5 of the best... high street brands for dark skin

If you're anything darker than a mocha, beauty shopping on the UK high street can be real tough. If it's not ashy or orangy foundation it's blush and shadows in shades that just don't suit. While I tend to splurge a little too much on luxury brands, I do think that that should be something that's a choice not the only option. However, these are my pick of the best high street, inexpensive brands that cater for Black and Asian skin. 

Sleek

The holy grail in inexpensive dark skin make-up, available at Boots, Superdrug and online. The pigment in the blush and shadows are amazing and the base shade range is really vast.  

Top picks - CC Cream, Foundation, Contour Kit

Kiko

I don't own loads from KIKO but what I do own I like a lot. It's not the cheapest "high street" brand but I like the fact that for all of their face products, there's a dark option. The quality of the range is on point too! 

Top pick - Highlighter  

Rimmel

Ok, let's just get this straight, Rimmel's base offering for dark skin is non-existent however, there shadowsticks and lipsticks are highly-pigmented enough for deeper skin tones.

Top picks - Shadow Sticks, Lipsticks 

Revlon

I love Revlon! The bases, powders, lipsticks... Everything. The quality of the foundations and the formula of the lipsticks are great for a high street brand. 

Top pick -  Illuminator

W7

I'm not keen on all W7 make-up but their Ebony range blushes are really really good - highly-pigmented and really tailored to dark skin. Sometimes I feel that the only high street blushes that are for dark skin are bright and bold, which is nice, but sometimes you just want a subtle glow to rock with a smoky eye or red lip.

Top pick - Ebony Blush

Beauty Favourites of 2014

I wanted to do a round up of all of my favourite discoveries of 2014 (hair, beauty, skin and body care) but it would either have about eight parts or be about two and a half hours long! So because I already waffled on about my favourite hair bits of last year in my Hair Chat post (link here) I figured I'd do my beauty favourites in this video and then chat about body care another time!

It was so so difficult to choose the select few and consider what I've loved throughout the whole year - but the products mentioned in this video really are the cat's pyjamas!

Love Keeks xo

The Everyday Make Up.

Hello My Lovelies!

So I wrote this post and was about to publish it and everything, with the whole post dedicated to the poignancy of it being my 100th post -  when I realised I had a draft post lurking around and it's actually my 99th. Fail. Oh well, this my almost 100th - 1. 

I was having a look back at my previous blog posts and realised I've never done a post about my everyday make up! Of course this does vary from time to time but this winter I've rarely deviated from these products and brushes for my daytime make up.

Firstly I obviously cleanse and moisture, (I'm thinking about doing a separate skincare routine post?) then I pop on some of the Ginzing eye cream on. Now I know that this is technically an eye cream but I thought for all the shimmer in it, it could be seen as a brightener of some sorts, which is how I see it. I then apply lip balm, otherwise my lips are super dry and lip products won't apply smoothly.

Base - I then go in with my foundation. This winter I've been loving the Le Teint Touche Eclat but as it  moves into spring (hard to believe, I know) and summer I switch to my Bareminerals matte powder. I dot the foundation on my face then buff it into my skin, sometimes I just use my fingers. Next I dot some concealer on my blemishes and down the centre of my nose buffing it out with the Real Techniques deluxe crease brush. I don't use this concealer under my eyes as when I have in the past I've found that it tends to gather in creases - not what you want from a concealer really, so I'm on the hunt for another.

Brows - I brush through them then use my brow kit; the wax sparsely, then the powder, applying with my Real Techniques brow brush. I then brush through them again removing excess.

Eyes - Day to day I normally just do subtle winged eyeliner. I first apply the Rimmel kohl liner in a thin line then to make it really dark then use the Soap & Glory liner to make the line smooth. I just find that using the Rimmel makes the line a lot darker. Followed by lashings of mascara.

Cheeks - I then apply some NARS bronzer with my contour brush, dusting along the top of the hollows of my cheeks, forehead and chin. Bronzer is a new step for me I only got it at the end of December but I love including it now! Next up is blush! I got my Gino McCray blusher in Thailand last time I was there and it's like it's never ending, which is good because it's my favourite. I first use my Mac 168 dabbing it on my cheeks and sweeping it up on my cheekbones, I then use the Mac 187 to blend the colour out a bit more to make it natural.

Lips - I normally keep it simple with a nude lipstick; my current favourite is my Chanel lipstick in Determinee.

Throughout the day if get a bit oily I use the Bobbi Brown pressed powder and my powder brush down the centre of my face. 

And there you have it, a rather long post about my everyday make up! What are some of your everyday products? 

Love Keeks xo 

The Sleek Brow Kit.

Sleek Brow Kit - £7.99

Hello! So in yesterday's post, I hinted that I had a few new things to blog about, and one of them is my Sleek brow kit.

I've always been a little dubious about Sleek as it never really struck me as the most reputable brand, but seeing other bloggers and youtubers raving about the brand for a while now, I thought I'd give it a go and see for myself.

I've been interested in getting a brow kit and had been looking at HD brows that a lot of people seem to have, but this kit seems just as popular and cheaper and more widely available, which is important if you think about repurchasing.

The kit comes in two shades - light and dark, which is probably it's only real downside, as while the dark shade is good for my brow colour, the two shades aren't going to work for every customer. Inside there is a wax and a setting powder and three tools - tweezers to pluck strays and two tiny brushes to apply the powder and wax.

I love the way that the wax works to perfect your natural brow without looking overdone and you can also create an arch easily, again just following your natural brow shape. I didn't really find the setting powder that useful, so I opt to just use the wax for my everyday makeup , and think the setting powder will come in handy on a night out if the club is sweaty (ewww gross, I know, but you know it's true!)

Overall, a thumbs up from me for this kit, gives really natural looking structured brows, the opposite to draw in overdone pencil brow. You can buy your Sleek brow kit from Superdrug or the Sleek website here

Love Keeks