Trying out Anastasia Beverly Hills: Contour Kit and DipBrow Pomade

When it comes to cult products I just have to get my hands on them to see what all the fuss is about. Anastasia Beverly Hills is an incredibly hyped up brand but for quite a while they were difficult to get a hold of in the UK, to be honest a lot of their products still are (liquid lipsticks I am looking at you!) but luckily now quite a few of their best sellers are available on UK soil. That of course includes the well hyped Contour Kit and the very popular DipBrow Pomade which I both obviously had to pick up especially when I nabbed a little 20% off online code!

I am not one for the full on contouring business but I can’t deny that I have always had my eye on the ABH Contour Kit. I picked up the Light to Medium palette which features six shades; three for highlight and three for contour. The first shade Vanilla is a matte pale cream powder which works best on me as an all over powder. Next is Banana, the cult yellow toned powder perfect for setting and highlighting the under eyes. Sand is the last highlighting shade and is a soft pearl shimmer shade great for the cheekbones. The last three shades are contour shades, Java, Fawn and Havana, personally Fawn is my pick of the three as it is just the perfect shade for my skin without being too warm or muddy. Each of the powders are beautifully soft and are easy to work with and blend on the skin. The sand shade is the only shimmer shade in the palette and has received criticism for being too gritty but personally I find it as soft as the matte powders. The great thing as well about the palette is that the shades are removable and refill pans can be purchased to fill up the palette and customise it to your own shades.

It is one of those products that does seem a little intimidating especially with the cult following but it is a super wearable palette and so easy to work with. It is one I’ve been reaching for a lot and will always be there for when I need those killer chiseled cheekbones.

After getting my eyebrows done and my fave Benefit Gimme Brow on its last legs, I wanted to try something new in the brow dept. I had heard a lot about the DipBrow Pomade so I had to try it out. I picked up the shade Soft Brown which was a total guess in terms of colour but it has worked out pretty well although I would go a shade lighter next time. That does mean though that it is one I use pretty light-handedly although the good thing about that is it will last such a long time as I only use so little each time. I use the Real Techniques brow brush to brush it through my brows and it stays put all day. It is really buildable and is just the perfect brow product.

Are you a fan of Anastasia Beverly Hills?

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December Favourites

It’s favourites time again and also the final favourites post of the year! How scary! Although keep your eyes peeled for a special favourites post coming next week! Back to the festive month of December though, I picked up quite a few new exciting bits and pieces over the month which I am truly loving and also fell for some products that I already had in my stash! So without further ado, here is my December favourites…

If you read Monday’s monthly roundup post, you would remember my mention of starting a Makeup Geek palette. Not too long ago Beauty Bay started stocking Makeup Geek eyeshadows much to my excitement. These single eyeshadows have been so raved about from the likes of Jaclyn Hill who even stated that they were her all time favourite eyeshadows (even better than Mac!). Obviously for that reason I had to pick up a few! The shadows are super affordable and there is such an incredible range to choose from. I have five shadows so far and I also picked up a large Z Palette to put them in. Jaclyn is so right, the quality of these are so amazing and they last so long on my oily eyelids! If anyone has any shade recommendations, fire away! A few of my favourites have to be Peach Smoothie, Prom Night and Homecoming! I now can’t wait to start filling up my palette!

Speaking of Jaclyn Hill and exciting UK launches, Becca Champagne Pop finally made its way over to the UK! Yay! I don’t think I’ve ever gotten so excited about a makeup product before and I even pre-ordered it as soon as I seen it on the Space NK website, sad I know! It is so easy to see why this is such a raved about highlighter. The peachy champagne-y shade looks gorgeous on so many skin-tones and the formula is a complete dream to work with, super buttery smooth. It is pretty intense but I just love it so much that I’ve basically been wearing it everyday,but I mean its Christmas so why not!

A more surprising favourite this month is the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge. I say surprising as I really didn’t get this product when I first tried it. Although I’ve found myself using this everyday over the month and it just seems so perfect for blending out concealer and ensuring my base is flawless. I do really want to try the Beauty Blender though now as I hear that one is far superior…

One thing I just have to have at Christmas time is a bottle of Lush Snow Fairy! I just can’t go without my precious amazingly scented Snow Fairy at this time of year. It just makes me feel so Christmassy and I couldn’t help but stock up during the Lush sales!

Another product that I’ve came back to is my holy grail primer! Nothing will ever beat the Smashbox Photo Finish primer. With nights out and parties during the month, this primer came to the rescue by helping my makeup last that bit longer and still look fresh by the end of the night! It creates such a smooth base to the skin which allows makeup to glide on beautifully and basically is the key to a flawless base!

I also finally discovered Anastasia Beverly Hills this month. After spotting a 20% off deal online I just had to get that contour palette! I picked up the original contour kit in the lighter shade and I have been using it constantly over the month. The powders are super blendable and last so well too. After I got my eyebrows done not too long ago and my beloved Benefit Gimme Brow is on its last legs I wanted to try out something new. I picked up the Dipbrow Pomade in Soft Brown and it’s became my new go-to. I don’t want to go into too much detail with these products as I will be having a separate review post coming soon but both are well loved new additions to my makeup routine.

What have you been loving this month?

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Monthly Roundup: December

The very last monthly roundup of the year! It’s crazy to believe December is coming to an end and Christmas is over! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and were cherished with lots of lovely gifts! I certainly had a nice quiet Christmas and got some lovely gifts, some of which I will be sharing with you at a later date! Whilst I was back at work again for Boxing Day I did pick up a few bargains here and there. I have to say though I am a little underwhelmed by the sales this year! Nevertheless I did pick up a few nice things including finally being able to access the Lush sale!  Anyone else suffer from the Lush website crash whilst trying to desperately stock up on Snow Fairy or just me!?

Over the month, I’ve got well and truly in the Christmas spirit. I am obsessed with glitter nails at the moment and I am loving the combo of Essie Sand Tropez and Essie Summit of Style as an accent nail! You just can’t beat a bit of glitter at Christmas time, I even did a little post talking about all my favourite sparkly stuff here. As well as that I also picked up a few new beauty bits over the month. I finally caved on the well hyped ABH Contour Kit! I just had to do it! I spotted a 20% off online and just couldn’t resist it! I will be speaking in more detail about it later but I have to say I am loving it! I also got super excited to see that Makeup Geek is now available in the UK via Beauty Bay! Their eyeshadows are super popular and at such an affordable price so I obviously had to start my own palette! I am just a bit too excited now about filling it up but I will let you see it all shortly!

This month has been a lot more relaxing on the whole compared to previous especially with my uni semester at an end until January. I was so relieved to get all my coursework out the way and just have a little down time! I do have an exam in the next month which I need to start preparing for very soon! Although I have been working over the festive period which is never too great although it has been nice to have some free time and also time to properly blog! I can imagine things will get busy and hectic again as soon as I return to uni so I am hoping to just enjoy my time off 🙂

Catch up on December posts: The Best Holiday Beauty Buys, Christmas Party Makeup, Nars x Steven Klein, The Highlighter Edit and Exporing NYX.

How was your Christmas?

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