Beauty Trends - Glossy Lips

A few months ago, I started a series on my blog called 'Beauty Trends', where as the title states, I talk about a current beauty trend, and share some products related to it! Trends in make-up are something that's ever-changing, so I created this series as a way to share my thoughts on them.

Today, I wanted to discuss 'glossy lips'. You're probably thinking, 'How is this a trend? They've been around forever?'. True! But we can all agree they're fast emerging from all beauty brands, both high-end and drugstore, and matte lips are beginning to take a back-seat. (Our dry lips are jumping for joy!). Never in a million years did I think I'd be a 'gloss gal' since the mere thought of a lip gloss makes my hair stick to my face. With that being said, I'm incredibly picky when it comes to which ones I'm prepared to leave the house wearing, so I thought I'd share a variety of ones that have made my collection. (Ps, I'm kind of into my nudes!).

Bare Minerals Gen Nude Buttercream Lip Gloss in Flirt

Jouer High Pigment Lip Gloss in Fifth Ave

Kylie Cosmetics Gloss in Like

I thought I'd start by sharing my favourite high-end glosses. I have a lot more from the Kylie Cosmetics range, but 'Like' is such a 'me' shade, a classic brown nude! Besides the shades, another huge similarity with these glosses is that they're all super pigmented. The Jouer gloss in particular is almost like a super shiny lipstick, it's divine. I'm not a huge fan of a sheer slick of gloss on my complexion as it seems to wash me out, so opting for glosses with a strong pigment are the perfect way for me to dip into the trend, without compromising on my overall look!

Bare Minerals do a huge range of non-sticky nude glosses to suit all skin-tones and tastes. I picked up 'Flirt' as it leans towards the mauve-y tones that I'm totally obsessed with.

Max Factor Colour Elixir Honey Lacquer in Honey Nude

Max Factor Colour Elixir Honey Lacquer in Chocolate Nectar

Maybelline Colour Sensational Vivid Hot Lacquer Liquid Lipstick in Unreal

3INA Lip Gloss in 112 Nude

Colour Pop Ultra Glossy Lip in Finders Keepers

Here is a drugstrore/affordable selection of my favourite lip glosses! Again, super similar shades, but I just can't run the risk of a bold glossy lip, it's mayhem. 

I found that I steered clear of the drugstore when it came to my quest for the perfect gloss, and it's probably because of all of those childhood experiences, y'know, Barry M candy flavoured glosses, Bourjois 3D glosses in sparkling reds.. don't get me wrong, they were the business back in the day, but totally not my vibe now.. anyway, I digress! To my pleasant surprise, I picked up some REAL gems in the drugstore, some I even wear more than the high-end ones. The Maybelline Vivid Hot Lacquers are not something you want to sleep on, run and check them out, they're seriously a handbag staple of mine!

Huda Beauty Lip Strobe in Enchanting

Colour Pop Ultra Glossy Lip in Super Cute

Colour Pop Ultra Glossy Lip in Nonsense

Huda Beauty Lip Strobe in Shameless

Finally, I wanted to go on to glittery lips! I love to pair a liquid matte with a glittery gloss, it transforms any lipstick into a show-stopping disco ball, and who doesn't want that?

I don't have a huge amount of these in my collection, but I wanted to share some that are worth checking out!

Huda Beauty lip strobes are new on the scene, and they are stunning. I've never seen glosses that have such dimension and colour shift. There's a huge colour range in this buttery smooth formula, from glistening golds and holographics, to glitterball pinks and enchanting purples. I picked up these two first, but I'm already itching to pick up my next lip strobe!

The other two I swatched are no longer on sale, so I won't tease you with them too much, but a classic clear gloss laced with flecks of glitter is a total must in my collection these days. I'm constantly being mesmerised by insta-girls with multi-dimensional lips, and if chucking a slick of glitter gloss into my make-up routine is going to make me look half as good, I'll definitely be doing it!

I hope you enjoyed this post, and you found a gloss or two to add to your make-up bags! Leave me any suggestions of glosses you guys like below so I can check them out too! <3

Beauty Trends: Duochrome Highlighters

Moonchild Glow Kit

 Beauty Trends posts are always exciting for me, as it means there's something new for me to get acquainted with and stuck in to!

Today's topic is 'Duochrome Highlighters'. As we all know, highlighting, strobing, and general glowing of the skin is something that's bang on trend, so of course, brands are looking for new ways to stand out from the (huge) crowd. That means we're seeing highlighters brought out in unusual shades, (I'm looking at you, Jeffree Star!), and now highlighters with a duochrome finish! Now that's something I can get on board with. I'm a huge fan of duochrome eyeshadows, and I'm known for grabbing anything and everything with a duochrome finish.

I have a couple of these types of highlighters swimming around in my collection, but in particular I wanted to talk about the Anastasia Beverly Hills Moonchild Glow Kit as this is the ultimate duochrome highlighting palette!

From L to R - Blue Ice, Star, Purple Horseshoe, Pink Heart, Lucky Clover & Blue Moon

Moonchild Glow Kit

Firstly, look how beautiful the swatches are? That was one swipe. The formula of Anastasias glow kits just gets better and better!

I ummed and ahhed over this palette for some time, wondering where I could fit duochrome into my base routine without looking a little bit crazy! I've seen this palette on a huge range of skin tones, and after seeing how gorgeous it looked, I decided I needed to up my highlighting game, and fast. I'll list a brief description of each shade below, taken straight from the ABH website!

Blue Ice - Diamond white with an icy blue reflect.

Star - A moonstone fusion of mint, platinum and silver reflect.
Purple Horseshoe - A glittering lavender with an arctic blue reflect.
Pink Heart - Pearl white with a pink opal reflect.
Lucky Clover - A shamrock-infused gold with canary yellow diamond reflect .
Blue Moon - Frozen blue with a silver reflect.

I'm spotting brands bringing out their own duochrome highlighters, and I can see this being the start of a new collection in my beauty stash. I will link a few existing duochrome highlighters that I have in my collection already! 

Urban Decay Afterglow Highlighter in Fireball

Topshop Chameleon Highlighter in 'Mother of Pearl'

I'm very excited to see what's coming out in terms of these duochrome gems, let us all have an intergalactic glow!

Have you tried a duochrome highlighter yet?

Beauty Trends: The Artis Brush Dupe

Here's my second post in the 'beauty trends' series! I have to admit, these are tougher to put together than I thought! There's so many beauty trends around, but I fund my entire collection myself unlike a lot of beauty bloggers, so I have to be quite selective about what I purchase, and generally only buy into trends I'm interested in/will get use out of. 

I'm sure you've all seen these 'Artis' style brushes plastered all over the internet. Yes, I know that's not their official name, (what is it by the way? haha!), 'Artis' is the brand that kicked off the trend with this new style of make-up brushes. Unfortunately, the Artis brushes are incredibly pricey, and certainly aren't a purchase I'd take lightly. However, these Primark dupes are something I'm definitely willing to part with a few £'s for!

I hate to say it, but I am the biggest skeptic when it comes to Primark beauty products, I can't help it, but I very seldom have a positive experience with the products. I get that I 'shouldn't' expect much for the little I pay, but why do I want to purchase beauty products that don't work? I guess you'd wonder why I have a vast collection of these little toothbrush type-things.. well, they were a huge success! 

Large Face Brush

There is no 'official' name for each of these brushes, so I named it myself.. 'large face brush', pretty accurate!

I picked up this brush first, parted with my £4, and went away to see if it was worth even that. I planned to use this brush for foundation application. I didn't expect much, infact I expected a streaky mess on my face, but not at all! The application was as seamless, if not more than my regular buffing brushes! I found that I needed a little more foundation than usual as the brush does soak up more than I'd care for, but it really doesn't bother me much. The handle is plastic, so it can be a little flimsy if you're heavy handed, but as long as you're careful, you'll have the most beautiful, flawless base.

Medium Face Brush

My favourite brush out of the three! I tried this for a variety of things before settling on using it for concealer application. It wasn't flexible enough to use for cream blush or contour, but it was firm enough to use for patting in concealer. I've never been content with the way I apply my concealer, I've always found it can be a little cakey, or even too sheer, but using this brush to pat and lightly blend has been revolutionary to my make-up routine, my concealer has never been so flawless! If you get any brush from this range, I highly recommend this one, for £3, it's a steal.

Small Face Brush

The final of the three, and the smallest! Also, my least favourite. I tried this for cream contour, and it was a streaky mess. It dragged across my face, definitely a no from me for this purpose! The only use I get from it is for more precise concealer, if I need a little help getting closer to my tear duct for example! I'd love if anyone else could recommend a way for me to use this? For £2.50, I wouldn't say 'don't' try it, if you have smaller areas to conceal, it could be really good for you, but I find it just collects dust in my room now!

I'm not sure if these brushes are going to be here to stay, or as this post suggest, a 'trend', but I'm really loving the idea of them, and the fact that they work beautifully too! I purchased a few back-ups, but I'm looking at expanding my collection of these, venturing into other brands, and of course, Artis!

Have you tried these brushes? What do you think of this beauty trend? Comment below!

Beauty Trends: Metallic Lips

Beauty trends are always around, whether it's a new style of make-up brush, or a whole new colour-way for your eyeshadow looks. I decided to begin a series on my blog of beauty trends, I can't say how frequent these posts will pop up as it depends on the current trends, but definitely keep an eye out!

Metallic lips are huge at the moment, they seem to be the focal point of every brand at the moment, and I can only assume it's due to the extremely popular metallic liquid lipsticks Kylie Jenner brought out a few months back. I'll be honest, it's taken me a little bit of time to jump onto that bandwagon, and I'm still unsure of whether I can rock the trend or not, but hey, it's only make-up!

The first ones I picked up are from Milani, an American beauty brand. I have a couple of Milani blushes, and it wasn't until I spotted they have a UK website that I picked up a few more of their products! I decided to play it somewhat safe and go for the classic 'nude' shades of lip colour. 

Milani Amore Mattalics Lip Creme in Chromattic Addict

This is actually my favourite out of the lot, and I'm guessing it's a hit with everybody else too as it's currently out of stock! This is the perfect place to start if you want to give the metallic lip trend a go. I prefer this layered over a nude lipstick, it's not so intense that it looks like you accidentally emptied a pan of champagne pop over your lips, but just enough so it gives your lips a beautiful shimmer. Opting for a light-gold also means you can dab it over other shades of lipstick for a fuller lip effect. 

Milani Amore Mattalics Lip Creme in Matterialistic

This is more of a coppery shade on me, I thought it would be more brown, but it has a lot of red tones going through it. Anyway, these deeper shades are also all over the place, more so than the classic reds and pinks that we're always likely to see on the market. This seems to look very similar to 'Reign' by Kylie Cosmetics, the one shade I probably wouldn't have purchased, but hey, ordering online has it's downfalls! I think this would look beautiful on deeper complexions, but I'll give it a go anyway!

Kylie Cosmetics Metal Matte in Kymajesty

Firstly, I should mention that this shade is currently out of stock, and I'm not sure if it will be restocked as it was supposed to be limited edition, but you never know! However, I've seen a bunch of recreations of this product that you can do by yourself, so definitely do your YouTube research! 

I guess you could say I got pulled in to the 'limited edition' hype with this purchase, but I'm a make-up junkie at the end of the day, what do you expect?

This certainly isn't your everyday shade, but it really is beautiful on with the right make-up look, (of course). If you're super adventurous with your make-up, going for a truly 'out there' metallic lip is so much fun, and can pull the most basic of looks together.

See what I have to contend with when shooting blog photos?! Thanks, dog. 

Have any of you tried the metallic lipstick trend? What's your favourite metallic lipstick?