Blush Brush - £8; Stippling Brush - £8; Bronzing Illuminator in Reflect - £12.50; Matte Lipstick - £8
*This is a Topshop x Amy Elizabeth collaboration
For me, Christmas always brings a replenishment of money from generous family friends and distant relatives, and I am always so tempted to blow it all on high end beauty products... consequently spending the rest of January and February waiting anxiously for my birthday in March where my bank balance will (hopefully) be topped up a bit more, only for me to do the exact same. Years of this routine have left me with draws upon draws filled with beauty products, make up, bath bombs, skin care products etc.... and a slightly less full savings account.
Therefore, this year, I decided to try and switch some of these high-end splurges and try out the best of the high street beauty offering, (with thanks to Topshop Beauty). Last year, Topshop gifted me a number of products from their new Face range, and despite my initial reservations I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the products, and their foundation has replaced my much more expensive Benefit foundation ever since. (Read all about it here). Therefore when I was contacted again about trying some more of their products I couldn't resist. I have been after some new make up brushes for a while now... in 2015 I plan to start with a complete fresh set and actually look after them and clean them on a regular basis. Although I love my current brushes, they are damaged and fatigued from daily use and very sparse cleaning, so I chose the blush brush and the stippling brush, considering foundation and blush/bronzer are the two most frequently used brushes in my collection. I currently used a flat foundation brush, but have read so many great blog reviews about stippling brushes over the past few months that I thought I would go for a change and give it a try. I applied foundation to the back of my hand and used to brush to dab it onto the main areas of my face (forehead, T-section, chin), before blending. I already much prefer this shape of brush as it provides a much more even coverage and doesn't result in streaks.... also both brushes are so incredibly soft they feel so lovely against the skin.
If you're a frequent reader of my blog, you will know that I always bang on about how I want to try purple/plum lipstick and always chicken out at the last minute and end up purchasing something slightly more subtle.... well this time I decided to take the plunge and go for this purple matte lipstick. I was already a lover of Topshop lipsticks as they have such an immense staying power (especially this dark shade... it took some serious scrubbing to get off), but for me that's perfect. I'm a lazy make-up maintainer, so if I'm off out I want something that will stay put all night and not smudge after one drink.
The bronzing powder is by far my favourite product. Bronzer is my favourite make up item as it is so versatile and can be used to contour as well as illuminate. I was previously using Benefit's 'Hoola', a product which I still love, however, this powder contains three different shades, making contouring and high-lighting much more simple. You can either sweep the brush across all three, leaving them as seperate shades, and then gently blending with the finger after application, or swirl all three together for a standard bronzer-like application.
All of these products are so reasonably priced and are of a much higher quality than the price suggests... if like me you're looking for a slightly cheaper make-up option this year then I cannot recommend Topshop beauty enough.
