Current Favourite Lip Combo...

Special Mention #2: Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Liners

It's My Birthday, I'm Gon' Spend My Money...

Holiday Polish for Toes

The Ultimate Blusher

Summer Lip Picks 2014

Stellar for Spring

#NOTW: Greys & Holographic Glitters

Heavy Weekend Quick Fix

It's Sunday morning. You're feel less than your best and you doubt you'll be looking much better come the Monday morning commute - sound familiar? Thought so. 

Review: Stay All Day Lip Combo

As the trees start to discard their leaves, I start to discard those summery lipsticks - I'm looking at you Peach on the Beach - and take on a more autumnal approach to my lip combos. Deep berrys, plums and cool pinks all slip into my handbag and grace my smackers at least 3 or 4 times a week.

The Sunday Post: Perfect Autumnal Eyes with Bobbi Brown

As soon as I noticed the Rich Chocolate collection from Bobbi Brown, this palette went straight on my wishlist. Being both a palette and Bobbi Brown newbie, I thought it was the perfect addition to my make up bag - and subsequently, the perfect item to fuel a new obsession.

New In: Rimmel Apocalips

Everybody knows about Rimmel's Apocalips lip laquers. They were literally everywhere when they were first released and I, myself, was sucked into purchasing three of them. They really are worth that hype and I definitely recommend getting yourself one if you haven't already!

The only thing some people weren't over the moon about was the colour selection. However, after browsing my local Boots store yesterday I spotted a bunch of new shades I'd never seen! Now, I may be very late on the bandwagon here but I was so happy!

I Instragram'd a pic of my swatched up hand to see if anyone else had spotted these but to no avail!

Anyway, I picked up Eclipse (a purpley red) and, after a hefty search along the racks, Across The Universe (a classic deep red).

Eclipse is beautiful - not as purple as I'd originally thought but still a great autumn berry colour. Application is as easy as you'd expect, as is the pigment and lasting power.

Again not as deep as I'd have expected, but Across The Universe is still a gorgeous wearable shade. It reminds me of a classic Marilyn Monroe-esque red but in the beautiful lip laquer form. It's much deeper than Big Bang from the first batch which I actually prefer because I found Big Bang to be a little hard to wear.

Surely I'm not the only one to have spotted these newbies? Anyone else?

Ax

My Daily Makeup

I always like reading posts on what people use on a day to day basis. The way I see it, if you're using it every day then it's got to be a winner.

So I thought I'd share my daily makeup look. It's pretty minimal - I like to look quite natural unless it's a night out so there's no crazy colours or products in here!

As you can see, it's very basic and all the colours kind of match - browns, neutrals, bronze. Standard stuff, but nevertheless it may give some of you an idea of something new to try yourselves.

Base

The Body Shop Matte Primer: Yep. That little pink tub holds the contents of my primer. In a nutshell, my puppy dog got hold of the tube from my bedroom and kind of ate half of it... the solution was to empty the remains into a travel tub and salvage what was left. Either way, this is one of the best primers I've used! It's only £12 and has lasted me ages. I first bought it at the start of the year and it only ran out at the start of August - the second tube is the one the dog got... But if you have oily skin like I do, this is great, it really does mattify my complexion.

Clinique CC Cream (Light): This stuff RULES. Oh my god, I can't even begin to describe it. It's my holy grail. As someone who hates BB creams, I was a little apprehensive to try CC creams but this is brilliant. Hydrating, light, non greasy and lasts all day. What else could you want? Oh SPF you say? Got it covered - this bad boy has SPF 30 to protect your lovely skin. I'll be doing a review of this soon to tell you more about it!

Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer: I'm kind of in between concealers at the moment and am currently testing this one out. I like it, but I'm not mad on it. Any suggestions for great under eye and blemish concealers are welcome! Saying that, this one is holding out ok so far.

Rimmel Stay Matte powder: A favourite amongst plenty of beauty bloggers, this has made its way in and out of my makeup bag since I was a teenager. Currently loving it to set my base and touch up throughout the day. Not cakey at all and I like that it's translucent.

Complexion

MAC Hibiscus Kiss bronzer: This is part of the RiRi Hearts MAC collection that launched a couple of months ago. I got hold of this as part of the second release and really like it! I reviewed it earlier this week so take a look at that for a more detailed view. I only use the bronzer in the palette at the moment and just for contouring as opposed to an all over colour.

Benefit Hervana: This blush is beautiful. I find it a little difficult to find a blush to suit my skin as I have naturally quite rosy cheeks which I like to mute out as much as possible. However, this is a stunning pastel pink that gives just the right amount of colour for me. Really, really impressed! I actually think it'd work well on a variety of skin tones, too.

Natural Collection eyeshadow: I use this Crushed Walnut shade to fill in and shape my eyebrows. Pretty straight forward stuff. It does the job well!

Collection clear mascara: Now, I THINK this is by Collection. I can't be sure. It's possibly the grottiest item in my makeup bag. Seriously. However, I love using clear mascara to brush through my brows and make them stay put. I favour this over things like gel or waxy products because I get more control in regards to shaping the hairs and smoothing it all down.

Eyes:

MAC Paint Pot in Painterly: Love this! I had been searching for something to match my skin tone for so long and this is perfect. I don't like wearing eyeshadow much but do like to even out my skin tone on my eyes as it can be quite pink. This works great though and doesn't crease at all. When I do wear eyeshadow, it works great as a base. I'd like to try Soft Ochre though because Painteraly may be a little too pink based.

Rimmel Scandaleyes pencil: I use this in my waterline to brighten my eyes. I used to use a white pencil because the only nude toned ones I could find were more high end and I didn't want to pay that much for an eye pencil. So, I was thrilled when Rimmel bought this out. I get up at silly o'clock so this is such a god send for faking that 'bright-eyed-bushy-tailed' look! (And it's super affordable!)

L'Oreal Super Liner: My signature eye look is a cat-eye flick. I have been doing this since I was about 16 and can't imagine doing anything else. Sometimes I leave my eyes naked but it just feels wrong to be honest! I test out a lot of different liners and at the moment pen liners are my favourite. You get great control and can get the perfect shape. This one is great because it tapers down to a really fine point which helps in getting right in the inner corner of your eyes. The best thing about it is its staying power - my eyes like to water at every moment of the day. Whether it's yawning, laughing or generally breathing, they'll tear up, so it's great when I find a liner that stays put!

Lancome Hypnose mascara: Finding a good mascara is one of the most difficult things for me. I have super long lashes but they're ultra fine, so I'm all about volumising mascaras. However, because they're long they get weighed down quickly. Saying that, I really like this one. What I don't like? The price tag. It's around £21/22 which I think is a bit too much for mascara that needs replenishing more often than anything else in my bag.

So there's the products I'm reaching for on an every day basis. Like I said, really simple but I hope some of you find it interesting!

If you'd like further reviews of any of the products let me know!

What are your favourite day-to-day beauty products?

A x

NOTD: Glitter fade

I am officially the worst blogger ever right now. Having rebooted Haus of Amy a few weeks ago I've failed to actually produce anything since then! Big, big apologies for that!

So, I charged up my camera got all prepped to do a couple of fabulous MAC lipstick reviews today... that was until I woke up with a lovely little blemish on my lip this morning! So, unfortunately they'll have to wait (I promise they'll be worth it!).

Instead, I have another nails post. On my first one I told you how I have gel extensions - that's not the case now! My job can be quite hectic and I simply don't have the time to get them done any more - boo hoo! - so I'm using stick on nails at the moment.

I'm actually quite impressed to be honest, they've last really well and look great. These have been on for a week so have grown out a tad but I'm very pleased! 

Anyway, onto the post. Here's the finished look:

Revlon - Sparkling

Rimmel - Princess Pink

Revlon - Top Coat

Excuse the state of my cuticles, they're pretty appalling. The formula of the Rimmel polish is pretty good. I've actually had this colour for a while but forgot how lovely and sheer it is so when I picked up Revlon Sparkling I thought this would go beautifully - and it did! It is very sheer so don't try and layer it up to get more of a pigmented colour because it will smudge, chip and look terrible. If you want more pigment, go for a proper pastel as opposed to this.

The Revlon polish is fabulous. I love, love, love Revlon polishes - they're so thick and glide on beautifully with a gorgeous, shiny finish even without a top coat. This one didn't disappoint. It's not my first Revlon glitter, I picked up the Gold Sequins before Christmas when it was on offer as a freebie and loved that so was happy to try another. The glitter disperses well and was easy to move around to get the faded look that I was going for. This was actually my first attempt at glitter fade so I'm pretty impressed! 

The glitter itself is stunning. There's different sized flecks of glitter in it so it really adds another dimension to the polish instead of it just being all the same. In some lights it can look quite a girly pink, sometimes it looks quite silvery and in others (my favourite) it has a rose gold effect which I love!

The only thing I'd say about doing this design is be patient! You must wait for each layer of glitter to dry properly before doing the next, otherwise you'll wait even longer for three layers to dry completely. I made this mistake and because the polish wasn't dry underneath it ended up smudging and I had to manoever it back in to place - patience is a virtue, ladies!

 If you'd like a tutorial on this then let me know!

Have you tried this design? What glitter polishes do you rate? Leave us a comment!

Much love, Ax