HOW TO BUILD A CUSTOM EYESHADOW PALETTE YOU WILL USE TIME AND TIME AGAIN

BUILDING A DREAM CUSTOM EYESHADOW PALETTE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE DIFFICULT

I think it is pretty clear that I have an obsession with makeup; in particular eyeshadow palettes. Even though I already own too many I am always going to keep growing my palette collection because I love eyeshadows. However, I own quite a few eyeshadow palettes that have eyeshadows in them that I have never even used once (either because they are shades that I do not gravitate towards or I just don't ever use them). Usually I will always use the neutral and warm-tones shadows in a palette and then other shades that are brighter are rarely touched. So, a year ago I decide to invest in a custom eyeshadow palette. One that I knew I would wear every shade on a daily basis. 

Custom eyeshadow palettes are definitely an investment piece in any makeup collection. Depending on the size of the palette you choose, a custom palette can cost anywhere from £40 to £200 and sometimes more. I know that I can easily buy an eyeshadow palette from Urban Decay or Too Faced for £40 but there are usually multiple shades that are not shades that I would wear and for me a custom eyeshadow palette made a lot of sense. I will always gravitate towards my custom eyeshadow palette on a more daily basis because I know that every shade in there are shades that I love and have chosen specifically for me that suit my skin tone, eye colour and even hair colour. Don't get me wrong, I still love my pre-made eyeshadow palettes and still use them constantly, but my custom eyeshadow palette is amazing for when I just want to create a simple everyday look and I am feeling a bit stuck on a makeup look. It is also great for travelling as I know I love every single shade and I can create so many different looks with this one palette.

Creating a custom palette can be quite difficult especially if you don't know what kind of palette you want to create - do you want it to be full of warm-toned shades, cool-toned shades, bright colours or neutral colours? Also you have to think about what brand of palette you want to buy and the size, what eyeshadow singles you are going to buy, what shades and how you will arrange the shadows to make it suited for you. So I thought I would share with you my tips for creating your dream eyeshadow palette as well as sharing my own!

IS THIS THE BEST CONCEALER EVER? MAKEUP REVOLUTION CONCEAL & DEFINE

A DUPE FOR TARTE'S SHAPE TAPE CONCEALER?

In my Best of Beauty 2017 post I included a lot of makeup products that I absolutely loved in 2017; but one product that stood out and I have continuously used for the last four months is the Tarte Shape Tape concealer. I never thought that there would be a concealer that would come anywhere close to Tarte's concealer, but I may have been proven wrong. The Tarte concealer is my holy grail concealer, but when I saw that Makeup Revolution had brought out a new concealer called the Conceal & Define, I was very excited because it looks identical to Tarte's Shape Tape and is a fraction of the price. You will have probably seen this concealer in so many beauty blog posts and included in many YouTube reviews and tutorials, as this concealer has taken the beauty community by storm and has become a new favourite for many!

Makeup Revolution is not a brand that I have really spoken about, in depth, on this blog - even though I have used this brand since I started this blog in 2015. I really love this brand and they are so affordable, plus they often have dupes for high-end products (in some cases they are even better than the original). Of course, there are some products that I am not a massive fan of but there are a lot of products that I love and use frequently. Like I said, Makeup Revolution is a brand that is so affordable (with an eyeshadow palette costing between £4 and £12). If you are in the UK, you can buy the range from Superdrug or TAM Beauty and if you are in the US you can buy some Makeup Revolution products from ULTA.

Earlier this year, Makeup Revolution launched their new Conceal & Define range; with 18 shades to choose from. Not only have they considered a wide variety of skin tones (although they can definitely add more shades in the future) but they have also made sure to pay attention to different undertones. As soon as I watched and read some reviews on these concealers, I went straight to my local Superdrug store and purchased some of the shades, however they didn't have every shade in stock so I also purchased a couple of shades online. They were almost sold out in my local Superdrug so it might be easier to order online - but I would recommend going into a store and swatching the tester first as the shades don't necessarily go from the fairest shade to the deepest (because of the different undertones). I did purchase five shades from this collection because I also wanted to use these as cream contour products as well as to conceal and brighten. 

The Conceal & Define concealers retail for £4 from Superdrug and TAM Beauty and $7 from ULTA.

VALENTINE'S DAY GIFT GUIDE FOR HIM

WHAT TO BUY YOUR LOVED ONE FOR VALENTINE'S DAY OR TO JUST TREAT YOURSELF?

With Valentine's Day just round the corner, I thought it was the right time to upload my Valentine's Day Gift Guide! I am someone who is not really a fan of Valentine's Day as I believe that we should treat our loved ones all year round but Valentine's Day is a big day for so many and I wanted to share with you all my favourite items that I think would make great gifts for your loved ones or if you are single, like me, this Valentine's Day then it is a great excuse to treat yourself to something you really want and this might help to give you some ideas. 

I have everything in this Gift Guide, that I think is the perfect gift for that special someone in your life - whether that is a boyfriend, husband, partner, father, grandfather or just a friend! Valentine's Day does not just have to be about treating your partner but why not treat everyone who means something to you! I have included a mixture of affordable and more high-end items so there is something for everyone's budget! There are watches, jewellery, fashion, cologne and so much more (so there is something for everyone)!

VALENTINE'S DAY GIFT GUIDE FOR HER

WHAT TO BUY YOUR LOVED ONE FOR VALENTINE'S DAY OR TO JUST TREAT YOURSELF? 

With Valentine's Day just round the corner, I thought it was the right time to upload my Valentine's Day Gift Guide! I am someone who is not really a fan of Valentine's Day as I believe that we should treat our loved ones all year round but Valentine's Day is a big day for so many and I wanted to share with you all my favourite items that I think would make great gifts for your loved ones or if you are single, like me, this Valentine's Day then it is a great excuse to treat yourself to something you really want and this might help to give you some ideas. 

I have everything in this Gift Guide, that I think is the perfect gift for that special someone in your life - whether that is a girlfriend, wife, partner, mother, grandmother or just a friend! Valentine's Day does not just have to be about treating your partner but why not treat everyone who means something to you! I have included a mixture of affordable and more high-end items so there is something for everyone's budget! There is beauty, handbags, fashion, homeware and so much more (there will be something for everyone)!

THERE'S A NEW TROUBLEMAKER IN MY COLLECTION?

A TROUBLE PROOF MASCARA?

My makeup routine is never complete without applying a coat of mascara to my lashes; if I don't have mascara on I do not feel myself and I usually only like a makeup look once I have applied mascara. There have been times when I have hated my eye makeup and as soon as I applied a coat of mascara I absolutely loved the look. Besides concealer, mascara is the one product that I have to wear everyday as it just makes me feel more confident (I don't know why!). This is the one product that I have been wearing pretty much every single day since I was 14, so of course I have tried a lot of mascaras in my time. I have tested mascaras from the drugstore and from high-end brands and have had several love affairs over the years: one of my favourites was the Maybelline The Falsies and recently I have become obsessed with the Bobbi Brown Eye Opening Mascara. But when I heard that Urban Decay was releasing a new mascara in the Autumn of last year I had to pick one up!

Now, I am very late in reviewing this product as I believe this came out in October of last year but at the time I had quite a few mascaras open and didn't want to open this one until I had used some up - so now is that time to finally review it. I am not someone who wears false lashes regularly as I am very lucky to have long lashes that do often look like false lashes when I wear mascara; so when I saw a lot of bloggers and YouTubers saying that this make their lashes look like false lashes I was excited to try it out. So, I now introduce you to the Urban Decay Troublemaker Mascara ...

This mascara has a lot of claims surrounding it that it is meant to do to the lashes and I was really intrigued whether this mascara could do everything it claims to do. It promises to give lashes 13.7x more volume, as well as being a lengthening mascara. Urban Decay have also said that their unique and specially designed brush applicator separates the lashes as it grabs onto them - whilst coating each lash evenly as well as gently curling each lash at the same time. Basically this mascara does everything that we want in a mascara but does it perform as well as it says it does. I will say that I do have long and thick lashes, so every mascara will look like it has lengthened my lashes and added volume (so maybe consider that when reading this review).

The Urban Decay Troublemaker mascara is available from many retail stores including Urban Decay, Debenhams and Sephora for £19.50.