15 Unpopular Beauty Confessions

Hello! Today I thought I would do a post on something I've been thinking about doing for a while - unpopular beauty confessions! 

These are my thoughts on loads of different things that are circulating around the beauty blogging and youtube world! 

1. There is such a thing as too much highlighter. Sorry, I said it. It sometimes makes me cringe when I see people with a strip of white shimmer across their cheek, and at that moment, I think people have taken it a bit far. 

However, I do like a rather fabulous highlight myself, but I am really not a fan when you feel that you need sunglasses to look at someone!

2. The MAC 217 is not that good. This is the first makeup product I bought as a result of Youtube hype. I thought that all my eyeshadow woes would be cured and it was going to work wonders. After I got it, I went on about how good it was, but I realise now that it's kind of scratchy, and can hurt your eyelids a bit if you blend with it for too long. I've also tried Makeup Revolution blending brushes that I think work the same or even better, which are £2.99 or even cheaper! I do still use this brush whenever I do eyeshadow, but it just feels a bit cheap to be honest, and it's definitely not worth the hype or the price (£17!)

3. How do eyebrows work? I have absolutely no idea. I fill them in with a brow pencil from Makeup Revolution, but to be honest I don't know how to do it, I just brush it through my brows and pray I look alright. I have only ever had my eyebrows waxed twice in my life, and they were both over a year ago, and now I don't even tweeze my eyebrows because I'm scared I'll accidentally pull my whole eyebrow out! 

4. I despise looking shiny, or oily or 'dewy' as some people call it, so much. Any spot of shine on my face is soon killed by good old Stay Matte! It makes me so annoyed when a youtuber doesn't powder their face and it's so oily, and you just want to take them by the shoulders and scream "Just apply some powder on your face!" Just me? Okay.

I'm so not a 'dewy' girl, I like shimmer on my eyelids, and on the tops of my cheeks, and that's it!

5. Most of the advent calendars are so ridiculously overpriced this year, it's awful! The ones I featured in my best budget beauty advent calendars post the other day were the ones I think were the best value for money, but ones like the Charlotte Tilbury, or Jo Malone or Diptyque ones are so overpriced, with the Charlotte Tilbury one being £150 and the Diptyque at £250! I really don't know how anyone could justify spending that much on an advent calendar, I struggled to justify paying £15 for my Tanya Burr one! 

6. Taking off makeup is such a boring task, and to be honest, a lot of the time I'll just shower with it on at night and hope it all comes off, because cleansing is such an effort...

7. I have a really bad habit of picking at my nail polish or my nails when I'm stressed, so my nails are constantly chipped (which I hate) and they're currently horrible and short and thin, (which I hate even more) and I've only painted my nails two or three times in the past two months!

8. When I first started getting into makeup when I was around 12, my go-to look for the weekend was a £1.50 foundation, concealer and powder from Asda (shade 1 for the foundation and concealer, - a nice pale orange shade- and shade 2 for the powder - a nice shade of tangerine.), blue eyeshadow from a really old MUA palette, a sparkly brown eyeshadow from the MUA palette for my eyebrows, and to top it all off, a pale pink chunky, glittery lipgloss that I stole from my mum. 

9. For around 2 years, I kept buying foundations that were far too dark for me, and now I have 3 foundations that are a range of 1 shade to dark to about 4 shades to dark that I can only wear if I mix it with literally half a bottle of my Body Shop Lightening Drops! I'm just pale and pasty at heart!

10. I rarely clean my makeup brushes. I think the last time I washed them was at the start of October. I always say I'm going to do it, but I've just got so many brushes that it takes an awful amount of time to wash them all properly! I just avoid using the really dirty ones, and I end up only being able to use about 3 brushes for my whole face! I do wonder why I've broken out in spots recently...

11. The Kylie Lip Kits, as much as I love them, are so not worth the money. The Mini Mattes that I bought away back in August are amazing, I love them so much, but I paid £50 for 6 mini liquid lipsticks, including shipping ad customs fees, which is ridiculous. 

My full size lip kit, when compared to the minis, must have a different formula, as it feels much thicker on my lips and flakes off really easily, whereas the minis are so thin and last all day without drying my lips up or flaking. So I rarely wear the full size one, and would rather wear the mini mattes instead of the full size...

12. Expiration dates on makeup? What? I've still got eyeshadow palettes and foundations and concealers from when I was about 12/13, and I still use them! According to the expiration date on my eyeshadows, I should've stopped using my Naked 3 palette almost a year ago. Do you think I'm paying £38 for a palette to just throw it away after a year or so? I don't think so!

13. I'm really bad at the whole body scrub, body butter ritual. It's just so much effort to first shave your legs, let's be real, but to spend even more time putting a scrub on them and then rubbing a thick body butter that takes at least 20 minutes to sink in properly. I'm just a shave-really-roughly-in-30-seconds-so-you-miss-90%-of-the-hair-and-practically-cut open-your-whole-leg kinda gal.

14. Lush has really went up in price, recently, and when I saw the prices of some of their Christmas rangethis year, I was shocked that most of the bath bombs are nearly five pounds! I've just asked for a Lush giftset for Christmas, which is cheaper than buying loads of the Christmas range separately. I really am not a fan of paying £5 for a bath bomb that you can only use once! I think the last time I bought a bath product from Lush was away back in April, when I went to London for my birthday, and I can remember my total for Lush costing so much for literally about 3 bath bombs.

15. This is a really unpopular one, but I absolutely love the feeling of applying foundation, especially if it's really high coverage, and I quite like the feeling of it being really thick. The Marc Jacobs foundation looks so nice to apply as it's so high coverage and thick, but I'm not planning on giving away my left arm in order to buy it anytime soon, so I'll just swoon over watching people applying it for now!

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I hope you liked this post! Can you relate to any of these, or do you have any beauty confessions? Let me know in the comments, and I'll probably be able to relate to them too...

Thank you for reading, and I'll see you soon!

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The Best Budget Beauty Advent Calenders of 2016!

Hello! Beauty advent calendars are a really big thing this year, and there's so many different ones to choose from, from ones at £10 to ones at over £200! But I'm going to show you the top 5 best affordable(ish) calendars!
I do think some of these are slightly overpriced, but you could think of it as an early Christmas gift to yourself (That's how I justified buying mine!)
Jut before I start, I thought I'd let you know that I'm going to be posting every second day in December, so it's kind of like blogmas! I was going to do the original blogmas, but I really will struggle to post every single day - hell, I struggle to post once a week! - but I'm really going to make an effort to stick to posting every second day!

So, let's get on with the post!

November Favourites // Beauty, Books & TV!

Hello everyone!
I haven't done a favourites post in ages, so I thought I would do one for this month, as I have loads to talk about, from makeup to a book to Youtube!
I can sense this is going to be a bit of a long one, so sorry!

First for beauty, I have the Collection Extreme Liquid Eyeliner Pen, which I bought a few weeks ago when my old Maybelline eyeliner ran out. I love this eyeliner so much more than any other one, as it's just so black, and doesn't budge all day! I didn't think I'd like it as much, as it was much thicker than any other eyeliner I'd ever tried, but it's surprisingly really easy to use, and I find doing a wing almost easy! (That's right, I just said that!) I'll definitely buy this again when it runs out, as it's much cheaper than the ones I normally buy! 

Next I have the Technic Soft Focus Translucent Loose Powder. I got this a month or so ago, and I really wanted a loose powder so I could try baking and things like that, and I was not about to splash out £30 for the Laura Mercier one! This is so good, I don't really bake with it, but I do like to set under my eyes with it, as it just feels so smooth and works really well, I don't get any creasing and I don't get a funny white cast wherever I put it, it's completely translucent! And this was only £2.99 I think, so it's so affordable and I can guarantee I won't be buying the Laura Mercier one anytime soon!

Onto a product I don't usually feature on my blog: false eyelashes! These are the Ardell Demi Wispies, which are the typical eyelashes most beauty gurus use. I ordered these on Amazon for around £3, which is much cheaper than I would get them in Boots! They look so fluttery and real - yes, they're really thick, but they do look really realistic compared to other eyelashes I've seen! I've worn these so many times since I got them (mainly if it's a special occasion, they're too much effort to apply all the time! They make my eyes look so big and I just love wearing them, and I would 100% recommend them!

Onto lip products, I've been wearing Kylie's Lip Kit in Candy K practically everyday. I'm so sorry, I realise how much I talk about these, but since I have been using it for at two months straight, I thought it was only fair I give it a quick mention. You all know how much I love these, I did a whole post on the mini mattes, which I got a few months ago, and Koko K and Candy K are by far my favourites! I did mention that I do prefer the formula on these ones to my full size of Koko, which I got back in May, so I'm not sure if they've changed the formula since then!

Anyway Candy is a really gorgeous browny nude pink, that I wear most days to school, and it lasts all day without flaking or fading!

There! I'll try not to mention them quite so much now!

I also love the Colourpop Matte Lippie in Bumble, which I also dedicated a whole post to! This is a dark mauvey pink that I've been wearing constantly since I got it! I wear it mostly at the weekend because I stay far, far away from bright lipsticks for school. This again, lasts alllllll day and doesn't fade! I love the formula of these, they're so thin and liquidy and easy to apply, and I really want to order more, as they're so cheap, but the shipping and customs is not so cheap, so unless Colourpop do a £4.99 shipping deal again, I won't be ordering again in the near future!

Lastly, I'l give a quick mention to two nail polishes I've been wearing: Essie's Maximillian Strasse Her and Barry M's Beach Keen. Maximillian Strasse Her is a dark muted mint green-y shade, that looks a bit plain in the bottle but looks so gorgeous on your nails! Beach Keen is an orangey nude colour that isn't too bright our out there on your nails, so it's perfect for school if you aren't allowed to wear nail polish, but it looks so pretty on!

Okay, onto non-beauty, there's quite a few, so get ready! First, is two books: Very British Problems and More British Problems by Rob Temple. I bought the first one on my Kindle and the second in paperback after reading the Very British Problems Twitter account and finding it really funny. These books are full of things all British people do that make them awkward, like holidays, travelling and loads of other things. This book literally makes me laugh out loud (I sound like such a gran saying that!), as everything is so relatable and I would so pick at least one of these up as they're so hilarious and I just love reading them!

Next, is Mulan, which I watched a few days ago and have became a bit obsessed with. I haven't seen Mulan since I was about 5 or 6, so when I watched it again, it was so good and I was so into the plot! Even if you aren't really into Disney movies, I would definitely listen to the soundtrack, the songs are so good, and I can't stop listening to it! It's all about a girl named Mulan (surprise surprise!) who goes in place of her father to fight in a war. Awful summary, but just watch it, you won't be disappointed!

Apologies for my awkward hand reflection on my iPad...

Next, is Stranger Things! Ha! You thought you'd finished hearing about it from every blogger and Youtuber? Well ahahaha, because I finished it a few weeks ago and I was  o b s e s s e d  with it. It's just so amazing and interesting! It's all about a boy named Will, who goes missing, and his 3 friends go looking for him. Just please watch this if you haven't already, it's one of the best TV shows I've watched!

Okay, the last thing in this favourites is Victoria, which was a show on ITV in the UK. This finished like last month, but I haven't done a favourites in ages and I couldn't not mention this! This was so good, it's all about the early reign of Queen Victoria, and how she met Prince Albert and it's just so good, honestly, hop on to ITV Player and watch this, it's so interesting and funny, and I am SO excited for the second series next year! I'm a bit of a history nerd, so I absolutely loved this, but even if you aren't really into history, you'll still love it, I promise!

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Woo! We're done! That was a long favourites post! There was a lot more I could mention, but I decided to just cut it off there so as it won't be too long!

As I've said 45 times, I'm going to be posting every second day up until Christmas, so I hope you like the regular posts from me!

Anyway, thank you for reading, and before I go, I just wanted to say thank you so much for 20,000 views on my blog! I didn't even realise I'd hit it until recently, but I'm just so happy with how my blog's grown in the past few months!

Thank you again, and I'll see you on Friday! 

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The Christmas Gift Guide - £25 & Under!

Hello! So today I'm bringing you the first gift guide of 2016! Woooo!

I've decided on doing 2 guides this year,mainly based on what girls my age would want, as I'm quite good at guessing that!

This one is for gifts at £10-£25, and my next one will be for £10 and under!

I have got a lot of products to talk about, so let's get started!

Colourpop Haul // Shipping, Review & Swatches!

Hello! 

A few weeks ago, I made a cheeky order on Colourpop, after I got sent an email telling me that they were doing a special £4.99 flat rate shipping deal on all international orders. 

I've heard that shipping to the UK is normally £25, so when I heard that it was only £4.99, I was right on the website!

So I've had my three liquid lipsticks for a few weeks now, and I think I can give you a full review of my thoughts on these!

Skincare Routine // How I Cleared Up My Skin!

Hello everyone! This is my first proper blog post in a few weeks (last week's post didn't count, that was just me rambling away for a while).

So, a skincare routine! I thought it was about time I done a new version of this, as since the last time I done one, my skin has completely cleared up and it's all down to these products that I use every day! Well, at least I'm assuming it's because of these - I don't know what it would be because of otherwise!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

The Roundup #5 - School Stress, Shopping Bans & CHRISTMAAAS!

Hello! Long time no see! 

Yes, I am back, not that any of you have probably noticed, but I've been a bit erratic with my posts recently, but I've got my posts all organised, I'm made a rather fabulous looking spreadsheet (I'm a really cool 16 year old in case you haven't already noticed) and I'm ready to get back into blogging.

I'd thought I'd kick off things with a new roundup post, as I'm currently in a really chatty mood - although I'm not really chatting to you am I? I'm just rambling away to myself and hoping that someone might read it! 

Anyway, I hope you like this little rambly post, and don't get too bored!