To Highlight or Not To Highlight, That Is The Question.

It's pretty obvious that highlighting is a massive trend in the beauty world at the minute and in true Tarnya style I'm about 10 years behind with this trend. The main reserve I have about highlighting is that I normally like my makeup to be pretty matte because I get quite oily and I don't really like the 'dewy' look on me. So the idea of adding something to my face to make it look even more oily and shiny has been putting me off trying highlight.

However, I don't think I can truly judge a trend unless I try it out for myself. So I decided to pick up the new Sleek - Solstice highlighting palette and attempt to highlight everyday for 2 weeks and see what my feelings were like afterwards. 

4 Most Used Make-Up Brushes.

If you are like me, when you find things you like and that works for you, you tend to stick to them like glue. I put on make-up pretty much every day and I tend to use the same brushes and tools all the time, I find it hard to let something new in! So I thought I'd share with you the 4 make up brushes I use constantly.

The first brush I'll talk about is the Sigma F80 Flat Kabuki Brush. I was recommended this brush from my friend Rosie over at ohrosie. I use this brush to buff in my foundation, the large flat head makes it really easy to cover a lot of your face. The handle is quite thick and easy to hold and gives you good purchase to really buff the make up into your face. I've had this brush for at least a year now (might even be 2!) and I still use it all the time and it hasn't lost it's shape or shed loads and it's pretty easy to clean with a good brush cleaner.

The next brush is the Powder Brush by Real Techniques, I use this for setting powder and bronzer. It's quite a large brush but I prefer a big brush so I can sweep the powder all over and not have to spend ages doing it. It's also handy for bronzer so I can just swish it around my face and be done with it.

The third brush I bought after seeing people on Youtube setting their under eye concealer with this brush instead of patting it with their finger and it intrigued me. So I bought the Real Techniques Setting Brush  to try it out and I have to say I haven't looked back since. It's really easy to just pop your concealer on then swirl and sweep this brush over it to blend it in, really quick and easy and saves you so much time! 

Then lastly, is a brush I use for my brows. This is the Revlon Double Ended Smokey Eye Brush, which is obviously for eye-shadow, but I find this is perfect for eyebrows. I use the slanted tip side to draw the tops and bottoms of the brow and to define the pointed side on the outer brow, then I use the small rounded tip to fill in my brow, as it's quicker and easier to fill them in. Perfect little brush, I don't think I could live without this brush now! It obviously has it's uses for a powder eye-liner or for putting a little eye-shadow under the bottom lash, basically a good all rounder! 

So those were the brushes I use on an almost daily basis. I've never felt the need to have any more in my routine right now, but that is because I really suck at make-up. What brushes do you use often? Do you have any to recommend?

Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick.

If you caught my 'What I got for Christmas' post you will have seen I got a Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick in the colour Amazing Grace from my lovely fiancé, which I was very happy about. I usually think quite hard about doing reviews on products, specially as I'm trying to be doing more 'meaningful' posts but I couldn't resist with this one, because once again I am suitably impressed with Charlotte Tilbury.



I picked out the colour I wanted after much deliberation looking at the website and swatches. I must say the swatches on the CT website are quite accurate, so I recommend you have a look if you are thinking about buying something. 

Lets just mentioned the packaging right off the bat, because we all know how gorgeous it is and we all love it, so obviously no disappointment here, I would like to say that it has a good weight to it and the snap you get when you put the lid on is very satisfying. But that's enough of that!

The next thing I want to mention is the shape, this has a very different square flat tip which differs from the usual pointed rounded tip you usually get but I have to say that I find it much easier to apply.

Then onto the good stuff...formula. Now I've struggled with Matte lipsticks in the past, they can be quite hard to apply, drying on the lips and flaky, but this is the complete opposite. It's very moisturising, so not drying at all, very easy to apply, it glides quite easily on the lips and isn't flaky at all. The pigment is great, this colour is quite bright so I kind of dab it on my lips and rub it into place with my finger but go over with another layer for more of a colour pop.

The colour is very beautiful, it's hard to explain fully but the colour isn't like a huge BAM in your face colour, its muted down but still very bright colour, it's almost like getting the colour and putting a slight blur on it, yep that was a totally weird way to describe a lipstick colour, but I'm rolling with it.

The smell is quite sweet smelling, it reminds me of the MAC scent, so if you like a sweeter smelling product this is nice, however if you don't like sweet smelling lipsticks the smell doesn't stick around when on the lips that much, so you'll only smell it when you put it on, so you might be able to cope with that.

Then finally, it's not tested on animals which is always a good thing. This is my go-to luxury cruelty free brand every time..specially at £23 a lipstick...eek! But I honestly think it's worth every penny. 

If any of you are wondering if I'm planning on getting another.. I am and I think im going to pick up the colour Sexy Sienna when I lift my own spending ban which is more a muted pink rather than a coral colour...so give it a couple of month for that review...


Let me know if you are planning on getting any CT products as I would love to know what you get!!

Recent Repurchases May 2015.

We all know we've stumbled across a good product when we think about re-purchasing something. You're coming to the end of the bottle or pot and you begin to panic about what you'll do when it eventually runs out. So here are a couple of products I've repurchased recently and why they deserve another buy.

Mini Mac Haul May 2015.

I recently did a little online browsing and I always have a look around the MAC website.

Spring Nails

When doing my rounds in my local Boots store, I've been findng myself hovering around the nail polish section more so than usual.

Now, I've always been a short nails kind of gal, but recently I grew my nails out to make the most of my first gel nail treatment and i've been loving the longer nail look. I have quite small hands and I find that the longer nails makes my hands look longer and well, more 'normal' sized.