My 300th post - FOTD

A while back I asked you my wonderful readers what type of posts you would like to see more of and one of the lovely suggestions that I got back was to do more Face Of The Day (FOTD) posts or makeup looks in general. As this is my 300th post today I took a little trip down memory lane looking at all the posts I've done previously, as a reminder of where I started and what I've done since then, and I was genuinely surprised that I haven't done more FOTD posts - after all I wear makeup almost every single day, I change the products that I use constantly so it's unlikely that two looks will ever be exactly the same, so I'm going to make a conscious effort to do more of these types of posts.

The look I'm showing you today has been a bit of a go to look ever since I did my Clinique haul, that I talked about in Clicking with Clinique since I used this to try out a few of the products I had bought. I've also worn it quite a lot since I haven't really been in the mood for wearing complicated, heavy or dramatic statement makeup and this look gives a natural glow and emphasizes my features without being too imposing which you can create in less than 5 minutes. For my foundation I've used the Clinique Moisture Surge CC Cream Colour Corrector (£28) in the shade Medium, which is perfect for a light to medium coverage, for an even skin tone adding a hint of colour and a lovely subtle radiance. For me it's important to get the foundation right, especially when you're aiming for a light and natural look, so I applied the CC Cream using my MOXI O1 Foundation Brush (£13.50) which is brilliant for creating a streak-free, flawless finish.

Since the CC Cream is very long lasting and wears well throughout the day it's been great for these amazing warm days we've had, and I've been 100% confident that my foundation has stayed in place. Because of the colour correcting properties I haven't had to bother with concealer, which has been a very welcome time saver so I've just moved quickly on to do my eyes using another one of the products I bought, Clinique's Chubby Stick Shadow Tint for Eyes (£17). When I first tried chubby sticks for eyes last year I never in a million years thought I would come to like them as much as I have - they are so practical, quick and easy to use and the soft texture is pleasant to wear as well as long lasting. The latest shade I picked up is Whopping Willow, a delicate, golden sage green and which might look a bit unusual but on the eyelid it settles beautifully creating a very natural look with a tiny bit of depth.

To frame my eyes, I've used my trusted Rimmel Professional Eye Brow Pencil (£2.99) in Hazel for a bit of definition and color since otherwise I'll look as mysterious as the Mona Lisa, although on her no eyebrows is a stroke of genius and on me it's just plain wrong. This fuss free eye brow pencil has a soft and formula with just the right amount wax which makes it easy to apply exactly the amount of color you want with a minimum of effort without compromising the long wear. For my lashes I opted for Maybelline Colossal Volume Express (£7.99) in Black, since I never want to compromise on lash length or volume, regardless of which makeup look I'm going for. This was the first time that I tried this mascara, so I'll save my comments on it for a separate review that I'll be doing in a few weeks time so if you're curious about it, don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for that review.

For a look with subtle glow and color, you can't skip the bronzer and although there are loads of brilliant bronzers on the high street, I keep coming back to the amazing MUA Bronzer (£1) in shade 1, which I have mentioned a few times previously. The powder is light and fine with good pigmentation and you only need a quick dab with your bronzer brush in the pan - I use the Real Techniques Retractable Bronzer Brush (£13.99), to pick up enough product to cover all the area that the sun would naturally reach - temples, forehead, chin and tip of the nose. I also use the MUA Bronzer for some sculpting and during the summer, I'll often choose to skip the blusher and just use this shade on the apples of my cheek too. I really like shade 1 - it's a golden light bronze that adds lots of warmth to the face without that orange tone that you often see.

Last but not least and perhaps the most difficult decision - what to wear on the lips? Since I wanted something soft and girly, but with enough color to bring it all together and keep it from being too pale I decided on my Tanya Burr Lipgloss (£6.99) in Afternoon Tea. This is a lovely non sticky (yes they do exist) moisturising candy smelling formula, packed with pigmentation that creates a glossy slick finish that lasts for hrs and hrs. Out of all of the lovely 12 colors in the Tanya Burr Lipgloss range, the creamy coral pink Afternoon Tea is definitely my favorite, and if you haven't already tried these lipglosses, you're missing out on a amazing product so why not treat yourself this weekend to one of the fabulous shades. So that's it - all done, a nice and casual summery look, and if you check out my Instagram, you'll also see the outfit I was wearing this particular day. Even though this is the face of the day, I have a feeling this quick and easy natural glowing look might also be the face of this summer for me. What makeup do you use for your favorite natural look at the moment?

Golden skin days

It's that lovely time of year when many of us stow away our winter clothes and take out the spring and summer items that have been hybernating over winter. As nice as that is, it means that I can no longer hide away my very winter pale, in fact almost blue toned skin under layers of clothes and cosy jumpers, but since it's not quite warm enough yet to don a bikini and catch some sun rays there's only one thing for it - self tanning, something I never do and just thinking about it makes me pale even more with dread. I am a complete dummy when it comes to self tanning and the few times I've dabbled with it I've more often than not ended up looking like an orange zebra. For me to get a streak free, golden glowing natural looking color I need fool proof products and I think I have at long last finally found them.

When it comes to self tanning for the face Clarins has a great selection of products and it was with high expectations that I decided to try the Clarins Liquid Bronze Self Tanning for face and decolleté (£19) since the tag line reads "A dream come true for novices or those with fair skin". It's an ultra light, almost water like colorless lotion that comes in a plastic bottle and you apply it by applying a little bit onto a cotton pad and then quickly wipe the cotton pad all over your face. The lotion feels cool and refreshing on the skin, and with ingredients like Aloe Vera and Vitamin E you also add moisture and nourishment for a lovely soft skin and unlike most self tanning products it has a lovely fresh and delicate feminine scent that reminds me of Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely. The lotion dries immediately without making the skin feel oily or sticky and there's no transfer onto clothes or bedding, so if you apply this in the morning you can go straight ahead and do your makeup on top of it and over the next few hours you'll see the color appearing. I prefer to apply the lotion in the evening, having exfoliated and moisturised and when I wake up in the morning and look in the mirror I have a nice natural and radiant glow. You can apply as many coats as you like for a deeper color, but personally I think that one coat is more than enough for a subtle but noticeable tan. On me the color lasts about 4 days before it's time to it up again which is pretty long lasting, although of course that will depend on how often you wash your face etc. This is a wonderful, easy to use product that gives a nice glow and I can see myself becoming a bit of a tanorexic - it's THAT good.

Especially in the summer I like to enhance whatever little color I have by using a bronzer, and one of my favorites is the cheap as chips MUA Bronzer (£1) in shade 1. It's a nice and light powder bronzer with a very subtle gold shimmer which looks beautiful when the sun catches it. What I like about this shade is that it's a muted natural color without any orange that makes it perfect for sculpting of the cheekbones and to add glow to the areas of your face that the sun would naturally hit, using the Real Techniques Retractable Bronzer Brush (£13.99). What first attracted me to this brush was the fact that it's retractable and as such I thought it would be perfect to have in the hand bag, but what I didn't realise was how big it would be. The packaging is quite chunky and for some reason I thought it would come with a twist up function, but it doesn't - instead there is a retractable metallic sleeve to help gather the hairs before putting the cap back on. Not quite what I would call retractable brush, but aside from that it's a generous, wide and soft brush which is still firm enough for a smooth and even product application. This works amazing if you want to add bronzer all over your face for a nice glow but if it's precision sculpting or just the hollows of your cheek that you are working on, for me this brush is almost too big and it could even double up as a powder brush.

A self tanning gem that I discovered last year when Him Indoors unexpectedly brought it home (probably His subtle way of telling me that I'm ridiculously pale...) is Caudalie's Divine Legs (£26). It's a wonderful nourishing moisturising lotion with a luxurious, silky texture that gives an instant tan that you can easily wash off with water. The formula is tinted and it comes in a generous glass bottle with a practical pump. Because the lotion is tinted, you can see where you've already applied it, making it very easy to get a streak free finish and it dries instantly. I think Divine Legs gives the best results if you've done a body scrub and used another oil free moisturiser before applying it, for a lovely even golden tan that has a lovely glow to it. I used to be a self tan skeptic but with lovely, sweet smelling and easy to use products like these at hand, I am ready to swap the era of pale winter complexion for golden skin days.

MOXI Makeup Brushes

Up until last year I'd never really invested in good tools for applying makeup and I would stick with whatever little applicator came with the product. In my defense I had looked at various brush sets, but more often than not the brushes would cost a fair bit more than I was willing to spend on them especially not since the quality didn't bowl me over. But things are changing on the makeup brush front and you can now get high quality brushes at affordable prices, and my latest brush obsession is the fabulous MOXI Brush Set* (£48) which I'm so fortunate to have tested. The set contains 5 brushes; the MOXI flat top angle brush, the M1 goat hair powder brush, an O1 taklon foundation brush, an X1 angled eye liner brush and the I1 double-ended brush. It's a wonderful gift set which comes in a lovely wrapped box (see photos on my Instagram), which I have already put to good use as makeup storage, and the brushes come individually wrapped and stored in a plastic cylinder that you could keep to protect the brushes if you need to bring them along for touching up on the go.

As you may know I do like lovely packaging and attractive products, and although that in itself isn't more important than good quality, it doesn't hurt to have something pretty to look at on the dressing table - and that's exactly what these brushes are too; sleek, elegant and chic with a dark grey handle and shiny rose gold ferrule. Let's start with looking at the O1 Taklon Foundation Brush (£13.50), which has dense but soft and silky bristles with a lightly rounded point to make it easier to apply foundation evenly and with a streak-free coverage. Since taklon is a synthetic material with a smoother surface, it's easier to clean than other types of brushes so they are also perfect for use if you have sensitive skin without causing any irritation.

Moving on to the MOXI Flat Top Angle Brush (£13.50) which is a synthetic brush with a very tightly packed angled bristle top, great for use with bronzer and blusher for sculpting cheekbones and the bristles feel super soft on the skin and it's nice and pliable to use. The brush is also great for liquid foundation and when I've used it with my YSL Youth Forever Serum Foundation, it easily buffs in the formula leaving my complexion with a very smooth and natural finish. Personally I actually prefer to use this with foundation rather than the O1 Foundation Brush, simply because of how lovely it feels on the skin and by using just the tip of the brush you can even use it on areas where you need more control and precision, a very versatile brush!

Included in the set is also a M1 Goat Hair Powder Brush (£13.50), which is a medium sized brush with a generous amount of bristles and the shape is to help with better precision and control. This brush also has a very dense bristle to make it easy to pick up product and to get a nice full coverage and it feels very luxurious and soft on the skin and apparently it gets even more soft with use. Even though it's intended for powder, it also works really well with blusher and bronzer and personally I love to use it with a blusher since the domed shape of the brush makes it perfect for applying blusher  with a very light touch, right on the apples of your cheeks.

Next up is the X1 Angled Eye Liner Brush (£8) which is made from synthetic fibres. The bristle is quite stiff, although it still feels soft and gentle on the skin, and together with the very fine tip the brush gives your perfect control when you apply the eyeliner, and the angled ferrule makes it so much easier to get really close to the inner and outer corners of the lashline for even application and glamorous feline flicks. I've never been very good at applying eyeliner with a brush, but the angled ferrule really works for me, and even heavy handed I can accomplish a beautiful, precise and thin line with minimal effort - I am completely IN LOVE with this brush.

We've come to the last of the brushes - the I1 Double-Ended Brush (£12.50) which also is a synthetic brush and similarly to the Angled Eye Liner Brush, the bristles are very firm to allow precision work with the brush. It's a multi purpose brush which you can use with concealers and eye shadows - applying with the flat end, and then blending and defining with the angled side. I especially like to use the angled end to blend and it makes it so effortless to achieve a lovely transition between colors.

I am very impressed with the quality and feel of the MOXI brushes, and my favorites out of this lovely 5 is the Flat Top Angled Brush, which is just wonderful for foundations, bronzers and blushers, and the Angled Eye Liner Brush which for me definitely has opened up a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to eyeliner. If you were to buy each of the brushes individually, you'd pay £61 for them, so treating yourself to the MOXI gift box (£48.50) would save you some cash, and let's face it - it's not as if we don't all have a very long wish list of beauty products to spend that money on. In addition MOXI currently offers free shipping on all UK orders, and if you use the discount code MOXI10CL (valid until April 30th) you get an additional 10% off all MOXI orders.

Kiss from a winter rose

Christmas time is the season for all things party, and it's a chance not only to dress up in glamorous outfits but it's also a time to be creative and have fun with makeup, trying on some looks that you might not normally go for. I'm definitely not a professional make up artist but I love to experiment and try on different looks, and since berry and plum shades are on trend I wanted to do a smokey rose eye look using some new shades that are a bit richer and darker and which would work well for an evening winter look. 

Usually I would start by applying my foundation however since I did a smokey eye, I actually left this to after I'd finished my eye makeup to avoid fall out and tedious corrections under the eye, so let's go straight to the eye shadows that I used. I started with applying a wash of The Body Shop Colour Crush Eyeshadow* (£7) in Grape Expectations all over the lid and even a little bit winged on the outer eyelid. It's a great silky eye shadow, that's very rich in pigmentation. You only need very little of this eye shadow, so I would recommend that you start lightly and then build it up and blend it out, which is nice and easy to do because of the lovely texture. The shade Grape Expectations is a beautiful truly matte, deep plum purple with a faint red note that I think would work for most eye colors. I also used what was left on the brush after all the blending and used that to line the lower lashline. To deepen the look I then added DAMS eyeshadow* (£16) in Damson Black to the socket line and also to the wing I created with Grape Expectations for more contrast with my blue eyes. The DAMS eye shadow is another creamy and very pigmented product where you only need very little for a dramatic impact, and I was positively surprised that there was hardly any fall out at all, despite all the blending that I did and the finish turned out very even and intense without looking heavy or cakey.

For definition I added Avon Glimmerstick Eyeliner (£3) in Blackest Black which is a wonderful smooth eyeliner that is long lasting and waterproof so you can also use it on your waterlines for even more impact. I applied the eyeliner on both the upper and lower lashlines and then it was time for the key to the smokey look - the smudging. In a way a smokey eye will hide all sorts of make up sins if you just smudge it enough and unlike blending which softens everything - smudging adds an edge, an attitude: "I slept in my makeup and I look fab" kind of feeling... I used The Body Shop Smudger Brush* (£9) which has a generous soft foam tip that is so flexible to work with and it creates that wonderful fused and slightly messy smokey eye look. I was really impressed by this brush and as much as I love my Real Techniques brushes I will definitely try some of the other brushes that The Body Shop offers. To finish the eye area I had to use the amazing butterfly effect mascara False Lash Flutter from L'Oréal (£10.99). I've mentioned this so many times before so I'll just say that it adds length, volume and flares the lashes all at the same time - perfect when you're going for a heavy eye look.

Having finished the eye area, it's time for foundation and I used The Body Shop All-In-One BB Cream* (£12) in shade 3 Beige. I had never used a BB cream so I don't have much to compare with, but it contains hydrating qualities as well as pigmentation to even out your skin, in short it combines skin care and make up in one products. From the tube the cream looks white, but as soon as you start massaging it in, the pigmentation is released and this will adapt to your skin tone. When I first saw the pigmentation appear on my skin - a rosy terracotta, my heart almost stopped because that is as far away from my natural skin color as you can get. Luckily it did somehow miraculously adjust and gave a light-weight even coverage that not only felt very pleasant and natural on the skin but it also looked very natural. It lasted well throughout the day without transferring onto white clothes and when I removed it, my skin felt hydrated and smooth, as if I'd just moisturised. The only thing I'm not keen on is the scent which gets quite distinct as you work on getting an even coverage partly because I don't find it quite synthetic and  also because it changes into a more dry and powdery scent. I do however like the BB cream and since the scent is fades quite quickly it won't stop me from using it.

I didn't apply any blusher because I wanted the eye makeup to all the talking, but that of course is a personal choice and you could easily wear a berry shade to match. For my lips I used The Body Shop Colour Crush Lipstick* (£10) in Innocent Pink which is a light pale delicate pink with a slight shimmer that gives an almost nude look, great for contrasting a heavy eye. The lipstick feels very moisturising and it fades well and evenly after a few hrs, without any horrible dry patches. 

A smokey eye isn't always easy to carry off in the day time, but depending on which shades to choose, it's less of a vampy look and using the berry shades give depth, without being too dramatic, so for me the look works in the day time as well. If you're looking for inspiration The Body Shop has a wonderful series of mini tutorials to create different Smokey Eyes; Intense, Nude, Subtle, Jeweled or Rose. What do you think - do you like a smokey eye and a nude lip or have you created another look recently that's your new favourite?