Sippy Cups, Instagram Filters and Sweets.

About a year ago, I used to do non-beauty favourites on Bed In The Kitchen, but that was before it really became a beauty-only blog. It was really hard to pick out things I was loving every month, because it's not really like makeup products that get rotated month on month, sometimes I go months before getting obsessed with something. That all being said, I thought I'd show you some of the little things I love right now. 

First up being these Wylers drink sachets, I got hooked on these a few years back when I spent six weeks in the states, they're super tasty and cheap too. I normally get people to bring them back when they go to the states, and stock up when I go, since they don't do anything like these in the UK. I was saying to my mum the other day that I needed to get some more, but it turned out she had these two boxes hidden away in the kitchen, so I poached them for myself. My favourite flavour is the Pink Lemonade, but the Peach Iced Tea is amazing too. 

Still on the drinks theme, I spend a lot of time working from home, and I've been trying to drink more water. I was drinking loads of water with mint in and getting frustrated because every time I took a sip I'd get slapped round the face with wet mint. Welcome to the exciting world I live in. Anyway, I got super excited when I came across this in Home Sense my sad old lady brain got wildly excited a) because I can drink water out of it without mint slapping me round the face, and b) because it's purple. I know I lead a crazy life. I've now started putting different fruits in my water, my favourites are strawberry and orange. So tasty, and it makes drinking 2 litres of water a day much easier.

I ordered some new instagram prints from Polargram last week, I've ordered from them before and have always been really impressed. They're printed so they look like Polaroids, the quality is great, and they're much cheaper than anywhere else, I payed £9.50 for 48 prints, and the delivery is free! I ordered them to put in the scrapbook I started making at the beginning of January, and I can't wait to put these in!

Can we talk about how awesome this is. This was a naughty little treat that the boy and I grabbed on a quick trip to town for deodorant, boxer shorts and washing powder. This will probably last me til April (I'm a one sweet at a time sorta girl) but it's full of red and cola sweets, which are my favourites! Also, it makes me feel like a child and since I only have 18 days til I turn 20 (that's a proper adult) I really need that!

I recently started using a website called Statigram to look at my Instagram stats, purely out of curiousity, what filters are most popular, when most of my followers are active, stuff like that. I noticed whilst perusing the site that not one of my 1286 Instagram photos had the Nashville filter. Long story short, I've now become slightly obsessed with that filter, and if I could put it on my blog photos I would!

February Favourites 2014

Because February has been such a short month I thought it would be really hard to pick out favourite products, but actually there were so many I could have mentioned here, and I found it hard to narrow it down, meaning this is a long'un! Really, these are my favourites from the last six weeks, there were a lot of products I loved through the second half of January that I didn't feel like I had been using long enough to include in my January favourites, but I've continued using them throughout February and really love them.

Also, can we take a moment to appreciate that I haven't bought a single beauty product all month? This has never happened before. That's restraint guys. 

So first up, the product we knew I'd be including. The NARSissist Eyeshadow Palette. Let's just take a moment to appreciate it's beauty shall we? This has been my go to palette for the entire month, it's the palette I took on my trip home, it's got every colour offering I could possibly need. The formula is buttery smooth and intensely pigmented, and man the colours are gorgeous. My favourite from the whole palette is Ashes to Ashes and I think it's a shade I will end up purchasing the single of at some point in the not too distant future. I also really like Lhasa and Bali.

The base I've been reaching for repeatedly this month is the Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua Foundation, a product I've rediscovered my love for. It's a very lightweight medium coverage foundation, but what I really love about it is the finish. It's almost satin on my skin and it looks so natural but beautiful. The lasting power of it isn't fantastic, but I've been pairing it with my Laura Mercier Radiance Primer which extends the wear time to the end of the day. My one concern is it doesn't feel like there's much in the bottle? We shall see?

Whilst I've still been loving the Body Shop Bronzer, I've been using the YSL Terre Saharienne bronzing powder* too, which adds a little more colour and than The Body Shop's offering, but is still matte and subtle. It's a gorgeous product, pretty pricey, but it lasts incredibly well on the skin. 

There are two lipsticks that I've pretty much been back and forth between this month. The first is the Bobbi Brown Sheer Lip Colour in Pink Flush, a limited edition shade from the Nude Glow Collection. I love everything about it from it's limited edition silver packaging, it's moisturising properties, and most importantly the colour. It's a blue toned rosy pink with, as the name would suggest, sheer application, meaning it just gives your lips a subtle wash of pink. It's really flattering and a perfect spring lip colour in my opinion. 

The other lipstick that's gotten a lotta lovin' is the Topshop lipstick in Beatnik, a muted rosy berry toned lipstick which is a similar shade to my actual lips, just with a little something something extra. I did a full review on this on Wednesday, so if you want to know more, you can read that here.

The mascara I've been loving this month is one that I loved during the autumn months, and then it kind of got forgotten about, but I pulled it out of my stash back at the beginning of the month expecting it to have dried up. Surprisingly it hadn't, so I figured I'd try and use up the lasts of it, and it's actually become a firm favourite. The mascara in question is the L'Oreal False Lash Telescopic Mascara. It's got a thin plastic wand which isn't something I normally like, but I have to admit it really complements the formula. The wand is almost like double sided fine toothed comb, meaning it really grabs each individual lash and coats it in product, leaving you with long, voluminous, fluttery lashes. Even the boy comments when I wear this, and he's pretty oblivious. I'm nearly out of this now and it's definitely something I'll be repurchasing.

And the last beauty product I wanted to mention is the Models Own Nail Polish in Pink Fizz. It's a beautiful solid glitter polish in a gorgeous metallic light pink shade. Not the sort of thing I normally go for at all, but I think this is just beautiful. It's slightly textured but once you add a topcoat it just looks and feels like a gel polish. This is the shade that's been on my nails at least half the month, and it was my Valentines nail pick too. Very pretty and girly.

If you made it through all that, you deserve a new lipstick.

What have been your favourite products this month?

The One Wash Wonders

Whilst I love to spend time playing with eyeshadow, trying out different colour combinations, blending to my hearts content, but there isn't always time. Sometimes, day to day, you just need one product you can slap on your eyelid, blend out and be done. I'm usually more of a palette kind of girl, but sometimes it's easier just to have an individual product for this, especially when you're as indecisive as me (it takes me a good ten minutes to pick a shade in a palette, and that's not even counting the time it takes me to pick the palette in the first place).

When it comes to products that work well on their own, I like something with a bit of dimension to it. I usually favour shimmery formulas as opposed to matte shades for this, since they tend to have more dimension anyway.

You guys know I'm a big fan of taupe shades. I love to pair a simple taupe eyeshadow look with a pink lip, it's my go to look really. I've spoken about the Maybelline Eye Studio Eyeshadow in Iced Fudge recently, it's a good drugstore find, a pretty brown based taupe shade packed with sparkle, it's really easy to wear and looks pretty on the lid. For a higher-end alternative, I love MAC's Satin Taupe, a very similar shade to the Maybelline offering, but it has more of a grey base to it. This is probably my favourite eyeshadow, I wear this a lot, it's so flattering. Another taupe-y offering is the Rimmel Scandaleyes Shadow Paint in Rich Russet, a liquid eyeshadow that gives you just enough time to blend out the edges before setting rock solid, and staying put all day. A good long-wearing option to have in your stocks. 

I have four cream shadows that I like to reach for on these sorts of days. I'm pretty fussy when it comes to cream shadows, I like formulas that really set. I have a few MAC Paint Pots, and there are two shades that I love to wear alone on the lid, Rubenesque is a beautiful golden shimmer shade that I tend to reach for more in the summer, it's not as orange as it looks in the picture, it's much more golden, and it's slightly sheer on application, but it looks gorgeous with a slick of bronze liner on the lash line. The other colour I reach for is Constructivist, a gorgeous metallic chocolate brown shade, I like to apply this to my eyelid, blend it with a natural bristle brush, and then smudge a little under my lower lash line. It looks really nice and like you've actually bothered, also, the fact it's dark means it hides any red veins from lack of sleep! Occasionally, I'll reach for the Maybelline Colour Tattoo in On and On Bronze although I haven't much recently, I just find it a bit shimmery, but it is a beautiful taupey bronze shade. A newer addition to the ranks is the Topshop Eye Gleam in Bronzed, which has a more moussey texture to the others. The shade is a deep gold with quite a heavy shimmer, I like it, but I don't find the wear time to be as good as the others.

The last two products are a duo I reach for when I want an easy smokey eye. I take the Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeshadow Pencil in Bulletproof Beige all over the eyelid, and then the shade Bad Girl Bronze in the crease and outer corner. I then just blend it all out and it takes literally 30 seconds. The foolproof smokey eye.

What are your favourite easy to wear shades?

The Review: Topshop Beatnik Lipstick

I've mentioned previously on this blog that I'm not a massive fan of Topshop makeup. I find that whilst their products are nice, there's always something not quite right, the shades, the formulas, the lasting power. As a result, I don't own much, it tends to get passed on to less-fussy friends, or my little sister. Recently though, in my latest haul post, I showed the three products I picked up in Topshop in an effort to love the makeup a little more. 

The real standout product for me of the three I picked up was the lipstick. Beatnik is a lot more subtle than Topshop's usual lipstick fare, which normally look okay on the little sticker at the bottom of the tube, but when swatched are pretty garish and bright. It's a muted berry shade with a hint of rosiness to it. It's pretty subtle, the cliché 'my lips but better' springs to mind here, since it is very similar to my natural lip colour, just with a little something more. 

This lipstick has ended up my handbag lippie of choice this month, because it's so similar to my natural lip colour it goes with literally every makeup look I wear, and when I haven't know which lipstick to wear, this is what I've gone with. 

The formula is the one thing that lets this product down in my opinion. It's got a really creamy formula, so it applies really nicely, but unfortunately the wear time is really short, I have yet to see this last longer than two hours, which is pretty pathetic in my opinion. This will also disappear at the first sign of food drink or kissing too, which is pretty rubbish since I'm a serial water drinker. If I had known how rubbish the wear time was I don't think I'd have purchased this, since I feel like I'm getting through it pretty fast having to reapply five or six times a day. If I use Lipcote it does last a little longer, but the formula is so creamy even that doesn't help that much. 

It's a shame because I love the colour of this lipstick, but I think I'll end up trailing the aisles of Boots with it looking for a similar colour from elsewhere. 

Do you like Topshop makeup?

The Beauty Tool Kit Essentials

Being a beauty obsessive is expensive work, but there's no point splurging on pricey products, if you don't have a good quality team of tools to work with them. Without the right tools, the products are pointless. Over the last year or so, I've developed an army of tools and I'm pretty sure I'm covered on all bases. That's not to say you need all of these tools, but if you're considering a career in makeup, or if you're just a beauty junkie, this is a pretty extensive kit.

Good Brushes: In my humble opinion, you need a minimum of five. One good foundation brush, a brush for packing eyeshadow onto the lid, a eye crease brush, a blending brush, and a face brush, for powder, blush and bronzer. Personally, I'd recommend the Real Techniques Buffing Brush, a MAC 215, a Topshop domed shadow brush, the & Other Stories Artists Brush & the Space N.K. Contour brush. I'm not saying that's all you need, but those are the ones I reach for without fail on a daily basis. I've done a full post on my most used brushes, which you can find here.

Good Lash Curlers: I'm not one to advocate over the top spending, but lash curlers are one of a few things where the more you spend the better they are. Personally, I've never found a pair of drugstore curlers that work for me, my favourites are the Shu Umera Lash curlers. They're pricey, but they're excellent, and they last forever.

Deep Brush Cleaner: If you're going to be swirling brushes all over your skin on a daily basis, you want to make sure they're clean. I'd recommend giving all your brushes a good deep clean on a weekly basis (yes it's tedious, but it has to be done). There are two products I use for that, the Dr Bronners Magic Soap, and Johnsons Baby Shampoo, and to be honest, I probably prefer the latter, I just find it gives a deeper clean.

Brush Spot Cleaner: This is an essential if you're an eyeshadow lover, unless you want to buy enough eyeshadow brushes to keep swapping until your weekly deep cleanse. I use the MAC Brush Cleanser to spot clean eyeshadow brushes, removing the colour pigment so I can use them again and again, without getting yesterday's eyeshadow involved in today's look.

Cotton Buds: Seems like kind of an obvious one, but they are so handy. Can be used to clean up eyeshadow mistakes, smudge out liner, remove lipstick that smudged...the possibilities are endless. Mine are from & Other Stories, but any will do.

Kleenex Facial Cloths: Whilst I still use traditional cotton wool for a lot of things, these facial cloths are excellent for covering in product to remove a whole face of makeup, big and soft they are fantastic, I always stock up on them when they're on offer.

Baby Wipes: I don't condone using these for makeup removal, they are never going to give your skin the cleanse it needs, but if you're taking makeup off to reapply it they can come in handy. Also great for cleaning up your hands if you've used them to apply your product!

Flannels: For giving your skin a good deep cleanse. I just use the basic Primark ones, they're soft and fluffy, wash well, and they work out at 50p each.

Makeup Setting Spray: Whether it's boiling hot, or you've had a long day, there are some occasions where it doesn't matter how good your products are, your makeup isn't intact by the end of the day. This is where the Makeup Setting Spray comes in, I personally love the Urban Decay All Nighter Makeup Setting Spray, which works kind of like a hairspray for your face.

Lipcote: A must have for bold lip lovers. Seals in lipstick making it last all day.

A Good Topcoat: A good topcoat should lock in your nail polish, extending the wear time, preventing chips, give a glossy finish, and if possible dry fast. I've found all of these qualities in the Sally Hansen Megashine Topcoat, which has booted Seche Vite from my makeup ranks once and for all.

Nail Files: Continuing the nail theme, a good nail file is an obvious one. For shaping my nails I love to use the Stylefile which is available in Boots, but I also keep a glass one in my handbag for nail emergencies, or smoothing rough edges. The one I have is from Tiger! 

Tweezers: For eyebrow problems and lash applications, they're handy. Mine are from Tweezerman, I've had them for nearly four years now, and they're still the best tweezers I've ever used. You can also send them off to Tweezerman to sharpen them for free too!

Dark Lash Glue: I'm not a massive false lash lover, but when I do don the falsies for a night out, dark lash glue is a lifesaver. My favourite is the Revlon offering, dries black so it blends into the lash line beautifully.

Compact Mirror: For lipstick touch ups, removal of burger from teeth, and shine watch. Everyone needs a compact mirror.

Makeup Bag: Somewhere to store all your essentials. My favourite is this Paul and Joe one, which has removable sections and reminds me of a filofax.

What do you keep in your beauty tool kit?