Every year without fail, however late he may be, my boyfriend has religiously bought me a chocolate advent calendar. This was fine for the first 2 years of our relationship but as I got more & more into makeup, I needed to break this tradition with a beauty advent calendar. So, after a few years of begging, bearing in mind we have been together for 5, 2016 was the year he finally went and did it! A revolution in itself!
Now all of us beauty lovers know that the Charlotte Tilbury calendar is just life goals, but I wasn’t expecting him to pay an extortionate amount for something that normally costs him less than £5! Besides, I am sure he wouldn’t even know where to begin lol.
November 30th arrived & my boyfriend turned up with the infamous Thornton’s snowman chocolate advent calendar. My heart sunk a little but I thought “ahh one more year won’t hurt, maybe 6th year lucky!”. A few days later he whatsapped me a picture of the Revolution beauty pictured above, which instantly lifted my mood as I had been off work with the flu. It was simultaneously torture however because I finally had a makeup advent calendar but couldn’t touch it as I was too ill to see him to get it! Typical. On the positive, it meant I got to open up a weeks worth in one go lol!
As my calendar had been long awaited, I thought it would only be right to show you what was hiding behind each door. I have linked the products that I can but as some of them had no name of the shades on the packaging I had to make an executive guess of what they were!
On the first day of Christmas: Lipstick in “Nude” My go to lip is always either a browny nude or pinky nude so I was glad to see one of these behind the first door. Beautiful colour but not the best lipstick I’ve ever tried. Had to put a lot of coats on for it to provide full coverage & leave no gaps.
On the second day of Christmas: Mini face brush I was positively surprised at the quality of this brush for a drugstore brand. Super soft & comparable to the likes of Real Techniques but dare I say prettier! I mean who doesn’t love a bit of pink & rose gold? So classy! It made up a part of the “Iconic Nudes” collection & just the right size for setting under-eye concealer or to use for bronzer or blusher.
On the third day of Christmas: Anti – shine balm For an oily girl like me, this was an absolute god send. I am forever trying lots of different products to control my shine & this seemed to help on a day-to-day basis. Not sure how long it would last for a night out though.
On the fourth day of Christmas: Baked blusher in “Hard Day” I had been after a light pink blusher for ages as the one I already own is a very dark pink which can sometimes look unnatural. In order for it to work, I have to lightly dust my blush brush into the compact to avoid too much of the product coming off & making me look like a clown! However this is much more of a natural, lighter shade & even has a hint of glitter with it being baked which helps with highlighting later on.
On the fifth day of Christmas: Lipstick in “The One” This shade showed up much better than the brown I had previously opened as it was a little less flesh toned. Regardless, it still required a number of coats to show up. I would recommend it for everyday
use as it keeps your lips quite moist but doesn’t have much longevity.
On the sixth day of Christmas: Mini foundation brush Again, I was shocked at the quality & look of the brush. Now I get that as it is an advent calendar & they can on
ly put small versions of their products but for me, as a foundation brush, it was just too small. I would probably use it for under eye concealer or for covering blemishes.
On the seventh day of Christmas: Strobing Cream. When I first started to get into highlighting, my friend showed me which highlighter she used. It was The Balm’s MaryLou Manizer & I thought £20 was alot of money to pay for something like that so I looked for a cheaper alternative. This was my first introduction to the Revolution brand because I had found one with very similar colours for about £3! Therefore it came as no surprise to me to see a strobing cream behind door 7 as my initial purchase from them was a highlighting product! Before I highlight, I normally spray my brush with a little bit of setting spray but this cream eliminates the need for that.
On the eighth day of the Christmas: Amazing Sheer Lipgloss in “Too Shy” So far, I had loved every single product that was revealed by those glistening, glamorous black & gold doors. However upon the arrival of day 8, I was disappointed to see a bright coral lipgloss. I have to admit, I didn’t even try this one & instantly put it in my drawer for makeup that I no longer use or am saving for a rainy day. I really regret doing this now though because once swatched, it is NOTHING like it looks from the packaging. It was more of a light, nude pink which isn’t so bad! (Top colour of the picture on the right)
On the ninth day of Christmas: Purple lipstick Gorgeous colour for the holiday season. I already have a really dark purple which I love to wear around this time of year but it is more of a glossy/sheer lipstick whereas this one is matte & more of a pinky-purple so I am excited to try it (Top colour of the picture on the left).
On the tenth day of Christmas: Bronzer I already own so many bronzers; from those in contour kits to those in their own compact but it is always hard to find one that isn’t orangey. This bronzer may have just ended my search because it such a cool, non-orangey tone. In fact, it is so cool toned that I would even consider using it for my contour because it has just the right amount of grey as well as just the right amount of warmth. It is very pigmented too so I even doubled up and used it as an eyeshadow.
On the eleventh day of Christmas: Pink Lipstick in “Dazzle” My breath was taken aback when I saw this hot pink bullet reveal itself to my tired, morning eyes. Just like the coral lipgloss, this went straight to my naughty drawer but without the intention of even using it in the summer months where bright & bold is acceptable. Instead, I intended to give it to my 6 year old cousin. Of course, I wrongly judged the lipstick by its cover again (literally) & it actually turned out to be a really light pink (4th swatch down in the top picture). I recently just bought a lipliner the exact same colour so a new lip combo will be up on Instagram soon lol!
On the twelfth day of Christmas: Eyeshadow Primer I love eyeshadow to the moon & back but i am just not very good at it. It can turn you from basic to bad so quickly if you have the knack of the art, especially a cut crease! As I am fairly new to the eyeshadow scene, I have only tried a few eyeshadow primers & I can definitely see a difference when I wear it. It makes glitter stick better & makes the eyeshadow colours more vibrant. On first impressions, I thought the Revolution primer was a lipgloss as it is packaged like one & has a wand which I thought was good however also due to this, I think I put a bit too much over my lid which caused my eyeshadow to clot into small balls which wasn’t a very good look as you can imagine! I think next time I will put it onto my finger first.
(Ok so to the days of Christmas have to come to an end now lol!)
Day 13: Mono Eyeshadow in “Paper Luxe”. On first look, I thought this was a subtle highlighter as it is a beautiful, light cream shade with a hint of glitter. As I turned it around, I noticed that it was an eyeshadow. It is the perfect shade for highlighting your brow bone.
Day 14: Baked Blusher in “Bang Bang You’re Dead”. If you couldn’t already tell, this colour is very loud & in your face. When I first put it on I just had a huge line of bright pink on my cheeks. I looked like a china doll! It is quite hard to blend in so I would suggest using only a little bit of this shade & building it up with the lighter blusher “hard day”.
Day 15: Compact Mirror. I had recently just broken the mirror I had in my bag. Guess I didn’t get 7 years of bad luck after all! Perfect size to use everyday or take with you in your clutch on a night out. One thing I would say though is that it doesn’t have a cover so the mirror is exposed.
Day 16: Mono Eyeshadow in “New Tral Red”. To be honest, this eyeshadow looks more pink than red in both the compact & the swatch (middle colour in the pic below). It looked like a shade I used when I dressed up as Anna from Frozen so thought I would never ever use it again unless I decided to dress up as a disney character anytime soon! Nevertheless as you can see, it is quite a natural shade.
Day 17: Amazing Sheer Lipgloss in “Touch”. Every single lipgloss I own are all different shades of brown so I was super happy to see a pink gloss. It is probably the best gloss I actually own because not only does it smell like fruit, once on it comes out almost clear so just adds a bit of sparkle to any colour lip. A little goes a long way with this too.
Day 18: Mini angled brush As I said in my previous post, I don’t claim to be
a MUA so I am not really sure what to use an angled brush as small as this for. From its consistency, I would say it could be used for defining eyebrows eg dipping it into pomade
but as I use an eyebrow pencil, I instead used it for highlighting my brow bone with the “paper luxe” mono shadow. Normally I would just use my finger & concealer but this is quite a messy process so this brush helped my brows to look more shaped.
Day 19: Baked Highlighter (similar linked) FINALLY! I waited 19 days for this & it was just as perfect as I imagined. Unfortunately like the lipsticks & lip glosses, the packaging doesn’t feature the names on the back. What I can tell you though is that it is a white highlighter with shimmers of gold which I think combined provides the perfect glow, especially when enhanced with the strobing cream. 10 out of 10! See the pic at the bottom of this post for how it looked on.
Day 20: Mini eyeshadow brush I have loved all of the brushes so far so just expected this one to be of the same quality. To me, an eyeshadow brush should be a miniature version of a powder brush; soft with flexible bristles so that it is easy to blend with. However this brush was like a concealer brush in the sense that it almost sticks together which made it hard to use. I would probably only use this brush to put a colour or glitter across my lid as this doesn’t require much blending & is supposed to look more precisioned.
Day 21: Mono eyeshadow in “Velvet Luxe”. Perfect colour for achieving a brown smokey eye aka my go to eye. I have always struggled to make my smokey eye really stand out with the eyeshadows I currently have & this shadow just puts the cherry on top of the look. Works well in the crease as well as the outer corners of the eye.
Day 22: Liquid Highlighter I have not been a great fan of liquid highlighters in the past as I find it hard to blend them in & avoid an obvious line of shine across my cheek. They can also make my already oily skin even oilier so I tend to avoid anything liquid at all costs & stick to powders, but as I loved the strobing cream, I am sure that this will only help to accentuate that glow!
Day 23: Lipstick in “Reckless”. I already have a signature dark red lipstick that I have sworn by for years from MAC, so thought it would be hard to beat this & I am afraid it didn’t. Once swatched it comes out more of a really dark pink which was a bit deceiving but still a nice colour nevertheless. It is almost like a raspberry colour which I will definitely get out for Summer.
Christmas Eve: Lipstick in “Lady”. Now this is what you call a red lipstick. No deception from the packaging, just pure beautiful brightness in a bullet! It couldn’t have come on a better day, just in time for Christmas. See pic at the bottom of this post for how I wore it.
Christmas Day: Eyeshadow palette (similar linked) I only have 2 eyeshadow palettes so can’t provide much expertise in critiquing this lol. As you can see below it has quite a vast range of colours. Most palettes tend to start with the lightest colour & end with the darkest but this one actually starts with white & ends with black so you instantly know that it covers a vast spectrum! As a result this palette can help you to achieve so many looks from a plain, simple black smokey eye with just the black & white or a subtle brown or pink toned look. I went out on Christmas Eve & wore a light pink top so thought I would try to create a pink look to match with this palette. It has a lot of colours to make this look work but they are all shimmery so I found that they all seemed to blend in together & didn’t create much depth. I had to add a matte colour to my crease from another palette to avoid looking like my little cousin had done my make up with her Hello Kitty make up kit lol! Overall this palette has a beautiful, wide range of colours but I don’t think it can be used alone. I will probably use it as the final touch for any look by adding the shimmer all over the lid. See pic at the bottom of the page for how I wore it.
How I wore it:
Discovering Difference 