The Sunday Edit #81

At long last, a Sunday Post! I think the last time I did a Sunday post was just after Christmas so it's been a while.

This week has been quite a busy one! I met up with some really good friends of mine, Meg and Charleigh on Monday and spent an entire day with them, just chatting and eating Mexican food which was fab! Tuesday I spent all day working on bloggy things, and I went to see Finding Dory with my best friend Evie after dancing, which was absolutely amazing, I thoroughly enjoyed the film and I am so glad that I wasn't disappointed. On Wednesday I did a spot of shopping in the morning, and then another friend of mine, Chloe, came round to film a video with me for her youtube channel which you can find here, which will be up Wednesday next week as well as the blog she did when she spent the day with me which should be up the Wednesday after. Go and subscribe to Chloe so you will see our video once she has uploaded it, and go and leave some comments and let her know that I sent you! Then on Thursday, I went into Town with Meg and Charleigh to do some makeup shopping, and we had some amazing burgers in the Gourmet Burger Kitchen and had a really lovely day! Then Friday I spent most of the day doing even more bloggy things, so you all have a lot of exciting things to look forward to! Yesterday I did a little more shopping, and I also went and got henna done for the very first time which was so exciting. I have been wanting it done for so long and I finally found a lady to do it. You can see a photo of it on my instagram which is linked in the little button at the top of my blog, or you can just search up my username 'its_little_em'.

For anyone wondering, the amazing pieces of wall art in the above photo are from Coconut Lane which are an amazing site that sell everything you can possibly imagine! Wall art, stationary, homeware, sunglasses, socks, jewellery, phone and laptop cases and so much more! So many beautiful girly designs, you can definitely rely on them to have something to suit your taste. I absolutely love their sassy quotes, and I think they will look amazing all around my room. You can use my discount code 'littleem20' to get 20% off your order, so treat yourself to some of their amazing goodies. I have my eye on some of their amazing sunglasses, I particularly like the Luxe Marble Tropez Sunglasses which you can see on the stunning Melia May in the photo below! *Inserts all of the heart eyed emojis* Click the photo to see her Instagram (it's so beautiful!) and be sure to check out her blog!

If you would like to keep up to date with what I'm up to on a daily basis, be sure to follow me on snapchat! My username is emilyfaye1998, and make sure you leave a comment letting me know what your username is so I can add you back!

What have you been up to this week and have you enjoyed it? I would love to know!

Emily xx

My Skincare Routine | August 2016

It's been a very long time since I posted a skincare routine, purely for the fact I can't stick to a proper routine. Being a blogger, I am constantly getting new products to try and my routine is constantly changing so it is obviously pointless me writing a post on something which could be completely different in a weeks time. With that being said, I have finally found a routine that I have been using for about a month, some products I've been using for a bit longer, some I have recently added in.

Firstly, I always try to use my Magnitone Lucid Cleansing Brush* at least every other day. (You can find a full post on this here.) This is a gentle cleansing brush that deep cleans your pores without being too harsh on the skin. It really gets into every nook and cranny, and its timer allows you to make sure each area of your face is given an equal amount of love for just the right amount of time. This quickly became a holy grail skincare product after magnitone kindly gifted it to me last year, and it is definitely a staple product in any skincare routine. The one I have linked is actually a new one from Magnitone, as I am not sure the lucid is still available any more. The Barefaced! cleansing brush also tones the skin with the toning mode called Pulselift Toning. This new and improved version is the same price as the old lucid, and you can 20% off of all magnitone products when using my code 'EmilyR20' or clicking on the link that can be found at the bottom of my Affiliate Links page (though this isnt an affiliate link, I don't gain anything from the link and discount code, they are just for your enjoyment!).

The next product goes hand in hand with the cleansing brush, the Soap and Glory Peaches and Clean Deep Cleansing Milk has been a fond favourite of mine for a good few years now (and its on offer in boots at the minute, go get you some). It is gentle on the skin and leaves it soft and supple, as well as being powerful enough to really clean out any impurities and leave my face feeling squeaky clean. This is one of the very few cleansers that I really do get on with, you can tell I love it because this is my third bottle! You also get a whole lot of product for your money, you get 350 ml which is going to last you one hell of a long time!

If I don't feel as though I have got enough exfoliation from my cleansing brush, I will go in with another exfoliator. I am currently trying the Biore Baking Soda Cleansing Scrub which is a veru unique product. It's a powder, which you mix with water and it forms a paste which you then massage into your skin and then rinse off. It does a really good job of scrubbing and brightening the skin without being too rough and harsh, I don't find that it makes my skin red and irritated and I definitely think it's doing my skin some good. My skin is alot less bumpy and alot more radiant than it was before I started using this product, but I will definitely keep you updated as time goes on.

Next up is toner. I have two toners that I alternate between, my tried and trusted Sebamed Clear Face Toner* which I have written about this and the rest of the range here (the links in this post no longer work as Sebamed moved sites, so you can find all of the products through the toner link above) and the La Roche-Posay Serozinc Spray which I have been using for a few weeks. I am really loving this  product, the cool mist has been a dream in this horrifically hot weather we have been having here in the UK (that's all gone down the toilet now, currently looking outside to black skies and pouring rain). I also find it really calms the redness down in my skin and really soothes it, as well as making it feel plump and hydrated. I completely drench my face in this at least three times a day, it really helps to wake me up and make me feel refreshed, so I absolutley love it! I actually meant to include it in my monthly favourites but completely forgot about it, so maybe it'll make an appearance next month!

Lastly for moisturising, I use quite a few products that I chop and change, but my most used is the Safa Skincare Daily Moisturiser* which is a lovely, all natural and vegan moisturiser that works perfectly on my oily skin. It is very light and doesnt feel heavy and greasy, and with its main ingredient being Shea Butter, it leaves your skin feeling hydrated and velvety soft. If my skin is being particularly problematic, I will mix a few drops of tea trea oil in with this, and it works perfectly at calming my skin and restoring some order back into my face. For under and around my eyes, I use the Kiko Eye Potion which has sadly been discontinued, but I find this really brightens and eliminates dark circles and really hydrates the area, so that my makeup goes on and blends smoothly and doesnt look caked up. This is perfect on a no-makeup day just to brighten up those dark eyes a little bit, or under makeup as a great base for eyeshadow and concealer. Before I discovered this product I used to use the Benefit It's Potent Eye Cream which I absolutely loved, but couldnt replace because it was so expensive!

What are your skincare must-haves? Do you have any recommendations for me?

Emily xx

*After writing this post, I now realise that quite a few products mentioned were sent to me as PR Samples. I have put an asterisk next to the ones that were sent to me, and my opinions are completely honest and this wasnt sponsored at all! If I didnt like them, I wouldnt have featured them again after they had already been reviewed! :)

July Favourites | 2016

Alas, my very long awaited July favourites! It seems like its been forever since I last posted a monthly favourites.... well to be honest it feels like it's been forever since I've posted at all! Alot of techonological issues have stopped me in my tracks when it comes to blogging - all will be revealed in The Sunday Edit, which you might have guessed will be up on Sunday. Anyways, I'm back again, and hopefully for good this time! Now I'm going to stop talking rubbish and get on with it!

First up is the Kylie Lip Kit in Candy K which you may have seen me post about a few weeks ago. I did a first impressions which you can find here and I have been raving about it on social media quite a bit. In my first impressions, I mentioned that it was comparable to the Sleek Matte Me Lipgloss which I've now discovered is actually not the case now I have had more chance to trial both products out. I think the liquid lipstick is definitley more comparable to the Matte Liquid Paints which are from a brand that is new to me - Coloured Raine (More on these very soon). I find the Sleek ones are a little thicker in texture and wear very differently to the Kylie ones, more on those very soon as well! I would say that the liner is definitely comparable to the Essence ones, very creamy, extremely pigmented and glide on very smoothly. I think this is pretty much my most worn lip product this month, there certainly weren't many days where you wont have seen me wearing this! The formula is a dream, the colour is the perfect pinky nude and it pretty much goes with whatever outfit or makeup look I choose for that day, whatever I might be doing.

Next we have pretty much my favourite thing in the entire world, the Anastasia Glow Kit in Gleam+. I have never glowed so much in my life, the formula of these powders are so creamy, butter and pigmented, they are just a dream to work with. The glitter particles are so finely milled that you really do have a beautiful glowy sheen rather than sparkles, which in my opinion is the perfect formula for a highlighter. This kit contains 4 decently sized pans, each very pinky toned in colour and being fairly versatile for most skin tones. This palette comes in at £39, which is a little on the pricey side, but I do think for the size of the pans you are pretty much getting 4 full size highlighters for that money in one sleek and sturdy palette, and for the quality I think just under £10 each isnt to be sniffed out. If you want to see a full, in-depth review and swatches, then keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks!

As you can probably tell, I'm quite into Highlighter. My second favourite highlighting product of the month is the Sleek Highlighter Eye Palette in Solstice. So many people have raved about this product, and I can totally see why everyone loves it. The palette is very versatile, I use it as both eyeshadow and highlighter as the name would suggest and it is such a fabulous product to have in your collection. This again has 4 pans, a lot more compact and travel-friendly than the Anastasia Beverly Hills offering. In this kit, you get 3 powders and one cream. Sleek have absolutely nailedthe formula of these, they are very intense and pigmented, but you are able to apply a small amount if you prefer to go for a more subtle look. Again, if you want to see a full, in-depth review and swatches, keep your eyes peeled over the next couple of weeks!

The next product goes hand in hand with the Glow Kit and the Solstice Palette, the Morphe M501 Pro Pointed Blender Brush has swiftly replaced my Real Techniques Setting Brush to become my new favourite highlighter brush. After seeing Jaclyn Hill rave about this, I just knew it had to be mine. If it's good enough for Jaclyn, it's good enough for me! At £6.25, this brush is a total bargain. It is the perfect size to apply product precisely where you want it, whether that my highlighter, setting powder or maybe even contour. It gets into all those hard-to-reach places and blends product beautifully and seamlessly. The bristles are very soft for such an affordable brush, and I haven't notices any shedding at all! This one is definitely a winner.

Following the Contour and Highlighting theme, after hearing a whole lot about the L.A. Girl Pro Conceal HD Concealer I decided to give it a whirl. I ordered two of them, one in the shade Classic Ivory (which is the lightest shade might I add) for highlighting and then the one I'm talking about today in Toast for contouring. The lightest shade is sooooooooo dark and orange, I used this when I was fake tanned af, and it was too dark to even use to cover up blemishes instead of highlighting, so I gave it to my sister who is alot darker than me, and even she says its a little dark! As I've already mentioned, I use the shade Toast to contour my face. This is also maybe a little dark and I couldve definitely got away with a lighter shade, but I can work with this. A little goes along way, one little squeeze will contour my entire face and still leave me with enough to use for next time. The tube is a squeezy one with a little brush on the end, making it so easy to draw in where you want your contour and making it as precise as possible. I draw some crosses in a line under my cheekbones, sweep a line down the sides of my nose, under my bottom lip, on the deepest part of my cupids bow and along my jawline. It blends beautifully, and looks like an almost airbrushed contour. I blend it in using the Seventeen cheek brush on my cheekbones and jawline and then I use the Real Techniques Base shadow brush for the sides of my nose and all of the smaller areas. I also make sure I go over this with my Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge to make sure everything is blended seamlessly.

Last but not least, I've been seriously impressed with the Essence Eyeliner Pen. This is definitely similar to the Soap and Glory Supercat Eyeliner Pen but for a third of the price. It's thin tip makes sharp wings and precise lines so much easier, and eases the struggle of winged liner quite a bit. It doesn't flake or smudge throughout the day, nor does it fade. The pigmentation is incredible and I don't find it to be too watery which is an issue I have with quite a few liquid liners. It is a brilliant product, my only issue being, it isn't the slightest bit waterproof so even the tiniest little splash adn it'll be all down your face. However, it doesn't claim to be waterproof and for £2, I can't really complain!

What have been your favourites throughout the month?

Emily xx

+ Cult beauty was down at the time of writing this post, so I was unable to link the Glow Kit, however I will add in a link as soon as it is back up and running!

Kylie Lip Kit - Candy K | First Impressions

I had a few posts in mind that I wanted to do for today and I couldnt decide which one to write, so I did a little poll on twitter and 100% of all of the people who voted wanted to hear my first impressions on the infamous Kylie lip kit. Before I get on to the actual product, I will quickly go through the whole ordering process and share my experience with you.

I ordered this on Tuesday 21st June and I had a confirmation email that told me it would be 3-5 days for the order to process and then 10-15 days to arrive after it has been shipped. I had an email on 23rd June to say the order had been shipped and I was able to track it throughout its journey from Los Angeles. I expected it to arrive Monday (4th July)  as one of my friends had received hers on Saturday (2nd June) but nothing arrived. On Tuesday 5th July I had a little card come through my door and low and behold I'd been hit with a customs charge of £11.96 which made a product that once seemed a fairly reasonable price become extremely expensive. Once I had paid that, I then got the delivery yesterday, at long last. As far as prices go, the lip kits are $29 each and shipping to the UK was $13.95 (though this will probably vary depending on how much you order). This worked out to be about £29 which I thought was fairly reasonable for a lipstick, lipliner and shipping to the UK. However, when you add the customs charge, it works out just under £41 which is a little on the pricey side. Some people don't get a customs charge, it seems to be a bit hit and miss but I guess I was just one of the unlucky ones!

Now, onto the actual product! It arrived beautifully packaged in the Kylie box, careully wrapped in foam to avoid damage in transit and with a little card from Kylie. In case you've been living under a rock and didn't already know this, the kit comes with a matte liquid lipstick and a matching lip liner. When I bought mine, I literally thought it was going to sell out in minutes so I didnt really think about which shade to buy, I knew I liked the look of candy K so I pretty much just bought it straight away, as quickly as I possibly could before they sold out again. The packaging of the products themselves is really beautiful, the box that holds the lip liner and lipstick looks beautiful on display on your dressing table, and the actual products are fairly simple, yet look beautiful on display also.

As you can see, the colour is almost like a pinky browny nude shade, but I find it looks so different in every photo I took and every photo I have seen online so it is really hard to depict the true colour. I spent almost 2 hours taking photos and editing them so that I could try and get an accurate representation of how the colour looks in real life. All of the swatches I have seen online of the other lipkits show that the lipliner matches the lipstick perfectly, they are identical colours but this isnt the case for Candy K. I initially thought that they had sent me a dodgy one where I had the wrong lipliner because they are so different. The lipliner is more of a yellowy brown, and is a completely different shade to the lipstick which is a bit lighter and a lot more of a pinky brown. I found when I just lined my lips with the lip liner and then filled in the middle with the lipstick, you could quite clearly see the lipliner round the edge so it looked like I had lined my lips with a completely different colour and it looked a little bit odd. I have found the best way to apply it is to line the lips and also fill them in slightly with the liner, and then go over the top and right to the edges with a thin layer of the liquid lipstick.

Formula-wise, I was very impressed. The lipliner is very pigmented and very creamy, I barely touched it onto my lips and their was a definite line there, it glides on beautifully without any tugging and has a precise point so you can get a neat and defined edge to your lips. The only issue with it being so creamy is that it will run out quicker because alot of product transfers onto your lips. You can see from the photo above that 3 uses have already taken the lipliner down quite considerably (you can google a photo of a brand new one for a comparison, I was way too excited to wait to photograph it before I used it!). I would compare this formula to the Sleek Eau La La Liner's, they are almost dupes when it comes to the formula. I will do a little bit of research to see if Sleek do a lipliner in a similar shade, because I have heard that the Sleek Matte Me Liquid Lipstick in the shade 'Birthday Suit' is a dupe for the Candy K liquid lipstick, so you could make your own little Kylie Lip Kit using Sleek products. The liquid lipstick formula is also similar to the formula of the Sleek Matte Me's, they aren't identical but they're certainly comparable. It has a fairly small Doe foot applicator, which makes application quick and easy ensuring a perfect finish every time. The formula itself is quick watery and runny, and you do have to take care not to apply too much because there isnt the little thingybob (you'll have to excuse my highly technical language) that scrapes off the excess product, like you would get in other liquid lipsticks, lipglosses and mascaras. The pigment of this is insane, the swatch you see photographed above is just one swipe. ONE SWIPE. You literally only need a thin layer, it goes on smoothly and evenly without any patches, I can see this quickly becoming my favourite liquid lipstick formula. As far as longevity is concerned, so far so good! I am writing this at 1:14pm and I applied this at 5am this morning before I went to work, and considering I had a greasy mcdonalds breakfast (yeah, the diet is going great) and its still there, it has jsut faded slightly in the middle which I'm not too bothered about, its lasted alot longer than most other liquid lipsticks I have tried. It hasn't flaked or rolled up into bits, just faded gradually and left a sort of stain which I love. It honestly has such a unique texture, it feels like I'm wearing nothing on my lips even though it is matte, it feels very comfortable to wear.

Overall, I am extremely impressed with the Kylie Lip Kit and I would definitely recommend them if you don't mind gettina a hefty customs charge and you love a good liquid lipstick. I can see myself getting a lot of use out of this, and hopefully purchasing some more from Kylie cosmetics. If you would like to purchase a Kylie Lip Kit or any of her other products, I believe there are still some in stock so head over to kyliecosmetics.com and let me know what shades you've bought/want to buy!

Emily xx

P.S, there is a photo of me wearing Candy K on my snapchat, my username is emilyfaye1998 if you'd like to add me!

Where the hell have I been?

                                     

Very long time, no speak! Well I have been away for a rather long time, and now I am back (hopefully for good this time) so I thought I would do a little update post to explain myself, because alot has happened!

 

The main reason I have been away is that my laptop broke so obviously it has been very difficult for me to blog. I literally came home from dancing one night and went to use it and the screen was literally completely blacked out and fuzzy, it hadnt been dropped or even touched and it just broke which was extremely annoying. This was back in February, and those of you who own apple products will be aware of the extortionate prices to get things repaired, and I'm really not sure there is alot that can be done to fix it so it is just a matter of saving up for a new one. It is still broken now and I still don't have a new one but I am so desperate to get back into blogging again that I am having to use my dad's computer and my phone to post which is a pain, but what can you do?!

 

Those of you who follow me on social media will already know that I passed my driving test on June 1st and I now have my very own car. I have a mint green fiat 500, who is named Humphrey! The photo above is him after I had given him his very first bath, which you may have already seen on Instagram and Twitter. He is an absolute beauty and I am so pleased with him, and I am so pleased with myself for doing it all by myself (independent ladies, I salute you). I am considering doing a post on my experience with learning to drive, my test and getting my car, so let me know if that is something you would be interested in.

 

I have also just finished college for the summer so I am now a free bird until 5th September which means I now have a lot more time to write blog posts and work on my blog, hopefully getting myself back up to where I was before I disappeared off the internet! I have really missed blogging and hopefully I can bring a whole new range of content to you to hopefully grow my blog a little more and get back into the swing of things.

 

I have lost quite a lot of followers, obviously due to my absence people had thought I had given up! I would like to thank those of you who stuck around though, and I just wanted to let you know that I am eternally grateful for your support!

 

Emily xx