If there is one thing you need to know about me, its that I. Love. Food.
See :)
This past weekend I attended the Brighton Foodie Festival with 2 of my favourite girls Casey and Yasmin
I was super lovely to go to a chill family festival like this and have some food good and an all around good time.
We started the day off with some amazing loaded veggie nachos from the Flaming Cactus, my gosh these were some good nachos, they had EVERYTHING. I'm talking guac, sour cream, salsa, refried beans, the LOT. Nothing better than starting the day sharing this bad boy with my girls.
Top tip: if you attend a foodie festival I would 100% recommend taking some little hand wipes and a blanket so you can pop yourself down and enjoy your food.
It being such a beautiful sunny day the only logical move next would be ice cream! orrrr in our case boozy sorbet. Anyone who knows me knows that my go to cocktail is a mojito and one of my favourite flavours is mint so this was right up my street.
After soaking up a bit of sun we had a little wonder around the rest of the food stalls and came across the cutest little bakery and immediately the rainbow cake caught my eye. Now rainbow cake is has always been something I wanted to try, but really when do you get a chance to try it except birthdays. So I jumped on this and here I was at 2:45 in the middle of the festival eating ma damn cake.
After that it was time for a drink and we decided to go the very istagramm-able AtoZ Daffy's gin bar, and thanks to Alfie Deyes we got 30% off our tickets into the festival which was much appreciated as students. Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish my drink as I was driving that night so after a few sips I let Yas have the rest but I can report my Highland Spunrise was very nice indeed.
Now the next thing we sampled may not have been a culinary master piece but they were certainly fun, I see these everywhere online and they certainly made an interesting evening potato snack.
Now as the evening drew to a close we thought we would grab one last bite to eat whilst walking along the Hove beach listening to the Hoosiers who were performing there, and let me tell you it was lush. Sweet stuff and sunsets, what more could you ask for.
Shoutout to this guy who made a mean strawberries and cream crepe <3
If you have a chance to go to a foodie festival I would definitely go for it and fingers crossed you get beaut weather too.
Lets take a closer more in depth look into why these bad boys are firmly in my routine when I want a quick 'wake me up' morning look.
Just a little PSA these aren't quite the fresh out the PR box shots that you get on a lot of other blog posts, simply for the reason that these products ARE actually used almost everyday. They have all been tried and tested for a while so are well loved (aka a lil grubby) and aren't by any means brand new, which in a way lets you guys know when I say what I like about these products you know I mean it.
My everyday make up needs to do two things for it to be in my routine:
1. Been fairly quick and easy to apply (no time to be faffin')
2. Keep me looking fresh from the majority of the day
If this is also what you look for in everyday routine then take a look these products.
The corrector I use is the Bobbi Brown Creamy Corrector in Light to Medium Peach. It's thick, and it's creamy, which does mean that if you have oilier skin I would set it down but for me I have a normal to dry underage area so it actually protect my skin from any drying full coverage concealers I want on top. An added bonus also being that the thickness of this product means you only need a tiny bit, I've had this little pot for ages and it will last me for quite awhile it's the perfect colour fo cancelling out dark purplish tones (which I do indeed have forever and always) so banishing them makes a huge difference.
The two concealers I use are both from Urban Decay. I am very firmly sitting pretty (metaphorically) in my Urban Decay boat loving life. What makes Urban Decay concealers my favourite you ask, well I love the formulas and the lasting power, as well as the marketing of the product. I feel like Urban Decay is really one of those brands that does what it says in the tin, for example the first I go in with is the Naked Skin Concealer in Medium Neutral. It is described as weightless and light diffusing which I definitely agree with. Not only is it light under the eyes but also adds a lot of light to the under eye area. Now comparing it to the All Nighter Concealer in Medium Light Warm which is aptly described as a full coverage concealer and you can defiantly see a difference in the coverage. Both last me all day with minimal creasing and on my skin, thats a massive achievement.
After that, I do my brows using the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in Soft Brown. I had been a long time use of the Anastasia Brow Pomade but I just needed something that was a bit quicker and easier to use when on a tighter timeframe. This pencil is fab because on one side is a spooly brush, and on the other is the pencil with a tiny nib which enables you to replicate the look of hairs. One thing I would recommend is trying to getting the perfect colour match as it will make a big difference on the overall look, and will mean you'll spend less time blending out you the colour. From there I will follow up with the Benefit Ready Set Brow. I really like this mainly because of the shape of the spooly brush. At the end of the day clear brow gel is clear brow gel, the only thing that makes this a favourite of mine is the easy application. It has a side with longer bristles and the other with short bristles. I use the shorter side to do the front of my brow because I don't like too much product in the section. I prefer them to stay more bushy and then use the longer bristles to shape and 'glue down' the longer brow hairs on the arch and tail of the brow, whist simultaneously praying to the gods I won't end the day with crazy brows. Non-crusty and easy to use, another favourite combo.
I will then finish off with the Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara in Very Black. I'm not too fussy when it comes to mascara. I don't find a huge difference between drugstore and high end mascaras so a mascara like this does me just fine. I do enjoy the shape of the brush as it is slightly curved which allows me to really get close to my lash roots, as well as the bristles being longer towards the outer edges allowing me to have more fanned out outer lashes giving a slight angled cat eye effect. I think definitely my favourite thing about this mascara is that it has really short bristles on the underside, which means that you can coat your bottom lashes without getting any product underneath onto your skin therefore saving you a heck load of time trying to wipe any mistakes away.
Finally, if I really feel like pushing the boat out I will use something on my lips like the Dior Lip Glow in 001, this product has to be my most repurchased high end product simply because it is so perfect for everyday use. It's designed to match the pH of your lips so the colour comes out slightly different on everybody, but there is a lovely universal gloss or 'glow' that it gives to your lips which is not to much but still noticeable. When I rave about this product to other people I like to describe this product as 'perfecting' simply because I feel it perfects the look of your lips making them look even more healthy and full.
If you fancy checking out how I like to apply these products and what they do to ma face, check this out:
I do just want to note that for an everyday makeup routine there may be different things and products that you would use to enhance you features, so if unlike me you're blessed with non death looking under eye areas then a corrector and two consumers might be a bit much for you. If you just find a few things that you want to do to your face and concentrate on them it can make your whole routine more streamlined. That may be a foundation to even out skin tone or you like to enhance your eyes a bit more, on a whole it's individual for everybody.
So lets kick things off with a little review of a product thats come out just in time for the gifting season this Christmas. On a whole I personally L O V E the brand NYX I think their products are such good value for money and their campaigns are so exciting and fun. NYX are never afraid to do something different for example bringing out a bold coloured eyeliner collection and in that respect, it also means they are more versatile for loads of different skin tones which always a major plus in my book.
Moving on to the Lip Lingerie Vault 01 itself, when looking at the publics reviews I notices quite few people complaining that all of their lip products had dried up inside so that was something I really looked out for. I can happily report that none mine had dried up (phew), but what I was slightly disappointed about whenI first got the vault is the packaging itself. Now NYX is a drugstore brand so I wasn't expecting the packaging to be anything ground breaking, and I do like the slick black and clear panel so you can see all the colours inside, but the actually quality itself was pretty poor. Mine and all the rest on the shelf were scratched and scuffed to pieces which did not make them look as nice. This may have just been subject to the batch my vault was in ut I thought I would mention it just incase you were wanting to order this online as a gift for somebody.
Now the lip products themselves on a whole I really did enjoy. It was so exciting trying each individual colour and finding new colours that I fell in love with and ones which maybe weren't my colour (here is me acting like a kid in a candy store swatching them) Of course with most bulk beauty not every colour suited me but because a large amount of these colours are "nudes" of some description I did find that the majority (20/30) I did really like.
One thing I did find is that the consistency of these lip products are not the same throughout the the whole collection. Many of the lighter, white-based colours came out less pigmented and streaky at times wheres as there was. less of a problem with the darker and more coloured shades. I also found that the colours that had a more grey/purple undertone tended to be more dry and patchy when applying.
This vault has 6 exclusive new shades (Tainted, Lie to Me, Mesmerizing, Mi Amor, Out Ready, Raw Emotion) and body did they do good! The colours on a whole are very nice and I think this would be the perrrrfect gift for a lip junkie.
My Topic Picks:
For a full swatch on the lips of all 30 colours paired with some cheesy smiles and music click here!
It had been exactly a year today since I last posted something on this little blog and boi have I missed it. Of course, I know it had to be done, school being the priority and all but now I have more time to do the things I love doing. You best believe this is high up on that list (along with reading and binge-watching series…whole of game of thrones in under a month just saying). Now a whole blog post simply stating how I’m back into writing seems a bit excessive, no? SO HOW ABOUT I MIX IT UP A LITTLE BIT LADS! I am doing something a little bit out of my comfort zone but as many people have told me, ‘move out of your comfort zone, that’s when you begin to grow’. The video explains what I am planning to do with my blog posts and videos, and to be quite honest I am bloomin’ excited about it. So here we are, me, Mandy, in video form… (excuse the dodgy thumbnail, I'm not able to change it just yet)
So, here’s to fresh new ideas and inspirations, but for now let’s
have a classic little photo montage of what I have been up to during my year away.
