5 Blushes I'm Currently Loving

What need is there to come up with a reason to wax lyrical about my recent blush loves? I don’t need much of a push to chatter on about my favourite beauty product, so I’ve rounded up the five I’ve been wearing in recent months to share with you all.

As I’ve mentioned previously, the bulk of my makeup stash has been packed away and unpacking it has fallen by the wayside as we busy ourselves with house renovations and setting up our first home together. The ‘lazy-day’ cheek shade that I’m sure you’ve all heard me rave about is the Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Exposed, which is a simply amazing rosy neutral that lasts all day and looks amazing on. If I feel like something a bit brighter that lasts all day, I turn to my Chanel Joues Contraste in Pink Explosion or Frivole. My only two Chanel JC’s, I have fallen in love with the formula this year and can’t wait to pick up the new shade Accent from the upcoming holiday collection. It’s meant to be a really pretty shimmery neutral pink shade, and from the limited promo images out there I just know I’m going to be picking it up when it launches in Australia. Okay, blush swoon over, back to the point of the post! (Moral of that tangent? Go and buy a Chanel JC!) 

The only cream blush I’ve been wearing lately is the newly released Ice Bomb crème blush from essence, the solo cheek shade from the Me & My Ice Cream collection. The gorgeous apricot shade blends like a dream, and though I’m upset that the packaging of mine has cracked, I’m still really happy to have picked up this bargain blush! The last and possibly most random blush shade I’ve been wearing is the MAC Mineralize blush in Gentle, a plummy pink shade with gold shimmer. I use a light hand with this as it has the tendency to make me look a bit too flushed, but the shimmery effect is really flattering on my cheeks.

What blushes have you been wearing lately? Any shades or formulas I need to check out?

Emma @ emmabovarybeauty x

The Blush Files : 7 Days of Blush (evidence from a blush fiend)

My obsession with blush has been well documented (just take a look inside my overspilling blush drawer to see!) and those who have gone shopping with me in the past have adamantly labelled me a blush fiend. Some people have a penchant for beautiful lip products (see Norlin and her wonderful #lippyaday challenge!) while others have a skincare stash to rival their local Kit Cosmetics. My soft spot is definitely for those pretty pans of colour that warm up my face, and I find them the most fun aspect of makeup application. I challenged myself a while back to wear a different blush pan each day for a week, to get used to rotating what I wear and to get Tarte Exposed out of my clawing hands for once! Here are the spoils of my challenge, which was a success!

 

As well as my rosy neutrals, I threw a few brighter pinks into the mix for the week to give my cheeks a good pop of colour. Chanel’s Pink Explosion was naturally involved, and I love the shade stippled on with my Samantha Chapman for Real Techniques Stippling Brush. Truth be told, I absolutely love using that brush for the majority of my blushes, whether cream, powder, pigmented or not. BYS Pink Velvet was another pink that got a turn, I adore the BYS blush formula and even the packaging is sturdy (especially when compared to their lipstick casings) Illamasqua’s Naked Rose is one of my favourite blushes, and the matte dusty pink looks great against pale skin like mine.

 

Milani Berry Amore is a shade that took me a while to get used to, but the gold veining really works when used with a light hand. I did cheat slightly during the challenge, as I used my staple blush on one of the days where I was running out of the door to work. Tarte Exposed is a neutral rosy blush that is too beautiful for words, Chris bought it via eBay for me as a Christmas gift and I fall more in love with it every day. See, blush fiend!

 I also tried out my Korres Pink Zeas May blush for the first time, and really like the wearable pink shade. The final choice for my 7 day challenge was a mix of two Bourjois shades, I first applied Rose D’Or before topping my cheekbones and the apples with Lune D’Or, just to play around with it and see if I could change the shades up a bit.

 

So, has my status of a blush fiend been upheld, or do I need to do more to convince you, dear readers? Which blush shade would you nab from this loot given the chance?

 

*All of these blush pans were bought by me, or given as gifts from my fiancé. He knows the way to my heart is through my chipmunk cheeks ;P Honesty,always. 

Favourites for January ft. Chanel, Haus of Gloi + more

 

An edit of the products I loved the most in January would be incomplete without the mention of my beloved Dermalogica Precleanse*. I feel as though my skin is happier now that I’m using this before my cleanser, so it is a definite favourite for me right now.

 

The Endota Spa Lavender & Alpine Pepper hand cream* is the best hand cream I’ve tried, and I’ve been loving popping this on as I watch YouTube videos at night time. I’ve been meticulous with moisturising my bod as well this year, and my Haus of Gloi pumpkin butter in Twice is Nice smells like amazing almond sugar cookies, and is thick and intense for my skin.

Despite it being summer in Australia and peach blushes being spruiked, my obsession with bright pink cheeks still reigns! Chanel Pink Explosion is naturally still in my everyday makeup bag, joined by the affordable Fierce Fuschia from BYS.

 

 

The YSL Touche Eclat* was something I didn’t think I would love as much as I do, but it really does work magic on brightening up my face, and I’ve found that throwing a bit on blemishes (not straight from the brush, don’t worry!) works wonders if I’m in a pinch. Barry M’s Toffee gloss is something I bought after seeing Ingrid (aka Miss Glamorazzi on YT) rave about it, and she was right! Smells amazing and is a great wearable nude, made better by the cheap price tag on ASOS.

Even though I tried to branch out with my eyeshadow choices during the first month of the year, all I could manage when I wasn’t doing a look soley for the blog featured these shades. L’Oreal's Infallible’s are one of my very favourite shadow formulations, and Metallic Lilac is fast becoming my colour of choice from the stack that I have. Paired with MAC’s Moth Brown=heaven!  Maybelline’s Colour Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze finally got some loving on my lids, after I realised that I needed it smudged along the lower lashline for it to work on me.

What products did you love hardest in January? Anything new I need to check out?

 

*Marked items were provided for consideration, but are legitimate favourites. Honesty, always.

 

What I Received this Christmas

I’m still full from all of the turkey and fresh fruit I gorged on during Christmas & Boxing Day, but I thought I’d pop in and give you a quick post before I get into the swing of regular posting again! I wanted to show you some of the beauty related gifts I was lucky enough to receive this year, as I love peeking into others peoples days and thought you might feel the same. Chris requested a wish list from me early on in December, and naturally I managed to come up with some beauty products I wouldn’t mind seeing underneath the tree. He took the list into our local Myer and is now firm friends with the ‘nice chick from the Chanel bit’, and I am very proud of him.

A Chanel JC blush was something I’d always lemmed over after seeing Pink Sith rave about it, but I could never decide on a shade when I was at the counter. I took myself out of the equation and asked Chris to select a shade for me, and he went for the bright and summery Pink Explosion! He bought the Jurlique Rosewater Balancing Mist off his own back, when we started dating years ago I used to have a bottle and he loved it, so he wanted me to have it again. So sweet!

I’d been eyeing off the YSL Sheer Candy range and fell in love with the deep red shade Sweet Fig, so Chris chose that off my list without even knowing what sort of colour it was. He was pretty much dragging the Chanel lady all over the place to find things that I’d like, he is pretty clueless when it comes to cosmetics (though he is a fan of Garnier concealer and Maybelline Dream Matte powder!) The Inglot pans were something I picked up myself for under the tree, I am a little bit frightened of how intense the blush is but every time I go into the store I am drawn to it like a moth to flame, so I think it wanted to join my blush family.

I am so grateful for all of the beautiful gifts I received this year, as well as the delicious food and the time spent with family. As well as the beauty related gifts above I received pajamas, Tupperware, a stack of board games (fam are looking forward to us moving in together I think!) and an iPad 4. Elated that I will now be able to blog on the go more often, and blog read on my lunch break every day!

How did you spend Christmas Day? Did you receive any cosmetic gifts as well? I’d love to hear about them!