Quite often, as a lifestyle blogger who dips her pillar box red toenail painted toes into beauty blogging, I see a trend in makeup brands pass me by and think ‘what’s all the fuss about?’ I’ve tried a few MAC products which I’ve never been overly impressed with, don’t even get me started on Barry M nail varnish as I can’t for the life of me think why everyone goes crazy over it (it takes so long to dry I think I’ll probably be celebrating my 30^th by time I get to a smudge free happy place), and although I LOVE Estee Lauder Double Wear (that has seen me through some right messy all-nighters), I’m not overly impressed by the ‘shine on’ lip-gloss which I tried on a wander the other day.

Then two things happened in quick succession. One, I walked into Debenhams looking for an eyebrow pencil with absolutely no ideas in my head. I’ve been using the Benefit ‘Gimmie Brow’ and although it’s good, you will find that unless you keep your brows preened within an inch of their life at all times, there’s not a lot you can do if you are due a wax. Not only that, but my eyebrows have some weird and wonderful sparse patches that are not filled in by a brow gel as essentially it only clings to hair.

So I aimlessly ended up at the Urban Decay counter and trying ‘Brow Beater’. Although this is an eyebrow pencil, the consistency is more like a crayon, and it comes off a lot easier than pencils. This is great for me, as sometimes I get the odd patch of eczema in my eyebrows and a really thick pencil does it no favours what so ever. Brow Beater is a slow build. You have to bear with it and take a slowly but surely approach, but the results are great. It’s not thick or sludgy, and you get a really natural result, and the brush at the other end of the pencil is really sturdy and can tame even the wildest of brows like mine.

The second thing that happened, was within a week I was sitting at the Lakeside Birthday Blogger Event being shown all sorts of Urban Decay make up by the fabulous make up artist who worked in the Urban Decay there. After seeing her work her magic on the very natural looking model, but keeping her look quite natural, I decided to spend some of the vouchers I won on their products.

First I went for the Naked Skin Weightless Ultra Definition Liquid Make Up (which is a really round about, long winded name for foundation). Seeing it be put on the model, I was impressed by how much it evened out her skin tone. I have combination skin so a foundation that either works for dry or oily skin doesn’t work for me. Now I used the Naked Skin, one thing I’m really impressed about is how much it DOESN’T cling to any dry skin. There’s nothing worse than seeing someone caked in foundation looking like old, peeling paint on a wall. It’s really light, you only need one small pump for your whole face, and it really does last ages. I’ve unfortunately been up and down the hospital visiting my Nan all week, and the stress coupled with the tiredness have made me look incredibly run down, but mixing my Naked Skin with a teensy bit of highlighter has perked my skin right up.

The next thing I gave a go, was the Revolution High Colour Lip Gloss. I really liked it. It’s a long way from the lip-glosses I used to buy at Claires accessories when I was 14. It has that nice, ‘not a lip-gloss’ texture and it neither greasy nor sticky. In fact, it feels quite like wearing lipstick. I chose a very natural colour for every day wear, and it plumped my lips up quite sufficiently too.