I posted my Holy Grail products back at the start of this year and it occurred to me how many more products I’ve tried since then and I realised that they’d basically all changed! So today I’m sharing my new Beauty Holy Grails. For makeup there's one pick from each category but for skincare and everything else I've just gone with the products I like and use the most and will always re-purchase.
Makeup
Benefit’s the Porefessional | £24.50 | post
Ok, so this one hasn’t changed! In all the many primers I’ve tried, I’m still yet to come across something that disguises my large pores like this does. I also use it on the rest of my face and I feel it reduces the appearance of any fine lines and makes my base go on so much more smoothly and last longer.
Nars Sheer Glow Foundation | £31
I really don’t know why it took me a couple of months to warm to this but these days, every time I come back to it after a break I wonder why I ever tried anything else! I’ve mentioned before that the name is super-misleading as it gives a satin/velvet finish with a medium coverage that can be built on really easily. It’s perfect for my combination skin and lasts the day for me, keeping my shine at bay without being too dry and unflattering on any fine lines. The colour match Stromboli is also spot on (well, not right now as I’m still pretty tanned from Croatia, but usually…), which is something I can’t say of any other foundation I own.
Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer | £22 | post
I tend to switch up my under eye concealer and corrector routine, and for that reason I decided not to include one specifically for that in my HG products. However, the concealer I use on blemishes is always the same! This blends so amazingly with the Sheer Glow Foundation and can camouflage any spot or red patch without making your makeup look really heavy. Again, the colour match with Ginger is perfect for me.
Bourjois Healthy Balance Compact Powder | £8.99 | post
Since revisiting this favourite from my teenage years, I’ve not really tried much else for face powder. A little of this in the morning around the t-zone area generally keeps my face shine-free for an entire working day. It doesn’t look cakey, it doesn’t feel drying or heavy, in fact it’s barely detectable!
Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush in Mood Exposure | £28 | swatch
Combination skin is a pain in most respects but the most frustrating thing for me is not being able to get blusher to apply evenly, or when it does, having it go invisible or patchy 3 hours later. Although between the disappointments I’ve found a few products that work for me, the Hourglass formula is something special. The texture is so incredibly soft and it applies beautifully with little-to-no effort. They’re more pigmented than you’d think but the colour payoff is just the right level so you can’t go overboard but there’s a nice flush of colour. The shade Mood Exposure is my favourite; a sort of plummy mauve shade swirled in with a lilac setting powder. It gives a stunning, natural (glitter-free!) ‘glow from within’. It also lasts incredibly well throughout the day.
Soap & Glory Archery Brow Pencil & Brush | £8
I was totally sworn off eyebrow pencils for a loooong time after some awful teenage experiences with thatRimmel brow pencil that’s just too soft in texture and warm in tone for inexperienced hands. However Soap and Glory have me converted! Although I occasionally add in a bit of powder in-between tints for some fullness, this is the perfect quick way to get a bit of shape to your brows. It’s a twist-up pencil so you don’t have to sharpen it and it remains the same thin shape. It’s firm but not too waxy, which stops you accidentally going overboard. It’s also just the right level of pigment to give you the shape without it looking like you’ve drawn your brows on. The spooly is also a good one; a quick brush through just makes your brows look a bit more natural.
Maybelline Colour Tattoo in On & On Bronze | £4.99 | post/swatch
I am a certified cream eyeshadow junkie and there are three similar shades I really love: Maybelline On & On Bronze, KIKO Golden Brown and By Terry Bronze Moon. I went with this as the KIKO can be a little tricky to get hold of and the By Terry isn’t that much better to justify the hefty price tag. The shade is a golden-brown-bronze metallic shimmer that’s the perfect base for any neutral eyeshadow look. I also love it on its own if I’m in a rush or when I was on holiday, as the shade is so multi-faceted it really looks like you used more than one shade! I also think that out of the three I mentioned, this lasts the longest with no creasing. Once, I went straight out from work and didn’t get in until 6am, so I genuinely tested it for 24 hours and it was still in place! In Croatia it was 100 degrees and there was no creasing! I seriously cannot rave enough about this!
Urban Decay Naked Palette | £38 | post/swatches
Sorry to be a cliché but for a palette, it just had to be this! I’m a neutral eyeshadow obsessive and I tend to prefer warmer tones, so this fits the bill over the other Naked offerings. It’s really versatile, offering everything you could need from a low-key matte look to golden-bronze to pinky-nude to full-on smoky. When I’m travelling I tend to just pack this as it covers all the bases. The quality is, of course, exceptional with all the shades being buttery in texture, pigmented, easy to work with and long-lasting.
Soap & Glory Supercat Eyeliner | £6 | post
You will never see me wearing makeup without my winged liner! I have tried a few others, including widely-love offerings from Kat Von D and Stila, but none of them do it for me like Supercat and with this coming in at £6, I’m more than happy with that! I used to avoid eyeliner pens as I felt like they dried out after about 2 weeks of use or became a wishy-washy grey colour but Supercat stays the same inky black. The nib is the perfect shape and size for winged liner as it isn’t to thin and scratchy but you can still get the precision. I find the transfer is minimal and it stays in place all day.
Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara | £7.99 | post
I do like my Benefit mascaras but I tend to go for drugstore brands given that they have some amazing-quality products on offer and I don’t see much point in spending £20-30 on something that will have dried out in 6 months time! I’m all about length and separation when it comes to mascara usually, but this one actually adds a nice amount of volume too. The curved, rubberised wand somehow catches on and coats lashes I didn’t even know existed! It’s subtle enough for daytime but you can also layer it up without it getting all clumpy for evening.
MAC Lip Pencil in Soar | £12.50
This is the newest product to make it into my Holy Grail list but as the product that’s converted me to lip liner, I just had to mention it! I love the texture of it; it’s waxy enough to add lasting powder and stop the lipstick from bleeding but still feels nice and creamy to apply. The colour is the perfect dusky pink to pair up nicely with most of my favourite lipsticks.
MAC Satin Lipstick in Twig | £15.50 | post/swatch
This was a tough one as there are a few shades in this sort of colour family that I really love but Twig was the first so it’s the one I’m including here, as my most-used of the bunch. This is a Satin lipstick so it’s similar to matte but it’s not as drying, has a slight sheen and is a bit more wearable. The shade is somewhere between mauve and dusky pink. It’s perfect for when you don’t want to wear a colour but you want something a bit more than a nude.
Skincare
REN Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask | £32 | post
I had to include some sort of AHA in this list as they’ve seriously revolutionised my skincare routine and I decided on this mask as it gives the most immediate and dramatic results. It’s essentially an acid peel mask that comes out as a fruity-smelling gel formula and in the ten minutes it’s kept on it exfoliates away any dead skin cells. Immediately after use my skin looks fresher, younger, brighter and more glowing. Over time, I’ve noticed it’s improved the appearance of older blemish scars.
Antipodes Aura Manuka Honey Mask | £22.99 | post
This is another mask as I didn’t want to just include one thing from each category, but choose the products that have genuinely made a difference to my skin. This is a great one for when I need to restore some general balance to my skin; maybe I have a few blemishes, a bit of dehydration or my skin is just a little worse-for-wear in general. The antibacterial properties of honey really help with the blemishes and the fact it’s a runny formula means it’s hydrating instead of drying and I find it improves the overall look and feel of my skin.
Una Brennan Superfacialist Salicylic Acid Clay Mask | £9.99 | post
This is a miracle worker when I’m having a major breakout! Salicylic Acid is a BHA, so if you suffer with acne then definitely give this a go as it’s one of the few drugstore treatments I rave about. I use this in the evenings and it definitely does feel tingly on the skin. Immediately after washing off, my skin looks brighter and more vibrant and by the following morning I can see dramatic improvements to my breakouts and redness as a result of them.
Vichy Aqualia Thermale Serum | £22.50 | post
This product isn’t only great in itself but it introduced me to a whole family of similar products that are perfect for my skin type. Although I have blemish-prone combination skin, I suffer from dullness and dehydration. Caking on a rich cream just aggravates my skin and just doesn’t absorb properly. Therefore gel and water-based products are the perfect solution as they’re light and fast-absorbing. I doubt I will be trying any other day serum for a very long time as this is just perfect for making my skin look healthier and plumping out any dehydration lines (which in turn means my makeup sits better on my face).
Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Concentrate | £36 | post
Finally for skincare is this overnight oil treatment. I was scared of oils for the longest time because of my skin being so prone to breakouts (seriously, I eat a McDonald’s and have a few ciders and it’s on my face the next day…) However I’d heard amazing things about this so thought I’d give it a try. I really wasn’t disappointed as the results by the following morning always have me doing a double take in the mirror! It’s really hard to pinpoint one thing that it does for my skin as it seems to make it better in every single way. Any fine lines look 1000x better, my skin looks healthier, plumper and less dull. Also, you only need about two drops so I can see this lasting me ages.
Everything Else
Real Techniques Blush Brush | £9.99 | post
This really doesn't look like your typical blusher brush but maybe that's why it's my holy grail! As I've mentioned, I struggle with blusher on the texture of my skin, however I've come across very few that this brush hasn't been able to take on. It's especially perfect for lightly sweeping on a highlighting blusher.
Real Techniques Base Shadow Brush | Available in the Starter Set for £20.99 | post
This is my perfect fluffy all-over-lid brush. It also works really nicely for pressing in an inner-corner highlight shade or even for those fluffier cream eyeshadow formulas. I use this one every single day and would love to get a back-up but unfortunately it's only available in sets.
Crown IB119 Deluxe Crease Brush* | £3.69 | post
I'm still not over how affordable this is! It's a must-have in anyone's stash as it's the best eyeshadow brush I've tried for blending out a transition shade. It also works really nicely to soften out any harsh edges.
Zoeva 231 Luxe Petit Crease Brush | £6.95 | post
This is from my Rose Gold set but you can buy this on its own at a very purse-friendly price. I honestly think that Zoeva's natural eye brushes are comparable to MAC's for a fraction of the price (I also think they stay in good condition for longer) and this one is perfect for precise application of a darker shade to the crease.
Zoeva 227 Luxe Soft Definer | £6.95 | post
Another from the Rose Gold Set (I use most of the brushes from it every day, by the way, so it's well worth picking up!) that you can get individually too is this multipurpose brush. It's pretty similar to the MAC 217 however it's a little smaller and you always need a couple of these types of brush. You can use it to apply a colour all over the lid, for blending or to apply a crease colour.
MAC 217 Blending Brush | £20 | post
£20 for a single brush is steep but luckily my boyfriend got me this on his way back from the US, if you're looking or something more affordable then go with Zoeva. However I had to include this as it was such a turning point for my makeup application and I still reach for it on a daily basis. It's fluffy enough for the base, curved enough for the crease and the bristles are just perfect for blending.
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Charles Worthington Volume & Bounce Dry Texturising Spray | £6.99 | post
Hyped-up haircare products usually lead to disappointment for me but this one is a serious game-changer! Since growing my hair out a little I've noticed it's lacked volume at the roots. Whilst dry shampoo helps, I don't like the residue it leaves and how this builds up if you use it every day between washes. Then I discovered this little gem which lifts my roots, adding volume and texture to my hair without leaving it feeling gunky or crispy. All for £6.99!
What are your holy grail beauty products?
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