Getting Back Into Instagram

Images from @amiehaffenden on Instagram

Hey guys! I hope you're all well and having a lovely week so far. I wanted to do a little post today just to let you all know that I've been snapping away over on my Instagram account recently and I wanted to show you some of the photos on my feed. I've really been enjoying photography lately and decided the other week that I wanted to focus a bit more on my Instagram and show off some of my favourite pictures I've been taking!

If you fancy checking out my Instagram you can either click on THIS LINK HERE or search for my user name: amiehaffenden

I would love for you to let me your Instagram name too as I'm always searching for new people to follow! I've been super addicted recently so the more the merrier!

Thank you for reading today's little update! Hope to speak to you all very soon.

Do you have Instagram? Leave your user name below!

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Freedom Pro 12 Audacious 3 Palette

Freedom Pro 12 Audacious 3 Palette | £4.00 | LINK

I love neutral eye shadow palettes as much as the next beauty blogger and I can never say "no" about adding a new one to my collection. After doing a bit of blog stalking, I came across this gorgeous looking palette by a brand called Freedom. I had heard about their products before but had never got round to trying them out. I was really surprised at how affordable their products are so on my next shopping trip I decided to pick up the Audacious 3 palette from my local Superdrug!

The Audacious 3 palette contains 12 decent sized eye shadows with a mixture of mattes, satin and sparkly finishes plus a sponge tip applicator. All of the shadows have a pink/ golden tone to them so I think this would be a lovely dupe for the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette. Pinks have really been in fashion this Spring/ Summer so this would be a great palette to pick up to experiment with shades your not really used to. I'm someone who tends to stick to my normal brown/ gold shades so trying out pink toned shadows is something I'm not completely used to. However I've really enjoyed using this palette and it's nice to have a bit of a mix up with my makeup. Plus for just £4 these palettes are a great way to add some variety to your collection!

These shadows are lovely and soft and have a great colour pay off to them. Of course some of the lighter shades aren't as pigmented as the darker ones, but they're definitely buildable or can just be worn to add a slight definition to your eyes. I love that you can create so many different looks with this palette and just by picking a different crease or lid colour you can change your look instantly. This is definitely one of those palettes you can chuck in your makeup bag for a weekend away and know you're set with your eye makeup for both day and night!

Top swatches: Top row & first 2 from middle row | Bottom swatches: Last 2 from middle row & bottom row

It's a shame that these shadows aren't named as it would make it so much easier to say what shades are my stand out favourites from this palette! Obviously that gorgeous copper shade looks stunning on the eyes and I think would suit blue eyes amazingly! I find myself using shades 3-5 from the top swatch quite a lot for lid colours and then 2-4 from the bottom swatches the crease. I like that the highlighting shade in this palette is matte too as there's so much shimmer going on that it's nice to balance it out with a subtle highlight.

With a primer these shadows do last me all day but can start to fade in the late afternoon. However I'm thinking you could always apply these shadows wet as that will give them much stronger colour pay off and hopefully last longer! The only other thing that slightly bothers me about the shadows is that the lighter shimmery shades do have some fall out to them, but luckily as they are light I can easily blend that away. Considering this palette is just £4 I am really happy with the quality of the shadows and would definitely think of trying more products from them!

Thank you for reading today's post! Sorry I've been a bit hit and miss with blogging recently. I'm actually in need of a bit of a photography day as I'm slowly running out of posts to write! If there's anything in particular you'd like to see then let me know in the comments!

Have a lovely weekend!

Have you tried the Freedom Audacious 3 palette?
What products do you recommend from Freedom?

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Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge | £5.99 | LINK

Hey beauties! Sorry for the lack of posts last week, I was super busy and couldn't find a spare minute to sit down and write! My boyfriend turned 22 last week (and yes, we have sung said Taylor Swift song many a time) so I was either prepping presents or having a lovely time celebrating with friends and family for his birthday. But today I'm back with a new beauty post about a product I have read lots of reviews on and couldn't wait to try myself!

A few weeks ago I picked up the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge which you may have seen in this haul post. Being an avid fan of brushes, I'd never really tried using a sponge to apply my foundation and was really interested to see what sort of effect it created. I'm someone who loves a dewy, natural finish with my makeup and this little sponge is said to deliver that glowy look, so I was excited to give it a try!

So the idea behind this product is that it's meant to create a flawless yet natural look to the skin, even with heavy duty foundations. I think this is nice for the Summer time when you still want some coverage but at the same time want to allow your skin to breathe and look natural. I've found this sponge does decrease the coverage of my foundations quite a lot, resulting in ones like Rimmel Match Perfection and Revlon Colourstay looking more like a tinted moisturiser/ light weight foundations. It does however apply the product evenly and smoothly so you do get that natural no makeup look which is perfect for Summer.

This little egg shaped sponge feels really dense and is soft and squishy so feels really nice against the skin. The smell of it is a little odd, but after you wash it a couple of times it does start to fade. The different sides to this sponge also have their own functions, such as the pointed side is to get into smaller areas like your nose and under the eyes. I like to mainly use this sort of area of the sponge as I find it gives a nice finish - I don't really tend to use the flat side too much as it can feel like your wiping the product on to your skin as apposed to buffing it in.

With sponges it's also said to be best if you dampen them down before hand (totally up to you though as it can be used dry). At first I was using a bit of water but I found I wasn't loving the results with this. So I went out and picked up The Body Shop's Vitamin E Face Mist to dampen the sponge before use. I've really enjoyed this product as it's so nourishing for the skin but also helps my foundation blend out flawlessly with the sponge - definitely a great little duo!

I've really been enjoying this Miracle Complexion sponge and has now become a staple part of my foundation routine. Of course this is meant to be a dupe of the Beauty Blender, but for just under £6 this product is purse-friendly and does the job really well! A definite necessity for any makeup obsessive!

Have you tried the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge?

Do you prefer brushes or sponges for your makeup?

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