Beauty & Fashion - Valentines' Night Look

Decided to do a blog post about some of the outfits combined with makeup looks I have worn the past year.

One of my favourite looks on myself over the past year has been my Valentines' night outfit - I love wearing red lipstick so much. Better still - besides from the dress - every product used costs €10 or less - bargain! :)

The dress - if anyone is wondering - is from Swamp. I remember seeing it when it was in store first, but when I saw the price tag - €65 - it became less appealing! Just by chance I happened to be in the shop when they were having their after Christmas sales and I snapped it up for €20! Best.Bargain.Ever! I love this dress as it has a very classic neckline  and it also has a nice knee-length to it. It also has a tie belt so you can adjust it around the waist, to draw attention to your waist. I had worn it out New Year's Eve but decided to wear it Valentines' Night as it seemed appropriate to wear red that weekend!

Like most girls, when I go on a night out I like to wear a little bit (I emphasise the little bit!) of fake tan. I use Cocoa Brown Tough Stuff Body Scrub in the shower to exfoliate tough areas of skin like the hands, feet, elbows and knees, to avoid that manky orange tell-tale sign. I love this exfoliator as it smells really nice and is super effective too. I did this the night before I was going out, and moisturised my skin using the Supreme Cream Body Butter by Dirty works - it contains shea butter and sweet almond oil and as well as making even the roughest of skin super soft, it smells pretty good too, as well as being  super affordable! I forget what was the price of this was when I bought it six months ago, and after all my research,  I have been only able to find it online from a retailer in the UK (www.mysupermarket.co.uk), that sells it for a very purse-friendly £4 (€5.55). I applied a light layer of Cocoa Brown Day & Night Tan Mousse then. I like this tan as it doesn't have the horrible biscuit-tin smell that most have. I haven't used it too much though, so I'm going to do a blog post in the future reviewing both Tough Stuff and Day & Night tan in full.

For the makeup look, I thought that the red lipstick would suit the look and kind of tie it in together. With that in mind, I decided to keep the rest of my makeup super simple and matte. So after cleansing my face with my Boots Tea Tree & Witch Hazel Foaming Face Wash to get rid of any dirt or oil that might have built up on my face throughout the day (I will be doing a blogpost about affordable skin care products soon), I primed my skin using my trusty Simple Kind to Skin Hydraing Light Moisturiser.  For my makeup base, I decided to mix two foundations together - apart from the godsend gem Max Factor Skin Luminizer foundation I have recently used - I really struggle to find a foundation that is light enough to match my Casper the ghost-esque skintone. I had been using Catrice All Matt Plus which is a great foundation for a while, but I made the mistake of buying it in a shade slightly too dark for my skin tone (Nude Beige) so when I bought Catrice Nude Illusion in a slightly lighter shade (Rose Vanilla) I stopped using All Matt Plus, but I have noticed that Nude Illusion tends to wipe off within a really short space of time and as I wanted my make up to be matte and stay put all night, I needed some input from All Matt Plus as well. I found these both together did the job pretty well! Of course, I was just using what I had handy at the time, but you can obviously just use a mattifying, long-lasting foundation in a shade that suits your skin tone. I set my foundation using Kubiss London powder. For blusher, I used Catrice Defining Blush. I filled in my eyebrows using Penneys PS Beauty Browkit. For eyes, I used Catrice Absolute Nude Eyeshadow Palette and the three shades on the left side to create a subtle smoky eye. I applied the second shade from the left all over my eye right up to my browbone. I then added the third shade from the left in the eye crease and created an outer V at the outer eye corner. I then blended these both together. I then used the champagne toned colour (the first on the left) on the inner corner of the eye to highlight and brighten the look up. For added drama, I added a pair of false eyelashes from Penneys. They were a bit long for my small eyes so I had to cut a little off at the ends. To hide the band, I applied some NYC Liquid Eyeliner over the top, and added lots of NYC Big Bold Volume By the Lash Mascara to blend the false eyelashes in with my real ones. I used Catrice Prime and Fine Highlighting powder over the cheeks, on my chin and on my browbone. For red lipstick, I used a favourite of mine - Catrice Ultimate Shine Lipstick in 130 'Ketch-me-up'.  It's super glossy, easy to apply, an affordable price and makes my teeth look really white, and I use it every week if I can (hence the mess of the label on my photo
below!). Plus how eye-catching is that pretty silver packaging? Definitely makes this lipstick easy to find in my makeup bag in between the black packaging of the Mac and Rimmel ones! The only thing I dislike about this lipstick is that it fades away within two hours so if you're going for a night out, make sure you stick it in your handbag so you can touch it up as the night goes on. so the colour stays super glossy like it does from first application.

Product Details

Cocoa Brown Tough Stuff 3-in-1 Body Scrub, €7.99, Penneys.

Cocoa Brown Day & Night Tan Mousse, €9.99, Penneys.

Boots Tea Tree & Witch Hazel Foaming Face Wash, €4.79, Boots.

Simple Kind to Skin Hydrating Light Moisturiser, €4.99, Boots.

Catrice All Matt Plus Shine Control Makeup in 'Nude Beige', €6.99, Penneys.

Catrice Nude Illusion Makeup in 'Rose Vanilla', €8.49, Penneys.

Kubiss London powder in No.2 'Candle', €2, local chemist.

PS Beauty Browkit, €1.50, Penneys.

NYC Liquid Eyeliner, €2.40, Penneys. 

Catrice Absolute Nude Eyeshadow Palette, €5.49, Penneys.

Catrice Prime and Fine Highlighting Powder, €4, Penneys.

Catrice Defining Blush in 080 'Sunrose Avenue', €4.49, Penneys.

NYC Big Bold Volume by the Lash Mascara, €3.49, Penneys.

PS Beauty False Eyelashes in 'Sultry', €1.50, Penneys.

Catrice Ultimate Shine Lipstick in 130 'Ketch-me-up', €5.49, Penneys.