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Pink Faux Fur And Ripped Knees

For today, I'm bringing you a 'I want to wear pastel colours in winter' post. A very weather appropriate one at that. I always feel like I have to wear dark colours only throughout Autumn/Winter and I'm a fan of black clothes as much as the next person, but occasionally I buy something that I just really want to wear, despite it totally going against this rule. Case and point with this pink faux fur number.  

Spectrum Makeup Brushes

Thanks to Instagram I've been introduced to Spectrum Collections makeup brushes and I can honestly say I'm a tad obsessed with them. Being a huge Real Techniques fan, I've never really tried any other makeup brushes as I never thought anything could come close to RT, but I'm so pleased I decided to give Spectrum brushes a try as they are my new everyday tool of choice for applying my makeup.

I actually found it quite difficult to get my hands of any of these brushes as they sell out so quickly, that's why I was SO excited to discover that they were attending The Clothes Show, where I managed to pick myself up a few of the brushes I'd been wanting to try. 

First up is the Siren Sculpt Collection, which is Spectrum's newest release and comes with this amazing teal oil slick design - I'll admit, the way these brushes look was initially why I wanted to try them! This collection features five brushes all with the aim to help with sculpting and contouring the face; the Flat Top Buffer, Flat Top Contour, Angled Powder, Precision Blush and Large Powder. 

At first I didn't want to use these brushes due to how pretty (and clean) they looked but I quickly got over that and they are now the best brushes I've ever used I think. They are super soft and dense so perfect for the purpose of contouring and highlighting and the Flat Top Contour is a particular favourite for applying my cream contour products before buffing them in with the Flat Top Buffer. 

After picking up this set, I knew I also wanted some key core brushes and so I picked up the Dome Contour and both the Small and Large Fan brushes. The dome contour brush is described as being for the face and that's exactly what I use it for, just for for contouring. Instead I like to use this brush for blending in my concealer as it's the perfect size and shape and the brushes so soft, it doesn't budge my foundation while blending over the top. The two fan brushes I bought after discovering a love for highlighting and this highlighter in particular, I've been using the smaller size for the cupids bow and nose and the larger size for the cheekbones as I find this shape brush gives a much more natural look. 

I would highly recommend these brushes and despite them not being as readily available as brands like Real Techniques; if you can get your hands on them before they sell out, they are definitely worth it. These have replaced a lot of my older, much loved brushes and I just can't believe it took me this long to find this brand!

Have you ever tried Spectrum makeup brushes? What is your favourite brush brand?

The Perfect Barbie Manicure

When it comes to painting my nails, I like them to look perfect and the second a chip occurs, I feel like I have to change the entire thing. Of all the colours I could choose from though, pinks are definitely my favourite and I've been on the hunt for the perfect Barbie pink for some time now; most are either too pastel, too dark or just not pink enough. I have however, now found the perfect Barbie-inspired manicure for me and it's from the Nicole by OPI, Carrie Underwood collection in the shade 'Color Me Country'.

I'm a huge fan of Carrie Underwood so that is what initially drew me to this polish (and a few more from the collection), but having tried it and worn it for a week now, I can start by saying that it is nothing like it appears in the bottle. It's much more of a Barbie pink, as apposed to the deeper hue it appears in the bottle - that I am happy about though! Moving onto the formula itself, as expected with anything from OPI, including it's cheaper offering of Nicole by OPI, the formula is incredibly creamy and two coats are more than enough to achieve an opaque finish.  

As for wear time, as expected, I wore this polish for a week and found that it didn't wear or chip at all, which could have been down to the polish itself or the new (and cult favourite) top coat I'm trying out, more on that soon. I'm so happy to have finally found the perfect pink shade for me, despite seeing some reviews and it looking much more peach than pink!

I believe you can pick up these polishes at Boots/Superdrug, but I actually got mine from a local beauty outlet. Have you tried any of the polishes from the Carrie Underwood Nicole by OPI collection? Let me know your favourites!

Blue Popsicle

I'm finally back with my first outfit post of 2016 and hopefully this will continue as a regular occurrence from now on. On my blogging break, I did forget just how difficult it is to shoot outfit photos during the winter. Let's just say these are the least windswept photos you should expect from me for a while.