The Bodyshop Instablur primer is a product that any well know beauty blogger has raved about for many months including Zoella and Velvetgh0st. At first I admit, I was skeptical, I've tried a few primers including the much raved about Rimmel lasting finish primer and I felt they just dried out my skin and often caused break outs. But behold, I have found an absolute staple in my makeup bag - I feel lost without it and I can genuinely tell a difference when I have got it on compared to when I haven't. The price is a bit steep (for a skint student anyway!) but I always purchase when The Bodyshop are doing sales, for example they are doing non-sale items for 30% off online bringing it down to £9.80! 

I used to use both of the Rimmel foundations separately and absolutely love them both, the Lasting finish has great coverage whereas I absolutely adore the finish of the Wake me up formula. The Lasting Finish foundation is one of the closest matches for my pale skin (I have it in the lightest colour, and I have quite neutral skin in relation to temperature) it covers beautifully, however i've never been much of a fan of completely matte foundations, I feel that I personally need a glow to my skin. The wake me up foundation is the one that gives you radiant skin but lacks in the coverage department so when both bottles got to about half full I decided to mix them both and now I have the best of both worlds in one foundation bottle! You can get both here, and here for just £5.99 each at Superdrug!

For tools I like to use a stippling brush, I have 2 from Wilkos and one Real Techniques one. I've had the Wilkos ones for around 3 months and absolutely adore everything about these brushes! The finish is amazing, they blend foundation so well and they're not a total b*tch to clean! I wash both brushes around once a week and no bristles have been yet to fall out. The Real Techniques one has been a recent purchase, I did have the expert face brush around 2 years ago and whilst I absolutely adored it the bristles all fell out after 2 months. The finish of this one lives up to the claims of airbrushed looking skin, it gives a beautiful smooth finish and is so easy to use! So far with washing I have only washed it once and so far so good with the bristles! You can get the Real Techniques one here for £10,99 or the Wilkos one here for £4!

BROWS// REVOLUTION BROW KIT & ECO-TOOLS ANGLED EYELINER BRUSH

I blogged about the Revolution Brow Kit back in July in the Summer Face post and I still whole hardheartedly agree with everything I wrote about, it's a brilliant affordable palette which has lasted me 6 months and I've only just hit pan on the darker shade which I use all the time (including along the upper lash line to add definition). I have now began using the lighter colour over the darker colour and I love the colour of both, neither too warm or cool they're just right and it's so easy to use! I'm not  a massive fan of gels as the idea of putting something that's sticky on my brows is a no, but I feel the only way this would be better if they replaced the little brush with a little pot of gel instead as the powder does tend to get mixed in with the gel and it creates a massive mess! I use this religiously along with my Eco-Tools brush which gives me the control on creating how much definition I want in my brows. I got the brush in a starter set, however you can pick one up from pretty much anywhere! The Revolution brow kit can be found here for £2.50

EYES // BOBBI BROWN BELLINI PALETTE & KIKO CREAM CRUSH 

First up, can we just swoon over the beauty that is the BB palette? This is my second ever high end product (my first being a Lancome mascara) and it has been something I have completely lusted over since 2015's Christmas Collection was released and now I get to put it on my face each and everyday. I adore everything about this palette, the colours, the pigmentation, the packaging! I use 'Bone' (cream shade) as a base and brow bone colour and then use 'Sable' (light brown) as a crease colour and it makes a beautiful natural eye look! Unfortunately this is sold out as it was part of the 2015 Christmas Collection but many high street brands (or high end) sell similar quality and colour shadows. Underneath I use the Kiko Cream Crush cream eyeshadow in 10 (pearly apricot) which is a beautiful pale pink colour with a slight shimmer running through and it works really well as a base, it helps my eyeshadow stay on all day and the slight shimmer comes through underneath the Bobbi Brown shadows! You can get the Kiko shadow for £3.40 here!

LASHES // BARRY M SHOWGIRL & PRIMARK CURLERS

The Barry M Showgirl mascara is a new purchase. I bought it about a week ago and it has already got it's rightful spot in my makeup bag! I decided to get the formula that adds the most volume as I love thick lashes! The packaging is to die for and something you totally would not expect for a drugstore product, and so is the formulation. It adds enough volume whilst still looking natural, my only downside is that it is a bit too wet at the minute but i'm sure that it will dry up a bit with use. I use my Primark eyelash curlers to curl my lashes before applying as these seem to be the only curlers that actually work on me, and for £1.50 i'm not really complaining! I replace them every 3 months, and replace the pad every 1.5 months. Get the showgirl mascara here for £4.99

CHEEKS // MUA BRONZER & BARRY M CONTOUR KIT

I know i've raved about both these products before and you can read these posts here and here  but again I whole hardheartedly stand by my claims. The MUA bronzer gives a beautiful dewy look to the skin and makes you look like a bronzed goddess, I love it as a slight contour on days I want something subtle and the shimmer works well with the shimmer in the foundation. The contour kit is everything, as you can see I adored the highlight shade and I am actually devastated that Barry M don't sell this as a separate shade as it works well for under eye, as well as cheekbone highlight. The contour shade is a beautiful cool shade that looks natural when applied, but if you want a more dramatic look you can build it up without the whole mud smeared on face look. You can get the MUA Bronzer here for and the Barry M Palette here for £6.49

Once again I am so sorry for the quality of the images, I will 100% be working on this for the next post! (quite bad for a photography student!) 

-Tasha 

I really dislike the packaging, it feels flimsy, and cheap. I feel like that the first time i drop this beauty it will just end up being a big bronzery powdery mess which will be hell to clean up which isn't great if you are someone who travels a lot, or takes their makeup on the go. Also as mentioned up there I dislike that it lacks a mirror, I feel that this would have benefited greatly from one because I like to get close up when contouring so I can see if it has been blended in well enough. My final dislike about this product is the highlighter, I wont lie i'm a shimmer type girl when it comes to the highlighter step. I feel that this would be a great browbone and inner eye corner highlight but not a cheek highlight. I'm going to keep pursuing it as I have only tried it once so I will get back to you on that at a further date!

Overall, I do really like this product as this very early on stage. It gives me a defined face without looking like i've put in too much effort. I'm definitely glad I picked this up and will enjoy using it in the future!

-Tasha