What's In My (Makeup) Bag?

Lately I’ve been feeling a little uninspired as far as blog posts go, but I have been brainstorming and hopefully blog posts should be happening at a quicker pace. After reading through various blogs and waiting a fair few YouTube videos from other bloggers (beauty bloggers for the most part) and something that cropped up every so often was “what’s in my bag?” And so I’ve decided to do a similar post but instead of using a handbag which seems to be the way to take this, I'm going to use my makeup bag, just because it’s something I use more regularly.

I’ll just start off by saying that I do need to purchase myself a new makeup bag because although mine does the job it’s supposed to, it is rather small for the amount I try to carry in there but it’s also getting a bit grubby (as makeup bags tend to do.) But until then, I am using a makeup bag which was purchased from Next, quite some time ago although I wouldn’t hesitate in buying a makeup bag from them again. The products I'm going to talk about, I will try and do in some sort of order but I can’t guarantee that it will be the order that everyone else would want to use them in.

The first product is Dermalogica Ultra Calming Barrier Repair and this is something I use every day without fail, after I’ve cleansed and moisturised my face, this goes on my nose and cheeks which is where I tend to get a lot of redness and this just seems to calm it down considerably. I find that this is a product I reach for even on the days that I don’t wear makeup because having red cheeks and a red nose isn’t something I enjoy, but on the days I do wear makeup, this also works well as a primer for those areas. As for primer else where I am currently carrying the Revlon PhotoReady Perfecting Primer around with me, but I wouldn’t recommend this people who suffer from oily skin because this seems to do barely anything for my foundation. I could say that it makes my foundation look worse and this does depend on what foundation I have chosen to use but it does tend to make me look a little cakey.

There are a few different powder products that I keep in my makeup bag and the first one is the holy grail of every girls make up routine, the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in 001 Transparent. Now I don’t feel like I need to rave about this product too much, because a lot of other beauty bloggers have done that for, but let me just say that for the price of this product, everyone should own it. Everyone. No ones like a shiny face, and this just takes it away, effortless. There are currently two Sleek products that I own, and they both hold a place in my makeup bag, the first of these products is the Face Contour Kit in Light and this is something that I don’t tend to pull out too often because I've been going through a lazy stage where I just use bronzer to contour and I completely skip the highlighting stage. But I will say that this is a must have (if you are not lazy like me) because the pigmentation is amazing and I find that both the highlight and contour to this kit are brilliant, and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy the product again because the price can’t be knocked. The other Sleek product in my makeup bag is one of the blushers in Pomegranate and I haven’t used this too many times because it’s one of those blushers that could look overpowering depending on the other makeup you are planning to put on, but the pigmentation is incredible for a high street blush, and the colour is beautiful in the pan (which is what originally drew me to this) and I hope to get a lot more use out of this. Staying with blushers, there is also one more that I keep in my makeup bag and this is the MAC blush in Fleur Power and I'm not exaggerating when I say that I use this blush pretty much every day because the colour is just that nice. What can I say about a MAC blush that hasn’t been said before? Pigmentation is one of the best (as you would expect) and the colour is just so easy to wear, because it looks very natural and I think it would be one of the go to colours of any season – well done MAC. The last powder product that I have in my makeup bag is the Bourjois Bronzing Powder in 51, and I'm being completely honest when I ask who hasn’t tried this bronzer because it is ah-ma-zing and this is no overstatement. For a high street product, there is nothing I can say that is bad about this product and I will continue to use it and I will most probably repurchase it (even though I have been eyeing up the Nars bronzers…)

As far as eye and eyebrow make up goes, I only carry two products with me all the time and that is my mascara which is the Maybelline Colossal Volume Express in Smokey Black and I have been using this mascara for as long as I remember and I do go through phases of buying new ones and I always seem to go back to this. It just seems to do something to my lashes that other mascaras can’t achieve and I also find that this is just the right shade of black, as weird as that may sound! The eyebrow product I carry round is the Benefit Brow Zings in Light, and I think I must use this at least 5 days of the week so I get my use out of this product and it doesn’t make my eyebrows look too dark (I have blonde hair) but it also gives them enough boldness so they define my face which is always a plus. However, I do have to admit on my lazy days, I do just bring out the MAC palette and pop some of Omega onto my brows. Finally the last thing I carry around in my makeup bag is a mirror – a must have!