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.

Beauty - Review Of Lovea Nature Hair Mask

So my hair has been feeling so dry lately. I have been bleaching the ends of my hair blonde since September and that, combined with my addiction to using the GHD everyday, has played havoc on my hair. I knew I needed to try out a hair mask, so that's what I did!
The Lovea Nature Hair Mask stood out to me in Penneys - mostly because of it's cheap price - at €1.90 sure where would ya go wrong! - but it also contains shea butter specially formulated for dry hair.
So after showering and shampooing my hair, I took the plunge and decided to try it out. Firstly, you need a scissors handy - unlike alot of other hair and skin care masks I've used, you just can't open this one with just your fingers (or maybe I have really weak girly fingers?). The formula is a bright yellow colour, almost off putting until you smell the stuff. Absolutely gorgeous! So I began putting it on my hair, and with two handful I realised I had most of my hair covered, but there was more left. So that was definitely a drawback to this mask. Because there was no way I could use it another day. The formula was quite thick and a little sticky, so make sure you have a towel on to wipe your hands after you finish applying it to your hair. The instructions on the pack advised to leave on the mask for only 5 minutes, but because my hair is really lifeless and extremely dry I left it on for a whole hour and a half, then I washed it out with warm water and also rinsed it with ice cold water to give it a glossy shine as well.
I let my hair dry naturally. My thoughts on this are really positive! My hair is super soft, and even though looking at the pictures it's obvious my hair needs a good trim at the ends, I really like it. And the smell is so beautiful. Definitely worth picking up as it definitely packs a punch for only €1.90!  As you can see from the packaging, another plus of this product is that it contains ingredients that are of 95% natural origins so no nasty chemicals will be getting in your gruaig ! (Btw, 'scuse the extremely ugly no make up selfie of me, and the au natural hair! It was all in the aid of research to show you exactly what my hair looked like after applying the mask).

EDIT: A query from an American follower on my Instagram (kissandmakeupnow_blog) led me to researching where else this product is available for purchase, and lo and behold, I found it online at www.mypure.co.uk, in a 300ml tub, which means you can use a bit and save some for the next day, which I complained I couldn't do with this small sachet. Stick Lovea Burkina Shea Moisturising Hair Mask in the search bar and it should come up. It costs  €9.90 for the tub, and delivery to Ireland costs €6.84.