These past few years I've always struggled when someone ask's me what I want for Christmas; naturally I'd go without anything at all and would be happy enough to have happy and healthy children...but it wasn't like I was going to wake up on Christmas morning and find Martha Grace was miraculously cured of her heart defect.
Although Martha Grace had a fairly good year in 2014, unfortunately my Mother was dealt another blow when my brother suffered complications following a procedure to replace his ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) in September. We decided we both deserved a good retail therapy session and rather than buying Christmas gifts for each other we would instead go shopping with each other at the end of January (after my Mother's birthday) and we could buy exactly what we wanted.
Recently I have become obsessed with watching YouTube video's by the likes of Pixiwoo, Fleur DeForce, Tanya Burr etc etc and almost hang on their every word. We quite poorly catered for here in North Wales and our branches of Boots and Debenhams don't really stock many of the high end brands (no MAC counter or Laura Mercier counter for us) so we have to head over the border and buy them. Here's what I bought.
I have terribly oily skin and as much as I would have liked to buy the Vitalumiere Aqua - there is no way it would have worked for me. I actually sat down and let the assistant apply this on me before I bought it to
make sure I liked the finish (matte) I use this as my every day foundation as it gives a really light coverage, I apply it with my Bobbi Brown Full Coverage Face brush as it has quite a runny consistency and this brush wont absorb all the product. I then set it with the Rimmel Stay Matte pressed powder. I prefer the way it looks once I've been wearing it a couple of hours and my natural oils come through and I'll apply more pressed powder during the day as and when I need it. It doesn't crease under my eyes either.
The L'Oreal True Match foundation is a cult classic amongst the beauty bloggers I've been following and so I had to try it for myself. The Chanel foundation doesn't give enough coverage for work or a night out in my liking - but this has been a dream. On me it has a demi-matte finish which I then set with a pressed powder, but the coverage is perfect. I use a Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge to apply this and think the two were made for each other. I do need to powder during the day but I also have to sort my under eye area out too - it will crease after a few hours (I work 8 hour shifts)
The first make-up brushes I ever actually set out to buy were the Real Techniques ones (the Expert Face brush) and since then my collection has grown and grown and grown. But I was desperate to get my hands on some MAC eye brushes. The ones I'd heard mentioned the most were the 217 and the 224. While I love the 224 for blending, I'm really struggling to get along with the 217...I'm used to the softness of my Real Techniques brushes and I find this one is a bit coarse. Though it hasn't put me off them, I'll be buying the 219 and 239 next week.
I deep clean all my face brushes with a facial cleanser once a month, as laborious as it is - I am concious that I have oily skin and dirty brushes is only going to exacerbate blemishes. My eye brushes would all get done once a week the same way but I found it was taking them a day to dry properly and I wouldn't be able to use them in the meantime. So I thought I'd try a brush cleanser so I could spot clean them as and when I wanted without soaking the brushes. I tried it on one eye brush as soon as I came home from my shopping spree - before I knew it I'd washed every eye and lip brush that I owned. As the bottle recommends, pump the product on to a piece of kitchen roll or a towel and swirl the brush in the wet patch and you'll see all your product come out of the brush - easy peasy. I don't fancy using this on my face brushes though, I don't know why...I'm quite happy with my current method for those.
I bet a lot of people are sat there now thinking "Gemma, who cares what make-up you bought" and I'm sorry if that is the case for many of you...but it's something that really interests me as a woman and I love reading other Mummy blogger's make-up and or skincare/haircare related posts...my blog is meant to be a reflection of my families journey and interests...it should grow with us.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on posts like this...
GM
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