Back to Beauty | October Beauty Favs!

Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the World 
-Marilyn Monroe 

A one month hiatus from this blog was far too long, but much needed. I was (obviously) in a really bad place toward the end of September and I needed the time to myself to press pause and reset. 

During that time I got back into makeup, hair & all things beauty which is a joy of mine that I had forgotten. Making the time to do my hair and makeup in the morning has become my norm again. I find it calming, enjoyable, fun, and it helps me to feel a little more confident in my own skin stepping out in to the world. 

Since taking this hiatus from beauty, I have jumped in head first and have some lovely products to share with you all today! 

Starting with skin care, I've been really enjoying the Garnier Pure Active 3in1 face wash. I use it every morning and the scent really wakes me up. I tend to shy away from products containing salicylic acid despite my acne prone skin because I find it to be really drying. However, this face wash also includes eucalyptus oil and aloe vera which make it a really hydrating and effective cleanser. Not to mention it's super affordable!

I'm not sure if deodorant really fits into a beauty product but I'm going to include it anyways! The Lady Speed Stick Unstoppable deodorant in the scent Charismatic smells absolutely amazing to start! It also keeps my underarms sweat free all day keeping me from having wet patches under my arms. What I like most about this deodorant is that it has aloe vera in it which keeps my underarms from being irritated or dry. 

Please ignore the slight chip on the tip of my index finger. I've actually been wearing this Sally Hansen Miracle Gel polish on my nails for eight days in a row now and that's the only chip I have! I think that speaks for itself on why I've been loving this polish. The whole line is fantastic but this shade, Wine Stock, has been my go to recently. Make sure you buy the top coat and use it together with the colour coat or else the polish doesn't really work how it's supposed to! The top coat is what makes the real difference. 

Anytime I've worn foundation in the past two months it has been the Maybelline Fit Me Matte and Poreless foundation. I've recently had to drop a shade from 120 to 112 as my tan slowly disappears (tear). I love this foundation! It's super affordable, covers well, lasts for ages, and doesn't break me out. It's a winner all around in my books! This is a great foundation and I'd recommend it to anyone who has normal, combination, or oily skin (may want to avoid if your skin is quite dry). There is a wide selection of shades for lighter skin tones, some with pink undertones, some with more yellow undertones, and some with neutral undertones. If you are a darker skinned person looking to use this foundation, however, you may find the shade selection to be seriously lacking.

I've been really enjoying using different lip colours to change up my everyday makeup look lately. My choice is the NYX mechanical lip liner; not just to line my lips but as an overall colour! I think they're so smooth and buttery and glide onto the lip like an absolute dream. They last all day and don't smudge or wear away while I'm eating or drinking. The five above have been my favourite shades coming into fall; 12 Dark Red, 06 Nude Pink, 02 Nectar, 08 Sand Beige, and 10 Nude. I'm sure now that November is here and continuing on into December, I will be reaching more toward the darker colours and berry tones. 

I've always stuck by my eyebrow pencils and tended to shy away from waxes as it seemed so daunting! However, I am obsessed with the e.l.f. Gel & Powder Eyebrow Kit. I got mine in the shade medium. I also picked up the dual ended brow brush. This has become my new favourite method of filling in my brows! I think it looks so natural and the colour match is perfect for my hair colour. I start by using the spoolie end of the brush to comb out my brows. I then used the angled end of the brush with the gel to shape and fill my brows, followed by the lighter powder to set the gel using the fluffy end of the brush the duo came with. This product has been a game changer!

I've been on the hunt for a good drugstore liquid eyeliner for ages. I've tried endless products by many brands and all were falling short of my expectations. In a liquid eyeliner I look for it to be a deep, opaque black, easy to use, not irritating to my eyes, waterproof, and precise. All of my boxes were finally ticked by the NYX Super Skinny Eye Marker in Carbon Black. I have fallen in love with this eyeliner pen!

Which brings me to my next favourite; winged liner! If you want a tutorial on this look do let me know as it's been my everyday makeup for about a month now!

Thanks as always for reading & thank you even MORE for being so patient with me and my lack of blog posts. Hopefully I will be able to stick with once per week. 

What beauty products have you been loving this month? Do let me know in a comment!

Bronze Eyes for Autumn | Beauty

It seems like it's been absolutely ages since I wrote a post about beauty and boy have I missed it! Now that school is in and I'm so busy all the time, my makeup routine doesn't stray too much from my go-to 5 minute face. 

However, now that it's officially Autumn, I have been loving a more gold/bronze look to go with the season. I'm not a fan of lipstick for a few reasons. 1. I haven't found a single colour that doesn't look weird against my skin tone, 2. I hate the feeling of it on my lips, 3. I end up being paranoid the whole time I'm wearing it that it will be on my teeth. Since I'm not a lipstick fan I can't get on the berry lips bandwagon. Instead, I like to focus on changing up my eye look for the seasons and just leaving my lips neutral the majority of the time. For Autumn makeup I've been really inspired by LoeyLane, Tanya Burr, and of course Zoella. I've kind of combined all the looks together to create my own Autumn eye makeup, which is what I'm going to share with you today!

To get this look, I used my trusted favourite palette: Smashbox Full Exposure. I really love the quality of the product; the shadows are incredibly pigmented and easy to blend out. I highly rate Smashbox shadows!

To start I used an Eco-Tools shader brush (a) to apply the cream colour (1) as a wash over my whole lid. This sort of primes the eye and covers any veining I have. I then used the pinky brown (2) colour over the whole lid again, as a base colour on the same brush.

The magic starts to happen at this stage- applying the shimmers! I used the lightest gold (3) shade on the inner half of the lid, and on the outer half of my lid I used the shimmer just one shade darker (4). For this I used my Eco-Tools shadow brush (b).

I used a fluffy Eco-Tools shadow brush (c), and took a mixture of the darkest chocolate brown (5) and the medium brown (6) for the outer corner and crease. Using my blending brush (d) I blended everything together to soften it up and make sure there weren't any harsh colour transitions. I also used the excess off that brush to bring the colour down under my lower lash line to balance the eye.

For finishing touches, I used my Real Techniques detailer brush (e) with the black shadow (7) to line my upper lash line and the very outer corner of my eye. I then used the lightest champagne colour (8) on the Eco-Tools shadow brush again (b) to highlight my inner corner and under my brow bone. 

The final step was to curl my lashes and apply my holy grail mascara; CoverGirl Lash Blast Volume in the waterproof formula!

I'm really digging this look! I think it's super nice for fall and the warm browns, golds, and bronzes make my blue eyes pop. 

For the rest of my face I used:

1. Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer & Real Techniques Buffing Brush

2. NYX Stay Matte But Not Flat powder foundation & Eco-Tools Buffing Brush

3. Revlon Blush in Ooh! Baby Pink & Eco-Tools Stippling Brush

4. L'Oreal Highlight in Harmonie Blondes & Real Techniques Contour Brush

5. Baby Lips Dr. Rescue in Too Cool

Revlon Brow Fantasy in Brunette

I really hope you liked this Autumnal makeup look! Let me know your thoughts in the comments. What makeup colours do you go to for Fall?

Thanks for reading, xo, Katelyn