Makeup essentials

Following up from my beauty essentials post, I thought I'd do the same but for my makeup. I'm pretty stuck on my makeup, nothing really changes because it works so why experiment with something that might not? Maybe one day I'll push the boat out a bit a try new things, but for now I love what I've got so here we are.

This is my favourite primer on the market, and I've tried them all believe me. I need a primer in my makeup routine because I have pretty oily skin so makeup tends to just slide right off me. This is the only primer I've found that really keeps it in place. I used to wear the Illamasqua Satin Primer, which was great and made my skin feel nice and soft, but it did nothing for my makeup. The Matte primer keeps everything in place and it's definitely an essential in my kit.

I think if you're going to spend a bit more money on one thing in your makeup bag it should be foundation. A bad foundation can be spotted a mile off, with tidelines and caking, and just that general fake look. This Estée Lauder is perfect for my skin. I use the Double Wear Light as I don't really like heavy makeup, it doesn't work on me, it looks really obvious on my skin, and I generally just don't like the feel of it. I never like to feel makeup on my skin because I get paranoid about what it's doing to it. I love this foundation because of the lightness of it, and also because I think it's the first foundation I've ever bought that straight out of the pot matches the colour of my skin. Again it stays in place all day even with my oily skin and hot weather. Supposedly the normal Double Wear foundation does this also, so whatever coverage you like, I would highly recommend this product.

Yes I am a huge Illamasqua fan so here's some more. I was actually quite scared of cream blusher before I found this one. I couldn't understand how you could put it in the right place and make it look natural, turns out it looks 100 times more natural than powder. This colour is absolutely beautiful, I think it would suit pretty much anyone, and the bonus is you can use it on your lips too and it looks like a gorgeous lipstick. This is my favourite powder in the world. It's loose powder so can get a bit messy but it's worth it. It's light, it mattifies the face without caking it, and it smells gorgeous too.

I always use Maybelline mascara, I've tried pretty much every one and I think they're all great. At the moment I've been combing these two, using the lower lash wand on the Big Eyes for my lower lashes, the upper wand for one coat on my upper lashes, then finishing with another coat on the upper lashes using the Colossal Volume.

For lips I tend to stick with Barry M lipsticks. I have others of course, Rimmel do great lipsticks (big fan of the Kate Moss collection), but Barry M have an amazing range of colours and each one has great staying power without drying out lips.

Well I suppose it could be argued that I like Barry M for nails too (that's just over half the amount of colours I have). I just think they're great value, great staying power, and a really good selection of colours and glitters.