February | 2013 | Beginners Beauty

Beauty / Travel — No Comments
28
Feb 13

Travel Makeup Essentials

Hey everyone!

Today’s post is my travel makeup essentials. I am slowly beginning to get back into travelling – As some of you know I have anxiety and this has affected my ability to travel. But I am beginning to get more excited and interested in travelling again!

I recently went to Paris and I thought that as Summer is getting closer (not quick enough though!) and people are starting to book their holidays, I’m going to share my Travel makeup essentials with you!

I try to carry as little as possible with me when travelling as I tend to bring a lot of shopping home with me. I can never understand how some people can take pretty much their entire makeup collection with them on holiday! I see lot’s of “what’s in my handbags” and “travel makeup” videos and I think “Why the hell do you need that?!”

It’s a matter of personal taste I guess but In my opinion – Less is best!

So What’s in my travel makeup bag?

I usually take 3 palettes with me. My face palette, eye palette and eye brow palette. My face palette has my bronzer and blush in , so i save room by taking just one palette as opposed to two palettes for blush & bronzer. For my eye palette it has all the eye shadows I need, including a black which I can use for eyeliner, and a white which I can use for highlighting. And for my eye brows palette it has the dark colour for my brows and it has a great lighter colour which I can use on my eyelids if I wanted to. I’ve saved a lot of room using these three palettes! Very handy!

I take 3 brushes with me. My angled eyeliner brush, Buffing brush and chisel brush. I can use the buffing brush for my foundation and my chisel brush for powders. My eyeliner brush, I use for my eye brows and lining my eyes.

I take a few lip colours with me. I take a natural colour for the day and darker colours for the evening.

For my face I bring a concealer and powder foundation. I rarely use foundation on my face anymore. The concealer I have has a great coverage so I find I don’t need to put foundation on. Plus I find it too heavy on my skin nowadays.

For my cleansing routine I bring a facial wash, moisturizer and spot zapper. I always get spots when I go away…Not sure why!

I didn’t photograph these but I also take tweezers, mascara, my tangle teezer hairbrush and lots of hair ties.

So this is my travel make up essentials. You don’t need a huge amount when traveling. You just need the basics. If you’re good at light packing then maybe find a concealer/foundation palette instead of taking foundation and concealer bottles (saves room). There’s lots of ways to get your makeup bag nice and light for traveling whilst still taking enough products.

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Thanks for reading!

Hannah x

@beautyblogpage

Beauty — 2 Comments
27
Feb 13

February Favorites!

Hey everyone!

Today’s post is my February Favorites!

I tend to stick to the same products each month but I am slowly expanding my makeup choice and picking up old products I used to use and re discovering them. I might do a monthly re discover product. I also might be doing a blogsale soon so stay tuned!

BEAUTY FAVORITES

1. John Frieda Hair Dye – I love this hair dye so much. It’s so easy to use and I can’t fault it. The colour goes on really well and evenly and lasts for quite a long time. I’ve found the foam dye isn’t as harsh and leaves my hair feeling soft and looking shiny!

2. Body Shop Grapefruit body butter – I love this body butter by body shop. The smell is so amazing, and lasts for ages. I apply this onto my skin after a shower/bath and it really moisturizes my skin well. When I walk around the house after using it my Mum always goes on about how I stink of a grapefruit :’) Love it!

3. Collection 2000 Lip Stains – I am obsessed with lip stains. I cannot rave about them enough. I own so many now and my collection is growing by the month. I love the collection 2000 stains as they are long lasting, well pigmented and the colour range is brilliant

4. Hard Candy Glamoflauge concealer – This is one of the best concealers I have ever used. It’s an American brand and I’m gonna have to order some more soon because I use it so much. It has a brilliant coverage and it is long lasting. I am a Porcelain/Light skin colour and find it difficult to find foundations and concealers that match my skin type – this is PERFECT. Can’t fault it !

5. Real techniques buffing brush – I love the real techniques brushes so much. They are by far the best brushes I have used. The buffing brush is brilliant for applying foundation to your skin. It gives you a flawless finish and is super easy to clean too.

6. FashionistA Brow kit* – This is my favorite brow kit that I have ever used. This is one of the products I re discovered a few weeks back and I am so glad I did because this is just faultless. My eye brows are beginning to thin out a bit and this does a brilliant job of making them look fuller. There are 3 colours in the palette so it is perfect for all brow colours

So these are my February Favorites!

Leave me a comment or a tweet with YOUR February favorites!

Thanks for reading!

Hannah x

@beautyblogpage

Beauty / Fashion / Travel — 2 Comments
26
Feb 13

Paris Trip – HAUL

Hey everyone,

So I am back in the UK ! Had a lovely time in Paris, so glad I went. Thank you for all the lovely messages that some of you tweeted/commented!

I didn’t buy a huge amount in Paris because It was a little bit more expensive than I had thought. I loved Sephora when I was out there but I was absolutely gutted on Sunday when I went to go and buy a lot more of their products and they were shut I was a bit annoyed that most of the shops are shut on Sunday. I understand that they have Sundays off but if you are going over to Paris for a long weekend then Sunday is NOT a good day to shop!!

I bought more food than I did clothing/beauty products (typical of my family ) , Below are my purchases!

BIODERMA & SEPHORA

The first items that I purchased were the Bioderma Makeup Remover and the Sephora Eye Makeup Remover. I had read some really good reviews on both of these products and I have to say that I agree! Both amazing products! I purchased 2 bottles of Bioderma which came to 18 euro which isn’t bad at all! And the Sephora eye makeup remover cost just 3 euro!

FOOD….FOOD!

I bought a lot of food when I was away. My family and I have this thing that whenever we travel we go to a supermarket, run straight to the sweet isle and see what they have. We compare a lot of the candy sections to Walmart & Target in America because lets just face it….You can’t beat American candy right? Carrefour was like Walmart only with British prices. I had to stock up on these Fruit Candy’s because they are so amazing! Also couldn’t resist a giant Milka bar!!

GREEN TEA? YES PLEASE!

Okay so when I saw these in the Supermarket I just had to try them – I had seen these in a beauty guru’s video and liked the sound of them. I am now an Arizona Green tea fanatic… not kidding. I must have bought about 20 cans of this when I was away! It tastes so amazing , there’s no added sugar or colouring, it tastes so refreshing and you an also heat this up like a hot green tea too!

SHOES

I found these on my last day in a really cute little shop called Ella & Moi. All the shoes and clothes were under 30 euro and I saw these for 19 euro’s and I couldn’t resist. I’ve seen shoes similar to this in river island and new look and I just had to buy them. they’re super comfy!

KIKO COSMETICS

Before buying these products I had heard about Kiko Cosmetics through a press release I received a few weeks ago. Their products look awesome so when I found the shop I was over the mood. I would have bought more but the Sunday shop closures prevented me ! I bought 2 lip liners and an Eye liner , they’re really soft and well pigmented – A more in depth review will be up soon

H&M

I found an H&M when I was in one of the malls and decided to have a browse. I found these really cute jeggings from only 9.95 euros and I couldn’t resist. They are really different and I’m so glad i found them! I also bought this pink checked top for summer , I can never find these short sleeved one’s in the UK so I bought this one for just 9.95 euros

So these are my purchases – I didn’t buy a huge amount but I’m happy with the items I purchased. I really enjoyed Paris but I wouldn’t suggest going there if you are only going to shop because I think you might be disappointed. For the UK residents it’s not much cheaper as the exchange rate is terrible, but for US citizens it would be ideal as the dollar-euro rate is great.

Thanks for reading!

Hannah x

@beautyblogpage

*disclaimer – all items were purchased with my own money , i am in no way being paid to feature any of these products*

Travel — No Comments
23
Feb 13

Paris Trip – Day 3

Hey everyone!

Today was a shopping day! Usually I avoid shops at all costs on a Saturday because it just gets too busy and frustrating! But we decided to go ahead and have a shopping spree!

Had breakfast this morning and then jumped on the metro to go see Marche D’Aligre which at the time I thought was going to be a lovely big market full of clothing stalls and accessories etc but it turned out to be a fruit & veg market with meat stalls too. Eek!

After this mistake, we jumped back onto the metro and headed towards Italie 2 which is a big shopping mall!

It was okay but it was filled with more up market shops which made my eyes pop when I saw the prices ! One thing I have notice here in Paris is that the prices on clothing always seen to be either €24,99 or €34.99… Mainly those two price and nothing else :S weird

I saw the most gorgeous coat in Zara an nearly bought it but they didn’t have my size could have cried! Hopefully I’ll get it on the UK somewhere!

It got to lunchtime and mum and me were so tired so we headed back to the hotel for a power nap and a cuppa.

In the evening we headed over to the Bercy 2 mall around the corner and had another mooch around there. I think Bercy 2 is the best Mall here to be honest. It has a massive Carrefour market, Tati, H&M, and various smaller shops which are more affordable. I bought a few bits and bobs but I’ll do a Paris haul post on Monday!

Today wasn’t too exciting – just a chilled out shopping day ! Tomorrow is our last day gonna miss Paris but I will be glad to have a nice English cuppa tea and a cuddle with my doggy when I get home!

Thanks for reading!

Au revoir!

Hannah x

( just a couple of pictures from today. My lips have been so sore I took one of the mini honey jars from breakfast and made a lip scrub with it! Haha!!! I have a new love for macaroons too!!!)

Travel — 2 Comments
22
Feb 13

Paris Trip – Day 2

Hey Everyone!

So it’s day 2 of my Paris trip! Back at the hotel now after a very long, cold day! Shattered!

Went to the Eiffel Tower this morning but before had a lovely breakfast at the hotel. A range of cereals, yoghurts, drinks, fresh fruit, breads, croissants and hot food was laid out ready for us to help ourselves. Great range of food!

After eating our breakky mum and I went off to catch the Metro. The metro is the equivalent to the London Underground but a lot easier! We bought 4 tickets ( 2 each) which would let us get on two different stations. It was only €6.80 for the two of us! We jumped on at Bercy and sat and waited for the train to take us to the Eiffel Tower. It was so easy and quick – couldn’t believe how easy it was.

We jumped off of the train and walked outside to what felt like an arctic blast. It was so cold!!! From the station we walked about 5 minutes to the Eiffel Tower and jumped in the queue to grab our tickets to go up in the lift. No way was I walking up there!!! It cost €25 for the two of us which wasn’t bad at all in all honesty! The tickets we bought were going to take us to the top of the tower but we got off at the second stop as the third was just too high and to be honest – just way to cold!

The view is great. It was a lovely clear day so you could see for miles! I suggest finding the lightest point for picture taking – we took a photo that had a good view but terrible lighting so wherever that sun is shining – take your pictures there!! Also if you want to avoid queuing (It was about 20 minutes for us but it will vary) then maybe book online to jump the queue!

Once we had finished with the tower we walked off in the hope to find some shops and somewhere that had heating! We went in the wrong direction so ended up jumping back on the metro towards Forum des Halles which is an amazing shopping center!

I highly recommend forum des halles for shopping. A lot of shops ranging from Sephora to H&M and even a Mc Donald’s! Haha

After this we went off to find a department store called Tati , but on arrival we’d realised we’d travelled to quite a rough area of Paris – and I do mean rough – people were selling, what looked like stolen items on the streets. Oops!

After that failed attempt – we jumped back on the metro to the hotel to warm up!

Near our hotel is a shopping mall called Bercy 2 – a must see if you are in the area. Brilliant shopping place with all kinds of stores including Carrefour which is like the French version of Walmart – not Asda… WALMART. It is amazing. It is a huge supermarket with all sorts of items that are really affordable.

So we had a long cold day but it was totally worth it. The metro was surprisingly easy and the Eiffel Tower was something I am now finally glad to say I have visited!

Tomorrow we’re off to hit the markets!

Thanks for reading!

Au revoir!

Hannah x