The Best of The Bronzers

For many years I detested bronzers, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole because they always looked so orange. Other fair skinned ladies will understand that as someone of the paler variety, the task of finding a bronzer that doesn't look completely ridiculous on my skin was one I really couldn't be bothered tackling. This meant that I would walk past the most beautiful bronzers sitting on their shelves crying out to be bought, but I would turn my nose up at them and say "No Oompa Loompa face for me today thank you!" 

However since getting into the blogging world and finally learning where I'm supposed to put the bronzer on my face, I grew curious and dived in. The first one I ever bought was the Bourjois Delice De Poudre or Chocolate Bronzer as most people call it. I was pretty lucky with my first ever bronzer purchase, this is such a great affordable bronzer for any skin tone and it blends superbly. It is slightly more orange than my other two and has very subtle shimmer, but if you use it lightly it gives such a gorgeous colour. 

My next one was The Body Shop Honey Bronzer as recommended by the lovely Estee from Essie Button. If you have fair skin and you don't want to splash out on high end bronzer then this is a must have. The pigmentation is amazing and it comes in various different shades from Light Matte to Dark Matte. I have the Fair Matte shade, which is one up from the lightest, and I reckon I could go slightly darker and I'm very pale. This has a slight pink tone to it and is a bit ashier than the rest; it is perfect if you want to double it up as a contour as well as a bronzer! 

Finally we have the most expensive and most raved about over in the blogging community, Benefit Hoola Bronzer. Another matte bronzer, this has so much hype surrounding it I always stayed away, not to mention it is mighty expensive. After much deliberation I bought this and after one use I could see why people love it so much. It is an absolute dream to blend, I can apply two big stripes to contour my cheekbones and be able to blend it out seamlessly. This is a more taupe bronzer so like the honey bronzer; this can also be used as a great contouring product. 

If you have very fair skin I hope this little blog post has taken the mystery out of some of the bronzers on the market, and hopefully there is one out of these three that is in your budget! 

What is your all time favourite bronzer? Are you willing to pay a bit more to get one that really suits your skin?  

August Favourites!

I cannot believe that it is September and nearly time for me to embark on my final year of University! I feel like I'm getting old far too quickly! But since August has passed us by, it is time for me to share all the things I've been loving this month.

Skincare
I've been a bit skincare obsessed this month so it was really hard to pick one thing I've been absolutely loving. But saying that, I have to say I'm in love with the Clarins cleansing milk for oily/combination skin. It's the first cleanser I've ever used where I can really feel a difference in how oily my face is at the end of the day. I'm not going to say too much because I have a full review planned so you'll have to stay tuned for a bit more info! 

Makeup

There's been a few re-discoveries for me over the last month. I've been loving my Maybelline gel liner, which I've had for a fair amount of time now. I love it for creating winged out cat eyes and it just has amazing staying power! 

I've also been loving my Maybelline Color Tattoo in On And On Bronze/Bad To The Bronze. It's my go to 'omg I'm late for work and I look a mess' eyeshadow. You can slap this on with your finger and no matter what, it will look amazing.

My final makeup product is the Clarins blush, oh my is it a beautiful little thing. Not only is it stunning to look at, but it is so pigmented and looks gorgeous on fair skin. I've been using this every day since I got it and it is a firm favourite in my little collection. If you would like to see more of this beautiful being, just click here.

Fragrance

I don't have a massive fragrance collection (actually is pretty much non-existent) but I'm working on it. I did a little post on The Body Shop Madagascan Vanilla Flower body mist here so I won't go into massive detail, what I will say is it smells so delicious I sometimes just sit and sniff it!

TV

Usually I'll stick to my beauty favourites in these posts/videos, but I wanted to include some of my more random favourites as well! I'm a big lover of TV shows and this month I've been getting back into my Breaking Bad. It's really difficult to get into at first but I'm nearing the end of season 4 and things are heating up. So excited to watch the final season to see how it all goes down! 

Music

I love music as much as I love beauty so it's essential that I include some of my musical favourites. I'm a massive fan of The Civil Wars and their new album did not dissapoint! I love their gothic folk sound and it is so sad that they have parted ways. What will I do without them!? Another (surprise to me) favourite is Jay Z's album Magna Carta. I'm not a big rap fan so I was surprised how much I love it!  Probably not for those who find bad language offensive :/ 

 

Websites & Apps

I've been a bit of a Pinterest fangirl lately, I'm on there constantly and can not seem to pull myself away! I've been getting loads of inspiration and motivation from their lately, when I wake up in the morning and don't want to go for a run, I look on pinterest and remind myself why I run in the first place. 

What things have you been loving this month?

The Body Shop Honey Bronzing Powder

I thought it was about time I purchased another bronzer (seeing as I own only one!) before the summer was over and out of sight. I did my research to find out which bronzers were best for pale skin and The Body Shop Honey Bronzer was a name I kept coming across. 

Seeing as it was buy one get one half price when I went into The Body Shop, I thought it would be rude not to make a sneaky purchase. Out of all the bronzers that had been named as the best for us fair skinned lovelies, this was the cheapest of the bunch. 

I love the packaging, there is a honeycomb detail which just peeks through a honey coloured lid. It's a really sleek and simple design that matches the product perfectly and it even has a handy mirror inside the lid, which is the perfect size for on the go! 

 

According to The Body Shop website, this bronzing powder comes in 4 shades: Light, Fair, Medium and Dark. However all the stores I've been into only have 3 shades available: Fair, Medium and Dark. I picked up the Fair shade and it is very light so I'm not sure how light the 'Light' shade would be. 

All the shades are matte, no shimmery faces happening here. I don't mind a bit of shimmer in my blushes and highlighters, but when it comes to bronzers I always find matte to have the most natural finish. This is not too orange and not too muddy and gives me just the hint of colour I need to not look washed out on a summers day. I also love the pattern embossed on the actual powder, it's a really nice honeycomb effect, much like the packaging, and is just a nice finishing touch. 

I'm really loving this at the moment and would definitely recommend it to anybody with fair skin struggling to find a bronzer. And at such a reasonable price, I think it will be an essential part of my collection for many summers to come.

RRP: £13.00

The Body Shop Madagascan Vanilla Flower Fragrance Mist

This unbelievably scrummy yummy scent deserved a whole blog post all to itself. I was looking for a day fragrance but I had extremely limited funds. I tried millions of perfumes and decided to sniff out The Body Shop. I've had fragrance mists from them before and loved them! They are really long lasting considering they aren't EDP, this one was the one that caught my eye nose instantly. I love the smell of vanilla but find that it can be a bit too sweet. This is a lovely mix of sweet vanilla and floral scents, they blend together so well and smells so warm and sensual, just my kind of fragrance. If you like scents like Hugo Boss Deep Red and Gucci Premiere, you will most likely fall in love with this. Also can be put into a travalo! How handy is that! 

Have you tried the Madagascan Vanilla Flower Fragrance?