Vanity Vixen's holiday essentials

As some of you might know I am jetting off this Sunday with my best friend for a week. Literally bursting with excitement as this is my first ever 'girly holiday' and will also be celebrating my 22nd birthday so this will be fun,fun time for me!
Despite all the excitement of a holiday, there will come a time where you will have to bite the bullet and get packing! This can be quite frustrating sometimes, as us women are renowned for trying to pack our whole wardrobe and makeup bag. The key is sitting down and asking yourself ''Do I really need this?
Will I actually wear this? Will I be comfortable in this?''

Here are some of my tips on packing and some of my holiday essentials I cant go without.

Firstly I am going to go through the essentials every woman should carry in their makeup bag when going on holidays.
FACE; 2 shades of foundation or tinted moisturiser/ BB cream liquid highlighter, cream blush, matte bronzer and a matte powder.
If you would prefer lighter, more sheer coverage than normal mix a pea size amount of suncream in with some dark foundation. This will lighten the coverage and colour of foundation, literally turning it into a tinted moisturiser.
Below are some of my essentials for my face, that I absolutely LOVE. 

 

Eyes and Lips; Waterproof eyeliner and mascara, False lashes (night time), lipstick, lip gloss and
an eyelash curler.

Here are my other products that are fab for a sun holiday. I'm all about that glow life!
-Hugo Boss Body Shimmer
-Sally Hansen spray tan (LOVE IT)
-Hair spray
-Body oil
-Suncream factor 30
-Sally Hansen nail polishes (gold & nude shade)

Finally here is my cute little quilted 'Chanel' inspired suitcase, I purchased in Penny's/ Primark
so handy and fits all my outfits, sandals etc.

Wear confidence like you wear your makeup...bold and bright!

This post is dedicated to one of my best friends that genuinely doesn't know how beautiful she is not just on the outside but as a person, literally she is infectious and I am so lucky to have her in my life :-)

I was super excited to write this post as I love a good positive rant. I think this is a very important topic to discuss because I feel like it is never addressed properly. I am a makeup artist/beauty blogger and I LOVE makeup don't get me wrong but it should be only used for the sole purpose of enhancing our natural beauty. Alot of girls and women lack confidence and rely on makeup to cover up all their insecurities thus making them a little bit more confident. Correct me if I am wrong but most girls my age believe there is no such thing as natural beauty, only the likes of Beyonce 'I woke up like this' and other superstars.
That is all fake, photo shopped, and basically bull! Everyone has flaws and imperfections but that is exactly what makes us different to one another and stand out from the next person. That is beautiful.
Being different is beautiful.

I am 21 years old (pushing on!) and this has only dawned on me the past year or two. Anyone that knows me personally will know that I use to have a major insecurity about my nose and my bum, but throughout the years I've just embraced them both and learned to love them. Makeup is not about covering up all the things you don't like about yourself, Its about making the most of what you've been given.
Pick out 3 of your fave features and pride yourself on them, if its your eyes focus on your eye makeup, if its your smile, put on some lipstick and smile more! :-)

 Statistics say that 90% of all women want to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance.

Now don't get me wrong I don't claim to be gods gift and am by no means flawless believe me.
I do get my hang ups mainly on my figure, especially when scoffing chocolate and reading OK magazine :-) but I strive to improve it and learn to love it. Embrace what you have, be happy with the way you look, and highlight it with makeup. I always say its no good if your absolutely stunning,out of this world but if you are not a very nice person, people will see that before your good looks. I personally would consider nasty people very unattractive.

Truth it looks fade, but if you are a beautiful person inside it will never fade and will always shine through and you will forever be admirable :-)

''Breakout Be Gone''

Last week I suffered from such a terrible breakout. Usually my skin would be pretty good, the odd breakout but never as bad as this! I was getting worried too as I'm off on holidays soon, so I thought to myself what can I do to improve my skin, that is inexpensive and will clear it up fairly fast.
So here is how I went about it. :-)


Aswell as my 3 litres of water a day, I added green tea to my daily skin care routine.
I would drink 4-5 cups of it throughout the day, was in and out of the bathroom I don't know
how many time! :) Worth it though!
I also applied cool green tea bags under my eyes some morning, to get rid of puffiness as
I suffer badly from puffy eyes, this is also great for discolouration under the eyes.

Secondly I applied fresh aloe vera gel from the plant that I have growing in the house.
Could not live without it! Its a natural antiseptic and heals almost everything from sunburns to fungal infections. But because my breakout was pretty infected I needed something that would cancel that out and heal it up at the same time. Aloe vera is famous for it's natural healing properties and to anyone who hasn't got an aloe vera plant I would highly recommend you get one, its a lifesaver.
My little spot shrinker LITERALLY :-)

So I carried out these two simple, inexpensive steps religiously for seven days and I saw a serious difference
my breakout had gone completely. Its almost like a mini detox getting rid of all the impurities in your skin.
I found at the start of the week it got worse, but you know what they say it has to get worse to get better.
 
So I'm back to my normal self again now, just looking after my skin extra carefully, as I want it to be glowing on my holiday. Loading up on the factor 50 cause aint nobody got time for sunburn!
Try out my little mini detox girls! Inexpensive and simples.
You cant go wrong!
Vanity Vixen x

DIY Makeup setting spray

Today I am going to show you girls how easy and CHEAP it is to make a setting spray for these sticky summer months.
Basically what this spray will do is prolong the wear of your foundation, stop it from going shiny and sliding off your face. For a brand setting spray such as MAC or Urban Decay (which are fabulous!) you could end up spending anything from €15 to €30, so as a treat to mark the start of June I am going to run through instructions on how to make this fantastic spray.

-Spray bottle
-Toner
-Rose water                                                                                                               
-Water

Yes! That is all you need!

1.Firstly fill up spray bottle 1/2 ways with water
2.Add 3 tbspn of toner (depending on your skin type if you have oily skin 4 tbspn and dry 2 tbspn)
3.Shake bottle to mix ingredients together
4.Add 2 tbspn rosewater (depending on how dewy you want the spray to be, oily 1, dry 3, if your skin is very sensitive I would avoid rosewater)
5. Shake bottle to mix ingredients together

There you have it. Simples! Gently mist face after your makeup application and you should be
all set for the day/night ahead.