Where to go makeup shopping in London

One of my favourite things to do in London is, naturally, makeup shopping. I do this shopping walk over and over again and love it, and it covers most things you could ever want from a makeup shopping trip. Makeup can be had in any department store, shopping centre or area of London, but I stick to this little route a lot and it covers everything. I've also listed some other stores elsewhere in London that are worth a visit.

I'm super lucky to have met some wonderful bloggers from around the country and abroad and I always enjoy shopping with them. This weekend I met up with the lovely Sam from Kiss My Sparkle and our friend Jade and off we went!

Face charts at Illamasqua, prettiness at Benefit and pigments and glitter at Makeup Store.

Starting your stroll just off Carnaby Street, the Illamasqua store is an absolute must-stop for makeup lovers. The store is absolutely beautiful, and it's normally quieter than the stand at Selfridges so the MUAs there can give you their full attention. Jade and I spent a good time drooling over their beautiful face charts, the studio at the back of the store where they hold classes, the quirky Gothic furniture and of course, all the beautiful polishes and makeup, while Sam was matched for SkinBase by a lovely, friendly MUA.

Snippets of prettiness from the Benefit parlour.

Heading back onto Carnaby Street, the brand-new Benefit store is so girly and worth a stop by! Sam and I picked up some of the Creaseless Cream Shadows and I was actually pretty impressed by their new blush, Rockateur. Downstairs they have a full-on beauty salon for waxing, nails, spray tanning and blow-drys, complete with a champagne bar! It's definitely somewhere I'd take my sister or one of my besties for a pamper day and I can see it becoming a popular hen-do spot with it's cute decor and central location.

Continuing down Carnaby Street you'll see the Swedish brand Makeup Store on your left. I absolutely love the Makeup Store - the glitters and pigments are amazing, and they have a gorgeous home spa section as well. If you buy something, you get a discount on thier own magazine which I always pick up. It's absolutely stunning and as good as many editorial makeup books I've paid ten times the money for!

 

Treats at Choccywoccydoodah! Not makeup, but whatever.

Coming out of Makeup Store, head straight across down Fouberts Place to MAC Pro on the corner. As well as carrying all the usual MAC products, they carry lots of other fun things for professional use, like acrylic body paints and the Chromacakes. MAC Pro is conveniently right next door to Choccywoccydoodah! I stopped in here with the girls for the first time and ordered a white hot chocolate and a dipping pot with lots of little bite-sized version of their treats and left in a full-on sugar coma. This is a really nice, quirky place with lovely kitsch decor and fun music to stop off at and rest your feet, and the staff were absolutely lovely and made us feel very welcome.

 

Back off to Carnaby Street and off to Liberty! This is one of my favourite shops in London as it's so beautiful and easy to get lost in for a couple of hours. Head through the chocolate shop and you'll come out into the perfume department - I love it here as there are so many posh and unusual scents in a posh-Great-Grandma’s-house setting. There's lots of nooks and crannies to explore in the beauty department. - the Hourglass counter is worth a browse and if you head up a couple of floors, the bath and body section is always decked out beautifully. If you’re into candles, this is where you wanna be.

 

A long line of pretty at the YSl counter in Selfridges

Leaving Liberty and heading back onto Regent Street and then Oxford Street, turn left and keep going until you reach Selfridges! You will pass a (newly refurbished but Art Deco-less) Debenhams  and a John Lewis, but Selfridges beauty hall kicks their butt. I freaking love Selfridges beauty hall. Hooooooooo mama! As well as favourites like MAC, NARS and Bobbi Brown, I love going to the Shu Uemura and Armani counters, and I always stop off to drool at the crazy expensive Tom Ford products! I noticed the new Charlotte Tilbury stand was super popular too!I took some advice from the lovely guys at Kiehl’s about some male skin care while the girls drooled over the Suquu range. Heading to the back of the beauty section you'll find all the polishes and less high-end brands like OCC and Bourjouis, as well as quirky brands like Paul and Joe.

If you're a real hard-core shopper, you can go to Carnaby Street via Regent Street, and stop off at Penhaligons, an absolutely beautiful per fumier, and LUSH for all your favourites. Then go through all the shops above, but instead of continuing down Oxford Street from Liberty, nip into Topshop to check out their own range of makeup and the huge Barry M stand. Before heading into Selfridges, there's a large Boots on Oxford Street - skip all the counters as you'll see these in Selfridges, but it's a good chance to pick up UK brands you can't get elsewhere, and a Body Shop or two as well. Similarly, take a right as you leave Selfridges and there's a huge Superdrug for even more UK high street goodies like Sleek and MUA!

That's usually quite enough for one day, but there are a few other gems dotted about London as well. If you're in Westfield White City, the OPI store and Models Own Bottleshop are great for polishes. KIKO (also at Westfield Stratford) is fast becoming one of my favourite makeup stores and have they amazing products for great prices, as well as great sales. The only Inglot store in the UK is in Westfield White City as well and I could go on and on about how much I love this brand! If you're in either Westfield, the large Boots have a great range of French pharmacie skin-care brands, too. If you’re shopping at the White City Westfield, PAM is a short walk away and has an amazing range of professional and colour brands such as Makeup Forever and Illamasqua, as well SFX goodies galore and amazing brushes from brands like bDellium Tools and London Brush Co.

Central London-wise, if you're in Covent Garden a stop at Charles Fox on Tavistock Street is an absolute must – lots of amazing special effects goodies (buckets of vomit, anyone? Fake beards?) and wonderful colour products from Kryolan, Ben Nye, Illamasqua et al to play with. There's also a SpaceNK a short walk away in Seven Dials along with a MAC, Bare Minerals, Benefit and Shu Uemura.

My modest haul for the day! Thank you, Boots BOGOF!

If you have any London-based shopping questions, please just let me know and I'll do my best to answer! Where do you like to shop for makeup?

March Favourites!

March has been a rather fab month for me… I’ve been enjoying work, been on lots of fab shoots and been having a rather nice time with Boyfriend. I’ve been so busy I’ve not been wearing much makeup, but I do have a few favourites to share! Feel free to link me to your favourites posts/vlogs!

Clockwise from the top:

 

Dr Jart+ Water Fuse BB Cream: I’m not a big BB cream user or expert, but I really, really like this one. Kathy gave me a sample last year and I fell in love. It’s pricier than a lot of non-counter BB creams on the market at £18, but it’s well worth it and I happened to get a surprise discount at the till so this was actually only £11 or so. It’s got SPF 25 which is fabulous as I’m terrible for not wearing sunscreen, and my dry skin absolutely loves it. It leaves a nice dewy finish and just makes my skin look fresh and healthy. I do need concealer with it for blemishes, and prefer to powder my T-zone but it actually lasts rather well.

Maybelline Color Tattoo in Light In Purple: Holy shit, I love this product. I bought it a couple of weeks ago and have managed to use it on four models so far – I should probably put it away! It’s a lovely blue-lilac duochrome and while it is slightly sheer, it can easily be built up and it’s just the prettiest, prettiest base for blue and purple looks.

MUA Undress Your Skin Highlighting Powder: A lot of fuss has been made over this product! The sculpted product is really appealing in the packaging and looks a lot like the MAC Extra Dimension Skin Finishes that were brought out this year and the texture is very, very similar as well. I’ve seen this compared directly to Whisper of Gilt which is absolute madness – W.O.G is a bright gold, this is a pearlescent pink. It looks more champagne online and in the pan, but translates on the skin as pink, not dissimilar to Benefit Highbeam. I love this type of shade and to have it in a powder form for just £3 is great!

Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden: I was gifted this as it didn’t work for the original owner (thank you, Joey!) and I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised. I’ve not bought UDPP for a long time after discovering a cheaper alternative that I preferred, but I actually really like how the yellow tone in this dials down the veins on my eyelids and allows me to wear a light wash of colour without having blue veins peeking through.

Makeup Store High Tech Lighter in Stardust: I’ve reviewed this here, so you may as well go check that post out if you’re interested. Great stuff, want more, nuff said.

Le Maq Pro Petite Palette Concealer (Light and Medium tones): Man, these things are freaking awesome. Tiny palettes not much larger than a credit card, filled with all different correcting and concealing cream makeup. They’re about £25 each from PAM, and they are SO worth it. So handy for my makeup kit and everyone is very intrigued by them! I’ll do a full review and swatches for these if anyone would like.

Darling Girl ‘Honey Love’: This is a beautiful pinky-nude lipstick shade, and while it’s not my favourite lip colour ever on myself, it is an absolutely perfect cream blush colour and I’ve been carrying it with me in my makeup bag for ages!

 

L-R: Dr Jarts, UD Eden, Maybelline Light in Purple, MUS Stardust, Darling Girl Honey Love, MUA Highlighter.

What are your current favourites?

Quickie Review: Make Up Store High Tech Lighter in

Make Up Store have been a brand I’ve been aware of for a long time but only recently started to explore, which I really regret as they have some beautiful products! Make Up Store is a Swedish brand and they have two stores in London, one in Soho and one in Westfield London. The price point is pretty similar to MAC, so not cheap, but not high end.

The packaging for MUS products is gorgeous – this is a screw-top matte black casing with a transparent M showing your the product inside. The container is sturdy and doesn’t feel cheap.

Make Up Store says:

This creamy product can be used for many things. Either to light up and accentuate certain features of the face or be directly applied on your lips or combined with lipstick or lipgloss. You can fixate glitter with High Tech Lighter or use it as a primer to your Eyedust. You can also mix the product with your foundation for a lustrous effect.

 

The product itself is a thick cream and you only need to use a tiny amount.  This particular shade is one we probably all have something similar to in our stash – it’s a light, pearlescent pink, the finish looks quite similar to MAC Strobe Cream, but more obviously pink. For my first High Tech Lighter I wanted to get a shade I knew I would use often! this shade would be amazing mixed in with foundation for a pearly glow. I’ve not tried it yet, but the consistency makes me think that this would indeed be quite good for an eyeshadow base – the bronzes and blues in the range make me think that they’re used for this purpose a fair bit.

I’m wearing it as an inner corner highligher here (click to embiggen!). I like how it’s a different texture from the rest of my eye products.

I have it as a cheek highlight here. It blends out really subtly considering it looks almost white in the packaging and it’s a lovely glow.

Basically… I really love this product and will certainly be getting more! At £14 it’s not that cheap, but it’s not breaking the bank either as it will last you forever! I’d certainly pay a lot more for a product this nice.

Have you tried anything from the Make Up Store?

LOTD: Don’t Teal Me You Love Me

Just a simple look showcasing a new pretty from Darling Girl Cosmetics! Don’t Teal Me You Love Me was a limited edition duo chrome colour, and even though I’ve cut down a lot on my indie purchases, I simply had to have this shade and snapped it straight up!

 

Eyes: Darling Girl Don’t Teal Me You Love Me (lid, lower lashline), Sugarpill Poison Plum (outer V), MAC Gesso (highlight.)
Face: Darling Girl Kiss You Off Color Rich Lip Balm in Honey Love (as a blush), Make Up Store High Tech Lighter in Stardust
Lips: Maybelline Colour Sensational Lipstick in 255 Mauve Diamonds

I really, really love this colour. It’s so hard to capture but it’s got a purple shift in some lights, it’s really beautiful. If you click to embiggen that full face photo, you can see how vibrant it really is! I’m just wearing it here over an eye primer, I can’t imagine how zingy it would be over a sticky base! While my favourite products from Darling Girl are the lip and cheek colours, if you’re into indie makeup and haven’t tried DG’s eyeshadows, you’re really missing out.

What’s been your favourite indie makeup purchase lately?

Tropical Fish Collaboration with Liza: Clownfish Lips!

Liza and I have been saying we’ll do a tropical fish collaboration together for ages and we’ve finally done it! I’m crap with fish and the only two that sprang to mind were clownfish and blue tangs (hey, I’m a Disney fan!). I’d done a Dory look a long time ago, so Liza took the blue tang and I took the clownfish!

Kyrolan Supracolor in white, MAC Gesso. Sugarpill Flamepoint, Buttercupcake, Mochi, Velocity and Lumi. Kryolan glitter in Pearlweiss. Collection2000 24/7 Extreme Liner. Make Up Store High Tech Lighter in Stardust.

I’m on a bit of a lip art kick at the moment as I find it really difficult. Keeping your mouth open for a long period of time is kind of difficult and potentially gross as well. Anyway, that aside, despite a fair few imperfections, I really like my clownfish lips! I think they’re cute and fun.

And a little step-by-step just for fun!

Thanks for reading guys – be sure to check out Liza’s look and Twitter too!