My Favourite Spring Pastels

Illamasqua Tremble, Sleek Sweet Cheeks,  Max Factor Soft Pink

Spring is here, or almost anyway.  Our Bank Holiday was lovely and sunny and I may have ventured on a picnic, shame about the week of rainy showers since.  I'm a bit of a sun-scared weirdo who largely wears the same clothes all year round but when the sun comes out I do tend to change my makeup to suit.  Think floral mermaid unicorn and you should have the right colours in mind. Here are the products I like for cheeks/eyes/lips this time of the year.

Starting with cheek products, I start leaning towards pinks, lilacs and peaches; away from the more mauve-y or dusky tones I like during winter. Max Factor's Miracle Touch Creamy Blush in Soft Pink is great for touch of Spring colour.  I hardly ever wear a cream blush by itself but layer it with powder after to add some longevity.  The Sleek palette in Sweet Cheeks is particularly good as it gives you one cream blush and two powders.  My favourite is the middle colour Dolly Mix which is a cool toned pink, with a light hand it looks really pretty and a lot more natural than it looks in the pan.  Possibly my favourite Spring blush is Illamasqua's Tremble (though I love it all year round).  It's warmer than the Sleek offering and doesn't need to be layered to last all day, a little goes a long way!

Illamasqua Imagine and Courtesan, Benefit Moon Doggie, Sugarpill Paperdoll and Birthday Girl, Sleek Pastel Green and Limecrime Blue Milk

I like experimental, colourful eyes all year round but in Spring I most often like to play with contrasting pastel colours, quite often ditching my black liner.  All of the eyeshadows here tend to get used as eye liner at least as often as they are used as actual eyeshadow (hence the splodge on Imagine). Imagine and Courtesan (d/c but similar colours are available) by Illamasqua are two beauts; quite subtle when used all over but are really striking as liner.  Three pigments I put to similar use are Benefit's Lust Duster in Moon Doggie and Sugarpill's Chromalusts in Birthday Girl and Paperdoll. The pastel colours are shimmery and really stand out. Pastel eyebrows anyone? Yes please.  I love, love, love the colour of Sleek's Dip-it eyeliner in Pastel Green (the brush is a pain but I just use my own) and I like to clash it with the pale Blue Milk Uniliner by Limecrime.  One thing to be aware of when using fairly light colours for eyeliner is getting it on the roots of your eyelashes.  I do this all the time as I'm super clumsy.  I try my best to cover with mascara but not getting it there in the first place would be preferable (tips welcome!!).

L-R OCC Kava Kava, Topshop Secret Admirer, L'oreal Eve, Limecrime D'Lilac

It was so hard to not chose about one hundred lip products for this photo but I did my best.  Looking at it I can't believe I didn't put any bright pinks in but they are available in just about every line by every brand.  My first Spring pick is OCC Lip Tar in Kava Kava, a pale orangey peach.  I love this colour, a bit difficult for a paley like me to pull off but I normally manage it with a slightly richer lipliner underneath.  A really easy-to-wear colour is Topshop's Secret Admirer, a creamy pale pink that is goes with most looks.  Eve GlamShine Stain Splash (what?!) by L'Oreal is a purpley pink stain that smells amazing.  I like to layer a stain as a base for a  lip crayon or gloss to make it last longer.  A real cool-toned lilac, D'Lilac by Limecrime is not for the faint-hearted.  I really love it but I do get some ill/dead comments when I wear it.  Layered with a warmer purple gloss makes it more user-friendly but if you're going to wear a colour like this you may as well commit to it.

What are your favourite products for Spring?

Rachel