Favourite Fall/Autumn/Winter Perfumes

I feel like this post should have been a bit earlier, but better late than never! These perfumes are my most used during this time of the year. I absolutely love perfumes and this was something I wanted to write about for a long time now. I really don't know why I haven't done one sooner. 

I'm not going to mention them in any particular order, all of these perfumes are great and I don't think I can just pick one! 

First up is the Narciso Rodriquez for her, this one was actually one of my first high end perfumes that I got as a gift for my birthday 2 years ago. 

The scent of this so different to anything else, its unique yet still quite feminine. Since this is the Eau De Toilette (EDT) it doesn't last as long as the Eau De Parfum (EDP) would, but it's not too bad, it will last a good 5 hours before you need to spray again.

Top notes

water flowers and lily of the valley

Heart notes

heart of musc

Base notes

patchouli, amberlyn

These are the notes in this EDT, I got this from The Perfume Shop.

This is such an amazing scent, it's similar to Lancome La Vie Est Belle and Giorgio Armani Si, both of which I absolutely LOVE. This is Black Opium by YSL, its my favourite kind of scent, sweet yet sophisticated and a perfect night time/fall/winter scent. I received this as a gift for my birthday this year. 

The lasting power of this is similar to the Narsico Rodriquez one as this is also an EDT, I would say this lasts about 4/5 hours. 

Top notes

Ultra-Luminous Green Coffee Accord

Heart notes

Jasmine Tea

Base notes

Patchouli, White Woods and Musk

Prada Candy is probably the sweetest perfume I own, it smells just like caramel/toffee. I sprayed it on my wrist when it was first released/popular and I immediately fell in love with it. This is an EDP so it lasts very long on my skin. I only wear this during Autumn/winter or as a night time scent. 

Top notes

Musks Cocktail

Heart notes

Benzoin Overdose

Base notes

Caramel Explosion

The original Lovestruck by Vera Wang is another favourite of mine for the daytime during literally all of the seasons, no matter what time of the year it is. This is a light floral scent that isn' too overpowering at all. I normally dislike strong florals, but this is very light and feminine. I don't think anyone will find this offensive which makes it perfect for everyday use at work/school/uni etc. I actually finished a 100ml of this already (at the back of the picture!) and this one I got for my mum who loves it just as much as me! 

This is an EDP and the lasting power of this is very good, the sillage of this is quite good too! 

This is probably the most affordable one in this list as you can get if from fragrance direct for around £25, although the retail price is £70! At £25 for the 100ml this is a bargain and it will last you so long. 

Top Notes            luscious pink guava, heavenly angelica flower, lush mandarin. 

Middle notes       Indian jasmin sambac, delicate tuberose buds, watery blue lotus blossom. 

Base notes          sheer musk, precious woods, addictive vanilla.

I absolutely adore Vera Wang fragrances, I also own Princess from her range and I love that too! You can get her fragrances for discounted prices or on sale. If you haven't tried anything from Vera Wang, next time you are in a fragrance department/store try it out! 

Thank you for reading! Let me know what your favourite perfumes are and what you will recommend to anyone!! xx 

NYX Cosmetics first impressions

If you guys haven't already heard, Boots is now stocking NYX cosmetics products! I went to the boots in bluewater where I saw the new NYX stand and I immediately began picking things up. I wanted to get their lip pencils and their HD pressed powder in banana but they were out of stock unfortunately, I checked online afterwards and to my dismay they were out of stock there too. 

I wanted to try a few things out first so I didn't buy too many things. NYX products are very affordable and the quality for the price is fantastic, NYX has a huge range of products that a lot of people have been raving about for years and I cannot wait to try more. 

Above are the swatches of the NYX lip lingerie in the shade exotic (top) and beauty mark (bottom), they are like a creamy formula when you first apply them but dry matte. They last a very long time (4-6 hours) however they do tend to rub off near the center of your lips if you eat/drink. Overall these liquid lipsticks are very good for their price- £6.50 each, I was also impressed by their lasting power and pigmentation. I had to mention the applicator, it's a long doe foot applicator that makes putting on the lipstick very easy and quick. 

I got the darkest shade in the NYX tinted brow gel, it's a very dark brown tone and looks natural. I like using this on days where I don't have much time do to my makeup (or when I'm feeling a bit lazy). This product is priced at a very reasonable £5.50.

I picked up a makeup setting spray- £7, there were two different types - one for mattifying and the dewy finish one. I decided to get the dewy finish spray as I have dry skin and was afraid the mattifying one would dry my skin out, also I prefer a dewier luminous looking finish. This spray actually contains alcohol in its ingredients so it's probably not going to help my dry skin, it also smells a bit strong, nonetheless, I don't think its a bad product as it did leave my face looking dewier, so I don't regret buying it plus it was quite inexpensive.

So far my first impression with NYX has been very good and I'm already planning on buying more. I really want to see more brands that are not available in the UK to be stocked here soon, like ColourPop, Tarte, Kat Von D etc, it will take me a whole day to list them all.

As always, thank you for reading! xx

Body Shop Lightening/Darkening Shade Adjusting Drops

I've wanted to try these shade adjusting drops ever since they came out, I finally managed to try these out recently and I am not disappointed.

They were both £10 each from the body shop, I have never tried out any of the makeup products from the body shop before although I love love love their skincare products.

I like using the darkening drops as a contouring product the most, I just put a drop on the back of my hands and apply a tiny bit on my cheeks where my natural contour is and I blend it out using a beautyblender. It looks very natural and works very well for this purpose and is my go-to method of contouring right now.

The lightening drops work very well to lighten any dark foundations or even concealers. If you have any foundation you got in the summer when you were more tanned etc just add a drop or two (as much as you need) to lighten it up and make it match your current skin tone better.

The lightening drops look white in photos but it actually has a very very pale pink undertone to it.

This is the applicator, I don't really like it a lot, but it's not bad and gets the job done.

Here I have added a drop of the darkening shade to my foundation.

I've mixed the darkening drop and my foundation and as you can see it has made the foundation darker (also it makes the foundation cooler, but I prefer warmer/more yellow tones foundations).

I added another drop of the darkening shade and mixed, as you can see it keeps making the foundation darker.

Here I have added a large drop of the lightening drop to my foundation.

This last image shows the lightened foundation swatch (top) and the darkened one (bottom). The swatch in the middle is the just the foundation alone without any darkening or lightening drops, just so you can compare the differences. 

I think these products are really handy to have, I prefer using the darker one to contour with like I mentioned before, and the lighter one to lighten up foundations and concealers. 

The consistency of these shade adjusting drops is liquidy but very pigmented. I'd say add a tiny bit by bit to get the shade you want instead of just going in with a lot right away. I have really dry skin and I feel these products do not dry out my face, I'm not sure if it would work on oily skin, but as you are only using small amounts to mix it shouldn't be too bad. I have seen people with oily skin use these. 

Thank you for reading! Please let me know what else you'd like to see on my blog. xx 

The ethnicity TAG

Q1: What is your ethnicity? 

A: I'm Sri-Lankan Tamil.

Q2: When was the last time you visited your country?

A: It has been years since I was last in Srilanka, can't wait to go back there again!

Q3: Name one ethnic food you enjoy the most?

A: It's so hard to pick just one, right now I feel like its appam. 

Q4: Name one household item that best represents your culture.

A: I would say it's mainly religious and also cultural, probably all the posters and idols of different Hindu Gods around the house. 

Q5: What part of your country are you from?

A: I'm from Kilinochchi.

Q6: Can you speak the language of your ethnicity? 

A: Yes, fluently. I can also read (really slowly) and write (with many huge spelling mistakes here and there).

Sigma brushes: E40, E55, F35

I have always wanted to try out Sigma makeup brushes but I didn't know where I could buy them in the UK. I was recently shopping on cultbeauty when I saw that they are now stocking Sigma Brushes (not the entire range, but some of the brushes), I have heard great things about the brushes I purchased in particular and how they are exact dupes for MAC brushes. 

I purchased 3 brushes, I wanted to try them out and see if I liked them. I needed a good eyeshadow blending brush so I got the tapered blending brush E40 (£11.75), I also got the eye shading brush E55 (£10.25) and the tapered highlighter brush F35 (£17.50). (The E and the F stand for Eye and Face, so E40 means it's an eye brush, but that does not mean you shouldn't use it on your face if you want to.)

Sigma F35

Sigma Tapered Highlighter F35:

As the name suggests this is a great brush for highlighting, as it is tapered it makes it really useful for highlighting the bridge of the nose, cupids bow, inner corners of the eye and the high points of your cheek. The bristles are incredibly soft (synthetic fibres) and are of high quality. 

This brush can be used in other ways too e.g setting undereye concealer. Overall this is an excellent brush, I would definitely recommend it to anyone, it makes applying and blending highlight products so easy. 

Sigma E40

The Sigma E40 is probably on of the most raved about blending brushes, and I can understand why after using it. I use this brush to apply my transition shade and to generally just blend my eyeshadows to avoid sharp edges. It's nice and fluffy so it does a good job at blending the eyeshadow effortlessly and creating a softer look. By far the best brush for this purpose. 

Sigma E55 

The sigma E55 is supposed to be an exact dupe of the MAC 239. The MAC brush is £21, so you are saving a lot by buying the Sigma brush. This brush is perfect for packing on colour on your eyelids, you could even spray a bit of the MAC fix+ ( or water) on the brush to get a more intense colour pay-off.  

After trying these brushes I finally understand why everyone and their mother are so obsessed with Sigma brushes. They are very good quality and so much cheaper compared to high-end brushes. I will definitely be investing in more Sigma brushes soon and I already have a few on the list! :P

Zoeva makeup brushes: REVIEW

This is my first blog post of 2016! eeeeek!  I ordered the Zoeva rose golden brush set from beautybay.com, I wanted to do a blog post on these brushes as soon as they were delivered months ago, but I thought it would be better if I actually tried them out first and did a review.

This set consists of 8 brushes in total (top to bottom): 

Powder brush 108 - This brush feels really nice to hold while applying loose or pressed powder, the bristles are soft and I think this brush does a pretty good job. This brush is vegan friendly, it has hand crafted Taklon bristles as stated on the Beautybay website. 

Silk finish brush 102  - This brush is actually one of my favourite brushes from the set, and it's also one of my favourite brushes for applying liquid foundation. The bristles are very densely packed which makes it useful for buffing in the foundation and blending it into the skin properly. I wanted to buy this brush set just for this brush and I'm really happy I have it now. The silk finish brush is also a vegan friendly brush. 

Luxe sheer cheek brush 127 - I absolutely love this brush, it feels incredibly soft, I think all of the luxe brushes by Zoeva just feel so soft on the skin. I use this brush to apply blusher, but I think you could also use this for contouring and bronzing.  I really want more luxe brushes by Zoeva including this one. 

Face shape brush 110 - This brush is perfect for blending, it's very dense and small and can allow for precise blending of cream contours and other cream and powder products. 

Concealer and buffer brush 142 - This is very similar to the real techniques deluxe crease brush and I use them both to blend out my concealer. This brush would also be great to apply cream contour to into the cheekbone very precisely. The real techniques one is a little bit softer on the skin, but only ever so slightly, otherwise they feel the same and both to the same job basically. 

Luxe soft definer brush 227 - I use this brush to blend out my crease shade or transition shade, it's similar to the MAC 217 brush, but not exactly the same. I still prefer my 217 by MAC, but for the price, this one's great and does pretty much the same job. 

Luxe petit crease brush 231 - This brush is perfect for applying more eyeshadow to yours crease more precisely, it can also be used to blend eyeshadow under the lower lash line. 

Wing liner brush 317  - As the name of the brush suggests, this brush can be used to draw on the perfect wing liner or to fill in your eyebrows. The bristles are nylon and vegan friendly.

This set currently retails for £56.95 on beautybay.com, Beautybay also stocks other Zoeva products such as eyeshadow palettes and blushers. I have a serious urge to order other brush sets by Zoeva and also some that are sold individually. The order was delivered on time and with no issues, I was very happy with Beautybay overall. If in the future I do buy any more I will blog about it!  

I think these brushes are such good quality and do the job very well for how much they cost. The rose gold hardware was what initially made me want these brushes as well as the rave reviews they were getting from beauty gurus all over YouTube and blogs. I think these brushes would look beautiful in anyone's collection. 

I love buying new makeup brushes and I keep looking for new ones to try all the time, if you guys have any good makeup brush recommendations please let me know so I can try them out! Also, if there are any reviews or anything else you'd like to see a blog post on please let me know so I can try and do it! I really want to post more regularly and it would be incredibly useful to know what you guys want to see.