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30 Apr 2014

Guest Post (Makeup By Candlelight) - April Favourites


First of all I'm so happy to have the chance to do this post swap with the lovely Siobhán - it's a nice and fun way to work with other bloggers, so thank you so much Siobhán for the opportunity!  Siobhán's post is over on my blog (look here if you're interested).

One of the regular posts that I do on my own blog is about my monthly favorites, which can be products that I've both used the most that month or products that I have loved the most, so let's have a look at what I've reached for most often in April...




Let's start with a product that is a completely new experience for me in so many ways.  I've never been either a fan of self tanning and it's probably because I'm not very good at it, but as the weather is getting better and everywhere I look I see faces with a lovely healthy glow, I really don't want to be the only one with that pale blue office tan look, so this month I have experimented with Clarins Liquid Bronze Self Tanning for face and decolleté (£19).  It's an incredibly light, fresh and cooling lotion with a lovely subtle scent that you apply either using a cotton bud, or your fingers.  It dries instantly, leaving your skin feeling refreshed and moisturised and develops after a few hrs.  I like to apply this in the evening, and when I wake up in the morning I've got a natural golden even glow, and an extra bonus is that there is no transfer of orange color onto clothes or bedding.  It's an absolutely amazing product and I know this will be one of my staple items throughout the summer - bye bye pasty blue skin, hello golden glow!

My skin has been exceptionally well behaved all throughout winter, but for some reason it's been a little bit temperamental lately and it's been even more dry than usual so I've had to focus a lot on exfoliation and radiance giving products.  In addition to my usual Origins Modern Friction Scrub (£33) that I use a couple a times a week, I've also used the Pixi Glow Tonic (£16) every day to help reset my skin.  It's a wonderful exfoliating toner with a lovely green and fresh scent that buffs the skin, getting rid of dry patches and revealing a more even and radiant skin tone.  It may sound like quite an abrasive product but it's actually quite gentle and with it's ingredients of aloe vera and ginseng it also adds lots of hydration to the skin.  If you have dry skin or acne tendencies I would definitely recommend this to help re-balance your skin, and as a toner it's a quick and easy way to include it in your daily skin care routine.

Since I try to not wash my hair too often I simply can't be without dry shampoo - I'm completely hooked on it and you can always trust good old Batiste to have something for everyone.  I'd tried most of their products previously except the Hint of Color range, so this month I decided it was time to try Batiste's Dry Shampoo Light and Blonde (£3.99).  It works the same way as any other dry shampoo; controlling greasiness, adding lovely texture and volume to the hair and of course it also has a unique scent and this is fairly sweet with a distinct spicy undertone.  The main selling point of the Hint of Color sprays is the color of the powder, so instead of that typical dry shampoo dusty white that many of us don't like, these have a touch of color that blends with your hair color and it's available in three shades - Brown, Red and Blonde.  The Light and Blonde dry shampoo is quite yellow when you apply it, but when you massage it into the roots, it blends beautifully creating a very natural look without any white dust.  Even though the scent isn't one of my favorites, the effect makes up for it plenty and I would definitely recommend this range to dry shampoo skeptics out there - you might get hooked as well.

One of my recent eyeliner finds, which I'm very excited about is the fabulous Bourjois Liner Feutre (£6.99) and I haven't stopped wearing it since I bought it.  It has a very fine and soft felt tip that makes it so easy to apply without using any pressure at all and you get a beautiful even and well defined line.  Out of the shades I bought I have been wearing 12 Noir Violine the most - it's a gorgeous glossy and silky muted aubergine shade (you can see swatch of it here on my instagram), but it's very easy to wear and it has a natural look and you have to look quite closely to see that it isn't in fact black.  When you apply it you have to be quite quick since it sets almost immediately and once it's dried, it stays in place all day without any creasing or smudging.  It's incredibly resistant, almost to the point where it's a tiny bit difficult to remove but it's a small price to pay for a flawless look that could probably last for days!

Last among my April favorites is a lipstick that has really opened up the world of wearing nude lip shades to me.  After much frustrating swatching of nude shades that look beautiful on others, but that just completely washed me out I finally found the one shade for me last year, L'Oréal Color Riche Collection Privée (£8.19) in Julianne Moore.  The formula is lovely and moisturising and very pleasant to wear, and although it's not particularly long lasting it wears well and fades evenly throughout the day.  The shade is a beautiful pink with peachy undertones (you can see swatch of it here on my instagram), a very elegant and timeless shade.  I love this color so much that I bought another one very quickly, which is a good thing since I have already finished the first one I bought - probably the first lipstisck ever in history that I've actually finished!  That's the end of the favorites for this month, but since I'm a self confessed beauty junkie thing you can be sure that regardless of how much I love these at the moment, next month's favorites will be completely different.

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