May has been a busy month for me, and I have definitely welcomed the lighter nights and warmer weather, even if it was sprinkled with a little rain. This month's favourites mainly include makeup, but there are a few other products mixed in as well. Here are my May monthly favourites...
I received the Show Premiere Finishing Spray in a beauty box and I have been using it quite a lot as I have had my hair up quite a bit this month. The packaging is stunning, and the lid looks like it has come from a fine perfume bottle. This Finishing Spray feels pretty weightless when you are wearing it but managed to keep my stray hairs in place. This does cost £30.00 for 255ml, which is pricey there is no doubt about that, but as well as being a Finishing Spray, it contains AC Kerazyme to protect the hair against the intense heat of thermal styling and I love it when products do a job but also protect the hair or skin. You can find it online at Feel Unique here.
I love the Missguided fragrances, and so when I saw they had released brand new body mists I was over the moon. There are four fragrances available and they cost just £10.00 for 290ml, which I think is excellent value for days when you don't want to use an expensive perfume, or for travelling when you don't want to take a glass bottle on holiday. Here I have the Missguided Instant Feels Body Mist*, which to me smells just like Summer, with notes of raspberry, bergamot, patchouli, and sweet vanilla as well as other fruits such as strawberry and mandarin. You can find them online at Missguided here.
Whilst looking for a particular makeup item, which you will find out about further down, I discovered that you can now get a large variety of skincare and makeup delivered to the UK from Amazon.com and so I placed an order. One of the things I got was the St Ives Radiant Skin Pink Lemon & Mandarin Orange Scrub. Now, I am sure you can get this in the UK, but the packaging was pretty and pink and Amazon suggested I add this to my basket so it was a last minute addition. I adore that this is a creamy scrub so it isn't too abrasive and the scent is just so invigorating, it is such a pleasure to use. It doesn't do anything fancy, but is a great exfoliating scrub that leaves my skin feeling refined and super smooth. It cost $3.15 (£2.47) and you can find it on Amazon.com here.
Moving on to makeup, and Benefit recently released a jumbo version of their Hoola Bronzer, and you get double the amount of product (16g) for £38.00. I bought it because I haven't tried Hoola for a good couple of years now and I never did care much for the smaller box they had it in before. I much prefer the larger pan it now comes in as it gives you more room to swirl your brush around. Nothing new colour or formula wise, but I wanted to include it in case you are looking for a new bronzer as it is certainly one of the best. I got mine from Feel Unique online here.
I have really terrible brows and so I am always looking for the next amazing brow product. I picked up the NYX Fill & Fluff Eyebrow Pomade Pencil in the shade Ash Brown and I have been loving it. On one end, you ave the pomade pencil, which is shaped a little like a teardrop so you get a good angle on it, and on the other end, there is the most adorable little eyebrow brush. Now I haven't seen a brush like this on a brow product before, as normally you get a spooly, and I love this softer version of a brush to fluff the product and the brows out to get a natural look. There are eight shades available and it costs £10.00 which I find really good value as you get quite a lot of product included. You can find it online at NYX here.
One of the main products I was searching for on Amazon.com is the Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder. This has been out for YEARS in America and my favourite You Tuber Tati Westbrook swears by it. It only comes in Translucent and you get a great whopping tub of it so it will last such a long time. It does come with a fluffy powder puff, but I prefer to use it with a big makeup brush and it really is such a great product. It only costs $5.85 (£4.59) and it sets my makeup in place all day long as well as keeping my T-Zone free of shine. It does have an old-fashioned fragrance to it, but I quite like that. You can find it online at Amazon.com here.
Whilst browsing in Superdrug, I spotted the I Heart Revolution Donut Eyeshadow Palettes. They come in different shade ranges and I chose the Raspberry Icing colourway. The packaging is super cute and has a 3D squishy donut on the top, and then you open it up to reveal five eyeshadow shades. There is a mirror on the inside of the lid, and then three matte and two shimmer eyeshadows with a pink and mauve colour theme. They cost £5.00 which I don't think is bad value at all, as they are unlike anything I have previously come across and the shadows are really well-pigmented. You can find them online at Revolution here.
Another product I ordered from Amazon.com is the Almay Powder Blush in the shade 10 Pink. This cute compact opens up from the top and from the bottom, which houses a mirror and a good quality brush. The blush itself is made up of four different shades of pink, and a couple of the shades also have a slight shimmer to them. Therefore you can either swirl your brush in all four of the shades, or pick a particular one, and I also found that these are great for eye shadows too. The pan has a star print embossed on to it and I love trying brands that are not available over here. It costs $7.66 (£6.01) which I think is a good price for such a lovely blusher and you can find it online at Amazon.com here, where there are also other shades available.
For some reason Gucci have stopped selling their makeup online in the UK, which I am pretty gutted about, but I recently spotted the Gucci Infinite Precision Liner online at TK Maxx. I think I paid about £12.99 and I am pretty sure it would have been double that on the Gucci site - gotta love TK Maxx. This gel eyeliner is in the shade 020 Cocoa, which is a nice medium brown, and I have wanted a brown gel eyeliner for a while now as I am quite light-skinned and so black can look a little intense on 'no makeup makeup' days. The packaging is cute and very Gucci and the eyeliner works a treat, and considering you could pay the same for a drugstore brand, I feel happy with my bargain. You can find all the beauty bargains online at TK Maxx here.
If you have been here a while you may know that I always wear the Lancome Cils Booster XL Lash Primer, but it isn't the cheapest and I go through a lot of them, so I am always looking for an everyday alternative. I have recently been enjoying the Maybelline Colossal Big Shot Base Mascara, which is a tinted fibre primer for the lashes. This product is collagen-enriched to help create thicker lashes before mascara application and also helps to prime the lashes for a long-wearing finish. It feels super lightweight on the lashes and doesn't clump or harden and flake off. It costs £6.99 which is definitely cheaper than the Lancome and you can find it online at Feel Unique here.
On top of the Maybelline Base Mascara I have been using the Revlon Volumazing Mascara, which is a fairly new release. I will say straight off the bat that this isn't a revolutionary mascara, but I have enjoyed wearing this during the week for work as it does add volume to my lashes without getting clumpy or smudging off. The formula feels very lightweight which I love and it also separates my lashes really well, including my lower lashes. The formula contains Carnauba and Olive waxes which condition the lashes whilst you are wearing it which helps to keep them tip top which will in turn help them to grow. The Volumazing Mascara costs £8.99 and you can find it online at Look Fantastic here.
My second to last May Favourite is the Almay #LipVibes Lipstick in the shade Skip the Gym, which I believe is from a collection they did. The packaging is bang on-trend with palm leaves and tropical flowers and the shade Skip the Gym is a pretty Summery coral shade with a gold iridescent shift to it. The formula is super creamy and whilst it isn't the most pigmented lipstick in the world, it is a pretty addition to your Summer makeup collection as the shimmer will look stunning with a tan. It costs $5.67 (£4.45) and you can find it online amongst other colours at Amazon.com here.
I adore the Physicians Formula Butter products and so also on my Amazon.com order was the Physicians Formula Murumuru Butter Lip Cream in the shade Brazilian Sunset. Now this is definitely one of the creamiest lip products I have ever tried, and you get a good chunky amount of product. To say it is quite heavily a lip care product, the coverage and pigment is incredible and far betters some much more expensive lipsticks I have tried in the past. There are lots of other shades so I am definitely going to be ordering some more in the future, but Brazilian Sunset is a gorgeous coral-terracotta shade perfect for a pop of colour in the warmer months. They cost $6.36 (£4.99) which isn't bad for such a buttery soft lip product. You can find it online at Amazon.com here.
All the Loves,
Kathryn xxx
*Products marked with an asterix have been gifted to me, but all opinions are my own