winter beauty essentials!

Hey guys!

It's finally the first day of Winter here in Australia - and while we don't get anywhere near as cold as other countries, anything below 20C will have us scrambling. To help get us Aussies through Winter, I've decided to do a two part Winter series - one dedicated to beauty essentials and the other for skincare.

Winter is awesome - we throw away all our warm baby pinks and corals and embrace the plums, berries and purples. We ditch our deep tans in favour of paler skin (most of us anyway) and bust out our ugg boots, cardigans and jackets. Personally, I like the cooler weather. I'm definitely a homebody, I love wearing my hoodies and Winnie the Pooh slippers, and snuggling up with a good movie. As well, living in Australia, during Summer it is (the majority of the time) unbearably hot so its definitely nice to have a break from it.

When I think of Winter, I imagine darker shades of everything - my eyes, blush, lips, clothes, you name it! My favourite look for this season is just a gorgeous brown neutral eye, full coverage foundation, plum blush and berry lips. Just perfect!

All the products I'm going to show you in this post are definitely the essentials on my Winter beauty rotation. Keep reading to find out what they are!

Primer

For Winter, I want my skin to look flawless. I do have redness in my skin that I need to tone down, which my ELF Mineral Face Primer in Green is perfect for, because it neutralizes my skin tone and redness. The other way I want my skin to look is completely moisturised and blended. My skin does tend to dry out a lot more in Winter than in Summer, so I really want to keep my skin free of dry patches. I've found that the Covergirl & Olay Simply Ageless Serum Primer is so fantastic for this. Yes, it is probably more suited at mature skin, but honestly skincare and beauty items made for more mature skin is perfect for those with drier skin. This just completely hydrates my face, almost acting as a second moisturiser before I go in with my foundation.

Foundation & Concealer

For my base, as I said before, I want my skin to look completely flawless. Having full coverage foundation and concealer is something that will really help conceal any blemishes or dry spots that become more prominent for me in the Winter months. Of course, my two huge favourite foundations for full coverage is the L'Oreal True Match foundation and Laura Mercier Silk Crème foundation. I've recently discovered the Max Factor Face Finity 3 IN 1 Foundation, which is a long lasting, full coverage foundation - but a full review of that will be on my blog in the near future.. 

For concealer, if I want something to cover any horrendous dark circles I may have, MAC Cosmetics Pro Longwear concealer is the bomb! My other favourite concealer at the moment is my Maybelline Age Rewind concealer in the Brightener shade. It really makes you look more awake, even though you've probably woken up only a couple of minutes before putting in your face.

Bronzer & Blush

For Winter, I don't think its as necessary to have my normal sun kissed bronzed glow that I love in the warmer months. Too Faced Milk Chocolate Soleil Bronzer is amazing for just adding a bit of colour, or a slight contour, because it's such a light bronzing powder. I do love this in Summer as well, but honestly this is just the perfect light powder just to add shape and colour in Winter, and I'll definitely be turning to it.

For blush, I'm loving the trend of having a gorgeous deep flushed look on the cheeks. The colder weather has a tendency to make my cheeks quite flushed naturally from being cold, and unlike summer where I would rather cover it up, this Winter I really want to embrace it. My favourite shade for this is theBalm Instain Blush in Pinstripe which is a beautiful plum colour. I barely put any on because it is hugely pigmented and I still want it to look somewhat natural, and this blush will stay put all day. Definitely my go to blush this season.

Lip Balm

Of course I had to mention my lip balms - I'm a lip balm FANATIC and they are definitely a must during this season. Who wants to walk around with dry or cracked lips showing through your lipstick? Definitely not me, that's for sure. Of course, Chapstick is my favourite brand for lip balms at the moment, and the Night Repair is amazing for my lips at night. For day, the Cake Batter flavour is my all time favourite, and it'll finally be available to buy here in Australia towards the end of June!

The other type of lip balm which is perfect for Winter is tinted lip balms! These are fantastic for on the go, because not only do they moisturise your lips but they also give you a gorgeous wash of colour without having to worry about putting on another lip colour over top. I mentioned all three of there in my May Favourites, but the Covergirl Smoochie in Luv U, and the Benefit Lip Balms in Lollibalm and Posiebalm are my favourites. I switch between them really quite frequently.

Lips

For Winter, I love the embracing the darker colours more so than ever before. Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet in Nudist is perfect for an everyday lip because its a gorgeous natural rose colour that isn't too bold or too understated. I've also been loving the Whitening Lightning Lip Gloss in Rosehill, which is another natural rose colour (a review of these glosses is coming soon as well!). For the more darker colours, the Revlon Matte Balms in Sultry and Shameless are great long lasting lip colours and they're definitely on the trend for darker roses and purples this season. Another great lip cult favourite that comes up every Winter is MAC's Rebel lipstick, which is a berry shade. Perfect for the colder months!

Nail Polish

My two favourite nail trends for winter - deep reds and neutral nudes. Essie's Wicked is an amazing deep berry red and Face of Australia's Bombshell is a gorgeous neutral beige nude, plus its super affordable, and such good quality for the price!

Perfume

I don't know about you guys, but in Winter I love wearing stronger scents. I prefer to leave my Marc Jacobs, and favourite Rihanna scents for Summer, and bust out one of my favourite scents Alien by Theirry Mugler, which is certainly a stronger scent. I'm not great at describing scents, so I apologise, but believe me when I say Alien is the perfect scent for Winter!

That's it for today's post! These are all my beauty essentials for Winter, and I definitely want to step outside of my comfort zone and embrace these trends. What are some of your beauty essentials?

Keep an eye out for next week when I let you all know what my skincare essentials are for Winter!

Until next time...

xxxx

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*Some products mentioned were gifted to me, but that it no way influences my opinion of it per my Disclaimer