Wednesday, 8 October 2014

Face of The Day


I don't know about you, but I love a good Face of The Day post. There's something quite satisfying about having a nosey at what others wear on their face on a daily basis. Here's some of yesterdays picks, and these are all favourites of mine!

NARS; Douceur Blush
I've had this for a few months now, and I can't stop reaching for it. We all know how loved the NARS blushes and bronzers are, and whilst this is a shade I hear a little less about than the others (*Ahem* Orgasm) the quality of the product remains the same. This shade is a muted, matte pink-brown and is just heavenly. 

NARS; Isola Bella Satin Lip Pencil
I'm a sucker for nude, or your-lips-but-better lip products, and this one is a great version, leaning towards the peach-nude tones. This is my only NARS lip pencil and I love the satin range, they're smooth and non-drying on the lips, very easily blended and when layered have great staying power.

YSL; Luxurious Mascara
As with pretty much all YSL products, I adore the packaging on this bad boy. Gold and shiny and beautiful - who can argue with that? Oh and it gives a pretty wonderful effect on the lashes too - wide eyed and full of volume. 

L'Oreal; Super Liner
This is an oldy, but a goody. I love this stuff and must have repurchased-and-repurchased-and-repurchased dozens of times, and honestly, I can't imagine ever switching to another eyeliner unless they discontinue it or I encounter some kind of eyeliner related disaster. It has a flexible, fine nib that is so easy to work with and can give both thick or thin lines. Love it! This is the dip-nib-in-pot kind of eyeliner rather than a felt tip pen kind, as I tend to find those dry out more quickly.

CHANEL; Perfection Lumiere Foundation
This is a foundation that I've been using for years, and it's a really lovely light-medium coverage with a velvet matte finish. One of the main things I love about Chanel Foundations is that they come pale enough for me whilst still being a good match for my skin tone. This one is lovely and I love the glass bottle it comes in, with the oh-so-handy pump. Really want to try the Perfection Lumiere Velvet too. I wear shade 10 Beige.

SLEEK; Contour Kit 
If you've seen my Contouring Made Easy video then you'll know I'm a big fan of the Face Form palette too, and I recently managed to get my hands on the Contour Kit, a more compact version of the bronzer and highlighter than I love, without the far too glittery blush. The sleek bronzer is the best I've found for contouring, it's pigmented, buildable and so easy to blend it makes contouring a dream.  

MAC; Eyeshadow Quad
Shroom, All That Glitters, Wedge and Espresso
This quad was my first ever MAC purchase, about a year and a half a go. I adore the colours, they're the exact shades that I wear every single day, whether I'm using this palette or a different one. Gold-neutrals and matte browns are what my eye looks are all about. This is a great palette for travelling as it's compact, although I'm a strong believer that MAC eyeshadows are quite pricey for what they are, so I can't imagine purchasing any more of their shadows in the near future.



Thank you so much for reading, much love - Kitty.

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

AW Nails



Autumn is my favourite season for fashion, I love the layers and colour palettes and general snuggliness of the season, and all the excitement leading to Christmas! I also really love Autumn nail colours, as in the summer and spring months I tend to go for 'nude' and 'taupe' shades on the nails. I like a neutral palette for pretty much everything, so Autumn brings a refreshing change of being able to wear dark sumptuous colours on my nails!

The other day I was hunting for the perfect dark plummy-red tone, as I was wearing an old Jack Wills polish in the shade Burgundy which was chipping mercilessly. So, I dashed off at the first opportunity to hunt for something with a little bit more longevity and stumbled across this beauty. This is the first Max Factor nail polish I've ever tried, and the promise of 7-Day-Glossiness was all too much for me to resist, and the dark colour was just the type I was on the hunt for. And so, Ruby Fruit became my new nail essential!

I always pair nail varnishes with my HG top-coat Seche Vite (even with the wondrous top coat, the Jack Wills polish was just hopeless!) and so far, I've had 4 days wear of Max Factors Glossfinity and it looks every bit as perfect as the day I painted them.

Do you have a favourite go-to autumn shade? Let me know as I can't resist a good nail varnish splurge! X

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

NARS duo: All About Eve



Over the last few weeks I have been absolutely adoring this little heavenly duo from Nars. Im all about the Neutral Eye look - especially with smokey browns and shimmery champagnes - so this little duo has been the perfect addition to my makeup bag. 

The texture is lovely, not quite as creamy and pigmented as my sacred Urban Decay eyeshadows, but I find them easier to work with than Mac shadows. As you can see, the colours are very similar - which is perfect for me because it's the kind of colour I wear almost every day. The left shade is a little more brown toned and the right shade leans towards peachier shades but they're both beautiful and make the perfect highlight or lid shades. In the make up look above I'm wearing the left shade. 

I also absolutely adore the chic and iconic NARS packaging that just looks so pretty on any dressing table. The size and style is pretty much identical to the NARS blushes - as you can spy in the background of the photo above. 

At £25 a pop for 2 colours they aren't exactly the most economic purchase, but personally if I'm going to splurge on a product 9 times out of 10 it's going to be an eyeshadow

Overall a thumbs up from me... this isn't my only NARS eyeshadow duo and I'm sure I'll be adding more to my collection soon - I've got my eyes on Habarnera. You can find NARS duos here - they retail for £25.  

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

AW; mini beauty haul


I feel I should start off for apologising for my more-than-month-long absence from kittyhearts. Life got in the way; I had a dissertation to finish, a conference to present at & most importantly a holiday to dive into. I'm back now, and so eager to resume blogging, so I thought I'd kick start with a little haul that I bought yesterday.

I have Abbie from abeautifuldelight and Sarah from andbeautyorsomething to blame for my most recent haul. I spotted Abbies haul on her instagram the other day which featured a couple of the Maybelline Color Drama lip pencils, as well as spying Sarahs blogpost featuring the same product... and I just had to get to Boots myself to check them out purchase them. 

As usual, Boots had loads of offers on (Maybelline, L'Oreal and all haircare were all on 3 for 2, along with tonnes of others), so it would have been rude not to...

Bleach London; Reincarnation Mask
I've had a mini-version of this mask before, that came with the Bleach White Toner I used a few months a go, and oh-wow do I love this mask. It really does revive dry-damaged hair like no other, and my hairs been a little neglected the last few weeks so I can't wait to smother it in this stuff and have hair to rival Kate Beckinsale again (I wish). 

Batiste; Nourish & Enrich Dry Shampoo
I'm a big batiste fan, and I love to have a healthy stock of dry shampoo for emergencies, so when I spied the Nourish & Enrich I knew it was a product for me. I've only used it once, but so far so good. It's one that tends to leave a lot of white behind, so use sparingly (or the night-before) on dark hair. 

Charles Worthington; Shine Booster Gloss Spray
Who doesn't love shiny hair? I'm hoping this will make my hair look shiny and lustrous over the colder months as I always suffer with a dullness during AW. I've tried a few things from the Charles Worthington Salon at Home range and have been really impressed so far.

L'Oreal; Glam Bronze
I'm a big lover of the bronzer in the Sleek Contour Kit, but when I saw April from beautiface mention this product in her video I knew I had to get my hands on it. An almost-matte bronzer with quite a lot of product and a promising looking brush. I know a lot of #bbloggers can't stand the brushes that come with most cheek products, I swear by the brushes in the Benefit box blushes and this is a similar-ish shape so will hopefully be perfect for contouring. 

L'Oreal; Lumi Magique Pearl Powder
I fell in love with this powder in the shop. The photograph doesn't, couldn't do justice to the iridescence of this powder, it looks like such a beautiful highlighter and I had massively high hopes for it. Until I got home and read the reviews on the Boots website. Ohhhh, how I wish I'd read the reviews pre-purchase. Apparently the beautiful highlight is just the top layer, and beneath is a disappointing matte powder. Gutted. I'm sure I shall be posting a proper review once I've tried this and gotten to the matte powder underneath. 

L'Oreal; Perfect Match Concealer
Always on the hunt for a great drug store concealer, I decided to try a L'Oreal one. I was initially going to get the Lumi Magique that I've heard a lot about, but after swatching I decided it was too sheer for my liking, and went for the more opaque La Touche Magique instead. I got the shade Natural Beige which on reflection in natural light is a little dark for me. Other than user-error in regards to colour selection, it seems like a good under-eye concealer. 

Maybelline; Color Show Nail Varnish in Sugar Crystals
I have a growing collection of nail varnishes that belong to the 'nude' family. I love them, and somehow I can't stop purchasing ones that are stupidly similar. I do get a lot of wear out of them though, so it's not quite time for a nail-varnish-intervention. I picked up this sheer glitter colour to go over the top of my nudes to make them a little more interesting/glamorous/festive. I want to say it's more of a glimmer than a glitter. Lovely.

Maybelline; Color Drama in Nude Perfection
The whole reason I went into Boots. Sarah had favourably compared them to the Nars lip pencils (which I love!) and they are obviously, considerably cheaper. After wearing this for most of yesterday with a gloss over the top and for most of today alone I can safely say that it's very similar to the Nars pencil but perhaps less drying and easier to blend-in. Really worth a try if you like matte lips. This shade is perfect the naked-lip shade. Love. 

Maybelline: Colour Sensational Shine Gloss in Coffee Kiss
Inspired by how perfect Cheryl Fernandez-Versini has been looking lately, I really wanted to pick up a brown-pink-nude lip shade for the Autumn. I love a brown/gold smokey eye and I find the best lip shades to go with that are the more subtle nudes, and particularly the brown-pink nudes. This gloss is to-die for. Perfect perfect perfect shade for me. I love it! 

That's it for my haul! Have you been feeling spendy lately? Leave your blog-links below so I can look at all your wonderful posts. Love xx

Monday, 11 August 2014

Hair Makeover with Andrew Barton ❀

A good few weeks ago now I was invited to the Grabble event at Andrew Barton's salon in Covent Garden. Grabble is an online fashion platform which reminds me of Pinterest mixed with ASOS. I really recommend having a look at their site - it's a great place for fashion inspiration and fantastic way to find items too. I had a lot fun at their #GrabAMakeover event and I was the lucky winner of two prizes on their charity raffle. Today's post is about the Hair Makeover that I won with Andrew Barton himself! 

Before 
Jack, myself & Andrew


#selfieselfie
The first picture shows my before hair, which is pretty much my natural colour with some slight ombre peeking through, if you havent already seen this post on my hair adventure a few months ago you might want to take a look. To sum up, over the last few months I've really wanted a subtle balayage-ombre through the ends of my hair, just to warm it up and add some modern dimension to my hair, I tried it myself and it didn't work so I coloured over it. I went Pinterest mad over the last few weeks since booking my appointment with Andrew and took along some photos of how I wanted the colour to look.

The appointment started with a consultation with Jack, my lovely colourist and Andrew who would be cutting my hair. I showed them the photo's (mostly of Lily Aldridge) of the kind of look I was after and they were both very positive about the style and thought it would suit me, so Jack got straight to colouring my hair. After a few trips to replenish his stash of foils and much discussion of all things 'hair' and 'London' we were almost done with the colouring. Foils came out, bleach was rinsed and toner applied. After a little wait with the toner I was treated to a relaxing head massage and hair wash from Josh. Time for my cut with Andrew, he worked speedily and precisely giving my dreadful ends a much needed chop and adding some feminine shape to frame my face. He whipped out the hairdryer and round brush and gave my hair the best blow out I've ever had, and he made it all look so easy! I've been battling with a ceramic round brush for the last few weeks and can't imagine how I would ever create a curly, bouncing, smoothed style like he did for me. 

The cut and colour are just perfect, they're exactly what I wanted and really make my hair feel modern and young. I had a lovely morning at the salon and was made to feel very welcome by all. I'd love to say a big thank you to Andrew and his team for doing such a great job with my hair, and if you're in need of a hair overhaul or a luxurious hair appointment I thoroughly recommend them!  

Thank you so much for reading, much love - Kitty.

Tuesday, 5 August 2014

Top Ten Tag ❀




TOP TEN TAG

Copy and Paste everything in Bold

This Tag was made by Jessica Vannan at Pretty Chit Chat 
I Tag:

Zoe ❀ classicrouge.com
Sarah ❀ lovedbysarah.co.uk
Sam ❀ beautifie.com
April ❀ beautifaceblog.com
Anouska ❀ www.anouskamillar.com

------------------------------------❀------------------------------------


1. FOUNDATION
I love the Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation. I've never tried a Rimmel foundation that I haven't loved, but this one is my favourite and the one I constantly go back to. Medium coverage, almost-dewy finish that just leaves your skin looking youthful and bright. Lovely.


2. POWDER
Actually really loving the Rimmel Match Perfection Loose Powder recently too. I was a big fan of the stay matte powder but when I needed to repurchase and they didn't have my colour I settled for this one and haven't gone back to Stay Matte! Eager to try the Soap & Glory one too as that looks gorgeous.

3. CONCEALER
I'm a big lover of the Maybelline Fit Me Concealer as it's super creamy and has good coverage, unfortunately the lightest colour isn't quite light enough to give me the 'highlight triangle' that I love under my eyes/across my cheeks, so for that I use the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in the lightest shade.

4. BLUSH
NARS Douceur is a winner! Really beautiful, subtle shade of pink-brown blush. It's not completely matte but there's no shimmer to it, which I prefer for day time as I like to use a separate highlighter with varying intensity depending on that days mood. 

5. BRONZER
Love Benefit Hoola for warming up the face, but I find it a touch too orange for contouring, so my contour favourite is the bronzer from the Sleek Face Form palette in Light. I've done a YouTube video of how I contour which you can see here. 

6. HIGHLIGHT
Laura Mercier Matte Radiance Baked Powder in Highlight is just gorgeous. Despite the name, it gives a really beautiful soft glow. Heavenly. 

7. MASCARA
This one is a tough one, I have a few that I really like but I haven't found The One. The closest I've ever gotten to The One, and one of my most repurchased mascaras is the Chanel Inimitable Intense which is just lovely. Very separating and lengthening. Plus, who can argue with Chanel packaging on their dresser.


8. EYE SHADOW
This week I completed my Urban Decay Naked palette collection by purchasing the original and I am in love with it! I've been an adoring user of UD shadows for quite a few years now with much very well used Naked 2 palette and Naked 3 has been getting the love since Christmas. The original Naked has been on my 'must purchase' list for many months and it finally came home with me and I haven't been able to put it down! Adore the buttery texture of these shadows, nothing beats them! And the neutral colours are just perfect for me. Love!

9. BROWS
Soap & Glory Archery in Browny Points is doing my brows good lately... However, I'm quite fickle with brow products as they're definitely my biggest make up struggle and I have never found a product, style or shape that I think is perfect. Would love recommendations!

10. LIPS
I think it's going to have to be Eva's Nude from the L'Oreal Collection Privee line, it's a really beautiful orange-toned nude shade which suits pretty much everybody! You can see my blogpost on the collection here.


I hope you enjoy this tag and check out the tagged peoples posts! 


Kitty ❀

Monday, 4 August 2014

Revlon Moisture Stain in Cannes Crush ❀




I've been seeing this lip product all over the blogosphere for what seems like ages and I've been dying to try them for myself. So when I saw these at the Revlon stand the other day I got just a wee bit excited. I stood and swatched them for ages, wanting to buy them all but restricting myself to starting with one. The one that I chose in the end is Cannes Crush which is a beautiful coral shade! 

When first swatched, some of the colours can look a bit scary, but blend them out and they turn into a more sheer, beautiful gloss. This one for instance, looks quite florescent when you first swatch it or first apply it to your lips, but as with pretty much all lip products I like to blend to a more natural look. The finish is glossy and moisturising without being sticky or uncomfortable to wear, in fact it feels quite nourishing. I find the colour doesn't last quite as long as other stains that I've tried, but it gives a good four to five hours of colour, with the gloss wearing off much quicker. 

Kitty ❀
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