here they are the products I used to death in May :)

MAC Paint Pot in Rubenesque

I've been using this a lot as a base for my eyeshadow. When I use this my shadow doesn't crease and lasts all day. It also adds a pretty glow, although I don't think you could use this alone as it is quite sheer.

BYS Blush in Coral

I have been loving this blush for May, probably because I'm trying to hold onto summer for as long as possible. It's a great orangey-coral colour and my fave BYS blush.

Bourjois "Chocolate" Bronzer (Delice de Poudre) in 51

Ever since I bought this I have been using it like its going out of style. I think it's the smell, its so intoxicatingly sweet and yummy. It adds a nice glow to my face, although I don't think it would suit skin tones much darker than me as it is quite a light bronzer.

Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink

I LOVE this eyeliner! It produced a pretty much perfect winged eyeliner look for me the other night, which I have had so much trouble doing with other eyeliners. This is so easy to use, its super black and it will stay all night long. 

Sigma Large Shader E60 Brush

I never really appreciated this brush before I started using it regularly this month. It's great for when your being lazy and just want an all over kinda look. 

Bourjois Volumizer Mascara in 01 Noir

I showed this in my haul post recently and I've been using it everyday since. It adds great length and volume and you can make it look natural or dramatic.

BYS Lipstick in Sassy Salmon

This lipstick is a gorgeous barbie pink colour, even though the name is Sassy Salmon lol. It is super creamy and I love pairing it with a dark smokey eye. The BYS lippies are great value at only $3.95!

Cetaphil Moisturising Cream for Dry, Sensitive Skin

This moisturiser is so great! It is super moisturising and not greasy at all. You can really feel it hydrating your skin, which is great for these cold winter months. 

And the swatches......

L-R(no flash): Bobbi Brown Eyeliner, BYS lippie, BYS blush,
Bourjois Bronzer, MAC paint pot, Cetaphil moisturiser.

Have you tried any of these products? What did you think? What were your faves for May?

BYS Review: Blushes

It's blush time people! This is the next review in my brand overview of the Aussie brand BYS.

Top L-R: Peach Sundae, Candyfloss, Baked in Peachy
Bottom L-R: Pink Velvet, Pretty in Pink, Coral

I own 5 of the regular powder blushes by BYS and 1 of the baked blushes. The baked blush is nice but it's only 3g (the regular ones are 5g) and from memory I think they are a tad more expensive.

I often reach for these blushes over my higher-end blushes and I am not disappointed when I do.

So what's good about these blushes?

• The price! $3.95 for one.
• Great pigmentation
• Great classic colours
• Blend nicely
• Last a considerable amount of time on the cheeks.

What's not so good?

• Not much...if I was going to pick something it would be I wish they had more colours! 
• The texture of the blushes isn't as nice as I'd hope but it's still very workable and at the price I can't really complain. 

Swatches L-R: Baked Blush in Peachy, Peach Sundae, Coral,
Candyfloss, Pretty in Pink and Pink Velvet.

As you can see from the swatches the blushes are beautiful and so so pigmented. My favourite colours are of course the peach shades. Coral would have to be my favourite but I also use Peach Sundae a lot as a highlight colour. It adds a beautiful sheen to the cheekbones, I even had to repurchase this after hitting pan on my first one!!

These blushes are available from anywhere that stocks BYS including Gloss cosmetics, Ice accessories, K-mart, The Reject Shop or online at Fashion Addict.

Have any of you tried theses blushes? If so what did you think?? 

Hope you've had a great weekend xo

BYS Review: Eyeshadows

Australia is known for it's high cost of cosmetics even supposedly cheap "drugstore" brands such as Maybelline or Revlon are still considerably more expensive in Oz than say the USA or UK.

BYS is an Australian cosmetics brand sold in stores such as Gloss Cosmetics, Ice Accessories, The Reject Shop, K-mart etc. The brand has a large array of different products at very reasonable prices, most being under $10 - which is quite unheard of in Oz! 

This post will be one of a few that I will be writing on BYS products. I have quite a large collection of their products and tried to write a post overviewing the brand but it just got wayyy to long so I have decided to split it up into categories. This post is about their eyeshadows :)

BYS eyeshadows can be purchased in pan form, which can be placed in empty palettes that they also sell or in small palettes that are already put together. The pans are $2 each and are the same size as MAC shadows. The empty palettes come in 4 pan ($4.95) or 8 pan ($7.95) form, however if you remove the inner cavity you can fit 10 eyeshadows in the 8 pan palette. The already established palettes come in a variety of different sizes and colour combinations. They range in price from $4.95 to $7.95. 

8 pan palette

8 pan palette with cavity removed

Eyeshadow palette in #3 Olive Daze

Eyeshadow palette in #5 Black Steel

Now we have all the admin out of the way let me tell you what I think about these shadows.

The Good:

• VERY pigmented
• Super soft and velvety texture (even more than MAC shadows)
• Blend beutifully
• The price!! $2 for one shadow is a lot better than $33 for one MAC shadow.

The Bad:

• Can be chalky
• Fallout can occur so you need to be careful or do eye-makeup first.
• The eyeshadows are numbered and not named (personally I prefer names as they are easier to recall which you own and which you don't when buying but its not that big a deal)

All in all I think these are great shadows, especially for the cheap cheap price!

Here are some swatches I have of my BYS eyeshadows;

L to R: 125, 124, 818, 300, 812, 803, #missing for this one, 405, 815, 817.

Swatches from Olive Daze palette (in order from top to bottom).

Swatches from Black Steel palette (in order from top to bottom).

BYS eyeshadows can be purchased in-store from Gloss Cosmetics, Ice Accessories, The Reject Shop and K-mart. Or online at Fashion Addict.