Lauren's Beauty Stuff

Elf Haul :)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 15:47:00 +0000

Hey beaut's, so recently I visited the elf store in Cardiff and bought so much that I just HAVE to do a haul about it! No joke I spent about £40/50 in there and came out with a big bag of goodies! I've never really tried many elf products, I feel as though the website doesn't do justice to most of the products and I never thought I'd like it - I wish I had gone into a store years ago now!

The staff were so helpful and friendly and there was a huge variety of products - most of them very cheap! So I hope you like this post and please feel free to contact me regarding any other elf products you think are good :)

This super pretty palette is part of the 'eyes lips face' collection and has 32 beautiful shades. I would recommend this palette to most skin tones - it has very pale shimmery creams to burgundy and plums all the way to glittery grey and black! I've already used some of the burgundy and brown shades and love the pigmentation! I would suggest using a small amount of product on a a fluffy brush and gradually building up the colour.

This primer is hand's down the best primer I have ever used! I have oily to combination skin and just a small amount of this product prevents any shine and also prevents dryness/flakiness at the same time - anyone with oily-combination skin will know how hard that is to find in a primer. Make-up glides on flawlessly with this stuff - I highly recommend! The best thing about this primer though is the price - £6.00!!! It also comes in four shades; #clear #green #brightening lavender or #radiant glow.

This stunning lipstick is in shade 'Nicely Nude' and is so pretty! It is a lovely light shade, I would recommend to light and medium skin tones. It is also incredibly moisturising! Sometimes with lipsticks I feel they can dry out my lips, but this product definitely doesn't fall into that category. I would, however, recommend exfoliating the lips with an old toothbrush before application.

While I'm on the subject of lips, I also picked up this great lip gloss in the shade 'ballet slippers' which is so pretty! Again, a very pale, almost pearly quality. Stunning over the lipstick as well!

I was slightly hesitant about picking this up, I absolutely love my Kat Von D Tattoo Lock-it foundation for it's coverage but I decided to try this as my skin was going through a good patch. I got this in shade 'porcelain' and I really like it. Slightly disappointed with the coverage but that's to be expected after using the lock-it foundation now for so long. Really lovely finish, semi-matte, and great with some pressed powder over the T-zone. Great for anyone wanting medium coverage!

These brushes caught my eye, they were the main product I had actually intended to buy (oops)! I got the Powder Brush, the Small Stipple Brush and the Angled Contour Brush. The powder brush is A-mazing! I absolutely love it, packs on the pigment and not so much of the product so you don't end up looking cakey. It's so soft as well! The small stipple brush is so good as well, I use it on areas that I feel I need more coverage on - I don't use it over my entire face. The angled contour brush, I believe, is meant for applying eye-shadow but I simply use it to contour my face with a dark non-shimmery bronzer below my cheekbones and on my nose. Simple product but I think I'll get a lot of use out of it!

Another product I purchased was this baked blush in the shade 'peachy cheeky'. I was pretty disappointed with the lack of pigmentation in this blush; it looks so shimmery and pretty - well it is - but you can barely make it out when applied! I feel like it could be more pigmented, but I guess there are people who will love the 'barely-there' aspect of it. I'm not going to give up on it just yet though, I plan on trying it over different foundations/powders and seeing if that makes a difference!

I also bought this blush in the shade 'tickled pink' - the pigmentation was far better than the baked blush but still not up to par with most of my others! Which is a shame because again, such a pretty colour! (I think I'm going to have a love/hate relationship with elf blushes)

The last item I bought was this translucent matifying powder. This was recommended to me my my lovely friend and flatmate Megan; on a night out to Cardiff she told me to use some and I fell in love! It is matte - and I mean MATTE! If you have very dry skin I definitely would not recommend, this baby will get rid of any shine on your face whatsoever. I recommend using only on T-zone for a more natural finish.

That's the end of my haul, hope you all enjoyed, sorry about the length of it!!! Everything on the e.l.f. website is very reasonably priced; I definitely recommend (I am in no way affiliated with e.l.f. and all the opinions are my own, I wasn't paid suggest/praise any of their products!) Please let me know if you have purchased any of these products and if so what you think of them :)

lots of love, Lauren xoxo

Full coverage foundation routine using Cinema Secrets!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 22:48:00 +0000

Hi beaut's! So I wanted to do another foundation routine but one for those of you that dislike liquid foundations. The foundation I'm using in this tutorial is by Cinema Secrets (shade #PS304-32), and my amazing flatmate Heidi has kindly allowed me to do this look on her as she was getting ready for a night out and wanted to look flawless!

As you can tell, this is a very creamy, thick foundation, but as long as you apply it thinly and build up coverage gradually it won't look cakey. Try mixing some with moisturiser on the back of a clean hand for a thinner consistency with less coverage!

To begin with, I prepped Heidi's skin with moisturizer and primer, and then dabbed some foundation on to her skin with clean fingertips. Once every section of her face had some product on, I used a stippling motion and my Sigma F80 Foundation Brush to apply and blend in, making sure to remember the hairline and the neck!

This is Heidi with nothing on her face, she's still stunning!

This is how I began the process - in this picture the right half of her face has been blended in whereas the left side just has product dabbed onto the skin.

This is the the finished foundation process! To finish this look, I applied a light concealer to highlight the area underneath her eyes, her forehead, the centre of her nose and her chin. I also contoured under her cheekbones and around her temple and jaw using a dark, non-shimmery bronzer, and then used a light loose mineral powder to set everything before applying blush and doing her eyes and lips!

Gorgeous! I think this look is great for a night out as it is full coverage - this foundation is SOOOO pigmented I barely used any product at all! It is also pretty budge-proof on a night out, especially when a setting spray is used (I recommend an anti-oil/grease spray).

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, please feel free to contact me about any of the other products used or if you have any requests or other questions! :)

xoxo

Reasons why I stopped blogging, and reasons why I'm back!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 21:40:00 +0000

Wow. I have literally been gone for so long. I actually started to lose hope with the whole blogging 'scene' and didn't think anyone would be interested in my opinions, but I have actually had some facebook messages and emails asking me to carry on, so here goes! I apologise for not posting anything for so long or replying to any comments - I simply havn't logged on to my blog since my last post pretty much. I want to say thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in my blog, and reassure you that I'm back for good!

I have had an incredibly busy year, moved away from home, started University, met some amazing people, and had lots of uni work to do, and I just didn't think I would have time for a blog any more. I didn't count on missing it so much though, and also on now being close to one of the most amazing cities for shopping - Cardiff! I have loads of fab post ideas lined up, and I would love to get some feedback on what you want me to do posts on. Makeup idea's, fashion idea's, hauls, whatever you want!

Thank you so much once again for your support.

Lots of love,

Lauren xoxo

Blood Orange: The new nails

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 18:29:00 +0000

Gorgeous new nail colour from Barry M, and fab top coat from Sally Hansen

Hello beauties!

So, I found three old manky-looking Boots gift card's in my purse the other day and decided to head into town to see if there was anything on them left. Whaddya know? I had a grand total of around £50.00 left!! So obviously I had to spend it?! Now I've neglected my nails recently so decided to get some lovely new polishes.

So I decided to go the whole hog and get a new base, polish and top coat. Above is the base coat I used, it's actually a base and top coat but I didn't realise it at the time - oops! This stuff is great, easy to apply and cheap. Next I decided on a new polish; I normally go for nudes or darker purples, I decided to change it up and bought Gelly Hi-Shine by Barry M in Blood Orange. This stuff is gorg!

I was a bit worried at first as when I got it home it did look very, well, orange. But it definitely didn't disappoint!

Next I bought Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat, and this is the finished product:

The colour was amazing, and the Sally Hansen top coat made it very shiny - this top coat actually did what it said and it dried in 30 seconds making my nails completely dry! I would definitely repurchase these products as I think they looked fab. (Please don't mind the fluffy towel - I didn't want to ruin my duvet!)
I hope you guys found this useful, please let me know what you think, it would be much appreciated!

xoxo

Best moisturizer in the world!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 18:09:00 +0000

St. Ives Timeless Skin Collagen Elastin Moisturizer

Hey beaut's! So I haven't done any posts in a while as my laptop has been playing up :( Soooo in order to say sorry I'm going to introduce you to the best moisturizer EVER!
I heard about this amazing product when I was looking at different moisturizers online - I had just run out of my old one and wanted something new. Apparently this product was mentioned by Dr Oz on his show and it had tons of brilliant reviews on all the health/beauty forums etc.

As you can see, this is a whopper of a jar! I think it'll take me a while to finish it off!

This product is even better than I'd hoped. It's a huge amount of product for the price - a grand total of £6.90 including postage and packaging from amazon!!! Not only has this product moisturized my skin, but it has actually STOPPED AND PREVENTED BREAKOUTS since I've been using it! I'm not even kidding, this stuff is magic - my whole family has noticed a huge change in my skin for the better and have been asking me what I've done to it (not bad for just over a fiver). Any discolouration in my skin has been reduced significantly including redness which I often get around my nose.

The other thing which is so great is that this product would work great on different skin types in my opinion; I have oily-combination skin and this has literally killed any grease on my face, it actually leaves a subtle, glowy finish to the face. I would highly recommend this product - I'd go so far as to say that concerning value for money, this is probably one of the best products I've ever bought. After all, makeup looks better on better skin! Hope you found this useful, if any of you decide to go and grab a jar please let me know what you think of it by leaving a comment below :)

xoxo

Camera Ready Cosmetics - Best Makeup Site?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 13:34:00 +0000

Hey beaut's! So recently I've discovered what could be the Holy Grail of makeup sites. It's called Camera Ready Cosmetics, and they sell high-end brand makeup such as MAC, Joe Blasco (the makeup Kim Kardashian apparently uses) and more - at crazy cheap prices. At first I thought, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," but then I started hearing more about it from well respected beauty guru's who swear by it? I've decided to make an account, and see how it goes from there:

I'll keep you updated once I've purchased something, please let me know if you have already used this site and what your experience was! xoxo

New Mint and Leopard Print Flats, eBay bargain!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 09:41:00 +0000

Many people out there look down on sites like eBay and Amazon, but I think they're great!

My most recent eBay purchase is the inspiration for this post, as I bought something GORGEOUS! (well, two gorgeous things)

These fab shoes are the last things I bought from the site eBay, very Steve Madden-esque but without the horrific price tag!

Aren't they lush? They are SO comfy, and only around £17.00 each!!!

This is why I love eBay and sites like it, you can shop around and if you look hard enough you'll grab an amazing deal. These shoes are mega comfy, they are a size US 7.5 which for those of us here in the UK converts into a UK size 5. I found this website seriously helpful in converting the sizes: http://www.dancesport.uk.com/shoes/conchart.htm

As you can see, these fabulous flats don't have any 'sides', this is great especially for summer as it keeps your feet cool., and they are majorly comfy, plus I've already had compliments! If you'd like to check out what else the seller has in store, follow this link:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/shopyourstrulee/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2654

Just to clarify, I am in no way affiliated with this seller; I simply purchased some shoes from them and I think they have other great stuff so I'm putting the link up for you beaut's to check out :) Happy shoe hunting! xoxo

Kat Von D's 'Lock it tattoo foundation' - My favourite!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 17:51:00 +0000

Hey beaut's, I have decided to do a review and pop in some photos of this fabulous foundation as my first proper post! This is absolute favourite for heaps of reasons (I'll list 3 main ones below or we'll be here forever):

1) It is full coverage. I mean, FULL coverage, which I am a huge fan of! I see so many gorgeous 'youtubers/beauty guru's' on youtube who have the most perfect skin without any real need of makeup. I, however, am not one of those people - so this foundation is great for me! I have combination to oily skin which can lead to redness/breakouts and this foundation covers it all!

2) It has a matte finish; as I have mentioned above I have combination-to-oily skin and with most other foundations I have to re-touch every few hours. Since I started using this foundation I haven't needed to for the first time EVER!

3) It lasts FOREVER. I mean seriously, I can't even remember when I bought this bottle (which contains 30ml) and I've still got a good while to go before it's finished. It has a creamy texture and you only need a relatively teeny bit to cover your entire face, which is good for those on a budget as well as people who don't like wearing too much foundation.

Here's the bottle (sorry it's old and dusty!)

As you can see, 30ml of full coverage goodness!

I always use the Sigma F80 with this, it's my HG brush!

You only need a teeny bit!

And this is the end result for a flawless face foundation routine using Kat Von D 'Lock it tattoo foundation.'

Hope you found it useful!

My first ever post! Welcome to Lauren's Beauty Stuff!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Me, looking very happy!

Hello! My name is Lauren, and I have decided to create a blog dedicated to all things beauty. I am twenty years old and about to start University to study Psychology. I love food, makeup, books and movies and I hope to share the best with you! I look forward to sharing all my hints, tips and favourite things with you,
Lauren xoxo