Neelam Jayna: blush

, by neelamjayna

Addicted to Blush Tag

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, by neelamjayna

In Benefit, blush

Benefit Cheeky Sweet Spot

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, by neelamjayna

In all over cover stick, baked blush

This months beauty haul is going to have quite a few different things; so I decided not to include these items in there. When I first started this blog I always did e.l.f. hauls and I thought, why not stick to tradition! The main reason behind this haul was that I had just hit pan on my favourite blush and I wanted to repurchase. I know that my old blush will most likely last me at least another month (I hope), but there was a 50% off everything off that I just could not resist. A few of the things I wanted to try had sold out and to be quite honest with you, I have a lot of elf products already so there wasn't much else I wanted. But for the deal to work I needed to spend £30. Considering there was also free delivery at the time I only spent a total of £15 (well just a few pennies over).

Blushes were the main drive of this haul and the most frequent product too! I decided to try two new blushes in the same studio range as my all time favourite mellow mauve blush; Candid Coral and Blushing Rose. I've never tried a corally coloured blush before so I'm not sure how that is going to turn out. I'm hoping it does show up on my skin tone, otherwise I'll have to find another use for it. Blushing Rose looks like a darker version of mellow mauve, even though the images show differently. I've probably said this before, but I absolutely adore the packaging on these blushes. They look a hell of a lot more expensive than £3.95 and are just as pigmented as any other blush. I'm thinking of doing a little swatch post for these blushes so keep your eyes peeled for that. The fourth blush I purchased is one that I haven't seen before and it's the baked blushes in the studio range. It says new on the packaging but I get the feeling its been around for a while and I just haven't really paid attention to it. I like the look of the marble effect it has. The one I purchased is in the shade Passion Pink. However, it almost looks like the Tickled Pink blush with streaks of Passion Pink, both from the blushes in the studio line. I think it works really well and despite the packaging looking quite cheap, I am happy with this purchase.

I won't dither much on the elf powder brush as I'm sure I have mentioned this before. I already have one of these and I have to admit it's my most used and most loved brush. It's just perfect for applying foundation and I really have nothing bad to say about it. I actually purchased it for my mum (little addition to her Mother's Day presents).

I then decided to try out the nail polish. I see pictures being post about them on their Facebook all the time but just never thought of trying them out. I thought if try out the natural ones because I have so many pinks and reds that I needed something different. They're a lot smaller than I hoped, sort of the same size as the MUA £1 nail polishes. The colour is really opaque although I'm not 100% about the lasting power - not sure if I used top coat so I'll have to give it another go!

I accidentally bought two of the elf eyebrow stencils - what a sausage. I liked the idea of these but I really can't see me using them. I like the shape of my brows and I'm unlikely to change it drastically. But who knows, one day they could come in handy.

Lastly, I bought a shimmery all over stick (Spotlight). I thought it could be a good cheek highlighter. But I could use it to highlight under my brow bone or even the inner corner of my eyes when I want to brighten them up. There's plenty of uses for this product.

If you bought anything from the 50% sale or even elf in general then I would love to know in the comments below!

Neelam xx

p.s. Sorry for the camera quality, I chucked the packaging away before I checked the pictures on the laptop - woops!

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, by neelamjayna

In 2013, blush

2013 Beauty Favourites

Happy (belated) New Year! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed the holidays. I've decided that one of my new years resolutions is to blog more.. knowing me I won't stick to this but I really want to get into the habit of blogging. So I thought what better way of starting the new year with a '2013 favourites' blog post. Original, I know. Sorry it's late, I've been waiting for this nasty rain to clear up so I can take some decent pictures for you (poor excuse, but it's the truth!). 2013 was such a great year for me and it's the year where I've really begun to appreciate makeup and beauty and have learnt so much from YouTube Gurus and beauty bloggers. I'm hoping that I'll start trying out more products and do more reviews and swatch posts like I always promise to. So without further ado, I introduce, my 2013 favourites!

Concealer

The Bobbi Brown Corrector in light to medium peach is by far my most used and favourite product of all time. I've already created a post entirely dedicated to this product which you can see here, but I have to emphasize just how much I like it. It's the perfect formula to cover up those nasty dark under-eye circles that I am way too familiar with. The product lasts a very long time, I bought it around this time last year and I'm currently scraping out the last bits of the product left. Although it is on the high end of beauty products, it is definitely worth the spend, also check out Debenhams for when they have their beauty sales to get it a little cheaper.

I have another concealer that has made it in my favourites and it is a highstreet/drugstore alternative and I have heard nothing but good reviews on this product. It is the Collection 2000 lasting perfection concealer in Deep 4 (the label on the packaging has rubbed off, in case you're wondering). Although I don't find it that good for my under-eye circles, I absolutely love it for covering blemishes and any redness around my nose area. It's uber cheap and lasts a pretty long time! It has an easy applicator and has a formula that makes it real quick to blend into your skin.

Foundation

I'm yet to find my ideal foundation and I've spent the last 3 or 4 months changing foundations every other day. I wish I could show you my favourite foundation here, but I have to be honest and say I still haven't found one that lasts long and is the exact match for my skin. However, I may do a mini foundation review series to show you what I do and don't like about the ones I'm switching through at the moment.

Eyeliner

Towards the second half of the year I fell back in love with a product that I haven't used in such a long time. The Collection 2000 fast stroke eyeliner in Black 1 was my go to liquid liner back in the day but I decided to change to a different applicator. Long story short, I realised this eyeliner is much easier to control and I can get a more accurate cat wing. It lasts a really long time despite the size of the product and the actual product stays on all day! I'm so impressed with this product as it looks exactly the same in the evening as it did when you first put it on at 8 in the morning! I can not find any faults in this product and again it's super affordable.

Bronzer/Contour

The Sleek contour kit in Light has pretty much been the product I've used everyday since about June when I first discovered it. Perfect for bronzing or contouring, although I use it more as a contour. It's nicely pigmented (as all Sleek products tend to be!) and lasts a decent amount of time. I don't really use the highlighter part of it as much as I feel it doesn't really suit my skin tone, but maybe I'm just using it wrong.. Despite using it almost everyday, I haven't yet hit pan on the product so I'm assuming it's going to last me a long time.

Blush

You may remember that my previous posts were almost always about e.l.f. cosmetics and their products. I have to admit I was extremely addicted to the price and not so much the products themselves! However, out of all the deliveries there is one product I use almost everyday and that is their Studio blush in Mellow Mauve. It is the perfect colour for winter and with a light hand summer too! It's perfectly pigmented and long lasting too. Elf blushes are said to be the ideal dupe for nars blushes, but as I don't own a nars blush I can't tell you how true that is.

Mascara

Mascara is my go to product. If I'm going to wear one product it will definitely be mascara. I stick to Maybelline mascaras but the one I discovered this year is The Rocket mascara. I cannot explain how much I adore this mascara. It elongates and coats your eyelashes perfectly and almost looks as if you're wearing false eyelashes! There is one downside to this mascara and that's how difficult it is to remove! Yes, it's nice to have a long lasting mascara but it's a pain in the ass when you come home tired as hell and your mascara refuses to come off! However, it's definitely worth that struggle for thick flared eyelashes!

That is it for my 2013 favourites, I'm sure you'll agree when I say I've made this post ridiculously long but I hope this has been helpful to you anyway :) I hope you all have a lovely year and I look forward to all you new followers!