Hi Guys,

The moment Huda hinted at this I knew I needed to have it. If you don't know Huda Kattan from HudaBeauty.com then first of all where have you been? And second, she is one of the most famous beauty bloggers/vloggers around and has turned her blog into a beauty empire with the help of her two sisters Mona and Alya. They sell amazing lashes, a stunning eyeshadow palette, gorgeous liquid lipsticks and now this 3D highlight set is the newest edition to the make-up range.

Two editions of this set have been released - Pink Sands and Golden Sands. I went for Golden Sands as I felt like it would suit my skin tone more. The packaging is quite sturdy with plastic inside and a hardened cardboard on the outside. I like the fact that when you tilt the package into the light, Huda's eyelids and cheek bone are metallic and reflect the light. If you are intrigued by the '3D' in the title, let me explain. The idea behind the 3D aspect of the palette is that all four pans can be used together to sculpt the face and give more shape to the cheekbones. 

Fiji is a golden cream finish product and the idea is to apply this to the cheekbone and then set it with Seychelles to really bring out the highlight. Tahiti can then be used as the contour underneath the cheekbone and Zanzibar on the cheek for a flush. Using all four together therefore creates a 3D look. That said, I don't particularly like to use metallic colours as a contour, so personally wouldn't use Tahiti to sculpt. I do love it as a bronzer however, and think the colour is perfect for my skin tone. I am more likely to use the pans individually rather than all together, although I might for a special occasion.

Something I really liked about the palette was that it was not as pigmented as I thought it would be. Yes you heard right. I thought the product would be really pigmented, but as you can see from the swatches, it actually gives a lovely skin finish effect, and is not too over bearing. It's also really build -able, so for more pigment I could apply Fiji and then Seychelles over the top or use a little fixing spray before applying the highlighter.

The colour that steals the show for me has to be Fiji. The texture of the cream is so smooth, and understandably so, as it has pearls within the formula which help reflect the light. It can really be rubbed into the skin to give a radiance and glow. I can definitely see myself using this frequently as the colours are so wearable. Even the powders have a smoothness to them which help them to sit and blend into the skin that much better. The palette doesn't come cheap though, and at £40 (Cult Beauty) it is £10 per highlighter, but its the perfect all rounder as it has a good range of colours.

While I was shopping I couldn't help but buy a few other treats to make the most of the free shipping offer. So I ended up buying Huda Beauty Special Effects Liquid Matte in Showgirl (£18) and Lime Crime Diamond Crusher in Lit (£15). The swatches speak for themselves. Showgirl is a beautiful red metallic matte and Lit also dries matte which leaves the glitter on top just sparkling even more. 

So that was my little (big) Cult Beauty haul that made my week, but I am definitely on a spending ban from now on! What do you think of my purchases? Will you be buying the Huda Beauty Palette or do you have it already?

Amina xx

Hi Guys,

So in this week's post I am sharing with you quite a bold lip look. And it includes glitter! With Pat McGrath (make-up artist to the stars, if you didn't know) releasing her 'Lust 004' Glitter lip collections I just had to have a go myself. I love all things glitter and incorporate it into quite a lot of my make-up looks but rarely on the lips. This is a daring, but very wearable lip and I can't wait to share it with you! For a close-up video of the final look be sure to check out my Instagram (aminaali_mua).

To start off, I always moisturise my lips by applying a lip balm like Suqqu lip essence cream (£35) or MAC Prep + Prime Lip (£13.50). This just makes sure those lips are soft and creaseless. Once moisturised, I then applied a flesh coloured lip liner (slightly darker than my lip colour) to enhance the shape of my lips and even them out. 

I then applied my lipstick base. When choosing the lipstick base make sure you pick a lipstick that is slightly deeper in shade than the glitter colour. This ensures the glitters stands out. I wanted a bold red so I opted for Ingot '416' . This is a deep berry shade but I just knew the red glitter would pop on it.

 The biggest difference between them is the colour. MAC strobe is quite a transparent silvery colour, whereas Lush skin tint is gold with a pink undertone, and all three colours in the radiance palette have a gold shimmer. For winter, I would suggest going for the gold or pink undertone as it warms the skin.