Drugstore Makeup Starter Kit

Everyone has to start somewhere with makeup, and if your anything like me you have to know research anything before you buy, SO today I'm going to show you the first items I bought to start off my kit. I still use these products today (obviously not the ones I bought 3 years ago though..) and I love them.

When it comes to my base makeup I love to make sure that firstly, I do not have heavy makeup as I hate being able to feel that I have makeup on, and secondly I do love to make my face a clean and blank canvas for the rest of my makeup. 

The foundation I bought that I stuck with and used to get me so many compliments is the Rimmel London Wake Me Up Foundation. There are so many reviews and good comments on this foundation so I'll add mine, I love it! Now if you do feel you need some extra coverage I can not recommend this concealer enough, and for only £4.19 you NEED this concealer. And finally I do like to powder my face to keep my face some what matte throughout the day and my choice has to be Natural Collection's Pressed Powder at only £1.99, you can't go wrong!

I personally then like to put back some colour into my face and to do that I love using bronzer and blusher. Sleek's blush in Rose Gold is perfect for everyone and every skin tone, this is a fantastic blush because due to the gold shimmer in it, it acts as a blush and a highlighter. Now when I go for a bronzer I usually choose a matte one so that I can contour with it too if I want to! So for your drugstore makeup starter kit I would recommend Rimmel's Sun Shimmer Compact Powder, which despite the name you can get in matte.

Then finally for the finishing touches, I can't go without my Maybelline The Rocket Waterproof mascara to keep my lashes curled. If you're like me and have very straight eyelashes that don't want to defy gravity then definitely opt for a Waterproof one as they hold the curl! Then for the brows, I never used to do my brows but once you find the right technique and product you'll always want to do your brows. Now I do use the Benefit Browzings Kit, but I have heard that Sleek's Brow Kit is an amazing dupe. And then to make sure I don't have foundation lips, I think when starting a makeup kit it is best to start out with a nude lipstick and my choice is Sleek's Barely There True Colour Lipstick, I still love this so much it is just such a gorgeous colour that I believe would suit everyone!

I hope this post could help you out a little bit to learn about some products I've always loved!

Love El

xxx

GHD Curls

This tutorial may be super helpful or not at all helpful and you may already know how to curl your hair using GHDs BUT just in case I can help one person, this is how I curl my hair with GHD straighteners.

I went through a massive stage when I was 16 of curling my hair with GHDs maybe every few days and never actually straightened my hair, now that may sound bad but I'm not actually using any more heat then when I do straighten it, and the curls last ages. I get so many compliments when I curl it so thought I would share my secret!

These are the GHDs I have, I have had them for probably nearly 3 years and they are still going strong! I'm pretty sure they were from the Midnight Collection.

Now starting off I just scroll the straightener down my hair a tiny bit to straighten the root, and this is where the curling begins.

Next up I then turn the straightener around, I do this until the hair coming out of the straightener is then pointing downwards again. (You will see this in the next photos.)

Once the hair is pointing downwards again I just pull the GHDs down my hair until there's no hair left and I am left with a curl!

Depending on how big or small the piece of hair you have chosen the different the curl-wave will be!

Hope this helped! Sorry I'm useless at explaining.

Love El

xxx

Gold // Jewellery

A new jewellery blog post today including only Primark necklaces and New Look rings! 

I love New Look and Primark for inexpensive jewellery, they have great designs and if you're looking for something a bit different and not a staple piece then I think they are the places to go!

I was always a girl to love only silver pieces but that has TOTALLY changed recently and I'm starting to wear more gold pieces as I feel it goes well with my skin tone. I also love layering necklaces at the moment (basically because I want to be Meghan Rienk's) and so I actually layered these necklaces from Primark. The shortest and longest necklace came in a pack of 3 with another and the middle necklace was on its own for only £1.50!! 

Then the rings I actually bought quite a long time ago from New Look and I'm pretty sure they were a pack of 5 rings, being a mixture of midi and regular rings.  

I really love wearing more jewellery in the Summer (not that the weather has been any sort of representation of Spring OR Summer!

What is your favourite jewellery metal to wear? 

Love El

xxx

L'Oreal Steam Pod

I have owned this piece of equipment for so long now and can't believe I didn't think about telling you all about it before!

Now this little invention really is like an iron for your hair, meaning that not only does it have the hot plates but it also has steam - hence being called the L'Oreal Steam Pod. You can buy products like hair creams to go with this to really enhance the condition of your hair and I do have one of the creams and it definitely works!

Now you would probably assume this takes a long time to do and its a treat for special occasions - as do I, but every time I use it I realise I'm wrong and with each use it gets quicker!

All you need to do is put water in the little thing (that I have no idea what to call it) attached to the straighter up to the max line to be safe. And straighten your hair being very sure that the comb within the straightener is at the bottom, and that's it! Temperature goes up to 210ºC and once the number stops flashing it has heated up and ready to use.

This honestly makes my hair so smooth and every time I straighten each piece it looks and feels as though I've just come out of the salon. I love this little contraption so much and it is well worth the money! The straight-ness of your hair will last for so long (trust me I just ran through a little bit of rain earlier and surprisingly my hair is still perfectly intact!)

You're about to be very pleasantly surprised by some before & after shots I tell you.

You can get this Steam Pod at quite a few different salons (Toni&Guy), independent salons, Amazon, Look Fantastic and other places!

Love El

xxx

ps PLEASE check out my new YouTube video!!

20 Reasons Why You Should Love Yourself

This list is for every single one of you out there reading it.

For every single one of you who doesn't love yourself enough.

I know that my readers are a load of blummin' amazing people therefore every reason here applies to you.

1. Love yourself because you're gorgeous - inside and out

2. Love yourself because you're amazing

3. Love yourself because you're extremely important generally

4. Love yourself because you're extremely important and loved by a lot of people - probably more than you think

5. Love yourself because you have an awesome personality

6. Loving yourself doesn't mean you are big headed, it can just make you feel more confident

7. Learning to love yourself can make you happier

8. Loving yourself can make you more attractive (not that you need a significant other to complete you!)

9. Love yourself because you're tough - you've been through so much and you're you still here

10. Love yourself because you're there for people - I can tell just by my comments you're all lovely people

11. Love yourself because you have an amazing figure

12. Love yourself because of your fantastic taste in clothes

13. Love yourself because you're unique to anyone else - making you very special

14. Love yourself because even though people can come in and out of your life, you'll always be here

15. Loving yourself will make you even stronger

16. Love yourself because you deserve your own love just as much as your friends, family or partners do

17. Love yourself because you'll finally enjoy alone time

18. Loving yourself is good for your mind and health

19. Love yourself because there's no such thing as perfection - stop putting yourself down

20. Love yourself because life is short

So stop being your own worst enemy and love yourself

Love El

xxx

100th Post!

Whayyyy!
  Join me for an imaginary drink of champagne!
(I mean it is only 11am and not a well known special occasion...imaginary will have to do)
We've made it to the 100th post mark, and whether you're new here or have been with me for quite some time, well done for sticking with me as I waffle on and on!

There are so many categories on my blog showing that this was and always has been a place for me to waffle/write about everything and anything, and in true El form I haven't stuck to one subject.

I'm one of life's fidgeters, a mover, a can-not-stick-to-one-thing-er but I NEVER would have expected to still be writing or to have at least been able to come up with enough content to fill out 100 BLOG POSTS!! So to me that is quite an achievement to be able to come up with that many different ideas.

Thank you again for joining me on this "adventure" as I called it in my first ever blog post, and lets keep travelling along together.

(P.s. I'm hoping my inspiration never runs out)

Hope you enjoyed that imaginary drink

Love El
xxx

YouTube

Now this is an extremely random and very impromptu blog post but I wanted to tell you all I have started a YOUTUBE CHANNEL!!!!

I have always wanted to start a YouTube channel and actually did quite a long time ago but deleted everything from it. But today I uploaded a video I filmed about a month ago and I'm about to start this new adventure on YouTube!

I thought I would let you all know just in case anyone fancied subscribing. I'll be doing a mixture of everything over on YouTube just like on my blog e.g. makeup tutorials but it won't in any way interfere with my blog!

 So anyway thank you for reading this post and hopefully I'll see you over on my YouTube!!!

There is already a video up - 18 Questions Tag so you can go and learn a bit about me.

Love El

xxx

MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvbb8ylkQOMnS7u1daSD5QA

3 Makeup Products I Couldn't Live Without

Now of course we all have those no makeup days but at the same time I really do love makeup and creating new looks, but these are the products I really couldn't live without.

Now this all sounds really dramatic, I mean I could live without makeup but I'd rather not and the people who would actually have to see me would probably feel the same way BUT I'm saying if I could only choose 3 makeup products to use forever then these would be my 3.

Now, to be honest, I was going to make this specific about the products but I think I would actually use these specific brands of products too. So first HAS to be concealer, like yes please NOBODY, I repeat NOBODY wants to see El Willmer's dark circles not covered up. I definitely would pick concealer as one of my must-have products, as it can cover a multitude of sins, and can just make you feel that little bit more confident in yourself. I love this one by Collection and I'm sure you've heard all about it before but it really is so fantastic, the coverage is incredible as is the lasting power and just everything about it.

Secondly a mascara is very important to me because it INSTANTLY changes how my eyes look. I am really not a fan of my eyes at all but as soon as I apply mascara they are suddenly so open, as I naturally have straight lashes so this makes a big difference to me, I would have to have an eyelash curler. I would certainly choose Maybelline's The Rocket Waterproof Mascara because I definitely trust this one as I have been using it for ages. 

Just a tip, if you're like me with straight lashes then I can certainly recommend a waterproof mascara because, even though its difficult to get off it will hold the curl all day!

And finally you can't go wrong with a bit of bronzer, now I love Benefit's Hoola Bronzer more than any other bronzer and actually can't see myself using a different one! I would use this to not only contour to add shape to my face but to also add some colour to my skin, as otherwise I am so disgustingly pale.

And those are definitely the 3 products I couldn't live without!

What 3 products could you not live without?

Love El

xxx

Extremely Colourful Eyeshadow Tutorial - FAIL

I think its fair to say this look did not come out quite how I wanted it to, but hey we all have makeup fail days!! Makeup fail days happen to the best of us, right?!

I thought I would show you this tutorial anyway just in case you can get any sort of inspiration from it, although that would probably be quite difficult.

Product:

Sleek - Sparkle Palette

I think you can definitely see this is a fail of a tutorial!

No idea how it went so wrong.

Love El

xxx