My Carry On Make-up Bag

Ok, let's do this. Considering the fact that I am still in bed feeling a bit under the weather my planned make-up look for today's post will have to wait until these puffy eyes clam down. Instead I bring to you the inside scoop on what I carry with me, make-up wise, when I travel and move around. Every girl has her essentials and these are mine!

 1. Compact spoolie and eyelash comb from No7. A lifesaver for clumpy lashes or bushy brows!

2. Bosca Green Tea Blotting Linens. Bought it at Sephora when I was in Orlando, and have loved it ever since - No more Oily T-zone!

3. Real Techniques Setting Brush. Perfect for a quick powder touch up of the T-zone.

4. Aqua Drop eye drops. As a contact lens wearer, this is a holy grail product for long days.

5. Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream. I have very weak nails, but with this little baby I manage to keep them half decent and nurtured.

6. Revlon Kissable Balm Stain in Rendezvous for the days when I need a bit of 'umph' on my lips.

7. Rimmel Scandaleyes in Bulletproof Beige gives my eyes the pop of 'awake-ness' they need.

8. Maybeline Master Smokey Shadow Pencil. The quickest way to a smokey eye. Perfect for the Day-To - Night looks.

9.Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara. This works just as well on the bottom lashes as it does for touching up the top lashes. my little secret

10. Smashbox High Definition Concealer. It's not brain surgery, it's concealer...and it is needed.

11. MAC's Patisserie Lipstick. The perfect 'my lips but better' product. A lifesaver on stressful days.

12. Rimmel Stay Matte powder. The powder everyone raves about and loves - for good reason! Warm day? Long day? Busy day? This is your friend - don't loose it.

13. Carmex Lip Balm with cherry flavour and SPF 15. No one beats Carmex in my eyes. Moisture, lovely scent, sun protection and a hint of gloss.

14. Chanel Chance in my little Travalo! Perfume on-the-go for the girl who always forgets to spritz on some in the morning.

15. Bobby pins and hair ties are essential handbag/make-up bag essentials. You never know when you might need one :)

That's everything I keep in my 'to-go' make-up bag. Obviously it changes a bit but for now this is what I keep with me. What do you have in yours? I would love to know so let me know in the comments!

Lots of love,

Em

FOLLOW ME:

Twitter - Pinterest - Bloglovin - Instagram - Polyvore - Keek - Youtube

Ps: If you fancy watching me do a challenge click HERE

Questions in the Corner

Finally I got around to making a few changes to my design, there is more to come, it just takes a little while to get it all the way I want it! Now over to the point! Yinyin over at yinyinloves was kind enought to nominate me for the Liebster Award. However I very recently did my "response" to one of these so instead of making another one I figured I would just go for answering the questions she gave me as I found them very good! So considering I am bed bound with a very horrible cold on vacation I decided to fire ahead with those questions right now.

Why do you enjoy blogging?

Because it gives me the opportunity to express myself and share my thoughts and opinions on beauty and fashion! I also love the fact that there is a whole community of us and how many lovely people I get to know!

Favourite clothing brand?

Ooh a tough one! At the moment I think it is a tie between H&M, Tennis (A colombian brand) and TopShop.. I am not one to opt for the higher end of clothing brands but if I were I think I would have an even harder time choosing a favourite...

Favourite fashion/beauty trend for summer?

 I am a sucker for the bright colours.

Where is your dream holiday destination?

It depends on the type of holiday, but my #1 place I want to travel to is Thailand (oh and India..and Australia..and - well you get where I'm going with this haha)

Best moment of 2013 so far?

Hmm, when it comes to remembering these kinds of things I have the memory of a goldfish, but I think it might be the day I finished my last exam and knew that two years of torture (International Baccalaureate) were over. Or maybe the Mumford and Son's concert I went to.. One of those.

Least liked make up item?

My Revlon Brow Gel. It is horrible but I just never get around to picking up a better one - it is such a boring product to spend money on don't you agree?

Top 3 songs this year (so far)?

These have not all been released this year, but I am loving them.

Everybody by Ingrid Michaelson

Young And Beautiful by Lana Del Rey

Laura Palmer by Bastille
(All of Bastille's songs are my favourites but atm this is on top)

 What are you looking forward to this summer?

There's no doubt here: T In The Park music festival in Scotland!! Gaahh, Can't Wait!

 What's your signature scent?

Chanel Chance, and it has been for 3 years :)

What TV series are you hooked on at the moment?

Hahaha, Molly at LyonsNotes will know this one as she was the one who got me hooked on it. Over the course of a little over a week I have completed all 4 seasons of The Vampire Diaries. Well, I have 3 episodes left but yeah..damn, that show is addictive. I also fell head over heels for Suits very recently.

Favourite pair of shoes?

A gorgeous pair of leather heels with little "bronze" studs on them. I bought them yesterday but they are already my favourites. An outfit post including them will be up later in the week :)

That was that, I will try to get a new post up tomorrow, but in the mean time, you can go and enter my giveaway HERE! I hope you are all doing well!

Lots of love
-Em

FOLLOW ME:

Twitter - Pinterest - Bloglovin - Instagram - Polyvore - Keek - Youtube

Ps: If you fancy watching me do a challenge click HERE

Colombia & A Little Haul

Oh, hello there. Long time no see! So, I am currently in Colombia, where I am staying for a little over 2 weeks, just to see some of my friends again and have some fun! I will try my best to get a decent number of posts up whilst I am there although due to the time difference the posting hours will be a bit off for you Europeans :) Just a heads up.

And I apologise for the lack of posts lately, I have been spending time with friends, enjoying the nice weather, working, preparing (packing...) for this trip, and travelling, so blogging has been a bit neglected. Oh, and the very lovely Molly over at LyonsNotes has gotten me completely hooked on The Vampire Diaries so an embarrassingly large number of hours has gone to watching that...heh.

Anyways, I thought I would share a little haul with you guys, seeing as I have picked up a few pieces these past weeks. It is all H&M as I love, love, love the summery pieces they have now! I also bought a couple bikinis + a few extra bit but did not get the chance to take pictures of it all before I left.

Some random bits. A slightly cropped top with an awesome monkey print on it (love this). A super cute floral, Hawaiian inspired headband, the Essie nail polish in Fifth Avenue and a plastic make-up bag with pink pelicans and a zipper - perfect for travelling so that you can get away from those awful zip-lock bags...

Ahh, this is a beauty. The embellished body-con dress from the Beyoncé collection. I fell head over heels for this dress and the crazy part is the price. £20 for a very good quality, amazing looking dress that will now be worn very proudly to my prom.   

I said it was small, but I felt like I had to put something up on this little blog of mine, and I have missed writing too, so it's been good to come back to it. I would have done an OOTD or a FOTD but the thing is that I am very jet-lagged and I think a post like that would do no one any good. So I kept it safe, but stay tuned because I have had a look in the shops today and well to put it this way, the chance for a big-ass haul to show up soon, is very big.

My giveaway is still open, and I keep adding little things to it although they will remain a surprise to the 3 people who will win. ENTER IT HERE. And another little note, I expect that the beauty swap package that I sent to Molly will arrive sometime during this week so keep an eye out on her blog for when she opens it! Her blog is HERE.

Now, enough with the links and random ramble, I am off to have a much needed power nap.

Lots of Love,

Em

FOLLOW ME:

Twitter - Pinterest - Bloglovin - Instagram - Polyvore - Keek - Youtube

Ps: If you fancy watching me do a challenge click HERE

The "Suits" Look: Rachel Zane

If you follow me on Twitter then it will come as no surprise to you that I have fallen head over heels for the TV series "Suits" (erhm, and vampire diaries....) . If you haven't heard about it then I will not even attempt to describe it as I will fail massively at making it sound interesting, but have a read here and check out this video for an idea of what it is about. I watched both seasons, all 28 episodes in about 72 hours which is for one crazy even for me, but also comes to show how addicting it is. So consider yourself warned, that if you manage to sit through the not "oh-so-amazing" first episode and proceed to watch the next ones, then you will most likely not be able to stop. 

But enough about the series and over to one of the gorgeous cast-members Meghan Markle, better known as the role of Rachel Zane. After watching both seasons, I realised that I wanted to do a make-up look inspired by her glowy, sultry look and well, here it is: my take on the Rachel Zane look. It isn't too different from my usual everyday look, but the liner is black, not brown like I usually go for and the skin is a tiny bit more glowing.

The products I used are shown in the photos below and as for how I did it, here goes: Use a base/foundation that has a dewy finish. Something like Rimmel's Wake Me Up (medium coverage) or L'Oréal's Nude Magique BB Cream (light coverage) works perfectly! I suggest mixing it with your primer, if you use one, to make it appear as natural as possible. Then, on a synthetic angled brush or a kabuki brush, apply the Bronze Universal to the cheeks, tip of the nose, hairline/forehead and anywhere the sun would naturally hit the face. This creates the illusion of a tan similar to Rachel's. For blush, go for a golden toned, warm coral such as the colour P Pie (far left in the blush palette) by Sleek. Apply this with an angled brush slightly below the tops of your cheekbones but not quite as low as a contour. Go over the high-points of your face with the Crescent Moon highlighter to add glow and dimension.

For the eyes, just smudge some of the Cream Shadow Stick along the base of the lashes and then blend it with a small pencil brush. For some extra definition, tight-line with a black liner and lightly line the lower lashline as well. Add some lipstick, I used a pinky- peach combo, and mascara and voila! You are done!

Top Left: Chanel Bronze Universal, Sleek Blush Palette in Pumpkin 363
Bottom Left: TopShop highlighter in Crescent Moon, Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation, L'Oréal's Nude Magique BB Cream, The Body Shop Tea Tree Pore Minimiser

Top to bottom: Max Factor Smokey Eye Effect, Rimmel Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer in Noir, Maybeline (MNY) Lipgloss in a peachy pink colour - the name has rubbed off.., ELF Lipstick in Party Pink.

I hope you liked this post! If you have any looks you would like me to do a tutorial on, let me know in the comments and I will get to it! And don't forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win a brush cleanser plus some other secret goodies. You can enter HERE!!

Lots of Love,

Em

FOLLOW ME:

Twitter - Pinterest - Bloglovin - Instagram - Polyvore - Keek - Youtube

Ps: If you fancy watching me do a challenge click HERE