Beauty and The Beach 2 - Travel Supermarket

I did enter the Travel Supermarket Beauty and The Beach competition last year but I literally only had 1 hour to do everything I wanted as Laalaa (who won btw . . . I actually cried out of happiness for her) only told me about it the night before it was meant to end.

This year Travel Supermarket are holding Beauty and The Beach 2 and I'm doing a triple whammy and entering both the hair, nails and beauty competition and going for a Bronzed, Caribbean holiday feel . . . yh this is my way for saying that this is going to be a very long post and I apologise now if my gif's take a while to load up BUT trust me you will want to wait a few extra minutes for everything to load up because my entry is just that good (in my opinion anyway lol).

Since I had a bit more time to play around with my beauty look this time, I've decided to keep it very simple as I don't really wear much makeup on holiday, I'm way too busy adjusting to the heat but  I have to admit that the Beyonce x HM ad inspired me a bit but honestly

My focus for my Beauty & The Beach entry is something simple enough to do that doesn't take up a lot of suitcase space and you don't need to buy a electrical socket adaptor if you wanted to recreate it on holiday. Now enough talking let's get started with the nails!!

Simple right? Well I did say that Nails were not my strong point butI can't lie, I'm please with how this turned out . . .I'm even more surprised that I managed to do this without smudging a nail halfway through.

With my eyes, I just keep repeating bronze, simple, bronze and simple in my head so after applying Urban Decay's Primer Potion all over my lids as a base, I popped on Rimmel's Scandaleyes Eyeshadow Stick in 003 Bad Girl Bronze and blended this all over my lid. Easy Peesy Right?? 

With cream eyeshadows blending is always key. To ensure that my cream eyeshadow is blended out properly and I don't have any harsh lines, I sweep MAC Antique over my crease bone, add MAC Wedge to my browbone and blend in MAC Texture over everything to get a smooth transition between all the shades.

To finish off my eyes, a combination of L'oreal Paris SuperLiner in Perfect SlimBlack Vinyl and Eylure False Lashes in 117 gives me a simple bronzed eye.

I really wanted to do a daytime beach look, something that's easy to put together and light, so you don't feel like you are melting under so many layers. With that said I'm concentrating on light to medium coverage with a sweet, pink finish so I look like I've just been to the beach . . . . or at least benefiting from my hotel's air-conditioning.

I'm using my NARS Sheer Glow and my MAC Select Cover up concealer for a lovely, sunkissed glow. A light dusting of MAC Prep & Prime Finishing Powder under the my eyes will stop my concealer from slipping during the day (and also stop sunglasses from making my concealer smudge).

Now on to my favourite part, Blush time!!! I first applyg my favourite Cream Blush in Betray from Illamasqua on my cheeks and set it with a bit a light setting powder (MAC MSF in Dark Deep). A pink highlight on my cheeks (MAC Stereo Rose) ensures that I don't lose the healthy, dewy glow that I'm after. Now all that's left is a pink, nude combo aka MAC Spice lipglass and MAC Lickable Cremesheen Lipstick and FINISHEDDD!!!!!!

As this post is already running a bit long (apologies), I'm going to whizz past my hair entry. I didn't really want to do much to my hair . . . ok I didn't want to tackle the 'fro, so summer beach accessories was the next logical step. You can get everything used in this tutorial from Boots, a florist/Wilkinsons, Sallys or your local Afro Beauty shop so it's super easy to do.

To get that beach look, Run to your local florist or Homeware store (aka Wilkinsons) and grab some flowers. You can use fresh flowers or fabric flowers for this look, it just depends on what you have on hand. Taking a pair of scissors snip . . or pull the flower off it's stem but be careful not too remove the base holding the flower together. Now get a few hair pins and push the hair pin through base off the flower.

As I want to keep my hair low key, I'm going to do a remix of the standard salt spray - beach waves hair. I mix water and a little bit of conditioner in a spray bottle (shake well), spritz my hair in sections and comb out any knots and tangles. Rather than using a salt spray on my hair, I'm going to take Beautiful Textures Curl Control Defining Pudding and run this through my hair to get some loosely define curls

All thats left to do now is scrunch my hair from tip to root . . .  and slide in the flower pins you made earlier

I would love to see an entry from Adrienne (The Sunday Girl), Laalaa (Dolce Vanity) ((Yes, again!!!) Catrine (Unnakednails), Laura (Laura Louise Beauty) and Jayne (Jayne's Kitschen) as I know they would just blow my entry away to pierces if they entered. I hope you love this look and gif-torials. The Deadline for the Beauty and The Beach 2 competition is June 5th 2013 (Wednesday) and if you feel inspired to enter the competition, make sure you tag me because I want to see it!!!

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Guest Review:- MakeBelieve Sunbeam Bronzer & Brush | #TFWOC

This week marks the last of the 3 reviews for Makebelieve for the 'Tans for Women of Colour' Blogger Project and their lovely scented products (Ok, you’ve had me obsess about their Self-tan for 4 weeks so I'm not going to go into it now). This week we are reviewing the Makebelieve Sunbeam Bronzer & Brush, which is another product from their Enhance Range designed to top up your tan and bring a glow to your face, as many people (me included) do not add tanning products to their face.

I’m not going to lie . . . I had a staring competition with this product trying to figure out the best way to use this. The matte formula of this bronzer paired with the fact that it was a few shades too light made this very difficult for me to review.

Sooooo I gave it to my blog wife Sam of Sam Ram Beauty to review for me and here is what she had to say:-

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Hey guys!
First, I just want to thank Annie for allowing me to do a guest post on her blog. I love her blog so I was super excited to be a (tiny bit) part of it =)

I will be reviewing the Make Believe Enhance Sunbeam Bronzer and Brush compact. On first appearance, I really do like the packaging. The black box and gold writing gives a glamorous feel, and we all love to fell glamorous right? When you open the box it comes with a decent sized mirror and a medium sized Kabuki style brush. The brush is super soft and cute. I love that it’s not too small and not too big. I always find kabuki style brushes to be rather big or they come out too much on the sides. This one is rather tapered and dome shape which is great for contouring too. The bronzer is a matte medium brown shade. This may be disappointing to some who associate bronzer with glitter, I on the other hand, was rather happy. I don’t like shimmery face products because I fear I will look like a disco ball.

Now I don’t actually ever wear bronzer or use products to tan. Partly because I feel that I am tanned enough and I really don’t understand how I could benefit from tanning. So with this mind, I tend to use bronzers to contour with because it gives you a sun kissed, summery, glowish look. Whereas if you just applied the bronzer all over your face, this could look like a mess, it could look unrealistic and it’s not really doing much for your face. If you apply the bronzer in the correct places, such as where you contour, this, to me, gives a more realistic tanned look. It’s an illusion of where the sun has kissed you. This is my personal understanding of it, anyway onto the post.

I decided to use the Sunbeam Bronzer as a contour powder. At first I was a bit sceptical because the bronzer is lighter in shade to what I generally use to contour with. I use the Sleek Contour Kit in medium and the contouring powder has a slight rich brown tone to it, whereas this bronzer is a dull washed out brown tone (If that makes sense). I assumed I would need to use quite a heavy hand but I was wrong. See the pictures below

No Bronzer Added

I first contoured my cheeks and my jawline. As you can see from the pictures, it gives a great colour. It gives a different look compared to my Sleek contour kit, and I actually prefer this look. I think the Sleek contour kit can look heavy, whereas this one is more subtle, blends in better with my skintone and looks more believable. Make believe with that!

I then decided to contour the sides of my nose. Contouring my nose is not a thing I’m good at. I still need to practice a lot more. I found this bronzers tone to work great against my skin and it really reduced the size of my nose. Always a bonus! The bronzer blended out nicely and didn’t look too harsh which my Sleek Contour Kit tends to do. Having said that, I still think it looks a bit obvious that I have contoured my nose. I’m trying to learn how to contour my nose without people thinking I’ve contoured it – if that makes sense.

Overall, thumbs up for being a great contour. As an all over bronzer, I would never personally do that. I actually like this more than my sleek contour kit (kill me). Where does one buy this from?

Answer me Annie!

You get it online dammit!!!! 

Don’t forget, I’m holding a giveaway right now so if you want to get your hands on Love Goddess from the Limited Edition MAC Marilyn Monroe Collection , then best get clicking!!!!

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