Lusts and Loves

I am a shop-a-holic, I am obsessed with beauty products and every time I pop into the big Boots in City Center, I hear products calling my name. these are the products currently catching my eye that I needed to share with you!

St Tropez Self Tan Dry Luxury Oil

100ml   £25

This is exactly what it says it is, a dry body oil that gives you a luxurious tan. It hydrates your skin, doesn't smell like feet, and has a shimmery glow to it while it sits on your skin. I cannot think of how that could ever be bad! I enjoy the level and tone of tan I get from St. Tropez and if you read this blog, you know me, I love anything luxury!

 Bumble & Bumble Surf Spray

125ml   £21.50

Bumble & Bumble is, hands down, my favorite hair care and hair styling brand. The products do what they say they will do and I attribute my hair health to them. I haven't used a sea salt spray sense I chopped my hair off but I wonder how that would go. Using it to soften up a curly do...hmmm....

Bleach London Rose Conditioner

250ml   £6

I have been very impressed with this brand, my peach and orange hair has been by them and i find that keeping that peach tone is quite difficult. Well, pink and orange make peach, I tint my hair orange and then I can use this conditioner to keep that rosy under hue. It is on my list. For a golden blonde, this could be great to create rose gold hair which is massively on trend right now.

Real Techniques Starter Set 1406

5 brushes   £22

I was heavily trolled recently on facebook for saying this brands bold metal brushes are overpriced but I stick to my word. One bold metal brush is the same price as a set of 5 brushes, SAME BRAND. This is my favorite brushes brand and the goal is to collect them all! (in an affordable manor)

Yves Saint Laurent Rose Gold Touche Eclat

2ml   £25

Rose Gold is my color, I love everything rose gold as it goes great with my pale pink complexion. Touche Eclat is a great product for those lazy makeup days. Under eyes, under brows, around the lips and wherever else you need it. I think this product would suit anyone. I want it. *drools*

If any of you nabs these goodies before I do, I envy you... you lucky monkey. But the dream is that I can snuggle up with these and love them forever because I am a crazy compulsive shopper.

See you soon with some tutorial posts and LOTDs for hair and makeup. As it is 18 days until my brother in law's wedding, everything will be wedding prep themed! 

xo Taylor

LOTD: Illamasqua Aura Palette

Today's look is all about the Illamasqua Aura Palette. 

To buy the Aura Palette or simply explore the Multi-Facet collection that it is in, CLICK HERE. 

Alongside the Aura Palette, I used Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation in my current shade, 07 and LUSH lip/cheek color sweetly named, Prosperity. 

 This dusty rose cream color works perfectly with this palette 

and is extremely hydrating!

You choose the coverage, it has a natural smooth finish and lasts all day, what more could you ask for? 

In depth, the Aura Palette has everything to give you a flawlessly contoured daytime makeup look that is bright and refreshing any time of year. Just add your choice of mascara and lip color to make this look your own.

The colors are very pigmented, very smooth and the cream contour, hollow, is absolutely impeccable. It really gives the appearance of shadows on the face rather than lines of darker skin tones. The blusher is quite- one small pat is enough for that English Rose blushing glow. This palette would be amazing for a Bride.

The results...

This look is very natural in comparison to what I prefer but it is dewy and soft and because my entire look was four products (foundation, palette, lip color, and mascara), it was very fast and easy to do. I truly do recommend this palette to anyone looking for that quick fix to a flawless makeup look!

With my new haircut comes new products I use to keep it looking awesome.

MY WEAPONS OF CHOICE

Bumble and Bumble City Swept spray wax

Sebastian Professional Trilliant heat protection and shine spray

Bumble&Bumble Hair Makeover

Bumble and Bumble has an Instagram contest running to win free products but it is only available in America. Well, I can't win but I can blog about it! The contest was your Invisible Hair Oil makeover.

Bumble just recently expanded and created the Hairdresser's Invisible Oil range to a Shampoo, Conditioner, Primer, and Oil to create sleek, healthy, UV and heat protected hair that shines! It really works.

I own the miniature versions of all these products for travelling.

This kit is available at larger and participating Boots or at bumbleandbumble.com

MY HAIR MAKEOVER

BEFORE

My hair is dry, frizzy, and three days unwashed...yikes!

AFTER

With just a wash, spritz of primer, a blowout with a round brush and a light application of the oil after words, I have humidity proof, smooth as silk, straight hair that will last me days!

This process was easy to do and in the long run will have a great impact in preventing further drying and damage to my hair.

Rocking Illamasqua skin base foundation in 006, MAC Cranberry and Cinderella eyeshadows with Eyeko Eye Do liner, Benefit Brow Zing, and MAC Snob lipstick.

Meet My Hair Products

Hair care products grow terribly underrated but I am obsessed with them! They are the key to great full flowing locks! My hair is terribly over processed from bleaching it too much so a lot of my hair care products are based around restoration and hydration. The rest of my products are more for vintage styling or were from when my hair was very long. (I am growing it out slowly attempting to get my mane back!)

My favourite hair products brand is Bumble and Bumble. An American brand, always sulphate free and designed for easy hair styling. My other favourite brand is Moroccan Oil, the brand designed to make hair frizz free and healthy- it definitely gets the job done!

HAIR WASHING ROUTINE

I currently am double cleansing my hair every single day to clear my scalp and also to remove my purple hair colour. My first cleanse is with Bumble&Bumble Sunday shampoo, a deep cleansing shampoo that is amazing at removing hair colour and especially the stubborn red and pink pigments. My hair gets three or four shades lighter with every wash!

I move on to my new FAVOURITE HAIR PRODUCT, Head and Shoulders Menthol Fresh. I have a vey delicate scalp that over the years has been wrecked with psoriasis. This is the first shampoo to have ever cleared up my scalp and soothe my scalp irritation and flakiness. This also removes hair colour extremely well.

My current conditioner is Bumble&Bumble Mending conditioner designed for healing broken and damaged hair and repairing the follicle thus providing smoother hair that doesn't frizz out so easily. I commonly use hair masks, all of which are sample sachets from many different brands like Ojon, John Frieda, Moroccan Oil, and more. I love samples.

CONDITIONING PRODUCTS

En route to healing my hair I have a strict routine of using restorative hydrating products. After wash, pre-blowdry, I use the Redken Anti-Snap leave in conditioner- focusing on areas of greater damage. After blow dry, I apply a little moroccan oil to the ends of my hair and to areas on my scalp of extra dryness. Sometimes i use the percy and reed dry conditioning spray on my scalp when setting pin curls because they can become quite frizzy sometimes and this stuff tames fly-aways easily.

STYLING FAVOURITES

All my styling products are from the Bumble&Bumble thickening range. My hair is extremely thick but when I style my hair I always want drama and massive amounts of volume! I use the thickening hairspray and the full form mousse in my blow dry. After styling for root volume i use the cream contour and city swept spray wax. These two do the job of backcombing all on their own. I pray to them!