What’s In My Beauty Bag – Blogger Amy Louise Tracey Shares Her Secrets

Pretty packaging, hero products, must-have purchases…make-up is a subject we could spend hours chatting about. Everyone has their tried and tested buys and in a bid to find out more about the best way to get bang for your buck, we decided it was time to call in a little expertise. Beauty bloggers make it their business to trial run products and are up to date with the latest releases before they even hit the shelves. In a new weekly feature, we’re going to quiz beauty bloggers on their make-up essentials and why these are the products they return to time and time again. This week, we're chatting to Amy Louise Tracey of The Stylish World of Lou

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Skincare: For me, skincare is paramount, especially as we get older. Discovering Garnier Micellar Water changed my life. I use it twice daily, with a cotton pad to take off my makeup and cleanse my skin. When I feel like I need water on my face, I love the Dove range of face washes. I am a firm believer that when you hit your 20s, you should start using a serum as your skin needs a little extra reinforcing. Nip+FaB have a gorgeous serum that I use every night under my moisturiser. If there is one thing, I cannot live without is SPF. My skin always feels and looks amazing when I use Clinique City Block. It contains a high SPF (usually I wear SPF40 on my face daily), is oil free and is easily absorbed. It is about EUR20 a tube, but so worth it. Facial Oils are hugely popular right now and even though I have oily skin, I still use the Extraordinary Facial Oil from L’Oreal. It leaves my skin silky smooth and despite popular belief, using an oil will not make your skin oiler or cause blemishes. Tan: I rarely wear fake tan but when I do, I would generally wear St. Tropez, that I wear overnight and wash off any excess the next morning. When I am in a rush or have not had time to put tan on the night before, nothing is better than Cocoa Brown by Marissa Carter. I love the 1 hour tan. The Tough Stuff exfoliator is amazing and I always carry it in my beauty bag. Foundation: My ultimate favourite foundation of all time has to be Revlon ColorStay Whipped Foundation. It is full coverage and I feel like my face is airbrushed when I wear it. Despite the full coverage, it does not feel heavy or cakey on your face, which is something that really drives me crazy. During the day, when I am not going out, I just wear BB Cream from Garnier. I always use the light colour and a bronzer, as I just find that the Medium colour just looks too orange for me. Concealer and Contouring: To contour and highlight, I use Rimmel Perfect Match concealer in Ivory. It has lovely light reflecting qualities, making it perfect for highlighting. The light coverage however means that although it is great for covering dark circles, it is not suitable for covering blemishes. A great tip for getting the perfect colour for concealing spots, is to mix a little of your foundation with loose translucent powder on the back of your hand, and then apply to the affected area. This makes the consistency heavy enough to cover the blemish and ensures your foundation always matches your concealer perfectly. I use Maybelline FIT concealer in a darker shade and blend into for the perfect contour. The general rule for contouring is to use a highlighter two shades lighter than your skin and a contour colour that is two shades darker. Eyes: I always wear neutral brown, gold and earthy tones for my eyes and I am obsessed with the Naked 2 Palette. A really great dupe for the Naked 2 is the W7 In The Buff Palette. However, I also love the Inglot eyeshadows as you can pick exactly what colours and how many you want, for a completely customized palette. Duraline from Inglot is a must product. Adding a few drops of this miracle liquid to any eyeshadow, instantly turns the consistency to that of a liner and trust me, applying this with your eyeshadow, will ensure it will not budge all day and night. Lips: I am obsessed with the Kate Moss lipsticks from Rimmel and couldn’t wait to get my hands on the new Nude collection from the supermodel, which, I might add, did not disappoint! The colour payoff is great with these lipsticks, they are really moisturising, smell amazing and are only €7. The cocoa colour, shade #48, from the new Nude collection is my current favourite. It is the perfect 90s brown lip colour. For a day time nude lip or for when I am wearing a heavy smoky eye, I have three go-to lipglosses. Napolean Perdis in In the Flesh, Nyx Butter Gloss in Creme Brulee and Catrice Beautifying Lip Gloss in Apricot Cream. Glow: I  love a summer glow all year round and the products I use to achieve this look can vary depending on my mood as I love them all! Clarins Instant Light is fabulous. Just mix a little with your foundation on the back of your hand before you apply, giving an all over dewy look to your face. After you have applied your foundation, go in with a little Smashbox Baked Stardust on your apples of your cheeks, for the perfect highlight. For a deeper golden glow, I love to use Savvy Mineral Baked Bronzer in Golden Glow, this gives a real J Lo Glow and looks amazing with a tan or on darker skin. Brushes: Brushes are so important to achieving any makeup look. The brush I cannot live without is my stipple brush from Real Techniques. It gives such a flawless foundation application. Of course no smoky eye look can be completed without a fluffy applicator to blend the colours together. I also love to use a stiff angled eye brush for blending my contour as it is smaller and allows for extra precision as a result. Setting Spray: In order to help your makeup last, a primer and setting spray are a must. They really do work. I was recently bridesmaid at my cousin’s wedding and having teared up (ok, bawled!) multiple times throughout the ceremony and speeches, my makeup was still flawless, having used these two products. Clarins Perfect Touch leaves my skin silky smooth and I always apply before my foundation. I also like Benefit Porefessional as a primer For me, when it comes to setting sprays, there is no comparison to MAC Fix +. Your makeup will not budge with this spray and I love to carry the travel size spray in my handbag. If you're a beauty blogger and want to tell us all about your make-up bag, drop a line to Cathy at cathy.donohue@her.ie