Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush

Hello everyone, I thought I would share with you a Friday favorite! This blush is slowing becoming my go-to product to add a bit of color back into my cheeks. I've been reaching for this product nearly everyday, so I thought I would share why I'm loving it. 

This is the Dream Bouncy blush by Maybelline New York in the color #15 Rose Petal. At first I was put off by the formula because I've never used any type of cream blusher before. However, this isn't your typical cream blush. The only way I can describe this is that it's a sponge-y base coated with the cream blush. Not very descriptive. 

Anyway, besides the strange formula, the lasting power of this blush is absolutely amazing. It stays on my cheeks all day and I don't have to worry about losing my color half-way through my busy schedule. Also, the light peachy color is reminiscent of spring, so I love wearing this 

on most days.

I would recommend this blush if you're thinking of switching to a cream blush and aren't quite sure what you want yet. Although the formula can take some getting used to, the color and stay power of this blush are definitely worth it. As for the price, it was affordable and ultimately worth every penny.

Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush

SOHO Beauty Brush

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Maybelline Face Studio Master Hi-Light Bronzer

I've recently been loving this Maybelline Master Hi-Light by Face Studio hi-lighting bronzer (that's a lot to say!). After many long months of winter, my summer tan is completely gone and I'm left with pale skin in desperate need of some bronzing. 

This bronzer is made up of dark brown and peach tones to create the bronze effect, yet also includes a lighter shade to add a highlight to your cheekbones. The combination of these colors results in a warm glow, perfect for adding a bit of color to the skin. 

After using this product for a month or so, I can confirm that it gives my skin a lovely bronze color, without making me look orange or fake-tanned. I would recommend this if you're looking for an easy-to-apply formula and want a nice healthy glow for your skin. Maybelline Face Studio have a range of bronzers, and I've picked up #50 Light Bronze. I know that even once the summer tan returns, I'll still be choosing this bronzer to give me that extra spot of color.

NYC Dinner Cruise

As you may know this has been a very exciting summer for me and I've gotten to do loads of fun and adventurous things. One of them was a lovely dinner cruise around Manhattan for one of friend's birthday. I'm very fortunate to be able to witness the beauty of New York so I thought I would share this with you. On the boat there was a dining area as well as a dance floor and a DJ. The dance floor was very well used that night. (Disclaimer: The boat in that picture is not the cruise ship).

These pictures are taken mostly to capture the pretty pink sky as the sun was setting.

The highlight of the cruise was seeing the Statue of Liberty up close. She looked incredible all lit up and what really stood out was the DJ playing "Coming to America" as we cruised past. It was an amazing experience.

Here is the beautiful city that never sleeps lit up at night. I always get the feeling that the city is alive whenever I'm in it or looking at it. It's truly an incredible feeling and I'm definitely in love with New York.

This was such an unforgettable night and was loads of fun for me and my friends. If you would like to see more photos and hear about the rest of my summer let me know in the comments! :)

Niagara Falls Canada

WOW I haven't made a blog post in forever. I have been sooo busy recently and really just enjoying my last month of summer with friends and family so I haven't gotten around to posting as much as I would like. But I thought it was time to share with you some of what I've been up to! A couple of weeks ago my family and I went up to Niagara Falls in Canada for a nice, long weekend. It was absolutely breathtaking just standing there looking at the falls. I can't really begin to explain how spectacular it was so I'll let the pictures do the talking. (Unfortunately, due to cloudy and rainy weather and my broken phone camera these pictures don't truly do the falls justice. My apologizes.)

These are the less famous but still outstanding waterfalls on the American side. That's Buffalo, New York to the left of them.

These arial photos were taken on the top of the Skylon Tower. It's basically a huge tower that gives an amazing view of the falls from above. I also couldn't help but notice how beautiful the city was as well.

This photo is of the Rainbow Bridge used to cross the border from Ontario, Canada to Buffalo, New York.

I was also able to go on a tour underneath the falls "A Walk Behind The Falls". The water is so loud you can barely hear anything except the roar! Absolutely incredible. 

As we only stayed one night at our hotel we had one chance to eat out for dinner. I have to say we succeeded in choosing the perfect place. We went into this restaurant right beside the falls.

This was the view from our table! I had to add the Canadian flag in there as well just to capture the full experience. This vacation was so beautiful and definitely unforgettable.

I'll also try to post more regularly from now on but it will be difficult as the upcoming months are super busy for me. If I do anything exciting or interesting you'll see it in a blog post sooner or later. 

Comment down below if you like this post and I'll do more posts about my other vacations. :)

Drawing Zoella

Drawing has always been an interest of mine and I am always looking for things to sketch when I have a bit of free time. This drawing was done a while ago as you can see from the date on the top of the picture, but I wanted to share some of my artwork now. This pencil drawing is of Zoe Sugg, also known as Zoella, a British YouTuber and blogger. I watch a lot of her videos and also read her blog as well so I was interested to see if I could draw her. She wasn't too difficult to draw; I would say it took about 1-2 hours. The face is always the hardest for me, but this turned out better than I expected and I'm quite proud of it. To start out my drawings, I always search for a picture that provides inspiration. Getting a basic face shape down is the next step. I usually just outline and space out sections of the picture before I begin to add the details.

Materials:
This was done in a sketchbook of basic drawing paper that you can get for around $15. For my drawings I use the Design pencil set by Bruynzeel-Sakura. This is a great set of pencils as there are many different varieties. The 2H is the lightest whereas the 9B is quite dark and heavy.

For fine lines I mostly use the 1H pencil as it is not too dark, yet still creates a distinguishable line. For the darker shadows and shading in this drawing, I mostly used the 1B and 5B.

To blend and shade, I love using this shading pencil which I find creates a nice smudged effect. This creates darker tones without using a lot of dark graphite.You can see that effect on the top of Zoe's hair in the drawing, as well as the shadow on her neck. I have several sizes of the shading pencils that I use for different types of shadows. The longer one to the right is mainly for thin and not so dark shadows. The second one from the right I use for heavy, dark shadows. The other two I use for average shading and nothing specific or in particular.

 Let me know if you would like to see more of my artwork and maybe I'll post some paintings that I've done as well. :)

Top 5 Tuesday: Lip Products

Revlon Strawberry Shortcake Lip Butter 

Revlon Cotton Candy Lip Butter 

Revlon Pink Lemonade Lip Butter 

Clinque Curvy Candy Chubby Stick Moisturizing Lip Colour Balm  

Candy Cane ChapStick

These are my all time favourite lip products that work incredibly well and are also inexpensive. I don't normally go for bold lip colors so these are a selection of different pinks, with the exception of the ChapStick.

As you can see I've chosen three of the Revlon Colour Blast Lip Butters. I find that these are perfect if you don't want a lipstick and you don't want a gloss, but you still want a strong color that will last. They also moisturize your lips as well, which is a great bonus. On the far left is #080 Strawberry Shortcake. This is a bright pink color that I wear most of the time as it gives my face a nice pop of color without being too shocking. Next is #045 Cotton Candy which is a pale pink. I reach for this color when I want to go for a more subtle look. The last Revlon Lip Butter is my favourite of the three, #047 Pink Lemonade. The link above takes you to a similar lip butter, Peach Parfait, because for some reason they don't show Pink Lemonade on the website. This lip color is a pale coral color that has been perfect for wearing in the summertime.

The Clinque Colour Balm was my favourite color to wear last year so I thought I should add it in. I only have the color Curvy Candy from the collection, which is a very bright pink. This is super easy to apply as it is packaged just like the lip crayon collection. It's also a great product because it has amazing lasting power and will stay on for most of the day. Also, as it says in the name, it works as a great moisturizer.

The last product is definitely my favourite of the five. You can tell it's been well loved by the ripped wrapping. It is a ChapStick in the flavor Candy Cane and is only available in stores during the winter holidays. It tastes AMAZING, with a peppermint flavor, exactly like a candy cane. ChapSticks are always great for moisturizing the lips and I've also found that they work as a nice base for underneath other lip colors. Candy Cane ChapStick is by far the best lip product in my opinion, so I've bought a package of them online for the summertime. I'm so looking forward to when they're in stores again.

Let me know if you want to see more posts about my makeup collection in the comments! :)

Cape May Vacation

One of the many things that make me happy is being at the beach. Very recently I took a vacation to Cape May in New Jersey with my family. It was a lovely trip and it was nice to get away for a few days for some fun in the sun. 

Cape May has such pretty beaches so I couldn't resist taking loads of photos. 

This vacation happened to take place while a storm was happening a bit off shore from the Cape. There was only rain for about a day so it didn't disrupt our beach fun for long. After the storm passed, the winds caused huge waves and a lot of excess water on the beach.

This didn't stop me and my mom from taking a walk along the beach to watch the huge waves roll in. We were able to see some surfers enjoying the waves as well! 

This picture is a view of the town from the beach. Our hotel was right across the road!

And of course before we left we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the beautiful sunrise on the beach.

Cape May is such a nice place to go for a vacation and I had loads of fun and got a bit of a tan as well. I would recommend going on holiday here as it was very peaceful and beautiful.